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Trying whole 30, and would like to see weight loss.


Jay1

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Hi, I have been looking at paleo quite recently, and have seen this program referred to several times.  Since I have struggled with my weight all my life, I tend to read a lot on different diets, and I am always  trying to learn more about food.  I know, I have read a lot of moderators state that this is not a diet.  I agree the word diet is negative, but I don't know what else to call modifying how I eat.

 

Actually I have eaten close to this, but I have eaten dairy and artificial sweeteners.  I know the sugar dragon well, and know what happens when I give in to it, but I never imagined artificial sweeteners were bad as well.  I also limit fruit, and mostly avoid it.

 

So, I would mainly be interested in weight loss on this way of eating, and if other people use this as weight loss.  Again I know that the moderators have said that this is not about weight loss, and I don't have unrealistic goals of being a tooth pick, or even meeting my ideal weight.  I would just like to be not obese all my life.  I find it hard to accept I have to be very obese, nor  can I imagine that it is healthy no matter how healthy I eat.

 

So with that in mind, I would be interested in peoples thoughts on using this as weight loss.  Do others stick with this strict eating longer then 30 days, and what can I expect, or is it unrealistic.  I know I am suppose to reintroduce food after 30 days, but I already know what the sugar dragon does to me, takes me on a 40 pound rampage.  So I plan on avoiding him.

 

I don't expect miracle results, but can I use whole 30 to reset my body, and work in the right direction or would paleo be better.  I also have to admit I have trouble with the concept of not counting calories, while I know that they don't give the whole picture, I always have that nagging feeling I am eating too much.  And of course there is not eating enough, its like the biggest food catch 22 I ever heard of.

 

Thank you, I definitely find whole 30 interesting, and think it would be a great way to eat. I figured I would post a introduction, since I have been reading a lot on this site for the last week.

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If you are obese, you will lose weight as a result of doing a Whole30... unless you sabotage yourself by ignoring our recommendations and fail to compose meals according to our planning template. You will probably eat more food overall and more fat specifically than you have eaten following other "diets," but that is part of the program because the biggest contributor to weight loss is a healthy metabolism and a healthy metabolism requires you to eat enough to fully nourish your body.

 

The Whole30 is designed to be practiced for a limited period of time. Thirty days is appropriate for your first experience. It is okay to extend to 45 days or 60. I went 4 months before I purposefully ate anything that was not compliant with the Whole30 rules, but I have begun to discourage people from setting a goal of doing a Whole30 for an extended period. The problem is that the Whole30 is meant to be followed by a careful reintroduction of foods that you have eliminated so that you can learn how much eating them affects you and so you can decide whether that food is worth it or not. It seems that most people skip meaningful introductions and so they never develop their own personal eating plans. They just cycle between doing a Whole30 and eating casually until they feel crappy enough to do another Whole30. What a waste! 

 

We want you to learn from a Whole30 and then design your own eating plan that you can live with comfortably for the rest of your life. 

 

The problem with counting calories is that your body responds differently to 500 calories of donuts and 500 calories of olives. What you are eating matters so much more than the calorie count. People who are used to counting calories often fail to eat as much food as we recommend. Their metabolism stay slow and their hormonal rhythms stay out of whack and they have trouble losing weight. When people ignore calories, follow our meal planning template and eat as much as we recommend, their metabolism speeds up and they lose weight more easily. Some people make friends with their metabolism very quickly and some have to follow the program a few weeks longer, but eventually things start working very nicely. 

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I've been steadily losing weight over the last 10 months. I think I might be somewhere around 40 pounds - not so sure as I don't often weigh myself. I know I've dropped sizes and I know I have many non-scale victories. And I know I've been seeing my relationship to food changing. That's what makes this not a "diet" for me. The meal template of protein,vegs and fat really works for me and it's become my habit. Eating off the template pushes vegs off my plate and I just don't deal well with that. I was at a bookstore today and saw paleo cookbooks with large sections of snacks and desserts. That also does not work well for me. You're right, there are no miracles. What I've liked about W30 is the path of learning so I can make my own way.

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Thank you, for responding, excellent answer. I do want to learn how to eat the rest of my life. I understand the concept of learning how I react to certain foods so I know how to weigh the pros and cons of eating the foods on the no list.

I already know the answer for sugar. It makes my appetite go out of whack. I believe the same for grains. I don't know how dairy affects me, but I don't crave it and could probably do without if I had to.

I have a hard time understanding the life after whole 30. I know what to do, but I also understand how people can fall back into their old eating habits, and then need to repeat the clean eating again.

Maybe I will understand more when I actually get through the program and work on the post 30. It just seems for me, sugar has addictive like qualities, and reintroducing it seems kind of like allowing a alcoholic to have a drink after being sober for thirty days. I do agree that I need to develop a eating plan for life. But I find this step of the program worrisome.

Right now I'm going to concentrate on the clean eating, a lot of this program does make sense to me, what you eat does matter, and that is what I'm working on. I have tried many diets, and have had different results on each of them. I have always learned something on each of them. I do think I am getting closer to figuring it out.

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Actually I need to read the program better, I just reread the reintroduction program, and didn't see sugar listed as being reintroduced. I guess I just assumed it was on the list.

 

Some people do it on a separate day, to see exactly what their reaction to sugar or whatever their sweetener of choice is. They might have sugar or other sweetener in their morning coffee, a salad dressing made with honey or meat marinaded in a sauce with some kind of sweetener, and maybe some high quality dark chocolate with no soy or dairy to get it in all three meals. 

 

Other people find that they reintroduce it along with other ingredients on other days -- maybe they have ice cream on their dairy day, or a cookie on gluten-grain day. 

 

Still others already know it's not a great thing for them to have, so they don't go out of their way to reintroduce it, instead just waiting until something that they decide is worth it to them comes up in their normal life to have it.

 

It really depends on how you want to do it. If you want to be as accurate as you possibly can, designate a day for sugar reintros. If you already know it's bad, maybe you know that your WholeJay1 -- your life post-Whole30 where you set your own rules -- is just not going to include sugar unless something looks so amazingly appealing that you cannot live without it and would hate yourself if you didn't at least try a bite. In that case, you don't need a specific reintroduction, you can just go forward with your life knowing that that is your rule that you're going to follow. (How to decide if something is worth it, after Whole30. Also, the One Bite Rule can be helpful for those moments.)

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