Q&A: Everything about the Blood Type Diet, Artificial Sweeteners and Weight Loss

Hello, Ines! I read your blog on a daily basis, but I’ve wanted to ask you a question. What is your opinion about blood type diets and do you think that such a diet could be more effective?

What is my opinion about blood type diets? Well, because I love being direct, I will say that after this type of diets, I am awaiting the newest trend “ Hair color type diet”. Sometimes I am surprised by the insanity of people, who are trying to get in shape, when we keep in mind that in reality everything could be so simple. No matter what your blood type is, the human body functions the same way. The body of each one of us has the same metabolic pathways to digest carbs, fats and proteins. We all store fats in the same way. We all have a pancreas which produces insulin and active tissue, which needs the same fuel.

Saying that every person with a different blood type, needs a different diet is like saying that each trade mark of a car, needs a different fuel. The trade mark doesn’t matter. What matters is the way the car was constructed. And when it comes up to people, the body of each human being functions the same way. It is another question, if thanks to some factors from our surroundings, like the bad nutrition and physical habits, some of us have harmed “the machine”, i.e. the way their body functions.

And when this happens, instead of searching for all kinds of ways to cure the harm, first try the simplest. Go back to the basics! Eat real food and move more.

How do you think that our ancestors lived or to be more precise how did they know what to eat, without being aware of their blood type and still managed to survive, while still staying healthier and more active than us?

There are a bunch of researches, which prove, that blood type, dates from a really long time, and the notion that blood types appeared with the different stages of our evolution is just another bro science!

The arguments, which back up the “fact” that blood type diet, does wonders, does not validate the effectiveness of this way of eating! Why? Because, more or less, every type of diet, brings for some food restriction. If we take the fact that a person used to eat whatever he wanted, before he went on a diet, the new nutrition plan, which restricts particular food groups, will immediately bring for positive results. Not because the diet is magical, but because the eating habits of people are ridiculous and even the slightest changes in the diet, could lead to big results!

Ines,

I’ve limited the sweets for a long time. I don’t eat sugar and I’ve substituted them with sweeteners. What is your opinion about artificial sweeteners?

HERE ( “Artificial Sweeteners: The Taste That Is Killing You”) I shared my opinion about artificial sweeteners. I don’t want to repeat myself, so those of you who haven’t read the post, might read my opinion on the topic there. I will just mention that artificial sweeteners are ARTIFICIAL. They are not real food, so they do not fit in the food groups you are supposed to eat.

I understand that initially, if you are used to drinking your coffee or your tea with sugar, and you try to drink them black, it will taste like the most disgusting beverage in the world! But trust me, this will be just the first couple times.

Back in the days, I used to pour sugar into my coffee, and today I can not imagine drinking coffee with sugar. When you get used to drinking the beverages without sugar, sweeteners, honey or everything from the sort, you will discover their real taste. And it is definitely unique and totally worth the frowning and the whining during the first couple black coffees you drink.

Ines! I’ve been eating the way you recommend for the last couple weeks. I notice, that at the beginning my weight dropped down faster and now everything is happening in slower rates? Is the problem in me or is it normal?

As a whole, it is absolutely normal to see drastic changes in your weight and the way you feel, when you drastically change your eating habits. Later on, things will gradually regulate and the rates of losing weight will slow down. The more excess weight you have to lose, the faster you will notice the results at the beginning.

Besides that when you follow a low carb diet, the initial drop in weight is not just lost fat. It also has to do with water loss. You know that carbs retain water. When you decrease the consumption of carbs, you will retain less water.

So, as always the scale isn’t the most accurate way to measure your progress. My advice would be to use a centimeter, instead of blindly trusting the number on the scale.

Every time you lose weight, you lose lean body mass and fat mass in a particular proportion. The more fat you have to lose, the bigger the per cent of fat loss you will notice at the beginning, While, lean individuals, tend to lose lean body mass and fat mass in almost the same proportions.

I encountered a research, but it was a long time ago and I cannot find it, but I wrote down the results, which stated as follows:

The ratio between LBM and change in bodyweight is 0.27 for

an obese individual and 0.46 for a lean, non-obese one. Here’s the explanation.

For one who is obese this ratio means that for every pound of bodyweight that’s

lost, 27% of that one pound loss is LBM. And 73% of the loss is Fat Mass. For

one who is lean, the loss of one pound is represented by a 46% LBM loss and a

54% loss in Fat Mass.

As you can see, in studying the tables, the percentage of

bodyweight lost in the first three days is 70% water. Fat Mass loss

represents only 25-27% of the total bodyweight loss!

This means that by losing weight you are losing both active and passive tissue. The more weight you have to lose. The faster the results at the beginning, and then when the rates of losing weight slow down, this doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong. It is a normal consequence of the consistent following of the nutrition plan and the lower fat per cent. Besides that, as I already said, initially you are gonna lose a lot of water weight, that was previously retained with carbs.

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