Realizing Harmony

Last night we had another conference call with the Lean Team.  (The Lean Team is a large group of people from all around the country who are going through the HealthPointe 2.0 program “together.”)  The call last night included input from a Dr. who was able to step out of Urgent Care for a three to five minutes to talk to us.  And I thought I’d share some of his insights as well as some of the other tips provided by other coaches.

After congratulating all of us for sticking with it (we’re in the middle of our 4th week), and a brief mention that he’s helped hundreds of patients lose weight using HealthPointe – including one lady who lost over 100 lbs. – he gave a few tips as well as talked about some of the studies he’s followed/read that relate to weight loss.

His first point: You don’t have to lose a lot of weight nor get to your “ideal” weight to obtain health benefits.  Even losing a few pounds can cause good things to happen.  Now, that’s not to say that you should ignore your doctor’s advice to lose “X” pounds.  If s/he says you need to lose “X” pounds, you would do well to follow his/her advice.  And along the way to losing all the weight you can expect to experience some health benefits… possibly within a fairly short amount of time and long before you’ve lost all the weight.  (What a cool thing!)

He backed that up by relating some of the details from a study.  (I didn’t memorize or even write down all the details.)  What caught of what he said about the study was this:

It was a study of people who had diabetes, and compared 3 different plans/treatments as well as a group using a placebo.

Those who changed their lifestyle on average lost 5% of their body weight over the same timeframe.

Those on a drug called Metaformin (sp?) on average lost 3% of their body weight over the 3 years that the study continued.

Those on the 2nd drug (I didn’t catch the name) lost less than 3%.  And those on the placebo gained some weight.

Now, even with these modest changes in weight, here’s some really exciting news!

Those who lost 3% had an average 31% risk factor reduction for diabetes!  To put that in pounds: If they started out weighing 200 lbs, and lost 6 lbs over the three years, they reduced their risk factors for diabetes by almost 1/3!!

But it gets even better.  Those who changed their lifestyle instead of relying on drugs to lose weight had (on average) a 58% risk reduction!!  Again, putting “real” numbers to that: If they started out at 200 lbs, over the course of the 3 years they lost (on average) 10 lbs which resulted in cutting their risk factors for diabetes by 58%!!!  (That’s more than 1/2 off but not quite 2/3 off.)

Pretty amazing stuff!

The doctor continued… he explained to us the critical importance of supplementation while on a weight loss program.  What he’s found most critical is taking care of micro-nutrients including getting a good balance of Omega-3 fatty acids, Phytofactors (that come from plants), and assuring you’re getting the nutrients of real fruits and vegetables.

The goal of weight loss is to lose fat – not to break down body-functions.  As such, it’s very imortant to get adequate (not excess) protein in your diet.  That helps your body rev-up its metabolism and burn off its excess fat.  If you consume too much carbohydrate, your body will burn that and/or convert it to more fat.  And if you consume too much fat, well, that’s just packing in more of what you’re trying to get rid of.

One of the Lean Team participants had written in asking about how to stop constipation or diarrhea.  The recommendation was to take a combination of Calcium and Magnesium.  Apparently those help with “regularity.”

Finally, someone asked about weight fluctuations and plateaus.  They were concerned about going days without losing any weight, or even gaining 1.5 to 2 lbs.  They wanted to stop weighing themselves daily, and check weight only every 2-3 days so as to not get discouraged.

The answer was: Don’t worry about temporary weight stagnation or slight increases.  There are quite a few potential causes for that: full bladder, bowels, water retention/bloating, hormones, or a few other possibilities.  The example was given that 1 liter (about 2 quarts) of water weighs just over 2 lbs., and 1 quart is just over 1 lb.  So it’s very easy to have your weight fluctuate as a normal course of each day.  The key is: You should see a gradual downward trend in your weight as you’re following the program.

I found that encouraging since I gained just over 2 lbs last Sunday (due to breaking out of the program when we went to two parties and consumed ridiculous amounts of carbs – lasagna, noodles, veggies, salad, chocolate cake, mashed potatoes, ice cream, brownies, etc.) 

I lost just over 1 lb of that the next day.  But since then I’ve been stuck at the same weight – it’s now 3 days… maybe tomorrow it will continue back on the downward trend.  Or maybe not, since this is one of my body’s “set points.”  We’ll just have to wait and see.  (And I’ll have to be “good.” )