The Third Secret of Successful Weight Loss - Identify Your Food Sensitivities

The third secret is what this elimination diet that I am currently doing is all about. Dr Mansfield's work with patients over the last 30 years has led him to conclude that an individual's personal food sensitivities are the biggest factor involved in causing weight gain. He also points out that an individual may become sensitive to a particular food at any time.

I developed an allergy to prawns after having BB. It took me 3 episodes of severe hives to work out what it was. On the second time I ended up going to hospital in the middle of the night, the third time I still had some medication from the previous time, which was lucky as the episodes got worse each time, I was able to treat it as soon as it started on the third occasion, and also identify prawns as the cause. I have no idea why I suddenly developed this sensitivity, it just did.

Elimination diets are useful for identifying sensitivities for all sorts of reasons, such as causes of migraines, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, eczema, hives (I won't bother testing the prawns to prove this!) Crohn's disease, urticaria, rheumatoid arthritis, and weight gain. Between 70 and 80% of people that have tried the elimination diet have lost all, or a substantial part of their excess weight.

People will be usually be unaware of their sensitivities as when you eat the offending foods regularly the symptoms are usually masked (you can actually feel better after eating it initially so think it's good). The elimination diet that I am following involves 7 days on just 42 foods that are most unlikely to cause sensitivity. During this time, if you have food sensitivities you are likely to loose a substantial amount of weight (I lost 3 kg) feel worse in the beginning and then better than you have felt for ages by day 7. This was the case for me. This is a good sign as it means there is a high chance I can just identify the offenders, avoid them and be thin.

After the first 7 days on the 42 foods only, you gradually reintroduce other foods. You introduce them individually, generally one in the morning and one in the evening, and observe the effects. You weigh yourself twice a day too. A sensitivity shows up as almost immediate (within 9 hours) weight gain.

For those new to my posts about this, so far I have identified sensitivities to grapes and instant coffee,


There is of course the possibility that there could be something else in addition to the sensitivity that is causing me to be overweight. If this is the case my weight loss will grind to a halt before I reach my ideal weight and I will need to look further. The fourth, fifth and sixth secrets deal with the other possible causes. I will post about each of these soon.

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