Is “halfway success” good enough or is it just “better than nothing?”

The usual target for any weight control program is -10% Body Weight. However, the average weight reduction for everybody even in the most successful programs is about -5%.

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That’s considered officially to be better than nothing because, -5% widely achieved, could decrease national costs for healthcare. But, for anyone personally, -5% is hardly good enough. The desired result is Diabetes Remission, Good Health and Long Life!

Call us or Contact us to achieve Remission of Diabetes with -10% to -20% reduction in Body Weight.

US News Best Diets 2019

Each year, an expert panel of physicians, dietitians, psychologists and research scientists rates Diets in several categories. They evaluate nutritional content, safety and potential to reduce diabetes and heart disease. The list for Best Diets 2019 rated 41 different Diet plans.

The report for 2019 lists Weight Watchers Diet as best for Weight Reduction. Published results in scientific journals report -2.6% weight loss compared to control/education groups. That was the Best Diet rating for Weight Reduction!

Most highly rated in all categories was the Mediterranean Diet. A clinical trial in 7447 Caucasian men reported insignificant changes in Weight after 5 years. Waist Circumference actually increased! About the best that can be said is that the Mediterranean Diet prevented increased Body Weight.

The panel assigned low rankings to Keto/Low Carb, Intermittent Fasting and Meal Replacement Diets.

All experts agree that weight reduction depends on reducing total calories in food and drink. Calories may come from any source as long as the daily total goes down. Safety depends on content of essential vitamins and minerals and exclusion of anything that hasn’t been approved by the FDA.

The best strategy is to find what works best for each individual! There doesn’t seem to be any way to predict what that will be.

Halfway Success Is Not Good Enough

Cigarette Smoking

The health risks of cigarette smoking are terrible. It causes chronic lung disease and lung cancer. It also increases deaths from heart disease, stroke and cancer in many organs. Cigarette smoking decreases life expectancy by more than 10 years. Stopping smoking before age 40 years greatly reduces risk of premature death.

Halfway Success for smoking reduction only benefits smokers who eventually quit entirely. Reducing from 20 cigarettes a day to 10 a day doesn’t decrease disability and premature death.

Alcohol Abuse

Treatment for chronic alcohol-related illness is one of the most expensive costs for health care in the U.S. Alcohol-related deaths decrease life expectancy by an average of 30 years. Alcohol abuse causes liver failure, liver cancer, dementia and heart disease.

Halfway Success that includes taking more than 1 or 2 drinks a day for men or 1 drink for women still increases risk of disability and premature death. The more severe the abuse, the harder it is to reduce drinking to moderate levels and keep it there. Abstinence is the only option for success by severely dependent users.

Long-Term Weight Reduction

Those most likely to succeed in long-term reduction are those who lose more than -10% body weight during the first 6 months using any weight-loss plan. The most successful are those who continue to reduce weight up to 12 months in a plan. Those who lose less than -10% gradually return to their original weight and many gain even more.

The Look AHEAD trial of weight management and exercise for patients with type 2 diabetes maintained an average loss of ∼4% of initial body weight through year 8. This amount of weight loss did not have any significant effect on cardiovascular complications or death rates. Only those who lost at least -10% sustained remission of diabetes.

Halfway Success is definitely not enough for treatment of cigarette smoking or alcohol abuse. Nor is it enough for remission of diabetes. Why should we be satisfied with -5% reduction in body weight? 

We can do better than that. We can Reverse Diabetes!

Strategies For Reducing Calories

Calorie Content Plan

An essential skill for managing diabetes is knowing what you are eating. When you read a menu or look at a plate of food you should know immediately the type of nutrient presented and how many calories it contains.

This skill is the vocabulary of practical nutrition in diabetes. Some people call it calorie “counting” and they hate it. It takes work at first. Eventually, you get to know what to eat and how much. Without even thinking about it.

Food Exchange Plan 

Much of what we eat is a lot like something else we eat. Groups of food such as green, leafy vegetables or fruit, food groups like pasta, or lean meat. In a Food Exchange Plan, serving sizes in each Exchange are defined along a point scale according to food group and calorie content.

The number of recommended servings are defined and the total amounts of food listed. Saves learning details of food composition and calories contained.

Half-Portion Plan

If you are Overweight or Obese and gaining weight, you’re eating twice too much. If you cut what you’re eating in half, you’ll lose weight.

On Monday, cut what’s on your plates in half and put half aside. On Tuesday, eat the half left over from Monday. On Wednesday, repeat what you did on Monday, cut the food on your plates in half. That’s Thursday’s food. Repeat on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, eat medium-sized meals and snacks.

Liquid Meal Replacement Plan

An accurate, convenient way to reduce the amount of food consumed is to pour it into a glass from a can or bottle and drink it from there. The nutrients contained in a liquid meal replacement container are listed on the label. You know what’s in your meal without having to weigh or measure the amounts you select to eat.

Most Liquid Meal Replacements contain 200 to 300 kcal. The usual plan followed is Meal Replacement at breakfast and lunch and an ordinary prepared meal at supper.

Intermittent Fasting

A popular pattern is eating only during specific short windows of time. Separated by longer periods of time without eating. Fasting for at least 16 hours promotes breakdown of body fat for metabolic fuel between meals. It also limits the total amount of food eaten during the week.

The effect on body weight depends on the total amount of food eaten. Not eating for long periods of time reduces the total calorie intake.

Fasting is not a safe plan to follow when injecting insulin or using other medications that decrease levels of blood sugar.

Ketogenic Diet Plan 

A Ketogenic Diet Plan is very low content of carbohydrates. Less than 50 grams a day of carbohydrates. That causes a metabolic shift to breakdown of body fat into ketones.

Seafood, cheese, fresh meat and poultry, eggs, olive oil, yogurt and cottage cheese are all sources of calories with low content of carbohydrates.

A Ketogenic Diet Plan markedly suppresses appetite. Food simply doesn’t taste very good. As a result, total food intake is suppressed.

Protein Supplement Plan

The natural metabolic response to decreased intake of food is reduced metabolic rate. Fewer calories in food results in decreased energy use. This defense mechanism partially protects skeletal muscle from breakdown to supply amino acids for energy when food intake is reduced.

The amount of protein recommended for normal nutrition is 20 to 30% of total calories. During intentional weight reduction, that proportion should be doubled. Protein can help weight reduction because it is the most satiating source of calories in food.

Whey protein is a by-product of cheese making. It is considered the best protein source of essential amino acids. Whey protein concentrate is the cheapest and most people prefer its taste. It is sold in powder form with a scoop that holds 24 to 30 grams. Mix it with breakfast cereal or make a shake in 6 or 8 ounces of water.

Comparisons with other sources of calories show that whey protein combined with strength training can cause weight loss while increasing lean muscle mass.

Getting Started

1. Keep a Notebook recording Daily Food Intake, Physical Activity, Body Weight, Fasting Blood Sugar and Diabetes Medication Used.
2. Look up values for calorie content of your meals and snacks. Open a food tracking app on the internet and look up content of calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat. Record those numbers in your Notebook.
3. Review daily values recorded in your Notebook to find sources of calories that you can do without.
4. Call or Contact us to start a Free Trial in Texas.

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