Potato diet - Epic Fail, Glorious Victory page 14

[Rosemary 231]

Hey, Rookie - Another first time poster, I see. I think this potato diet deal has pulled in more first-time posters than anything else.

I think I will do the potato diet again in the spring. When I do, it will be a well-thought-out approach not unlike what you are doing. 14 days is a long-ass time to eat potatoes, 3 5-day cycles sounds much easier. What I've seen, a day or two off does not hinder progress at all, unlike a ketogenic diet where a day of carb consumption can set you back weeks.

About 6 weeks ago I did 7 days of potatoes. I lost 8.2 lbs. Just before our Christmas staff party (this Saturday) I thought I might do it again (just wanting to look a little more gorgeous). When I weighed on the Saturday previous, before beginning, I had lost another lb. so I decided not to begin the diet after all and just continue to eat Primal. Would 6 weeks apart have been too soon to do another round?

[paleo-bunny]

The popularity of the potato diet and success stories speak for themselves. IMO, it's been the most positive development on the forum for a long time.

[otzi]

About 6 weeks ago I did 7 days of potatoes. I lost 8.2 lbs. Just before our Christmas staff party (this Saturday) I thought I might do it again (just wanting to look a little more gorgeous). When I weighed on the Saturday previous, before beginning, I had lost another lb. so I decided not to begin the diet after all and just continue to eat Primal. Would 6 weeks apart have been too soon to do another round?

I think 6 weeks is a good separation. Plenty of time to build up any micronutrients you may have depleted. Some folks just started a new thread http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread72366.html you should check out.

[vonbraun]

While I disagree with your interpretation of the data, I will give you credit for attempting to put together an argument based at least partly on your understanding of the science.

I don't think anyone is advocating going 5 days with zero protein, in fact, I am advocating increasing the protein intake on the potato diet for which I am catching no end of flak. That part of your argument is nothing but a red herring.

We are not discussing protein requirements per se, but rather, protein requirements in the face of a caloric deficit. Within a reduced calorie context, higher protein intake is beneficial. Consider this study:



So we have three groups, eating isocalorically at 80% of body weight maintenance, group one eating the RDA of 0.8g / kg PRO, the other two groups are also exercising, but eating double the RDA of protein at 1.5 g / kg, and lo and behold they all lose the same amount of weight. Case closed. Increased protein is irrelevant.

But that would be a hasty conclusion, because the researchers measured more than mere mass changes:


So, the RDA protein intake group retained their muscle mass, but lost the 2.5 kg of fat. The high protein intake group actually lost more than double the amount of fat, but because they also put on muscle mass, the net change in body mass matched that of the RDA protein group. The really interesting group is the one ingesting their protein as casein, a slow digesting milk protein fraction, because they lost significantly more fat, and gained significantly more muscle as well, three times the fat mass lost, and double the muscle mass gain of the whey protein group!

If you are an active individual in caloric deficit, you should probably look at at upping your casein intake!

-PK

Pklopp,

I do agree with research that shows high protein diets are better for preserving LM when calorie restricting over several months - in the study linked, included weight lifting in the high protein groups but not the control normal protein group. My disagreement is whether it is reasonable to have considerable fear with a short term potato diet about significant lean muscle melting away. I think this fear is unfounded, it clearly isn't optimal for putting on LM but you aren't going to lose much cycling it for a week or two, especially if you added resistance training. And most people doing the potato diet/hack/cut are doing it < 1 week, and the max discussed seems to be 2 weeks.

You seem to have done a standard high protein diet that includes a fair amount of potatoes. You did 1500 calories and at least 130g protein(egg whites, tuna, potatoes). Which would look something like:
2 can tuna (more would be not recommended as being safe) - 40g protein, 200 calories
1.5 dozen egg whites - 63g protein, 306 calories
3.5 large potato - 28g protein, 1015 calories
for a total of 131g protein, 1521 calories.

Eating 2 cans tuna, 18 egg whites, and 3.5 large potatoes daily for a week is hardly something that could be accurately called a "potato diet". Maybe i should do a lean meat and potato diet where i consume 1.5g/kg protein and calorie restict and call it a "potato diet".

As far as casein being more useful, that may be true. However, there is some concern that higher casein relative to whey is unhealthy. I remember people saying the dr. campbell vegan guy from the china study book was manipulating his animal protein causes cancer theory by using isolated casein protein without the whey protein in his research. So keep that in mind if you are going to supplement with a lot of casein without the whey.

[Rosemary 231]

I think 6 weeks is a good separation. Plenty of time to build up any micronutrients you may have depleted. Some folks just started a new thread http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread72366.html you should check out.

Thanks, I'll have a look.