I wanted to make a short post to let you guys know how my diet is going. The big news is that I now weigh 175 and 14 months ago I weighed 330. The next biggest news is that for several weeks I have been eating lots of carb rich foods. I am not talking about processed crap and candy bars and soda's though.

I am basically moving toward a whole foods plant based diet with no oils or other kinds of fats when eating carbs. I am eating potatoes,beans,more fruit, whole grain rice,and oats,and lots of big salads with every kind of vegetable. I have only ate meat 2 days out of the last 20.

This whole journey has been to learn what is the best diet for a human. There is a lot of info to take in and seemingly contradictory info about carbs,fats,and weight loss but the best we can do is get all the info possible and try to glean the truth from it all.

I had started having days on low carb of very little energy when I tried the whole foods carbs. As always I weigh myself every day and have still been losing weight but with twice the energy level as before.

Anybody dieting should at least look into all the info possible and do some research on whole food diets.

Congratulations! I weighed in yesterday. I've lost 20 pounds so far.👍

Congrats, that’s an accomplishment!!! I’ve been lucky. Weigh 190, about ten lbs more than I did when I got of high school

down 17lbs.

Interesting.

I've always been an athlete and still train hard. Carbs have always been a big part of my diet except when i would need to cut weight for a fight....and then they were limited for only a relatively short period of time. I'm not a big believer in the idea of "this is the only way a healthy human should eat" diet fad. I do believe there are some basic rules but when conditions of the body change, the demands on a body change, and/or the needs of the body change, the way a person eats to take care of those conditions/demands/needs may change.

Congrats and I hope you continue to have success!

That sounds like a very sensible approach. I've always said that the best diet will obviously contain the best quality,most nutrient dense foods possible while cutting out anything that is doing harm to us. That should be obvious to anyone,but learning what our body needs and doesn't can be quite controversial.

I don't know that even one particular diet would be best for anybody,but as you say,I do think some things should be obviously bad to anyone, like processed foods and processed sugars.

What I am doing right now is carbs with no fats. I won't eat oils or even lean meats right now with my carbs. It is sort of an experiment,as has been this whole diet for the last 14 months. I don't necessarily think meat is bad but I do think some of the things we put in our meat and the way we treat it makes it unhealthy,and that most of us would do much better to eat less meat and better quality wild meat whenever possible.

When I eat meats though,I am not eating any carb rich foods even on the same day. I'm not saying this is necessary,just what I am doing now based on what I am learning.

Inspiring. Keep the info coming.




We cheated last night with chocolate cake and ice cream... Not recommended, but, damn it was fun!

Congratulations on taking control of your life. You are an inspiration to others, and that's probably the definition of a life well-lived.

Good going. After my knee and hip replacement in 2018, I had swollen ankles and knee. I finally got off my back and went on a KETO diet, lost 10 pounds, significantly reduced swelling and gained energy and thought clarity. I have fallen off the KETO diet, but I am exercising enough to keep me going in a good way.

Keep up the good work.

I'm not sure if one year of right living makes up for 20 years of not living right,but there's no choice but to start wherever you find yourself. People tell me all the time how proud I should be for what I have accomplished with my diet and health plan in such a short time,but I am just as ashamed that I let myself go for so long. It does give me a lot more compassion though for overweight people because I know just how easy it creeps up on you and takes over your life.

My hat is off to you, I need to get rid of some fat belly.

You're making it way too complicated. You need oils, fats and animal protein in your diet. Vegan diets can be very dangerous unless you don't know exactly what you're doing. Eat what you like to eat but if you want to keep the weight off and avoid sugar (even in fruit/alcohol), white rice. white potatoes and anything with white flour in it as much as possible. Also be physically active as much as possible.

Not complicated at all. I do get animal protein,healthy oils,and healthy fats in my diet. I just won't load a potato up with butter,cheese,sour cream and bacon and eat it.

While I do appreciate the concern and potential advice,I would like to know the knowledge base and experience you base that advice on. I don't discount any advice but I do get all kinds of advice from folks that think they know what is right but with no evidence in their life that they are doing it.

I can't begin to tell you how many over weight unhealthy people have taken time to caution me on my improper diet.

First, congratulations, not many people can do what you did.

I am curious about the basis for not eating fats or meat at the same time you eat carbs, as you say above. I've always read and heard that it's good to eat protein with high glycemic carbs (like potatoes) to modulate the blood sugar spike and resulting insulin dump that can result from eating carbs alone.

Just curious about what yiour experiment is based on?

I read that vegetarians live 2-3 years longer than meat eaters.

Yes, those really good last two years.....

"I just won't load a potato up with butter,cheese,sour cream and bacon and eat it."

Everything you're not eating is what's good for you.

Smoke pole
I can't even remember the particular source but I have seen some that seem to indicate that when fats and carbs are consumed at the same time ,then fats will be stored because the body will use the carbs as the primary fuel. Some other studies indicate that it is extremely hard to gain weight on high carb diets which do not contain fats. The changing of a carb into a stored fat is over 30% less efficient than storing a fat as a fat. Fats eaten can even be tracked with markers and traced in the body to storage points. Fat composition can even be analyzed to see what kinds of fats you have been eating,whether mostly processed oils or dairy fats,or animal fats.

Since I am still losing body fat I decided to experiment a little and for about a month have had very little fat in my diet but lots of high carb whole foods in my diet. I eat a lot of beans,and oats,some potatoes,lots of huge salads, lots of fruit and berries,some nuts and dried fruits.some yogurt.


Some of those vegan diets and carnivore diets and all that go just plain nuts. What I am trying to do is to look into healthy diets of populations all around the world,analyze their health and life span and incorporate as much of their diet as I can into mine. There is a lot of opposing ideas and studies. I do however think that when we look at the statistical data which holds the longest record as being sustainable and healthy we can see a huge change at the historical point where humans started to chemically change foods to preserve them,and especially with today's science and chemical knowledge,anyone should see that it would be best to avoid all processed foods.

Maybe,maybe not. I thought so a while ago but have changed my opinion after a lot more study and thought. I could show you a mountain of data to prove how bad some of those things and the processed chemicals in some of those things are for you. You could show me a bunch of stuff showing how good it is for you. I've read both. I tend to think that the preponderance of the evidence weighs heavily toward one side,the side I am attempting to follow.

I ate a plain salt only potato last night loaded up with plain salt only pinto beans with a half chopped red onion and some home made salsa.

Thanks R H, that makes sense, especially that last part. And to be clear, the advice I've seen from nutritionists was to eat protein, not fat with carbs to modulate blood sugar response. Apparently, the protein slows digestion of the carbs.

I wouldn't doubt that. I'm doing about the same thing eating lots of fiber with the carbs. I'm just in the extreme to experiment with as little fat in my diet as possible.I'm trying to see if my body will use it's own fat stores even when I am intentionally over eating carbs. I am also increasing my physical activity levels with longer bike rides and I have more energy over all. So far it seems to be working. I am getting leaner and more vascular after just one month and I can see an increase in strength,loss of weight,but particularly an increase in stamina and recovery.

Just to clarify,when I say carbs,I mean only whole food,plant based carbs.

Cant remember your other posts are you incorporating fasting into your lifestyle change?

Yes sir,.and that in itself can be very beneficial even without a change in diet or exercise. I've tried to use every tool available to get healthy. I fast 16 hours a day about 90% of the time. If I am having a particularly high physical activity day,and feel like I need to eat before then,I will.but it isn't often at all. I sometimes fast around 20 hours a day but rarely over 24. I worked up to it and eat if I feel like I need to. My whole approach is to try to eat in such a way that I feel good and get healthy,not necessarily in such a way as to lose weight as fast as possible.

I figured you had but couldn't remember. I been slowly incorporating fasting into my week over the last several months. Twice maybe three times a week Ill go 16-20 hours at a shot. Havent lost that much weight but have found I have more energy and lost several inches in the waist and other areas.. Down two pant sizes.

I have lost 47 lbs in 6 1/2 months on Keto , every thing you need to know is at Diet Dr .com . Easiest thing I have ever done , and this was while on prednisone ( steroid ) for a kidney disease. I feel great .

Great to hear. I've never been on anything specific except low carbs in the beginning. I likely was in ketosis during the majority of my weight loss. So far I feel a little better in general eating whole food carbs but I am glad for anything that is working for anyone. I would only caution to keep the goal feeling good and being healthy more than trying to lose weight. Weight loss should be the symptom of a healthy diet,not the goal of any stupid fad that comes along. you can lose weight on nothing but Twinkies if you eat fewer calories,but you sure as hell won't get healthy on a Twinkies only diet.

Doing good RH. I seem to be stuck at -75 right now. Got to get a better grip on things. Had a rough summer with not much movement. Need my other hip replaced. Doing what I can do. My diet is a lot like yours has been except I eat more meat. Isn’t being surrounded by experts great? Those that can’t do teach. I want at least another 25 off.

You would so help many of us out by being more defined about the foods you eat and those you don't, you say "Lots of fiber with the carbs" what exactly are you eating, you also mention "bean" there are dozens of choices of "beans" , I don't care to get a degree in this eating, I would just like to simply drop a few pounds and you seem to have found the keys, please be more exact about what you are eating, thanks for all of your help in this.

I found that a low carb diet works well for me, the most dramatic weight/fat loss occurred when when I went from 2 drinks/beers a day to that much per week. We eats lots of fish, green veg, avocados and lean meats. Daily vigorous exercise builds endurance, energy and for me is a huge motivator. Cheat days are OK and become a real treat.


mike r

Congrats, that is a tremendous improvement.



Your insulin response is probably more nearly where it should be now, which is a good thing.

Right now I don't eat bread in any form but mostly because it would be hard for me to get a good healthy bread. I don't eat anything processed except that I drink almond milk. I have quit dairy but it might not be forever. I am not eating much meat at all. I've ate beef and pork on 2 days out of about 20 and no meat otherwise.

I eat all kinds of vegetables as close to raw as possible including all kinds of beans. I've been eating a lot of oats lately and have had 3 bowels of oatmeal today so far with banana, blueberries, blackberries, cinnamon,and some dates to sweeten it. I'll likely have some Kale salad with broccoli and cauliflower,and whatever other vegetables I can find. Later I might have a potato with some beans and salsa, no added oils or dairy or meat fats in any of it, except for a small amount of olive oil dressing in the salad and even that is more like a spoonful now as compared to a quarter cup when I started eating salads.


All this diet of mine has been an experiment to see what foods would help heal my body and make me feel better as well as lose weight. I just wanted to share my recent carb eating with some who may be doing low carbs because I did low carbs for the majority of my weight loss. I've only been doing whole food carbs about a month but this is the best month I've had in about the previous 6-8 as far as feeling good and having plenty of energy, So far today I've hung some sheet rock and rode my bike 15 miles. Just stopped for another bowel of oats and back to rock hanging.

Just wanted to add that I'm 51 now and weighed over 330 at age 50. I am lighter,faster,and stronger,than I was when I played high school football. I could barely walk last year and was on pain pills and injections as well as blood pressure meds. I don't use any meds now and my blood pressure is perfect. Knee pain and back pain 99% gone.

Well done. I am down sugarless and carbless 35 pounds in 5 months. My wife running the same and we are both feeling better than ever.

I've rediscovered ice cream sandwiches but I'm down to 3% cottage cheese.

I'm down 53 pounds in 4 1/2 months and seem to be stuck there for a few weeks. Did it with minimal exercise due to a slow healing foot injury.
Would like to lose about 20 more.
Thanks for the update RHC, you've been a good inspiration for me.

Big congrats to everyone losing weight!! I remember posting here,and how excited I was when I weighed 330 and had just lost my first 20 lbs.Like any long journey,it takes a while but you are on the trip the moment you step out the door.

I think my low fat eating from the start helped me now that I know more of the science behind weight loss. I studied the keto diet but never ate nearly as much fat as they recommend. I lost the majority of my weight on low fat meats and green vegetables of every type.

This new high carb low fat diet has been doing good for me for about a month,but if I start to gain weight I'll vary it up. I am sort of in the middle as to what I think is healthy. I don't know that any extreme is healthy and it seems to me that the healthiest diet would be the most varied diet of healthy foods. Learning what is healthy and what is not is the catch,but we just have to use good sense and monitor ourselves to see how our diet is effecting us. I basically fell asleep at the switch for about 20 years and didn't see how my diet was effecting me all those years that I was gaining weight and getting sicker and sicker.I just accepted it as normal,and it is normal if you eat a standard American diet.

The only animal products that do NOT have a longevity penalty are eggs and fish. (Frequent) red meat has the highest penalty, due to the by products created by our digestive process.

I eat lots of eggs, lots of fish, and a fair amount of other animal protein. Life's too short to live without a good variety of beef, deer, elk and pork....

I mean, give up bacon for a few weeks more life? Get real......

What we can say, is that what works for one, may not work for another. Keep the nose to the grindstone kiddos.

When we start looking at disease prevention and the actual diets of some of those studies we can get a different picture than just a few weeks difference. Some of the vegan diets may not be healthy at all. I could eat nothing but Twinkies and Oreo's and be on a vegan diet. What we need to look at are how much lower risks of certain disease is just by a diet change. Look at that info and the lifespans and diets of the longest lived peoples on earth historically. You can see exactly when the processed food and more Americanized diets entered in the culture and the health problems associated with those things.

"I eat all kinds of vegetables as close to raw as possible including all kinds of beans."

You must spend a lot of time passing gas and sitting on the crapper.

Actually not nearly as much as before. When you eat those things often you build gut bacteria to digest them and don't get the gas. With all the fiber a bowel movement takes all of 30 seconds..

Intermittent Fasting
Apple Cider Vinegar daily
High Starch Diet - Dr. McDougall (you tube)

I've seen his stuff along with a dozen others with varying opinions and plans. I haven't followed any specific diet except what seemed right to me based on EVERYTHING I can learn about diet and nutrition. Do you know anything bad or good about McDougall?