Suriata's Diary

S

suriata

New member
Hi guys, like many of you I have been struggling with my weight for some years now. I believe that my goal weight can be easily accomplished with a renewed sense of confidence on my new diet. It is called the KANTEN DIET. There's no real food plan, but it basically means that you use kanten, also called agar, to fill you up so you eat less! It has been the new craze diet in Japan.

Kanten or agar, from my knowledge, is derived from some kind of seaweed. It has little to no calories, tasteless and is extremely rich in fiber. It comes in different forms like: threads, flakes, powder, and in a solid form.

I use the powdered form since it is, I feel, the easiest to cook with. You can cook kanten in a liquid to form a gelatin type substance. (Yep, vegans can use this method because it is purely plant based!) I can use the powdered form to sprinkle a little over anything I eat.

This is the recipe I use for a gelatin. I think this fills me up a lot more than just sprinking the agar over my food (maybe it's just all in my head).
1/2 tsp or 2 grams of powdered agar per cup of juice.
​
So far I have used orange juice which has is quite tasty. You can also use soy milk or put little fruit inside... whatever your desires. I actually use Tropicana Light O.J. (less calories, same taste!) but that's the same thing as having 1/2 cup O.J. diluted with 1/2 cup of water.

Basically I will use a flexible Weight Watchers Point System (flexible meaning I'll let myself cheat a little as long as I eat a lot of agar gelatin along with it). Hopefully I can stick with this to make me FULL, so I won't eat as much.

Wish me lucky guys! I'll try to keep you all posted!
 
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I didn't know the Japanese had to diet?!?! They're all sooooo skinny....
 
I know some people that use it. where they buy it it's called agar. it basically swells up in your stomach and doesn't really have any nutritional value so it goes out with the dishwater so to speak. you just have to be careful since its all fiber it's a natural laxative....
 
Hi and Welcome to the WLF,
And good for you for starting a diary.

My question to anyone starting out losing weight, is to ask, is this something you can do long term? If it's not, then you have to ask yourself, what are you going to do so you don't regain the weight.

Learning what to eat and most importantly, how MUCH to eat, you will have a clear sense of how to maintain future weight loss.

You might consider checking out or and take advantage of their nutritional databases to keep track of what you're eating, so that when you quit using agar (what it's called here), you will know how much food you really need to have.

Best of luck to you,
 
Thanks for your advice M2M.
wishes- nope! it's flavorless.

Well... I'm still trying to eat healthy. I ate a cup's worth of the gelatin stuff and my stomach was about to explode. First time I wasn't tempted for any late night binges of white rice, chocolate or anything I else I could eat out of the fridge.

I sprinkled the powder over everything I ate today.

I'm aiming for 22 points (about 1100 cals) for those of you on WW.

So far I've had a

breakfast- glass of orange juice- 3 pnts
lunch- two bowls of cereal- 7 pnts
 
I'll take a look around for it, I could use something to help out when I just want to eat a bunch of food and KNOW I don't need to. Sugarfree gelatin helps, but it takes forever when I am craving something right at that moment; if the agar gels faster, it may be the solution I have been looking for.
Let us know how it goes!
 
Today I've eaten more than I'd hoped for... but still pretty healthy I guess. I'm actually ashamed to post this. XP

Vegan burger w/ split pea soup... guessing maybe 8 pnts?
Vegan Cheesecake (no sugar, no oil)... maybe 3 pnts?
3 glasses strawberry protein shake... 6 pnts
Big bag of Light Potato Chips... 6 pnts
Agar... 0 pnts

Total: 23 pnts (about 1200 cals)

Okay... So I went over a point. But to be fair, I am allowed 35 bonus points! But I do feel guilty. I feel so fat today, ergo, I'm too afraid to go to the dreaded scale...

QJ- I actually got mine from bizrate.com. It's a lot cheaper than the health stores.
 
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btw... Has anyone tried Phase 2? It's a starch blocker made of white beans I think. I've heard it works pretty well.
 
hmm.... i might try this out. seem interesting. anything jap is nice lol. esp the drama series!:p

hope u hv a great week!:)
 
I don't shop online; too many douchbags out there. I'll look for it, though. We have plenty of discount plaes in my neighborhood :D Buy all SORTS of bulk goods.
Looks like one of your "bad" days is still pretty good ;)
 
Today actually went pretty well.

Breakfast... protein shake (2pnts)
Lunch... protein shake (2pnts)
Dinner... 5 slices WW bread (2.5pnts), 2 slices cheese w/ broccoli (2pnts), 1 tbsp light cream cheese (.5pnts), 1/2 cup light soy milk (.5pnts)
Agar with every meal
Total... 11.5 pnts (about 633 cals)

The protein shakes really helped me out so I can snack out later on tonight. :D They tasted so much better with the agar powder because it made it creamy as if there were actually milk in it (it only has strawberry flavored powder and water.) I was full from it since 9 AM till 4 PM when normally I would be hungry from the shake 3 hrs later. I don't know, I think I might just be making it up subconsciously (sp?). Either way, I ate less!
 
I've never acutally liked any kind of powder drink, but I'm glad the agar made it taste better!!!
 
Today's Results:

Woke up too late for breakfast.
LUNCH...protein shake (2), 2 bowls broccoli w/ cheese (2), about 6 slices of bread (3), soymilk agar gelatin (2).

SNACK... couple handfuls of cereal (2)

DINNER... 1/2 big bag light chips (3), 2 slice WW bread (1), Asian chicken soup (1.5), 2 bowls broccoli w/ cheese (2), soymilk agar gelatin (1), a Godiva (1.5)

Total... 21 pnts. I'll make up the rest of my points for later on tonight.
 
Not to gross all the guys out there out.. but the past 3 days I've been PMS'ing like never before. Food of all kinds and in all times of the day which is why I didn't keep track anything I ate. The shame!! I figured if I let out my failures out loud for all public would see, I would go back to my dieting ways.

So my diet the past 3 days have been 1 long meal which lasted the whole day. lol. Nonstop eating! I was so distracted with eating I didn't make my agar. =\ Well, it was great while it lasted but the after effects i.e. my gut! has taken it's toll.

I finally got my starch blockers. Hopefully it'll work!

P.S. I think I gained 6 lbs on my 3 day binge. PLEASE tell me that's all the undigested food talking.
 
Hush your mouth! It's not REAL weight, it's just retained water is all. No reason to change from your normal plan (yes, just back to normal, now that it's over), so I'm going to assume you ate VERY HEALTHY FOODS all day long for three days straight.
 
Thanks QJ! So I went to the outlets today so I was VERY distracted from food. Looks like I won't have enough money to buy textbooks though... :D I screwed up a little though. I thought 1 cup uncooked pasta was the almost the same as 1 cup of cooked. Little did I know that pasta doubles in size when it cooks.

Breakfast- Papaya soy smoothie (3)
Lunch- Pasta with tomato sauce (13!!)
Snack- Bread with honey, cheese (3)
Dinner- Pasta with tomato sauce (10!)

Total- 22pts + 7 allowance points
allowance points left: 28

BTW I had no idea store bought sauce had so many frigging calories!!! For 1/2 a cup it's 110. I made it myself with 50 cals for the same amt.
 
It's a learning process; we all have things to figure out as we go along. The store bought sauce is made for the lowest common denominator, so it's very sugary. If you really like pasta, see if you can find the DreamFields brand. It is really tasty (better than regular pasta) and it has reduced carbohydrate content because the starches aren't digestible (mostly).
I love the stuff, now I need to find some melty cheese goodness that has almost no calories, and I can binge on an old favorite :D

Are you giving up on the agar so quickly? Perhaps if you just cut back on it, you'd be able to reap the benefits without suffering as many consequences.
 
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