I am interested in kicking up another round of this Project, with some minor experimental differences. The discipline required to report to you guys (and to control my dairy intake) was absolutely key for me... and I really HATED Fat Fast days.... so...

basically, this would be a clone of V1.2 (with all we've learned as participants from that experiment) but with 2 "Stillman" days instead of 1 "Fat Fast" and 1 "Stillman", and with the Calorie Boost day limited to a targetted minimum of 10X current weight in pounds.

I have an Excel 97 spreadsheet set up (from V1.2) which, with very minor modifications, lays out the "rules" and the tracking, which I will gladly upload to some files location on this website (Wa'il, is there a place I can stash an .XLS file?) OR send individually to anyone that wants to join me in this endeavour.

I'm thinking of starting with Day 1 of 7, Week 1 of 4, somewhere around Friday November 23rd so that the 'project' finishes the week prior to Christmas...

Anybody else?

i would love to, except that's right before american thanksgiving. any thoughts?
brenda

I am in, Judy.

Brenda, if that week starts Nov 23rd perhaps you could start it on the Sat or Sunday?

Nat

Journal Template for The Low-Carb Project v2

This template can be copied and pasted into your Project Journal thread; 1 thread per Journal per participant
(Example Thread Title = LCPV2 – Judi’s Journal ).

The Project operates on a 7-day, 4-week cycle. Activity and measurements are optional. Or, you may want to measure yourself at the beginning of the study, and at the end.

Week : e.g., Week 1 (out of a 4-week Project)
Day : e.g., Day 1 (out of a 7-day week)
Date, Day of Week : e.g., Nov 23rd, Friday (Day 1 can be whatever day of week you choose ).
Today’s Program : e.g., Regular LC, Stillman’s, Calorie Boost, etc.
(Example Post Title = Week 1 Day 1 Nov 23rd Regular LC)

Foods eaten:
- - - - - - - - - amount - - - description
e.g., -- - - - - 4 ounces cooked green beans
- - - - - - - - - 1 tablespoon butter
- - - - - - - - - - - {etc}

Total Calories:
Protein grams:
% calories of protein:

Fat grams :
% calories of fat:

Carbohydrate grams (total OR Net + Fiber):
% calories of carbohydrates:

Activity (optional):

Measurements (optional):

Thoughts (optional):

{shamelessly plagiarized from Karen's excellent summary in V1.2, all of this stuff is }

Have a good food counting book or use the Carb Counter on this site in the Tools section.

Buy whole chickens. Remove and roast the skins until crisp for a regular LC or Calorie Boost day. Use the skinless breasts for Stillman day and the thighs, wings and legs for the remaining days.

Weigh yourself on your start date and record it. It is also advisable to measure yourself.

Have egg yolks on regular LC or Calorie Boost days and save the whites for Stillman days.

DON’T plan to do this if you have events coming up that will throw you off the plan—weddings, vacations, a lot of birthday parties, etc., unless you have a plan for dealing with them.

DO plan what you are going to eat in advance. Figure out what you can eat on Calorie Boost and and Stillman days, and what you will have to consume on days 3 and 5 to reach 10 times your body weight in calories, as a targetted minimum.

Print this out and keep a copy on your fridge and another one with you.

BASICS: =edited Nov 7th 6pm=

Week 1:

Day 1 -- Follow your regular (Atkins, Protein Power, Zone, etc) low-carb plan.

Day 2 -- Lean Protein (Stillman). Allowable food: lean meat (trim all fat), homemade or sugarless jerky, poultry without skin, white fish, shellfish, egg whites, baker's (dry curd) cheese, meat and fish broth. Quantities unlimited. Up to 1/2 cup of lowfat ricotta or cottage cheese OR up to 3 oz. tofu (the lowest carb you can get). Lemon/lime juice, herbs, spices, hot sauce, soy sauce, Splenda, etc. in moderation.
Optional: one cup lettuce.
Recommended: Water, as much as you can; Psyllium Husks.

Day 3 Calorie Boost. Follow your regular low-carb plan, with the following modifications:
First, absolutely no dairy. Second, eat a minimum of 10 calories per pound of current body weight. 25 total grams carbohydrates (inc fiber) are eaten in the form of green vegetables only, preferably leafy.

Day 4 -- Lean Protein (Stillman Day) as per Day 2.
Day 5 -- Calorie Boost Day, as per Day 3.
Day 6 -- Follow your regular low-carb plan, as per Day 1.
Day 7 -- Follow your regular low-carb plan, as per Day 1.

Week 2: -- REPEAT Week 1

if i would have looked at the calander before i opened my big mouth, thanksgiving is the day before. it's thursday, the 22nd. i'll make thanksgiving worth it.
can't wait!
bren

Sounds good to me. I like the 10 x body weight instead of 12.

Judi, I think the 1 cup optional lettuce on calorie boost days is a great idea!

For everyone's interest, there is a list of vegetables in the old version of the project.

Karen

Got me, Karen!

I've edited the BASICS post above and placed the Optional lettuce and Recommended psyllium husks where they belonged, on the Lean Protein (Stillman) day.

So, I was in a hurry. beat me with a wet noodle!

So, Karen, are you signing up?

I have a question re the cal boost days, 10 x body weight, is that the limit? On my reg LC days I average between 8 - 10 x body weight. I know from experience that I'm usually not hungry after Stillman (all the protein) and eating more than 10x the day's after may not be easy, but what if we go over? Is that permitted, or is 10x the cut off?

Nat

Nat, I do believe that 10 x is the minimum to strive for. .. so yes, more is permitted, desirable even.

IMHO, if you're consuming approx. 10x your weight in calories as the norm ... it would be WISE to try to consume more than that on the days following the Stillman/lean protein. If you read through our journals from the Group Project in August .. all of us found it extremely difficult to consume more than 1,000 to 1,200 calories on those lean protein days ... at least, those of us who followed the protocol as written, and kept FAT intake very low. If those calories aren't made-up for somehow (which is the whole purpose of the "calorie-boost) .. then the project becomes more of a low CALORIE plan, that just happens to also be low in carbs.

I wonder if it would be best to have the calorie boost days truly BE boosting calories, meaning ... have the calories of the two days ... the Stillman day, and the calorie boost day following ... average 10 calories per lb.

• example: my desired intake is 1,700 calories a day. (10 cal / lb).
  
  On the Stillman day, I consume 1200 calories. On the calorie boost day, I will eat 2,200 calories to make up the deficit.
  
  Average will be 1200 + 2200 = 3400 calories/ 2 days = 1700 calories per day or 10 cal per lb.

Another way to ensure adequate caloric intake, is to spread the missing calories from the Stillman days throughout the other 5 days of the week. So, the calorie "boost" days aren't really "boosting" anything ... they're just another restrictive way of eating ... that has benefits when combined with the lean protein fasts ... such as the cleansing effect of the green vegetables, and the dairy-free aspect.

When I summarized my Study results from the project in August, I found that my average intake for the regular low-carb days was 9.6 calories per lb. My average intake for the fasting days and Calorie Boost days compbined was 9.4 calories per lb. And that was with the Cal. boost at 13 x.

Doreen

I verily do believe I just might do that. Some personal "re-education" is in order. Last night I was contemplating three Stillman days instead of two.

Karen

Oh this is going to be fun!

John thinks I'm nuts; he's right. It's still going to be fun

N

i may have missed something, but i've been searching everywhere in the forum, and can not seem to find the answer. Why no dairy on certain days?
thanks
brenda

I believe the assumption underlying the "no dairy on certain days rule" is that dairy is high on the Food Sensitivities list and VERY often has an unsuspected negative effect on the immune system and on weight loss. In other words, "why not"

It's probably more complicated than that, but basically the whole PROJECT idea is very much more about a fixed set of rules, disciplined adherence to make it useful to generate some kind of consistent results.

Besides, I at least go hog wild with all kinds of cheeses, so I KNOW it's a good thing, just can't fully explain it.