Just before I started this contest a friend was telling me about the success he had had with the 5/2 FastDiet in the book by Michael Mosely so when I decided to enter this I asked him more about it. Essentially the diet involves fasting 2 days a week and then eating "normally" the other 5. There were two things I liked about it. One my friend said it seemed to focus weight loss around the stomach area which was the area I wanted to attack. Also I knew that if I tried to diet by just reducing my meal serving size I would probably fail because it's too easy to revert back to my old habits so I thought this had a better chance of working for me.
As I told my wife "the diet has to be a specific challenge for me, something I can measure easily or I'll cheat"
On a Fast day (twice a week) you can only eat 600 calories total. So I'm eating things like two hard boiled eggs for breakfast, yogurt and fruit for lunch and a salad with some chicken for dinner on those days. On the other days although you are supposed to be able to eat "normally" I've been trying to keep the calorie content down to 1500-1900 cals. During this time I also stopped the alcohol with two cheats of a glass of wine in two weeks.
I have maintained my normal workouts of KempoX and Pylo each once a week followed by some weight lifting on those days. I also am pretty active athletically surfing a few times each week. Before the diet my weight was steady and I wasn't losing weight.
Since I went on the FastDiet I dropped 7 lbs in less than two weeks which surpasses my goal of the 4% weight loss for the contest period. Even better I have noticed a big change in the stomach area and have not done any ab specific exercises.
The Fast days are not real easy and I do get the hungries. I have tried to get as much protein as possible all week to avoid muscle loss. It seems to be working so far.