Diet

In 1995, I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia. I then weighed 427 pounds (I look at that and shudder, believe me). I was given the following diet advice by my nutritionist and endocrinologist. If you have low blood sugar, or normal blood sugar, this may also help you. I followed it, and I lost over 100 pounds, and kept it off for 10 years (yes, I still have more to lose, but now I'm diabetic - my pancreas gave up on me, as previously noted in this blog - and so this diet doesn't work as well for me now, and if you also have diabetes, or are "pro-diabetic" or "pre-diabetic", it probably will not work for you, either).

Standard disclaimer: doctor's advice should be obtained and taken seriously prior to starting any diet or exercise plan. Seriously. Don't take my fucking word for it. Check it out with your doctor.

The trick, I was told, is *not* to cut back on eating - indeed, I was told to consume AT LEAST 4000 calories a day (reason why follows) - but to eat 6 meals a day, and each meal MUST be within the following caloric guidelines: if you look at your meal in terms of the percentage breakdown of calories, 43-45% should come from carbohydrate, 45-48% from protein, and 8-12% from fat, and the fat should be from omega fatty acids as much as possible. Within those guidelines, eat whatever you want; if you want ice cream, have a reasonable amount of ice cream - just have a salmon steak first.

To figure out the percentages, you have to do some math, because unfortunately no one labels their products properly (I hate the US FDA, btw). One gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories. One gram of protein has 4 calories. One gram of fat has 9 calories. So, if you are trying to decide if you should buy or eat a food product, and you're reading the label and it says it has "Total Fat 7g 11%" that sounds like it should work, but it probably doesn't. The "11%" figure is based on if you eat exactly 2000 calories in a day, which no one does, and which you should not be doing, if you're following this diet *grin*.

I'm looking at an actual label now, so I'll use that for reference.

Total fat: 7g
Total Carbohydrate: 36g
Total Protein: 5g

To figure out the caloric percentages you need, do the following calculations:

Step one:

Fat: 7 x 9 = 63 calories from fat

Carbohydrate: 36 x 4 = 144 calories from carbs

Protein: 5 x 4 = 20 calories from protein

Total: 63 + 144 + 20 = 227 = total number of calories in the product - but remember that that's per serving. The container says there are 4 servings per container, so multiply by 4: 227 x 4 = 908 total calories if you eat the entire container, of which 252 are from fat, 576 are from carbs, and 80 are from protein.

Step Two:

Then, to get the percentage, divide the fat, carb, and protein calorie figures by the total number of calories:

Fat: 252 / 908 = 27.7%
Carb: 576 / 908 = 63.5%
Protein: 80 / 908 = 8.8%

27.7 + 63.5 + 8.8 = 100%.

So, if you're supposed to be eating 45-48% protein, 43-45% carb, and 8-12% fat, this particular product would not be a major part of the diet. You could still eat it, but probably would want to not eat an entire serving, much less the entire container, and definitely with something VERY low in carbs, high in protein, and low in fat (say, a tofu burger, no bun - ick).

(By the way, the product I was referencing? Haagen Daaz Extra Rich Light Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream. My favorite, and I probably shouldn't even eat a single bite of it. Ever. *sigh*)

The reason to eat more, instead of less, is that a calorie is not a unit of weight measurement; rather, it is a unit of heat/energy measurement - so, it's not "X number of calories per pound" but "X number of calories per British Thermal Unit", and "X number of BTUs needed to burn off X amount of stored fat". If you don't eat enough calories, you don't have the energy you need to burn off the fat you've stored.

The reason to eat 8-12% fat is that the human nervous system depends on fat to keep the synapses flexible and firing - it cannot use stored fat for this, there must be a constant new influx, but the nervous system doesn't need *much* and what it needs are the omega fatty acids; it doesn't need trans fat at all. What it doesn't use, it stores, so you eat some, but you keep it low.

The other point is to absolutely avoid any product that tells you that it is "sugar free", if the ingredients list includes any of the following: sorbitol, mannitol, sugar alcohol, dextrose, fructose (or any other "...ose" - if it ends in "ose", it's a sugar, period), or splenda.

Aspartame / Nutrasweet is the *only* (per my endocrinologists - all 3 of them, different clinics, different states!) sweetener that does not affect insulin uptake or output in exactly the same way as sucrose or glucose.

Anyway, within 2 weeks of starting that "percentage" diet, my blood sugar went from the permanent basement level that it had been reading, of 20-30, back to a normal reading, of 80-85, and I felt 10,000% better than I had before being diagnosed, with energy through the roof. Once my blood sugar got back to normal, almost all of my other hormonal problems ceased to bother me (until my pancreas gave up).

If the above helps you, great. If it doesn't, well, too bad, so sad. It helped *me* for a long long time. And if it wasn't interesting, why are you still reading this? *grin*

a. ;)