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I tried the Potato Diet for 3 days – here’s what happened

Call me crazy…

However… Recently I tried the Potato Diet for 3 days. And the results were so surprising, I couldn’t help but share this story with you.

Now.

As you know I’m not a fan of fad diets. Or these “detoxes” and elimination miracle diets floating around on the internet. And maybe I’ll lose credibility for doing something like this. But hey. I just want to be transparent. Plus I have a very important lesson I want to share with you in just a sec.

Anywhoo…

Here’s what happened.

Earlier this year I stumbled upon a post in a fitness forum about the Potato Diet. I’m good friends with Rusty Moore who published a book called “High Carb Fat Loss”, plus he runs the Facebook Group. And inside this private group, I was scrolling through the posts and I discovered what you call the Potato Diet.

At first I scoffed at the idea of this. I mean, what a bloody STUPID idea to eat ONLY white potatoes for 3-5 days?

Ah hello?!

Don’t you know potatoes are super starchy and in high carbs?!

Not to mention they are WHITE.

(shock horror)

Won’t you get sleepy? Gain weight? Feel bloated? Hungry? Bored?

So to say the least…

I was VERY skeptical about this.

Yet curious at the same time.

After researching the origin of the diet, plus seeing the feedback and results from real people who had tried it, I figured why the heck not give it a shot and see what happens.

(by the way, I don’t know if there are any real scientific studies done on this diet. Usually fad diets like this will not get funding for research. So no, it’s not scientifically proven to do anything for you. Just FYI. Again I want to be completely transparent with you here.)

What exactly is the Potato Diet?

Here’s how it works:

Eat only potatoes for 3-5 days. Baked, roasted, mashed. Your choice. Just not fried (duh). And no fun stuff on it, like bacon, cheese, butter, cream. Oh and no potato vodka. (who would have thought?)

Pretty simple, right? Well, as long as you like potatoes.

The length of time you do it depends on how much weight you want to lose. So it’s up to you. (Most people average 1lb/day)

Here’s the cool thing…

You can eat as many potatoes as you like!

The recommendation is 3-5 pounds per day, depending on your appetite.

But you have to stop eating when you’re full. So no fasting or starving on this diet. (YAY!)

Side note and ninja trick: Make sure you cook enough potatoes for the 3 days before you start.

So why did I do the Potato Diet for 3 days?

Here’s why:

(1) To curb my addiction (and reliance) on protein bars.

I usually eat 1-2 RX bars every day. And a Macro bar. The peanut butter chocolate chip flavor is the bomb. Yes they are delicious and convenient. However I know it’s not the healthiest thing to eat for snacks. Or to replace breakfast/lunch/dinner.

(2) To improve my sleep

Truth be told, my sleep has been terrible lately.

I know I know. It’s not healthy. But KV deals with personal issues just like you. And it keeps me up at night sometimes.

I try to get to sleep by no later than 10:09pm so I can sleep 7 hours and get up at 5:09am to hit the gym. But I waa waking up at 3am, 4am – even on the weekends so it was driving me nuts.

(3) To see if I would gain weight

I was so damn curious about this diet… I really wanted to see if I would gain weight.

Plus I never do fad diets but this one didn’t appear to be unsafe (well not like the Master Cleanse diet or those other scary “just drink this magic tea” detoxes.)

So I really wanted to see what would happen to my body.

That’s why I did a day-by-day account of my experience with the Potato Diet, along with daily photos and weight.

Here we go!

DAY 1:

Weight: 148.8lbs

It’s been hovering around the 147-148lb mark for the last 2 months. Granted it was the holidays and I was travelling for 2 weeks (and freestyling with my eating).

8:31am: Breakfast.

My stomach was growling around 8:30am, which is close to my usual breakfast time.

So I warmed up a nice big bowl of roasted potatoes in the mikey (that’s microwave in my slang)

Sat down in my thinking chair. (yes, my furniture has names)

And started eating my delicious breakfast of roasted potatoes.

Surprisingly. It was delicious! I felt very full, very quickly. I could only manage to eat half a bowl – and not because I was grossed out eat bland ol’ potatoes. I was simply full and couldn’t handle anymore.

11:35am:

My stomach growling returned so I figured it was time to eat.

And this time, I was actually hungry. So I heated up a nice bowl of hot roasted potatoes and went to town.

4:21pm

Everything seemed to be going fine – no hunger, no dramas – until the protein bar cravings started.

Now. I usually snack on a protein bar in the afternoon and I was drooling at the thought of eating a chocolate RX bar. But I didn’t cave.

So potatoes it was.

I was really hungry.

Also it helped to distract myself from the cravings by eating potatoes while telling my friend Sierra all about this potato eating experiment I was doing. (She was like, “WTF is going on here?!”)

So yes, I ate a lot of potatoes. But I stopped when I was full, not exploding. (hey, there’s only so many potatoes you can eat before physically have to stop.)

The interesting thing?

I wasn’t hungry for the rest of the night.

When I got home from the gym at 8:30pm, I noticed the only reason I wanted to eat was because that’s what I usually did. But I wasn’t truly hungry. And didn’t feel like eating anymore potatoes. So I had just a couple of bites and called it a night.

I wasn’t bloated. I felt lighter and less achy in my body.

DAY 2:

Morning Pic:

I don’t have scales in my house, so I waited until I got to the gym. Same time as day 1 though.

Weight: 145.7lbs
(note: It’s probably water weight. Not going to lie and claim I lost 3 lbs of fat overnight)

I slept 6 hours interrupted and woke up before 5:09am feeling fresh. Head less foggy. And ready for action.

The best I’ve felt waking up in ages!

I definitely noticed a change in my abs. I felt tighter and leaner. Less bloated and overall.

Started feeling hungry at 9:30am so had a little snack. (of potatoes – surprise surprise)

Then chowed down on a big bowl of hot potatoes after a quick workout around 11:45am. Seems to be when I get the most hungry.

4pm: More potatoes. Roasted. Delicious. I could tell the other trainers at the gym were jealous of my warm potato goodness

DINNER: Major Roadbump…

8:30pm

I was craving anything and everything.

Sushi, donuts. Even plain rice cakes looked delish – and you know, that’s like eating cardboard.

Seriously, I thought it was the end for me.

However, I went home and did a little “creative cooking”. And I transformed my mashed Yukon potatoes into a healthy style of home fries – (by the way, “home fries” are just crispy potatoes that Americans like to eat for breakfast. Brilliant idea America.)

And I’ll be honest. I was trying to follow the traditional diet to a tee. However I caved and added organic whole grain mustard to spice it up. (Pun intended)

Survived Day 2.

DAY THREE:

Now this was the big pay off day in terms of ab definition – I woke up and was like OMG!

Morning weight at the gym: 144lbs

I slept 7 hours straight and woke up right before my 5:09am alarm went off. Slightly tired (ie. I would have loved another hour) but felt good. Nothing a caffeinated beverage wouldn’t fix. Head not foggy.

I ate 3 rounds of potatoes.

Round 1: roasted potatoes

Round 2: mashed potatoes

Round 3: jacket potatoes

And then I was over it and done.

Day 3 was definitely the most challenging. The most rewarding because I could SEE the difference in my body. I didn’t care too much for hte number on the scale – I just wanted my definition back.

THE OVERALL RESULTS…

Alrighty. This the moment you’ve been waiting for.

The most important thing is I managed to sleep soundly, and feel rested.

My digestion improved.

And overall, my body felt WAY better.

No bloating.

Also, I didn’t feel overly hungry or get hangry. (you know, angry because you’re hungry). Which is a huge plus.

My energy levels stayed consistent throughout the day.

I did not eat a single protein bar despite the cravings. (and intend to stay off these little snacks for a while)

Now I have a newfound appreciation for the favors of different foods.

++++++++

In 3 days I lost 4.8 lbs. WOWZAS!

And I know. Weight loss wasn’t my main goal.

But did I keep rebound? Hang on, I’ll tell you in just a sec.

I thought I would gain weight, since I already have more muscle. If anything, having more muscle will help you on the Potato Diet.

It really depends on how your body metabolizes carbs. And of course, everyone is different.

DAY 10 UPDATE – one week after I started.

Weight: 142.7 lbs (same time in the morning)

I thought it was really important to share my results a full week post Potato diet. You know, since rebound weight gain is usually pretty common with fad diets.

Now surprisingly, I didn’t regain any weight. In fact, I lost another pound or so.

My sleep was on point all week. Waking up feeling rested and without brain fog.

Here’s an important key point:

I’m still unsure as to why I’ve kept my weight down. My meals have been the same.

However the #1 thing that improved over the 10 days was my sleep. I’ve been consistentely getting 7.5-8 hours of quality sleep each night.

And honestly, it makes a huge difference!

My body has felt relaxed. Which is key to keeping your stress hormones, like cortisol down so you can burn fat.

FAQ’S

I know you have a million questions – so let me try and nail some of them for you…

Did You Lose Muscle KV? Wouldn’t you lose muscle in the process?

This is a very good question and one reason I was apprehensive about this diet

To be honest, I have no idea if I officially lost any muscle because I didn’t measure my body fat on Day 1. (Silly billy – that would have been a good idea!)

However doing a side by side you can see I’m leaned out and have more definition in my abs. And honestly, that’s all I care about compared to the numbers.

Could it be water weight you lost?

Absolutely.

However what makes me question this is the fact I DID NOT cut carbs. I ate ONLY carbs. And turns out potatoes do have protein. One large potato (369 grams) has 7 grams of protein. Not too shabby.

Also, keep in mind 1g of carbs holds 4g of water, since they bind together to store as glycogen in your muscles.

Eating more carbs brought out my ripped leanness.

Isn’t it boring to eat potatoes all day long?

Hahaha. Well. You definitely have to get creative with both the variety of potatoes and the cooking method..

My best piece of advice is to cook all the potatoes in one go – we’re talking like 10-15 lbs dependning on your appetite.

Here’s a few ideas:

You can roast Yukon Gold potatoes – they are definitely my favorite. Mash them (without butter,cream or milk), boil them, bake Russet potatoes (the brown jacket ones – just no bacon/sour cream/butter/cheese. The fun stuff)

So make sure you have variety of potatoes and it won’t be so bad.

What about rebound weight gain? This type of weight loss is not sustainable KV.

I knew this was coming.

And that’s why I decided to continue checking in after returning to eating by normal diet.

Now here’s the thing…

My “normal” diet is not the same as what most people would call a “normal” healthy diet.

I wouldn’t say I deprive myself. If there’s a delicious cookie at Mr Holmes Bakehouse and I feel like eating it – I will. If it’s not exactly what I want to eat I can quickly weigh up the pros and cons in my head and decide against eating it because I don’t want to feel like crap.

But most of the time, my nutrition is right on point. When if I go off track, my body feels horrible and my workouts suffer.

So anyway, did I gain back the weight I lost?

No. I feel stronger and leaner. Thank you carbs.

What about exercise? Do you have to workout?

With this diet, you don’t need to workout. And it’s recommended you keep it light, if you do need to workout (like KV).

My job is more active than most people – I train 6-8 clients each day at the gym. And while I’m not working out with them, I’m also not sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours.

So I did light bodyweight exercises each day, no more than 20 minutes. Nothing intense. Slightly modified from what I usually do.

Remember why I did this?

I did it to try and break my addiction to protein bars – success!

I did it to improve my sleep – success!

I did it because I was so damn curious.

Thinking about giving the Potato Diet a shot?

WHO THIS IS FOR:

If you want to:

- break a weight loss plateau

- improve your digestion (I’ve struggled with GERD symptoms thanks to stress)

- improve your sleep

- break your binge eating habits

- stop eating protein bars as much as KV does

- improve your relationship with food and become a mindful eater

As long as you can handle eating the same food for a few days, you’ll be fine.

WHO THIS IS NOT FOR:

- anyone with a medical condition or health concerns. KV is not a doctor, nor do I claim to be one. So check with your physician first, ok.

- people who hate potatoes (I mean really?! Who doesn’t like potatoes. No worries, if you hate potatoes you will be extremely miserable for 3 days. So don’t do it.)

- people allergic to potatoes (you might die. Don’t do that, please)

- close minded people

- constant fad dieters who always go back to their bad eating habits when they end the diet

- cats (this hasn’t been tested on animals)

My Conclusion About The Potato Diet…

1) Fad diets work if you stick with it then continue eating healthy POST diet.

If you’ve ever wondered “does [INSERT NAME OF STUPID FAD DIET] work?” i can almost guarantee it will work IF you stick with it.

Clearly, fad diets like this work. It’s no secret. But it’s about compliance, and whether or not you can (A) stick with it and (B) what you eat when you stop the diet.

You see, what you eat AFTER you stop the diet is the most important point here.

Because if you go back to your old unhealthy eating habits, this whole diet experiment will be a total waste and will damage your metabolism, if you’re not careful.

And it’s not about having more “willpower” or more “discipline” when it comes to eating.

It’s about having strategies and systems in place to stop you from eating for the wrong reasons (like you’re emotional – sad, happy, stressed – or bored.)

For example, keeping your trigger foods out of your house.

Look. I have pretty much no discipline.

So that’s why there’s no chocolate in my apartment. I will eat it.

2) Variety is what’s making you fat

We’ll all been there. It’s 9pm. You’ve already eaten dinner.

But you feel like “something else”. A little bite of chocolate. A few chips. A nibble of cheese. Just a spoonful of peanut butter. Oh and then a small bowl of cereal. And in my case, a few bites of a protein bar.

I’ll bet if you had to eat dinner again you’d probably say no thanks.

By taking away food variety, you can get a true sense of when you’re hungry.

That brings me to the next important lesson…

3) The Potato Diet will teach you “Mindful Eating”

You get a true sense of when you’re hungry, and when you’re full. I waited until I felt my stomach growling before I ate so I could get a sense of when I was really hungry.

And yeah, you’ll get sick of potatoes after a few days. But it’s not that bad.

So if you’re open minded, and want to experiment and try a different approach to weight loss you’re going to LOVE it!

In my honest opinion, if you LOVE carbs (and honestly who doesn’t?) then this is the diet quick start for you. It’s SUPER simple.

And then, I highly recommend checking out my friend Rusty’s High Carb Fat Loss program.

I was extremely skeptical about the high carb approach, and the effect it would have on my energy levels. Plus I was worried I would get fat eating so many carbs… However so far, so good. I’ve been getting leaner and tighter which has been a nice surprise You can check it out at this link below:

==> Eat Yummy Carbs Every Day Using The High Carb Fat Loss Book From Rusty Moore!

Let me know how it goes for you ok!

Your Coach and Friend,

 

Kate

PS. If you’re interested in Rusty’s High Carb Fat Loss book, you can check out my Uncensored Review here.

==> My Uncensored Review of High Carb Fat Loss

 

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