Rowena Blythe had spent three decades eating less, on advice, and arrived at seventy-eight considerably weaker than anybody had intended.
The elimination phase is time-limited and supervised, because a restricted diet held indefinitely creates a second problem while solving the first.
Phase one changes two things and nothing else. Most participants find this insulting for about three weeks and survivable thereafter.
Public messaging is aimed at fifty-year-olds. Eighty-year-olds are still following it, and it’s hurting them.
Illustrative composite
The diary runs for three weeks before any advice is given, because advice given to a guess is a guess with more confidence attached.
“I was told to eat more and it felt like being told to break a rule,” she says. “It took me two months to do it properly.”
