Dr. McDougall illustrates how to gain a pound of body fat in one month in his book The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss.  He says that “the fat you eat is the fat you wear.”

See the illustration below for how this can be done. By knowing what causes you to gain weight, you can avoid those things and lose weight.

It's hard to believe that just one knifeful of mayonnaise used daily on a sandwich could cause you to gain a pound of fat in a month.

“In a month you could make a pound of body fat by daily use of:

• four strips of bacon for breakfast, or
• four pats of butter or margarine spread on your breakfast toast, or
• one generous knife-ful of mayonnaise spread on your lunchtime sandwich, or
• one tablespoon of safflower oil to grease your pan for a stir-fry, or
• one piece of coffee cake at your morning or afternoon break.”

Notice in the above illustration how you only need to use one of these items daily. Just think about what you are normally consuming, and you can probably figure out where your extra weight is coming from.

Considering that you only need less than 4 percent of your total daily calorie intake in fat, which he says is used “for synthesis of new cells, hormones, and other body parts Another 3 percent of calories is burned in the transfer of fat from the dinner plate to the adipose tissue. That leaves 93 percent of the fat consumed.”

The best way to get rid of the fat on your body is to stop eating it and to exercise.  Now, you may say that carbs are the bad things and animal proteins are what your diet should have as well as the fat. And, that is one way to lose weight. You get rid of your true body fuel and force your body into using another source of fuel. Most of the people I know who have tried this way say they don’t feel well.

I say, along with Dr. McDougall, that wholesome carbs are very beneficial and animal products and other fat products contribute to bad health. I think animal products should be used sparingly, they are a great survival food, and you should eat them to avoid starvation and famine. But, for your everyday diet, you should eat the diet that contributes to healing and meets your true energy needs.

White potatoes are high in potassium, protein, vitamins, and minerals. You could live exclusively on them for 6 months with no ill effect and still like them.

In his book The McDougall Program, he tells what happens on those diets, such as the Atkins and South Beach where they tell you to avoid carbohydrates in order to force your body into using the fats as fuel instead of what your body truly needs. This is a medical condition known as ketosis, which produces ketones to be released into the body suppressing your appetite.

You end up eating less and yes, you do lose weight. However, Dr. McDougall says “the long term overconsumption of cholesterol, proteins, and fats…leads in time to heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis, to name only a few health disasters. If you go off the diet, then, of course, you quickly gain back the weight you’ve lost. ”

The true body fuel needed by the body for health and weight loss is in good wholesome carbs including steamed grains, potatoes, beans, and winter squash. I agree that you should avoid the processed and refined varieties.

By following a healthier high-fiber carbohydrate diet, you can also lose weight fast. Only this time, you will feel terrific and enjoy better health. You can eat all you want. Do you want to find out for yourself how to gain a pound of fat in one month.  Or, do you want to find out how to lose ten times more than that by eating complex carbohydrates?