The Skinny on the Dean Ornish Diet

Several years ago I wrote this article about the Dean Ornish Program. I have edited it to reflect my current views and experience with clients utilizing the program. The Dean Ornish program is more suitable to people who have over 100 pounds to lose. It’s extreme reliance on carbohydrates without calorie counting is not effective for the individual looking to lose 10-30 pounds.

On January first, I, like many other people, took a good hard look at myself and discovered that I didn’t like what I was seeing. I once again tipped the scales at close to 205 pounds, a good deal of which(unfortunately) was not muscle. And since personal fitness training is my business, I decided that it might be a good decision to take my own advice to heart and lose that extra weight.

Having been overweight as an adolescent, I am constantly struggling with those 150,000 to 300,000 extra fat cells I possess. While they may shrink in size when I lose weight, unfortunately they never seem to go away. At the slightest hint of overindulgence they seem to expand to capacity(in other words, I gain weight at the drop of a hat!). I needed a permanent solution to the problem, not a quick fix, so I decided to look into the Dean Ornish program.

Those unfamiliar with the Dean Ornish Life Choice Program quickly come to the realization that Dr. Ornish did a lot of research prior to the formulation of his program. He maintains that the average American consumes almost 40 percent of calories as fat. Diets such as Lean Cuisine, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers reduce fat consumption to 30 percent, so they must rely on small portion sizes to keep calories under control. This often leaves dieters feeling hungry and deprived. To remedy this problem, the Life Choice Program derives less than 10 percent of its’ calories from fat and has virtually no cholesterol.

How do you achieve a low-fat, no cholesterol, high volume diet where you won’t feel hungry? Here’s a list of foods you cannot have:

• Meats(all kinds, including chicken and fish)
• Oils(all kinds) and oil-containing products, including margarines and most salad dressings
• Avocados
• Olives
• Nuts and seeds
• High-fat or “low-fat” dairy, including whole milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, egg yolks, cream and so-on
• Sugar and simple sugar derivatives(honey, molasses, corn syrup, high fructose syrup and the like)
• Alcohol (This is a deal breaker for a lot of people)
• Any commercially available product with more than two grams of fat per serving

This may all look pretty limiting, but when you realize that you can have as much of any food or food product that is not listed, it becomes a lot easier. There is no portion control or calorie counting on the program. Eating the appropriate foods adds fiber and bulk to the diet, giving you the feeling of ‘fullness’ without the additional calories.

So what can you have? The program goes into great detail in order to make sure you don’t feel hungry. For snacks you should always have on hand:
 Air-popped popcorn
 Bagels with sugar-free jam
 Fat-free tortilla chips and homemade tomato salsa
 Rice cakes with sugar-free jelly or jam
 Steamed vegetables with fat-free dressings
 Fresh fruit and vegetables
 Salt-free pretzels
 Non-fat frozen yogurt

So what about protein? Obviously meat and cheese are out, so you are going to have to look elsewhere. Of course beans and rice are always good alternatives, but what if you feel like sinking your teeth into something a little more substantial? Luckily most grocery stores are now stocking vegetarian meat substitutes. Theswe are largely made of Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP). Boca Burgers (80 calorie hamburger-like patties that have no fat) and Smart Dogs! (45 calorie hot-dogs with no fat) are good choices. Both of these are almost indistinguishable form the real things. One caveat: Eating TVP products have a side effect of increased intestinal gas, so you better have an understanding partner.

If you need more information, Dr. Dean Ornish has four books available at your local bookstore. Stress, Diet & Your Heart, A Lifetime Program for Healing Your Heart Without Drugs or Surgery, ($5.99, Paperback, Signet Publishing, 1984), is a fairly inexpensive introduction to the program. Some sections include:
 What is coronary heart disease and how do stress and diet help to cause it?
 Stress Management techniques including: Meditation, Visualization, Stretching and Breathing.
 How to Quit Smoking
 The Diet Itself
 Three Weeks of Menus

Eat More Weigh Less, Dr. Dean Ornish’s Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantly($14.00, Paperback, Harper Collins Publishing, 1993), is an exhaustive study and explanation of his theory and program. It
includes 105 pages of exposition and 258 pages of recipes that are vegetarian and low-fat.

Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish(150 Easy, Low-Fat, High-Flavor Recipes),($25.00, Hardcover, Harper Collins Publishing, 1996) is basically a low-fat meatless cookbook. Some sample recipes include:
Old Fashioned Potato Salad
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Spicy Mexican Rice
Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

This book also has some helpful topics, including:
• How to Pack a Smart Lunch
• Good meat Alternatives
• What is an egg substitute?

So if you still can’t find something to eat after looking through these books, have no fear. There are many restaurants that actually offer Dean Ornish meals. If you are unable to find one of these meals, choose a vegetarian pasta with a marinara sauce or a salad with no cheese or croutons and a fat free dressing. There really are some good choices to be had when eating out.

While there is a strong tendency for people who have been on diets to regain weight(normally two-thirds of the weight lost is regained within one year), during the first year, patients on the Dean Ornish program lost an average of twenty-two pounds, and kept it off. My personal experience after three months on the program is a thirty pound weight loss.While this is not typical for the average person, it is very promising.

One final thought, The Life Choice Program maintains that comprehensive changes are easier to stick with than moderate ones. This is about as comprehensive as it gets. It is not meant to be a quick-fix, but a lifestyle change. What you have to decide is, is it time for a change in your life?

Fat Burning 101

Nine times out of ten, when people exercise, they do so to lose weight. It is therefore astonishing to discover that most people have no idea whatsoever what frequency, intensity or type of exercise provides the greatest amount of weight loss benefits. Instead of actually taking the time to become educated about exercise, many people simply resort to any equipment, food or drug labeled ‘fat burning’. Ignorance regarding the energy systems involved in different types of exercise can cause people to resort to such unorthodox practices. To remedy this problem, here is a crash course on the how’s, why’s and wherefore's of fat burning.

There are basically three energy systems(or sources of energy available for muscular activity) found in the body: the aerobic system, and two anaerobic systems; the lactate system and the creatine-phosphate system. These three systems create energy by manufacturing something called ATP. ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate which is an energy source used in many metabolic reactions, especially those involving muscular activity. Each of these systems respond to very specific physical conditions.

The most efficient energy system in the body is the aerobic system. Aerobic, in this use, simply signifies that the energy is produced utilizing oxygen. The aerobic system burns both fat and sugar(glucose) to manufacture ATP. Each time a fat cell is broken apart, water and CO₂ are produced. That is why you lose so much water weight when you begin to exercise aerobically. The fat cells are veritable storage batteries of energy. Each cell can generate up to 36 units of ATP, As the aerobic system improves through exercise, it becomes more efficient and burns a greater percentage of fat cells even at rest. Therefore the aerobic system can produce almost limitless amounts of ATP and is used for endurance exercise.

The lactate system is one of the anaerobic energy systems. Anaerobic signifies that the energy production takes place without the presence of oxygen. This system produces ATP by burning glucose, which is a simple sugar complex found in muscle tissue. Glucose can only generate approximately 4-9 units of ATP. The byproducts of anaerobic gylcosis include ATP and Lactic Acid. As lactic acid production increases the muscle soon reaches an overload wherein continued contraction becomes impossible. Lactic acid is thought to be the principal cause of immediate soreness(the “burn”) in an exercising muscle.

The creatine-phosphate system is the other anaerobic energy system.system. This system consists of a molecule that can be broken down very quickly into ATP. It is utilized for short bursts of energy. The major limitation of this system is that it is rapidly depleted. It takes no longer than ten seconds to exhaust the entire available supply of creatine-phosphate.

When your body is at rest it is actually relying on the aerobic energy system for production of ATP. That means that about 50% of the calories you are utilizing are coming from fat cells(for an athletic person that jumps all the way up to 70%). Unfortunately, when you are sitting on the couch, you are not burning that many calories(less than 200 calories per hour), so the fat burned is negligible.

For the first couple of seconds of exercise your body utilizes the creatine-phosphate energy system. Within the first three seconds your body has depleted the entire readily available store of creatine in the cell and begins to re-manufacture replacement molecules. Within ten seconds, the secondary supply is also depleted. No fat is consumed during these initial bursts of energy.

For exercise that lasts from ten seconds to seven minutes, the lactate system takes over. This exercise could include anything from the stop-and-go routine of weight lifting, to running a fast mile. This system burns only sugar(again no fat is consumed). Since oxygen is not needed for energy production, it is not breathlessness that makes you stop. It is the inability of the muscle to rid itself of the byproduct, lactate.

For exercises lasting longer than seven minutes, oxygen is a crucial component of energy production. That’s because the aerobic energy system gradually takes over as the main source of ATP. Aerobic energy production utilizes glucose and fatty acids. This means fat burning. As you increase the duration of exercise, the percentage of energy consumed from fat gradually increases to 80% . This percentage levels out after twenty minutes of continual exercise. For your body to take 100% of its’ energy requirements from fat, you would have to exercise for one and one half hours.

If you are interested in becoming a “fat burning machine”, duration of exercise seems to be the key. Gradually increase exercise duration to 50 to 60-plus minutes at least three to five days per week and raise the intensity as high as you safely can sustain it. If high intensity is not an option, try interval training to sustain the exercise session for as long as possible. Remember, total calorie expenditure during exercise ultimately determines the amount of fat used, and the longer you exercise, the more fat you will burn.