McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, Summary
written on Monday, 25 April 2016 @ 12:26 ♡
Like I mentioned in my last post, I bought John A. McDougall's book 'The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss' because I am just so tired of calorie restricting (800-1000kcal per day) and over exercising (cardio 45min. 6 times a week). After reading and watching all those positive reviews on this book, I decided to give it a try since I know that my former way of losing weight is neither healthy, nor sustainable since I already gained back half of the ~15kg/30lbs I lost last year.
So the next few months I will be documenting my weight loss and experiences with this diet (or should I say life style?) and hopefully I'll get some nice results.
My starting weight is 74.3kg/163,8lbs and I'm 168cm/5'6 tall.
"Initially, you are inspired and hopeful about a new diet; you fast, suffer hunger, and count calories; you enjoy short-term weight loss; the hunger takes its troll and you break your fast and eat (...) you go back to your old way of eating" (p.39)Let's talk about the program.
McDougall starts by making one understand that hunger is not a bad, but a good thing. The body is telling us that it needs certain nutrients and that we won't be satsified before getting those. The most important thing the body needs are contrary to popular belief: carbohydrates.
You hardly get those from animal products (dairy and meat) or oils and should much rather focus on eating plant based, such as potatoes, rice and vegetables (read: The China Study).
I know that when I first decided to change my life and go vegan I thought "What the hell am I going to eat now?!". I didn't like cooking, I didn't like potatos and I absolutely loved meat. I literally ate chicken every. single. day. and couldn't understand and imagine how someone would actually choose to go vegetarian or even worse; vegan. One day I ended up watching kalelkitten's video out of curiosity and because I wasn't able to fall asleep and after overcomming my ignorance and finally stopping to roll my eyes everytime she said "vegan", I realised that what she talks about actually made sense.
The day after watching her and many other educational videos on the meat and dairy industry, I started to cook more and cut out all animal products (which was easier than I thought) and now I find myself loving potatos and veggies which I didn't like before. "Food preferences are learned and unlearned" says McDougall (p.35).
"The fat you eat is the fat you wear" (p.48)According to the book, less than 4% fat of one's daily calorie intake is used for synthesis of new cells, hormones, and other body parts and another 3% of kcal is buned in the transfer of fat from the dinner plate to the adipose tissue which leaves 93% of the fat consumed (p.42)!!
Carbohydrates are not stored as fat and they don't make you gain weight. They get processed and if you comsume 'too much' of it the body ends up burning and releasing them as heat through the skin and lungs. The fat you wear gets burned quickly, though, if you stop eating fat.
So what does the McDougal diet consist of?
The McDougall diet consist mostly of starches (p.60ff), which are ideal for the human body:
- Whole grains (brown rice, barley, oatmeal, wheat, millet)
- Potatoes (sweet potatoes, yams)
- Squashes (acorn, butternut, buttercup, summer squash, pumpkin)
- Legumes (beans, peas, lentils)
- Yellow and green vegetables (carrots, collard greens), should be 1/3 to 1/2 of your meal!
- Fruit (2 servings a day), avoid dried fruit, fruit puree and fruit juice
- No animal products (diary, meat, eggs)
- No oils (eliminate ALL oils! Yes, that includes avocados, nuts, soy products like tofu, etc.)
- No flour products (bread, bagels, pastas, pretzels, crackers, corn, wheat tortillas)
- Try to stay away from processed food
- Eat small amouts of sugar (on your oatmeal for example)
Rules
- Eat until you're satsfied (like mentioned before: chew slowly)
- 6 or more small meals a day, snack frequently
- Chew slowly
- Allow time for digestion (20min, if still hungry → eat more)
- Restrict variety (for example have rice with vegetables and tomato sauce, not a plate full of various little smaller meals like salsa, rice, noodles, vegetables, fruit all at the same time)
- Take vitamin B12 (more info)
- Do some exercise to fasten the weight loss (walking 1h 3 times a week, for example, it controls appetite)
Balancing your meal for weight loss (p.73)
- Moderate → 2/3 starch, 1/3 very low calorie salads
- Rapid → 1/2 starch, 1/2 very low calorie salads
- Hasty → 1/3 starch, 2/3 very low calorie salads
Some more tips
- Consider using guar gum, oat bran, rice bran etc.
- Cut down salt
- Hot red pepper may increase metabolic rate and burn more calories (p.72)
- Artifical sweeteners may increase hunger, also litte sugar is allowed so there is no need for Stevia etc.
- Only drink water when you're thirsty, don't drink at meals (can make you feel full but also hungry)
- Be faithful to yourself, really follow the rules!
- Eat low calorie greens and vegetables before the starchy portion
- To maintain weight loss, continue following the program
- Give yourself time to adjust to the new foods
- Make your exercise fun, don't over-do it (you should be able to carry a conversation while exercising, if not - slow down!), do them before meals
- Try to stay away from alcohol and coffee
- Shop for food when you are full, make a shopping list
"Health feels better than sickness" (p.138)
Where do I start? (p.127ff)
- Be goal-oriented → I want to lose 20kg/44lbs
- Acknowledge your willingness to pay the price → Eating at home, no oils
- Educate yourself → Skinny Bitch, China Study, YouTube
- Visualize yourself as healthy → Imagine everyone asking "how did you do it?"
- Make a commitment → *Shia Labeaouf voice* JUST DO IT! (c) Nike
- Ensure that your environment supports your goals → Following your diet should be as easy as possible
- Alter Your Copin Mechanisms → Instead of stuffing your face with unhealthy food, go for a walk
- Join a Support Group
- Reward yourself → Celebrate small victories
- Keep it simple → Frozen food FTW!!
This post was not sponsored.
Labels: diet, vegan, weight loss, weight loss journey