4 ms·

This title is fairly disingenuous considering the test subjects are using vitamin supplements to make up for the obvious deficiency. The weight loss bits are

This title is fairly disingenuous considering the test subjects are using vitamin supplements to make up for the obvious deficiency. The weight loss bits are just silly. Any sustained caloric deficit will cause one to lose fat, regardless of the source. This just seems to be rediscovering the already well-known fact that complex carbohydrates (which potatoes provide) keep you better satiated than simple carbohydrates, so the subjects were consuming less calories overall.

Smaug123 4y ago
The purpose of this random Internet trial is to verify or disprove the assertion that this diet is easy to stick to for most people, which would be absolutely massive if true because no weight-loss diet ever has had this property. And it seems to have done very well at that purpose: four weeks later, only about 10% of the cohort were still doing it.
- edanm 4y ago
  Lots of diets are "easy to stick to", for the short term, which 4 weeks definitely is. E.g. Keto, Intermittent Fasting, etc. Most people fall off diets in the longer term, and there are various causes, including hunger, but also including things like wanting to be able to partake in social events that feature other foods.
- Taikonerd 4y ago
  4 weeks is a very, very long time to only eat potatoes. When Penn Jillette tried this, the all-potato phase lasted 2 weeks. I wonder what % of the cohort was still adhering to the diet at the 2-week mark?
  - TrueSlacker0 4y ago
    Signed Up: 220 [CLOSED] Past the 4-Week Mark: 46
notahacker 4y ago
Tbf, last time I was shown this blog it was to highlighy on their detailed arguments to the effect that eating less in general and less processed food in particular and exercising more wasn't an answer to obesity (a remarkable piece of analysis which concluded that the average American eating 20% fewer calories than a time when Americans were less obese was no big deal and couldnt possibly be causal) Quite why they have chosen to abandon their diet-scepticism in favour of anecdotes from a guy who literally promoted potatos as his day job and a guy who sells courses on how to eat potatos for $199+, but I guess contrarians gotta be contrary...
- matthewdgreen 4y ago
  If the miracle cure for the obesity epidemic was “eat any food you want until you’re not hungry, just as long as you don’t eat processed food” then we wouldn’t have a mystery or a problem. We'd just have one set of people who knew how to prepare unprocessed food, and one set of people who chose to continue to eat processed food (and thus remained obese.) We could then deal with the obesity epidemic the same way we dealt with smoking. But things are not that simple. There is no evidence that simply removing processed food is an effective enough diet to produce the sustained 10-20% weight loss (or more) that many obese Americans would need to experience in order to weigh the same as their grandparents. And in fact there is overwhelming evidence that this modest intervention (and several more extreme calorie restricted versions) tend not to produce durable weight loss in anywhere near that amount. PS Don’t take this the wrong way. I really really wish that that diet did work. I would pay you literally thousands of dollars to make it work. Because our grandparents ate a very filling and diverse diet, and that diet would be effortless to follow.

Smaug123 4y ago

The purpose of this random Internet trial is to verify or disprove the assertion that this diet is easy to stick to for most people, which would be absolutely massive if true because no weight-loss diet ever has had this property. And it seems to have done very well at that purpose: four weeks later, only about 10% of the cohort were still doing it.

edanm 4y ago
Lots of diets are "easy to stick to", for the short term, which 4 weeks definitely is. E.g. Keto, Intermittent Fasting, etc. Most people fall off diets in the longer term, and there are various causes, including hunger, but also including things like wanting to be able to partake in social events that feature other foods.
Taikonerd 4y ago
4 weeks is a very, very long time to only eat potatoes. When Penn Jillette tried this, the all-potato phase lasted 2 weeks. I wonder what % of the cohort was still adhering to the diet at the 2-week mark?
- TrueSlacker0 4y ago
  Signed Up: 220 [CLOSED] Past the 4-Week Mark: 46

notahacker 4y ago

Tbf, last time I was shown this blog it was to highlighy on their detailed arguments to the effect that eating less in general and less processed food in particular and exercising more wasn't an answer to obesity (a remarkable piece of analysis which concluded that the average American eating 20% fewer calories than a time when Americans were less obese was no big deal and couldnt possibly be causal) Quite why they have chosen to abandon their diet-scepticism in favour of anecdotes from a guy who literally promoted potatos as his day job and a guy who sells courses on how to eat potatos for $199+, but I guess contrarians gotta be contrary...

matthewdgreen 4y ago
If the miracle cure for the obesity epidemic was “eat any food you want until you’re not hungry, just as long as you don’t eat processed food” then we wouldn’t have a mystery or a problem. We'd just have one set of people who knew how to prepare unprocessed food, and one set of people who chose to continue to eat processed food (and thus remained obese.) We could then deal with the obesity epidemic the same way we dealt with smoking. But things are not that simple. There is no evidence that simply removing processed food is an effective enough diet to produce the sustained 10-20% weight loss (or more) that many obese Americans would need to experience in order to weigh the same as their grandparents. And in fact there is overwhelming evidence that this modest intervention (and several more extreme calorie restricted versions) tend not to produce durable weight loss in anywhere near that amount. PS Don’t take this the wrong way. I really really wish that that diet did work. I would pay you literally thousands of dollars to make it work. Because our grandparents ate a very filling and diverse diet, and that diet would be effortless to follow.