The Denny Crane Diet

I'm posting this because my experience and my diet may be helpful to people out there.

I'll begin with my story. I am 5'9" and weighed 135 lbs (was wirey/skinny) until my late 20s. My metabolism changed and I put on 20 lbs. Then it changed again when I hit my late 30s and I put on another 15 lbs. It was odd for me, as I was able to eat pretty much as much as I wanted and whatever I wanted without seeing any weight gain for most of my life.

In early 2001, I began running a low grade fever, 99.6 instead of the normal 98.6. At first I thought it was a weak flu, and just took some aspirin. It persisted though, and after a month it hadn't gone away. I'm not much of a drinker, but one night on TV they were talking about how a glass of wine a day was good for you, so I poured myself a half glass and drank it. Next morning I woke up seriously ill, fever was over 102.

I got a ride to the local clinic and saw a doctor. He drew blood, told me to go home, take more aspirin and rest, and he'd call me in a couple of days with the results. A couple days passed and he called and told me I had gout (too much uric acid in the blood) and that my cholesterol level was over 350. A symptom of gout is a sore big toe, and I had forgotten to tell the doc that my toe became numb a few weeks earlier, as if someone shot it with Novocaine. He obviously nailed the diagnosis.

He said the blood test also showed something whacky with my liver, and that we should try to treat the problem through diet first, then consider some sort of drug treatment. I asked him what kind of diet, and he told me I needed to lose some weight (I was up to 182 by that point) and to eat more chicken and fish and less red meat. He said we'd do another blood test in 90 days. Some help he was.

I spent some time reading about gout and high cholesterol and diets on the WWW, and bought a few diet books with recipies and explanations about various kinds of food. I was (still am) concerned about the high cholesterol, which along with other things I do (like smoke) made me a serious risk for a stroke or heart attack.

What I was able to piece together was that the body produces two kinds of cholesterol, one good and one bad. It's not good to eliminate all cholesterol, but rather to try to get the ratio of good to bad really high. I also found that a small number of certain foods contain "purines" that trigger gout attacks, which can be very painful. Foods with purines are limited, thankfully (for me), to legumes (beans/peas/peanuts/etc.) and turkey.

There's also several kinds of fat: monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated. Like cholesterol, saturated fat is bad for you while the others are actually good for you. Though too much fat is not a good thing, no matter what kind.

Weight loss (or gain) is all about calories, and nothing more. The rule is the thermodynamic law of dieting - burn more calories than you eat, and you will lose weight. The bigger this difference, the faster you lose weight.

The most important thing about diet is to set goals. Mine were to lose 30 lbs, eat 25% or less of my calories from fat, 6% or less from saturated fat, and to have 200g of fiber in my daily diet. Fiber is a good thing as it reduces risk of colon cancer and other digestive problems.

I found a table of ideal weight to height and my recommended calorie intake is about 2000 per day. The law of thermodynamics suggests I eat less than 2000, so I picked a number like 1700.

To get an idea of how to control the other parameters (25% fat, etc.), I spent a couple hours at the grocery store, walked down the aisles, picked up all the foods I like to eat, and read the nutrition information label on the back. Foods that were super high in fat and calories, I learned to stay away from. Foods that were lower in calories I wrote down in a notebook so I'd know to focus on those.

I then used a spreadsheet to create a form I could print out daily and fill in with EVERYTHING I put in my mouth. Description (what I ate), amount, calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and fiber. I really did write down everything I ate, too. Stick to it, or the whole effort is meaningless. I'd add up what I ate for breakfast and write it in the diary. I'd do the same for lunch and dinner as well as any snacks.

After just a few days, I had a template for the kinds of meals that fit my dietary requirements. Surprisingly, the meals were both nutritious, food I like to eat, and plenty of it. I happen to like all kinds of food, so going on a diet was an iffy proposition at first.

It's important to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I eventually got my calorie intake down to 1400 or even 1200 on many days and pigged out on plates full of good and tastey food without suffering for lack of nutrition. I'd eat 400 calories for breakfast, 400 for lunch, and 800 for dinner. 800 calories is enough to eat TWO lean cuisine dinners and then some. Or a 12" sub at Subway (7 grams of fat or less!). I learned that olive oil and canola oil are really good for you. I learned that condiments like mayo or butter are what really add calories to a diet and simple ways to get around using them - like using a can of cream of chicken soup, heated, to put on my vegetables instead of butter.

After 90 days, I had created a notebook with all kinds of recipies that fit my requirements. I made pizzas out of pita bread as the crust, low cal pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, etc., and parmesian cheese that are awesome. I make a spaghetti sauce with ground turkey that tastes great and I could eat my fill for dinner.

It really wasn't hard, the food was good, and quickly I was so used to what the calorie and fat content of foods were that I almost didn't need to write down everything I ate - but I did anyway. It's been so long now, since I started doing this, that I don't have to anymore and don't.

A couple of other things I did that really helped me were to weigh myself every morning and write down my weight at the top of my diary pages, and I started walking for 1/2 hour or so a day. It was positive feedback and reinforcement to see my weight gradually decline from 182 all the way down to 150 (my "ideal" weight) over those 90 days. Just a simple exercise like walking a mile with my wonderful wife and best friend as company burned calories and made her a little more sexy in the process!

Perhaps the only frustrating thing about dieting is that your body reaches plateaus at certain weights, where you stop losing weight for a few days or more. When this first happened to me, I told myself that the law of thermodynamics had to work, I stuck to it, and sure enough, I began to drop pounds again.

The overall result? After 90 days, I had lost 30 pounds, cut my cholesterol from 360 to 180, and was a lot better softball and basketball player than I was before the diet. When I had the 2nd blood test done, the doctor was floored, "whatever it is you're doing, you should bottle it!"

So, here I am "bottling" it with the hope someone else is helped by this. If you look at the nuts and bolts of it, it's just plain common sense.

Think I starved? No way! My breakfast is a 2 egg beater omlette with half a slice of ham, hash browns, and a bagel or english muffin or an eggo frozen waffle. 400 calories or less! For lunch, a turkey burger, bean salad, and fat free pringles. For dinner, 1 1/2 big chicken breasts with rice and vegetables.

There's also no reason to entirely eliminate the bad foods. I'll go to MacDonalds and eat a 1200 calorie 75% fat Big Mac once in a while, or order a pizza. Just not every day.

I'd be happy to provide suggestions for making things like those pizzas that you're looking for if you choose to try this diet. I'm also happy to answer any questions about it.

To conclude, I looked at other diets. Weight Watcher's is my diet in a different package when you get under the hood. The Atkins diet is the scariest one of all - no convincing studies have been done that satisfy me, and I cannot see how eating an unbalanced diet lacking in all kinds of nutrients can ever be good for you. There are diets that focus on carbs, which is really another way of addressing what the calorie source is in the food you eat. What I like about my diet is that I can eat meat and bread together, spaghetti with meat sauce on it, and that kind of thing. It really is about the law of thermodynamics, period. Anything else is a gimmick.

 

Why would you link this thread to me over AIM? I'm only big boned, jackass!

-Petey

 

I should add a few things.

I have not had any semblance of gout symptoms since, though it's supposed to be a chronic thing (once you get it, you got it for life).

150 is my ideal weight according to various height/weight charts. You probably should add 10 lbs for every 10 years over 20 you are. My true ideal weight, the one I'm actually most comfortable at and want to stay at, is 165. I've put on 15 lbs since those first 30 days, and my weight fluctuates +/- 5 lbs from there.

When you've reached your weight target, all you have to do is increase your calories to 2000 (or whatever) and you stop losing weight.

If you want to gain weight, the law of thermodynamics still holds true - eat more calories than you burn. Exercise is important so you're not putting on fat. It's also important to maintain the % fat, % saturated fat, and other things you want to control.

The diet works if you modify it to monitor sugars or sodium (salt) or anything else you want to control.

 

Sounds hard based on all that stuff you just wrote. Interesting read though. I just moved to college and everyone's freaking out about the freshman 15 but I think if anything I'm gonna lose weight. I'm basically hiking my ass around the campus from 11 AM to 2 AM (campus is fuggin HUGE and 100% hills). My dining hall is under construction till March so I always wait until I'm starving to trek through the damn hills and stairs. So far I've been going to the dining halls twice a day and despite being starving when I get there after I eat a little bit I don't feel like eating at all. I pick pretty good food to eat too, usually make sure to get fruits and vegetables so that I don't feel like shit all the time. I probably drink too much beer though and that balances it out.

 

It wasn't hard, it was simply that I made the commitment to do it and followed through. I don't think it's hard to weigh food, put it in measuring cups before I put it on my plate, or count the number of pringles I put on my plate.

I like to cook, so that part was fun.

 

Ha!

I forgot to mention I switched to diet soda from regular as one of the first things. I probably drink a six pack a day, if I don't make a pot of coffee.

 

Wine in moderation is supposed to be good for you. I'm really not into alcohol, but I do have wine occasionally.

 

LOL. Light beer is about 100 calories per can, while regular is about 200. If 2000 is the RDA, you can see why people who drink a six pack most days have beer bellies.

As an aside, one of the more amazing dietary facts is that a can of coca cola has as many calories as a cup of orange juice. The orange juice has actual nutrients besides sugar, tho.

 

I'm not sure it's good to lose more than 10 lbs per month for too extended a time... But it sounds like you're doing all the right things, and everybody's bodies are different.