Can you lose weight and keep it off?

It is something of truism among dietary experts that “most diets eventually fail.”

See what Psychology Today and Scientific American have to say on the subject.

Researchers at UCLA state it flat out: Dieting does not work.

At my peak I weighed 265 pounds. When I started working in earnest and experimenting with different diets in October of 2016, I set a “dream” goal of getting to 210 pounds.

Realistically, I would have been pretty happy to reach 22o even 230.

And when I got to those milestones I did feel a lot better.

So I don’t know whether what Lisa and I have been doing is a “diet” or not, but today I’m celebrating a full year under my dream goal weight.

June 2016 in Beijing, today in Austin, MN and a year’s worth of monthly average scale readings.

I first cracked the 210-lb. barrier on May 1, 2020 and this morning’s reading was 205.5, which is what I weighed 40 years ago in high school.

Lisa and I experimented with a few different approaches over the first couple of years of our journey, but for the last 20 months we’ve been following a low-carb, relatively high fat eating pattern along with intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating windows.

She’s been averaging between 136 and 138 pounds for the last eight months. That’s about 50 pounds below her peak, and is what she weighed when we were married in 1984.

This approach is totally sustainable.

It’s not always easy, but we don’t have the constant willpower battles that characterize many diets.

And if we find ourselves inching up a bit, we know exactly what we need to do to reclaim control.

To see how I’d do things differently (and get results more quickly) if I were starting over again, see my #BodyBabySteps page.

If you’d like to consider coaching to help you on a similar journey, send me an email and we can set up a no-cost, no-obligation initial consultation.

You can do this!

Five Reasons I Love My WGU MBA

Yesterday was a joyful occasion for Lisa and me, as I received notification that the final paper for my Capstone course had passed muster and that I have completed all program requirements for my Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Management from Western Governors University (WGU).

That this news came on the 21st anniversary of my first day working at Mayo Clinic made it even sweeter. I celebrated by playing a round of golf with my brother Mark and sons Jacob and Joe, and then we had a family cookout with steaks and brats.

I started the MBA program on Dec. 1, 2019 with no inkling of the upheaval that would be starting just a few months later. It was quite a journey, and in retrospect I can see lots of personal growth from the experience.

As a life-long learner who is interested in trying new things and always looking for ways to improve myself, I had been somewhat skeptical of formal education.

I have taken (probably inordinate) pride in how I’ve been able to advance with my highest degree being a B.S. in Political Science. I’ve also been able to count on a good laugh in my presentations as I note how B.S. and Political Science kind of go together.

I guess I will have to come up with a new joke.

Some of my previous reluctance to go for an MBA had related to costs, but the WGU model is an excellent value. Here are five reasons why I recommend it :

  1. Affordable tuition. For the MBA in Healthcare Management the tuition is $4,180 per six-month term, and a pace of three courses per term is the standard expectation for satisfactory academic progress. At that rate you can get the degree in four terms for a cost of around $17,000.
  2. Flat-rate tuition. If you complete more than three classes in a term, you pay no additional tuition! In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, WGU extended our term by a month last year. As a result, I was able to finish seven courses in my first term, which enabled me to get done one term early, and with pro-rated tuition for the last term. It took 16 months altogether, including a two-month term break in July and August.
  3. Competency-based learning. To pass a course, you need a rating of either Competent or Exemplary in each of the learning objectives, as demonstrated by performance on objective exams, papers, presentations or a combination.
  4. Benefit from demonstrating what you already know. At age 57 and with 35 years of career experience, I was familiar with the subject matter for several of the courses. That’s what enabled me to finish some of them quickly, after reviewing the course materials and completing the assessments.
  5. Optional Lectures and Cohorts. For some courses it was helpful to have lecture recordings I could review, and I also participated in some live cohorts, but they’re not required. No one takes attendance. They’re strictly a resource to use if you find them helpful.

While I still strongly believe in lifelong self-motivated learning outside of formal education programs, I found the rigor and accountability of the WGU MBA a helpful stimulus to my growth. It made me do some projects I would never have considered if they weren’t part of the program.

My daughters Rebekah and Ruthie introduced me to WGU a few years ago, as they had found it a great way to get their B.S. in Nursing after having finished a community college R.N. program.

So consider this your WGU introduction. Lots of different programs are available, and if you’re looking to get a college or graduate degree, I highly recommend this option.

20 Years at Mayo Clinic

It was 20 years ago today, on April 3, 2000, that I began a new career working in the Division of Communications at Mayo Clinic.

My 2005 Mayo Clinic staff photo

After working in politics and government for 14 years in various roles at the local, state and federal level, I was ready for a career change. I had been on a pre-med track in college, but having met my future bride (now my wife of 35 years) during the first months of my freshman year, the prospect of college, medical school and residency seemed daunting. That contributed to me taking a different direction for my first career.

Having an opportunity in 2000 to get into health care in a supportive role was therefore really exciting, and to do it at Mayo Clinic was amazing. My initial role was as part of the media relations team, and also providing support for some of Mayo Clinic’s diversification strategies, including some of the consumer books and the launch of what was then MayoClinic.com.

I’m so grateful for all of the opportunities for exciting, interesting and important work I have had at Mayo Clinic. There’s no way I could have imagined the full spectrum of what I would get a chance to do.

Until I started at Mayo Clinic, I had only been on an airplane for trips to Washington, D.C.

I didn’t have a passport.

With the evolution of media, and what became social media, my role at Mayo Clinic evolved and led to opportunities to visit places including

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Italy
  • Kenya
  • Mexico
  • The Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Russia
  • Sweden
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United Kingdom
  • and something like 40 of these United States.

I often say my life has become “Norman Rockwell meets The Jetsons.” We live in my hometown of 25,000 people, and yet because of Mayo Clinic (and social media) I have gotten to make these global connections.

Teleworking on my 20th anniversary

A few months ago I wouldn’t have expected that I would spend my 20th anniversary at Mayo Clinic teleworking from my bedroom in Austin, Minn. And yet that was the case today, as it has been for the last two weeks.

I’m thankful that technology allows this, and there’s obviously a big need for health care communication right about now. I’m also proud to be able to work at Mayo Clinic, and of the contributions our staff are making to fighting this global, from development of new tests to leading this national study of convalescent plasma treatment.

More than all of that, though, I feel blessed to have made so many good friends in health care and communications, certainly within Mayo Clinic but also literally around the world.

As we work and pray toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, may that day come soon.

A Calorie is NOT a Calorie

Just as not all studies are created equal, neither are all calories.

This isn’t new news in the scientific literature. In fact, a study from the 1950s showed that carbohydrates, protein and fat in the diet have significantly different impacts on metabolism.

And yet today we still hear the refrain: “A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Weight is simply a matter of calories in vs. calories out. If you want to lose weight, the solution is simple: Eat less. Move more.”

A paper published in The Lancet in 1956 by Kekwick and Pawan (embedded at the bottom of this post so you can read for yourself) tells a much different story.

The paper reported on three diet studies involving obese patients.

In the first, when the proportion of protein (20%), fat (33%) and carbohydrate (47%) calories were held constant (20%), lower daily calorie intake led to greater weight loss.

No surprise there.

But the results of two other series of diets seriously undermined the theory that “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.”

In the second series, 14 subjects were put on three different semi-starvation diets, each of which fed them 1,000 calories per day with 90% of calories coming from either carbohydrates, protein or fat. On the 90% protein and 90% fat diets, the subjects lost 0.6-0.9 lbs. per day, while on the 90% carbohydrate diet they actually gained weight.

Let that sink in: obese subjects gained weight on 1,000 calories per day.

On a semi-starvation diet.

When the calories came from carbohydrates.

In the third diet series, patients were put on a balanced diet of carbs, protein and fat at 2,000 calories per day, which caused them to maintain or gain weight.

When they were placed on a 2,600 calorie diet that was mostly fat and protein, four out of five lost weight.

With 600 more calories each day, as long as they came from fat and protein, the patients lost weight.

This study involved a small group of subjects, and the authors noted that “many of these patients had inadequate personalities. At worst they would cheat and lie, obtaining food from visitors, from trolleys touring the wards, and from neighbouring patients…. At best they cooperated fully but a few found the diet so trying that they could not eat the whole of their meals.”

That last point is important: if patients were on a 2,600-calorie protein/fat diet and found they couldn’t eat their whole meals, that’s kind of the goal, isn’t it?

It’s reverse cheating. They can eat as much as they want…but they just don’t want.

As the authors noted, high-carb diets tend to promote water retention, while protein/fat diets lead to loss of water weight. And even though those water weight losses aren’t permanent, it still demonstrates the underlying point: your body is not a bomb calorimeter. It doesn’t “burn” calories.

While the laws of thermodynamics are true, they aren’t the major driver of body weight issues.

Different types of calories are metabolized differently.

A calorie is NOT a calorie.

This was shown more than 60 years ago. And yet well into this century the U.S. government was officially recommending 6-11 servings per day of bread, cereal, rice and pasta.

I first learned about the Kekwick-Pawan paper in The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, which led to me adopting the Slow-Carb Diet and eating eggs for breakfast every day.

Tim’s podcast also introduced me to some interesting researchers, thinkers, authors and podcasters, whose programs and publications led to others from whom I’ve learned.

I’ll introduce you to the first of these next time.

See the whole series about my health journey. Follow along on FacebookTwitter and LinkedIn.

How I Got Here

That’s the title of a new podcast series by Touchpoint Media, hosted by Reed Smith, and I’m honored to be the subject of the first episode.

I’ve known Reed for more than a decade, and he’s been a great friend and trusted advisor as we developed the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network. Likewise with his Touchpoint Media partner, Chris Boyer.

I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did, and that it provides some insights you might find helpful in your career and life.

I look forward to the rest of the series, which features some old friends like Ed Bennett as well as others I’m looking forward to getting to know better.

Listen on iTunes or Stitcher and be sure to subscribe.