Using carbohydrates as only calorie source

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  • Traveler120
    Traveler120 Posts: 712 Member
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    Google -Andrew Taylor Potato Diet- the Australian who's been eating potatoes only since January this year and has gone from 333 lbs to 250 lbs, down 83 lbs in 5 months! He's been getting routine blood tests and his doctor is very pleased with his results and tells him to keep going. His Youtube channel is 'spudfit' and he's been featured on several tv shows.

    Potatoes are about 93% carbs. He eats any types of potatoes and doesn't add any oil but does add spices. He's exercising, which means he would be retaining muscle. He also did a DEXA scan recently and said he would get another after a few months to show the difference in muscle vs fat loss. I think he's doing very well and busting the myths surrounding carbs.
  • carrieloveshk
    carrieloveshk Posts: 128 Member
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    Carbs should make up most of your diet but not ALL of your diet.
  • PearBlossom9
    PearBlossom9 Posts: 136 Member
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    Carbs should make up most of your diet but not ALL of your diet.

    Says who?
  • bpetrosky
    bpetrosky Posts: 3,911 Member
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    Kwashiorkor is a symptom of a diet deficient in protein.

    A diet deficient in fats can lead to a number of vitamin deficiencies due to some vitamins needing fats for absorption.

    Doing such a diet for more than a brief time would be foolhardy.
  • sashayoung72
    sashayoung72 Posts: 441 Member
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    Google -Andrew Taylor Potato Diet- the Australian who's been eating potatoes only since January this year and has gone from 333 lbs to 250 lbs, down 83 lbs in 5 months! He's been getting routine blood tests and his doctor is very pleased with his results and tells him to keep going. His Youtube channel is 'spudfit' and he's been featured on several tv shows.

    Potatoes are about 93% carbs. He eats any types of potatoes and doesn't add any oil but does add spices. He's exercising, which means he would be retaining muscle. He also did a DEXA scan recently and said he would get another after a few months to show the difference in muscle vs fat loss. I think he's doing very well and busting the myths surrounding carbs.

    Did he read the martian or something, how horrible of a bland diet.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    RodaRose wrote: »
    The body requires protein and fat.
    It does not need carbs.

    It absolutely needs all three to live.

    However, it's capable of making all essential carbohydrates from either fat or protein, if dietary carbohydrates are not available. It can make many but not all types of fats, nor can it make all types of amino acids (and even those that it can make require a surplus of another type of amino acid, since it has to get the nitrogen from other amino acids).
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Google -Andrew Taylor Potato Diet- the Australian who's been eating potatoes only since January this year and has gone from 333 lbs to 250 lbs, down 83 lbs in 5 months! .

    The famous Scotsman lost a bit faster eating nothing so I'm guessing this potato guy isn't eating much.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited June 2016
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    so i looked up a list of the highest carb foods and it looks like most peoples BEFORE lol https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/foods-highest-in-carbohydrates.php

    What does this mean?

    Also, there's nothing wrong with eating a high carb food (by percentage or whatever). For example, the vast majority of calories from a banana are from carbs. A tsp of sugar is pure carbs, but adding it to oatmeal or a cup of coffee (although I wouldn't, for taste reasons) isn't harmful at all. The issue is having a balanced diet and not leaving out sources of protein and essential fats.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited June 2016
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    And yeah, if you did it for any length of time you'd get sick and die. But it would be pretty much impossible to do without doing it on purpose (and challenging even then), and no one could possibly think doing it was healthful, so it's kind of a silly question.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    so i looked up a list of the highest carb foods and it looks like most peoples BEFORE lol https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/foods-highest-in-carbohydrates.php

    It pretty much does.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    rankinsect wrote: »
    RodaRose wrote: »
    The body requires protein and fat.
    It does not need carbs.

    It absolutely needs all three to live.

    However, it's capable of making all essential carbohydrates from either fat or protein, if dietary carbohydrates are not available. It can make many but not all types of fats, nor can it make all types of amino acids (and even those that it can make require a surplus of another type of amino acid, since it has to get the nitrogen from other amino acids).

    Exactly. It's not just essential for our bodies, it is SO essential that our body creates it when unavailable through diet.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    You'd die.
    yarwell wrote: »
    Also, what are the side affects with a diet like this?

    Death.

    ^^^ The above.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited June 2016
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    so i looked up a list of the highest carb foods and it looks like most peoples BEFORE lol https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/foods-highest-in-carbohydrates.php

    It pretty much does.

    Is the claim supposed to be that that list was what most people ate before MFP? Because I have to strenuously disagree. I certainly never ate most of those foods (fat free chips, blech) and not insane amounts of the ones I ate.

    There seems to be this weird myth that everyone got fat eating mostly carbs, but that's not so. The SAD, pathetic as it is, is not super high carb and typically the macro percentages aren't a big problem (I think protein could often be higher, especially for many women, but others will argue that Americans eat more protein than most and more than necessary). The issue is choices within the macros. Personally, fat has always been more of a weakness for me than carbs, so I doubt my relative percentage of the two has changed (eat more of some kinds of carbs, like fruit, now), and I suspect I was eating about 45% or 50% carbs at most before improving my diet (I did increase protein some, although in ways I am not 100% satisfied with).
  • AnthonyX150X
    AnthonyX150X Posts: 293 Member
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    So I guess it's safe to assume that even at maintenance calories we still couldn't survive on 100% carbs because fat and protein is essential to our body?
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    So I guess it's safe to assume that even at maintenance calories we still couldn't survive on 100% carbs because fat and protein is essential to our body?

    100% accurate. I am going with a miserable death!
  • Michael190lbs
    Michael190lbs Posts: 1,510 Member
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    You can live without Carbs you can't live without fat and protein. When I say "live" I'm not saying it would be a thriving life but technically protein and fat calories will be converted glycogen for later use as energy so possible. Not something I would want to do..

    I'm standing by my original statement however Carbs make you thrive so why would anyone want to not eat them. When I go low carb (50 grams) my muscles look and feel flat then when I carb back upI look like a totally different person in like 24 hours.. I agree we need all three to be superman:):
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    So I guess it's safe to assume that even at maintenance calories we still couldn't survive on 100% carbs because fat and protein is essential to our body?
    :)
    What is your real question?
    Are you concerned about something?


  • AnthonyX150X
    AnthonyX150X Posts: 293 Member
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    RodaRose wrote: »
    So I guess it's safe to assume that even at maintenance calories we still couldn't survive on 100% carbs because fat and protein is essential to our body?
    :)
    What is your real question?
    Are you concerned about something?


    I was just wondering if anyone can thrive on only eating carbohydrates and the impacts it would have on health.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Is that what you have been eating lately? Bread and rice and fruit?
  • AnthonyX150X
    AnthonyX150X Posts: 293 Member
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    Well, I noticed most of my intake comes from carbs and I am usually low in fat or protein.