Tips for a Healthier You: Eat Fewer Carbs
Is eating healthier or losing weight among your priorities for 2023? If so, read on to find out Dr. Stracks’s recommendations for some of the best ways to move forward.
Eat Fewer Carbs and Eat Less Often
Not a day goes by in my practice when I’m not talking with somebody (and usually several somebodies) about how to lose weight. As a society, people in the United States gained a significant amount of weight during the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic; one study showed that almost half of American adults gained weight during that first year and that those who did gained over 15 pounds each. That weight gain added to a society that was already heavier than ever, with reliable sources estimating that 40% of the US population is technically obese.
When I talk with people about losing weight, I always note that, if close to half of the American population is already obese, then clearly this is not an individual problem. And yet our society somehow manages to pretend that it is both by frequently blaming and shaming those struggling with weight gain and through health insurance companies routinely declining to pay for treatments (medicinal or otherwise) that can help with weight loss.
I also point out that there are studies showing that the average person needs to try over a dozen strategies before finding the one that works for him or her, so if you’ve been trying to lose weight without success, that’s very common and does not mean that you won’t have success in the future.
My observation over many years now is that there are many, many ways that people can and do lose weight, but that which strategy works for each individual is specific to the individual. That said, the two strategies that I hear working most often for people are eating some version of a low-carb diet and/or using a version of intermittent fasting.
Low-Carb Eating
Nutritional professionals continue to argue about how macros (protein, fat, carbohydrates) affect weight, with some still suggesting that low-fat eating is important to maintain weight. My reading of the literature, however, is that low-fat eating probably does not lead to good health outcomes and I rarely, if ever, recommend it for my clients. Low-carb eating, on the other hand, may have substantial benefits for health in a variety of ways. A full description of why this may be true is beyond the scope of this post, but this article in Scientific American succinctly explains why the ideas of caloric excess or fat-as-the-enemy are likely, not accurate.
I’m not a nutritional professional, but I have observed clients who have lost significant amounts of weight using Paleo, Keto, Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), Bright Line, and Gluten-Free Diets. In 2022, for example, one Cormendi client lost a pound a week, every week, for the whole year by switching to a Keto diet and sticking with it throughout the year. If you’re serious about wanting to shed pounds in 2023, I would seriously consider some way of cutting down carbohydrate intake.
Intermittent Fasting
The other major strategy I hear among my patients who have lost weight is intermittent fasting (IF). There are several types of IF, including not eating at all; eating very little on one or two days per week; or eating only in an 8-hour window through the day, say from 9AM to 5PM or 11AM to 7PM.
Recent research hypothesized that IF may be helpful for weight loss not just because of a decrease in calories but also because of the switch after 10–12 hours from using carbohydrates as a fuel source to ketone bodies, which come from broken-down fat cells. Done repeatedly, this may lead to sustained weight loss. Researchers also believe that using ketone bodies for fuel at times may offer additional signals to the body that enhance cellular and organ resiliency and lead to improved outcomes from chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and possibly even neurological disorders.
There are a variety of reasons to be cautious when starting an IF plan, especially for those with a history of eating disorders, but when done carefully, slowly, and thoughtfully, IF can be an integral part of an overall healthy eating plan that may lead to both weight loss and control of chronic disease.
If your goals include living a healthier life, please contact us through our website or by calling 312-489-8890 to set up an appointment with Dr. Stracks. (Please note that Dr. Stracks is available to help with your overall health; for weight loss specifically, he refers to his colleague Dr. Jessica Hehmeyer.)