Just wanted to let you guys know I'm trying out a new diet. Actually, it's more of an appetite suppression method, really. (It's called the Shangri-La Diet.)

You can read about it at the author's website, www.sethroberts.net. Seth Roberts is a psychologist, and he used self-experimentation and data from rat studies to come up with his theory. A critique (and reasonable description) of the diet is here, and SR rebuts this critique here. Interestingly, SR published his theory in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Briefly, the theory is our bodies have evolved so that in times of plenty, we eat more and gain weight, in anticipation of surviving the times of scarcity.
SR's theory is that when our bodies associate flavor with calories, we eat more and are more hungry. His insight was that if we consume calories with little or no flavor, our bodies lower our hunger level and lower what our body thinks our ideal weight should be. A Shangri-La dieter consumes extra light olive oil (flavorless!) or sugar water (we don't seem to associate "sweet" with calories), or both, and this reduces hunger. When you are less hungry, you don't eat as much...

I've been trying this out for about 3 weeks, and have lost 4 pounds overall. Not a lot, but I really have noticed the decrease in hunger. Normally, when I feel hungry, I really feel hungry! But now I don't feel nearly as hungry, and become full much more quickly. The feeling of fullness lasts longer, too.
The ingredients to the "diet" are not unfamiliar - vegetable oil and sugar - so it's not like you are taking weird drugs or doing strange things...

Another interesting aspect is that SR is using the "new media" to disseminate his message. His forums offer Shangri-La dieters a place to discuss their progress (or lack thereof) with each other. He used quite a few of these forum posts in his book on the diet... SR discusses this in his posting The Ecology of New Ideas.

I'll keep everyone posted. (My weight loss progression was: Week 1 - lost 2 pounds. Week 2 - gained 2 pounds. Week 3 - lost 4 pounds.)

My long term goal is to get down to 225 pounds!

C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 6/02/2006 03:31:00 PM