Jane Brody's Personal Weight Loss Secrets

lemurcat12

Seems like it could start a debate, although it seems reasonably sensible to me.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/well/jane-brodys-personal-secrets-to-lasting-weight-loss.html?emc=edit_nn_20180307&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=7420786420180307&te=1

Highlights:

"When The New York Times hired me to write about science and health 52 years ago, I was 40 pounds overweight. I’d spent the previous three years watching my weight rise as I hopped from one diet to the next in a futile attempt to shed the pounds most recently gained.

No amount of exercise, and I did plenty of it, could compensate for how much I ate when I abandoned the latest weight loss scheme. I had become a living example of the adage: A diet is something one goes on to go off.

Even daylong fasting failed me. When I finally ate supper, I couldn’t stop eating until I fell asleep, and sometimes awoke the next morning with partly chewed food in my mouth. I had dieted myself into a binge-eating disorder, and that really scared me. Clearly, something had to change.

I finally regained control when I stopped dieting. I decided that if I was going to be fat, at least I could be healthy. I made a plan to eat three nutritious, satisfying meals every day with one small snack, which helped me overcome the temptation to binge in response to deprivation.

Much to my surprise, a month later I had lost 10 pounds — eating! Eating good food, that is, and plenty of it. I continued the regimen without difficulty because it was not a diet. It was a way to live and a healthy one at that. And I continued to lose, about two pounds a month."

So seems like she's saying it's the food, not the calories? No, not at all. (cont.)

lemurcat12

"I eat everything I want, in moderation. My meals — mostly homemade — are heavily loaded with vegetables, and I choose calorie-controlled snacks like popcorn at 35 calories a cup, a graham cracker at 59 calories for two squares, and ice cream (really ice milk) at 100 to 150 calories a half cup. No seconds!

My weight maintenance secrets are simple: I read nutrition labels before I buy anything in a package, I practice portion control, and I exercise and weigh myself every day to stay within a two-pound range appropriate for my height. If the number on the scale begins to creep up, I may walk, bike or swim a little more and eat a little less for a few days.

In a recent issue of JAMA, Dr. Eve Guth, internist at the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Chicago, basically endorsed my approach. She wrote: “Successful long-term calorie reduction is most likely to result when patients decide for themselves which dietary changes to make and when. Essential to any effort is a clear understanding that dietary change is a slow process that requires ongoing vigilance” which, she admitted, “is not a popular concept in a world now accustomed to immediate results.”"

Also:

"I don’t count calories, but I have a working knowledge of the approximate calories in nearly everything I eat. If you need to lose weight, I urge you to download a comprehensive calorie chart of common foods to help you make substitutions that will cut about 500 calories from your daily diet. You can do the same with an exercise chart, keeping in mind that the caloric cost of any activity depends on how strenuously you do it and how much you weigh."

I like this because -- despite some of the other comments -- she basically seems to recognize that rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all plan, what makes sense is for the person to eat in a way sustainable for them, gain knowledge about their current diet, and figure out for themselves what changes would be reasonable and work for them.

GottaBurnEmAll

I can't see anything here to debate It's a sensible approach to finding a balance of eating and behaviors that you can sustain for life, and it combines practical talk that it's a life long endeavor regarding vigilance. I think anyone who has been on even a halfway successful path has come to at least intuitively realize this already.

What a refreshing read.

ugofatcat

She seems like she is eating well balanced meals that are appropriate portion sizes. I think her approach is great.

LivingtheLeanDream

Absolutely agree, I do not like that word 'diet', it sets most people up to fail as they see it as temporary or something that has an end date. The difference happens when we make lasting changes. That's how it went down for me and 5 years later here I am maintaining my weight easily.

Packerjohn

All common sense stuff.

estherdragonbat

Pretty similar to what I'm doing, except that I do count calories.

rhaffey

This discussion made me go search my library because out of all the diet and nutrition books I have purchased hers is the only one I have kept “ Jane Brody’s Nutrition Book” 1988 edition. I looked up the first sentence I highlighted “Americans eat too much fat, too much sugar, too much calories, and even too much protein.” Even though we have made many scientific advances in the nutrition industry since then that phrase still rings true. The question I have to ask myself is this...has modern society developed better or worse nutritional habits considerering the increase of fast foods, processed foods, and a sedentary lifestyle?