Extreme Dieting: The Zig Zag Method

No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training...what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. -- Socrates(469-399 BCE)
I weighed 175 lbs at the start of the wrestling season my junior year. Within one month I was wrestling the 145 lbs weight class. The key is in a diet that tricks your body out of invoking the starvation response. An enduring condition can not be maintained by a temporary change, and in this way no diet actually works because that's exactly what it is, a temporary change in your nutrition habits. The proper and healthy way to do things would be with a fat loss of approximately two pounds per week. A month of two of hardcore dieting can, however, help you reach the goal that you want to maintain in the long term. Before I go into detail, we should look at what exactly is the starvation response. "Over thousands of years, humans have developed a weight-regulating mechanism that recognizes when there’s a food shortage and decreases energy expenditure to 'protect you.' This survival mechanism is known as the starvation  response.”(Tom Venuto, Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle)



The Zig Zag method of dieting can trick your body out of this habit, which has become all but obsolete for the average person living in a first world country. So how do we get started then? It's simple. The only thing you will eat for the entire day is one banana. Seems a little harsh, but you're trying to lose as much weight as possible in as little time as possible. No pain no gain. You get what you pay for, etc. Here, though, is wherein comes the trick. Every fourth day you eat as many calories as you normally would (a good amount preferably but don't go too crazy). It is important to ingest a lot of complex carbohydrates and lean protein. You want foods like tuna, oatmeal, yams, whole wheat bread, eggs. Non processed, natural foods are the best in terms of nutritional value. This high calorie day will prevent your metabolism from adjusting or adapting to famine, which is what it will interpret a crash diet to be. You're going to lose some muscle this way. It sucks but you'll have more time to build it back up since you're losing the fat so quickly.

Final Note: If you're serious about getting in shape and having the body you strive for, you have to work out hard. You don't need to have this crazy image of a person working out three hours a day to get cut. Just put forth maybe 4 hours a week and do a little cardio. Be confident in yourself; don't say "I can't wait till I can take my shirt off and look good this summer." Rather, tell yourself, "Wow, I'm glad I worked out today. I feel great." Good luck and +stay positive+