Whole 30....pros and cons

[Heartstrings]

I’m 68 and packed on the “Covid 15”....I’m at the pre-diabetic stage and at my last physical I had lowered my A1C to within the acceptable range with exercise at the gym and lowering my carb and sugar intake. Covid threw all that out the window! I just recently felt it was safe enough to go back to the gym (the club I am a member of due to my Medicare supplement, is the largest athletic club in WI and has it’s act together complying to CDC mandates and suggestions) but my daughter has been urging me to change my eating habits and doing the Whole 30 beginning 9-1.

I would like to lose 17 lbs and realize Whole 30 isn’t technically a weight loss program, but it should help keep my A1C levels low enough that I wouldn’t be a candidate for big pharma meds, right?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

[empedocles]

1. My nutritionist daughter acknowledges that Whole 30 is not nutritionally good.

[Plenty of opinions readily available on a search].

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I'd never heard of Whole 30, but I just now looked it up

and it strikes me as so restrictive that most people won't be able to stick to it. I have lost 35 lbs. since January by staying on a loose sort of Atkins-style diet that eliminates most but not all carbs (you need some). Since I self-isolated in early March I've been ordering all my groceries on-line so I'm not tempted to buy food with a lot of carbs and sugars. I've cut out baked goods and breads; if I want a sandwich I use low-carb tortillas instead of bread. I eat a lot of eggs, cheese, and meat or fish (especially salmon), as well as vegetables like asparagus and spinach; and high-fat stuff like mayonnaise is OK on Atkins. I also have been drinking low-carb protein shakes as a substitute for a meal. Once I lost enough weight that my knees didn't hurt anymore I started walking at least a mile every day. I don't know how this kind of diet, such as it is, would affect a pre-diabetic condition but it's so low-carb that it would probably be OK. It has been working well for me and I haven't felt this good in years. I'd like to lose another 15-20 lbs so I'll stick with it.