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Can you be more specific? What about carbs, sugars & alcohol?

Yes, but take it with the disclaimer that this diet might be unsafe for some people. I was 30 and about 100 pounds overweight when I started my first diet, and I was down to about 60 pounds overweight when I started the drastic one.

I decided to keep calories between 800-900 per day. I started with a two day fast. I drank some water and diet soda those two days. On the third day, I probably had around 600 calories. I didn't care much where the calories came from, since that was the only thing I was eating that day. I think I had a fish sandwich and some fries.

After that, I kept it pegged between 800-900 calories for months. On a typical day, I had nothing for breakfast, a ham sandwich (low calorie bread, one slice of ham, and nonfat cheese) for lunch, and a lean cuisine for dinner with possibly a few slices of bread. I only avoided high fat stuff because it was high calorie. Ever week or two, I would have McDonalds or fast food or something. Usually on those days I would still keep it below 1,000 calories, and I still lost weight. Alcohol : I stuck to vodka. 50 calories per ounce. Yes, I did a bit of drinking.

Excercise? I sing in a band that is fairly high energy about once a week. That was about all of the excercise I got, but it was pretty intense. After I dropped the weight, I started doing a lot of situps to try and tone my shrunken stomach. I do 400 a day several times a week now.

So I started at 267, lost 40 over the course of about 7 or 8 months on a normal diet, and then I started the drastic diet and lost 60 in about 5 months. I'm around 167 now (about 5'11 or 6'0").

The negative aspect is that my metabolism is still kind of screwed up. If I top 1,500 or so calories in a day, I start to gain, so I am still eating really light. I weigh myself every day. I probably don't get enough to eat by anyone's standards right now, but I will never let myself get overweight again.

The diet was a little extreme, I admit. But I tried everything else, and I couldn't stick to it because my body would just adjust and I would stop losing weight. Please don't start a really intense low calorie diet if you think you might experience health problems. I wouldn't want my experience to cause a negative consequence for anyone else.

The negative aspect is that my metabolism is still kind of screwed up.

Thanks, but I'll probably pass on this. It sounds too much like what I experienced on Atkins with my metabolism (see post #202). I really think I'll just eat sensibly, avoid alcohol for several weeks and exercise my gut & butt off (literally, I hope)!

800-900 calories a day

Wow, that's pretty strict. I don't know how you've kept that up. That'a about half of what "they" say you can eat and still lose weight, unless you are a tiny person.

Anyone who is seriously interested in very low calorie dieting should look into CRONing. The fewer calories you eat, the more important nutrition becomes.

http://www.cron-web.org/references_and_resources.html

This is a blog that's very interesting for the curious:
http://www.crdiary.blogspot.com/