Let me give you my story. I am a 20 year old male who has been struggling with my weight since I was about 16; I was obese well before that. I was raised in a family that ate a lot, and most in my family are over 240 pounds, so for years I felt fine about my weight. When I was 16 I started to realize that a lot of people in my family had various obesity related health problems, and I already had high blood pressure, so I started to work at losing my weight. Yeah, it's a strange thing... I've never wanted to lose weight because of my look. I am -fine- with how I look, and have never had any trouble from others because of it. I just wanted to lose weight because I wanted to get to a healthy base and prevent myself from getting diabetes and heart disease. My Dad already has serious diabetic complications.
I started dieting, but with my family always eating so heavily, and the fact that I knew nothing about dieting, I jumped between 230 and 260 for the next few years. Every diet seemed to fail me. Also due to bad genetics I have a terrible metabolism. My temperature is often around 35.8 C, which is more than a degree below the healthy rate; this suggests I have a poor metabolism, and my Doctor has confirmed it.
Also dieting was making my physically ill. I would feel fatigued, sick, and gross, and have food withdrawals. I even tried fasting but I couldn't last two days. It screwed me up too damn much. I tried low carb, atkins, even the subway diet, but only with minimal success. I'd lose 30 pounds at the most and then it would slowly crawl back.
Anyways to what I am scared of. I did a whole bunch of research into what your body needs, supplements, etc, last summer, and I just went ahead and made a diet from it. I started it in November with freakishly impressive results.
It worked so well I thought someone was slipping me drugs or something.
I am taking 2 one a day multi-vitamins; 3000mg primrose oil; 1000mg l-carnitine; 200mg coenzyme q10; 900mg alpha lipioc acid; 1000mg vitamin c; 2000mg MSM; 30mg biosil; 3 powdered egg protein drinks mixed with water (skim milk would probably work, but I am lactose intolerant); 1 slice of whole grain bread; 12 cups of water; and 6 cups of white tea. It equals up to a mere 500 to 600 calories a day. I also have a specific schedule for my intake, but I don't want to post that big thing here. I would follow this diet from Monday to Saturday, and on Sunday I went off of it--except for the supplements--and I allowed myself to eat and drink whatever I wanted, except for food and drinks high in sugar content. All in all it equals up to about 100 grams of protein, 75 gram of carbs, and 4 grams of fat (not including the fatty acid supplements I take) per day when I dieted. I picked this combination because from what I read it showed promise, but I never read about something like this ever being done before.
The first two days I had light sugar withdrawals, but from then on it was smooth sailing. I was stupidly energetic, my mind was clear, I felt great! I was also exercising daily, and I actually GAINED muscle mass instead of losing it. And my fat was melting away at a rate of 5 to 9 pounds a week.
I went from 255 to 197 in 2 months, I have firmer muscles, and I seriously am not considering going off of this diet until I reach 170 or 165. (I am 6'2) I am stronger, lighter, and I just feel good. This diet I pulled out of my fat... my fat rolls shouldn't have worked this well, I thought originally. I am having -none- of the usual symptoms that anorexia gives you, since 500 to 600 calories does look like an eating disorder. Even my face is brighter.
And what confused me the most is my core body temperature, since I measure it every 2 days, went up from 35.5 to 36.7, suggesting that despite living off of almost no real food a day, my metabolism has gotten -better-!
And another thing... I can live off of only 6 hours of sleep a day now, or less. I almost never get fatigued anymore, except after I workout. I sleep very soundly, I am going for walks, and enjoying things I couldn't before.
I also have only 1 -tiny- bowel movement a day, and I urinate regularly, but not constantly. The only thing different are my bowel movement. It's like my body is absorbing every single thing I put into myself now.
My family is fine with this, so I haven't had to hide it from them. They are fine with my not eating anything since I haven't shown any negative symptoms, but once a week I PIG out with them, haha.
Anyways now that you know all of that, I need an opinion. Is this a crash diet? I feel great, my metabolism is better, I am rapidly losing weight, and despite me pigging out once a week I seem to be doing fine... Will I suddenly break? Will my good feelings die away all at once? I am going to continue this strange and effective diet, but I have a tinge of worry that I might be causing damage somewhere and not be knowing it. I am monitoring my health, and even checking my blood sugar once every three days, and so far everything has been perfect for a healthy body at my age.
Could I be on to some really awesome diet, or is this just going to screw me up?
Or is this diet maybe hiding somewhere and I just missed it and ended up accidentally repeating it in my own form? heh
*edit* Oh yeah and when I allowed myself to eat whatever I wanted, I never binged. It wasn't that hard to do considering I felt so energetic and my appetite wasn't intense.
I am a bit afraid!
