Retrospective #374: A New Year’s Eve Conversation, Part 1 of 2

This column (and the next), from 2017, like every column in the Retrospective series, were originally published weekly. In the Retrospective series they have been edited for size and content and are being published daily.

It all started at a New Year’s Eve party after a New Year’s Eve dinner party. I was pretty well juiced by that point.

Email in my inbox dated January 14^th:

Hi Dan,
I met you in the community room [at the] New Years Eve [party]. [We talked)], and [I] was inspired to try to lose weight. Since New Year’s I have gone off carbohydrates almost entirely [my emphasis]. I have lost about 10 pounds to date, but I understand the first 10 pounds are inconsequential. Anyway, this diet naturally has a higher ratio of fat than my previous diet/non-diet. I have been reading your blog at www.thenutritiondebate.com. I am hoping I will do myself more good than harm on this diet. Any tips for the beginner?

My reply later that evening:

Hi Bruce,

First of all: Congratulations! 1) on your being motivated and acting on that motivation, and 2) on your actual success. It's true that the first 10 pounds are the quickest to lose, although not necessarily the easiest.

Some people experience hunger (which seems to go away after a couple of days as the glycogen stores in the liver and muscle are used up and you transition to burning fat (breaking down body fat, i.e., triglycerides, into fatty acids and using them for energy and ketones for brain food.). Also, some people feel weakness, which is addressed by making sure you get extra salt (seriously) to compensate for the loss of salt/water weight (half of those 1st 10 pounds).

Depending on how much you eat, and how much you have to lose, you should be able to lose at least 2 pounds a week going forward. At one point (almost 10 years ago), eating 3 meals a day, very low carb, I lost 100 pounds in 50 weeks. 

Thanks for reading my blog. I post every Sunday (at www.thenutritiondebate.com). Please keep me posted on your progress, and feel free to ask questions. I'd be happy to connect you to other resources including an on-line forum for Type 2s. Are you, btw, a Type 2, or Pre-Diabetic, or have you been told you have Metabolic Syndrome?

Dan Brown

His reply, still later that evening

Hi Dan,
Thanks for getting back and thanks for the encouragement. My conversation with you on New Year’s Eve inspired me to get started and that I would have a possibility of success. To answer your questions, my doctor had me tested for diabetes and suggested I might be pre-diabetic – hence the urgency for weight loss.
Bruce

Well, this answer from Bruce put him perfectly in the crosshairs of my new target audience: Pre-Diabetics and those whose doctors have told them, “You might be Pre-Diabetic” or “We’ll have to watch those blood sugars.” At that point they tell you to lose weight (knowing you’ll most likely fail on the dietary advice they give (eat a calorie-restricted, low-saturated fat diet and exercise your ass off). At that point, they’ll start you on a regimen of pills leading, as your disease inevitably progresses on that diet, to injecting insulin).  

Realizing this, I was motivated to elaborate – unsolicited – on my previous reply. Later that evening I wrote to Bruce again, and that message, and his amazing reply to me (six weeks later), will be the subject of my next column. I can hardly wait to tell you! (Spoiler alert: Bruce continued to lose weight, big time!)