I’m about to read it. Based on my knowledge of the guy, I expect the importance and expected efficacy of his findings to be exaggerated. But I definitely consider him worth listening to. I don’t think he’s consciously trying to con anyone.
A general caution about concluding that a new diet regime works: no matter what the change, if it involves food you don’t normally eat, it’s common to eat less calories initially; then you learn to like eating whatever the new thing is (possibly because of flavor-calorie learning—not sure how well proven that hypothesis is—I first heard of it from Seth Roberts) and are back to normal eating. There may be other placebo related reasons that support a new diet working only initially.
Also, some diets change water retention (higher salt → more water held in your body), or amount of undigested mass passing through the GI tract, maybe in a good way—but changes in water weight won’t continue indefinitely.
When I started eating mostly vegetarian a few months ago (by accident, I just didn’t eat meat for a couple of days) I noticed my energy level shooting up, and I had the good (energetic) kind of hunger as dinnertime approached.
When I briefly tried low-carb breakfast and lunch last week, I got the same effect.
Is there an established theory that could explain this? The only thing I can think of is a crackpot-sounding book I once read that said you shouldn’t mix carbs with protein since they’re hard to digest together.
I’m about to read it. Based on my knowledge of the guy, I expect the importance and expected efficacy of his findings to be exaggerated. But I definitely consider him worth listening to. I don’t think he’s consciously trying to con anyone.
A general caution about concluding that a new diet regime works: no matter what the change, if it involves food you don’t normally eat, it’s common to eat less calories initially; then you learn to like eating whatever the new thing is (possibly because of flavor-calorie learning—not sure how well proven that hypothesis is—I first heard of it from Seth Roberts) and are back to normal eating. There may be other placebo related reasons that support a new diet working only initially.
Also, some diets change water retention (higher salt → more water held in your body), or amount of undigested mass passing through the GI tract, maybe in a good way—but changes in water weight won’t continue indefinitely.
When I started eating mostly vegetarian a few months ago (by accident, I just didn’t eat meat for a couple of days) I noticed my energy level shooting up, and I had the good (energetic) kind of hunger as dinnertime approached.
When I briefly tried low-carb breakfast and lunch last week, I got the same effect.
Is there an established theory that could explain this? The only thing I can think of is a crackpot-sounding book I once read that said you shouldn’t mix carbs with protein since they’re hard to digest together.