In February of 2006, I spent three hours in my Doctor’s office undergoing a blood glucose tolerance test.   I had previously been in for a routine visit and my blood sugar level had been over 300 mg/dl.  Just for clarification sake, a normal reading should be between 80 mg/dl and 120 mg/dl (some say 120 is actually a bit high).  So, you can see mine was incredibly high and this meant that, in all likelihood, I had Type 2 Diabetes. 

The blood glucose test was really only a formality to prove what we already knew.  I was a shade over 300 lbs, ate like crap and didn’t exercise.   It was really a no-brainer.  Still, they sent off my blood to the lab…all 8 vials of it.  One drawn from each arm every hour after I drank the closest thing to pure sugar I’d ever had.  It didn’t take long to get the results.  My blood was, as suspected, only a shade away from being a syrup you could put on pancakes.  Ok, sorry for the visual but there was a lot of sugar in my blood.

I was scheduled for a follow up where the nurse practitioner came in to give me the inevitable news.  After she told me the news, she then proceeded to tell me that if I wanted to control this thing, my lifestyle was going to have to change…and change dramatically.  The days of chilli cheese fries, cold stone ice cream, and steakhouse hamburgers were gone.  I was going to have to get off my sizeable butt and move…a lot. 

That’s when she pulled out a simple sheet of paper that looked like it’d been copied ten years ago from a text book and thrown in a filing cabinet awaiting my usage.  It was a diabetic diet.  Now, there are many forms of a ‘diabetic diet’ but this one was kickin’ it old school.  The most amazing thing about it?  It was so simple. 

She explained it to me in detail.  We went through all of the allowed foods, the portion sizes, and how to read the meal plan chart  She told me that it was not unusual to see people on this diet drop 50, 60, 80, or more pounds.  She then pointed to the meal plan she had circled…the 1200-calorie plan.

Down the road, after I’d educated myself a bit on diet and nutrition, I realized that this 1200-calorie diet was very extreme and should’ve been more around the 1800-2200 range.  However, can I say that I would’ve had the same success?  I would hope so but I don’t really know for sure.

I took the diet, left the office, and made up my mind that I was going to stick to it like glue.  I did.  I dropped 32 pounds in the first month.  Two weeks after starting the diet, I started going to the gym.  After a month, I had to go through nine hours of diabetes classes where a nutritionist did change my diet to an 1800 calorie diet.  The weight loss continued albeit a bit more moderated.  All in all, it took me another 6-8 months to lose another 70+ pounds.

So, after saying all of that, I want to share that diet with you.  As I’ve said from the beginning, I don’t write this blog for the money so as with everything else here, it is free.  Without further ado, here it is:

The Dave’s Press Diet

Now that you have the diet, you’ll need to know how to use so I urge you to please read the rest of this blog post.  Over the last three years, I have tweaked this diet a number of times based on the best nutrient timing around my workouts or based on differing goals.  However, the basics have stayed the same.  It is a solid diet based on solid nutrition and portion control.  There are no tricks or gimmicks.  It is a way of eating that can become a way of life.  As I’ve written before, the best diet to use to maintain weight loss is the one that you used to lose the weight to begin with.  This is a perfect diet for that.

Determine what calorie plan is right for you

To determine which calorie plan you should use, you should first determine your maintenance caloric intake.  This is your ’break even’ point for calories meaning how many calories can you consume on a daily basis and not gain or lose weight.  I wrote a blog post on that topic HERE to show you how to calculate it.  Do you have that number yet?  Good, now we can move to the next step.

Once you calculate your maintenance calories, you need to determine how quickly you want to lose weight.  This is where you have to show patience.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if a 1000 calorie deficit is good, then a 2000 calorie deficit must be even better.  It’s easy to fall into this trap but try to resist.  Healthy weight loss is considered between 1-3 lbs per week.  While that doesn’t sound that drastic, that’s around 12 lbs per month.  Multiply that out and see where you’d be in 6-8 months!  Yes, that is a good bit of time but that’s where choosing the right diet is so key.  It has to be one that you can adhere to, tweak, and keep moving.  In other words, it has to be sustainable.

So, given that you don’t want to restrict your calories too much, the recommended caloric deficit is 500-1000 calories.  Since one pound is 3500 calories then a daily deficit of 500 calories would equate to about a pound per week.  A caloric deficit of 1000 calories would equate to about two pounds per week…and so on.  You should now know how many calories you want to consume in a day, right?  Then you now know the plan you need to use and we can move on to how to use the diet.

The Food Selection – Page 1

The first page of the diet is the food selection page and the associated serving size (we’ll get into that in a moment).  Print this list out and put it on your fridge.  Stick to it strictly when you go grocery shopping.  You’ll see six different sections: Breads/Starches, Vegetables, Meat, Fruit, Milk (dairy), Meat, and Fat.  As much as you might want to, don’t substitute foods that you “think” should be on this list for those that ARE on the list.

Next to the food names on the list are a ‘portion’ sizes.  I would HIGHLY recommend that you invest in a good set of liquid and solid measuring cups (yes, they are different) as well as a kitchen scale.  In the beginning, do NOT try to estimate your portions.  You will eventually get to a point where you can estimate but it is incredibly important that you don’t do this in the beginning.  I can guarantee you that if you’ve never actually weighed out two ounces of meat that you won’t even be close without a scale.

Grab your scale and your measuring cups and let’s head to the second page.

The Daily Calorie Plan – Page 2

By now, you should have figured the calorie plan that is right for you.  On the second page, there are 1200, 1500, 1800, 2000, and 2300 calorie meal plans.    Find the plan that you are going to follow.

There are six columns and six rows.  It is your basic matrix.  Each line in the matrix represents a meal or a snack.  Each column represents one of the six food categories from page 1.  This is where it gets even simpler.  For the sake of this explanation, we are going to use the 1500 calorie meal plan as an example.

For breakfast on the 1500 calorie plan, we get two starches, 1/2 milk and a 1/2 fruit.  Just go to your list of foods and choose two starches.  Look at the portion size and that is what you get!  Or, since you get two starches, you could actually just choose one food and double the portion size.  Find what you want under “Milk” and you can have a half portion…and the same for “Fruit”.  In other words, I can have 3/4 cup of cheerios with a half cup of milk, a slice of toast (dry), and a little over a 1/2 cup of strawberries.  Not too bad, is it!   

Just follow that example for the other meals in the day and you’re off an running. 

Who this diet is for

Anyone.  Whether you want to lose 10 pounds or 100 pounds, you can do it using this plan.  It is considered a ‘diabetic’ diet because it regulates and times your intake of carbohydrates.  Carbs are like cryptonite to a diabetic since they are metabolized into glucose.  As a diabetic you want to minimize spikes in blood sugar so the amount, type, and timing of carbohydrate intake is vitally important.

So why should you be concerned about regulating and timing your carbohydrate intake if you aren’t diabetic?  It has been proven that over-consumption of simple carbohydrates can cause imbalances in your cortisol levels.  If you eat, for example, a candy bar and a coke, your insulin levels will spike to prevent excess glucose in your blood.  When your blood sugar falls, it triggers a surge in adrenal hormones much like when your body is under stress.  When this happens, your cortisol levels are elevated.  When your cortisol levels are elevated it stimulates glucose production that excess glucose is then converted to fat…and stored as fat.   By controlling the carb intake (amounts and timing), your cortisol levels have a better chance of remaining in balance. 

Conclusion

There you have it.  I’ve been asked for this diet many times and those that have used it and followed it have produce results…significant results.  I know that no matter how long I make this blog post, there would still be questions.  If you do have questions, you can use the contact me page, email me directly at dave@davespress.net , or ask in the comments section below.  

Now my disclaimer:  I am not a nutritionist or a dietitian .  However, I have personally used and succeeded with this diet.  If you have any health issues, I highly recommend seeing your doctor before starting any diet or fitness program. 

If you choose to give this a shot, I would love to hear your progress.  Please be sure to update me and let me know how its going!