EAT MOAR TATERS! Huh? page 75

[Miss Understood]

Day 6. Down 1 pound for a total loss of 4.25 pounds. This is my last day on potatoes. I suspect I will lose a bit more tomorrow since I haven't been "regular" the last few days and I'll probably be pooing taters today! I'm switching to just lean protein for two days then will return to my normal way of eating. As I have been averaging a loss of 5 pounds per month, and we're leaving for our 15th anniversary vacation trip soon, this was a nice boost. It got me under 150, down to 146.5, which is getting pretty close to what I weighed when we were married.

Benefits of this experience aside from weight loss: I determined I do not have a nightshade vegetable intolerance, I think this has down regulated my appetite (will know better in a few days), may have been good as a temporary metabolism/thyroid stimulant. It was good for learning to eat occassionally just for hunger and not so much for the enjoyment of food.

[lambchop]

Well that's the end of the potato fast for me, as my measurements suggest I'm now losing lean muscle tissue

Day 1 - No change, stats seemed identical

Day 2 - 1.3 lbs lost, waist measurement dropped almost 1/2 inch, skinfold caliper seemed about the same, Biggly Index jumped up

Day 3 - 0.22 lbs lost, waist measurement returned as before (the half inch came back) skinfold caliper moved up about 1 mm. Biggly Index dropped down, not as low as before but heading down.


I do realize this was a very short term experiment of only 3 days but here's my conclusions:

Day 1 homeostasis kicked in, appetite kept me eating, body slowed down etc. No change.

Day 2 I was half expecting a gain, if only stored glycogen and salt water bloat but a pleasant drop in both weight and waist. The skinfold calipers confirmed it.

However I attribute much of this to a 70 minute hike through a hilly park on a semi-empty stomach. In fairness though the potatoes certainly helped dull my appetite and made the whole empty stomach thing much easier!

However day 3 was a killer. Mostly a desk-bound day, which is normal, so went for a walk in the evening, just a 20 minute stroll. Didn't feel I was eating much but I WAS eating quite regularly.

I really wasn't sure what the scales were going to say this morning...

Well they said a small drop, about 1/4 lb - but my waist measurement had gone back up again. Worse, the skinfold calipers had gone back up again.

Some of that could be bloating and calipers are hard to get a consistent reading with but the fact remains the weight loss had stalled and my measurements suggest potatoes again today would probably lead to gaining fat (if I haven't already). In the meantime I'm depriving myself of protein so it's quite possible the 1/4 lb lost was muscle tissue.

My overall conclusion for me personally is this:

I need more exercise!

For 3 days my calories never exceeded 1400, which is crazy low for a 5'9" 180+ lb man. In some way yes, more than a pound lost in 3 days IS drastic but the effects should have been more dramatic. I should have been starving hungry and losing weight on the first day, but I wasn't.

Day 1, without significant exercise, nothing changed. Day 2 with a lot of exercise my weight plunged, day 3 without much exercise, not much happened - but fat weight seems to be creeping on while lean muscle fades.

To me this suggests that while the Primal Blueprint talks of how 80% of it is diet, I think for ME, personally, my normal low-carb, hi-fat diet is probably fine, my problem is that I'm sitting at my desk nearly all day, on my comfy leather chair! All day I'm either working or surfing the net, sitting on my ass.

I need to do that "move frequently" thing.


My conclusion about the potato fast in general?

I think (boiled) potatoes are a great appetite suppressant if you're going to go for a 2 day fast.

The 'magic' as such is their ability to kill appetite at fairly low calories, while removing all other nibbly choices. For that it's great but beyond 2 or 3 days I have real concerns regarding lost protein and high insulin levels etc.

I think if you're already healthy and active and just want to lose fat weight then it should be pretty effective, though I still wouldn't recommend more than about a week. However monitor closely and if it's not really working for you, stop.

For me potatoes simply helped me do something we know works anyway - a long slow exercise session on an empty stomach. I just couldn't handle the idea of potatoes for breakfast and didn't feel overly hungry, so it worked in that sense.


In short, in CAN work, it certainly does work to some extent for most people, just monitor closely and use it as a learning tool as well as a short-term hack.

Otzi has discovered something useful, if you don't abuse it.





AC

helpful summary, thanks

[Neckhammer]

Oh, so sorry, did I neglect to distill my thoughts into an easily-digestible sound bite for you? Guess you'll just have to read for comprehension or something.

haha .....actually I 'm most interested in persons (like yourself) that are taking the body measurements. I really wanna see some good bf% to lean mass calculations. If these is some sort of uber hack where you predominately lose body fat without supplementing protein (as pklopp is doing) it would be something of note.

As to reformulating any hypothesis....I really can't even begin to. Maybe if we were doing some blood draws and analysis we could come to better conclusions, but I think we'll have to make due without that unless someone wants to get really OCD about this.

[SophieScreams]

Sooooo...

I lasted about 40 hours with this. Potatoes and the sight of them became nauseating very quickly. And I was HUNGRY, panicky dizzy, like in my SAD days. So, I ate some pork and fish and shrimp and some fat for the rest of yesterday. But, lo and behold, I was greeted with a solid 2 lb loss this morning, and I didn't even have a BM, so it could be a little more than 2 pounds! I think a quick 24 hours with rice would have been more palatable for me, so I'll try again next week. Anyone have a rice fast experience to share?

[gopintos]

I think a quick 24 hours with rice would have been more palatable for me, so I'll try again next week. Anyone have a rice fast experience to share?

I havent done just rice, but I have sometimes reached for rice instead of tators and it was a nice change. I have been including rice and/or tators in some fashion, some days more than others.

With the exception of the weekend (halloween party), since 10/23 I have either lost .7 or .9 each day. The weekend was only .2 come Monday, but I was happy. I figured a gain.

I have been giving DH rice a number of mornings for breakfast. He lost 4.8 from last Monday - Friday last week.

Most importantly, I have lost inches this past month. I have had energy to do more exercise this past month, and things are fitting more loosely. I spot checked a couple of places and saw an inch gone, so October was a much better month for me than the previous months combined. I attribute it to several things, but tators jumped started it. I also cut the fat, increased the protein, increased the carbs, and had energy to increase the movement. And when I say cut the fat, I mean the extra fat I would have added into stuff. I still get plenty of fat in my meats, etc. I try to keep it under 60g but I have been zig zagging calories also, so one day the fat was 101g going into the weekend, which I didnt track the party and still had .2 loss come Monday.

Anyways, I am very happy. Some decent forward motion again.

[Zanna]

So into day two. I haven't had issues with crazy hunger, I think because I was used to IF before starting. I have to say - I had read the entire thread before starting and was surprised at how little people would eat & state that they couldn't eat another bite. But . . . It's potatoes! Potatoes are delicious! Right now, potatoes are ugh and blah. I really don't want to eat many of them and my energy levels are fine so far. I am not putting effort into making them taste good, just trying to make them palatable. That's not easy without fat and salt.

I have lost about a pound since yesterday, according to the scale. I am not using calipers to determine body fat - I will be able to tell more by how my clothes fit and I'm just not that scientifically inclined. My stomach isn't really sure how it feels about this all potato thing - I'm hoping that levels out after another day.

[Uncephalized]

haha .....actually I 'm most interested in persons (like yourself) that are taking the body measurements. I really wanna see some good bf% to lean mass calculations. If these is some sort of uber hack where you predominately lose body fat without supplementing protein (as pklopp is doing) it would be something of note.

As to reformulating any hypothesis....I really can't even begin to. Maybe if we were doing some blood draws and analysis we could come to better conclusions, but I think we'll have to make due without that unless someone wants to get really OCD about this.

Fair enough

Start of Day 4. Today my weight is essentially unchanged, 107.8 vs 107.6 yesterday. Waking temperature was 97.5 F, also the same.

Neck: 15"
Biceps: 15.5"
Waist at navel: 40"
Hips: 40"
Thigh: 25.5"

So those are essentially unchanged aside from the biceps, which I probably just measured wrong the other day (I'm sure I didn't put on half an inch on my arms in 3 days with no exercise and hardly any protein!). Pretty much what I'd expect after only a couple of pounds loss.

[Rosemary 231]

I did the potato fast for 7 full days. As I remember, after 24 hours, I lost 2 3/4 lbs. At the end of the 7 days I'd lost 8 1/2 lbs. I only ate white, Russets, potatoes, baked. About 3 large "bakers" a day. I didn't eat sweet potatoes, yams or rice and only used about a tsp of ketchup once or twice, a little mustard or vinegar, or beef broth, salt and pepper and some Italian Seasoning. BMs were normal, I think I missed one day and I felt great.

[Keeks333]

Im now on day 2 and am up .5lbs. I havent had a BM in a day though. I also ate almost 4lbs of potatoes yesterday because was so hungry! Hoping the hunger is a little better today!

I too had the panicky, dizzy feeling around lunch time like in my SAD days, eating helped this but it has been so long since i have eaten white anything I think it was a shock to my system. Im going to at least go 3 days and see what happens...

[otzi]

Day 6. Down 1 pound for a total loss of 4.25 pounds. This is my last day on potatoes...As I have been averaging a loss of 5 pounds per month, and we're leaving for our 15th anniversary vacation trip soon, this was a nice boost. It got me under 150, down to 146.5, which is getting pretty close to what I weighed when we were married.

That's great! Enjoy your trip--don't eat too much!