Why It Might Be Better To Temporarily Gain Weight After Diet Improvement

[Kelj]

@sweetpeat
In some cases, yes I do think people will gain some weight to start depending on thier context, but I dont think its going to be 40-50-100lbs of EXCESS weight (by excess weight I mean added fat, if someone is emaciated or underweight and they start to eat, I think gaining a large amount of bodyweight is neccesary, but this isnt just fat) and I dont think the excess weight should be there for years or even a year.

I think the group most likely to deal with an increase fat gain that is difficult to get off is older women. However, with a solid diet, in many cases, I think that can be largely mitigated. I have helped a few women that I was close to (I'm not a health coach or a medical practitioner so it was purely through off hand comments and suggestions when they asked me), recover from absurd and restrictive diets (usually some form of vegetarianism or veganism) and in most of the cases they actually lost weight initially, particularly from thier abdomen. They did this while increasing food and calories in general. To be fair these women were all on the younger side. The few older women I have offered my point of view to (when asked), often dismiss it on the basis that "they will get fat" or they agree but just continue thier old habits regardless.

As for how I got these people to lose weight while they ate more, all i did was:
1) replace starch with sugar but the sugar came entirely from fruit and 100% juice that was low in fodmaps, had a good fructose to glucose ratio and agreed with thier digestion (as per thier assessment)
2) made sure they ate enough protein from meat, seafood, eggs and very lean fowl
3) made sure they ate enough fat from tallow, coconut oil, butter, chocolate and/ or cocoa butter. Some had issues with coconut oil irritating thier intestine, so they dropped it. Some had issue with butter causing acne or dandruff or hairloss if eaten in large quantities so they dropped it or reduced it to a manageable level.
4) made sure they ate enough fiber from carrots and whole fruit. Mushrooms, if they agreed with them.
5) later once they stabilized, if they wanted to they added in tubers, white rice and dairy as experiments to see how they felt with these foods. If they felt good with the foods then they kept them, if not then they dropped them
6) added in some junk food for thier periods, once they stabilized. The junk food was high quality chocolate, high quality ice cream, high quality chips, high quality cookies. By high quality I mean the ingredients where pure ingredients such as for the chips: potatoes, coconut oil and salt. The cookies: rice flour, butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate. The ice cream: vanilla, cream, eggs, sugar, salt, milk. The chocolate: sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa powder. Simple ingredients, no fillers, no problematic foods (based on thier assessment of thier reaction to said foods) and no PUFA or other garbage ingredients. These foods are how "junk food" used to be made.

Overall its not rocket science (well atleast not now, when i was figuring it out for myself over the past 5 years, it was lol). Eat enough food, of the least irritating, most easily digestible, most nutrient dense to start. Stabilize on this template for a while. Then add in different foods one at a time to see how you react, keep what works, discard what doesnt. Gradually increase calories overtime as you feel you need (many people have issues eating enough to start, also once people start eating real foods instead of garbage they find that the ravenous hunger dissipates. Also when people start eating enough fat, enough sugar, enough salt and enough protein thier cravings go away. If you eat sugar all day long from fruit, salt your food to taste, add as much fats as you want, theres no reason to crave).

This is very close to my own progression through recovery. I was working on the reintroduction of dairy throughout, however, starting with grass-fed yogurt. I think this is sensible advice.

 

[Blossom]

Yes, I agree. It was a comment for the right person at the right time. Not about the arguments. I feel we should consider all sides. I take everyone's comments as something to ponder.

Thank you. I’m glad you do not feel silenced by RPF.

 

[Vinny]

This is my experience too, @sweetpeat

Same in my camp

 

[Collden]

IMHO no one doing Gwyneth Olwyns program ballooned up to morbid obesity by eating according to appetite, even eating to appetite of super-palatable junk foods.

The people who became seriously ill/obese with this approach were the ones who:
"...reported chugging cream or olive oil at all hours of the day, eating pints of ice cream and milkshakes to "hit their calorie goal," force feeding up to 7000 calories to "recover faster," eating beyond fullness, and compulsively eating the highest calorie entree at every restaurant or fast food option. You become obsessed with calories as Olwyn tells you it is the key to healing."

The problem with Olwyns approach is not that eating to appetite of your favorite foods will make you fat and sick, it wont. Its that her writings somehow brainwashed some people into acting as described above. Its specifically the people who became obsessed with not undereating who got in trouble, and that was because they were ignoring their appetite and cravings just as badly as they had been when they were anorexic.

Eating based on cravings will generally steer you towards appropriate amounts of the least irritating, most easily digestible and most nutrient and calorie-dense foods, and steer you away from raw vegetables, undercooked legumes and starches, excessive fiber and fake fats. It will likely steer you away from unbalanced macros and towards a diet that has generous amounts of both protein, carbs and fat. Learning more now about low fat diets and gut dysfunction its becoming clearer why some people actually succeeded far better on Gwyneths program than most do following Peats ideas.

For the record, there is nothing inherently wrong with wheat, especially refined wheat. Several Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) eat three times as much wheat per capita as the US, yet have a fraction of the obesity rate. Most European countries are also thriving on wheat-heavy diets, with the EU overall consuming more than twice as much per capita as the US. If there is any issue with wheat or dairy it likely has more to do with how its adulterated in some countries.

 

[Tristan Loscha]

Strawman arguments.

Its great that it worked for you but your limited anecdotal experience means relatively little overall. The only person with video evidence presented, that actually appears to be healthy is kayla kotecki and she stands to make a profit it seems. Stephanie buttermore is currently fat and/or bloated, well see what happens.

You act like the research is settled on this matter and that your application of the research is the final say, both of which are not reality. Post as many quotes from articles that you extract off the eating institute website as you want, it isn't the final answer and there are more components to the picture overall that are sorely missing from the picture. The view you present, in regards to food volume and calories is myopic at best. Calories in and of themselves are an abstraction at best. They tell the value of a food as much as money tells the value of an object. Has it ever dawned on you that perhaps this "healing crisis" may not be neccesary to restore health? That becoming fat, bloated, having this list of extensive symptoms may not be neccesary to achieve "healing"? I'd guess no, because your tone alludes to the science being clear; but to anyone who reads science, the science is never that clear, especially when conducting research looking at abstracted modifiers like calories. Its like looking at diabetes status by testing blood sugar, its a minor pixel of the overall picture. Thus, while the articles are helpful and interesting, they are not a final say; in this instance they are functioning to inhibit the conversation especially with the element of authority with which you wield them.

Here is the argument overall, so we can all avoid going in depth into the strawmen:

1) eating enough calories is neccesary, I think there is agreement here

2) to get enough calories after coming off a huge deficit eating calories dense foods is probably helpful, I think there is agreement here

3) too many calories in general isn't what neccesarily makes people fat, I think there is agreement here

4) now here's where we differ, while the above is true, it does not then mean that eating whatever you want is ideal, healthy, and neccesary or even conducive to achieve health. There are certain foods, that definitely cause weight gain regardless of calories. Some of these foods include refined starches, PUFA's, dairy and processed foods in general. The effects of these foods are beyond the realm of calories, and have numerous scientifically supported components for inducing weight gain irrespective of their total calories. Thus, restriction of type of certain foods is entirely neccesary. This is not neccesarily an eating disorder, its called foresight, understanding and an intelligent approach to understanding food. Cultures around the world since time immemorial have been practicing this i.e. seeking out and prizing certain food sources over others and subsequently developing those food sources. Its even known amongst farmers that if you want to fatten cattle or livestock you feed them grain and PUFA.

5) With the above said, the argument is, that eating enough calories of the CORRECT foods is ideal to reaching a health state, while simultaneously avoiding problematic foods.

Good Analysis.That you have the endurance and patience is commendable.Yes,there is NO eating- disorderedness at play at all.to the contrary,the disciplined approach a lot of women engaging in
is necessary.they understand implicitly that eating is duty,not recreational-activity.They get
bad advice from people without conscious (common disease!)who live off of the induced sickness of others.the population pays insane amounts
for healthcare,what they get is rape-like abuse by insecure incels in the medico-industrial complex.

 

[Tristan Loscha]

This 100%.

It’s also very important to respect others who have recovered even if their methods may differ from our own. Recovery is hard and a very personal experience. Suggesting someone else’s difficulty in recovery is always due to them not eating enough is quite short sighted. Some have had troubles due to forcing food above and beyond what their body needs and repeatedly ignoring their appetite. While it is important to eat on a regular schedule the goal should be to reconnect with our appetite not constantly override it in either direction.

We are all the same.it isnt personal also.It is a technological process,like clockwork,hence experimentation and concomitant ableness to Prognose an outcome.I am for Refeeding,but most people cant be trusted with
appetite or instinct.it doesnt work for Foodchoice im afraid.Clean-eating is for overweight Individuals and
for Underweights of utmost importance.There is no possibility to Cheat the necessity of micronutrient-intake.Appetite wasnt evolved around the Notion of Twix-Nutritional Value-Analysis.It is just saying "wolf something down,belly is emty",not substantially more.

 

[Tristan Loscha]

All I am pointing out is, I used to restrict PUFA, dairy, starches and processed foods 100%. I became very I'll doing that. When I lifted the restrictions and ate what I wanted, with enough calories, I became completely well. I am not the only person I have observed doing this. Some never restricted, ever. Some like me, came from sickness. This is the truth. To try to suppress my message is not allowing others to hear the full scope of information. Others have their personal story to tell.

Your story is very tempting and sexy written im afraid.Im a Wishful Gull, which craves Twix and KitKat like some Madman.People who are dieting on Twix,and what they crave,and all of this,if they arent morbidly obese they have just Bad Health and Lo-Energy.I believe your advice is what most people already are doing,
and thats why they are hollowed out.The personal story is thus a slighty dangerous tale.

 

[mbachiu]

We are all the same.it isnt personal also.It is a technological process,like clockwork,hence experimentation and concomitant ableness to Prognose an outcome.I am for Refeeding,but most people cant be trusted with
appetite or instinct.it doesnt work for Foodchoice im afraid.Clean-eating is for overweight Individuals and
for Underweights of utmost importance.There is no possibility to Cheat the necessity of micronutrient-intake.Appetite wasnt evolved around the Notion of Twix-Nutritional Value-Analysis.It is just saying "wolf something down,belly is emty",not substantially more.

I think @Blossom was trying to make the point that people’s experiences with recovery are very different. N

Same in my camp

I've eaten out three times since I started eating more (March of this year). Otherwise, all of the food I have eaten has been prepared by me or my family. I don’t really want to eat junk food, but I do want to eat food that fills me up & I don’t think I would be as chubby as I am doing that now if I hadn’t restricted far too heavily in the past. maybe I’m wrong??...

 

[sweetpeat]

The only time in my life when I restricted calories was when I was doing the CR a la Roy Walford and I got to 1300 calories a day for a year or two, and weighed I think around 145.

Wow! That's like your very own personal Minnesota starvation experiment. Maybe you've already done the regain/overshoot part of recovery? If I remember right you said you had lost 15 pounds recently without a lot of effort.

I am not obese and an argument can be made that I am an ideal weight now, even though I “should” be a bit thinner. My BMI is around 27.

In some circles this is a very healthy BMI.

I'm not a health coach or a medical practitioner

Well darnit Clash, I was all set to sign up for your Health Coaching Boot Camp!

Eat enough food, of the least irritating, most easily digestible, most nutrient dense

It's my opinion that this is one of Peat's foundational tenets as well

 

[Blossom]

The only time in my life when I restricted calories was when I was doing the CR a la Roy Walford and I got to 1300 calories a day for a year or two, and weighed I think around 145.

My set weight would be around 165 today or perhaps 175 being generous. Today I weighed 205. I would be okay at 185 probably.

I am not willing to gain more weight in the belief that I will reach a point where I will lose it. It is too much of a leap of faith and I don’t think it applies to me because I’ve had a normal relationship with food for most of my life.

I don’t count calories today.

I have rarely done so.

I think the eating disorder thing applies to people who were really abusing their bodies. I was not abusing mine.

To lose fat, I’m trying to modestly increase my sugar. I will continue doing near zero starch. I won’t force eat anything but will eat when I’m hungry, as I have been doing.

I’ll take a bit more T3 again to raise my temperatures. I think a Wilson reset again will be useful. I think I haven’t cracked the metabolic low that I’m still in, albeit a bit higher than the old days. I’m posting on another thread that I’m starting why I am at a metabolic low, as I think I figured it out.

For me, breathing has been 100 time more important than eating. CO2 levels are they key to health and longevity. I have found that people who reduce breathing lose fat without much effort. I am not obese and an argument can be made that I am an ideal weight now, even though I “should” be a bit thinner. My BMI is around 27.

Point of this ramble is this: eating disorder stuff doesn’t apply to me.

I think this is an astute observation and that it can be counter productive to take on the ED label when it’s not warranted.

I always felt primarily ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) which makes sense in light of my celiac and taking on the ED label (which was a self diagnosis) in my situation seems in hindsight to have been very counter productive. I certainly restricted for decades though due to GI problems related to celiac.

I finally found a good doctor in 2016 and I talked with him at length about my ‘eating disorder’ and he seems to think all of my issues were related to untreated celiac disease. I think there is a percentage of people who self diagnose themselves as I did and end up doing more harm than good.

 

[Vinny]

I've eaten out three times since I started eating more (March of this year). Otherwise, all of the food I have eaten has been prepared by me or my family. I don’t really want to eat junk food, but I do want to eat food that fills me up & I don’t think I would be as chubby as I am doing that now if I hadn’t restricted far too heavily in the past. maybe I’m wrong??...

You,re probably not wrong. I dont, however, want to speculate on your condition, for many obvious reasons.
Regarding me, cant explain so far my recent weight gain, except using Kelj,s theory. My food hygiene has been horrible for almost all my life, and it,s easy to assume I pay the price now.
One thing can say for sure: If God allows me to father some children one day, THEY WILL NOT have my eating habits, no matter what.

 

[CLASH]

Also very interested in the calcium. How many calories did you recommend they eat?

I used the katch mccardle formula with activity multipliers as a baseline and had them adjust from there based on how they felt. Most people adjusted upwards in calories after awhile.

This is awesome. What did you recommend for calcium so it was greater than phosphorus in this diet, which is very low in calcium and high in phosphorus? Was it purely through supplementation?

To start out I didnt worry about it. Just wanted to get the basics down (calories, macros, number of meals, food choices, eating on a consistent basis, meal ideas, contingency options etc). Then if dairy worked for them, they used that. Quite a few people had issues with all forms of dairy digestive wise. Only a select few do well with it. If not various calcium supplements were tried. In many cases, including my own, calcium supplements caused digestive issues so at the end of the day I still dont have a good answer for the calcium to phosphorous ratio question. Leafy greens are also an option, particularly from the brassica family, however they have to be boiled for an extended period of time to eat the quantity that would require to obtain enough calcium without the goitrogenic effect being an issue. Even with that, theres the issue of how much calcium is leached during the boiling process. I experimented with greens as well, I used kale and broccoli. Spinach isnt such a great source because of the oxalic acid which is effected too much by boiling. I didnt like the kale at all for a few reasons so that didnt last long. I do enjoy broccoli but after awhile, eating the quantity neccesary to get enough calcium to match my phosphorous on cronometer, I started getting issues like cold hands and feet and increased hairloss. When I took it out I didnt really feel any loss, except for the loss of some of those symptoms.

My general experience around the calcium:phosphorous ratio situation makes me question how much calcium we actually need? It seems very difficult to get the recommended amount of calcium without eating dairy. Not all populations have eaten dairy across the world, So I wonder how they met thier supposed calcium requirement. My own ancestry has some cultures that historically subsisted on dairy but its not the majority of my ancestry. My dad cant touch dairy, my sister cant touch it, and my half sister who is half asian, even as a baby (shes almost 2 now) cant touch it (she gets immediate constipation, and becomes very moody, fussy and colicky [when she was younger]). My mom, full sister and I are lactase persistent, however my dad is not (confirmed by genetic tests 23andMe + promethease). I'm genetically heterozygous for lactase persistence, so its not a lactose issue (my symypoms dont indicate a lactose issue either, they indicate a casein issue which is also the symptoms/ issues both my sisters and my father seem to have with dairy). My mom seems to not have any major issue with dairy. So I think background to a large extent does effect tolerance. While I can digest lactose fine, My body doesnt handle the opiates in casein well, I get constipation, acne, symptoms of low testosterone, moody, gyno, hairloss and symptoms of low dopamine. This is the case for my full sister and my half sister (half phillipino, half european). The phillipino mother is a native to the phillipenese and seems to tolerate milk well. So it seems my dad is the culprit here, and not surprisingly he is affected by milk the worst. His ancestry is not northern european according to 23andMe.

 

[Tristan Loscha]

they ate meals with prepared bone.thats how they got Calcium.Also to a lesser amount,Calcium containing natural water

 

[CLASH]

Wow! That's like your very own personal Minnesota starvation experiment. Maybe you've already done the regain/overshoot part of recovery? If I remember right you said you had lost 15 pounds recently without a lot of effort.

In some circles this is a very healthy BMI.

Well darnit Clash, I was all set to sign up for your Health Coaching Boot Camp!

It's my opinion that this is one of Peat's foundational tenets as well

As much as I'd like to quit my day job and take your guys money instead (I'm only half joking, not a fan of my day job), Its so much easier to just put the info here and let everyone figure it out for themselves. Walking people through things can be very tedious at times especially with all the emotions involved and peoples lack of follow through.


Yes a very important one. I think a degree of hierarchy can be applied to Peats general principles, with this being towards the top.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I used the katch mccardle formula with activity multipliers as a baseline and had them adjust from there based on how they felt. Most people adjusted upwards in calories after awhile.




To start out I didnt worry about it. Just wanted to get the basics down (calories, macros, number of meals, food choices, eating on a consistent basis, meal ideas, contingency options etc). Then if dairy worked for them, they used that. Quite a few people had issues with all forms of dairy digestive wise. Only a select few do well with it. If not various calcium supplements were tried. In many cases, including my own, calcium supplements caused digestive issues so at the end of the day I still dont have a good answer for the calcium to phosphorous ratio question. Leafy greens are also an option, particularly from the brassica family, however they have to be boiled for an extended period of time to eat the quantity that would require to obtain enough calcium without the goitrogenic effect being an issue. Even with that, theres the issue of how much calcium is leached during the boiling process. I experimented with greens as well, I used kale and broccoli. Spinach isnt such a great source because of the oxalic acid which is effected too much by boiling. I didnt like the kale at all for a few reasons so that didnt last long. I do enjoy broccoli but after awhile, eating the quantity neccesary to get enough calcium to match my phosphorous on cronometer, I started getting issues like cold hands and feet and increased hairloss. When I took it out I didnt really feel any loss, except for the loss of some of those symptoms.

My general experience around the calcium:phosphorous ratio situation makes me question how much calcium we actually need? It seems very difficult to get the recommended amount of calcium without eating dairy. Not all populations have eaten dairy across the world, So I wonder how they met thier supposed calcium requirement. My own ancestry has some cultures that historically subsisted on dairy but its not the majority of my ancestry. My dad cant touch dairy, my sister cant touch it, and my half sister who is half asian, even as a baby (shes almost 2 now) cant touch it (she gets immediate constipation, and becomes very moody, fussy and colicky [when she was younger]). My mom, full sister and I are lactase persistent, however my dad is not (confirmed by genetic tests 23andMe + promethease). I'm genetically heterozygous for lactase persistence, so its not a lactose issue (my symypoms dont indicate a lactose issue either, they indicate a casein issue which is also the symptoms/ issues both my sisters and my father seem to have with dairy). My mom seems to not have any major issue with dairy. So I think background to a large extent does effect tolerance. While I can digest lactose fine, My body doesnt handle the opiates in casein well, I get constipation, acne, symptoms of low testosterone, moody, gyno, hairloss and symptoms of low dopamine. This is the case for my full sister and my half sister (half phillipino, half european). The phillipino mother is a native to the phillipenese and seems to tolerate milk well. So it seems my dad is the culprit here, and not surprisingly he is affected by milk the worst. His ancestry is not northern european according to 23andMe.

I’ve found that calcium malate works. I’m not sure about the Malic acid but it causes no digestive issues.

I remember in Japan seeing a lot of people who were old and bent over with osteoporosis. It is terrible there. Dr. Peat has convinced me of the immense importance of getting more calcium than phosphorus in the diet to keep parathyroid hormone low.

I can’t digest lactose. Milk causes me some constipation but I can deal with it. It doesn’t cause me any other bad effects that I notice (yet?). But I’m always experimenting. I am drinking 2 quarts of milk over the past 5 or 6 months, per day. And eating mostly raw milk cheese, cow and sheep mainly.

Calcium carbonate causes me heartburn. I suppose I could neutralize it in ACV etc. It’s not an easy fix outside of dairy. Dr. Peat says 10 minutes or so of boiling and you can just drink the water from the greens and get the calcium and magnesium that way, without eating the leaves. A pound of leaves a day I think he says gives a “generous” portion of calcium and some magnesium. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

When I drink the water from cooked greens, I always feel GREAT.

 

[CLASH]

I’ve found that calcium malate works. I’m not sure about the Malic acid but it causes no digestive issues.

I remember in Japan seeing a lot of people who were old and bent over with osteoporosis. It is terrible there. Dr. Peat has convinced me of the immense importance of getting more calcium than phosphorus in the diet to keep parathyroid hormone low.

I can’t digest lactose. Milk causes me some constipation but I can deal with it. It doesn’t cause me any other bad effects that I notice (yet?). But I’m always experimenting. I am drinking 2 quarts of milk over the past 5 or 6 months, per day. And eating mostly raw milk cheese, cow and sheep mainly.

Calcium carbonate causes me heartburn. I suppose I could neutralize it in ACV etc. It’s not an easy fix outside of dairy. Dr. Peat says 10 minutes or so of boiling and you can just drink the water from the greens and get the calcium and magnesium that way, without eating the leaves. A pound of leaves a day I think he says gives a “generous” portion of calcium and some magnesium. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

When I drink the water from cooked greens, I always feel GREAT.

I've tried calcium citrate, calcium malate, calcium citrate malate, egg shell calcium, oyster shell calcium, calcium carbonate, microcrystalline hydroxyappatite, and a few other obscure calcium sources.

I can try the veg broth but if I'm not mistaken when removing the goitrogens from leaves, among other compounds by boiling they are leached into the water. So would drinking the broth not be a form of concentrated toxins from the plants?

 

[ecstatichamster]

I've tried calcium citrate, calcium malate, calcium citrate malate, egg shell calcium, oyster shell calcium, calcium carbonate, microcrystalline hydroxyappatite, and a few other obscure calcium sources.

I can try the veg broth but if I'm not mistaken when removing the goitrogens from leaves, among other compounds by boiling they are leached into the water. So would drinking the broth not be a form of concentrated toxins from the plants?

I don’t think so. I don’t think the goitrogens are so readily soluble in water.

 

[Kelj]

Requirements of calcium: are there ethnic differences? - PubMed - NCBI

across-cultural comparisons are not convincing enough to demonstrate that lower calcium intake would predispose to higher risk of osteoporosis. It implies that the genetic inheritance and complex environmental factors may be important modulators on bone mass achievement in addition to calcium intake within any ethnic group. There are pitfalls in the current Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for calcium which are usually based on clinical studies conducted in Caucasians with higher calcium intakes and the extent of nutritional adaptation to low calcium intake is ignored. Given the fact that there are ethnic differences in calcium absorption, dietary habits, bone metabolism, physical activity and skeletal size as well as body build, the requirements of calcium in Asians may be different from Caucasians. Ideally, each nation should establish its own RDA based on the ethnic make-up of its population. In Asian countries, the major sources of calcium are derived from vegetable types of foods, fish and shell fish with edible bones, fins and shells, etc. Recent absorption studies in humans with low-oxalate and low-phytate vegetables and pulses also showed that contrary to common presuppositions, these vegetables with low calcium chelators do have a comparable calcium absorbability to milk. Studies on bioavailability of calcium from Asian foods and diets are warranted in order to identify rich sources of calcium.

 

[Randle Cyclist]

That all sounds very strange like she was trying to establish a cult saying that no one was to be trusted except for her... Preying on the desperate and mentally unstable. I wonder what her goal was? I've never heard anyone speak against her so I'm going to have to see what I can find on that forum using the Waybackmachine when I have the time.

Alright, I had a look through the old forum and only the threads with like 10 or more replies were saved. Anyway, I've come to the conclusion that Gwyneth was and is only trying to help those with restrictive eating, as is Kelj. I did not really see anything out of the ordinary in any of the threads I read. It seemed like everyone's recovery experience was par for the course based on the Minnesota starvation study.

The only thing I found concerning in my opinion was the advocating of nut butter binges by a good portion of the forum members. I know the goal of recovery is to overcome restriction but binging on jars of pufa- addled peanut butter is a recipe for fat gain, metabolic down regulation, and inflammation.

One cool thing I read was that some people were experiencing hypermetabolism. They would eat way over 3k calories and not gain weight. How do the CICO proponents counter or account for that? I believe Gwyneth's aim is to provide guidance on eating disorder recovery for those who can't otherwise afford going to an institute. I've heard treatment can cost over 6 figures...

 

[Vinny]

I've heard treatment can cost over 6 figures...

Really?