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Lafferty Family Care Weight Loss
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The first order of business in your weight loss journey is to consult with your physician before you begin a diet. It is imperative that you have a physician clear you before you start any of the following suggestions for fat loss. If you do not have clearance from your physician, then my recommendation is that you do not follow any of the suggestions in this handout. You should also be monitored throughout your weight loss.
Next, you should know the reason why you are overweight in the first place. Barring an underlying disease such as Hypothyroidism, Cushing’s disease, low Testosterone, etc., the answer is Insulin Resistance.
Understanding insulin resistance
This handout is not long enough to give a full discussion on Insulin resistance, but here is a brief statement about it. Every time we eat anything, chew gum or drink something sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners, our blood sugars rise.
Insulin is released to bring our blood sugars down and to store it as energy sources for our body. It is first stored as glycogen in the liver, but then it is stored as fat when the glycogen capacity is met. Our bodies live in a high insulin environment due to our poor dietary habits. The more exposure to insulin, the more fat we store. If you are obese, then you are insulin resistant to some degree. Compared to people who are not insulin resistant, you will produce more insulin in response to any given food or beverage. Basically, if you have had chronically high insulin levels, some cells in your body are likely to respond less to insulin, so your body produces more insulin to get the desired effect. If your body produces too much insulin for too long, it can create enough insulin resistance to cause Type II diabetes.
The role of intermittent fasting
To lose weight efficiently and for the long term, we must break this insulin resistance. This can only effectively be achieved with fasting. By fasting, you do not cause any spikes in your insulin, so you do not store fat. Your body burns through its glycogen stores for energy until it depletes its stores and then starts to burn fat for energy. If you are cleared by your primary care physician, you should perform an extended fast for 7-14 days.
If you are on any medication, you need to talk to your doctor before trying an extended fast, because appropriate dosages are often affected by how much you are eating. If you are diabetic and don't have your doctor adjust your diabetes medicine for the fact that you are eating less for a period, you could die. You could also consider a modified fast with foods with an insulin index below 10 once a day (see the list below).
Even with a modified fast, be alert to any warning signs such as nausea, dizziness, extreme weakness, irregular, fast or slow heart rate. If you experience these symptoms, you can always raise the upper limit on the insulin index for your modified fast or discontinue your modified fast entirely. After you complete your extended or modified fast, or if you are unable to complete it, you should start fasting intermittently.
It may be easier for some to start intermittently fasting at the start and then trying an extended or modified fast after you become used to fasting. Either way, the most successful weight loss plan will require fasting. You should continue to fast intermittently until you reach your weight loss goal or you reach a plateau in your weight loss.
There are many ways to intermittently fast. It could mean that you eat once a day or that you alternate days of eating 2-3 meals with no snacks, followed by a day of 1 or no meals. If you reach a plateau, you should change up your intermittent fasting or consider another extended or modified fast.
You should select a diet that works best for you to follow with your intermittent fasting. Some are more effective and healthier than others.
Recommended diets from which to choose
- Vegan – the healthiest choice
- Pescatarian
- Mediterranean
- Whole Food
- Paleolithic
- Low carbohydrate diet
- Eat foods with a low insulin index and low glycemic index
- Avoid eating daily, but low-calorie diets – they do not result in long term success
Basic truths to follow whatever diet you choose
- Reduce or avoid added sugars and artificial sweeteners including in drinks.
- Reduce or avoid consumption of refined grains
- Reduce or avoid processed foods
- Increase your consumption of fiber and vinegar (reduces insulin spikes)
- Do not snack
- Organic and natural foods are almost always superior to those with chemical names that you cannot pronounce.
- Eat your largest meals earlier in the day. A study revealed that response to the same meal given either early or late in the day, the insulin response was 25 to 50 percent greater in the evening.
- Avoid "low fat" foods. The high-fat versions both taste better and have a lower insulin index.
- Avoid Cold Cereal
- Avoid Starchy Foods
- Avoid foods high on the insulin index and lean toward those that are lower on the insulin index
The insulin index comes from the results of experiments in which experimental subjects ate a specific food, and then their insulin levels were measured over time after. Glucose was used as the standard to compare the foods and beverages against and given an insulin index of 100. The table focuses on the differences between different foods and beverages.
Unfortunately, all foods are not in the tables. Glycemic index is another valuable tool. It is a scale of how quickly sugars in foods are released into the bloodstream. Low glycemic index foods release the sugars slowly and are, therefore, healthier than higher glycemic index foods. You can search for insulin index and glycemic index to find as complete a list as possible.
Good recommendations regarding the insulin index from the experts:
- 70 or above insulin index: avoid these foods
- Insulin index from 50 to 69: very bad, rare occasions
- Insulin index from 30 to 49: only on special occasions, keep portion sizes small
- Insulin index from 20 to 29: go to foods for low insulin approach
- Insulin index from 10 to 19: especially good choices
- Insulin index below 10: suitable for eating and drinking even on a modified fast.
Insulin Index above 70: Foods and Beverages to Avoid Completely:
- jellybeans: 117
- pancake and waffle mix: 110
- honeydew melon: 93 (95% confidence interval from 63 to 123)
- potatoes: 88
- baked beans (with added sugar): 88
- strawberry low-fat yogurt: 84
- fruit punch: 76
- 97% fat-free pretzels: 74
- sherbet: 76
- white bread: 73
- whole-wheat bread: 70
Insulin Index from 50 to 69: Very bad, only rare occasion:
- fat-free blueberry muffin: 69
- blueberry streusel muffin: 69
- sweetened iced tea: 69
- peaches canned in syrup: 65
- vanilla ice cream: 65
- peach-mango frozen yogurt: 64
- water crackers: 64
- chocolate cake brownie with chocolate frosting: 60
- black grapes: 60
- bananas: 59
- white rice: 58
- croissants: 58
- McDonald's French fries: 57
- orange juice: 55
- peaches canned in juice: 54
- fat-free oatmeal raisin cookie: 54
- doughnuts with cinnamon sugar: 54
- battered fish fillets: 54
- super moist yellow cake with chocolate frosting: 53
Insulin Index from 30 to 49: Only on Special Occasions:
- apple juice: 47
- apple pie: 47
- pizza: 47
- brown rice: 45
- potato chips: 45
- corn chips: 45
- oranges: 44
- apples (red delicious): 43
- white fish: 43
- cinnamon swirl pastry: 42
- lentils: 42
- carrot juice: 41
- frozen corn: 39
- popcorn: 39
- honey-raisin bran muffin: 37
- snickers bar: 37
- beef steak: 37
- white corn tortillas: 36
- chocolate milk: 34
- beef lasagna: 34
- Chips Ahoy full-fat chocolate chip cookie: 33 (95% confidence interval from 27 to 39)
- raisins: 31 (95% confidence interval from 21 to 41)
Insulin Index from 20 to 29: Go to foods for a Low-Insulin Approach
- porridge (I assume this means unsweetened, non-instant oatmeal): 29
- brown pasta (no sugar added): 29
- white pasta (no sugar added): 29
- tuna canned in water: 26
- milk: 24
- eggs: 23
- navy beans: 23
- prawns: 21
- tofu: 21
- 7% fat cheddar cheese: 20
Insulin index from 10 to 19: Especially Good Choices
- chicken fried in olive oil with skin: 19 (95% confidence interval from 11 to 27)
- cream cheese: 18
- roast chicken without skin: 17 (95% confidence interval from 9 to 25)
- tuna canned in oil: 16
- Hot dog (no sugar added): 16
- peanuts: 15
- Peanut butter (no sugar added): 11
Insulin index below 10: Suitable for Eating and Drinking Even on a Modified Fast:
- full-fat bacon (with no added sugar – hard to find): 9
- walnuts: 5
- avocado: 4
- olive oil: 3
- butter: 2
Foods and drinks are also likely to be suitable for a modified fast, but not yet tested:
- any type of nuts (except maybe peanuts)
- any type of nut butter that doesn't have any added sugar
- oil of any kind
- vinegar
- salad dressing that has less 1 gram or less of carbs
- hummus
- coffee (but don't use a sweetener)
- any kind of tea (but don't use a sweetener)
- kale
Avoid low-fat versions of foods:
Here are some of the comparisons from the table between low fat and high-fat versions of things:
- milk: 24 vs 1% milk: 34 vs skim milk: 60
- reduced-fat cottage cheese: 40 vs low-fat cottage cheese: 52
- tuna canned in oil: 16 vs tuna canned in water: 26
- Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookie: 33 vs Chips Ahoy reduced-fat chocolate chip cookie: 49
- potato chips: 45 vs 40% reduced-fat potato chips: 51
From here on, I will list only the highest-fat versions of things in the table since eating low-fat versions of things makes no sense unless you want to fool yourself that you are eating more healthily than you are.
A Run-down of popular cereals:
Many, many kinds of cold cereal have been tested. They all have high insulin indexes. Below are the worst and the best, but aside from all-bran original, even the best is not good:
- Grape Nuts: 110
- Rice Krispies: 94
- original Shredded Wheat: 91
- Special K: 86
- Kellogg's cornflakes: 82
- Wheaties: 78
- Frosted Flakes: 72
- Cracklin' Oat Bran: 48
- Quaker 100% natural granola oats, honey, and raisins: 41
- original Kellogg's All-Bran: 23
A word about alcohol:
If You Drink Alcohol, Consider Gin or White Wine Instead of Red Wine or Beer. I do not recommend alcohol consumption for good health because of the numerous adverse effects on our bodies. But if you choose to drink alcohol, you should have no more than 2 drinks in a day. The insulin index is as follows:
- Beer: 20
- Red wine: ~20 (not tested, but red wine leaves more of the grape and grapes have a high insulin index)
- White wine: 3
- Gin: 1
What you need to know about fruits
Fruits typically have a high insulin index, but many fruits weren't tested in time for this list. Although there are many important differences, the glycemic index does have a positive correlation with the insulin index. Given the lack of direct data on the insulin index for many fruits, the fruits are in order of their glycemic indexes for various fruits. Where there is insulin index data, those values are alongside for comparison.
Glycemic Index:
- tomatoes: 15
- cherries: 20
- grapefruit: 25
- dried apricots: 32
- pears: 38
- apples: 39 (insulin index 43)
- oranges: 40 (insulin index 44)
- plums: 40
- blueberries: 40
- strawberries: 41
- fresh peaches: 42 (insulin index 54 for peaches canned in juice)
- bananas: 51 (insulin index 59)
- grapes: 53 (insulin index 60)
Another option to get the benefits of fruits without their high sugar content/high glycemic index is the fruit powder Gundry, MD Vital Reds. Taking many kinds of fruit and turning them into a powder does destroy some of the value of the antioxidants, phytochemicals, and other micronutrients, but the fact that the sugar has been subtracted in making the powder more than makes up for that. Overall, you are getting an improved ratio of the good aspects of fruit relative to the bad aspects.
Recommended resources:
Documentaries:
Forks Over Knives
What the Health
Books:
The Obesity Code by Jason Fung, MD
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