Okay, I’m back at it again, about 2 years after my first time doing the V-Diet. Last time, went from ~196 to ~178 over the four weeks - and really loved the reset it gave me in terms of diet, limiting my snacking, reforming some good habits, etc… Over the two years, busy work and family schedules (travel sports for 3 kids) have eroded some of the good habits, so thought I would do another round to see how it goes.
Some very quick stats and background:
Weighed in at 184 (at around 5’11) on Day 0, so clearly kept a bunch off, but likely have a good bit I can lose.
Mainly do quasi-CrossFit, but all with my own programming and in my garage gym. Will likely pull back on the most intense workouts but still plan to strength train 3-4 days per week
Dealing with a few injuries that will affect my programming (recently pulled hamstring, angry biceps tendon), but none of them are totally debilitating so will mostly be able to train normally
I travel a good bit for work, so will also have to plan my shakes, workouts, and walks around that; will be much more difficult than two years ago when travel and commuting were still limited from Covid
My worst habit, which I mostly managed to kick for a while after the v-diet the first time, is nightttime snacking while working late (I often do) - so the #1 challenge and thing I’m looking to reset is totally eliminating that, especially with all the kids snacks lying around my house.
I found doing frequent updates last time very helpful, even if not that many responses. Once I started posting, I wasn’t going to drop iff before finishing! It’s definitely encouraging that I know this works if I stick to it because I’ve seen the results, so let’s see what happens.
Just posted my intro, but already on Day 3, so now giving the first update.
So far, so good, for the most part. Have stuck to it perfectly the first two days, and haven’t found it too bad. Definitely hungry, especially yesterday, but have managed pretty well.
Day 1:
9 am: Shake #1, Flameout, Micellar Curcumin
11:45 am: Surge Workout Fuel (one scoop)
12:00 pm: Workout with the first serivng of Surge Workout Fuel
1:00 pm: Second scoop of Surge Workout Fuel after
3:00 - 40 minute walk (~3 miles or so)
3:30 pm: Shake #2
7:00 pm: HSM of chickpea pasta, beef meatballs, and air fryer carrots (I don’t weigh stuff, but was slightly smaller than my normal portions and didn’t leave over full at all)
10:00 pm: shake #3
Day 2:
Stuck to my shakes every 3 hours nicely
30 minute walk (2 miles) followed by physical therapy, which is pretty active, and also played some hockey with my kids at night, so decently active
HSM of Vegan Lasagna (with brown rice noodles, tofu, kale, some other stuff) and a few beef meatballs
In all, two successful days. I plan to only weigh myself once per week, but already feel a bit tighter in my stomach, something I remember last time after only a couple of days too. Biggest challenge right now is that I’ve been quite busy and have not slept nearly enough (5-6 hours per night), so hopefully will get some reprieve on that, although difficult between youngish kids and busy work. Between that and the reduced calories/carbs, definitely a bit lethargic.
Question for you actually since the diet is slightly different this time around. For the Surge, am I doing it right by basically doing one scoop before/during my workout and the other scoop immediately after? Should I consume all of it by the end of the workout? Or overthinking it and just have 2 scoops in place of one Metabolic Drive shake, whenever it is consumed?
Most important thing is get a lot of it in you 15 minutes before training. Once that’s taken care of, one scoop before/during workout and the one scoop immediately after is a solid plan. This will replace one Metabolic Drive shake.
Perfect - that’s exactly what I’ve done the first two training days. About half a scoop before, half during, full after, all in place of one Metabolic Drive serving.
Decent day 3 - although definitely feeling a bit hungry still.
Quick overview of the day:
8:30 am: First shake, Flameout, Micellar Curcumin
11:30ish: Half Surge Workout Fuel
11:30-12:30: Workout - staying a little easy this week with no Metcons / hard finishers; just a good paced strength workout
12:30: Final half of Surge Workout Fuel
3:00: Took a couple of calls on a walk (45 minutes) - quite lightheaded so had to slow my pace down a lot, but still got through it
4:00: Shake
7:00: HSM of chicken and broccoli stir fry, white rice
-10:30: Last shake
Ended up having to work quite late, so not ideal amount of sleep again, but thinking that should ease starting tonight
An observation: I think the hardest part of the diet this time around is stomaching the shakes. Doing the V-Diet a couple years ago made me pretty sick of the flavor (I liked it at first, but 28 days times 4 shakes a day…). This time around, feels like I never stopped drinking them constantly, and really don’t like them as much. I’m doing a lot more chocolate compared to the first time, but I think I migth have to get more creative with some flavoring ideas as I go on.
Good idea on the cinnamon - will try it. I may also try some coffee in there. I’m actually pretty simple with diet too - don’t mind eating the same leftovers 3 or 4 days in a row until they run out, but I think the combination of 28 days of shakes plus the food deprivation has given it so pretty crappy associations in my mind.
Decent day 4 yesterday, despite a celebratory work dinner that I had to navigate (semi-successfully).
9 am: Shake
12 pm: Shake
1-2 pm: ~4 mile walk
3:30 pm: Shake
7:30 pm: Work dinner - was pretty disciplined, not not ideal. Half glass of champagne, glass of white wine, and then ordered the Halibut with cauilflower, side of brussel sprouts, and had some shishito peppers and one bite of tuna tartar as an app. Nothing killer and felt prety decent about my decisions, but hopefully won’t touch alcohol for the next week if I can help it
Skipped the nighttime shake because of the bigger dinner
My current plan is to strength train every other day (3-4 days per week, travel permitting) and just do a walk / low-effort Peloton ride on the other days. May ramp up the strength training to some upper lower splits if my pulled hamstring allows for it, but feeling pretty good with the current plan.
Brief update: mostly successful weekend (Friday-Sunday) - still rolling along. Got in two good workouts, plenty of activity with the kids, and managed to avoid eating crap (while still getting my shakes relatively on time) while around kids sports all weekend.
In terms of progress, noticing some decent changes. Down 2.3 pounds to 182.0 on the dot, and noticing it in the mirror as well. Also the same belt loop is definitely looser, which is the place I always noticed the progress the most last time. I have to keep reminding myself that given my decent starting point relative to last time, the progress won’t be quite as rapid, but that’s a good thing.
No work travel this week, so hopefully will be able to be quite disciplined with meals, shakes, etc… Also going to try to hone in a little on my portion sizes - feel like I have probably exceeded the 700 cals a couple times (quality food, but still).
Good day yesterday to start off week. Had all my shakes, workout offday, but did a 45 minute treadmill walk (weather is gross in the NYC area) - 4.2 mph, played with the incline some to make it more challenging at points. HSM was meatloaf, sauteed snap pees, and air fryer sweet potatoes - kept the portion a bit smaller than past meals.
Anecdotally, really starting to feel more trim in the mid-section. I purposefully don’t weight myself everyday, but things are seemingly going in the right direction, which gives me some momentum to keep pushing.
Quick update: week is continuing well. Good mix of workouts, shakes on schedule, solid dinners, and no major social events that are hurdles. Weather has also gotten nicer in the northeast since the beginning of the week, so makes the walks a lot better.
Actually weighed myself this morning and weighed in at 178.6, so at some point the pounds have really come off and I’m around the weight I was at at the end of my last V-Diet. Interestingly, I feel a little less lean than I did then, so we’ll see how the next two weeks shake out from that perspective. I don’t think I need my body weight to be much below 175 at my height and build, but also know the scale plays some tricks, so mostly concerned with how I feel and look.
Unless you compete in a weight class based sport, bodyweight is a near useless metric. It’s helpful from a broad health perspective, but body composition can vary so wildly between weights that it’s practically not worth thinking about.
I have been my fattest AND my leannest at the exact same weight. When I was 13 years old, I was 5’9 and 176lbs, dumpy with a 36" waist and manboobs. When I was 34, I cut down to 176lbs from a weight of 210 and had a sub 30" waist and quite possibly single digit bodyfat. You’ve got the absolute right call to focus on look and feel.
Totally agree. I was 190+ in college but leaner than I am now and as fit as I’ve ever been, but I was 22, a college athlete, trained hours and hours per day, etc…
One other thing I think is worth mentioning. I’m typically skeptical of these types of anecdotal results, but some long nagging things have been feeling much better in the two weeks since starting the diet. Very hard to decouple 1) taking the curcumin / flameout, which I hadn’t taken in a while 2) the change in diet 3) the continued progress of physical therapy and the change to my training 4) the slight reduction in weight, but it’s happening either way. Nagging knee and shoulder pain that I’ve had a lot of trouble kicking is really diminished.
Again, not about scale weight, but looking better and feeling better physically and mentally is awesome. Don’t really care where it’s from, as long as it’s happening!
Update on the weekend: mostly succesful, despite a whole bunch of challenges (packed sports schedule, social events, march madness, weird meal times). Managed to get all my shakes and HSMs in on a decent schedule, although I have found the rigidity of the timing of this diet slightly tricky when dinner moves times (either too late and i’m about to collapse or too early and I have to go for like 6 more hours iwth one nighttime shake).
A few interesting observations that might help some people, or are just interesting:
I said a week ago or so that I really can barely stomach some of the shakes, even though I had never minded the flavor before, including the last time I did the diet. I am totally over that now - I think it was some kind of PTSD from the first diet, because I really am good with the flavor again now
I kind of forgot this from last time, but the diet gets so much easier after the first week in terms of general hunger. I still struggle to fight snacking, especialy when around a bunch of chips and stuff during march madness, but the general day to day just isn’t that hard after a week. For those starting out or thinking of starting out, it’s really SO much easier after the beginning.
On that note, my energy levels are way higher the last few days. Cranked up my workout hard this morning and had plenty of juice in the tank (I’m sure the surge helps, but i wouldn’t have felt htat way in the early days). Worth seeing if you can / want to push as you go, if the energy is there
If you like it, coke zero / diet coke can be an amazing craving buster. It’s sort of filling, has flavor, feels like you’re having a snack without any calories. I’ve saved it for a couple peak craving times and I’m sure it’s not ideal, but it’s a nice calorie free cheat code to use if needed.
In a pinch, bottled shakes (non Metabolic Drive) really can help. Have used a few Premier Proteins when necessary and it’s really nice, they’re decenty comparable in temrs of calories and protein (I’m sure it’s not the exact same quality and protein types), but a really good way to get your calories and protein in on the go,etc… Also nice to break up the flavor monotony, per the earlier point
I’ll do a weigh-in tomorrow to see if there’s any scale progress, but feeling pretty good overall.
Mid-week update: things still rolling. Weekdays (non-travel) are so much easier than weekends in terms of sticking to routine. Couple more good workouts, long walks, etc… Another tip: doing this workout in spring, when the weather is good, is a great way to make sure you get your walks and extend them (always nice to add another ten minutes when it’s 65 degrees and sunny out).
Weighed in this morning (2 weeks and 2 days in) at 177.0, so down another two pounds, which is about what I expected. Continuing to really see and feel some good changes.
Beginning of week 4 update: continuing to stick to it pretty well, no major blips ( a little alcohol Saturday night, but nothing insane). Am traveling all week for work so this will be my biggest test. Literally packed a full bag of MD and a couple shaker bottles, so hopefully can figure out a good way to get my shakes in between client meetings. Also will have to be creative with walks - may end up just working out at a reasonable pace each morning to ensure some solid daily activity each day, and then if I get a walk in, great.
For progress, weighed in at 175.9, which is the lowest I’ve weighed in god knows how long (since early days of my college athlete days, pre-muscle gain), but am as strong as I’ve ever been (certainly post-surgeries). It’s also amazing what dropping even ~5+ pounds feels like when doing pullups. Have really felt some more flab come off my mid-section, and same for love-handles. It’s really an incredibly effective diet, even though I started in a much better place than I did two years ago.
As I also said, it just isn’t that hard after a week or two if you get into a routine and don’t have anything crazy going on (like full weeks of travel…let’s see what I say on Friday). Hoping for a good final stretch!