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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Doesn’t make a lot of sense, right? Well, one thing I left out: it’s pretty much impossible to do a respectable bike ride on 500 calories a day. The most I’ve done on a down day was a 10-mile tandem ride, and only that because I figured if I toppled off, my husband would come back for me. And I can’t solve the issue by just eating what I need to exercise and counting the net calories; the benefit from JUDDDD is only reported to happen if the calorie intake is low, not if you work off a higher intake.

So far, I’ve gotten around this problem by only riding Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends. It’s worked okay, but now that biking season has really started, I’m finding it really limiting. Daniel wants to do some hill training on the tandem on Monday nights, and lots of the group rides around here are not on Tuesday and Thursday (though some of them are, and those are the ones I’ve been doing).

It (eventually…) occurred to me that it’s less than logical to avoid exercise I want to do because of a diet. Just a bit counterproductive. However, I don’t really want this to just be an excuse to quit, so I’m going to continue to do my down days as scheduled until I actually have a scheduled ride that conflicts. At that point, I’ll switch to a combination of Tim Ferriss’s plan and The Lose Weight Diet, which I’ll explain in detail when I get there.

I am, however, keeping the JUDDDD in mind for winter, when it’s freakin’ cold out there and I only get out twice or three times a week to snowboard. It would be nice to maintain through the winter for once instead of gaining…

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I tend to eat meals on my down days that are closer to 200 or 250 calories, but I’m planning to change this because there are some significant benefits to doing five 100-calorie meals. Many people do better when they eat more often. As far as I can tell, this is both physical (blood sugar levels and so on) and psychological (it feels less like starving ). More meals also build in more nutritional diversity.

My tastes are likely not your tastes. I did a lot of my research on NutritionData, which I highly recommend—you might be surprised at what you learn there.

Here are my top five picks:

• Spinach salad with mushrooms and homemade dressing. A cup of spinach plus a half cup of white mushrooms (I really like mushrooms) weighs in at just 56 calories, leaving plenty for one of the delicious-sounding low-calorie homemade dressings I’ve found (all three recipes are based on cottage cheese, so I’m going to try them starting tomorrow after I go grocery shopping).
• Apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon. I like all things apple sprinkled with cinnamon. A medium apple (2.75″ diameter) is about 72 calories.
• Half a baked potato with sour cream. Potatoes have roughly 1 calore per gram, and I figure half of a medium sized potato would be about 75 calories. Throw in a dash of salt and 2 tablespoons of fat-free sour cream and you’re at an even 100. Or combine with the next item for a big splurge.
• Steamed broccoli. Broccoli and spinach are about the only green veggies I eat, but happily, they’re both super nutritious. I can fit two cups (cooked!) into 100 calories. Dash of salt and I’m a happy camper.
• Sliced mushrooms dipped in marinara sauce. Mushrooms are so low-calorie it’s ridiculous, and they’re also very high on the Fullness Factor scale. A half cup of sauce ranges between about 50 and 70 calories, depending on what kind you buy. With your remaining 30-50 calories, you’re looking at six to ten large mushrooms. That’s a lot of mushrooms! (Of course, I may be the only one who thinks that’s a good thing…)

This post is part of the “Top 5″ ProBlogger Group Writing Project.

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I know that lots of people don’t like to weigh themselves daily (and that Johnson says to only weigh after a down day), but it works for me. It’s going to be much easier to do today’s down day knowing that it’s really making a difference.

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Yesterday was my second down day. My first one was pretty much completely undone by the weekend, but I enjoyed myself guilt-free, so that was worth something to me. I’m expecting better results for the workweek, just because I’ll only have one up day after each down day.

For the record, each down day thus far has seen me three pounds down the next morning. I’m estimating that each up day will net me 1.5 pounds up (though that may or may not be the case… time will tell). If that’s accurate, I’m looking at a net loss of three pounds a week (3 down days * -3 + 4 up days * 1.5). Again, time will be the proof of that, but it sounds good.

I’m also watching my body fat percentage with interest. It’s currently at 32% (pretty high for a woman) and I’d like to get it closer to 20%. It will also be a good indicator of whether this diet is damaging my muscle mass or actually reducing fat. (I’m pretty sure I wasn’t looking at any water loss because I had upwards of five liters of water both down days.) Hopefully I’ll also be getting a bodybugg in the not-too-distant future and will be able to track my metabolism.

As for the diet itself: yesterday was significantly easier than Friday. I know this was partially due to being so bogged down with work, but I actually ended up skipping one of my shakes and substituting a Spicy Black Bean Burger for another one (it’s got 60 fewer calories—and tastes a lot better!).

The only downsides so far are that I’ve felt a little light-headed, and had a slight bit of gastrointestinal grumpiness. Not a big deal, but worth noting I suppose. Not sure if this is more to do with up days (too much iffy food after so little) or down days (freaking my body out by not giving it much food) but I’ll continue to monitor.

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I was immediately torn between the appeal of the diet and (probably reasonable) concerns about both the safety and the long term effects. I read more of the message board posts and started leaning towards the “good idea” side. For one thing, Beth, the girl who started the topic, said she had started the diet a couple of days before January 26, 2007. It’s now a full three months later and she still seems to be going strong. In her first post she said:

I don’t have a lot of success restricting calories every day–I’m always “falling off the wagon” so to speak. Maybe I can do it every “other” day!

So the longevity of it seems like a big triumph. Add to this the fact that lots of other people have joined Beth and are having similar success. Now there’s a Traineo group for the diet.

I read through the official website and it seems like there’s at least some reasonable science behind the diet. I’m also aware that it seems to work well to change things up regularly (both diet and exercise) so it makes sense from that perspective.

I think the strongest argument in favor of the diet is its “ROI,” to borrow the investing term. With most diets, the return on investment is relatively low. You have to work hard, forgo most things you like, and then if things go well, you will lose a pound or two a week. Not awful, but considering that most dieters spend their time swinging between feeling deprived and feeling guilty, it’s not great, either.

Many of the folks on the message board report that it’s really not very hard to stick to the Johnson plan because at most, you have to wait 24 hours to eat whatever it is you’re craving. Compare that to a “normal” diet that says, “Once you reach your goal weight, you can begin adding some things back into your diet.” Given the choice between 24 hours (or less) and several months, guess which one I’m going to choose?

Hence the ROI comment: most folks seem to feel like they’re getting a great return for very little “investment” (sacrifice, in this case). Many people also mention feeling really good on the down days, after the initial shock.

So all that said, I decided to give it a go. Today is my first down day, and the weekend will be up days (the message board folks have found that two up days in a row don’t derail things, and I know the limits of my own will).

I’ve had two SlimFast shakes so far, and have one left within my meager calorie budget. I’m hungry but not famished, so I’m putting off the final shake for a while. I’m also trying Hoodia in conjunction to reduce the likelihood of real hunger. Will it work? Who knows! But I’ll report back regardless.

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