My three week experiment with fasting on Monday has been a complete failure. I was unable to fast any of the three Mondays. While I still strongly believe that fasting once a week is great for health, I’m not ready yet to tackle it, at least not with the mental tools currently at my disposal. The really hard part for me, it turns out, is to skip dinner.

I’ve decided to switch my leaning up strategy to match a leaning up protocol I did back in 2021 with good results. The reason I abandoned that experiment was that it was just too demanding. But it dawned on me that I can simply *halve* what I used to do, and that should still work well as long as I can stick to it. Back then I was still very focused on attaining the leanness goal as fast as possible, which ended up backfiring.

Back in 2021 I used to do four days straight (Monday-Thursday) where I only had whey protein and perhaps an apple or two per day. This worked wonders for leaning up, but it took a significant amount of mindshare. And there was usually a ton of overeating during the weekend, which was both unhealthy and counterproductive.

So the new leaning up protocol I will experiment with is very simple:

• On Monday and Tuesday, have two scoops of whey protein per meal, and nothing else.
• On the rest of the days, eat the normal three meals.

Here’s why I think this protocol might work:

• The protocol might create a significant, but yet sustainable, weekly caloric deficit. The two lean days generate a 4000kcal deficit; I expect about 1000kcal overeating during Wednesday and Thursday, which would yield 3000kcal per week. This means 1/3 of a kilo per week, which is significant.
• The weekly rhythm gives a strong tailwind to the leaning up process – the beginning of the week is the best time to lean up. The rest of the week there’s no restriction involved, simply maintenance.
• It is considerably easier to do a lean day than a fast day, in my experience. When your body has all the protein it needs, many alarm bells stay quiet that would otherwise loudly ring during a fast.

I will consider the experiment a success only if 1) the difficulty of implementing and maintaining this habit is comparable to that I experience with other habits (for example, working out); 2) the leaning up takes place. If I cannot ease into the leaning up process, then there is something that needs to be changed (be it the leaning up protocol or my mental tools for implementing habits).

I will start this on the first week of 2023 and report again mid-February.