You are going to end up very fat if you follow the weight watchers diet - here's why

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I skipped the weight watchers meeting. It's not the first time that I skip this meeting. After starting to follow the nutritarian diet I no longer feel the need to know what my weight is. When asked in weight watchers about my diet I always said that it's about healthy stuff - I don't care much about the weight. Actually I am losing weight too fast!! In fact I wish I could be healthy without losing my weight so fast!!!

I am also sort of 'helping' a friend and on a weekly basis we weigh our self. It's not for me - I don't care about my weight. I am in a total different league - I care about my health. I care about my glucose level way more than I care about my weight. I care about my longevity and stress level. So when he whats-apps me and tells me that this week he won't come to the weighing because he gained 1 kilogram instead of losing 2... - I mean obviously he's not committed and he can't pursue his diet because it's not full of nutrients.

Yes, I have been sitting there in weight watchers and looking at the poor women discussing how they fight the hunger. How they need something sweet and I hear the coach telling them that she eats ice cream every night and it is OK because she calculated the points. And I am thinking to myself - wow these women are struggling with something that they will never win. No way they are going to win this war - even if they lose 20 Kgs, they will go back to where they were. No force in the world shall help them. I am admiring some of them - how stubborn they are, they plan, they know the points of this and of that, so given the weight watchers program flexibility they now optimize such as to avoid hunger and how to get that sweet food and all that. Here in this picture you can see one food type that these women are consuming and it is perfectly "all right" to eat this trash. It's... "something for the soul" - that sweet time of the day where they sit there and munch on this trash. And I am saying that this is something for their FAT WAIST. It contains low calories and it tastes good and all that - yea it contains zero nutrition, all sorts of taste enhancing materials and they are bad for their health. But this is how these women are optimizing their well being without crossing the PointsPlus limit....

But they will fail eventually - it only takes time. I mean I failed, I went all the way down from 125 Kg to 86 Kgs with weight watchers and I maintained it for 1.5 years before I gave it all up and I started this round weighing 139.6 Kg!!!! They will fail, and they will fail miserably. And you know why? Because their body is hungry!!!! hungry for REAL food, for REAL NUTRITION. Here, take a look at this picture here - this is REAL food - this is REAL NUTRITION.

The food that they eat has such low nutritional value that they need to eat 4000 calories in order to give the body what it needs - which means they consume tons of calories. The trick is to eat 2000 calories or for these small women 1200 calories and still get whatever nutrients the body needs. I don't dare to even raise this issue during those roundup meetings. It's like saying that I am a Jew in the middle of a Ku-Klux-Klan meeting. I mean - no body will understand - they will think it's too harsh, too extreme but truth is that it's not. I have to make an effort to eat 3 meals a day... I am not hungry at all - I forgot what hunger is - because my body is getting now all the nutrients that it needs with so less calories. 

If only for once they give a chance to a truly healthy diet, then they will feel great, look great and they will forget about their weight - it shall go down so fast they wouldn't have a chance to remember how much they weigh.

Sincerely,

Aviel.

how come your skin looks so good?

Hi everyone,

I am a very planned person. I know that if I eat this food and do these exercises then I shall lose such and such weight and I shall get rid of diabetes and shall be able to fight those future diseases and so on.

But sometimes you discover something unexpected - something good...

My special lady told me several times over the last couple days that my skin looks so much better lately. My initial response was to brush it off, cause it's not something that I read about.

But then my daughter too said it several times today that my skin looks great, I look tan, my eyes are sparkling, I look this, I look that and perhaps maybe I should only take care of that missing tooth...

I thought it has to do with my vitamin D sun baths but then I realized that there's more to this.

Tell you the truth - I have no conclusive understanding why my skin looks great. But from what I read it is obvious that the solution for a healthy skin is not in putting more and more ugly creams on your face or going to the beach and tanning yourself to oblivion. It's all about your diet. If you eat a healthy diet - then you are gonna look great. Period.

It's the same woman - 1 year apart (read her story here)

I saw this article that explains that the human mind prefers a healthy carotenoid glow over a suntan. let me translate this to plain English for you - women will be attracted to you if your skin is a bit orange and not from tanning but because of your diet. I mean it does make sense - right:? Women are going to be attracted to a male with superior health in order to mate and have healthy kids... Same applies to men that are attracted to women, etc. I am not sure about men that are attracted to men and all that. 

Anyway, according to this article - carotenoids are a groups of 600 antioxidants including alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxantin and other curses and the food that are richest are green, orange and red vegetable and fruits. These nutrients provide health benefits and attractive colors. According to this article there is a direct relationship between skin appearance and health - if your skin does not have an orange tinge, then you are not on a healthy diet.

And I also enjoyed reading eilen's talkback there saying "Everyone I come across, either on TV, the Internet, or in person, who eats a Vegan diet is always gorgeous"

I rushed to my USDA data base and sorted all the food according to beta-carotene and here are the winners... - 

squash (78 ug per calorie)

דלורית, דלעת

Paprika (22 ug per calorie)

פלפל אדום חריף

Tangerine (20.4 ug per calorie)

קלמנטינה

red pepper (19.7 ug per calorie)

פלפל אדום

papaya (13.7 ug per calorie)

פאפאיה

coriander (8.8 ug per calorie)

כוסברה

carrot (6.3 ug per calorie)

גזר

Peaches (4.5 ug per calorie)

אפרסקים

cucumber, pickle (4.3 ug per calorie)

מלפפון חמוץ

rose hips (3 ug per calorie)

פרי הורד

I was eating most of the above even before becoming vegan, but surely it's not only about what you eat - your skin health has also to do with what you don't eat... - that is - if you are drinking lots of coffee, or eating cheese or poultry - then your body may inhibit some of the effects of these foods.

Aviel.

The best blender in the world - Vitamix 5200S

My diet regime requires a good blender. It has to be good because I require that it shall turn almonds into milk! It should work hard and serve me for years.

The Vitamix 5200S is one such excellent blender. a 1380 Watts machine.

Here's how you make peaches sorbet using this blender - 

you throw in half a kilogram peaches, 1/4 cup almonds (or soya) milk and 4 pitted dates.

After maybe 10 seconds it's all over -

And you can eat it... yum-yum - 

It is sooo sweeeeet and yummy - wow!

Aviel.

Reverse Engineering the weight watchers PointsPlus

Hi there folks,

Weight Watchers have this PointsPlus system. Each food is given PointsPlus and the idea is that when you sum up all the PointsPlus that you "ate" during the day - you should not cross a specific limit.

How do you know how many PointsPlus is each food? Each new member get a small book containing all the points of all common foods. So for example - this is how you know that a medium Avocado costs you 4 PointsPlus.

But what about products that are not listed in that book? What if you go to the grocery store and you see a new product and you want to know how many PointsPlus are in 100 grams of this product?

Well this is a huge shooshoo thing - Weight watchers used to provide their customers with a paper 'points calculator' but not any more. If you want to know how many PointsPlus then you have to send mail to your coach and she replies with the number of PointsPlus... Or you could use a pirate android application that tells you how many PointsPlus per 100 grams of a product...

So for example - if you encounter a food product that has 5 grams of fat, 2 grams carb, 3 grams protein and 0.8 grams fiber then you input this into the android application and then you get that the worth of this in term of PointsPlus is 2 :

I tried some numbers on this app - and you know the drill, 4 linear equations for 4 variables...

And we get 

PointsPlus = 0.26 * Fat + 0.11 * Carbs + 0.095 * Proteins - 0.08 * Fiber  

Let's decipher this equation.... if we multiply it by 40 then we get

PointsPlus * 40 = 10.4 * Fat + 4.4 * Carbs + 3.8 * Proteins - 3.2 * Fiber

Which is not that far away from

Calories = 9 calories/g * Fat + 4 calories/g * Carbs + 4 calories/g * Proteins - 3.2 calories/g * Fiber

So PointsPlus is not that different from Calories divided by 40....

It's just that weight watchers "punish" their customers by 10% tax on eating fat + carbs and give them a 10% discount for eating calories and make sure to appreciate those customers that consume lots of fiber.

So how do we simplify life for weight watchers customers - give them some simple formula that they can use?

Fat / 4 + (Carbs + Proteins - Fiber) / 10

And even simpler version (but less accurate) is: 

Calories / 40

Nice eh?

Aviel.

How to calculate your optimal target weight

Hi,

I am trying to estimate my target weight here. 

First to put us on common ground here's a short primer on BMI - Body Mass Index.  Here's the definition

For example, when I started my diet I weighted 139.6 Kg and my height was 181 cm. My BMI was thus equal to 139.6 / 1.81^2 = 42.6.

The higher the BMI - the fatter you are.

• Normal values are 18.5 till 25. 
• Beyond 25 you are "Overweight" 
• Beyond 30 is called "Obesity".
• Beyond 35 is called "Severe Obesity"
• beyond 40 it's called "Morbid Obesity"

In order to get rid of my diabetes I have to give up on my plans to be a macho muscular well built man. I have to go all the way down down down till I am normal. I would say that if normal means 18.5 till 25 then the normal of the normal means the middle number BMI=21.75.

Multiplying this by 1.81^2 provides
my estimation for my target weight: 71 Kg.

yes it's a long way to go.... - from 139.6 Kg to 71 Kg or so, but this is how I should defeat diabetes for good. Yes I may look bad, too skinny and such. Men will feel comfortable punching me in the face if there's a need - but what can I say? This is the penalty for neglection, stress, overeating and bad genetics....

I put my target weight into a calculator of nutritiondata.self.com 

And here's what I got - 

This is amazing - I thought that at this weight level I shall require maybe only 1800 calories for maintenance but this is what the calculator says.

Aviel.

Lost 20.6 KGs in 7 weeks.

Hi there,

Weight watchers combined with being a nutritarian vegan... - 

First week lost 5.5 Kgs.

Second week lost 2.1 Kgs

Third week lost 2.2 Kgs

Fourth week lost 1.7 Kgs

Fifth week lost 2.1 Kgs

Sixth week skipped weight watchers.

Seventh week lost 7 Kgs in two weeks. (vegan)

I feel good, I am never hungry, I have no diabetes and I enjoy my vacation,

Aviel.

Top ten nutritious foods

Hi there,

The most important and basic nutritional tip that you ever hear is to get just enough calories such that your body gets all the nutrients that it needs. Just enough means way less calories than normal western diets provide. I know many of you hate math - but just remember that your goal is to maximinze N/C where N stands for nutrients and C stands for calories. You want to get more nutrients for less calories. 

I already presented you with the nutritional target map where you can see how nutritious is every food type and how it makes you feel full. But is there a way to give a total score to a food and then sort all foods on earth according to this score?

Well there *IS* !!! - The ANDI Score!

ANDI stands for "aggregate Nutrient Density Index". It shows the nutrient density of a food on a scale of 1 to 1000 after evaluating an extensive range of micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidant capacities.

Now let's look at the top 10 - they all belong to the green family!!

KALE (score = 1000)

קייל

Just a week ago I was frustrated cause I could only find it in the Tel-Aviv Port but this week it appeared in Shufersal both in Ayalon Mall and Givataim and also the store where I get my greens in Ramat-Gan. Do yourself a favor - eat this stuff!!

COLLARD GREENS(score = 1000)

עלי קולארד

I couldn't find it in our little country.

MUSTARD GREENS(score = 1000)

עלי חרדל

WATERCRESS(score = 1000)

גרגר הנחלים

The guy from the greens store in Ramat Gan told me that *this* was watercress - but it was NOT. I haven't found this one in Israel yet.

SWISS CHART(score = 895)

עלי סלק

BOK CHOY(score = 865)

בוק צ'וי \ פאק צ'וי

SPINACH (score = 707)

תרד

ARUGULA (score = 604)

ארוגולה

ROMAINE (score = 604)

חסה ערבית

as pictured in my kitchen...

BRUSSEL SPROUTS (score = 490)

כרוב ניצנים

I eat these every day at least once, I keep them frozen. They are very yummy - a bit bitter.

Anyway - what's common to the top ten nutritious foods in the world? They are all greens. Yes - this is what humans should consume! Remember that!

Aviel.