At the grocery store, I overheard a clerk telling a customer that he was using diet to change his weight. He said he was going into the Army and needed to both lose weight and get into shape before they would accept him. The lady he was talking to asked him what he was doing, and the clerk responded, “I’m cutting out high-carb foods by not eating meats like beef and pork.”

I was confused, so when it was our turn to be checked out, I asked him what he was doing, and he repeated the statement about the low-carb meats. As hard as it was for me to not correct him, I didn’t do it. He continued on by telling me that he was miserable and having a hard time with eating just chicken and salads. He said it was tough going, and that he wasn’t sure he could keep it up. I told him that he needs to do what works best for him, and what worked best for me included eating red meat and pork. I told him that he needs to find a diet plan that will allow him to enjoy the foods he eats, be sated, and not miserable. Sherry then said, “All you need to know to get started is Whole30. Go to whole30.com and read. Just learn about foods and then make your decisions from there.”

She was absolutely right. This clerk was receiving some really bad information from a friend he trusted. That friend is naturally thin and the clerk, a heavyset young fellow, believed that if he ate what his thin friend was eating, he too would become thin. The problem with this is that we all have different genetics and foods affect us all in different ways. Someone who has never been fat can eat a lower calorie diet and stay thin while a person who is overweight will struggle with hunger and satiety on the same diet that ultimately will derail that person.

Gaining a knowledge about what food is made of, how it is digested and turned into energy, and also how it is stored in our bodies is something everyone should have a fundamental knowledge of. Just like we understand that our cars use unleaded fuel, and that premium unleaded has higher octane than regular unleaded, so should we understand that certain foods have higher ratios of carbohydrates than others.

It’s important to understand that our bodies are built to run on glucose which comes from carbohydrates. That’s why people in the medical profession have a negative knee-jerk reaction to any diet that restricts them. What they miss is that Whole30 and Paleo don’t get rid of carbs from the diet. They restrict foods that are unusually high in carbs that allow people to easily consume too many of them. Going back to the fuel analogy, carbs are the octane in our fuel (food), but in the case of our bodies, too much of it in our food gets stored and weighs us down.

I have said it numerous times before: find what works or you and do it. The worst thing you can do about your weight and health if you are overweight is to do nothing. Whole30 and Paleo worked for me, and I think you should take a look and try them. At least the Whole30, and then decide what’s best for you based on that. You will feel better, and your body will be healthier. And yeah, you’ll lose some weight, too.