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!