Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Board-Certified Atlanta Cardiologist
Here are the instructions I give my patients:
How to permanently lose weight if you are not taking diabetic medications.
How to permanently lose weight if you are on diabetic medications.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE 2PD-OMER APPROACH.
Where can I get a food scale on-line?
Here is a list of on-line places to get a food scale (provided by a friend):
I was gonna try it, but then I started thinking about how much I like fruit
and how it's high water content would quickly use up my daily weight allotment.
If you are overweight (i.e. you weigh more than ideal), and all you are eating is
fruit, you should still reduce the *amount* of fruit you are eating if you want
to lose weight. The point is *not* to change what you eat but to reduce the
amount.
At first I was intrigued by your diet. On second thought, this diet does not
appear to be nutritiously sound and may be dangerous.
If what you are currently eating is nutritionally sound, it is unlikely that
reducing the amount is going to make it not nutritionally sound.
It does not make sense to me that you consider two pounds of milk chocolate
equal to 2 pounds of sugarless Jell-O.
If you really want to lose weight, you won't work so hard to thwart the
effectiveness of the 2PD Approach. Certainly, if you *choose* to exchange
eating two pounds of chocolate instead of eating your current 6 to 8 pounds of a
more reasonably balanced diet, you can maintain your obesity but I would be
willing to bet you could not keep this up forever.
If you can guaranty that I will lose weight if I eat two pounds of chocolate a day,
I will start on your diet today. It will have been a short but satisfying life.
If you are currently eating about 6 to 8 pounds of food per day and cut down to
2 pounds of similar foodstuffs, I would be relatively certain that you *will*
lose weight.
Perhaps the diet requires an ounce of common sense along with the 2
pounds of food?
It does :-) However, it seems that those who choose to try the 2PD Approach have
this prerequisite already.
Could someone post a link to this miracle 2-pound diet? lol I am not
overweight by any means 20 year old male college student...5'11"...135lbs.
I have the appetite of a horse and I just don't gain weight even though I
try!
It is not a miracle diet but a lifestyle change and it certainly is not indicated for
you to be on it since you are not overweight.
I noticed two exclusions, H20 and sugar free drinks. I assume ETOH is excluded as well. :(
Sorry.. can't exclude ETOH... lots of calories there. Only zero-calorie drinks are excluded.
Even if approached with common sense, it's too simple a concept to allow for foods with a high water content.
The water content is already accounted for. If you consume 2 pounds of food per
day that had absolutely *no* water content, your caloric intake would be around
4000-8000 kcals which is still more reasonable that the amount that will be in
6 to 8 pounds of food (even moist food).
However, I think that an actual diet plan based on the weight of one's food
is just as defeatable by the dieter as both the standard low fat approach
and low carbing are. I can think of several ways putting a lot of calories
into my body and yet still stay within my 2 pound allotment.
That would be one's approach if you do not have any motivation to lose weight.
The same could be said for any diet plan currently available except lifetime
incarceration in a concentration camp. The 2PD Approach works because it is
simple enough for folks to see themselves making this lifestyle change permanent.
Eating anything either very high in fat or very high in sugar with little fiber or protein
should thwart the 2 pound diet.
Sure, 2 lbs of Crisco will approach 8000 kcal per day. However, if you are
currently eating 4 lbs of Crisco per day, I would still be certain that you
will lose weight.
Wasn't the food the climbers would have taken when climbing Mount Everest dehydrated or freeze dried.
Ok... 10 lbs of dried food + 4 lbs of snow = 14 lbs of rehydrated food.
14 lbs divided by 7 days = 2 lbs per day.
Climbing mountains isn't something you are going to do while eating the USDA recommended 2,000 calories a day.
Actually, 2 lbs of bread can approach 3600 kcals (carbohydrates are 4 kcal/gm). Moreover, 2 lbs of pecans
approaches 6400 kcals.
The diet is basically saying -- hey, weigh your food and you can
eat anything you want-- just don't go over the 2 lb a day limit!
Actually, the 2PD Approach is saying here is a way to eat less without becoming nutritionally deprived.
People are going to use that as an excuse to eat foods they shouldn't be eating.
You really can't keep people from using *anything* as an excuse for dietary
indiscretions.
There is more to a diet than just the *quantity* of food you eat. There is also the *quality* of the food you eat, and that point doesn't seem to be very well addressed in the 2 lb diet.
Both quantity and quality are indeed important but for different reasons.
Quality is important for overall health and the prevention of diseases that are
known to have a nutritional basis. Quantity is important for obesity.
Which is more important in controlling obesity?
If quantity is excessive, it will override quality in causing obesity.
If quality is either excessive or lacking.. there will be no measurable impact on
obesity.
Why do other diets fail when the 2 pound diet doesn't?
A diet that alters the kind of food a person is accustomed to eat... the
kind of food a person grew up eating... the kind of food associated with
*love* and *comfort*... is likely to be jettisoned as soon as there is adversity which pretty much defines life for most.
Here, quality *is* important for keeping people on a diet. Instead of
nutritional quality... we are talking about *kinds* of foods. This is why the 2PD Approach does *not* restrict the *kinds* of food a person can eat.
Here, quantity is still the key to weight loss but alter the *quality* as diets do and folks just can not see following the diet for the rest of their life.
I have quite a bit of respect for you, Dr. Chung, but this is an area
which cardiologists could greatly improve: understanding why obese people
can often remain uncompliant about losing weight. It goes far beyond
adhering to bucking up to the 2 pound diet or any other plan which
encourages portion control.
We all have an instinctual tendency to overeat especially when food is abundant and
heaped before us.
I do not feel that we can call it a compulsion because to do so would imply that it
is treatable/extinguishable.
There are plenty of examples of obesity in other mammals. Most would be hard
pressed to say those animals have a compulsive overeating disorder.
It has been my experience that most people who are obese are not aware that they are
overeating. Most of these folks feel they are *not eating enough* of the healthier
foods and/or are not exercising enough. If I had a nickle for every time I hear
from my obese patients "Doc, I've been too busy to exercise and to eat healthy"
What percentage of the population has had long-term success with
the Two Pound Diet idea ?
100% have had weight loss upon decreasing their intake to 2 lbs per day. My
definition of long-term success is maintenance of near ideal body weight until
the time of death...
By this definition, we will have to wait several decades for the answer. The
preliminary observations have been very encouraging. Just seeing the results
have been rewarding for me personally and has made my being a physician more
meaningful.
Is this two pounds cooked or two pounds raw? ie: 1 lb of
fresh macaroni is gonna become several pounds of cooked noodle, and a lotof
meats might start out a pound and once cooked you get 1/2-4/5 of that
weight.
Cooked.
Some of this obesity has to do with America's historical role of creating needs
through advertising, where sophisticated psychological song-and-dance
routines create false needs for commodities and junk food.
*YES*
When you are offered the *value* of "supersizing" and you buy into the idea... you
are psychologically committed to eating all of it. If you do not eat all of it, you
will have wasted the *value* that you bought !
I don't believe there's an instinctual drive to
overeat to obesity. I have more faith in the body's sense of
self-preservation to allow that to happen.
The instinct to overeat to obesity is a means of self-preservation because
historically it did allow self-preservation.
Many Europeans on visiting the US
for the first time are quite frightened by it. In any crowded street
or store you can see folk so fat that in many parts of Europe you'd
have to look for months to find one to match.
I know...
Why don't you just call it the kilogram diet? It sounds more modern.
I'll change the name when folks in my community start reporting their weights to
me in kgs :-)
It is my contention that *what * we eat is of more relevance to good
bg management than the actual quantities.
You are correct that for diabetes, you need to avoid sugars and
excessive refined carbohydrates.
There has not been one reported case where the Two Pound Diet has not worked?
I remain very interested in speaking with the first one (have been waiting since 1998)
Are there any double blind studies published in respected peer reviewed journals showing the 2 lb diet works?
Actually, there have not been nor will there ever be a double-blind study to
prove the efficacy of any diet.
What evidence do you have that this diet hasn't killed anyone??
As for evidence that it won't kill anyone, you could consider me living proof
as I have been on it since 1997.
Since when does a researcher require the public to prove his hypothesis?
A few points to be made at this juncture:
(1) The 2PD Approach is not a hypothesis but a practical solution to a problem. It
was invented because there was and still is a need.
(2) Analogous to other inventions, its success will depend on its utility. That
utility will be proven by how it works for the public. It isn't enough to say
"it's a better mousetrap" or to even say "it is scientifically proven to be a
better mousetrap"... the public will find out for itself whether the invention
is truly a "better mousetrap".
(3) More importantly, it is unethical for a doctor with the means to improve the
human condition to not do so. This is my primary motivation for publishing the
2 lb diet on my web site so that it is freely available to those who need this
solution.
Won't I starve eating only 2 pounds of food per day?
WWII POWs apparently survived for many months on much less:
Mr. Howard Thornley's POW Experiences
"Each day we were given a small slab of bread or a piece of hardtack, which was full of small black insects. Often we had a barley
soup for breakfast. Our other meal was almost always a very thin watery soup which was full of white cabbage worms. We learned
never to look at what we were eating. Meat was always horsemeat. Because of the small amount of meat available, we took turns on
this, receiving one horsemeat patty about every 4 months.
On our forced march, the guards would take a cow away from a farmer each day. They ate the meat and would boil the bones into
a thin broth for us. A cup a day of broth was the only food we were given. At nite we would sleep in open fields. One day, the
Germans set up tables in the town square so that all the civilians could watch. These tables were laden with fine cheeses and meats.
Women in white uniforms cut this into pieces. Each of us was given a small piece of cheese or meat, about one ounce. But the
civilians thought that we were really eating well.
The camp food was not enough to sustain life. The Red Cross parcels saved most of us. I weighed less than a hundred pounds
when we went on the forced march. And then I lost more weight."
Why is it "one size fits all"? Surely, bigger more active people need more food, right?
This is a very good question. For a long time, the only answer was "This is what is being observed. One size does seem to fit all.
Two pounds of food is turning out to be the right amount for everyone to reach and maintain an optimal weight.
There is no explanation to offer because I have none." However, while rereading the Bible with hunger that comes
from eating less per the 2PD Approach, the answer to this question was found in the Bible where the problem of overeating
was addressed *after* God provided an unlimited amount of tasty manna (food) to His people for their trek through the desert after leaving Egypt.
It is written in chapter 16 of Exodus:
16 This is what the LORD has commanded: "Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent."
The Hebrew word omer literally means "a certain measure of weight" and not a certain measure of volume as many have erroneously interpreted in the past.
It is my belief that if the Ark of the Covenant were ever found, the jar inside with one omer of manna (Exodus 16:33) will reveal that this
"certain weight" will be about two pounds. Bottomline: When there was a concern about people overeating when food was unlimited, God
had people weigh out the food they would be allowed to eat. This amount was one omer and was the right amount no matter the gender,
the age, the size, or the activity. In short, it is "one size fits all" because that is how God made us.
Are folks obese because of eating at fast food restaurants like McDonald's?
No. Those who are obese have become heavy because of overeating. And, if they continue to overeat, they will remain
obese. Specifically, eating more than two pounds of food a day is overeating.
Yes, you can easily overeat at McDonald's and here is an example:
Their #1 "extra-value" meal (Big Mac, large fries, and large drink) plus dessert of one hot apple pie weighs in at:
37 oz, which is 2 lbs and 5 oz.
Note: This is comparable to all the other "extra-value" meals at the other restaurants, fast-food or otherwise.
Why are there people so opposed to your simple 2 lb diet idea?
Perhaps they once found comfort in the generally accepted notion that diets don't work (and indeed they do not) so that their being
obese was a failure of the diets. The idea that the 2PD-OMER Approach, which is not a diet but rather a lifestyle change, has worked for everyone who has tried
it is probably a frightening prospect for these folks.
Since 5/13/2002, you are visitor number:
Sign Guestbook
View Guestbook
Copyright © 1995-2008 by Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD. All Rights Reserved.
Atlanta, Georgia (United States of America) 404.699.2780
This Atlanta Cardiology Web Portal was Last Updated on Wednesday, October 15, 2008.
Disclaimer and Privacy Statements.