Hunger Games: Jo's Final Opinion of the 8 Hour Diet

Well, Jo has been faithful to her word, and tested out the 8 Hour Diet. Here she gives her final review and advice based on what she has experienced through the experiment. 

Having spent two weeks fruitlessly feeding my face in the daytime, then drinking litres of water to get me through the night, I was annoyed but not surprised to see I hadn’t lost any weight by following The 8 Hour Diet according to Zinczenko’s contradictory instructions to eat all I want, but stick to superfoods. Taken day by day, the scales fluctuated up and down as much as a kilo. But for me, that happens all the time, even though I always weigh myself at the same time.

I thoroughly fell off the bandwagon on the long weekend at the end of my two week trial. Events conspired – a going away party, some night shifts – with a general lack of will-power. Any weight-loss I’d managed was fast undone.

So, I’ve now ditched the book, and turned me attention to intermittent fasting, without the hype. In my initial research, some of the reviews of The 8 Hour Diet have been more useful than the book itself.

This three star review highlights the research that preceded The 8 Hour Diet (though these authors are ignored in the book). This reviewer recommends Brad Pilon’s “Eat, Stop, Eat” program, as well as Martin Berkhan’s leangains.com. The reviewer implies that you can get all the info you need online, without putting yourself through Zinczenko’s writing.

While I agree with the above, I also found an easy way to read the book – via this summary article, “8-hour diet lets you cheat and still lose up to 10lb in a week”, written by the man himself. Even though it’s written to spark people’s interest in his product, it gives the book’s core content.

Back to the reviewers on Amazon.com, another reviewer discusses her previous experience with a type of intermittent fasting. Even though her 5 star rating for the book makes me instantly suspicious, her experience is useful to hear. After many years doing a kind of intermittent fasting, she stopped when doctors and friends argued that she didn’t eat enough. This saw her stack on weight, so she went back to IF, and quickly saw improvement in her health and weight. She says the book helped her lose the last few kilos she wanted. “This book reminded me of everything I believe in about the body's need to rest and not constantly be working day and night to process food. It does not makes sense to eat around the clock, we have only had access to excess food a hundred years or so.”

Interesting point.

More importantly for me, she highlighted reasons for why the diet fails for some people: “Many people here say the diet did not work for them so it may not work for everyone. Every body is different. I lost 10 lbs in one month and that's all I needed to lose. But I ate the 8 super-foods everyday and after filling up on them I didn't eat any junk. I also workout daily. I think giving it a try is worth it but you really do need to exercise and eat the 8 everyday in order to test it properly.”  And there’s the crux. You do actually have to be sensible and ignore all the author’s hype.

This is also what makes me the most cranky about the diet. I followed it properly and I ate the 8 superfoods each day. Okay, I might have also added a block of chocolate – BUT that’s supposedly allowed. As is occasionally falling off the bandwagon…. The book emphasises how it’s a diet that you can adapt to fit your life, and even if you only follow it strictly for 3 days a week, you’ll still see results. I don’t think this is true – not for me, at least.

So, where do I go from here?

Research time. I found this article on IF by Joseph Mercola, helpful. This tip jumped out at me: “Remember it takes a few weeks, and you have to do it gradually, but once you succeed to switch to fat burning mode you be easily able to fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry.  The “hunger” most people feel are actually cravings for sugar, and these will disappear, as if by magic, once you successfully shift over to burning fat instead.” (A word of advice: ignore the rest of the website this is posted on!) 

The disappearance of cravings really surprised me, but this goes towards explaining it. I’ve always craved sugar, and have been worried even by the idea of giving it up, in the belief that the cravings will have me whimpering in the sweets aisle within hours of quitting them. It was quite exciting to be free of them so easily! And it gives me hope that if I feed myself properly, I can escape the Sugar Demon. 

This is another thing that Dr Mercola highlights – nutrition. “I have been experimenting with different types of scheduled eating for the past two years and currently restrict my eating to a 6-7 hour window each day. While you’re not required to restrict the amount of food you eat when on this type of daily scheduled eating plan, I would caution against versions of intermittent fasting that gives you free reign to eat all the junk food you want when not fasting, as this seems awfully counterproductive [my emphasis].”

Yet how does Zinczenko sell his diet? “Watch the pounds disappear without watching what you eat!” It’s seriously worrying that such misinformation – nay, a downright lie – prefaces the whole book.
Take away message?

As Mercola points out, “It typically takes several weeks to shift to fat burning mode, but once you do, your cravings for unhealthy foods and carbs will automatically disappear. This is because you’re now actually able to burn your stored fat and don’t have to rely on new fast-burning carbs for fuel.”

While I take anything I read online with a grain of salt, I am finding truth in what Mercola writes. I’m now almost four weeks in, and I’m starting to get better at ignoring my brain’s habit of thinking I can’t sleep without a recent feeding. I’m also learning the right amounts to feed myself to get me through the fasting period. I’ve ditched The 8 Hour Diet, but I am thankful for the useful information I’ve found in the process. It looks like there’s an increasing amount of research being done on this kind of dieting (Google it, you’ll see!), so it’s something I plan to watch, at the same time I watch the clock and improve the nutrition value of my meals.
 
Thanks Jo! It has been quite a journey, and I'm glad it was you doing it!
My next installment on the 5:2 Diet will be coming soon. 

The 5:2 Diet - Two Weeks In

On Tuesday Jo gave us a summary of her first 8 days on the 8 Hour Diet. It's been going well, and she has seen some good weight loss (600grams in 8 days) without too much difficulty.

Therefore, I thought it about time I stepped up to the plate and told you about my first two weeks on the 5:2 Diet.


Overview:

If you haven't already, check out my full post on what the 5:2 diet is all about. But for those of you too lazy to click back there, here's the overview:

5 days a week you can eat anything you want, and 2 days a week you eat 1/4 for your calorie requirements, so roughly 500 calories for girls and 600 for boys. 

Simples.

This all started because I had reviewed the 8 Hour Diet, but wasn't prepared to do it myself. A friend was over for dinner and said that if  I wasn't interested in the 8 Hour Diet, I should look at the other big intermittent fasting diet at the moment, the 5:2 diet. There and then we grabbed out the laptop and did some research. A diet where most of the time I get to eat absolutely anything I want guilt free, huh? Sounded pretty good to me.

So I started the very next day (can't do too much thinking about these things). It was a Thursday.


My First Day:
 
It was a pretty easy start, since I was running late for work anyway, so skipped breakfast.

By mid-morning I was starting to feel a bit rumbly, but managed to quell the noise with some (carefully measured and entered into MyFitnessPal calorie counter) milky tea. Totally worth the 30 calories.

Then came lunch. One of the great things about writing a fitness blog is that you can try all these bizarre things and just tell people you are 'doing research'. So luckily for me I had no problem at work, I just explained that I was testing out this fad diet for the blog (so much better than trying to hide that you are on a diet, and just really, really want to eat a plateful of kelp, or you like drinks with lemon and cayenne pepper in them). I actually had a large bowl full of oats made up with water, which I liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and then added a level teaspoon of brown sugar.

Turns out that 60grams of a oats makes really quite a large bowlful and in winter is a really good meal to keep you going. Though a lot of people do not understand the wonder of hot porridge as a lunch choice. However, once informed, the girls of my work happily joined in discussions on the pros and cons of the diet.

The afternoon wasn't too bad. It wasn't brilliant, but totally doable. (Disclaimer: I've done quite a lot of different types of fasting for religious purposes over the years, so I did sort of know what to expect, and also that whatever whinging my body is doing, it can last at least 24 hours without food.)

For dinner I had what I had actually planned to have anyway: a Lean Cuisine (or one of those) microwave meal of Lamb Hotpot, which came in at 250 calories.

I sat down and ate it slowly while watching the documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer, which is the foundation for the diet. I highly recommend doing this on your first fast day, as it makes you feel all empowered and like you are changing your world for the better. Afterwards I spent a little while working out what I would eat tomorrow when I could have anything I wanted, and then went to bed with just a few rumbles.


The Next Day:

Woke up feeling really good and not starving. I had decided I would get a hot breakfast from the fast food stand at the station, and splurged out and got an egg and bacon sandwich and a chicken skewer. Have to admit, the chicken skewer was one of the greatest things I had ever tasted. At work I then finished of the bacon and egg sandwich and felt really quite sick for eating way too much.

Yup, after even one day of fasting, your stomach contracts so you are satisfied with much less. Score!
I also found myself craving salad! Don't ask me why. So I had a salad for lunch. Someone had brought in homemade biscuits and I happily scoffed as many as I wanted with a smile on my face.

At the end of the day, I sat down and did the maths:

If twice a week I eat 500 calories, and the rest of the time I should eat 1800 calories, then on my feasting days, I can eat (1300x2)/5 =  520 extra calories and still maintain my weight, so that's 2320.

I then added up absolutely everything I had eaten that day, when I had eaten everything I wanted to, and found that I had actually only eaten just over 2000. Now I know that on some days I can eat more than that (especially when KFC beckons) but it was still looking pretty good.


Second Fast Day:

Got round to the second fast day and it was a whole lot easier. Partly this was because I knew what to expect, but partly because I also prepared and cooked better. For breakfast I sauteed a cup of mushrooms and two cups of spinach leaves in vegetable stock, and roasted a tomato with basil. Quite a lot of food, less than 100 calories. I also added 25grams of cooked oats to give me some filling to keep me going.

Only problem on the day was that Mum came down to town to take me out to lunch. (I know, what a waste of a free lunch!)

'Surely you can eat this?' She said, pointing to the avocado and creamy dressing salad.
'No, I really don't think I can.'
'How about this?'
'No, not that either.'

If I had been able to plan for it, and had rearranged my calorie intake it would have been better. However, in the end I did find a vegetable, oxtail and freekha soup which apparently came to only about 200 calories. For the win! Add in a diet coke and I was a happy girl.


Exercise:


And for those of you wondering, yes you can still exercise on a fast day. On both my Sundays I fasted and did my long run for my half marathon training. The key, I think, is to do aerobic exercise, long and slow, rather than high intensity. Last Sunday I did my longest run yet (13kms) and ended up burning twice what I had eaten for the whole day, with no adverse effects.


Weightloss:

So, the big test for me is the weightloss. Yes, yes the health benefits will be great, but they don't show up as much in someone my age unless I was at risk already. It's when you get into your 50s+ that the health benefits really kick in.

Unfortunately, I didn't actually weigh myself just before I started as I didn't own my own scales. I had planned to run to the gym on the first morning, but ended up being late for work so couldn't.

As you might know from following my half marathon training posts, I had started around 77kgs, and over a few weeks worked my way down to about 75kg (I got a great reading one day, then realised it was actually because I had used my parents' scales which were not the same as the gym ones).

However, over the next few weeks, where I paused my training and had a lot of family birthday parties, mother's day, fish and chips etc, I had crept back up to 77kgs. The last time I had weighed myself (just a few days before my first fast) I had been about 77.6kgs.

After the first week I dropped down to 75.6kgs. That is pretty good, but I felt I was only just getting back to where I had been, so wasn't super excited.

After the second week I dropped down to 74.4kgs, breaking new ground!

I have now bought myself a set of scales, and I weigh myself most mornings to see how it all works.  (Not generally recommended, once a week is totally fine, it's just for scientific research purposes I'm doing it everyday.)

The morning after your fast day the scale will read ridiculously low, partly because you will have emptied your gut without filling it up, and also you need to be careful of dehydration. The next day it will have jumped up around 0.5-1kgs, which is a bit despiriting, as you think that it will just keep going up and up.

However, the next two days after that, even though you continue to eat whatever you like, it starts to creep back down again. It won't hit where you had been on a fast day without another fast day, but it definitely keeps going down.

Now, I have been warned that you get the most weightloss in the first two weeks, and then it slows down. However, it is totally worth doing even just for 0.5kgs a week.


Conclusion So Far?

Last Friday I was out for work drinks and I ordered a bowl of wedges and was chomping away. One of the girls was like, 'Hey, you can't eat that, you're on a diet!' Cider in one hand, wedge in the other, I waved it under her nose and said 'It's exactly because I'm on a diet I can eat it! It's when you don't do anything you can't justify the extras!' And happily went back to munching with a sigh and a grin.

Feeling totally justified in having that second piece of cake on my feasting days completely make up for any hardship of fasting two days a week. And during the fast, just smiling and saying 'I can have that tomorrow' makes all the difference over other diets.

Therefore, currently it has my thumbs up. It makes the rest of your life happier, I appear to be losing weight, the fast days become easier and it is fun trying to get as much food in as possible for 500 calories (this also encourages you to eat veggies as they are the best way to fill up your plate for less).

I have become a little bit evangalistic about this diet, to the point that my family are trying it! They weighed themselves on the 1st of June, are fasting Tuesdays and Thursdays, and are going to weigh themselves again on the 1st of July. Also, luckily for me, my dad had his cholesterol taken just before he started, so we can see if the diet makes any difference (though he was pretty good to begin with).

The most important thing, I think, is to work out delicious meals for 500 calories. I usually try for two smaller meals of about 125 calories each (30 grams of oats and then some sauteed veggies for example) and then one bigger meal of 250 calories.

Anyone got great low calorie recipes they want to share? 

The Hunger Games: 8 Hour Diet - 8th Day Wrap

The Hunger Games have begun! First in with the results, Jo tells us about her first 8 days on the 8 Hour Diet.

Hello Basecampers – Guineapig Jo here, trying out the latest fad diet for you.

A Quick Recap of the 8 Hour Diet Structure:

You’re only allowed to eat during an 8 hour period, followed by 16 hours of fasting (water and black teas only), and your goal is to include a serving of each of the 8 superfoods per day – lean meat, veggies, beans/legumes, nuts and seeds, berries, fruit, dairy/yogurt and wholegrains. The more often you manage to stick to this diet, the greater the health gains are, including weightloss and general health.

I decided to read the book while doing the diet, curious to see whether the many promised results were at all realistic. My view after the first week? Well, there’s a big gap between the ideas and how they’re presented in the book.

Let’s break it up this way:

THE BOOK…

….is ridiculous, and should be taken with kilos of added salt. Its over-the-top (and counter-intuitive) claims begin with the tagline: “Watch the Pounds Disappear Without Watching What You Eat!”

We’ll return to the truth of that, when I’ve finished complaining about the book.

Author David Zinczenko never properly references his explanations. He sometimes refers to a specific study, but without any formal referencing, his words must be taken on faith. I find that a difficult way to read a book that’s meant to be ‘changing my life’. But then, that’s just symptomatic of an author who has no respect for his audience’s intelligence.

You also have to ignore the constant contradiction of his basic premise that you can eat anything you want… alongside the fine print, that you must make sure you eat the 8 superfoods every day and be moderate about junk food and don’t drink alcohol and and and…

The interesting information lurking behind all this centres on the large body of research into intermittent fasting. The book barely discusses the tip of the iceberg of this research, though it does briefly discuss how fasting enables our bodies to focus on daily regeneration, thus preserving youthfulness and health.

The other informative aspect is the explanation of why his 8 superfoods are, well, super. What he doesn’t make obvious, yet likes clearly between the lines, is that to eat all these superfoods you either need to be seriously committed to spending 8 hours of your day eating, or you have to cut the lousy foods to fit in all the superfoods. (Back to my point about respecting his audience…)

So, what about the actual diet and results?

After promising Buffy I’d give this a good for two weeks, I’m finding myself quite intrigued by its effects.

At first I was worried at the limited time to eat and how I’d fit that all in. Then I realised I’m normally only awake for, like, 14 hours in a 24 hour period (don’t judge me, I’m a bear hiding in a woman’s body, I need my sleep!)

The first day saw me feasting until the final minute. For that matter, every day has had the same mad rush at the end – quick, eeeeeeat! I was later surprised to find that I wasn’t hungry during the fast, as long as I slept in until 9ish (yes, a freelancer’s luxury) so I could eat within a few hours of getting up.

Also, the focus on my daily superfood requirement has improved my diet, though it’s not hugely different from usual. I’m reasonably healthy, focusing on meats, veggies and rice, mostly because my gluten intolerance forces me to avoid breads, baked goods and other wheaty nasties. I typically already ate 5-6 of his superfoods per day, so bumping that up to 8 wasn’t too hard. (Then there are the other days with the hot chips, icecream and chocolate binges, but that’s irrelevant – those are allowed on the diet too! … Sort of.)

And, since I can only manage to prepare and eat two meals in the 8 hour period, my caloric intake has decreased by about a third.

And so, the weightloss?

I weigh myself every morning, around the same time, after my early morning bladder emptying (too much info yet?). Over the first two days I lost 600grams, which isn’t uncommon for me when I’m exercising, but I wasn’t on these days! On the third day I had my weekly bout of heavy exercise. The next morning I’d dropped exactly a kilo.

I followed the diet strictly for the 4th day, and lost another 300grams over that 16 hour fast.
Then I pushed it a little on day 5. The book says repeatedly that as long as you fit in the 8 superfoods, you can eat whatever else you want…. For me, this included half a 200gram block of Whittakers Peanut Butter Milk Chocolate…. Then a cheeky glass of red later that night.

Next morning, day 7, I weighed in 800grams heavier.

I wrote that day off, since a friend’s going away party promised too many drinks and a lot of party nibbles.

Day 8 began healthily at 600 grams lighter than Day 1. Over the day I “ate my 8”, until I cracked and ate two bags of Maccas fries, a short-cut way of carb-loading for a tournament the next day...
And that, my friends, is 8 days of the 8 hour diet. Overall, 600grams lighter – more results to come! 

Summary:

The book is crap, but I’d be interested to do some more research about intermittent dieting and caloric control.

…. I’m also working on getting better at sticking to the diet…..

Thanks Jo! Stay tuned for the next post where I tell you about my first 2 weeks on the 5:2 Diet.

Any questions for the brave girl? Anything you would like to know about the diet as she tests it out?

Update: See Jo's Final Review of the Diet. 

The 5:2 Diet and Variations on Alternate Day Fasting

Last Post I introduce the Hunger Games Challenge: Jo is testing out the 8 Hour Diet, while I'm testing out the 5:2 Diet.

So, before getting into the actual challenge, I had better explain what the 5:2 diet is all about.


Basics:

The core of the diet is that you can eat whatever you want a certain number of days a week, and then have a calorie restricted diet on other days. Now, when they says calorie restricted diet, they really do mean it. It should be 1/4 of your recommended dietary intake. For most people it roughly works out to be 500 calories for women and 600 for men. 

Scientific testing started out with Alternate Day Fasting (ADF), one day on one day off. However, they have found that you get most of the benefits from 5:2 - five days feasting and 2 days fasting. You lose more weight faster if you go up to 4:3 or alternate days, but still get some benefits if you do as little as 6:1.


History:

The idea of alternate fasting has been around for ages. However, the 5:2 diet has became popular because of a BBC documentary by Dr. Michael Mosley: Eat, Fast and Live Longer, which came out in August 2012. 

The documentary is interesting as it is not looking at methods to lose weight, but at ways to prevent/reduce the effects of aging.

Dr. Mosley starts by looking at those who are on constant calorie restricted diets, eating around 3/4 of the recommended calorie intake on a permanent basis. This has been shown to have very good health side effects. However, I'm with Dr. Mosley when he argues that it might have great advantages, but he just can't see himself doing that all the time.

Next he looks at the advantages that have been linked to doing longer fasts, such as 3-4 days. These appear to allow your body to do some healing, but you need to do them every few months in order to maintain the effect. Dr. Mosley tries a 3.5 day fast and survives, but argues that the thought of trying to do that every few months is a bit soul destroying.

He then looks at the research into ADF, where subjects can eat whatever they like one day and then have 1/4 of their required calories the next. So, it's not true fasting, as you can still have something, but the research appears to suggest that it has all the same benefits as doing longer fasts. Further, most of the effect can be gotten by doing even less, as little as 2 days of fasting a week.

Dr. Mosley finishes the program by trying the 5:2 diet for 5 weeks. In that time he loses quite a lot of weight (20lb (9.7kgs) over 9 weeks), but also reduces his cholesterol and blood sugar (both of which decrease the risk of various diseases). He has since moved onto a 6:1 lifestyle, to maintain the health benefits but to stop losing so much weight. Now there's a problem I'd like to have!

The show is only an hour long, and I highly recommend you sit down and watch it all if you have the time. Annoyingly, most of the channels that hosted it have expired, but you should still be able to find a copy of the full documentary at DailyMotion.com


The Book:
 
After watching the documentary, Kate Harrison tried the diet and finding there was very little information, created the book: The 5:2 Diet Book, which further popularized the diet.

To be honest, I've just finished reading the book and it really is a lot of fluff. It is pretty thin to begin with, is puffed out with quotes and testimonies from other dieters, and really isn't as well set out at the documentary. It does look a bit more at the effects of the diet on mental health, which is interesting, and does have some recipes at the back which are useful. However, the recipes are pretty basic, and the 'ready meals' section is only useful if you live in the UK. Also, now that there are more recipes on the internet, you don't really need it.

If you are interested in the diet, I would highly recommend that you watch the documentary, and if you feel like you need more support, Dr. Mosley has written follow up books such as The Fast Diet.


The Weightloss Benefits:

Weightloss is supposed to be a side benefit of the diet, though for a lot of us (me included) it is one of the major reasons we are attracted to the diet.

5:2 Fast Diet forum has collected data from over 1,500 particpants for the first 6 months of fasting, and have made a very nice graph, which gives you a good indication of what you can expect weightloss-wise:






Based on their data, they have concluded that you can roughly expect:
- general weekly loss of around 0.45kg.
- a lot of people lose a lot of weight in the first week or two, but then plateau.
- if you're already in the healthy weight range, you're likely to lose weight more slowly.
- men tend to lose weight faster than women.

However, while this might not seem much compared to other fad diets, the big thing going for it as a method of weight loss is that on your feasting days you really can have what you want, with no guilt attached.

Researchers looking into ADF suspected (like most of us) that on the feast days participants would eat more than enough to make up for the restrictions the day before, so 175% of their required intake. However, they found that even with the opportunity to eat anything, the participants actually only ate 110%. Moreover, the research found that having a high fat diet on your feast days does not negate the effects of the fast days, so you really can eat anything you want.

It is also the guilty free part that appears for most people. Imagine what it is like to never have to worry, ever again, about eating that extra piece of cake, in exchange for just two days of fasting?

Further, as a lot of participants will tell you, the fasting days appear to 'reset' what you think of as a 'normal' amount, making you feel fuller faster on your normal days. 



Other Health Benefits:

The controversial part of the diet, however, is not the weightloss but the health claims. Researchers are suggesting that it can increase life span, improve blood sugar levels (reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes), lower cholesterol, improve cognitive function and protect against dementia and the risk of Alzheimer's, as well as protecting against disease. Sounds pretty impressive, no?


Is it all good news?

One of the major criticisms of the diet is that there is just not that much research into it. Yes, the research that has come out has been promising, but more would need to be done in order to justify all the claims.

This is reflected in a lot of the rules which appear to be slightly arbitrary.  Is 500/600 calories really the best amount to get maximum effect? Is 5:2 really just as good as ADF, or should everyone be doing alternate day fasting to get the promised results?

An interesting article which looks at some of the research around Intermittent Fasting was published by the NHS on the 5:2 Diet, questioning its claims. If you are interested in the research side, it is a good place to start.

The article is written from a skeptical point of view, and even then they could only conclude that there wasn't sufficient evidence to support all the claims. They couldn't find any evidence against it.  


Downsides:

If you have never fasted before, the first few times can be a bit scary. You just don't know what to expect, and fear that you are going to be swallowed up by a growing hole in your stomach. Surprisingly, this doesn't happen, though you can be a bit grumpy.

It does take some getting use to how much 500-600 calories really is. You will need to carefully calorie count for a while, or eat ready meals that have already been worked out for you.
Most processed food is out, and to get as much bang for your buck, you really do need to focus on veggies, lots of veggies.


Disclaimer:

As with all diets, there are certain people that should get medical advice before trying this, particularly pregnant women and those who already suffer from eating disorders.


Conclusion:

If you are looking for a long term plan that will require very little change to your current lifestyle, and allow you to eat what you want most of the time, and yet still lose weight at a sustainable pace, this diet has a lot going for it. It is amazingly flexible and leaves you feeling guilty free the rest of the time. It doesn't require any expensive/weird tasting food and doesn't make you anti-social most of the time.

If the science also proves to be correct and it protects against a lot of the problems of old age, that for me is an added bonus.

When you are struggling on your fast days, just keep this motto in mind:

I can eat anything I want... tomorrow. 

Image from calorielab.com

8 Hour VS 5:2 Diet - Let The Hunger Games Begin!

   VS

A few posts ago I reviewed the 8 Hour Diet and at the end called for guinea pigs that would want to try it out. Jo, a friend I hadn't caught up with in years (literally, we worked out it was about 4 years... very sad) facebooked me and put her hand up.  Full points for being brave, if not smart :D

I was then chatting with another friend over dinner and she mentioned that since I had looked at the 8 Hour Diet, I really ought to also look at the 5:2 Diet, the other (more) popular form of intermittent fasting.

5:2 Diet you say?

Why yes!

I jumped on line and did a bit of research, and the research interested me. While I will go into the diet in more details later, as the name suggests the basic formula is eat whatever you want 5 days a week and then have a very restricted diet 2 days a week (so not even real fasting!).

How restricted you ask? 25% of your required daily intake, which is roughly around 500 calories for girls and 600 calories for boys. Just to put that in perspective, an Australian MacDonald's Big Mac burger is 515 calories, without the chips or drinks (Yes, the number of calories does actually change country to country... more in Singapore, would you believe?). However, you would be amazed how much food you can squeeze into 500 calories if you really try.

So I posed to Jo the concept of a challenge - her on the 8 Hour Diet and me on the 5:2 Diet. Minimum two weeks: which was easier to live with and produced good results.

Sadly, can't directly compare them against each other in weight loss terms, as I'm still trying to train for my half marathon (yes, I haven't posted, but I'm still, sort of, with slightly guilty tones, training), and the other general personal differences between us. Also, I happened to start on Wednesday last week while Jo couldn't start until Saturday. As I didn't know this until I had already started fasting, I wasn't going to give up the hard work I had done already. But I'm sure you will forgive me.

But we will tell you all the gory details and leave you to decide. 

So, in the next post I'm going to outline for you the 5:2 Diet and why I think it's going to be the more practical and sustainable of the two. 

Then, at the end of each week Jo and I are both going to report in with how things have been going, any weight loss, and advice to those trying to follow in our paths.

The Hunger Games have begun... stay tuned for more!

Check out Jo's first check-in: 8 Hour Diet 8th Day Wrap!

The 8 Hour Diet - Review and Giveaway

Okay, so while being locked out of my apartment last week, I settled in to my local library and read the current issue of Women's Health. I have to admit, I have lost a lot of respect for the magazine.

It is one thing to give contradictory information over the life cycle of a magazine, it's completely another to have contradictory information within the same issue. (It also irritates me that they never list research properly, and draw ridiculous conclusions that isn't what the researchers found.)

This was noticeable particularly in the article about the 8 Hour Diet, which they were hugely in favour of because you get to eat whatever you want, and it's all supported by research. Yah!

Unfortunately, their other articles about food and diet, including their expert advice, totally contradicts the 8 Hour Diet.

So, I thought I would look into the diet myself and see what the hype is about.


What is The 8 Hour Diet?

The book is written by David Zinczenko and Peter Moore, who have both written diet books before and both have been editors of Men's Health, which might suggest why Women's Health was so happy with it.

The basics of the diet appears to be pretty simple: you can eat whatever you want, as long as you also include the 8 superfoods, and you can only eat for 8 hours a day (for example that would be from 10am to 6pm.) You are also supposed to do 8 minutes of high intensity exercise just before you break the fast, to start your body burning fat (because it will have already run through all the glycogen stored in the liver). 

The theory behind it: that by intermittent fasting, your body adapts and becomes better at burning fat.

You can check out an interview with Peter Moore on YouTube for a general overview (though doesn't give a large amount of detail).

What are the 8 Superfoods?

The book divides the superfood (groups) into two types: fat busters and health boosters, and suggests having one of each at every meal.

Fat Busters:
- eggs and lean meats.
- yogurt and dairy
- nuts
- beans and legumes

Health Boosters:
- Raspberries and other berries
- tree fruits
- whole grains (quinoa, oatmeal)
- spinach and green vegetables.

So, you are meant to eat all of those, everyday, within 8 hours. But you can still eat whatever you want. As long as what you want include those foods.

Benefits of the Program:

It says you can eat anything you want (though see down-sides). 
It doesn't require huge amounts of exercise, which is great for those who don't like getting sweaty.
It doesn't require too many strange and weird tasting foods.
You don't have to do it all the time. Even just doing the intermittent fasting 3 days a week is supposed to bring about weight loss. Though if you do it 7 days a week, obviously it works faster.

Down-Side to the Actual Diet:

Okay, so accepting that the claims might be true for a moment, are there any downsides to this type of diet?

Well, first off, you don't get to eat for 16 hours a day, which for some of us is going to be hard. The book's advice? Distract yourself with tasks such as cleaning the toilet. ... um, right. That might put me off eating for a few minutes, but I can't see it getting me from 6pm until I go to bed.

Second, as Women's Health mentioned themselves in the same issue, it's not a great idea to do hard exercise on an empty stomach and then not eat for another few hours afterwards. All athletes know that you should try to have some protein within 30minutes of a workout. You might burn fat this way, but you won't be able to get back out there and perform so well tomorrow or the day after. So that means you can only work out between the hours you can eat, which is pretty difficult if you have a job. This might be why the diet recommends just 8 minutes of exercise before breaking the fast.

Third, despite all the claims of the diet that you can eat what you want, no calorie restrictions, Yoni at Weighty Matters did some number crunching for the suggested 7 day plan:

"Because his recipes include calories (I wish every diet book's recipes did, kudos to Zinczenko) I crunched every day. If you follow his 7-day meal plan, you'll average 1,595 calories. From a low of 1,222 to a high of 1,805."

For a girl, that's a restrictive diet. For a guy?  It's definitely not eating whatever you want.

Fourth, what about all the research and evidence (again brought up by Women's Health in this issue) that says skipping breakfast is bad? Why does the same not apply here? Or we just saying all that research is now invalid because this other research (not listed) says its okay?


Issues with the Actual Book:

First of all, I really dislike how it is written. It's just way too over the top and promises everything. Even just the covers are annoying:

"In just 6 weeks you're going to have your best body ever. You'll be LEANER, HEALTHIER, MORE ENERGETIC. You'll have the flat, firm belly you've always wanted. You'll sleep better, think more clearly-and have much better sex. You'll look younger, feel younger, and dramatically cut your risk of the major diseases of our time.

You'll lose weight faster than ever-as much as 5 pounds a week-without restricting calories OR giving up your favourite foods."

My best body ever? That is going to take more than 6 weeks pal. Also, as much as 5 pounds a week? That's 2.26kgs a week, which is seriously unhealthy. Healthy weight loss is half that: 1 kgs -1.5kgs. Despite claims that it doesn't affect muscle growth, I just can't see how without working out you don't lose muscle bulk.  (Though, prepared to be proved wrong on this). Basically, just putting every human desire into a paragraph doesn't actually mean you are delivering.

Second, despite repeated claims that it's all based on research, they don't appear to ever properly cite the research they are basing it on. This is really bad scholarship and as a university tutor, I give them an automatic fail.

Third, a lot of people claim that they have stolen the idea (which since they have cited any of the research they are basing their ideas on, they sort of have anyway). Compare the book's claims to that of Martin Berkhan who talks about an 8 hour diet back in 2007 on his blog Lean Gains:

"The basic idea behind this protocol is to provide nutrients at a time where they will be used for recovery and repair, being the post workout window. In order to receive the benefits of nutrient partitioning, the protocol consists of a fasting period, lasting 16 hours. This means you initiate your first meal 16 hours before eating the last meal on the night before (which is easily done by skipping breakfast and lunch). Thus, ideally all eating is done within an 8 +-1 hour timeframe."

Lean Gains appears to actually have a lot of good information, if you are interested in Intermittent Fasting in relation to strength and fitness (not just weightloss).

Conclusion:

The book itself is a bit of a fad. However, I'm not ruling out that intermittent fasting might work for some people. So, I'm looking for volunteers.

Volunteers!

I'm offering free copies of the book for two readers who are willing to try the program for at least 2 weeks and report back.

 (I'm chickening out at the moment because of the half marathon training which I don't want to stuff up.)

Interested? Just leave a comment below saying why you'd like to give it a go.

Update: having become interested in another diet based on intermittent fasting, I challenged my volunteer Jo to a Hunger Games: 8 Hour Diet Vs 5:2 Diet. Follow the links to see the results!

How To Get Started On The Primal Blueprint Diet

To be honest, looking over the various different requirements, mirco-nutrients balancing ,etc. involved in the Primal diet can be a bit overwhelming. I know I said I would put my money where my mouth was and try it, but help!

However, Mark has put together an e-book of questions he asked his faithful followers to answer. One of the questions was basically where should a beginner start?

Most emphasised that you should start slow, as it is a lifestyle change, not a 'diet' as such, which is generally good advice. Some recommended throwing out everything in your pantry that didn't fit with the program (or giving it to charity), while others just suggested only buying primal from now on and slowly get rid of the rest. I'm thinking I'll go the slower approach. If I'm going to crack, it is most likely going to be while I'm at work or coming home passing the supermarket anyway.

The three practical steps that kept coming up again and again were:

1. Cut out sugar.
2. Get rid of grains.
3. Start doing more exercise.

Looking at those three things, and taking it slow, I think I might be able to do this, for a little while at least.

I also have some added incentive now. I've got two weeks of annual leave starting next week, and am arranging to spend the second week at The Golden Door in New South Wales at their 7 day health retreat!

(Okay, have always wanted to go there, and it is super expensive, but I'm really, really looking forward to it. You will be getting full details on all the different exercise classes and wellness programs I do, don't worry.)

As my best friend pointed out, if I'm going to be spending all this money and doing this for a week, I might as well spend these next two weeks getting ready for it so I can really see even greater changes and enjoy it more.

The biggest problem is that you can't have any caffeine while you are there. Now, I don't drink that much coffee or coke, but I do go through about 6 - 7 cups of jasmine green tea a day. While not bad for you, it does have a lot of caffeine. Just to check, I didn't have any today and have developed quite a headache by late afternoon to the point where I had just one cup to try and nullify it a bit.

So, will need to detox from caffeine before going as well. Therefore, don't think I can do everything.

I can see the dangers in sugar, and know that it is meant to be as addictive as crack. Grains I'm not so convinced that they are trying to poison me. Exercise, however, is always good to do.

So I'm going to try to sugar detox this week, up my exercise and get off the caffeine next week. I'll try to reduce the carbs I have and focus on increasing my protein and veggies, but I'm not going to cut them out altogether.

Sound pretty fair?

(Or course, all I can think of now is almond croissants, but still...)

Wish me luck!

Diet Plan Reviews: Primal.

Everyone knows that eating right is important. However, with the vast array of different diet plans and programs out there, it is amazing anyone eats anything at all! Yesterday it was no fat, eat carbs, today it is fats are good but low carbs, tomorrow it's eat only lemons!

So, in keeping the the review series, I thought I would start looking at some of the different diet plans out there. Instead of starting with an obvious one, I thought I would start with one that maybe not all of you have heard of. It is a new-ish movement, built on previous movements, called 'Primal'. It has been developed and promoted by Mark Sisson, in book and blog form.


It bares some relation to the low-carbs/Atkins style diets, but developed from the Paleo diet that came out a few years ago now.

Like most diet plans these days, it is not just about food, but includes lifestyle and fitness etc. Mark has created a 10 step blueprint for what life should be like. However, for the sake of this review, I'm just going to outline his dietary suggestions.

Brief Overview:
The basis of the theory is that all creatures function best eating their evolutionary diets. As grains were only introduced to the human diet reasonably recently in evolutionary terms (last 10,000 years), our bodies are not adapted to eating them and do not function at their optimum with a diet heavy with such carbohydrates. Instead, we should be focused on the food available to hunter-gatherers such as meat, fish, fowl, nuts, seeds, fruit, roots and tubers.


His Eating Plan:
In very simple terms (taken from his site).

Protein takes priority.


Limit carbs to just enough to provide glucose for the brain and to provide energy for occasional anaerobic exercise.

Learn to love fats.

(Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-to-the-primal-eating-plan/#ixzz2I8VgiBoj)


My Thoughts:

There are definitely some parts of his logic I don't agree with. For example, he makes the argument that grains have developed natural 'anti-nutrients' in order to stop them being eaten, so that they can fall and grow instead. 

"The grain is anything but defenseless, though. It has an array of chemical defenses, including various lectins, gluten, and phytic acid, that disrupt your digestion, cause inflammation, and prevent you from absorbing vital nutrients and minerals." (see http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-agriculture-ruined-your-health-and-what-to-do-about-it/).

This seems a rather weak argument, and while not necessarily a central point to his theory, it does suggest that a lot of his theory is based on things he's experienced to be true, but then has tried to justify it with weak logic/cause and effect etc.  So, it might be best to use the same steps he is using but not necessarily buy into all his explanations. 

However, what about the basis that we should eat what our ancestors ate? 

Most of the suggestions for eating are pretty healthy in general: cutting out fast food, reducing sugar and sodium intake and eating fresh are sensible suggestions. Further there is a growing support for focusing on eating nutrient dense food, so more veggies and fruit is great. 

The program is pretty down on dairy, which to be honest I'm not a fan of. I love my milk, cheese and yogurt, and getting enough calcium without them takes some serious planning. With two grandmothers in their 80's and 90's I know what not having enough calcium does to you.  

The big debated issue is the carbs Vs. protein, which comes down to: have our bodies adapted to eating grains in the last 10,000 years?

It is difficult to tell in that Primal eaters point to the reduced stature of cultures that were mainly carb based, and the increase in size with protein, along with the growing obesity epidemic. However, there are so many confounding variables in such historical studies. Often the groups pointed to were peasant farmers who ate little else than carbs, so did not have other micro nutrients, and then there were people within those societies that were eating large amounts of meat but were still very small. And the current obesity problem, I would argue, is more related to the increase in sugar and trans-fats along with a severe reduction in exercise and other calorie burning activities such as staying naturally warm than just carbs.

On the flipside, there is growing evidence of a number of digestive diseases related to grains. So obviously some people do have problems processing these. 

So, overall: the aim of eating primal, with a focus on fresh, natural food that is nutrient dense is a great goal. 
Whether you should cut out dairy and healthy grains and legumes (so, maybe not croissants and poptarts) is something I'm not completely sold on. 

But, I should put my money where my mouth is, shouldn't I? 

Over the next week I will do more research into the Primal diet, and try implementing it for a month. 
If anyone wants to join me, give a shout out and I'll send you more information (or you can check out Mark's Daily Apple which has all the info, you can also get his book from Amazon: The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy (Primal Blueprint Series) )