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This newsletter is about what works for weight loss.
January 29, 2012
Weight Loss
What Works part 2
Hi ,
Today I will compete the run down of the most basic components of weight loss.
A key piece of basic nutritional science - every calorie you eat is a calorie you do not burn of your own fat. Since our goal is to burn up our excess fat supplies, we don't want to slow down that process by eating unnecessary calories. So the question now becomes what is the lowest calorie level we can eat and still get our basic nutrition needs met? To answer this we need to consider one more fact - there are thousands of nutrients our body needs to be healthy. Even though we talk about four basic food groups, there are thousands of phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and other food factors necessary for our health. We can do without these for a couple weeks at a time as is done when fasting on water only. Beyond that close medical observation is needed to make sure that we do not become deficient in these vital nutrients and suffer serious consequences.
In our last newsletter we covered the four basic food groups and discovered that we can really do without the carbohydrates, and most of the fats. We also understood that proteins, fluids, and fibers are vital for both health and weight loss, along with the thousands of vitamins, minerals, and other micro-nutrients found in food.
Ok, we have the basic information to put together a powerful weight loss protocol that will work for most people. We want to eat protein and nutrient dense high fiber foods and avoid carbohydrates and fats. To get enough protein to meet our basic requirements we will need 7 to 10 ounces of very low fat protein (like chicken breast or low fat fish) which will come to 300 to 350 calories per day. To get the nutrient dense high fiber foods we are looking at another 150 calories of above ground non-starchy vegetables - about a pound and a half to two pounds each day. Other non-caloric fibers and liquids may be used at will. To cover our basic health needs and lose maximum weight we want to consume 500 calories per day of super nutrient foods. At this calorie level even a person with a very slow metabolism of only 1000 calories per day will still lose weight. The average person will lose 2 to 3 pounds a week on this program.
An important hormonal and neurologic consideration - when you cut your calories down significantly, you body assumes winter is coming on and food will be scarce for some time, so it lowers your metabolism. We don't want this as it slows down weight loss and is also a common cause for rapid weight gain once your target weight is met and you start eating more once again. This adaptation to fewer calories takes 3 to 4 weeks, so we like to keep the 500-calorie diet to that same time frame. We do 500 calories for 4 weeks then increase our fat consumption to whatever it takes to keep a stable weight the next 4 weeks, then back to the 500 calories for 4 weeks. We switch back and forth every 28 days. This way we not only maximize weight loss, but also spend half our time learning how to keep a stable weight once our goal is met.
Exactly which high fiber nutrient dense plant foods to eat will depend upon one of the individual metabolic factors we described in a previous newsletter - how readily you convert from sugar burning into fat burning mode. If you have more than 20 pounds to lose I generally recommend getting your body into a complete fat burning mode the entire dieting time. This is called dietary ketosis. Ketosis refers to your body splitting fats into smaller molecules called ketones that your body then easily uses to burn for energy instead of burning sugar. To do this you must initially keep your carbohydrate consumption below 20 grams a day for 2 weeks. Even leafy non-starchy vegetables have some carbohydrate in them so you have to be very careful for the first couple weeks.
After the first couple weeks your brain will gradually get used to burning ketones and your tolerance for carbohydrates will increase slightly - to maybe 30 or 40 grams. Within another couple weeks it may even go up to 50 to 60 grams of tolerance for carbs. So initially the diet is very strict. I generally suggest spending the first 3 or 4 days on the diet just getting into ketosis without worrying about reducing calories, just cutting out the carbs. This means you can eat low carb nuts, fatty meats, dairy products without sugar, and the like while you are getting into the fat burning metabolism. But once you are there, the weight loss part begins by cutting out the fats to lower the calories to the absolute minimum and still get all the nutrients you need to stay healthy.
Ok, so what do you eat? I should call this the SSSSS diet because we eat S foods - Smoothies, Soups, Salads, Stews, and Stir-fries. If you were a person with no interest in food flavor, you could do this diet protocol with salads, steamed veggies, and broiled chicken breast or low fat fish 3 times a day for 28 days. This works great. But for me, I like flavor. This diet allows as much use of herbs and spices as I want, and the best way to get those flavors into the foods is with soups, stews, and stir-fries. I start with a good homemade bone stock and a bunch of herbs, spices, and vinegars and I am in flavor heaven.
I begin my day and also use as a snack throughout the day a high fiber smoothie made from psyllium seed fiber, chia seed, various other fibers, glutamine, undenatured whey protein concentrate, Dr. Dave Double Sugar (natural and zero calories), a touch of coconut milk or almond milk, and flavors. I make up a quart in the morning and drink it throughout the day. This fills my stomach and keeps hunger away along with my new Satisfaction Diet HCG Spray.
 Some of you may have heard the FDA has removed HCG from the store shelves over concern for what the hormone may do to people's bodies. Curiously, in the same press release the FDA states that it does not believe that homeopathic medicines do any good because the amounts of active substance are too small to have any effect. Yet the FDA also pulled the homeopathic formulas off the shelves because they say the hormone in the homeopathic compounds may affect people.??? Talk about double speak! Well the HCG spray I create is purely energetic imprint without any physical hormone present, so no concern for safety here. I have also included homeopathic support for all the brain neurotransmitters involved in hunger and craving. And I created a compound using an Ayurvedic concept of neural balance achieved through a balance of the five tastes on the tongue. Satisfaction has all five actual flavors in it to balance the senses and brain. I use a couple sprays in the mouth every 2 hours during the day to keep hunger away and metabolism up.
This fiber shake and spray work especially well in the beginning when you really need to keep your carbohydrate levels especially low - below 20 grams per day. I will start my day this way, then at lunch I will have some protein such as chicken breast and some steamed or stir fried vegetables. Personally for me this usually looks like a nice tasty soup or stew made with the bone stock I showed you how to make in the last newsletter.
Mid afternoon will be some more fiber shake and dinner will usually be a nice salad made from various lettuce types and low carb veggies and a sweet vinegar dressing made with a flavored vinegar, Dr. Dave Sugar, and herbs (almost zero calories!)
If you would like a more detailed version of this diet protocol, it can be picked up at the office (I am not able to post it on my website at this time due to technical difficulties.) It is called The Modern HCG Diet. As I stated before, I follow this eating style for 4 weeks and then add more nuts and fats to increase my calorie load back up to a level that stabilizes my weight for another 4 weeks. I keep in ketosis fat burning mode this whole time to keep craving down and keep the body ready to burn fats with the next 4 week loss period.
Next week I will talk about some of the psychological helps to make this program easier and more successful.
Take care,
David
Ellen Update
As many of you know, Ellen had her diagnostic procedure in San Francisco performed on Friday to try to find out why the duct from her liver to her small intestine is not opening up and straightening out. They knocked her out and sent a special ultrasound camera down her throat to her intestines to examine her liver ducts and surrounding areas. The doctor found a band of what he thinks is scar tissue cutting off the duct. He took a biopsy of the band to make sure that it is just scar tissue, and we are awaiting the final reading on that before moving forward. The test results were a mixed result - some good and some bad news. The good news is that the doctor is pretty sure there is no nasty tumor process obstructing her duct system. The bad news is that there is no simple answer for scar tissue. Scar tissue naturally forms after an area is damaged, such as after her gall bladder surgery. So going in and cutting it out rarely works, as the surgery only creates more scar tissue. What he suggested is a management process where her doctor here keeps trying to stretch the scar tissue and placing more stints in her duct every couple months for a year or two. No simple answers are available from this latest test.
We just keep moving forward...
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