The Diet Begins

After a little more than a month of overeating, I've decided upon a diet regimen that will seem strange to many, but its purpose will be explained in this entry.

Simply put, I'm going on an invariant menu, with three items each day that make up three meals. The total intake under this regimen, according to the calorie counters I'm using, will be 850 calories/day. This is about a third of what a man of my size should consume to keep his weight steady.

- The reason for me going on a crash diet is because of the metabolism factor. I've found out this last month that overeating bestows a metabolism boost, which is part and parcel of the homeostasis effect that delays weight gain when piling in the calories. During the diet, I want to see how my behaviour is affected by what will probably be a metabolism drop.

To put it more simply, I want to put together a self-based psychological profile of someone who's sticking to a diet rigorously: behavioural signs to watch for that says a person on a diet is being faithful to it.

- The reason for eating the same thing every day, except for flavour variations, is to watch the plateauing effect. By holding my intake and calorie count as constant as reasonably can be, I'll see the plateauing effect, which has long dogged dieters, right in front of me. Given my weight-gain pattern, I suspect that I'll plateau at 240 and 220 lbs., but I cannot be sure.


Two of the meals each day are foods that I haven't eaten in a long time. The whole diet is balanced enough with an added vitamin supplement. Any liquids with zero calories are not restricted at all. The reason why I've budgeted nothing for snacks is that a "taste of the good life" runs the hazard of me going back to my old life. Once you've got the habit up, it's a hard habit to lose.

Will this work? I don't know. I'm aware that I'm breaking many diet conventions and, probably, sound advice. Nevertheless, this regimen will enable me to discover certain things about how the body sheds off weight under a reasonably constant input. I plan to measure my weight, stripped (except for glasses, which I need to see) at 6 PM. From now on, the entries will be daily progress reports.