I (the submitter) didn't make this, but it's a neat idea, nicely executed. You can set your own nutrient targets, such as, "I want at least 150 g of protein per day" or "I need between 50 and 100 g of carbohydrates", and avoid food groups such as grains (for paleo diets) or meat (for vegetarians).
It's a neat tool for getting a starting meal plan going, but some people have complained that the food variety is lacking. I can't eat only Greek yogurt for every meal.
In my current meal plan, on my workout days I minimalize fat intake and maximize carbs/protein in a 40/60 split - the calculator suggests Greek yogurt or fish chowder for nearly every meal. Obviously, this is more on the extreme end of diet planning and arguably I wouldn't have much of a use for it since I already have my own specialized plan.
I think it might just need more recipes. He added recipes fairly recently, and he's still building those up, so it might have limited options right now for cases with very specific constraints. Also, Greek yogurt is kind of a wonder food when you need high protein and low fat :-)
Oof yeah, I've got some rounding errors pretty much throughout the app that I need to fix. Hopefully none in the payment system :) (thanks for that, stripe)
I have a nutrition site I wrote for my own use (http://cookingspace.com/) that rounds amounts in a human-friendly way. Try changing the number of servings to see the effect.
The keto and paleo options don't automatically change the macros yet, just the foods. ATM, you'll need to scroll down and move the macro sliders around manually
Hey guys! I made the site and someone brought the post to my attention. I'm out right now and probably won't be able to reply to any comments tonight, but of course all of your feedback is incredibly valuable to me and I'll try to reply ASAP.
You can, its just slightly hidden. Under the "I want to eat X calories in X meals" there is a "not sure?" button. Click that and it will help you generate a target number for your calories.
1 slice of pan-fried bacon is under 50 calories. If that's the meat in my sandwich, yeah, I think 8 sounds pretty reasonable.
on the other hand, that's a lot of salt. nearly 200mg of sodium per slice. so yeah, if you are watching your sodium intake? probably a bad idea. But calorie-wise, completely reasonable.
I have used http://www.gototaltrainer.com and it is really good. Not only do the meal plans they come up with perfectly within whatever constraints you set, you can also typically find recipes that are actually are enjoyable. It just seems like they have a pretty big database and a good algorithm to figure out the meal plan.
That site needs some serious work - I spent a couple minutes trying to figure out how to use it or get it to do anything before figuring out I had to contact them to try it out. No thanks.
I'm not drinking 4 cups of whole milk for breakfast.
I'm probably never going to eat a cup of almonds and some celery for lunch...
I think you need to put some serious work into making sure that each suggestion is appetizing as opposed to rummaging through the pantry and finding something that technically meets the requirements.
There's a sliding scale for this sort of thing
For instance: I would happily drink 4 cups (which sounds to me like approx 1litre ... I really dislike 'cup' measurements) of whole milk every morning
Off topic for the thread but seeing as you highlighted it: isn't 'liter' the US spelling, while 'litre' is the (correct) UK one? (I'm in Ireland, and tend to cringe when I see 'Americanisms' :( )
Just because it's "litre" in the UK and "liter" in the US doesn't make one correct and one incorrect. The latter is the correct spelling in American English.
It shouldn't, but it gets to be a lot of milk. Most people (that aren't dairy sensitive) could probably stomach a few more cups (8 fl oz.) without losing it, maybe up to 1/2 gallon. Throwing up usually happens when people try to drink a whole gallon in an hour type thing.
Agreed, I think cup is irrelevant outside of US - UK - AUS. Here it's just like saying drink "4 glasses of milk" - how much is this exactly? As usual it's a bit obnoxious to think your only customers / users come from those countries.
This would be the perfect tool for me and my friends if we could only change the macronutrient percentages (protein, fat, carbs) for the day and for each meal. Otherwise, great work. One of the coolest web apps I've seen in a while
This would be the perfect tool for me and my friends if we could only change the macronutrient percentages (protein, fat, carbs) for the day and for each meal. Otherwise, great work. One of the coolest web apps I've seen in a while
I like the simplicity. Obviously your site can only get better. One thing that would interest me in upgrading to a paid account is the opportunity to select how much I'd would like to spend on the food itself, is there any way to take in to account local food prices? Keep it up!
If there is no automated price scrapping based on the local stores in your area, I think an averaged out "Walmart Price", or "Kmart price" would do just fine. I'm not too sure what the price difference is in Walmart stores across the US, but i'd guess it's not that bad.
I guess that if you notice that price databases to be lacking, you could get users to crowdsource it. Even if only serious power users would fill the numbers at first to make them more exact, it should get the ball rolling.
Off to a good start. I like being able to lock items into a meal, pulling foods from the left menu, the food picker and the sliders for fats / carbs / protein. The presets for vegan, paleo, Atkins etc are handy but need some adjusting. The biggest thing is getting more recipes, especially for the different diet types. Also avoiding too much of one item, like nuts or bacon. Probably some more help / tips / hints would be useful for new users.
Absolutely agree, but with one high-value request: If Monday needs half a lettuce, Tuesday needs to use the other half. By the end of the week I don't want a fridge full of leftovers.
I have never understood diets like this. They don't make evolutionary sense. There's only one diet logically that is ideal in my opinion, and I'd like to call it the food diet. Eat food. Eat natural, unmodified food. If its processed and has things that aren't food in it, don't eat it. It's worth making more frequent trips to the grocery store to buy food that's real than to eat the non-food additives that make other things stay longer.
Guaranteed, if everyone were to cut all non-food / modified food items from their diets, the only people that would be unhealthy would be those who have medical conditions. And we'd probably have way less of those too.
Oh, and none of this should negate the fact that eatthismuch.com is totally awesome. Keep it up!
No. The only dieting advice you need is to keep your calorie content in a reasonable range (roughly equal to expenditure to maintain weight, less than expenditure to lose) and make sure you're getting enough nutrients.
It's possible to lose weight on a Twinkie diet. The person who did also improved his cholesterol levels: His LDL dropped, his HDL went up, and his triglycerides went down.
I think it was Einstein who once said, "knowledge is not about what you've learned, it's about what you've managed to unlearn.". The old "calories in, calories out" adage is one of those things you have to unlearn, because as much as it seems to make sense, modern science has shown us that it's simply not true.
Sure, some people disagree, but you'd be farfetched to find anybody in history who proposed a new way of thinking who didn't have people arguing against him.
Furthermore, something being "unproven" (which is what his Wiki says about his propositions) is very different from it being "disproven." Even the most brilliant scientific breakthroughs of our time were, at the time of their inception, unproven.
Whether or not you agree, I still highly recommend watching the whole video. It's rife with good material for discussion.
Your posts are not straightforward.
Here's the wiki quote: "By contrast, such a conclusion has been deemed unwarranted by medical experts and not confirmed by clinical research. For example, in one meta-analysis giving evidence opposite to Lustig's opinion, fructose consumption actually reduced blood glucose levels with no effect on body weight."
It's not "some people" but instead the clear majority of nutrition researchers / specialists. Your argument about "unproven" vs "disproven" is a straw man. Having extensive meta studies that show no support for Lustigs thesis is as close to disprove something as it is possible to do so in nutrition discussions (even though most nutrition studies have major problems in their quality and samplesize quantity).
Further, in your original comment you wrote "modern science has shown us that it's simply not true." and your only support for this was the linking of Lustigs youtube-video (which, to say it nicely, is at least heavily contested). I agree with you that there are many open nutrition questions (and that it is important to keep an open mind for new concepts / ideas), but to postulate that science has shown that "calories in, calories out" is wrong, is untrue.
I think this is definitely the wrong place to have an indepth discussion about the topic, but i just couldn't let your original statement stand by itself without a reply.
Sure it's possible to lose weight on a Twinkie diet but who would actually recommend that instead of just plain, simple eating healthy through whole foods?
It's also not entirely relevant, in that you're changing the topic: My whole point is that it's apparently possible to lose weight and improve your cholesterol on a Twinkie diet, not that it's necessarily desirable or anything else.
My larger point is that foods are not necessarily good or evil. Demonizing foods is idiotic. So is idolizing them. They must always be evaluated in context.
> If its processed and has things that aren't food in it, don't eat it.
This is wrong. It's nonsense, because humans aren't magical. We need a certain amount of nutrients, which we know, and calories, which we also know, and beyond that, we're fine, with rare exceptions. Anything else is unproven.
I like it. It would be nice to be able to refresh the entire day's meal, I know you can hit generate again but I spent a minute looking for a "refresh all" button and I'm sure others might as well. Perhaps at the bottom after the user has scrolled down.
Another key (IMO) perhaps paid feature should be the ability to exclude ingredients.
I'm allergic to peanuts for example, plus plenty of people just outright dislike certain foods so it would be nice to save them the hassle and exclude them. Also the inverse of this, a favourite food option, would be really nice.
Edit: Just seen the food filter, this works for the exclude but a favourite food option might be good still.
This is the first numerical problem I ever did. It demonstrates the
power of computers:
Enter lots of data on calorie & nutritive content of foods. Instruct
the thing to maximize a function describing nutritive content, with a
minimum level of each component, for fixed caloric content. The
results are that one should eat each day:
1/2 chicken
1 egg
1 glass of skim milk
27 heads of lettuce.
-- Rev. Adrian Melott
114 comments
[ 1.1 ms ] story [ 132 ms ] threadIt's a neat tool for getting a starting meal plan going, but some people have complained that the food variety is lacking. I can't eat only Greek yogurt for every meal.
Interesting. What nutritional requirements did you enter to give that result?
I may bill my customers in picodollars, but I don't eat food in femtograms...
McDonald, Lyle. The Ketogenic Diet (1998) http://goo.gl/TTqxA (link to relevant page on Google Books)
Edit: Just found some of the features I had suggested, whoops.
Extremely well done! I've bookmarked it and will be back.
on the other hand, that's a lot of salt. nearly 200mg of sodium per slice. so yeah, if you are watching your sodium intake? probably a bad idea. But calorie-wise, completely reasonable.
We have different bacon to Americans.
I'm probably never going to eat a cup of almonds and some celery for lunch...
I think you need to put some serious work into making sure that each suggestion is appetizing as opposed to rummaging through the pantry and finding something that technically meets the requirements.
Same here, plus you could throw in some stevia & cocoa to make it chocolate milk without adding much extra energy.
I guess that if you notice that price databases to be lacking, you could get users to crowdsource it. Even if only serious power users would fill the numbers at first to make them more exact, it should get the ball rolling.
http://www.skepdic.com/alkalinediet.html
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/coral2...
Guaranteed, if everyone were to cut all non-food / modified food items from their diets, the only people that would be unhealthy would be those who have medical conditions. And we'd probably have way less of those too.
Oh, and none of this should negate the fact that eatthismuch.com is totally awesome. Keep it up!
ie whole foods, and yes this is pretty much the only dieting advise you need.
It's possible to lose weight on a Twinkie diet. The person who did also improved his cholesterol levels: His LDL dropped, his HDL went up, and his triglycerides went down.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/06/health/la-he-fitness...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z5X0i92OZQ&feature=youtu...
Furthermore, something being "unproven" (which is what his Wiki says about his propositions) is very different from it being "disproven." Even the most brilliant scientific breakthroughs of our time were, at the time of their inception, unproven.
Whether or not you agree, I still highly recommend watching the whole video. It's rife with good material for discussion.
It's not "some people" but instead the clear majority of nutrition researchers / specialists. Your argument about "unproven" vs "disproven" is a straw man. Having extensive meta studies that show no support for Lustigs thesis is as close to disprove something as it is possible to do so in nutrition discussions (even though most nutrition studies have major problems in their quality and samplesize quantity).
Further, in your original comment you wrote "modern science has shown us that it's simply not true." and your only support for this was the linking of Lustigs youtube-video (which, to say it nicely, is at least heavily contested). I agree with you that there are many open nutrition questions (and that it is important to keep an open mind for new concepts / ideas), but to postulate that science has shown that "calories in, calories out" is wrong, is untrue. I think this is definitely the wrong place to have an indepth discussion about the topic, but i just couldn't let your original statement stand by itself without a reply.
It's simple thermodynamics. It can't possibly be not true unless human bodies are magic.
This sounds like the Naturalistic Fallacy, which is sadly common when it comes to discussing food.
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/adnature.html
It's also not entirely relevant, in that you're changing the topic: My whole point is that it's apparently possible to lose weight and improve your cholesterol on a Twinkie diet, not that it's necessarily desirable or anything else.
My larger point is that foods are not necessarily good or evil. Demonizing foods is idiotic. So is idolizing them. They must always be evaluated in context.
This is wrong. It's nonsense, because humans aren't magical. We need a certain amount of nutrients, which we know, and calories, which we also know, and beyond that, we're fine, with rare exceptions. Anything else is unproven.
Another key (IMO) perhaps paid feature should be the ability to exclude ingredients.
I'm allergic to peanuts for example, plus plenty of people just outright dislike certain foods so it would be nice to save them the hassle and exclude them. Also the inverse of this, a favourite food option, would be really nice.
Edit: Just seen the food filter, this works for the exclude but a favourite food option might be good still.
But besides that, pretty nice idea! I also like the interface! :)
Bit impractical imho. I think it needs a "staple" option (i would choose legumes for example, others rice or potatoes).
I remember being told to eat a kilo of salt :)
Ah, computers.