[Closed] iDave diet, who done it?

A pal mentioned this over the weekend and has lost a few kg on it so I'm gonna give it a try as I've been trying to lose half a stone / stone for a while but even upping exercise hasn't done anything.

Only thing that worries me is that when I've tried cutting out simple carbs in the past I've felt a bit weak and lacking in ebergy. Has anyone else had this? Does it pass? I am training at the moment so don't want to screw myself up; I've always been a fan of loading up on carbs post exercise to prevent any low the next day. I shall try this and see...

Just started giving it a go. Headaches at end of second day, maybe not enough water, too much espresso, change in diet I assume it'll settle down.

I managed a couple of months on the Mark Sissons Primal Blueprint diet. Went well for the time I did it, but I like the idea of being able to have beans, peas, pulses which are off that diet.

I'm interested in the 'fruit' definition though.

At the moment I'm going with the 'if it goes in the fruit bowl' it's off the list, but if it goes in the fridge salad box it's in, so tomatoes, peppers, cucumber are OK. Obviously not scientific in the sense of definition of a fruit, but it sort of makes sense.

I guessed it would just be an initial temporary thing I'm sure it also happened when I had a go at the Atkins years ago. Lack of sleep maybe too revising for an OU exam so had a couple of late nights.

I also found that green tea helps to stave off hunger.

Can we have sweet potatoes or are they off limits too?

Sweet potatoes are 'low GI', but this isn't strictly a GI diet as dairy isn't allowed, so would say not, unless someone with underestanding says it won't affect the mechanisms of the diet.

Green tea, sparkling water and coffee work well for me to stave off hunger, although that is one surprising thing, I don't really feel hunger so much any more.

RE Fruit - custard test. DWISOTT. Anything sugary will go with custard, anything not - won't, is my reckoning. As scientific as it gets 😀

personally I take the diet at face value

Sweet potatoes are 'low GI', but this isn't strictly a GI diet as dairy isn't allowed, so would say not

as they aren't on the don't list I eat them as part of the regime

I would wait for iDave to ammend the list to clarify

I've found it can be hard to get enough carbs this way because I can only get so many legumes down me. I can start to feel worse and worse towards the end of the week before cheat day. I sometimes get headachey when I don't have enough carbs so sometimes when I feel really crappy I just top up with something bad. Possibly doesn't help the diet but it certainly helps my general state of being.

I think headaches could be a risk for us sweet tooths coming to the diet.

Dave, in your emailed notes (from last year) you said you soak a load of beans/pulses once a week and then split into portions. Do you just keep these in the fridge? Or do you freeze them?

Just asking because IME chickpeas last 3-4 days in the fridge; lentils 2 days (before going squidgy), and other beans maybe 3-4 days too.

Are you getting a full week out of yours once cooked?

Ta

[i]Dave, in your emailed notes (from last year) you said you soak a load of beans/pulses once a week and then split into portions. Do you just keep these in the fridge? Or do you freeze them?[/i]

After boiling, etc. Beans are diveed up into portions, bagged and frozen.

When I have time, I will boil up some beans. Favs are Pinto beans, chick peas and Cannellini beans.
When I'm pressed for time though, its the tetra packed beans from the usual supermarket suspects.
I'm mostly on the tetra packs at the moment.

I'm currently on salads, beans and the odd stir fry or chilli, along with that winning Combo, lentils and bacon.

I'm interested in the 'fruit' definition though.

If you're being strictly botranical with your definitions then fruit = contains seeds.
So tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, aubergines and many other things we commonly call vegetables are in fact fruits.
As far as I understand it, the iFruits are those with high sugar content so in other words your fruit bowl items.
The 'custard rule' is about as good as it gets really 🙂

bagged and frozen

That's probably what I'll start doing then. Have been doing them in batches and always keeping in the fridge until now.

lentils and bacon

Defo. Has to be smoked bacon though - preferably with red lentils, chicken stock, garlic and a few spices. Major nommage.

Spot on HillDodger.
The Custard rule, err.... rules
😀

[i]Has to be smoked bacon though - preferably with red lentils, chicken stock, garlic and a few spices. [b]Major nommage[/b].[/i]

Most definately.
😀

Question.

When is the "week of will and mind" ?. Is it during February ?.

😆

my missus also wants to know about sweet potatoes

she has made a huge vege-mince shepherds pie, topped with sweet potatoe......

its currently in the freezer awaiting her 'rest day' unless someone can advise

save it for the rest day.

and sweet potato on shepherds pie is just wrong 😉

Just had my favourite meal of the week. Chicken, chorizo and chickpea stew with mashed parsnip and steamed garlic spinach.

Hard work huh ? 😉

You poor thing, being forced to eat that muck. And having to send me money all the time too.

iDave = sadist.

Just had my favourite meal of the week. Chicken, chorizo and chickpea stew with [b]mashed parsnip[/b] and steamed garlic spinach.

I've just had (lean) sausages, brocolli, leeks and spinach, along with mixed beans and mashed parsnip in place of the chips the rest of the family had.

Now I'm wondering whether parsnip chips are kosher within the idave diet scheme of things? I love parsnip chips and I can't see why not. Looks like I'll be tucking into them two or three times a week then 🙂

Can we make it a rule that if you use the expression Nom when describing food, and you're not 12, you have to punch yourself in the head?

parnsip chips are fine

nom, twack...

It's a lolcat-ism.

2 salmon fillets for dinner, with lots of veg. Moving onto pumpkin seeds now. Num num num.

cheers idave

i dont get on with veg-emince and im not keen on sweet potatoes, so i might match the missus diet rest day with vanishing for a long day on the bike

so thanks, twice i guess.

[i]It's a lolcat-ism.[/i]

it's an annoying-ism. 😆

Nom nom nom

[img] [/img]

Just paying homage to nomage

Ooh, very sharp.

I'm going to bed now.

i want to do this but i can see it being hella expensive. an expense to which student loans cannot stretch to 🙁

It's not at all expensive float, not the way I do it???

I'm a student! On student loan, with no other suppport. As said above it's costing me and my gf £60 ish a week, so £30 a person per week. Normal food spend for me has always been £25 to £30.

Try to maximise the cheap filling things such as lentils/dried beans to replace the previous cheap filling things (pasta etc), and cost shouldn't be much different. Would definitely suggest giving it a try. 10 days in now and enjoying it. The wii suggests I've lost a tiny bit, and the gf has lost some too. No side effects apart from rabbit droppings 🙂 😕

I reckon it can be done on the cheap. Send me a tenner and I'll tell you how.

GRRR! 3rd week of doing this now.

Started at 88kg
Week 1 - lost 3kg
Week 2 - lost nothing
Week 3 - lost nothing.

I could cope with nothing lost during week 2 as I did have a 2-day break (we went to friends for the Easter weekend) but nothing during week 3 despite sticking to the diet is a little de-motivating. Especially as I feel I've lost a fair amount of 'snap' when on my bike (was able to up the power up hills quite easily, but now find myself grinding up in a lower gear.)

Maybe it's because I have been eating a gluten free diet for several years so I'm used to avaoiding large 'white carb' intake (mainly through avoiding bread and pasta), but so far I've seen nothing that I wouldn't have achieved from simpy cutting out the crisps and GF cakes that I was scoffing in the weeks before I started.

I'll give it another week since I have the food in the cupboard and see what happens.....

Ben

Ben, drink plenty of water, don't forget it's not a low carb plan so plenty of beans, keep at it - and don't try and eat less, keep eating normal amounts.

Thanks iDave - I upped the water quantity this week after seeing your advice to others and Mrs BOAS reckons i'll never lose any weight given the portion sizes I eat!

I'm grateful for the 3kg lost so far and the fact that the diet isn't restrictive in terms of calories or portions is what attracted me to starting a 'diet' in the first place, so my thanks to you for that!

Ben

Just had a nice brekkie from Pod, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, nori and wasabi powder. Yum

Hoping to touch 84kg by the end of the week. This is a major milestone for me.

Hoping to get under 90kg with this weeks wiegh-in (tomorrow), lost 2.5kg in the first week (and wasn't that strict on it) so have been very strict this week!

I'll echo the advice re water. Even when not strictly on the diet I make a point of drinking 1/2 pint+ of water before I eat anything and as much as I can reasonably drink at other times.

Apart from the obvious hydration benefits to skin etc. it suppresses the appetite (for me anyway) and makes the whole digestive system more efficient.

Dave, can't remember if we've covered this before - what's your take on fruit? I can understand how the sugars etc can mess with the diet's vibe, but surely eating fruit only once per week isn't 'good'.

surely eating fruit only once per week isn't 'good'.

If you weren't eating lots of veg every day I might agree.

Most veg are surely more nutritious than most fruit..?

What evidence do you have to support eating a lot of veg is a healthy way to 'avoid' eating fruit?

Doesn't seem right in my book - and I'm sure plenty of scientists/nutritionists etc would also disagree. Hence interested in how you substantiate that. After all, your idea is that the iDave diet is a 'way of eating' as opposed to a fad/short-term plan.

I'm not dissing your diet BTW, it's just that loads of us eat fruit because it's just part of our diet. Yet if we have to drop this (and risk losing out on vital vitamins etc that can't be picked up elsewhere), then surely this isn't the healthiest option possible.

Look at the feedback for various high-protein/low-carb diets: no fruit = plenty of people struggle to accept it.

and risk losing out on vital vitamins etc that can't be picked up elsewhere

Like what? (honest question - I don't know)

I'm not dissing your diet BTW, it's just that loads of us eat fruit because it's just part of our diet. Yet if we have to drop this (and risk losing out on vital vitamins etc that can't be picked up elsewhere), then surely this isn't the healthiest option possible.

Look at the feedback for various high-protein/low-carb diets: no fruit = plenty of people struggle to accept it.

Why not just adopt the iDave diet, but eat fruit aswell? Thus creating your own diet. Best of both worlds and you get to eat how you want to.

Like what? (honest question - I don't know)

I don't know either. A Google seems to throw fruit AND veg into the same equation, as opposed to document why one is in any way 'better' than the other.

Why not just adopt the iDave diet, but eat fruit aswell? Thus creating your own diet. Best of both worlds and you get to eat how you want to.

Because avoiding fruit is said to be a key factor in managing insulin levels etc, hence end result being better weight management blah blah.

Therefore if one was to follow the diet but also eat fruit, then initial weight loss and subsequent management may well go out the window. Ergo, what's the point in that?

Doing some of the iDave diet gives some of the effect. So even if you ate fruit you'd still get benefit.

I read somewhere that the really nutritious stuff is stuff that is seeds (ie legumes in this case) and brassicacae ie cabbage, broccoli. I suppose I'd add onions and garlic to that list too - those things are all packed with nutrients. Not much in oranges and apples beyond vitamin C is there? And despite all the fuss that's easy as anything to get enough of.

Ben, drink plenty of water, don't forget it's not a low carb plan so plenty of beans

Wow! what a difference! I drank a huge amount of water yesterday (well over the top, so I thought) but what a difference to last night's ride! 3 hours of full-on bean power! Brilliant!

Also, the rabbity droppings I've been producing have stopped. I've just had to contact the coastguard and inform them of the danger to shipping that I've just produced 😳

Arghhh! My iDave diet has now totaly fallen apart. I just absentmindedly ate half of the complementary coffee biscuit that came with my double espresso at the local tea rooms 😉

I'm not upset slugwash, I'm disappointed....

Lol 🙂

I had a cake yesterday as my pre-ride carb snack 😯

Actually in all fairness I'm finding it hard to carb up enough on beans and legumes alone. Last few weeks I've been really very weak on my commute by the end of the week. This week I've had more carbs around and during my rides and I feel ok now. Plus I've done more workouts this week too.

But are you still losing weight molly?

I need a plan that'll help me drop a little bit more bodyfat but will allow me to train a bit harder.

How's the experimental phase going Mr iDave?

Umm.. hard to tell as I had a blowout over easter weekend. I touched 85 before Easter, went up to 87 and am now reliably 85. A few weeks ago my face was looking quite hollow and drawn, a sign I'm under-hydrated and/or under-fuelled and/or exhausted, from experience. Now I am still 85 and I look fine. So I suspect I am still losing fat.

Seems to be a balancing act...

EDIT Thanks to DD for pointing out that typo. Now your post makes no sense 🙂

58? 😯

so can i snack on carrot sticks or what ?

Umm.. yes.

Molly... weigh in this morning... down to almost 75kg!

Good lad 🙂

58 pre-ride cakes is insania

Arghhh! My iDave diet has now totaly fallen apart. I just absentmindedly ate half of the complementary coffee biscuit that came with my double espresso at the local tea rooms

You'll need to display a steelier resolve than that to ride Lustleigh Cleave at the weekend 😉

Been on the diet for about 3 weeks now. Dropped from about 75kg to about 71 - very happy!
However, I really struggled on my ride to work this morning and had to break open some haribos and biscuits at my desk - not ideal, but I've decided to call it a 'Friday morning off'. Back to normal in time for lunch...

Nick

Molly is 2.9 kg today.

Oh, not that Molly.

Is marmalade allowed?

yes, you can have pots of marmalade, one day a week

molly can have it anytime

Mmmm...dreaming of marmalade 🙂
[IMG] [/IMG]

Bit of a slow in wieght loss this week, 2.5 lbs, compared to 5 last week still half a stone in two weeks aint bad?

That's alarming, hugh! You must need a lot of new clothes? 🙂

No new clothes yet, the old tight ones fit better now though!

Hugh - I'm in a similar position - clothes that were really a little on the small side are now perfect! And I've dropped a hole or two on my belt!

nickb - were you carrying a bit of balast before?

*wonders if 71kg is attainable*

You need a bodyfat measurement, that's what you need.

I'm working on the 'how much can I pinch' and 'what belly looks like when I'm sat down'... I think I can get leaner

With my half a stone off i'm now 14st 4 lbs or 90.7kg (for any gay euro types) with 17.8% bodyfat, so a fair bit more to come hopefully?

Hugh... how are you getting your bodyfat %?

TSY - I was about 77-78kg (roughly 12st) - not hugely out of shape, but a definite belly and in need of dropping a few kilos.

I started doing a bit more exercise and generally eating better about 8 weeks ago - dropped to about 75 quite easily, but then stayed there.

Started the iDave regime about 3 weeks ago and now around 71kg, so all good. Aiming to get to 70 by the end of next week (roughly 11st) - so I'll have dropped a stone in about 2 months.

For me, that will be enough - I'll start eating cereal for breakfast again etc, but I have actually quite enjoyed the recent foods I've been eating - my chorizo, mushroom, tomato and spinach omelet was delicious! And the lentils/beans/stuff has been great.

Nick

nick, can i suggest when you reach target, keep the iBreakfast and change the other meals?

iDave - I really love my bowls of shredded wheat/muesli/fruit & fibre etc. I reckon I could do an iBreakfast 2-3 times a week, but probably cereal the other days.

Is it the cereal, or the milk that's the main issue? I understand milk causes spikes in insulin, so is there something else (other than water) that I could take with cereal to help, albeit recognising it's not part of the iDave plan?

Nick

TSY - sorry for the delay in replying been searching for Mummy Middleton porn!

I got a set of those Tanita scales a few years back when I was 17 st 7lbs and starting at wiegh****chers (yes really) and they have seemed reasonably accurate? (well the fat % dropped as I lost wieght)

I did get down to 13st 5 lbs, but even with doing Le-jog, Trans Wales, 300k Audax rides, 12hr Time Trials etc the wieght had sneaked back up to 14st 11, the iDave has made me realise that carbs are Satan spawn!

I'm working on the 'how much can I pinch' and 'what belly looks like when I'm sat down'... I think I can get leaner

You need to post some pics, even if it's just of your torso 🙂

Hugh - the scales are ok for seeing trends, but then so is a mirror. They are bobbins for actual measurements.

the iDave has made me realise that [b]white[/b] carbs are Satan spawn

FTFY. You need carbs.

Do I need to drop my 0% fat Actimel I take my supplements with in the morning (it's not a problem I will just not buy any more when I finish with what I've got), I am intending to start the iDave Monday coming. I've lost 13 kg the last 12 months but want to loose the last bit and I seem to have plateaued (86kg-88kg), this seems just the ticket. (I'm 5'10 1/2" sorry for metric/imperial mashing).