13 Diet Discoveries

I’m on a group diet. Sounds weird, but it’s working for me. It’s a program for the prevention of diabetes that my doctor recommended. Here’s some of what I’ve learned.

1. The program is called Lifestyle Balance. It’s free, supported by a combination of state funding and run by the CDC.

2. Diabetes is caused by an over abundance of glucose in the blood. I already knew that, but I hadn’t realized the over abundance isn’t cause only by insulin levels. Type 2 (my type) is often caused by an inability to utilize the insulin present.

3. The program began as research. They were testing some medicine. Turned out the lose weight and exercise more program was far more effective.

4. The goal is only to lose 7% of your weight. So for someone who weighs 207 pounds (the typical weight for those entering the program) that means losing 14 pounds. Yeah, only 14. I’m shooting for 15.4. Hey! Put that calculator down!

5. They give “homework” assignments. The first week the assignment was to write down everything we ate or drank. Even at the time we knew it wasn’t for just one week. It’s to be our way of life for most of a year.

6. The co-coordinators slogan was. “If you bite it, write it. If you drink it, ink it.”

7. We haven’t started tracking calories yet. Yay! I hate tracking calories. Instead, we are keeping track of our total fat gram intake.

8. Fat comes it types, some of which are much worse than others. Yeah, call me slow. I knew, but I wasn’t paying attention when it hit the news.

9. Fat has more than twice as many calories as the same amount of sugar, starch, or protein.

10. My personal fat gram goal based on the 7% weight loss goal is 42 total grams per day.

11. Apparently I’m losing weight too quickly. I’m right at or over my fat gram limits regularly but still loosing about a pound a week. I’m guessing this is because my normal diet was way over the limit all the time.

12. Lunch at “a fast food restaurant” (they didn’t name it, but you can guess) consisting of fried fish sandwich, large fries, apple turnover, and milkshake comes out to a whopping 74 grams of fat. Not quit twice my daily limit. BTW it’s 1,482 calories.

13. One pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. To lose one or two pounds a week you have to eat between 500 and 1,00 fewer calories every day. Now I want to know just how much I’ve been eating all this time.

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