27 Sep Florida Weight Loss Doctor Recommends Stop Counting Calories, Start Eating What Counts

The simple weight-loss formula since weight-loss became a thing has been cutting calories. It makes sense. Eat less = weigh less.

Too simple? Absolutely. The body is way more complex than that, and that’s what makes losing weight difficult. At our weight loss clinic, we know that by drastically reducing calories we’re giving our metabolisms a hit they might never truly recover from. This is not what we want for long-term success.

A new study, led by Dr. Gardner, the Director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Dr. Gardener had a test group of 609 patients that were considered clinically overweight. She did something extraordinary. Instead of giving the participants calorie-restrictive diets, she focused on the quality of the food they eat.

Participants were divided into two groups — a low-fat group and a low-carbohydrate group. They were instructed on how to change the quality of their diets. They cut out added sugars, refined grains, and highly processed foods. They all met with registered dietitian nutritionists who taught food label literacy. And, they all were instructed to avoid falling into diet fad traps.

The results were surprising, pretty much throwing all extreme diet trends under the bus:

1. There was no significant difference between the low-fat and low-carb dieters.
2. Participants never felt deprived of food.
3. Participants never focused on calories.
4. There was no focus on exercise, though it was recommended, and many participants maintained their activity levels (a few even increased activity levels).
5. On average, participants lost between 11 and 13 pounds from the low-fat, and low-carb diets. (It didn’t matter).

This was a huge eye-opener for the medical weight loss community and how we work with patients to develop healthy eating habits.

In our medical weight loss practice, we spend a lot of time with our patients not discussing numbers but quality, echoing this  New York Times article, The Key to Weight Loss is Diet Quality, Not Quantity, a Study Finds. And Nutrition Action, too, reports on these findings, Do Calories Matter? This study also supports the European mindset when it comes to eating and how being healthy depends on the way we view food.

Basically, during this year-long study, participants lost weight. But not because they cut calories. At no time were they asked to count calories. Instead, they lost weight because the quality of food they ate was better.

This goes back to eating clean and focusing on great food. That’s not a bad way to get healthy. Without entering a study or breaking the bank, each and every one of us is capable of cleaning up our diet. Here are some easy-to-follow tips to eat better quality foods without losing the flavors we love:

1. Substitute white rice and pasta with whole grains – quinoa, chia, or whole grain pasta and rice.
2. Replace crackers and chips with nuts, olives, or whole-wheat toast with a drizzle of olive oil and crumbled feta cheese.
3. Replace ketchup and other processed sauces with avocado or guacamole, pico de gallo, hummus, salsa, pesto, or olive oil and balsamic.
4. Cut all processed meats out of your diet (save the hot dog at the baseball game!) and replace salami, chorizos, and ham with roasted, grilled or shredded chicken, pulled pork, shredded beef, or even steak.
5. Get creative with sweets:
   1. Replace ice cream and milkshakes with fruit salads and fruit smoothies.
   2. Reduce sugar in muffin and cookie recipes – by up to ½.
   3. Cut back on the spoon-full-of-sugar habit … start with ¾ spoon, then ½, until you don’t need any sugar at all.
   4. Replace cookies and cupcakes with sweet potato waffles, whole-grain pancakes, and French Toast, and keep them in the freezer for a go-to snack.
   5. Swap out milk and white chocolate for dark chocolate.
6. Introduce high-quality fats into your diet: olive oil, salmon, avocado, hard cheese, and nuts.
7. Nobody needs to go carb-free. High-quality carbs include lentils, fresh fruit, beans, steel-cut oats, and quinoa.

By making some simple changes, cutting highly-processed foods and refined sugars out of your diet, you’re likely to feel healthier with the side effect of maintaining the weight you’ve lost, or reaching a healthy weight and sustaining it. Improve the quality of your diet as that first step toward developing healthy, sustainable habits.