Friends in Texas introduced me to The Pioneer Woman blog, Ree Drummond…especially her simple comfort food recipes and many desserts. Gave up all those when I went low carb in 2010.

She wrote an article about how she lost weight published in June 2021 and updated a few days ago. She lost 50 pounds and emphasized she did not use weight loss gummies, supplements or any of the new drugs like Ozempic. What she did use are basic, solid diet and exercise changes…including less sugar, no alcohol and increasing protein to 30-40%.



Good list of what she did and didn’t do. Not "keto" but lower carb, lower fat, high protein and high fiber.

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ree...d-got-healthier

Interesting.

I keep looking at the list of protein foods she used to increase her protein intake, and have to wonder where she's even finding low fat plain yogurt these days. I'm not seeing it around here at all (except as some kind of adulterated 2G stuff which has tapioca starch and gellan gum in it... and weirdly- also has lemon juice concentrate in it). I see some whole milk plain yogurt these days, but it's mostly non-fat (and often flavored and sweetened... I suppose I could mix full fat yogurt and non-fat yogurt and end up with the low fat )

Other than the veggies that were also on the list you quoted, the article didn't really mention much of what else she was eating, except for the occasional smaller piece of cake.

So along with significantly lowering her sugary carb intake, I have to wonder if she made a significant shift in her overall starchy carb intake (for instance just a much smaller serving of pasta or potato), or if the choice of low fat proteins was to make up for the calories she was still eating in the form of carbs - although it sounds like she would have actually done that the other way around, just lowering calories overall, then increasing the protein to 30-40%, and perhaps lowering the starchy carbs a little more to make up for the increased protein calories.

(I only mention it because some of us have such a messed up metabolism that we really can't get away with more than absolutely minimal starchy carbs without consequences.)

Nonfat, or lowfat 2%, unsweetened, plain Greek yogurt is widely available now, particularly the Fage brand and Chobani. Most store brand Greek yogurts, eg. Publix, Wegmans, Trader Joe's, and Costco are also just milk and the yogurt starters. I buy non-fat dairy to get higher protein for fewer calories, or Higher Satiety Per Calorie. Eating "lots of spinach", an apple and carrots provide the needed fiber for her nutrient dense carbs.

The magic of a High Protein diet is the Satiety, increase the protein first, and fiber, and you will be satisfied with fewer calories. A recent journal post has the foods I eat, hers sound very similar, and both lists, maybe not surprisingly since it was 2021, are very similar to The P:E Diet.

https://forum.lowcarber.org/showpos...3&postcount=316

Oh I find plenty of nonfat yogurt - it's the low fat/2% that seems to have simply disappeared at the stores where I shop around here.

They used to have low/2% fat yogurts around here, but a couple months ago those disappeared, and now the only one those stores have that's low-fat is the 2G one. (must just be this area - what varieties stores stock of any given food depends on local demand)

There have been times when the whole milk greek yogurt was out of stock - nothing but the non-fat on the shelf. So I've tried the non-fat before, but I simply do not find it satiating at all - or rather not as satiating, and even that doesn't last very long - I'll be hungry again in an hour, whereas I can easily go for 6-8 hours on the same amount of whole milk greek.

I've always noticed that eating a very low fat meat such as chicken breast doesn't provide nearly the satiation that the same amount of chicken thigh meat provides, and not nearly as much as a smaller amount 85% ground beef does. So it's not just the non-fat yogurt I don't find satiating, it's anything that's extremely low in fat.

Hmm... maybe my satiation issue is because of my hyper-insulinism - absorbing the carbs in the non-fat yogurt too quickly when there's no fat to slow down the carb absorption and causing too much insulin release too quickly?

Your situation is why Marty Kendall is developing personalized Satiety plans depending on your goals and diet preferences. At a healthy weight, I still eat lowish carb but the Satiety from my diet is primarily from Protein and Fiber, watching micronutrient intake as well. https://optimisingnutrition.com/low...ety/#h-low-carb
I do not depend on fat or carbs for satiation, they are just energy, but I had to slowly work toward metabolic flexibility first. I can eat high or low fat yogurt but know, long term, if I eat FAGE 5% or add HWC to NF, I would regain weight by eating way more energy/calories and less protein. 140 cal vs 80 cal. And 14g protein vs 16 g. Instant Win.

Dr Naiman had a good explanation of what happens with the extremes of Carb or Fat Adaptation. If long term you stay VLC, "eating one blueberry" will spike your BG. At minute 39, https://youtu.be/XhhoJAY96FA?si=z-OyJ1ie4c-cQwkA

Interesting reading.

At this point in my life - while losing weight would truly be a nice bonus - for me eating LC is mostly a matter of avoiding voracious/constant hunger. (which is an effect of the hyperinsulinism/hypoglycemia) I've just been trying to figure out if I could cut back on fats without a return to insatiable hunger.

I've never gone as low as keto level carbs, since I get at least 50 g carbs between the plain greek yogurt, some berries, various veggies on a daily basis, and of course the few carbs that come with eggs and cheese.

I definitely eat high protein (at least 130 g/day, significantly more most days), but every time I try to cut back on the fat, I end up with a satiation problem - significantly more hungry.

That's why I think it must be purely related to the hyperinsulin/hypoglycemia. I'm not sure it's even possible to change my tolerance levels, simply because I've had this since I was a newborn.

The lifelong condition is a story in and of itself - newborns don't normally sleep in excess of 14-1/2 hours solid without waking or getting hungry, and you don't usually need to go to physically hurt a newborn to get them to wake up enough to suck on a bottle... but this went on for the first several months of my life.

They had tried test after test when I was young trying to figure out why I was always so lethargic - it wasn't until I had completed my freshman year in college that the Dr finally suggested trying a glucose tolerance test, which I failed. But it was the eureka moment when it finally became clear that "normal" levels of carbs were my kryptonite: raising my blood sugar enough that I waaaay overproduced insulin, resulting in such low blood sugar that I became lethargic, even if I didn't sleep nearly as much as I had as an infant.

(As a younger teenager - years prior to that diagnosis, I had figured out that if I ate again, I'd have the energy to do things... for an hour or two until I was feeling lethargic again. So eat again, get a little done, feel lethargic, rinse and repeat. And of course back then I wasn't eating protein for snacks - protein was for sit down meals. Snacks were always carby, which just kept the blood sugar spike and crash roller coaster going.)

Sorry, didn't mean to write a novel here (although this is the short version), just wanted to make it clear that I'm not ignoring the information you're providing, just trying to figure out based on my experience with diet what tactics to try.

Calianna, that must have been difficult to have lifelong hyperinsulin/hypoglycemia. Diet and exercise would be first line treatment but you would think by now there might also be a medical treatment to help you. Sure you will find the best foods that work for you.
Ps: more often than not I have the NF yogurt/cottage cheese with 1 scoop of protein powder and berries. Some consider PP "cheating" but Dr Naiman doesn’t, that really increases satiation for me.

I never knew anything different until after the GTT that finally showed what my problem was, and subsequently cutting way back on carbs.

That had fits and starts though - I was given a diabetes diet sheet, because the small-town Dr said it was the same diet I needed to follow. Some things on it were completely foreign to me - such as green salads. We never had green salads. I saw no point in bothering with the small servings of carbs I was allowed, such as 1 slice of bread, or 1/2 cup of potato, because I was used to eating large quantities of carbs - and the more carbs I ate, the more carbs I wanted. The fact that the only vegetables we ate on a regular basis were peas, green beans, and young green lima beans, with the occasional corn - I'm sure those provided about the same carbs as the bread or potato allowance would have.


I'm sure I've told on here about how I went through rebellious periods in my life when I was sick and tired of not being able to eat like a normal person and gorged on carbs. That just made it that much more difficult each time, because I couldn't just eat one cheat meal and go back on LC.

But I'm pretty sure it's going to stick this time, because I've been LC for the last 20 years or so.

Likely. I also have hyper-insulinism, what both DH and I call the Stone Age Pancreas. "You must have fallen in a beehive. And will eat the whole thing. Release the tanker car of insulin!"

This is why CICO did not work for me. Might have if I were able to whiteknuckle through yet another day and night of screaming hunger. But left to roam free, I used most of my 1200 a day on carbs. So I could suffer for weeks, even months, without losing anything and without my appetite calming down.

Every since going into ketosis AND losing my excess weight, fat is my fuel. So when I crave it, I make cream cheese omelettes and mug cheesecake with no sweetener except fruit. I put bacon in my wraps and chuck roast on the stove once a week. In my area, that's the cheapest beef there is.

I don't worry about how much I eat of such foods because, unlike my carb intake, fat and protein DO regulate themselves.

Lately, my favorite Greek yogurt is a brand called Cabot, 10% fat because they add cream and no artificial gums and thickeners.

But you are right about the yogurt variety going all Keto and macros. I love mixing yogurt with my whey protein for a highly satisfying "shake" which is a quick meal to make.

OMG, that's hilarious! But it's exactly what it feels like happens.

And it really doesn't take that many carbs to cause that reaction.


One time though I did manage to lose a little bit of weight on carbs alone. (during one of my rebellious "I'm sick of not being able to eat like a normal person" phases) A friend had taught me how to make soft pretzels (very similar to Auntie Anne's). Being a carb addict, I loved-loved-loved them.

The only problem was that even though they were wonderfully soft and chewy (and yeasty and buttery) the day I made them, the next day they'd be getting tough and dry, so they weren't nearly as good.

So what I ended up doing was making a batch every day - a batch of about a dozen (or 18? I can't recall - the ones I made weren't nearly as big as the Auntie Anne's - I would fit them all on 2 trays in the oven), and I'd eat them all day long. That was pretty much the only thing I ate though, nothing but those soft pretzels. I'm sure my blood sugar was on a constant roller coaster, but I had enough pretzels to eat one about every 3/4 hour or so all day long, so my blood sugar didn't get a chance to drop quite as low as it would have if I'd eaten 3 or 4 of them at once, then waited 5 hours to eat any more of them.

Anyhow, over a period of about 3 months, I think I lost a whopping 5 lbs! Probably because the total number of calories/day was so low that it wasn't nearly enough to support a morbidly obese body.

Thanks, it's good to know it was pointless suffering so i'm off the hook for "not lasting long enough." And I suspect we are far from the only ones to have that experience with calorie counting. It also never occured to me that I, a tall bookworm, was told to eat the same number of calories as girls a head shorter who played sports.

After going "animal diet" in January 2019, the pandemic saw me cooking more, which was good, but adding more kinds of foods, which was bad. Because I started having reactions to the large amounts of oxalate in the "healthy foods" I was eating.

I now think my autoimmune, since my gut healed, continues to get better, because now I manage my diet to help my body get rid of oxalates, instead of pointlessly suffering flares. Now that I look back, my flares can easily be traced to be eating high oxalate foods, unaware. It was why the spinach wilted in the drawer and the chopped salad kits with kale and sunflower seeds would ruin my appetite. My body was trying to tell me something.

And when I started looking at information about oxalates? I was assured any oxalate issue could be buffered by calcium, like in the dairy in my hot chocolate and the cheese on my salad. It turns out, that's not true. The science of oxalates was better understood in 1840 than now. My paperback of Toxic Superfoods is now lent to my doctor.

Switching to romaine and blueberries instead of spinach and raspberries was a game changer for me. Starting with beef and adding things one at a time was the only way I could have ever figured all this out by now.

Because I have been, since finding Atkins in 2003, zeroing in towards answers. It's work that's never done.

I wasn't actually counting calories, but since I was eating mostly soft pretzels, I was taking in a lot fewer calories than when I was gorging on chips and cookies.

There is autoimmune in my family history, mostly in the younger generation though. Or at least they've been diagnosed as autoimmune, whereas those issues were considered to be allergies in my generation. My parents' generation, it was kind of a mixed bag of diagnoses sometimes being called allergies - even though they didn't show any definite allergic reactions to the allergy testing, just very minor reactions despite each individual clearly having constant congestion or digestive issues. (The digestive issue diagnoses ranged from spastic colon to colitis to irritable bowel, when in reality it could have all been autoimmune based, or it could have simply been a matter of so much drainage from the constant head congestion that the digestive system couldn't take it)

(And we seem to have gotten waaaay off the topic of how Pioneer Woman lost weight)

I went to Walmart today, and while I was there I checked out their selection of plain yogurts.

The Cabot 10% does have 10% fat, but I don't think it's just from adding cream. This is their list of ingredients:

I suspect that the milk protein concentrate and whey protein concentrate are a big factor in coming up with a total of 10% fat content.

Total Fat 16g
Carbohydrates 9g
Protein 14g

Compared to Chobani whole milk greek:

Total Fat 9g
Total Carbohydrate 7g
Protein 15g

The information on the (significantly less expensive) Friendly Farms Whole Milk Greek that I usually buy:


Total fat 9g
Total Carbohydrate 7g
Protein 15 g

So it's the same as Chobani - although Chobani has a somewhat different list of yogurt cultures, which is also different from the list of Cabot's yogurt cultures.

Cabot has more fat, but also slightly more carbs, and slightly less protein than the Chobani/Friendly Farms.

I can always add a little cream to the Friendly Farms, while still keeping the protein slightly higher and carbs slightly lower.

There are also cerebral allergies: bread's historic connection with schizophrenia, a book I read long ago about a woman who discovered her son's temper and learning disability was connected with his milk intake. Switching him to fermented forms like yogurt and cheese (yes, it was so long ago dairy wasn't demonized yet) and he became his true self. Not battling something no one can see on a diagnostic test, but food testing. This might have been my first exposure to such a concept.

The cream and protein could explain the thick texture of the Cabot, as a thickener without artificial ingredients? And I have been known to put heavy cream in my shakes, also, if I'm using regular low fat, even Greek, yogurt.

As to how the Pioneer woman lost the weight, she did sensible things at a sensible rate and centralized protein with low fat. Which never worked for me. HIGH fat worked for me, but the mere thought freaks out civilians.

The BEST something EVER worked? Carnivore. I've since added plants to control oxalate dumping, which is a good thing but needs handling methods. If I could fix ALL my health issues by eating nothing but grassfed hamburger -- I would do it. I have done it. It's even a low budget way to do OMAD and low carb. I spent most of 2019 on Animal Diet: meat, seafood, dark poultry, dairy. During the holidays I added things, careful of reactions. But then came 2020

Instead of sourdough I made cheesecake with low calorie sweeteners, & added daily veggies like a relish tray. "For health," but what it did was illuminate a health issue, which I'm able to address with low oxalate plant sources so the dumping doesn't run away with me.

The dumping is exactly like a flare. Understanding oxalates gave me a way to manage autoimmune flares. Which I've concluded, at least in my complicated and whacky case, is the reason I have autoimmune in the first place. I ate much too many antinutrients.

After making fun of the detox movement (which was 90% pyramid schemes in the first place) I find myself in a situation where I didn't know the body stored oxalates. And, given a chance, the body wants to get rid of it. I now work on helping it along, and the only snag turned out to be the giant dose of ibuprofen I got for a dental issue. No, no NSAIDS ever? Will be discussing it with my doctor end of the month.

The three main ways the body gets rid of oxalates is kidney/bladder, gut, and skin. And that's where the symptoms also come from. This is how I progressed to psoriasis and now they say it is serious and leads to psoriatic arthritis and I have to get on the drugs if it exceeds a certain percentage of my body. And right now, I'm exceeding it, boy howdy.

But I no longer see it as a "disease," much less a progressive one. I'm also getting rid of my joint pain and haven't taken an NSAID in years. Don't need to.

Now that I'm managing the process, it's the best eating, and health, I've enjoyed in about a decade. Everything I fix, stays fixed, now. I have a global theory which explains my symptoms and I know what to do about it.

That's all we need to do. Stop lying and start paying attention to real science.