Real food diet...is that a thing?
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I don't think I've eaten 1200 calories or less since I started here on MFP 3 years ago. MFP set me at 1200 but I realized it was not enough to keep my energy levels up throughout the day. CICO is the only thing that has worked for me in over 25 years of "yo-yo dieting" and trying all the fads. I, too, work a full time job, have children and find the time to take care of myself because if I don't, how will I take care of others??1
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Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »She said chocolate cake but wasn't very descriptive about the cake... i thought a visual would be helpful in case people were having trouble with their imaginations
LOVE YOU!!!
Also @cmriverside had i of known you felt that way about me, could i make it up to you this way??
I mean, it's no men in black mind eraser gizmo thingie but it is a nice shade of green
Reported...6 -
StarBrightStarBright wrote: »FWIW- I found that a "real food diet" (Michael Pollan style) kept me at a sustainable and healthy weight for years without trying.
I spent my teens and early twenties inhaling "fake" diet foods and working out all of the time to maintain a weight of 135 for years - so much work to weigh 135. I gradually learned to cook from scratch and eat whole foods and while I drifted upwards a bit (to 142 (summer)-146(winter)) I kept in that range for 10 years rather effortlessly.
After my last baby and now in my late 30s I'm finding that I need to tweak my diet (macros and smaller portions) to keep my weight in that range - BUT - I firmly believe that eating whole foods in sensible portions will help keep you satisfied while staying in a good caloric range (you do have to eat correct portion sizes though).
*and I agree that shakes definitely do not count as real food.
Isn't Michael Pollan the one who says eat like your grandparents or great grandparents? Uh, my grandparents died 6 years ago. The one who lived to be 93 loved diet root beer, peanut M&Ms, and ice cream. My great grandparents still used cake mixes, and were not the most sanitary in their cooking. My mom remembers flies floating in the olive barrel at the farm.5 -
There's definitely a way to eat primarily whole, natural foods. It's not something I just switched too though. It's something that I gradually adapted into over time. Just slowly phase out the stuff you think is garbage, and over time keep moving the needle of your overall diet a little bit further towards your goal. Way easier said than done for most. The thing that kept me on track most was running. I can actually see and feel the difference in how I feel before, during and after a run based on the ratio of junk and/or highly processed food to healthy, whole foods. That helps. If you just want to lose weight though, and are not concerned about any sort of boost (however small) to performance, then you don't have to go this route as it is, quite frankly, harder than just eating fewer calories than you take in.0
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I'm wondering about drinking 1/2 her weight of water is that a day? So if she weighs 200lbs that would be almost 1,500 floz of water a day. Is my math wrong? That seems like a lot.2
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I'm wondering about drinking 1/2 her weight of water is that a day? So if she weighs 200lbs that would be almost 1,500 floz of water a day. Is my math wrong? That seems like a lot.
I think it means to make your weight oz then half, so if she weighs 200lbs, 200 oz of water, or a goal of 100 oz per day2 -
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I'm wondering about drinking 1/2 her weight of water is that a day? So if she weighs 200lbs that would be almost 1,500 floz of water a day. Is my math wrong? That seems like a lot.
They mean fluid ounces, not weight ounces. The general population of humans don't weigh their water.0 -
That's still a crazy amount. 8 cups is 64 oz.
I have kidney stone issues and need to drink more, but only about 100 oz. (3liters). And that's for a specific health issue. I rarely manage to get all of the 3 L down everyday.
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A fluid ounce of water weighs an ounce. That's why it's called a "fluid ounce".
The "drink half your weight in water" is misguided advice - but it's also misleading because it means "take your weight in pounds; divide by two; drink that many fluid ounces of water". A whole bunch of steps that are frequently not mentioned.1 -
SusanMFindlay wrote: »
A fluid ounce of water weighs an ounce. That's why it's called a "fluid ounce".
The "drink half your weight in water" is misguided advice - but it's also misleading because it means "take your weight in pounds; divide by two; drink that many fluid ounces of water". A whole bunch of steps that are frequently not mentioned.
Troof. Of course, saying "Drink 1/32nd of your body weight in water" doesn't quite have the same ring to it! 1 -
StarBrightStarBright wrote: »FWIW- I found that a "real food diet" (Michael Pollan style) kept me at a sustainable and healthy weight for years without trying.
I spent my teens and early twenties inhaling "fake" diet foods and working out all of the time to maintain a weight of 135 for years - so much work to weigh 135. I gradually learned to cook from scratch and eat whole foods and while I drifted upwards a bit (to 142 (summer)-146(winter)) I kept in that range for 10 years rather effortlessly.
After my last baby and now in my late 30s I'm finding that I need to tweak my diet (macros and smaller portions) to keep my weight in that range - BUT - I firmly believe that eating whole foods in sensible portions will help keep you satisfied while staying in a good caloric range (you do have to eat correct portion sizes though).
*and I agree that shakes definitely do not count as real food.
Isn't Michael Pollan the one who says eat like your grandparents or great grandparents? Uh, my grandparents died 6 years ago. The one who lived to be 93 loved diet root beer, peanut M&Ms, and ice cream. My great grandparents still used cake mixes, and were not the most sanitary in their cooking. My mom remembers flies floating in the olive barrel at the farm.
Yeah, all my grandparents except one were/are obese and have type 2 diabetes. The one who wasn't died in a freak accident while drunk
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I don't know who Michael Pollan is but I think I'm pretty safe in saying that he isn't referring specifically to your grandparents and that there's likely more to it than just eating like generic old people.Isn't Michael Pollan the one who says eat like your grandparents or great grandparents? Uh, my grandparents died 6 years ago. The one who lived to be 93 loved diet root beer, peanut M&Ms, and ice cream. My great grandparents still used cake mixes, and were not the most sanitary in their cooking. My mom remembers flies floating in the olive barrel at the farm.
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SusanMFindlay wrote: »
A fluid ounce of water weighs an ounce. That's why it's called a "fluid ounce".
The "drink half your weight in water" is misguided advice - but it's also misleading because it means "take your weight in pounds; divide by two; drink that many fluid ounces of water". A whole bunch of steps that are frequently not mentioned.
Much like "muscle weighs more than fat".0 -
That's still a crazy amount. 8 cups is 64 oz.
I have kidney stone issues and need to drink more, but only about 100 oz. (3liters). And that's for a specific health issue. I rarely manage to get all of the 3 L down everyday.
It's just a generalized guideline for people who need to be told what to do. I go by my pee and if I'm thirsty (or avoiding a food binge).1 -
I ate under 1200 kcals per day for the first five months of my current eating plan, but I wasn't very active initially. Since I've taken up swimming and gym I've had to increase that.
If you decide to eat a very restrictive diet, I highly recommend taking a decent multivitamin to make sure you're actually getting all the essential nutrients. I ALSO recommend not wasting any of those precious, precious calories on things you don't like!
Yes, you can eat ice cream; just a tiny amount, very rarely. You can eat pizza, if you buy just one slice and accept that's going to be a large chunk of your calories for the day. If you deny yourself everything you like, you're just going to let go and binge at some point, and you dno't want to get into that cycle.2 -
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crzycatlady1 wrote: »StarBrightStarBright wrote: »FWIW- I found that a "real food diet" (Michael Pollan style) kept me at a sustainable and healthy weight for years without trying.
I spent my teens and early twenties inhaling "fake" diet foods and working out all of the time to maintain a weight of 135 for years - so much work to weigh 135. I gradually learned to cook from scratch and eat whole foods and while I drifted upwards a bit (to 142 (summer)-146(winter)) I kept in that range for 10 years rather effortlessly.
After my last baby and now in my late 30s I'm finding that I need to tweak my diet (macros and smaller portions) to keep my weight in that range - BUT - I firmly believe that eating whole foods in sensible portions will help keep you satisfied while staying in a good caloric range (you do have to eat correct portion sizes though).
*and I agree that shakes definitely do not count as real food.
Isn't Michael Pollan the one who says eat like your grandparents or great grandparents? Uh, my grandparents died 6 years ago. The one who lived to be 93 loved diet root beer, peanut M&Ms, and ice cream. My great grandparents still used cake mixes, and were not the most sanitary in their cooking. My mom remembers flies floating in the olive barrel at the farm.
Yeah, all my grandparents except one were/are obese and have type 2 diabetes. The one who wasn't died in a freak accident while drunk
My grandma who was type 2 diabetes was probably the healthiest eater out of the bunch. It was very genetic for her, but she delayed the onset, and kept it mostly diet controlled. (It usually hit her family in their 40's- she was in her 50's. And a cousin who is into the Pollan type eating actually is dealing with prediabetes in her late 30's). Type 2 isn't always lifestyle related. It can often be genetic. So far my mom and siblings and I have avoided it. But we keep an eye on things.0 -
JohnnyPenso wrote: »
I don't know who Michael Pollan is but I think I'm pretty safe in saying that he isn't referring specifically to your grandparents and that there's likely more to it than just eating like generic old people.Isn't Michael Pollan the one who says eat like your grandparents or great grandparents? Uh, my grandparents died 6 years ago. The one who lived to be 93 loved diet root beer, peanut M&Ms, and ice cream. My great grandparents still used cake mixes, and were not the most sanitary in their cooking. My mom remembers flies floating in the olive barrel at the farm.
But what I'm saying is that generic "old people" didn't eat the way he claims.2 -
Michael Pollan fan here! The following might shed some light on the 'grandparent' topic.
http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/six-rules-for-eating-wisely/
...Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Imagine how baffled your ancestors would be in a modern supermarket: the epoxy-like tubes of Go-Gurt, the preternaturally fresh Twinkies, the vaguely pharmaceutical Vitamin Water. Those aren’t foods, quite; they’re food products. History suggests you might want to wait a few decades or so before adding such novelties to your diet, the substitution of margarine for butter being the classic case in point. My mother used to predict “they” would eventually discover that butter was better for you. She was right: the trans-fatty margarine is killing us. Eat food, not food products.
Avoid foods containing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It’s not just in cereals and soft drinks but also in ketchup and bologna, baked goods, soups and salad dressings. Though HFCS was not part of the human diet until 1975, each of us now consumes more than 40 lbs. a year, some 200 calories a day. Is HFCS any worse for you than sugar? Probably not, but by avoiding it you’ll avoid thousands of empty calories and perhaps even more important, cut out highly processed foods–the ones that contain the most sugar, fat and salt. Besides, what chef uses high-fructose corn syrup? Not one. It’s found only in the pantry of the food scientist, and that’s not who you want cooking your meals.
http://michaelpollan.com/reviews/just-eat-what-your-great-grandma-ate/
...“Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food,” he advises. This needs a bit more explanation. After all, many of our great-grandmothers weren’t exposed to the great multicultural bounty we find in stores and restaurants, so a lot of them wouldn’t recognize some perfectly wholesome stuff as edible. Calamari, for example, or tofu. One imagines Great-Grandma’s reaction to such now-commonplace fare as artichokes (“You want me to cook a thistle?”) or yogurt (“That milk is sour!”). To paraphrase Jonathan Swift, it was a brave great-grandmother who ate the first oyster.
But Pollan’s point is this: Great-Grandmother never cooked with guar gum, carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, modified food starch, soy lecithin and any number of other ingredients found in processed food. She would never eat cotton, but cottonseed oil is commonplace in all sorts of the “edible foodlike substances” found in supermarkets today.0 -
crzycatlady1 wrote: »StarBrightStarBright wrote: »FWIW- I found that a "real food diet" (Michael Pollan style) kept me at a sustainable and healthy weight for years without trying.
I spent my teens and early twenties inhaling "fake" diet foods and working out all of the time to maintain a weight of 135 for years - so much work to weigh 135. I gradually learned to cook from scratch and eat whole foods and while I drifted upwards a bit (to 142 (summer)-146(winter)) I kept in that range for 10 years rather effortlessly.
After my last baby and now in my late 30s I'm finding that I need to tweak my diet (macros and smaller portions) to keep my weight in that range - BUT - I firmly believe that eating whole foods in sensible portions will help keep you satisfied while staying in a good caloric range (you do have to eat correct portion sizes though).
*and I agree that shakes definitely do not count as real food.
Isn't Michael Pollan the one who says eat like your grandparents or great grandparents? Uh, my grandparents died 6 years ago. The one who lived to be 93 loved diet root beer, peanut M&Ms, and ice cream. My great grandparents still used cake mixes, and were not the most sanitary in their cooking. My mom remembers flies floating in the olive barrel at the farm.
Yeah, all my grandparents except one were/are obese and have type 2 diabetes. The one who wasn't died in a freak accident while drunk
My grandma who was type 2 diabetes was probably the healthiest eater out of the bunch. It was very genetic for her, but she delayed the onset, and kept it mostly diet controlled. (It usually hit her family in their 40's- she was in her 50's. And a cousin who is into the Pollan type eating actually is dealing with prediabetes in her late 30's). Type 2 isn't always lifestyle related. It can often be genetic. So far my mom and siblings and I have avoided it. But we keep an eye on things.
Agree -my husband's grandma is like 90 lbs and eats a very whole foods diet, (cooks all their meals from scratch yet), and has always been active-yet she's been a prediabetic for something like 30 years, has had numerous strokes, is on all sorts of prescriptions etc. For my family it does seem weight related though-everyone who's type 2 is/was also overweight /obese and was diagnosed after they gained the weight. I'm the only one of the bunch who's reversed the progression of pre-diabetes, and I'm the only one who's lost the extra weight and now has a normal bmi.3 -
He's ignoring two things. Food was a lot harder to get AND their lifespans were shorter.kshama2001 wrote: »Michael Pollan fan here! The following might shed some light on the 'grandparent' topic.
http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/six-rules-for-eating-wisely/
...Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Imagine how baffled your ancestors would be in a modern supermarket: the epoxy-like tubes of Go-Gurt, the preternaturally fresh Twinkies, the vaguely pharmaceutical Vitamin Water. Those aren’t foods, quite; they’re food products. History suggests you might want to wait a few decades or so before adding such novelties to your diet, the substitution of margarine for butter being the classic case in point. My mother used to predict “they” would eventually discover that butter was better for you. She was right: the trans-fatty margarine is killing us. Eat food, not food products.
Avoid foods containing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It’s not just in cereals and soft drinks but also in ketchup and bologna, baked goods, soups and salad dressings. Though HFCS was not part of the human diet until 1975, each of us now consumes more than 40 lbs. a year, some 200 calories a day. Is HFCS any worse for you than sugar? Probably not, but by avoiding it you’ll avoid thousands of empty calories and perhaps even more important, cut out highly processed foods–the ones that contain the most sugar, fat and salt. Besides, what chef uses high-fructose corn syrup? Not one. It’s found only in the pantry of the food scientist, and that’s not who you want cooking your meals.
http://michaelpollan.com/reviews/just-eat-what-your-great-grandma-ate/
...“Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food,” he advises. This needs a bit more explanation. After all, many of our great-grandmothers weren’t exposed to the great multicultural bounty we find in stores and restaurants, so a lot of them wouldn’t recognize some perfectly wholesome stuff as edible. Calamari, for example, or tofu. One imagines Great-Grandma’s reaction to such now-commonplace fare as artichokes (“You want me to cook a thistle?”) or yogurt (“That milk is sour!”). To paraphrase Jonathan Swift, it was a brave great-grandmother who ate the first oyster.
But Pollan’s point is this: Great-Grandmother never cooked with guar gum, carrageenan, mono- and diglycerides, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, modified food starch, soy lecithin and any number of other ingredients found in processed food. She would never eat cotton, but cottonseed oil is commonplace in all sorts of the “edible foodlike substances” found in supermarkets today.
Also, he's ignoring that a lot of the obesity related illnesses existed in the rich.
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Update! Thank you for all of your comments! Some of them got a little off track but it's been really nice to read and get a few laughs in here and there. Today has been very successful for me! I went for a brief walk on my lunch. Got a return label for the protein powder her everyone's recommendation, haha.
As far as the water goes I am drinking half my weight in ounces of water not pounds that would be a ton of water.
I consider real food things that don't come out of a can or jar. Basically food that is not processed. So instead of buying spaghetti sauce I would, ideally make my own. I realize that this is a huge undertaking especially getting started with a new eating plan and have decided to still incorporate some of what I would consider processed foods into my diet. I would really like to have the time and effort to be able to make most of my food from fresh ingredients but this is been a pretty big change for me and my family and time is of the essence, so I'm not sure how practical this is for right now.
I've also decided to give myself the chance to eat a few of the things that I still really enjoy. Things like chocolate occasional ice cream you get the picture6 -
Does it serve any purpose to be so pedantic? Obviously there's a philosophy and a great deal of detail behind the eating plan and if you want to criticize it that's fine, just pull out the details and debunk them. Focusing on a broad generalization that's only meant to attract interest and nitpicking it to death doesn't do anyone any good does it? It's like people who run around saying, "Oh Atkins was fat and he died young so it doesn't work", or "Yeah, I know a guy who was a runner and dropped dead of a heart attack at 48".But what I'm saying is that generic "old people" didn't eat the way he claims.
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How is it being "pedantic" by stating that one of the most quoted claims about his diet is historically unsound?JohnnyPenso wrote: »
Does it serve any purpose to be so pedantic? Obviously there's a philosophy and a great deal of detail behind the eating plan and if you want to criticize it that's fine, just pull out the details and debunk them. Focusing on a broad generalization that's only meant to attract interest and nitpicking it to death doesn't do anyone any good does it? It's like people who run around saying, "Oh Atkins was fat and he died young so it doesn't work", or "Yeah, I know a guy who was a runner and dropped dead of a heart attack at 48".But what I'm saying is that generic "old people" didn't eat the way he claims.
I may not be a doctor, but history, and how the ordinary people lived is actually a bit of an obsession of mine. Has been since I was a kid. It's not as pretty as people make it out to be. And I'm thankful for modern medicine and our modern food supply. I probably wouldn't have survived birth had I been born 50-75 years before I was born.
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Need energy? Try flavored vitamin waters instead of plain water... It was just what I needed to curb fatigue!1
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Update! Thank you for all of your comments! Some of them got a little off track but it's been really nice to read and get a few laughs in here and there. Today has been very successful for me! I went for a brief walk on my lunch. Got a return label for the protein powder her everyone's recommendation, haha.
As far as the water goes I am drinking half my weight in ounces of water not pounds that would be a ton of water.
I consider real food things that don't come out of a can or jar. Basically food that is not processed. So instead of buying spaghetti sauce I would, ideally make my own. I realize that this is a huge undertaking especially getting started with a new eating plan and have decided to still incorporate some of what I would consider processed foods into my diet. I would really like to have the time and effort to be able to make most of my food from fresh ingredients but this is been a pretty big change for me and my family and time is of the essence, so I'm not sure how practical this is for right now.
I've also decided to give myself the chance to eat a few of the things that I still really enjoy. Things like chocolate occasional ice cream you get the picture
What would make jar sauce bad????3 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »JohnnyPenso wrote: »Well, here I am at the heaviest I've ever been. I haven't tried every diet out there, haven't yo-yo dieted, never taken a diet pill but, I have been REALLY LAZY about my health and fitness! What can I say, I'm a super wife, busy mom-of-three, I work full time, you know the drill. It's time for a change!
So, here's what I'm doing so far:
1. Eating only 'real foods', nothing processed.
2. Tracking what I eat here on MFP (1200 calories or less)
3. Cut out sugar
4. Replacing 1 meal a day with a protein shake
5. Drinking half my weight (or more) in water
6. Taking 1 serving of Amazing Grass each day
I've only been giving this approach a go since last Sunday. I have no problem with the food and I've been feeling pretty good, until yesterday. I think I might have hit a wall or something but...I'm exhausted! Any recommendations on things I can incorporate into my routine to help me feel more energized? Also, any tweeks or changes I should do with my 'plan'? Thanks so much for reading!
I'm a big fan of 1, hard to go wrong there, so long as you are including fish, meat, eggs etc. which are real foods. The key is in your mind. It must be a positive change that creates positive thoughts and feelings, not dread and anxiety, otherwise it's just mental torture. The rest, not so much. 1200 is an arbitrary figure. I'd rather see something based on your actual size, weight loss goals etc. I have no problem with cutting out sugar, I've done it myself, beyond the odd use of honey or maple syrup. Not a fan of drinking my calories to replace a meal, I'd rather eat. I do use protein shakes, homemade, and only after a workout for specific reasons. I can't drink 80 pounds of water. Don't believe in superfoods nor repetitively eating the same foods. Variety is king.
I thought maybe I was the only one that picked up on this. At a little over 8 pounds per gallon, I would have to drink about 16 gallons of water per day at which point I'd die from water toxicity. If I didn't die I'd be in the bathroom all day which would result in weight loss because I wouldn't be in the refrigerator.
I fell for that too in an earlier thread, but it actually means "half your weight in pounds in fl oz".
This thing really annoys me.
First of all, if that's what somebody means, they should say that, because "drink half your weight in water" is insanely dangerous advice.
Second, not everyone in the world weighs themselves in pounds or measures liquids in fluid ounces, so even if someone translates the insanely dangerous advice to "drink half your weight in water" into "drink a number of fluid ounces of water equal to one-half the number of pounds you weigh," it's not particularly helpful.
Third, it's part of the whole ridiculous "you must drink X amount of water, without regard to thirst or urine color, and you cannot count any water that has passed over coffee grounds or tea leaves, been colored naturally or artificially, has been used to cook a bit of meat or veggies to become soup, or has any flavor whatsoever."
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Update! Thank you for all of your comments! Some of them got a little off track but it's been really nice to read and get a few laughs in here and there. Today has been very successful for me! I went for a brief walk on my lunch. Got a return label for the protein powder her everyone's recommendation, haha.
As far as the water goes I am drinking half my weight in ounces of water not pounds that would be a ton of water.
I consider real food things that don't come out of a can or jar. Basically food that is not processed. So instead of buying spaghetti sauce I would, ideally make my own. I realize that this is a huge undertaking especially getting started with a new eating plan and have decided to still incorporate some of what I would consider processed foods into my diet. I would really like to have the time and effort to be able to make most of my food from fresh ingredients but this is been a pretty big change for me and my family and time is of the essence, so I'm not sure how practical this is for right now.
I've also decided to give myself the chance to eat a few of the things that I still really enjoy. Things like chocolate occasional ice cream you get the picture
What would make jar sauce bad????
Is that all you took away from my post???? Sighhhhhhh.6 -
metalmeow1 wrote: »Need energy? Try flavored vitamin waters instead of plain water... It was just what I needed to curb fatigue!
You know that a lot of "vitamin waters" have sugar in them and are basically fancy Kool Aid? What kills me is that because they're a nutriceutical instead of a food, they don't have to print nutritional information on the label, so people don't realize that many of them have the same calories as Kool Aid or soda.1
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