391 replies to this topic

[Winterfae]

***If you want to follow this thread please save the link and check in periodically! I don't always update weekly, which means everyone gets unfollowed automatically.***

Since this post in August 2017 I have been running periodic experiments to trial 'risky' mono foods. In the 2nd post you will find the list of planned and completed monos, with the results and links to the relevant posts.
I've also included in the results list 'safe' monos I completed, but the details for those will be elsewhere in other accountabilities so I only added the weight lost.

Original post:

Spoiler

I'm open to suggestions of other mono's on the conditions that:

- I get to trial my own ones first

- It's a food I'll have access to in the UK

- I feel comfortable enough in my weight that I could afford to have it fail. I'm willing to risk a temporary gain in the name of science, but not a permanent upward trend.

Disclaimer I would not encourage ANYONE to do what I do, even if it seems to work and be risk free. This isn't a suggestion to try it. I'm using myself as a guinea pig so you don't have to. I half expect to get diabetes from this because a lot of the foods are mainly sugar.

My plan is to mono each weekend (Note: this post was in 2017. I took a break, but continued periodically for 2018/2019) and during the rest of the week stick to restriction (and maybe juice fasting) with perhaps one or two 'low risk' (e.g. fruit/veg) monos during the week. This is to provide a stable baseline for the results. I believe that mono results from after a binge day can't be trusted as the water/food weight from the binge could account for the starting weight.

I hope this will curb my b/p habits, reduce my cravings for specific foods, and in addition if I am not purging it will be a motivating factor to stick to restriction during the following week to maintain a stable baseline for my experiment.

 

For you I hope you'll get to see the results of mono's you might be to scared to try yourself, and at the very least it will be entertaining to watch if I become a failure of epic proportions!

Let me know what you think, and ask any questions you feel are relevant! I want to set this up to be as scientific as possible, and for you to have whatever information you need to assess for yourself the results so you can come to your own conclusions about why it works or doesn't. I am not one to blindly believe that it will work just because someone anonymous on the internet said you can eat chocolate and lose weight, but having actually tried it and seen surprisingly positive results I am curious enough to want to experiment further.

[Winterfae]

UPDATES:
I've now sorted the list according to weight loss within each category, most to least.
I'm linking each item to the results, underlined weights are clickable links.

Colour code: Red = Gain, Blue = Neutral, Green = Loss, _* = requested Monos

Fruits:
- Banana (nice cream)
- Exotic fruit e.g. Papaya

- Mango*

- Applesauce*
- Strawberries
- Watermelon
- Avocado (+0.6lb)
Nut Butters:
- Cashew butter (-1.8lbs)
- Hazelnut butter (-1.5lbs)
- Peanut Butter (-1.3lbs)
- 3 Nut Butter (-0.66)
- Almond butter (no change)
Frosting and spreads:
- Chocolate frosting
- Vanilla icing
- Lotus biscoff spread (+1lb)
- Nutella/ hazelnut chocolate spread
Ice cream:
- HALO TOP:
   - Mint Chip (2.2lbs, -0.65lbs)
   - Candy Bar (1.5lbs)    
   - Cookie Dough (-1.3lbs)
   - Birthday Cake (-1.3lbs)
  - Peanut Butter (-0.9lbs)

   - Vanilla Bean (-0.66lb)
   - Oatmeal Cookie (-0.44lbs)
   - Vegan Peanut Butter (-0.88lbs, no change)
    - Cinnamon Roll (no change)
   - Sea Salt Caramel

- Alpro Soya Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut (inconclusive)
- Breyers Delight 
- Perfect World
- Sugar free gelato
- Sorbet
Desserts:
- Chia pudding 20g soaked in oat cream (-0.9lbs)
- Chia pudding soaked in Almond Milk (-0.25lbs)
- Angel Delight
- Chocolate Jell-O
- Pumpkin pie filling
- Cheesecake topping

- Sweets/Candy*
- Cookie dough (Sugar,flour,Butter & Chocolate chips)*
Carbs:
- Porridge/Oatmeal (No Change)
- Rice
- Quinoa
- Potatoes

- Bread*

- Pop tarts*

- Cereal*
Protein:
- Eggs (-1.3lbs)
- Protein drinks (Average -0.5lb/4 experiments: -0.8, -0.8, -0.4, no change)
- Flavoured Yoghurt*

- Flavoured Milk*

- Chicken
- Smoked sausage
- Bacon/turkey bacon

Misc.
- Spicy food*
- Pesto/ pasta sauce
Cheese:
- (Buffalo) mozzarella
- Feta/goats cheese
- Crumbly cheese e.g. Cheshire/Wensleydale
- Smoked cheese
- Spicy/flavoured cheese
- Mature cheddar (+1.3lbs) (-0.88lbs)
- Mascarpone/cream cheese

- Vegan Cream Cheese
- Cottage Cheese
Filled/flavoured chocolates:
6 day chocolate mono (2.2kg/4.8lbs)
- Lindt Lindor White Chocolate (1.7lb)

- Lindt Lindor Milk Chocolate (1.3lb)
- Aldi Vanilla White Chocolate (-1.1lb)

- Lidl Rich Milk Chocolate (1.1lb)

- Thornton's Cappuccino Truffles (-1.1lbs)
- Thornton's Viennese Truffles (-1.1lbs)

- Kinder milk crème filled (-1lb)

- Aldi Dark Chocolate (-0.88lb)
- Mixed Lidl & Aldi Dark/Rich Milk (-0.88lbs)
- Aldi Mousse-Filled White Chocolate (0.88lb)
- Mixed Lidl & Aldi White Chocolate (-0.88lb)
- M&S Swiss Blond Chocolate (-0.88lb)
- Lidl White Chocolate (0.44lbs) - mixed mono also eating cheese late evening
- Milka Noisette Chocolate (-0.44lbs)
- Mixed Chocolate: Rich Dark & White (-0lbs)

- Wholenut milk chocolate (-0lbs)
- Milka Alpine Milk Chocolate (-0lbs)
- Raw Vegan Chocolate (-0lbs)

Spoiler

Note that I had 4 BMs the day after and lost 0.9lbs the 2nd day

- Galaxy Salted Caramel (-0lbs)
- Fondant e.g. peppermint
- Praline filled e.g. Guylian
- Cherry syrup filled
- Chocolate truffles

- Sugar free chocolate (pretty sure I did this one too and felt really sick. I will have to find results and update)
- Carob chocolate
- Reece’s peanut butter trees (+1lb)

[_Livingtheshittylife]

I Would Be very intrigued!
As long as you don't abandon The thread then i think it is a great idea
Your list of mono foods sound Fantastic.
I have a few ideas aswell.

- Sweets/Candy,
- Flavoured Milk Or just Cows Milk,
- Cookie dough (Sugar,flour,Butter & Chocolate chips) That is risky but i have Read that a few people lost from that Risky mono.

I am looking forward to reading your results soon!

[Winterfae]

I Would Be very intrigued!
As long as you don't abandon The thread then i think it is a great idea
Your list of mono foods sound Fantastic.
I have a few ideas aswell.
- Sweets/Candy,
- Flavoured Milk Or just Cows Milk,
- Cookie dough (Sugar,flour,Butter & Chocolate chips) That is risky but i have Read that a few people lost from that Risky mono.
I am looking forward to reading your results soon!

Cool I am pretty motivated to try this out right now so I sincerely hope I don't abandon the effort. I haven't figured out how you pick a limit for liquids, been searching the threads the last few days but I would love to try a milkshake or flavoured milk one once I work that out. If I could lose on cookie dough I would be in heaven! haha. I think I'd have to see how I did on frosting before I had the courage to try that. The only reason gummy sweets aren't on the list is that I don't crave them right now, but in future if I've gotten sick of chocolate (I can only hope!) I think it would be interesting to try.
Thanks for your input! I planned the first one to begin the first weekend of September but if I get the opportunity sooner I may do one before then. I'll be keeping up my accountability which might have more of the safe mono's like eggs and fruit/veg, but here I'll keep all the results updated.

[_Livingtheshittylife]

Cool I am pretty motivated to try this out right now so I sincerely hope I don't abandon the effort. I haven't figured out how you pick a limit for liquids, been searching the threads the last few days but I would love to try a milkshake or flavoured milk one once I work that out. If I could lose on cookie dough I would be in heaven! haha. I think I'd have to see how I did on frosting before I had the courage to try that. The only reason gummy sweets aren't on the list is that I don't crave them right now, but in future if I've gotten sick of chocolate (I can only hope!) I think it would be interesting to try.
Thanks for your input! I planned the first one to begin the first weekend of September but if I get the opportunity sooner I may do one before then. I'll be keeping up my accountability which might have more of the safe mono's like eggs and fruit/veg, but here I'll keep all the results updated.

I Think Liquid limits are 1-2l for lower end of healthy bmi,But not sure about underweight or overweight.
It would be a miracle if cookie dough worked!

Great! Well looking forward to reading your results & Good luck!

[MCR_LOVER]

I lost both on unlimited candy/gummies and strawberry milk. Good luck

[Winterfae]

I Think Liquid limits are 1-2l for lower end of healthy bmi,But not sure about underweight or overweight.
It would be a miracle if cookie dough worked!

Great! Well looking forward to reading your results & Good luck!

 

Cool, I'd also about doing a protein shake or slimfast mono, so that's good to know, I'll see how many individual cartons or bottles that would work out as. I think that might be the one I start with as I realised that I am doing a charity walk with my parents the first sunday of September, so I am going to have to do something that doesn't look too suspicious in case they invite me back for dinner. I think I'd get away with liquids much easier than any other single-type food, certainly none of the sweet stuff!.

 

I lost both on unlimited candy/gummies and strawberry milk. Good luck

 

Awesome Thank you.

[Winterfae]

Omgggg yesssss please! U are my queen yas hunni. Definitely following, please dont let this thread die.
Also can u do a plain dry cereal mono?

 

Thanks
I will def try to keep updating weekly at least. I think having the support here will be really good for me, my main worry would be the mono's devolving into binges but with people to keep me accountable I hope that would be less likely.

I might try it in future depending if these ones work and if I can get through a couple of starchy carb ones without binging or gaining. I have a major fear of carbs atm, so it would definitely be a challenge but an interesting one.

[JxSxNG]

Following already lmao. I've always wanted to try a mono diet but it's too risky at the moment because I live with my parents. I'll just live vicariously through you for a while lmao. A bread mono would be interesting to see. I fucking love bread and if it's possible to lose doing bread mono then I know what the first mono I'll try is.

[Winterfae]

Following already lmao. I've always wanted to try a mono diet but it's too risky at the moment because I live with my parents. I'll just live vicariously through you for a while lmao. A bread mono would be interesting to see. I fucking love bread and if it's possible to lose doing bread mono then I know what the first mono I'll try is.

 

Great to have you along for the ride! Thanks for following

I am a bit nervous because even though I live alone I do come into contact with people and I will need to plan some of them carefully to avoid suspicion either that I am binging (for people who know) or just confusion and criticism from those who don't know I have an ED.

I think I would find it really hard to eat plain dry bread. Maybe if it was toasted? Or a toast sandwich haha.

[Samantha1994]

Following!
I've been wanting to try a chocolate mono for ages but I'm worried I would gain because most of the people on here I see doing monos have a higher bmi than me and don't eat enough of the food to gain anyway..
Like if I was to do a mono I don't want to eat like two chocolate bars, I'd want to eat probably two 100g blocks (which would obviously put my calories beyond maintence for the day) but we have the same bmi according to your signature so I'm very interested to see how things go for you..

Cookie dough mono sounds amazing but super risky, a cheesecake one would be delicious to but also super risky!

Good luck!

[zeppelin.cries]

Following the shit out of this thread.

 

PLEASE DON'T ABANDON IT!!!

[Winterfae]

Following!
I've been wanting to try a chocolate mono for ages but I'm worried I would gain because most of the people on here I see doing monos have a higher bmi than me and don't eat enough of the food to gain anyway..
Like if I was to do a mono I don't want to eat like two chocolate bars, I'd want to eat probably two 100g blocks (which would obviously put my calories beyond maintence for the day) but we have the same bmi according to your signature so I'm very interested to see how things go for you..
Cookie dough mono sounds amazing but super risky, a cheesecake one would be delicious to but also super risky!
Good luck!

That was part of my fear too, at a higher BMI you lose faster and have a higher metabolism so I worried I'd gain. So far I have never gained on a mono and at worst maintained while eating what would normally be trigger food. I was eating around 300g so 1500ish cals but that is my TDEE even on a sedentary day so at present it seems that monos are just cals in cals out. When I do things like pb it will be even higher cals so we will test that theory.

I was just thinking of a cheesecake mono! I figured if I just ate the topping and left the base it would still be a single food type. I always thought it had to be one ingredient like apples or nuts but with one food and no extras seems to be what a lot of people do. I will undertake the cheesecake mono in the name of science! Not sure where on the list it will come as I'm going to leave planning it until a couple of days before so I can figure out what I most crave and I don't end up torturing myself with something I don't even want.

[Winterfae]

Following the shit out of this thread.
 
PLEASE DON'T ABANDON IT!!!

I'll keep at it! Really excited for next weekend to roll around so I can get started!

[Winterfae]

I'm getting really excited about this!

I have been pricing all the good offers on some of the foods I want to mono and have actually started to hoard a few of the non perishable ones. I even feel safe with these trigger foods in the house because I know it is there for me when I want it, and if I do crave it I can run it as a mono experiment and prove that it doesn't have to trigger a binge. I just wanted to let you all know how good even the mindset of being able to eat 'forbidden' foods in a controlled experimental way is for me already. I have not thought of food as 'fun' in years, a decade at least! And yet I am looking forward to this with anticipation!

I'll be offline for 4 days in the leadup to my mono on an environmental conservation residential trip, but I will def keep you posted when I decide for sure which mono I will do on Sunday. I have been thinking about doing 2 day mono's over both weekend days or even 3 days inc Friday if I have several types of the same thing I want to try consecutively. In order to keep it truly a mono I feel that it has to be exactly the same item eg. flavoured milk/dessert would have to be chocolate all day, or butterscotch all day for example, and the same brand. I would like to compare the different flavours though so if I was doing say nut butters, I would still do only one type per day, but may do an additional day if it goes well of a different nut butter, or spread, or cheese or whatever so the food group is the same but the brand/type would vary.

I'm also thinking of putting up the results in a particular colour, so when scrolling through you can easily identify the posts that are the monos and results, and you don't have to read all of the posts to find the one you might be looking for if you ever use this as a reference in future. I like colour coding things, not sure if anyone else does this. If nothing else it will help me find my results when I go to look back on it.

[Winterfae]

Hi guys! Back from my residential and excited to start my first mono of this series. I gained while k was away because I was not as active as I expected and also I was comfort eating at nights over my planned cals. I'm still under 110 though so I am determined to begin the experiment!
Currently trying to decide between PB and Lotus spread for today. Updates late

[Winterfae]

LOTUS SPREAD MONO

 

SW: 109.4
BF%: 19.3%

W%: 57.3%

Intake: 400g Lotus Spread
Water: 3L

Cost: £2
Cals In: 2256
Cals Out: 1700
BM: No BM

 

RESULTS:
CW: 110.4 (+1LB)
BF%: 19% (-0.3%)
W%: 60% (+0.3%)

 

NOTES:
Heartburn during the day but staying true to the mono guidelines I didn't take anything for it. Stomach felt bloated and was visibly swollen up in the evening and morning after - possibly as a result of the wheat content? (I am not gluten intolerant, but nonetheless find it does have negative effects sometimes.)
 

CONCLUSION:
Gaining 1lb was definitely a disappointment, but bearing in mind that I had no BM it could easily be put down to food and water weight. For now we will conclude this one down was a FAIL and potentially revisit it in future. I feel like I really took one for the team here and sacrificed a hard won lb to prove that monos are not the holy grail of weight loss. Not every mono will work.

I will also say that I was meant to stick to 300g for my weight category but as they were 2 x 200g jars I couldn't stop myself eating the last half a jar at dinner time. This is a lesson I need to learn for next time - portion out and get rid of excess in advance. The last bit was definitely the point I started to feel a bit sick of it though; the point I felt I needed to get to, to destroy my craving for it.
 

Now to lose a couple of lbs to get back to safe territory for next week's experiment!
 

[Fastingbelle]

Ohhhh this sounds fun, great idea!! Totally following, may even join in on any keto friendly ones!

Sent from my Mi 4i using Tapatalk

[_Livingtheshittylife]

What Mono do you think you will be doing this weekend?