If you want another idea to experiment with, are you aware of Grant Genereux's belief that Vitamin A toxicity is one of the major causes of the diseases of civilization? He and some others have lost weight on a low-Vitamin-A diet (which he originally undertook to cure his eczema). He writes:
"When I first started on my vitamin A elimination diet one of the very unexpected side-effects was the effortless weight loss. My experience was not a one-off either. I had a (non-diseased) colleague report the same result. Even though we had vastly simplified our diets, it was still providing ample calories (3,000 or more) and all the required nutritional elements. Although n=2 in this study, for two men in their late fifties, to quickly drop around 30 pounds each, and without trying at all to do so, that result was quite intriguing. There was indeed something very unexpected going on here. It’s especially so considering that we’ve both effortlessly kept that weight off for three years now too."
There's a lot more on his website https://ggenereux.blog , including some free e-books describing his theories in detail, and a blog that's not unlike yours.
Yea, I'm quite aware and have talked to him about that.
The Grant "prison gruel" diet wouldn't be that different to my rice diet. I actually thought I was doing a low-vA diet, but then I found out tomato sauce has an insane amount of vA as well. Not as much as cream, but still I think I came out to about 6,000iU per day, which is VERY high by Grant's standards.
So I'd have to cut the sauce, possibly eat some beans (although he seems to be getting away from them?) and add a small bit of (lean) beef.
I actually wondered about this today; I'm not sure. Grant himself doesn't seem to use any sauce at all, he just eats his "prison gruel" with a little bit of water, sort of like a stew I suppose. Since both tomato- and cream-based sauces are out...
Maybe I could make due on the prison gruel diet for a month? The handful of times during my rice month that I ate only plain white rice it wasn't particularly bad.
I just wanted to wish you a good and healthy 2025, and I wanted to thank you for sharing your experiments and your thoughts through Substack. Your last post was brilliant, we have this black box and really, the mechanisms of weight setting are somewhat mysterious. Not that different as how LLMs operate (at least for me, ha).
Thanks to you I did an OmegaQuant with surprisingly good results, and I did loosen up on the carbs which made me gain a few pounds that I frankly needed to lift heavier. Things are back to stable now.
Lastly, when it comes to you, my guess is that you are in your metabolically healthy weight band, and as long as your blood tests are good (cholesterol, blood sugar, iron, etc) who cares about BMI or body fat %?
IMHO we need to move to a definition of wellness that concentrates on health outcomes and longevity. The rest is a scam of the health industry.
Thanks, and I wish you a good & healthy 2025 as well!
I do agree that we should focus on outcomes and possibly longevity, although longevity is hard to measure heh. Even markers like cholesterol don't particularly concern me. My glucose is, of course, in check on a very ketogenic diet. And even pretty decent when not :)
But I do think that one should be able to stay in a "normal" range of body fat or BMI without much effort; after all most of our ancestors did without dieting a day in their life. Of course it could be that I, having been somehow metabolically tainted (?), can never get back to that "effortless" zone. But I still hope so, and I probably will until I'm at <11% LA on an OQC and still fat haha. I suppose we don't really know if it's possible either way.
If you want another idea to experiment with, are you aware of Grant Genereux's belief that Vitamin A toxicity is one of the major causes of the diseases of civilization? He and some others have lost weight on a low-Vitamin-A diet (which he originally undertook to cure his eczema). He writes:
"When I first started on my vitamin A elimination diet one of the very unexpected side-effects was the effortless weight loss. My experience was not a one-off either. I had a (non-diseased) colleague report the same result. Even though we had vastly simplified our diets, it was still providing ample calories (3,000 or more) and all the required nutritional elements. Although n=2 in this study, for two men in their late fifties, to quickly drop around 30 pounds each, and without trying at all to do so, that result was quite intriguing. There was indeed something very unexpected going on here. It’s especially so considering that we’ve both effortlessly kept that weight off for three years now too."
There's a lot more on his website https://ggenereux.blog , including some free e-books describing his theories in detail, and a blog that's not unlike yours.
Yea, I'm quite aware and have talked to him about that.
The Grant "prison gruel" diet wouldn't be that different to my rice diet. I actually thought I was doing a low-vA diet, but then I found out tomato sauce has an insane amount of vA as well. Not as much as cream, but still I think I came out to about 6,000iU per day, which is VERY high by Grant's standards.
So I'd have to cut the sauce, possibly eat some beans (although he seems to be getting away from them?) and add a small bit of (lean) beef.
That does seem like it would be an interesting experiment. What would you use instead of your beloved tomato sauce for seasoning?
I actually wondered about this today; I'm not sure. Grant himself doesn't seem to use any sauce at all, he just eats his "prison gruel" with a little bit of water, sort of like a stew I suppose. Since both tomato- and cream-based sauces are out...
Maybe I could make due on the prison gruel diet for a month? The handful of times during my rice month that I ate only plain white rice it wasn't particularly bad.
Looking forward to seeing what you cook up in 2025 ~ !! Happy New year ~
Thanks, same to you!
Hi ExFat,
I just wanted to wish you a good and healthy 2025, and I wanted to thank you for sharing your experiments and your thoughts through Substack. Your last post was brilliant, we have this black box and really, the mechanisms of weight setting are somewhat mysterious. Not that different as how LLMs operate (at least for me, ha).
Thanks to you I did an OmegaQuant with surprisingly good results, and I did loosen up on the carbs which made me gain a few pounds that I frankly needed to lift heavier. Things are back to stable now.
Lastly, when it comes to you, my guess is that you are in your metabolically healthy weight band, and as long as your blood tests are good (cholesterol, blood sugar, iron, etc) who cares about BMI or body fat %?
IMHO we need to move to a definition of wellness that concentrates on health outcomes and longevity. The rest is a scam of the health industry.
Take care.
Thanks, and I wish you a good & healthy 2025 as well!
I do agree that we should focus on outcomes and possibly longevity, although longevity is hard to measure heh. Even markers like cholesterol don't particularly concern me. My glucose is, of course, in check on a very ketogenic diet. And even pretty decent when not :)
But I do think that one should be able to stay in a "normal" range of body fat or BMI without much effort; after all most of our ancestors did without dieting a day in their life. Of course it could be that I, having been somehow metabolically tainted (?), can never get back to that "effortless" zone. But I still hope so, and I probably will until I'm at <11% LA on an OQC and still fat haha. I suppose we don't really know if it's possible either way.
I actually am "dying to read about [your] weight all the time"!
Interesting to read as always. Thanks.