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This is the view of Dr Doug Jenkinson. He did not invent it, but he believes it is
effective and is happy to take responsibility for it in those patients of KHC who wish to follow it. It
is not necessarily endorsed by other doctors and nurses
There are many ways of
losing weight. Few ways are successful for any length of time. Trying hard to lose weight
and failing, or succeeding only to see it go back on again is almost guaranteed
unless you take on a permanently different way of shopping and eating. This
requires determination.
The essence of this method is
a low
fat intake. Your dietary fat should be reduced so that no more than 20% of your
calories come from fat. Or to put it another way.
You should consume no more than 40 grams of fat per day, on average, if you are
a woman, or 50 grams if you are a man.
What is the problem with
being overweight?
It seems that more people are overweight than ever before, including
children. This is serious because over the last 100 years life expectancy
has been increasing. But the current overweight problem will
almost certainly mean that life expectancy for ourselves and our children will
start to get shorter. This is because it leads to heart disease, strokes,
diabetes and joint problems. And although many of these diseases can be helped
by medical treatment, they cannot be cured.
Why your doctor does not fall over with joy when you ask
about how to lose weight.
Doctors have some difficulty with weight loss advice. We give you some advice, which you try to
follow. You then find a while later that you have not lost weight. So you
say, “I tried what you said doctor and it hasn’t
worked.” We probably did not explain in enough detail exactly what you had to
do, and you probably did not follow the advice precisely. This is nobody's fault
because a lot of time is involved in getting the method right, and we are all
short of that.
So I am describing a
method that I know works, and is extremely healthy. If you follow the
method and find problems with it please let me know, so I can improve this
article. If you find the calculations difficult and find an easier way, again I
would like to know. If you find it too much of an effort or find you cannot live
without high fat food then I don't really want to know that. If you think the
food you have to eat is too tasteless then I can assure you there are tasty alternatives.
However, rest assured that whatever
your weight we will always try to give you the best medical treatment we
can.
The problem in general is caused by
a combination of three things
-
Our
bodies are programmed to get fat if there is plenty of food available so
that when famine comes we live off our body fat
-
There
never is famine in our lives and there is plenty of
food available all the time.
-
The
food that is readily available is often higher in fat than our bodies can cope with
healthily.
So the solution involves just one thing..........THE FOOD
WE BUY
Before going further you have to understand that it is entirely your
responsibility to make it work. If it does not work it
you who has failed, not the food, not the doctor, not the system. If
you follow the instructions and don't lose weight I will discuss it with
you. Ring up and leave a number where I can get back to you.
What food are you going to buy?
This is the most important bit. You are going to buy only food (whether in a
supermarket or when eating out) that is low in fat. The total amount of fat in
your diet must be less than 10% (by dry weight) so that less than 20% of total calories come
from fat. (fat contains roughly twice as many calories as protein or
carbohydrate. 1 gram of fat produces about 10 calories). Most food
labelling does not tell you the percentage of calories that come from fat. That
is why this method is a bit difficult. It is possible to have food with more than this amount but it
must be balanced by food that has much less, or is fat free so the overall total
is on target. Working out which foods come into this category is very difficult, and the
main purpose of this information is to show you how to do it.
Why does it work?
I could be accused of oversimplification but the essence is as follows. The
3 main groups of foods that nourish us (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) are
used in different ways in our body. Carbohydrates are the main source of energy
most of the time. When carbohydrate is not so readily available, such as between
meals, at night, during moderate prolonged exercise for example, our bodies use
fat. The amount of fat our bodies use every day for this is fairly constant and
is about 45g (1.5oz) a day for a woman and 60g (2oz) for a man. The average
consumption in this country is 90g (3oz)!. If we eat no fat (but our bodies must have some essential
fats so we mustn't) our bodies will use its
own fat, and weight loss will occur. So assuming our body uses 60g (2oz) of fat a
day, if we only eat 30g (1oz) in our food then we will lose 30g (1oz) a day of
weight. That is quite enough for the body to cope with. The weight loss is slow
but sure and does not need exercise to achieve it. If you exercise as well you
will lose weight more quickly.
Some readers will want to know more about the details of
this diet. I was amazed that I could only find one book in the best bookshop,
that covered it. Fortunately it is an excellent book and I can highly recommend
it. It will convince you of the correctness of the method and give you a lot more
ideas and information. The Fat Stripping Diet. Shane Bilsborough. Penguin
Books. £5-99.
Identifying low fat foods
The main problem is food labelling which is often misleading
(deliberately one often suspects). Unfortunately labels do not indicate the one
thing we are interested in, namely, the percentage of total calories that come
from fat so you have to work it out for yourself. Be careful about books. If you
can find a book that tells you what we want to know, that is, the percentage of
calories that come from fat, please tell me.
How do we do the calculation for ourselves
The long way
For the purpose of this exercise we are only interested in 3 ingredients,
carbohydrate, fat and protein. They are usually given on labels if there is a
label. Hopefully they are shown as number of grams per 100 grams as well as
grams per serving but it does not matter. Add the amount of carbohydrate, protein and
fat together. That number is the denominator (on the bottom line of the
fraction), and the amount of fat is the numerator (the top line). Multiply the
top line by 100, and then again by 2. Then divide the top line by the bottom line to give
the percentage of calories coming from fat.
The short way
There is another way of working it out which is quicker.
Take the fat content in grams (per 100g or serving), multiply by 1000 and divide by the total
calories in 100g or serving (using the same unit for both of course). Both these
methods are approximate but good enough. You want the percentage to be 20% or
less.
For example, suppose a product is
labelled as follows
carbohydrate 30 grams protein 25 grams fat 15 grams
The total is 70 grams. 15 goes on the top line, 70 on the bottom. So, 15 x100 is
1500. 1500x2 is 3000.
3000 divided by 70 is 42.85
So over 40% calories from
fat, which is bad news. (remember we are looking for an average of well under
20% if we are trying to lose weight. If we are just keeping weight steady then
up tp 30% might be ok)
Here is a label off McVities rich tea biscuits.
Low in fat you might think (but what is "rich" saying?).
We can look at either column. The right is easier as it is per
100g.
Add protein 7.4 and carbohydrate 76.4 and fat 15.6.
It comes to 99.7.
This is so close to 100 we can call it 100, which means that if we double the
top line (fat 15.6), 31.2% of calories come from fat. Another no-no! 15.6x2x100/99.7=31%
Using the second method, 15.6x1000/475=32.8%.
 Here is
another which shows how misleading labels can be. It is from a Sainsbury's 'Be
Good to Yourself ' Caribbean chicken ready meal and the package says "less than 5%
fat". There is
nothing untrue in that. It is just that 75% is water, and the 5% INCLUDES the
water!
Doing the calculation (3.3x100x2)/(3.3+6.7+14)=27.5%
Another no-no unless you were able to compensate with very low fat items the rest of the
time. (Which is what has often to be done in practice)
 Here
is another "Be good to Yourself" "less than 5% fat" from Sainsburys.. Try it
yourself. It comes out at 36.5%. This is Thai Chiang Mai Chicken and
noodles
As you will now realise, the fat in a single item is not
the whole story. You could eat the Caribbean chicken and only eat virtually fat free foods
the rest of the day. You can see from the label the total fat is 14.9g. This is
well under the maximum target of 40g for women and 60g for men. Similarly
the Chiang Mai Chicken has only 18g in total so the same would apply.
SUMMARY OF WHAT WE HAVE
DECIDED SO FAR
To keep the intake of fat as low as possible by reading labels and working out
the fat content or consulting charts for those foods that are not labelled, so
that the total quantity of fat consumed on average per day is between 30g and
50g approximately.
Something about quantity
We are designed not get fat on a low fat diet unless we really stuff
ourselves. We have to recognise though that in reality people differ quite a
lot, and my view is that most people on a low fat diet can continue to lose
weight without going hungry, some will not and might have to restrict the
quantity eaten to a degree that leaves them a little hungry some of the time. I
think it is best to go onto a low fat diet for a month or two and see what
happens. If you do not lose weight then more exercise or eating less will be
necessary.
Be aware that exercise is
healthy as well as helping to shed fat. However, it is likely to cause your
muscles to get stronger and bigger and that will make you appear to not lose
weight. This is a good thing as muscles consume carbohydrate. You will eventually see a loss but what really
matters is that the amount of fat in your body gets less, which it surely will.
Coping with hunger
You should be able to lose weight slowly and steadily without going hungry,
but going hungry makes it happen faster. Hunger is unpleasant and makes you
irritable and inefficient. However much of it is our body telling us it is our
usual meal or snack time, and ignoring it, over a period of time will reduce its
severity. Often of course you simply have to eat, and provided you are sensible
it will not seriously affect you weight loss. You must eat low fat or fat free,
whatever it is. That goes without saying really. If you are tempted and give in
to a few ordinary biscuits you are undoing all your good work and will have to
eat virtually fat free for a day or so.
Fruit is a good filler and
virtually fat free, so is brown bread and jam (No butter or spread!!!), a baked
potato, bran cereals and a little semi-skimmed milk. Try to choose unrefined
high fibre food if you can because you feel more satisfied for less calories.
Shopping
This is the most crucial part of the exercise because you can be quite sure
that if it goes in your shopping basket you will eat it! So you have to work out
the fat content BEFORE it goes in your basket. Remember that what you are
actually doing is choosing healthy food. If your whole family can cope with this
change you will be doing more for them than any doctor could do to prevent ill
health. You will be very lucky if you can get them to go along with it and you
may have to live with the difficulty of eating different food yourself and
shopping for yourself. But wait till they see what you achieve.
Men will possibly have more
difficulty if they are not the shopper. The answer, I am sure, is to help
with the shopping.
Eating out
You have to be able to do this. If you are responsible for where you eat and what you
choose from the menu you will be able to choose low fat options if you know what
they are. If you are a guest it is much more difficult without upsetting your
host. Whatever fat you consume will have to be balanced by ultra low fat
consumption over the following days.
The main problem with eating
out is hidden fat. That is fat that is there but undetectable. Fat is cheap,
adds important texture to food and it is difficult to resist eating large
amounts of it when sweetened or highly flavoured. Hence it is loved by most mass
catering organisations. You can only avoid this by becoming aware. After a few
weeks of studying labels in shops and looking at fat values in lists of foods
you will be shocked at the amount of fat in some foods and be able to guess at
those you do not know.
Exercise
I have already mentioned the fact that your weight might be static for a
while if you start exercise and a diet at the same time. Exercise is a good
thing for health. You should get moderately breathless for 20 minutes three
times a week. Doing this will make you lose weight faster.
The book I mentioned above describe very well the best ways of
exercising to lose weight and tells you in stark terms how many miles you will
have to walk if you exceed your fat limit. It is a lot of miles! It seems that
the best time to burn fat is 2 hours after a meal and to do it for about an
hour.
Alcohol
It is a source of calories and slows down the body's fat burning
mechanisms. For many it is a source of much pleasure and a small amount is
beneficial to health. Even the "allowed" quantities are likely to slow weight
loss. One unit a day probably has a negligible effect.
About fats and oils
When we talk about fat we include oil because it
is really the same stuff. There are different sorts and our bodies can make most
it needs but not all. Some have to come from food. The essential ones are sometimes called
omega 3 and omega 6. Other names are linoleic acid and linolenic acid. It is
thought that we need about 15g a day of these. If we are on a low fat diet it is
important that we keep some of these in our diet. A good natural source is oily
fish like salmon, mackerel and herring. It is also in many nuts and seeds
and some green vegetables. Rape seed oil is a good source. The richest vegetable
source is flax oil. Unsaturated fats and oils usually contain some of these
essential components. Keeping the unsaturated fats as a high proportion of your
total fat intake is thought to be beneficial.
When do you stop
You don't. This is a healthy diet that will make you lose weight and keep it
at a healthy level. It allows your body's natural regulation mechanisms to come
back into play.
Good Luck!
Links to other sites
Here are some sites you may find useful.
This has recipes that are no more than 30% cals from fat. That is ok for weight
maintenance in most people but probably too high for reliable weight loss where
you should be looking at less than 20%. http://www.anitasrecipes.com
This one has good lists of foods with calorie and fat
values http://www.caloriecountercharts.com
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