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Guest Larry Istrail talks about the ancestral weightloss registry and the photo calorie app.
Bio:
Larry Istrail is a medical student at Virginia Commonwealth University and the co-founder (along with Adam Marcus, Vincent Fusaro, and Mark Boguski) of PhotoCalorie, a photographic food journal that allows you, your friends, or your physician to literally see what you’ve been eating. Prior to med school, Larry received a Master’s degree at Boston University, specializing in nutrition and metabolism, completing his Master’s thesis on the clinical and prospective data regarding the relationship between saturated fats and heart disease.
Registry:
The goal of the Ancestral Weight Loss Registry is to collect and analyze data on the experiences of people who have tried a paleo or carb-restricted diet, by harnessing the power of the internet and social media. As thousands of people register from all over the world, we hope to discover trends regarding health, nutrition, and weight loss which can complement the clinical trials being performed, as well as generate novel hypotheses for future testing regarding the potential benefits of a paleo or carb-restricted diet. Interesting trends, such as behaviors of those who were most successful, will be posted periodically on the site.
We are also now able to track the registry member’s actual eating behaviors using PhotoCalorie. Once you fill out the registry form and submit it, you will have the unique opportunity to enter your actual dietary data into PhotoCalorie and vastly improve the quality of your own personal data, as well as the registry as a whole. For those who simply want to use PhotoCalorie as a food journal, they have the option to do this as well. Sign up for free at www.PhotoCalorie.com, or download the free iPhone app from the iTunes store.
Finally, there is also a Related Science section, summarizing the clinical data on many aspects of paleo and carb-restricted eating, such as efficacy, and the potential dangers of high saturated fat intake.
Thus far, the response has been nothing short of spectacular. Registrants are pouring in from all over the globe, sharing the emotional struggles and inspiring triumphs on their journey towards losing weight and regaining their health. For those registrants who want to share their story publicly and inspire others, there is an option on the registry form to be featured on the blog.
I come from a lower income family, I’m part Native American, and I’m a Christian. I guess I’m Paleo in spite of several odds!
I’m a minority. 🙂
I come across a lot more paleo Christians than you’d think. But to be fair, Christians are only like the bulk of the population, so there’s sort of an inherent selection bias there.
I’m Part Native American, Hispanic and Caucasian, and Christian. Yaaaay for Paleo Minorities!
I’m also a broke college student, haha.
Another fine interview. I thought the joke was “What do you call a doctor that graduates with a “C” average?”… a doctor.
Added my info to the registry. I would love to have my story published on the blog… however, I submitted a testimonial to a dear friend who has been my inspiration and basically, a life coach throughout the journey. He didn’t charge me a dime, and always lifted my up when I was down. So, I will let him publish the story first and then share it with the rest of the world.
I can understand the point he’s making about being hungry and not being hungry. I think it’s about training people to not eat certain things. Sugar and breads are foods to make you feel good. You aren’t going to feel “satisfied” until you eat this, for some. People commonly mistake this addiction with hunger. Why do people need sweets after they eat a healthy dinner? They haven’t got that sense of fulfillment or satisfactory that they get from sweets. Just saying it’s fighting the addiction more so than hunger.
In regards to eating to satiety, I’d like to see a high carb Paleo diet and a low carb Paleo diet compared. I personally find starch just as satiating as fat. You’d be hard-pressed finding someone who became obese from overeating potatoes and cassava. That being said however, the real issue here is food quality, as Robb mentioned. You can get someone just as metabolically fucked eating pounds of nuts, dark chicken meat and chugging industrial seed oils as you could having them throw back cereal grains and agave nectar all day long. The low-carb/high-carb dichotomy is useless if you don’t have food quality variables sorted first. If people would simply start there and then tinker according to their metabolic health, activity level, epigenetics etc., I think we’d see some very “maconutrient agnostic” results across the board, and in turn possibly put the beaten-to-a-pulp-dead-horse of low-carb vs high-carb to rest.
What the heck is a “high carb Paleo diet”? There is no such thing.
Yams, yams, yams.
Ever heard of the Kitavans? Lol
Thanks for such great information. I am looking forward to calling you Dr. Larry in the future. I was also a bit floored by the income distribution of the participants in your registry. I think the paleo community needs to carefully look at the too-common practice of questioning the intelligence and commitment of participants with more limited financial means. I hope you all will visit my blog in March, during my frugal food challenge.
I submitted my info to the Ancestral Weight Loss Registry though I’m not sure if it’s exactly what they want. Here’s my example, last February I did a 35 day paleo challenge at my gym and I lost about 12 lbs. I did strict, low carb paleo for those 35 days and then loosened up my eating for the last year splurging a couple times a week on non-paleo foods. I completed the challenge a year ago and my body fat has been stable, never regaining the body fat lost on the challenge. Is this the type of stuff they want or would they prefer longer interventions?
Wow. Thanks so much for interviewing Larry. Really interesting stuff.
Great idea! Pity, that Photo Calorie is highly US focused. I don t calculate in inches, ounces and cups. Also, it would be nice if there was a way to integrate data from other platforms. Many peope use things like fitday or something similar – and I could imagine they don t want to spend more time with logging their food than with actually eating.
It is perfect time to make some plans for the longer term and it is time to be happy. I’ve read this submit and if I may just I wish to recommend you few fascinating issues or suggestions. Maybe you could write next articles relating to this article. I want to read even more things about it!
Great article but where do you get started. I find that is my biggest barrier is just getting started. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks 🙂