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I had great success starting from a strict calories in vs. calories out diet, and then iterating on what I ate to make myself the most satiated per calorie eate

I had great success starting from a strict calories in vs. calories out diet, and then iterating on what I ate to make myself the most satiated per calorie eaten. Turns out that the diet that solves for satiation ends up being a lot of plain chicken and meat, beans, roasted veggies, modest amounts of starch, and no sugar. (Eating a handful of jelly beans would make be starving 30 minutes later). The other thing I found, is that I had to avoid foods that tasted too good. Basically any food that combines fat, simple starches, and a sweet sauce will taste too good and give you an overwhelming urge to overeat. If I wanted to eat a burrito for lunch, I would cut it in half, put the other half in the fridge, and save it for dinner, before I even started to eat my lunch. Burritos are quite satiating, and you actually diet while eating them, you just have to portion control, and will yourself past the ten minutes when you are done with the first half and so tempted to eat the other half. I've wondered if the reason why so many diet strategies succeed in the short run, but fail in the long run, is because they are all hacks to make you eat less tasty food. If you just eat fat, or just eat carbs, or just eat whole wheat, or whatever, your food will be less tasty. In the long run though, people like eating tasty food, and so they keep making exceptions to the diet in the name of taste, and they are back to their normal eating habits.

MicroBerto 12y ago
That's actually a great point, and something I've told friends in a "broscience" fashion: There is nearly nothing in nature that combines fats and carbs. It's almost like you need to choose one or the other - balance is how you get into trouble, because then you think everything is legal. Take, for instance, potato chips -- and not the low-fat Baked Lay's or Quest Chips kind. If you're on a "balanced diet", they're legal. But good luck measuring them and not eating the entire bag. It sounds like your success was mainly in portion control. Eating standing up helps you get full faster too, as does focusing on chewing a lot (also prevents choking and other benefits). The biggest problem I forgot to mention above, however, is that people will read all sorts of literature, but when it comes to actually weighing their food with a food scale (costs literally $20) and counting their calories and macros, they all fail. Yes, it's a pain in the arse, but you learn so much by recording everything you eat. But people simply don't want to do it, and it drives me nuts. This also leads me to believe that there's a massive business opportunity somewhere in there to make it easier to do (I have ideas but am too busy).
- bokonist 12y ago
  My diet was partly portion control, but I also weighed food and used myfitnesspal. It did require greatly simplifying my diet. I would make five pounds of food at a time in a slower cooker, and have my meals all portioned out for the next few days. It was somewhat monotonous but that is actually a benefit. What made the diet stick and work, was that I knew with absolute scientific certainty that if I 1) counted calories 2) always underestimated 3) stuck to it, then it was 100% certain that I would get the results I wanted. And sure enough, ten weeks later, I was 15 pounds lighter and people were commenting on how good I was looking. My recommendation to dieters is to not do it halfheartedly. Go all in, read reddit fitness, geek out on dieting, count calories, come up with new recipes, set a complete routine around cooking the right food, etc. That way you won't be tempted to make exceptions and you will know with 100% certainty that you will get results.
  - minikomi 12y ago
    Any favorite recipes?
    - bokonist 12y ago
      Pulled chicken with salsa - 3 pounds of chicken, mixed breasts and thighs. 48oz salsa, three cans of 15oz beans. Mix together, put in slow cooker for 4 hours on high. Pull the chicken and mix in a cup of cheddar cheese. Simple, satiating, and very good. Pulled pork Put a pork butt/shoulder in the slow cooker. Douse with a 16oz bottle of root beer. Cook on low for 8 hours. Pull apart. Mix in BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese to taste. This can end up tasting too good, so you might need to portion control when you eat it. Roast beef (or roast lamb, or roast anything) Buy an oven roast and rub in salt and pepper. Cook according to the times laid out here http://www.thehealthybutcher.com/livetoeat/volume23/TheHealthyButchers-UltimateRoastingChart.pdf http://www.thehealthybutcher.com/livetoeat/volume23/TheHealt... Very simple, yet amazingly delicious right out of the oven. Baked Chicken Buy a mix of thighs and breasts. Slice the breasts in half so they are the same thickness as the thighs. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook at 400 degrees until they are 160degrees internal temp (37 minutes in my oven, when laid out on a rack, not on the baking pan directly). Once you have baked the chicken, you can eat straight up the first night. Then in succeeding nights you can mix with tomato sauce and do pasta, mix with cheese and make a quesadilla, mix with coconut milk, red curry paste, and peanut butter and do a thai chicken, etc. By doing the work of cooking the chicken all in one night, in following nights you can make a variety of healthy, delicious meals in under 10 minutes. Just reheat the chicken in a sauce and you have instant goodness. Roast veggies But three 1pound bags of frozen veggies - brussel sprouts, "fiesta mix", brocoli, whatever you like. Put in strainer and run water over to thaw out a bit. Dry. Put on baking pans. Brush with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put in oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. If using multiple pans, switch the racks half-way through. It is even better if you do fresh veggies, but it is more prep work in cutting them to the proper size.
acconrad 12y ago
One thing I can immediately think of is avocados - they are both high in fat and carbohydrate, though 80%+ of those carbs are fibrous. One way I've managed to make dieting more sustainable (which is the most important part, making sure you find a healthy diet you can stick to in the long run) are cheat days/meals. This allows you to program in "tasty" meals without the psychological guilt and adverse health affects from these typically unhealthy treats. Most nutritionists will agree that if you adhere to your diet 90% of the time, you're going to be successful. That means in a typical 3 meal/day diet, you've got roughly 2 meals / week where you can cheat and eat whatever without it affecting your health or body composition. My approach, which has allowed me to increase my strength without increasing my body weight, has been through a cyclical ketogenic diet. As always, YMMV, but I have determined through my own empirical research that I am not well carb-adapted, and staying low carb (<50g net carbs) all week doesn't negatively affect my energy levels or strength, in fact it improves moreso than when I ate carbs after workouts. Nonetheless, I love me some carb-rich foods, so once a week, after my biggest workout of the week, I eat roughly 400+g of carbs to refuel glycogen, satiate my desire for a "tasty meal" and overall reward myself for adhering 90%+ to my diet for the week. What's important here is that you plan for the cheat, and that allows you to still enjoy life and food without it negatively affecting your health and body composition.

MicroBerto 12y ago

That's actually a great point, and something I've told friends in a "broscience" fashion: There is nearly nothing in nature that combines fats and carbs. It's almost like you need to choose one or the other - balance is how you get into trouble, because then you think everything is legal. Take, for instance, potato chips -- and not the low-fat Baked Lay's or Quest Chips kind. If you're on a "balanced diet", they're legal. But good luck measuring them and not eating the entire bag. It sounds like your success was mainly in portion control. Eating standing up helps you get full faster too, as does focusing on chewing a lot (also prevents choking and other benefits). The biggest problem I forgot to mention above, however, is that people will read all sorts of literature, but when it comes to actually weighing their food with a food scale (costs literally $20) and counting their calories and macros, they all fail. Yes, it's a pain in the arse, but you learn so much by recording everything you eat. But people simply don't want to do it, and it drives me nuts. This also leads me to believe that there's a massive business opportunity somewhere in there to make it easier to do (I have ideas but am too busy).

bokonist 12y ago
My diet was partly portion control, but I also weighed food and used myfitnesspal. It did require greatly simplifying my diet. I would make five pounds of food at a time in a slower cooker, and have my meals all portioned out for the next few days. It was somewhat monotonous but that is actually a benefit. What made the diet stick and work, was that I knew with absolute scientific certainty that if I 1) counted calories 2) always underestimated 3) stuck to it, then it was 100% certain that I would get the results I wanted. And sure enough, ten weeks later, I was 15 pounds lighter and people were commenting on how good I was looking. My recommendation to dieters is to not do it halfheartedly. Go all in, read reddit fitness, geek out on dieting, count calories, come up with new recipes, set a complete routine around cooking the right food, etc. That way you won't be tempted to make exceptions and you will know with 100% certainty that you will get results.
- minikomi 12y ago
  Any favorite recipes?
  - bokonist 12y ago
    Pulled chicken with salsa - 3 pounds of chicken, mixed breasts and thighs. 48oz salsa, three cans of 15oz beans. Mix together, put in slow cooker for 4 hours on high. Pull the chicken and mix in a cup of cheddar cheese. Simple, satiating, and very good. Pulled pork Put a pork butt/shoulder in the slow cooker. Douse with a 16oz bottle of root beer. Cook on low for 8 hours. Pull apart. Mix in BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese to taste. This can end up tasting too good, so you might need to portion control when you eat it. Roast beef (or roast lamb, or roast anything) Buy an oven roast and rub in salt and pepper. Cook according to the times laid out here http://www.thehealthybutcher.com/livetoeat/volume23/TheHealthyButchers-UltimateRoastingChart.pdf http://www.thehealthybutcher.com/livetoeat/volume23/TheHealt... Very simple, yet amazingly delicious right out of the oven. Baked Chicken Buy a mix of thighs and breasts. Slice the breasts in half so they are the same thickness as the thighs. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook at 400 degrees until they are 160degrees internal temp (37 minutes in my oven, when laid out on a rack, not on the baking pan directly). Once you have baked the chicken, you can eat straight up the first night. Then in succeeding nights you can mix with tomato sauce and do pasta, mix with cheese and make a quesadilla, mix with coconut milk, red curry paste, and peanut butter and do a thai chicken, etc. By doing the work of cooking the chicken all in one night, in following nights you can make a variety of healthy, delicious meals in under 10 minutes. Just reheat the chicken in a sauce and you have instant goodness. Roast veggies But three 1pound bags of frozen veggies - brussel sprouts, "fiesta mix", brocoli, whatever you like. Put in strainer and run water over to thaw out a bit. Dry. Put on baking pans. Brush with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Put in oven at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. If using multiple pans, switch the racks half-way through. It is even better if you do fresh veggies, but it is more prep work in cutting them to the proper size.

acconrad 12y ago

One thing I can immediately think of is avocados - they are both high in fat and carbohydrate, though 80%+ of those carbs are fibrous. One way I've managed to make dieting more sustainable (which is the most important part, making sure you find a healthy diet you can stick to in the long run) are cheat days/meals. This allows you to program in "tasty" meals without the psychological guilt and adverse health affects from these typically unhealthy treats. Most nutritionists will agree that if you adhere to your diet 90% of the time, you're going to be successful. That means in a typical 3 meal/day diet, you've got roughly 2 meals / week where you can cheat and eat whatever without it affecting your health or body composition. My approach, which has allowed me to increase my strength without increasing my body weight, has been through a cyclical ketogenic diet. As always, YMMV, but I have determined through my own empirical research that I am not well carb-adapted, and staying low carb (<50g net carbs) all week doesn't negatively affect my energy levels or strength, in fact it improves moreso than when I ate carbs after workouts. Nonetheless, I love me some carb-rich foods, so once a week, after my biggest workout of the week, I eat roughly 400+g of carbs to refuel glycogen, satiate my desire for a "tasty meal" and overall reward myself for adhering 90%+ to my diet for the week. What's important here is that you plan for the cheat, and that allows you to still enjoy life and food without it negatively affecting your health and body composition.