to think this food isn't unhealthy?!

[OkMaybeNot]

I'm doing intermittent fasting and trying to watch what I eat, and I don't know whether it's because when you're on a diet you notice these things more, but I've been seeing people in groups I'm in refer to meals like a jacket potato with beans and a salad, or shepherd's pie, or a stew as 'indulgent comfort food' lately.

AIBU to think there's nothing particularly indulgent or unhealthy about a jacket potato?

But what was it doing to your cholesterol levels @OlaEliza?

It's normal food. I decided in December that I needed to lose two stone and I researched all the diets; keto; paleo; dairy-free; vegan; loads of others. I decided that I couldn't face following any of them as everything seems to demonise some food group for r another. I just cut down and ate less. Intermittent fasting, 2 decent meals a day , no snacking , no cutting food groups and I'm three quarters of the way to my two stone target. Try not to take any notice of things or people that make food 'bad'. Eat what you like, just don't eat too much of it and up the fruit and veg.

hmm, a lot of people doing IF here seem to be confused about why and how it works, it actually has nothing to do with calories restriction, in fact, you are advised to make sure you eat to satiety and not run a caloric deficit to avoid wrecking your metabolism, which you invariably do on a calorie reduction diet

the reason IF works is to do with insulin

calories in/calories out ha been largely debunked, it does not work, reducing your caloric intake makes you lose weight in the short run, but your body adapts by reducing your caloric expenditure and therefore you first plateau and then start regaining weight on the same calorie intake you could lose weight on initially

calories in/calories out ha been largely debunked, it does not work,

Really? Debunked by who - credible experts? Interested to hear more as I thought this was basically a given!

It hasn't been debunked whatsoever. It's had caveats added possibly, but the principle is absolutely sound. Love to know how the basic principles of physics have been debunked.

@DropYourSword my cholesterol was 3.6

I'm doing OMAD and Keto, a jacket potato and beans after 23 hours of fasting is a MASSIVE no no. All your blood will rush straight to your digestion system and you'll feel so dizzy. The sugar proteins in carbs require more effort to digest. I made this mistake the first few days and felt absolutely terrible, then I started Keto and feel so much better.

@mistermagpie I’m the same, if I don’t eat carbs I’m permanently starving and want to eat the house. My weight stays much more stable by eating potatoes and pasta in normal portions

What someone said upthread about “an avocado might keep you comfortably full till dinner” makes no sense to me. I would expect my lunch to keep me full until dinner, why wouldn’t it? And, no an avocado wouldn’t even remotely fill me up whereas if I ate a jacket potato with say cheese and beans and a salad, that would be a dinner and I wouldn’t need another.

I'm another one who lost two stones and got to within a couple of pounds of my BMI by cutting calorie intake a little (to 1400, in my case) and maintaining a completely balanced diet. Im not hungry and I'm not short of vitamins and minerals.

How do you stop your skin getting baggy?

I walk.I do a little strength exercise. Although tbh I think it might be partly a genetic issue and I've been lucky, given I'm no spring chicken 😄

"calories in/calories out has been largely debunked, it does not work."

^ My scales beg to differ

It obviously works. Although I think if the eating changes you made to get there are not ingrained and you have t formed new patterns, there is a risk of reserving it. And obviously it's WAY better if those changes are healthy ones, in terms of long term sustainability.

Pptatoes are full of starcues and carbs. Not the best but definitely not the worst if you keep ot naked. If you add butter,sour cream,cheese its very fat laden with the carbs and most definitely unhealthy

TBF, while calories in, calories out obviously does work, some people’s bodies do hold on to their delicious comforting flab with more enthusiasm. Genetically this is an advantage, or was until very recently in human history.

calories in/calories out ha been largely debunked, it does not work

You can't create fat from nothing it has to be put in in the first place.

Complete rubbish most diets are based around having less calories than you expend.

Intermittent fasting is just that nothing to do with low carbing, contrary to posters on this thread.

With intermittent fasting, if you are eating less than the daily calories it will work what ever food groups you get it from, so have your potatos.

I think a big factor is food combination too. I think people can eat carbs and protein or fat and protein but not carbs and fat.

How many people who calorie count or naturally eat little, who advocate eating carbs, eat little fat?

have a listen, the first study to show that reducing caloric input does not lead to long term, sustainable weight loss was published in 1911!

law of physics matter only to a degree, our body is a living complex system, it's not like burning wood for a fire

if you reduce your caloric intake you wreck your metabolism, this means, put simplistically, that you will put on weight by eating the same amount of calories you could lose weight on previously

this is obviously not sustainable long term, how many of you who have weight problems have lost the weight only to regain it all and then some? we all know this!

for example, look up what happened to the biggest losers participants after they lost the weight, it is well known that diets don't work for the vast majority of people

of course, if you only had a few kilos to lose and went on a diet for a couple of weeks, you'll be fine, but for greater weight loss it's a lot more complicated!

also, read here on IF and calorie restriction

idmprogram.com/wp-content/uploads/QA-32.pdf

how many of you who have weight problems have lost the weight only to regain it all and then some?

Isn’t this general much more due to the fact that people don’t maintain healthier eating habits, start eating more crap again, backslide into bad habits again and put on weight because they are again eating more calories, rather than maintaining a lower calorie diet with good discipline but putting on weight still?

Dropyoursword you are correct.
look up what happened to the biggest losers participants after they lost the weight
Many of them were unable to maintain such a strict regime after they returned to their own lives (not surprising), and therefore they started to gain weight again. Not to mention, some contestants used other methods such as fasting and diuretics immediately prior to the final to give themselves a chance of winning the money.
The fact that every single Biggest loser contestant loses weight while on the show proves that CICO does in fact work.

Why bother with this diet when you'll just pile it back on. These so called diets never work. Just eat healthy foods that will fill you up like protein, dairy and lots of veg.

Why bother with this diet when you'll just pile it back on

It's not a diet for me. I want to do this for the rest of my life. Seriously. I've never felt more healthy or happy.

My PMS symptoms have reduced to basically nothing, I'm thinking clearer, sleeping better, I feel more alert and awake, I have loads more energy.

And I'm still eating those filthy unhealthy potato carbs

@OlaEliza I don’t particularly think of it like that because I don’t call it a “diet” or even a “way of eating” but yes as a carb eater, I don’t eat a lot of fat. I’m a veggie so I obviously don’t get any fat from meat, I don’t butter bread or use much oil in cooking or things like that. I do love cheese, but again I would grate some on things rather than eating a lump of it. I don’t specifically buy anything labelled “low fat” though, apart from only ever using skimmed milk because I prefer the taste.

As I said earlier, I eat carbs at pretty much every meal (cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, pasta for dinner is pretty standard for me) and have been at the lower end of a healthy bmi for pretty much my entire adult life.

The thing is, I exercise but am generally not sedentary either - I barely sit down. And I have relatively small portions of the things I eat. I also don't snack ever really and don't drink much.

This isn't a 'diet', it's just the way I live my life so there is no end point and therefore no piling the weight back on.

I have piled the weight on during my three pregnancies though, so it's not like I'm naturally slim necessarily. I just start snacking and stop exercising, sort of deliberately, like having a little holiday. But I've lost the weight, all of it, twice and am down to the last stone this time, now that my third baby is three months old. I just revert back to my usual lifestyle and the weight comes off.