Day 26: down 8.2 lbs

I wrote yesterday that I'm skeptical of the Shangri-La Diet. You might wonder why, since I'm losing, on average, about a pound every three days.

The big reason is that I haven't experienced the dramatic appetite loss that others have reported. I have had some reduction, but I could as easily believe that it's due to increased self-awareness brought on by doing the routine, thinking about it, reading about it, and writing about. Instead of just eating by habit, just because it's that time of the day, I'm thinking specifically about how hungry I am, and how much food it would take to satisfy that hunger.

I've also increased my exercise. In the 26 days I've been doing SLD, I've run 144 km; in the previous 26 days, only 112 km. In the 26 days before that, it was only 41 km (though that total was reduced by some unexpected travel). This week, I plan to add resistance training as well.

Several years ago, I lost weight at an even greater rate, without ever going hungry*, or counting a calorie or gram of anything, and without ELOO or two-hour no-flavor windows. The big differences between then and now were I was much more overweight then (about 25 lbs. more than when I started SLD), and I went from virtually no exercise to moderate exercise. In contrast, I'm now occasionally hungry, and I've gone from moderate exercise to a higher level.

CalorieLab makes some interesting points over on the Seth Roberts forums.

*OK, that's not exactly true. I was in a 60-day contest to lose weight, and on the very last day, I went hungry. I won, 32.5 lbs. to 28 lbs. It's amazing what $100 and foolish pride will do. The two of us have mostly kept it off for nine years.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 25: down 8.8

Although I remain unconvinced that this really works, I'm going to continue for at least a while, because:

• it's easy
• it's almost certainly not unhealthy
• maybe it does work.

Here's a discussion on Dr. Roberts's forums about the diet, the reasons that it works, and the science behind it.
tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 24: holding at -7.8 lbs.

Yesterday afternoon I was hungry. I really wanted a snack, but instead did my afternoon 1.5 tbsp. canola oil, and waited it out. My family & I went to a graduation party, which offered the expected minefield of high-calorie, low-nutrient food. I ate less than I wanted to, which I guess isn't supposed to be the SLD way. By no means did I remain hungry, though, and my weight stayed the same from yesterday.

I also didn't get much exercise yesterday; I'm about to correct that deficiency for today. I'm off on a log run, fueled only by a little water and some canola oil.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 23: down 7.8 lbs.

I have absolutely nothing to say about SLD today. Sorry. This may become the rule as time goes on.

Stephen M (Ethesis) has decided that enough is enough, when it comes to writing about Shangri-la on his own blog. He's still active on the forums, though.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 22: down 8 lbs.

I'm averaging 0.4 lbs. loss per day for the first 20 days. (Wait -- isn't this day 21? Yes, but day 1 was when I began; day 2 was one day in, etc. I guess I should have started with day zero.)

That's a higher rate of loss than I hoped for. Don't get me wrong -- I like being down 8 lbs. in less than three weeks, but I actually hope that rate drops just a little, to, say, 0.25 a day. I think that would be more sustainable, and I think it would help my running. I don't think I'm eating quite enough to feel really strong during my training.

I may fiddle with my oil dosage after another week or so.

Update:

I was off by one on the "Day x" title for this and a few subsequent posts. Oops. I was thinking that I had started on a Sunday, not a Saturday. I leave the correction of the arithmetic in the above post as an exercise for the class.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 21: still down 7.4

I haven't said much about my goals for this diet. (By the way -- does anybody else feel the need to use some word other than "diet" to describe this? I've considered "method," "routine,", "regime," but none of those sound right either).

Anyway, I'll write a longer piece on goals some time soon, but for now, I'll mention a short-term one: In four weeks is a local 10K road race. I'd like to be in the low-180s. I haven't been that low since I took up running, and I'm curious to see how it will affect my time.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 20: down 7.4 lbs

A few more pounds, and I'll be the lightest I've been since I met my wife. Once I'm comfortably under that weight, I may even tell her about this! I haven't told anybody, except you anonymous blog readers.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 19: down 6.6 lbs.

Yesterday was just another normal day, aside from the no-flavor slip-up. It's become just my routine, which is exactly what I'd hoped.

One thing I've noticed about my hunger that I didn't expect: It's less, of course, but when I am hungry, I find it easier to delay eating. I don't know if that's mental or physical. In either case, it's really a good thing.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 18: down 6.2 lbs.

I blew my no-flavor window this morning. I woke up, weighed myself, had my canola oil with some water, got ready for my morning run. 15 minutes after the oil, I brushed my teeth. Oops. I guess I'm going to have to bring a toothbrush & toothpaste to work if I'm going to keep that schedule.

Update: I just finished off my first full bottle of extra-light olive oil. 34 tbsp. x 120 kcal = 4080 kcal. This is the first time I've done the arithmetic. I don't know why, but I was expecting it to be a lot higher than that.

I'm switching to canola oil, for no other reason that it has a little less taste. It's cheaper, too, but at 3 tbsp. a day, that's not a big deal.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Where's the science?

John Ford, MD, discusses the lack of scientific evidence supporting the SLD (via Instapundit.)

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 17: down 5 lbs.

It's harder and harder to come up with anything new to say. Most days are the same: my appetite is lower, but not dramatically so. I don't have a problem tolerating the oil. My weight takes two steps down and one step up. That's about it.

I'm still waiting for the day when my hunger all but disappears, but if it doesn't, I'd still say this is working for me. It's still early, though, so I'll keep these boring updates up.

One slightly new thing: I read on the Seth Roberts forums about a way to take oil: put it in a cup of water. I don't get that mildly disgusting mouthful-of-oil feeling, and I've been following the oil up with water anyway. I find it to be a better technique.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 16: down 3.8 lbs.

I tried a different schedule this morning. Normally I either run over my lunch hour, or I get up early and eat a very light breakfast and run about an hour later. This morning, in order to more easily get my no-flavor window in, I elected to take my canola old first thing. I was curious to see how a long run would go on just a little water and 2T of oil in my stomach. It wasn't bad. I may make this my new routine, especially on weekends.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 15: down 2 lbs

I had my biggest weight gain yet: 2.2 lbs. No big deal, though; for somebody my size, a 2.2 pound fluctuation isn't all that much. It puts me at precisely one pound lost per week. Curiously, though, my body-fat scale still says 27%. Normally I'd have to be a bit lighter to get that reading.

I ate three consecutive restaurant meals, which probably accounts for the gain. I also ran 54 km for the seven days ending yesterday, which is a lot for me. The exercise-induced hunger probably caught up with me.

Today for the first time I consumed my flavorless calories before breakfast and after supper, rather than my usual mid-morning and mid-afternoon. I also used canola oil rather than extra-light olive oil. I thought the canola oil had a little less taste than the olive oil, but the difference is not great.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 14: down 4.2 lbs.

My scale tells me for the second consecutive day that my body fat percentage is 27%. It was 29% for the first two days of this experiment, and mostly 28% in between. Usually it reads a little higher in the morning when I do my daily weigh-in. I attribute that to low hydration.

You may have noticed the tiny sparkline graph over on the right side of the blog home page under "Progess." It charts my weight since I started. I may add one for body fat percentage, too.

The book finally arrived yesterday. I've read about one-third of it. Based on what I've seen so far, I recommend it to anyone who's trying the method. It's pretty short, but still it goes into more detail than you're likely to find in the Internet.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 13: down 4.6

I finally broke out of the narrow range I'd been in since day 3. I'm not putting too much stock in it, though, since it's just one day and just over one pound. Besides, is it the diet, or is it the 48 km I've run in the last six days? I'm really trying to increase my running through the summer. I'd like to set some new personal bests in 5K and 10K races, which I haven't done since 2003. That year, my 5-week moving average didn't drop below 30 km until the end of June; this week I finally got it up to 30 km for the first time since last October.

See, I told you my running log was ridiculous...

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 12: down 3.4

Is it a mistake to weigh myself daily? Should nearly every blog post be titled "Day x: down y"?

Probably "yes" and "no" respectively. But that's just the way I am. You should see my running log -- it's ridiculous. Distance down to 1/100 km (thanks to my GPS), and time down to 1/100 second.

Yesterday was just another day -- two doses of ELOO, mild appetite suppression. Same old, same old.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 11: down 2.9

I weigh the same as I did on day 3. Have I plateaued already? Has it stopped working? Did it ever work?

I'm questioning this method, but I'm not discouraged at all. I'll keep at it for a while. If it works; fine. If not; that's OK, too. I know for sure I've been largely able to avoid unhealthy snacks since I started, and even without dramatic weight loss, that's a good thing.

Yesterday I did my usual mid-morning ELOO. I went for a run over lunch, and didn't feel like eating. By mid-afternoon I was a bit hungry, so I had a bagel, and didn't do ELOO again until 5:00. One would think that this schedule would be better for holding off late-night hunger than my usual mid-afternoon ELOO, but, at least yesterday, it was not. I'm going to try to stick with mid-morning & mid-afternoon for a while. I'm looking forward to the arrival of the book to see if it has any ideas for adjustments.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 10: down 3.4

I can see that weekends are going to be the toughest times to follow the routine. It's pretty easy to schedule the necessary two-hour no-taste window while I'm at work; at home is a different story. Not eating for two hours isn't necessarily the problem; it's being somewhere where I can get the ELOO. This past weekend was unusually hectic, though, so maybe it'll get better.

Last night was probably the hungriest I've been since I started. I'd skipped my ELOO once each day over the weekend, so I imagine that and the race on Saturday combined forces against me. It wasn't all that bad, though -- certainly no worse than I might have expected before I started this.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 9: down 3.6

Whew! Yesterday was a long day. My cough kept me up most of the night, and I had to get to the start of the marathon early. My leg of the relay was last, so I didn't have to run until nearly 10:00, but there was no way I was going to try for a 2-hour Shangri-La window before running. Besides, I didn't want to have to explain to the other runners why I was drinking olive oil.

The run went fairly well, considering my lingering cold and lack of sleep. We all went out to a restaurant afterwards, and I chose some of the slightly-less-unhealthy items on the menu. The afternoon was dedicated to relaxing with my kids, and I missed another ELOO dose. Finally after the kids were in bed, I took my usual 1.5 Tbsp. This is the first time I've done it at night. About 70 minutes later, I was a little hungry, so I drank some V-8 and ate a handful of crackers. I haven't often been hungry late at night since I started. I suppose it may have been the missed ELOO, but it seems more likely it was the 6.2 miles I ran.

My cough still bothers me a little, but last night I finally got a good night's sleep.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 8 - down 3

Quick post this morning before the marathon relay. Despite my carbo-loading yesterday, I'm up only about one-half pound.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 7: down 3.6

Yesterday could have been a bit rough. I was about 40 minutes into my morning mini-fast when I realized I had better take some cough medicine before I drove myself and my fellow cubicle-dwellers crazy. There's one thing cough syrup isn't, and that's tasteless. Shortly after that, I had an appointment, which brought me all the way to lunch time. By then, I was too hungry to wait another hour to eat, so I decided to just skip my first ELOO. I was in a hurry, so I went through the dreaded McDonald's drive-through.

I got the Asian salad. It's actually quite good, and even with the salad dressing, it's only 380 calories. It should also qualify as an unusual taste, which I believe the Shangri-La book says we should often get. Keep in mind, I still haven't read it, though my copy is on its way.

The rest of the day went about as expected. I made a familiar pasta dish for supper, which normally drives me to eat rather too much. It was easy to restrain myself to a modest amount. I'm still wondering if the diet is doing that, or if I'm just more conscious of my true hunger and the volume of food I'm eating.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 6 - down 2.4 lbs.

This is the first day I've gained weight. It's just a pound, though, and about all the exercise I got yesterday was coughing. I really hope this cold gets much better by Saturday's road race.

One of the things I hope to accomplish by losing weight is to improve my running. All of this extra weight slows me down, and is hard on my joints. Whenever I start back up running after a little time off, or even just bump up my mileage, it takes a while before my knees feel OK.

My peak running volume was three years ago, when I was preparing for a half marathon. I hit 60 km one week, which for a lot of runners isn't all that much. This year, I've only topped 30 km twice. I'd like to eventually run a marathon, and my current mileage is just not going to get me there.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 5: 195, down 3.4 lbs.

I think I picked the wrong week to start this. I have a moderately bad cold (what's the expression -- "feed a cold"?), and on Saturday I'm running a road race. It's a marathon relay, and I'm running from mile 20 to the finish; about 10km. I will NOT be following the protocol that morning.

Jeremy Ballenger followed up the post I mentioned yesterday with another good one: The emotional side of Shangri-la.

Despite the vigour with which people are launching into self-experimentation trials, I have found one reference to the emotional side of weight loss, a subject I think glaringly absent from the book. I'm quite interested in this, as I believe approaches such as those proposed by Shangri-La ignore the causes of weight "issues".

He's right, of course, but I don't expect those issues to be exposed here any time soon. After all, I haven't lost much weight yet, and I was a Norwegian bachelor non-farmer* for a long time.

I join Jeremy in lauding Stephen M (Ethesis), who, aside from his own blogging on this subject, is very active in leaving helpful comments in numerous other forums and blogs.

*For those of you not familiar with A Prairie Home Companion, that means I'm prone to be taciturn.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Questions

Jeremy Ballenger at Think Mojo has written the best article I've seen yet on the Shangri-La Diet. He asks many of the same questions I have, and more. For instance -- does the diet really fix anything fundamental? Does it attack the root cause or causes of obesity, or just trick your brain for a while?

I don't want to be slurping olive oil for the rest of my life.

That said, I'm sticking with it for a good long while, if it continues to work. 10 o'clock -- time for my ELOO.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 4 - down 3.2 lbs.

I overate at lunch a little yesterday -- the old "clean your plate" ethic is alive and well. I felt quite full. "Overeating" seems to have been redefined, though -- it wasn't all that much food. For supper, all I could manage was some grapes, one small slice of bread, and some carrots. A little later, I was just slightly hungry, and had about 6 tiny crackers with some cheese.

Kathy Sierra had some interesting things to say a few days ago about Shangri-La, and the discussion that followed was good. In part:

For me, in two weeks, it's been working too well. I don't have a weight problem, so I wasn't interested in losing weight. I wanted to try it because it's fascinating, seems impossible to believe, and MAINLY for the claim that by reducing cravings, it helps you make better eating choices. My goal on this "diet" was that when it was time to eat, I wanted to find carrots and broccoli as viable an option as Ben and Jerry's. That hasn't completely happened (although cravings have virtually disappeared), but within three days, I was actually forgetting to eat.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Day 3 - down 2.8 lbs.

Here's my progress so far. I have a scale that estimates my body fat percentage, so I'll include that too. My wife gave me that scale for my birthday a few years ago. She's so romantic!

Day 1: 198.4 lbs., 29% body fat
Day 2: 197.8, 29%
Day 3: 195.6, 28%

I have my doubts about the accuracy of the fat percentage, but I will say that it's pretty consistent. When I'm near my current weight, it shows 28% or 29%, and when I was down to about 188-191 a few years ago, it said 26% or 27%.

I still haven't read the book, so I'm not absolutely sure I'm doing this right. There is a fair amount of slightly conflicting information floating out on the web. What I've done so far is twice-daily doses of light olive oil. Today I'm starting extra-light olive oil (ELOO), as I needed another bottle for work anyway. I'll probably use up the regular light at home, mainly on weekends.

On day one, I took 2 tablespoons each time, but I dropped that to 1 1/2 yesterday, and will stick with that for a while. 2 Tbsp is a lot to swallow, and I think 480 calories per day from just olive oil seems like a bit much. The first time I took it, on Saturday morning, I felt immediately stuffed, which I took as a good sign. Subsequent times haven't been so dramatic, but I certainly have noticed a reduction in appetite. For example, on Saturday afternoon, I was hungry at the time of my second helping, but 2 1/2 hours later, I was no hungrier.

You might be wondering what it's like to down some pure fat. It's just a little disgusting, but I'm tolerating it well. It's not so bad that I'd consider switching to sugar water, which undoubtedly would be easier to swallow.

Is it just the placebo effect? Since this is meant to reduce my appetite, am I just now more observant of my actual hunger, rather than just eating on reflex? I don't know.

Lots of people are writing about this. Some days I'll highlight some of the interesting ones I find. I'll start with a guy who's just started, like me.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet

Welcome

Hi. I'm J. Weighty (not really), and I'm trying the Shangri-La Diet (really).

• What's that? It's not so much a diet as an appetite suppression method. It requires no particular diet regimen, other than the once- or twice-daily consumption of either sugar-water or vegetable oil, or both. Additionally, one must not eat anything for an hour or so before or after the sugar-water or oil. Many descriptions may be found on the web; here's one.
  
• Sounds crazy. Yes, it does.
• Who's the crackpot that came up with this? Seth Roberts, Ph. D., a Berkeley associate professor of psychology.
• How's it work? I don't know that it does, but here's the story: Each person has a "set point," like a thermostat, that determines what weight the body "wants" to be. This set point can be pushed higher by some foods. It all goes back to our caveman feast-or-famine days, when if you were getting different, tasty things to eat ("feast" periods), the body would go into a mode of storing up lots of fat, in order to prepare for the inevitable famine period to follow. The relatively tasteless sugar-water or vegetable oil tricks the body into going into famine mode, where it uses up those fat stores. You're less hungry, so you eat less. Or so says the theory.
  
• You're one of those people that jumps on every diet fad, aren't you? Nope. Never really been on a real diet.
• Who are you? What's your deal? I'm 42 years old, male, American, 5'10"/178 cm., and I weigh about 200 lbs./90 kg. About nine years ago, I dropped from 224 to 192 lbs. in 60 days by exercising a lot, and shifting my diet a little -- more vegetables and whole grains, less meat and dairy. Nothing fancy. Since then my low was about 188, but I've been mostly between about 195 and 205 lbs. I've drifted back to my pre-weight-loss diet, though I probably don't eat as much meat as I did.
• Is this "diet" healthy? Not everybody thinks so. Here's somebody who focused mainly on the fructose component, which I haven't used, and won't. I'm using only olive oil, which is generally considered to be one of the "good" fats.
  
• So, does it work?

Well, that's the question, isn't it? That's what I hope to find out. Today is only my second day, so I can't tell you much other than I'm encouraged so far. I'll tell you why shortly, so stay tuned.

tags: diet, weight loss, Shangri-la Diet