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