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Author Topic: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.  (Read 6588 times)

Ohlawdy

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Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« on: May 25, 2012, 07:50:54 pm »

I lost over 35 pounds within 2 months from an unknown stomach condition and I was already considered skinny. Endoscopy revealed mild inflammation of stomach and lax hiatus. The primary suspect was diet. I'm starting a manual labour job soon so it is important that I can work out but still can gain as much of those 35 pounds back as possible. I've adjusted my diet to contain salads, sandwiches, fruit, soups, etc however I have completely run out of money (as I was the one buying most of the stuff) and must choose between two diets.

My family provides no support and continually just buys foods like hot pockets and frozen TV dinners. Since diet is the main suspect of my stomach condition, which is still stomping around (but to a much weaker degree). I believe this diet should not even be considered.

My alternative is always eating at my girlfriend's and her families' house since I am there almost every day. They eat "healthy" however the whole family is trying to lose as much weight as possible has the only things I would end up eating every day is salads, maybe a little bit of fruit, and some juiced stuff. Every once in awhile I would get some vegetarian fake-meat stuff. Portion sizes would be small. My problem with this diet is that I will probably actually end up losing even more weight. Hell, there isn't even any bread in the house. I've tried it already and ended up just hungry all day and just not feeling as well. A diet meant for people to lose weight is not what I need to gain weight. I also have no food to do this diet but with the added addition of buying the food I need.

My family refuses to budge and buy stuff even mildly healthy only because they believe my stomach problems aren't real since they aren't having any trouble from the food. My girlfriend and her family understand my problem and they have tried to provide relief and help me out with additional food but they say that they can't be constantly buying me food because their budget wouldn't allow it.

So really I am asking, what do I do? Once I start my job things will get easier (even though I really need to save that money) since I can start buying my own food again, however I would be starting it at a very unhealthy position.
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Andrew425

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2012, 07:55:14 pm »

How long until you expect to collect your first pay check?

Do you think you could hold off until then if you alternate between the two?
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GlyphGryph

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2012, 08:02:33 pm »

At the VERY least, convince one of them to buy rice. Not exactly super fattening, but significantly better than salads, and even "healthy" households can use it to good purpose. Here, the issue is the amount - eat enough rice, and you've at least got a start. Potatoes too. And they have the benefit of being SUPER cheap. Like, extremely so for rice.

Also, you were already eating salads/soups/fruits as a primary spending target? For someone who wants to gain weight on a budget? o__O

If you CAN convince someone to buy you fruits, Avocados are like your best friend here. Tasty, nutritious, and practically made out of calories and fat.
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Ohlawdy

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2012, 08:08:46 pm »

How long until you expect to collect your first pay check?

Do you think you could hold off until then if you alternate between the two?

My first paycheck won't be for at least a month. I guess I could try alternating until then. I'm just worried about not being able to gain weight and return back to a relatively healthy status before the job as I will be working 7 days a week, and 10-12 hour days.

At the VERY least, convince one of them to buy rice. Not exactly super fattening, but significantly better than salads, and even "healthy" households can use it to good purpose. Here, the issue is the amount - eat enough rice, and you've at least got a start. Potatoes too. And they have the benefit of being SUPER cheap. Like, extremely so for rice.

Also, you were already eating salads/soups/fruits as a primary spending target? For someone who wants to gain weight on a budget? o__O

If you CAN convince someone to buy you fruits, Avocados are like your best friend here. Tasty, nutritious, and practically made out of calories and fat.

I've never had to buy my own food or think about nutrition so everything was kind of new to me. I wouldn't necessarily call them primary spending targets but they were things I was sure to include in my diet. I have atrocious cooking skills so I was completely lost on stuff I could make without cooking much (as I would end up destroying half of the food with my cooking). I've started to move away from the salads and such as my stomach condition lessened as I was having trouble eating almost anything but I am/was having a lot of trouble figuring out what to move towards.
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GlyphGryph

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2012, 08:17:15 pm »

Potentially offer to go on a shopping trip for your family, if they'll let you buy some rice when your out? (their money, of course)

But one of the five pound bags. That should last you, what, two dozen meals? For like 5 bucks, if that.

It's at least a start.

Could you convince your family to go for eggs? Maybe offer to cook them eggs in the morning or something? Everybody loves eggs, right?
These provide proteins and fats, but aren't super high calorie. Still, they are cheap and if you can get away with it, make up for it in quantity.
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Flying Dice

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2012, 08:31:56 pm »

Yeah, rice and beans or lentils. Scrambled eggs is the meal of noncooking champions if you can afford the eggs.
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GlyphGryph

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2012, 10:55:15 pm »

Dry beans and lentils, yes, especially.
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Knight of Fools

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #7 on: May 26, 2012, 12:31:07 am »

I recently started a new diet myself, not because of weight, but because of both emotional and physical health concerns. Here's an info dump on some of the stuff I learned.

Eating a healthier diet isn't like pouring your weight out of a bottle until its empty. Most fruits and vegetables are great sources of natural sugars, and sugars are usually what gets processed into body fat as stored energy, along with carbohydrates, which are rich in foods like wheat, potatoes, and rice (Sugars are actually very basic carbohydrates, and break down very quickly). Raw fruits and veggies are suited to help maintain a healthy weight too, as long as you exercise adequately and eat protein rich foods, such as nuts and certain greens. Keep in mind that cooking, while it kills a lot of germs and makes stuff tasty, removes a lot of the natural nutrients foods contain, most notably vitamins.

Eating uncooked, fresh produce is pretty important to a good digestive system, too. The body tends to react badly when filled with too much processed and cooked stuff, and might even be pumping a great deal of white blood cells and generally treating food as bad, because your body's better adapted to eating a hardier, more natural diet. You can cut a lot of your digestive problems by making sure that a little over half of your diet is fresh, uncooked plant stuff. When you can afford it, lots of grocery stores offer a great selection of both fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables. If you want consistently cheap, read up on what's in season for the best prices - You'll get a good, fresh variety throughout the year, and save a few bucks because you aren't paying for stuff that's been carted over from the southern hemisphere. I don't follow the seasonal stuff, but I've got a good variety I enjoy if you want some ideas.

When you start a new diet, be sure to take it slowly. When I started my diet I was little too excited about it, and nearly hopped on it cold turkey. Trust me, if you're looking to stop digestive issues, that's the wrong thing to do. Make the change slowly, or you might end up getting sick. Take things one step at a time, and you'll eventually get used to eating natural foods.


In your current situation, you can make the best call for what your situation requires. Some easy changes you can make that can help is taking vitamins. They're relatively cheap, so you might be able to convince someone to get you a bottle, and it's hard to overdose on them. The daily values are kind of bogus, because they were based around the idea of "how little can we take until we get sick". You can, and probably should, take more than the daily values suggest through your food and other sources. Heck, most vitamins don't really have an unhealthy upper limit, besides Iron and animal-based vitamin A. A complete multi-vitamin can help with stuff beyond digestion, so they're not a bad thing to take anyways. Vitamins are really undervalued in the States, despite evidence that they're really important for a long, healthy life. In my case, I was experiencing a lot of depression and energy loss until I started taking them, especially the Vitamin B's (All of them). Now I feel great. Placebo? Maybe. I don't particularly care as long as I'm not depressed.

Also, perhaps the most important for a good digestion is drinking water. A lot of water. Bottled, tap, rain, it doesn't matter. Water helps with a lot of things, particularly digestion and blood flow, and hardly anyone drinks even close to what they need. Try drinking at least liter when you wake up in the morning, and then one or two more as the day goes on. You should at least be drinking two liters a day, even if you're sitting around doing nothing. Once you start getting active, you'll need to drink even more. Avoid drinking until you feel ill, though, because that's bad.

Since we're on the topic of water, avoid sodas, coffee, and maybe even tea. They can cause ulcers and other digestive unpleasantries. You're relatively young, so you may be sensitive to them.


I hope that helps.
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ChairmanPoo

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2012, 06:22:36 am »

Quote
Vitamins are really undervalued in the States, despite evidence that they're really important for a long, healthy life
euhh... AFAIK there is no evidence of benefit from taking them. And there are some studies which point to long-term morbimortality associated with them. To each his own, though.
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Knight of Fools

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2012, 09:01:14 am »

Do you have a source? I'd be interested in it, since I'm taking supplements myself. The closest I could find is Vitamin poisoning, which generally talks about short-term overdoses. Nothing really references long-term effects.
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GlyphGryph

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2012, 09:34:10 am »

And I'd be interested in seeing studies supporting their benefits (beyond, obviously, situations where the person is suffering a legitimate vitamin deficiency)
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Knight of Fools

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2012, 09:48:41 am »

There's nothing definitive. I got 21 million hits on "benefits of taking vitamins" on Google, with 2.5 million with "no benefits from taking vitamins".

The Wikipedia article on Multivitamins seems to suggest that there's little evidence either way, besides certain deficiencies (Such as mine, which prompted me to take supplements). What's a known factor is taking too little or far too much is obviously very bad for you, so as long as you're smart and do your research you won't risk damaging your liver.

As I mentioned, it's possible that vitamins are just a placebo. I'm not claiming they're going to save the world, but I'm also not claiming that they're going to kill you.
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ChairmanPoo

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #12 on: May 26, 2012, 10:20:50 am »

A quick googling brought this one up http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111010173019.htm (which refers to http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1105957)

I saw some before, too.

It's true that there's nothing utterly definitive, though.
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Knight of Fools

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #13 on: May 26, 2012, 10:40:12 am »

This was also informative, though I'm not sure about the "eat plankton!" spiel at the end.

Basically: An unspecified number multivitamins use synthetic compounds which the body may not recognize, and processed and/or old foods lose a lot of their nutritional value. Getting vitamins from an unaltered source is best.

It'd be interesting to see a broad study focusing on that aspect, but I'm not having any luck so far.
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ChairmanPoo

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Re: Have to choose between 2 diets, neither seem good.
« Reply #14 on: May 26, 2012, 10:46:29 am »

IMO the biggest reason why they're not of much use is that you're normally getting enough already, and beyond that there's no benefit.
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