Palatability experiment
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Hey everyone!
While I still have a couple of clients doing this for experimental purposes and taking notes, I wanted to share MrM27's experiences. This is a direct reply from him along with video:
"This was an experiment I decided to try out after reading SideSteel's post and trading a couple of messages. Before I continue I will say that I did understand the thought process behind the idea but I wasn't completely supportive of the approach. Many people see food as just a source of energy/nutrion, I on the other hand love food and try to construct me meals around getting proper nutrition while enjoying everything I eat while not forcing myself to eat in a way that is not enjoyable. So while I did get the concept I wasn't really on board.
Breakfast was my typical meal so it wasn't something I was doing outside of my normal routine. I ate the meal at 10:15. I don't always eat breakfast and today would have gone that way but I figured I would eat prior to my chiro appointment. After the meal I felt content as I normally would. The one thing that I didn't like was not being able to get my coffee with cream and caramel.
Breakfast
2 whole eggs
5 egg whites
2 slices of pork bacon
1 white flour tortilla
https://youtu.be/3naD1IQikmk
Meal #2 was my first lunch of the day. I don't eat a specific number of meals daily, it just falls where it does. 2 lunches though is almost always how I eat but I can be 3 or even breakfast twice. When I got home from the park I wasn't really hungry but I figured I would eat just in case we spent too long at the park (What a life).
Lunch #2
White chocolate wonderful on whole wheat bread
https://youtu.be/6If-ihfWqOs
Meal #3 (lunch #2) and the spot I new I wasn't excited about. Grilled chicken and sweet potato. By this point it's 4:15 and I was a little hungry but knowing what was on deck actually made me not race to the kitchen when I got home. I rarely ever grill chicken but I figured with no seasoning of any kind, the oven would dry it out more than I wanted. The sweet potatoes were boiled with no added condiments. Eating the meal itself was not enjoyable at all. Halfway through I was just eating it as fast as I could to get it over with. The chicken was as to be expected and the sweet potatoes weren't bad but the salt, garlic and cayenne pepper was sorely missed. I can see right here how removing that added flavor would definitely prohibit me from eating too much of that meal. It did obviously satisfy my hunger but afterwards all I could think about was having something else to satisfy a desire to eat something flavorful. While I was cooking I ate 158g of strawberries but something was still missing. The mental game kicked in there. I have a goal for the day and I won't be veering of course.
8oz of grilled chicken
100g of sweet potato
https://youtu.be/RJzarLYT1Ro
https://youtu.be/pZGjlhvqQNM
Meal #4 Dinner, she came home from work with a honey roasted whole chicken and afterwards she remembered "Oh yeah, your experiment for the day, I forgot". I took 3 chicken drumsticks and put them in the oven along with asparagus. Tomato and avocado topped off the meal. Once again, I found I was forcing myself to eat the whole thing. And once again there would be no way for me to eat more than planned. No thanks.
3 chicken drumsticks
12 asparagus spears
2oz of avocado
2 slices of tomato
https://youtu.be/ipLVjCHXc64
After dinner I still had a couple of calories left to be eaten and at the same time I didn't like where my fat intake was so I had 1 tablespoon of Peanut butter & Co. Dark chocolate Dream.
What I did miss the most today out of everything wasn't the salt or pepper, it was the coffee.
Numbers:
1,789 calories
Fat 62g
Protein 154g
Carbs 113g
What I took away from the day was that removing the palatability of my food most definitely decreased my desire to eat more than I needed to. However, one big issue I could see happening is eating a bunch of food that hit that pleasure center at some later time. I think the possibility of a potential binge at some point is a huge deterrent from eating like I did today all the time. I can see wheels spinning all over the place.
My next issue was the fact that this was only 1 day so getting past it was easily achieved because mentally I knew tomorrow I'd be eating for fuel and pleasure. I stated yesterday thoughts on this factor being strong enough to skew my findings. I compared it to the euphoria people feel when they first start trying to lose weight. Once that euphoria is gone many people just end up on the couch watching TV. So what happens when the excitement of process dissipates and you're left with a diet that you just are not enjoying ?
Eating this way basically takes a situation which most people fail at, maintaining a caloric deficit day in and day out and makes it even more difficult to adhere to it. Now I would question how much it would change things of you did it for only 1 meal or 2 per day. A lot of what we do in this game which it seems many people don't focus on enough is the psychological factor. You can be given a plan that could be the best around but if your head is not in the game then you've already lost. "0 -
For example if you've heard about people who switch from regular to diet soda and then they go back to regular soda and it tastes like straight sugar and really not enjoyable
This was completely true for me. When I first started logging on MFP I cut regular soda and went straight to water for 6 months. After that I went to diet soda.
The things I observed were:
1. Diet soda always had had an aftertaste to it that I just could not handle, so I never drank it. Afterwards, there was no aftertaste whatsoever.
2. I had always found tea (even green tea) to be bitter. I refused to drink tea. Now, it tastes sweet to me, even unsweetened tea.
3. Fruits tasted sweeter and more "ripe" after the switch.
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For my lunch & dinner meals, I usually eat this way (Strange but I actually prefer my food plain). Tuna, sweet potato & veg is my favourite and I never add anything to it. I always feel satisfied after eating a meal like this (although I think that's more down to a good combo of protein and carbs.
For breakfast I usually have something with lots of flavours added - fruits, cinnamon, yogurt, peanut butter etc to my oats, and while I feel full... I always crave more afterwards / want something else.
I've never really thought about this before though, hmm!
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Was this something specified by your TI? I went through in 92 and my experience was nothing like that. I'm pretty sure I had pancakes or french toast smothered in syrup every breakfast, and had pop in addition to my two glasses of water.When I went through basic training with the Air Force, we were denied having anything with sugar. No sodas, no candy, no sugary cereals, limited selection of juices. Mostly they wanted us drinking water and eating full foods to keep energy levels up for all the physical training we were doing.
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So I was thinking about this last night after watching MrM's experiment with it. Someone posted a video of a powerlifter eating 10,000 calories in a day. For the most part, it seemed like most of the food was unseasoned, although he did put some salsa on his eggs. It seems like this would be the exact opposite of what you'd want to do on a bulk or if you're just eating large quantities of food in general.
I could definitely see why it would work on a cut though. As much as I need to tighten up my calories and stop binging on food, I don't think I could eat like that for weeks on end though. Just sounds depressing.0 -
So I finally got around to doing the palatability experiment. I've had done it a couple of times but not to the letter. Today, I followed the directions 100%. My meal consisted of 5 oz. of pan seared chicken breast, 9 oz. of boiled red potatoes and 2 servings of steamed broccoli. No seasoning on anything. I ate my meal at 4:00 and it didn't take long to finish it. You have to understand, my wife jokes about my lack of seasoning on foods so it wasn't like I had to force feed myself. We also had company so I wasn't just sitting at a table by myself focussing on the bland food in front of me. I finished the meal in about 25 minutes. Five hours later, I was still lacking in hunger. I actually still felt full. I ate a chocolate chip cookie because I wanted something sweet but even after I ate that, I felt bloated. Six and one half hours later, I still feel full and almost bloated.0
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So I finally got around to doing the palatability experiment. I've had done it a couple of times but not to the letter. Today, I followed the directions 100%. My meal consisted of 5 oz. of pan seared chicken breast, 9 oz. of boiled red potatoes and 2 servings of steamed broccoli. No seasoning on anything. I ate my meal at 4:00 and it didn't take long to finish it. You have to understand, my wife jokes about my lack of seasoning on foods so it wasn't like I had to force feed myself. We also had company so I wasn't just sitting at a table by myself focussing on the bland food in front of me. I finished the meal in about 25 minutes. Five hours later, I was still lacking in hunger. I actually still felt full. I ate a chocolate chip cookie because I wanted something sweet but even after I ate that, I felt bloated. Six and one half hours later, I still feel full and almost bloated.
Lets chat about this one in our next Skype session if you can. I'll IM you.
Thanks for giving this a shot and writing in about it.0
