An interesting trend line analysis of a diet

http://www.astrocyte-design.com/shangri-la-diet/

I am quoting the core of the post below.  Well worth a visit to the original (above) if you are interested in dieting or losing weight.

The graph covers the 321-day period ending on July 6, 2010.

Two-month pre-diet baseline:	Aug. 22 to Oct. 21, 2009
Shangri La diet:	Oct. 22, 2009 to July 6, 2010
Weight immediately prior to start of diet (ten-day avg.):	222.4 lbs. (100.9 kg.)
Weight as of July 6, 2010 (ten-day avg.):	193.6 lbs. (87.8 kg.)
Total weight lost during this period:	28.8 lbs. (13.1 kg.)
Average weight loss per week:	0.78 lbs. (0.35 kg.) / week

Summary

I lost about 29 pounds / 13 kg. (as of July 6, 2010) by following a diet that was developed by psychologist Seth Roberts.  Briefly, the Shangri La diet involves appetite suppression via the ingestion of flavorless calories in the form of oil and/or sugar water.  The diet is described here and here, among other places.

Background

I first heard of the Shangri La diet when I read this article in the New York Times back in September, 2005.  The diet seemed so bizarre that the idea of it stuck with me—until, about four years later, I finally decided to try it.

Being 5' 10" tall and weighing 222 lbs. (1.8 m / 100.7 kg.), I wanted to lose weight, and I was looking for a diet that would satisfy the following five criteria:

1. It wouldn't require me to change the types of foods that I eat.  I'm a vegan for ethical reasons, and I did not want to stray from that philosophy.  (Note, for example, that it's very difficult, if not impossible, to eat a low-carbohydrate diet without consuming animal products.)
2. The diet wouldn't depend on willpower, at least not heavily.  Knowing myself, I would not be able to adhere to a diet that could be sustained only by exerting an iron will (which is, essentially, almost all diets).
3. The diet did not have any obvious characteristics that might cause one to believe that it would be harmful to your health.
4. The diet wouldn't require regular exercise.  I've hated exercise my whole life, and I don't have time for it, anyway.
5. The diet could be continued indefinitely.

The Shangri La diet met all five criteria, so I tried it—to some success.

SLD Update

I've been told that as I close on three years using the Shangri la Diet, I owe an update. Officially, my weight went from 245 lbs down and then stabilized at about 189 for a couple years. That is pretty much true, though the past few months my weight has slipped. It is now 168 or so, though I plan to stop the slippage.

My exercise program and the unrelated rotator cuff rehabilitation are both going well. I'm still making progress in about 90 minutes a week [link]. I eat a lot of yogurt, some fruit, eggs and flax bread, simple and short food.

So, I still drink extra light olive oil, it still surpresses my set point, and keeping my weight down is still an automatic process that doesn't take any will power, like breathing. I'm still gaining strength (though I'm by no means strong yet), in a way that leaves me lots of time for better things like long walks with my wife. Especially at this time of year, there is nothing better.

I'm almost 53 and just about where I had planned to be when I turned 35. So, do I have anything to be proud of? Not really. But I'm happy to be here, even if I'm a little late.

Responses to criticisms of the Shangri-la Diet

That much oil can't be healthy!

• The oil people take on the Shangri-la Diet is less than the oil in a large order of french fries.
• My triglycerides went from over 300 to 50, and stayed there. Obviously the net result has been quite healthy.
  

You were just lucky.

• Except, the Shangri-la Diet (SLD) calories still make a difference. At three tablespoons a day I stayed at 189 lbs for almost two years. If I cut back, I start to gain weight. When I moved back up to four tablespoons of ELOO (extra light olive oil) a day, I started to lose weight.
• Fifty years or so old is a bit old for a metabolic timing change.
  

Only calorie restriction/starving diet and exercise work!

• For 2/3 of 2.8% (that is less than 2%) of the people who are able to do a diet with strict confirmation, there is success: defined at keeping 5% or so of body weight off for a year or so.
• Compared to SLD where if you have forty or more pounds to lose, it seems to be successful for at least 75% of those who stick with it. Success = losing and keeping off thirty or more pounds.
• Compare the numbers: less than 2% vs. more than 70%.
  

But you should enjoy food!

• I do. I just feel like eating less of it, and if I eat more, my metabolism adjusts.
• I'll note that most people who are really fixiated on that point seem disordered.
• Lots of people on SLD actively seek new taste experiences.
• I'd rather not be a slave to food.
  

I could never ...

• Why not?
• It is cheap and uses things that you have around the house.
• You can even use the "midnight oil" approach and it isn't even inconvenient.

The reason almost everyone started with sugar water (two liters of water diluting a half cup of sugar) is that they had sugar around the house. Once that started working for them, they switched to oil, eventually extra light olive oil, walnut oil or flaxseed oil (for the health benefits).

It doesn't make sense!

Well, it is starting to. Seth has his theory (it was his paper on the subject that started the whole movement that resulted in the book). I personally think it has to do with the insulin cycle (which is why oil and sugar water seem to work well for the long run while protein doesn't). Taste/smell trigger the insulin cycle, without those it doesn't trigger and the body adjusts to incoming oils and sugars differently.

It is easy to try, simple, easy and cheap.

There are lots of threads about how to make the diet work better, additional things you can do, various ways to apply the principles. But just try it, remember that plateaus on SLD do not signal that failure is on the way (instead they are a natural resting point, I spent about half of my time on plateaus while I was losing weight).

Just ind a way to avoid flavor or intense food smells for two hours. In the middle, take a tablespoon of extra light olive oil, mixed with a couple tablespoons of water (oil and water don't mix, but if you drink it this way the oil slides down over the water and you don't feel it the same way). Do that for a week.

If your appetite goes down, good. If not, on week two move to two tablespoons and do that for a week. If your appetite goes down, good, if not, on week three move to three tablespoons. Repeat to up to four tablespoons of oil a day.

Adjust as needed, but make the adjustments slowly, once a week, using the same oil (your body needs time to adjust the enzymes that digest the oil, if you decide to change oils, make the change slowly). When you've lost a lot of weight, adjust the amount until you don't gain or lose weight. Then you just keep taking the right amount of oil to keep your improvements.

Yes, after about sixty or seventy pounds lost, you may need to tweak things. If you only have five or ten pounds to lose, I'm not sure it will work easily for you.

While losing weight, make sure to focus your foods on protein and vegetables so you get enough protein and enough nutrients. My secret ingredient is spring mix and carrots.

That is what I'd say if I ahd time to talk and to respond at length to the critics and the questioners. The truth is that the diet (or method, since it is more a set point adjustment method than a comprehensive diet program) works, and it works well.

Unlike a normal diet it isn't just holding your breath until nature takes over and restores equilibrium, it is freedom instead.

BTW, it is on sale at almost 70% off at Amazon right now.

The Shangri-La Diet: The No Hunger Eat Anything Weight-Loss Plan by Seth Roberts (Paperback - April 24, 2007) - Bargain Price

Buy new: List price $11.95 -- discounted to $3.99

Shangri la Diet Induction

In diet parlance, “induction” is a special regimen used to introduce a diet. South Beach, Atkins and many others have an “induction” section (at least in several iterations) which is basically designed to create dramatic initial weight loss. The alternate use of “induction” periods is for dealing with plateaus. Most of the time they are slights of hand, things like carbohydrate unloading, massive flavor and food changes that are not sustainable and not very palatable. The question is whether or not SLD should have one.

On the pro side, lots of dieters expect one.

On the con side, SLD doesn’t need one, an “induction” phase masks the fact that SLD really works, and people need to acclimate themselves to plateaus as normal rather than as signs of failure.

You can tell that the more I think about it, the more I think an induction addition to SLD isn’t necessarily a good idea and could well be a bad one.

That said, and reminding people to talk to their doctors first (!) (that is really important):

The easy induction diet goes as follows:

Breakfast:

Nose clip.

Drink water.

Drink a shake made as follows:

1/8 cup protein powder

1 cup non-fat yogurt

2 tablespoons ELOO (this will get them used to ELOO and is a breakfast with about 300 calories).

Drink water

Take nose clip off.

Lunch:

Drink water.

Drink a shake made as follows:

1/8 cup protein powder

1 cup non-fat yogurt

2 tablespoons Flax Seed oil (this will get them used to oils that have to be noseclipped, but that are high Omega 3 and is a breakfast with about 300 calories).

Drink water

Take nose clip off.

Dinner:

Drink water.

Drink a shake made as follows:

1/8 cup protein powder

1 cup non-fat yogurt

½ cup vegetable fiber (alternatives, below):

1. Pumpkin (cooked, from can)

2. Broccoli (steamed, either fresh or frozen)

3. Cauliflower (steamed, either fresh or frozen)

4. Squash (a full cup to make up for ultralow calories)

5. Green Beans (fresh, frozen, dried or canned)

6. Carrots (fresh, frozen, dried or canned)

Drink water

Take nose clip off.

Drink no flavored soft drinks. If you need caffeine, either take it by pill or by caffeine water (available all over, basically water with caffeine in it) not by coffee or tea. Take multivitamin, fish oil and calcium with vitamin d as supplements.

First two weeks, just the shakes.

Third week, on Sunday, take the ELOO nose clipped in two fingers of water.

Otherwise eat normally on Sunday.

Fourth week, on Sunday and Saturday take the ELOO nose clipped in two fingers of water.

Otherwise eat normally.

Then, take ELOO or Flax Seed oil as SLD calories, adjust as needed, eat what you feel like otherwise.

Enough protein to prevent protein wasting. All the calories eaten are SLD calories so it ought to move the set point down sharply.

Fiber to prevent problems.

Acclimation for the oil.

Repeat for stubborn plateaus.

Updates, two and a half years on the Shangri La Diet

For posts on the diet, click on Shangri-la Diet

The diet still works for me. That is my "after" photograph, taken when I reached 189 pounds. I've been at (or below) that weight for two years now, down from about 245. It still works. The only real lasting change I've made is that I've quit eating sugar with my yogurt. While losing weight, I would eat three cups of non-fat yogurt a day, flavored with sugar -- between half a cup and a cup of sugar a day. After reading Taubes, I suddenly found myself unwilling to eat sugar, so I've been doing without it since. Does not seem to have made a difference, and I've learned to like the flavor of unsweetened yogurt.

I take a couple ounces of water and three or so tablespoons of extra light olive oil once a day. No flavors for an hour before or after I take it. It depresses my set point and my weight and appetite take care of themselves. If I exercise at a high intensity two-three times a week, I drop the oil back to two tablespoons a day. I had some "failures" in taking the oil in the middle of the night, but all of those occurred on vacations. Since then I've discovered that in normal life the middle of the night works as well as any other time. The water just makes it much easier to drink the oil without gagging.

Before SLD (Shangri La Diet) I ate probably three times as much food as I do now and enjoyed it less. Taubes-style eating is low carbohydrate, but not ultra-low carbohydrate (i.e. I'm basically skipping sugar and white flour and replacing it with mixed salads and low glycemic index fruits).

For people who are interested in trying SLD, I recommend that they pick up a large container of extra light (less flavor) olive oil (referred to as ELOO) at Costco or SAMS. Pick up a measuring cup at a pharmacy or find a tablespoon measure at the house. For the first week, pour an ounce of water in a cup and a tablespoon of ELOO. Drink some water before bedtime and when you wake up in the middle of the night, swirl it and then drink it down, go back to sleep. If you start losing weight, you've hit the right dose. If not, in week two add another tablespoon. Keep adding until you start losing weight.

There are lots of other ways to approach it, different oils to try, lots of things that you can do. However, olive oil improves your cholesterol, will help with your triglycerides and has other health benefits. It is also easy to find and reasonable in price and doesn't require any strange gymnastics to drink (people are out there who use fresh pressed flax oil, nose clips and such in order to take it without any flavor -- the same with fish oils, coconut oil, etc. ELOO works well and is good for you).

If you take the slow approach your body will adjust to the ELOO (it takes different enzymes for your body to digest different oils. Just because you have a big mac and french fries every day -- and get more oil than three tablespoons of ELOO, don't think you can switch immediately).

Anyway, that is how the Shangri La Diet is working for me. Pretty much an automated part of the background in my life these days. So if you were wondering if it was like the usual diet people blog about (i.e. lots of excitement, success, and then it fails and they quit talking about it and move on to something else) or if it had just gotten boring (hey, it works, but after a year or two of "it works" and my weight is at a good place, what is there to say), the answer is "it has become normal" so blogging about it almost feels like mentioning that I was breathing today.

Old news. Unless you are trying to lose weight. Then I'd suggest you give it a try. Nothing I've ever done was as simple or as effective -- or worked long term, year after year.

• http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2007/01/comments-on-weight-shangri-la-etc.html
• http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2006/11/shangri-la-diet-after-one-year-and-70.html
• Happy Birthday, SLD

"A McDonald's large order of fries is 30g of fat. Add one of the big sandwiches, such as the Quarter Pounder, or the Big Mac, and you're adding another 25 - 30 grams of fat. So one of these meals is more than twice what you'd get in the 2 T. ELOO you take on SLD. And that doesn't even address the quality of the fat. Tell your mom to relax. Good luck!

T-Vix"

Seasons of the heart, Christmas

I've been writing out the personal notes for Christmas cards. This year has been a blitz of presents (Win made over a hundred personalized glass casserole dishes, packaged them up and mailed most of them, and that was only a start). As the season progresses, with memories and everything coming in, makes me want to just find a way to disappear and resurface in March. There are only so many presents to give away, so much activity to interpose, and I can no longer hide behind food.

Jessica was so excited about being baptized. I've not known a kid not quite seven who was so enthused about getting to eight to be baptized. Now, Rachel is about to turn eight and it just brings back and lot of feelings. We head towards Christmas, where Courtney died on the 26th of December and Rachel was admitted to the hospital then, and it is a cold month, in so many ways, and this year, more than many before, a very hard month to face.

But, we got a tree, got it decorated, had the pets eat everything on the bottom few branches, and we have lights up (out of reach of the pets outside).

Wish I had better advice for weathering the seasons of the heart.

---

BTW, ethics, fair trade and everything else aside, http://peaceworks.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=28 is a link to the best granola bars I've ever found.

---

I've simplified my modified Shangri-la calories as well.

2 ice cubes, one cup of water, 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1.5 scoops protein powder, 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil, blend well (using a blender), drink right after getting up, no flavor for an hour, then I brush my teeth and go to work. It is simple, easiest two hour block of time to find (since I'm spending an hour of it sleeping), replaces breakfast and seems to work well. The powder binds up the oil and it is the most gag free approach I've found. A number of people use nose clips, but if you use Designer Whey, unflavored, it is pretty much flavor free with or without the nose clips.

Contains enough protein that you don't have to pay special attention to getting enough protein while losing weight.

Shangri-la Diet -- an update

Lots of water under the bridge, but the bottom line is that I've changed some things up in my routine. I did it to reduce the "ugh" factor when swallowing the oil, though it turns out to have coincided with some experiments done by others, and I'm pleased with where it has gone.

It is possible to blend the oil with lecithin or protein powder (the typical unflavored or lightly flavored with vanilla whey based protein available at every health food store, Albertsons or Central Market/Whole Foods), some water and a couple ice cubes and have the oil part basically disappear. I took the easy route and started mixing two tablespoons oil with one scoop of protein (about the same calories as a tablespoon of oil) and drinking it down with nose clips.

Now protein powder by itself just never worked for me. Has not seemed to work that well for most people who tried it. However, with the oil it worked just fine, and it meant that I was getting more than enough protein every day (26 grams just from the SLD calories).

I then ran across some discussions of natural high protein sources being used for SLD calories (SLD calories are flavorless calories consumed at least an hour away from any other flavor in order to move the set point). Unlike pure protein supplements, these are highly effective as SLD calories.

Currently I have the following for breakfast every day:

1 cup fat free cottage cheese
1 tablespoon oil (flax or walnut oil)
One scoop protein powder
1/4 cup chopped oats (for texture and fiber)
2 ice cubes (to make it blend better) and some water.

I blend it up and then drink it down noseclipped. I rinse with water afterwards and take my vitamins (well, half a multi-vitamin and some calcium) and then take the nose clip off.

I have been regulating my weight by the amount of exercise I get while keeping SLD calories stable. This particular mixture (the one I finally ended up with) has a few more SLD calories than the three tablespoons of ELOO I was taking, but it also replaces both the SLD calories and breakfast, so it is less total calories.

Much to my surprise, it has also resulted in a good deal of weight loss. I've lost eight pounds in the period of time I was expecting to lose a pound and a half. It has been an experience.

So, I get up early, blend the SLD calories and drink them down. An hour later I brush my teeth and get ready for the day. I don't worry about finding time to take the oil during the day and am not as focused on needing exercise to keep my weight balanced, though I am still running the stairs at work twice a day or so (I'm on the fourth floor and I'll run up the stairs after lunch every day and maybe once or twice after visits to the first or second floor -- it is just neat to be able to not only walk up stairs, but to be able to run up stairs).

If anyone is looking for a diet for the holidays, I'd suggest you consider the Shangri-la Diet (read about it on-line, no need to buy the book) and either use the traditional ELOO during the day or try one of the new breakfast approaches, like the one I am using. I would note that I suspect that with nose clips you could probably use powdered milk, water and oil or yogurt and oil just as easily. I just haven't tried that. I already eat yogurt at lunch and dinner most days and grew up on powdered milk ( btw, locally, protein powder is easier to find and cheaper).

Shangri-la Diet Update

I continue on the diet. My current weight is about 65 pounds down from where I started. My resting point on the diet depends on the amount of exercise I get, something that has not been true for me for some time. It is a permanent life change.

I'm pleased, now that it is closing on my second year, and over a year at this weight or a bit lower.

With the release of the paperback, the hard back is now on sale at Amazon for $3.99.

The Shangri-La Diet (Hardcover) by Seth Roberts (Author) (73 customer reviews)

73 Reviews 5 star: (39) 4 star: (10) 3 star: (9) 2 star: (7) 1 star: (8) See all 73 customer reviews...

One thing Amazon does have trouble doing is separating out things I've bought for myself from the things I've bought as gifts for someone else, often for a birthday or such where they've asked for a specific thing. So I constantly get suggestions, some good, but some completely off base (no thank you, I really don't want to buy any more Web Kinz, I can do without more Magic Treehouse, I already have Harry Potter books, etc.). Other times the books are good, but I already have all the travel guides to Italy I need, you know.

Action & Adventure Adventure All Categories Animals Anthropology Dark Fantasy Epic Fiction Gnosticism Guidebooks Look Inside Health Books Look Inside Nonfiction Books Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books Look Inside Romance Books Look Inside Travel Books Magic & Wizards Magic Tree House Maps McKillip, Patricia A. More Stuffed Toys Osborne, Mary Pope Philosophy Shinn, Sharon Sociology United States World

Diet, etc.

Speaking of SLD and the Shangri-la Diet, I did have someone post and ask how I could state that the diet was boring. It is. I find a time, once a day, and drink two ounces of extra light olive oil. There is none of the stress, effort, willpower, thought or anything else that goes into a "normal" or "typical" diet. It is more like drinking a glass of water every day eventually becomes a routine that is boring to talk about.

Still, I've been down 70-75 pounds since June or July of last year. That is amazing and wonderful, but the diet itself is boring by now.

---

I also got a warning that one of my SLD links had given way to link rot. http://davidshangriladiet.blogspot.com/ -- David's Shangri-La Diet Saga -- has link rot in the worst way. I'm taking the link down and would advise you not to enter the url by hand.

I'd click on the "report" button, but the site forwards immediately and blocks that. If anyone knows how to report that sort of thing, I'd be grateful. Guess I can just kill the link, though it is a good reason not to just kill your blog -- people will take the url over for purposes like that. I thought it was bad enough when an LDS blog was replaced by a calling card advertisement. An autoforward to a porn site is a lot worse thing to have happen to your blog -- and pretty typical it seems for any blog that is taken down. Someone else signs up the url and uses it for advertising purposes.

Comments on weight, Shangri-la, etc.

My weight remains stable. My SLD calories push it down, I eat a little junk food to push it up, it stays in equilibrium. I find that calcium is important, for whatever reason.

So, that has been a success, I still run up the stairs at work once a day or so just to celebrate being alive.

I still believe that most "standard" ways to lose weight are dangerous, misleading, and harmful.

• From "Alas, a Blog" -- the truth about weight loss dieting.
  
• "surgical weight loss."
• Letters from real people.

I confess, I don't think about food, about the Shangril-la Diet, and about a lot of things much any more. They are just part of my life, a bland part, like breathing. I really hope that the same things will be true for more and more people. Being thin does not mean having the mandate of Heaven and is not proof of the grace of God. Being fat is not ugly and is not a sign of sin. It just is, and both states are either impossible to control by normal means or easy for some people to control with flavorless calories. But they have nothing to do with grace or sin or virtue.

misc.

The Shangri-La Diet by Seth Roberts (Hardcover - April 25, 2006)

Buy new: $13.57 Used & new from $9.00

Shangri-la Diet Supplements:

Bob's Red Mill Whey Protein Concentrate, 12... $25.50	La Tourangelle Grapeseed Oil, 16.9-Ounce Ca... $16.24	Speedo Competition Nose Clip $3.05
Other things
Canon Powershot SD500 7.1MP Digital Elph Ca... $289.00	Canon Elura 100 MiniDV Camcorder $309.88

Ok, I haven't the slightest idea of how to make this work correctly. What I'm trying to do is post links to some grapeseed oil, some protein powder (if you can't find a Whole Foods or a Central Market in your area), and nose plugs.

Thought I'd toss in the camera I use and the camcorder I just bought in case anyone was curious.

I'm back dating this so it doesn't get in the way of posts that might interest someone or be useful. So no, you didn't miss this post, I just buried it.

If anyone has a good on-line source for extra-light olive oil, be sure to let me know. The source I had quit shipping, though I find that I can buy it just fine at SAMS or COSTCO.

Shangri-la Diet after one year and 70+ pounds

It has been interesting.

I've collected posts under this label.

But, if you are interested in trying the diet, here is my best advice:

• Starting (or starting over) the SLD method (the first two months)
  
• Shangri-la Diet: moving on to months three and four
• Shangri-la Diet: Months Five and Six
• Plateaus are not failure (they happen regularly, then you lose more weight)
  
• Problems with the Shangri-la Diet? -- Solutions
  
• What if the Shangri-la Diet doesn't work for you?
• What I eat on the Shangri-la Diet
• Who I am, why I blog, the Shangri-la Diet and Me
• Interview with Seth Roberts (author of the Shangri-la Diet)
• Shangri-la Diet, maintenance -- keeping it off once you've lost the weight
  

Those posts will help you to understand and use the Shangri-la Diet.

See larger image

The Shangri-La Diet (Hardcover)
by Seth Roberts

(60 customer reviews)

---

List Price:	$19.95
Price:	$13.57 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save:	$6.38 (32%)

For more, visit the forums, starting here: Re: What have you learned from the forums? (part 2)

Best wishes, Stephen.

Shangri-la Diet, maintenance

There are several ways that you end up at your ideal weight, and keeping it, on the Shangri-la Diet.

• Glide to a stop
• Tweak to a stop
• Gentle cycle
• Additional Push

Gliding to a stop happens when you continue using the same amount of oil as you started with and you eventually quit losing weight at about the spot you want to stop losing weight. Every month on the diet with the same amount of daily flavorless calories, you will lose less weight. Some people pretty much plateau out permanently where they want to stop.

Tweaking to a stop comes when you hit where you want to stop, but you are still losing weight, so you adjust the amount of calories you use to push your set point down. Seth Roberts did that (in fact he lost about 10+ pounds too many before he got the balance right).

Gentle cycling is what I'm doing now. I'm not sure where I would glide to a stop, I know it is close to where I'm at, but I'm practicing letting my set point drop and then pushing it up with various ditto foods, gaining and losing the same four pounds over and over again -- I've been doing that for the last two-three months. There is an endless supply of ditto food, even without eating chocolate (I'm allergic to chocolate).

Additional push is what Tim Beneke did and others are doing. They glide to a stop at a higher weight than they'd like, so they use various forms of flavorless calories or altered spicing methods to push their set point lower than the normal calories alone would do it. A simple method is once you have an amount of oil and have lost as much weight as that will take you to, you then start taking in a second dose of flavorless calories using flavorless protein such as Designer Whey or NutraSoy (available in bulk at Whole Foods and similar stores -- very inexpensive).

Shangri-la Diet, Ditto Foods, Hydration and Calcium

I think I've hit the last on what I have to say about the Shangri-la Diet. I was looking at things from March and realized that I was hoping to reach my goal of 172 by September 13. My weight on September 14 was 167. Now I'm on the maintenance end of the diet my weight is between 167 and 169 and has been there for a month.

Three things that seem important, and that are easy to miss or forget are the concept of "ditto foods," keeping hydrated, and getting enough calcium in my diet.

The calcium is easy when I'm at home, because I eat a lot of yogurt. On vacations I end up not eating as much yogurt and that makes a difference. I seem to gain weight when I'm either not eating yogurt (or taking calcium supplements) and to drop back down to my stable weight when I do.

The next is hydration. Even now, when I've finished my meal, I'll feel like eating something until I drink enough fluid. I get the water I should be drinking and the hunger goes away. Staying hydrated is very important. Too many diets, focused on short term, temporary weight loss, use dehydration as one of their stock tricks. But for long-term, permanent weight loss, dehydration is an enemy. For short term weight loss, it is a trick, a fraud, a temporary waste of time.

Finally, "ditto foods." A "ditto food" is a food that is the same, time after time, usually flavor dense and calorie dense. The classic "ditto food" has to be alcohol or ding dongs. Since I don't drink and am allergic to chocolate, neither affects me, but I've realized that calorie and flavor dense foods that are exactly the same, time after time, those foods will move my set point up. It is interesting to watch what people do in order to be able to eat chocolates or fudge. I think of the times I gained large amounts of weight and they were always times I was eating a diet heavily balanced (or not) by ditto foods.

The Beneke variations on the Shangri-la Diet are really methods for avoiding any ditto food elements in your diet as are the protein smoothies.

If I had a final trouble shooting comment, a final bit of advice for someone who was seeking to tweak things on maintenance, a last bit of advice, it would be to eliminate ditto foods, stay hydrated, and make sure that not only do you get enough protein and vitamins, but that you get enough calcium as well.

Shangri-la Diet: Months Five and Six

For other Shangri-la diet posts, see: diet posts.

By now you should have found the level of oil (or other flavorless calories) that works for you to keep lowering your set point. It might be one tablespoon, it might be six or eight. As time passes and you lose weight, that number will probably go down (when I started, four was barely enough, now I take two tablespoons).

Once you have that working for you, the next step is to make sure you are getting enough vitamins, enough calcium and enough protein. You also want to stay fully hydrated. Don't eat when you should be drinking water.

The big thing to try at month three or four is the protein shake or smoothy. In basic form, that is a simple cold water and flavorless protein shake taken in to give you more nutrition (well, more protein) in the form of flavorless calories. In the fancy form it is a true smoothy, but with constantly changing and unusual flavors. At Seth Roberts' forums there are numerous recipes, including instructions that are basically what you need for a random flavor generator.

In addition, you should now have four months of experience with low glycemic index foods, survived the two week "blahs" or what I refer to as the boredom stage (where you just get tired of losing weight), and been through three or four plateaus. You've realized that a plateau is not a failure and you should have some skill at dealing with emotion without using food.

As long as the diet stays on track, then keep on track. You might want to look for and try some walnut oil or a similar oil that is high in Omega 3s. Many people report improved sleep and balance when they increase Omega 3s in their diets. You might want to try taking your oil in the middle of the night (a big "yes" in my personal experience for walnut oil, a big failure with drinking "the midnight oil" -- your experience may vary -- many find drinking the oil in the middle of the night a huge improvement).

But the thing to consider at this point is that you may be ready for very mild exercise. Stretching, for example, is a form of exercise you can do every day, even if you are in terribly bad shape. Water aerobics and swimming are also good gateway exercises is they are available to you, but stretching is something you can do for free. Eventually you will lose enough weight to be able to walk or do something more vigorous (I'm playing Judo these days), and if you get the chance to lift weights, I've a blog post on a method I stumbled into that gets good results with lifting once a week.

Also, keeping a weight journal, basically benchmarking your weight every Sunday morning (and writing it down so you can keep track) can really help. I know that once I got past the initial rush and loss of the first two months, keeping track really helped as I kept forgetting where my weight had been recently. After a while, it becomes a blur -- and those who are losing weight at the slower end (a pound or two a month) report that the blur is more intense.

Also, you need to make sure you are getting enough sleep. Finally, if things are really slow, you need to read a post like Jenn's at http://boards.sethroberts.net/index.php?topic=1862.45 where it took her quite a while and some very specific tweaks to start losing weight.

Those are the things to consider and keep track of at months five and six.

Next post, probably I'll discuss maintenance, unless more things develop on the boards that lead me to summarizing them all.

Shangri-la Diet: moving on to months three and four

I've been reviewing the experiences others have had with the Shangri-la Diet.

At about the third month, if it is working well, you will get bored with losing weight or just feel tired of losing weight. This stage lasts about two weeks, but when it hits a number of people quit the diet and then come back after several months. So, if it works for you, just be aware that at around the third month boredom sets in and just hold on and the boredom will end.

Also be aware that for many, at the end of the second month, plateaus start to happen. Unlike a normal diet, where a plateau means the diet has failed, plateaus merely are a sign that your set point moves downward in a sine wave pattern rather than in a straight line. In losing over seventy pounds, I spent about half the time on plateaus mixed with about half the time losing weight. Lose weight, pause, lose weight, pause, all the way down. ~ is kind of a symbol for the way it goes.

On the other hand, for some, the weight loss is very slow and the plateaus are enhanced. For those, here is the next step.

First, make sure you are getting enough protein. That is one of the reasons I started eating so much fat free yogurt (amazingly, on a diet where most people add oil to what they are eating, my total fat intake went down -- fat free foods often have more protein for the calories than any other).

Second, make sure you are getting enough calcium. I'm not sure why, but many people who do not get enough calcium have trouble with weight loss, though they may get excellent appetite suppression. Yogurt again works well here (though I have a large container of calcium pills from Costco in the cupboard).

Third, consider protein powder smoothies. There are two ways to drink them, both in the place of one meal a day. The first is to have them as flavorless as possible. DesignerWhey and Nutro Soy protein are both available in a flavor free "flavor." Mix some of each together, blend with some cold water and maybe an icecube (use a blender) and drink them down while holding your nose (to reduce any remaining flavor) once a day. The second way is to open up your spice rack and use half a teaspoon of two spices, randomly chosen, blended with the protein powder and a couple tablespoons of yogurt and a little sugar or sweetener, for a "variable flavor" smoothie. As long as the flavor is different each day, that seems to work well too.

Protein powder smoothies also help with any protein issues.

Work through those additions and alternatives for the next two months. That gets you to four months on the diet. I'll go over the next two months in the future.

Starting (or starting over) the SLD method

I've been working on different protocols to suggest to people, here is one I started to post on my site when blogger crashed and took the entire original post with it.

First you need to start with a commitment to taking a long, slow approach.

Second this approach is based on oil. When you use oil you need to realize that all oils are not the same thing. Your body metabolizes them all differently. Switching oils is the same as starting over, and for most people, switching oils means a loss of a week or two. Anyone who reports trying 4-5 types of oil in a couple months should not expect any success.

Third you will start with one tablespoon of sugar, one cup of water and one tablespoon of oil. To start use a 50/50 blend of canola oil and extra light (not extra virgin) olive oil. Dissolve the sugar in the water, pour the oil on top, swirl and drink at 10:00 a.m. every day. No flavor, no cigarettes, no mints, no snuff, no flavored lipstick, etc. from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Do this for a week. At the end of the week, if you have appetite sup presion, continue. If not, then.

Fourth, adjust. If your appetite hasn't reduced, go up to a second tablespoon of oil. Do a week at two tablespoons. If it works, stay at that level, if it doesn't, go up to three tablespoons of oil. Stay there for a week, if it works, fine, if not, go up another tablespoon.

Fifth, use a food plan to start. Check out a South Beach recipe collection from your local library. Use that as a rough guide for the first two months -- using it to avoid ditto foods, to avoid high gylcemic index foods and to make sure you are getting enough protein in your diet. An easy substitution is to eat eggs and whole wheat toast (dry) for breakfast, fat free yogurt for lunch, sandwich, green beans and salad for dinner. Diet soda for a snack. May get a little boring, but what you are after is stabilization and enough bulk and enough protein in your diet.

Sixth make sure you are getting enough water and enough vitamins. Note how much tea Seth reports that he drinks. I get a lot of fluids myself, even if I don't drink tea.

Seventh Join oa.org or a similar group (OA is free, which is why I recommend it).

Give this regimen two months, eight to nine weeks, if you have had problems and have decided to start, or restart, the diet.

I'm still working on a second two month program.

Co-thread at: http://boards.sethroberts.net/index.php?topic=2126.0

Myogenic weight lifting, Shangri-la Diet.

Dave Smith and Stewart Bruce-Low wrote a paper on myogenic weight lifting and the theories of Arthur Jones, a charming renegade.

Jones (18) provided an interesting practical example of the efficacy of slow weight training for those involved in ‘explosive’ sports. In 1973, an Olympic weightlifting team was formed at DeLand High School, Florida. The team trained with only slow (mostly eccentric-only) weight training. Starting in 1973, and with no previous experience in weightlifting, the team established what is probably a world sporting record: the team was undefeated and untied for seven years, winning over 100 consecutive weightlifting competitions. Clearly, the experience of these weightlifters is very much at odds with the view of Cissek (91) and others that slow weight training is not effective in enhancing in enhancing muscle performance at fast speeds.

The essence of the myeogenic method is that you life once a week -- every seven days -- and that when you lift you take a one count on the positive, a four second (one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four) on the negative and you never release the pressure, on every repetition. You do a single set on each exercise, 8-12 repetitions.

I'm fifty. I started lifting about three and a half years ago because I had gotten terribly out of shape. I pretty much started with between forty and sixty pounds of weight on most machines. I'm now moving close the maximum on each machine (or more -- on the back machine I'm tossing sixty pounds of weights on top of the complete weight stack), except for my arms and shoulders which I did not work out for a couple of years due to a shoulder injury.

I promised to put my routine on-line for some friends, but it is pretty simple, takes about an hour, once a week. I was pseudo myogenic when I started (I tried to do three times a week and ended up, due to schedule and other issues, only able to make it once or twice a week -- and I was doing a four count rather than four seconds on the negative). Once I read the paper and applied it to my work-outs I started making real and significant progress.

I'm hoping to get my arms and shoulders (the lifts and the dips) up to max in another six months (I used to do three sets of eight+ pull-ups and fifteen one-armed push-ups with each arm, now I need assistance to do pull-ups or dips). I'm pretty much happy with my strength otherwise, just want to keep what I have.

BTW, if you want a book or two on the subject, here are some leading ones (I've not read them though):

• Mike Mentzer's High Intensity Training Program
• High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way
• The Nautilus Bodybuilding Book

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Diet Links:

• Shangri-la Diet -- Best Practices

• Problems with the Shangri-la Diet?

• Shangri-la Diet Update

• Interview with Seth Roberts (author of the Shangri-la Diet)

• 62 pounds lost on the Shangri-la Diet

• Diet Index

• More Diet Links

• Ok, one more diet post

• What I eat on the Shangri-la Diet

• Quick links

• Additional Links on The Shangri-La Diet By Seth Roberts Ph.D.

• The diet is still working. I lost 44 pounds.

• What were they thinking?

• We are not recommending this diet. On the face if ... (way back in November of 2005)

Gee, it has really been quite the trip since November of 2005, hasn't it? A good one though.

Plateaus are not failure

Too often we learn the lesson that plateaus are failure. That when we reach a static point in the learning or the use of a skill, that means we have failed. Part of maturity is to realize that plateaus are only plateaus.

When I first learned to type, reaching thirty words a minute was a major benchmark, and then thirty-five (required for a number of jobs). I now seem to type at about a hundred or more words a minute. Does having flattened out mean that I've failed? There are those who decide that they have failed at typing when they started to flatten out at twenty words a minute. At that point they just gave up, quit practicing and still hunt a peck.

This came into sharper relief with the Shangri-la Method or Diet I am using to move my set point. So many people hit their first plateau and then give up. At nine months this morning, my weight in showed sixty-nine pounds lost -- but I'd say about half the time I've spent on the diet, and about half of every month, I spend on plateaus.

I know, in a typical diet (that works because if you change what you eat you will lose weight for 2-3 weeks), the diet works for 2-3 weeks, then there is a plateau and then failure and rebound. It is why they call it yo-yo dieting.

But, I've learned the lesson that a plateau is not failure, and as I've looked at my life, I've realized that there are many plateaus. My walking skill has probably reached a plateau. I'm not getting better at walking -- and I don't care to spend more effort learning how to walk better -- but I don't consider myself a failure at it and do not expect to give it up. Life is filled with examples of that sort.

Yet, so very often, we look at plateaus with the lesson that a plateau is a failure. Much like sometimes "a cigar is only a cigar," a plateau is only a plateau, and sometimes it is a great place to look out and see the world from.

Shangri-la Diet version of this post here.

What if the Shangri-la Diet doesn't work for you?

First off, maybe it really doesn't work for you. That can happen with anything that works for most people. I had a friend who was immune to Novocaine. His dentist insisted that that wasn't possible. It was painful for both of them.

But, maybe there is a solution to why the Shangril-la Method (SLM or "slim") isn't working when you try it. This I'm going to go over some of the solutions that have worked for some people.

• Reduce "ditto foods." Most people find that so-called ditto foods (high in flavor, always the same -- think chocolate bars or cokes) raise their set points. If you just reduce the ditto food -- replace eating snickers bars with penuche, for example -- that often makes a difference. For some people, the ultimate ditto food appears to be alcohol.

• Look for, and reduce sources of flavor during your two hour flavor-free window.
• snuff
• breath mints, especially long lasting or super mints
• mouth wash
• gum
• cigarette smoke, including second hand smoke
• rancid, smoke flavors, or other flavors in the oil or sugar; vanilla in the protein (many "natural" flavor protein mixes have vanilla added in).

• switch the type of flavor free calories
• if you are using sugar water, switch to oil
• if you are using oil, switch oils, or add a little bit of sugar water to the oil (only a teaspoon of sugar in a cup of water)
• switch to protein powders (get some of the new rice protein and mix it 50/50 with supro flavorless soy protein, for example).

• Get enough sleep. a number of people have reported that the diet quit working for them (or did not work as well) when they had long periods of time when they had to go without enough sleep. Consider some mild exercise (gardening, stretching, walking daily) -- that will help you sleep better.

• Get enough protein and vitamins. Take a supplement if you need to. Take a vitamin and mineral supplement anyway.
  

• Drink enough water -- stay fully hydrated. It is easy to just quit drinking sodas on the diet (a lot of people lose their taste for sodas) and not replace it with water.

• Keep track of your weight. Especially at 2-3 pounds a month, it is easy to lose track of where your weight was. My favorite story of this effect was with someone who kept complaining that they had lost some weight at first, but none thereafter.
  
• The first week's weight loss was first five pounds, then ten pounds, then fifteen pounds then twenty pounds. At that point, as we were talking, they realized that some of that weight loss had to have come after the first week.
• I've noticed the same effect in my own life. I was plateaued in the high 170s ... unhappy about it because I'd been plateaued so long at 173 ... I'd moved from 178 down about five-six pounds and kind of not noticed it.
  

• Use a food plan. That will make sure you get enough protein, enough vitamins, and exclude ditto foods. I use a food plan, with a lot of non-fat yogurt in it (I like yogurt) that my wife jokingly calls the heritage diet (since I have substantial Greek heritage from George and Lela Mylonas, my grandparents).

• Ask yourself if you have real issues. You may need counseling or oa.org or to feel you "deserve" or "have earned" the right to lose weight. Face and work through your issues so they do not weigh you down.

• Be consistent. Same time, same method. Your body will adjust to a method. If you change types of oil, each time you change it will take a week or so for your body to adjust to the differences (all oils are not the same, not even close, which was a surprise to me. I thought oil was oil. It isn't).

• Use enough calories. Less is not more. If two tablespoons barely works, one tablespoon is not better -- three tablespoons is. The guy who was using teaspoons -- of sugar -- instead of tablespoons of oil -- wasn't having any effect because he wasn't using enough calories.

• Take enough time for your set point to catch up with your weight. If you've pushed your weight below your set point by force of will, strict calorie restricted dieting and exercise, you won't feel the diet until your set point catches up with your weight. That can take some time.

• Don't worry about plateaus. You will go through them over and over again -- but unlike a "normal" diet where a plateau = failure, on SLM plateaus just mean your body is getting ready for the next move in losing more weight.
  

Those are things and approaches that have worked for many people who were having problems (it is why the boards have a large section devoted to "why am I not losing weight").

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I now have my wordpress blog at http://srmarsh.com/ -- it is on negotiation, which I don't expect to interest anyone here. I'll get started with posts there probably next week or so.

As do that, I expect my posting will slow down here and I will post more on relationship and grief issues.

As always, if you aren't seeing enough on the Shangri-la Method, visit the forums at http://boards.sethroberts.net/