First, this isn't at all about a finish line. You know the saying: it's a journey, not a destination. As in, how healthy do you want to be?
Second, you can actually stay on this plan if you want to. You could pick your top 5 days, or so, and just rewind those. You don't have to repeat all the menus from all the days. That was to show you that this diet is not limiting in the choices (except to limit starches, of course). It's a fairly complete diet, and would be very healthy to follow for much longer than 2 weeks. Just make sure you are taking a good multivitamin-mineral supplement. If you'd like to know some brands, I can offer suggestions.
Having said that, if you'd like just a little change, like a couple of starch servings, add them in. You can see what 1 serving of bread/starch is by looking at the thumbnail outline of food groups that JD emailed out in the first few days. If you want to keep calories at 1600, then you can lower the fat a little to make room for the extra carbs. I suggest eliminating 3-4 fat servings and substitute 2 bread/starch servings. Leave the protein as is.
If you want to really switch things up but still continue to lose some weight, move to The Good Mood Diet. That is a 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, 30% fat plan, with about twice as much carbohydrate in the 1600 calorie plan as The Ten Pound Countdown, but you can choose your calorie level from 3 plans.
Weighing myself this evening, the 12th day, I've lost 3 pounds. But that's only part of it. I wish I had taken my circumference measurements and body fat percentage. My body looks like it shrunk all the way around. I am certain that I've had some positive changes in body composition.
One of the differences that I think we're seeing in body weight on this diet, which is significantly different than most low carbohydrate diets, is that we get a little bit of a dehydrating effect the first 5 days when, because we exercise, we use up the stored glycogen and water (1:3 ratio) in our muscles. Without completely refueling the muscle, it doesn't completely rehydrate either, and we see that weight loss on the scale. That's a false weight loss. And then (and this is what's different from other low carb diets) because the diet is so rich in water-filled vegetables and I encouraged you all to drink plenty, the fluid weight loss disappears around day 7 or 8. Then you start to see the real weight loss from fat alone. What you don't see, again because we have just enough carbs to keep up some level of exercise, is the muscle gain. Yes, I think we're gaining muscle from enough calories and protein in the diet to support it. I know that is what I'm seeing on myself. If I was looking at a client instead of myself in the mirror, I would know that is what I'm seeing.
So what's the take away? That's up to you. Continuing on this plan, with perhaps a couple of days, say the weekend, where you substitute a few starch servings for fun and refueling, might be the ideal solution. I think that's what I'm going to try as my experiment. I certainly want to give this more time. The results are really not that slow if it's all fat that I'm losing, and it's definitely steady.
Remember, on almost any other diet you lose muscle with the fat. I think we've beaten that problem. In fact, I'd bet on it if we had the instruments to measure it. And there is no better way to keep weight off for the long term than by hanging on to as much muscle as possible.
I must caution you not to just throw in the towel and go back to your old high carb diet. You will quickly reverse any gains (losses, really) that you've made here. Change slowly to maintain your results.
Susan
Susan M. Kleiner, PhD, RD, FACN, CNS, FISSN
High Performance Nutrition, LLC
7683 SE 27th Street, PMB 167
Mercer Island, WA 98040
p. 206.232.9138
f. 206.236.2188
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