I’ve gone non UPF, I just can’t believe the difference it’s made in a week

[LaurieFairyCake]

I feel like such an idiot. I can’t believe how well I feel, how much I’m ready for bed and how much better I sleep.

this shit is radical. I was eating 40% upf (a teenagers diet is 80% 😱) and I feel brand new.

i have zero pain in my joints, during the day loads of good energy

does anyone else do this ?

sorry OP, I am not sure that this classes as non-UPF… it has added chicory fibre, citrus fibre and oat fibre which are all processed especially chicory fibre

This is an important part of going UPF free, as it’s the sugar that causes sugar-rush highs, then the slump & the thing that you crave after that is …more sugar. It’s worth going cold turkey on sugar. It takes 5 days. After that you might want sugar due to habit, but you won’t be craving it, so can use intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to not eat it. A piece of fruit will taste plenty sweet enough.

OP from your posts it seems you rely on dubious advice from AI, guidance from influencers and grifters whilst still eating crisps and chocolate. Which is fine, your choice, but kind of crazy to start a thread after doing it for a week. No need for protein fortified pastas, back to basics- fruit, veg, pulses, grains, minimally processed dairy and meats.

That initial energy does unfortunately wear off. But less upfs are always a better way to go.

It’s not as simplistic as non-UPF = healthy, which I think is the mistake some people make. You can eat a majority of non-UPFs and still be eating pretty unhealthily because you’re eating a ton of sugar or white starchy stuff and not enough fibre and protein, for example. It’s only part of the picture.

Has it been time consuming/expensive?

I know that, for me, cutting out sugar is a gamechanger. I've slipped back into old ways, and my arthritis/bursitis/tendinitis has never been worse. I remember being shocked at just how much better I was when I cut out sugar. I mean, I knew it was better for me, but I underestimated just how much difference it would make and I know I need to do it again, and to maintain it long term this time!

Something that should be taught in schools, how to cook decent meals from scratch, thr great thing about batch cooking, and PORTION SIZE..this country has become so American (inc take aways) and that includes portion size. Esp now as people seem to constantly sit glued to their phones and don’t exercise walk as much as I did when I was a child or when I was growing up for that matter. Plates and bowls are bigger too. No wonder there is a problem with obesity.

Here’s mine, random day, low effort prep:

B:
2 boiled eggs, avocado, tomatoes

L:
Steak or chicken, various vegetables (5-10 mins to cook)

S:
Plain full fat Greek yogurt or kefir, mixed fruit, chia seeds
Banana
mozzarella + cherry tomatoes

D:
White fish in a homemade veg sauce (stick fish in the oven for 20 mins, pan cook the veg for 5-10 mins)

Another big favourite breakfast is fresh sourdough with poached eggs and feta or ricotta, you can throw on 10 different veg, lots of different seeds etc

I've done it too. From my perspective, no, not at all. I have saved money on the weekly shopping. That was a big surprise.

Yes I was going to say this, I dont have a huge amount of actual UPFs, but I can go through phases of eating pre packed things which would fall into that category. Mainly I cook and prepare my own foods, but the difference in how my body feels isnt really the UPF per se, its the carby/sugary nature of what Im eating. So today for breakfast for example, Im having chickpea salad but Ive chopped up a pepperami in it which is a UPF. That is not going to have an impact on how energetic I feel or painful joints or anything. On the other hand, I could eat a slice of homemade cake (its looking at me from across the room) or a slice of homemade bread, neither of which is a UPF but Im more likely to feel bloated and less energetic becuase those sorts of foods dont work as well for me. Even though my mouth and tastebuds say otherwise!

I know that you asked another poster this question, but some thing that I do are kebabs, pitta bread, and salad for example. The kebabs I make with meat, onions, chopped peppers, and seasoning. I cook them in the air fryer. The salad is normally just lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers. I put a bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil on the salad as a dressing. I buy pitta bread from the shop. I am not fussed about using some upf in my diet. I buy mayonnaise for example, but I buy Stokes, as it does not have a long list of ingredients, that I cannot pronounce.

Read the book on UPFs and it was like a switch was turned on. We now eat as cleanly as possible, not perfect, but very different choices made. I'm no longer always thinking about food, eat when hungry, plus lost over a stone in weight, without trying. Got offered a doughnut (supermarket) and only managed a bite, as it tasted way too sweet and just odd. I believe UPFs are one of the biggest health threats today! Oh, it also saves on the shopping, none of the 'odd' extra treat in the bag, however I now make from scratch if a pud is needed, so yes, still some sugar, but nowhere near that of commercial products and really thinking about this issue, cooking like my Mum did!

@LaurieFairyCake please would you mind telling me how tall you are, because I am short too but my maintenance calories are 1400. 1000 seems so little!

So not pasta then.

I think you need to get off chat gpt or whatever its called

@LaurieFairyCake completely not the thread Q but I'd love to know how long you've been taking wli 2-weekly and how you're finding it.... And have you reduced dose?

I got into low UPF before I started mounjaro but have found it's given me a fab framework for eating while on it.

I have contributed for several months (including pictures) to an accountability thread on this board that is 100% focused on clean/whole foods/low UPF eating. There are plenty of good examples there from many PPs, it has been a great inspiration for me.

The thread is called: What we ate today in a calorie deficit - whole food edition (and how do we feel)

I’ve lost 6kg since the beginning of June going UPF free (95%). Only really condiments I have now like ketchup and mayo. Everything else I’m cooking/baking from scratch.

As a person coming from a country with rich foodie culture I will never undestand such posts or the excitement about such a 'discovery'. Just eat whatever your nan used to cook. Buy an old cookbook and cook from scratch. Don't buy crisps, buscuits, sweets or soft drinks. Basically, imagine the last 50 years of new 'food' products never happened. They have been invented to profit from us and make us sick with cancer, diabetes and other illnesses. I've just come back from the holidays in my home country and I just cannot believe how thin, pretty and healthy all the women below 40 y.o. look like there. They never have crisps for lunch...

I think ChatGPT is incredible but it definitely gets things wrong.

I have asked it a question that I knew the answer to and it gave me a completely wrong answer.
If I didn’t know it was wrong, then I wouldn’t realise that ChatGPT was wrong and it said it like it was a definite thing.

I use it for things like work out plans or how to word things etc but not on things where it’s important to get the correct answer.

My friends job is to ask it questions and then check whether it’s correct or not and they said it gets things wrong all of the time.

If you have really low maintenance calories, I’d have a read about some of the stuff around volume eating. That maximises the volume of what you eat while retaining a low calorie count, to improve satiety. For example, I sometimes mix in courgetti with my spaghetti to provide more ‘bulk’ at low ‘cost’ (plus reduced carbs). Courgette is a high volume, low calorie density food, along with stuff like leafy green vegetables, other stem vegetables, berries, etc.

If you are super limited on calories, I would personally ditch the daily crisps as they are so low in nutrients and you really don’t have much to play with to get the right stuff in. I gave up crisps a while ago and swapped in some cooked chicken, a Babybel or something to fill that snack ‘hole’, because crisps, UPF or not, have very little going for them. And when you only have 1000 calories to get what you need into your body, that stuff needs to be nutritionally ‘complete’.

narniaprincess (4ft 10)

Tomorrow's breakfast I have a smoothie with half a banana, mango and pineapple, soy milk (unsweetened, homemade) and a bit of raw honey. I will have black coffee with it.

For lunch I have a salad with chickpea pasta (only ingredient: 100% chickpeas), black beans (from a can, so not ideal), cilantro, roasted corn and capsicums. I might squeeze some lime juice over it.

Dinner I'll be making a slow cooked middle eastern lamb stew from scratch with non-factory farmed meat.

Afternoon snack is as follows: puree a banana and one egg (I use a smoothie maker to do this) and mix in a handful of blueberries. Microwave in a greased glass container for three minutes. It comes out like cake but obviously isn't.

In between I'll have herbal teas and, my vice, possibly a bought coffee with soy milk (ingredients not fully known).

All dairy and gluten free and lots of plants. I'm still fat.

What are the ingredients of this?

I try and avoid too many packaged/jar foods when I can, as I thought these were the ones that have all the crap added to them.

I wouldn’t have the money or space to buy 35 different veg and so I guess it’s good in that sense but I guess if you could buy those 35 veg and maybe chop and freeze them it would be healthier.

Thank you, I'll take a look at that.