Sunday – party, easy day. Started the day out with some tuna muffins and a latte then got down to birthday preparations. I was so busy I didn’t even feel hungry. Which meant when I finally sat down after the kids had arrived, I was happy to eat a protein yoghurt just to top up my energy levels a bit and carry me through to dinner. I allowed myself a small slice of cake since I knew I wouldn’t be eating out of boredom anyway so these were my consciously chosen sugary calories and boy did they taste good! We got dinner from Nando’s and took it home – chicken butterfly for me plus lots of broccoli and a third of Silver’s chicken burger which he couldn’t finish. I knew I had done so well throughout the day and had loads of calories left so I washed the yummy food down with two tiny cans of Fanta. Even though I went over my sugar allowance, I stayed within my calories for the day. Knowing I was on my last three days of the experiment made it so easy to carry on and not eat mindlessly.
Monday – Another easy day, still motivated by the upcoming holiday and by the experiment almost being over. I wanted to cook something new and exciting but also low in fat and carbs and high in protein! I remembered a recipe that Angela had given me and another dish Helen had made just days before. They both had to do with vegetables and minced meat and all I had in the fridge was pork mince and broccoli. So the Pork Broccoli Meatloaf was born and it was so good – I almost ate the whole thing by myself that day! 😊 Having cooked that delicious food that was so perfect for my “diet”, I felt I actually stopped obsessing about food for the first time during the experiment. I knew I had the next meal waiting for me and that it was going to be a nourishing and filling one – what more could I want?!
Tuesday – Day started out well with a few client sessions and then I had a couple of hours to run last minute holiday errands and relax. I ended up buying some protein bars to take with me (something I never do!) and guess what happened – for absolutely no reason I ate one. 15 minutes after my energy levels plummeted and I was forced to have a nap. Since I had trained in the am, I must not have given my body sufficient energy after the session for it to react this way to a bit of carbs. When I woke up, I was kicking myself because I wanted more sugar immediately and had another third of a protein bar while I was still half asleep. That didn’t help! So I had to have a latte to give me a little boost of energy (but not too much as it was nearing 6pm) and I clearly had to put sugar in that drink so in total, by eating that stupid bar, I basically wasted 350 calories and an hour of my day in the process. Hey ho, there are bigger problems in the world but this made dinner prep interesting as I was genuinely on a mission to have to make the most filling salad on just 250 calories, which was all I had left for the day. I couldn’t help but laugh as I was weighing all the ingredients and inputting them to MFP. When I finally got to enjoy my salad, it was ridiculously filling for the 250kcal and tasted pretty decent. I even used Greek yoghurt instead of half fat mayo to save more calories and go up the protein content more. Everybody else was enjoying their takeaway pizza and we’re rubbing the slices in my face almost literally. 😂
Results and conclusion:
In 9 days the scales changed from 72 to 70kg. Notice how I didn’t say I lost 2kg. I believe I could have lost around 1-1,25kg of fat at most. The rest I believe to be water retention and gross weight of food still in my stomach/intestines at the time of the first weighing. Ideally, For most accurate results, I should have weighed myself on Thursday, the same day I took my before photos as I’m confident the scales would have already been up to a kg lighter. But the main reason for this was to lose the extra ‘fluff’ that I had gained over a few weekends of socialising, eating and having a few alcoholic drinks. I got rid of it and have kept it off since all I have to do is stay within my maintenance calories.
Several people were surprised I didn’t take measurements. I had actually never intended to in the first place because I wasn’t trying to prove that one can lose weight on the BMR diet. That’s a given! If your energy expenditure is higher than your energy intake, you will lose weight. What I wanted to prove is that BMR calories, being all that your body NEEDS, would be sufficient to keep an individual running from day to day, allowing them to lose weight fast but in a safe manner. Also, I only trained twice during the experiment for accurate results, ie not increasing my energy expenditure to not burn through my calories required for my body to maintain its vital functions.
If any of you kept an eye on my friend Yasmine’s experiment, she had a much harder time on the same experiment. She was experiencing cravings, mood swings and she even fell ill! 😦 It was very interesting and educational for me to see her go through the highs and lows of the 10 days. Please do note that Yasmine stayed rather active and did 1-2 classes a day on top of her clients training so she was on the go most of the time. She was quite likely increasing her energy expenditure up to 400-600 calories on some days by doing spin and other short intense classes. She proved that for an active individual the BMR diet isn’t suitable as the extra calorie burn would “eat into” your caloric allowance and not actually leave enough energy for your body to run off of. For active individuals, a standard weight loss diet with at least an extra 200-300kcal on top of BMR calories would be necessary.
Conclusion:
If you’re trying to lose weight only, but have no time for the gym and are leading rather a sedentary lifestyle due to work, the BMR diet can be a blessing. If you’re busy and have your meals prepared in advance, all you have to do is stick to the reduced caloric intake during your working day. For that, a nutrition plan like my 12 week Phase is perfect. You don’t have to have time for the gym and you won’t have to do hours of cardio. You simply have to have one hour a week to have a phone call with me to discuss your goals, set new ones and receive a simple assignment or two for the new week to keep taking your weight loss to the next level. And when you look back at the end of the 12 weeks, chances are you’ll have lost 1 stone of weight without it seeming like insanely hard work.
RAHEL THE AMAZON 