As I have written about previously, I am undergoing a major lifestyle change to reverse a chronic disease.

I have struggled with increased weight gain and the difficulty of losing weight only to gain it right back for my entire adult life. I tried many things in the past. Fad diets, calorie counting, relentless working out. While some of these changes led to short-term results, the weight always came back and then some. 

Obviously the two keys to the puzzle are diet and exercise. These two keys are not equal. In fact they are not even close.

Without question, diet is the most important factor for weight loss. As people like to say, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. You can work out for an hour in the gym and blow it all with one Snickers bar. The executives at Mars, Inc. are probably snickering at the general population’s addiction to sugar and carbs. I mean 35g of carbs in one Snickers bar?? But I digress.

So, is exercise important for health? Absolutely. But you have to meet people where they are. People who are grossly overweight aren’t inclined to exercise anyway. They don’t have the energy to do it. It takes a lot of effort and struggle to get that momentum going both from a physical and mental standpoint. I made the mistake of diving in to exercise without paying as much attention to my diet. You know what, when you work out you tend to eat more. Trying to starve yourself NEVER works.

So the answer is diet first. Food is fuel for the body. There is no one size fits all. You have to find out the kind of healthy foods that you have a taste for and will be willing to eat not just temporarily to lose weight but over the long term.

I am following my own advice with what I’m calling Project Food as Fuel. I’ve been on my new diet 9 days and it has been absolutely amazing. If you are interested in my progress, I have a detailed summary in my latest Medium article.

https://medium.com/@brandonwilson_84606/i-am-reversing-my-type-2-diabetes-b5b2da1f9589