My experience: CICO vs. P90x vs. Whole30 vs. Keto vs. OMAD

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  • magnusthenerd
    magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
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    Hypsibius wrote: »
    Happy to say I've hit my target weight and I'm doing great! After realizing I was a solid 60-70+ pounds overweight, I tried a lot of different things the last few years to get back on track, with more yoyo-ing than I would like. But I've finally hit a balance the last year.

    Here's what I've discovered. For real weight loss, a mixture of low-carb and intermittent fasting is the best long-term solution.

    CICO + American Diet: Nobody is denying there is a basic scientific truth to CICO, but humans are not bomb calorimeters. The phrase "IIFYM" is mostly garbage (or was for me) and builds obsession around food/counting and guilt around food. You may lose weight, but if you're like me -- and you're forced into a sedentary lifestyle for months due to injury -- you'll just be hungry and tired all the time if there's too many carbs and processed foods in the diet.
    Why is there always a but in these sentences? Usually the but seems to be followed by something that negates the claim of not denying, or some form of misunderstanding.
  • boyoamsterdam
    boyoamsterdam Posts: 3 Member
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    The Zone.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    You found what works for you. Congrats!
    But what works for you would definitely not work for me.

    I find starchy carbs (potatoes, rice, pasta, oats) really filling. I find fatty foods like chicken thighs, avocados, cheese, and nuts are a double threat to me - they are very easy for me to overeat and when I get too much fat at once I feel heavy and sluggish. Low carb would be a disaster for me.

    I did 16:8 for awhile and it worked really well, but I started waking up really hungry, and after a couple of weeks I decided to listen to my body and went back to a more spread out eating schedule.

    I'm currently starting to slowly tweak my diet towards a Mediterranean/Blue Zones/MIND diet way of eating, based on what I've learned about myself over the years and my own research. Well, I mean one of those diets plus Oreos, ice cream, and Coke Zero :lol:

    You say you just wanted to relay your personal experience, but your OP doesn't sound like that at all, it sounds like you are suggesting what's best for everyone. Based on my years of reading hundreds of posters' personal experience here, it seems pretty clear to me that there is no one right macro balance, eating schedule, food restriction, exercise level etc for everyone. Each individual will have a different "best" way to get into a calorie deficit and then eat comfortably at the right calorie level for the rest of their lives.

    Edited to add: And as to the thread title, P90X, Whole30, Keto, and OMAD are also CICO.

    You've just explained my relationship to fatty foods - not especially filling and I feel kind of gross after eating a lot of them.

    I just learned about the MIND diet yesterday, in a book my mom just bought, 'THE END OF ALZHEIMERS", which says being in mild ketosis is the best way to treat and prevent Alzheimer's, while also referring to actual research showing that the MIND and Med diets, which are definitely NOT low carb, can be effective for Alzheimer's >.<

    I'll be starting a thread on Keto and Alzheimer's, probably tomorrow.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited March 2019
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    You found what works for you. Congrats!
    But what works for you would definitely not work for me.

    I find starchy carbs (potatoes, rice, pasta, oats) really filling. I find fatty foods like chicken thighs, avocados, cheese, and nuts are a double threat to me - they are very easy for me to overeat and when I get too much fat at once I feel heavy and sluggish. Low carb would be a disaster for me.

    I did 16:8 for awhile and it worked really well, but I started waking up really hungry, and after a couple of weeks I decided to listen to my body and went back to a more spread out eating schedule.

    I'm currently starting to slowly tweak my diet towards a Mediterranean/Blue Zones/MIND diet way of eating, based on what I've learned about myself over the years and my own research. Well, I mean one of those diets plus Oreos, ice cream, and Coke Zero :lol:

    You say you just wanted to relay your personal experience, but your OP doesn't sound like that at all, it sounds like you are suggesting what's best for everyone. Based on my years of reading hundreds of posters' personal experience here, it seems pretty clear to me that there is no one right macro balance, eating schedule, food restriction, exercise level etc for everyone. Each individual will have a different "best" way to get into a calorie deficit and then eat comfortably at the right calorie level for the rest of their lives.

    Edited to add: And as to the thread title, P90X, Whole30, Keto, and OMAD are also CICO.

    You've just explained my relationship to fatty foods - not especially filling and I feel kind of gross after eating a lot of them.

    I just learned about the MIND diet yesterday, in a book my mom just bought, 'THE END OF ALZHEIMERS", which says being in mild ketosis is the best way to treat and prevent Alzheimer's, while also referring to actual research showing that the MIND and Med diets, which are definitely NOT low carb, can be effective for Alzheimer's >.<

    I'll be starting a thread on Keto and Alzheimer's, probably tomorrow.

    Yeah, I actually have to strategize to get enough fat on many days. I'm trying to get better at incorporating fats into meals (especially olive oil and nuts) rather than snacking on cheese or nuts and probably overdoing it and making myself sick. The Med and MIND diets seem like "balanced macro" diets in my so far limited research, while I think DASH is a little lower fat.

    Its a shame a diet that sits right smack in the middle of the extremes isn't sexy enough for publication. There's a lot of bandwidth (and solid research) between the stereotypical SAD diet, the old-fashioned low fat diet, and keto. It's somewhere in there that I'm aiming for :lol:

    I guess your mom is still looking for the holy grail?
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,971 Member
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    I've gone through a few different eating patterns, but none of them super strict as that simply doesn't work for me.

    All weight loss still boils down to CICO.

    What makes it easier for me to stay in a calorie deficit may vary widely from what works best for someone else.

    My most consistent and appreciable weight loss happened with meal prep and an eye on macros (pretty balanced macros works best for me). Meal prep, however, didn't work great with my lifestyle.

    I had steady, but very slow, weight loss with my own variation of OMAD. This worked well with my lifestyle and natural eating patterns, but again, it still required keeping an eye on calories in order to lose. This did work great for at least maintaining as it was tough to overeat on this plan.

    Now, I'm using a meal delivery service to try to find the balance between "meal prep" and what works with my lifestyle. Thus far, pretty happy with it, and it's got me on track. I'm still keeping an eye on calories though.

    Just because these things work for me certainly does not mean they'd work for other people. And any weight loss STILL boils down to CICO and being in a deficit.

    For me, a restrictive diet simply doesn't work and I will never stick to it, probably not even for a week. My workouts and sport require that I fuel my body for what I'm doing, and that means some carbs (plus, there's satiety involved as well).

    Nothing wrong with purposefully trying different diets to see what works to keep YOU in a deficit, happy, and satisfied. As long as that is one's goal. Trying a bunch of fad diets thinking you'll find the magic bullet and magically lose weight, only to return to your old way of eating, isn't going to result in long term losses.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    You found what works for you. Congrats!
    But what works for you would definitely not work for me.

    I find starchy carbs (potatoes, rice, pasta, oats) really filling. I find fatty foods like chicken thighs, avocados, cheese, and nuts are a double threat to me - they are very easy for me to overeat and when I get too much fat at once I feel heavy and sluggish. Low carb would be a disaster for me.

    I did 16:8 for awhile and it worked really well, but I started waking up really hungry, and after a couple of weeks I decided to listen to my body and went back to a more spread out eating schedule.

    I'm currently starting to slowly tweak my diet towards a Mediterranean/Blue Zones/MIND diet way of eating, based on what I've learned about myself over the years and my own research. Well, I mean one of those diets plus Oreos, ice cream, and Coke Zero :lol:

    You say you just wanted to relay your personal experience, but your OP doesn't sound like that at all, it sounds like you are suggesting what's best for everyone. Based on my years of reading hundreds of posters' personal experience here, it seems pretty clear to me that there is no one right macro balance, eating schedule, food restriction, exercise level etc for everyone. Each individual will have a different "best" way to get into a calorie deficit and then eat comfortably at the right calorie level for the rest of their lives.

    Edited to add: And as to the thread title, P90X, Whole30, Keto, and OMAD are also CICO.

    You've just explained my relationship to fatty foods - not especially filling and I feel kind of gross after eating a lot of them.

    I just learned about the MIND diet yesterday, in a book my mom just bought, 'THE END OF ALZHEIMERS", which says being in mild ketosis is the best way to treat and prevent Alzheimer's, while also referring to actual research showing that the MIND and Med diets, which are definitely NOT low carb, can be effective for Alzheimer's >.<

    I'll be starting a thread on Keto and Alzheimer's, probably tomorrow.

    Yeah, I actually have to strategize to get enough fat on many days. I'm trying to get better at incorporating fats into meals (especially olive oil and nuts) rather than snacking on cheese or nuts and probably overdoing it and making myself sick. The Med and MIND diets seem like "balanced macro" diets in my so far limited research, while I think DASH is a little lower fat.

    Its a shame a diet that sits right smack in the middle of the extremes isn't sexy enough for publication. There's a lot of bandwidth (and solid research) between the stereotypical SAD diet, the old-fashioned low fat diet, and keto. It's somewhere in there that I'm aiming for :lol:

    I guess your mom is still looking for the holy grail?

    Regular DASH is lower fat, but they've experimented with higher fat versions (not high fat, but more balanced macros, so around 40%) and the results seem to be as good so long as there's still the focus on fiber and micros. When I was doing the DASH experiment in the thread I was doing higher fat DASH and liked it a lot (I'm plant-based for Lent so can't do the dairy element of DASH right now).

    I think the things that all these diets have in common are the important things, the rest is just personal preference.