Mark. Do you find it hard limiting yourself to 3 fruits per day? I really enjoy fresh fruit. ... Mark, are avocados acceptable on your program? ... It's a style that's high in natural unprocessed foods and low in concentrated calories, yet not such a radical departure from a traditional way of eating that it would make life difficult for my family. A living food diet or the McDougall plan might be more effective, and I commend those who stick with them and succeed, but they honestly wouldn't work with my family life, right now. )

For years I thought Maffetone's two week test was insane, but after seeing more and more runners in my lab get healthier and run faster from doing it, I started using it for overfat patients with real good success...Keeping things simple sometimes brings the best results.

OK, we all want to get faster, get more healthy, burn more fat and store less fat. It's one package. On the training side, it's why we're here in this Maffetone, Allen, et al. forum. Properly building an aerobic base means we've successfully programmed our bodies to burn more fat (relying less on glucose) for energy. When this happens, we start burning away body fat (as Maffetone says, not just during a run but all day and night). As our aerobic muscles work better, we're less injured and more healthy. And, as we burn more fat we have more energy for running, translating into running faster at the same heart rate (which then translates into better race times). Then there's the food we eat. This can work with or against what our training is doing for our metabolism. Yes, there's a difference between calories of fat and carbs and protein. If we want to burn more fat and reap the benefits noted above, we can't trash our metabolism with junk food -- specifically, eating things that reduce fat burning. The main foods that reduce fat burning are refined carbs, which seem to be the staple for many diets. Reducing or eliminating these foods, and replacing them with fruits, veggies, proteins, etc., can significantly increase fat burning even before we go out for our MAF run. So calories become more of an entertaining discussion, like BMI, scale weight and all the gadgets out there. Maffetone's waist-to-hips ratio is good, but even better is to just measure your waist once a month (and the math is easier ). For years I thought Maffetone's two week test was insane, but after seeing more and more runners in my lab get healthier and run faster from doing it, I started using it for overfat patients with real good success. There's no problem regarding muscle loss IF we're eating enough protein and continue running. Keeping things simple sometimes brings the best results. DavidD