Hi everyone, welcome back! Today we’re answering another common question about medical weight loss: what role does diet play? Should I follow a particular diet plan?
Diet Matters!
First, let’s distinguish between “dieting” and the medical definition of diet, which is literally what you eat. Diet in this sense doesn’t refer only to planned eating programs, but to whatever foods an individual consumes. Diet is everything for weight management. The medications have dramatic effects on the way your brain and your stomach interact, but the weight loss itself comes from the way those effects cause you to eat.
But Don’t “Go On a Diet”
That said, I don’t recommend that patients “go on a diet.” Diet culture can be so psychologically harmful – I know it has been for me. And a strict, hard-to-follow diet plan that keeps you from eating foods you like and makes you worry about food all the time is unsustainable for nearly everyone. I usually do recommend patients drink sugar free “diet” sodas instead of sugar-sweetened ones if they want them, but that’s the only “diet” label worth bothering with in my book.
Losing Fat, Protecting Muscle
So then the real question becomes “what are your goals?” Obviously you want to lose weight. That means eating fewer calories than you burn, which the medicine generally makes really easy. One thing patients often don’t realize is that as they lose weight, the tendency is to lose muscle mass along with fat. Unused muscle is protein-rich and burns tons of calories, so a body in calorie deficit sees breaking it down as a great way to conserve energy and get nutrition. You, on the other hand, might not be so happy about losing strength and tone! Keeping your lean muscle means strength training to keep the muscles in use, and eating enough protein.
Rule of Thumb: Prioritize Protein
Here’s the easy method I recommend for my patients, and the one I use for myself: just eat your protein first. If you’re looking at your plate, and you have some meat, a vegetable, and a starch like rice or potatoes or bread, start with your meat. Then eat some vegetables, and if you have room for some starch, go ahead. Nobody’s saying you can’t have carbs, or you need to count them, or anything like that. Just make sure you get your protein in first, because chances are you’re going to run out of room before you finish that plate.
