So. My weekend was typical: some skydives (6). Some fun, some AFF. Whee!

And now the new thing I'm trying out. I'm going to put out a big warning: don't try this at home; I'm a professional dieter!

No, really. This is not a good thing to do. It's called a Protein Sparing Modified Fast. I would highly recommend people not to try it especially if they don't weightlift.

A quick definition - PSMFs were developed for obese people. Instead of putting someone on a complete fast, he would be given protein, in an attempt to prevent the body from cannibalizing its own stores of protein (muscles). Bodybuilders and other weight trainers have adopted this diet for cutting phases because (like me) spending months on a diet was slowly driving them crazy.

Here's the deal: a PSMF diet consists of 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass a day. This ratio means I need about 130 -160 grams of protein a day. This amount translates to about 520 - 640 calories a day. I won't be just eating pure protein. With each meal I'll be eating about 1 -2 cups of vegetables - the leafy or green ones; the ones big on fiber and low on calories like Romaine, Broccoli, cabbage, bell peppers, etc. Not only will they supply some badly needed vitamins and minerals, they will help keep things moving along quite nicely.

Wait, but that's not all! 6 grams of fish oil a day are necessary - fat is kept to a minimum on this diet so essential fatty acids will come from fish oil caplets. Sam's club has a big bottle of 300 caplets for 7 bucks.

That's still not all! I'm taking a multivitamin, and calcium and magnesium supplements. I'm also substituting half of the salt I use with potassium (Morton's No-Salt).

And that's still not all! Ephedrine-Caffeine stacks for energy, metabolism boosts, and appetite suppression. And for me, a little boost in the lung capacity (Ephedrine is used in the treatment of athsma). I'm taking 12 mg of Ephedrine 3 times a day and drinking all the coffee I want. I bet you thought they banned Ephedrine. Nope! Just Ephedra, the naturally occuring form of Ephedrine. Ephedrine is available OTC. For the most parts. It's also used in the manufacturing of illegal substances to it is dissapearing off of drug store shelves. Bastards. The drug stores. I don't care about the idiots blowing themselves up with meth labs.

The proper dosage is 25mg three times a day, but I get quite a boost with what I take as it is. The nice thing about Ephedrine is even as the nervous and sleepless side effects wear off, the metabolism boost doesn't.

So, with about 600 calories a day from protein, plus about 100 other calories from fish oil, veggies, and the occasional random carb or fat gram from the foods I eat, I will be eating about 700 calories a day, giving me roughly 1000 calories a day defecit. (Maintenence calories for me are about 1700 a day).

Drawbacks? Two major ones. The first one is the huge restriction on the types of foods you can eat. Let's just say I'm looking at a lot of egg whites, tuna, and chicken breasts in my near future. This problem is reason 1 why I won't do this diet for more than two weeks in a row.

Second drawback - It's still a pretty damn low amount of calories. I will be monitoring my metabolism and overall physiological feeling for any drops or nasty mood swings. The metabolism problem is why I don't recommend anybody but weight trainers use this diet, and for these reasons:

Weightlifting will tell your body you need your muscle so don't cannibalize it.

It will let you know (pretty darn fast) if you are losing muscle.

It is more effective in boosting your metabolism than other forms of exercise, like aerobics.

So: today is day one. I started the day with 4 hardboiled egg whites (w/ a lot of spices) for breakfast. I'm having 2 cans (5 ounces) of Tuna. I mixed in 2 tablespoons of Pace Picante sauce to cut the fish taste and give it some flavor. For both breakfast and lunch I had romaine lettuce as my veggie of choice. No dressing.

Dinner will be 2 chicken breasts - Sam's Club sells these bag of 14 breasts, with the fat completely trimmed off so each one has 1 gram of fat and 41 grams of protein. Veggie of choice will most likely be broccoli.

If all goes well, my food totals for the day will be: 697 calories overall. 11 grams of fat (7 from the fish oil), 18 grams of carbs (10g fiber), and 138 grams of protein.

I weigh: 139.8 lbs and my morning temp was 97.7. (which is about normal for me).

One last post script. That amount of protein will not give me kidney problems. It's only bad if you have kidney problems in the first place. Plus I'm drinking water like mad anyway so I can tell you my kidneys are working just fine, thankyouverymuch.