Oh my Goodness. I'm so excited.
What is the secret? Leptin.
Thanks to Marla, in her post yesterday, I read this article that discusses a breakthrough for those of us interested in losing fat.
This guy is absolutely amazing. If I could meet him I'd give him a big oldfashioned smoocheroo.
According to him and others (really need to read the article because this guy has done his research -- yes it is longwinded) when we go on a diet and/or reduce the amount of food we are taking in, our supply of something called leptin decreases.
Here is the clincher: We actually cannot have significant fat loss without it. And, when we increase the amount of food we eat (otherwise known as off the diet, or overeating) our supply of leptin goes back up.
So the best way to have continued success without plateaus in your weight loss endeavors is to have periods of diet, followed by periods of eating more food. The biggest problem I am faced with is deciding how much food to add during that time.
I saw benefit of the "free day" when I did The Body For Life challenge. But somehow I don't think just one free day a week will be enough to allow the amount of leptin to reach a desired level.
I know that this is true from my own life because many times that I've seen a plateau approaching I get discouraged and then eat more, only to notice when I get back on track I lose weight more easily.
The difficult thing for me is teaching myself how to implement this without going nuts worrying about how much I should be eating in the more food phase, or how long I should do the more food phase.
This guy says bodybuilders often do 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off, but 2 weeks sounds like a dangerous amount of time for me to be off my diet.
I'm really mulling this idea over and am going to give it a go. I'm just not sure exactly how to do it yet. I wish I had stumbled across this way back when I weighed-in at 105 kilos.
In a google search I've found at least one book, on the topic. I can't believe I've been in the dark this long.
I spoke to mr. ralph about the idea of having a 4 day break from dieting after each consecutive 2 weeks on the diet strictly and he seems keen to try it out as well. If we do not gain more than say a kilo during those 4 days, I'm all for it. I gained a kilo over Christmas and then lost 2 the first week on the no-carb diet. I think leptin may have something to do with my increased dieting success (can't only give the no-carb diet the praise).
So there you have it.
PS-- I caved and joined Blog Clicker, a site similar to Blog Explosion, but I don't think I will have enough time to keep earning credits in both. Although I think the idea behind the sites is great, it is easy to get caught up in just surfing to earn credits and not have any time leftover to actually read the sites on your blogroll, or really visit any of the new sites you may want to. So, there you have it, that is my spiel.
What is the secret? Leptin.
Thanks to Marla, in her post yesterday, I read this article that discusses a breakthrough for those of us interested in losing fat.
This guy is absolutely amazing. If I could meet him I'd give him a big oldfashioned smoocheroo.
According to him and others (really need to read the article because this guy has done his research -- yes it is longwinded) when we go on a diet and/or reduce the amount of food we are taking in, our supply of something called leptin decreases.
Here is the clincher: We actually cannot have significant fat loss without it. And, when we increase the amount of food we eat (otherwise known as off the diet, or overeating) our supply of leptin goes back up.
So the best way to have continued success without plateaus in your weight loss endeavors is to have periods of diet, followed by periods of eating more food. The biggest problem I am faced with is deciding how much food to add during that time.
I saw benefit of the "free day" when I did The Body For Life challenge. But somehow I don't think just one free day a week will be enough to allow the amount of leptin to reach a desired level.
I know that this is true from my own life because many times that I've seen a plateau approaching I get discouraged and then eat more, only to notice when I get back on track I lose weight more easily.
The difficult thing for me is teaching myself how to implement this without going nuts worrying about how much I should be eating in the more food phase, or how long I should do the more food phase.
This guy says bodybuilders often do 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off, but 2 weeks sounds like a dangerous amount of time for me to be off my diet.
I'm really mulling this idea over and am going to give it a go. I'm just not sure exactly how to do it yet. I wish I had stumbled across this way back when I weighed-in at 105 kilos.
In a google search I've found at least one book, on the topic. I can't believe I've been in the dark this long.
I spoke to mr. ralph about the idea of having a 4 day break from dieting after each consecutive 2 weeks on the diet strictly and he seems keen to try it out as well. If we do not gain more than say a kilo during those 4 days, I'm all for it. I gained a kilo over Christmas and then lost 2 the first week on the no-carb diet. I think leptin may have something to do with my increased dieting success (can't only give the no-carb diet the praise).
So there you have it.
PS-- I caved and joined Blog Clicker, a site similar to Blog Explosion, but I don't think I will have enough time to keep earning credits in both. Although I think the idea behind the sites is great, it is easy to get caught up in just surfing to earn credits and not have any time leftover to actually read the sites on your blogroll, or really visit any of the new sites you may want to. So, there you have it, that is my spiel.
Comments
The most common way seems to be by implementing a cheat day/meal once a week. It lets your body know you're not starving it, and therefore it stops clinging to fat.
'The biggest problem I am faced with is deciding how much food to add during that time.' I think it's generally recommended to up your calories to the amount it would take to maintain you weight, so for most people that should be about 500 cals a day.
It's also thought to be good for you psychologically :)
Interesting indeed!
Lynda www.geocities.com/scottygirl_1