Read more about SpudFit: 'Spud Fit': Man has lost 22 pounds with a goal of eating nothing but potatoes in 2016. The SpudFit Facebook page, and check out his YouTube channel. How can you not love this guy?:
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| Copyright Ann Overhulse Photography...Tim's favorite Aunt! |
I am ready to buy it!
ReplyDeleteGetting closer! As soon as it's available, I can do a promo pricing and let you guys have it for free, or as close to free as they allow (99 cents?). I'll keep you posted. Looking like mid-March.
DeleteTim maybe you can help me answer this question.. what else did the Irish eat with their potatoes? I guess I read that they were eating something like 8 to 14 pounds a day of potatoes back in the mid 1800's. However this was only 80% of their calories what else were they eating?
ReplyDeletefollow this link for the answer:
Deletehttp://www.dochara.com/the-irish/food-history/food-in-ireland-1600-1835/
Hey thanks that was just what I was looking for!
DeleteMilk and oatmeal seem to be the other two main foods eaten, but the milk was more likely sold to pay rent. I was reading that the year before the great famine, hardly anyone planted potatoes because they were so cheap to buy. When the crop was wiped out by potato blight, there were no fresh potatoes and stores were quickly used up.
DeleteOkay, eating potatoes for a month, isn't one missing serious nutrients, such as protein?
ReplyDeletePotatoes have protein. Here's an earlier reply from Tim on this topic:
Deletehttp://vegetablepharm.blogspot.com/2015/02/oklets-do-it-potato-diet-2015.html?showComment=1424663731564#c596332300089764732
I *think* the one vitamin that you may need to supplement if you stay on this long term is B12. I'm not certain of that so maybe someone else can chime in.
The month-long "Potato Cleanse" is nothing at all like the potato hack, they were also eating ad libitum any non-starchy vegetable and encouraged to use a large variety of sauces. I think that most vegans supplement Vit B12, and also eat lots of protein rich plants, so I doubt this cleanse invoked any new deficiencies.
DeleteThat said, I really don't know how long you could stretch out a pure potato-only potato hack. I like to recommend the 3-5 day increments so that we can replenish anything missing.
I have never met a long-term healthy vegan. A lot of people who go that way look really good for a while, because they have eliminated a lot of junk. But after a while, the deficiencies start to build up.
ReplyDeleteThe healthiest person I think I ever met (besides Jack LaLanne...shaking his hand was like putting your finger into a electrical outlet of vitality) was a guy who ate raw everything, including meat and eggs. But over 40 years of being in the alternative eating world, pretty much every long-term vegan I've met has seemed really unhealthy. I'm not saying it's impossible, just rare, and you'd have to have some really unique genetics.
Hi Charles - I think it is obvious to everyone that the standard American diet is pure rubbish and causes loads of health problems. Getting away from it is a good first step. Simply "eating Vegan" is somewhat of a farce, and I fear the Vegans of the world are being taken for a ride by food manufacturers who use "Vegan Approved" as a selling point that has nothing to do with proper nutrition.
DeleteI'm somewhat impressed by the Vegan movement, in that they want to bring attention to the poorly managed meat supply, which is maybe even worse now than when Sinclair wrote "The Jungle." And, if someone, for moral reasons did not want to eat meat from mistreated animals, I can applaud that and support them.
Where the disconnect lies is that people seem to think that Veganism is about avoiding meat as a means to getting healthier. It's not so simple, is it?
I've also come to the conclusion that one of the worst offenders in our diet is processed meat, large quantities of read meat, and meat that has been produced from antibiotic/hormone/medicine treated animals. Especially when eaten by people on a low fiber diet.
I like the new focus on the term "plant-based diet." This takes ethics and politics out of the equation and focuses on an avoidance of modern processed foods and less meat overall.
Deficiencies? Present is different from the past, and future is going to be even more different from present. Now we have a booming supplement market that takes the deficiencies out of equation if a person wishes to take advantage of it. Bacteria don't need to reside in cow's stormaches to produce organic chemicals - they can as well live in a supplement factory...
DeleteAnd there are tests for deficiencies that allow to use supplements adaptively, as needed. And the necessary complexity of a vegan diet (food combining to get complete protein etc.) can be simplified by a web app or a smartphone app.
tomR - Good points, but one thing that concerns me is that we are worried more about having low levels of certain vitamins and using synthetic or isolated versions to increase the level as detected by blood labs. These labs are simply "spray tans" and may not be doing the same thing as increasing a vitamin deficiency by eating foods that contain the vitamins, foods that also have a full complement of bacteria and yeast to help you assimilate the nutrients, and other compounds that do us good.
DeleteI'm not a big fan of vitamin pills and supplements. They give us good lab reports, but don't necessarily make us any healthier.
Have some critique of a potato-based diet here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi_2O5gyJ2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XX3_ITh_N0
As of my commet to content under those links - it may be that some "deficiencies" are actually beneficial for weight loss, eg. B vitamins are suspected of being appetite stimulants, iron being pro-oxidant, while omega-6 mess up metabolism.
Good job!
DeleteActually none of it is my orignal information. Sources of information:
Delete1) The videos look like an inter-vegan struggle. Kind of reminds of McDougall vs. Fuhrman mini-debate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdxVfi632Xw
2) The information about B-vitamins comes from the usual suspect Duck Dodgers, somewhere in the 1500 comments on the Denise Minger blogpost about high-carb diets (search for the word "Zhou" in the comment section).
3) The most persistent enemy of omega-6 fatty acids is probably a guy named Tucker, who writes articles like this:
http://yelling-stop.blogspot.com/2016/02/how-to-fix-your-metabolism.html
A question that I see kind of unanswered: does one need some strong antioxidants on such potato-mainly adventure? The usual stuff that gives antioxidant protection is present on a complete plant-based diet; but does potato have something similar - probably not?
http://www.drperlmutter.com/the-best-antioxidant/
"Activation of Nrf2 essentially opens the door for the production of a vast array of our body’s most important antioxidants.[...]Some of nature’s most powerful Nrf2 activators include broccoli, turmeric, green tea, coffee and the now- popular resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine." (also a purple sweet potato, like the one in Okinawa).
So maybe taking an antioxidant with a potato hack is a good way to avoid potential higher free radicals? If so which one would be the best - a mitochondrially targetted one like MitoQ? Or those bioavalable glutationes?
Or maybe this is a wrong way of thinking; with short burst of oxidation, when one eats only potatoes are actually beneficial (similar to short intense excercise)? Oxidative bursts leading to producing new mitochodria and so on? Potato eaten alone should be quickly digested, and led to a temporarily increased metabolism/burning, as compared to a meal with very high fiber, or some additional fat.
If this (short-intense burstiness) is one of the mechanisms of Potato Hack, one of the reasons it works, then of course taking antioxidants would be counterproductive.
Ah! But potatoes are packed with antioxidants! And when eaten in singularity, perhaps a mega-dose of antioxidants. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02853654
DeleteMost of the antioxidant properties of potato is thought to come from the Vit C, but also the flavanoids, chlorogenic acid, and a compound called KYNA. When you eat just one potato, or an order of fries, you get a little bit. Eat 3-5 pounds a day for a week and real magic occurs!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21763768
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22392498
Ok, Tim, you got me. The wife is out of town, so I've decided to do a variation on the potato hack. My way, as always. It's sort of PB6 (potatoes before 6) except that I keep my fiber drinks and I'm allowed raw veggies with the potatoes. So it's almost a substitution of cold potatoes for my animal matter before 6. This is only the first day, but I believe my calorie count is lower than usual and I have no desire to eat. I did, however, promise the kid nachos. Hmmm. I might try to convince her wife on this.
ReplyDeleteI did not write about this in the book, but I think if people substituted about 75% of the meat they normally eat with plain potatoes, the world would be a different place, health-wise.
DeleteLong-term, you could replace most of your meat with potatoes, beans, oats, etc... and achieve great health results.
Let us know how it goes.
Wilbur, I was thinking of doing the opposite; have only potatoes for dinner, when I presently consume the most calories. Be interesting to see if either approach results in any weight loss.
DeleteI like this. I never tried this before now because my gut kept telling me to eat other things. This time for some reason I felt like doing it, and now I'm hooked. I've been eating mine baked and cold with raw leeks in the morning and with kimchi I for lunch. I'm going to have more with dinner, pork chops and Brussels sprouts.
DeleteI think they taste better undercooked so that they are crisp. I cooked mine 30 minutes at 450F.
You might have noticed this too, but I have to eat potatoes slowly. No scarfing these things. I don't know if it's the starch or what. Maybe that's part of the magic. Gives the body time to recognize that it's full, especially when those systems might be functioning too slowly.
I've been reading some stuff about the history of the free will vs. determinism debates. (Do you think a healthy gut makes you smarter? Because this stuff would've bored me a couple of years ago!) One definition of free will is that you make a choice that you want to make. Dieting is of course a canonical example. If I eat what I don't want, then I don't have free will. I like this better than lack of will power which sounds like a Personal shortcoming. Lack of free will suggests an underlying cause.
In my opinion, for those for whom the diet hack works, what they feel regarding potatoes is exactly the same how one should feel about any food, even chocolate cake. I feel a pang of hunger. Should I eat something? No, I do not want to eat now - I want to wait until dinner. Ok, the. That's what I do.
I suspect that the potato hack gives a safety valve to hunger. Then free will becomes a matter of just eating potatoes. I'm hungry. Now the question is: Should I eat potatoes? Yes or no, this is free will because the decision to stick to potatoes is honored. If you eat cake, then it's not free will. The underlying question is different.
I catch myself feeling the hunger pangs, and then scanning for what I might eat eat only to remember I'm only eating potatoes before 6. Not another potato! That's very close to how I feel about every food when I don't want eat. Being hungry and wanting to eat are two different things. Being hungry and not wanting another potato is a good first step.
When I had hypoglycemia, what I wanted could not overcome my pangs of hunger. That's why I now describe hunger, properly controlled, as a gentle nudge, not a consuming desire.
This morning I woke up with an intense craving for fat. I had to have my usual breakfast of eggs, cheese, and salmon. Potatoes would have been impossible. So I'm out.
DeleteI think it was too low fat for me, even with being free after 6. I had the same thing happen when I stayed with friends and they made everything low fat. After a few days I was desperate for fat. I got a huge bowl of fantastic fried chicken skins and felt great.
I'm glad I tried it.
Thanks for playing! We need a T-shirt for anyone who makes it three days on potatoes only. I suspect you are the last person in the world who needs the potato hack.
DeleteHi everyone.
ReplyDeleteLong time Lurker here.
I did a Potato Hack back in September 2015. I documented in on MDA, Tim gave me lots of great advice there (I was synelg there too Tim). The hack was very successful – I lost 6kg very quickly and vastly improved my bowels at the same time.
During the hack, my appetite was completely under control – the hack was brilliant for that. Shortly after however, I went on a road trip and started eating rubbish. Potato chips, pies, burgers. Rubbish. I was amazed at how fast my 'eat till you are sick' appetite came back once I began eating the rubbish. So I put the weight back on for a short time, although my bowels have remained in much better condition than prior to the hack.
9 weeks ago I broke my ankle – badly – I have been in and out of hospital, having surgery – screws, pins, casts, crutches etc and have basically been sitting in a chair watching TV since then. I took the opportunity to start eating well again and have lost 6kg and have my appetite back under control again. Excellent!
I now weigh 72kg and at 5' 5” I wouldn't mind losing a few more kilos, so I've just started alternating days of eating normally (bone broth, cheese, small steak, potato, vege juice, salad, berries, yoghurt, potato starch and oat bran) with a day of potatoes only. On the potato days, I can only manage to down 2 or 3 medium size potatoes. Plus cherry tomatoes – I have to eat those because they are madly ripening outside on my plants outside lol.
I'm looking forward to some great results – both weight-wise and health-wise. Cheers to everyone – I love the people here. XXX
Who could forget a name like 'synelg?' Sorry to hear about your troubles, but so glad you took the down-time to regain your health.
DeleteI know what you mean about the tomatoes...eat them! No one should ever miss the chance to eat fresh home-grown tomatoes. I have another 4 months before I can do so.
Good luck with your journey! I predict great success for you.
Hi Tim. Just found your website - very informative! I'm curious as to your thoughts on potatoes and joint pain - is there a connection from what you have learned or it connected to something else? And do you know why? I'm from English/Irish decent so it would seem I am well suited to a potato hack. Your potatoes look so lovely!!!! Thanks for all the great info here - looking forward to you book.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous - The bigger connection is between joint pain and the gut. joint pain is almost always an auto-immune inflammatory condition. It's rare to hear of people who have never experienced joint pain to suddenly get it when doing the potato hack. More common, though, are people who have long suffered from joint pain and control it through diet or medication. When they add potatoes, they sometimes re-experience the joint pain.
ReplyDeleteIf potatoes hurt your joints, the potato hack may not be for you.
Tim, do you have a twitter acct that you post to? Did a 5 day hack by the book and went from 228 to 218 quite easily. Lost less weight on water only fasts.
ReplyDeleteAnother believer! Great job.
DeleteNo, sorry. No Twitter. No plans for it, either.
Just completed 14 days of the alternate day fasting as above, using potatoes for my 'fast' day. Great success, went from 72kg to 68.5kg (158 to 151 lbs). Feeing really good and gut is good too. The first week was difficult, especially those first 3 potato only days, then it got quite easy. :) :) :)
ReplyDeleteGood job! It gets easier as you go for sure, then starts to get old. That's what I like best about 3-5 days, or alternate days.
DeleteI think it's funny how, psychologically you get to a point where you say, "If all I can have is another potato, then screw it, I'm not hungry."
That's exactly how it has gone both times for me Tim - the first 3 potato days I found really difficult, then it was fine.
DeleteI was interested this time, to find that it took 6 or 7 days to get to this stage - so still 3 potato days for me. Next time I will start with 3 to 5 potato days and get the hunger/cravings thing over. Then go to alternate days.
So pleased I've finally found a way to get my weight/hunger/gut under control safely, healthily and relatively easily. :)
I want to do this hack so much but I'm truly petrified I will gain or my hunger will go insane after hack and I will crave every carb not nailed. Surely, if I keep the potatoes at a calorie deficit it would be impossible to gain..right.. even if I restore my LC depleted glycogen stores I can't blow up if I restrict the calories.. it's crazy how scared I am of this. I mean I've done the 3 day Atkins fast without fear so why am I so scared of taters!!!
ReplyDeleteIn a couple weeks my book will be out. Get a copy and at the same time, 20lbs of potatoes. The first couple pages of the book tells you how to get started your first time. If it "clicks" give it a try, and spend the rest of the week reading the book and eating potatoes.
DeleteGetting over your fear of carbs will probably help you in the long run.
Hi there.
ReplyDeleteI stopped doing the potato hack, but have continued to lose weight. The potato hack certainly got my cravings and appetite under control. I've lost another 4kg - down to 68kg now. Feeling great (even with a broken ankle lol).
Great to hear! That was my experience as well.
Delete