Portion control - Food variety causes people to eat too much and to gain weight

If you are given only a single food, even if it is a food that you like, you can eat only so much of it before you don’t want anymore. I love steak—put a 16-ounce steak in front of me and I will consume 10 ounces of it and bring the rest home for my dogs. After 10 ounces I am done with the steak, can’t eat anymore. So, if I am on a low carbohydrate diet, you can bet that I am done with dinner. But, if I am not on that diet and you put a bunch of French fries with the steak, not only will I have my 10 ounces of steak, but also I will have eight ounces of fries and maybe even think about dessert. Let us not forget the glass of wine before dinner, the glass of wine during dinner, and the after-dinner drink (since we just called a cab).

Another example of getting sick is eating ice cream. There use to be an ice cream restaurant that had a dish called “the zoo.” If you could eat it, they would not charge you for it. Try to eat twenty scoops of ice cream, it isn’t easy. But you can do it if you eat a few saltine crackers with it. The variety of flavor (salt contrasting with the sweet) allows you to eat more. Again, variety can lead to excess.

Here is the problem - if with a single food diet such as Atkins you lose weight...

...when you add variety you are less likely to moderate the food that allowed you to lose that weight. In other words, you might think of steak as being “okay” because it is a diet food. You might be under the impression if you eat this food and expand your diet that this food won’t count for calories. Most of us know that too much red meat, with its fat, is not a healthy choice. However, seeing weight loss by eating steak leads one to think it is okay to have as much as you want because one incorrectly believes it is the carbohydrates, not the steak, which causes weight gain. But let’s just put that little theory to the calorie test:

One Steak—Porterhouse of course, 442 calories
French Fries, 154 calories
Salad with blue cheese dressing, 339 calories
One big slice of bread, 80 calories
One cup of broccoli, 77 calories
One real glass of wine, 127 calories

This meal was 1219 calories—and the majority came from things allowed on the Atkins diet (Steak and salad were 781 of the calories). Of the non-allowed items—the French fries, the bread, and the broccoli—you have just over 300 calories. Now, we are not advocating white bread or French fries at all—just pointing out the majority of calories from this meal come from the meat and the fat, not from the carbohydrates.

An Atkins diet lover would be inclined to add more fat, more meat, and less white bread

We like the less white bread, less fat, less processed foods, but adding red meat with fat is just not a great option. The point is simple: variety can lead to excess, or variety can lead to good flavors. However, single-food diets, while controlling calories, can lead to a false sense that these foods are “okay,” that they are “diet” foods. Fat is not a diet food.

Here is another example: If you get a cheeseburger and you substitute lettuce leaves for of the bun, you have a meal of 330 calories instead of 400 calories. The bun is just 70 calories! Yet so many people think they are helping themselves by eating something that is filled with fat (about 18 grams) and avoiding a bun. It is the calories that the body counts, not where they come from.

Single-food or food-group (Atkins) diets are simply a complex way to control portions

If you control portions then you will consume fewer calories. If you consume fewer calories then you will lose weight.

Surgery is the most radical of portion controls. Whether you had surgery and stretched your pouch, or your stomach has grown, if you limit portions, which is not difficult, you will lose weight. How much you lose is determined by the number of calories that you eat.

We do not like single-food diets for our patients because, more than anything, we want our patients to have a variety: you deserve a lot of fine tasting food and a variety of foods tends to have a variety of nutrients. Single-group diets are probably not going to work in the long run. They become a burden even if you like the food group you try. After a year on the Atkins diet, I couldn’t look at a steak, which was good, because I stopped the Atkins diet before I went to Europe at the height of the Mad Cow infestation.

Learning the basics about diet is the best

We will discuss proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and alcohol—which are the sources of calories. With surgery, there is often an “empowerment” over food because you feel full with less. Knowledge is also a form of empowerment— it is not everything you need to lose weight, but it prevents someone from taking advantage of you. Who would take advantage of you? Some diets are not healthy, and some food that you buy that might be labeled “low carbohydrate” or “low fat” might have more calories, more processed food, than some simple choices that have more flavor.

Where do patients fail in their attempts to lose weight?

People fall into old eating and drinking habits: no time for breakfast, small lunch, lots of grazing in the afternoon, followed by a big dinner with dessert. It isn’t intentional, it isn’t planned, but the pattern is clear. Fast food places become their kitchens. Dessert becomes a daily part of a meal instead of an occasional treat. Alcohol intakes increases and, since all alcohol is absorbed, so are its calories. No surgery blocks the absorption of alcohol. Then there are the soda drinkers—the pop goes down easy and the pounds start to come back on.

Simply put, if you are serious about losing weight, you will not be eating in a car, ordering from a window, or eating on the run.

Rules are a good thing for society but, for purposes of eating, it is better to make good choices. It is best to be aware that what you eat will determine if you will gain or lose weight. It is best to chart a goal, know what it takes to get there, and stay there.

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