Subway Diet - Conclusion

As I mentioned in Day 5, I went out for some drinks at night. At 1:15 a.m., I decide the diet is officially over, so I order Pokey Sticks and pepperoni rolls from Gumby's. At 2 a.m., I pig out, and I'm sure I had as many calories in that one sitting as I had in the entire day.

Weigh-in: 95.8 lbs., which means I lost 2.0 lbs. from yesterday, despite my binge eating and drinking. I haven't weight this "little" since last summer (but at that time, I gained 5 lbs. in muscle).

Final statistics: 6,466 calories, 78.1 grams fat, 27.5 grams saturated fat. This averages out each day to 1,293 calories, 15.6 grams fat, 5.5 grams saturated fat.

Total weight loss: 3.4 lbs.

Basically, if I cut out the drinking, I could have saved a lot of calories and perhaps lost more weight. Of course, this is unrealistic for me.

Thanks very much for reading along!

Subway Diet, Day 5

I had a premonition, I think. Some time in the middle of the night, I was worried that I gained weight. But I knew this couldn't be possible, since I ate less than 3,500 calories (= 1 lb.) on Thursday. Either way, I was quite nervous getting on that scale.

Weigh-in: 97.8 lbs. WTF?! I gained 1.2 lbs.! How is that possible? It must be water weight, I convince myself, but I don't think I drank that much yesterday. What gives?

7:05 a.m. - After 10 min. of being extremely incredulous, I go read the newspaper. I do NOT eat anything.

8 a.m. - I make a pot of coffee. I guess I'll put something in my stomach just to get my metabolism going.

10 a.m. - I of course feel hungry, but I don't even drink any water because I'm punishing my body for making me gain weight.

11:50 a.m. - Time to buy my last lunch sub. I come full circle and purchase an oven-roasted chicken breast with lettuce, tomatoes, sweet peppers and mustard on Italian (toasted), with Lay's Light and a diet Coke.

A lady behind me in line purchases a mini-sub. I think it's a three-inch kiddie sub and can't be that filling. This is all she orders.

Noon - I'm still a little miffed about gaining weight. I decide to eat this sub at a regular pace. This sub tastes WAY better than the one I had on Monday.

Lunch statistics: 390 calories, 5 grams fat, 1.5 grams saturated fat.

4 p.m. - One of my coworkers says she is going to a fish fry tonight. Oh how I miss fried foods!

5:05 p.m. - I get a couple of drinks with another coworker. It's nice that there is no free food calling out my name. I have one Stella Artois and one PBR. I certainly do not recommend this transition. Imagine eating a juicy, tender prime rib, then eating poop. This is the taste equivalent of going from Stella to PBR (more or less).

6 p.m. - I bake my other foot-long sub from last night. It's a roast beef with lettuce, tomato and sweet peppers on Italian. This sub tastes great. The fat from the beef sorta melts into the bread, making for a great flavor. I'm glad I'm ending this diet on a high note.

Dinner statistics: 580 calories (sub) + 120 (milk) + 340 (beer) = 1,040 calories, 10 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat.

I admit, after dinner, I went out for some drinks, but I'm not counting calories anymore.

Friday's statistics: 1,430 calories, 15 grams fat, 5.5 grams saturated fat

I'll recap the week and give you the final results in the Day 6 blog.

Subway Diet, Day 4

I know I haven't lost that much weight, but I think I actually look a little skinnier. I'm regretting not taking a "before" picture, so I can compare it to the "after" picture in which I'll be holding up a pair of my "old" pants (which would be the same pants I still wear now).

Weigh-in: This morning the scale read 96.6 lbs., so I dropped 1.4 lbs. from yesterday. Geez, in three days on this I've lost 3.2 lbs. I see why Jared dropped 250 in one year.

6:55 a.m. - Same old tropical fruit cup, although this is the last from a four-pack. I think tomorrow I'm only going to drink coffee for breakfast.

10:35 a.m. - I'm not really hungry or thirsty, but I get a glass of water. I'm concerned that my stomach has indeed shrunk, and that I'm getting used to eating in much smaller amounts. I reminisce about all those times I have over-engorged myself at a meal, almost like a pride thing to prove that I could eat that sixth slice of pizza, or make another trip to the buffet line, or whatever.

Funny thing, by the way, is that I read a Q&A in the paper today about if it's really possible to die by drinking too much water. The answer is yes, but an adult would have to drink about 15 liters to die. By comparison, the 144 oz. of liquid I drank on Monday is equivalent to only 4.2 liters.

11:50 a.m. - I head downstairs to Subway, and while standing in line, I decide to get my sub toasted, maybe to trick myself into thinking I'm getting something different.

I get the Lay's Light again, as well as a ham sub with lettuce, tomato and green peppers on wheat and a diet Coke.

12:02 p.m. - I will attempt to eat this meal as slowly as possible.

Before I start, I notice the nutritional info on the cup, and it says that mustard is just five calories (on six inches, I presume) with no fat. I think I will have mustard on tonight's sub, just for some flavor. If I laugh really hard, I can burn off the 10 calories I need to cancel the mustard.

12:50 p.m. - I did it. I managed to eat a meal that would normally be five or six bites to me and prolong it over 50 minutes. I'm actually somewhat full as a result.

Lunch statistics: 365 calories, 5 grams fat, 1.5 grams saturated fat.

2:30 p.m. - Somewhere outside is the smell of either beef shishkabob or philly cheese steaks. This is not fair.

4 p.m. - H to the Izzo.

5:30 p.m. - I go with a friend to a happy hour. It's free alcohol and food. This is pure torture! I start with a pint of Blone Doppelbock, and then move on to a 34-oz. mug of Miller Lite. While I drink the waitstaff is constantly bringing out more and more food, faster than people can eat it. There's pizza (the bacon & pepperoni looked outstanding), chicken wings, onion rings, nachos, mozzarella sticks and more. This makes three fucking days where I can have unlimited food but have to turn it down. Ironically, I'm sure next week I will not have any such encounters.

I make it the 2.5 hours I'm there without eating a bite. I'm hungry and I'm angry, which is a bad combo. Plus, I could have drank a lot more.

8 p.m. - I meet up with some friends for a birthday outing. I actually feel pretty drunk (doppelbock + 34 oz. = 58 oz. = ~ 5 beers on an ultra empty stomach), so all I can muster is two glasses of water.

9:30 p.m. - The party breaks up, and I worry that all the nearby Subways are closed. Fortunately, the one on State Street is open until 10 p.m. I would think it would be pretty dead inside, but someone is checking out as I enter, and two people walk in behind me. C'mon, who craves Subway at night? Nearby there's Jeff & Jim's Pizza, Asian Kitchen, Real Chili, Cold Stone and more. Don't those sound more appealing?

This Subway also has a special, but it's two foot longs for $9.99, a dollar more expensive than the one on Randall Avenue--better than nothing, I guess.

9:40 p.m. - I eat one of the footlongs, a turkey with lettuce, cucumber, onion, jalapenos and mustard on honey oat. I don't take my time with this one; I polish it off (with a glass of milk) in no time.

Dinner statistics: 570 calories (sub) + 120 (skim milk) + 468 (beer) = 1158 calories, 9 grams fat, 3 grams saturated fat.

I mostly survived this tough, tough day!

Thursday's statistics: 1,523 calories, 14 grams fat, 4.5 grams saturated fat.

Subway Diet, Day 3

I didn't feel great last night. I learned that drinking three doppelbocks, which have twice the alcohol content as regular beer, while hardly eating anything will mess you up quickly. In fact, only several hours after consuming the beer, I was hungover.

This morning wasn't fun, either. My sinuses have been acting up again, and when they do, they often mess up my equilibrium, causing me to be dizzy. My stomach is burning right now because I took a Wal-Phed (or something similar) without much food to help absorb it.

Weigh-in: I dropped another .6 pounds to 98.0 in this morning's weigh-in (as a reminder, I started at 100.2, obviously a fake number).

6:50 a.m. - I eat my tropical fruit cup in about 40 seconds.

7:30 a.m. - After showering, I start to really feel dizzy. I wish I could go back to bed.

10:16 a.m. - Mmm, water.

12:05 p.m. - Time for lunch! I eat the rest of the sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub from last night; it's actually not too bad the next day. I take off the jalepeno peppers because I don't want to sweat too much at the office. I try to take at least 10 min. to eat this sub to trick my stomach into thinking I'm fuller. After the sub, I eat a medium-sized red apple. I wash it all down with some caffeine free diet Mt. Dew. Boy, this is one tasty meal!

Lunch statistics: 415 calories, 5 grams fat, 1.5 grams saturated fat

3:30 p.m. - Another glass of water. I realized I haven't had the hunger pangs that I had on Monday and Tuesday. Maybe my stomach has shrunk?

5:55 p.m. - I had a hair cut and now am driving home. On route, I see a Pizza Hut delivery car and contemplate pulling over and giving the driver a twenty for whatever he has in hand. I think next week I'm going to really pig out. That's delayed gratification for you.

6:15 p.m. - I heat up the other 12-inch sub from last night in the oven. When I put it out, it smells really good, like the same smell that wafts into my office throughout the day.

6:17 p.m. - Smells can be deceiving. Normally I can stand pickles, but these pickles are just God-awful. On top of that, the black olives (which I hate) that I forced myself to get as a topping do not make the sub appetizing. You know that feeling when you're so hungry you could eat anything? Well, it was sorta like that as I choked down the first half of the sub. On the second, I had to pull off the pickles and olives.

I'm quite certain Jared couldn't have eaten a foot-long veggie sub every night. First, I don't think I could eat BBQ ribs, something I love, every single day. Also, what man in hell likes a sandwich without meat?

7 p.m. - I got to a meeting that happens to be serving sundaes and root beer floats. I don't have a sweet tooth, but since I didn't have much of a dinner, I bet I could pour one of the two-liter bottles of root beer into the gallon of ice cream and make a big dent. As a result of my temporary insanity, I've come to the revelation that life is one temptation after another--it's the ones you avoid that shape your character (fuck I'm hungry!).

Dinner statistics: 580 calories (sub) + 120 (skim milk) = 700 calories, 10 grams fat, 3 grams saturated fat.

Like I said yesterday, I promised I would behave today! (Tomorrow is another story: I have a happy hour and two b-day parties to attend.)

Wednesday's statistics: 995 calories, 15 grams fat, 4.5 grams saturated fat.

Subway Diet, Day 2

I think I may be overhydrated. After dinner last night I lifted weights and jogged, and not at any point did I ever feel thirsty. That's because I must have drank at least 12 glasses of water throughout the day to battle my hunger.

I know in Day 1 of this blog I left off my weight. Just for mathematical purposes, let's say yesterday my weight was 100.2. This morning's weigh-in put me at 98.6, a difference of 1.6 pounds. I know for a fact that it couldn't have been all water weight that I lost, because as I mentioned, I drank a LOT of water yesterday.

I'm considering splitting my 12-inch sub to two six-inch subs, so that I will be eating four meals a day (breakfast then three sub meals). That way, I can keep my metabolism up and possibly lose more weight. We'll see if I have time during the day.

6:45 a.m. - After the weigh in--and I have to admit, the results were somewhat surprising--I eat another tropical fruit cup. Normally, I am not hungry at breakfast and only eat to wake up my metabolism. Today, I could probably eat the Tremendous 12 at Perkin's, then polish off a Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's.

9:20 a.m. - I make a pot of coffee at work, not because I'm sleepy and need the caffeine, but because I don't want to drink another three glasses of water in the morning. Plus, I think the coffee will fill me up a bit more. Fortunately, coffee is low in calories; with the sugar I added, the cup is only 50 or so calories.

10:15 a.m. - Now I'm starting to have hunger pangs. How the hell did Jared, a 300+pound guy, eat so little for a year? I'm convinced he must've had his stomach stapled.

Time another cup of coffee. It's just half-a-cup this time, plus no sugar. Should just be about two calories.

11 a.m. - I have to go run an errand, so I grab lunch on my way to the parking ramp. Today, I get a six-inch Subway club with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and pickles on wheat bread. I was looking for the Baked Lay's when instead I came upon Lay's Light. Not only is it fat free, but it's half the calories (just 75), so it's even better for you (so to speak) than their baked counterparts.

11:04 a.m. - I eat the chips in the car. I'm worried that the Olean they're made with will give me the runs.

These chips are actually pretty good. They taste just like regular Lay's.

11:06 a.m. - I've developed some sort of film on the roof of my mouth. I wonder if it's the Olean that has coagulated in my mouth.

12:10 a.m. - I wait until after I get back to the office to eat the sub. This one tastes a lot better than that "oven-roasted" chicken breast that I had yesterday.

Lunch statistics: 395 calories (with chips), 6 grams fat, 2 grams saturated fat

3 p.m. - I'm of course hungry again, but not as painfully so as previous times. I decide I can tolerate this pain and not even drink any fluids! Is it possible to be sick of water?

5:20 p.m. - Here's where things get really tricky. I go to the Big Ten Pub's customer appreciation day, which has free food along with $1 taps and rails. I drink three Capital Brewery Blonde Doppelbocks because 1) They're damned good and 2) a six pack costs $10, so they are expensive beers that I'm only paying a buck for.

The food looks sooooo good. There's burgers, BBQ ribs, shrimp cocktail, mac & cheese, cocktail wieners, tons of desserts and more. I eat one shrimp, one rib and later I sneak a mini-burger (it's about a quarter the size of a real burger). Otherwise, I live vicariously through my two friends, whom I kept encouraging to eat more on my behalf. Seriously, do you know how hard it is to resist free food? I could have eaten at least four plates of ribs alone before I even attacked the other foods.

As a result of all the drinking, I'm actually not too hungry afterward (usually, drinking makes me hungry), so I don't go to Subway rightaway.

7 p.m. - Instead, I meet up with other friends for a going away party at the Great Dane. I swear to God all I had were four glasses of delicious water. The waitress was super nice about my lack of ordering anything real, and I offered to buy her a drink, but she said she wasn't allowed (but otherwise would've said yes ... at least that's what I daydreamed she meant).

8:30 p.m. - When I decide to leave, I realize I could probably go the rest of the night without eating, but I still want to go to the Subway on Randall Avenue in order to get their deal, which I vaguely recall from a drunken night about a month ago.

8:40 p.m. - Yes! This Subway on Randall and University does indeed have a special, and it's a good one: Two foot-longs for $8.99! I order a 12-inch ham & turkey with black olives (even though I hate them), pickles, sweet peppers and onions on honey oat bread, and a 12-inch sweet onion teriyaki with jalepenos, tomatoes, cucumbers and tomatoes on Italian herbs. These two subs would have cost $12+tax otherwise; I paid just $9.48.

9:11 p.m. - I debate for a long time whether I can/should eat any of these subs. I figure, I didn't eat that much today, and besides the beer, my calorie count was pretty low. Plus, when you have two feet of fucking subs sitting in front of you, it's hard to resist. So I "grudgingly" decide to eat six inches of the sweet onion teriyaki sub with--what else?--a glass of water.

The good thing about putting jalenpenos on anything is that it makes you thirsty, so I have to pound a couple more glasses of water to help cool my mouth; that in turn makes me more full.

Dinner statistics: 120 calories (rib, rounded way up) + 60 (mini burger) + 8 (shrimp with a little sauce) + 370 (sub) + 510 (beer) = 1,068 calories, 13.1 grams fat, 5.5 grams saturated fat.

Tuesday's statistics: 1,463 calories, 19.1 grams fat, 7.5 grams saturated fat.

Now I realize I didn't count breakfast either day. I'm sorry, but I just don't feel the need to count those 50 or so calories. I just want to see the calorie count from the Subway diet alone. Today I counted the beer, rib, burger and shrimp because they "substituted" for six inches of sub.

Tomorrow I'll be better, I promise!

Subway Diet, Day 1

Preface:

I decided to partake in the Subway Diet. I was vaguely familiar with how it works; from the commercials, Jared Fogle ate the eight healthier subs at Subway every day. From my research, I found out that he ate a six-inch sub with Baked Lay's and a diet soda for lunch, then he had a 12-inch sub for dinner (specifically, turkey and vegetarian, respectively). Jared never added cheese or mayo to his subs.

The reason why this diet works is because altogether, Jared was only eating 1,000-1,200 calories a day, far below the recommended 2,000. Experts say that the diet is not nutritious, as it lacks vitamins such as calcium. Oh well, I think I can handle this diet for at least a week. Plus, Subway just added sliced apples and raisins to the menu, and I'll be eating fruit for breakfast.

This weekend, I binged on some foods that I thought I would crave/miss: Friday I had Culver's, Saturday I had KFC and Taco Bell, and Sunday I had BW3s.

I weighed myself this morning right after getting up. The electronic scale read 1XX.2 pounds (sorry, I thought I'd leave my actual weight off this blog).

7 a.m. - I have a tropical fruit cup for breakfast, with nothing to drink. Half-an-hour later, I'm starving.

9:30 a.m. - I'm starting to feel hungry again, so I have a glass of water.

10:45 a.m. - (See 9:30)

11 a.m. - I can start to smell the fresh-baked bread from the Subway below my office. God, I'm hungry.

11:45 a.m. - I meet my wife for lunch at Subway. Unfortunately, my slew of Subway coupons expired yesterday, so I have to turn to my Entertainment Book coupons. This one is for buy one six-inch sub and large soda, get one free.

I figure that since some of the eight subs have more calories than the others, I will order them as six inches and the other ones as 12 inches. Today, I got the oven-roasted chicken breast (with lettuce, tomato, onions and sweet peppers on wheat) and a diet coke. Knowing that the coupon did not include chips, I had my wife bring an apple for me.

At the checkout, I asked if this Subway restaurant had specials after 5 p.m., like most Subways. Unfortunately, they said no, so I will have to go to another Subway for dinner.

I ate the apple first, then I ate the ultra-tasteless sub. Apparently, "oven-roasted" meant boiled, because that was the only way this chicken was cooked as far as I could tell. I'm sitting on a bench near the Capitol, and while I eat, everyone around me is eating foods that look and smell way better. Also while I eat, I ponder if I tried the "Super Size Me" diet at McDonald's for one week, could I lose all that weight via the Subway diet the following week?

Lunch statistics: 355 total calories, 5 grams fat, 1.5 grams saturated fat.

12:15 p.m. - My stomach feels a little funny, probably because for the first time in a long time, I eat a meal with fruit, vegetables and no sauce/seasoning.

2:35 p.m. - Dammit, I'm starting to feel hungry again. Time for some more water.

5:30 p.m. - I can't believe I made it to this point--I'm sooo hungry! I drive to the Subway on Park Street; this restaurant also does not have specials after 5 p.m.

I order a foot-long roast beef on Italian with lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers and jalepenos. I take it home and eat it with a 12-oz. glass of skim milk.

Dinner statistics: 580 calories (sub) + 120 calories (milk) = 700 calories, 10 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat.

I guess I'm done for the day!

Monday's statistics: 1,055 calories, 15 grams fat, 5.5 grams saturated fat.

Not bad, I'd say. By comparison, the KFC Variety Big Box Meal I ate for lunch last Saturday was 1,325 calories.