How to Lose 50 Pounds

A friend of mine was taken to the hospital for being out of breath last Friday.  Before the day was over, it was determined that his heart was beating out of rhythm, was enlarged, and three arteries were severely blocked.  The doctor asked him if he felt bad.  He responded by saying, "Not until I came here."

After all was said and done, a heart catherization was done, surgery considered, and a treatment plan was created for him.  One thing he has to do is lose weight.  I shared the plan that I followed, as I have successfully lost 50 lbs. on it with no hunger pains and a constant feeling of fullness; I could eat all I wanted.  As I put this information down for him, I thought I'd share it with those of you who have thought about losing a few pounds but couldn't quite start out.  Here are the rules:

1. Eat no more than 20 grams of fat per day - This alone will start you toward thinness.  Check the packaging on food items.  There are books that list the fat grams in generic types of food.  Counting fat grams is much easier than counting calories.  You only have to count to twenty so you can use your fingers and toes if you have to (Yep, guys, you get to keep your clothes on).  When you reach twenty, you can still eat.  Just switch to fat-free foods (No, not the fat-free cookies.  Good try, though.  We'll get to those in a minute).  Brown rice, vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and beans all have little to no fat in them, so eat all you want.  No more walking around being hungry.
2. Eat at least 30 grams of fiber per day - This keeps you full during the day so you don't feel hungry.  You can eat more fiber if you want, just get at least thirty grams.
3. Begin a moderate exercise regimen - Nothing out of this world; a simple walking program will do.  It keeps the metabolism up to burn that fat.  I'll have to confess that I am very sedentary and didn't do this component of the program (Long work hours with little time for exercise).  Even so, I still lost 50 lbs.  I keep thinking how much faster I would have lost it if I had exercised.  Check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program, especially if you're sedentary like me!

It's that simple!  Now wait...I can see the gears turning in your head!  You're thinking, "When I consume my 20 grams of fat, I can switch to fat-free cookies, cakes, etc."  Sorry, there's one more rule that fixes that.  The rule is if a serving size of your fat-free food item (or any food item for that matter) has less than one gram of fiber, you must count that serving as a fat gram, even if there is no fat in it.  So you can't run and grab the fat-free ice cream and eat the whole carton!  Sorry!

Follow this diet and you'll be eating more healthy, as your diet will consist mostly of beans, rice, whole grains, vegetables, and whole fruit.  However, nothing is off limits as long as you count the fat grams and stay below twenty.

BONUS! - This diet comes with a bonus.  If you eat three meals a day for seven days, you have eaten 21 meals, right?  If you stick to this diet for 19 of those meals, you can have two meals where you can forget counting and eat anything you want.  Just don't over do it.  My wife and I stuck to this diet during the work week and dined at nice restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights.  Doing this, I got to eat at Outback, Macaroni Grill, Red Lobster, Village Tavern, and any other restaurant I wanted for those two evenings and never had to count anything.  Honestly, I never felt like I was dieting.

This diet was developed by Dr. Gabe Mirkin and was the one that Larry King went on to lose his weight following his heart attack.  I gave you a quick overview, but if you'd really like to try it, get Mirkin's book, The 20/30 Fat & Fiber Plan for all the benefits, details, and scientific explanations as to why it works.

Comments

[GBGames]

How is it that almost every blog I read has something appropriate for my life?

I'm considering watching my diet and exercising. For a long while, I thought that I ate well, but I find that I am getting a bit chubby, and I am out of breath walking up 9 flights of stairs when only a few years ago that would have been nothing to me.

I've been eating Wheat Thins at work because I thought it was a fairly healthy snack, but I've never tracked fat grams before. Turns out a serving has 4g of fat even though it is the reduced-fat version. That means all those days where I just snacked on them mindlessly I've been eating way over the recommended amount.

Last week I put on a shirt that fit a bit tighter than I remember it. My face looked a bit fuller.

I already stopped snacking mindlessly, stopping myself from eating more than a single serving. Now I'll also make a concsious effort to reduce my fat intake.

I'm only looking to lose 20 lbs and I would also like to build up my endurance. How long did it take you to lose your 50?

[Steve Pavlina]

This balancing of fat and fiber is very similar to what Weight Watchers uses for its weight loss program.

[Eric Mack]

I enjoy the blog and appreciate your recommendations.

I also want to thank you for the [unintended?] humor in posting your "How to lose 50 LBS" adjacent to the three ads for Burger King. It made me smile.

Best regards

Eric

PS I'll send screen shot by email

[John Richardson]

Interesting post Bert. I find I have an extremely hard time reducing my fat intake to 20 grams per day. It's the same problem trying to reduce carbs to 20 grams/day. It just results in a very restrictive diet which is very hard to stay on long term. I find that 45-60 grams of fat is doable and along with a good exercise plan will result in pretty rapid weight loss. I posted a diet article on my blog today that takes an interesting twist on the subject.

[Bert]

I'm looking at my blog right now and next to this post, Google AdSense has placed four Burger King ads and one McDonald's ad. I thought of this possibility last night but thought, "Nah..." But sure enough... Thanks Google!

[Dwayne Melancon]

I've also lost 50 pounds by following The Zone diet, which I find to be extremely maintainable - I posted last month on my experience with it: http://blog.dwayne.melancon.net/blog/HealthyStuff/_archives/2005/3/14/435462.html

I lost this weight over a 1-year period, though most of it came off in the first 9 months. I made no change in my exercise regimen.

[Dwayne Melancon]

Funky URL truncation on my post - here it is in hyperlink form (hoping that works).

[Susy]

This sounds like a very sensible way to lose weight. Thank you for sharing it!

[Gary]

Discovered this from LifeHacker...and like GBGames, would very much like to know how long it took for you to drop the 50 (as well as what's the expectation of loss per week or month...just for reference to other approaches).

[Bert]

The 50 lbs took me from January to August in 2004. I took it slow so I wouldn't feel deprived, but the funny thing was, I felt full all the time. The bad thing was I had to buy all new clothes!

[Don]

My wife is being driven nuts by my fat-gram-counting now. One thing that blew me away was that one serving of whole milk has 8g of fat. Definitely need to start up with the supplements for now.

Thanks for the inspiration. I can stand to lose at least 30 pounds (5'8", 200 lbs).

[Bert]

Good luck to all of you who are giving this a whirl. I'm trying to find a before pic so you can actually see the difference 50 lbs makes. I've had co-workers mention (before I hit the 50 lb loss) that I actually looked younger. Although I'm not younger, I certainly feel like it!

[Matt]

so i'm really thinking of doing this...i need some help on what kind of meals you ate. What was a typical breakfast, lunch, and dinner day for you? I'm thinking, "what, am i supposed to eat a banana for lunch"...any help would be most appreciated...

[Tom]

To Matt: I don't really follow this program and count grams of fat, but in the end it comes down to pretty much the same. Example menu:
- Morning: cornflakes with low fat yoghurt, apple, banana. Sometimes, I add protein powder, but usually not.
- Between morning and lunch: apple or orange, to keep the hunger away
- Lunch: we have this great cheap Vietnamese place next to work: noodle soup with shrimp and soy beans is my favorite. Lots of water, lots of fiber, lots of proteins. Low on fat.
- Alternative: I go to the salad bar of my supermarkets where I buy a small container of vegetables and Tuna.
- between lunch and dinner: same thing: apple or banana or orange, or, in case of the alternative lunch, I buy a container from the salad bar with pine apple, orange, grapes, ...
- dinner: something light or a really good sushi meal, once a week. :-)

I've never eaten so much an still lost 10 pounds in 2 months. I admit it's not as spectacular as the 50 pounds, but then I am only 20 pounds above my ideal weight. I also started doing a lot more sports, but only the non-boring variety: mountainbiking, hiking. No gym for me.

[Bert]

Ok, Matt, here goes a typical day for me:

Breakfast
One large bowl of FiberOne - 0 grams (so much fiber that you don't have to count it; I use Equal on it and don't count any grams in it. I use FiberOne because this size helping practically provides an entire day's fiber)
Milk, skim, one cup (even though there is no fat, it has no fiber so you have to count it as a fat gram) - 1 gram
Fruit on cereal - 0 grams
Coffee - 0 grams
Total Breakfast: 1 gram

Lunch
Two sandwiches made with diet bread, fat-free lunch meat and fat-free cheese - 5 grams
One serving of Wow! chips - 1 gram
Diet Dr. Pepper (I love the stuff) - 0 grams
Two Snackwell chocolate cookies - 2 grams (They are fat free but due to low fiber, I count them as a fat gram each)
Fruit - a banana, raisins, an apple, orange, etc. - 0 grams (I will sometimes have two)
Total lunch: 8 grams

Dinner (I love Mexican, so let's go with that):
Large serving of Nachos with black beans and rice (2 grams), tomatoes, (0 grams), fat-free sour cream (2 grams), shredded fat-free cheese (1 gram), Wow! Tortilla chips (2 grams) - 7 grams
Diet Soft Drink - 0 grams
Total Dinner: 7 grams

Late night TV snack
Two large soft pretzels with mustard - 2 grams

Large smoothie made with frozen mixed fruit, skim milk, a little Equal for sweetness - 1 gram (the milk)

Total for day: 19 grams (1 to spare -- WooHoo!)

I use a lot of no-fat and low-fat foods to reduce the amount of fat that I eat. I usually find I go to bed very full.

Also, remember that two nights during the week you can eat anything you want and not count it. I usually use these nights for Outback, Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill, etc. If I want to eat out and want to stick to my diet, I can go to Subway (yep the 12 inch veggie is only 6 grams and the 12 inch grilled chicken breast is 12 grams.) Applebees is also great because I've found that their menu that goes along with the Weight Watcher plan dove-tailed with the 20/30 plan, so I counted the grams on my diet like the points on theirs. I was able to eat out and still not go off my diet, which kept my two no-count meals intact for the weekend!

Hope this helped!

[Matt]

thanks a lot for the suggestions!!

[Travis D]

I presume that Dr. Pepper doesn't have fiber in it. How come you don't follow the "even if it's fat-free, if it doesn't have fiber, count it as one fat gram" rule with it?

[Bert]

Travis--

Two reasons why I don't count Diet Dr. Pepper as a fat due to the low fiber content:

1. Because I drink Diet Dr. Pepper, which also has NO calories. So basically, it's just flavored water. (Oh, man, I'm gonna get the comments from the water purists now!) The count-it-as-a-fat rule was designed to offset those calories that still exist in low/no fat but low/no fiber foods. Hence, no calories means I don't count it. My weight loss success validates my belief that my rule violation on this product didn't hurt.
2. I LOVE Diet Dr. Pepper. Hey, Now I've got Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper to not count as a fat!

Bert

[Kathy]

I think I understand the "if no fiber, count it as a fat" rule, but do have one question--if the item already has fat grams, do you add one more gram of fat to it? Or just count the grams it already has? (This is for a teaspoon of olive oil, for a salad dressing).

Thanks!

[Bert]

Kathy--

The count-it-as-a-fat-anyway rule applies to foods that have less than 1 gram of fat per serving, but contains no fiber. If a food item has at least one gram of fat, just go with whatever it naturally has, or whatever is stated on the package.

[Kathy]

Thanks, Bert!

I ordered the book, but wanted to get started now...

Kathy

[Julia]

Wow!! good Idea. but What if it says like 5gram of fat 20%. so how am I going to count that?

[Bert]

Julia--
In that case, you count the 5 grams and ignore the "20%". Always count the grams.

[Julia]

thanks Bert, but what if I eat the whole box? would it makes 25 grams total?

[Bert]

Julia--

On this diet, you are limited to only 20 grams of fat per day. If you ate the whole box, you'd be 5 grams over your limit.

You can eat up to 20 grams of fat per day. When you meet that limit, you must eat only fat-free foods for the rest of the day (beware of fat-free foods which have no/low amounts of fiber, which must be counted as a fat; see the guidelines in the posts for that).