I began the Shangri-la diet on the 1st day of January 2007. I wanted to shed the extra pounds I gained over the Christmas holidays, and I wanted to shed a lot more weight I had put on over 28 years of eating. But most of all I wanted to test whether a seemingly impossible diet worked.
The diet has two simple rules:
Rule 1: Take between 1 and 4 tablespoons of flavourless oil (such as extra light olive oil or safflower oil) each day
Rule 2: Do not consume anything with any flavour for an hour before or after you take the the oil.
It shouldn't work. But over the last month I have followed it and had staggering results. As I followed the diet, I noticed it changing my appetite gradually, and blogged about the results. As the month came to a close, it seemed fitting that, rather than suggest people read my blog's day by day progress I try to summarize my discoveries and experiences. The weight loss isn't due to the diet, it is due to the fact I reduced the amount of food I eat. However, the Shangri-la diet, through reducing my appetite, has made dieting a cinch, and makes me feel full far sooner than I ever have before.
The Theory
The theory is that your body has a weight it wants to be, your set-point. If your body's weight falls below that set point, you get hungry. If your weight gets above the set point, you feel full. Its like a thermostat that keeps the room a set temperature by turning on and off radiators. What the diet does is lets you adjust the set point in a way which is almost as simple as twiddling a thermostat dial. If you eat food with a flavour your body associates with lots of calories, your body thinks 'food is plentiful, because I'm eating things I like. I had better stock up for the next time food is short' Your fat thermostat goes up, and you become hungrier until you have put on extra weight. If you eat food with low flavour, but still containing calories, you fill your body (because you provide it with enough food to keep it above the set-point), but your fat thermostat goes down because your body thinks 'there isn't much food around, no point in making me suffer, I'll just use the reserves I've built up'. For cavemen, with periods of plenty and periods of little, the fat thermostat works perfectly. but in the twenty-first century with McDonalds' burgers just waiting to cram themselves down your throat, periods of famine have become a distant memory. By drinking a few hundred calories of oil every day, you fool yourself into thinking there is less flavour, and thus less food around. Your fat thermostat gets turned down and you become less hungry. (This is an oversimplification, read the book and Seth Roberts' paper on what makes food fattening if you want to know the science behind the horribly mixed metaphor)
Whether this theory is correct or not, the effects I've experienced seem to fit in with what it predicts, each stage taking me a step closer to being thinner and healthier. It doesn't seem to work for everyone, but many people have had shocking results. It is so remarkable that if the diet works for you, you don't just want to lose more weight, you want to evangelize about it too!
Stage 1:
Each morning as soon as you wake up, take 2 tablespoons of safflower oil.
Do not consume any flavour for the next hour. In my case, this involved learning to wake up earlier on week days. Since toothpaste has flavour, there shall be no tooth brushing for an hour after consuming oil.
Each evening, you must not consume any flavour for the hour before you go to bed
Shortly before you go to bed, take one tablespoon of oil
Stage 2:
Return to work after a restful holiday
Substitute your regular lunch of a sandwich and peanuts with 3 chopped carrots, chopped celery or pepper, maybe a slice of ham and 4 Ryvitas
Continue with the oil. In the evenings, and weekends (outside of the flavourless hours which surround taking the oil) you may eat what you want
Stage 3:
Your appetite is reducing.
You begin to notice two new sensations: a sensation of warmth after eating (this can be uncomfortable, it is much like a hot flush, but it subsides into a nicer feeling after a week or so), and having an empty stomach without wanting to eat.
You decide the big meals you were having in the evening to counteract your hunger are now too much for you to eat. You cut them down in size, and start eating things with fewer calories.
I particularly like steamed vegetables on boiled brown rice, dowsed in soy sauce.
You also cut down the size of your breakfast, until it is more a symbolic gesture than a meal.
Continue with the oil
Stage 4:
At the weekends you find eating what you used to eat to be far too much.
Snacks you left in the fridge to fill a gap in your stomach go untouched and begin to pass their best by dates.
You realise you now have control over your appetite. It feels strange, supernatural almost, since it is something you have never before experienced.
Continue with the oil
Stage 5:
Your weight loss slows and plateaus for a few days, causing you concern.
You recall that a pint of water will add a pound to your weight.
You also notice a trend that your weight stays still for longer after eating starchy foods like white bread.
Your weight loss recovers after a few days
As you plateau, you find yourself getting hungrier. As you begin to descend again, the hunger decreases.
Continue with the oil
Stage 6:
Your weight loss is continuing. Taking the oil and eating less is integrated into your life. You notice more and more often how you are eating so much less than you did even one month before.
There is no reason not to stop the diet. It takes almost no effort and has fantastic results. The diet may well throw up more surprises, but you are ready for them!
Continue with the oil.
Tips and Tricks:
If I knew I was going somewhere where there would be food I didn't want to eat, I made sure I had my oil beforehand. Firstly, to give me a reason not to start eating, and secondly, so I would feel slightly more satisfied as the evening continued.
It is really comforting to cook a meal the size you would have eaten before the diet, and to realise there is no way you can finish it. Bonus points if you can't even bring yourself to serve the whole meal.
I chose my diet food to fit in with my lifestyle. I used to like to sit at work and munch my way through the packet of peanuts I bought for my lunch. These days instead I have a lunch of chopped carrots, peppers and celery. It allows my to nibble for the same length of time, but doesn't give me the calories.
As you see above, I take my oil first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This means I am asleep for two of my four flavourless hours.
Keep a blog where you track your progress, that way you'll have to think about the diet once a day, which means you won't forget about it or let it slip.
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