h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Drink a lot, that is 2 litres a day, of pure water.

Omit one meal, possibly breakfast. On the two meals left you can eat plenty. Do not eat anything at other times. It takes some time to get used to, but you can keep these habits afterwards to stay thin.

Avoid sugar (especially drinks with lots of sugar) and fat. Eat bread and noodles, lots of them. Do not eat sauce, as it contains lots of fat.

Limit alcohol. Drink red wine, about 250ml a day.

Why pure water? I can understand 'Not tea, coffee, fruit drinks, soft drinks', but you can get herbal and fruit teas that contain no sugar, caffeine or other additives. I know that drinking water flushes your system. Are you saying that these drinks are harmful in some way?

Omitting meals - not necessarily a good idea. It has been found that the metabolism speeds up after a meal, so several small meals a day can be better for you than two big ones, provided that you eat the right kinds of foods. Even snacking on healthy foods (fruit, carrot sticks, celery) is OK.

Sauces don't necessarily contain a lot of fat. It depends on the sauce. OK, don't trust any sauces that you haven't made yourself, or where the ingredients / nutritional information indicates a high fat content. If you make your own sauces, you should be able to make them low fat.

Limit alcohol *and* drink 250ml of red wine a day. That's one-third of a bottle! All alcohol is empty calories. Drinking wine *may* reduce other health problems, but it's not necessary as part of a weight-loss programme.

Pure water is not neccessary, but it's easier when you have to drink a lot. Just got the the nearest water outlet (Check if it's safe in your country first). Any other liquids get you on your nerves sometime.

Omitting meals is the right thing. The point is that you can eat as much as you can, and that is limited. So you have the satisfaction of a full stomach and still didn't eat as much as you would if you were eating all day long, without any sense of how much you actually did eat.

You are right about sauces. Another point s that sauces prevent you from tasting the actual food, preventing you from chewing it long enough, and thus and exploiting the real good taste of bare bread or noodles. They turn into sugar in your mouth if you chew them right, giving you nearly as much pleasure as candy, but without the drawbacks of real sugar. And, it takes you longer to eat, so you have a chance to sense the signals of your stomach telling you it is nearly full.

Ok, red wine is not necessary. But shouldn't it be fun too?

'Pure water is ... easier when you have to drink a lot.' Not for me it isn't! It doesn't matter whether it's bottled or tap, still or sparkling. After about 4 small glasses, I'm sick of plain water! I'd much rather drink herbal or fruit teas that actually taste of something.

Omitting meals depends on the person. Some people actually *need* a food intake more than twice a day - in some cases every 4 hours. Also, I've found that if I try to restrict myself to 2 meals a day, I get *very* hungry in between, which makes me more likely to snack on unhealthy food. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I don't know how long you have to chew bread, noodles or pasta to get it to turn to sugar in your mouth, but it's never happened to me. The main reason why people don't chew noodles and pasta for long enough is that often they are over-cooked. This makes them virtually disintegrate in the mouth. If pasta is 'al dente', you have to chew it regardless how much sauce is on there. As for 'detecting the signals that your stomach is full', one way to make this happen more easily is just to take more time over meals. It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to signal that it is full, so if you bolt your meals in less time than that, you may tend to over-eat.

It takes some time to get used to drinking pure water. But, on the other hand, tea comes very close to pure water in not containing bad things. Do you manage to drink 2 to 3 liters (I think that's about 1 gallon)?

Actually I omit the breakfast, eating the first time at about 11:30. Yes, I get hungry too. But, on the oher hand, that keeps me awake and I do a lot of work. The next time I eat is at 19:00, which makes 9 hours to wait. Yes, I do eat some bread (baguette, you know that?) in between, but without any butter. But I only have to keep my weight, so it's ok.

I really love pasta, and I can eat it without anything, or with some ketchup. It takes a while till you find out it's own taste. But then you are no more dependend on sauces. Yes, you should take your time, as with other pleasure activities.

2 - 3 litres is 3.5 - 5.25 UK pints (4.375 - 6.5625 US pints), so it's about half a gallon. I usually drink about 3 UK pints per day (2 litres-ish). On a working day that's mainly herbal / fruit teas or plain tap water (warm, though. I find it easier to drink that way.) At weekends I mainly drink tea - Darjeeling as there's less tannin in that than in some other teas.

I like plain pasta, too. It's easy to cook and doesn't make a mess of my pans. If I add anythink, it's just a few herbs or a little (very little!) salt.

You drink warm water too, so finally I'm not alone. Nice to meet you!

Salt is important to add if you drink water without salt. I'm getting a headache when I have too few salt because of drinking pure water instead of mineral water.

Hi. I'd like to add some of my own comments. I drink about 4 liters of water a day. I do believe humans need pure water regularly to completely flush out the system. Every kind of substance added to water can accumulate in the system. Even herbal tea, even the low-tannin kind, has some ingredients that when they accumulate will upset the balance of the body. Drink tea, but also drink pure water. Sorry if this sounds a bit indelicate but you have to check your urine: if it is yellow, there are harmful concentrates in it. If it is clear, it means if is largely free from such concentrates. The kidneys gather up all this harmful stuff from the rest of the body and excrete them into the urine. It helps to give the kidneys a break by keeping the levels of these harmful substances low. Try to have regular clear urinations, which means your kidneys are flushed clean regularly. I try to end each day with a few long clear urinations. Again sorry if this seems a bit yecchy, but our bodies and organs function a certain way, and if we are concerned about our health it helps to check the way in which they function.

I don't usually use any added salt to my meals or my water. All food contains some salt. Even fruits contain fruit salts, which is based on potassium and which is very important. There must be a balance between sodium and potassium salts. Sodium causes water retention outside the body cells, while potassium causes retention of water inside the cells. You need a balance of both. Overdoses of potassium can be deadly in the short term, too much sodium can be deadly over the long term.

These guidelines are for ordinary everyday living. Under harsh circumstances they differ. A few weeks ago I was hiking in the mountains. Very soon I discovered myself getting exhausted and dizzy. I found that I needed even more water, and I did need extra salt because I was sweating profusely all the time. In fact I found I needed about a litre of water per hour, for a total of about eight to ten liters for an entire day's hike. It is generally possible to determine for yourself how much of any substance you need by being very sensitive to the feedback your body gives you. It can be a matter of life and death especially for people who enjoy adventurous lifestyles.

Thanks Pillowcase for explaining is such fine detail. It is so good to share good information.