Posted on 10/18/2019 8:50:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
The diet helped Andrew Flinders Taylor lose weight—but is it safe?
“Make your food boring and your life interesting.” That’s one lesson Andrew Flinders Taylor points out in a Youtube video he posted last December, where he detailed all of the things he learned after eating potatoes for every meal, every single day, for nearly a year. That’s right: Potatoes all day, every day.
The potato diet sounds absolutely crazy, but for Taylor, who weighed in at 334 pounds when his experiment began, it led to noticeable results. The Australian native dropped 117 pounds after one year of the “Spud Fit Challenge.”
While his before and after photos are impressive, we still had some questions: Is this safe or practical? What about protein? And are the results Taylor experienced actually sustainable or realistic for other people? We delved into the nuances of Taylor’s diet, based on the details he dished on his FAQ page, and asked an obesity specialist for his input. Here’s what we learned. Is the Potato Diet Effective?
During his challenge, Taylor ate all kinds of potatoes, including sweet potatoes. To add flavor to his meals, he used a sprinkle of dried herbs or fat-free sweet chili or barbecue sauce. If he made mashed potatoes, he only added oil-free soy milk.
He drank mostly water, with the occasional beer thrown in (proof that no man can resist a great brew). Because his diet completely lacked meat, he supplemented with a B12 vitamin.
He also didn’t restrict the amount he consumed. Instead, Taylor ate as many potatoes as he needed to satisfy his hunger. For the first month, he didn’t work out at all and still dropped 22 pounds, but then he added 90 minutes of exercise to his routine every day.
To be fair, potatoes pack lots of nutritional perks when prepared properly. They’re a great source of fiber and healthy carbs, which can help keep you feeling full, especially if you boil them, says obesity specialist Spencer Nadolsky, D.O., author of The Fat Loss Prescription. Potatoes are also rich in potassium and vitamin C. And certain kinds, like sweet potatoes, are also loaded with vitamin A.
But is there something special about the spuds that can make the pounds melt away? Not exactly.
Taylor's experiment doesn't prove that a bucket of spuds is the key to weight loss. Any diet that puts you in a caloric deficit will help you lose weight, says Dr. Nadolsky. So yes, you could eat just Twinkies, or pizza (like this guy), or pretty much anything else, and you could drop pounds if you are burning more calories than you are taking in. That doesn't necessarily mean it’s healthy, though. Is the Potato Diet Safe?
To make sure he was doing everything safely, Taylor regularly checked in with a doctor and a registered dietician throughout his challenge. Throughout his journey, he noticed certain improvements in his health along with his weight loss. “I had high cholesterol but now it’s low, my blood pressure has dropped and my sugar level has dropped,” he told The Independent.
But that’s not exactly surprising, since losing weight typically improves lots of health markers that put you at risk for heart disease. It’s also very possible that the nutrients in potatoes helped play a part in that, says Dr. Nadolsky.
Following the potato diet may not harm you for the short-term, but when you look at the big picture, eating nothing but potatoes means you’re consuming very small amounts of fat and protein, he explains, which can be detrimental over a prolonged period of time and can even put you at risk for deficiency. This can tank your energy levels, weaken your immune system, make you feel hungry, and mess with your concentration.
Plus, since potatoes just aren’t a great source of protein—coming in at just 4 grams per medium-sized potato, according to the USDA—not eating enough of the nutrient can make your muscles deteriorate, says Dr. Nadolsky. This means you’ll lose a lot of your definition, even if you drop pounds, he says.
Plus, muscle is important for your metabolic health and helps you function properly as you get older—things like walking up the stairs and even carrying your groceries get a lot harder when your muscles get weaker. (Here are 13 Easy Ways to Get More Protein In Your Diet.) Should You Try the Potato Diet For Weight Loss?
“I personally would not recommend it,” says Dr. Nadolsky. “It’s very restrictive. A vegan diet is very restrictive and a ketogenic diet is very restrictive, but a potato diet is one of the most restrictive diets you could ever do.” (Here is Everything You Should Know About the Ketogenic Diet.)
Now, for Taylor, it worked. And to be fair, he says he feels great. “I feel amazing and incredible! I’m sleeping better, I no longer have joint pain from old football injuries, I'm full of energy, I have better mental clarity and focus,” he writes on his site.
But that doesn’t mean you won’t experience any negative side effects—like constant fatigue or hunger—especially because the diet itself would be very hard to stick with for most people, says Dr. Nadolsky.
Could you try the potato diet to lose weight? Yes, but you really don’t have to go to those extremes, he says.
Try optimizing a diet full of various whole, nutrient-dense foods instead, he recommends. If you’re trying to lose weight, at least 30 percent of your diet should be coming from lean protein, like chicken or fish, he says. If you want to throw potatoes in there as your carb, feel free, but aim to eat a wide variety of vegetables you love. Healthy fats like avocado can also be satiating, and are even good for your heart, according to the American Heart Association.
Bottom line? Potatoes can absolutely supplement a healthy diet, which can help you lose weight—but eating nothing but spuds is unnecessarily restrictive, says Dr. Nadolsky. For some people, this can become an issue, especially if you quit and feel tempted to binge on not-so-healthy options.
“Make your food boring and your life interesting” sounds easy, but for a lot of people “there does come a point where we all like to enjoy food, it’s a very social part of our lives,” says Dr. Nadolsky.
Taylor even notes himself that different things work for different people, so “do your own research and make educated decisions,” he says on his site. “Don’t just do things because you saw some weird bloke on the Internet doing it!”
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Alisa Hrustic Health Editor, Prevention.com Alisa Hrustic has spent her entire career interviewing top medical experts, interpreting peer-reviewed studies, and reporting on health, nutrition, weight loss, and fitness trends for outlets like Women’s Health and Men’s Health, where she both interned and worked full-time.
Potatoes belong to the solanaceous flowering plant family, along with tomatoes and chili peppers. The very small eyes are NOT poisonous, though the elongated ones could be, especially if exposed to light and already turned green. Potato tubers exposed to sunlight also develop this greening of the skin, considered to be poisonous as well.
Very very stupid.
And, he didn’t eat only potatos. (No E, in honor of Dan Quayle) He ate herbs, chili/barbecue sauce, soy “milk.” Beer.
Still, very very stupid.
Yeah. He should have stuck with vodka, it's made from potatoes...
Beer?
I’m in!.....................
LOL; I have no idea. I’m a semi-hairless guy. All my body hair and handlebar moustache fell out when I was hospitalized for 23 days with Acute/Severe Pancreatitis in 2017 — they pumped so many drugs into me and I lost 131-lbs — thankfully, the moustache grew back.
I read about a man who ate one dozen eggs, and nothing else his entire adult life. His cholesterol was low.
Eggs are the single most nutritious food there is.
Add some celery, spring onions, olives and some toast sprinkled in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
If he removed that sweater, he’d lose a few more lbs.
I love potatoes, but I’d need some butter, depending on how they were prepared.
Fastest way I know of to lose weight is keto, or very low carb. I’ve lost a lot of weight on it, but as soon as I eat normally again, I gain it back. Right now, I’ve decided to eat what I want, and walk 3 times a week, not quite a mile. I lost 35 or 40 lbs that way several years ago, in about 6 months. Now that the mosquitoes are gone, I can get out and walk; I can’t enjoy the outdoors much in the summer, because the mosquitoes eat me alive, and I’m intolerant of insect repellent, not that it helps much, anyway.
...and then he died.
IOW, he lost weight via malnutrition.
He peeled of 117 pounds.
This video info agrees with you.
Well, now he’s more apeeling!.........
Potandon Produce unveiled its first low-carbohydrate potato Oct. 19 during the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit convention in New Orleans. The Idaho Falls-based company boasts its CarbSmart potato has 55 per cent fewer carbohydrates than rice or pasta.
Last year, EarthFresh Farms introduced the new Carisma potato, marketed mostly for having a low glycemic index. Grown and distributed in Ontario, Carisma – along with other low-carb potatoes – appeals to consumers who are watching their carbohydrate intake – either because they are diabetic or watching their weight.
The Carisma potato, which is not genetically modified, originated in Joure, Netherlands. It has been grown from seed in that country as well as Australia for at least five years. According to the company, a 150-gram Carisma potato — a medium size — contains 70 calories, three grams of protein, three grams of fibre and 15 grams of carbohydrate.
They seem to be hard to get. Wonder if the American diabetes lobby is keeping these babies under wraps?
Not like that.
Women like men. If they are hairy it’s all good. Hairiness to a decent degree is masculine. It would be hard on a woman to be hairy like that.
How about nothing but potatoes, eggs, and a tablespoon of fat a day? Seems to me that would do just as well or better.
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