Benefits of going wheat-free?

peepeep

Hi guys,

I'm about 5'3 and 124 lbs (56 kgs). I'm looking to shift about a stone. I do a lot of walking, and I run 5k about twice a week. A friend of mine suggested that to complement my fitness regime, I should try a wheat-free diet. For me, this would really just involve giving up bread (which I actually eat a fair amount of, but it's always wholegrain) and the occasional biscuit. I don't really eat pasta or any other wheat.

Anyone know if it's worth going wheat-free? Will I accrue any benefits?

Thanks

104494431

Based on what you've said I would need to find out whether you were going wheat free or products containing wheat free.

Sounds like the same thing but for example you give up bread (containing wheat) and instead replaced it with a suitable alternative and ate bread without wheat as normal. You would be eating the same amount of calories (assumption) but no wheat, so in effect nothing would really change as I see it.

Conversely if you gave up bread (none whatsoever) and didn't replace it with an alternative form of food then you would not be eating as much food (assumption) and would potentially lose weight due to a reduced calorie intake.

The point of all that rubbish is that if you look at your diet and aim to eat less calories than you burn then you will lose weight, using a stupid example: eating 1,000 calories a day of leaves/bricks/lard/batteries and exercising away 2,000 calories a day would make you lose weight, but whats healthy about that diet? Nothing I'd imagine. So why don't you aim to eat more balanced meals with an emphasis on calorific restriction/reduction and see how you get on? I don't know of any wheat free diets, but I know that white carbohydrate free diets which focus on eating less than you burn will definitely make you lose weight.

Hope it works out for you

Khannie

I agree with 90210 there (sorry, but you're asking for it with that username! ). Personally (/me waits to be jumped on) I think the notion of a wheat free diet is boll*x. I eat very little wheat as it is, but I can't see my bit of wholegrain brown bread and the occasional biscuit doing anything very negative to me. As 90210 suggests, cutting out or reducing white flour based products is sensible.

Red Cortina

Can only speak from personal experience here about what has worked for me. I have given up all wheat products in the past 3 months and, aside from the weight loss aspect, I am feeling so much the better for it. If I slip back into my old ways my digestive system seriously acts up. All sorts of unpleasant, unmentionable things happen... Either way I am now replacing the bread and pasta that I used to eat with more veg. My skin is definitely thanking me for it too-spots have magically cleared up. So 2 thumbs up from me here for a wheat-free diet.

Why don't you try going wheat free for 2 weeks and then go back on the bread and pasta and see how you get on? You will know then if wheat products agree with you or not.

104494431

Red Cortina wrote: »

Can only speak from personal experience here about what has worked for me. I have given up all wheat products in the past 3 months and, aside from the weight loss aspect, I am feeling so much the better for it. If I slip back into my old ways my digestive system seriously acts up. All sorts of unpleasant, unmentionable things happen... Either way I am now replacing the bread and pasta that I used to eat with more veg. My skin is definitely thanking me for it too-spots have magically cleared up. So 2 thumbs up from me here for a wheat-free diet.

Why don't you try going wheat free for 2 weeks and then go back on the bread and pasta and see how you get on? You will know then if wheat products agree with you or not.

The OP was told that going "wheat free" will help her lose weight.

You are talking about gastrointestinal and dermatological symptoms of eating wheat.

I know that avoiding wheat (in my case dairy products) is probably better for you but I fail to see how it helps losing weight.

So while your post makes perfect sense, I don't think the OP needs to know whether wheat agrees with them or not, rather whether or not its absence will promote weight loss.

Khannie - the username is my college id number, any way I can change it?

Khannie

104494431 wrote: »

Khannie - the username is my college id number, any way I can change it?

Ah I was only slagging. Sorry, didn't mean to make you self conscious. You can change it alright, but I don't know how. I'd say try sys->Help Desk.

Mellor

Subscribers can change their name, its like a fiver at the lowest level

MagicMarker

Personally, I couldn't eat an egg if it wasn't accompanied by a slice of toast.

104494431

Khannie wrote: »

Ah I was only slagging. Sorry, didn't mean to make you self conscious. You can change it alright, but I don't know how. I'd say try sys->Help Desk.

Ah I'm not self conscious, just not in college any more so wanted a change :P

I like eggs, I just mix them up (on their own), throw them in a frying pan with some coconut oil and bash them up, scrambled eggs without any of the added crap (I'm a puritan when it comes to cooking things).

megapixel

Red Cortina wrote: »

Can only speak from personal experience here about what has worked for me. I have given up all wheat products in the past 3 months and, aside from the weight loss aspect, I am feeling so much the better for it. If I slip back into my old ways my digestive system seriously acts up. All sorts of unpleasant, unmentionable things happen... Either way I am now replacing the bread and pasta that I used to eat with more veg. My skin is definitely thanking me for it too-spots have magically cleared up. So 2 thumbs up from me here for a wheat-free diet.

Why don't you try going wheat free for 2 weeks and then go back on the bread and pasta and see how you get on? You will know then if wheat products agree with you or not.

Have you been tested for coeliacs disease? Sounds like you possible have that or a wheat intolerance...