Looks like this mr.potato head needs to gain 110
Posted on 10/09/2017 1:19:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Praise the power of potatoes. This man says he ate only potatoes for a year and lost 110lb as a result. Whoa.
We’ll be honest – we were more than a little skeptical when, back in the heady, carb-loving days of 2016, Andrew Flinders Taylor announced the launch of the Spud Fit project, which would see him eating only potatoes for a full year.
He originally announced the mission by explaining he wanted to take control of his eating.
‘I wanted to change the way I thought about food so that it’s not really controlling my life,’ Andrew said at the time. ‘Food is fuel kinda thing.
‘The last couple of years I’ve not been anywhere near as fit and active as I’d like to be…I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been, which is 151.7kg (23 st, 8lbs)… So I’m not happy about that.’
Andrew stated that he would eat three kilograms of potatoes daily, choosing both sweet potatoes and regular potatoes to get in all his necessary iron and vitamins, and would not be using any oils to cook his food.
99% of his calories came from potatoes, with the remaining bits just seasoning and low-fat sauces. When Andrew announced his plans, dietitians were concerned. Chloe Miles a dietitian from for the British Dietetic Association told Metro.co.uk: ‘By just eating potatoes for a year he is very unlikely to be getting all of the vitamins and minerals he needs. ‘He is likely to miss out on iron, which will potentially lead to tiredness and, also, not consume enough calcium which will have an impact on his bone health. ‘It is, also, going to have an impact on his social life as this is a very restrictive diet. This sort of restriction could lead to disordered eating. I would strongly recommend other people don’t follow this diet.’
But amazingly, one year later, Andrew hasn’t just survived a potato-only diet – he’s lost 110lbs, just from his potato diet and around an hour each day spent cycling. According to regular checks from his GP, Andrew’s health is perfectly fine, too, thanks to making sure he got in his fibre from eating potato skins, using calcium-fortified soy milk to mash his potatoes, and throwing in sweet potatoes to get the recommended daily dose of vitamin A and E. ‘My health just continues to improve,’ he told news.com.au. ‘I had high cholesterol but now it’s low, my blood pressure has dropped and my sugar level has dropped. ‘Every time I get a new blood test, it just gets better. ‘Eating only potatoes has improved my life in more ways than I could ever imagine.’ Before you head to Sainsbury’s and stock up on potatoes, though, it’s important to bear a few things in mind.
First off, every body is different, and while the diet worked for Andrew, there’s no guarantee it’d have similar results for anyone else.
It’s also worth noting that the weight loss Andrew saw was not necessarily down to the magical power of potatoes, but simply an easy-to-follow diet that helped him to cut out sugary, high-fat treats. The cycling probably helped, too. Andrew spoke to dietitians and his doctor before he began the Spud Fit project, and checked in with his GP regularly throughout the process – and we’d recommend that anyone keen to follow this diet, or ANY diet for that matter, does the same. But Andrew’s story does teach us one lesson that we can apply universally: Stop demonising potatoes just because they’re carbs. Potatoes are great. We have, of course, reached out to Andrew to find out more about what it’s like to only eat potatoes (how does such a diet affect your poos?), and will update this story if we hear back.
Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/26/a-man-ate-only-potatoes-for-a-year-and-lost-110lb-6957611/?ito=cbshare Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/
This man's commitment to lose weight is what should be praised.
The reason he lost weight was because he consumed fewer calories than he expended in energy, the food is somewhat irrelevant.
how much “just seasoning and low fat sauce” is just 1% of what he consumed?
tomato sauce can be low fat, lots of veggies made into sauce can be low fat.
This seems misleading to say he only ate potatoes but also had seasoning and low fat sauce.
And it’s not new news. I have many times had a potato craving and cooked up potatoes, onion and red bell peppers, sprinkled with romano cheese and cooked in olive oil for 2-3 big meals a few days in a row and yes lose weight in the process.
Potatoes are very low in fat. The fat is in the butter and sour cream, which, unfortunately, I love.
*** “Those potatoes will turn into sugar in the system, right?” ***
Everything turns into sugar
At least he didn’t have to worry about his potassium levels!
Carol Deppe wrote about her nearly-all-potato diet, but in her case it was for financial reasons: http://www.caroldeppe.com/The%2020%20Potato%20a%20Day%20Diet.html
For the record, proteins can also be biochemically converted to sugars - but it requires more steps.
Irish?
CC
Actually, there is plenty of vitamin C in potatoes, mainly in the skin.
“‘My health just continues to improve,’ he told news.com.au. ‘I had high cholesterol but now it’s low, my blood pressure has dropped and my sugar level has dropped.
‘Every time I get a new blood test, it just gets better.”
uh, yeah. I don’t believe any of this.
And he exercised for an hour each day.
Imagine that.
“Those potatoes will turn into sugar in the system, right?”
yep. all carbs are turned into glucose by the liver and then into stored fat if not quickly burned for energy:
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/happens-unburned-carbohydrates-2461.html
Irish peasants lived on potatoes and buttermilk for the better part of two centuries and they did just fine. Of course they worked their b*lls off every day...
CC
Did he run them through a still first?
It didn't work.
“It’s all about calories.”
Nope.
“It is often said that the only thing that matters for weight loss is “calories in, calories out.” The truth is that calories matter... but the types of foods we eat are just as important.
That is because different foods go through different metabolic pathways in the body (14).
Additionally, the foods we eat can directly impact the hormones that regulate when and how much we eat, as well as the amount of calories we burn.
Here are two examples of why a calorie is NOT a calorie:
Protein: Eating protein can boost the metabolic rate and reduce appetite compared to the same amount of calories from fat and carbs. It can also increase your muscle mass, which burns calories around the clock (15, 16).
Fructose vs glucose: Fructose can stimulate the appetite compared to the same number of calories from glucose (17, 18).
Even though calories are important, saying that they are all that matters when it comes to weight (or health for that matter) is completely wrong.
Bottom Line:
All calories are not created equal. Different foods go through different metabolic pathways and have varying effects on hunger, hormones and health.
It seems to make sense that eating fat would make you fat.
After all, the stuff that is making people soft and puffy is fat.
For this reason, eating more fat should give us more of it.
However, it turns out that it isn’t that simple. Despite fat having more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrates, diets that are high in fat do not make people fat.
This depends completely on the context. A diet that is high in carbs AND fat will make you fat, but it’s NOT because of the fat.
In fact, the studies consistently show that diets that are high in fat (but low in carbs) lead to much more weight loss than diets that are low in fat”
That’s what I thought too. But my diabetic husband can eat the kind in the mixed bag of small potatoes from Costco and actually come away with some pretty good sugar numbers. I know they are red potatoes and could be the ones that look like mini russets are Yukon gold. A friend thought she remembered Weight Watchers recommending to stay away from russet potatoes.
Nice post. Which of the 14 do beer fit into?
I thought protein doesn’t, but maybe I’m wrong.
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