Lähtisitkö?

Think my next eating project will be to look at how to get the calories the cheapest. Having five VLCD smoothies a day will give just about everything the body needs, save calories. Add one prepared salad, then some vegetables are in. The rest could principally just be the cheapest calories available. So will look at what to get and where to get it.

Will have to manage the weight comfortably though. Difficult to predict how this turns out, just have to test and do corrections if needed.


Basically it's this: will do a spreadsheet, and after shopping I mark what's bought and from where, and the cost/calorie. Would guess I can cut the expenses/calorie to half?

Already simplifying this. Will count the cost/calorie direct on the receipts. The formula is simple. Practically all foods have how many calories there are per 100 grams on the packages. So the formula is: cost/100cal = (cost/(cal/g))/(weight in 100 grams). My smoothies and prepared salads are around or a bit above 1€/100cal, that's a bit high. Will provide more numbers!

Wheat flour. One deciliter in the shaker, tastes good imo, gives a couple of hundred calories. 3€ for 7000 calories, could theoretically live on 1€/day...

At least now you know I'm unorthodox


Edit: oops, need to stop that routine before starting. Read eating raw flour can be dangerous, may contain bacteria. Going to hunt for potatoes, macaroni and rice, maybe cheap bread.

Do you have access to some device which might be able to turn raw flour into non-raw flour?

189 still. So still approx 1 lb/ week weight loss from the 191. The 188 was obviously just dehydration.

For variety, perhaps you could mix up cheap vegetable oil, dried beans and the flour in a blender and then heat it up to kill the bacteria. To save money, you could use a solar oven and a morter and pestle. You can also supplement this with dandelions (free!) and by going through your neighbors' trash bins. Additional fiber, which is important, can be obtained by mixing in the contents of your vacuum cleaner.

Keep on, Brian!

Vegetable oil may be an option. Heard there are a lot of cheap calories in there.

Every stone has to be turned.

Roasting the flour in the oven? Thanks for the tip.

So, actually went to the shop, cost: €4.72, similar in dollars, of course. Took the cheapest still pleasant alternatives.

I got:
Rice 1kg, 3510cal
Potatoes 1kg, 680cal (only)
Pasta (Penne Rigate and Fusilli) 1kg, 3570cal
All in all: 7760cal

Now: need to start cooking.

Rice: 4.5 cents/100cal
Potatoes: 17 cents/100cal
Pasta: 5 cents/100cal

Looks it's luxury to eat potatoes. Still a fraction of the >100 cents /100cal I've been consuming lately.

November:
14-80.1
15-80.4
16-80.5
17-79.3
18-81.1

Finally I personally see what variance can be, almost 2kg in a day! Have had a bit worse than average flu, think it was at its baddest around 16 November. I know I had much liquid and food then, but the body somehow reacted by letting a liter of water out, and now overcompensating some. The big picture is I could eat a bit less though, for getting more of those 79.x again.

Eating less means saving money . Small steps, planning to cook pasta, put portions in freezer boxes, and then compensate one prepared salad each day. Ketchup, different spices will accompany. Think I will go and look for some of the cheapest good sausage too, blending in some.

When going shopping today I'll look for sausage under 3€/kg. Price/kilogram is mandatory information as far as I know. It's a new experience for me to look at prices nearly this much. Scanned the internet, it's incredible how much the prices/kg differ, don't think there's any "good" reason.

Ok, will start with my VLCD (very low calorie diet) smoothies:

Raspberry-quark: 73 cents/100cal
Vanilla-mango: 110
Chocolate: 96
Strawberry: 94
Banana-caramel: 139

Average 102 cents/100cal. So will definitely not have more than five a day from now on, sometimes have had many more when out of salads for example. And a double vanilla-mango in the evening has almost become routine, making seven a day just about standard. The five gives all the body needs except calories, and the calories from them are very expensive. The banana-caramel stands out as particularly costly, could have a bit less of them. My favorites vary, so will mainly limit the number, not which ones I'm having.

You are being silly. I'm ok with that.

In retrospect, I probably should not have drank a 12-pack of beer and eaten a large quantity of fried chicken and mashed potatoes last night.

I'm already saving money like it would be the last days of earth.

Bought seven different prepared salads during the weekend. Price, cents/100 cal, was between 75 and 154, average 118 cents/cal. That should be somewhat representative, if keeping things simple.

So how much have I been eating for each month lately? Let's say I'm having 2200 cal/day. Say I have had half the calories from VLCD smoothies and half from the salads, not miles away from the truth. So I've been averaging (102+118)/2 = 110 cents/100cal. €1.10 x22 ~= €24 a day, a bit above €700 a month. This is pretty much imo, so my hunch money has been floating away is not totally taken out of the blue. Say half is unnecessary, then my weight dropping project has cost about €350x6, or a couple of grand. Well worth it, but not interested in spending €4000 a year without any benefits in the future.

Another way to count how much I will be spending: the five smoothies cost roughly one euro apiece. The salads are about four. So there are nine euros. Will present my new eating style a bit more, but the guess is the rest of the day will be say two euros. Sum: €11/day, or a bit above €300 a month.

Think it's good to train a bit of survival, if needed and with some training think I could cut the spending to €5 a day, and getting all the needed and it would taste good too. But small steps, as stated! Or only this one big step.

Next out are the chocolate bars, of which I'm having 1/2-1, lately more like 1, basically every weekday before the gym. Bought five, price range 23-35, average 29 cents/100cal. So per calorie only one fourth of the cost of the previous. More relevant is the actual cost per bar, which is around 70 cents. I know the same bars can cost up to €1.50 if bought from the "wrong" places, even this small thing may mean say €15/month.

But all in all not a very relevant part of the whole, amounts are that small, but no need to waste even that by buying expensive.

One thing realized: for saving money you should eat everything in the fridge and not let it go out of date. So check what's there maybe daily, not weekly (or monthly )

These are the kinds of basics I'm working with

So, the base of my new food is pasta and rice. They are around 5 cents/100cal. I even saw macaroni for maybe 3 cents/100 cal, could get them next time, probably not as comfortable to eat with a fork though. Anyhow this costs almost "nothing". I will cook quite much at a time. 500 grams of pasta gives about six portions, half a liter of rice about the same. And it goes into into the freezer in boxes.

Potatoes are not as easy to handle, and they also cost three times more per calorie, so they can come into play at weekends as newly cooked.

As you should try to take steps in the right direction I don't add any salt to the rice or pasta when cooking. Tastes good anyhow.

What to eat with the pasta/rice? That naturally has to be varied. So far I've had sausage (16 cents/100cal), ham (62 cents/100cal) and eggs (24 cents/100cal). They are all clearly more expensive per calorie than the pasta/rice. But they are there mainly for taste, texture and appearance, no need to have much of them.

As these nutrients will vary much I need a method to fast identify the cheapest and therefore best for this survival mode . These products contain around 1-2 cal/gram. The most practical method to choose is to look at the €/kg, which is mentioned for every product on the shelf. I scanned the internet, and it looks the diet will be varied enough if I keep under 10€/kg. Most of the time being under 5€/kg should be comfortable. And always when having similar products: go for the cheaper!

One important thing: will look at how much salt there are in the products, remember my blood pressure was a bit high before starting to lose weight. Sausage and ham contain 2g/100g: too much. 1g/100g could be acceptable. Raw meat contains very little, could cook that and try not to add any salt at all...probably would get used to it. Just must be healthy.

And then will have to look at the cheapest and best vegetables also.

Rickets probably isn't so bad

Hard times.

Time for this
November:
19-79.8kg
20-80.4
21-79.9
22-79.5
23-79.6

The new diet hasn't been fattening, so far.