Diet Trials : Paul McKenna

It doesn’t seem like I have been on the Paul McKenna diet for 6 weeks now. I know that I have faltered from time to time but in general I have much better control over what I eat. A classic example of this was the other night, a few hours after I had had my evening meal, I felt like I needed something else to eat. I was good enough, or maybe it was laziness, not to go into the kitchen on the hunt for a snack. I felt very good the next day not to have given in to this craving.

For the last few weeks I haven’t weighed myself, partly because my scales needed new batteries, but mainly because I didn’t really want to know how much I had put on during my lapse times. Anyway on Sunday I thought I would just step on the scales to see if the batteries had gained any life into them magically! To my surprise / horror the scales were working so I thought that I better continue the weigh in process since I was now stood on the scales. Hurray! I was down to 17 stone 7 pounds. I had lost another 2 pounds since my last weigh in back at the end of Week 4. This extra 2 pounds has really surprised me as I was sure that I would have put some weight back on. So all I need to do is keep going and slowly I will keep losing weight. I think this has been helped by the extra exercise that I had on Saturday.

Here’s a diet plan that has come from Sonoma County in the USA that is new on the market. Sonoma County is renowned in the USA for producing fine wines from it’s 200 wineries. The Sonoma diet was developed by Connie Gutterson Ph.D who is a dietician and a culinary expert. Her Sonoma diet book has been published by Meredith Books who were also responsible for the South Beach Diet.

The diet claims to help people lose weight in just 10 days, but it is meant to be a life change diet to try to get people to eat more fresh, natural and unprocessed foods.

The basis of the diet revolves around 10 Power Foods which have extra nutritional benefits. These foods include broccoli, almonds, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, blueberries, whole grains, spinach and grapes. In the book there are recipes that are based around the power foods. These power foods may cause a problem for some as you may not be able to get hold of all the ingredients where you live depending on the season.

The Sonoma diet has three sections or waves. The first wave lasts for 10 days and targets your weight by restricting calories and reducing sugar and fat intake. The second wave introduces more food. Wave 2 lasts until the weight is lost. You only start Wave 3 when you are ready for a life style change.

The Sonoma diet was tested on a group of 45 women and in 14 days each woman lost an average of 22 pounds. To me that sounds great, and much more than I have lost on the Paul McKenna diet…but I don’t really want to go back to a faddy diet.

According to NutraIngredients-usa.com is has been found that if you stay on a low carb diet like the Atkins diet in the long term then it could raise cholesterol levels and increase the risks of heart attacks. The Atkins style diet does show more weight loss than a low fat diet over six months but there are these risks involved.

Recent stats show that in Europe, 26% of people are actively trying to lose weight. In Europe there are 14 million people who are obese or overweight with a staggering 3 million of that figure children. That’s a lot of people….but in the USA up to 45% of women and 30% of men are dieting.Worldwide there are over 300 million people that are obese.

On the Atkins diet, as you may well know, your energy mainly comes from protein and fat, and this has raised concerns in the past about the risk of heart disease. A study has been performed by a team of researchers from Switzerland who have been comparing diets for the last few years in terms of weight loss and cholesterol levels.

They have reported that on average, people on the Atkins style diet lost 3.3kg more that those on low fat diets, but after 12 months there was no real difference. It was found though that the Atkins dieters had higher levels of cholesterol, including the low density lipoprotein bad cholesterol. This study supports the theory that the low carb, high fat/protein diet like the Atkins can cause long term complications, but does confirm that in the short term weight loss is significant. I used to be a regular Atkins dieter but knew in the back of my mind really that it couldn’t be good for you as you cut out what I would say are good carbs like fruit.

There has been talk for some time about a new experimental weight loss drug called Acomplia or Rimonabant. It is now being said that Acomplia or Rimonabant is getting closer to approval by the FDA.

The new drug has been undergoing testing and trials over the last few years. The tests with Acomplia against a placebo has shown that it is effective and does show sustained weight loss after two years of taking the drug. The overweight adults who took Acomplia had lost significantly more weight than those not taking Acomplia. The test also showed that it had increased the levels of HDL cholesterol which is good for you.

Acomplia or Rimonabant works by reducing the appetite, blocking certain receptors in the brain. Those that take Acomplia can expect to lose 10% of their body weight in a year. All sounds good to me. I know that dieting isn’t the way to go, and Paul McKenna is right in what he says about changing the way we look at food, but to me if I wasn’t hungry then I wouldn’t eat, or if my appetite was surpressed I may eat less. Plus if all I have to do is remember to take a tablet everyday, and I already have to to balance my thyroid level, then am I onto a winner?

For more information on Acomplia try this website that helps you understand about buying Acomplia online

I found an article on FoodNavigator.com which details what we can expect in the years to come in terms of weight problems and obesity.

It has been the case for many years that the USA has always been considered as the fattest nation, but in Europe we are catching up. All of this despite the huge amounts of money being spent each year on dieting products. It is forecasted that the American waistline will continue to increase while they expect the amount spent on diet products to increase by 20% to be at $54bn by 2009, thats about £30bn. The USA has the greatest proportion of obese people compared to anywhere else in the world, and by 2009 almost 70% will be overweight.

But, and this is what we have to be careful of, is that the transatlantic weight gap is narrowing. Currently 48% of the European population is overweight, which is expected to rise above 50% by 2009. Having a normal BMI (Body Mass Index) will no longer be normal in Europe. In the UK already 40% of the population have a BMI of 25-30 which is classed as overweight. This global increase in weight is having the affect of boosting spending on diet foods, diet drinks and diet books.

In the diet food indusrty, the low fat and no fat foods make up the biggest proportion of new product launches. In 2005, 10.4% of new food products released claimed to be low in fat. New diets tend to turn into crazes as more people join in. In 2004 which was the height of the Atkins Diet, 14.1% of new food products introduced claimed to be low in carbs. The increase in these food products does go to show a trend towards long term consumer health. So why is it that there is an increase in the amount being spent on diet products, but the amount of overweight people is still set to increase? Is it because we just don’t stick to the diets? Generally we must have quite low willpower and motivation….that sounds about right!

Ok, so as I carry on the Paul McKenna diet there is not much to say on a day to day basis. I will carry on posting things that happen to me as I carry on the diet, and I’ll keep you up to date with my progress. I still have to get back to listening to the hypnosis CD to get me back on track. I have found that blogging about my experience has really helped me keep motivated… I just need to get my willpower sorted and get fully back on track with the Golden Rules. The hardest thing for me is that on this diet it is key that you don’t forbid any foods and eat what you want. To be this keeps coming back to me that I can just eat what I want, when I want…not like it should be taking into account my hunger levels. I still have more work to do!

Anyway while I have been on the Paul McKenna diet I have become increasingly interested in the whole dieting process and I am starting to research the various dieting methods that have become popular and will be looking at the medical developments on the weight loss front.

I have been asked a question by one of the Diet Trials readers about the hypnosis CD that comes with the “I Can Make You Thin” book, so I thought that it would be better for me to answer the question so that everyone can read my thoughts on it.

I have always been a bit sceptical but curious about hypnosis. I suppose it has a lot to do with trust and being able to relax. I was quite confident before I listened to the CD that I would be ok, as I had trust in Paul McKenna. I listened to the CD a few weeks ago so it is not really fresh in my mind what actually happened and because you are in a sort of hypnotic state even straight after listening to it I wasn’t 100% sure what had been said. Being under hypnosis means that messages can be sent to your subconscious that will make you act or think in a different way.

One thing that I must stress for anyone that is contemplating listening to the CD and maybe are a bit sceptical, you are conscious all the way through….just very relaxed. You can hear what is going on and if for what ever reason you needed to break off from the CD you can just get up. When you do finish the CD you feel very awake and alert, not sleepy or anything like that.

Anyway on the CD Paul Mckenna speaks in his usual soft, calm voice and at times. All you have to do is follow the instructions that he tells you to do such as counting down. The counting down part I suppose like our reader suggests is just a way to get us to allow Paul’s suggestions to get into our subconscious. I can’t quite remember what happened during this part as I was so relaxed, but I remember that Paul was reaffirming the details of the book and the SkyOne show. At the end of the CD Paul starts to bring you back into the real world and you wake up fine.

The CD did help me in the early weeks and there were times that I found myself doing something that wasn’t part of the Golden Rules and I found that I heard Paul reminding me of what I should be doing. I really need to play this CD again and perhaps do it each day for a few days to really get the messages into my subconscious again.

What does weight mean anyway? One of the ways to know where you stand in terms of health and weight is to use the Body Mass Index to work out what weight you should be for maximum health.

There are lots of Body Mass Index Calculators on the web that make it easier for you to get your BMI. Check out this site to calculate yours.

So I am 6′ 1″ and currently 17 stone 9 pounds (or 247 pounds). My BMI is 32.6. If you are 30.0 and above you are classified as obese. Great! To get to the level of being Overweight, and having a BMI of between 25.0 and 29.9, I need to be 16 stone 3 pounds. To get to the “normal” weight level I need to be 13 stone 7 pounds. Now to me if I was 13 and a half stone I would look really ill.

Well I did it this morning… even though I didn’t really want to, but I sort of got forced to by my wife. It was weigh in day!

I knew that I wouldn’t be surprised by what I saw, as I know that I haven’t been following all of the golden rules. I find the eating what your want when you are hungry really easy…. but I keep neglecting to eat my food consciously and therefore I am finding that I am eating alot more than I was doing in the early weeks.

A few weeks ago on Day 16 I cheated a bit by weighing myself. After the first 2 weeks on the Paul Mckenna diet I had lost 5 pounds which I was really pleased with as I knew it was going to be a slow and steady weight loss. But it was probably around the second week that I started to get a bit complacent and not putting the diet as priority anymore. So this morning when I got on the scales I was still 17 stone 9lbs. Plus I went out last night for a few beers so felt a bit bloated! So I still have lost the 5 pounds and managed to keep it off. It would have been disasterous if I had put any weight on, but I hadn’t.

I must get back on track and get back to how I was in the first few weeks of the diet where I was eating consciously and listening to my body. I am determined to succeed!

The last 4 weeks have gone quite quickly for me, which is surprising as normally when I am on a diet it seems like time almost stands still. During the 4 weeks I have been able to do normal things like go out for meals, which if I was on the Atkins diet would be very tricky to find a restaurant that is carb free. It almost feels like I am not really on a diet at all.
One thing I forgot to do was to weigh myself. Well more like I got the scales out of their hiding place in the wardrobe… but couldn’t get on them. Not too sure why….scared I suppose of failing and I know that I have slipped up a bit. Being able to put my thoughts and feelings about my weight on here has really helped me, but I really want to be able to say that I have lost a decent amount of weight. I will tomorrow weigh myself and post it up, fingers crossed that I haven’t put any weight on….that would be disasterous. I think I am now worried as I really do believe in this diet and if this hasn’t worked then I am going to be really lost as to what to do next. I know there is no miracle weight loss programme, and it does require hard work and motivation, but I really do just want to lose a few stone. I suppose there is always liposuction if I get really stuck!