Hi!
My name is Bob Abbott, and I'm the dieter who's reporting the weight loss results you see below. My goal is to get rid of those extra pounds without causing myself too much grief.

In the past, I've tried reduced-calorie diets (hated them), and low-carb diets (okay, but not thrilled about them).

This time, I'm trying a calorie shifting diet, which is not unlike a low-carb diet, but the emphasis is on food combinations and the shifting of the types and amounts of calories consumed. As noted below, I'm using the Beyond Calories regimen in Fat Loss 4 Idiots.

I'll explain more as I go through diet, and let you know how I'm making out. Right now, I'm off to have a mid-evening snack of tomatoes and peanuts (yeah, I know they don't go together ).

Day 1: Wednesday, April 1, 2009: 229.5 pounds
It's said that a public declaration of your intentions helps you live up to the resolutions you make.

This will be mine, as I try to drop from 230 pounds to 200 pounds. I'm a 6'2? male, and I will be 62 years old on April 11. Like everyone else, I'd like to keep eating the way I have, but know I need to lose some pounds.

The regimen I'm going to follow and test is called a calorie shifting diet. 18 years ago I took off 30 pounds with a calorie-reduced diet, which involved careful selection of foods, portion control, and a lot of longing glances at food. Don't want to do that again. More recently, I used a low-carb diet to take off the same amount, and found it much easier and quicker.

Based on what I've seen of this calorie shifting diet, it appears to be similar to low-carb, with some fruit added (which, in turn, pushes it toward South Beach diet territory I believe).

Day 2: 230 pounds
Well, I was looking forward to seeing the scale dip today; although when I was being realistic I thought I might hold steady. But, the end result was a half pound increase.

Not that I'm too concerned; I know that body weight varies a bit each way throughout the day and the week, so maybe I just caught an updraft.

On the bright side, the first day was easily managed with no food cravings or pangs of hunger, and I did stay very close to the guidelines (my only cheating moment was a small handful of peanuts in the early evening).

So, I'm staying the course today and will check the scale again tomorrow morning.

Day 3: 227 pounds
Although I wasn't concerned about going up yesterday, I did feel extra pleased this morning when the scales showed fewer pounds.

At 227, I'm below where I started, but not getting complacent. I'm going to be optimistic about tomorrow as well, since I walked for about half an hour today, pulled along at a good clip by an aging but still strong Jack Russell terrier. I can never walk fast enough to suit him.

Yesterday, and today so far, have gone by easily. I don't feel I'm missing any food or particular foods. The combinations of fruit, vegetables, and meats/cheeses have kept away the feeling of hunger. In fact, I'm not really eating as much as I should according to this program.

Day 4: 227.5 pounds
The yo-yo effect continues on my scales. It's just a blip, of course, and I know I should only weigh myself once or twice a week. Still, who among us can resist at least peeking at the scales while dieting.

I'm staying the course, trying to stick to the program, which has been easy. No shortage of food, although today I have been craving a bit of robust flavor, which I'm sure I'll be able to resist for the rest of the day. One other note, I walked for about 30 minutes earlier today.

The diet I'm on is called Beyond Calories, and it's part of the Fat Loss 4 Idiots program. The Fat Loss for Idiots program is made up of three parts, the one I'm on, the main diet regimen, and a menu generator for this diet. Both diets use the calorie shifting strategy, and I'll have more on that, as well as these specific diets, in coming days.

Day 5: 225.5
As noted in earlier posts, the diet I'm following is called a calorie shifting diet.

In a nutshell, this means rotating your menu selections through meals and types of foods. So, for example, today's selection calls for meals with just protein, some with just vegetables, and some that combine fruit, vegetables, and protein. The combinations keep changing every day. You'll note I did not mention carbs; during the weight loss phase, you only get those that come from fruit, vegetables, and protein foods. No bread, pasta, and so on.

While I like all kinds of carbs, they are also my downfall when it comes to weight control. So, it makes sense to largely exclude them from my weight loss program.

Day 6: 225 pounds
After a couple of slips yesterday evening (a couple of sweet dessert things) I'm on top of things again and sticking to the diet plan.

With the Beyond Calories / Fat Loss 4 Idiots regimen, I eat 6 meals a day (but smaller than regular meals when I ate 3 times a day). For each meal, I choose from among 6 meal ‘plans'. I put the word ‘plan' in quotes because these are simply the combinations of foods you eat at each of the meals. For breakfast, for example, it was two protein types of foods, for another meal I might choose one that includes two vegetable selections and one protein selection.

Each of the 6 meal plans includes a specific combination like this. While the combinations for each meal are specified, you can eat the six sets in any order you like. For example, if there's fruit in that day's combinations, I usually choose that for breakfast. And for the dinner meal, I usually choose a set that contains both a meat and vegetable.

So far, it's worked well. The weight is coming off, and I don't find myself craving or feeling hungry at all. Sometimes I even have trouble eating all six meals.

Day 7: 224.5 pounds
I'm about to wrap up the first week, and I'm going strong. Down 5 pounds in 7 days, and no stress or diet strains.

In addition to the points I made yesterday, I would add a few more points about this calorie shifting diet. It resembles a low-carb diet in terms of the food you eat, primarily meats, cheeses, and other protein-rich foods, along with vegetables, and a little bit of fruit.

You are encouraged, but not bound, to get half of your daily food intake from a list of vegetables. It includes the usual suspects, such as broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce, and squash, as well as some familiar fruits such as apples and oranges.

You are strongly encouraged to drink 10 glasses of water or other appropriate beverages a day. Diet soda and coffee (with creamer and artificial sweeteners only) are okay.

Day 8: 223.5
I was pleased after weighing this morning that the trend continued in the right direction, especially considering I got off track several times yesterday. I ate a couple of granola bars because I wasn't in the right place at the right time to eat as I should. For the next couple of days, though, I'll have no excuse, so I'll try stay on track to wind up the first 10 days.

The Beyond Calories plan I'm using (part of the Fat Loss 4 Idiots program), works on a 10 day cycle. After completing the first 10 days, you simply repeat, hopefully from a lower starting point. You may take a few days off before repeating, or not. I plan to take the break, and then repeat or else try the other plan, which I'll describe later.

Day 9: 224 pounds
Just about made it past the first 10 day round.

In the Beyond Calories plan, you can take few days off (or you can continue by restarting the 10-day sessions again right away). I'm opting for a few days off, especially since it will be my birthday tomorrow; I scheduled the diet to wrap up the first 10 days before it.

I could continue on without much difficulty, but I've been missing bread, buns, and the occasional sweet treat for the past couple of days. So, I'll take a break, and try to discipline myself again by in two or three days.

Day 10: 224.5 pounds
Well, I would have like to have ended my first 10 day stretch on a downward note. But, throughout the past 10 days, it seems my weight changes somewhat variably, rather than in a linear fashion.

Still, it's been a worthwhile 10 days, with a weight loss of 5 pounds. And, it was easy, with absolutely no hunger pangs and only an occasional hankering for something sweet, or something made with flour (a carb, like bread, for example).

Given the ease of this regimen (Beyond Calories, in the Fat Loss 4 Idiots program) I plan to start the diet again in a couple of days. In the meantime, I'll relax my eat

Days 11 & 12: 225, 225 pounds
It's a good thing there aren't too many weekends like the one just past. As you can see, I picked up some weight (although this may just be a normal fluctuation) from a couple of dinners out with family.

I'm still on my ‘days off' from the diet, and will likely continue through tomorrow as well, since it may be tough to stay on plan.

Follow-up Note:
I should have known better. The 'days off' continued, and I lost my focus.

Day 27: 222 pounds
(Follow-up note: After another couple of days of being 'mostly' on the plan, I dropped another couple of pounds -- now here's my diary entry for the 27th day)

A few words today on portion control. It's something of interest to me, since I've been on Weight Watchers in the past, and my wife is on it now. If you're not familiar with WW, it's portion control that can drive you crazy, as you weigh and measure almost everything.

With Beyond Calories, there's very little emphasis on portion control at all. If your weight was stable before you started, then you'll continue to eat about the same amount or a bit less, but breaking that total up into six meals, rather than three meals a day. At each meal, you would eat about half of what you ate at a meal before you started on this diet.

The developers of the diet also say they provide only food choices which have a high fiber rating and a positive G/I Rating. That, they say, forces faster weight loss to happen; in other words you're burning more fat and storing less or none.

Concluding note
After about 30 days, I slipped off the plan and fell back into my previous eating habits. Since then, my weight has fluctuated between 218 pounds and 222 pounds, depending on my level of activity and amount of discipline at the table.

My evaluation of this calorie shifting diet:
I liked this approach to weight loss, or at least in comparison to both calorie-restricted diets and low-carb diets I've tried. The combinations seemed a bit strange at times, but provided enough variety to satisfy me. And, since there really are no portion controls, there was no shortage of food.

As with other diets, I found the need to plan and prepare appropriate foods the biggest challenge. For example, if I was having two protein-rich foods for breakfast, I would have to cook eggs and perhaps bacon; in non-dieting times, I would simply have a bowl of cereal with milk.

I still need to lose more weight, so I expect I'll take a run at this again. It was, by far, the best plan I've tried so far.

Click here to learn more about Beyond Calories & Fat Loss 4 Idiots

Copyright 2009