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Does the if it fits your macros style diet work for you?
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I find that I hit the protein and fat really easily and can end up easily going over protein, but am nowhere near the carb level, so all my meals seem to be super carb heavy and doesn't seem like a diet that will make me anything other than fat.
Top Comment: I find that I hit the protein and fat really easily and can end up easily going over protein, but am nowhere near the carb level, so all my meals...
Experience with a purple-style diet
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I'm a WW lifetime member from 10+ years ago.
Daily tracking has always worked for me. But it becomes essentially a part-time job for me, easy for a few months, but hard to keep up year after year (when I do it, I really do it, I'm absolutely anal about it, weighing everything so I can't cheat by underestimating portions). Every time I stopped tracking (thinking I somehow had developed automatic habits), the weight would come back on. Slowly, yes, but think: 1/2 lb a month is +60lbs over 10 years.
Last June, heavy again, I started following WW again, tracking points again, and started losing. Again. In late June I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on meds. Learning it might help, I switched to a whole-foods, plant-based, no oil (oil is not a whole food) diet. Within 2 weeks, my blood pressure was normal and my doctor took me off meds. I also noticed that both in terms of WW points and calories, I was easily below my budget targets without trying to limit portions and every nutrient (including protein, essential fat, iron, calcium, selenium, etc was well over 100% RDA (except B12, so I take a B12 pill)). I stopped tracking as an experiment and just stuck 100% to a whole-foods, plant-based diet and continued to lose weight without tracking anything.
My husband, who has genetically high cholesterol, was pre-diabetic, and on statins, decided to join me. He now has normal cholesterol, normal A1C, and is completely off statins.
He has lost 25 lbs and still losing (about 1 lb/week). I've lost 40 lbs and still losing (about 1 lb/week).
I've always considered WW to be one of the sanest weight loss plans around, updating their plans as more information about healthy eating becomes available. So I checked out the new plans. Our diet is essentially Purple! Of course, being plant-based, we don't do the eggs or meat. Each day we have 2 T flax seeds (for essential fat), maybe 2 nuts, a cup of almond milk, and maybe 1/4 avocado. Those things are the only foods we consciously limit -- which are the very things that Purple counts points for. We'd probably average about 3-6 points a day (within Purple limit!).
We eat potatoes and sweet potatoes every day. We eat oats every day. We eat a HUGE salad every day with balsamic vinegar dressing. We eat beans every day (hummus, beans in soup, or just as a snack). We eat lots of cooked greens and green smoothies. When hungry we make sure to have starchy foods with the meal or as a snack to keep us full (potatoes, beans, quinoa, rice, etc).
So although Purple plan is new, we are two people who have been very successful following a diet that fits the Purple parameters for about 5 months. It can work!
If you are like my husband and I, and especially if you are drawn to plant-based foods, maybe give Purple a try. It just might be a good fit for you.
Top Comment: Thank you! I am reading so many posts about "oooh, I can't do purple - potatoes make you fat". Would WW make them zero points if they made you fat?? I think not. I have dabbled with plant based eating - I just can't seem to find a way to make it work for me, but I keep working at it. When I saw Purple - I thought- yep- here it is, I knew it was coming. Oprah recently spent some time with Dean Ornish and is doing some experimenting with plant based eating herself.
I created this cheat sheet for Lean Gains style Intermittent Fasting. Am I doing it right?
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Here's the link:
I think I have all the rules right.
I've seen some people mention high cal days and deficit days but I can't find a reference for that.
If someone points it out I'll add it to my sheet.
I'm currently 'converting' by lowering my breakfast caloric intake by about 100 calories per day.
Last time I tried to go cold turkey and got really dizzy at the gym.
I definitely need to eat a LOT more veggies as I was really hungry before I went to bed last night and kind of cheated by having about a 100 cal salad after my feeding window.
This morning I was a bit tired on my bike ride in. I might have to get used to this.
Top Comment: It doesn't necessarily need to be 8 hours after you wake up. You can stop your feeding window at 7PM, sleep until 9AM, workout at 10AM, and fast until 11AM if you really wanted to. Many can find this quite easy. Here's a great resource from our own AhmedF. And here's Martin's official PDF on Leangains.
Saturated fat carnivore style experiment
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Ok, going to start this high fat thing and see how it impacts me, but, carnivore style.
I kinda did a low dairy version this week and ended up down 3 pounds and with a half inch reduction in waist size (25.5 inches to 25 inches). Most of the weight loss actually came the morning after I ate so much I thought I would wake up heavier from food and water weight alone. I decided to track and it was a close to 3000 calorie day and the highest dairy intake day of the week.
Most of my fat this week was from beef trimmings though, so, maybe more beef fat, less dairy overall makes a difference? Most of my dairy tends to be cheese, and after that heavy cream.
I usually end up eating a looot of protein over all and this experiment calls for more fat, less protein. I could see what result comes from focusing on beef fat and butter. May eventually break slightly from carni and include cocoa butter, since it seems likely to be fairly inoffensive, but, not sure.
Maybe I will even aim to keep a very high intake. I am not sure what to aim for to test the limits of “will I gain weight and how much” though. Also will be curious how it impacts body composition either way... I gained about 15ish pounds overall doing high protein carnivore (slightly less with recent loss) but dropped two clothing sizes in the process. This makes other measurements probably more important.
I would love to learn how to actually make some carni-croissants too... I am sure there could be a way.
Top Comment: my spouse did a carnivore high sat fat experiment for a week a few months ago. They noticed the same: carnivore worked for them only if the animal saturated fat was almost double the protein in grams. They were eating at calorie excess (i think around 3500kcal per day, their TDEE is around 2500) and lost just shy of 4kg over 6 days. Beef dripping, butter and Cream where the main way they got their fat macros in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWfpfs-IqI