Eat to live

Dalton1720

After reading many success stories and Joel Fuhrmans book, "Eat To Live" I decided to give it a try. Its a plant based vegan diet that allows you to eat as much as you want, but only with the following foods for 6 weeks:


UNLIMITED
eat as much as you want
all raw vegetables, including raw carrots (goal: 1 lb. daily) cooked green vegetables (goal 1 lb. daily)
beans, legumes, bean sprouts, and tofu (1 cup daily) fresh fruit (at least 4 daily)

LIMITED
not more than one serving (1 cup) per day
cooked starchy vegetables or whole grains
(butternut or acorn squash, corn, potatoes, rice, cooked carrots, sweet
potatoes, breads, cereals)
raw nuts and seeds (1 oz. max. per day) avocado (2 oz. max. per day)
ground flaxseed (1 tablespoon per day)

OFF-LIMITS
dairy products
animal products
between-meal snacks
fruit juice, dried fruit

After the 6 weeks you can go by the 90% rule. So basically its a complete lifestyle change.
I'm excited about this, but it does seem very drastic. Fortunately people claim they have learned to enjoy this style of eating and wouldn't go back, even after the 6 weeks is up, which seems fantastic! I don't eat to much meat anyhow, but eggs in the morning I will certainly miss.

So any thoughts on this diet? I can't seem to find to many forums about the subject so Im hoping to get more insight from the MFP community.
Thanks in advance for your input!

MelsAuntie

My thoughts?...., personally I would never do this. I can't think of anything that would induce me to go vegan, or give up red meat, pork, chicken, rare lamb, cheese, yogurt......and I'd rather eat cooked vegetables than raw. So no. Too restrictive by far.

aarar

Too drastic for me personally. I wouldn't put myself through that knowing I can lose just as much weight eating whatever i want as long as I stick to a calorie deficit. I literally eat all day long and just love my Greek yogurt and scrambled eggs way too much.

kuronekoh

I found a vegan diet very easy to stick to, especially if you have a reason! Give it a go for a few weeks and if you like it do the whole thing but don't worry about falling off the wagon.

Dalton1720

That was my concern too. It seems way to restrictive for the world we live in plus my whole life would revolve around food. The only reason I am even contemplating doing this are the amazing success stories! Almost everyone has lost at least 5 pounds the first week and continued without any plateaus and kept it off years later, not wanting to return to old habits. I mean it makes sense. Once your body is filled with nutritionally dense foods you lose your taste for anything else. Still, right now that seems hard to imagine.

AlabasterVerve

Live to eat is a much better philosophy! Find foods that you truly enjoy -- and feel good about eating -- and make that the basis of your diet. Any diet made up primarily of whole foods that are minimally processed is healthy and good for you. There's no need to follow such a stringent diet for health or weight loss.

Vigilance88

The only reason I am even contemplating doing this are the amazing success stories!

What about all the people on this forum who are losing succesfully without such restrictions?

knra_grl

Vegan is a lifestyle - if you haven't tried to maintain a vegan diet it will be very difficult. I would suggest reading more on it and understand why people are vegan (it's not just the diet).

Personally (sorry to the vegans out there) I like to eat all foods.

bigfatguy3

you forgot to include all of the success stories that were a result of this diet that included freedom from high blood pressure,heart disease, high cholesterol,sugar diabetes,cancer and many other medical conditions.

Vigilance88

Yeah I'm sure the 1% of the world population that are vegan are the most healthy people in the universe.
Because people who eat what they like can't possible have a healthy life.
/sarcasm off

Dalton1720

To be honest I skipped some parts of the book addressing health concerns because at this point in my life (19 years old) I don't have any medical conditions and already eat fairly well since Ive started to lose weight anyhow, although for people who do suffer from those illnesses it is definitely a great rout to go!
People have success using the calorie defect, including myself! But my interest was how effective it was. Some were losing up to 30 pounds in 6 weeks by eating the right foods! Not just some crash diets and protein shakes which is something I was hoping to adapt too.
However, after doing more research and advice from a fellow MFP member, I decided I am not going to stick to such a strict plan, but instead incorperate some of the lessons it taught, like having fruit and vegetables for the majority of your meal. I still love eggs, cottage cheese, turkey, dark chocolate, and greek yogurt so why give it up when I don't need too.
I would say this method is best for someone who has been yo-yo dieting for a long period of time, someone who has medical problems that can be cured/lessened with a plant based diet, or someone who is a lot more health conscious and determined than I am.

Snow3y

I'd rather eat whatever I want and still lose weight from being in a caloric deficit

Josalinn

That was my concern too. It seems way to restrictive for the world we live in plus my whole life would revolve around food. The only reason I am even contemplating doing this are the amazing success stories! Almost everyone has lost at least 5 pounds the first week and continued without any plateaus and kept it off years later, not wanting to return to old habits. I mean it makes sense. Once your body is filled with nutritionally dense foods you lose your taste for anything else. Still, right now that seems hard to imagine.

Honestly the reason these people "lose" so much weight so quickly is probably because of all the fiber cleaning them out. Fruits and veggies are definitely nutrient dense, they are also very filling, so the people on this diet are not eating a lot of calories, and are therefore probably at deficit.

I tried something like this once, and it was an awful experience.

Also this will be very expensive.

flawwd

The main trouble with "success stories" on any new diet is that you don't know what the total numbers are because as far as I know, there aren't any studies done and published yet. That's usually how new diets are advertised and promoted. It's anecdotal evidence... not really evidence at all actually! If you think it will help you get started than it's worth a try, but if you find yourself "falling off the wagon" then I'd still go back to the usual MFP format... ins and outs! You can still eat healthily with everything in moderation, and enough treats to keep you from having cravings!

Anniebotnen

My boss and her husband made the change based on the book about 3 years ago, mostly for health reasons. I've never met the husband, but my boss lost a significant amount of weight very quickly and her hypoglycemia went away. The are still eating this way, she has maintained her weightloss and it seems sustainable for them. I couldn't do it...

MilaVidaLoca

I recently transition to being Vegan. Half of my family is vegetarian, so the change was simple to me. It takes certain people to be vegan. I personally don’t miss meat, cheese, or dairy, but whenever I do want some milk or whatever there are alternatives and vegan replacements. Ever since I became vegan I feel better and I can see the changes in my body as to losing weight. I use to have a huge sweet tooth now I don’t. I love my vegan diet because I know that 90% of the time I’m eating healthy.

establishingaplace

If you really want to go vegan, I would suggest you gradually transition, and do your homework and learn what you will need to eat in order to get adequate nutrition. It's also not for everyone; some thrive on it, and others do poorly on it.

If your sole goal is to lose weight, you can do it many other ways.

mockchoc

I bought the book, read it and threw it in the bin. Life would be horrible having to live like that.

_HeartsOnFire_

If you really want to go vegan, I would suggest you gradually transition, and do your homework and learn what you will need to eat in order to get adequate nutrition. It's also not for everyone; some thrive on it, and others do poorly on it.

If your sole goal is to lose weight, you can do it many other ways.

This.

Make sure you are getting all the nutrients you need - including iron, calcium, protein, just to name a couple. I've known some people to go vegan and it didn't go so well at first until they learned how to get all their nutrients.

I'm vegetarian and sometimes struggle with this. I definitely don't get all the calcium I need so I have to take a pill.

Good luck!

amusedmonkey

While I don't care much for meat and only eat it occasionally, there is no way I would go without dairy. Will it work for weight loss? Well, yeah.. being restricted to vegetables which are usually pretty low in calories for the volume will help you achieve that.

I've read his book, and I like his view that we should consume nutrient dense foods and that having a smaller waist is healthy (common knowledge in my opinion) - but some of his other views like "you are fat not because you eat too much, but because you eat processed and poor quality food" or "oil is evil, do not consume it unless you are very active and even then, only 1 tablespoon a day" which are simply not true. I can dispute quite a few points he makes in his book.

With that said, if that's your choice you need to prepare yourself both financially and mentally. Produce is expensive and you won't be able to consume the vegan store-bought alternatives either (since they are processed).

Vegans usually have a strong reason for their lifestyle, and unless you have a reason to keep motivating you 100% of that time it's going to be extremely unsustainable. I do 6 weeks of that twice a year for Easter and Christmas fast and let me tell you... going without oil makes hitting calories much harder than you imagine (especially with a 300 something calorie limit to nuts in your case). Make sure to have strategies in place to combat that and ways to add calories so you don't dip under the energy limit your body requires. I hope avocados are not too expensive where you live..