How Much Weight Can You Lose Heathily?

The conventional view is that the maximum amount of weight you can lose is under 1kg (about 2lbs) a week, and only achieve that by eating very low calories or running marathons. The reason for this thinking is that 1kg of fat = 9,000kcals. The average woman consumes under 2,000kcals a day, or 14,000kcals a week. So, you’d have to halve your food intake.

But I have seen case after case of people losing loads more weight than this on my Holford Low GL Diet. The record is a woman who lost 5 stone in 5 months – that’s over 3 pounds a week, didn’t feel hungry, and improve her healthy in many respects. When GMTV put my diet to the test head to head with other popular diets, their volunteer, Julie, lost 19bs in six weeks – that’s over 3 pounds a week. The runner up was Weightwatchers, whose volunteer lose 9lbs in six weeks. Julie was properly weighed and measured – click here if you’d like to see the GMTV film. She volunteered because she was already doing two body pump (weight-based group-fitness) classes a week, one spinning class, two body-attack classes and also walked for 41/2 miles every Sunday, but still wasn’t losing any weight.

I met a chef called Adrian who was diagnosed with diabetes and his doctor put in on the Holford Diet. He lost 22lbs in the first four weeks – and completely normalised his blood sugar. Six months on he’d lost 38kg (6st.), an average of 1.5kg (3.2lb) a week – and 25cm (10in) off his belly. That’s heresy according to conventional calorie theory. Yet it’s what so many people are reporting on my low-GL diet.

Adrian told me: I am a totally changed person. I feel incredible. Before, I didn’t have a cut-off switch. I could just eat and eat and would still be hungry throughout the day. After two months on your diet I now feel full and can leave food on the plate because I’m full… It’s amazing. It’s totally changed my life.’

Another independently filmed case was Kyra, who volunteered for GMTV to reverse her diabetes. This she did on my diet, plus certain supplements including chromium, and walking every day.

This is what she said: ‘My doctor told me I’d be on medication for the rest of my life. I am really thrilled to have been able to come off medication and still have a stable blood sugar. My energy is much better. My skin is clearer, mood more stable and I’ve lost 12lbs [5.4kg] in a month. I feel in control of food instead of it being in control of me.’.

These are a small number of people who have lost over 3lbs a week on a continuous basis, without going hungry, with the only side-effects being more energy, less hunger, better mood, better skin. It can’t be down to calories because you’d need to more than halve your calorie intake and my diet is not especially low in calories. It can’t all be water loss – no-one carries that much excess water. How can you explain it? Honestly, I don’t know but I do know these cases are real.

If you’ve lost more than 1kg/2lbs a week, or if you have a theory as to how this much weight loss is possible while promoting wellbeing let me know.