Question - Dr. Dean Ornish

A

AnatW

Active Member
Ok, so I am still searching for the one food plan that I can keep for life. I love to eat and all diets that I had tried failed because they restricted food (amount or calories).

Last night I came across an older book I bought a couple of years ago "Eat more, Weigh less" by Dr. Dean Ornish. Everything in the book made sense to me. No more cutting down on carbs, but rather cutting down on fat to 10% of total calories. The program seems to be effective without the need to deprive myself. Of course it is a vegetarian plan, and I have no problem giving up meat, but it allows non-fat dairy products and other non-fat protein sources.
I was wondering if anyone here is eating according to a similar plan ?

Anat.
 
Hi Anat. Years and years ago when I worked with a nutritionist, I ate similar to what you described, although it wasn't the Dr. Ornish way, so to speak. I ate around 1400 cal. -- and only 10% of calories came from fat. I ate 15% protein, and of course the rest in carbs. That was one of my favorite ways to eat. I wish I still had the discipline to eat that way.

There are two ways you can do it. 1) Everything that goes in your mouth must have 1g. of fat per 100 calories to literally be 10% of cal. from fat. OR 2) Tally up daily calories, then get a total percentage of calories from fat for your total daily calorie intake. For example, on my 1400 cal. eating, I was allowed 15g. of fat for the day. I COULD eat meat, and it added to my daily total, but if everything else was very lowfat, I'd still be within 10% of calories from fat. Does that make sense?

Truthfully, it's pretty doggone tough to eat a 10% fat diet. But, you may try it and really like it and be able to stick with it. I have found that as our family grew (kids, etc..), that it was tougher to eat such a lowfat diet. Never hurts to try, Anat. :) Hope that helps you some.

Hollie
 
Restricting calories

Hi Hollie,

There's nothing I hate more than restricting my calories. That's one of the things I liked about this program. No counting at all.
He says that by eating certain food (grains, legumes, vegetables, fruit and no fat dairy) you automatically reduce your calories, so there is no need to count.
Should I be worried about that ?

Thanks, Anat.
 
RE: Restricting calories

No, I don't think you should be worried...unless you are the kind of person that needs more structure. It seems like I can't just eat willy-nilly (even the good stuff). I'll overeat no matter what...I don't know why. I seem to really need to actively "watch" it.

And I was just using a calorie amount to give you an example of how to stay at 10% of calories from fat. You can up the calories to 2,000 and eat 22g. of fat. However you're most comfortable. :)

Hollie
 
RE: Restricting calories

I'm no nutritionist or anything like that, just someone who has struggled with diets over the years. I've found that when you eat primarily fruits and vegetables you automatically eat a very low calorie diet. That stuff really fills you up and most fruits and vegetables have no calories and no fat. But on the other hand, when I eat like that I don't get enough calories for an active lifestyle. What I'm struggling with right now is that supposedly I don't eat enough calories (only about 1400) but it's really hard to bump up to 1800 calories or so to support my active lifestyle without eating more than 1800 calories. Does that make sense? I eat primarily fruits and vegetables with a little bit of fat free chicken breast for protein. I eat a little bit of low fat dairy (can't stand the fat free dairy).
 
RE: Restricting calories

One more thing, I now use Fitday.com to count calories and it's really easy. I never could keep track of how many calories I ate in a day before. It also tells you what percentage of your calories come from fat, protein and carbs. It's free too!
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Aug-25-02 AT 11:26AM (Est)[/font][p]Hi there.

The Dr. Ornish plan is the only plan that has been clinically shown to reverse heart disease. Pretty powerful, but the 10% fat is TOUGH!

I tried it and I found that the fat percentage was too low for my physical activity. I found that my stomach would have some serious cramping. When I increased my fat to between 20% to 30% then they went away.

The unfortunate thing is ... in order to have weight reduction success it is all about calories in vs. calories out.

The easiest way to do that is to monitor your calories and your fiber. You see ... if you eat a high fiber diet, your diet is automatically more vegetarian than not. Plus fiber doesn't digest and it keeps you full.

That's part of the reason why we have such a problem in this country with our weight. We don't want to really take responsibility for our food choices and how much we eat. It's just too much work. It's funny though ... if we were to take all of the time and effort we put towards trying diets, feeling crappy about our physical appearance and just took the responsibility for our food choices, we really wouldn't have such a problem. But that would require more up front education and getting back to more whole non processed foods which require cooking and planning.

If you want success, you really have to want it and do what it takes to obtain it. Otherwise, get used to chasing your tail because that's what generally happens.

I don't mean to be critical ... that's really not what I'm trying to do. What I'm trying to do is just add a point of view that may be provocative.

Just my thoughts.

Good luck.

Keta. :D

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My mom was on the Ornish diet for years. Maybe it reduced her heart disease risk, I don't know. Her skin and fingernails became dry and her nails broke easily. I think that cutting fat that drastically is only for the sick. If you are healthy there is less of a need to go so drastic.

Also it is hard (possible, but difficult) to get protein in when all your foods are vegetable. You have to chew for a lot more minutes to get protein that way. Plus it makes you a pain at get-togethers. So I encouraged my mom to relax the diet and try Cathe. She is 71.

She has exercised before, and taken "Powerpump" class at her gym. She did Power hour for the first time last week (with some modifications of course!) and she loved it! She says she was sore after! And she's glad! Can't wait till she sees PS and S&H!

Well now I've really talked a lot but Ornish is familiar to me because of a family member who had heart disease and was on it. I read his earlier book.
-Connie
 
Both Ornish and McDougall style are awesome!!!!

For me if I eat that way just 80-90% of the time the weight just comes off. I'm never hungry, I get plenty of protein from beans, and it can be really cheap. Since I'm a poor student, that is important. I run and lift weights and still have plenty of energy eating this way. For me I find that what I eat regularly is a matter of habit and soon it just became habit to eat high fiber, low fat, little sugar, no meat. Worth a shot to see how you like it. Don't aim for perfection though. Personally, being hard on myself is the kiss of death. And heck it really does work if you do it most of the time. I lost 6 lbs in a month and I only needed to lose 18. I haven't gained any weight this cycle of my period so I suspect when I weigh myself after I'll be down some more pounds. I've lost inches too. Best of luck!
 
Thank you all !

I think I will try to stick with the 10% rule for most weekdays.
Weekends and holidays will probably be tough to keep, so I will raise the percentage to about 20-30%.
Regarding protein sources...I live in Israel and we have plenty of non-fat dairy in here and so the options are really great. I have no problem cutting out meat (I don't eat it anyway during weekdays)and replacing it with other sources of protein.
It just sounds like a good healthy plan for me (need to lower cholesterol and triceglyde (spl ?)).

Thanks again to all of you ! helpful as always...

Anat.
 
forgot to ask....

If I am to cut out all oils completely (including Olive Oil), where do I get my 10% fat from ? Do I need to take any supplement like fish oil to compensate for no-oil diet ?
 
RE: forgot to ask....

Hi Anat - you could use www.fitday.com to track how much fat you are getting. I could be totally wrong here but even without adding any oil or nuts to my diet or taking supplements, I still hit the 20% mark through the foods I eat (fat free diary, fat free tofu products, wholegrains, lentils, fruits and veggies). I think all foods except for veggies and fruits have some fat in them. I guess the Ornish plan is founded on that principle - so you would still have to be careful with your wholegrains, diary, beans etc. to meet that 10% target but fruits and veggies would be unlimited. I follow this plan vaguely (tweaked it a lot to suit my own needs) but I have noticed that my skin and hair has suffered. I also seem to have developed a massive sweet tooth. But on the bright side I have no trouble controlling my weight. If you are a true lover of fruits and veggies, you will find this plan very easy to stick to. I would also urge you to cheat atleast once a week with the fat thing. I actually lost more weight when I cheated during the weekends rather than sticking to the diet 7 days a week. Good luck.
 
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