Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss Plan

I have no idea but it sounds awful!

Think I'd stick with eating well and your exercise regime - from what I read it's nigh on impossible to combine weight reduction with heavy lifting, so maybe go by bodyfat percentage and measurements instead?

Best of luck.

I've never done it but I've been considering it too, just for a week or two. I'm just not sure if I can handle so few calories, and I do like my beer...and not sure I can get that low on fats. Also, I'm afraid of how taking in so few calories might effect my energy level and workouts. So I'm curious to see the responses.

I've done low carb before.. (Atkins) I kept my carbs around 25 grams per day.. It made me kind of loopy and b!tchy and you do get ketone breath. I think you could easily sub fish/shellfish for chicken.

Rapid fat loss plan, I believe that's the protein sparing modified fast.

You'll be eating around 600 calories, and most of that will be from protein. Since you eat fish, you're pretty much just going to be chowing down on tilapia all day, every day.

It's important to follow the program to the letter. It's not for casual dieters, and it' has no wiggle room.

Don't know much about this plan, but I did Atkins some years ago, lost a few pounds, then stopped losing. Meantime, my cholesterol went to 315 (I am 5'2" and weighed 122 pounds and was 43 yrs old at the time, fairly fit), and I started having dizzy, almost fainting spells. I usually am inclined to be mostly vegetarian, and after my blood test my doctor told me to go right back to how I was eating before (and like to eat). It took me a year to get my cholesterol back down, and I have lost weight successfully on a similar plan to MFP since then, but eating in a way that is normal for me. Trying to eliminate one entire food group is not natural and I don't think it's healthy. Neither is reducing calories to the extreme. That kind of weight loss doesn't last because it can't be maintained, and you just end up overweight again but your metabolism is worse (slower) so it's harder to lose again after that. That's been my experience anyway.

Rapid fat loss plan, I believe that's the protein sparing modified fast.

You'll be eating around 600 calories, and most of that will be from protein. Since you eat fish, you're pretty much just going to be chowing down on tilapia all day, every day.

It's important to follow the program to the letter. It's not for casual dieters, and it' has no wiggle room.

Okay this sounds like a dumb question, but are seasonings allowed?

As long as they have little to no calories, sure.

From what I've read, it seems like it's often not a permanent loss. It's designed for people who are trying to rapidly cut fat for competitions or whatever where gaining some back isn't a problem. I've also read it's rougher on women due to hormonal issues.

I have done this before and I am doing it currently. I don't know how much fat is in tilapia but I eat a lot of tuna. You can definitely do this as pescatarian.

Don't know much about this plan, but I did Atkins some years ago, lost a few pounds, then stopped losing. Meantime, my cholesterol went to 315 (I am 5'2" and weighed 122 pounds and was 43 yrs old at the time, fairly fit), and I started having dizzy, almost fainting spells. I usually am inclined to be mostly vegetarian, and after my blood test my doctor told me to go right back to how I was eating before (and like to eat). It took me a year to get my cholesterol back down, and I have lost weight successfully on a similar plan to MFP since then, but eating in a way that is normal for me. Trying to eliminate one entire food group is not natural and I don't think it's healthy. Neither is reducing calories to the extreme. That kind of weight loss doesn't last because it can't be maintained, and you just end up overweight again but your metabolism is worse (slower) so it's harder to lose again after that. That's been my experience anyway.

Snore.

Who is to say that eating all of the food groups we define is "natural"? It's an assumption based on a lot of other assumptions. If low carb didn't work for you, by all means, don't do it, but don't use the "natural" argument. It's tired and flawed.

Your Cholesterol point brings up a long an complicated topic. Suffice to say, many people see an improvement in blood lipids when switching to a low carb diet, possibly even better numbers if you do it Primal/Paleo style. Beyond that, there is also the fact that your Cholesterol number doesn't tell the whole story. There is LDL, HDL, and different densities of LDL, even different HDL densities! Many people see increase in protective HDL at the same time as an increase in the "bad" LDL when going low carb. Beyond there are claims that the type of LDL on a low carb diet is improved, meaning it's the less dense, more "fluffy" lipoproteins that makes up more of your higher LDL number. This can be tested with more expensive Cholesterol tests but much of it is still debated by the medical community. To get to the point, eating "low carb" may result in a Cholesterol profile that offers less risk of heart disease despite the simplistic number that you quoted being higher. Again, it's all open to debate right now.

As for Lyle's diet, it seems to be mostly targeted at athletes who want to cut, but you can see testimonials from very overweight people too. It's designed to help you lose fat as quickly as possibly while sparing as much lean mass as possible and also satisfying minimal nutritional requirements. Lyle is not in the CARBS ARE EVIL camp, have a read of his blog and you'll find it loaded with a lot of evidence based suggestions. I've seriously considered his rapid fat loss diet at times, just it's extreme nature that scares me away, not sure if I could stick to it.

After about five days I notice my appetite plummets. You should at least give it a shot. Saves a hell of a lot of time and misery.

Not sure if you were responding my post or not. However, yeah, I'm thinking seriously about it. I need to read his book.