Diet Plan Question

carbos101
carbos101 Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've heard of a new eating plan that is new to me. I must have 'heard' this wrong but was told the dieter eats 4 items for one meal then 2 items for another then 3 and loses a ton of weight. When I had the chance I asked the person (very briefly/limited time leaving) how do you do that -- is it like WW where you eat from a list (count points) - again the answer was, NO. It seemed so bizarre -- but either they didn't care to reveal their secret or it's one I've never heard of. I asked do you count calories or what? The answer was NO - no calorie counting. WOW!
Do tell if you know this secret. I know there's no secret but eating less than burning per calories unless I missed something which is possible. Thanks.

Replies

  • carbos101
    carbos101 Posts: 48 Member
    Ahh, thank you ANNPT77 for the reassurance re/the science but whatever she did worked so it had to be serious calorie deficit.
  • carbos101
    carbos101 Posts: 48 Member
    ccrdragon you are right on the money (actually lbs/weight!!). Plus having a special event on the horizon and one's health a good motivator. It's not easy learning to adjust to one's caloric limit for weight loss and be patient.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,494 Member
    carbos101 wrote: »
    I must have 'heard' this wrong but was told the dieter eats 4 items for one meal then 2 items for another then 3 and loses a ton of weight.
    Lol, it depends on the items. If we're talking hot dogs and pizza, it likely ain't gonna happen.


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  • carbos101
    carbos101 Posts: 48 Member
    Ahh - niner, my dream weight loss plan🤪!
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,389 Member
    So it’s a diet plan that promotes ultra processed food and readymade meals?
  • Trish1c
    Trish1c Posts: 549 Member
    It's only about CICO. Everything else is a myth.

    If you need to play some game with yourself to stay on track . . . OK. When I 1st started this I was starving all the time. My trick was to eat 5-6 times per day: breakfast, a 100 calorie or less mid morning snack, lunch, a 100 calories or less afternoon snack, dinner & a late night snack / treat. (I usually ate 1 lindt truffle which is about 70 calories. It was enough chocolate that I felt indulged but not so much that I blew my daily allotment.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,012 Member
    Trish1c wrote: »
    It's only about CICO. Everything else is a myth.

    If you need to play some game with yourself to stay on track . . . OK. When I 1st started this I was starving all the time. My trick was to eat 5-6 times per day: breakfast, a 100 calorie or less mid morning snack, lunch, a 100 calories or less afternoon snack, dinner & a late night snack / treat. (I usually ate 1 lindt truffle which is about 70 calories. It was enough chocolate that I felt indulged but not so much that I blew my daily allotment.

    Well . . . CICO is the basis. As you go on to say, there *is* more to it, as a practical matter, for real humans.

    Satiation matters (indirectly affects CI via compliance with calorie goal), energy level matters (indirectly affects CO via NEAT and exercise intensity), for some the psychological dimensions of eating matter, and more. CICO is simple, but weight loss isn't necessarily easy.

    But sure, if the right calorie balance (CICO) isn't achieved, weight loss isn't happening. Most of us want to be healthy, not just thin, so nutrition is pretty important, too - but nutrition isn't CICO. 🤷‍♀️
  • carbos101
    carbos101 Posts: 48 Member
    yirara - no -- the person is strict vegetarian and has been for over 3 decades.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
    carbos101 wrote: »
    yirara - no -- the person is strict vegetarian and has been for over 3 decades.

    Is there a shortage of ultraprocessed vegetarian food I missed? Or vegetarian recipes involving many? I'm pretty sure vegetarians aren't actually living on whole vegetables without cooking, seasoning, or combining :P
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,012 Member
    carbos101 wrote: »
    yirara - no -- the person is strict vegetarian and has been for over 3 decades.

    Guess who else has been a vegetarian for over 3 decades - 47 years, in fact? Yeah, me.

    It's a complete tangent to weight loss (I've been thin, fat, obese and back to thin again over those years, all while vegetarian).

    And lots of normal processed foods are vegetarian, plus there are many processed foods designed for and marketed to vegetarians . . . like all those faux meats (yuck).
  • carbos101
    carbos101 Posts: 48 Member
    I know a few overweight vegetarians but I do think there are many healthy, lithe, ones. I've read more than once vegetarians are the thinnest overall. I'd love to try it - I'm allergic to dairy (which I crave - didn't when younger) and need sources of protein. Don't care for meat unless it's unhealthy type and bits of rotisserie chicken smothered in Tabasco. I'm trying to eat more tofu bites when I feel sugary from too many grapes, etc. Have to eat very balanced.

    Ann - "faux meats" -- I really need to try one of those new, 'faux' burgers but can't seem to order. It's not easy being vegetarian and Vegan is beyond me.
  • LaReinaDeCorazones
    LaReinaDeCorazones Posts: 274 Member
    Lol I was an overweight vegetarian, I was vegetarian for 7 years, and while I did lose weight, I was still way overweight for my height
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    Vegetarian and vegan doesn't automagically mean healthy. Oreos are vegan, no one is out here arguing that they're a health food.

    Beans are a good vegetarian protein source. Is your dairy allergy across-the-board, all forms from all sources? Or do you react to a specific substance in it (casein, lactose, both, something else)?

    Also, rotisserie chicken with Tabasco on it is actually not that bad for you...Tabasco by itself has negligible calories for the quantities most reasonable people use - it's when you mix it with butter to make wing sauce that it becomes a high-calorie food.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,012 Member
    carbos101 wrote: »
    I know a few overweight vegetarians but I do think there are many healthy, lithe, ones. I've read more than once vegetarians are the thinnest overall. I'd love to try it - I'm allergic to dairy (which I crave - didn't when younger) and need sources of protein. Don't care for meat unless it's unhealthy type and bits of rotisserie chicken smothered in Tabasco. I'm trying to eat more tofu bites when I feel sugary from too many grapes, etc. Have to eat very balanced.

    Ann - "faux meats" -- I really need to try one of those new, 'faux' burgers but can't seem to order. It's not easy being vegetarian and Vegan is beyond me.

    I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian, eat quite a bit of dairy (which my Northern European genes think is Just Fine), very few eggs. I have no difficulty hitting a protein goal of 0.6-0.8g day per pound of goal bodyweight, even at reduced calories, and without commercial faux meats or protein powders/bars. (There's nothing nutritionally wrong with those, IMO, I just don't find them tasty or satisfying, so don't normally eat them.) In maintenance, I'm eating over 1g per pound of estimated lean body mass, which for me is 100g, and often exceeding that.

    I think vegetarianism is *quite* easy, especially compared with 1974 when I started doing it: So many more options available.

    Since I eat a lot of plant-based foods along with way, I'm pretty confident I could hit those protein levels without dairy or eggs, though I'd need to lean more heavily on soy and seitan (the latter of which is gluten, which bothers some people, but not me). I prefer a more varied way of eating, and love my dairy foods, so I'm not going to try, though.

    Part of the reason (in the US, anyway) that studies show vegetarians as thinner on average is that certain religions/sects/practices that adhere to vegetarianism historically and now, also advocate other health practices. It's going to be a sample that's statistically biased, because people who choose vegetarianism also share other lifestyle characteristics, on average.

    Trust me, vegetarianism and veganism are not weight loss or health magic. There can be good reasons to become vegan/vegetarian, but IMO they don't include weight management or nutrition. (Good nutrition is just a teensy bit harder, in fact - easily manageable, but harder.) Question the starry-eyed myths of True Believers.

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