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Thoughts on the potato diet

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Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#161

Post by samatman »

billjings wrote: post #148
exolymph wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7iAABhWpcGeP5e6SB/it-s-proba...

Thanks! I'm not completely sold on the lithium hypothesis, either. But I find their arguments for some kind of environmental contaminant compelling, especially for the ways in which they refute some of the other major hypotheses for the increase in body weights (e.g. food variety, processed food, etc) Note that the SMTM folks recently published an article responding to the TDS data referred to by "It's Probably Not L…

This is... not promising.

Someone would write like this if they don't know anything about instrumental analysis and are just guessing as a result.

As an example, they don't seem to even understand that wet and dry weights are substantivel different measures, and speak as though Magalhães et al. (1990) is measuring wet weight; it is measuring dry weight.

I'm supportive of autodidactic study and outsider research, but this is, frankly, a mess. They should unweight their priors considerably and bring in some chemists.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#162

Post by mixmastamyk »

com2kid wrote: post #130
entropicgravity wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this, but I'll stick to the peanut butter diet :)

Peanut butter doesn't fill me up at all. I can consume 1k calories of it, nothing, still hungry after. Same with fish, I cannot get full eating fish in any quantity. Shrimp, sure, but not fish. Nuts, same deal. I'll eat 500+ calories of nuts, does nothing for me.

See a doctor.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#163

Post by zhynn »

billjings wrote: post #106

The only reason the potato diet is interesting to me (and presumably the reason it's interesting to the https://slimemoldtimemold.com/ folks) is the likely relationship to their environmental contaminant hypothesis for the public health issue of increasing body weights since 1980, outlined in a series of posts here: http://achemicalhunger.com/ In short, while the variety and satiety explanations make a lot of sense s…

I participated in the SMTM study, and am totally happy to share my data if anyone is at all curious.

Results for me:

  - it was not as easy as i thought it would be
  - i lost weight
  - my appetite and satiety feedback systems were reset.  After the diet was over I ate less and got full sooner. 
  - after the diet, I noticed that I wanted to eat more even after i was mechanically full.  This was weird, since it didn't happen on the potato diet (I did overeat potatoes a few times because I tried to fill a pizza shaped hole with potato). It feels like an addiction. I know I am full.  I feel full.  I am not hungry.  I want to eat more anyway.
  - So far the weight is staying off (~2 months).

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#164

Post by seadan83 »

sph wrote: post #56
csours wrote: post #35

If this is interesting I highly recommend "The Hungry Brain". Some other thoughts: Obesity is not a disease of over-eating, it is a disease of managing hunger. "Losing weight" is a terrible goal. "Changing Body Composition" is a much better goal. Specifically change the proportion of fat to muscle. ---- If your immediate answer is "Those are the same thing but with different words!!!" then here are some questions to…

> Obesity is not a disease of over-eating, it is a disease of managing hunger. Indeed it is, and the solution to managing hunger (i.e. returning your whole insulin and leptin system to a more optimal baseline) is NOT going for a 90% carbohydrate diet. That's exactly why we have a bloody obesity epidemic. It's a fun thought experiment, but reading the comments in here people actually think this is genius and sustainab…

My unsupported personal belief is that the human body processes different carbohydrates in very different ways. Carbs that come from starch are not equivalent to carbs from cane sugar, and yet again not equivalent to honey, and again not equivalent to high fructose corn sryup, and again different from breads & pasta.

Ratio of fiber to carbohydrate and how that carbohydrate is processed by the body is also important as well.

Hence, french fries are not good, they have added sugar, the skin is removed, and they have a lot of added fats from the fried oils. That strikes me as a world of difference compared to a whole baked potato consumed with a sauteed broccolli with a side salad (plenty of fiber).

Unrelated, and unsolicited 2 cents, IMO it's all about eating as many fibrous and leafy greens as possible. At that point, a moderate side of lean meat, potato, carb, practially whatever - does not matter so long as the fibrous and leafy greens are the majority source of calories.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#165

Post by code_duck »

jrvarela56 wrote: post #126
nostrebored wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CGMs should disillusion people of this pretty quickly. I really wish more people would try them for a month just to see how they respond to certain foods.

I did and would recommend. It shows you the impact of foods in your blood glucose and made it easier to convince myself and change my behavior. Some lessons I got from using it for 2 months (these are personal, some should apply to most people): - Plantains cause a BIG glucose spike (I thought they didnt; in my case even more than pasta or rice) - Walking ~10min after a meal removes the glucose spike of even pretty l…

Why do you feel you need to change your food intake, and how do you interpret your CGM results? If you don't have a form of diabetes it doesn't really make a difference. Your glucose will go back down to 85 fairly soon.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#166

Post by OrangeMonkey »

meowtimemania wrote: post #157
OrangeMonkey wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intermittent fasting works well for some, but could be a danger for others. Like you, I used it to fine tune my weight until I wanted to lose and then decided to lose more via IF. I'm not going into my life story, but I've had fast that have lasted for more than 2 weeks and have had loved ones ask me to stop. Fasting is not an eating disorder, but it can be a path to one if you are not careful. Sounds like you are. I…

Totally agree with what you say OrangeMonkey however I think I understood GP's comment differently. I thought GP was saying once you stick to an IF schedule for 2 weeks (for example only eating 12pm to 8pm), after 2 weeks it becomes easy to only eat within those windows. I don't think they were suggesting prolonged fasting >24 hours.

I agree - it wasn't what they were saying.

I was just stating my own experience without exposing too much personal history. For me, mild intermittent fasting led to deep intermittent fasting, multi day fasting, then week, then half a month. At that point it was anorexia not fasting.

I meant no disrespect to him at all nor the implication he was suggesting it - just wanted to throw a caution out. For some, it could lead to unhealthy excess.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#168

Post by zhynn »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #75
treis wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're borderline at best for protein content, though. You'd probably want to at least supplement with a protein shake or two.

Or however many leads to 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass. No point losing weight if its lean body mass. (Protein has a muscle sparing effect during diets)

potatoes have like 3g of protein per potato. And to stay full you eat _a lot_ of potato. I tried it! It was easy, then not easy, then totally shitty, then fine, and then I was done (28 days). I ate a few sweet potatoes along the way for B vitamins.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#169

Post by seadan83 »

LesZedCB wrote: post #143
TrisMcC wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really believe that the obesity epidemic was caused by people eating 90% carbohydrate diets? The "high carb meals" at McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut... are all also (and more per calorie) high in fat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to your mixed-green salad? That has turned into a high fat salad. Most people cannot avoid cheese or nuts on salad, either. Eating the potato diet with sour cream/butter/cheese:…

i thought fat was largely debunked as being the primary cause, though i'm not going to go searching for studies as i'm not a dietician (though my partner is). consider this: each of those meals at McD's, BK, or Pizza hut come with a 1-2 liter soda, loaded with calories and sugar. yes, the fats are there, but they are _always_ paired with loads of sugar.

I agree with the debunking that fats are not bad for you, though, not all fats are equal. The rule of thumb is that fats that remain liquid at body temperature can be considered "dietary fat". The only problem with "dietary fat" is they have a load of energy on them and that can blow your calorie budget for the day quite easily if you overdo them.

Fats though that stay solid at body temperature arguably should be completely avoided. Hence the big-mac with a 1-2 liter soda, loads of unhealthy fat paired with loads of sugar, all with very minimal fiber..

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#170

Post by jaggederest »

GordonS wrote: post #125
safety1st wrote: post #30

There's actually some science behind this diet. Potatoes are the highest scoring food on the satiety index. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/15-incredibly-filling-f... Basically they're the most filling food per calorie. So if you subscribe to the idea that losing weight is mainly about how many calories you consume, a potato heavy diet should be effective. And an all potato diet, while monomaniacal, even more ef…

This seems highly unlikely to me. I have reactive hypoglycemia, and can say that potatoes spike my blood glucose levels more than table sugar - they have a really high glycemic index, and anyone with blood sugar issues should totally avoid them IMO. And the thing about foods with a high glycemic index is that they cause you to feel hungry when your blood sugar rapidly drops back to baseline. I find protein and fat wa…

I also have reactive hypoglycemia and I tried the potato diet out and had zero crashes the entire time. It's just not possible (for me) to eat enough calories, quickly enough, to cause a crash. I was only on it for a few days (~5), precisely for the logistic issues that the article and the original diet post discuss - I couldn't cook and eat enough calories to not be absolutely starving after the first couple days.

But zero crashes, monitored by finger stick blood glucose. Crazy stuff, for someone who has them all the time.

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