shangri-la
With absolutely no intention of going on a diet, I read a recently DUGG and del.icio.us’d article about a new diet by a crazy cooke of a pseudo-scientist, UC Berkeley professor, Seth Roberts. The article is simply a blog post about a guy who is trying the “shangri-la diet” prescribed by Dr. Roberts, which isn’t really a diet at all, and is finding AMAZING results. Roberts “discovered” (theorizes, really) through self-experimentation, that your body (his body) regulates your appetite by setting a target weight based on the amount of fat it thinks you need to store. Supposedly, based on thousands of years of human development, your body equates flavor and good taste with those rare times when food is abundant, and therefore thinks it should store fat instead of burning it. The “diet” is really a natural way to suppress your appetite by conditioning your body into “knowing” that food is always going to be abundant, and therefor there is no need for storing extra calories (fat), and therefore it will regulate your appetite drastically lower. The blog poster is not overweight, and realized quickly that he was getting too thin, so he had to change up the diet.
The way you do it is simple. (I am going to butcher the pseudo-science, but here goes my brief explanation…) According to the plan, you find at a least a single 2 hour period in the day where you will ingest absolutely nothing with any flavor, including coffee, tea, beverages, even toothpaste. Water is OK. In the middle of the 2 hour period, you consume 200 flavorless calories in the form of, get this, 1 tablespoon of flavorless oil (extra extra olive oil) or a tablespoon of sugar (or some kind of flavorless fructose syrup, even better) dissolved in water. The idea is to break the association between the flavor and the calories. It’s a lot more complicated than that, and there are many more variables. I am going to read the book soon.
Supposedly, according to every blog, review, article, anything that I can find, it is working really well for most people. Again, all it does is drastically reduce the appetite, therefore you get fuller, faster, and you consume less calories in the day. After a week or two, most people are seeing major appetite changes. It seems completely crazy, but what could be the harm in a tablespoon of sugar a day?
So, two days ago I started. Of course there are no effects yet, but it’s an experiment. I didn’t think I was going to be able to find the book (“The Shangri-La Diet” (Seth Roberts)), but I did today by accident. I’ll read it, and figure out the rest of the details as I go. So there we are, the Shangri-La Diet. Probably bullshit, must be healthier than Atkins (company bankrupt by the way…) but I’ll let you know soon.
Here’s the original blog post I read.
Here’s a more detailed explanation of the theory.
Here is the most interesting piece, a New York Times article by one of the authors of “Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything” (Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner).
You can make up your own mind.
Chris- I find your posts absolutely hilarious. You seem to be able to squeeze humor out of the most mundane situations. Thanks for the entertainment.
I read about this and was thinking of giving it a go… but I’d much rather see if you have severe side effects first. Keep us posted.
I’ve just spent two hours following those links all over the web and I’m intrigued enough to give it a go. I’m not overweight but am at the heavier end of the healthy weight range, and am about ten pounds heavier than I was two years ago and would like to go back to that weight. A lot of the people who have followed the Shangri-La “diet” started when they were very overweight, and people at that end of the weight range tend to lose weight relatively easily when they start a diet. I’ll be impressed if I lose any weight because it’s always those last ten pounds that are hardest to shift. I’m interested to know how much you want/need to lose, Chris. Guys seem to lose weight more easily than girls. (Are you reading the huge disclaimer between the lines of this comment?)
I’m curious to hear what kind of results you get. http://boards.sethroberts.net/index.php?board=5.0 is where people are generally posting, both good and bad results, though I’ll try to check in on your blog before long.
Best luck.
I’m stunned. It’s Friday night and I’ve been following this diet for three days and I have lost a kilo. What’s that, about two pounds? I’m completely amazed.
I’ve been having one dose of oil (Wed & Thur at 11am and Fri at 4pm) and I have stopped doing that thing where I stand in front of the fridge/cupboard and search in vain for something to eat. That used to be one of my favourite things to do, but now I’m just not that hungry. Right before mealtimes I feel quite hungry, hungry enough to eat a ‘normal’ plate of food, but I sit down to eat and find I can’t finish it. On Thursday I couldn’t finish a sandwich, and I’ll usually have a sandwich and then maybe an apple and then maybe some cookies with my coffee. Crazy.
Side effects? I have a headache. It wont go away. I haven’t had much sleep this week and I’ve been a bit stressed with work but this is a pretty bad headache and I think it’s related to the diet. If it doesn’t settle down in the next few days I might have to rethink things. I’m running out of Tylenol.
I take the oil with a glass of water. The oil floats on top of the water so when I take a big gulp the oil gets washed down and I barely taste it. I’ve been having Grapeseed Oil. The sugar thing makes me nervous because there’s a family history of diabetes.
So that’s my progress report. I’ve set myself a goal to lose five kilos by the end of June. I’m about to go on a two-week business trip, and have two more week-long trips before the end of June, so it’s going to be a challenge. But this diet seems to have simply supressed my appetite so I’m actually not too worried about putting on weight while I’m away, because I’m just not eating as much.
(Someone followed the link from my last comment to my blog, but I haven’t blogged about it yet. I’ll write something at the end of June if I reach my goal weight.)
Oops, I forgot to answer the question, but hitting back did not get me my post back.
Trish, your experience is fairly common — the headaches seem to last for several days. One thing that helps is to break the oil down into two doses, half each dose, until your body gets used to digesting it. Also, I used a 50/50 mix of olive oil and grapeseed oil for a while, which made it easier.
I feel quite hungry, hungry enough to eat a ‘normal’ plate of food, but I sit down to eat and find I can’t finish it. On Thursday I couldn’t finish a sandwich, and I’ll usually have a sandwich and then maybe an apple and then maybe some cookies with my coffee. Crazy.
That has been my experience for the past six months. It has been a strange reversal of what was normal for me.
Thanks, Stephen! I’ll try the half-dose.
hmm, it said add 7 and 0, but a 7 got a “sorry, you didn’t pass math” comment …
It was a long post, I’ll try it again later.
I’ve been following Seth’s methoad for about a month now and have lost 6lbs, which I’m very happy about. I have been having side effects though, which are not particularly pleasant. I’ve had constipation, followed by bouts of painful constipatative diarroeia (if you know what I mean!) Has any one else had these side effects? Will they go away? It’s really not nice! Am I doing long term damage to my body?
Thanks,
Angela