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I dropped all forms of sugar and corn syrup a few months ago. I was never a health nut. Quite the opposite. It's incredible how much your physiology alters jus

I dropped all forms of sugar and corn syrup a few months ago. I was never a health nut. Quite the opposite. It's incredible how much your physiology alters just from that. Water tastes good now. I used to drink water with crystal light, because it was so bland. Shed 20lbs without even exercising. I eat bananas, apples, peanut butter and chicken. Learned to cook a few things. You sort of have to, if you want to avoid sugar and corn syrup. Any ingredients with dex-, wheat, corn starch, -ose, dairy, added sweetener, agave, artificial sweeteners, etc – you can drop it, if you try. No pasta, no bread. No white potatoes. I wonder how much the input to our body affects us vs exercise? It seems substantial. And it's crazy how much more you have to spend on food just to make it work. Easily 2x or 3x. EDIT: To clarify, the interesting part is that I'm never hungry. I eat as many bananas and apples as I want. When I want some variety, my go-to is Nathan's hotdogs with no additives (no dextrose/corn starch), or throwing coconut milk into chicken with spices and garlic. For whatever reason, the weight keeps coming off, for months now. Grain and dairy seem worth avoiding. I don't know why. FWIW I drank diet soda before this, but it was easy to eat sugar: chocolate covered pretzels were my feel-good food. It's easy to dupe yourself into thinking you're eating healthy by doing one thing in one area, but totally the wrong thing in a different area but "in moderation." My only solution was quitting it cold turkey.

jventura 9y ago
Two years ago I did something similar to what you've done, ie drop sugar, but I never stopped eating pasta, bread or white potatoes (although I dropped considerably my intake of bread), and I still did lose some weight. I did not increase my exercise levels significantly. I have wrote something about my experience at my blog: http://joaoventura.net/blog/2016/chart-diet/ http://joaoventura.net/blog/2016/chart-diet/
dawhizkid 9y ago
Bananas and apples have plenty of sugar in them FYI. Depending on the brand, same with peanut butter.
- drdrey 9y ago
  A banana has 30g carbs (15g sugars), while the Trader Joe's peanut butter I am looking at has 7g carbs (2g sugars) in a 32g serving.
- stevenwoo 9y ago
  A difference is if one eats an apple or banana, one gets some fiber and substance to food that probably satiates appetite more than straight sugar does. Most of the calories in peanut butter come from fat - this probably satiates hunger more than eating the equivalent amount of sugar as well.
  - hycaria 9y ago
    But there are as much fiber in potatoes as in bananas. Both foods are similar. So excluding potatoes (as in example above) makes no sense to me...
    - always_good 9y ago
      How do their micronutrient profiles compare?
    - stevenwoo 9y ago
      Sorry, I was only responding to the immediate comment about apples and bananas.
log_base_login 9y ago
While I applaud your efforts to eat well, I'd posit that with some attention, you could measurably decrease the expense if you factor in certain foods and factor out others. For example, I enjoy tacos as lunch a few times a week. I make them from scratch, and while this doesn't adhere to your recommendation of no starches, I doubt they cost me $1.00 per taco, and that's with avocado, beans, onions, and peppers (plus the tortillas, of course). If I added meat, that would almost double the cost, so I don't. Other foods are like that too, stir fry with veggies and shrimp, instead of beef saves me another 20-30% on cost. I also shop at Aldi, or at Wal-Mart as often as befits what foods I'm eating, which knocks another 30-40% off of my food budget. Eating well doesn't have to cost a ton.
- dnate 9y ago
  I am quite surprised to see a recommendation to shop at Walmart on HN. I thought it was common knowledge that Walmart is a pretty terrible company and that people shouldn't support that? Sure, you save money, but at what cost?
  - ende 9y ago
    Generally money is saved at negative cost.
  - log_base_login 9y ago
    That's presumably because most people who frequent this forum don't fall into the same tax bracket as I do. Ever read Les Miserables? When it's the difference between making the car insurance payment and shopping at Wal-Mart, or not making it, and shopping at, say, Publix, the choice is less about ethics and more about practicality. For what it's worth I do grow a garden, albeit a limited one due to the law restricting my garden to my backyard. I hope to plant fruit trees this Spring to offset more of my food costs and enjoy fresher, healthier fare.
    - logfromblammo 9y ago
      Publix is a great store, but I can generally only shop there when they have an advertised special and I have a handful of coupons. And you really have to stick very tightly to the pre-planned list. Generally, my staple stores are Kroger, Target, and Costco. Wal-Mart, Dollar General, and Aldi fail on one of two fronts: you can't buy everything you need from there at the same time, or the things you actually want are not really cheaper. In both cases, the cost-per-mile of making the trip determines whether it is worth going. The grocery business has a lot of local variability, though. In a lot of places, even some near here, Wal-Mart actually would be cheaper, to the extent that I would put up with their goods that are not quite what I am looking for, with little ingredient substitutions that nickel-and-dime you on the quality. It's like how chocolates that used to have cocoa butter in them are now "chocolate candies" that have palm oil in them instead. Sure, they're cheaper, but they're no longer edible. Wal-Mart does that all over. The garbage bags will be a fraction of a mil thinner. The chicken has just a tiny bit more brine solution added. The reconstituted juice bottles have just a little less concentrate and a little more water in them. Sometimes, a major national brand will go missing from the shelves for weeks or months, then come back with less shelf-distance allocated or a higher price, stocked immediately adjacent to the store generic. I would almost rather make not shopping at Wal-Mart part of my diet. I can't eat calories that I can't afford to buy, so the ones I do eat have to count for more. And then I can remind myself how making X myself instead of buying it at lower cost from Wal-Mart is actually accumulating significant savings out of my stress budget. But I have plenty of competition to choose from. If it was a choice between Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, I know which one would not bankrupt me.
drdrey 9y ago
I have now been seeing from numerous sources that in order to lose weight, diet dominates exercise. One of the reasons is that exercise is associated with compensatory behaviors (such as increased hunger). So exercise for the health benefits, but alter your diet to lose weight. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-para...
- prostoalex 9y ago
  Moreover, exercise is frequently associated with muscle gain, and muscle tissue being heavier than fat tissue introduces a great deal of uncertainty into tracking one’s weight.
  - et-al 9y ago
    Yeah, weight is an overly simplistic measure in determining one's health. E.g. if my resting heart rate is lower, my blood work is "better", and my body fat percentage has gone down, I'll take the weight gain, duh.
- catdog 9y ago
  You also have to do an awful lot of exercise to burn a substantial amount of calories.
  - carlmr 9y ago
    If there's any exercise that has helped me shed weight, it's hiking. By being moderately active throughout the whole day you easily burn an extra 1500-2000kcals. Jogging has never really helped in shedding weight for me, just general fitness.
    - adrianN 9y ago
      How many hours per day do you hike? You probably have to hike for an hour to offset just one chocolate bar.
astura 9y ago
I highly suspect any highly restrictive diet will have the same effect no matter the restriction. Especially if "junk food" is one of the restrictions. You hear plenty of stuff like "I went vegan, food tastes so much better now, I've lost weight, I have so much energy, my mood is better, blah blah blah." Same with "alkaline diet," "cabbage soup diet," "low inflammation diet," "bacon diet," "salad diet," "gluten free diet," etc. Also bananas, apples, and coconut milk have plenty of sugar. Pick 6 other random non-junk food foods, eat nothing but those for the next couple months, you'll lose weight that way too. Let's just say, off the top of my head, the pork chops, oatmeal, pineapple, orange, green bean, soy milk diet. Try it.
- drdrey 9y ago
  OP's remarkable point is that she is restricting food groups, not calories.
  - astura 9y ago
    Yes, I am aware, my point stands. I highly suspect any diet that restricts most food groups will produce similar effects no matter what the food groups are. It's far from "remarkable," its what happens when you micromanage your diet plus a small dose of the placebo effect. People have written exactly the same thing about a high carb vegan diet, for example. My mother in law also has a "I just don't eat [several random food groups]" non-calorie restricted diet as well, but the food groups are different, she says the same types of things and lost over 100 pounds and has kept it off for like seven years. Same with other people I know with omitting other random food groups. (My mother in law actually eats outside her chosen food groups regularly, she just is really, really, really misinformed about what's in food - which further illustrates my point that it's the micromanaging and restriction, not the type of food consumed.)
    - tormeh 9y ago
      Don't think so. Carbohydrates-heavy foods are the foods most associated with weight gain. Sugar is pretty bad, though not as bad as potato chips, fries etc.
abcd_f 9y ago
> Shed 20lbs without even exercising. Simply not drinking carbonated soda will do that. Ditto counting calories with no changes to the diet composition. Pasta is fine, potatoes are OK, even deep fried ones. Just eat less, basically, and you will shed weight.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Perhaps. But the most interesting aspect of this is that I never feel hungry, ever. I eat as many bananas and apples as I can stuff my face with, and keep losing weight. Best diet ever. Luckily I don't need much variety. I throw in some hotdogs (Nathan's brand, no added sugar/corn starch/dextrose) when I want some variety. Also you can put coconut milk in chicken with garlic and spices and it's the best thing.
  - jjeaff 9y ago
    >Best diet ever. No bread, no pasta, no potatoes? I beg to differ.
  - tallanvor 9y ago
    You add the coconut milk in because it has sugar which compliments the other ingredients in a curry.
- lsc 9y ago
  It's true, of course, that "just eating less" will cause you to lose weight. That part is not controversial, if you discount the fringe. However, there is evidence that this is a lot harder than it sounds, which is why we all have these weird diets in an effort to get ourselves to eat less. Being fat is pretty terrible; Not only does it feel physically bad, but everyone seems to feel it's okay to pick on you about it, because, as we all know, how much you eat has a lot to do with it. Stop putting food in your mouth, am I right? However, statistically speaking, once you are obese, there's an extremely, uh, slim chance of you attaining and keeping a healthy weight for any period of time. http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302773 http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2015.30277... This indicates that to go from having a long term obese BMI to long term 'normal' bmi, you have to have willpower in the top 1% (If we're assuming it's mostly willpower, and I don't have a better model)
wpietri 9y ago
Yeah, I'm definitely the same way. I experience a number of clear shifts when I'm off refined carbs. Hunger, energy level, mood, inflammation level (e.g., joint pain). Fruit is fine. I fell off the wagon while with family over Christmas and I'm eager to work my way back. Regarding cooking, I'm a big fan of the Instant Pot, the countertop pressure cooker. Tonight I made pork shoulder over cabbage [1] with root vegetables [2]. Meal cost is something like $4, and the leftovers keep and freeze well. I've even worked out a deal with a friend where we cook extra and swap. [1] http://nomnompaleo.com/post/111934821818/pressure-cooker-kalua-pig http://nomnompaleo.com/post/111934821818/pressure-cooker-kal... (also try it with a softboiled egg on top; the hot yolk is stellar on the pork) [2] http://nomnompaleo.com/2017/11/06/instant-pot-autumn-mash http://nomnompaleo.com/2017/11/06/instant-pot-autumn-mash
- cableshaft 9y ago
  > I experience a number of clear shifts when I'm off refined carbs...inflammation level (e.g., joint pain). I'd like to highlight this one in particular. It's not necessarily obvious that your diet has an effect on joint pain, but it really does. I've gone on low carb about four times now. Each time, before I went on the diet I had lower back pain for weeks and weeks or months on end (I have a slight disc protrusion, I know now thanks to an MRI). Then I stop eating sugars and refined carbs (because I went low carb) and I start feeling better. It's been a week since I went back on low carb and my back pain -- that was present every day for the past several months and made me whimper and collapse on the couch after taking the dog for a short walk each time -- has pretty much completely gone away. After only a week. This is the fourth time in a row where that's happened, where it's gone away after a week of avoiding carbs. A low carb diet is known to have an anti-inflammatory effect, and it's happened enough times just with me that I don't think it can be a coincidence. So if you're having joint pains, seriously consider altering the foods you eat so you can reduce inflammation. These aren't the only foods that cause it, you can look them up. For me that small change has made a big difference.
  - wpietri 9y ago
    Definitely. I've gone on and off a number of times as well, and the differences get to be obvious after a while. I really encourage people to experiment with diet. I have no idea what will work for bodies that aren't mine, but the process of experimentation has been great for me.
zengid 9y ago
Congrats on your results! > Water tastes good now. Drinking water feels underrated sometimes, but its a habit I've kept up for a long time. I have to keep a (mostly) full pint-glass of water around me at all times (or a bottle when at work). I never appreciated how important it is to stay hydrated when I was a kid, so I would always overheat and constantly be sweating (ironic indeed). Once I realized I needed more water I've made sure to have it within easy reach at all times.
BjoernKW 9y ago
Dropping sugar from your diet definitely is beneficial, however it's easier said than done. There's sugar in almost any food. After all, the fructose in apples and bananas is sugar as well, just not processed sugar. What else do you eat besides bananas, apples, peanut butter, hotdogs and chicken? Doesn't exactly sound like the most varied diet. Also, peanut butter and hotdogs aren't exactly among the healthiest food options. Quite the opposite in fact.
- wutbrodo 9y ago
  > Dropping sugar from your diet definitely is beneficial, however it's easier said than done. There's sugar in almost any food. After all, the fructose in apples and bananas is sugar as well, just not processed sugar. People are generally referring to dropping _added_ sugar when they talk about dropping sugar. Pretty much every model of nutrition thinks that whole fruit is good for you (in general, and of course excluding most juice). > Also, peanut butter and hotdogs aren't exactly among the most healthy food options. Quite the opposite in fact. Is peanut butter unhealthy? Obviously excluding the crappy ones that have added sugar.
  - Broken_Hippo 9y ago
    It isn't really unhealthy as a part of your overall diet, but that peanut butter is tricky. Peanut butter lends itself to overeating - a serving size is only 2 tablespoons. About the size of a ping-pong ball. This isn't consistent with the ways most of us eat the stuff. Not to mention that it is just packed with calories. The combination makes it really easy to overeat. Peanuts are a slightly easier option to control. There are about 45 peanuts in a serving of peanut butter. That isn't bad at all and seems a lot more filling in the long run and harder to over-do with a bit of self-control.
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      How do most people eat peanut butter? I like it spread on oatcakes - it's just ground peanuts, so it's like eating a handful of unsalted, unsweetened nuts. USAmericans have a confection confusingly also called "peanut butter" that is high in sugar and salt, sadly most UK supermarkets now only stock the confection and not the nut-butter.
hycaria 9y ago
I don't get why you would exclude potatoes and eat bananas. They are very very similar foods. Everything that is flour based is refined, lacks fiber etc so I get the pasta and bread exclusion, but the potatoes one makes no sense imo. Overall in this thread, once again americans discover that they eat shit and simply cooking meals yourself from scratch (with limited fat of course) with no treats between meals makes you lose weight. For Europeans, the whole USA deal with food is really laughable. An american friend (largely overweight of course) was taking a starbucks with cream extrasugar and what not everyday. He was astonished when we said that it was really high on calories (and has stopped since). What is wrong that most americans (even educated ones) seem to have no idea of what an healthy diet is ?
- prepend 9y ago
  58% of adult Europeans are overweight with 23% obese. These rates are much better than the US, but it seems like Europe hasn’t yet figured out the whole healthy diet issue.
  - andreime 9y ago
    I am considered overweight because a doctor calculated my BMI and said I'm two kilos over where I should be. BMI is a the ratio between weight and height. I think it's kind of stupid but it got me labeled as overweight.
    - moccachino 9y ago
      It is my understanding that BMI is pretty much useless for the individual to know, but it is a valuable aggregate statistic. So it makes sense for the doctor to record your BMI for the national database, but you obviously have much better information and metrics to use on yourself.
      - seiferteric 9y ago
        My understanding was that BMI was pretty accurate for most people and only gets out of whack for more muscular people.
agumonkey 9y ago
Same experience here, sugar shifts your taste calibration up. You become attracted to high intensity, and blind in a way, to anything of smaller "dynamics". When I cut sugar, I started to feel tastes again, in mundane things like lettuce, carrots, tomatos; felt like a cool breeze of various sensations. None were intense or satisfying in themselves, but the whole thing felt good enough, surprising, and more importantly no strings attached. You don't want to eat too much, you don't have after taste in your mouth, no sugar spike after eating. Felt just right. With "tasty" food you often end up keeping ingesting more and more. These things add up.
- GoToRO 9y ago
  This is so true. The strategy that I have to not eat sugar is to not buy it. Because if I have anything sweet in the home, that apple will rot on the table.
meuk 9y ago
I object to pointing to 'added sugars' as the bad guys. Your body processes added sugar and natural sugar in the same way. Fruits contain vitamins, but they are also high in sugar. So the amazing changes people report might just as well be obtained by taking vitamin pills and more fibers. I'm not saying that a better diet doesn't make you feel better, just that 'no added sugar' is just a rule of thumb. 'Natural sugar' is not in any way better (or worse) than 'added sugar'.
- erkkie 9y ago
  While technically correct, you're missing what matters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
  - meuk 9y ago
    How am I missing what matters? The glycemic index of most fruits is higher than, for example, the glycemic index of sweetened yoghurt. So it makes little sense to eat fruits instead of sweetened yoghurt (but it would be a lot better then, say, sweet cereals).
    - erkkie 9y ago
      What matters is added sugar anything is higher in glycemic index compared to the same thing with no added sugar. You're correct in that adding fibre would alleviate some of it but might as well eat the real thing without added sugar and take a piece of fruit. It's bound to be easier and better absorbed (containing various cofactors) compared to trying to emulate the cocktail with added vitamins and fibre. In addition dairy is notoriously insulinogenic so not necessarily a good comparison (although non added sugar full fat yoghurt is probably okay).
      - meuk 9y ago
        > What matters is added sugar anything is higher in glycemic index compared to the same thing with no added sugar. Of course! And I agree with you as well that the diet of the general population improves vastly by eating no added sugar. However, many people interpret this as 'added sugar is worse for you than natural sugar' - and I hate this kind of misinterpretation because it makes people vulnerable for companies that brand their products as 'natural' and double the price. To make an extreme analogy (in general comparing sugar with harddrugs is idiotic and dramatic), when a drug abuser goes from using cocaine and speed to only using speed, his health may improve, and he might claim 'I feel so much better since I started using speed exclusively!'. He might then argue that speed is OK, and cocaine is evil. See where I am going? The rule should be to have a healthy intake, not on dogma's like 'added sugar is bad, natural sugar is OK'. A more concrete example: three slices of bread with peanut butter and vitamin pills contain 100% of your RDI, 12g of fibers, and 4.5 gram of sugar (I think American peanut butter might be sweeter, though). An apple and a banana contain 5g of fibers, and 22g of sugar. In addition, bread + peanut butter + vitamins pills is a lot cheaper than fruit.
dominotw 9y ago
Do you mean refined sugar? Banana is a sugar?
pc86 9y ago
I'm on board with everything except eliminating pasta. It's just so damn good.
Jemmeh 9y ago
Exercise has a lot of great benefits even though it's effect on weight loss is rather minimal. One of the biggest reasons I personally work out is for the ability to learn faster. Exercise gives you more Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) which "improves the function of neurons, encourages their growth, and strengthens and protects them against the process of cell death." "WHY Exercise is so Underrated (Brain Power & Movement Link)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVzKCk066g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVzKCk066g "We found that vocabulary learning was 20 percent faster after intense physical exercise as compared to the other two conditions." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17185007 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17185007

jventura 9y ago

Two years ago I did something similar to what you've done, ie drop sugar, but I never stopped eating pasta, bread or white potatoes (although I dropped considerably my intake of bread), and I still did lose some weight. I did not increase my exercise levels significantly. I have wrote something about my experience at my blog: http://joaoventura.net/blog/2016/chart-diet/ http://joaoventura.net/blog/2016/chart-diet/

dawhizkid 9y ago

Bananas and apples have plenty of sugar in them FYI. Depending on the brand, same with peanut butter.

drdrey 9y ago
A banana has 30g carbs (15g sugars), while the Trader Joe's peanut butter I am looking at has 7g carbs (2g sugars) in a 32g serving.
stevenwoo 9y ago
A difference is if one eats an apple or banana, one gets some fiber and substance to food that probably satiates appetite more than straight sugar does. Most of the calories in peanut butter come from fat - this probably satiates hunger more than eating the equivalent amount of sugar as well.
- hycaria 9y ago
  But there are as much fiber in potatoes as in bananas. Both foods are similar. So excluding potatoes (as in example above) makes no sense to me...
  - always_good 9y ago
    How do their micronutrient profiles compare?
  - stevenwoo 9y ago
    Sorry, I was only responding to the immediate comment about apples and bananas.

log_base_login 9y ago

While I applaud your efforts to eat well, I'd posit that with some attention, you could measurably decrease the expense if you factor in certain foods and factor out others. For example, I enjoy tacos as lunch a few times a week. I make them from scratch, and while this doesn't adhere to your recommendation of no starches, I doubt they cost me $1.00 per taco, and that's with avocado, beans, onions, and peppers (plus the tortillas, of course). If I added meat, that would almost double the cost, so I don't. Other foods are like that too, stir fry with veggies and shrimp, instead of beef saves me another 20-30% on cost. I also shop at Aldi, or at Wal-Mart as often as befits what foods I'm eating, which knocks another 30-40% off of my food budget. Eating well doesn't have to cost a ton.

dnate 9y ago
I am quite surprised to see a recommendation to shop at Walmart on HN. I thought it was common knowledge that Walmart is a pretty terrible company and that people shouldn't support that? Sure, you save money, but at what cost?
- ende 9y ago
  Generally money is saved at negative cost.
- log_base_login 9y ago
  That's presumably because most people who frequent this forum don't fall into the same tax bracket as I do. Ever read Les Miserables? When it's the difference between making the car insurance payment and shopping at Wal-Mart, or not making it, and shopping at, say, Publix, the choice is less about ethics and more about practicality. For what it's worth I do grow a garden, albeit a limited one due to the law restricting my garden to my backyard. I hope to plant fruit trees this Spring to offset more of my food costs and enjoy fresher, healthier fare.
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    Publix is a great store, but I can generally only shop there when they have an advertised special and I have a handful of coupons. And you really have to stick very tightly to the pre-planned list. Generally, my staple stores are Kroger, Target, and Costco. Wal-Mart, Dollar General, and Aldi fail on one of two fronts: you can't buy everything you need from there at the same time, or the things you actually want are not really cheaper. In both cases, the cost-per-mile of making the trip determines whether it is worth going. The grocery business has a lot of local variability, though. In a lot of places, even some near here, Wal-Mart actually would be cheaper, to the extent that I would put up with their goods that are not quite what I am looking for, with little ingredient substitutions that nickel-and-dime you on the quality. It's like how chocolates that used to have cocoa butter in them are now "chocolate candies" that have palm oil in them instead. Sure, they're cheaper, but they're no longer edible. Wal-Mart does that all over. The garbage bags will be a fraction of a mil thinner. The chicken has just a tiny bit more brine solution added. The reconstituted juice bottles have just a little less concentrate and a little more water in them. Sometimes, a major national brand will go missing from the shelves for weeks or months, then come back with less shelf-distance allocated or a higher price, stocked immediately adjacent to the store generic. I would almost rather make not shopping at Wal-Mart part of my diet. I can't eat calories that I can't afford to buy, so the ones I do eat have to count for more. And then I can remind myself how making X myself instead of buying it at lower cost from Wal-Mart is actually accumulating significant savings out of my stress budget. But I have plenty of competition to choose from. If it was a choice between Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, I know which one would not bankrupt me.

drdrey 9y ago

I have now been seeing from numerous sources that in order to lose weight, diet dominates exercise. One of the reasons is that exercise is associated with compensatory behaviors (such as increased hunger). So exercise for the health benefits, but alter your diet to lose weight. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-para...

prostoalex 9y ago
Moreover, exercise is frequently associated with muscle gain, and muscle tissue being heavier than fat tissue introduces a great deal of uncertainty into tracking one’s weight.
- et-al 9y ago
  Yeah, weight is an overly simplistic measure in determining one's health. E.g. if my resting heart rate is lower, my blood work is "better", and my body fat percentage has gone down, I'll take the weight gain, duh.
catdog 9y ago
You also have to do an awful lot of exercise to burn a substantial amount of calories.
- carlmr 9y ago
  If there's any exercise that has helped me shed weight, it's hiking. By being moderately active throughout the whole day you easily burn an extra 1500-2000kcals. Jogging has never really helped in shedding weight for me, just general fitness.
  - adrianN 9y ago
    How many hours per day do you hike? You probably have to hike for an hour to offset just one chocolate bar.

astura 9y ago

I highly suspect any highly restrictive diet will have the same effect no matter the restriction. Especially if "junk food" is one of the restrictions. You hear plenty of stuff like "I went vegan, food tastes so much better now, I've lost weight, I have so much energy, my mood is better, blah blah blah." Same with "alkaline diet," "cabbage soup diet," "low inflammation diet," "bacon diet," "salad diet," "gluten free diet," etc. Also bananas, apples, and coconut milk have plenty of sugar. Pick 6 other random non-junk food foods, eat nothing but those for the next couple months, you'll lose weight that way too. Let's just say, off the top of my head, the pork chops, oatmeal, pineapple, orange, green bean, soy milk diet. Try it.

drdrey 9y ago
OP's remarkable point is that she is restricting food groups, not calories.
- astura 9y ago
  Yes, I am aware, my point stands. I highly suspect any diet that restricts most food groups will produce similar effects no matter what the food groups are. It's far from "remarkable," its what happens when you micromanage your diet plus a small dose of the placebo effect. People have written exactly the same thing about a high carb vegan diet, for example. My mother in law also has a "I just don't eat [several random food groups]" non-calorie restricted diet as well, but the food groups are different, she says the same types of things and lost over 100 pounds and has kept it off for like seven years. Same with other people I know with omitting other random food groups. (My mother in law actually eats outside her chosen food groups regularly, she just is really, really, really misinformed about what's in food - which further illustrates my point that it's the micromanaging and restriction, not the type of food consumed.)
  - tormeh 9y ago
    Don't think so. Carbohydrates-heavy foods are the foods most associated with weight gain. Sugar is pretty bad, though not as bad as potato chips, fries etc.

abcd_f 9y ago

> Shed 20lbs without even exercising. Simply not drinking carbonated soda will do that. Ditto counting calories with no changes to the diet composition. Pasta is fine, potatoes are OK, even deep fried ones. Just eat less, basically, and you will shed weight.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Perhaps. But the most interesting aspect of this is that I never feel hungry, ever. I eat as many bananas and apples as I can stuff my face with, and keep losing weight. Best diet ever. Luckily I don't need much variety. I throw in some hotdogs (Nathan's brand, no added sugar/corn starch/dextrose) when I want some variety. Also you can put coconut milk in chicken with garlic and spices and it's the best thing.
- jjeaff 9y ago
  >Best diet ever. No bread, no pasta, no potatoes? I beg to differ.
- tallanvor 9y ago
  You add the coconut milk in because it has sugar which compliments the other ingredients in a curry.
lsc 9y ago
It's true, of course, that "just eating less" will cause you to lose weight. That part is not controversial, if you discount the fringe. However, there is evidence that this is a lot harder than it sounds, which is why we all have these weird diets in an effort to get ourselves to eat less. Being fat is pretty terrible; Not only does it feel physically bad, but everyone seems to feel it's okay to pick on you about it, because, as we all know, how much you eat has a lot to do with it. Stop putting food in your mouth, am I right? However, statistically speaking, once you are obese, there's an extremely, uh, slim chance of you attaining and keeping a healthy weight for any period of time. http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302773 http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2015.30277... This indicates that to go from having a long term obese BMI to long term 'normal' bmi, you have to have willpower in the top 1% (If we're assuming it's mostly willpower, and I don't have a better model)

wpietri 9y ago

Yeah, I'm definitely the same way. I experience a number of clear shifts when I'm off refined carbs. Hunger, energy level, mood, inflammation level (e.g., joint pain). Fruit is fine. I fell off the wagon while with family over Christmas and I'm eager to work my way back. Regarding cooking, I'm a big fan of the Instant Pot, the countertop pressure cooker. Tonight I made pork shoulder over cabbage [1] with root vegetables [2]. Meal cost is something like $4, and the leftovers keep and freeze well. I've even worked out a deal with a friend where we cook extra and swap. [1] http://nomnompaleo.com/post/111934821818/pressure-cooker-kalua-pig http://nomnompaleo.com/post/111934821818/pressure-cooker-kal... (also try it with a softboiled egg on top; the hot yolk is stellar on the pork) [2] http://nomnompaleo.com/2017/11/06/instant-pot-autumn-mash http://nomnompaleo.com/2017/11/06/instant-pot-autumn-mash

cableshaft 9y ago
> I experience a number of clear shifts when I'm off refined carbs...inflammation level (e.g., joint pain). I'd like to highlight this one in particular. It's not necessarily obvious that your diet has an effect on joint pain, but it really does. I've gone on low carb about four times now. Each time, before I went on the diet I had lower back pain for weeks and weeks or months on end (I have a slight disc protrusion, I know now thanks to an MRI). Then I stop eating sugars and refined carbs (because I went low carb) and I start feeling better. It's been a week since I went back on low carb and my back pain -- that was present every day for the past several months and made me whimper and collapse on the couch after taking the dog for a short walk each time -- has pretty much completely gone away. After only a week. This is the fourth time in a row where that's happened, where it's gone away after a week of avoiding carbs. A low carb diet is known to have an anti-inflammatory effect, and it's happened enough times just with me that I don't think it can be a coincidence. So if you're having joint pains, seriously consider altering the foods you eat so you can reduce inflammation. These aren't the only foods that cause it, you can look them up. For me that small change has made a big difference.
- wpietri 9y ago
  Definitely. I've gone on and off a number of times as well, and the differences get to be obvious after a while. I really encourage people to experiment with diet. I have no idea what will work for bodies that aren't mine, but the process of experimentation has been great for me.

zengid 9y ago

Congrats on your results! > Water tastes good now. Drinking water feels underrated sometimes, but its a habit I've kept up for a long time. I have to keep a (mostly) full pint-glass of water around me at all times (or a bottle when at work). I never appreciated how important it is to stay hydrated when I was a kid, so I would always overheat and constantly be sweating (ironic indeed). Once I realized I needed more water I've made sure to have it within easy reach at all times.

BjoernKW 9y ago

Dropping sugar from your diet definitely is beneficial, however it's easier said than done. There's sugar in almost any food. After all, the fructose in apples and bananas is sugar as well, just not processed sugar. What else do you eat besides bananas, apples, peanut butter, hotdogs and chicken? Doesn't exactly sound like the most varied diet. Also, peanut butter and hotdogs aren't exactly among the healthiest food options. Quite the opposite in fact.

wutbrodo 9y ago
> Dropping sugar from your diet definitely is beneficial, however it's easier said than done. There's sugar in almost any food. After all, the fructose in apples and bananas is sugar as well, just not processed sugar. People are generally referring to dropping _added_ sugar when they talk about dropping sugar. Pretty much every model of nutrition thinks that whole fruit is good for you (in general, and of course excluding most juice). > Also, peanut butter and hotdogs aren't exactly among the most healthy food options. Quite the opposite in fact. Is peanut butter unhealthy? Obviously excluding the crappy ones that have added sugar.
- Broken_Hippo 9y ago
  It isn't really unhealthy as a part of your overall diet, but that peanut butter is tricky. Peanut butter lends itself to overeating - a serving size is only 2 tablespoons. About the size of a ping-pong ball. This isn't consistent with the ways most of us eat the stuff. Not to mention that it is just packed with calories. The combination makes it really easy to overeat. Peanuts are a slightly easier option to control. There are about 45 peanuts in a serving of peanut butter. That isn't bad at all and seems a lot more filling in the long run and harder to over-do with a bit of self-control.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    How do most people eat peanut butter? I like it spread on oatcakes - it's just ground peanuts, so it's like eating a handful of unsalted, unsweetened nuts. USAmericans have a confection confusingly also called "peanut butter" that is high in sugar and salt, sadly most UK supermarkets now only stock the confection and not the nut-butter.

hycaria 9y ago

I don't get why you would exclude potatoes and eat bananas. They are very very similar foods. Everything that is flour based is refined, lacks fiber etc so I get the pasta and bread exclusion, but the potatoes one makes no sense imo. Overall in this thread, once again americans discover that they eat shit and simply cooking meals yourself from scratch (with limited fat of course) with no treats between meals makes you lose weight. For Europeans, the whole USA deal with food is really laughable. An american friend (largely overweight of course) was taking a starbucks with cream extrasugar and what not everyday. He was astonished when we said that it was really high on calories (and has stopped since). What is wrong that most americans (even educated ones) seem to have no idea of what an healthy diet is ?

prepend 9y ago
58% of adult Europeans are overweight with 23% obese. These rates are much better than the US, but it seems like Europe hasn’t yet figured out the whole healthy diet issue.
- andreime 9y ago
  I am considered overweight because a doctor calculated my BMI and said I'm two kilos over where I should be. BMI is a the ratio between weight and height. I think it's kind of stupid but it got me labeled as overweight.
  - moccachino 9y ago
    It is my understanding that BMI is pretty much useless for the individual to know, but it is a valuable aggregate statistic. So it makes sense for the doctor to record your BMI for the national database, but you obviously have much better information and metrics to use on yourself.
    - seiferteric 9y ago
      My understanding was that BMI was pretty accurate for most people and only gets out of whack for more muscular people.

agumonkey 9y ago

Same experience here, sugar shifts your taste calibration up. You become attracted to high intensity, and blind in a way, to anything of smaller "dynamics". When I cut sugar, I started to feel tastes again, in mundane things like lettuce, carrots, tomatos; felt like a cool breeze of various sensations. None were intense or satisfying in themselves, but the whole thing felt good enough, surprising, and more importantly no strings attached. You don't want to eat too much, you don't have after taste in your mouth, no sugar spike after eating. Felt just right. With "tasty" food you often end up keeping ingesting more and more. These things add up.

GoToRO 9y ago
This is so true. The strategy that I have to not eat sugar is to not buy it. Because if I have anything sweet in the home, that apple will rot on the table.

meuk 9y ago

I object to pointing to 'added sugars' as the bad guys. Your body processes added sugar and natural sugar in the same way. Fruits contain vitamins, but they are also high in sugar. So the amazing changes people report might just as well be obtained by taking vitamin pills and more fibers. I'm not saying that a better diet doesn't make you feel better, just that 'no added sugar' is just a rule of thumb. 'Natural sugar' is not in any way better (or worse) than 'added sugar'.

erkkie 9y ago
While technically correct, you're missing what matters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
- meuk 9y ago
  How am I missing what matters? The glycemic index of most fruits is higher than, for example, the glycemic index of sweetened yoghurt. So it makes little sense to eat fruits instead of sweetened yoghurt (but it would be a lot better then, say, sweet cereals).
  - erkkie 9y ago
    What matters is added sugar anything is higher in glycemic index compared to the same thing with no added sugar. You're correct in that adding fibre would alleviate some of it but might as well eat the real thing without added sugar and take a piece of fruit. It's bound to be easier and better absorbed (containing various cofactors) compared to trying to emulate the cocktail with added vitamins and fibre. In addition dairy is notoriously insulinogenic so not necessarily a good comparison (although non added sugar full fat yoghurt is probably okay).
    - meuk 9y ago
      > What matters is added sugar anything is higher in glycemic index compared to the same thing with no added sugar. Of course! And I agree with you as well that the diet of the general population improves vastly by eating no added sugar. However, many people interpret this as 'added sugar is worse for you than natural sugar' - and I hate this kind of misinterpretation because it makes people vulnerable for companies that brand their products as 'natural' and double the price. To make an extreme analogy (in general comparing sugar with harddrugs is idiotic and dramatic), when a drug abuser goes from using cocaine and speed to only using speed, his health may improve, and he might claim 'I feel so much better since I started using speed exclusively!'. He might then argue that speed is OK, and cocaine is evil. See where I am going? The rule should be to have a healthy intake, not on dogma's like 'added sugar is bad, natural sugar is OK'. A more concrete example: three slices of bread with peanut butter and vitamin pills contain 100% of your RDI, 12g of fibers, and 4.5 gram of sugar (I think American peanut butter might be sweeter, though). An apple and a banana contain 5g of fibers, and 22g of sugar. In addition, bread + peanut butter + vitamins pills is a lot cheaper than fruit.

dominotw 9y ago

Do you mean refined sugar? Banana is a sugar?

pc86 9y ago

I'm on board with everything except eliminating pasta. It's just so damn good.

Jemmeh 9y ago

Exercise has a lot of great benefits even though it's effect on weight loss is rather minimal. One of the biggest reasons I personally work out is for the ability to learn faster. Exercise gives you more Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) which "improves the function of neurons, encourages their growth, and strengthens and protects them against the process of cell death." "WHY Exercise is so Underrated (Brain Power & Movement Link)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVzKCk066g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVzKCk066g "We found that vocabulary learning was 20 percent faster after intense physical exercise as compared to the other two conditions." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17185007 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17185007