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The FBG Diet 2017: FBG Chef Throwdown - Pg 4 (1 Viewer)

E-Z Glider

Footballguy
Before we know it, it will be January and we'll all be fat slobs looking for a way to shed the extra pounds we put on during the holidays. Figured it might make sense to start planning this now so we can all hit the ground running come Monday, Jan 2nd. Also saves you from making some lame new years resolution. Just go ahead and commit now to the FBG Diet 2017 for the month of January and do your part to Make the FFA Great Again!

I know the FFA loves them some crazy fad-diet where they only eat one item for an entire month, but c'mon, we're better than this. I truly believe that with contributions from the nutritional and culinary experts of the FFA, we can come up with a list of FFA approved recipes using specified ingredients that are nutritional, satisfying, and actually tastes good.

This is an open-source thread, so the diet will be developed as we go based on your suggestions. Lets start by coming up with a list of the foods which will be allowed on our diet. This can be a set number of specific items (like we're only going to eat these 12 items for the whole month) or a much wider list of foods based on categories (like the list I started below). The diet should be comprised of healthy foods with an eye towards avoiding processed foods, bad fats, sugars and carbs.

Here are some suggestions (not set in stone) to get the conversation started... 

Fruits/Veggies: unlimited

Proteins (allowed 3 per day): boneless skinless chicken/turkey breast (4oz), fillet of fish (4oz), 2 eggs, 2 TBLSP of natural peanut butter, beef jerky, tofu, others?

Other allowable food items (limit?): beans (black, pinto, garbanzo, lentils, etc), low carb wraps, sweet potatoes, quinoa, nuts, greek yogurt, avacados, popcorn, oatmeal, brazil nuts, others?

Cooking oils: small amount of EVOO, coconut oil, or Thrive Algae Oil to help make cooking easier and recipes more palatable.

Unlimited spices, and no-fat / sugar condiments (mustard, hot-sauce, etc).

Any others?

Once we have the allowable foods list selected, we can start vetting recipes and discuss necessary cooking equipment.

:popcorn:

ETA - didn't really discuss drinks, but I would suggest water and coffee as a starting point for everyday drinks. Of course it would be best if you limit alcohol consumption too (or switch to more red wine and less beer), but for now, Im thinking we just leave that part out and start with foods. Dont want to scare people away by taking away their alcohol on day one.

 
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Before we know it, it will be January and we'll all be fat slobs looking for a way to shed the extra pounds we put on during the holidays. Figured it might make sense to start planning this now so we can all hit the ground running come Monday, Jan 2nd. Also saves you from making some lame new years resolution. Just go ahead and commit now to the FBG Diet 2017 for the month of January and do your part to Make the FFA Great Again!

I know the FFA loves them some crazy fad-diet where they only eat one item for an entire month, but c'mon, we're better than this. I truly believe that with contributions from the nutritional and culinary experts of the FFA, we can come up with a list of FFA approved recipes using specified ingredients that are nutritional, satisfying, and actually tastes good.

This is an open-source thread, so the diet will be developed as we go based on your suggestions. Lets start by coming up with a list of the foods which will be allowed on our diet. This can be a set number of specific items (like we're only going to eat these 12 items for the whole month) or a much wider list of foods based on categories (like the list I started below). The diet should be comprised of healthy foods with an eye towards avoiding processed foods, bad fats, sugars and carbs.

Here are some suggestions (not set in stone) to get the conversation started... 

Fruits/Veggies: unlimited

Proteins (allowed 3 per day): boneless skinless chicken/turkey breast (4oz), fillet of fish (4oz), 2 eggs, 2 TBLSP of peanut butter, beef jerky, tofu, others?

Other allowable food items (limit?): beans (black, pinto, garbanzo, lentils, etc), low carb wraps, sweet potatoes, quinoa, nuts, greek yogurt, avacados, popcorn, others?

Cooking oils: Id say we should allow a small amount of EVOO and/or coconut oils to help make cooking easier and recipes more palatable.  Thrive Culinary Oil is great stuff - http://www.thrivealgae.com/

Unlimited spices, rubs, and no-fat / sugar condiments (mustard, hot-sauce, etc).

Any others?

Once we have the allowable foods list selected, we can start vetting recipes and discuss necessary cooking equipment.

:popcorn:
Link for Alternative Cooking Oil added.

 
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Maybe we can get this started by getting some of the nutritional experts in here first. I know @Maurile Tremblay is the industry expert around here on most things. Pretty sure Ive seen @John Bender @Chaka and @culdeus in nutrition threads in the past. Feel free to tag anyone else.

Once we get a list of foods ironed out, we can start calling in the culinary experts to put together a menu.

 
What you have in the original post most closely resembles the Protein Sparing Modified Fast PSMF plan.  

In a nutshell (so to speak) PSMF is just eat as much veg as you want and a reasonable, but high as a % of overall calories, protein.  

It's fairly user friendly.  I do feel like diets need a resistant starch element to them nowadays.  This helps feed your gut bacteria, and IMO is a key reason why potato diets and other similar diets in indigenous people seem to succeed where others fail.

 
Maybe we can get this started by getting some of the nutritional experts in here first. I know @Maurile Tremblay is the industry expert around here on most things. Pretty sure Ive seen @John Bender @Chaka and @culdeus in nutrition threads in the past. Feel free to tag anyone else.

Once we get a list of foods ironed out, we can start calling in the culinary experts to put together a menu.
No diet thread is complete without @Otis

 
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What you have in the original post most closely resembles the Protein Sparing Modified Fast PSMF plan.  

In a nutshell (so to speak) PSMF is just eat as much veg as you want and a reasonable, but high as a % of overall calories, protein.  

It's fairly user friendly.  I do feel like diets need a resistant starch element to them nowadays.  This helps feed your gut bacteria, and IMO is a key reason why potato diets and other similar diets in indigenous people seem to succeed where others fail.
Is this good, bad, indifferent?

Do you have any "resistant starch elements" foods other than potatoes that you would recommend? Should these be limited or unlimited?

 
IN! 

I desperately need this.  My weight constantly yo-yo's - currently in the way up phase and feel horrible.  I've literally lost 100's of pounds over 20 years.

 
Not familiar. Any specific foods from this that you feel are worth adding to the list here?
Basically you limit yourself to a maximum of 40 net carbs a day.  A net carb is the carbs minus fiber.  So proteins, fatty foods, veggies are all good.  Carbs and sugars are bad.

The goal is to get your body into a state of Ketotosis where it burns the stored fat in your body instead of burning the easy carbs.

 
After years and years of trying to lose weight and keep it off, my wife has found something that she's stuck with since last July 31 and thinks that she can stay with.

For most of the last 10 years my wife been trying to lose weight with many different programs, exercise, etc.  She would be walking, doing fitness classes, etc, but could never keep the weight off, even with all the exercise.  Many tried to explain to her that it was not the amount of exercise that she was getting, but rather the "cheat" eating that she would do.  She would "count" her calories as good as a bad accountant.  She would eat salads, small portions, etc. in front of everyone, and then eat after everyone has goon to bed, or while no one was around.

Anyway, what she found to work for her has been the Medifast program.  She eats 4/5 bars / shakes / cereal, etc during the day, and then she cooks a meal of "lean and green" for her main meal at night.  Some of the stuff that she cooks is actually pretty good, and we've incorporated it into our family meals.

If we eat out, we split a normal "healthy" style meal, and I order an extra side salad or two to fill me up.

Needless to say she has lost 75% of her goal and is just now starting to incorporate exercise into the program.  

She has learned how to eat and what to eat and now understands that it is ok to get hungry, but not "gorge" yourself.

She is much healthier, much happier, and feels great.

Hope that everyone can find something that works for them.  

One carrot that I dangled in front of her to get her "serious" was that in 6-8 years we will probably have grandchildren, and she'll want to be around to offset my "grand parenting" skills.

 
Is this good, bad, indifferent?

Do you have any "resistant starch elements" foods other than potatoes that you would recommend? Should these be limited or unlimited?
PSMF is good, I think it's easier to stick with than a strict Keto which would have you counting carbs from vegetable based sources and avoiding things like oatmeal.  (If your flavor of keto doesn't require this I don't care, good for you)

There are lots of sources of resistant starch.  The degree to which you can binge on them is going to depend on what the rest of your diet looks like.  This is why you see things like the potato diet which is 100% and then you see people dropping Rstarch in the "vegetable" bucket regardless of the source.  I don't think the science is there yet to say if it should be considered the fourth macro or something, but I'm almost to the point to start considering it the 4th macro.

 
I'd love to hear from either people who have always been slim/fit and healthy and what their tips/tricks are but also folks who have lost and managed to keep it off.  I've lost 60 pounds two different times and then put it back on - I feel like I know what to do to lose but maintaining once I've lost has been nearly impossible for me.

 
Getting ready to begin my annual dieting pilgrimage - I tend to put them on from August to December and take them off in-between. 

No special diet needed, just watch your calories and exercise.

 
Because it's at just the level of specificity where encouraging everyone's input is going to lead to an incomprehensible diet.

At one level of specificity, we could all agree that for the purposes of weight loss, you should eat to try to maintain a caloric deficit.  That would be a short thread.  Like a thread about football strategy where we all agreed that you should score more points than an opponent (I stole that shamelessly from Maurile).

At the higher degree of specificity, the open source crowd won't have much to agree on.  Primal types don't think skinless chicken breast is particularly healthy.  Ornish types would blanch at including a grass-fed ribeye.  Ornish types would think pasta is fine.  Primal types would think it's the devil.  If we just went with foods with consensus, you'd be left with veggies and some starches.  Which is unlikely to be balanced or much more sustainable than doing a potato fast or something. 

 
After years and years of trying to lose weight and keep it off, my wife has found something that she's stuck with since last July 31 and thinks that she can stay with.

For most of the last 10 years my wife been trying to lose weight with many different programs, exercise, etc.  She would be walking, doing fitness classes, etc, but could never keep the weight off, even with all the exercise.  Many tried to explain to her that it was not the amount of exercise that she was getting, but rather the "cheat" eating that she would do.  She would "count" her calories as good as a bad accountant.  She would eat salads, small portions, etc. in front of everyone, and then eat after everyone has goon to bed, or while no one was around.

Anyway, what she found to work for her has been the Medifast program.  She eats 4/5 bars / shakes / cereal, etc during the day, and then she cooks a meal of "lean and green" for her main meal at night.  Some of the stuff that she cooks is actually pretty good, and we've incorporated it into our family meals.

If we eat out, we split a normal "healthy" style meal, and I order an extra side salad or two to fill me up.

Needless to say she has lost 75% of her goal and is just now starting to incorporate exercise into the program.  

She has learned how to eat and what to eat and now understands that it is ok to get hungry, but not "gorge" yourself.

She is much healthier, much happier, and feels great.

Hope that everyone can find something that works for them.  

One carrot that I dangled in front of her to get her "serious" was that in 6-8 years we will probably have grandchildren, and she'll want to be around to offset my "grand parenting" skills.
This could be the problem with all of this. My concept of a "FBG Diet" would be all meals prepared at home so you know exactly what you're eating. Not sure if that's realistic for everyone?

 
Because it's at just the level of specificity where encouraging everyone's input is going to lead to an incomprehensible diet.

At one level of specificity, we could all agree that for the purposes of weight loss, you should eat to try to maintain a caloric deficit.  That would be a short thread.  Like a thread about football strategy where we all agreed that you should score more points than an opponent (I stole that shamelessly from Maurile).

At the higher degree of specificity, the open source crowd won't have much to agree on.  Primal types don't think skinless chicken breast is particularly healthy.  Ornish types would blanch at including a grass-fed ribeye.  Ornish types would think pasta is fine.  Primal types would think it's the devil.  If we just went with foods with consensus, you'd be left with veggies and some starches.  Which is unlikely to be balanced or much more sustainable than doing a potato fast or something. 
You could very well be right. I dont think the target audience for this is "primal" or "ornish" types though. I think the target audience for this is the average FBG who doesnt know/care a whole lot about nutrition and doesn't really cook much at home. Any guidelines/structure/meal plan would most likely be an improvement.

eta - I assume anyone who is already on one of these strict diets wouldnt be interested in this anyway, although Id appreciate their help coming up with the list of ingredients/foods we'll work with.

 
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I'd love to hear from either people who have always been slim/fit and healthy and what their tips/tricks are but also folks who have lost and managed to keep it off.  I've lost 60 pounds two different times and then put it back on - I feel like I know what to do to lose but maintaining once I've lost has been nearly impossible for me.
I think the three biggest factors are, and these vary person to person

  • Failure to add lean muscle mass during or after hitting goal weight
  • Failure to account for lower overall metabolism after hitting goal weight, even at a higher activity level.
  • Internal gut bacteria and other systems are damaged to an extent in the cutting process, and lack of care for these leads to a quick rebound.
My feel, and research is showing support for the idea that strict dietary cuts are the fastest and most effective at losing weight. A long term approach, however, is quite different slower and takes far more work.

 
I'd love to hear from either people who have always been slim/fit and healthy and what their tips/tricks are but also folks who have lost and managed to keep it off.  I've lost 60 pounds two different times and then put it back on - I feel like I know what to do to lose but maintaining once I've lost has been nearly impossible for me.
I dont know the scientific side of things like culdeus, but I think the problem is finding a diet you actually like, rather than finding one which is torture, but gets the results you want. At some point, you will get sick of torturing yourself by eating foods you dont like (or are sick of) and will go back to what you like. I think the key is finding foods that are healthy that you actually like to eat and then eating them as much as possible. That's really my end-game goal here. To find lots of healthy, good tasting recipes that can be incorporated into your everyday diet.

 
Gaining and losing weight is nothing more than a caloric excess or deficit over time.  Maybe some "diets" are a little bit more effective at this (take Keto) for example.  But their restrictiveness and other potential negative nutritional qualities don't make them worthwhile imho.  Burn more calories than you take in and you will lose weight.  Try to achieve the majority of this caloric deficit through lower calories rather than trying to significantly increase your calorie burn.  It's not the sexy way but it works. 

We should be discussing good foods and recipes we've found that are low calorie, nutritional, fairly easy to prepare, and yummy.

 
We should be discussing good foods and recipes we've found that are low calorie, nutritional, fairly easy to prepare, and yummy.
:thumbup: Exactly the plan. We are at phase one - discussing good foods. Anything specific you would like to add to the list I started above?

 
proninja said:
Things you'll find a consensus on:

  1.  Eat lots of vegetables, especially leafy greens
  2. Drink lots of water
  3. Eat fewer calories than you consume
  4. Do it forever
The problem is, where the disagreement lies is where the bulk of your calories come from. Try to eat 2000 calories of green veggies in a day and get back to me. 
Im hoping to avoid counting anything for the actual diet. Would rather just have groups of food that are allowed on the FBG diet in either limited or unlimited quantities.

 
Me personally, I eat tons of rice, (yes potatoes), chicken, and fish.  When I get home I'm happy to share some easy recipes.  When I need a sweet fix, I find the popcorn drizzled with chocolate is an effective use of 130 calories or so.  Also, salsa has only like 15 calories per serving (maybe 200 calories in the jar total), pretzels and salsa are a decent snack if you need something crunchy and I can usually get away with taking in 200 calories or so at a sitting.

 
I dont know the scientific side of things like culdeus, but I think the problem is finding a diet you actually like, rather than finding one which is torture, but gets the results you want. At some point, you will get sick of torturing yourself by eating foods you dont like (or are sick of) and will go back to what you like. I think the key is finding foods that are healthy that you actually like to eat and then eating them as much as possible. That's really my end-game goal here. To find lots of healthy, good tasting recipes that can be incorporated into your everyday diet.
I don't completely disagree but my experience hasn't been doing diets I hated.  Both times I lost a lot I did it with Atkins/Paleo/LCHF and I enjoyed most of my eating - probably to a fault even.

My problem was reintroducing the stuff I cut out - once I did that I eventually went overboard and then over time slowly got back to where I was.  On one hand, I can't envision giving up beer, pizza and ice cream forever but I know those are my weak spots so maybe I do.

 
Gaining and losing weight is nothing more than a caloric excess or deficit over time.  Maybe some "diets" are a little bit more effective at this (take Keto) for example.  But their restrictiveness and other potential negative nutritional qualities don't make them worthwhile imho.  Burn more calories than you take in and you will lose weight.  Try to achieve the majority of this caloric deficit through lower calories rather than trying to significantly increase your calorie burn.  It's not the sexy way but it works. 

We should be discussing good foods and recipes we've found that are low calorie, nutritional, fairly easy to prepare, and yummy.


Well there are those out there that are doing long term observational studies and taking gobs of meta-data on this topic for both short and long term weight loss. It's best to leverage those when practical.  

You have to ask why people are coming around on the idea as to why large quantities of veg and protein are the way forward.  I feel like there is an absorption criteria at work here.  That one is unable to actually process large quantities of both of those items such that you get a larger "budget" when incorporating those food groups. Enough so that I would consider just letting those go uncounted and focus on other things for elegance and simplicity.

Likewise there does seem to be a time element.  Intermittent Fasting and 5/2 type diets seem to work above the thermodynamic properties, this is explainable by absorption limitations of all macros.   That doesn't mean that those are somehow superior, but worth considering depending on lifestyle as a hack.  Personally, I think carb backloading is a particularly strong hack but hard to pull off unless super disciplined.  

 
I dont know the scientific side of things like culdeus, but I think the problem is finding a diet you actually like, rather than finding one which is torture, but gets the results you want. At some point, you will get sick of torturing yourself by eating foods you dont like (or are sick of) and will go back to what you like. I think the key is finding foods that are healthy that you actually like to eat and then eating them as much as possible. That's really my end-game goal here. To find lots of healthy, good tasting recipes that can be incorporated into your everyday diet.
I don't completely disagree but my experience hasn't been doing diets I hated.  Both times I lost a lot I did it with Atkins/Paleo/LCHF and I enjoyed most of my eating - probably to a fault even.

My problem was reintroducing the stuff I cut out - once I did that I eventually went overboard and then over time slowly got back to where I was.  On one hand, I can't envision giving up beer, pizza and ice cream forever but I know those are my weak spots so maybe I do.

 
Me personally, I eat tons of rice, (yes potatoes), chicken, and fish.  When I get home I'm happy to share some easy recipes.  When I need a sweet fix, I find the popcorn drizzled with chocolate is an effective use of 130 calories or so.  Also, salsa has only like 15 calories per serving (maybe 200 calories in the jar total), pretzels and salsa are a decent snack if you need something crunchy and I can usually get away with taking in 200 calories or so at a sitting.
My initial thoughts are to not include empty carbs like rice or pretzels unless someone has an argument on why we should. Salsa would fall under the veggies / no-sugary condiment categories. Definitely need to come up with some diet-friendly sweet-fix ideas. Do you make the chocolate popcorn yourself? My sweet-tooth go to is usually a bowl of grapes/apples with some peanut butter.

 
I've lost ~50 pounds since August on the keto diet. 

People who have issues losing weight probably consume tons of bread, yogurt, oatmeal, fruit juices and a bunch of other crap that's packed full of sugar and carbohydrates. And I bet they eat "low fat" foods as well. 

High fat/low carb has completely changed the way I view what's "healthy." 

Most people can't do it, however. They love their potatoes, rice, pasta & sodas too much. 

 
Well there are those out there that are doing long term observational studies and taking gobs of meta-data on this topic for both short and long term weight loss. It's best to leverage those when practical.  

You have to ask why people are coming around on the idea as to why large quantities of veg and protein are the way forward.  I feel like there is an absorption criteria at work here.  That one is unable to actually process large quantities of both of those items such that you get a larger "budget" when incorporating those food groups. Enough so that I would consider just letting those go uncounted and focus on other things for elegance and simplicity.

Likewise there does seem to be a time element.  Intermittent Fasting and 5/2 type diets seem to work above the thermodynamic properties, this is explainable by absorption limitations of all macros.   That doesn't mean that those are somehow superior, but worth considering depending on lifestyle as a hack.  Personally, I think carb backloading is a particularly strong hack but hard to pull off unless super disciplined.  
I thought you were pro-not exercising to lose weight?  Of course I may not have understood all the big words you used in your post either. 

 
People who have issues losing weight probably consume tons of bread, yogurt, oatmeal, fruit juices and a bunch of other crap that's packed full of sugar and carbohydrates. 
These are good ones to consider. I have Greek Yogurt (the no-sugar, no-flavor, gross kind) on the list I created. How do the experts feel about this? What about outmeal? Should it make the FBG Diet 2017 list?

 
I thought you were pro-not exercising to lose weight?  Of course I may not have understood all the big words you used in your post either. 
I still am,  I think people need to focus on their diet first and get that squared prior to adding in exercise.  I prefer the mantra that you eat to lose and exercise to maintain.  To the extent that that is 100% true is debatable.  If exercise however contributes to 110% of your goals, well then great.  

I am worried about some of the research that does tend to indicate that lean muscle lost in the cutting process may ultimately be counterproductive to maintenance.  It's not enough for me to completely abandon the philosophy of diet first.

 
These are good ones to consider. I have Greek Yogurt (the no-sugar, no-flavor, gross kind) on the list I created. How do the experts feel about this? What about outmeal? Should it make the FBG Diet 2017 list?
I consider oatmeal a vegetable.   

 
I am 6-1 and for most of my 30s weighed around 225.  I was always trying to pack on more muscle lifting heavy 4-5 days a week and my waist in pants a 35 to 36.  About 3 years ago I got up to 229 over the holidays and decided that getting older I needed to drop some lbs.   First off I totally changed my workouts..went to a fast paced lighter weight lifting routine. Second I started walking my new Lab puppy every night.  At first I was doing 1 mile..then I got Pandora and it went to where I could do 4 miles in an hour on my Nike running app.  That was walking as fast as I could without running.  The dog set a nice pace and it was enjoyable being outside and not boring like a treadmill. The key is doing "something" every day.  I walked over 1000 miles last year.

Third I only allowed myself a heavy carb meal a few times a month..before I would eat pasta with some protein 1-2 times a week..not counting all the baked potatoes and other stuff.  Pizza maybe once a month but even then only 2-3 slices instead of the whole thing.   Cut out all ice cream, chips and went to air popped popcorn for a snack at night. I love beer but I ditched all the heavy craft stuff and will only drink Miller. Bud or Coors Lite. I know the snobs here turn up their noses at Lite beer but it is better than no beer. I would drink 6-8 beers on a Fri or Sat night.   That is almost a 100 calorie a bottle savings..it adds up.

My basic breakfast is oatmeal with a scoop of protein, almonds,blueberries.  That keeps me full until lunch.  Then for lunch and dinner I just try to eat a large veggie salad with lean protein. At least one banana a day.   After about 6 months I could not eat half of what I used to.  When my wife and I go out to dinner we split a meal and get an extra salad.

On Sundays I go to the produce store and load up on veggies.  The key is when you get home to wash them, let them dry and then cut them up so they are ready to eat. Before I would load up and let them sit in the plastic bags until they go bad. I experiment.  My go to salad has been a little lettuce, red cabbage, chopped swiss chard or kale, red onion and raw beets with half an avocado.  I never count calories.  After you get to your ideal weight it is easy to tell when you are going up..then just adjust.

Been between 205-209 with a 32-33 waist in pants for over two years now and will never get heavier again.

 
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My wife often jokes with people that a long time ago I got fat when people of the internet shipped me beer in boxes that looked like they contained a bomb.  I can't say I disagree with her. That beer spot site singlehandedly put me up 4 inches in my waist (well that and the me drinking it part).  I deleted it from my browser history, promptly dropped 30 pounds and haven't ever looked back.  That was at least 8 years ago now?

@mr. furley

 
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