James Duncan Diet 1 stone 1 week

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Replies

  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    edited June 2015
    FatMoojor wrote: »
    jonnysharpe wrote: »

    Prior to this I was fixed at 83kg, fluctuating by about 1kg. And I run once or twice a week and also ride my bike. I only do exercise so I can eat what I want, however, despite that I was still slightly overweight, according to the BMI guide.

    See here is your problem, just because you were running once or twice a week and also riding your bike it doesn't mean you can eat what you want.
    You need to eat at a deficit. If you burn 1k calories exercising and eat back 1.2k calories you won't lose weight.
    Starvation diets a stupid fad diets and no doubt in the month after you have "lost" the weight you will have put it all back on. You will have zero idea about portion control or how to eat at maintenance or at a slight deficit.
    You'll go back to exercising and eating what you like and then the weight will come straight back.

    I know this was the problem, which is why I wanted to lose the weight and change my habits from there. It may be seen as short-term thinking, but I already have ideas about how to keep the weight off. You may not agree, or have better ideas, which I'm looking at...but hey, it's a start! Plus, for me, this isn't a starvation diet. And it's pretty healthy eating.
  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    Plus, ALL diets are fads in my opinion
  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    jonnyman41 wrote: »
    don't treat it as a long term plan but if you really feel the need to lose for that one off event then go for it. I expect any low cal (not very low cal) and very low carb diet will work short term though you may feel pretty tired while doing it. Just make sure that you revert to something more sustainable after the event. Water loss is still a loss in terms of body silhouette after all.

    Thanks. You've nailed it. That is indeed the plan!
  • daaaaaanielle
    daaaaaanielle Posts: 114 Member
    jonnysharpe wrote: »
    Plus, ALL diets are fads in my opinion

    CICO as a concept literally isn't a fad. It's based on science. The "diets" that spring up as a way for you to achieve CICO - some of them are fads, some of them are reasonable enough for people who're not keen on calorie counting.

    The diet you're on about is 100% a starvation diet. You are eating way too little for your body to be able to function properly. You're going to lose far more muscle mass than you would if you just ate at a smaller deficit (500, for example). Eating a VLCD doesn't instill any good habits in you. Whatever it was that's been stopping you from losing weight before will still be there when you go back to your normal lifestyle. At the very least, you'll go back to not losing, but it's more likely you'll put weight back on.

    I've built far better habits eating 1500 calories a day because that leaves me with enough room that I can build actual, sizeable and filling meals within my calorie goal. When I hit my goal, I'll move to maintenance and I'll continue to eat the same sorts of things, but I'll just scale them up to increase the calories a bit.

    What good habits will you have built up from eating 1 slice of toast for breakfast and nothing but fruit for lunch? Those aren't meals, they aren't sustainable. You'll basically want to gorge yourself because you haven't learned portion control with that.
  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    As I mentioned above, this is to lose the weight and change the longer term habits from there. All advice is appreciated. I'm new to this site and forum. I don't know what CICO is yet (I guess Calorie In Calorie Out?). This is the first diet I've ever tried. Whenever I was a tad overweight in the past, exercise just shed it for me. Now I'm a bit older, it ain't happening!
    But I wholeheartedly agree, the simple mathematics of calorie intake is by far the most common-sense approach. I like cake and beer, what can I say :)
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    jonnysharpe wrote: »
    As I mentioned above, this is to lose the weight and change the longer term habits from there. All advice is appreciated. I'm new to this site and forum. I don't know what CICO is yet (I guess Calorie In Calorie Out?). This is the first diet I've ever tried. Whenever I was a tad overweight in the past, exercise just shed it for me. Now I'm a bit older, it ain't happening!
    But I wholeheartedly agree, the simple mathematics of calorie intake is by far the most common-sense approach. I like cake and beer, what can I say :)

    So no comments on the fact that it is a bad idea to take a very low calorie diet and that it will leave you in a worse state, albeit temporarily lighter, than you were before?

  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    I can't comment on what I don't know about. I can only speak from my own knowledge. Why will I be in a 'worse state' and why is it a 'bad idea' in the short term?
    I haven't even finished this yet, so have no idea if it's temporary or not. That's up to me, right?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited June 2015
    Read up thread - I've already covered the reasons against VLCD - you can look into the science behind it if you wish. Plus there's no learning curve in a quick-fix approach

    and yes it's up to you .. but post in an advice board and that's what you get .. advice from people who may actually know something about it

    Of course if you were medically obese (BMI over 30) then a VLCD under medical supervision may be an appropriate path to follow for a short-term as your medical team would consider the consequences of the VLCD against the associated health risks of obesity
  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    Really useful, thanks. I'll see how this goes, particularly what happens afterwards. I'm sure there will be lots of tweaks to both diet and exercise in the coming months to hit the routine I'm comfortable with. It's also useful to know that weight is way too simplistic a measure on it's own.
    I always saw this as a starting point (rightly or wrongly), so am ok if I don't get it exactly right first time. I'm more interested than obsessed.
    Now I'm going to eat some fruit while I dream of steak pies!
  • swaymyway
    swaymyway Posts: 428 Member
    This is the only 'fad' diet I have ever done...but no lectures allowed so I will stick to the facts.

    I did it around three years ago now. Yes it worked, I lost weight after being on the mother of all plateus for several months. It's a horrible diet, cutting out so many good and healthy foods, I felt ill most of the time I was on it and it was in no way sustainable. Once I came off the diet I gained back all the weight I lost plus around 5lbs almost instantly - this caused me to tailspin, go into 'sod it' mode for a while and gain back an addional 15lbs - I soon sorted my head out and talked myself back into my regular healthy lifestyle that had seen me lose 90lbs before going on the Dukan Diet and around 10lbs came back off...and there it ended....it's been over two years since I lost that 10lbs now and no matter what I do I can't shift any more, I don't know how or why but I personally believe that something about being on that diet messed with my metabolism or something.

    Everyone is different and I am not saying my experience with it is what would happen to everyone else who tried it but I would never recommend this or any other fad diet to anyone.
  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    I will post my weight each week, including what activities I've done, for the next 3 months to track this. Some people seem to keep the weight off, with adjustments to regular routine/diet, and others don't, so I'm not prepared to write this off until I've been through that process.
    What happened to you swaymyway, sounds pretty awful though!
  • BennyCH
    BennyCH Posts: 73 Member
    Orphia wrote: »
    Have you tried giving CICO a go?

    Why do people come here if they're going to try The X Diet instead of counting their calorie intake?

    because it is not always very easy to precisely estimate the input and especially not the output, and in the end it's all about "trial and error" and "mini-steps" and see what works best for you...
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,540 Member
    edited June 2015
    LOSE 10.5lbs in just one week!

    3.7lbs of FAT
    1.8lbs of MUSCLE
    and
    5lbs water and glycogen
    that will be replenished within a few days of ending your fast.

    vs:

    Engage in a 20% deficit off of your 2,500Cal average TDEE for about 3 weeks and lose the same amount of fat with a much lower risk to your muscles, less drama, and perhaps a chance to retain some of your loss longer term.

    Assumptions and what have you:
    14lbs x 3500Cal per lb of fat = 49,000 deficit in 7 days => 7000 Cal a day <-- really? Who has a 7000Cal deficit?
    Not the average person who burns about 2,500 Cal!
    (WHO adult data says about 2410 Cal http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/nutrientrequirements/9251052123/en/)

    So, @ 2500Cal average expenditure, and a total fast => 17,500 Cal maximum weekly deficit.

    2:1 or 3:1 fat to muscle calculations.
    Assumptions: 17500 deficit, 3500Cal=1lb fat, 1500Cal=1lb muscle, 500g of glycogen is about 2000Cal and is bound to about 4lbs of water, for a total of 5lbs of glycogen+water loss.

    After glycogen, 15500 Cal to account
    2:1 ratio => 3.7lbs fat, 1.8lbs muscle, 5.5lbs for both, 10.5lbs total scale loss.
    3:1 ratio => 3.9lbs fat, 1.3lbs muscle, 5.2lbs for both, 10.2lbs total scale loss.

    Optifast, Medifast, and the Protein Sparing Modified Fast are some of the few VLCDs that are designed to protect your muscle mass. Don't worry, much, only a few people have died from implementing VLCDs.

    Good luck on your VLCD!
    For my part, I will just keep plugging along at just about 20% off of my TDEE while trying to continue to maintain my better than 10:1 ratio... :smiley:

  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    Is VLCD less than 1000 cal per day?
    So far I've consumed 976, 1358, 1796.
    Not particularly worried about dying from this. You could die from running a marathon, driving home, flying in a plane. 500 cal per day for a sustained period is probably a bit reckless though.
  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    Ok, so I lost 8 pounds (or 3.5kg) over the last week. I've since done my research and calculated TDEE, so plan to stay under this and have upped my exercise to 3 times a week to hit the target 78kg.
    Learnt quite a lot over the last week, so it's been really useful. I wouldn't do this diet (or any diet) again as I'm not a huge fan. As lots of people have mentioned, a longer term plan will burn the fat required.
    However, if you need to shift some weight to kickstart yourself, motivationally or for other reasons, give it a try.
    I'll post my weight each week to track the sustainability of the weight loss
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
    jonnysharpe wrote: »
    Is VLCD less than 1000 cal per day?
    So far I've consumed 976, 1358, 1796.
    Not particularly worried about dying from this. You could die from running a marathon, driving home, flying in a plane. 500 cal per day for a sustained period is probably a bit reckless though.

    For a man a VLCD is anything under 1500 actually...

    VLCD are not a good idea unless supervised by a qualified doctor as it causes numerous issues later on.

    I've done fad diets and hated all of them...I yo yo'd for 20 years...this is the first time I've been able to maintain my weight loss for longer than 6 months...using CICO.
  • jonnysharpe
    jonnysharpe Posts: 35 Member
    Ok, as promised, my weigh-ins since the end of the diet.
    Starting weight - 84.5kg
    End of Diet - 80.9kg
    One week after the end - 81.7kg
    This morning - 80.9kg
    (The MFP iOS app is not too accurate recording these weigh ins as I entered them, but it's a small diff)

    During the diet I went for one 8.5km run and one 23km bike ride.
    In the week after the diet I did the same as above.
    This week, I've been on one 8.5km run so far.

    Since I ended the diet I haven't been able to exercise 3-times a week due to a nasty virus, which has knocked me sideways. Ideally, I would run twice a week and bike once a week.

    Despite that, I appeared to put almost 1kg back on in water weight, but have since gone back down to the weight I was when I completed the diet. So, it is sustainable, in my opinion. I've been doing CICO since the end, quite meticulously, averaging about 2000cal a day for an allowance of 2400cal.

    Continuing with CICO and exercise 3 times a week, I think I can hit the target of 78kg within 2 months.
    This might not be for everyone, but it's worked really well for me. I would not recommend it for longer than a week, under any circumstances. But as a platform to progress from, definitely. if you're inclined to give it a go.
  • daaaaaanielle
    daaaaaanielle Posts: 114 Member
    You are not a doctor therefore you cannot say if even a week would be safe for anyone (even yourself) to try a VLCD.
  • efwolfcub
    efwolfcub Posts: 99 Member
    1 stone a week, unless you're in the super-morbid-obese category is severely dangerous. Even when I was on my 1000cal/day preop diet for my weight loss surgery I lost "only" 19 pounds in 11 days. I also hated the world and wanted to kill everyone. There's no magic "chemical" formula to lose weight - that reminds me way too much of "grapefruit 45" or "lypozene". Interesting that the diet promises a stone in a week, you tried it, and now you're hoping for a stone (6kg) over the course of 2 months. Good luck :)

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