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Comment by fdkz | Hacker News Reader

Has anyone tried the Shangri-La Diet? Seems too simple not to try it. From wikipedia:

"The diet itself consists of taking 100–400 calories in the form of extra-light (not extra-virgin) olive oil or sugar water per day, either all at once or spanned throughout the day. This must be consumed in a flavorless window, which is at least one hour after flavors have been consumed, and at least one hour before flavors will be consumed.[4] The consumption of these flavorless calories supposedly lowers the set point, and therefore, lowers weight."

I just mention this because I've read the authors paper "Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Ten examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight" and it seemed really interesting. Available here:

http://sethroberts.net/science/

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Yeah, I tried it two years back and lost about 15-20 pounds over the course of 8 months. Regardless of whether the reduced hunger is a real effect of the oil or just a placebo effect, it did work, albeit slowly. If you're going to try it, I suggest the oil route, since it also had a noticible positive effect on my skin and complexion.

But like any regimen, once I stopped taking the oil, I regained the lost weight. You'd have to keep taking the oil forever or gain some self-control without that crutch.

Yes (I bought the book, which is really just a lot of fluff around the central idea as you summarized), though I didn't stick with it long enough to make it stick, it definitely started a downward weight trend.

His original insight (discovered while traveling in France) was worthwhile, though, and confirmed through testing, and confirmed by thousands of people commenting on his blog: apparently, the body will somehow store calories more when it detects incoming things "it" likes, and won't otherwise (thus the sugar water/flavorless olive oil idea, which provides the calories without the "likes").

> Has anyone tried the Shangri-La Diet

No, but I've tried the Get Off Your Ass and Don't Eat More Than 2000 Calories Per Day diet, and it works really well.

And by 2000, I presume you mean 1500 or less. Most people's bodies can probably easily adjust to 2000 calories at something near their current weight. In fact, for most people who want to lose weight, it would probably be easier just to keep calories/day to "about 1000" rather than trying to hit a precise target like 1850 or whatever their height and build should require.

No, those numbers are way off. If you eat 1000 calories a day and are male, you will almost definitely be in poorer health. You will lose muscle and gain fat %, and while you may be "lighter", you will almost definitely be fatter.

Use fitday.com or something to ACTUALLY TRACK (yes, actually, as in EVERY DAY) the calories you eat. You can't "guess" something like this. Furthermore, google for 'daily caloric expenditure calculator' and find out exactly how much someone of your height and build is burning, and eat accordingly.

Stop guessing! It obviously doesn't work.

Of course you'll be in poorer health. You're losing weight, and if you keep it up you'll eventually starve. The process of "losing weight" has to be temporary. However, if you could determine the calorie count that would keep you stable at your desired weight, you will never be able to reach that weight on that calorie count (all else equal: no extra exercise, etc), because your body will lower metabolism enough that you'll level off above that.

I have lost weight in a sustained fashion to accomplish a goal just once in my life so far (~310 to 187 at my lowest; let's agree that I wasn't fatter at 187, eh?), and it would have taken years to drop it had I just started eating 2000 kcal a day. Even 2500 kcal is probably enough to maintain 300 lbs if you don't exercise and don't actively try to build muscle.

> if you don't exercise and don't actively try to build muscle.

Which is why I said "Get Off Your Ass".

I parsed that as a modifier to the bit that followed, rather than a separate prescription. :)

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