Michael Rae is on a diet. A serious diet.
Subsisting largely on "loads and loads and loads of vegetables," he consumes 1,800 to 2,000 calories a day, about 25 percent fewer than the USDA recommends for adult males.
"In truth, I'm a little bit hungry most of the time," he said. "You get used to that, although it can be distracting." The regimen has lowered his libido and can also make him snappish.
One other fact about Rae - unlike most other dieters, he's already thin. Very thin - 6 feet tall and 117 pounds.
So why on earth does he torment himself? The 33-year-old technical writer from Calgary, Alberta, thinks his sacrifice will buy an extra 10 to 20 years of life. That makes him willing to forgo cheeseburgers forever: "I'd much rather be alive and not eating pizza than dead."
Rae might be unusual, but he is not a kook. His regimen is backed by a long list of animal studies showing that "calorie restriction" (CR), as it's called, can significantly prolong life.
Hundreds of studies on yeast, worms, mice and other animals have shown that cutting calories by a third increases life span by about 30 percent. For humans, that would mean an extra quarter-century.
The diet also reduces the risk of many age-related ailments, including heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Although it hasn't been scientifically tested on people, most researchers on aging think the regimen will work for Homo sapiens. "It would be shocking if it didn't work in humans," said MIT molecular biologist Leonard Guarente. "It works in such a wide variety of critters. Why would it not work in humans?"
Hundreds of hardy believers have already decided that the animal data are persuasive enough. "This is the only anti-aging regimen that has a lot of evidence behind it," said Brian Delaney, president of the CR Society, an international support group.
Delaney (5 feet 11 inches and 137 pounds) is a 10-year veteran of the diet. The 40-year-old philosophy instructor, who lives in Stockholm, now consumes 1,800 calories a day - a 300-calorie increase from the even-more-spartan version he followed until three years ago. That diet crossed the line, he says: "I was ferociously hungry all the time."
Those on the diet admit that CR has side effects, including hunger, chills, low libido and moodiness. It's also a hassle to make special meals and make sure the food has enough vitamins and nutrients.
