The Word of Wisdom Way to Weight Loss

By Jane Birch

This is a companion page to the series on “The Word of Wisdom Way to Weight Loss” published by Jane Birch in Meridian Magazine. Please see these articles for all the key concepts and strategies:

Extra Tips for Maximum Weight Loss

If you are already eating 100% whole food, plant-based and still not losing as much weight as you would like, there are ways you can tweak your diet to increase weight loss.

Note: a good, healthy weight is not necessarily what we think is our ideal weight; avoid the temptation to become obsessed with weight and to be as skinny as possible. That should NOT be the goal! Enjoy the right foods, and you can forget about your weight. However, if you know that you need to lose more weight and are willing to do what it takes, you can succeed. If you are serious about losing all the weight you can and are willing to do what it takes, carefully study the resources in this document:

If you’d like to read what others have to write about maximum weight loss principles, check out these articles:

Why the Word of Wisdom?

There are many diets, but the Lord has revealed only one diet to His saints for the last days. His plan is not only best for our health, it is best for dramatic, permanent weight loss. People who switch to this diet get down to the weight they were as young adults (or less if they were overweight at that time) and stay at that weight. They feel better, have more energy, eat well, and never go hungry!

Quick Summary of Calorie Density

Principle #1 of the Word of Wisdom way to weight loss is to focus on low calorie dense whole plant foods. These are the foods at the top of this chart. If your diet consists of these foods, you will get full before you consume excess calories. The high calorie foods at the bottom half of the chart should be eaten sparingly, if at all. People who consistently average 400-800 calories per pound (preferably with moderate exercise) are able to lose excess weight or maintain a good weight.

Calorie Density for Meridian

Whole foods are plants as they look when they are harvested from the garden or farm, with minimal processing: washing, husking, cutting, and cooking. The are the foods in the produce section of the grocery store, along with whole grains and beans. This should be the bulk of our diet.

Some nutrient-rich whole plant foods are also relatively calorie dense, so for best weight loss these should be eaten sparingly, if at all:

  • Avocados (700 calories per pound)
  • Dried fruits (1200 calories per pound)
  • Whole wheat flour (1500 calories per pound)
  • Coconut meat (1600 calories per pound)
  • Nuts & seeds (2800 calories per pound)

Adding a few of these healthier calorie rich foods to our diet adds delicious flavors and texture, but we need to be aware that calorie dense foods inherently increase the risk of overconsumption and excess calories. It is harder to maintain an average of 400-800 calories per pound if you consume too many of these foods.

Please see the related Meridian Magazine article for more details: “The Word of Wisdom Way to Weight Loss: Calorie Density”

Jeff Novick on Calorie Density

A whole food, plant-based diet is extremely powerful for weight loss, and due to the principle of calorie density it is a permanent solution, but our society is so awash in misguiding information, that understanding this principle takes some serious study. Registered Dietician Jeff Novick is my favorite source for better understanding calorie density:

Novick_Dilution is the solution

More Resources on Calorie Density

More on Overcoming Food Addictions

This is a big topic. In addition to the Meridian Magazine article on “Overcoming Food Addiction,” see also:

Last Modified: July 30, 2016

Comments

  1. This sounds wonderful, However our son who is Autistic and Overweight is allergic to Wheat. We have started using brown rice. The only other starch he can eat is potatoes. Do you have any other ideas for a gluten free diet.

    • Hi Sandra: There are dozens of starches that don’t contain wheat or gluten. Check out this list: List of Starches. You can use a wide variety of starches, if you like, or you can also just stick with brown rice and potatoes if that is what your son likes. I’m happy to help in any way I can. Let me know if you have additional questions!

  2. Hi you can eat bread without having any issue about alergic for weath the solution is bake your bread with sauer dough, or you can buy it in the market its san franssico bread

    just wanna add aboout this article focus on organic food beans, veggie, fruits, fish, sauerdough bread, nuts

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