The Cheese Cake Diet - Lose 10lbs in Two Weeks!

We have a giggle around the office every time we see an ad promising significant (read: ridiculous) weight loss. And there are lots of those promises to go around... Lose 10lbs in 4 days! Drop 30lbs in 12 days! I often wonder why there are so many of these ads, and why people are so easily persuaded that such dramatic weight loss is 1) possible, 2) safe and 3) sustainable.

Then I remember my own rather infamous "Cheese Cake Diet".

When I was 14, I went to live with my older sister for a summer. I was really excited to be living in the big city with a "proper job" at the restaurant my sister managed. I was a hostess. For 5 hours a day in the heart of Toronto's financial district, I seated lunch guests, served meals and cleared tables. I loved it.

But surrounded by all of those slim, tall adults, I felt like a plump country bumpkin. In fact, I was the height I am now, 5 foot 5 inches tall, and a very healthy 120lbs. There was no Google way back then, and I had never heard of Body Mass Index (BMI). So I couldn't possibly know that I had a healthy teen BMI of 20. I suppose even back then, I wanted to be fabulous!

So I started my own diet plan. It consisted of one cup of black coffee and a slice of cheese cake. That's it. That's all. Every day for two weeks, I arrived at work, guzzled the coffee then slowly savored my slice of salvation over the course of my shift. Then I made increasingly suspicious excuses why I didn't want dinner. And low and behold - it worked! I lost 10lbs in just 14 days!!!! On day 15, I fainted and fell down two flights of stairs. That was the end of that "diet".

The point is, our body needs fuel. Good quality, well portioned fuel - especially in our 40s when things really start to change. But one thing doesn't change: the need for good information, not misleading and misguided promises. A wise person would start by calculating their Basal Metabolic Rate - the base rate of calories you burn just living. I wasn't wise. I was a teenager.

Without exercise, my BMR at 14 was about 1,975 calories. Add all the summer activities like swimming and bike riding and my overall calorie burn per day was probably close to 2,500 calories a day. A cup of black coffee has about 10 calories. A single, medium-sized slice of cheese cake has about 550 calories for a total of 560 calories a day IN and 2,500 calories a day OUT. No wonder I lost weight quickly. And no wonder I fell down a couple flights of stairs.

It should come as a relief that I've learned a thing or two about nutrition and the symbiotic relationship between diet and exercise. I now eat very well and come to think of it, I haven't had a slice of cheese cake since.

But... I KNOW I'm not the only one with a crazy diet story. So fess up and share the wealth... shoot me a quick comment and tell me your dumbest, funniest diet story. Did you know how many calories in and out? Did you pick a food and just eat one thing? (Lord have mercy on the friends of Cabbage Diet practitioners.) The weirder the better. And, as a bonus, I'll give a wee prize (a mypypeline.com workout video) to some of the best / silliest "promise headlines" Eg. I lost 30lbs just eating pimentos, and you can too!!!!!!!

Tell me everything. I promise... you have nothing to lose. FITFABFORTY