ABC - Butrition 101

Seems all very simple doesn't it? Well, it's not. If you achieve your two major goals - increasing Eo and decreasing Ei, your will not - another guarantee - lose 2 pounds per week. The body, while quite perfect in what it does, does not follow the laws of the world of physics and thermodynamics. Some weeks, you will not lose any weight. We call these weeks a "plateau." Some weeks, you will lose more than 2 pounds. Still other weeks, you might even gain some weight. So, what's going on here?

Lots of things are pulling in opposite directions. As discussed earlier, your body defends its current weight vigorously and drops back into "starvation mode." RMR starts dropping, levels of hormones (like insulin, thyroid and growth hormone, and others) start changing to defend against loss of body mass. At the same time, your exercise is stressing (in a good way) your muscles and increasing lean body mass (muscle). The body starts adapting. The net results are that your body will sort it out as follows:

It doesn't reach these conclusions overnight. It may not reach them for weeks. But, eventually, the physiology of the wonderfully adaptable human body will reach these 3 conclusions. The point is, the process is the goal, not the loss of weight. As you start changing your behavior (both your eating habits and your activity levels) toward a more healthy lifestyle, you will become frustrated at times if your focus is on the scale and not on your body. Let me, again, use myself as an example.

I currently am 69" or so inches tall and weight 200 pounds. That puts my Body Mass Index squarely at 30. I am, by this nationally-accepted (but increasingly challenged) measure, obese. I am above the "accepted" normal weight guidelines. Am I bothered by this? Not at all. This is a good weight for me. How can I say this? Because, having weighed 250 pounds previously, I am, at the first level, happy to be at 200 pounds. I am no longer feel like a hypocrite when I tell my patients they need to get more exercise and eat a healthier diet. I sure did when I weighed 1/8 of a ton. I am sure some of you have been to a doctor who, not the picture of health themselves, started giving you advice on changing your lifestyle. Didn't you just want to smack them? When I would waddle into an examination room in the 1980s and early 1990s and tell someone they need to "start pushing away from the table," more than a few of my patients wanted to smack me. The "Do as I say, not as I do" may have worked for doctors in the 50s and 60s, but it doesn't work now. Patients are too smart - and have more choices - that to accept sermonizing from healthcare providers who don't care about their own health.

At a more important levels, I have a 32 inch waist a 42 inch chest and can fit in clothes I could not wear when I was a starting lineman on an undefeated high school football team, threw the shot put in track, etc. At an even more important level, I can bench press, curl and dead lift weights that I couldn't even get off the floor just a few years ago. I walk 2-3 miles a day in my clinic (just in the course of seeing patients; I have a pedometer to prove it), I sleep like a log, I wake up at 4:30 AM every day and am at my most productive and focused peak between 5:00 and 8:00 AM. I have not had a cold or been "sick" (knock wood) in a year and I feel - even if the man in my mirror reflects otherwise - 20 years old. I eat pretty much what I want but do follow my own restrictions on fat, specifically, most days I don't eat more than 20-30 grams of fat, total.

This is how you should be looking at your new healthier lifestyle. Not, solely with the goal to lose weight. Losing weight is just a side effect, if you will , toward being heathier.If you start treating your body like a Ferrari instead of a Edsel, it will start rewarding you. Not by just "getting skinny," which may not be the healthiest state for you, as an individual. I will never weigh 165 pounds, which is the weight my 69" frame should weight to get my BMI "weight-appropriate." Do I sit around and wring my hands about what the scale reads and the fact that I am not built like Brad Pitt or Sylvester Stallone or Gov. Schwarzenegger? Not for one second. This is the body I have been given. It's my task to work with what I have. Does it take work? Absolutely! Is it worth it? I sure think so. Taking care of my body allows me to accomplish what I was born to do. Now that I am past the half-century mark in age (man, that sounded old 30 years ago), I feel as good as I ever have felt. I simply don't care what the scales read - or where I fall on the the BMI chart. If this is obese, I'm loving it.

Get your goals in the proper priority. Your goal should not be to weigh [fill in your imagined weight here] pounds, or fit into the same size 6 dress you wore to the high school prom. It should not be to look like [fill in your favorite Hollywood actress or music star here]. Your goal should be to feel better, have more energy, live longer and, well, love yourself. If you start living a healthier lifestyle, you will probably lose some weight along the way. But, you will hopefully find, that the number on the scale is not the greatest benefit. There are so many other ones that will make the work you put in so very worthwhile.

Ok, enough with that. Let's see where we can get the 750 calories we need to cut back in our eating. Or, as we have come to know, the Ei. Read on.

Albright Bariatric Clinic