Super Shred Diet Week 1: Foundation and Midweek Update

Sharing Dr. Ian Smith’s Super Shred Diet plan and my journey from week to week. This is a great way to kickstart a healthy lifestyle change.

If you love this post, check out other updates here and here.

If you have followed me then you know that I started Dr. Ian Smith’s SUPER SHRED Diet here! You can read my kick-off post here. I have found that some people get offended at the word “diet”. A diet is usually defined as restricting food for medical reasons or to lose weight. It can also be defined as: kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats. If you think about it, our lifestyle should include habitual healthy foods. Every now and then you have to find ways to keep that lifestyle in check. That’s why I started SUPER SHRED.

What is Super Shred?

A four-week  super-charged program that teaches principles regarding: meal spacing, snacking, meal replacement, and diet confusion—as SHRED—with twice the intensity and a shorter quick-acting plan. It can be used on its own or in conjunction with SHRED.

SUPER SHRED is not a long-term program. It’s designed to be a “destination” plan. It’s a way to lose weight quickly, but in a healthy way. For example, I have been in a plateau for almost a year. Part of the reason was because I was training for my first marathon and trying to figure out the best way to fuel. Runners can gain weight during their training cycle, you can read more about that here. There are also ways to avoid it (still trying to figure that out). It started to become so frustrating so I knew I needed to do something different to get me to the next phase.

I wanted my next training cycle to be different and I wanted to choose a smarter and healthier way to go about it. According to the book, this plan is also great for those who have an event or vacation coming up and you would like to lose weight quickly and safely. This plan will help you get to your destination. Once you have completed the four-week plan, you can continue with the original SHRED plan, which I plan to do. SHRED will help you maintain your weight loss or lose even more . You can find out more about SHRED and purchase it here.

Week 1 — Foundation is the first week and is the easiest of the four. It sets the foundation to successfully complete the program. I am learning the importance of meal timing and preparation.

The SUPER SHRED Concept

Meal Spacing — This is an area that I have struggled with. I have to be mindful of timing when it comes to consuming meals and snacks. Most days I’ll look at the clock and realize I haven’t even had a snack. After following this meal schedule, I realized I need to schedule my meals and snacks out. Like…alerts and all! By timing out the way calories are distributed throughout the day, the fat-burning metabolism keeps insulin hormone levels in check. There’s so much more to this. You seriously need to check out the book! Here is sample of my meal schedule:

Negative Energy Balance — calories consumed from food and drink (energy in) and calories the body uses throughout the day (energy out). Basically to lose weight you need to eat less calories and burn more energy. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.

If you cut 500 calories from your typical diet each day, you’d lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories).

Calorie Disruption — Super Shredder Day (Day 4)  involves an aspect of intermittent fasting. Dr. Ian refers to this process as “calorie disruption”. Not as severe as typical fasting, but daily calories are precisely planned to experience abrupt shifts in the amount consumed. This will have an affect on the metabolism.

Sliding Nutrient Density — The amount of nutrients you get for the number of calories in a particular food or beverage. Dr. Ian stated: Nutrient-dense foods give you the biggest nutritional bang for your calorie buck.

Mid-Week Update + SUPER SHREDDER DAY!

I’m on Day 4, Week 1 (Super Shredder Day) and things are going great so far! I have worked out every day as prescribed and although this day is considered a “rest day” I do plan on keeping it moving.

This may be the most challenging day thus far due to the foods/beverages consumed. I had a smoothie for Meal 1 (breakfast). In addition to Snack 1 and Snack 2, I’ll have soup for Meal 2 (early lunch), a protein shake for Meal 3 (late lunch/snack), and soup again for Meal 4 (dinner). If I can make it past this hump then I know I can handle the rest!

 I just wanted to check-in and share how it has been going for the first few days. I made it through day one, so the next 28 days can be accomplished!

Stay tuned…

My Shred Life Journey:

The Shred Diet Begins  (Part 1) – Read it here.

Super Shred Week 1 Complete! There is a Light! (Part 3) – Read it here.

 

 

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