The Potato Hack

[davidbo]

Hi Jordan,

Have you heard of the potato hack?

Basically for a period of time like 3 to 5 days you eat nothing but white potatoes. You can eat as much potato as you want whenever you get hungry. This is supposed to force your body to burn its own fat since you aren’t getting any in the potato and since potatoes have protein you don’t experience muscle loss.

I just did this for 3 days and the results were dramatic – lost 4 pounds, an inch around the middle, and I don’t seem to have lost muscle. I didn’t have to do a reset on the weights.

I’ve tried straight fasting and basically it just make me miserable and I get weak and waste away.

Maybe this is a good thing to do once a month to offset the inevitable fat increase from eating to gain? Anyway, I’m going to try it.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

A little late for April Fool's, don't you think?

[jkolt]

Hi Jordan,

Have you heard of the potato hack?

Basically for a period of time like 3 to 5 days you eat nothing but white potatoes. You can eat as much potato as you want whenever you get hungry. This is supposed to force your body to burn its own fat since you aren’t getting any in the potato and since potatoes have protein you don’t experience muscle loss.

I just did this for 3 days and the results were dramatic – lost 4 pounds, an inch around the middle, and I don’t seem to have lost muscle. I didn’t have to do a reset on the weights.

I’ve tried straight fasting and basically it just make me miserable and I get weak and waste away.

Maybe this is a good thing to do once a month to offset the inevitable fat increase from eating to gain? Anyway, I’m going to try it.

While this post is beyond idiotic, its only surprising because it was written here. I hear crazy shit like this non-lifters all the time.

[davidbo]

No joke - it's a real thing. Lots of info out there about it including a good book.

[Walker]

As strange as it sounds, this is a real thing. I was discussing it with my vegan friend the other day (we're an odd combination).

It's basically a diet with extremely low food reward that ends up spontaneously reducing caloric intake for most people. There's a story floating around the web of this Australian man who's on day 100ish of a year long potato diet and is down 333 to 270.

Obviously it's incompatible with heavy resistance exercise but I don't think that's exactly the point of it.

[mkgillman]

A little late for April Fool's, don't you think?

No way! Didn't you see how ripped Matt Damon was in the Martian?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

No joke - it's a real thing. Lots of info out there about it including a good book.

No, I know that people actually do this and someone wrote a book about it- but that doesn't make it a good option for 99% of people.

It's basically a diet with extremely low food reward that ends up spontaneously reducing caloric intake for most people. There's a story floating around the web of this Australian man who's on day 100ish of a year long potato diet and is down 333 to 270.

That's not very impressive compared to other diets, as they all do about the same. Rate of regain would be the most problematic. That said, I'm all for lowering food reward in those who have a tough time not overeating.

Obviously it's incompatible with heavy resistance exercise but I don't think that's exactly the point of it.

This is a deal killer for me, especially when I know the benefits of vigorous exercise FAR outweigh the benefits of losing 10lbs (after 5 years).

[crookedfinger]

This is a deal killer for me, especially when I know the benefits of vigorous exercise FAR outweigh the benefits of losing 10lbs (after 5 years).

I appreciate this comment. For some reason, my paradigm has never quite shifted around weight loss vs. exercise and the general population. We seem to equate weight loss with health, but more and more, I am realizing this is not necessarily reality. That said, if someone came to you looking to "lose weight" and you could only focus on one aspect, would you attempt to get them to reframe the dilemma and push more for vigorous exercise instead of diet/nutrition and a calorie deficit?

[davidbo]

This is a hack not a diet. You do it for a short period of time like 3 days and then you resume your regular schedule of lifting and eating. For example.

I'm 55 yo, 5'9", 205 lbs, and I wanted to lose some FAT.

After 3 days of potatoes I weighed 201 and I believe the 4 lbs loss was mostly fat. I could be wrong about this but my waste is definitely smaller by and inch. The 3 days was during a scheduled break from my regular lifting schedule. After the three days I went right back and resumed my regular schedule and did not need a reset.

So now I hope to gain back the body weight with a higher percentage of that 4 lbs being muscle. I'm thinking if I do the hack every 4 or five weeks it will allow me to make gains and keep my body comp under control. I do the 3 days rest anyway so I am losing nothing there.

There also appears to be some goodness to this in the way of resetting your bodies metabolic processes so that when you resume your normal diet and activities your body is more efficient.

[Simon Rest]

... I know the benefits of vigorous exercise FAR outweigh the benefits of losing 10lbs (after 5 years).