During my first week on The Harcombe Diet I lost weight every day. I know that we are advised not to weigh every day but if I read that my weight loss will be considerable and that I could lose a stone in two or three weeks then it is natural to conclude that a bit of weight will be lost each day.
This proved to be true. Water came pouring out of me and accounted for, I should say based on the rate of pee, five to six lbs. After that I continued to lose weight.
I am sitting here on day 13 of the diet and in fact I am heavier today than I was this time last week. I feel dejected.
I have decided to go back to phase one as I suspect the dairy produce may be the problem. If this doesn’t work then I will try some carb/very low fat meals (making sure that I don’t eat a fatty food for three hours before or afterwards) and see what happens then. I expect this will reduce the calories I am eating – but we don’t count calories.
This makes me want to understand even more about the way digestion and fat burning work. If we don’t understand the responses of our bodies to the various foods and the combinations of them with which we assault them, how can we eat effectively.
The issue I have with the book is that it doesn’t explain enough about this and so I am making it my mission to find out and record what I find in this blog.
While lying in bed this morning I began to wonder about muscle burning. I have read before, and the Harcombe Diet book states it, that when the body wants extra reserves it will burn muscle before it burns fat. This is the reason why there is a difference between different kinds of exercise on the body. if the body exercises too vigorously the body will convert muscle to energy because it is easier. If, however, more gentle exercise is taken, keeping the heart rate up but not too high, then fat is burned.
Zoe Harcombe states that calorie controlled, low fat and high carbohydrate diets encourage the burning of muscle as well as fat. Well what makes that happen? What device in the human body causes muscle to be converted to energy when muscle is useful and fat is not?
It will be my next mission to discover this If I can.