Fat loss plan as requested

[gruntygiggles]

To start, I've had amazing results with this in the past, then met Stretchie and put a load of weight on, so went back to it recently and am almost back to my old self again. Bananaman has been doing it since Jan and lost 3st...we've both put before and after pics up in the weight loss thread and I've been asked to share the plan so here goes.

It's a fair bit of reading so if you're not needing or wanting to lose fat,save yourself the boredom...lol.

It is an eating plan based on the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle fat loss plan written by Tom Venuto many years ago. I have a natural body builder friend in Odessa, Texas who sent me a copy about 8 years now and it took me two weeks to read and fully understand it as it is full of the science behind how the body works.

It is based around the “Starvation Mode” that we all have.



Starvation mode is NOT about the amount of calories you eat in a day never falling below a certain amount. Some people selling starvation mode diet plans will tell you that if you fall below 750 calories a day, you will at some pointc ease to lose weight as the body will “hang on” to all the fat it has. This ladies and gents is an absolute load of crap. Tell that to my family…we lost a16 year old cousin to anorexia…she never experienced this mythical starvation mode where she stopped losing weight due to taking in too many calories. No,she died 6 months after she started an eating plan of 5 grapes and 2 rich tea biscuits a day. If you read any diet plans that try and tell you that Starvation mode is centred around never dropping below a certain number of calories or “you’ll eventually hit a plateau and cease to lose weight” then throw it in the bin and slap the person that wrote it…they are THICK! People die of starvation all the time.

Starvation mode is, in fact the system by which our brain decides how much of the food intake it has to convert to be stored as fat in order to ensure we have enough energy stores for survival. The many many studies that have been done over the last 30 years have shown that the brain kicks in this mode of telling the body it needs to store fat after just 4 hours without food. SO, if you only eat one meal a day, the brain will always tell the body to store as much of that food as fat as it possibly can as it has had to wait 23 and a bit hours for it. If, however you eat within every 4 hours during the day, the brain will never have to send that message to the body to store any of the meals as fat and so the food we take in will be used to fuel the body. This is why you start to feel so good and healthy when you eat like this…it is the way we are designed to eat. When you begin to eat like this, you may find you even gain a few pounds in the first couple of weeks as your body gets used to this new way of eating. Don’t panic, just keep going and as soon as you’ve passed the 14 day mark, you will be amazed at how the fat drops off. It is really quite incredible as Bananaman has kindly shown you all. After 14 days of eating like this, the brain, as well as no longer sending the signal to convert food to fat also does something else. 14 days of regular fuel supply allows the brain to tell the body to revert to its healthiest state. It is not healthy to carry excess fat, it is simply a necessity in order to ensure survival. When the brain knows that the body is getting all the energy it needs from food, itw ill simply tell the body to expel the excess fat. It’s that simple. You feed the body in a way that means fat storage is no longer necessary and so the fat will be surplus to requirements and will literally melt away.

This is why people lose such drastic amounts of weight after having gastric band or stomach bypass surgery. The body is being fed regularly, so the brain knows it no longer needs to store that fat and just gets rid of it. No exercise needs to be done by these people, but still they lose massive amounts of fat. I would never want to live like that though. Because their stomachs can hold so little, they have to literally graze. They are instructed to allow 2 hours between meals so that the body can process the food easily, but they have toe at every two hours in order to take in enough calories each day. They get a double whammy. Mostly, in the months after the surgery, they can’t eat very much at all without feeling sick, so are in massive calorie deficit and get the benefit of the starvation mode kicking in and not storing any more fat as they are taking in food so regularly, but also, because of the calorie deficit, the body has to burn the fat stores it currently has in order to survive.



If those people could find the willpower to follow that eating style or a plan like this before going under the knife, they would not have to face a future of never being able to eat more than 2 tbsps of food at a time.

Now, this plan has a few important parts to it. When you have read them, you will be ready to go off and put it into action. So here they are, starting with the most important!

1/ Do not go more than 4 hours without food. If you go more than 4 hours without eating, your brain believes that food is in short supply and so programmes the body to store as much of the energy from your next meal as fat. So, never go more than 4 hours while you are awake without eating. This is why I say that eating a fatty mars bar is better than eating nothing in this scenario. If you eat nothing, worried about the calories in the mars bar, you guaranteet hat you will gain almost all of the calories from your next meal, whereas eating the mars bar keeps your metabolism working at its optimum level and so you will not only burn off some of the calories in the mars bar by doing no more than just being alive, but you will also drastically cut the calorie to fat store conversion of your next meal. So...eating that mars bar will help you lose fat, not gain fat. Each individual meal should be roughly the size of your clenched fist. It may not seem like a lot, but when you are eating every three to four hours, it is plenty and after a few days, you will not feel hunger anymore. When you have been eating like this for a while, you will find point 5 below quite a challenge...lol. Use your judgement. If you start to feel hungry within 2 hours of eating, you have not had quite enough OR the food was not balanced, so make sure you have complex carbs, good fat and protein in eachmeal.

Obviously it would better to eat something nutritional and balanced, but I use a mars bar simply to make the point.

2/ Do not eat within 2 hours of your previous meal. Your metabolic and digestive systems need this time to cope with the food that you have taken in. They need to process these foods and use them as they are needed. If you eat within this two hour period, you will be wasting some of the nutrient content of your previous meal as the body simply won't be able to cope with processing all of it in one go. You will also increase the calorie to stored fat conversion as this is the "default" mechanism that is used in times of plenty. Think about it...a fat person will get just as fat by eating constantly as they will by eating large meals only 3 times a day. What the body can't use or burn will be stored as fat.

So, make sure you wait for 2 hours after your previous meal but no longer than 4 hours as in point 1.

3/ Always eat before you go to sleep. This is incredibly important and must not be forgotten....again, even if it's something bad, it is better than nothing. Ideally though, I would always have something like a quarter of a chicken breast, 2 slices of lean ham or beef or something similar. If you eat pure lean protein within 2 hours before going to sleep, you will be making your metabolism work whilst you are asleep. If you eat something containing carbs or fats, you will get some calorie to fat store conversion, but if you eat pure, lean protein, it will work your metabolism and provide the body with what it needs to repair your cells, so will help you lose fat at the same time as helping repair your body. If you've done any particularly strenuous exercise like a really hard bike ride, eat a whole lean chicken breast before bed that day and the day after and your recovery will speed up too.

4/ If you go more than 4 hours without eating (apart from being asleep) your brain will trigger that starvation response again and store as much of the next meal as it can as fat. If you only do this every now and then, you will find that you may gain a little or fail to lose and fat for the next day or two, but then the fat loss will return to normal. There are some plans and I believe Tom Venutos new plan is one of them that say being late on just one meal will put you right back to square one. This is kind of true and kind of not. I recently sent this to a friend and said that it takes you back to square one as it is the simplest way of saying it and it does tend to give the motivation never to be late or miss a meal. The fact is that yes…it will put you back to square one in terms of the shedding fat, but so long as you go straight back to eating regularly again you are not going to suffer 2 weeks of weight gain.

The thing to remember is, knowing that if you are late or miss a meal the brain will want to store as much of the next meal as possible as fat; try to make that next meal as healthy as you can.

5/ Have a blow out day. Literally eat what you want every seventh day. This is so that the metabolism keeps working at its optimum level. If you eat the same way all the time, the metabolism will become stagnant, so every seventh day, give it a kick up the butt and it will keep working properly for you. I make this day a Sunday so that I can still have a full fat Sunday Roast when I want one. I have dessert 2 hours later, no matter how unhealthy it is and I never feel bad about it. Two weeks ago, I ate about 4000 calories on a Sunday. I weighed myself on the Monday morning and had still dropped the pounds on the scales. Don't go too mad with massive portions, but just make sure you eat larger portions than you have in the week and that each meal has a higher calorie count than your other weekly meals have.

So...those are the basic rules. It is always better to eat healthier, balanced meals and all meals with the exception of the bedtime meal should contain good fats. Your body will not dispose of all of its stored fat until it is happy that it is being provided the fats it needs in your daily intake.

In short, if you eat like this, you may notice a slight weight gain in the first 5-10 days as your body adjusts to this new routine. Don't panic and start eating less, just stick with it. After 14 days (many studies done into this and it is well proven now) your brain will be satisfied that food (fuel) is in plentiful supply and so it will stop storing calories ingested as fat and instead use only what it has available through your diet. When the brain doesn't worry about hunger or starvation, that need for fat to be stored as the most efficient energy source is gone. You will find in week three of eating like this that your fat loss will start. I say fat loss as this is what the body will be getting rid of. So, if you are fairly healthy anyway and just carrying a few stubborn pounds, you may not lose any weight at all. You may just notice that your muscle strength improves as you are feeding the body in a way that promotes the growth of new muscle and your fat will literally just go and revert to a healthy level so you will notice that you have more definition,l ess wobbly bits and more importantly, the fat that you can't see that can build up around your vital organs will also diminish, so making your risk oft hings like heart disease and diabetes much much lower.

Think of food as fuel, but enjoy yourself. I still eat whatever I want and I don't ever feel guilty if I have something really bad. I only feel guilty if I miss a meal, so I don’t do it…even if it means having something really unhealthy, I just have it and enjoy it.

Make your meals the size of your clenched fist

Make your meals balanced with the exception of a lean protein bedtime snack

Make your meals healthy if you want really good results, but don’t deprive yourself of the things you like.

If you know you won’t be able to eat a meal at certain points in the day, choose a snack that is between 150-300 calories, like a granola bar and piece of fruit or similar that is easy for you to keep in a pocket and eat quickly without needing a break or to even leave your desk.

Last tip…if you’re really bad at keeping time, we all have mobiles, so each time you eat, just set your alarm to go off in 3 hours 30 minutes time to remind yourself you are due a meal. This does happen by the way as you tend to no longer feel any hunger when eating like this.



I’ll say it again…if you do feel hungry, you are not eating enough at each meal. If you feel hungry before the two hour mark, you are REALLY not eating enough at each meal.



If you want the whole in depth plan that I learned all this from, you can buy it here...

http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2010/08/burn-the-fat-review.php

It will give you absolutely everything you need. It will tell you how to work out precisely what your daily calorie intake should be at a base and for different levels of activity and what your calorie intake should be depending on whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gain. It will tell you the best things to eat and the things to avoid, but to be perfectly honest, I am not going to enter a Miss Natural Bodybuilder competition, so I am not that concerned with a nano-percenatge of body fat.

Buy it if you want, but if you follow what I’ve said, as Bananaman did, you’ll get the results you want.



Oh, one final note…if you add exercise to the mix, you’ll find you need a little more at each meal, but my word, you’ll see results quickly!



Good luck guys. The proof will be in the pudding…which, on this diet plan you are still allowed….well, every 7th day at least, lol.

[gruntygiggles]

Oh....about the pudding, why wait til the 7th day...if you really crave it, have it as a meal. It's fine if you only do it every now and then.

Had a few issues copying it as I typed it up in Word, so have gone through now and corrected the conjoined words. Sorry. x

Might try this, thanks GG

Ah burn the fat feed the muscle, got the book somewhere. Was very effective when i used to lift weights. Forgot some of the theory though, cheers for reminding me.

Thanks GG!!

[dizzyblonde]

If I don't eat evey four hrs, my brain starts to go dizzy and I'm in pass out mode!

I suppose I'm on this plan without realising, as I've lost half a stone recently from watching what I eat, but eating little and often. I always have pudding after evening meals, we eat a lot of salad, so can have a treat every time we do
You might not think I needed to lose weight, but I did, I concsiously make the effort to walk the miles into town with the pram a few times a week, and get the bus back, rather than going in the car. My insides have slowly come back(meaning the stomach muscles are gaining their strength), but I have a bit of flobby stuff to work on.....which is taking a little longer than expected.

Very interesting. Given the calories in beer, does it count as a 'meal'?

edit: That's a serious question btw. Mrs Metal has resumed trying the Weigh****chers recipes which are often quite small, so if we try to add in this four hourly munching then the smaller dinners won't seem so bad.

edit edit: LOL at the autocensoring.

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by metalangel

Very interesting. Given the calories in beer, does it count as a 'meal'?

edit: That's a serious question btw. Mrs Metal has resumed trying the Weigh****chers recipes which are often quite small, so if we try to add in this four hourly munching then the smaller dinners won't seem so bad.

edit edit: LOL at the autocensoring.

Love that autocensoring...lol!

Regarding beer, no, it will not count as a meal as although it does have carbs in it, it is not food! Sowwy...just have it in moderation.

Regarding weightwatchers, what are the size/calorie counts of those meals? Plans like weightwatchers work because as far as I know, they do pretty much the same thing, they just miss a few of the extra things that this plan has. Same as a SlimFast plan, they all tell you to have meals, but to have snacks in between, so that you never go too long without food. I never even wanted to try them though as I prefer to cook for myself and homecooked food has no preservatives, compared to ready meals almost always containing them.

Just figure out what her daily calorie intake should be, choose a defecit level to suit what she needs/wants to lose and ensure that each meal is as equal as it can be in size and calorie count. If you have a meal the size of your clenched fist at 1:00pm and then at 3:45pm you have nothing more than a 99cal packet of healthy snacks, by the time you reach the minimum 2 hour period, you will already be hungry again and not only will this work against what you are trying to teach your brain, but it also makes you much more likely to have more in the next meal...which will now be stored as fat as much as it can due to the brain recieving the hunger signal after only having a 99cal snack.

Hope that makes sense. Will try and find a formula for you to work out her calorie needs.

Hmm - i can all day with eating and not feel hungry - me thinks this is bad really bad.
Okay i'm going to the essence of the plan with my scottish slimmers and see how it goes

[Luckypants]

I have been trying this for this week and frankly it is hard to eat every 4 hours, as it doesn't fit the daily timetable. I'll be setting an alarm now as GG suggests.

Question for anyone who has used this eating pattern while exercising, what is the effect of using an energy drink / energy gels / cereal bard while exercising? Riding my bike I will be taking on calories in my drink and using energy gels to boost my blood sugar before a big climb for instance. I'll also take on cereal bars for more slow release energy to keep me going. If the ride is more than 3 hours, there will be a cafe stop so the 4 hour meal rule will be honoured. TIA.