Dr. Mark Kestner: The ‘lose weight eating gas station food ‘ diet

Wanting to lose weight? This article contains a couple of tips, as well as a couple of surprising revelations.

The headline refers to a story published in 2017 about a guy from Des Moine that had to travel a lot. His name is Frank Beard. He is a real person, doing very real things and facing real challenges just like you and me.

In 2016, Frank had a job that would require him to travel 4 to 5 days a week. Being on the road that much meant most of his meals would be from fast food sources.

Prior to that year, Frank had lost more than 80 pounds. During his weight loss efforts, he learned a lot about weight loss, weight gain, and how our bodies work.

Frank is a pretty positive person. Facing the realization that he would be dining in places that focus on convenience, he made an interesting decision. He decided to buy food only at gas stations for a month.

During his previous weight loss efforts, he had developed positive habits including considering the nutritional value and calorie content of every bite. With this in mind, how would he be able to eat at gas stations? Gas stations are known for grab-and-go convenience snacks. How could he continue to make healthy choices?

As it turns out, Frank not only stayed healthy, but also he actually lost six pounds during the month of gas station dining. This was after he had already lost 80 pounds. That means he had already lost the “easy” weight and the water weight that most people lose during the first 30 days of dieting. 

Frank made it an adventure by deciding to enjoy the process. He found satisfaction in getting to know the various options and strategizing his dietary choices.

Frank found that in most gas stations there are a surprising amount of available healthy options if you look for them. Frank found that he didn’t have to radically alter his preferences for healthy food options during the month-long adventure.

In the article published in People magazine about his story, Frank reports, “I pretty much just continued to eat the same things that I normally eat. For breakfast, I like to have hard boiled eggs, some type of fruit or a low-sugar snack bar. For lunch I’d look for a salad, packs of mixed nuts and sparkling water. As far as dinner, some stores offered made-to-order items, but if I didn’t find that I’d stick to a healthy wrap, some berries and more mixed nuts.”  

Frank didn’t intend to lose weight during this unusual month of eating, but he ended up losing six pounds. The weight loss was an unintended and unexpected outcome.

Frank further stated, “Over the 30 days I was able to cover nine states and over 200 convenience stores. I found healthy food everywhere!”

Prior to embarking on the experiment, Frank weighed 163 pounds. Four years previously he had topped the scales at over 240. After the month-long diet he weighed 157.

This interesting experiment serves to illustrate a few points about how the rest of us can lose weight.

I have studied numerous scientific articles about weight loss. I even took the Harvard Medical School course for physicians about weight loss. I have studied many clinically based regimens for weight loss.

There are thousands of various products advertised to help us lose weight. Just this morning, a patient shared a new scheme that he was excited about that works by providing one (expensive) capsule of “miracle” herbs in the morning, along with recommendations of dietary choices. He was excited that he had already lost some weight.

We are constantly told that we need a special plan, perhaps a magic pill, capsule or potion to help us lose weight. We are told that we cannot lose weight because of lifestyles that lead us to consume fast food as our only option.

Frank’s experiment throws a lot of doubt toward most of those theories and concepts. Maybe losing weight really is as simple as choosing the right amount of healthy foods and limiting overall calorie consumption.

I have shared in this column before the story of my own success in losing more than 50 pounds over the span of about a year.  The key to my strategy is extraordinarily simple. I call it the E.L.F. diet. That stands for Eat Less Food.

I began one simple habit change that I have stuck with for more than two years. (I am now down 60 pounds from when I began.) That habit was to simply cut each meal in half before I began eating. I would slowly enjoy half of the food on my plate, then stop eating. I found that I enjoyed having the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Not only did this result in losing the desired amount of weight, but it also substantially lowered food costs for me, as I no longer needed to buy lunch.

An assistant in my office followed a nearly identical plan last year and lost 50 pounds. This was despite having had her thyroid removed and being post menopause. These factors typically make losing weight difficult.

In the coming weeks, I will share more information about successful weight loss. For now, I will just say, “You CAN do it.”

Dr. Mark Kestner is a licensed chiropractic physician and acupuncturist with 30-plus years of experience focused primarily on treating complex and chronic spine, joint and neurological conditions in Murfreesboro. His office is at 1435 NW Broad St. Contact him at [email protected].