Restrict those calories

No spanking in this post so head for the exit if you're looking for one, but it's not very long and it might be interesting so by all means have a read.

Its about living longer and healthier and escaping some of those nasty diseases like cancer which, statistically, many of us are likely to encounter at some stage in our lives. We watched a documentary on BBC about a very different kind of dieting, it involves depriving your body of significant amounts of calories - there are various ways of doing it, spread over 7 days regularly, or concentrated brutally into 3 days every couple of months, or 2 days each week of moderately fierce deprivation but eat normally the other 5 days. The latter was the method the documentary presenter chose and its also the one I'm using, its The 5-2 Regime.

On the documentary the presenter travelled to the US where lots of research is being done into this way of eating and, although work is ongoing, there is already considerable evidence that it produces measurable results and quite quickly. The presenter was measured before and after a several week trial and was amazed to find his body mass, cardio vascular function, blood pressure and cholesterol level were all much better. He also looked and felt better and his concentration improved.

My simple understanding of how it works is that the body feels threatened by the deprivation and releases chemicals which under normal conditions are not present. These chemicals repair cell deficiencies, including brain cells, and help prevent natural deterioration.

I've been doing it for four weeks now and there are effects - 1) I have lost weight which was NOT the primary objective, 2) the weight is fat which I can afford to lose, not muscle, 3) I feel healthier, 4) it keeps me off alcohol for at least 2 days:), 5) I think my thinking is clearer those days and possibly generally, 6) amazingly I am not pigging out the other five days in fact I think I'm eating a bit less but my taste buds are sharper. It's too early to say about cholesterol, blood pressure etc although I do intend to check after about six weeks.

Its not as hard as normal dieting in my opinion, in fact its almost fun living on 600 calories a day for two days (lies), the worst part is about two thirds through the second day when I'm so hungry I'm tempted to cheat but I haven't so far. There is one more little detail I'll mention, it might just sway you into giving it a go; my sexual appetite increase during and after the fast. I didn't hear that mentioned in the documentary so perhaps I'll write to the BBC and let them know, maybe they'll do a follow-up.

Have a good week.

Ronnie

xx