The ARCHIVES here at DietHobby show that I do lots of personal experimenting with different types of diets and ways-of-eating.  Because reviewing my previous posts is helpful to me, I use DietHobby as a digital scrapbook, where I post and index - in a way that I find artistically satisfying - my thoughts, as well as writings, pictures and videos that I consider interesting or helpful.

Although interested viewers are welcome, all posts at my DietHobby website are first and foremost for me, personally.  As part of my dieting hobby, I belong to various online diet groups, and sometimes I share relevant DietHobby posts with fellow members, but I don’t “promote” my website.

DietHobby sells nothing, and does not promote any specific diet; way-of-eating; lifestyle; non-diet; books; clubs; supplements; foods; or memberships.

I address various issues in a one-size-does-NOT-fit-all way as they interest me or apply to me, and I frequently conduct experiments-of-one with a variety of different diets and ways-of-eating.  These experiments can last several months, or only a few days.   I’ve found that the more public I make my personal details in an ongoing experiment, the less effective that experiment is for me, so I am picky about what I share and what remains private. 

This past year or so I started recording pictures of some of my various meals in the Photo Gallery section of DietHobby (look under the heading RESOURCES) to record various meals that I’ve actually eaten as part of various experiments-of-one.

To date, the categories are:

Petite Meals

5-Bite Meals

3-Bite Meals

Taster’s Choice

which includes
 


Taster’s Choice Experiment

Freedom in Maintenance Experiment

NOTE:  The website genius who created DietHobby (who is also my adult son) is now working on technical renovations which are expected to make it more user friendly for hand-held devices as well as computers.  My goal is to keep the part of DietHobby that we SEE about the same, while updating the inner workings to make it more efficient.   So…. If you have problems accessing photos, videos, articles etc. be sure to watch for the new changes that are expected within the next several months.

 Eleven plus years of working to maintain my weight within my goal weight range has taught me that the only right road in Maintenance is the one I create for myself. 

I research dieting issues, listen to dieting advice from others, and do various short-term-diet-experiments, but ULTIMATELY,  What, When, and How, I eat involves a continual personal evaluation and balancing of my own Values.  

DietHobby is my digital Scrapbook. It advertises nothing, sells nothing, charges nothing, and accepts no donations.  It is my own personal website which exists to help me further my own personal Dieting Hobby, and it reflects my personal experience in weight-loss and maintenance.

One-size-doesn’t fit-all, and I address many different ways-of-eating whenever I find them interesting or applicable to me.

For me, Dreams and Goals need to be based on REALITY, which means they need to be based upon a sensible and practical idea of what can actually be achieved or expected.

I have a clear idea of my own personal weight goals, and have an image of how I want to look and feel at my Ideal Weight Goal.  I also have an intense desire to BE there - not only Reach that Goal, but Stay there Forever. 

However, what I’ve learned is that ...
Life involves Balance and Trade-offs which are based on what each of us “brings to the table” (genetically & otherwise), as well as what each of us values the most. 

There are many different definitions of what is individually “beautiful” and also of what is “healthy”, and ….for many people here on earth,….. a BMI number doesn’t define either beauty or health. 

Not only do people define Beauty & Health differently, there are many differences in how highly various Food and Eating issues are valued within each individual life. 

Advertising, the media, and the Diet Industry tells us that “thin” is the most beautiful and healthiest body type. Most people who reach a weight at the bottom of their BMI range would be considered “thin”, and some might even consider those people to be the “healthiest” that they could be, because of their low weight.  However, there are others who define “Beauty” and “Health” differently, and THOSE people would prefer and choose different weight-goals.

Here is a picture showing my own personal ideal Weight Maintenance Range.



As part of my own “dieting hobby” I’m always reading and learning about various diet plans, non-diet plans, ways-of-eating, and lifestyles. My many diet experiments have helped me to develop a deep understanding of my own personal preferences. I like some diets and diet “experts” better than others, but I continually work to remain open to new or different possibilities.

The DietHobby ARCHIVES contains many articles that talk about the specifics of my own eating and weight struggles.  Every year I become more and more convinced of the truth of the following statements made by the obesity specialist, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, M.D.:

"at the end of the day if you don't like the life you're living while you're losing weight, you're virtually certain to gain it back."

Physiologically, Plateaus don’t exist.  Unless it’s a TEMPORARY trick of the scale, …....... if you’re not losing, either you’re burning fewer calories than you think; you’re eating more than you think; or some combination thereof. 

However, although there’s no Plateau, there IS such a thing as a “FLOOR”. 
If you’ve truly stopped losing weight, there are really only two questions you need to ask yourself.

1. Could I happily eat any less?
2. Could I happily exercise any more?

If the answer is "yes" then you can tighten things up, but If the answer to both is "no", there's nothing left for you to do. 

This is because if you can't happily eat any less and you can't happily exercise any more -- then it's unlikely that this will ever become part of your permanent behavior.

For me, maintaining a large weight-loss involves striking a balance between how I want my body to look and to feel at a specific size; AND how little food I am prepared to eat indefinitely. 


But what’s personally important isn’t a Constant. As Life Happens our Values tend to adjust to fit into our present Realities. 


The body is designed to wear out, and if we live long enough, we will die from old age. 

Here in my 73rd year of life, my thinking and my goals are more short term than they were in my 60s, 50s, 40s, 30s, 20s, or teens. 

I find that now I tend to value my physical comfort more than my physical appearance, and that I’m far less willing to spend time experimenting with ways-of-eating that I don’t find enjoyable.

At this time I still place a high value of keeping my body somewhere inside my “normal” BMI range, and I am still willing to eat very small amounts of food indefinitely to do so. 

However, …. if the only way I could maintain that body size was to eat only 5 bites of food twice a day for the rest of my life, would I be willing to do that??? ….If the only way I could maintain that body size was to entirely eliminate specific foods from my life … whether it be sweets, carbs - refined or otherwise, meat, or dairy products like cheese or butter?????? 

My own personal answer is:  No!!!  

Neither of those things would be an acceptable trade-off for me.  It’s a matter of values.  
In order to be able to moderately eat those foods, I would choose to accept being a larger size.

   
................How moderate?  
................How much larger? 



That’s where the individual balancing of values comes into play.

Note to those of you who are interested:  This week I’ve started a different diet experiment which involves eating approximately six tiny meals per day, while working keep my calorie intake at or below my energy burn.  I plan to post food pictures here at DietHobby under the title: “Tasters Choice” which is inside my Photo Gallery, under the Heading RESOURCES.
 

Running to Dinner

For more than 10 years, I’ve maintained a very large weight loss. It took effort to lose the weight, and it still takes effort to maintain that weight-loss.  For detailed info see “My Petite Meals”.

My weight went up over the Holiday season, so now I need to work hard to get it back inside my acceptable maintenance weight-loss range.

I frequently experiment with various “Diets”, “Lifestyles”, and “Ways-of-Eating” randomly depending on my current interests and mindset. I’ve previously experimented with the 5-Bite Diet. For early 2016 detailed info see “Intermittent Fasting via 5-Bites”.

Sometimes I choose to share about my personal diet experiments here at DietHobby, and sometimes I choose not to do so.  Whenever I do share personal information publicly, I limit it to what I feel comfortable with sharing at that time.

For my post-holiday 2016 season… early 2017…, I’m modifying that previous plan. Instead of 2 meals of 5 bites each, I’ll be having 3 meals of 3 bites each.  Instead of “2x5”, I’ll be calling it “3x3”.   I’ll be working to: 

• Eat any kind of food I want, ignoring exact calories.  Take only 3 normal or small size bites each meal.  “My hand goes to my mouth three times and I am done.”  One bite should equal about 1 swallow.  If any meal serving contains food in addition to that amount, throw it away or store it for future meals.

I am posting some photos of my future 3-bite meals here at DietHobby, see: RESOURCES, Photo Gallery.
My Photo Gallery also has a file showing some of my past 5-bite meals.

This 3x3 plan is very much how I ate during the year immediately following my gastric bypass 25 years ago, EXCEPT for the fact that at that time my tiny amounts eaten seldom included sweets or fatty foods because my recovering body couldn’t tolerate them. During that post-surgery year, even a bite or two of those foods made me feel “lie-down-ill” due to “dumping syndrome”. 

During the months immediately after WLS, because of “dumping syndrome”, most of the time my tiny meals consisted of about 3 to 5 bites of some combination of foods like: meat, chicken, fish, egg or cheese; raw or cooked easily digestible vegetables and fruits; bread, potato, rice, pasta with a tiny bit of dressing, butter, or sauce. Occasionally I would have a bite or two of: fried food; sauce or gravy; candy; cookie; pastry, but I tried not to do this unless I had an hour or so of free-time and was near a readily available bed because This was a high-risk gamble.

While my body rejected specific foods during the year immediately after my gastric bypass, my body now accepts those same specific foods.  Since those specific foods are higher calorie, my past 3 to 5 bites of eating resulted in a lower calorie intake than my recent years of 3 to 5 bites of eating. However, 3 to 5 bites is a very small amount of food, so this higher calorie count still results in very few calories.

Anyone who has read very many of the articles I’ve posted here on DietHobby will understand there are limitations on the ability to count calories accurately. For me personally, the benefits outweigh the limitations, and I find knowing the approximate number of calories in specific foods helpful.   For basic information on my perspective of dieting, see my articles: The Essence of Diets - Part One and The Essence of Diets - Part Two.

I firmly believe that … due to many different reasons … EVERY Diet works for SOMEONE, but NO Diet works for EVERYONE.

NOTE:  Bumped up into January 2017. First posted on 12/28/2016.

As part of my dieting hobby,
sometimes I take pictures of my “Petite Meals”
and post them in various online groups. 

You can see some of those photos here at DietHobby
at RESOURCES, Photo Gallery.

Here’s a Comment from a member of one of those groups,
and my Response to it.

  Forum member comment:

“Wow that is so incredible.  Perfect portion sizes.

Phyllis, one question.
The small meals you post show they are often only around 500 calories total!
And yet you say they are near your own maintenance calories?? 
That is so little.

When I think of the holocaust victims they had so little food
which is really not much less than what you are having.

I can't get my head around this with so little calories
why you wouldn’t be losing at least bare minimum one pound each week. 

I am intrigued by your life journey with your eating and weight loss pattern.”

  My Response:

“Right now, my ongoing maintenance calories appear to be a bit under an 800 calorie daily average, so eating the small portions that I've been showing here is not a great deal below my maintenance average.

I think the holocaust victim scenario is inapplicable, since the majority of the survivors started out as rather healthy-and-fit young-to middle-aged men and women who had bodies that were able to tolerate severe physical conditions. It is my understanding that very-few-if-any small, inactive, elderly ladies survived the holocaust, at least partially because they were considered useless and therefore killed in gas chambers near the beginning of their captivity.

I have attempted to explain my understanding of how this works for ME, PERSONALLY, in many of my past posts here, and I've written tons about this stuff over at my website, DietHobby, but I'll try again to explain it as clearly as I can.

The normal weight management perspective considers the CURRENCY of weight to be “calories”. 

Although exchange rates vary between individuals, as well as between different kinds of food, what remains consistent is that each of us will always need our own personal calorie deficit to lose, and our own personal calorie surplus to gain.

Although calorie counting will always be approximate, at this present time, the term “Calorie” is the only useful way we have to mentally define and describe energy use. 

My detailed past computer-food-journal-records indicate that for the past year, I have maintained my current weight while eating a bit under 800 calories per day. Therefore, it appears that my current maintenance calorie level is somewhere around that number.

Using the “standard-rule-of-thumb” theory …. which is that one pound of fat equals about 3,500 calories or less,…. it would then necessarily follow that eating around a 600 calorie daily average should create somewhere around a 200 calorie daily deficit, which should result in an average weekly weight loss of about ⅓ pound.

HOWEVER, it is important to understand that:

People are NOT walking math formulas, whereby if they have 3,500 more or less calories than they burn, they’ll gain or lose a pound; AND, Different people have different caloric efficiencies whereby they are seemingly able to extract more calories from food or reserves than others and lose weight with more difficulty (and gain with greater ease).

Here are a few facts to consider.  Typically… all other things being equal…, males lose weight faster than females; younger people lose faster than older people; larger people lose faster than smaller people; fatter people lose faster than thinner people; athletic people lose faster than sedentary people; people who have gained weight after maintaining a lifetime of “normal” weight lose faster than people who’ve been fat for a long time.  When people become lighter, their bodies require less fuel to function, and therefore after successfully dieting, they must continually eat less than they did to maintain their old weight. 

In addition to the facts mentioned above, different people of the same age and same size can naturally have different metabolic rates. The two main formulas that cite Metabolic rates, and list weights and calories together, are the Harris-Benedict formula and the Mifflin formula. 

These formulas are similar in that their numbers are based on AVERAGES… which means that there are many people ABOVE that number, and many people BELOW that number. The standard deviation of the Harris-Benedict formula is about 14%, and it is not uncommon for people to be 14% above or 14% below that Average number.  Also, the studies include  “Outliers” which are people who are situated away or detached from the main body and differ from all other members of a particular group.  An Outlier has a metabolic rate very much higher or very much lower than the rest of the Group.

It is important to understand that the calculators, charts, graphs and predictions we see online are based on the Averages used in the above-mentioned formulas, and although they are a good place to start, they may not apply exactly to you personally.  AND, even if they apply to YOU personally, it doesn’t mean that they will apply to EVERYONE personally.

FOR PERSPECTIVE: 
To bring my own personal calorie counts into proper perspective... note that the well-known and often-used  Mifflin formula gives an "AVERAGE" person of my age, size, and activity level, a Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) of 1150 calories, and a BMR of 985.

BMR is the basic metabolic rate number that occurs just because we are alive. TDEE is our BMR added together all of our extra activity. So, the number 985 would be like, in a coma, and the number 1150 would be the total of all our moving-around activity number added together with our in-a-coma number.

I've been keeping computer records of my calorie intake & weight every day now for about 12 years, and so I know that my own personal TDEE runs about 200 to 300 calories or so below the "AVERAGE”.

Women who are younger, taller, heavier, and more active often have very little understanding or knowledge of how LOW the average TDEE is for a short, light, inactive elderly woman... and of course, it is even less for a "reduced obese" one.

For those people who think my personal TDEE calculation is far too low.... HERE's a little personal lesson. Follow this link to an online calculator that uses Mifflin to determine both BMR & TDEE. 

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

If you are interested, use that calculator to run your own numbers. After you've done that .... change your own age to 71, and move your activity level to "Inactive"... Look at your numbers change.  Now, change your height to 5'0".... Quite a difference, right?...  Now give yourself ...as an elderly, short, inactive person... a BMI of around 22.5 (which is somewhere near the middle of a "normal"  BMI)  by setting your weight at 115 pounds.... Now, look at the resulting numbers.... they should be around 985 BMR, and 1150 TDEE.


24 yrs ago =271 lbs=BMI 52.9
12 yrs ago =190 lbs
10 yrs ago =115 lbs
Past 10 yrs =110-130 lbs maintenance

For more information about my personal dieting history,
read my DietHobby section:  ABOUT ME.

Note:  Originally posted June 24, 2016 - Bumped up for new viewers.

I recently received the comment:

Phyllis Collins, I've been following you and have been a fan of yours.
Have u tried the 24 or 36 hour fasts? Was wondering what your experience was?

I've done quite a lot of experiments with "modified" fasts --- like JUDDD & EOD, and with total water fasting as well. I’ve written quite a lot about this already. To easily find some of them here at DietHobby, …go to the right side of the page about half-way down.... for BLOG CATEGORIES, Fasting, ……where you can easily find past articles I've written about my thoughts and experiences with Intermittent Fasting.  

Once you’ve arrived at the “Fasting” category, the best way to find relevant articles is … go to the bottom of that page, below the 5 blog articles, where it says “Page 1 / Page 2 / …. Oldest", and CLICK the link to the Oldest.  Then work your way forward, from the past to the present.

Many of my previous blog articles discuss, in depth, my own experiences with various types of intermittent fasting.

The Donkey, the Stick,
and the Carrot,

an allegory applicable
to Intermittent Fasting.

"A farmer wants the donkey to take the load and travel. 


But, the donkey does not move.
He hits the donkey with a stick, but it still won’t move. 


So, he ties a carrot to the stick  and holds it in front of the donkey, just out of reach. 


The donkey wants to eat the carrot and moves forward. 


At the same time, the carrot also moves by the same distance.

The donkey cannot eat the carrot, till the farmer reaches his destination."

The Donkey is me, or another “intermittent faster”.

The Stick is Fasting = eating zero or very small amounts of food on “fasting” days or times.

The Carrot is the Promise of eating whatever you want on non-fasting days or times.

"Just get through today, and tomorrow you can eat whatever you want."

The promise of days or times of unlimited, unrestricted eating is a Carrot that lures one to an Intermittent Fasting diet, but unfortunately, …for many of us, …. that Carrot proves to be nothing more than an alluring, false promise.

The Truth is that on “tomorrow = the non-fasting days or times”,  you CANNOT eat what you want, in the amounts that you want…unless what you WANT is merely the same as what a naturally thin person consistently eats in order to maintain a normal weight.

Success with intermittent fasting requires the zero, or very-low-calorie, "fasting" days to be balanced together with days or times of eating at or near one’s maintenance calorie level … in other words, the restrictive days or times need to occur alongside the kind of “healthy” moderate diet that is followed by the naturally thin. 

However, If I WANTED only “normal” amounts of “healthy foods", obesity would never have become a problem for me.

The issue is calorie balance.  The calorie number of the fasting day or time gets added to the calorie number of the non-fasting day or time with that Total number being divided by 2. When this Averaged calorie amount creates an ongoing calorie deficit, weight-loss will result from the ongoing calorie deficit.  However, this ASSUMES that an unmonitored participant would NOT follow a “binge-fast” pattern.  For example, a fasting day or time  of 20% with a non-fasting day or time of 200% (instead of 110%) would be a “binge-fast” pattern, and a calorie Average that would result in weight-gain.

The most extensive scientific research on Intermittent Fasting to date was done by Dr. Krista Varady.  This research is frequently quoted by Dr. Jason Fung to support his own fasting viewpoints.    For a limited time, a limited number of people “moderately fasted” = i.e. ate 20% of their TDEE on one day, and ate “normally” which turned out to be 110% of their TDEE on the following day.  

Personally, I question Dr. Varady’s conclusion that the non-fasting day 110% calorie total was a “naturally occurring” limitation.  Since those people KNEW they were being temporarily watched as part of a diet research program, one could reasonably argue that … despite being told to eat “normally” on non-fasting days, they were highly motivated to “not overeat” on “normal” days during that limited time period … which resulted in a modification of the way they would probably choose to normally eat, long-term, when not being watched by scientists.

For larger, younger people – especially males -- whose daily calorie burn is between 2000 to 2500 calories, Intermittent Fasting can be relatively easy…IF… their normal way-of-eating is to  “normally” eat around that amount; and …IF…they don’t tend to be “binge-eaters”, which means that they usually only eat VERY-high-calorie on limited special occasions.


However, I am a small, elderly, inactive,"reduced obese", female whose “normal” daily calorie burn is a bit under 1000.  It is a continual struggle for me to keep my food intake within that “normal” range, and for me … the reward of getting 1000 to 1200 calories the following day doesn’t seem like much of a Reward after a day of eating only 250 to 500 calories. So, far, despite my best efforts, my results on the up days are often 1500+ calories … which tends to cancel out any weight-loss results of the 250 to 500 calorie “modified-fast” days, … while STILL being FAR LESS than the amounts I really want to eat after a day, or alternate days, of calorie deprivation.

Dr. Jason Fung, M.D. - who is the current medical guru on Fasting - recommends fasting as a fix for “insulin resistance” . However, I do not have any type of Diabetes, and my blood sugars are in the normal range. Although I am a small, “reduced obese”, inactive, elderly female with a very low metabolic rate, I don’t appear to be “insulin resistant”. 

Dr. Fung also says the nature of obesity is “multi-factorial”, and that “the key to understanding obesity is understanding that many different things can contribute to the development and the treatment …. Obesity is not a single problem. There is no single solution.”

There is no one perfect “diet” for everyone.  My problem is that I find Fasting to be … in and of itself…. "a form of suffering”, and I know that weight that is lost through suffering tends to comes back when I get tired of suffering.

I agree with Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, MD when he says:  "If you don't like the life you're living while you're losing, eventually you're going to find yourself going back to the life you were living before you lost. " Doing this will cause your body to re-gain the weight-loss.

Nevertheless, Fasting is an interesting issue. As part of my dieting hobby, I expect that I will continue to learn more about it, and find new ways to experiment with Intermittent Fasting concepts. 

NOTE:  Originally posted on 8/23/16, Reposted for New Viewers