Vegan until 6pm

December 10, 2009 11:06 AM

Vegan until 6: Has this method worked for you or someone you know?

I am interested in this article describing food writer Mark Bittman's approach to weight loss.

Has this no processed food, no animal products until 6 thing worked for you in any form? It intrigues me. After six he eats higher quality items and saves up for them throughout the day- but focuses on non processed items and veggies in the morning and afternoon.

I am currently vegetarian (I eat eggs on occasion). I am intrigued by this idea and would love to hear others' experiences and if they found it a valuable weight loss tool.

posted by timpanogos to health & fitness (13 answers total)

I can't really speak to the weight-loss aspect of it, nor am I a strict adherent but I do make a conscious effort to not eat meat during the day. I usually don't eat breakfast (except on the weekends) and for lunch I try to stay away from meat whenever possible. I tend to go for protein-rich lunch foods, however--beans, tofu, lentils, leafy greens, etc--otherwise I find myself hungry before dinner time.

I was doing this before I stumbled onto Bittman's work, but it has worked nicely for me for years.
posted by jckll at 11:13 AM on December 10, 2009

I think this works on the same theory as the Alphabet Diet. Cutting any group of familiar foods out of your lineup will cause weight loss, at least initially, because it forces you to think carefully about your food and cuts off your familiar staples. However, eventually, you'll find foods that meet the criteria but also contain the flavors you like, which are more likely to be sweet, fatty, or caloric. For example, I could see making avocados a huge part of a vegan diet, because they're delicious and satisfy the body's craving for creamy, rich foods. There are plenty of fat vegans in the world.
posted by decathecting at 11:18 AM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Speaking as an omnivore, I've found that eating a lot of protein and some complex carbohydrates in the morning diminishes my hunger throughout the day. To the extent that veganism presents additional barriers to eating a lot of (palatable) protein in terms of prep time, necessary ingredients, etc., I would expect it to have the opposite effect (on me, at least).
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:23 AM on December 10, 2009

It seems as though he made the after 6:00 choice simply because he was a food writer and being 100% vegan wasn't achievable.

The greater point is that he cleaned up his diet, reduced highly processed foods, increased vegetables and lost weight. Good suggestions for everyone.

If you are striving for a balanced diet (which you should be) including healthy fats, complex carbs and lean sources of protein it makes common sense that you try to balance each meal rather than swing from a high carb breakfast, to a high fat lunch, to a high protein dinner in an attempt to have a balanced day. Real life gets in the way sometimes and you can't always have a balanced meal but that's the ideal.
posted by pixlboi at 11:41 AM on December 10, 2009

Yes, I'd guess this is his effort to keep his diet as healthy as possible given the limits of his job.

For a person with a regular job, I think doing the reverse might be more helpful - keeping you going during the day and not leaving the heavy stuff in your stomach at night. I know I feel best when I have a solid breakfast with dairy and carbs, a carbohydrate light and protein heavy lunch, a dinner that's mostly vegetables, and little or nothing after dinner. And lots of diets advocate a light dinner and cutting food off entirely early in the evening.

YMMV with all of this, but I don't think there's anything inherently magical in the 6pm rule.
posted by crabintheocean at 12:03 PM on December 10, 2009

I know people who have done essentially the opposite and lost weight.

The real take-home here is:

Eating Less + Exercising More = Losing Weight.

Translated, that's:

Intake fewer calories + Burn more calories = Losing weight.

Maybe there are good and bad calories (c.f. Taubes), maybe not, but either way, if you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight. I've lost 20 lbs in the past 2.5 months while still hitting the pub and the cookie jar occasionally. If you're eating less, you really learn to choose foods that satiate your hunger, and that makes a big difference. Bittman is eating less (fewer high-fat, high-calorie items; he says before 6 but that makes a difference overall) and eating more satiating foods (high fiber veg, for example).
posted by The Michael The at 1:08 PM on December 10, 2009

I've been doing "vegan until 6" for perhaps 9 months. Here are my thoughts:

1. This works for me in that there are both "personal health" and "environmental" reasons for my eating the way I do. As Bittman suggests, it's a "code" for eating, a set of basic rules founded on reasonably sound assumptions (and I say this as someone with some training in biochemistry.) These assumptions result in a pretty fundamentally different way of eating than the 'standard western diet.' As a "code" it doesn't really feel like a "diet;" I'm not doing this really to "lose weight" as much as "eat better, for me and for the planet." (And yes, sometimes smug just feels good, FWIW.)

2. As far as weight loss? Well I did lose ~12 pounds (~5% of my mass). It's not a real focus right now, since I'm right now in one of the 'more stressful periods of life (new baby, who is not perfectly healthy plus first semester of assistant professorship. I'm only able to think about writing on metafilter b/c my class ends tomorrow and I'm done writing lecture notes.) Weight loss stabilized maybe 6 months after the 'switch' but, again, this isn't a focus for me.

3. One of the surprising aspects is how much money I'm not spending on food. I used to go and buy a sandwich, burrito, or pizza slice for lunch every day. Now I eat raw & dried fruits and nuts for lunch every day. This is satisfying and amazingly inexpensive. I'd say the cost savings of eliminating a substantial amount of animal products from my diet is the biggest pleasant surprise here.

4. When I started up the 'switch', I was pretty ravenous for 'animal product' (meat/cheese/egg) by dinner time. After a few weeks, this feeling sort of went away. I would say that this 'codified eating' will make you very aware of the ubiquity of both animal products and processed foods/grains.

5. It annoys my wife because I no longer eat the leftovers from dinner, since this always contains animal products.

6. Startup is pretty easy. Try ceareal with fruit and rice-dream for breakfast, followed by fruit & nuts for lunch. Expand from there as time and adventure allow.
posted by u2604ab at 1:33 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

a set of basic rules founded on reasonably sound assumptions (and I say this as someone with some training in biochemistry.)

As an actual biochemist working in a nutrion-based field I'd be interested to hear what those are.

I actually think that pixlboi has it right:
The greater point is that he cleaned up his diet, reduced highly processed foods, increased vegetables and lost weight.

There's nothing magical about being vegan or changing what you eat after six and it is entirely possible to follow this diet while gaining weight. But there are definite benefits to removing processed foods, being more mindful about what you eat, aiming for an overall balanced diet (which for many people means less animal products), and reducing overall calories. If using this code is a trick that works for you (and it is entirely possible that it could work too, it's not a bad trick) then go for it. It's the higher level changes that are working though not this code in particular, and if you need a different code or trick to make the same positive changes then that's good too.

Personally I've recently been eating an almost vegan diet until six, no processed foods, whole grains and whatever, and I was starving all day then went home and ate all evening. Which meant I was both hungry and gaining weight. I've changed things recently to include eggs and cheese during the day and it's made a big difference. I eat less meat and cheese in the evenings now and feel satisfied nearly all the time. This was my trick, and it's pretty scientifically valid too.
posted by shelleycat at 2:30 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Shellycat: In his book, Bittman develops several arguments that are biochemically based. For instance, he makes the case that in the 'Western diet' we end up eating way more omega-6 fatty acids and fewer omega-3 fatty acids than we evolved eating. One reason for this is because omega-6 fatty acids are great for shelf-life, with omega-3 fatty acids tending to go rancid faster. Since omega-3 fatty acids are 'essential', IIRC, Bittman cites Bruce Alberts and a 'missing nutrient hypothesis' to argue that we may just be hungry and eat until we get the nutrients that may be missing from a high-calorie, low-nutrient processed food diet. Eating raw/unprocessed/vegan for a good portion of the day helps insure more nutrient diversity in the diet.

The construction of these arguments didn't set off my BS detector.

The point for me isn't really to lose weight as much as it is to have a codified way of eating that insures I eat a lot more plants than I would eat if I just ate whatever the hell I wanted to. And yes, I agree, there's nothing magical about 'vegan'.
posted by u2604ab at 4:33 PM on December 10, 2009

I've heard the omega 6 vs omega 3 argument before and actually agree with much of it, but eating vegan for most of the day isn't the only (or necessarily the best) way to fix that. Particularly for someone who's vegetarian already like the OP. Also the fat balance is only a very small part of what goes on, changing that one thing isn't a magic solution to anything.

So I think we're generally in agreement, this is one way to acheive what needs to be achieved. But I also think it would be easier for all of us to get our diets right if we knew what we were actually aiming for rather than blindly following some set plan, that way finding better plans or even just varying the first one correctly is much easier. Fad diets - which this is - are over simplified and make you think that their specific rules are the point when actually they're not, it's the overall changes they cause that are the point and which should be the focus.

So yeah, if this before six thing does it for you then great but make sure you're doing it in the right way and for the right reasons, and don't be afraid to change it around if it's not working for you as is.
posted by shelleycat at 5:33 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I went completely vegan 6 months ago and i have gradually lost 10lbs without exercise. 2 major factors are that I eat better (tofu veggie scramble vs high calorie dairy ) and I don't eat out. I could test my theory by adding eggs and lowfat milk to my diet, but I don't want to break the spell.
posted by alcahofa at 6:30 PM on December 10, 2009

Eating vegan isn't a nutritional decision. It's an ethical decision. It's like anything else, you can do it in a healthy way or in an unhealthy way. Oreos are vegan.

A balanced diet and exercise. Repeat.
posted by Bobby Bittman at 8:51 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I like the ethics of began vegan, but for me it was entirely a nutritional decision. I read The China Study after my carnivore husband read it and, completely out of the blue, went vegan as a result. I read it and, much to my surprise, went vegan too. Its a very compelling health argument backed by enormous amounts of data. If you tell me I have a 70% less chance of getting cancer, it turns out that i will give up animal protein. Who'd have thunk. The weight loss is just a surprise.

http://www.thechinastudy.com/
posted by alcahofa at 10:25 PM on December 10, 2009