I posted on Tuesday about having 1.5oz of Jack Daniels b/c I had so much calorie budget left. Yesterday I ended up having just 565 calories, when my target of 40% of my requirements is 750. Here's what I ate:

milk in tea: 60
Apple, 2 slices canadian bacon: 135
fish oil: 100
orange: 25
2 pickles: 10
dinner: campbells chicken noodle soup + veggies: 210 (soup: 150, carrots: 25, 3oz tomato: 15, 5 oz celery: 20, spices: 0)
orange: 25
-----
total: 565

And this morning, w/ my usual low morning hunger, 1 orange was enough. I'll eat a solid lunch and dinner, I'm sure. Of note is that Wed. night we stumbled across a new Fondue / Hot Stone restaurant in downtown Sunnyvale, and had a huge fondue dinner there. So that helps, I'm sure.

Wow, ADCR sure does get easier! After 2 weeks of somewhat difficult down-days, today I was hardly hungry all day long. 380 calories by 8pm was no problem. As a result of all that slack in my calorie budget, I had 1.5 oz of Jack Daniels (90 cals), and so now 20% of today's cals so far are ethanol. Mmm....

Note: fasting w/ Jack Daniels is not officially recommended by the Patri Health Plan. Don't try this at home. For advanced practitioners only.

Which reminds me of the 12 Beer Diet.

So I've switched from a mix of Warrior and Eat Stop Eat to doing the Johnson Diet (Alternate-Day Calorie Restriction), because the latter seems to have solider evidence for activation of SIRT, and it's the first thing which seems to be making progress on my stubborn fat.

But as someone who finds Warrior very natural, ADCR is kinda tough. The down days (700 calories) are a little tough (I eat *lots* of fruits and vegetables!), and on the up days I don't feel that much extra hunger. Today I had breakfast and lunch (neither huge), and at 9pm after my workout, I still wasn't hungry for dinner. 1.5 meals a day is plenty for my body, I guess. But if I don't eat more on the up days, I think the down days would be even harder.

I'm going to try ADCR for a couple more weeks and see if it gets easier, but given that I need to find a "lifestyle", not a "diet" (ie something that I can stick to for the rest of my life), I dunno if it will work for me. Maybe some variant like 60% of cals on down days, and no breakfast the day after would work. (I'm on 40% of cals for down days as I don't need much weight loss, the author is on 50% and says that is enough for SIRT activation although he recommends less).

I will again "talk my book" by saying that if you don't have a good diet and exercise program, you are not maximizing your power in life. (Unless you're under 30, in which case you have the power of youth, you little scamp, but it will soon desert you and leave you wondering why you keep gaining weight and looking rounder and rounder in the mirror every year until you actively do something about it. Unless you're one of those metabolic freaks who stays naturally thin all through life. Damn you).

I linked to another one earlier, but here's a nice page for alternate-day calorie restriction, with very compelling studies:

Oxidative stress (damage) is the ongoing damage to our proteins, lipids and DNA due to free radicals which are generated under normal conditions. Oxidative stress is the basic source of aging and diseases associated with aging. We found striking reduction in measures of oxidative stress in an eight week study (see article) of subjects following our diet. The chart below shows a 90% decline in nitrotyrosine levels over an eight week period. Nitrotyrosine is a commonly used indicator of oxidative stress. It is elevated in people with heart disease and has been shown to be 100 times more sensitive an indicator of impending heart attack than the standard Framingham risk factors - cholesterol, blood pressure, etc (see article).

There wasn't a control group (other than the initial population on day zero), but "No other dietary intervention or drug has been shown to produce this degree of reduction in oxidative stress."

It's great that there is so much research happening around these kinds of diets right now. And not just one type, but variations - ADCR, various lengths of fasting, alternate-week systems, etc. They all work via similar mechanisms, so each piece of evidence for one is evidence for all of them (Warrior Diet, etc.) And don't think this is just about weight, or even "just" about lifespan:

"Based on a variety of sources of evidence, following the Johnson UpDayDownDay Diet™ will prevent, delay or improve a wide range of diseases associated with age. These include asthma, arthritis, atherosclerosis (heart disease, stroke), allergies, auto-immune disease, infectious diseases of viral, bacterial and fungal origin, diabetes, cancer and central nervous system disorders such as Alzheimers, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis."

Keep in mind that pre-industrial populations eating their natural diets *don't get cancer or artherosclerosis*. These are the two major killers on our culture, and they are caused by our toxic environment (most likely diet). Time after time, when a population like the Inuit has switched over to a more western diet, cancer and heart disease have suddenly appeared (along with appendicitis, gum disease, diabetes, and a number of other illness). I'm no Luddite, obviously, I love technology, but the evidence that some aspects of modern life are deeply harmful is very compelling. Fortunately, I think it is mainly diet, so we may be able to keep most aspects of our lifestyle, while greatly improving our health.

Here's another instantiation (website, book, etc.) of alternate-day fasting.

I just got the Eat Stop Eat book and will read it soon.