Eating Applied: Healthy Longevity Now

Appetite for Healthy Life

I have an insatiable appetite for healthy living. Every time I come across a scientifically backed health and wellness platform, I try it out, and, if it meets my expectations, I integrate it into my wellness routine.

After I read about the Calorie Restriction Society (CRS) and the Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition (CRON) diet, I naturally wanted to try it out. CRON is arguably the most restrictive long-term diet ever formulated, and I was very curious to see if I could get through it.

I knew I'd get hunger pangs, but that didn't deter me. I'd already proven myself as an experienced guinea pig. The only thing I was apprehensive about was figuring out the precise nutrition plan I'd be following in the coming weeks.

CRON is undoubtedly an exercise in clinical nutrition and demands a certain expertise. Coming from a life science or medical background can thus prove very advantageous. Even though I did have that background as a pulmonary surgeon, it still took me many grueling hours to calculate the right proportion of macro- and micro-nutrients for my particular body type, and then choose the right foods to meet my lifestyle demands. But, eventually, I got through all the planning.

It was time for action.

As expected, I was tormented by hunger for several days, which soon turned into a dull sucking sensation in my gut. This stayed with me until the end of my experiment. But it wasn't all that bad, and I got used to it rather quickly.

After all was said and done, it wasn't so much the hunger pangs themselves that got to me. It was the noise they made! My gut began sounding like an old office worker with a case of the Mondays - its vociferous rumbling was quite annoying and embarrassing.

But even that wasn't the most difficult part. What really frustrated me was the fatigue. By the third day, I couldn't run my usual eight miles even at a slower pace, and I had to cut my resistance training by half. Physical activity of any type was becoming more and more unbearable.

Eventually, my immune system, compromised by nutrient deprivation, was not able to adapt fast enough, and I caught a cold. I didn't, however, blame CRON for this. Most of it was my own fault - I wasn't giving my body enough time to adapt to the newfound stress I was placing on it.

Finally, but arguably most importantly, I lost my 'mojo.' My libido had dramatically diminished as a result of my new lifestyle. My sexual performance, along with its frequency, dropped dramatically. That I most assuredly did not like.

I aborted the diet after about two weeks. Hunger was never an issue, but compromising my sex life and physical activity was completely unacceptable.

There are definitely people out there who can adapt to the CRS lifestyle with some fortitude, discipline, and willingness. Hermits and zealots immediately spring to mind. These guys deliberately live under rocks to punish their flesh and unshackle their spirit. A few locusts and a spoon of honey is all they need for subsistence. But as for yours truly, it fell far short of the mark.

All the same, I was still convinced there was a way of achieving life-extending calorie restriction without going through hunger, deprivation, and gut rumbling. I started looking elsewhere.

Look at elite athletes: swimmers, basketball players, cyclists, etc. These guys are renowned for their lean, fit, and strong bodies, even with a typical caloric intake of 8,000-12,000 calories a day. I asked myself: Why not do what they do?

You may argue that a person who daily consumes six times more calories than recommended by the National Institute of Health (NIH) cannot be on a calorie restriction regimen. But what if I told you that these very same athletes typically burn 9,000 - 13,000 calories a day, leaving them with a net calorie deficit of about 1,000? They're burning more than they're taking in. No wonder their body fat percentage usually hovers around the 9% mark!

Unfortunately for me however, I was not a professional athlete. Pro athletes inhabit a very particular world of discipline and predictability: eat, sleep, and train at exactly the same time. Day in, day out. What's more, they undergo rigorous medical testing several times a year.

It's very easy to calculate your calorie expenditure and demand when your schedule is this predictable. It also helps when three highly dedicated professionals (a coach, a nutritionist, and a doctor) are in your corner on a daily basis.

In the real world, however, the situation is entirely different. Most peoples' lives today are too complex and unpredictable. Work, hectic social lives, and various random events are constantly interfering with our plans and schedules. This makes it practically impossible to estimate our energy expenditures. Besides, very few of us can afford a personal team of health and wellness professionals.

I quickly realized that I needed to find a different approach to that followed by elite athletes. I had to figure out a way of tapping into our natural tendency to maintain homeostasis, to find those intuitive physiological pathways that balance calorie intake with expenditure.