Three weeks of writing nothing down but the truth

Owen Castellan wanted a plan on day one. What he got was a notebook and an instruction not to change anything for three weeks.

Protein and total intake are the two levers that matter most in older adults, and both point in the opposite direction to most public messaging about eating.

Month five

The elimination phase is time-limited and supervised, because a restricted diet held indefinitely creates a second problem while solving the first.

Most plans are built on a description of an average week that nobody has ever actually had.

Ines Cardoso, dietetics

Two things, and no more

Phase one changes two things and nothing else. Most participants find this insulting for about three weeks and survivable thereafter.

“The pattern was obvious once it was on paper,” he says. “It just wasn’t the pattern I’d have described.”