Wednesday 9 December 2015

Dr. Bernstein Strict Diet and weight-loss-stabilization

What I learned from my experience with the Dr. Bernstein Diet is that it's missing an important aspect of losing weight and maintaining it, something that I would call stabilization of body weight.
I now strongly believe that any changes that I ask my body to go through: will need a time to settle.
What I believe is wrong in the Dr. Bernstein Diet is losing lots of weight without breaks along the path and a drastic jump into a maintenance program that allows us to eat way too many vegetables.
I have experienced a perfect weight loss to suddenly see a weight gain, powerless (due also to my Binge Eating Disorder ok).
What I think is a better approach to a strict Diet is that I need to give time to my body to stabilize the new weight, I should stay on a Diet not more than 4 weeks for instance (which for a Dr. Bernstein program 4 weeks is a lot of time and a lot of pounds), after 4 weeks I believe my body needs to settle for good into the new scale number – stabilize that weight, being comfortable. To do so I'd suggest to go over a sort of Maintenance Program, that might require still strict portion controls but just enough to have the body weight remaining on the same weight (with an approximation of more less 2 pounds) for at least 2 weeks. So, for at least 2 weeks, your weight must not change, in this way the body will become attuned to the new number and you could ensure you're not going to gain back everything you've lost so far. To clarify more in details this requirement I'd need to highlight that the weight must have a span of at least 2 weeks, in which does not change; swinging is a change, even if at the end of the 2 weeks the weight is exactly how it started. I must not see any drastic weight changes for the entire settle-period.
I learned this process reading and watching tutorials regarding the hCG Diet. This hormone-based strict Diet teaches patients to go over a very restrictive food protocol for just few weeks and then stop the hCG injections working on stabilizing the new weight, allowing so the body to settle. It's clear to me now that we're habits-animals, even my weight it is, so if I don't let my body adjust to it, forcing to accept my new me, it will go back exactly where it was.
To give a stupid example: when I first learned English, I had to think before creating a sentence, and then speak. Now that I'm fluent I just speak, without thinking. During this process I noticed that my brain was simply creating sentences in my native language, because that was what I always did for all previous years of my life. I did know how to speak; I just needed to let my brain accept a new automatic alternative way to speak. So let your body accept the new changes before moving forward, or you might ended up gaining back all the pounds you've lost with so many sacrifices.
Another reason why I do believe is not advisable engaging in a long term Dr. Bernstein strict Diet is for the side effects. If you put your body into starvation for months, naturally it will activate a surviving system control, resulting in hair loss, dizziness, weakness, eating disorder, and everything related to malnutrition.
After losing 20 pounds with Dr. Bernstein Diet, during maintenance, I found myself gaining weight with just an extra apple. It's very common for strict diets. The rule calories-intake vs calories-burned does not apply whatsoever for unknown (to me at least) reasons. Which I know it sucks!
So, if you're going through the journey of a very strict diet whatever it is – be aware that maintaining your lost weight is the toughest part, losing weight is easy; not let your body going back to where it was is the real war.

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Dr. Bernstein Diet and my Binge Eating Disorder

It's been a year now since I started my first Dr Bernstein Diet. After meeting my goal in October 2014, I gained back slowly everything I lost, and some more. Apparently this is something common for these types of diet – and now I know exactly WHY.
One important detail – that's not mentioned in the Dr. Bernstein instruction Manual – is that when you put your body into a starvation mode, chances are that you will develop a Binge Eating Disorder.
Binge Eating is a normal instinctive reaction of your brain to survive, to compulsively request all those nutrients that you removed with your strict diet for so long, that you craved for so long.
Binge Eating affects more people that you would believe.
At the begin of my maintenance I started to have episodes of binging, at the time I didn't even know what was a B.E.D., I thought I was stupid and incapable to control my insane desire of eating 8 muffins in 3 minutes or an entire package of chocolate chips cookies. I thought my sweet tooth and my chocolate addiction were the reasons I could not control myself. Well that wasn't the reason.
Lots of people assume that Binge Eating Disorder is caused by an emotional state, that for sure there's an emotional trigger that makes you binge so compulsively and with no control.
If for some people, that could be true I guess, most of the times it's not. I tried to analyze any emotional reason that could have caused my binge attack, each time. But there was no pattern; once I was sad, once I was happy, once I was tired, once not….nothing that could relate that nonsense uncontrollable behaviours. I deducted that it was only my brain screaming for food, it was just a habit that my brain developed after all I put through with my Dr. Bernstein strict Diet.
The sad part is that not only I spent lots of money with Dr. Bernstein Diet, I kept on going back to the clinic - because weight becomes an obsession when you have a Binge Eating Disorder, I kept on starving my body and frightening my brain, I kept on gaining back pounds on and off and on again, not only that but what more depressing is that I now have an Eating Disorder that kills me inside as person, I don't enjoy food in the same way, I don't think about eating in the same way. I have a food obsession that is taking my days away from what should be living a normal and healthy life.
If someone tells you that you won't feel hungry during Bernstein Diet, he/she is lying. I was constantly starving, feeling weak, dizzy all the times. That was the real feel of what starvation is. How can I possibly think that my brain does not get affected by this state of my body? We are perfect machines, being in Ketosis activates parts of your brain that we usually don't have in alarm (if taking a normal food Diet) – your brain is asking you for help to survive, hence it will start to binge as soon as it can.
I'm not here to give any advice in regards of BED, since I'm not a doctor and I'm still a binge eater myself. I've to say – from my personal experience – that realizing and accepting that I've an eating Disorder helped me to fight it back. Now I know that, with the time, I will be able to overcome this disorder. I'm practicing on breaking the habit on Binge Eating, talking to myself that it's not me compulsively desiring to eat so much, it's my irrational brain, and I stay still, waiting for the impulse to leave. Sometimes are better than others, I'm strong and stubborn so I'm not giving up, I'm conscious though, it will be a long journey.