Discussion Board

I need to lose a lot of lbs. at least 200. I started the McD. Plan and lost 20 lbs in one month, my Dr. asked me what I was doing and I told her. She said no don't eat that many carbs, don't eat potatoes they are really bad for you. so I stoped, gained back 10 lbs. and am really struggling with this.
For my health I need to lose this weight. I've looked at and tried all kinds of diets nothing seems to work for me except Dr. M.s plan.

Any doctor who wants to keep their patients sick need to be fired by their patient. I'm sorry you've been given a hard time. Once you realize that your Dr. likely had less than a few hours of nutritional training, it comes as no surprise that they would be apprehensive towards something like the McDougall diet...

I say stick with the diet and continue to show your dr the positive results your getting from it. Or, drop your dr and go with someone more supportive (and better educated about diets and nutrition).

Good luck!

Maybe its time to look for a new doctor...
How did you feel after losing some weight on McD plan and now after switching your diet?

Have you read The Starch Solution? It explains why potatoes aren't bad for you, and in fact are one of the best foods there is.

The best defence against an ill-informed doctor is to be as well-informed as you can possibly be, so that you can take responsibility for your own health. This doesn't mean you need to try to convince your doctor that what you're doing is right. If the McDougall diet works for you, just keep on quietly doing it. Your doctor doesn't need to know exactly what you're eating. The results will speak for themselves.

I agree that it is time to find a new doctor.

Please don't heed what your doctor says. My doctor told me the same thing. He said potatoes and the like are pure sugar and that's what's causing my weight gain. Interestingly, I lost 40 pounds on McDougall eating potatoes at least once, sometimes twice a day and felt energetic and stopped taking naps! It works. The science is there; the real science, not junk science.

Couldn't have said it any better. What you eat is really not her business if she is so ill-informed as to tell you to stop eating potatoes. Might be time to find a new doctor. Or if you really like her and don't want to change doctor you could always just do what you want and then tell her what you did after you lose the 200 pounds. There are plenty of people here who have lost and kept off a lot of weight eating this way. This plan works. It absolutely works.

If you have other ills that she needs to test for continue seeing her, but if she is taking blood tests she will see the results soon enough. Stay with this diet but learn all about it so that you can speak intelegently about it. And take "The Starch Solution" book with you next time and offer to lone it to her. If she doesn't want to take the time to read it Then she is showing her hand and you can better deside if you want to continue to see her.

I think you need a second opinion and maybe it needs to be from Dr. McD himself. Send this to him and let him respond. You know what works, you know what makes you feel good. You need a new doctor.

The current ignorance of Dr's is a joke.

At least in nutrition, your DR is clueless.

You've answered your own question. You lost weight eating high carb, and you need to lose weight for your health.

I personally believe that either through training or ignorance, doctors feel that good health comes through prescription medication. She'd probably rather see you on all kinds of medication for high blood pressure, diabetes, etc., and would probably prescribe some kind of weight loss pill for you. All these things will damage your health, but doctors do it all the time. Then, they say things like eating high carb is dangerous to you.

I just recently went to a new provider. I took in The China Study. She asked what I was reading and I showed her. Turns out she knew about it and recommends her patients to see Forks Over Knives. She passed the test. Sadly your doctor failed. Why would anyone want you to stop something you are successful at? I would find a new doctor. I recommended this woe to my mom, who has has 2 heart attacks, a stroke, and was recently diagnosed with diabetes. At her last check up they told her to keep doing what she was doing cause it's working.

I got the same story from my doctor. He thought what I was doing was "extreme" removing foods essential to nutrition. Yet he asked me "where do you get your protein?" Without allowing me to answer he then wanted me to eat a diet made up of 30-35% fat! Sorry doc, you lose! I won't follow your advice, but I will stick with him to prove I am better without his medication and advice he passes on.

Emily Boller over on Diseaseproof.com just posted about 'extreme' diets:

"If we buy into the culturally acceptable mindset that eating for health is extreme, we will always have twinges or avalanches of deprivation and self-pity; which will set us up for repetitive cheating, or worse yet, for others to think we are depriving ourselves and have pity on us as well.

... if deep down inside we feel abnormal or embarrassed by eating high-nutrient, plant based foods, or are made to feel like we are extreme, then we’ve caught the "extreme-titis" bug. If we've caught it, we'll never experience the truest sense of pleasure from eating for health. (Unfortunately, the virus is quite contagious right now!)

When we grasp the amazing reality that eating a high-nutrient, plant based diet is normal; that eating an apple instead of a piece of cake is normal; that eating some steamed veggies instead of a pan of pizza, or eating a salad instead of bag of chips is normal; that not having diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancer, and dementia is normal; not having astronomical medical and pharmaceutical bills is normal; that enjoying pleasurable sex in the middle age years and beyond is normal; and that feeling well, attractive, and enjoying life is normal.

And the day that we thoroughly understand that putting a high fat Value Meal or chocolate cream pie into our blood stream is extreme; to be riddled with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and dementia is extreme; for a teen to wear diapers and be spoon fed pureed food due to a stroke is extreme; to spend $120 on a vial of insulin is extreme; to continually feel sick, tired and depressed is extreme; to be so overweight and lethargic that one can't enjoy making love to his/her spouse is extreme; to sweat profusely and hide from swimming pools on hot summer days is extreme.
Then, and only then, we will experience the true pleasure of eating for health!

As the mind is changed, the body will be transformed as a result.

Are we living in the perspective of being normal or extreme?
Perhaps it’s time for an “extreme adjustment”.

I agree with Emily and with the other posters. This diet is not extreme. You need another doctor.

Kate