The Documentation-Based Weight Loss Method: Key Principles for Dealing with the Body's Resistance

Step Four: Cruising – Trying Different Approaches

When feeling down or frustrated, review your records. Once you truly experience the benefits of note-taking, even daily recording won't feel like a chore.

The secret to this stage is to moderately increase exercise while restricting calorie intake. This will lead to faster weight loss than at the beginning of your diet, so a little exercise will make weight loss more enjoyable.

The term "cruising" originally refers to the sustained power generated without effort, like saying, "The car's cruising speed is 60 kilometers per hour."

You might become obsessed with limiting your daily calorie intake to 1500 kcal. "What should I eat next?" "Did I exceed my calorie limit?" These are your thoughts all day.

Especially if you can consistently keep a daily record and limit your calorie intake to the standard. When you can do all this without conscious effort, you've entered the cruising stage.

Soon, you'll experience the "changes on day 75."

Two and a half months after starting to restrict calorie intake, that is, after 75 days, your body will undergo significant changes.

Of course, depending on your diet and lifestyle, these changes may not necessarily occur on day 75. However, this is precisely the period when your body suppresses its resistance to weight loss.

Let me start with my own experience.

Two months passed after I started restricting my calorie intake.

My weight was still decreasing, but it had become a given. At first, I was overjoyed, secretly smiling every time I saw myself. But then I thought: eating only 1500 kcal a day, how could I not lose weight? However, when the weight loss slowed down even slightly, I worried that I had reached a plateau.

It was during this period that I suddenly felt an intense hunger, once a day, with a sudden and intense surge of hunger and disappointment.

Upon reflection, this was indeed to be expected. Losing weight so easily has pushed my visceral fat to its limit. My body, forced to burn subcutaneous fat, has begun to sense a survival crisis, desperately trying to hinder my desire and actions to continue losing weight.

The first thing I felt was intense hunger, just like the symptoms after forcibly quitting smoking or drinking.

Moreover, due to insufficient calorie intake, the body's hormonal and other physiological balances are disrupted, leading to restlessness, weakness, and low mood.

Before, I would enthusiastically check the calorie content of every item at the convenience store, but now, standing in front of the snack shelf makes me want to cry. I can't eat this, I can't eat that, I'll never be able to eat these things again. I can't eat most of what's sold here; what's the point of living like this?

This isn't an exaggeration. I once stood in front of a shelf full of pastries and bread in a supermarket that was open at night, secretly shedding tears. At this age, a 48-year-old man, crying while looking at pineapple buns, others would only think I was on drugs. For me, I don't want to relive those terrible memories, nor do I want to dwell on them here.

However, this is the precursor to the "changes on day 75."

In conclusion, this feeling of hunger and low mood will last for 1-2 weeks, which is indeed very painful. Many people fail after two or three months of dieting because they can't get through the "changes on day 75." The body tries its best to return to its previous obese state through various signals, triggering various desires and anxieties.

However, if you can persevere for one or two weeks, this feeling of hunger and low mood will disappear completely. The body will eventually give up the resistance and agree to lose weight.

You will experience the joy of weight loss again and want to share the wonderful feeling of losing weight with those around you.

The body's acceptance of losing weight is the "physical change on day 75." Why does the body resist losing weight so strongly? The body that used to eat whatever it wanted suddenly begins to restrict its calorie intake. After maintaining this for a week or a month, the body will gradually make the following judgment: it always feels like there isn't enough food, and it will starve to death if it expends energy.

When your body determines that the calories you're consuming are just enough for your basal metabolic rate, it will start to complain about its unforgiving owner while simultaneously beginning to gradually modify its systems in order to survive on these limited calories.