The GI for yams/sweet potatoes is 51-54. You can find a more complete listing at
You get all your carb from veggies? Wow. Tell me anything you noticed different from your previous diets lacking in a lot of veggies if you don’t mind? I hate spending a lot of time preparing meals, so I tend to eat all my veggies raw, so unless they can be eaten raw, I don’t bother w/ them (fair game: tomatoes, spinach, lettuce of all kind, cucumber, celery, green peppers, squash, mushrooms, broccoli, and cauliflower – I gross out everyone at work by eating them raw without dressing Haha). You also noted that you didn’t lose any BF but gained a lot of muscles. What were you goals at that time? (I’m assuming that it was muscle gain not fat loss per se) I’m trying to increase my veggie consumption by following Dr. Mercola’s recommendation and eat over 2 lbs of raw veggies/day. (And it’s way too much veggies if you ask me!)
Kate, Renegade Training is something that Coach John Davies has written about in T-mag a few times. It’s basically a form of training that uses rope training, kettlebell lifts, hybrid Olympic lifts, weight training and GPP (general physical prepartion). The workouts are fast-paced and very demanding. But they will get you in the best shape of your life. Check out some of Coach Davies articles on T-mag (Renegade Training, Fat to Fire, Top Nine Functional Exercises, Renegade Training for Bodybuilding, etc). Also, be sure to check out renegadetraining.com for more information on specific programs. Since you play soccer, you may be interested in purchasing a program specifically for soccer players. Trust me, Renegade Training will cut your bodyfat down very quickly, and you’ll be amazed that you can still eat plenty of food and continue to get leaner.
I get the majority of my carbs from veggies. Post-workout, I take 80g of carbs (and 50g protein) and usually this carb is in the source of bread. The rest of my carbs I get from veggies (but I include peas too, since they’re so tasty and easy).
Until I started this diet, I’ve been eating Berardi style and wasn’t gaining weight (eating BIG Berardi style is incredibly fatiguing and expensive so I didn’t always do that). I decided that I needed to lose some fat (a week at the beach will turn you a little narcissistic), and this “high veggie” diet was quite a bit lower calorie (about 500-800) so I thought it would do the trick.
The first thing I noticed was that my meals took WAY longer.
The second thing I noticed was that I could consume larger meals without a negative side-effect (from 300 cal meals to 700 cal meals).
The third thing I noticed is that if I failed to take out “dietary fibre” from my carb allotment, I quickly ran out of energy (I suspect I was nearing ketosis).
The fourth thing I noticed is that I started piling on the weight! It was crazy, let me tell you. I’m still raving about it. I’ve currently gained 7lbs since Eric started the Poliquin Diet thread. Normally I gain on average a pound a month. And my body-fat is getting lower and lower (especially since I started doing more cardio). It’s amazing.
Oh, I do have the occassional cheat meal. Probably once every 4 days (I’m not interested in ketosis). Usually some type of “clean” pasta (no cheese, creams, etc.) Hope this helps, I haven’t really said anything new.
El_machinae, do you mind telling me once again what’s you macronutrient split? How much protein are you getting?
Thanks for the info. Did you get the veggie thingie from Poliquin diet? I unfortunately missed the entire thread due to work. (Before anyone yells at me for using that as an excuse, I BILLED 90 hours/week for the past 3 weeks. And when I say I “billed” it means the hours do not include lunch and dinner breaks.) I will go back and dig out the thread if it’s still available.
Restless: 1gC, 1gF, 2gP per pound of bodyweight. This originally included my post-workout meal (50g P, 80g C). When I started doing cardio in the morning though, I added another post-workout meal that increase my carbs by 80g. I figured to replace some of the glycogen burnt during the cardio. I guess the original formula was for only one workout a day.
Stella, yeah I started this diet based on the Poliquin diet. I’m sure the search engine will bring it up. … which brings me to another point. You will read about explosive shits. Um, it’s true. You have about five minutes from the warning pains starting to trying to get your pants off in time.
I must warn you though, this type of eating is a bit on the fatiguing side. It’s a lot of chewing.
Oh yeah, Restless. I eat about 40g of my fats as Salmon oil. And a cheat day about every four days.
Can someone please help me find the Polquin diet support group thread mentioned in this thread? I couldn’t find it with the search.
Steamed veggies make all the difference for me. Lightly steam them and practice combing different veggies for a nice crisp medley.
A good bamboo steamer can be had for 10-15 bucks.
One note: If you buy bagged lettuce or other greens, WASH IT!!!
I’ve been in some bagged greens plants. They are rinsed with a heavily chlorinated water and briefly spun dry. The bagged greens can still carry a fair amount of chlorine.
Eric,
Is Corn similar to bread on the GI? What are your thoughts about microwaving and how it apparantly destroys almost all the beneficial vitamins in food while causing potential dangerous by products?
-Zulu
The GI is going to be important, but I personally don’t feel its as important as eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. You body is designed to process things that come from nature, it isn’t necessarily good at processing things that have already been processed; or rather, maybe its a little too good at it. Breads are made from grains that have been processed; while “stone-ground” bread is better than “Wonder” bread, its still processed.
The advice here is great; stay away from the grocery store breads and pastas and substitute with veggies as much as possible.
Patricia is dead on with the advice about the flax bread. I use a flax tortilla that is the same size as a normal one, wraps like a normal one, but has very little fat, very low carbs (relative) and a little protein, and like she said, they taste great. I think a full size flax tortilla is like 75 calories which is about 1/2 what a flour tortilla is and your body will handle it better.
Good luck!
The Poliquin diet can be found by searching for “Charles Poliquin Diet/David Boston,” which was the title. If you need something to further narrow it down, try JC#10 as he posted a number of times in the thread.