The potato diet has been sweeping the Primal and Paleo community ever since Chris Voigt did his 20 potatoes a day for 60 days diet and lost weight and improved his cholesterol and blood pressure.

So I decided to try it.

Baked fries were great the first meal….

I mean how can you turn down trying a diet that has health benefits, promotes weight loss and supposedly keeps you full and energized throughout the entire day!?!

Anyway, I started the diet and for the first day, liked it. It was fun eating potatoes and getting to eat a large quantity of food at each meal. (This diet is literally potatoes and about a tsp. of fat per potato).

But the morning after my first day on the diet, I woke up starving, which is something I’m not used to. Usually, even when I’m not doing a lot of fasting, I don’t get hungry to at least 12 p.m.

But I was starving. My stomach was literally growling.

However, I did lose 2lbs after my very first day on the diet.

Eating potatoes that next day again wasn’t bad except that an hour after eating, I was again starving.

My energy was low all day and I felt sluggish during my workout

Ryan felt the same way. He was grouchy and aggravated all day.

But we stuck with it.

I slept well the following night even though I again woke up feeling ravenous. (I  lost a pound.)

Ryan on the other hand slept terribly and woke up hungry and in one of the worst moods ever. He, however, gained weight.

We again stuck with the diet. We tried making mashed potatoes. We baked some “fries.”

And it tasted fine although we both started craving meat.

I felt like I was suffering from the low carb flu. I felt awful.

But another day complete.

On the third day, I woke up angry, but I’d lost another 1/2 pound. Ryan also gained weight and he was ready to give up.

Again we struggled through another day of feeling crappy…And my workout suffered.

On the fourth day, we both gained weight. We both decided that if we gained again, we just couldn’t put up with the fact that we felt completely and utterly horrible. (And trust me, we don’t give up on diets easily…Actually Ryan has never even acted like a diet was tough!)

On the fifth day, Ryan gave up. He gained weight again. I only chose to continue since I lost another pound, putting my total at 3 1/2 for four days.

It was hard struggling through without him on that fifth day. All of his food looked so good!

All I could think was, “I HATE POTATOES!” How the heck did all of these people like this diet!?! I feel hungry basically all the time. I’m low energy AND my workouts are suffering. I feel like I have the low carb flu, but unlike the low carb flu…IT WON’T GO AWAY!

That night I woke up starving in the middle of the night and felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin. I sat awake reading for hours until my body normalized.

When I woke up, I’d lost 2 more pounds, but I couldn’t handle any more. I was eating till I was full each meal, but I ended up feeling like I hadn’t eaten only 30 minutes later!

I’d lost 5.5lbs in 5 days, but the weight loss wasn’t worth the way I felt. While the potato diet wasn’t ever meant to be something long term, it wasn’t even maintainable for me for one week.

On that sixth day, I caved. I needed a re-feed. The second meat touched my lips, I felt re-energized.

But on Monday, I went right back on the diet. I’m trying to really give it a chance, but I’m not sure I’m going to make it another 5 straight days.

I’m sure there are people out there that this diet would work to kick-start their weight loss, but it isn’t for me….And definitely isn’t for Ryan.

His body definitely operates better on few to no carbs. I definitely need more carbs than he does, but all potatoes…Uhm…NO.

This diet doesn’t work for me. Is it worth trying?

Of course! (I did find it interesting that I didn’t really crave anything specific while eating ONLY potatoes. I did want real food, but nothing specific…It makes me wonder if you crave more specific things when you can occasionally have them…)

I would be interested to hear anyone else’s experience with the potato diet! And I’ll keep you posted during this second week of trying!

P.S. This does also highlight my point that just because someone says something works for them, doesn’t mean it will work for you!

P.P.S. Coming soon…An Under Armour giveaway! Get excited! 🙂