Maybe it's just me, but I wonder if aiming to measure only one thing is perhaps a little reductionist for the sake of it? I mean, we can measure our blood sugar before our meal, but that doesn't tell us about how badly it spikes afterwards, or how badly that in turn might spike our insulin, and then what happens to our triglycerides and liver markers, etc etc. I guess I'd rather measure anything and everything that I could, with the understanding of the importance of each of the various measures relative to each other, so that I can build a more complete picture of things. But to his credit, he does run through a bunch of options anyway.

I appreciate his graph on BMI vs longevity as well. Since I reduced my own BMI from 45 down to about 27/28, it seems I've bought myself quite a few years.

I've kind of skimmed the articles and downloaded the materials. I think I'm gonna give it a try - I'm interested mainly because my blood glucose is fairly high in the mornings (90's to < 110 mg/dL ) and I'm rarely hungry.

However the practice of putting off eating might go against an experiment I'm doing this quarter, till Jan 1 - and that's eating from waking up to noon. I notice when I eat less than 200g of protein, the BG is consistently below 100 - so maybe it's more a simple matter that I eat too much protein every day.

Stoked to give it a go after reading up and getting baseline established.

Moving food to earlier in the day has been the answer to a number of the FAQs.

Also when he analyzed the MFP data, the people who ate breakfast and lunch, two meals both "earlier", ate the fewest total calories.

I am eating more in the Ted Naiman style...my first meal (usually noon) is heavy in protein...to the point a few days I had no interest in eating again.



Hi Grav, even in the DDF program, if you get sick of sticking yourself multiple times a day, you can use only your waking number or your weight.
It also tracks body fat % and waist and waist:height ratio. Thought this was a good list of all the alternatives.

You reminded me to check the Albatross Cam Happy spring! They will soon pick a new nest to follow. Last year's chick was named Atawhai, Maori for kindness. As we go into more restrictions because people could not be kind here, I’ll remember our wonderful trip to NZ.

Supporting Janet's information, this is a very informative interview between Marty and Mark Hannigan, who adopted DDF and had very positive results. I like that Mark related how he is now very accurate on how he feels and predicting his BG levels backed up by confirming with the meter. This appeals to me, as I would typically not do well with constant measuring over a long time and would like to transition to informed instinct as to when to eat. I will not be doing DDF in the November 21 tranche, but will wait until the New Year is under way to embark. While I usually stay on plan during the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas in the U.S.), I don't want to delay my meals or eat off schedule. Here's the video (there are many others available as well):
https://www.facebook.com/optimising...&utm_term=Email

Again, thanks to Jean, Janet and others who have provided great feedback of their experiences with Marty's programs. Since I firmly believe that no one size fits all, increased protein consumption benefits me at my age, over consumption of fat while satiating is not the answer, and I'm eating relatively healthy for my needs, it's very important to know when and under what conditions to eat to really reach an informed eating plan for optimum health benefits.

Hi Rob, Thanks for recommending Mark's interview. It was helpful as he restated the steps to success many others have...prioritize protein, cut back on fat, and eat earlier in the day. Of the many DDF interviews, I have been watching those by "older women" who don’t lose 20 pounds in a month, but really are all good. I have been doing the program more than three months on my own..and still a few pounds short of 20 pounds lost. But great progress for me, including lower BG, so I decided to join the challenge that started today. Maybe the "community" will push me to the next goal.

Hi Janet - Quick question:
Do you have to have a FB account to join the challenge?

FB is where the "community" on a challenge support each other, and Marty's information, videos, etc is shared. He has public FB pages, and then a new one for each challenge, so yes. Of course, many of his long, super detailed blog posts are on the website. My FB is not my actual name nor profile, and the email used is one created for Craigslist and FB, not used anywhere else.

The DDF Program is a one-time, self-directed program...you get everything needed to do it yourself, without the support, FB not needed for that option. That's how I started, only now decided to add the Challenge.

Thanks for the clarification. The DDF Program is what I'm considering, as I see the value in it as long as I can use the program for the long term and periodically do true-ups to monitor my BG & PHT. I hope it's not a one-time, 30-day program, as I consider the spreadsheet a valuable tool to use over time.

No problem reusing the program, and I'm by no means a spreadsheet jockey. Type a new date over the original start date and the spreadsheet adjusts. Only issue I have is minor....using a Mac and iPad, Numbers is not supporting the Conditional formatting that gives sheet the red-yellow-green highlighting. The formulas and numerical results work well, but I’m too lazy to add back a Numbers highlighting function, so my sheet look boring

Clearly this program is a valuable tool. That said I decided part way through the challenge that it was not for me. My daily pattern is that I wake up with my bg under 90 and occasionally under 80. I eat my low carb high protein breakfast and it usually rises to the low 100’s. Then it can take the entire rest of the day to come back down. I found that I was not willing to wait for my bg to reach my trigger value in the low 80’s to eat my next meal. Being satisfied with my general health, including my weight, I decided that what I was doing before the challenge began was good enough for me. I really like being in a good place health wise and no longer having to think so much about when to eat, what to eat and how much to eat. The eating habits I have built up over time seem to be serving me well. Why mess with success? That said, the masterclass really did help me get back on track and lose the nearly 20 pounds I had gained. Data driven eating is clearly a good program, just not for me at this time.

The irony is that I started establishing the 3-day baseline based on the excellent DDF ebook, and I'm finding my waking BGs to be in the 80s, my pre-meal BGs to be in the mid- to higher 80s (except after a morning workout where it goes to high 90s, my post meal BGs to be in the low 90s, so I'll continue to find my PHT over the next few days. I want to experience how my BG reacts to certain foods, and that's valuable information. If anything, it confirms I'm managing my insulin and am currently very insulin sensitive. The good thing is that it confirmed that increasing my protein and lowering fats like heavy cream in coffee and cheese were the right things to do. Thanks to Bikman, Naiman, Westman, and this forum.

Jean and Rob, you have great BG levels and no need for DDF.
I am still working on lowering BG, but update...I reached my first goal and lost 20 pounds from 2020 to get back into a "healthy BMI" and even did it after Thanksgiving. I didn’t officially Optimize Nutrition, but adhered closely to Ted Naiman’s Low Energy Diet (awful name) https://www.lowenergydiet.com/Tips.html. Tried to up vegetable carbs to 15% of energy, and the allowed yogurt and diet soda were "treats" I rarely had those in the past VLC eating. My meals were nutrient dense because that's all PE has, even with a regular cheat of red wine with beef meals
So fascinated by timed eating with a meter I am testing three brands, and plan next week to have glucose and insulin tests to check lab results against the meters. Also out of "stay at home" boredom I figured out how to use Marty's spreadsheet in Google Drive on my Mac so Now I see those conditional colors highlighting the results. New spreadsheet trick and at baseline goal weight. All good, so on to adding strength training and reaching another weight goal...and maybe (still maybe) try an Optimising Nutrition Masterclass. The simple plan to only eat what's on the above page has worked so far, and the thought tracking every bite still does not appeal much.

Looking forward to trying out DDF next quarter (jan1) I've been observing that keeping my protein below 200g the day before (eating before noon) is keeping my BG in the 90's on waking. I think I have some work to do with simple consuming less food as it appears that most of the time i have an energy abundance according to BG - continuing to redevelop/tune-in to real hunger signals and see how they may be tied to BG - Thanks for posting your thoughts and experiences here folks.

The November 21 challenge ended today and I lost 5.2 pounds, now at a BMI of 24.8. Just this past week, I started to see fasting BG a smidge under 100 (that's since Aug 5th!). On Dec 7th, my blood lab test was FBG of 95, with insulin of 2.3. Perfect! Minutes after the lab draw, the three meters read Contour 103, Metene 101, and TrueMetrix 104. They continued to be in narrow ranges with no pattern as to one being higher or lower. Completely random, even the Metene being closer to the lab serum glucose likely not useful. Marty recommends the Contour for accuracy, but if the cost of strips makes a difference, any of these are close in accuracy and work to follow trends. I wasted many strips in the first months, now two a day will usually do. If I don't go completely off the rails over Christmas, I will restart DDF in January to work on getting the FBG lower, the waist less "fluffy" and figure out some way to add resistance training at home. Nowhere to go, nothing else to do this holiday week! Stay well,

ps Thud, there is a DDF Challenge private page already set up for the January 2 Challenge group. The units and articles to start off have been posted...a good example of how organized and detailed Marty and Alex are. It will keep you busy until New Years.

The January Challenge starts today...almost 300 people from around the world! One fellow in Zimbabwe, found another person he use to work with, now in Melbourne, and they discussed the Zimbabwe expat community there. Other than the fact they may both be accountants and DDF appeals to data geeks....social media always amazes me.

With almost no restraint over the holidays, and my last bubbly NYE, I am restarting only 3 pounds more than where I left off. My BG waking and pre-meal somehow stayed lower so I call that a win, but will be working on that.