Fung is a quack. I do believe he contradicts himself many times. I believe the Minnesota Starvation Experiment proves that most if not all of the metabolic slowdown is due to the weight loss. It also proves that the 40% BMR cited by Fung was only 15% for the person who had the largest drop. All others had a lesser drop in BMR.
Fung argues that a calorie is not a calorie. I.E. a calorie from fat is different than a calorie from carbohydrates or protein. - False, with respect to energy, a calorie is a calorie. Eat more than you need and your body will store unused calories as fat.
He argues that diets don't work and people regain the weight.
But what he fails to account for and study is do the people continue to eat less and move more? If someone loses 50# and then celebrates for the next 6 months by eating tacos and cake, they will soon gain back the weight.
The amount of weight lost on any of the various diet programs out there, Keto, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc is pretty much the same. So it's not the diet. The question is do you stick to it? Not that you have to eat in a deficit all your life, as you will keep losing weight if you are in a caloric deficit. Ever seen a fat concentration camp survivor picture? Probably not.
Once a person transitions from weight loss to maintenance, they have to gradually increase their food intake to see where their maintenance caloric level is. For me, that's probably going to be between 2500-3000 calories/day as I'm pretty active. But then I'm 5'11" and at the moment 218#
Later, and 20-30# lighter and those numbers will change.
I will have to keep using my food scale. (You are using a food scale, right? Measuring cups and eyeball estimates can be way off. A food scale set for grams is most accurate and how I weigh my calorie dense foods like meats, fats, starches and sauces. Things like the 114g grilled chicken breast I had in my omelette this morning with 28g of cheese. I don't weigh non-starchy vegetables, but I will weigh out a potato before I cook it. I do try to build in over estimates so I don't have to weigh everything. I'm not going to weigh the spinach in a salad. But I will weigh out the salad dressing...
Human behavior is that most people won't keep doing that after they reach their goal. So that 28g of cheese becomes 35 or 50, because lazy. Or they fill a bowl with cereal, log it as a portion, when in reality, the typical bowl we use in North America is 2-3 servings of most cereals.
Now, I've learned some tricks for those circumstances when I'm out and can't whip out a food scale. A serving of lean meat needs to be smaller than the palm of my hand. That will put it in the 4-6oz 112-160g range.
Regarding T2D: one doesn't reverse it. It's more like remission, but even that isn't really the right term. You can control your blood glucose with diet and exercise. Mostly diet.
My N=1 study shows that even working out 4 to 6 days each week, you can still have an A1C in the diabetes range if you eat crap.
So by simply making better food choices and staying around 2000-2500 calories day, I've lose 47+ pounds and my A1C is down from 7.3 to 5.4 after the first three months. I'll have it tested again in a couple of weeks.
I take a BG reading once per day, in the morning after a 6-8 hour fast. If my BG is below 100, I'll eat my banana before I go to the gym. If it's above, I don't and will check it again when I get home.
It's usually under 100 after a serious workout.
Averages are:
Past Week 93
Past 2 Weeks 92
Past 30 days 93
Past 90 days 101
Range of 70-100 for BG is considered normal.
No heroic measures are needed. What you choose to eat can impact how hungry you feel, satiation. But as far as an energy perspective, my body doesn't really care of the ~440 calories I had this morning were from little chocolate donuts or a 3-4 egg omelette, 115g of grilled chicken breast, a cup of peppers and onions and 28g of cheese with a bit of salsa.
But I won't be hungry until noon with the omelette. The LCD will have me hungry by 10am...
