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dumb question: how easy is it for the average person to go from an “American” diet high in addictive things like bad fats, corn syrups, processed foods, etc. et

dumb question: how easy is it for the average person to go from an “American” diet high in addictive things like bad fats, corn syrups, processed foods, etc. etc. to a “clean” 1200kcal diet? I was under the impression it was like trying to fight drug addiction and the chances of you sustaining it and not relapsing/making up the missed calories later as near impossible for most once you’ve become addicted enough to things like Diet Coke, Chik-Fil-A, etc.

mensetmanusman 4y ago
Limit yourself to one meal per day; use caffeine as hunger suppression. The one meal per day limit makes it hard to over/eat.
- nradov 4y ago
  Eating only one meal a day is not optimal from a protein standpoint. The current research indicates that at least two meals would be better. https://peterattiamd.com/donlayman/ https://peterattiamd.com/donlayman/
  - mensetmanusman 4y ago
    It might not be optimal, depending on what you are optimizing for. E.g. one meal is better for daytime alertness in my case.
BirAdam 4y ago
I lost about 50 pounds in ~3 months simply by cutting my carb intake to about 20g/day (eating just non-starchy vegetables, meats, sugarless dairy). This was moving from an “American” diet overnight to an extremely low carb diet. My caloric intake actually went up slightly. As for being difficult… yeah. The transition sucked. Body aches, headache, and very slight case of the blues. It took willpower. After about 3 days, I was okay. It was similar to quitting smoking for me, except that quitting smoking didn’t give me body aches.
andrekandre 4y ago
for me, it was just eating rich flavorful foods that also happen to be healthy what i did was cook for myself so i can reduce vegetable oils, salts, artificial flavorings etc, then cook things like fresh tomato sauces with fresh basil/oregano, fresh fish cooked slowly in plum sauce, chana masala curries with low sodium and delicious spices etc etc once you get used to healthy, satisfying and flavorful "good" food, carbs, salt, oil and junk food cravings faded away and buying snacks after that was just not satisfying at all... n=1 and all that, but that was my experience fwiw
- mjthrowaway1 4y ago
  You’re hitting the nail on the head. Sustainable dietary changes require finding foods you like to eat. If you live in West Hollywood there is no shortage of delicious healthy meals you can go out and buy. Outside of similar environments you need to learn how to cook or the healthy meals available to buy at restaurants are going to taste terrible.
knaik94 4y ago
It's not fair to assume every person is going to become addicted to things like diet coke or fast food. "American" diet has room for a lot of clean eating. Processed food shouldn't be considered the same as "American" food in my opinion. Convenience driven food choices is cultural in America but that doesn't make the chosen food American. I think something like Tex-Mex would easily allow for clean eating. Avocado toast, with whole grain bread is fairly healthy and was an absolute favorite of mine after workouts and I would consider it "American" food. Tacos are a great way to have good portion control and also feel filled. Allowing non-traditional recipes opens many options. Avocado grapefruit salad on tortillas with fried tortilla strips is a recipe I came across recently that I really enjoyed. I think non-traditional is the essence of true "American" food. For fast food, Popeye's Blackened tenders are not breaded, a 5 piece serving is listed at 280 kcal compared to the classic tenders being 740 kcal. Nuts or apple slices with peanut butter is a fairly filling snack and can easily fit within 200 kcal. The main thing you would have to look out for is sodium if cooking at home is difficult. I know most of my bodybuilder friends go to a diet of chicken breast and brown rice for dinner for months at a time when they want to cut. It's around 400-500 calories depending on how you prepared it. Vegetarian and vegan recipes are good starting points for cleaner eating too. Borrowing from other cuisine makes it a lot easier as well. I love preparing vegetable side dishes for dinner in the way it's prepared for Korean dishes. Miso soup is fantastic for when I have food cravings late in the night. It's not "American" but I'd argue there's nothing more American than making microwave miso soup at 3 am in my star wars mug. Coffee is popular too, and is very low calorie if you can get used to no milk or sugar, or only sugar alcohol/substitutes. For some context, I grew up and live in one of the most culturally diverse states and counties in the US. I know that not everywhere in the US has the same diversity of food options, but I would argue that Amazon has done a lot to make food accessible.
- thelittleone 4y ago
  I usually eat very well back home keto and 16hrs fasting but I come to US and there's so many tasty temptations. Takes another level of discipline.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
How is Diet Coke related to the conversation? It has zero calories.
- thelittleone 4y ago
  Zero calories but some research suggests the sweeteners still trigger an insulin response which is relevant.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    I have seen this claim many times, but have never seen a credible source claim it is conclusively known, at least at the amount of low calorie sweetener that are in 1 service if 8oz to 20oz of Diet Coke. It seems either this is extremely tricky to measure, or it is a myth (like aspartame or MSG or yellow 5 cause cancer or whatever).
    - thelittleone 4y ago
      Should be easy to measure now with continuous blood / sugar monitors.
LanceH 4y ago
It's a lot harder if you listen to the people that say it is impossible and you can't hope to do it because it is addiction. On the other side are people that say, "eat less, exercise more". Lots of people have chosen either one of these to be true. It is certainly possible, though.
abecedarius 4y ago
I don't know. But instead of aiming for a calorie target I'd suggest trying https://www.mostly-fat.com/eat-meat-not-too-little-mostly-fat/ https://www.mostly-fat.com/eat-meat-not-too-little-mostly-fa... for a month. Even if you decide not to stick with it, it's a very palatable break from your addictive foods. (I'm on basically that now, though I didn't come to it directly from a "standard American diet".)

mensetmanusman 4y ago

Limit yourself to one meal per day; use caffeine as hunger suppression. The one meal per day limit makes it hard to over/eat.

nradov 4y ago
Eating only one meal a day is not optimal from a protein standpoint. The current research indicates that at least two meals would be better. https://peterattiamd.com/donlayman/ https://peterattiamd.com/donlayman/
- mensetmanusman 4y ago
  It might not be optimal, depending on what you are optimizing for. E.g. one meal is better for daytime alertness in my case.

BirAdam 4y ago

I lost about 50 pounds in ~3 months simply by cutting my carb intake to about 20g/day (eating just non-starchy vegetables, meats, sugarless dairy). This was moving from an “American” diet overnight to an extremely low carb diet. My caloric intake actually went up slightly. As for being difficult… yeah. The transition sucked. Body aches, headache, and very slight case of the blues. It took willpower. After about 3 days, I was okay. It was similar to quitting smoking for me, except that quitting smoking didn’t give me body aches.

andrekandre 4y ago

for me, it was just eating rich flavorful foods that also happen to be healthy what i did was cook for myself so i can reduce vegetable oils, salts, artificial flavorings etc, then cook things like fresh tomato sauces with fresh basil/oregano, fresh fish cooked slowly in plum sauce, chana masala curries with low sodium and delicious spices etc etc once you get used to healthy, satisfying and flavorful "good" food, carbs, salt, oil and junk food cravings faded away and buying snacks after that was just not satisfying at all... n=1 and all that, but that was my experience fwiw

mjthrowaway1 4y ago
You’re hitting the nail on the head. Sustainable dietary changes require finding foods you like to eat. If you live in West Hollywood there is no shortage of delicious healthy meals you can go out and buy. Outside of similar environments you need to learn how to cook or the healthy meals available to buy at restaurants are going to taste terrible.

knaik94 4y ago

It's not fair to assume every person is going to become addicted to things like diet coke or fast food. "American" diet has room for a lot of clean eating. Processed food shouldn't be considered the same as "American" food in my opinion. Convenience driven food choices is cultural in America but that doesn't make the chosen food American. I think something like Tex-Mex would easily allow for clean eating. Avocado toast, with whole grain bread is fairly healthy and was an absolute favorite of mine after workouts and I would consider it "American" food. Tacos are a great way to have good portion control and also feel filled. Allowing non-traditional recipes opens many options. Avocado grapefruit salad on tortillas with fried tortilla strips is a recipe I came across recently that I really enjoyed. I think non-traditional is the essence of true "American" food. For fast food, Popeye's Blackened tenders are not breaded, a 5 piece serving is listed at 280 kcal compared to the classic tenders being 740 kcal. Nuts or apple slices with peanut butter is a fairly filling snack and can easily fit within 200 kcal. The main thing you would have to look out for is sodium if cooking at home is difficult. I know most of my bodybuilder friends go to a diet of chicken breast and brown rice for dinner for months at a time when they want to cut. It's around 400-500 calories depending on how you prepared it. Vegetarian and vegan recipes are good starting points for cleaner eating too. Borrowing from other cuisine makes it a lot easier as well. I love preparing vegetable side dishes for dinner in the way it's prepared for Korean dishes. Miso soup is fantastic for when I have food cravings late in the night. It's not "American" but I'd argue there's nothing more American than making microwave miso soup at 3 am in my star wars mug. Coffee is popular too, and is very low calorie if you can get used to no milk or sugar, or only sugar alcohol/substitutes. For some context, I grew up and live in one of the most culturally diverse states and counties in the US. I know that not everywhere in the US has the same diversity of food options, but I would argue that Amazon has done a lot to make food accessible.

thelittleone 4y ago
I usually eat very well back home keto and 16hrs fasting but I come to US and there's so many tasty temptations. Takes another level of discipline.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

How is Diet Coke related to the conversation? It has zero calories.

thelittleone 4y ago
Zero calories but some research suggests the sweeteners still trigger an insulin response which is relevant.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  I have seen this claim many times, but have never seen a credible source claim it is conclusively known, at least at the amount of low calorie sweetener that are in 1 service if 8oz to 20oz of Diet Coke. It seems either this is extremely tricky to measure, or it is a myth (like aspartame or MSG or yellow 5 cause cancer or whatever).
  - thelittleone 4y ago
    Should be easy to measure now with continuous blood / sugar monitors.

LanceH 4y ago

It's a lot harder if you listen to the people that say it is impossible and you can't hope to do it because it is addiction. On the other side are people that say, "eat less, exercise more". Lots of people have chosen either one of these to be true. It is certainly possible, though.

abecedarius 4y ago

I don't know. But instead of aiming for a calorie target I'd suggest trying https://www.mostly-fat.com/eat-meat-not-too-little-mostly-fat/ https://www.mostly-fat.com/eat-meat-not-too-little-mostly-fa... for a month. Even if you decide not to stick with it, it's a very palatable break from your addictive foods. (I'm on basically that now, though I didn't come to it directly from a "standard American diet".)