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Thoughts on the potato diet

dynomight.net

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Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#391

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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…

> eat 2 eggs for breakfast and I guarantee you won't even think a out food again until lunch time, if not dinner time. I don't understand the motivation to make such a guarantee. It's as though you assume there are many people on HN who have never tried eating two eggs in the same meal. Do you maybe live in a place where eggs are rare (or not commonly eaten)? (For what it's worth, my personal experience matches that…

I thought the same thing.

I just wonder do any of these people actually move? Apologies if you're less-than-abled but good lord, if you're not and you're surviving on so few calories, I just wonder if you're moving enough to actually be healthy?? Thin !== healthy, necessarily.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#392
post #337

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See a doctor.

What do you imagine a doctor would do with this information? Most likely, they'll say hmmm, that's strange and you probably should try to avoid eating so much peanut butter in one sitting. Maybe they'll give you an invasive test that's probably not conclusive or inexepensive.

Tell you 1) you have an issue... 2) everything is fine 3) perhaps you are imagining things.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#393

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> eat 2 eggs for breakfast and I guarantee you won't even think a out food again until lunch time, if not dinner time. What a patently absurd claim. Your anecdata is not evidence.

While anecdotal, it entirely depends on habits and context. If your usual breakfast is pretty big and you tried to switch then you'd definitely start to get pangs of hunger earlier than you usually would. But after a while, your body would adjust and you'd be fine for longer and longer (really until whenever you usually ate your next meal). It's the reason why intermittent fasting or "one-meal-a-day" sucks the first…

I think it also depends on what you do in a day if you're sitting in front of a computer you bet 150 calories can work, if you're actually doing physical work something like that would likely be brutal.

The big breakfast is called a farmers mreakfat for a reason.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> eat 2 eggs for breakfast and I guarantee you won't even think a out food again until lunch time, if not dinner time. I don't understand the motivation to make such a guarantee. It's as though you assume there are many people on HN who have never tried eating two eggs in the same meal. Do you maybe live in a place where eggs are rare (or not commonly eaten)? (For what it's worth, my personal experience matches that…

If "2 eggs for breakfast and you won't think about food again until hours later" were true, it would be the world's easiest and most effective diet: eat 2 eggs (2x75 calories), the next time you feel hungry (afternoon), eat another 2 eggs, then have a MASSIVE 1200 calorie dinner. Total = 1500 calories for the day - substantial weight loss would be guaranteed. In practice, this doesn't work because eggs are not hugely…

>a MASSIVE 1200 calorie dinner

Yeah no one likes your humble brags about how little you eat and feel JUST GREAT. You're probably worse for it.

I'm 5'11", ~170 lbs and rather lazy right now, running ~15 miles a week and a couple light lifting sessions because I'm busy. I eat 2500 calories a day and maintain just fine.

I just ate 1200 calories at dinner, no problem, so I'm going to try real hard not to feel judged by you!

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#395

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It's not really about the heat. They undergo a change as they cool down which changes the GI. Heating them back up does not reverse that, so you can still have hot potatoes with the lower GI effect as long as you cool them down first.

That's incredible. Thanks for sharing. Can you tell me what hte process is called?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrogradation_(starch)

And see the resistant starch link as well.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#396

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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. B…

Strange, potatoes can spike and crash my blood sugar faster than anything else. I haven't eaten mashed potato in a decade or so, but IIRC it only took half an hour or so before I was trembling, sweating, feeling very anxious and fearful, and having a strong desire to eat sugar. Not long after I'd become progressively more confused, and sometimes aggressive. I know 2 T1 diabetics, and both never touch potatoes because…

Yeah I was not eating mashed potatoes, those historically have been a nightmare for me, right up there with orange juice for guaranteed ruining a couple hours. I was eating roasted potatoes with olive oil and salt. there was a ton of chewing involved so I was eating 5-6 meals of 200-400 calories, which is, of course, what they say I should be doing with regular food also.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#397
post #307

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> We have a huge freezer Ah, yeah – I have a very small one. I've been thinking about upgrading for years to a chest freezer. It's probably time to just do it.

Can recommend. We went for a vertical one (Bosch GSN33VWEP) because we didn’t have enough room for a chest, plus we thought that the UX is better - and I still think it is.

Wow, thanks for the tip! I had no idea that's even a thing, and I have the perfect spot to put one. I can't believe I didn't think to even look these up. Part of my hesitation with a chest freezer was where I'd put it, because I'd almost certainly need to keep it outside (which means building an enclosure, getting power to it, etc).

Thanks!

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#398
I think just making any significant change to one's diet can, in the short term anyway, have noticable positive effects, especially depending on what the previous diet looked like. But over time those effects tend to level off and eventually into net-negative consequences from whatever's being restricted out. I can definitely see that being the case for a prolonged potato only diet.

I also think the best long term strategy is to focus first on eating plenty of nutrient dense, minimally processed foods which will naturally tend to crowd out the junk. Junk being anything consisting mostly of the cheap subsidized ingredients like wheat, corn, and soy.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#399

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…

The biggest parts to losing weight are the things you didn't mention - portion size, snacks, alcohol, and sugary drinks. Most people would lose weight on any diet diet if they control those. I think I've lost about 20 pounds over the past 2 months just from reducing those things (not even eliminating).

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An afternoon window is ok. I’ve done IF eating on a 12pm-8pm or 2pm-8pm schedule and it worked just fine.

I read a study some years ago where they compared two groups of people either skipping breakfast or skipping dinner and found that the group skipping the breakfast had higher inflammation levels. The actual cause was unknown. I also read that when skipping breakfast your metabolism kind of stays in sleep mode (burning less calories) until the first meal. So not skipping breakfast might be the healthier, more effectiv…

A web search suggests that the "skipping breakfast slows metabolism" idea is actually a myth.
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