I have been doing something like your suggestion with Point #9 for the past decade or so - I have a threshold weight I check every couple weeks, and when I'm above it, I go on a diet to drop the 15-20lbs necessary to get back to my ideal weight.
I went from having to diet 3 times in the first 4 years to only having to diet once in the past 5. Obviously lots of other factors at play but I helped me be a lot more conscious of my food, weight and exercise.
Thanks. I'm pretty optimistic about the diet, but losing 20 lb over 4 weeks would be a *lot* even for people with high BMI.
Just to do the math, that's 5 lb/week. Since 1 lb of fat is around 3500 calories that would require a caloric deficit of 17,500/week or 2500 calories per day. That's *really* high, so I'd probably go lower than the 15% the market gives. Even losing 10 lb over 4 weeks would be a pretty great outcome in my opinion!
"At the time Smith was writing, 40% of Irish men and women ate no solid food other than potatoes. They could do that because the potato is a nearly perfect food." Charles Mann adds: “Today we know why: the potato can better sustain life than any other food when eaten as the sole item of diet. it has all essential nutrients except vitamins A and D, which can be supplied by milk; the diet of the Irish poor in Smith’s day consisted largely of potatoes and milk.”
If this is interesting I highly recommend "The Hungry Brain".
Some other thoughts:
Obesity is not a disease of over-eating, it is a disease of managing hunger.
"Losing weight" is a terrible goal. "Changing Body Composition" is a much better goal. Specifically change the proportion of fat to muscle.
----
If your immediate answer is "Those are the same thing but with different words!!!" then here are some questions to get you thinking:
* Can you measure someone else's hunger and compare it to your own?
* What parts of hunger come from perceptions and what parts come from psychological conditioning?
* Can you survive being hungry? Can you survive starvation? How does your body know the difference?
* How does food energy relate to hunger? For CICO a Calorie is always a Calorie; is that also true for hunger?
* How do you measure progress towards a goal and how does it feel when you can't perceive progress?
* Excess body weight can put stress on your joints, but doesn't generally have any other negative effects. Excess body fat has many negative effects. A scale is cheap and consistent. Body fat monitors and measurement isn't always cheap or consistent (or accurate).
About bread and pasta making you tired but potatoes not having this effect, despite potatoes having a high glycemic index – blood sugar level responses to foods vary widely between people, probably due to gut microbiome differences. Here's a writeup of a study, "Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses", published in Cell about it: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151119143445.htm
"For example, a large number of the participants' blood sugar levels rose sharply after they consumed a standardized glucose meal, but in many others, blood glucose levels rose sharply after they ate white bread, but not after glucose."
Oh man, the microbiome adding another layer of complexity as always. I'm semi-seriously considering getting a blood glucose monitor just to check how blood sugar correlates with diet and energy.
From what I understand, and would love for you to do research on, is that not all foods have the same glycemic response in everyone equally. It may be that for you potatoes don’t cause a spike, but they may in other people. For reference: https://youtu.be/0z03xkwFbw4
I'm seriously considering getting a blood glucose monitor to check how well glucose levels correlate with my subjective energy levels. My only concerns are that the potential placebo effect seems massive and the fact that I'm a total baby about blood and needles and such.
If you have a tame primary care person, they might prescribe a continuous glucose monitor for you. Much easier and more entertaining. Just plug the little gadget into the back of your arm and then wave your phone over it when you want to know your blood glucose.
"hungry brain" by Guyenet is the best book length treatment explaining obesity. It briefly mentions the potato diet and the author had a funny blog post for April Fool's advertising the "bland food diet"
I have been doing something like your suggestion with Point #9 for the past decade or so - I have a threshold weight I check every couple weeks, and when I'm above it, I go on a diet to drop the 15-20lbs necessary to get back to my ideal weight.
I went from having to diet 3 times in the first 4 years to only having to diet once in the past 5. Obviously lots of other factors at play but I helped me be a lot more conscious of my food, weight and exercise.
Very interesting, and glad to hear that's worked. for you! I'm a bit surprised you chose such a wide window, though (20 lbs). Any particular reason?
There are a few Metaculus questions about the SMTM potato study that you might find interesting: https://www.metaculus.com/questions/?order_by=-rank&main-feed&search=smtm%20potato
Thanks. I'm pretty optimistic about the diet, but losing 20 lb over 4 weeks would be a *lot* even for people with high BMI.
Just to do the math, that's 5 lb/week. Since 1 lb of fat is around 3500 calories that would require a caloric deficit of 17,500/week or 2500 calories per day. That's *really* high, so I'd probably go lower than the 15% the market gives. Even losing 10 lb over 4 weeks would be a pretty great outcome in my opinion!
interesting post!
1. +1 on the thermostat approach (I weigh myself daily and then even do 1-2 day alterations for homeostasis)
2. I've read that cold potatoes have different Glycemic Index than hot ones (googling quickly suggests this might be true?)
3. Charles Mann talks about potato in his book 1493 and how potatoes sustained Ireland for a long time - lots of good potato discussion there... Googling quickly: https://masscommons.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/1493-the-potato-feeds-europe/
"At the time Smith was writing, 40% of Irish men and women ate no solid food other than potatoes. They could do that because the potato is a nearly perfect food." Charles Mann adds: “Today we know why: the potato can better sustain life than any other food when eaten as the sole item of diet. it has all essential nutrients except vitamins A and D, which can be supplied by milk; the diet of the Irish poor in Smith’s day consisted largely of potatoes and milk.”
My comment from Hacker News ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32059388 ):
If this is interesting I highly recommend "The Hungry Brain".
Some other thoughts:
Obesity is not a disease of over-eating, it is a disease of managing hunger.
"Losing weight" is a terrible goal. "Changing Body Composition" is a much better goal. Specifically change the proportion of fat to muscle.
----
If your immediate answer is "Those are the same thing but with different words!!!" then here are some questions to get you thinking:
* Can you measure someone else's hunger and compare it to your own?
* What parts of hunger come from perceptions and what parts come from psychological conditioning?
* Can you survive being hungry? Can you survive starvation? How does your body know the difference?
* How does food energy relate to hunger? For CICO a Calorie is always a Calorie; is that also true for hunger?
* How do you measure progress towards a goal and how does it feel when you can't perceive progress?
* Excess body weight can put stress on your joints, but doesn't generally have any other negative effects. Excess body fat has many negative effects. A scale is cheap and consistent. Body fat monitors and measurement isn't always cheap or consistent (or accurate).
Regarding PotatoCamp:
Random grocery store russets? HELL NO! NEVER! NEVERNEVERNEVER!
A bouquet of heirlooms grown in living soil? Sure, sounds like a fun summer camp with friends!
I'm going to start using "raccoon trouble" as an answer to every nosy question.
Raccoons could explain pretty much anything. Who knows what those things are capable of?
About bread and pasta making you tired but potatoes not having this effect, despite potatoes having a high glycemic index – blood sugar level responses to foods vary widely between people, probably due to gut microbiome differences. Here's a writeup of a study, "Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses", published in Cell about it: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151119143445.htm
"For example, a large number of the participants' blood sugar levels rose sharply after they consumed a standardized glucose meal, but in many others, blood glucose levels rose sharply after they ate white bread, but not after glucose."
Oh man, the microbiome adding another layer of complexity as always. I'm semi-seriously considering getting a blood glucose monitor just to check how blood sugar correlates with diet and energy.
I need more information. What did you do with the money you saved on food? How many potatoes in total have you eaten?
From what I understand, and would love for you to do research on, is that not all foods have the same glycemic response in everyone equally. It may be that for you potatoes don’t cause a spike, but they may in other people. For reference: https://youtu.be/0z03xkwFbw4
I'm seriously considering getting a blood glucose monitor to check how well glucose levels correlate with my subjective energy levels. My only concerns are that the potential placebo effect seems massive and the fact that I'm a total baby about blood and needles and such.
If you have a tame primary care person, they might prescribe a continuous glucose monitor for you. Much easier and more entertaining. Just plug the little gadget into the back of your arm and then wave your phone over it when you want to know your blood glucose.
My impression is the glycemic index literature is pretty meh, but I've never looked deeply into it.
Would be moderately surprised if you find any high quality data linking it to post meal sleepiness.
More more likely to me: calories past a certain threshold predicts more sleepiness
"hungry brain" by Guyenet is the best book length treatment explaining obesity. It briefly mentions the potato diet and the author had a funny blog post for April Fool's advertising the "bland food diet"
https://www.stephanguyenet.com/announcing-the-bland-food-cookbook/
I think you'd enjoy the book.