It's true; it's proven. The only diet that seems to actually work for me, no matter how much I work out or how many calories I attempt to count, is the Muffin diet, followed strictly. I have lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks after a year of eating healthy and working out and not really losing any weight at all.
The Muffin Diet that I follow - originally the Smart for Life diet, but since adapted by me, in part because the Smart for Life cookies are too damn expensive - is essentially a low carbohydrate diet. It is not as severe as the Adkins diet, and I do not actually count carbs, I just avoid high carbohydrate and high calorie foods, and control portion sizes, supplementing at least one of my meals a day (breakfast) with a tasty protein muffin.
As with any low carb diet, the goal is to cause your body to enter a state of ketosis, in which your body stops burning glycogen, the sugar that normally fuels you when you are eating a carb-rich diet, and "starts burning ketones in order to more directly utilize the energy from the fat stores that are being depended upon, and to reserve the glucose only for its absolute needs." Basically you are making your body burn the fat reserves you already have instead of providing new fuel for it to burn as you go about your day.
This kind of diet can be dangerous if you aren't careful. There are unhealthy ways to do it, and when I was on Adkins in high school, I was about as unhealthy as I could be. The trick is not to eat exclusively meat and cheese, which is gross and yet somehow tempting, but to make sure that each meal has two servings of vegetables to accompany your meat. For me the best way to do this diet is to eat what would normally be a healthy meal, and replace the rice or bread or pasta with another vegetable, or just eliminate that serving entirely. That makes the maintenance stage much easier - you aren't really changing your diet, you are just adding that missing element back, and continuing to eat healthy.
Eating out can be hard, but you don't have to stick to salads only. That will just make you sad. You can find dishes at many restaurants that serve Chicken or Fish in some kind of sauce, with potatoes or rice on the side. Ask the waiter if he would mind replacing the rice or pasta or potatoes with seasonal vegetables or, if you are at a Mexican restaurant, double beans instead of beans and rice (black beans if you can). Of course, most chain restaurants also have a low carb menu, so if you're willing to go to Chili's or TGIFridays, you should be set.
At Chilis: Margarita Grilled Chicken, double beans, no rice (or make your own)
At Olive Garden: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, substitute Caesar dressing for low fat Italian.
At Gloria's: Pollo Asado, double beans, no rice.
A friend who just started a low carb diet asked me, "Why am I tired all the time?" That's ketosis for you. When I first started the diet again, I was tired and hungry all the time for the first week. Many doctors would recommend that you not work out during this stage - you probably won't have the energy to do it anyway. This is partially due to ketosis, and partially related to your blood sugar, which is all related anyway. You will be tired, hungry, and grumpy. Whenever you feel this way, eat a muffin or a healthy, low calorie snack like carrots or edamame. This too shall pass. For some this lasts up to two weeks. The second weak I was still tired, but more hyper than miserable as my metabolism seemed to adjust. After the second week I was back to normal.
The diet is much easier if you always have some kind of low calorie snack available. The Smart for Life folks recommended 6 muffins a day, which I've never been able to stick to (I usually eat 3-4), but you can easily replace a muffin with a low calorie snack or a high protein diet drink like an Ensure, Boost, or Slim Fast.
Food to avoid: Rice, Bread, Pasta, Crackers, Potatoes, Corn, Beef, Pork
Food to embrace: Chicken, Fish, Carrots, Broccoli, Spinach, etc.
Food to eliminate if it's not working: Legumes (beans)
Also, somewhat related, I found this image and had to share. Watch out, she's lying.
Cheesecake and pizza taste much better than being thin feels. Don't lie. Don't lie, pin up girl in sparkly underwear. You just have to choose to be healthy instead, and save the cheesecake for special occasions.
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