Three weeks on the Extreme Fat Smash Diet

I recently discovered the fatsecret diet website (probably worth another post all on its own!) and noticed that one of the most effective diets as reported by their members is the Fat Smash Diet. I didn’t know anything about the diet, but I’m always influenced by effectiveness, so I decided to look into it.

It’s the creation of Dr. Ian Smith, who seems to be something of a celebrity himself on Celebrity Fit Club, a VH1 show I’ve never seen (not having VH1 being a significant barrier). It’s a fairly standard diet in that it’s made up of different phases and gives specific guidance on what’s okay to eat and what’s not. It’s mostly no-calorie-counting (as long as you stick to the approved foods) and requires exercise, but is not especially specific about what kinds.

During my basic research, I also discovered a variation on the Fat Smash Diet: The Extreme Fat Smash Diet (yeah, I had to put aside my desire to mock the name mercilessly).

The difference? While the Fat Smash Diet is a 12-week program, The “Extreme” version is made up of three extremely specific week-long “rotations” that can be repeated as needed. Where the regular version dictates categories of foods, the “Extreme” lists out exact foods and portions for each day, as well as a specific amount of cardio exercise. Many of the comments on Amazon suggest that it’s a pretty tough diet to follow, but that if you do, you’ll lose way more weight than the average diet.

That’s significant, because the book cover suggests that you’ll lose “up to 12 pounds in three weeks.” That’s much more than most legitimate diet folks would promise (the accepted rule of thumb being two pounds per week), but the Amazon reviews indicate that it’s for real.

As a fun-and-different twist, my husband, Daniel, joined me on this diet. He broke his back in 2003 and it was kind of a turning point for him; afterwards he got very active, took up cycling, and dropped about 50 pounds. He is currently at a pretty healthy weight but wanted to decrease his body fat percentage. He’s never dieted, so it’s been entertaining to see things from a “lay person’s” viewpoint.

We started the diet immediately upon returning from a family visit to Colorado. We ate pretty reasonably there, but wanted to get going right away so we’d be done before Thanksgiving (I know, I know, you’re supposed to only do diets you could conceivably do for the rest of your life… but we’re having company and I sincerely doubt they want 1/2 cup of rice and 2 servings of vegetables for Thanksgiving dinner).

The first thing we did was create a detailed meal plan (the book was a library book) and went shopping. At the time it felt a little overwhelming because most of the stuff on the plan wasn’t stuff we normally eat (not bad stuff, just out of the ordinary for us). Having the meal plan helped a lot, though.

Then there was the actual eating. On this diet, we learned to cook quinoa and barley (two of the approved substitutes for brown rice, which appears almost daily), we discovered a tasty brand of protein drink mix, and realized how much we like salsa, celery, carrots, and other “free” items.

Even though the diet is extremely specific, it is also fairly flexible. Take the brown rice as an example: it shows up frequently, but there are several recommended substitutes. Almost every time fruit appears, you have the option to have a piece of fruit, a cup of berries, or a cup of fresh-squeezed fruit or veggie juice (we used not-from-concentrate prepared juice because we don’t have a juicer, nor do we really want one). Many meals call for “4 ounces chicken, fish, or lean sirloin” which is great for varied tastes; I usually have the chicken and Daniel has the fish.

One of the other features is two optional daily snacks of up to 100 calories each. For me, this means one of the surprisingly tasty Klondike Slim-A-Bear ice cream sandwiches after dinner most nights. It’s amazing how far an ice cream treat goes towards keeping me content.

Similarly, the daily number of cardio minutes is mandatory, but you can do whatever kind of cardio you want, as long as it gets your heart rate up. I did spinning on my road bike, Dance Dance Revolution, and a couple of workout videos. That flexibility is what makes this diet followable for me.

The initial time involved was kind of a shock. I normally eat frozen lunches most days because I’m typically really busy with client work during the day. Cooking everything from scratch is a lot of work! I quickly learned to make large batches.

Also, even though we do a fair amount of exercise, we weren’t used to doing moderate amounts almost every day (we tend to do several hours on weekend days). It eats up a fair amount of time, so between that and the cooking, we felt really busy, but after the first week, it seemed to get easier.

So how did we feel on the diet? The first day we were both hungry. We also felt really hungry the fifth day, and were almost ready to make the following day a free day… but then Daniel weighed in (we weigh in daily) and realized he’d lost four pounds in five days. That did a lot for motivation!

Generally, I’ve felt good, even forgetting to eat until several hours after I could have. Daniel has felt a little weaker, occasionally light-headed, but nothing serious.

And the part I’m sure you’re really wondering about… In three weeks, I lost eight pounds and 4% body fat. Daniel lost 11 pounds and 3% body fat.

What will I do from here? Well, for this week, I’m going to focus on portion sizes and try to avoid a calorie surplus but not worry much beyond that. I’ll do the same the week of Christmas. Other than that, I’m going to keep on with the 500-calorie deficit plan, until I hit my goal weight (about nine pounds to go).

Then I will go back to focusing on portion size, but keep logging my weigh-ins and watch my average. If it goes up more than one pound (and keep in mind that this is a longer-term moving average), then I’ll go back to the diet rules.