- With Mayo Clinic preventive medicine specialist
Donald Hensrud, M.D.
read biographyclose windowBiography of
Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.
Dr. Donald D. Hensrud is chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational and Aerospace Medicine with a joint appointment in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism, & Nutrition at Mayo Clinic. He is an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr. Hensrud directed the Executive Health Program at Mayo Clinic for more than 10 years.
He received his B.S. from the University of North Dakota, M.D. from the University of Hawaii, M.P.H. from the University of Minnesota and M.S. in nutrition sciences from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in preventive medicine at Mayo Clinic and completed a clinical nutrition fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Hensrud is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Preventive Medicine and the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists, of which he is a past president.
His career interests have combined nutrition, weight management, and prevention. He is the author of many scientific articles and book chapters and was editor of Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight for EveryBody; The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook, which won a 2005 James Beard Foundation award; The Mayo Clinic Plan: 10 Essential Steps to a Better Body & Healthier Life; and The Mayo Clinic Diet, published in January 2010.
Dr. Hensrud says healthy lifestyle habits in diet and physical activity are extremely important as evidenced by a large body of scientific evidence. He also says implementing these lifestyle habits is realistic, sustainable and enjoyable. A primary goal of his work is to help people achieve this.
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The Mayo Clinic Diet blog
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Aug. 23, 2011
When it comes to weight loss, there's no magic bullet
By Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Human nature being what it is, we want to believe there's a quick fix somewhere to help us lose weight, and we just need to find it. This belief can be strong, so strong that even when we know something makes little sense, we still want to try it, hoping that at last we've found the magic bullet for weight loss.
Consider this — if there was a magic bullet, wouldn't everyone be using it and successful at losing weight? People spend literally billions of dollars on dietary supplements. Yet, despite the promises of all the many supplements out there, virtually none of them are effective in promoting long-term weight loss.
The only over the counter product that has any effect is orlistat, which is also available by prescription. However, weight loss is usually very modest at best, and at a relatively large cost. When it comes to supplements, save your money.
Fad diets have been popular for years and the list is long. Some of them were falsely called "The Mayo Clinic Diet", and they seemed to change from year to year. Cabbage soup, grapefruit, and bacon and eggs were some of the foods emphasized on these so called Mayo Clinic diets, but none of them were associated with Mayo Clinic.
The HCG diet has made a resurgence in the past few years. Years ago, it was originally used along with a 500 calorie per day diet — anyone would lose weight eating that few calories. But it's not safe and not recommended.
Recently, I looked at some of the fad diets that were popular years ago. I didn't recognize many and hardly any of them are still around. Most tend to run their course until the next fad comes along.
When considering a dietary program for weight loss, you should ask some basic questions:
- Is it safe?
- Does it promote good nutrition and improve health?
- Is it enjoyable?
- Is it practical and sustainable — can you continue it for a long time to keep excess weight off?
The answer should be yes to all of these questions before embarking on any weight loss diet.
While it's tempting to jump in and try a product or program promising effortless weight loss, consider it carefully before investing time and money. The old adage holds true in this case — if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
12 comments posted
January 9, 2013 4:43 a.m.
ya its really correct when you think your self weight reduced from 170 pounds to 130 pounds there is no magic things just u need to follow some weight loss supplements and daily exercises which are enough
- addisonmario
August 6, 2012 11:03 p.m.
if there was at least one prduct (pill, patch, sepulpment, drink etc) that worked there would be no obese people dont you think?find calorie/fitness calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours)5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day8 glasses of waterhave complex carbs for breakfast they give you energyhave lean meat (protein) for dinner repairs musclecardio exercise 4-6 times a week for 30-50min, light weight trainingdont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, past etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried, oily.ofcourse you can spoil yourself once in a while with a little treat:)
- Shico
February 5, 2012 6:10 a.m.
I have to admit I've tried a couple diet fads, such as the soup and grapefruit diet (pretty old fads). Without much explanation needed they did not work out for me. It really is amazing, and sad, how many fads exist to exploit people desiring and desperate for weight loss. A few months ago I began using a program called OnTarget Nutrition and it has brought a wonderful change to my lifestyle and eating habits. It's a weight loss program but also centered on daily nutrition. Although used the food pyramid here just to check the serving levels of each food group. It's helpful to see it in a complementary view to my daily nutrition targets. Just wanted to add to the questions above regarding what to look for in a beneficial diet program. 1. Does it help me adjust and improve my eating habits for long term success. 2. Does it offer community support (if important for you) Also tracking your diet, exercise, and weight, can really help keep you motivated. Best wishes to all.
- Kaley
January 3, 2012 1:17 a.m.
osing weight is no small feat. We would have fewer instances of overweight people if losing the weight was easy. In fact it really is hard work! There are those who can handle doing it on their own with some diet and exercise changes but there are still others who will need the help and support of a weight loss program. Of course not all of these programs are the same.
- ways to lose weight
November 3, 2011 2:01 p.m.
The calorie calculator on this web site is atrociously off. It states that a person who is 6'4", 328lbs, 28 years old, attempting to lose weight, and male should exercise moderately for an hour and day and consume only 1800 calories. That is below the basal metabolic rate for this individual if he were on 24/7 bed rest.
- Sean
October 10, 2011 9:58 a.m.
I had gastric bypass surgery 8 years ago and lost 130 lbs and have kept off 120 lbs of it.I have a large area of excess skin and flab in my abdomen that excersise has not removed at all. A doctor in the are told me he could get rid of it in 6 - 9 treatments with verona lipo-laser at $1500.00 cost and insurance does not cover, what do you think ?
- Gary
October 9, 2011 4:49 p.m.
Every few months I like to check in. Why? To keep telling the world that the Mayo Clinic Diet is the best diet hands down. The free fruits and vegetables save a volume eater like me. They are a dieter's holy grail! I chuckle when I see my husband rejoice in his free fruits and vegetables from Weight Watchers, only to struggle with those complicated Weight Watchers points. Ha! Forget Weight Watchers. It was the Mayo Clinic Diet that started it all. I once read that the best diet for an individual is the one he creates himself. So I have done that. I combine features of the Mayo Clinic diet with a concept called Calorie Points (not to be confused with the convoluted Weight Watchers point system). Calories points are an easy way of converting calories into points through an easy conversion table. I don't know why they never caught on. They make calorie counting insanely easy. Dr. Hensrud, if you ever update your book and refer to the Calorie Points method, you'll have another bestseller for sure. Anyway, if you start with the Mayo Clinic Diet book you can't go wrong. Take what you need from it. It's an excellent introduction into weight loss. It is what we need to be doing to lose weight. Then personalize it to suit your needs. You can't go wrong. I've slowly been losing weight. You can too!
- Sheryl
September 4, 2011 5:46 a.m.
Thanks for the info. I really do want to change my ways.
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September 1, 2011 7:13 p.m.
After going through perimenopause, I found it was critical to get a good balance of carbs, proteins and (good) fats in every meal, and have a fairly high-protein breakfast (like 2 eggs with a grain English muffin, or cottage cheese with berries). Those 2 things made a huge difference for me. I have less appetite than I did when I was mainly eating high-quality carbs, like steel-cut oatmeal. I'm 50 years old, 5'2", I have now weighed 107 for the past 4 years. Fun!
- Holly
September 1, 2011 9:10 a.m.
I am 67 yrs old and it has taken me the major portion of those years to realize that there really isn't any magic to loosing weight. I have been following the Pyramid Diet and so far have lost 25 lbs. I also don't feel that I am missing anything in my life. Great feeling, thanks Mayo Clinic.
- Barbara
August 29, 2011 5:13 p.m.
I just read your section on low-carb diets, and, wow, you couldn't be more wrong. Time to forget the conventional wisdom and actually look at the evidence. I highly recommend Gary Taubes's book, Good Calories, Bad Calories. Do the research yourselves (it took him 5 intensive years), or do yourselves a favor and read the book - he's done it for you. It will open your eyes to the actual science.
- Pam
August 29, 2011 1:06 a.m.
Short 2 minute exercise sessions are better than longer workouts I'll bet you're busy and can't exercise as often as you'd like. Well, now you don't have an excuse. You can get EVEN BETTER RESULTS from 2 minute workout sessions. The reason: You build up your metabolism better with multiple short sessions compared to 1 long session. Here's a quick way to get the most out of this and make it easy for you to fit this stuff in... do these 2 minute workouts during commercials. Pick a 1 hour tv show and during that hour, you'll exercise during each of it's commercials (this will give you about 20 minutes of cardio). Exercises you can do include hula hooping, jumping on a mini-trampoline, jumping rope, fast-paced bodyweight squats, wall squats, and jumping jacks.
- Jeremy
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