2022 is here. The Covid situation gave me 50 lbs.

jeffs_big_guitars

Nothing but fast food for 2 years gave me 50 lbs and diabetes.
I want to give it back.
Jan 1 I went on a regimen of basically nothing but fresh organic foods from Trader Joes.
Apple, pear, banana, strawberry, yogurt, honey, and maybe a mandarin smoothie every single morning.
This, with help from a masticating juicer I got, and my blender.
Juice the pear, apple, and citrus, maybe a few grapes.
Everything else in the blender.

I do not get hungry until dinner, and my energy is 100% better.

Dinner is often organic chicken from TJ, with kabobs of bell peppers, onions, etc.
Brown rice sometimes.
Grilled organic beets.
Restaurant quality meal.
I am getting really good at grillin.
But I do use a lot of flavorings like teriyaki etc.
have to.

Been 2 months.
Dropped maybe 2 lbs?

This concerns me.
I guess 2 is better than 1.
The smoothie puts my sugar level too high, but I am not stopping them yet.
I feel too good.

Something about beets.
These things are like magic food, even though they make the toilet look like a murder scene.
Actually scared the @#$%^ out of me until I realized what was happening.

So, am I doing it wrong?

Is there a less brainstorming type of plan that might be a little more focused to actual weight loss?
The sudden diabetes diagnosis from blood work, I am not convinced of just yet.

cmriverside

What do your macros look like? That sounds like you're getting almost no fat. . .

It's been six weeks. Are you logging food and staying within calories? I find it difficult to incorporated fruit and vegetable juice, like from a juicer. If I do a smoothie it's better in general - I'm getting the fiber.

Can you throw in an avocado or some nuts or full fat plain yogurt to get fats?

Weight loss is about calories but I do think it makes it a lot harder if you don't track food accurately.

ReenieHJ

Natural sugar is better than added sugar. BUT it's still sugar. You're taking in a lot of fruit which might not help lower your A1C counts. And IMO, foods don't have to be organic to be better. Remember JMO. Are you counting calories and did you enter all your stats when you started with MFP? That's very important when it comes to seeing just how many calories you're taking in. You'd be surprised how fast they add up. And be careful with sauces, they can contain a lot of hidden sugars, fats, salt, etc. Not to mention calories.

Yeh, the blood test could be inaccurate if it wasn't a fasting test. What did your doctor suggest; they should be helpful with nutrition guidance.

Welcome and good luck!! Read the wise advice people here give, it's helped me many times. And if you have specific questions, ask away!!

AnnPT77

Are you calorie counting at all? You don't mention it.

It's calories that directly determine weight loss. Get the calorie intake below calorie expenditure, and weight loss happens. Nutrition can affect the process indirectly through energy level/fatigue or appetite/cravings, but it's still calories that more directly determining the weight outcome.

That you're diabetic or insulin resistant can complicate that math a bit, make estimating needs more difficult, but that's still the mechanism. Of course, if you're diabetic or insulin resistant you should be managing carbohydrate intake (which doesn't necessarily mean eating objectively low carb or keto).

Just eating mostly "healthy foods" doesn't cause weight loss. If it did, I never would've gotten fat, then obese. (Among other things, I've been a whole-foods-y vegetarian for 47+ years, but only at a healthy weight for a few years at the start of that, and for the most recent 6 years or so.) Adding good exercise levels to that eating regimen doesn't cause weight loss, either. If it did, I would've been at a healthy weight a decade earlier, when I started working out 6 days a week, even competing as an athlete (not always unsuccessfully). But I stayed class 1 obese. Why? Too many calories eaten. Period.

You're doing a bunch of things that may be good for health, like eating lots of veggies, fruits, protein, whole grains. They're orthogonal to weight loss. In particular, if you're truly diabetic (even pre-diabetic or insulin resistant), then free-wheeling your carb intake may not even been good for your health, regardless of how "healthy" those carbs are.

Eat the right number of calories to lose weight (at a sensibly moderate pace). If you aren't doing so now, gradually add and increase your activity level (exercise and daily life), which is good for health, and can help with blood sugar management. Consider moderating your sugar intake, perhaps by reducing the fruits and honey, increasing the veggies. (Right now, you're using some of the more sugar-dense fruits in your smoothies, besides.) Keep the fiber in the smoothies (blend rather than juice), to help satiety at reduced calories and . . . keep good throughput. Check that you're getting enough fats and protein, for health and body composition.

It's great that you've adopted a more healthy routine, but on the surface it sounds like you've adopted some of the tropes of "healthfulness", but maybe lowballed some of the substance. (There's very little evidence, for example, that all-organic all the time has a big health payoff. Brown rice nutrition only differs minimally from white rice, and that in ways that matter less in a full-balanced-meal context. Marinades and sauces are fine, but are you paying attention to the calorie and sugar content (there are tasty ones that minimize those things)? You need a certain minimum of protein and fats for health: Are you getting them? And so forth.)

I may be wrong, and I'm being pretty blunt, so maybe that comes across as being mean, I don't know. That's not my intention. I'd truly like to see you succeed, but the things that you're emphasizing in your post aren't the things that matter most to your stated goals, frankly.

Best wishes, sincerely!

PAV8888

Actual diabetic/insulin issue plus a fruit smoothie that is "substantial" enough to last you a good portion of the day? I would take some blood sugar readings at various time intervals post smoothie consumption and then run the results and eating strategy by my dietitian for input.

Logging offers insights at the caloric cost of various choices that you make. And it allows you to optimize your choices for satiation, nutrition, or any other benefits that you want to derive.

It sounds as if you're on a weight reduction trajectory. While concentrating on more speed is far from the best answer in most cases, with 50+lbs to lose most people are likely to be able to successfully tolerate a bit more than 1lb a month.

If you're looking at longer term averages correctly measured, two months should provide relatively meaningful information, and based on what you say we can conclude that you're achieving an objective caloric deficit in the sub 150 Cal a day range.

You should be able to increase that deficit closer to achieving a 250, 500, or even possibly in the near term 750 Cal a day deficit, before scaling that deficit down again as you approach your target weight.

The way to achieve this is by reviewing your food choices, their caloric cost and evaluating whether they make sense to you both in terms of caloric cost and nutrition. I found that logging my food accurately helped me achieve this.

I found for example that juicing did not help me at all, while frozen smoothies used instead of ice cream were a nice treat in the summer. I also found way back when in 2014 when I was starting out that having two cans of salmon in my salad was more filling for me than adding 60ml or olive oil-AND less calories. Yes, nowadays I would actually only eat a single can and be quite happy. But back then I was more than 280lbs and NOT having a loaf of bread with that salad was already a victory (yes, I did say loaf, as in a complete baguette, or half a loaf of Costco rye--because just salad and bread, and olive oil was healthy, right?!?! )