This concept of a Riff Trial is new to me. Sounds like it would serve as a great pre-trial method to hone in on designs for more serious trials, one with controls and blinding. Is this already the case? Or are riff trials generally only performed in citizen research?
Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
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Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#12One suggestion: give participants an "IDGAF LOL" option where the experimenters tell them what protocol to follow, and randomly assign some leading contenders.
That way people can do what they want, but we might also get some well-identified estimates :)
Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#13Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#14Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#15I really enjoyed SMTM's "A Chemical Hunger" series[1]. But recently they've gone into weird fad-diet territory with their potato obsession.
Like, they crow that the potato mono-diet "works," in that the people who successfully followed it lost weight. Well, sure -- all of those 70s fad diets "worked" in that sense! Grapefruit and popcorn? Sure, you can lose weight on that!
But their own numbers show that people regain the weight after they start eating other foods again: "On average, people gained back most of the weight they lost."[2]
People who successfully follow very restrictive diets will lose weight... as long as they follow it. And these "riffs" in the OP where it's potatoes and bacon, or potatoes and gummi worms, or whatever, won't change that basic observation.
[1]: http://achemicalhunger.com/
[2]: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2023/01/26/smtm-potato-diet-co...
Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#16I remember Kevin Smith talking about his first stab at dieting, following the instructions of the "guru" that got Penn Jillette lean: basically, he ate nothing but potatoes for something like 3 months.
The point wasn't that potatoes were particularly good for you, but to "reset" one's attitude towards food, eating only when hungry rather than for pleasure or to deal with stress - because after a few weeks, one is so tired of potatoes that they'll forego unnecessary eating.
In this sense, the potato diet is probably useless in itself, but might work in that "reset" role.
Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#17As Vincent Van Gogh once said, "I'd rather die of potassium than of boron."
Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#18I really enjoyed SMTM's "A Chemical Hunger" series[1]. But recently they've gone into weird fad-diet territory with their potato obsession. Like, they crow that the potato mono-diet "works," in that the people who successfully followed it lost weight. Well, sure -- all of those 70s fad diets "worked" in that sense! Grapefruit and popcorn? Sure, you can lose weight on that! But their own numbers show that people regai…
i don't understand what you're trying to say here, of course anybody who loses weight by changing their diet will gain the weight back if they go back to eating the way they were before, isn't that just common sense?
Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#19One possible riff: cook, chill and reheat all the potatoes. That is known to increase resistant starch.
Re: Potato Diet Riff Trial: Sign Up Now, Lol
#20I feel like the only reason people are losing weight is because eating 20 potatoes in a day is insane and no one on this diet is hitting their BMR. Of course they will lose weight and they will with any variation that keeps them under their BMR.