My Dog's Weight Loss Success Story

Molly (left) has a svelte new figure after a month on a low-carb, higher-calorie diet. I radically changed her diet after noticing that the Taste of the Wild kibble she eats is high carb and low fat--and that Molly was putting on weight, constantly begging for food, and spending less time on the treadmill.

When Molly started her new diet, I could pinch an inch of fat on her waist and back. Now I can pinch 1/4" on her waist and I can grab fat on her back only when she's lying down or sitting up.

Her old diet was two cups a day of Taste of the Wild dog food and a snack such as a carrot. Her new diet is, on a typical day, 1/2 cup of TOTW dog food, 2 tablespoons of rice protein powder, a magnesium tablet, and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil for breakfast and 1/2 cup dog food, a cooked chicken thigh with skin and without the bone, and a carrot for dinner, and a handful of nuts and 2 tablespoons of olive oil for a snack.

Macronutrient balance before:

carbohydrate: 50%

protein: 32%

fat: 18%

Macronutrient balance after:

carbohydrate: 19%

protein: 21%

fat: 60%

I haven't restricted Molly's calories: she's eating around 1,330 calories a day now opposed to 765 calories a day before. Yes, I've checked and rechecked the figures--this was a surprise even though I already knew that restricting calories isn't necessarily useful in losing weight. Anytime Molly begs for food, I feed her--usually some nuts or olive oil if it isn't meal time.

In absolute terms, Molly is eating a lot less carb (130 calories per day less), about the same amount of protein, and a lot more fat (660 calories per day more).

Molly's energy has been great. She's still not running on the treadmill as much as she used to, but last weekend, after walking a few miles around Washington Park, we came home and she wanted to go on another walk.

Molly's new diet isn't hard to prepare. For dinner, I usually give her some of whatever meat or eggs I'm having--chicken, a lamb burger, fritatta, etc.--along with 1/2 cup of kibble and some cabbage or a carrot. Yes, cabbage--it's just not dinner for her without a crunchy vegetable and she won't leave me alone until she gets some.

UPDATE 3/15/2011 We've ditched the rice protein powder since Molly doesn't like it and I've gone on a new diet to heal my cavities. She gets meat or eggs instead. We're a grain-free household now. If she's still hungry after a meal, I give her a tablespoon or two of nuts, half-and-half, coconut oil or olive oil (sorry, Anonymous).

Comments

Anonymous said…

She needs exercise and stop giving her snacks

February 24, 2011

Gym Influencer Doubles Down and Should Have Regretted It

Jennifer Picone isn't the most abusive gym influencer--far from it--but she may be the most annoying. In a video she posted that went viral, she was working out in a gym when another member appeared in the background by the free weights. The member was minding her own business, not looking in Picone's direction, when Picone got up and told her to move. After filming, Picone edited the video with a note about "Gym etiquette lesson #47" and accused the other gym member of "[doing] that 💩 on purpose." Shaming other gym members has gotten to be such a big genre that Joey Swoll has a YouTube channel, with half a million subscribers, dedicated to calling out these content creators. Just for Picone, he took a break from his vacation to tell her to mind her own business. This may be the first time that Joey Swoll has taken one of his followers to task. The fact that she follows him and still doesn't know better than to treat the gym like her personal studio sh...

Stay in your car!

If there's ever a lunatic outside your vehicle, do not engage. Stay in your vehicle. Drive away or call the police. Drive over the curb, lawn or median if necessary; just avoid putting innocent bystanders at risk.* Save yourself from lunatics like a boss. Screen grab from video by Fredrik Sørlie on Youtube . That advice might have saved a 69-year-old delivery driver from being attacked by former NFL player Mark Sanchez, who for unknown reasons was in an alley after midnight in downtown Indianapolis and decided to pick a fight over a parking space. I say might have because I haven't seen any video of the attack. But other incidents over the years bear out the safety of staying in your car. A neighbor was assaulted and robbed after she got out of her car after someone followed her home and blocked her driveway. And remember Reginald Denny from the LA riots? The victim maced and stabbed Sanchez, but suffered a bad cut to his face and tongue and looks like he was badly beaten. Bo...

1972: Carole King, MAS*H and...Food for 2014?

I feel well enough to try Atkins induction again. The palpitations are gone, even without taking potassium. My energy level is back to normal--no more trucking on the treadmill early in the morning to burn off nervous energy or emergency meat, cheese and mineral water stops after yoga. It's back to lounging around to Chopin and Debussy in the morning and stopping at the wine bar for pleasure. I'm using the original Atkins book: Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution from 1972. While looking in the book for a way to make gelatin (which is allowed on induction, but Jello(TM) and products like it have questionable ingredients), I felt the earth move under my feet : those recipes from 42 years ago look delicious and they're mostly real food. It makes sense, though: the cooks who wrote the recipes probably didn't have had a palette used to low-fat food full of added sugar or a bag of tricks to make low-fat food edible. Anyone who writes a recipe called "Cottage Cheese and...

No-carb "cider" and Halloween videos you haven't seen

In time for Halloween, here's a recipe for no-carb "cider" to sip while you watch scary (or mildly spooky) videos. Photo from Pixabay . Ingredients: Hot water Constant Comment tea Doctor's Best magnesium powder in sweet peach flavor Steep a bag of Constant Comment tea in hot water for a few minutes and remove the bag. Add one scoop of magnesium powder (sweet peach flavor). The combination tastes surprisingly like hot apple cider, but with zero carbs. Only have one, or at most two, cups at a time--too much magnesium at once will have you running to the bathroom. Constant Comment tea tastes good on its own if you've maxed out your magnesium dose for the day. You can find both the tea and the magnesium powder at Vitacost.com. Kroger and other grocery stores carry Constant Comment tea, but I've never seen the magnesium powder at a grocery store. With a hot cup of ersatz cider, enjoy a video in the spirit of the season. The Amazing Mr. Blunden Family friendly; mild...

The Under-the-Radar Ointment for Hard-to-Heal Wounds

Imagine looking in the mirror one morning and finding the side of your head black and your ear twice its normal size. That's what happened to Brad Burnam, who caught a deadly superbug at the hospital where he worked. Sometime after having emergency surgery--one of 21 surgeries over the next five years--he set out to cure himself. The result he created was a fusion of PHMB, an antibiotic common in Europe but little known in the US, in a petroleum jelly base (like Vaseline), held together with a stabilizer/emulsifier. It sticks to wounds, keeps them moist, and provides a barrier. It cured his antibiotic resistant superbug. After getting FDA clearance, he formed Turn Therapeutics, and Hexagen is now available by prescription. Screen shot from https://turntherapeutics.com/about/ Millions of Americans suffer from open wounds--chronic issues like diabetic foot ulcers. Readers probably have their blood sugar under control and avoid this condition, but might have parents, partners o...

Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Search This Blog