Diets

[Dom]

Which type of diet do you prefer, and why? Do you ever go on weight loss diets? If so, how did you fare? 

Or whatever you want to say about diet, it goes here.

[c172]

BistroMD is what I'm on right now. First time going on something of its kind (frozen foods, much like weight watchers, I assume). Some of it is painfully bland or gross, and I wind up missing my own cooking (I took a chilaquiles break this breakfast and lunch, even though I botched this batch). It also does nothing for nerves eating or boredom eating. But I worry about leaving it. I need discipline but apparently don't want it. Strange.

Which type of diet do you prefer, and why? Do you ever go on weight loss diets? If so, how did you fare? 

Or whatever you want to say about diet, it goes here.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I started on Ozempic, for diabetes, in July. Six months later I'm down forty+ pound with no effort on my part. YMMV

[Bcat]

I tried meal delivery services, not for a diet, but mostly because I hate to cook. The meal services had "chef" prepared meals with all the ingredients needed for cooking. I didn't care for it as it's much easier to whip up quick plant-based meals myself that actually taste better imo.

[Vera]

I just lost about three or four kg in the last week, due to stress, sadness and debilitating headache. Do not recommend.

Biggest (and most constant) weight loss was first year of uni. I just started eating much less and, above all I think, I almost stopped eating bread (other than if I was having a sandwich, obviously (people here eat a lot of bread, with soups and stews, etc.). Not sure how I didn't put weight back on when I started eating more normally - probably because I still don't eat much bread (lots of pasta though). Not sure how much kilos we're talking, either, 10-ish I think.

I lost five or six kilos in Rio - occasional stress and less things to snack on late at night I guess.

So yeah, if decide I need to lose weight I just start eating less - I'm not a fan of "can't have this" or "can only have this" and strict rules about what I'm eating...

[Dancefortwo]

I kinda graze on food.  I don't make anything.  A handfull of nuts here, a handfull of Romaine lettus there.  I break off a celery stick or a carrot and casually eat it while doing stuff.   I do make tea and toast in the morning and that's about as formal as I get.  I might make a sandwich once in a while but even something like tuna I plop it in a teacup and eat it with a spoon out of the cup or I might cut off a hunk of ham and eat it.    I don't mix stuff together.  I just  don't make anything.   I make my own clothes but, meh - I have no interest in making food.   I've gained about 12 pounds since high school and two pregnancies.

[GenesisNemesis]

I just eat whatever I want to. 

[Vera]

eat it with a spoon out of the cup

I LOVE eating most everything with a spoon too! Wooden ones, preferably (as I said to someone in Rio first time I was there, I don't like the taste of metal in my mouth. You can guess what the reply was   ). I have a couple of chinese bamboo (I think) spoons that I eat almost anything with. (I was thinking I might have to take them with me to Vietnam (if I ever go there) as I don't see myself mastering chopsticks... who knows...)

I don't like snacking though and neither does my stomach when it thinks it's getting food and then gets a bite, I think it irritates it. I like my two meals (I get at 11-12 (go to bed at 4am) and don't have breakfast). A snack or two later at night. Definitely not a fan of snacking throughout the day or a bunch of smaller meals like some recommend. Guess everyone's stomach is different.

I cook well but I can't be arsed to spend too much time or thought or energy on it. I need food to survive and I do want to enjoy what I'm eating, but I'm not spending any more of my precious time on food than I absolutely have to. It all ends in the same place, in the same form  

[Bcat]

I just lost about three or four kg in the last week, due to stress, sadness and debilitating headache. Do not recommend.

Biggest (and most constant) weight loss was first year of uni. I just started eating much less and, above all I think, I almost stopped eating bread (other than if I was having a sandwich, obviously (people here eat a lot of bread, with soups and stews, etc.). Not sure how I didn't put weight back on when I started eating more normally - probably because I still don't eat much bread (lots of pasta though). Not sure how much kilos we're talking, either, 10-ish I think.

I lost five or six kilos in Rio - occasional stress and less things to snack on late at night I guess.

So yeah, if decide I need to lose weight I just start eating less - I'm not a fan of "can't have this" or "can only have this" and strict rules about what I'm eating...

I'm sorry to hear you had a hard beginning of year so far.  I hope things are doing better now.  

[Thumpalumpacus]

No particular diet here except to accommodate my teeth, which aren't very healthy. Other than that, no off-limits stuff, no doctor's Rx, I just cook fresh as much as possible (occasional use of canned tomato sauce or beans are the main exceptions) and make sure I get exercise.

[Minimalist]

After many years I discovered the secret is to eat less.

[julep]

i’ve gone on various diets, most abandoned after a few days. What works for me mostly is settling on some kind of eating schedule with frequent feedings, 5-6 a day, relatively small servings, and a couple of cheat/extravagant treats every couple of weeks or so. 

The “diet” that i’ve felt absolutely the best on was a diet that I followed when I was pregnant and got gestational diabetes. Ate 6x a day, one cup of coffee per day, no processed sugar, small meals, a couple of servings of fruit, more vegetables and protein. And insulin shots a couple of times a day and four blood sugar sticks plus peeing on a stick daily to make sure I wasn’t going into ketoacidosis. or something like that. Tons of energy and I gained 3 pounds in my final trimester and had a healthy kid, etc. 

Besides feeling good, I liked the tracking aspect of it. 

Generally my opinion is that portion control, fruits and veggies and less highly processed foods, plus movement, are key.

[Dānu]

I've started trying to include a portion of veggies with every meal, mostly by ordering 1/2 cans of veggies which I microwave in 10-ounce paper bowls, and which I have delivered with Walmart+.

Probably not as nutritious as frozen or fresh, but it's a vast improvement over nothing.

[Szuchow]

I follow diet for weightlifters for most of the year which means big intake of carbs and protein of moderate to low intake of fats. It translates to eating meat, rice, vegetables and eggs often. I generally try to gain half a kilo per week. When I need to cut I just eat less carbs and more protein and fats which results in steady [o.5kg per week] rate of weight loss which coupled with training allows me to keep muscle and shed fat.

[Vera]

I'm sorry to hear you had a hard beginning of year so far.  I hope things are doing better now.  

Thank you, Jenny!

(Can't say that they are going better yet but, as they say, everything passes, sooner or later...)

[Thingymebob]

As I've mentioned on here before my diet is pretty poor. Too many takeouts and not enough fruit and veg 
Years ago when I was about 4 stone over weight I cut out eating bread and taking sugar in my tea and coffee, the weight fell off. I'm around 12 stones now which is about right for my height and frame.

[SYZ]

As I've mentioned on here before my diet is pretty poor. Too many takeouts and not enough fruit and veg 
Years ago when I was about 4 stone over weight I cut out eating bread and taking sugar in my tea and coffee,
the weight fell off. I'm around 12 stones now which is about right for my height and frame.

"Stones" ???    Oh... 76.2kg.

How do you weigh yourself with these?



                     

[Aractus]

Okay so I thought I'd look a little closer at Penn Jillette's weight loss diets. This is not to criticise anyone here let me make that clear.

I see weight loss diets as largely a scam that's been perpetrated by a huge industry that profits off keeping people overweight. The long-term success from dieting for keeping weight off is rare for the cohort of people that start off as obese or morbidly obese. There are many fad diets that people have used to lose weight, people have lost weight on the “McDonald's only diet” or on just about any diet - fad or normal.

So Penn went on a mono diet for two weeks, then a strict vegan diet and basically now follows the vegan version of a fad diet called the Nutritarian Diet. He started out obese and he has kept the weight off.

So let's break down each step. First his doctor advises gastric sleeve surgery - Penn decides against it. Not a bad idea, surgical intervention is invasive. Next he talks about joining a cult which is when he goes to a mono diet recommended to him by Ray Cronise - a very restrictive mono diet of just 5 potatoes per day. Mono diets are promoted by pro-anorexic people and extreme energy restriction like that is something an anorexic would choose. You will lose muscle faster than you lose fat, but you'll lose weight. Note “joining a cult” is apt.

To be rather clear here - two weeks of any type of crash-diet will have the same effect, although you could at least have variety and provide better nutrition than a mono-diet.

Following this he transitions to a hard vegan diet. Yes you'll lose weight on a vegan diet, but it will come at the expense of losing muscle mass due to inadequate protein and it will never provide optimal nutrition because many essential micronutrients come from meat. He promotes a full plant-based diet... which is just veganism. Veganism leads to eating disorders, depression due to low LDL, poorer mental health, and many other side-effects. He's also following as mentioned the Nutritarian Diet, and eating only one single meal per day.

“I went for a radical change in diet — whole-food plant-based, hard-core vegan, vegetables, no processed food, no sugar. And I limited my eating to just an hour a day, so I’m always fasting 23 hours.” (Penn Jillette, LA Times).

Does that sound like a healthy relationship with food?

It certainly isn't. No pasta, no bread, no cereal, no wholegrains other than rice, no dairy, no meat, no fish. To put it bluntly: Penn's diet is as unhealthy now as it was a decade ago before he embarked on weight loss. That you can loose weight on an unhealthy diet and keep it off is not really new either.

Humans are definitely not designed for a vegan diet. You can survive on one, and even thrive for many years, but the protein deficiency along with other micronutrient deficiencies will take their toll.

I was going to end this by deciding whether or not a hard vegan diet would be healthy for Penn for a short time, say around 5 years - not any longer than that. I hesitate on this because while I feel the answer may be a yes, I also feel he would be in exactly the same situation now in terms of weight with better overall health if he'd chosen a more balanced diet. Eating for one hour per day itself is extreme - so maybe working with that one extreme instead of two would have been more advantageous. As for promoting this diet to others - Penn you should know better. It's a farce. It's an extreme diet that works for Penn to keep his weight low - it will help to solve some of his pre-diet medical issues, but it will I repeat WILL lead to other medical issues down the line.