once i tried a way of eating that emphasized the consumption of foods in a certain ratio depending on their macro-nutrient content i.e. their fat, protein, carbohydrate content. so at each meal i would eat a certain percentage of fat, protein, and carbohydrate. the protein percentage was a little above what is recommended by current nutrition standards and it sacrificed the carbohydrate percentage to achieve this. the fat percentage was the same as current recommended nutritional standards. but not only was there a percentage shift in macro-nutrients, my total caloric intake was reduced due to less consumption of calorically dense foods. i ate mostly vegetables for my carbohydrates and no breads or flour products. for fat, my intake was mainly safflower oil. so what effects did months of this eating style have on my mind and body?

the results were fascinating to me. i often think back to them and marvel at what happened. i do not eat that way now though and it had some negative side effects that i will explain. i think that a modified version might achieve better and safer results but i will explain later.

let me first explain the effects that it had on me. of course my body weight and body fat percentage dropped because it involved a reduced caloric intake. a negative side effect though, due to the higher percentage of protein, was frequenty and urgent urination. high protein diets have a diuretic effect and thats what i was having. five hours was all i could sleep for before being woken up by the need to urinate very urgently and profusely. it never failed that i would wake after five hours of sleep. this of course grew tiresome fast but i lived with it. during the day i had to urinate all the time too. that should have been a sign to stop but i didn't. but here is the interesting part that i think back to and marvel at. my sexual desires ceased. why was this so amazing?

well, it seems that they were holding me back. once they ceased i was able to concentrate a lot better and this was shown to me by my desire to achieve academically increasing as well my ability to concentrate on assignments increasing. not that i didn't achieve high grades before, but this was different. i was not just putting in what i needed to put in, i was doing extra. i was a machine. i read every assigned reading and book from cover to cover. i did not lose concentration after the first couple pages as was the norm. my mind didn't wander. i had perfect scores on many if not most tests. i also no longer had thoughts of a sexual nature. do you know how much time that freed up and what little distraction i had? it was amazing.

now why did i give it all up? i think the constant urination was one reason. another is that i think my body couldn't take it any more. a high protein diet can be bad for your health. i think i lost too much weight and was getting muscularly weaker which i could tell from my weight training sessions. i eventually gave in and ate more including bread and flour based food again.

so what is the modified version that might be a safer alternative? well it may be that it was the reduced calorie part that dropped my sexual drive. it is clearly the higher protein part that caused the urination and a change in skin color by the very end of it. so a normally balanced, calorie restricted eating style might give the positive benefits. some information that might support the benefits of a calorie restricted diet is the tests done in mice where ones that were given a lower than average caloric intake lived significantly longer than the ones given a normal caloric intake. whether this applies for humans though requires testing. i do have a later experience though where i did attempt to duplicate the positive results by using a calorie restricted diet. it did not last long due to outside influences that i am not going into right now. but the results seemed promising. my sexual drive reduced and i was more productive. long term results though of course are not known.