Day 31

20 Stone 11.5 lbs.

I've no idea how much I weighed when I started the Shangri-la diet experiment, just 31 days ago. I've made guesses that range from 23 stone (which seems to be correct if you do some simple maths involving measuring how much my waist has depleted) to 22 stone and half a pound (if you think I was lazy for the first 5 days of the diet). For my own personal statistics, I'm assuming I weighed 22 stone 12. This implies quite a weight loss in the first week, but when you consider how quickly weight was falling off in the second week, that's not outside the realms of possibility. For a saner figure that I can back up with some degree of confidence, I will assume I lost as much in the first week as I did in the second: a pound a day, or 6 pounds over all. That would put me at 22 stone 5 and a half pounds. From this I can say that I have lost 1 stone 8 pounds. That's 22 pounds. That's 10 kilograms. That's over 7% of my total body weight!

So, a month later, does the Shangri-la diet work?

Well, eating less food is what caused the weight loss. But the Shangri-la diet certainly seems to have reduced my appetite, and taken away my desire to snack. For at least a period of 1 month, for me, the Shangri-la diet seems to work exactly as advertised.


Do I recommend it?

From what I've heard, not everyone has the success I've had, and my weight loss is high because I weighed a lot to begin with. That said, a lot of people have been shocked by the level of control the Shangri-la diet gives them over their eating.

I am a little concerned that I've suffered from two colds this month, whereas normally I'm healthy. There are a number of reasons that could contribute to this: the diet, the fact I've worked longer hours, the increasing levels of stress regarding my forthcoming house move and wedding. I think before I recommended the diet to anyone, I would warn them of the potential affect on their immune system, but tell them also that I might simply have been unlucky.

But other than that, yes. I can and would recommend the Shangri-la diet.

What next?

Well, tune in tomorrow to see what I'll be doing next month (hint: that stress I talked about earlier, that's what I'm aiming to fix).

The Shangri-la diet is fascinating and deserves longer term study. I will continue following it for another 2 months (at which point, I'll decide if I carry on with it for longer). I will continue with a daily report of my weight on this blog and I'll continue writing about it when there is something interesting I have to say (look for tags shangri-la and sld, if I ever remember to add them)

Later on today, I'll publish my month's weight loss spreadsheet and an article I've written which sums up the method I followed, and what I experienced along the way.