What is the Best Way to Lose 20 pounds and keep it off...

[schweiz]

Nevertheless, this is a bad idea. Doing this for a period of time, at say less than 1000 calories a day for a dude, the body will think there is a famine going on and dump metabolically expensive muscle and retain fat.

Not true, I did it for a few months. There were 6 fases with each a different program.
Fase 1 was 6 weeks (or 8, not sure), 6 times for day a small bag with some powder in it. 2 times you could add 200 grams of specific vegetables. Minimum 2 liter of water every day because it is a ketogenic diet. Look up what that means. No sugar at all, only water, coffee or tea. I went from 85 to 75 kilos in less then 2 months.

After I finished, my weight went to 77 kilos and I am still there. So not the problem that most diets have that in notime you are again at or over your starting weight.
I speak of my own and real experience, not about commercials or tv adds. A friend of mine did the same but was much heavier. He is now running marathons.
Never heard that anybody died from this program.

Doing this for a period of time, at say less than 1000 calories a day for a dude, the body will think there is a famine going on and dump metabolically expensive muscle and retain fat.

NEVER had hunger. NO loss of muscles, almost pure fat burning. So it is clear that you speak about something completely different. I did this diet because it was the only one with NO loss of muscles and burning a lot of fat. That is one of the main characteristics of a ketogenic diet.

 

[Visaria]

How do you know you had no loss of muscle?

NEVER had hunger. NO loss of muscles, almost pure fat burning. So it is clear that you speak about something completely different. I did this diet because it was the only one with NO loss of muscles and burning a lot of fat. That is one of the main characteristics of a ketogenic diet.

 

[Visaria]

I would be interested to hear why you think 4 litres is too much, if you care to share? On my gym days I tend to think its slightly on the low side, because of how much I tend to sweat out and my urine colour. On the other days I think its fair goal, for me, a moderately active male.

Or what you think is awful/dangerous? I tried to prefix my post by saying what works for me, but maybe I should have been clearer. I find the trial & error quite interesting so always happy to hear suggestions and what's been working well for others.

I already did post. See post 54.

 

[schweiz]

How do you know you had no loss of muscle?

I did/do cardio workouts and endurance sessions on a hometrainer. The computer of this hometrainer gives me a lot of information from each session. I can compare them with my results from before I started the diet. Some results even improved (probably from the weight loss).
I also feel no difference, in fact I feel better now. If I would lose muscles and grow fat like you say I would see and feel it. My belly is 10 cm less then before. Surely not from adding fat. The secret is in the "food" you eat. I never felt hungry, so my body did not have to react on that.

I was never able to really lose weight before, and all I lost came back 10 times faster then I lost it. With Pronokal it was just the opposite, quick big losses of weight, and weight stays off. I must admit that I changed my eating habits: no sugar, no patatoes, no french frieds, no Mc Donalds, no pizza, almost no bread. I eat a lot of vegetables, chicken, turkey, fruits and yoghurt.

 

[Visaria]

Well done...i suspect it was mostly water and muscle loss...but since you didn't actually know how much fat and muscle you had prior to doing the diet, you can never know.

 

[schweiz]

Well done...i suspect it was mostly water and muscle loss...but since you didn't actually know how much fat and muscle you had prior to doing the diet, you can never know.

If I do now the same amount of km in about the same time it means that I have still the same amount of muscles. If I would have less muscles my performance would deteriorate, which is not the case. For performance you need muscles.
The diet was very aggressive so the loss of muscles and the gain of fatcwould be substantial and very noticable. That is what you say. So I lost 20 kg of muscles and gained 10 kg of fat???? according to you. That would be visible in my performance even with your eyes close. My belly lost 10 cm, for as far as I know the belly is almost for 100% fat, there are almost no muscles there.

 

[HobbyTrading]

@schweiz using your cardio performance to judge whether you have lost muscle mass is not a suitable measurement method. You would need a full body scan for an accurate measurement. Or test the maximum weight for squat/deadlift/bench press to get an approximation.

 

[schweiz]

What is a ketogenic diet:

Ketosis is a natural process the body initiates to help us survive when food intake is low. During this state, we produce ketones, which are produced from the breakdown of fats in the liver.

The end goal of a properly maintained keto diet is to force your body into this metabolic state. We don’t do this through starvation of calories but starvation of carbohydrates.

Our bodies are incredibly adaptive to what you put into it – when you overload it with fats and take away carbohydrates, it will begin to burn ketones as the primary energy source. Optimal ketone levels offer many health, weight loss, physical and mental performance benefits.

And now you are saying that a ketogenic diet burns muscles and produces a lot of fat? You are smarter then the medical world. We should rewrite the definition of ketogenic diet. Or maybe you don’t even know what a ketogenic diet is?

My belly disappeared and I lost a lot of visceral fat. Or is a belly big because of muscles? So most people are not obese, they have in fact a lot of muscles?

Let’s do some math:
Let’s say my weight is 85 kg and I have 35% of muscles. That would mean 29.75 kg of muscles.
I lost 10 kg. And according to you I burned muscles and produced fat. With this information I would lose between 33.61 and 84.03% of all my muscles as the net result should always be -10kg. Do you think I would not see any decline in any performance that I do with these high losses of muscles?

 

[jem]

update..
I have succeeded in not eating to 12:30 Mon tues wed.

I lost zero weight the first day 2 pounds the second day and 1.6 pounds yesterday.
I sense some fat has been burnt.

Variables.
I started drinking coffee during the morning and have not had any coke or diet coke. So maybe it is mostly water weight. But, maybe not. On the upside I did have a large bowl of cookies and cream ice cream last night. So I was surprised I lost 1.6 pounds when I got on the scale this morning.

 

[Visaria]

@schweiz Am i right in saying you went on a ketogenic diet for 2 months, at 750 or less calories per day, you went from 85kg to 75kg in bodyweight, but u r now at 77kg, during this 2 months in addition to the diet you did lots of cardio exercises (but no strength training e.g. lifting weights)?