Comments on: The K-E Diet

The K-E Diet

reenum — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:39:27 -0800

In an effort to lose tons of weight before their weddings, some brides are turning to the K-E diet.

By: mccarty.tim

mccarty.tim — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:43:30 -0800

I get the very low calorie ketosis part, but what's so great about the tube? Why would getting fed through a tube beat eating a similar macronutrient ratio of foods through the mouth?

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:45:39 -0800

Isn't this the "rest in Switzerland" weight loss thing used by the girls in The Valley Of The Dolls? I mean then they knocked you out for a week at least.

By: 200burritos

200burritos — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:46:54 -0800

lol. Why can't they just eat 800 calories of fruit and vegetables per day like a normal crash dieter? Do these women really feel like spending $1500 to be on a feeding tube validates their dieting?

By: ShutterBun

ShutterBun — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:47:52 -0800

Metafilter: The novelty is, they shove a tube in your nose.

By: padraigin

padraigin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:50:46 -0800

That's why being pregnant when you get married is so awesome.

By: Obscure Reference

Obscure Reference — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:55:59 -0800

I can see the feeding tube look becoming a popular form of body mod.

By: Zed

Zed — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:56:24 -0800

I'm going to start marketing a K-T event diet -- it'll knock those unwanted pounds right off.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:56:24 -0800

That's some predatory marketing.

By: humanfont

humanfont — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:56:48 -0800

In a disturbing new trend journalists are writing stories about self invented disturbing new trends to get page views. Is this the beginning of a terrible new fad? Obligatory supportive quote. Counter example. Conclusion: OMGWTF BBQ like me on Facebook and follow my tweets for updates in this developing story.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:58:28 -0800

humanfront, you forgot this one that I see all the time in terrible articles: "What do you think? Let us know in the comments!"

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:00:01 -0800

Isn't this the "rest in Switzerland" weight loss thing used by the girls in The Valley Of The Dolls? I mean then they knocked you out for a week at least. I don't know about Valley of the Dolls, but that sounds like what killed Mario Lanza.

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:01:26 -0800

I Lost 32 Pounds In 15 Days And Died!

By: Blue Meanie

Blue Meanie — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:02:16 -0800

Here in California folks have been spending money and losing weight by sticking things up their noses since the '70s.

By: winna

winna — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:02:28 -0800

I can see the feeding tube look becoming a popular form of body mod. Will we all wear our stillsuits as people born to the Fremen?

By: notsnot

notsnot — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:06:51 -0800

Zed: "I'm going to start marketing a K-T event diet -- it'll knock those unwanted pounds right off." Dammit, you beat me to that joke. "It's the diet that killed the dinosaurs!"

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:09:28 -0800

Up ya nose widdah rubbah hose!

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:10:08 -0800

I know I like to be reminded of cancer patients leading up to my Speical Day.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:11:03 -0800

Define "some" and i'll consider whether you understand the definition of "trend."

By: telegraph

telegraph — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:14:04 -0800

I did a modified form of the K-E diet where instead of feeding through a nasal tube, you hook up the "purse" of liquid food directly to your colostomy bag, bypassing the body altogether. What convenience!

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:19:31 -0800

That's obviously pretty stupid. I guess the one benefit is that you don't taste any of the food, thus won't be tempted to eat more. But yeah. Moronic.

By: Ideefixe

Ideefixe — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:19:42 -0800

Oh look--a fake trend story written by, not Jennifer 8, but rather Linda Lee.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:27:45 -0800

Up ya nose widdah rubbah hose! It never occurred to me as a little kid that I was threatening my friends with "enhanced interrogation" whenever I said this.

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:29:08 -0800

Oh look--a fake trend story No kidding. One doctor, a handful of brides who didn't even go all the way through with it !=! trend.

By: rainy

rainy — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:34:04 -0800

What, a ketamine / extacy diet? That might work..

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:36:22 -0800

Why would getting fed through a tube beat eating a similar macronutrient ratio of foods through the mouth? I think it's part psychological. If you're just going on a diet, well, you can go off the diet at any moment. Now you have a tube going down your throat. You can't easily remove it. Want to try to swallow food with that in place? You probably could, but it'll suck. And shazam, your diet is getting enforced. Moreover, you have to carry the bag with you everywhere you go. Another psychological marker that things are not normal for you. Also, I think the slow drip actually curbs hunger, as you're always getting a tiny bit of nutrition. Finally, THIS IS HOLY FUCK BATSHIT INSANITY. "Dude, your fiance just paid to put a tube down her throat. You sure you want to go through with this? It's not too late to back out..."

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:38:58 -0800

Vegetables are yummy. Good mushrooms taste better than many meats, even average mushrooms obliterate chicken. Calories? What calories? Jamón serrano with steamed asparagus is incredibly simple and tasty, although obviously the jamón serrano has calories, you simply won't miss bread or whatever when eating yummy asparagus. Salad dressing made from oil, vinegar, mustard, and optionally horseradish can be as non-caloric as you like by controlling the oil content. Pomegranate or raw ginger can make salads spectacular. Anyone got any tips for frequently opening pomegranates without staining your fingers though?

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:41:06 -0800

Huh. Seems counter-intuitive as there are actual studies that prove people feel hungrier if they don't get to chew their food, even if given exactly the same amount of calories. So what this does is effectively the same as a diet, but you feel hungrier. What fun that must be. Besides, there is nothing like attending your own wedding while your body is trying to relearn how to process/digest solids. Whatever makes you happy, I guess.

By: stoneandstar

stoneandstar — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:41:12 -0800

Why can't they just eat 800 calories of fruit and vegetables per day like a normal crash dieter? 'Cause you'd be super hungry all the time, and way more susceptible to failure? The doctor in the last piece says the tube-feeding is effective at making the dieter's appetite go away.

By: VikingSword

VikingSword — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:43:24 -0800

Fine, fake trend. What is not fake, but I guess still not exactly a trend, since it's been around for a long time, is the practice of going on crash diets in order to lose weight before the big day. Who hasn't known someone who has done it? I can personally think of several women who did this. Inevitably, every single one of them regained the weight after the wedding, and then some. Moreover, in at least a couple of cases, the diet timing went horribly wrong. The women were losing a lot of weight - and a lot of it water - got fitted for the supertight corset wedding dress, and by the time the wedding rolled around, they've tragically gained back all or most of it, and now could not fit in the too small dress. And so on various dramas around the whole wedding drama.

By: naju

naju — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:07:07 -0800

In March, Jessica Schnaider, 41, of Surfside, Fla., used it to lose 10 pounds so she could fit into the dress she hopes to wear at her June wedding. All this drastic stuff for 10 pounds, really? I thought losing 10 pounds was relatively doable (I probably lose something like 7 in water weight alone the first week I start a diet/exercise routine), and would expect this to be about losing 25 or more...

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:07:32 -0800

Why would getting fed through a tube beat eating a similar macronutrient ratio of foods through the mouth? If I had to guess, it's a matter of self-control...and lack thereof. The tube is probably one hell of a barrier to scarfing-down a pan of brownies.

By: O Blitiri

O Blitiri — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:08:29 -0800

Why can't they just eat 800 calories of fruit and vegetables per day like a normal crash dieter? This is a more extreme, invasive, and expensive diet that uses the same principles as the Shangri La diet. According to the thinking behind SLD, taste-calorie pairings create conditioned associations that increase hunger. So, if your reptilian brain learns that vanilla means lots of calories, tasting vanilla makes you want to eat more. Find a way to get rid of tastes and hunger dissipates. (For a while anyway, in my experience).

By: hoyland

hoyland — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:08:52 -0800

Anyone got any tips for frequently opening pomegranates without staining your fingers though? Do it under water? Or so my roommate instructed me to open the pomegranate that time they were on sale. Just use warm water else your hands will get really cold.

By: DU

DU — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:14:31 -0800

Anyone got any tips for frequently opening pomegranates without staining your fingers though? Throwing them on the ground worked for me. When I was 6.

By: Melismata

Melismata — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:46:07 -0800

That's why being pregnant when you get married is so awesome. "I never saw my father in a suit before, except for on the day he got married."--Groucho Marx What's the definition of a trend, anyway? I've seen this news story on several outlets, so maybe it is a trend?

By: duvatney

duvatney — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:47:27 -0800

Anyone got any tips for frequently opening pomegranates without staining your fingers though? I trim the ends off of them and let them sit in a bowl of ice water for a few minutes. Then I peel them under running water.

By: 200burritos

200burritos — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:51:14 -0800

This is a more extreme, invasive, and expensive diet that uses the same principles as the Shangri La diet. According to the thinking behind SLD, taste-calorie pairings create conditioned associations that increase hunger. So, if your reptilian brain learns that vanilla means lots of calories, tasting vanilla makes you want to eat more. Find a way to get rid of tastes and hunger dissipates. (For a while anyway, in my experience). posted by O Blitiri at 5:08 PM on April 22 [1 favorite +] [!] Ooooh. Thanks for this.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:01:32 -0800

Seems there's a historical precedent

By: ThatCanadianGirl

ThatCanadianGirl — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:04:49 -0800

My god, what a bunch of idiots. Foolish, foolish people.

By: tumid dahlia

tumid dahlia — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:11:18 -0800

This is great for those people who want to walk around like minor characters in David Lynch films.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:14:53 -0800

I saw this and thought "Oh, bullshit. Nobody is really doing this." I am happy to see many Mefites thought the same thing.

By: brevator

brevator — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:24:41 -0800

I place nasogastric tubes at work all the time and let me tell you that it is a very unpleasant experience for the patient. Unless you are at risk for aspirating your food, I highly recommend not getting one.

By: Telf

Telf — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:33:09 -0800

This seems like a good place to post Ben Greenfield's recent interview with Dr. Peter Attia on ketogenic diets. It's interesting that ketone-based diets are being used to treat various mental degenerative diseases such as Alzheimers, and are also apparently being used in Japan to reduce inflammation/paralysis in patients with spinal/nervous system damage. The interview itself is more on performance, but I think it turns a few ideas like carb loading and glycogen levels on their heads.

By: DrMew

DrMew — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:42:39 -0800

This particular absurdity may be a fake trend, but I've been teaching a course on sociology of the body for some years, and I have heard many more disturbing things from my female-identified students about their preparation-for-wedding regimes. Asking for a long engagement in order to have the necessary "work" (i.e. plastic surgery) done, for example--one particular student was in year 2 of a 3 year engagement, and on number 4 of 7 planned procedures. The student in question already had a child with her fiance, and both of the adults were working full time in addition to going to school and parenting, to pay for the bride-to-be's plastic surgery bills. (She was, by conventional standards, already very attractive.) My student was just adamant that this "work" was necessary for her wedding photos, and portrayed her fiance as enthusiastic about her new breasts and resigned to the expenses. All I can conclude is that social pressures produce odd priorities in people.

By: egypturnash

egypturnash — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:38:33 -0800

I'm currently undergoing a similar diet. It's called "getting sick and having your appetite drop dramatically". I've lost five pounds in one week already!

By: mosessis

mosessis — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:01:51 -0800

That yahoo op ed was horrid. The guy probably thought he was being all supportive and affirming but it comes off as so condescending. The desire to go on any sort of extreme diet in the weeks before one's wedding signifies some issues and insecurities that should be addressed. A bride must ask herself why she feels compelled to go to such great lengths to achieve a slimmer look. Really? You can't think of any reasons a woman might feel pressure to be thin except mental issues on her part? It's really all her fault and if she were a better person this wouldn't be an issue? Ugh.

By: stet

stet — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:15:19 -0800

notsnot: ""It's the diet that killed the dinosaurs!"" "You'll go from T. Rex to chicken in just ~~65 million years~~ Ten Days!"

By: 4ster

4ster — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:16:23 -0800

By: gingerest

gingerest — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:45:28 -0800

Another rule-34 variant: If you can think of a profoundly stupid and useless thing, the Wedding Industrial Complex will find a way to market it to brides.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:09:40 -0800

Which brings up an interesting point: is there porn of this?

By: Homeboy Trouble

Homeboy Trouble — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:07:12 -0800

Which brings up an interesting point: is there porn of this? Not that I can find with a short search for research purposes only. But that hasn't stopped unscrupulous websites from using it as search bait. For some reason. FWIW, I've had an NG tube or two in my time, and even if I would lose 50 pounds overnight and got whiter teeth, I don't think I'd get another one voluntarily. Going in is just a totally miserable experience, novel only in how specifically unpleasant it is, and getting it pulled is like having a four foot booger removed, except that the last two feet are coated in stomach acid and bile.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:14:46 -0800

So when do you think we'll see the obvious follow-up story: Bridezillas forcing their bridesmaids to do this as well?

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:57:20 -0800

The Whelk: No, this was the "sleep cure" which was apparently a real thing, though since it was not closely regulated there isn't much information on how widespread the use was. Essentially the idea was that weight-loss patients would be set up with an IV of medication that produces a similar effect to the "conscious sedation" now used in procedures like the colonostomy. Thus the patient would be semi-conscious, responsive to direction from the medical personnel, but would have complete amnesia of the week or so of the process. During the "cure.," the patient would be fed a low-calorie diet (I suppose liquids) and the limbs exercised. The subjective impression (thanks to the amnesia effect) would be that the patient would fall asleep and almost immediately wake up, 10 pounds lighter. In VOTD, the character of Jennifer takes the sleep cure when she is transitioning from her career of soft-core "art film" star to Hollywood actress. Asleep for eight days, she drops from 118 pounds to 106 with no ill effects (this is fiction, after all.) And then--since she is 37 years old--she checks into another clinic for a facelift. Jacqueline Susann, though mediocre at best as an author, did seem to have a photographic memory for showbiz gossip, so the "sleep cure" is at least something people believed existed, not a complete invention.

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:58:37 -0800

Colonoscopy, obviously. A good thing I don't run a Swiss clinic!

By: Currer Belfry

Currer Belfry — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:18:23 -0800

Since Lanza's come up in the comments, I might as well mention Laird Cregar, a very fine character actor from the '30s and '40s, who also died as a direct result of crash dieting. He was typically cast as the villain or a talented nutcase, and played those roles to the hilt, but apparently wanted a career as a romantic leading man. His looks, talent, and voice could well have brought him that type of role, but he died after a quickie 100-lb weight loss before that could happen. According to Wikipedia, he was prescribed amphetamines during the crash diet. (I'll take any excuse to bring Laird Cregar into a conversation. Also worth noting is that his film "Hangover Square" features an early score by Bernard Herrmann.)

By: winna

winna — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:18:12 -0800

I might as well mention Laird Cregar, a very fine character actor from the '30s and '40s, who also died as a direct result of crash dieting. It was pretty disconcerting to click on the link in that sentence only to be confronted by a giant picture of a LEGO person, in a hilarious way. I was not aware of the importance of LEGO actors in early cinema!