Health Insider Reveals Secrets for Losing Weight While Eating More (Really)!

By Jed Diamond, PhD, LCSW

Being a healthcare professional offers no guarantee that I know how to lose weight and keep it off. In fact, I’ll confess that for most of my life I’ve done a pretty lousy job of it. When I was in medical school, there were no courses on health and nutrition. Most everything was about disease, not health. That’s why I dropped out. I went into social work and found that I liked it much better and got a master’s degree. Later I went back to school and got a PhD in International Health.

I’ve studied a great deal about health and the latest scientific findings on how to eat well and stay fit. But we are living at a time when more than 65% of us are overweight and the estimates are that 80 to 90% of us will become overweight in our lifetime. We need real solutions and we’re not likely to find them from the latest “quick fix” diet guru.

I know. I’ve tried them all: Low fat, low carb, high protein, low protein. My house is full of charts following my weight loss progress. I’d work hard, lose weight for a while, a pound here a pound there. Then I’d gain it back. I’d give up in frustration, then try again when I’d reach a point where I didn’t like how I looked.

I used to be thin, really thin, short, and slightly built. That was before I turned 10 years old. That’s when my mother thought I needed to eat a more “manly diet” and started serving me meat and cheese (that was back in the 1950′s when it was common to buy a side of beef and have it cut up and delivered to our big freezer in our garage in the suburbs). I definitely got bigger . . . everywhere, particularly around the waist.

When I was young I kept my weight off by exercising all the time. I loved sports and was active all the time. After I turned 40, my metabolism slowed, as it does when we age, and I wasn’t as active in sports as I once was. I began putting on weight and my dieting began. If you’ve tried all the diets as I have, you know how discouraging it can become. I’d pretty much given up on getting thin and just accepted that I would have a belly like most of my family and friends.

The Wake Up Call With My Yearly Health Check

I could comfort myself with my gradual weight gain because I told myself my doctors never told me to lose weight and I was generally healthy. But the results of my exam indicated that I had a prostate problem — it was enlarged and my PSA tests were saying I might be at risk of getting prostate cancer — and some heart rhythm irregularities.

I went to my regular doctor who sent me to a heart specialist (who found my heart was fine after lots of tests) and a prostate specialist (who wanted me to continue getting PSA tests and maybe have a biopsy done if my numbers kept going up). But I also went to my “holistic” doctor to see what he might suggest.

Walking the Talk:  Health Advice from a Doctor Who Practices What He Preaches

My doctor, Robert Dozor, M.D., co-founded the Integrative Medical Clinic with his wife, Ellen Barnett, M.D., PhD. The clinic is a two hour drive from where we live so I see him a few times a year. He had never mentioned my weight to me or suggested I change the way I eat . . ..until this time. (I notice doctors rarely mention our weight or how we’re eating, usually because their weight and how they are eating isn’t the best).

After talking with me and looking over my tests,, he said, “Well, you can continue doing PSA tests hoping to detect cancer early or you can do something to keep yourself from getting cancer and other diseases in the first place.” That got my attention. “You’re basically healthy, but you could stand to lose 20 pounds.” (The same 20 pounds I’d been trying to lose for most of my life).

“This is the program I’m using,” he told me. “And I lost 40 pounds and have kept it off.” He did look good, better than I’d ever seen him. “The secret is salads,” he told me. To demonstrate he took me into the lunchroom and showed me all the greens and veggies he was preparing for his lunch. He suggested I get the book Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.  I hadn’t heard about Dr. Fuhrman, but I had heard of Mehmet Oz, M.D. who wrote about the book, “A medical breakthrough.  There is no question in my mind that it will work for you.”

Sometimes the Simplest Approaches Are The Best

So, here’s the bottom line. I got the book and started the 6 Week Plan. I’ve completed week #1 and lost 6.8 pounds, the first time I’ve been under 150 in years.  It’s the simplest way to eat I’ve ever tried.  Here are the basics:

1. Dr. Fuhrman’s formula for success is simple:  Health=Nutrients/Calories. So, all we have to do is eat foods high in nutrients and low in calories.
2. Basically, I’m eating lots of greens and nice big salads. As he says, “These foods are to be eaten in unlimited quantities.”
3. I’m eating lots of fresh fruits and beans (I love the bean dips and hummus I get from Mariposa Market and make a “sandwich” of bean dip wrapped in various kinds of greens with a piece of fruit for dessert).
4. I’m eating no meat and small amounts of fish.
5. I’m not eating any dairy.
6. I’m not counting calories, keeping track of points, or worrying about my weight.
7. Last month I would have believed that no one could survive on “rabbit food” or would want to. This month I believe its “food for life.”

I’m convinced this is a way of eating that will keep me healthy and keep me thin. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. What has been your experience with trying to lose weight?

Let’s keep the conversation going on twitter @MenAliveNow.

Jed Diamond, PhD, MCSW, is the Founder and Director of the MenAlive, a health program that helps men live long and well. Though focused on men’s health, MenAliveis also for women who care about the health of the men in their lives. Diamond’s book, MenAlive: Stop Killer Stress with Simple Energy Healing Tools, brings together the wisdom accumulated in 40 years helping more than 20,000 men, women, and children.