Losing weight with the Big Green Egg

CrazyHarry · August 2012

Sell it. That thing weighs a ton.

Nah, just kidding. ;-)

Earlier this summer, for a variety of health reasons, my wife and I made a firm commitment to lose some weight. We looked at lots of diets and even a tried a few... unsuccessfully. Then I stumbled across the Paleo diet, and later the misnamed "Mayo Clinic Diet" which is very similar to the Paleo but a bit more strict. The thing that jumped out at me is that both diets emphasize MEAT. What a great excuse to use my Big Green Egg EVERY NIGHT!

We've been following the Mayo Clinic diet for about 6 weeks and we've both lost around 20 pounds. You don't get many carbs so the first few weeks are kind of tough, but now that our bodies have adjusted we feel great, and we're not starving all the time!

Here's the meal plan we follow:

Breakfast
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
2 Eggs (any style)
2 Slices Bacon

Lunch
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened) -- We usually skip this
Meat (any style, any amount)
Salad (any kind of dressing)

Dinner
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
Meat (any style, any amount) (fish may be substituted for meat)
Vegetables (any green, yellow, or red vegetables cooked in butter or any seasoning)

Bed Time Snack
1 glass tomato juice or 1 glass Skim milk -- We often skip the bed time snack

Vegetables Allowed
Red onions, green onions, bell peppers, radishes, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, peas.

Vegetables to Avoid
White onions, potatoes, celery.

You can find more information here: http://www.everydiet.org/diet/mayo-clinic-diet

We don't eat bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, processed meats/foods, and we stay away from sugar. (Though we'll occasionally add a little raw honey to a sauce or something.) We've also been avoiding dairy wherever possible.

NOTE: Most doctors think this is a FAD diet and it's not recommended; but it's basically the same as the Paleo diet, and there is a lot of scientific evidence supporting that lifestyle choice. My wife and I rationalized our decision to follow this diet when we realized that we are not eating that much MORE meat than before -- we're just replacing sugar and junk food with vegetables. So even if it's not the healthiest diet around, it's healthier than how we used to eat.

BENEFITS:

I get to use my Egg all the time
Egg cooked food just tastes better
Meals are easy (and FUN) to prepare
I don't have to worry about portion control (it's hard to get a caloric surplus eating steak and vegetables -- you fill up too fast)

Anyone else using the Egg to lose weight?

cortguitarman · August 2012

I use an app on my phone called my fitness pal. It is a glorified calorie counter. It works, I egg every day and I'm ok with that. I lost 25lbs using p90x. I'm doing this to maintain. Although I have gained some back.

milkman5083 · August 2012

P90x is the real deal. Keep it up, guys!

CrazyHarry · August 2012

We tried a diet that involved watching our calories. And we tried "portion control" but when my wife makes her all day spaghetti I CAN'T just eat one plate of it. I just can't.

The nice thing about this diet we're on now is that it's super easy. No weighing or looking up calories. We can eat as much as we want.

Last Saturday I grilled some hamburgers on the Egg and then crumbled them into a huge salad with onions, tomatoes and pickles. I used mustard instead of salad dressing and it tasted great -- a hamburger salad!

Right now I'm brining 6 pork chops and I'll serve them tonight with some salad (with a few tablespoons of Blue Cheese dressing) and some grilled green onions. We probably can't eat 3 pork chops each, so if we get full we'll just put the rest in the refrigerator for lunch tomorrow.

cortguitarman · August 2012

It is. I'm going back on it in September. I'm a teacher and it's too hard to exercise and watch what I eat when I can plan elaborate egged meals and drink beer scrutiny night. I also do construction in the summer and theast thing I want to do after busting my ars in the sun all day is work out.

milkman5083 · August 2012

I understand. I started using P90x then started the gym. I don't have too much motivation working out at home. Eating correctly is huge in maintaining or losing weight. That being said, I still allow myself a cheat day(Sunday).

misu · August 2012

if beer is ok for this diet I'm in :)

Botch · August 2012

Celery is an "avoid" vegetable?? :-O

The Cen-Tex Smoker · August 2012

Celery is an "avoid" vegetable?? :-O

And white onion. TFJ and I were kind of scratching our heads on that. How can things that are a ZERO on the glycemic index and totoally unprocessed (not to mention 10 calories for 2 lbs worth) be bad?

CrazyHarry · August 2012

Yeah, I don't know why that diet recommends against celery and white onions. We've ignored some of that advice.

The main takeaways for us are:

1. Avoid sugar and processed foods

2. Minimize starches (i.e. potatoes)

3. Stay away from grains (noodles, bread, cereal, etc.)

4. Cook a bunch of vegetables on the BIG GREEN EGG!

5. Cook a bunch of meat on the BIG GREEN EGG!

It's those last two that I'm enjoying the most. :-)

The Cen-Tex Smoker · August 2012

Yeah, I don't know why that diet recommends against celery and white onions. We've ignored some of that advice.

The main takeaways for us are:

1. Avoid sugar and processed foods
2. Minimize starches (i.e. potatoes)
3. Stay away from grains (noodles, bread, cereal, etc.)
4. Cook a bunch of vegetables on the BIG GREEN EGG!
5. Cook a bunch of meat on the BIG GREEN EGG!

It's those last two that I'm enjoying the most. :-)

sounds about right. I lost 4 lbs this week just doing that :)

Drank like a fish all week too.

Badong · August 2012

Man I'm happy that you are losing and I think Paleo is the right way to go but that site looks very sketchy.

This quote is from their website: "This is not an “official” Mayo Clinic Diet."

This is from the Mayo site: "You might have tried what you thought was a Mayo Clinic diet — something you saw on the Internet or that was passed along by friends — but it was probably bogus."

The actual Mayo Clinic diet looks just like the old fashioned USDA crap we've seen killing Americans for the last 30 years.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mayo-clinic-diet/my01646

I'm currently reading "The Paleo Solution" by Rob Wolfe. It looks like it lays it all out pretty well.

If you don't want to spring for a book you can check out sites like www.marksdailyapple.com

I always want good intel and I thought you might as well.

JohnB · August 2012

I went on the Atkins diet about 15 years ago, before it was really well known. Wanted to lose about 5 lbs. and wound up losing 15. I couldn't believe the stuff I was eating and still losing weight. Steaks or pork chops every night and that summer I could get an artichoke the size of a 16" softball for $1. The only real downside is I quit eating bananas and, I suppose due to the lack of potassium, would wake up in the middle of the night with code red charlie-horses.

I fell off the wagon for a bit but having the egg makes this diet incredibly easy.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · August 2012

I went on the Atkins diet about 15 years ago, before it was really well known. Wanted to lose about 5 lbs. and wound up losing 15. I couldn't believe the stuff I was eating and still losing weight. Steaks or pork chops every night and that summer I could get an artichoke the size of a 16" softball for $1. The only real downside is I quit eating bananas and, I suppose due to the lack of potassium, would wake up in the middle of the night with code red charlie-horses.

I fell off the wagon for a bit but having the egg makes this diet incredibly easy.

I get the charlie horses too. I take potassium supplemental when I do no carbs

killborn · August 2012

I started a similar thread a couple months back when my fiance and I started the South Beach diet phase 1, which is kinda tough initially, but easy to get into since it does allow for a lot of egging. I managed to keep off 10lbs from the first time we did it and we have just started it again. That together with moderate exercise really does work wonders. Kinda tough not having some of the basics one would normally have. SB is a little more strict where in the first couple weeks and relaxes a bit every new phase.

michigan_jason · August 2012

I started a similar thread a couple months back when my fiance and I started the South Beach diet phase 1, which is kinda tough initially, but easy to get into since it does allow for a lot of egging. I managed to keep off 10lbs from the first time we did it and we have just started it again. That together with moderate exercise really does work wonders. Kinda tough not having some of the basics one would normally have. SB is a little more strict where in the first couple weeks and relaxes a bit every new phase.

+1 for the SBD, when I was on it I went from 265 to 220 in about 4 months without much working out. Phase 1 only bothered me BC no beer. After that, I drank mostly liquor (crown, Bacardi, and other low calorie 0 sugar liquors.) It really isn't that bad, but I did fall off and gained it all back. You need to commit to the whole lifestyle change. My mom has, and she went from 155 to 135 in 2 months and she is still losing 1-2lbs a week.

Good luck

rcone · August 2012

Crazy Hairy is absolutely right.

Botch · August 2012

I can understand the ban on onions, they are actually full of sugars despite their bite.

Still don't get celery, though (not a problem for me, dear ol' Mom burned me out on the stuff...)

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