The Quantified Diet Project

Make a healthier you. Contribute to a healthier world. 

The Quantified Diet Project aims for two things:

#1. Help one million people make a healthy diet change leading to: weight loss, overall health, and/or more energy. We’re providing 10 popular diets with expert advice.

#2. Perform the largest-ever measurement of popular diets. What works? How do popular diets compare? How can we all be more successful? We’re working with UC Berkeley on the science and the analysis.

The official launch is January 1st, but you can start contributing to our science right now by filling out this survey.

How it works

You’ll follow one of the following diets for four weeks:

1. Slow-Carb Diet®: Meat, legumes/beans, and veggies; abstain from white foods like sugar, pasta, bread, cheese; epic “cheat day” once per week. Advised by Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Body.
2. Paleo: eat like a caveman, mostly veggies, meats, nuts. Advised by Paleohacks and Nerd Fitness.
3. Vegetarian: vegetables, but no meat. Cheese and eggs are optional. Advised by No Meat Athlete.
4. Whole foods: eat only recognizable foods and avoid processed ones. Advised by Summer Tomato.
5. Gluten-free: no wheat, rye, barley or wheat-based foods. Advised by Tania Mercer.
6. No sweets: a simple diet change that affects your insulin swings. Advised by Sarah Stanley.
7. DASH: USDA’s current recomendation.
8. Calorie counting: the old standard.
9. Sleep more: the science says this should work. Advised by: Swan Sleep Solutions.
10. Mindful eating: learn mindfulness to recognize when you’re full. Advised by ZenHabits.

During the diet, you’ll use the Lift app to receive daily prompts and to track your progress.

When you need help, you’ll have access to our hand-picked experts and to tips from the rest of the community.

Science aside, the first goal is for you to make a healthy diet change. This is our specialty.

Also, there will be prizes available at important milestones.

The Science

In order to do this in a scientific way we’re working with nutritionists and statisticians from UC Berkeley.

During the sign-up process, you’ll have the option to be given a diet that we’ve selected for you. The scientific process calls this part of the experiment randomization. The intent is to remove bias—perhaps fans of the 4-Hour Body diet are inherently more motivated than fans of the USDA.

I was skeptical about people accepting our diet recommendation for them, but early joiners have voted 3 to 4 to participate in the randomized trial. (There will also be an opt-out of the randomization step, for those 1 in 4 people who want complete control.)

After we get you going on your new diet, we’ll measure via Lift and occasional surveys:

• Are some diets easier than others? The scientific term is adherence.
• Weight change. Of course, this is a goal for many of us.
• Happiness via mood, energy and enjoyment.
• Demographic factors.
• Success tips for each diet. In our single-diet trial of the 4-Hour Body last year, we were able to verify the effects of simple meal planning, eggs for breakfast, cold showers, cheat days, and alcohol consumption.

Of course, we’re going to be careful to respect your privacy. All data will be aggregated and anonymized. That’s really important to us.

You know what else is important? Your feedback. Email me or comment right here. I’m tony@lift.do.