- Question: Why did you decide to try The Fast Diet?
- Answer: To lose excess fat and to improve my health.
- Question: What convinced you that The Fast Diet would help you get to your desired weight?
- Answer: I’ve tried several other diets and, after losing weight following them, I looked like I was gravely ill and didn’t like it so I stopped dieting and thought I would just enjoy my life being overweight. Then I read what a medical expert said (who was interviewed for The Fast Diet book): “There is nothing else you can do for your body that is as powerful as fasting.”
- Question: Don’t you think The Fast Diet is an extreme way to lose weight?
- Answer: No, because there have been two times in my life when I didn’t plan to fast and I didn’t eat anything at all for long periods of time and I didn’t suffer any harmful side effects: once was the day I waited for Dale at his dentist’s office while he had his teeth extracted (December 2012) and once when I didn’t eat for several days after my daughter, Cappie, died in a car accident (July 1980).
- Question: Wouldn’t just cutting down on calories be less of a hassle?
- Answer: I have followed several groups of people who are practicing calorie restriction (CR), which is eating a lot less every day for the rest of your (hopefully) long and healthy life, and I’ve given a lot of thought about committing myself to that way of life (to help prove whether it works or not). [The reason people become CRONies (Calorie Restriction with Optimum Nutrition) is to find out if it will extend human life, because so far, by restricting calories, scientists have only been able to extend life in animals.] At first, I thought it might be the only way I would ever cut down on calories, but, the more I thought about it the more I thought it was a form of torture.
- Question: Can you give me a progress report on what you are doing instead of CR?
- Answer: Yes, I’ve been following the Fast Diet for three months (March 5, 2013 through June 6, 2013). I’ve been fasting two days a week for 13 weeks and I’ve lost 16 pounds (I was 202 pounds, now I’m 186 pounds). I’m finding that fasting gets easier every week. My shoulder pain (bursitis) got better within two months (it had restricted my arm movements for the previous 6 months) and I haven’t had allergies this spring (I’ve had excellent results in controlling my lifelong spring allergies by taking enzymes every spring, but this year I had no need to take them). I’ve also noticed that some pre-cancer skin spots on my back are shrinking. When your body starts healing things that weren’t healing on their own before, you know without a doubt that what you are doing is good for you.
Dale’s Article on “Why you should take enzymes”
- Question: How do you handle the hunger?
- Answer: I’m able to feel hungry without feeling deprived because I know I’m doing something good for my body (as soon as the 24 hours are up and I can eat, I eat meat, cheese or eggs and I enjoy an occasional small dessert with no guilt!). Fasting for 24 hours is really doable. I usually stop eating at 7 PM on Wednesday and Saturday and have a well-planned meal the next day (Thursday and Sunday) at 7 PM. For my 500 calories during the 24 hours I have a large cup of my homemade vegetable broth, green soup and Hippocrates soup mixed together before I go to sleep. I have grapes or an apple at 10 AM (15 hours after starting the fast) followed by another large cup of my homemade vegetable broth, green soup and Hippocrates soup mixed together. After that I can usually wait until 6 PM when I’ll have a banana, more grapes or another apple. It doesn’t add up to 500 calories and there’s not very much protein, but that’s okay. I have enough protein during the next five days that I feel I’m not short-changing myself.
- Question: What is your opinion as to why the Fast Diet is working for you?
- Answer: I agree with what Dr. Michael Mosley says in the recap of the first chapter of his book, The Fast Diet, as to why intermittent fasting works: People lose excess fat, they benefit from the switching on of countless repair genes in response to the fasting stressor, it gives your pancreas a rest, which boosts the effectiveness of the insulin it produces in response to elevated blood glucose (increased insulin sensitivity will reduce your risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cognitive decline) and, last but not least, it gives an overall enhancement in your mood and sense of well-being (this may be a consequence of your brain producing increased levels of neurotrophic factor, which will hopefully make you more cheerful and in turn should make fasting more doable).
- Question: When you reach your desired weight are you going to continue fasting?
- Answer: When that happened to Dr. Mosley he switched to a “Maintenance Mode” and he is now only fasting once a week, so I plan to do that, too.