The blogger behind voluntaryXchange (nice name) has been on the Shangri-La Diet for two years.
I gave a positive report after one year. After a second year I’m supposed to give you a second report that I’ve gained all the weight back. Sorry about that – I’ve had only the smallest rebound. Maybe I’m wrong, but I attribute that to not having played a racquet sport on Saturdays in the last 9 months. I still have no confirmable side-effects. I had a couple of cavities – that might be something. I think I’m more inclined to doze off when I’m tired, but that could be middle age too.
Compare that to weight loss from conventional methods in the wildly-expensive study I mentioned recently. Two years after starting, subjects in the no-intervention group had regained about half of the weight they’d lost.
I was 245 when I started, got down to 167, hurt my shoulders and had to quit Judo, stabilized at 189. When I exercise more, my weight begins to drop, if not, it slowly glides back to 189. I’ll be at three years in November, 2008.
I find that when I’m low carb (not excessive no carb, just doing without sugar) I don’t doze off in the afternoons. Not sure what that is about. I sleep a lot better.
But I’m glad to see other people enduring with their weight loss. With significant exercise I lose weight on two tablespoons of oil a day, without exercise in any meaningful amount, I’m stable with three tablespoons.
I find it interesting how exercise makes such a difference when I’m on SLD, not as much when I wasn’t.
I should note that my “after” picture was taken at 189 — I look the same today as when that was taken.
I originally did SLD in October 2005 using whatmakesfoodfattening.pdf posted on the Freakonomics blog. I started at ~170, used sugar water SLD for about three (not every day though) weeks and got down 145. Decided that was too much and let myself gradually go up to 150. Stayed there until recently. I noticed I was creeping slowly back up to 155, so I did sugar water a couple of times and am back down. No cavities in the past 2.5 years. I also do nose clipped Flaxseed oil a few times a week for the omega 3s.
So after 2.5 years, it still works for me.
I too doze off sometimes in the afternoons, but then I also quit all forms of caffeine about a year ago to self-treat nighttime teeth grinding.