Whole30 Diet

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Linked
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Whole30 Diet

Post by Linked » Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:43 am

My MIL and wife decided to go on a diet called the Whole30 at the new year. I wanted to be supportive so I am going along with it. It is kind of like a high demand religion. Random rules that go against the latest studies and don't always make sense, but when you follow them some good results come, possibly in spite of the diet.

The Whole30 cuts out a lot of food options. No sugar, no grains (wheat, rice, oats, corn, etc), no dairy, no beans nor legumes. You are supposed to eat lots of vegetables, and some fruits, nuts, and meat. Juice is ok in small quantities. Soy sauce gets replaced by coconut aminos and spaghetti gets replaced by zoodles (zucchini noodles). Potatoes seem to be the only acceptable complex carbohydrate. You are not allowed to weight yourself for the 30 days for some reason. And the people who created the diet say there is no allowance for cheating, no cheat days and no forgiveness if you don't do it because this diet isn't hard, cancer is hard. Yes, they wrote that.

Eating is far less satisfying and the first week is filled with crankiness as you get used to eating less calories than you use. But I have not gotten hungry at all, the food you can eat is very filling and there is no restriction on how much of it you can eat.

I was following with a bad attitude and my wife said I needed to stop, so I decided to stop complaining and just break the diet for a night. After 14 days I weighed myself and had lost 10.5lbs; no wonder I was grumpy. I put the kids to bed then went to McDonald's and picked up my college meal; 2 cheeseburgers and a medium vanilla milkshake. 1200 calories of sugar, grain, and dairy. It was glorious, food has never tasted so good. I'm back on the wagon now, we'll see if I ruined the diet.
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut

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oliver_denom
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by oliver_denom » Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:14 am

Linked wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:43 am
Eating is far less satisfying and the first week is filled with crankiness as you get used to eating less calories than you use. But I have not gotten hungry at all, the food you can eat is very filling and there is no restriction on how much of it you can eat.
I'm not expert, but this is the part of the diet that causes the weight loss. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, then you'll drop weight regardless of what you eat.
“You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages--they haven't ended yet.” - Vonnegut

L'enfer, c'est les autres - JP

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Corsair
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by Corsair » Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:53 am

My wife did Whole 30 as part of treating some food allergies she developed over the past few years. I can certainly testify of how this has worked for her. At this point she eats almost no sugar, milk, or bread. She is admittedly bored with most salads, but she continues to eat them at least once or twice a day. She still eats meat and enjoys grilled chicken, beef, and pork probably more in line with the Word of Wisdom than your average Mormon.

Most impressively, she got back down to her high school weight. She continues to be nominally healthy and it has been interesting watching the thinly veiled envy from a sister or two. This is not an easy diet and obviously this is a sample size of one. But this anecdote does end in some success as long as she continues her fairly strict eating habits.

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Linked
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by Linked » Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:32 am

oliver_denom wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:14 am
Linked wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:43 am
Eating is far less satisfying and the first week is filled with crankiness as you get used to eating less calories than you use. But I have not gotten hungry at all, the food you can eat is very filling and there is no restriction on how much of it you can eat.
I'm not expert, but this is the part of the diet that causes the weight loss. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, then you'll drop weight regardless of what you eat.
Haha, yes, I agree. Comments like that are part of what my wife considers my bad attitude. It has just been surprising how not hungry I have been.
Corsair wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:53 am
My wife did Whole 30 as part of treating some food allergies she developed over the past few years. I can certainly testify of how this has worked for her. At this point she eats almost no sugar, milk, or bread. She is admittedly bored with most salads, but she continues to eat them at least once or twice a day. She still eats meat and enjoys grilled chicken, beef, and pork probably more in line with the Word of Wisdom than your average Mormon.

Most impressively, she got back down to her high school weight. She continues to be nominally healthy and it has been interesting watching the thinly veiled envy from a sister or two. This is not an easy diet and obviously this is a sample size of one. But this anecdote does end in some success as long as she continues her fairly strict eating habits.
Wow, high school weight is really impressive. I don't think it would be worth it for me, those cheeseburgers are too satisfying.

Like you say though, the whole30 food can still taste pretty dang good. We had a beef stew Sunday that was awesome. And fajita chicken last night. Tasty but not satisfying and I get bored with it so I don't eat as much.
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut

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Emower
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by Emower » Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:08 pm

My wife has gotten on the low-carb bandwagon and has been super strict with it. No carbs, all the fat and meat you can eat to make you satisfied. She has dropped a number of pounds, and has continued weight loss consistently for weeks. She feels better, and has more energy. She feels like this is a diet she can sustain for a lifestyle, and thus gain a target weight and stay there. I followed along at one point very strictly for a couple months and lost around 20 lbs. Then we moved, I regressed and gained it all back. I think that eating for pleasure is something that really contributes to weight problems. If I could get myself out of the "but that doesnt taste as good" mindset, and just ignore pleasure eating it would really benefit me.

Thoughtful
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by Thoughtful » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:07 pm

This sounds like the auto immune protocol which is an elimination diet. I know many people who have lost weight and even reversed illness with it. But the idea is you add back foods gradually and see what you were reacting to (after about 6 months of nothing but AIP.

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Linked
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by Linked » Tue Jan 23, 2018 4:16 pm

Thoughtful wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:07 pm
This sounds like the auto immune protocol which is an elimination diet. I know many people who have lost weight and even reversed illness with it. But the idea is you add back foods gradually and see what you were reacting to (after about 6 months of nothing but AIP.
Yeah, they talk about it being an elimination diet, but I don't think it is quite as thorough as a true elimination diet; it still allows some foods and is not as long. It's kind of a mix of a Keto diet, a paleo diet, and an elimination diet.
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut

Kishkumen
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by Kishkumen » Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:19 pm

I don't have a strict diet plan, just try to eat healthy, avoid sugary stuff and processed stuff, and be careful with alcohol.

My typical morning routine is 18oz home made coffee in my awesome yeti tumbler. Breakfast smoothie my wife makes daily and I add a scoop of protein powder, maybe a hardboiled egg, and my 40 oz water bottle. I try to drink my water bottle 2x per day.

Lunch varies since I frequently go out for work lunch meetings. I modify the amount I eat for dinner based on my lunch.

I'd probably do better if I actually counted/measured but aint nobody got time for dat. Try hit the gym (crossfit) 3-4x per week.

I'm in the best shape of my last 15 years.

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Mad Jax
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by Mad Jax » Sat Jan 27, 2018 9:01 pm

I have a pretty much sugar free diet that follows a pretty universal rule for an athletic/active lifestyle -35% protein, 35% fat, 30% carbs. I work in a concerted effort to get good polyphenols into my system and make sure my B-complex is covered, but otherwise I feel like its as effective as the sports nutrition diets to which I strictly adhered when I was an active Muay Thai fighter. Beyond that I don't think there's much I can do to improve performance (short of steroids or synthol, which I never want to take again and recommend others avoid them).

I can't speak to the effectiveness of the diet you are referring to but it sounds good in principle. I'm not sure how helpful this will be to others but I figured I'd throw it in to the mix, since it may help and I have a lot of years of experience training for strength and performance.
Free will is a golden thread flowing through the matrix of fixed events.

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2bizE
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Re: Whole30 Diet

Post by 2bizE » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:14 pm

I dont like other people's diets. I can't commit to them, so I make my own modifications to keep me sane. For example, I am on a high fat diet. Basically, I eliminate grains, potatoes, sugar. I have lost several pounds, but it is hard to maintain. Mainly because I get tired of the food and just need a burger and fries. I build into the diet the ability to cheat on occasion. Maybe eat ice cream for birthday parties, etc. My thoughts are that if your diet is as strict as the church, they you probably won't be able to stand it for the long term.
~2bizE

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