And the winner is… The Clean Program!
To give you a bit of a recap on the Velocity diet, I went on this back in April of 2008 to lose some stubborn fat around my stomach area. This was right after I returned from a two week jaunt around the southern part of Africa. I had been working out with my trainer Randy since January and we thought this was the time to push through those last five pounds.
The diet is basically 3-5 protein shakes per day. You can drink chicken broth and eat green veggies as well. Sometimes I made hot soups for lunch so you weren’t the weirdo only drinking a protein shake in the corner of the meeting. For a solid 4 weeks, you can only consume these protein shakes (I used the Metabolic Drive brand) and veggies. Once per week and only for ONE meal, you can have a balanced diet of protein and veggies. No fruits, grains, starches, alcohol, dairy, etc.
The diet gets old REALLY fast. In fact, I couldn't even make it through the full 4th week. There are only so many combinations of Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla and Banana shakes that you can handle. I tried every combo you could think of. The best are Chocolate Banana, Strawberry Banana and Strawberry Vanilla. Each flavor is also fine on its own. If you’re hard core, you can use bovine protein (blood protein) for faster absorption and less work for your digestive system to really enhance the benefits of velocity diet. I will warn you; however, that bovine protein tastes and looks like you are drinking mucus. You really start missing solid foods, fruits and starches like rice and potatoes.
The worst part is... if you think the first three days on CLEAN are bad... you have NO idea what's coming to you with the Velocity Diet. After the 3rd day drinking shakes, your body basically expells anything that's been backed up in your digestive system. For two solid says, you're on the pot and letting go of all that crap stored in your cells, any food still lagging in your intestines and your ability to function like a normal human being because you're always rushing to the bathroom.
On the upside, I did lose some weight – but the most significant weight loss was from Day 1 to Day 3. After that, no significant weight loss. However sticking to the diet solidifies the weight loss. Additionally, you are trading up your fat to muscle so the actual number on the scale doesn’t matter. I did slim down significantly and increased my muscle mass.
CLEAN (read my recap of CLEAN) still wins in the end. Since you’re able to eat a solid meal every day rather than just one day per week, this keeps you feeling full and allows you to feel like you’re still eating something. Plus, with the veggies, fruits and grains included in CLEAN, you feel like you’re getting a lot of the natural vitamins that you miss in the Velocity Diet (even though you’re taking tons of vitamins in pill form on the V-Diet). Plus, with the CLEAN program, you not only lose the fat weight, you also feel much more energized, crave junk food less and in general feel healthier with clear skin, less mucus, and regular bowel movements. You'll notice that I experienced the classic 'plateau' in weight a week or so into the program - but Dr. Junger is correct when he says you'll break through that plateau for some final weight loss.
From my nice little graph here, you can see that I lost weight on both programs.
The sad thing I realized after plotting this graph is that my ending weight of CLEAN is the beginning weight of the Velocity diet. After a quick analysis of what happened from May 2008 to Jan 2010, I realized I gained almost a full ten pounds. This was caused by what I’ll call “my single life.” My boyfriend of ~5 years and I broke up at the end of 2007. Therefore, I was going out to meals with my friends, dating, hanging out at bars (which increases late-night eating) and traveling as much as possible in order to fulfill all of that extra time I had recently found myself with. Over the course of this time, I got fat again. I didn’t really notice except my pants were getting tighter and I avoided wearing my shirts that cut off circulation at the sleeves.
In any case, I’m now down to my March 2008 weight. In fact, today I broke through the barrier of 118 lbs (my high-side goal) and weighed in at a 2010 low of 117.8 lbs! As you may recall, I set my 2010 goal weight of 115-118 lbs this year. Ladies and Gents, I’ve accomplished one of my 2010 New Year’s Resolutions, Goal #3.
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