Now I’ve had my baby (December 21, 2008!) and I’m ready to lose the baby weight and get strong for the events we have planned for the summer (among them: a 350-mile 5-day bike tour). I ended up having a C-section (not my idea!) so I have been exercise-restricted, but today is my six-week follow up appointment and I expect the doctor will give me the go-ahead.

I’ve started tracking my food with Gyminee, and I’ll be focusing on cycling and also a bit of running and swimming with the goal of finishing a sprint-length triathlon this summer. Also, the good folks at Body Media (the company that makes the bodybugg) have provided me a GoWear Fit unit to review, so I’ll be reporting my experiences with that, too.

Finally, a visitor sent me the following questions:

I’m trying to lose 15 pounds, and was hoping I can get your input.  It’s odd, but I have coincidentally been studying and thinking about trying both Extreme Fat Smash and JUDDD diet and then I ran across your blog which discuss both (I’m also interested in Crack the Fat Loss Code by Wendy Chant).  Can you compare the two from your experience (difficulty, ease in maintaining, quirks, pros/cons, etc…)?

In my experience, the Extreme Fat Smash diet is both more difficult and more effective than JUDDD. I don’t think either one of them is sustainable (though some might be able to stick with JUDDD for a long time, I guess). I see both of them as a kick-start to get the scale needle moving in the right direction—but you have to follow it up with something that will work long-term, or you’ll just undo your progress.

Since you want to lose 15 pounds, I’d probably go with the Extreme Fat Smash and really devote yourself to it for at least three weeks. It’s highly unlikely you’ll lose all 15, but you’ll probably get a good chunk of the way there—it’s a heck of a kick-start. Then you can either do it again or simply follow a reduced-calorie diet for the rest of the loss you’re looking for.

One thing I liked about the Extreme Fat Smash is that I didn’t have to put much thought into what to eat or how much. It took a while to prep the food, but mentally, it was easier than deciding what to eat. I do well when given a specific plan, though, and knowing it was “only for three weeks” kept me motivated when I otherwise would have given in to temptation.

Do you have any suggestions on how to control hunger?  I am really bad at portion control and eating chocolate.  I try so hard, but I often can only go a few days, at most, before I cave.

NutritionData.com has a very cool feature that tells you the “Fullness Factor” of pretty much every food. I’ve found this helpful in reducing hunger—when I’m really in the groove, I have to work to meet minimum calorie guidelines (this usually takes a week or two of being serious before I’m that in tune with my body, though). Figure out what foods give you the most bang for your calorie buck by experimenting a little.

As far as chocolate goes, it’s like any other temptation… it’s too easy to give in if you’re constantly considering it. For me, that means I need to keep chocolate either out of the house altogether or not easily accessible. I use social pressure to my advantage here, too. For instance, I won’t open a sealed bag of chocolate chips to munch because I’d be embarrassed if I got caught. However, when there’s an open bag of chocolate chips, I’ll snag a few every so often… so I have to avoid having open bags around.

I’m also a big fan of bribery. Right now, my husband and I have a deal that if I stay on track with my weight loss goals, I’ll get a GPS computer for my bike in June. So when I’m faced with a delicious-looking piece of cake when I don’t have room for it in the calorie budget (as I was on Monday!), I can ask myself, “Is this piece of cake worth losing that GPS computer?” When put that way, it’s obviously not worth it, and I was able to resist.

For stuff that you really love, though, it’s smart to make room for it in your diet. With that piece of cake, I ate less of other things on Tuesday so that I could have the cake. I have dessert almost every evening, too, because I plan for it. For me, it’s an important component in avoiding that “deprived” feeling.

Does anyone else have some good tips for controlling hunger and avoiding temptation? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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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.

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