Pasta?

[kpolninja]

How often are people eating pasta while doing MWL and being successful.
Please specify the kind as well. Do you notice it makes a difference on the scale?

[Vegeloon]

kpol,
I am trying to avoid pasta, but I did make vegan lasagna last weekend with whole wheat lasagna noodles. I have also had some small amounts of pasta in the occasional McDougall cups - like Pad Thai and Miso cups.
After one week back on the MWL program (sticking to it about 95% of the time), I have lost 6 pounds. So, I think I won't sweat the little bit of pasta from time to time.

[rogermoore]

I ate a lot of pasta as I lost my 100 pounds and 14 years later I still eat pasta frequently and have not gained any weight. Pasta is mostly water. One of my favorite pasta sauces is fresh salsa, red beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, frozen corn, Mexican stewed tomatoes, diced chilies, bell peppers and spices - pour this over some brown rice spinach pasta and I'm a happy camper!

[veganmaster]

Pasta is one of the healthiest foods, and one of the best for body recomposition purposes, since it is very low in fat and very high in starch (the key is not to add fat to it). The anti-pasta propaganda is based on ignorance and the BS glycemic index (read McDougall's article on it, which I link to in my blog somewhere). The pair of starch overfeeding studies with the best body recomposition results were high in starch and low in fat. So for weight loss you eat less, muscle gain more total kcal for the day.

[Letha]

How often are people eating pasta while doing MWL and being successful.
Please specify the kind as well. Do you notice it makes a difference on the scale?

Just to clarify, the McDougall plan includes pasta. The McDougall maximum weight loss (MWL) plan does not include pasta. You can lose a lot of weight on the regular plan but you should lose it even faster on the maximum weight loss plan. The maximum weight loss plan does not allow flour products such as pasta, bread, or tortillas. But you can have those items on the regular plan and still be healthy and still lose weight.

I’m following the maximum weight loss plan (no bread/tortillas/pasta) and I’m losing a couple of pounds per week. If I added pasta and bread to my diet I’m sure my weight loss would slow down. If I was younger, male, or very active I could probably eat pasta/bread/tortillas on the regular plan and still lose just as much.

If you’re trying to decide how much pasta to eat I would lask "What kind of results are you getting right now? Are you happy with your progress? Do you want to speed up weight loss? Have you met your weight loss goals already?"
Letha

[kpolninja]

Well, I've been really compliant with MWL since Monday and I've gone down 3.3 since then. My results have been so great I don't want to mess anything up, however I would really like to have some microwave tortilla chips and salsa or some pasta.

Maybe it can be my reward if I can get my lazy butt onto the treadmill 3x next week.

[kartoffel]

Jeff pointed out that though pasta is a processed flour product, unlike bread, crackers or tortillas, we rehydrate it. This makes the calories per pound on a similar level to cooked grains and beans, which of course are allowed. So even if it's not officially MWL, 200 calories of pasta is likely to fill you up much better than 200 calories of bread or tortillas (and I certainly find this to be true).

[kpolninja]

that is a good point about rehydrating it. (this is totally off topic but as I'm typing my kitty is sleeping and I can tell he is dreaming because his paws and ears are moving-so cute).

I figure when I get down to 185 I can have either pasta or corn tortillas. Maybe every five lbs I "indulge" in a meal with one or the other.

[Casey]

For all of you eating pasta, is the pasta supposed to be only whole wheat, or is the regular kind ok?

Thanks for the clarification.

Casey

ps: Has anyone tried the sprouted grain pasta?? I recently bought some at Trader Joe's but haven't tried it yet.