I don't normally give diet tips because A) I don't know much about diet; B) my experience is that your mileage may vary, and C) because I have a mirror. However, I have lost 10 or 15 pounds this year, which I think in part is due to trying to have a jar of dry roasted edamame (i.e., soybeans) around for snacking.
I find edamame a good snack because they are high in protein, moderate in fat, and almost all the carbs in them are dietary fiber. Sugar and starch just make me hungrier for more sugar and starch, while protein and fat tend to assuage hunger longer. But the real key is that while edamame aren't awful tasting, but then they aren't very good tasting either. In contrast, salted cashews are high in fat and protein, too, but it's hard to stop eating them because they are delicious. It's easy to stop eating edamame as soon as you aren't hungry. They don't taste great and they're a chore to grind up with your teeth. So, they are more like anti-hunger bombs than a tasty snack.
And they're cheap -- I bought 1.8 pound jars at Costco for $6, although that might have been a special deal. (They are salted, so watch out if that is an issue for you.)
Of course, everybody is different when it comes to diet. If this tip works for 5% of the population, well, that's pretty good.
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34 comments:
Steve. You are still a fat ass. Let me know when you lose 60.
Soybeans are for liberals.
But seriously, having a proper diet in America must be perceived as really faggy.
I wasn't even overweight by American standards, but I was forming a bit of a beer gut.
So, I substituted a salad (not with cheese and Thousand Island dressing, mind you) for one meal a day for about a month and a half. Voila. My latent six-pack is now pretty much visible to the unaided eye.
It's working for me Steve. I just lost 15 pounds using your system. Thanks!!!!
Dan in DC
I know that anonymous Steve- he shouldn't talk
If someone loses 10-15 lbs in a year, I would suggest a thorough medical check-up.
"Steve. You are still a fat ass. Let me know when you lose 60."
lol
"...salted cashews are high in fat and protein, too, but it's hard to stop eating them because they are delicious. "
Even more so on that count are Costco's "Extra Fancy Mixed Nuts." (Nowhere to be found are the plain fancy mixed nuts, or ordinary mixed nuts, go figure).
I've taken the same route as you, but with the mixed nuts, using them for snacks, and even though I've eaten them by the fistful, I've had good results, 25 pounds off so far.
I'll have to try the edamame and see how that works.
"Soybeans are for liberals"
Correction, soybeans are for East Asians. SWPLs stole it from us, just like they steal...our women.
Edamame is tasty, but only if you sprinkle generous amounts of salt on them. Which pretty much makes them not much better than cashews.
Steve, are you really *this* fastidious about your appearance?
I figure my excess 15 pounds will come in handy when the president nationalizes agriculture and liquidates the kulaks.
In contrast, salted cashews are high in fat and protein, too, but it's hard to stop eating them because they are delicious.
Not for me. Cashews give me a headache.
Bantam - for some reason, I find it oddly amusing that the Huffington post would snark about signs that a person's husband is gay. Seems to me that a certain person on that site might want to offer insights of her own.
Snacking is bad for your health.
Tom Naughton's movie "Fat Head" is a fun and smart intro to the low-carb view of things. (I suspect that Gary Taubes had a look at the rough cut and made a few suggestions.)
http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Head-Tom-Naughton/dp/B001NRY6R2/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1283838080&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Anonymous said...
Steve. You are still a fat ass. Let me know when you lose 60.
I smiled.
Fat is good! Eat it - don't avoid it.
You should really avoid soy as well:
http://www.newtreatments.org/why%20are%20grains%20and%20legumes%20so%20unhealthy
I'm pleased that they've helped one of my favorite bloggers drop a few pounds, but the fact remains: soy is not a healthy thing for men to eat.
When taken to extremes (and I think that any intentional consumption is extreme, since so much of it is already surreptitiously folded into our processed foods) soy raises estrogen levels. What happens next? Manboobs and decreased sexual appetite, for starters.
Glaivester,
Some Huffpo smarties took *offense* at the original, which appeared on the pleasurable, slightly onionesque ChristWire.org.
I assume that, miffed by this repulsive moniker, they somewhat missed the irony.
I think I know the Costco product your'e talking about but I've heard the estrogen like compounds in soy will give me gynecomastia so I avoid it. The diets shakes at Costco are also excellent but alas their protein comes from soy.
I managed to lose 40 lbs, and now I've relost 5 of the 10lbs I gained back over 2 years. My conclusions:
You have to work at it, consciously keeping your consumption down.
It's much easier to control your appetite with low carb.
Raw almonds do for me what edamame does for you. (6 calories per almond, so count them.) They can get you over between-meal hunger pangs, and though they're good, they're not that good. I'd gorge on roasted, seasoned almonds.
Seth Roberts' Shangri-La Diet (based on the idea that consuming unflavoured calories lowers your setpoint weight) is not as crazy as it sounds. He may actually be right.
If someone loses 10-15 lbs in a year, I would suggest a thorough medical check-up.
I would suggest at least one thorough medical check up every year, regardless of weight or anything else. But I don't think losing 10=15 pounds through conscious effort is necessarily a cause for concern.
Soy, which is calcium rich, may not be benign when consumed in large quantities by middle age men. Korean medical studies have linked it to an increase in prostate cancer. And it contains phytoestrogens which can damage or inhibit the development of the male reproductive organs when over-consumed. It's suspected as one reason Asian males have such diminutive dingle-dangles.
I'm actually surprised Steve recommends any kind of binging for a diet plan. It's so unscientific. If ya gotta nosh, try celery and and apple slices.
Bantam,
I should have been more clear. I understand that it didn't originate at HuffPo. My point was that perhaps the eponymous Huff might want to consider what she has to learn from articles like that rather than being offended at them.
I find it funny that the paleo and hbd bloggers are joining forces.
I stick with vegetables - especially carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes - and whole wheat bread, lightly salted nuts, and even hard-boiled eggs; avoid soda and go with water, vegetable juice, and milk/chocolate milk.
Fruit is good, but avoid dried fruit - too easy to consume too much. Think of how many grapes there are in a handful of raisins.
Variety is important. You're likely to get tired of one single goto snack item, and it isn't good nutritionally, either. If what's said about soy is correct, then it isn't good in other ways, either.
Simple. Calories in, calories out.
As far as all of you afraid of soy, the latest studies show it's perfectly fine for men to consume and you might even live a little longer.
Studies from the centenarian population in Okinawa (where they consume lots of soy protein and next to or little meat) show that the genetic factor is minimal and diet and their outlook on life is key. They also do not suffer a lot of the typical illnesses of old age that those in the west do (heart attacks, cancer etc.) Okinawans that immigrate to other places and adapt to a Western diet of high saturated fats and a high stress lifestyle (such as the lifestyle of the Japanese that live on the mainland) have) have the same life expectancy as all others that consume the same diet.
Speaking of cashews, my dog loves them. He steals the bag and chews it open. If I try to get it back he growls at me.
I used to feed them to him but on the trail I found that his poop would have the whole nuts still in them totally undigested.
This is what we need for humans - something fabulously delicious but completely alien to human digestion.
Someday your will will weaken and you won't be able to eat all those stinky soy beans - and if you did, they still would have food value.
We something else entirely - styrofoam?
Albertosaurus
If a man wants to engage in safe soys, better he should eat the fermented varieties like miso and tempeh.
For the past week or so, I have used an old weightlifter's trick for increasing testosterone - abstention from carbs after midday.
Since what Steve calls the "manly molecule" is inversely correlated with body fat, those men who want to lose some blubber might want to try it.
I can tell you this: it has shot my libido through the roof. "Morning wood" is now a daily, instead of rare, occurrence.
Here's the thing to remember: portion control.
More than anything else, that's the key to weight loss and maintenance. It's so true that it's become a cliche; it's why Italians and French people are generally thinner than Americans despite eating a fat- and carb-rich diet.
By all means, have a filet mignon for dinner, but have a 4 oz portion, not the 8-12 oz portion usually served in American restaurants.
Haagen Dazs ice cream is sold in Dixie-cup sized portions as well as the usual pints. It's same rich, delicious ice cream as in the larger containers, but the little cups have only 230-310 calories (depending on the flavor). They satisfy the need for dessert without doubling the fat and calorie intake of the meal.
Oh, and there's no need to have 3 full meals a day. Eat sparingly at breakfast and lunch so you can enjoy a satisfying dinner. It will give you something to look forward to while you're downing the yogurt or energy bar and diet soda that serve as your lunch. The worst thing you can do is try to make every meal "low fat" or "low cal." You'll end up enjoying nothing that you eat and stuffing yourself to make up for it. Save the cals/fat for one good meal a day.
Mind you, if I could stick faithfully to these rules, I wouldn't keep gaining and losing the same 20 lbs over and over; but they do work.
'"Morning wood" is now a daily, instead of rare, occurrence.'
Morning wood is a neurological phenomenon related to REM sleep, not testosterone.
Where did all these Cosmo guys come from?
Well said. Altho I think Vdare skirts the main issue....I realize that you do what you have to do. Education..what a bunch of crapola. School isnt where I learned anything. I got validated. I taught myself. I was interested in things. Its all racial. If you dont have the raw material, thats it. I am Germanic-Celtic. But despite my "white privelige" and the fact that my ancestors came to VA with the Jamestown company...I was the first in my family to attend college. For what good it did me. My son has graduated, he delivers pizzas. Maybe he should start saying he's black on his apps.
"Soybeans are or liberals." This statement actually made me smile a bit... well... just a bit.
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