PSMF ~~ * JUNE THREAD * ~~

[t0r1]

Mary - Again, you should really consider buying the book! This is what I would eat on a perfect diet day.

B - 1 cup of fat free cottage cheese, 1 serving protein powder, cinnamon and 1 tbsp. flaxseed whirled in the food processor
L - 1 can of tuna with 1 stalk of celery chopped up, 1 tsp. relish
D - Salad with mushrooms, radishes and cucumber topped with 5 oz. chicken breast and Walden Farms dressing

That's it! This gives me my protein requirement of approx. 130 grams of protein. Most people need less protein, but since I am a category 1 dieter that works out mine is kinda high and hard to get to if I don't plan ahead of time.

[Hazelia]

Linda, get ready for a WHOOSH!!!

From Lyle McDonald
Fat cell water content and fat loss

It's something I've mentioned over the years, an assertion that my exercise physiology professor had made wrt: fat loss.


Note that under normal conditions, fat cells contain ~90% triglycerides and ~10% other stuff where other stuff includes some water, the cellular machinery that makes all the stuff that fat cells make and a couple of other things that I'm forgetting right now. Basically, fat cells do not normally contain much water.

He told us that, after triglycerides were removed from the cell, that the fat cells refilled with water in the short-term, eventually the body dropped that water and the fat loss 'became evident' (a goofy way for me to try to describe when the fat loss actually shows up on calipers, one of those dumb Tanita scales, or visually).

If nothing else, this gives a plausible mechanism for the non-linear fat loss that is so often seen. Folks will do everything right for weeks with no results. then overnight, something happens and the scale drops a bunch. Many diet newsgroups and forums refer to this as a 'whoosh' which often follows a stall.

[MLR]

I am considering buying it, but wanted to get a little more info to see if this is the plan for me. I know it depends on the person and what is eaten, but can you lose pretty fast? Maybe like a pound a week or so at first? I know it does slow down, I have 10 I would like to get rid of. I need something kinda fast cuz if its only a few ounces every couple of weeks then I'm done with that diet. I have to have something faster or I lose interest.

And Tori thanks for the menu, and info.

[t0r1]

Mary - I have been loosely following the diet, and I have lost 4 pounds in 10 days. I have about 10 to lose total. If I would eat the menu I gave you every single day I bet I would have lost more. So you can lose weight fast! As you can see from everyone else's posts some people lose 3 or 4 pounds in a day. Given, some of this may be water loss, but seeing the scale moving keeps people motivated!

[Dharma]

I've lost 3 lbs in 4 days and have averaged 1000 calories a day and 30 carbs! If I can get my calories down while still keeping protein up then I think I'll do even better. I've decided to do a re-feed this weekend, then a free meal next week and skip the rest of this week since I really just started on Monday.

Does everyone here do free meals and re-feeds? At least 100 carbs? I can't decide if 100 carbs is okay or not. I've done BFFM though and ate even more carbs and did pretty well. Got down to 145 with it. My biggest complaint I guess is eating egg whites...that is just so WRONG to me!

Still have a headache today and I think it's hormones. It's not as bad today though.

I really liked the chapters on maintenance - very good stuff there. Makes a lot of sense to me. I keep gaining and losing 15 lbs over and over and I wanna stop!

[t0r1]

Dharma - I am like you...I have been dealing with 5-15 pounds over the years. I want to get rid of them for good!! 3 lbs in 4 days is awesome! I have also lost eating more than 800 calories, some days I probably got over 1200. But I figure I was eating several thousand each day there for a while, so I have still been creating a deficit. I am not sure about refeeds or free meals since I haven't done any. Good luck!

[amiga74]

Originally Posted by Dharma

Does everyone here do free meals and re-feeds? At least 100 carbs? I can't decide if 100 carbs is okay or not. I've done BFFM though and ate even more carbs and did pretty well. Got down to 145 with it. My biggest complaint I guess is eating egg whites...that is just so WRONG to me!

hi!
i am often a lurker here. i did psmf last year and lost over 15 lbs in 5 or 6 weeks, so i know the plan works! i went from category 2 to 1.

but yes, Dharma, i've done the refeeds and free meals and all i gotta say is yes, at least 100 carbs for your refeed, at least. Lyle explains why.

imagine your headaches might be ketosis. just drink alot of water and it will be over! or make sure you are getting in the required protein!

also, my cals were more in the 850-1000 range and it still worked.

best of luck to you all!

[gibster]

Hello, everyone.

Hazelia - I'm still waiting for the whoosh, but I feel it coming! Tomorrow will be 7 weeks and I need to see a loss this week. Grrrrrrr...

Dharma - As a Cat 3, I only do free meals - and I'm trying to not take any unless it's an unavoidable situation, since I really don't need them. As far as refeeds, I believe that Lyle said something about getting your 100 carbs by having a piece of fruit with each meal? Sounds very good to me.

Have a good day everyone. I'll BBL.

Start 236.8
Week 1 234.6
Week 2 230.4
Week 3 229.6
Week 4 228.4
Week 5 227.8
Week 6 224.6

Sat: 225.2
Mon: 225.4
Tue: 225.6
Wed: 225.4
Thu: 225.4

[MLR]

OK I have another question. I know its in the book but deciding if I want to do this plan or not and money is tight at the moment so I hate to spend it if I don't decide to do this WOE.

What is free meals and refeeds?

Thank you all for your patience and answering my questions. You are great.

[Hazelia]

Here's my sometimes daily update:

Weight changes in '08
05/12: 280.5
05/19: 277.5
05/26: 275.5
06/02: 274
06/09: 277 (TOM came and just had a carb loaded weekend)
06/10 Started PSMF
06/13: 269.5
06/14: 267 Free Meal
06/15: 267
06/16: 264.5
06/17: 264.5
06/18: 264.5
06/19: 263 (had to step on the scale twice for it to change though, does that count? )

[Hazelia]

Mary:

Google: Rapid Fat Loss Handbook e-book .pdf

You could find the book online

[Tootsie]

Good morning everyone


Down another couple of pounds on the scale this morning. I know it will start to slow up soon, but it's really great to see those numbers dropping so quickly.


Day 1: 179.5
Day 2: 175.5
Day 3: 174

[Lioness0455]

Good Morning everyone,

Mary, I understand your reluctance to buy the book outright. Money is tight for us too. What I did was I went to Lyle's forums and read every single thread/post under his Rapid Fat Loss section. He has two forums, though, the one connected to his website with a link is a bit nicer to newbies and more informational. But I didn't know about that one at the time. So I read the other one where they don't like answering questions that can be answered from reading the book. They being both Lyle and others. Though Lyle himself "will" talk about a lot of what's in there, just with his posts.

You have to register at each forum separately to read the posts, but it's free, and you can use the same screen name and password for each.

Body Recomposition Forums - Powered by vBulletin

is the not so nice one, but you can find hordes of info there if you can get past the way the guys like to talk. Gotta have a thick skin, not easily offended, cuz it can get a bit racey -- but the info was well worth the digging.

I can't remember the "address" for the nicer forum, but if you go to

Bodyrecomposition - Lyle McDonald

and click on the forum button on the left, it'll take you to that one.

After reading all of that stuff, I then "experimented" on myself with what I learned there first, for 2 weeks or so, to see how well it worked -- BEFORE I bought the book. When I was convinced, I then purchased the hard copy. That probably isn't the BEST way to do things, cuz I went into a hypoglycemic episode about 2-1/2 weeks in and didn't know WHAT to do about it since I didn't have the book. Didn't wanna get slammed at the board either. So I went on a diet break instead, and then read the book when it came before going on it again.

BUT...the info I was looking for about hypoglycemia wasn't in the RFL Handbook, (so I "could" have asked at the board, but didn't know that) it was in the Flexible Dieting book, so for me, I'm glad "I" took the 2-book deal, even though it was a lot of money. Now in truth, the book doesn't have a whole lot more info than what you can learn by reading all the posts at the forums, but it puts it all into one convenient, easy to follow place. Whereas posts, you have to try and piece it all together in your head. How everything fits together.

Free meals is kindda like a break from dieting, for just that one meal. You eat something you've been missing or craving, or you eat something that is a bit higher in fat, anything you want for a psychological break. You don't HAVE to take the free meal, because it doesn't essentially nothing for upregulating your leptin and thyroid hormones.

A refeed on the hand is designed to upregulate your hormonal levels. Rebalance them out. When you diet, thyroid slows down, leptin levels drop, and weight loss slows or stalls. Plus if leptin gets tooo low, you get all kinds of weird stuff that begins to happen. Like with me. Extreme hunger, food/carb/sugar preoccupation, hypothyroid symptoms like being freezing cold all the time, hair falling out, exhaustion, depression, etc. Refeeding weekly for a category 2 (34% body fat or less) speeds the thyroid back up, and raises leptin levels hopefully high enough to get you through another week of dieting before it drops drastically again.

I ate more than just chicken and fish when I was doing psmf. I ate lean ham, ground turkey, extra extra lean ground beef, extra lean steak like round or sirloin, low fat cottage cheese, tuna, chicken leg quarters without the skin are a bit higher in fat but no more than ground turkey is. Couldn't bring myself to do the egg white thing, except in my refeed cookies and such. So I just didn't eat eggs except on my free meal days and refeeds.

When low carbing, it's my understanding that your blood sugar tends to run a bit below normal, so a psmf can cause it to drop even further since it's soooo soooo strict and low low low on everything. What you do when that happens, is eat 5 to 7 grams of carb, something fast acting, and it'll bring it back up. While we try to keep the carbs as low as possible, psmf isn't technically a low carb diet. It's low in carbs by default, only because veggies are so low in calories.

Doing okay with my higher carbs and calories so far. Feeling GOOD, and water/glycogen is continuing to come off. I seem to be averaging 120 to 135 grams protein, 100 net carbs, and 1500 calories. Not exact, but around in that ballpark. So far, so good.

Day 1: 179.8
Day 2: 179
Day 3: 176.4
Day 4: 176

[spydersong]

Hi everyone. I started PSMF yesterday, so far so good, 4lbs down overnight.

I'm supposed to have approx 32g protein each meal (3 meals for me) and I'm finding that I can barely get 4oz of chicken down today, just not hungry and I feel like I"m force feeding myself. Has this happened to anyone and how have you handled it. I"m thinking maybe a protein shake even though it's not preferred by Lyle.

TIA

[Hazelia]

Katie --

I have felt like that on some days. Personally, I drink a protein shake everyday for 1 of my meals. My protein shake has about 50-70 grams of protein! It helps me get in all my protein grams, and I still have had success with losing weight in this manner. Other than protein shakes, my protein sources are chicken, tuna, ground beef, eggs and cheese.

[Tootsie]

I have a protein shake every day too, otherwise I'd find it really hard to fit all my protein in as well.

[Hazelia]

Yea, Tootsie, I'd probably give up if I had to eat all my protein grams in real food! LOL.

[Dharma]

Thanks everyone! Great info in this thread.

t0r1 how long were you on it? Why no re-feeds? You must've been category1 - I can't remember.

I'm still at 156 today which is so weird, cause yesterday I ate less calories (875) and peed a ton all dang day, so I figured I'd be down. I know I won't see a loss every day, but it was discouraging at first! That's what's so scarey about the re-feeds: lose all week then gain it all back during a re-feed!

I think I'll just do free meals randomly, not every week, cause I don't need them psychologically either. I have five weeks and I wanna lose 11 more lbs, which is perfect timing since after 6 weeks category 2's are supposed to take a diet break.

Head ache is gone today thank goodness. I do fill up really fast with all the protein too. I'm supposed to eat 130 grams a day, which is more than I was used to. I had been doing higher fat and less protein, but no weight loss with that. Too many cheats, I think.

I going to plan out my 5 hour re-feed on Saturday and space the food out so I don't freak my stomach out! Then I will prepare for the crying when I get on the scale the next day. I sure hope this works!!

[MLR]

Vicki, Thank you so much for all the info. Very interesting reading. That's what I was going to try and do is experiment as much as I could with what I read on posts before I bought the book, I hate to buy it then decide this is not the plan for me. It sounds good like you can lose quite a bit at first. I do have a thyroid problem so I'm wondering about that with this way of eating.

Everyone else Thanks for your posts and answering my questions too.

[t0r1]

Good afternoon ladies! I am eagerly awaiting 4:00 so I can leave work and head out of town. I am still at 135 today, but I'm okay with that. Considering I was gaining each week for a while 4 pounds in 10 days is awesome!!

Dharma - Yes, I am a category one dieter. Technically speaking I only did an actual psmf for 3 days last week and 1 day this week. If I had been doing a real psmf since last Monday, this weekend would be a refeed for me. Staring out with the psmf has really helped me to lower my cravings and hunger.

I too have had a hard time consuming so much protein. Sometimes I have to take a 20 minute break when I am eating so I can finish all of my chicken or whatever. Having the protein powder to add to my cottage cheese has really helped to break up the monotony.

Next week I am going to do the Fat Burning Diet Made Easy by Jay Robb. It is a light breakfast or either yogurt, protein shake, omlette or oatmeal; a low carb lunch and a high carb dinner. It is a form or carb cycling, but the cycle occurs in 24 hours. I would start a strict psmf and do it for the full 10 days, but I want to get back to my workouts. I feel better when I get them in every day.

[Tootsie]

Hi everyone

Weight still dropping. I've lost 7lb in total now since Tuesday!

Day 1: 179.5
Day 2: 175.5
Day 3: 174
Day 4: 172.5


Change of plan for my refeed and free meal. I'm now going to refeed on Sunday and leave the free meal until next Thursday (due to a special occasion).

I think that having a refeed on Sunday rather than Saturday will be better for me too, as weekends are often tough for me, and I know if I overdo the carbs on Saturday, I'll want more on Sunday. Whereas if I have the carbs on Sunday, I go back to work on Monday and won't have access to more. In other words, I find it much easier to resist temptation and get on with my diet when I'm in my regular routine and occupied.

I've also been having a think about what carbs I'm going to use for my refeed. According to the book, I should be aiming for around 200g carbs.

I don't do very well with wheat, though I have got a hankering for a bagel, topped with peanut butter or fat-free cream cheese and a banana. Other than that, I will probably stick with oatmeal/muesli and fruit, though I would be interested to know what sort of thing everyone has when they do a refeed.

[gibster]

Well, ladies, I had an unplanned free meal yesterday. Nothing drastic, but I know my sodium intake was higher than I would like. Note to self: Never ingest more sodium when expecting a whooosh . It's funny how sometimes you feel bloated, and you've lost weight, and sometimes you feel "thin" and you've gained. That's how I feel this morning. Although a tell-tale sign is that I didn't wake up to use the bathroom at all during the night. (I'm usually up at least once.) Anyway, I know that Lyle talks about getting plenty of sodium, but that's not something my body can handle.



Start 236.8
Week 1 234.6
Week 2 230.4
Week 3 229.6
Week 4 228.4
Week 5 227.8
Week 6 224.6

Sat: 225.2
Mon: 225.4
Tue: 225.6
Wed: 225.4
Thu: 225.4 FM
Fri 226.2

[Hazelia]

Tootsie -- I think its great how you planned your refeed and free meal. I might try having my free meals on Sundays as well, because I work Mon-Fri and really don't have a problem with temptation at the workplace. But today was my day to buy the office goodies for breakfast, and I bought most everyone their favorite, donuts, but also got a veggie tray for those of us watching our waistline!

Linda -- As soon as you get that water out, WHOOSH, THERE IT IS!

Here's my sometimes daily update:

Weight changes in '08
05/12: 280.5
05/19: 277.5
05/26: 275.5
06/02: 274
06/09: 277 (TOM came and just had a carb loaded weekend)
06/10 Started PSMF
06/13: 269.5
06/14: 267 Free Meal
06/15: 267
06/16: 264.5
06/17: 264.5
06/18: 264.5
06/19: 263 (had to step on the scale twice for it to change though, does that count? )
06/20: 263 (the first time around)

[Hazelia]

Good luck with the new plan, Tori!

[Dharma]

Well I had a big drop on the scale this morning......but I have to say it's probably because of my new scale! I had an old antique spring scale which I hated, but I kept putting off buying a digital - maybe partly because I was afraid it would weigh me higher! It's a Thinner scale with the bodyfat and hydration settings which are kinda cool. I weighed this morning four times, and took the highest weight. Then I used my hand-held Omicron and it was about 1% more than the scale - I'm somewhere around 30% bodyfat! Can't wait for that number to go down.

Tomorrow is my re-feed....I put the carbs in fitday already to make sure I plan it and don't overdo anything. I keep going back and changing stuff, but basically I'm eating peas, corn, carrots, strawberries, and cantaloupe for my carbs. I'm not doing any grains (well except the corn) cause it just bloats me and makes me miserable.

I'm really loving PSMF now, after getting through those first hard 3 days. I agree Tootsie that Sunday's a good day for a re-feed, and I would do that too but I have a dinner out on Tuesday so that will have to be a free meal, although I'm not planning on it being too free!

Tori keep us up to date on your new plan. What's is like?

Congrats to everyone else's losses. That's what I love about this - you don't have to wait to long for the scale to move.

I got a dress in the mail today that I ordered from Nordstrom's online for the beach. It's to cute! I went in the bathroom and tried it on. It fits now, but will fit even better when I lose 5 to 10 more lbs.

My quads are killing me today. I love being sore though cause it means the workout did some good! I'm getting a massage this afternoon - yea!

Have a great day everyone!