From 420lbs and a 66in waist is a normal body possible?

[andyswarbs]

In support of veganuary where 350,000 people are experiencing the lifestyle for the first time plant based news has shared the story of a mega weightloss using the healthy end of a vegan lifestyle, a whole food plant based diet. Quite a transformation on a high carb diet.

youtu.be/HsPTsn7mg6c(Not working as expected?)

[TheAwfulToad]

Surely the takeaway point here is not that he went vegan, but that he stopped eating a diet of relentless garbage?

His comparison with drug addiction and withdrawal is entirely accurate, but his transition would have involved more than just eliminating meat. Otherwise, you might argue that he could have carried on with his McDonalds and Coke habit as long as he threw away the meat patty. That would be accurately described as a "high-carb diet". I find it highly unlikely that what he is eating now is high in carbs (or at least high in high-GI carbs).

The problem here is confirmation bias. People make 50 different changes to their lifestyle and seize on one particular factor that they think is important (eg., eliminating meat). Aha! they say, it must have been the meat that was making me fat. No. It was the other 49 things. The meat was irrelevant.

[andyswarbs in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Sure, anyone who is ill should get rid of refined carbs. That can be a challenge on its own since refined carbs are totally uniquitous in most processed foods, most restaurant and takeaway food - especially cakes, biscuits, puddings and other deserts. The refined nature makes them more customisable into totally attractive products. The average cake is the ultimate with a standard recipe of refined flour, sugar, salt and fat, blend and bake. Also many burgers are bulked with refined flours and then served in refined buns. Refined carbs are definitely an enemy, especially since when they are eaten it is ALWAYS in conjunction with fats.

This is why going whole food plant based is so easy. In any supermarket in the world walk down the vegetables aisle and then the wholefoods section. After that you can almost go to the checkout without further ado and have very complete & healthy nutrition at minimal cost.

That said, to your further point, if I can be boring to repeat, had I JUST followed a healthy vegan lifestyle I would not have recovered from my arthritis. Any recovery from chronic illness is a complex issue where you success means you need to look at every aspect of your life. I still cannot eat tomatoes despite many (and I mean many) measured attempts without causing a distasteful reaction. Also, and I don't say this often, in the very early days of my recovery I was dowsed for optimal nutritional profile and the foods I eat today roughly match that profile. (Some foods from that profile I have removed, but no others added.)

So yes, he would have looked far and wide at what he was about as a person to achieve his current status.

As to whether the diet is high carb or not I note the background at the start of the video is fom the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Here is their web page on diet with a couple of recipes. pcrm.org/good-nutrition and undoubtedly he would have followed something like this, possibly with specific modifications.

Finally as to your point about confirmation bias. I cannot recommend highly enough the joe rogan podcast featuring Chris Kresser and James Wilks, where James shows in microscopic detail how Chris cherry picks studies to support his confirmation bias. I certainly learnt a lot from this talk.