I have been maintaining 150s lbs weight for the past 2 years on junk food diet. I think there may be some truth to this. If 99% of dieters fail and those same people are structured to eat healthy and fail, it makes you wonder.
The breakdown is mostly sourdough loafs and non-fat candy. Some chocolate. For protein sources, 400kcal/day lox . It's kinda pricey but more satiating than steak at half the calories. or Chilean sea bass also great. Liquid calories kept to minimum.
That doesn't sound like junk food to me, except the candy or chocolate heh.
Sounds like HCLFLP or MP? The lox would be about 60g protein per day, which is quite low compared to most modern people (but still higher than RDA @ 150lbs).
To my understanding dry fasting is supposed to be good for you independent of wight loss. Autophagy and whatnot. The only place I've seen it referred to for weight-loss is https://www.mostly-fat.com/2024/11/why-dry-fasting/. Don't remember if you've already mentioned it. The fascinating thing was that after the dry fast you should control for mass intake, not calories necessarily. Like only eat 500g of food for a couple of days and the eat ad libitum. Seems plausible, I'm planning to try it myself. Also the first and second day of dry fasting usually go pretty chill, I had very high fever on days 3 and 4. But no long term negativity effects. I had blood tests done, etc.
Thirst comes and goes, but when it's at its peak it's really hard to not go for a glass of water. Also 2 days is awesome! Most people alive will never even do intermittent fasting. It is no small feat. 🫡
It's called, "How My Trip to Quit Sugar Became a Journey Into Hell". The article itself isn't really that interesting (it doesn't really contain much science), but the author (Caity Weaver) claims to have a life-long habit of eating enormous amounts of sweets. I Googled for pictures of her, and she doesn't look overweight. And apparently her biomarkers are normal. Of course, it's possible that she's exaggerating her sugar intake.
My mom lived on a high sugar diet from her teens until the age of 70. She was 5’4, 120 and always had amazing energy. Unfortunately, a doctor scared her about her cholesterol, so she cut sugar, and now she is constantly sick, lost a lot of hair and struggles to keep her weight above 100 lbs. She has changed so much, people at church assumed she had cancer.
The doctor said her cholesterol was too high, like most of her relatives who have remarkable health and longevity. Since her diet was high in sugar he convinced her that she needed a “healthier” diet despite having a zero CAC score.
It's possible she is eating less than she thinks. People are terrible at tracking how much they are eating, either too much or too little. 2 bags of zero-fat candy may seem like a ton, but it's only 1200 kcal.
After my first meal on the honey diet, I think this might be true. Pure sugar/honey/fruit is surprisingly unpalatable. Yes, it's sweet, but in a sickening way.
I used to do one teaspoon before the gym, and that was pretty tasty. Not something I would just snack on though, and I really find honey on toast quite gross.
By the way, be very careful where you get your "honey" from. The vast majority of it is sugar water imported from China and repackaged somewhere along the way.
I like the Zambian "forest honey" we can get here, but it really does not taste the same as "honey".
The best way is to either start some hives as a hobby yourself (pretty fun), or know a beekeeper personally.
Ok maybe I got used to it, or maybe the first jar of honey I bought was just terrible. I have now tried 2 other types and they taste much better. One is raw organic from Trader Joe's, super flavorful. The other is just some generic "organic" clover honey and it's very sweet & palatable, but not sickeningly sweet.
I've found, with trying foods that are known to cause overeating again after a limited diet for a while, that I get pretty full/sick quickly with the "candy food" at first. It takes a while for the "overeating" to come back again with the food.
Yea usually this would happen within a few hours on high-protein refeeds to me. E.g. I could eat a 3-egg omelette with cheese or a bowl of yogurt w/ macadamias to break my "fat fast" and be very satiated, but the same meal 6-12h later would leave me ravenous.
This time, it didn't happen for the entire 3 days. Due to lower protein? Maybe I dropped enough LA to notice a difference? Not sure, but it sure felt very different.
I'm late to this one and you're knee-deep in honey diet which I don't think those guys approve of this, but, quick recommendation? Try making your own bread if you do a phase like this again. I started making a no-knead bread and it was so easy and fun and delicious I spent a month eating LOBAD with a tiny smattering of grass-fed butter or goat cheese and salt+no-salt and lost about 5 lbs.
Another thing I've thought about with your data over the last few months; just a reminder that weight is weight, and I'm not surprised to see in someone with a body similar to mine big persistent *weight* swings like you saw after you finished rice and changed into another eating pattern. IMO the trend is the most important thing and basically all of your experiments are keeping the general trend good - anything is better than where you were 2 years ago, right? I fully expect for large men like us with PUFA damage getting to 200 itself is a huge metabolic push and there is a LOT of change to be done fixing various stuff inside that will involve certain things getting heavier and others lighter. Curing obesity ≠ short-term weight loss
Yea, I suspect you're right. That's why I'm not particularly concerned about regaining a few pounds on e.g. the rice diet. It's all about the long-term PUFA depletion, baby :)
LOBAD, heh. I am actually generally quite lazy, and have never baked bread. But I just made marshmallows on the honey diet for the first time, so maybe I'll learn how to do it. Certainly seems difficult to get seed oil free bread these days at the store :(
The bread recipe I've been using is so braindead easy I forgot the measurements bc I marked them on instruments. Something like... 250-350g bread flour, 275ml water, teaspoon yeast, salt. Sometimes I sprinkle sugar in there. Rough stir with a wooden spoon, leave in a warm place until doubled. Dump into a dutch oven, bake at 375 for 45. Like 2 minutes of work per loaf across a few hours. And yes - the only way to get VERIFIABLY seed-oil free bread, bc this is far better than the stuff at our grocery, from the bakery, labeled "just flour yeast salt in the copy" but with random shit in the actual label.
I have been maintaining 150s lbs weight for the past 2 years on junk food diet. I think there may be some truth to this. If 99% of dieters fail and those same people are structured to eat healthy and fail, it makes you wonder.
Just candy or stuff like fried chicken or french fries/chips? Wondering about the PUFA obv
The breakdown is mostly sourdough loafs and non-fat candy. Some chocolate. For protein sources, 400kcal/day lox . It's kinda pricey but more satiating than steak at half the calories. or Chilean sea bass also great. Liquid calories kept to minimum.
That doesn't sound like junk food to me, except the candy or chocolate heh.
Sounds like HCLFLP or MP? The lox would be about 60g protein per day, which is quite low compared to most modern people (but still higher than RDA @ 150lbs).
To my understanding dry fasting is supposed to be good for you independent of wight loss. Autophagy and whatnot. The only place I've seen it referred to for weight-loss is https://www.mostly-fat.com/2024/11/why-dry-fasting/. Don't remember if you've already mentioned it. The fascinating thing was that after the dry fast you should control for mass intake, not calories necessarily. Like only eat 500g of food for a couple of days and the eat ad libitum. Seems plausible, I'm planning to try it myself. Also the first and second day of dry fasting usually go pretty chill, I had very high fever on days 3 and 4. But no long term negativity effects. I had blood tests done, etc.
Yea, Amber's post was one of the ones that inspired me.
Can confirm, day 2 and it's easy so far. I'm surprised actually.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. Dry fasting gets villainized but unless you do it every week or something it should be fine.
lol broke the dry fast after 48h, end of day 2. I got intrusive thoughts of drinking tap water lol.
Thirst comes and goes, but when it's at its peak it's really hard to not go for a glass of water. Also 2 days is awesome! Most people alive will never even do intermittent fasting. It is no small feat. 🫡
Thanks :)
Did you see this article in the New York Times Magazine? https://archive.ph/16E77
It's called, "How My Trip to Quit Sugar Became a Journey Into Hell". The article itself isn't really that interesting (it doesn't really contain much science), but the author (Caity Weaver) claims to have a life-long habit of eating enormous amounts of sweets. I Googled for pictures of her, and she doesn't look overweight. And apparently her biomarkers are normal. Of course, it's possible that she's exaggerating her sugar intake.
Will check it out, thanks!
My mom lived on a high sugar diet from her teens until the age of 70. She was 5’4, 120 and always had amazing energy. Unfortunately, a doctor scared her about her cholesterol, so she cut sugar, and now she is constantly sick, lost a lot of hair and struggles to keep her weight above 100 lbs. She has changed so much, people at church assumed she had cancer.
Cut sugar to lower cholesterol?? Or was it too low?
The doctor said her cholesterol was too high, like most of her relatives who have remarkable health and longevity. Since her diet was high in sugar he convinced her that she needed a “healthier” diet despite having a zero CAC score.
1. As a keto guy I don't love that, if her CAC is 0 at 70, c'mon when's it gonna start?
2. How does sugar increase cholesterol?! Shouldn't he be after animal fats?
Re: 2, yes, I’ve pointed that out to her. I think her doctor was grasping at straws and looking for something to blame.
It's possible she is eating less than she thinks. People are terrible at tracking how much they are eating, either too much or too little. 2 bags of zero-fat candy may seem like a ton, but it's only 1200 kcal.
After my first meal on the honey diet, I think this might be true. Pure sugar/honey/fruit is surprisingly unpalatable. Yes, it's sweet, but in a sickening way.
I used to do one teaspoon before the gym, and that was pretty tasty. Not something I would just snack on though, and I really find honey on toast quite gross.
By the way, be very careful where you get your "honey" from. The vast majority of it is sugar water imported from China and repackaged somewhere along the way.
I like the Zambian "forest honey" we can get here, but it really does not taste the same as "honey".
The best way is to either start some hives as a hobby yourself (pretty fun), or know a beekeeper personally.
Ok maybe I got used to it, or maybe the first jar of honey I bought was just terrible. I have now tried 2 other types and they taste much better. One is raw organic from Trader Joe's, super flavorful. The other is just some generic "organic" clover honey and it's very sweet & palatable, but not sickeningly sweet.
I've found, with trying foods that are known to cause overeating again after a limited diet for a while, that I get pretty full/sick quickly with the "candy food" at first. It takes a while for the "overeating" to come back again with the food.
Yea usually this would happen within a few hours on high-protein refeeds to me. E.g. I could eat a 3-egg omelette with cheese or a bowl of yogurt w/ macadamias to break my "fat fast" and be very satiated, but the same meal 6-12h later would leave me ravenous.
This time, it didn't happen for the entire 3 days. Due to lower protein? Maybe I dropped enough LA to notice a difference? Not sure, but it sure felt very different.
I'm late to this one and you're knee-deep in honey diet which I don't think those guys approve of this, but, quick recommendation? Try making your own bread if you do a phase like this again. I started making a no-knead bread and it was so easy and fun and delicious I spent a month eating LOBAD with a tiny smattering of grass-fed butter or goat cheese and salt+no-salt and lost about 5 lbs.
Another thing I've thought about with your data over the last few months; just a reminder that weight is weight, and I'm not surprised to see in someone with a body similar to mine big persistent *weight* swings like you saw after you finished rice and changed into another eating pattern. IMO the trend is the most important thing and basically all of your experiments are keeping the general trend good - anything is better than where you were 2 years ago, right? I fully expect for large men like us with PUFA damage getting to 200 itself is a huge metabolic push and there is a LOT of change to be done fixing various stuff inside that will involve certain things getting heavier and others lighter. Curing obesity ≠ short-term weight loss
Yea, I suspect you're right. That's why I'm not particularly concerned about regaining a few pounds on e.g. the rice diet. It's all about the long-term PUFA depletion, baby :)
LOBAD, heh. I am actually generally quite lazy, and have never baked bread. But I just made marshmallows on the honey diet for the first time, so maybe I'll learn how to do it. Certainly seems difficult to get seed oil free bread these days at the store :(
Eeeeexactly.
The bread recipe I've been using is so braindead easy I forgot the measurements bc I marked them on instruments. Something like... 250-350g bread flour, 275ml water, teaspoon yeast, salt. Sometimes I sprinkle sugar in there. Rough stir with a wooden spoon, leave in a warm place until doubled. Dump into a dutch oven, bake at 375 for 45. Like 2 minutes of work per loaf across a few hours. And yes - the only way to get VERIFIABLY seed-oil free bread, bc this is far better than the stuff at our grocery, from the bakery, labeled "just flour yeast salt in the copy" but with random shit in the actual label.
Do you use fortified flour?
I use King Arthur All-Purpose and/or Bread Flours.
Just what seemed the most sensible from what's available in my market - I did not do much research into particular flours.
Thank you for the article and all the infos! I'm pretty excited about your dry fast and honey diet experience.