IT'S NOT WILL POWER

So many times I see people who need to lose weight, that think they don't have the willpower to stay on a diet. These people are missing one key piece of information: it is what you are eating that is making you hungry. Willpower has nothing to do with it.

When you eat protein grams equal to carb grams, every time you eat, you are controlling insulin levels in the body. Protein is a wonderful way to curb appetite. Most people just do not realize that if they change the food composition of what they are eating, their hunger disappears.

When we eat carbs by themselves, our pancreas puts out insulin to remove the sugar from the blood. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. So, carbs put on fat. But we have to have them to run our brains and our bodies - about 60gm per day for the brain alone. Anything less and our bodies start eating their own muscle and reducing calorie burning by doing that. But the real problem is that after eating carbs by themselves, you get even hungrier, because the insulin has driven your blood sugar so low that now you are starving.

This does not happen when you eat protein grams equal to carb grams every time you eat. What we used to think of as lack of will power is actually nothing more than the biological response to eating carbs by themselves. Stop doing that! Always eat equal grams of protein with your carbs, and you will begin to understand it is not will power at all. Your hunger disappears, your tiredness disappears, and you are full on many less calories. No more eating an entire bag of Oreo's - and no more blame for not being able to control yourself.

The preferred fuel mixture for the human body is roughly equal calories of fat, protein, and carbs. This has been outlined in great detail in the Zone Diet. You would not put diesel fuel into a gasoline engine. So, don't try to run your body on pure carbs. It is killing all of us, leaves you hungry, tired, and on your way to diabetes.

WHAT IS THE WHEY PROTEIN DOING?

As you may have seen from my previous posts, I get about half my protein daily from whey protein. For me, that is about 45 gm of whey protein daily. So why the emphasis on whey protein?

Whey protein is extremely important for a diabetic because it improves insulin sensitivity. On the days that I have my protein shake in the morning, my blood sugar is under control for the rest of the day.

Whey protein also builds muscle. And it is muscle that burns calories. Since diabetes is a disease of reduced calorie burning, adding muscle as you lose weight is very important.

Whey protein is the only source of protein with no fat and very few carbs. This means you can keep your calories low enough to lose weight because you are not spending many calories on fat, but you are still getting a very high quality protein.

Whey protein is the only protein that alkalinizes the body. This contributes to less insulin resistance.

And finally, whey protein kills appetitie. It is a marvelous deal to lose weight without hunger.

So, find the DIET TO NORMALIZE BLOOD SUGAR in the left side-bar and look up your height and sex. Learn to hit your daily targets. You will be losing about two pounds per week of fat, not muscle, and you will feel full the entire time. Marvelous, marvelous. Whey protein is our friend.

HERE IS MY DAILY MEAL PLANNING

I am a woman, 5'9" tall, and I have 100 pounds lean muscle. To normalize blood sugar, I eat one gm protein and one gm carbs for each pound of lean muscle mass. So, for me, that is 100gm protein daily, and 100 carb gm daily. Of course, we keep the diet low fat, so my target for fat is 25gm fat plus 6gm omega 3's supplemented from fish oil and flax. My target numbers are thus 25gm fat, 100gm carbs, and 100gm protein. Plus omega 3 supplementation.

So, here is a brief outline of what my day looks like in terms of meal planning:

6AM protein cocoa
9AM protein shake
12AM low carb tortilla with ham, turkey, beef, chicken, or fish as a wrap, and one piece of fruit
3PM protein bar or 1/2 cup cottage cheese and another piece of fruit
6PM 3 oz lean protein, 1/2 cup beans or sweet potato (no white potatoes), side salad, deep green veggie and 1/2 cup Blue Bunny ice ream for dessert.

You can look up the fat, protein, and carb content of any food at calorieking.com - but this plan works for a female, 5'9" - see the post to the left side bar for the diet to normalize blood sugar for people of other heights and sex.

I am full all the time because I am getting more than double the protein that most people get. Also, whey protein improves insulin sensitivity, so that protein shake in the morning helps my blood sugar all day long.

This is not a hard pattern to memorize. And it has helped me lose 125 pounds and get off insulin. Try it, you' ll like it!