Passive Phase 23
Chapter 2:
Passive Phase
Passive Phase means passive state. It
is a resting phase, in which you give your
body enough time to adapt. In order for
your body to adapt, you have to maintain the
same weight for at least two to three months.
In other words, by simply maintaining the
same weight for two to three months, you
will have successfully re-set your implicit
weight thermostat. Suppose that you lose 20
pounds during the Active Phase. After 2
months, you are stuck at 160 pounds. You
need to maintain around 160 pounds
consistently through out the next 2-3 months
(not 165 pounds one week and 155 pounds
the other week). If you do not maintain your
body weight after weight loss, your body
will stay in a state of flux, susceptible to a
great range of variation. On the other hand,
if you are able to maintain the same 160
pounds for 3 months, your body will adjust
its internal weight thermostat to 160 pounds.
24 Active Passive Diet
Subsequently, you don’t gain back the
weight.
During this Passive Phase, you stop
what you are doing actively and go back to
your baseline activities. If you go on a diet,
go off that diet. If you exercise for 1 hour a
day, go back to your 20 minutes baseline. If
you take any medications or herbals during
the Active Phase, stop all during this Passive
Phase. How can you maintain your weight
during the Passive Phase?
You have to CHEAT.
The most effective way to maintain
your weight during the Passive Phase is to
cheat, not to binge. You definitely need to
cheat in order to maintain your weight loss.
In other words, the best way to maintain
your weight is to start to eat “bad” again.
This statement may confuse or shock most
of you. Do not be shocked or alarmed at
this advice. Be patient. I will elaborate on it
furthermore in this chapter.
A Cheater’s Diary.
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 25
In most cases, cheating would be a
discretionary tale kept secret. However, in
the Active-Passive Weight Loss concept,
keeping a food diary is essential to keep
track of your progress. Without the date,
time, and edibles visually available on
paper, a person has the dreary task of tracing
his or her memory for bygone meal items,
while at the start of one’s Passive Phase.
The reason this information becomes
invariably important is because we want to
know exactly how much and how often we
should eat regular foods in our diet. If we
are expected to know the answer to the
question: “How far have we come?”
correctly, then we must first know where we
have started!
Having our food diary
available becomes a tremendous help in
finding signature eating patterns, which is
why we recommend creating a food diary
even just when you begin your Active
Phase. This will allow you to create your
own diet based on the foods you’re currently
eating. Knowing how small changes make
big differences internally, we can see how
eating a cookie everyday has lead to a
gradual rise in weight gain.
26 Active Passive Diet
+
+
Diet
+
+
Binge
___________________________
Figure 2.1
You wean everything off slowly.
Initially when you shock your body
with intense exercise and a strict diet, you
naturally lose weight. At the moment you
get stuck, you want to wean off the exercise
and diet slowly for your body to adapt. You
have to cheat, but you need to cheat with
“bad” foods, bit by bit, slowly. Referring to
Figure 2.1, you don’t want to shock your
body by binging or eating too much all at
once because you will gain back the weight
1
(Golay 2006) . You want to wean off your
diet slowly. How?
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 27
The Transition Phase...



__________________________
Figure 2.2.a – Active Phase




______________________________
Figure 2.2.b – Transition Phase




______________________________
Figure 2.2.c – Passive Phase
Let me introduce another phase: the
Transition Phase, the phase between the
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
28 Active Passive Diet
Active and Passive Phase (Figure 2.2.b).
During this Transition Phase, you want to
wean everything off slowly.
As an illustration, assume that your
weight is 180 pounds. Also assume that your
diet consists of low carbohydrate. You are
able to lose 20 pounds total in 10 weeks
(Figure 2.2.a – Active Phase). By 12
weeks, you still do the same diet but your
weight stays the same. Your body is going
from active weight loss to passive plateau.
Now, assume that your baseline diet is
an equivalent of 5-6
small loaves of bread If you introduce bad
per meal. While you food a little bit at a
are
on
a
low time, you won’t gain
carbohydrate diet, you back the weight.
eat no bread at all. At
the beginning of the Transition Phase, I want
you to cheat by reintroducing bread, tortillas
or whatever the foods that you like or used
to eat. I want you to start out with only one
small loaf of bread per meal every day for
the next 4-5 days. You weigh yourself
everyday to make sure your weight
maintains the same. If you are doing well,
let’s advance your meal to 2 loaves per meal
per day, everyday for the next 4-5 days
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 29
again. If you do not gain any weight, then
advance to 3 loaves per meal.
You eat more and more carbohydrate
but at a very slow pace (Figure 2.2.b). You
want to give your
body enough time to If you suddenly go
adjust and to adapt. back to the way you
Sometimes
your eat before, you will
body needs more gain back all your
weight.
time to be adapted.
Give your body
more time then. For instance, when you
increase to 3 loaves per meal, your weight
also increases a few pounds. You need to
cut back down to 2 loaves per meal for the
next 5-7 days or until your body becomes
very used to 2 loaves of bread before you
increase up to 3 loaves per meal again. If
your body tolerates this well, advance to 4
loaves of bread per meal.
If you feel comfortable with an
equivalence of 4 small loaves of bread per
meal, then continue to eat the same amount
(4 loaves of bread per meal) for the next 2-3
months during the Passive Phase (Figure
2.2.c). You don’t have to go back to same
amount of foods (5-6 small loaves of bread)
30 Active Passive Diet
like what you had consumed in the past. As
long as you are comfortable with what you
eat or how much you eat now, you are ok.
During the Transition Phase, you
don’t want to jump from no bread to 5-6
loaves of bread per
meal. You will gain You can cheat, but
back the weight! you can’t binge.
Increase
slowly.
Give your body
enough time to adjust. You cheat, but it is a
“control cheating”. Don’t binge.
Why do you go back to your
baseline diet?
Why do you go back to your “bad”
diet again? Why can’t you continue with
this same diet? Why do you have to cheat?
There are three reasons for this answer:
First of all, please refer to Figure 2.3.
Which diet is easier to follow? Diet A or
diet B?
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 31
First Reason…
A
(Passive)
This diet is easy to follow.
VS
(Active Phase)
B
(Passive)
This diet is not easy to follow!
______________________________
Figure 2.3
32 Active Passive Diet
You need to maintain your weight
consistently for at least 2 – 3 months during
the
Passive
Phase in order
for your weight You have to maintain
to adapt. The the same weight for
the next 2-3 months
easiest way to for your body to
maintain
your stabilize.
weight
during
that time is to
eat in such a
way that you feel most comfortable. That is
the reason why I want you to reintroduce the
foods that you like. You don’t want to go
back to eating as poorly as you used to;
however, you want to feel comfortable. The
only way to feel comfortable is to go off the
strict diet and to
go back to your The easiest way to
usual
diet. maintain the weight is
Every body can to eat the ways you feel
do a short-term most comfortable.
diet. No one can
do it for a long
time. That is why during the 3 monthsPassive Phase, I want you to eat
comfortably. I want you to cheat.
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 33
Second Reason…
200 lb
180 lb



Diet for 2 months & lose weight
Continue with
the same diet
180 lb


180 lb



If you continue with the same strict diet, it is
not good. After 2-3 months, your body
adapts.
You are ready to lose more weight, but you
can’t because your body also adapts to that
strict diet.
____________________________________
Figure 2.4
The second reason is to prevent you
from being stuck at a plateau. For example,
let’s review the Figure 2.4. Assume that
you follow a low carbohydrate diet for 10
weeks and finally reach a plateau. It is not a
good idea to continue with this same diet
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
34 Active Passive Diet
during the Passive Phase because once you
are stuck, you are stuck! Continuing with
the same diet would not help you to lose any
more weight once you reach that plateau.
Let’s assume you continue three more
months on this strict diet during the Passive
Phase. After the period of three months,
your body adapts to this new weight.
According to the research “Clinical
Significant of Adaptive Thermogenesis”
published in the Journal of Obese on
February of 2007, your metabolism will
adapt to this state if you maintain it for so
long (Major 2007)2. At this moment, your
body is ready to lose more weight.
Unfortunately, your body also gets so used
to this strict diet; you can’t shock your body
to lose any more weight. You can’t start a
diet because you are already on a diet.
You’re stuck.
Third Reason…
That is why once you get stuck, you
want to wean off that strict diet slowly. Go
back to the ways that you used to eat before
you start a diet. Eat “poorly” again and let
your body get used to this “bad” or “normal”
condition. Once your body adapts, shock
your body again with a strict diet. Your
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 35
weight will drop like magic as illustrated in
figure 2.5.
200 lb
180 lb



Active Phase
Transition Phase
180 lb
160 lb





If you cheat once you’re stuck, your body
will get used to the bad diet.
When you’re ready to lose more weight,
shock your body with a good diet. Your
body will respond again.
____________________________________
Figure 2.5
36 Active Passive Diet
Wean off exercise slowly.
The same idea applies to exercise.
You want to wean off exercise slowly once
you reach a plateau, a “Passive Phase”. For
example, you normally exercise aerobically
for 20 minutes daily, which is your baseline
activity. During the Active Phase, you
increase your exercise up to 60 minutes
daily. Certainly, you would lose weight.
Undoubtedly, you will get stuck after 2
months. Once you approach the Passive
Phase, I don’t want you to continue with 60
minutes of exercise daily. Why? Because
your body will eventually get used to 60
minutes of activity. You will not be able to
lose any more weight with the same 60
minutes of exercise later on. Once your
body adapts to the new lower weight, in
order to shock your body, you now have to
exercise 90 minutes to see a difference.
During the Transition Phase, you
want to wean off exercise slowly. If you are
exercising 60 minutes during the active
phase, you want to cut down to 50 minutes
for one week, then 40 minutes for the next
week. You keep cutting down the activity
until you reach 20 minutes daily. You can
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 37
decrease your exercise activity further until
you feel comfortable. If your baseline
before the active phase is 20 minutes of
aerobic exercise 3 times per week, you want
to do the same thing during the Passive
Phase. If your baseline activity is no
exercise at all and you are very comfortable
with it, then slowly wean off your exercise
activity completely. Once your body is
ready to lose weight again, shock it with
intense exercise again. Your body will
respond.
Wean off medication slowly.
The same concept also applies to
medication. If you are using any over-thecounter or prescription medications during
the Active Phase for weight loss, you have
to wean them off slowly during the
Transition Phase.
Instead of taking
medication every day, you start to cut it
down to every other day, then every-two
days, then every-three days, or so on... You
want to slowly cut down the medication
until you don’t need it any more, and then
stop the medication completely during the
passive phase. Otherwise, your body will
38 Active Passive Diet
eventually get used to the medication and
nothing will work.
In conclusion, once you reach a
plateau, you have to stop dieting, exercising,
and taking medication SLOWLY. In other
words, you have to CHEAT. Give yourself
enough time during the Transition Phase (2
to 4 weeks) to wean off everything. Go
back to your comfortable baseline. Then
continue to do pretty much nothing during
the next 2-3 months during the Passive
Phase. Just make sure you keep an eye on
your diet and activity to maintain the weight.
Once you are ready to lose weight again,
restart with the Active Phase. Shock your
body with diet and exercise again. Very
likely, you will be able to lose weight like
magic.
Once you reach a plateau, instead of
weaning everything off slowly, what
happens to you if you decide to try harder
(exercise more, eating less, and/or taking
more pills)?
The second mistake...
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 39
Once you reach a plateau, you can try
harder. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to
lose any more weight. Once you are stuck,
you are stuck.
Trying harder would more likely harm
your body rather than help it. Let’s recall a
scenario that you may have experienced in
the recent past. You tried to lose weight
with diet, exercise, and/or medication. You
had successfully lost a lot of weight. Once
you were stuck instead of weaning off the
diet, exercise, and medication, you had tried
harder.
The biggest mistake that you
committed was that you have cut down
foods. You have eaten even less. You have
starved yourself. When your body was
starved, it gave you a lot of signals such as
fatigue, tiredness, headache, weakness, or
craving for the foods that you have never
been craving for before. You decided to try
even harder to fight against the hunger. It
was useless no matter how hard you have
tried. Eventually, your body took over.
Because your body was so starved, it
overcompensated and “over-saved”. In a
short time, you have gained not only all the
weight back but also 10 pounds more.
When you maintained this heavier weight
40 Active Passive Diet
for a few months, your body eventually got
used this new weight. You ended up heavier
than before you even tried the diet. Thus
starvation and then binge can cause worse
weight gain and obesity in the long term
according to a research published in summer
of 2008 (Bovier 2008)3.
So now you know why you have to
wean yourself off the diet, exercise, and/or
medication the moment you reach a plateau.
The real scenario:
For the sake of this explanation, I will
use a real patient for example. Maria, a
patient of mine who was five feet tall,
weighed 150 lbs. So she was 30 pounds
over-weight. Table 2.1 was her Cheater’s
Week 0
Weight Foods/Carb portion
Exercise
152
2 bread 2 tortilla
0 min
Mon
151
3 potato 2 rice
0 min
Tues
151
2 bread 2 rice
0 min
Wed
152
3 pasta 3 bread
0 min
Thur
153
4 rice 2 corn
0 min
Frid
152
3 bread 2 sweet
0 min
Sat
152
3rice 1sweet 1bread
0 min
Sun
Table 2.1: Baseline diet (week 0 - before dieting)
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 41
Diary before she joined our program. It was
her baseline. For the simplicity, I only show
the total time of exercise, the weight, and the
amount of carbohydrate. The weight is
measured in pounds. The carbohydrate is
simplified with total amount of portion per
day, which is equivalent of 1 unit or ½ cup.
Sweet is any kind of sweet desert.
Table 2.2 showed Maria’s Cheater’s
Diary of the first week when she started
Active Phase Diet. As you can see, she
stopped all carbohydrate and started a 15
minute walking daily. She lost 5 lb of water
during the first week.
Week 1
Weight Foods/Carb portion
152
0
Mon
151
0
Tues
148
0
Wed
149
0
Thur
148
0
Frid
149
0
Sat
147
0
Sun
Table 2.2: Week 1 of Active Phase
Exercise
15 min
0 min
15 min
15 min
15 min
0 min
15 min
It has been 10 weeks since the start of
her Active Phase, and Maria was standing
42 Active Passive Diet
on the precipice of the Passive Phase at 135
lb. What did she do to lock in her weight for
the next 3 months?
In her case, she slowly integrated
carbohydrate back into her diet during the
Transitional Phase according to table 2.3.
According to her Cheater’s Diary, Maria
was in the habit of eating 4-6 portions of
carbohydrate per day in the past. During the
Active Phase, she ate none of the
carbohydrate.
In the beginning of
Transitional Phase, she gradually reintegrated ½ portion of carbohydrate and
decreased the time of exercise. Now, as she
wanted to keep off the weight, her body
would insist on returning to her previous
150 lb by using the regulatory system.
Week 11
Weight Foods/Carb portion
135
0
Mon
135
¼ pasta
Tues
134
½ tortilla
Wed
135
¼ rice ½ bread
Thur
136
0
Frid
135
½ rice
Sat
134
½ rice ½ tortilla
Sun
Table 2.3: Week 11 – Transitional Phase
Exercise
45 min
35min
35 min
35 min
35 min
30 min
30 min
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 43
Thus, in order to convince her body that no
re-adjustment was required, Maria must
return to eating those foods that her body
was accustomed to before.
Not only must the food items in
Maria’s diet return to normal, but also the
baseline level of exercise should be return to
routine. So in this case, she gradually
reduced the time of running as illustrated in
table 2.3.
By the end of her first week of
Transitional Phase, Maria had advanced up
to 1 portion of carbohydrate and cut down
her exercise to 30 minutes.
With a
consistent progress of gradually more
carbohydrate each day, she did not
experience hunger as she did before during
the beginning of week 11.
Good cheating gone bad!
“What happens if the weight creeps
up toward my previous weight?” In some
case this happens, especially if binging
occurs during the Transitional Phase. In
other cases, it may be too fast in reduction in
exercise or the consumption of high
44 Active Passive Diet
glycemic index foods such as sugary items
like sodas and sweets. When a person gains
weight during whether the Transitional
Phase or Passive Phase, it may simply be a
sign that the body requires more time to
adjust. In this case, take your time and try
your best to readjust exercise and diet to
maintain the weight. Please refer to table
2.4 for example.
Week 12
Weight Foods/Carb portion
135
1 rice 1bean
Mon
135
1 pasta 2 sweet
Tues
136
2 rice 2 bread
Wed
139
¼ rice ½ pasta
Thur
138
0
Frid
136
½ rice
Sat
135
½ rice ½ tortilla
Sun
Table 2.4: Week 12 – Transitional Phase
Exercise
30 min
30min
25 min
35 min
35 min
30 min
30 min
According to table 2.4, Maria had
advanced too quickly during Tuesday and
Wednesday. Consequently, she gained 3
pounds (mostly water of course).
Nevertheless, she needed to correct this
mistake swiftly before it could become
worse. She has cut down her carbohydrate
and
increased
exercise
minutes.
Subsequently, her weight dropped back
down to 135 lbs range. Maria was very
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 45
46 Active Passive Diet
Week 13
lucky for her weight dropped back down
quickly. Occasionally, other patients may
take a week to correct their brief weight gain
during this phase.
Using a tracking system such as
Cheater’s Diary is highly recommended to
manage your weight during Passive Phase
correctly. It helps you to keep track of not
only your carbohydrate intake and duration
of exercise but also your daily body weight.
As stated previously, in the case of Maria,
she needed to maintain 135 lbs for at least 23 months for her body to adapt to this new
baseline. Her weight must stay steady and
not rise above the 135 lbs mark. Therefore,
the only way that she can make sure to
maintain the 135 lbs range is to track the
weight along with the re-integration of
normal foods and the reduction of the
duration and intensity of exercise.
Table 2.5 is the example of Maria’s
13 week, her last week of Transition Phase.
She was able to find a balance in her
carbohydrate intake and exercise routine.
She was ready to enter the Passive Phase for
the next 8-12 weeks.
th
Weight Foods/Carb portion
135
1 bread 1sweet
Mon
134
2 pasta 1 tortilla
Tues
134
1 tortilla 2 rice
Wed
135
2 rice 2 bread
Thur
136
1 potato 2 bread
Frid
135
2 rice 1 sweet
Sat
134
1 rice 2 tortilla
Sun
Table 2.5: Week 13 – Transitional Phase
Exercise
25 min
25min
25 min
20 min
15 min
15 min
15 min
Another point to remember is that you
do not necessarily need to go back to exactly
how you were eating before you began the
Active Phase. In the case of Maria, as you
can see, she chose not to go back to her
baseline of carbohydrate intake. She used to
eat 4-6 portion of carbohydrate a day in the
past. During the end of Transitional Phase,
she felt comfortable with just 3-4 portion of
carbohydrate per day. So, she would
continue to eat the same for the next 2-3
months during the Passive Phase. Also, she
enjoyed exercise; therefore, she did not want
to go back to her no-exercise baseline. She
determined to continue with 15 minutes of
exercise at least every other day for a good
cardio workout.
Table 2.6 is a typical week of Maria
diet and exercise pattern during the Passive
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Passive Phase 47
Phase.
Please notice that her weight
maintained fairly well despite the facts that
she ate much more protein and vegetable
(which is not shown in the chart).
Week 14
Weight Foods/Carb portion
135
1 tortilla 2 rice
Mon
135
1 pasta 2 tortilla
Tues
134
2 bread 1sweet
Wed
135
2 rice 2 bread
Thur
136
2 potato 1 bread
Frid
135
2 tortilla 1 sweet
Sat
134
2 rice 1 potato
Sun
Table 2.6: Week 14 – Passive Phase
48 Active Passive Diet
your body? “Flow” with your body instead!
Trick your body into a new adaptation.
Then, shock your body again and again until
you reach your goal.
Exercise
15 min
15 min
0 min
15 min
15 min
0 min
0 min
The Passive Concept
In conclusion, the whole chapter
about passive concept can be summarized in
one sentence: “Our body always adapts.”
No matter what you do, your body will
eventually adapt. If you exercise 3 hours
daily, your body will adapt. If you starve
yourself with less than 500 calories a day,
your body will adapt. Whatever activities or
diets you try, your body will adapt. Your
body will adapt and you will not be able to
lose weight any more. So, why fight against
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD
Copyright © 2010 – Tu Nguyen, MD