The 800 Gram Challenge

Several years ago when I started counseling patients on lifestyle modification, whether it be to improve health or create a calorie deficit, I started looking for resources and content that I could pull together to offer to patients to help them understand what I was asking them to do. I scoured books, articles, the internet, and social media for advice and programs that were cheap, simple, and easily understood. A handful have lasted the test of time and the ultimate test of my patients' opinions, but one program stands out and has remained a staple for counseling in my obesity medicine clinic every day....It's the 800 gram challenge (#800gChallenge®) at https://optimizemenutrition.com/800g-Challenge created by EC Synkowski, a dietitian among many other amazing things which you can read more about her on website.

The #800gChallenge® is a challenge to eat 800 grams of fruits and vegetables every day. A food scale is fairly cheap costing anywhere from $5-15 on the low end. But if you don't have one, you can measure out about 6 cups of fruits and vegetables per day, or 6 fist size servings.

The website is well equipment with images that show what 800 grams of fruits and vegetables look like on three plates alone...

...and then with some proteins, drinks, and other snacks (presumably for a full day including breakfast, lunch, and dinner).

When I am counseling a patient I often stop here and make the point that perhaps this person who has prepared these three plates that include the #800gChallenge® may be trying to treat obesity by losing weight through a calorie deficit OR they might be trying to simply improve their health. The #800gChallenge® is also the amount of fruits and vegetables you would want to consume to reduce your risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, cancer, or other diet-related health conditions. You see, that's the beauty of the #800gChallenge®. It's not a diet, it's a health behavior that can be developed as a daily habit to improve health. It's a lifestyle modification that can be used to improve health and for some it will likely lead to calorie deficit and therefore weight loss if you are suffering from the disease of obesity.

The next picture she shares is the #800gChallenge® on one single plate.

And I always stop here and make the point that this is a lot of food. It's not too much food in a day but it is likely too much for one sitting. And the best part is that it is estimated to be about 400-500 calories in that one plate. So then I can relate this back to the Total Energy Expenditure (TEE = amount of calories your bodies needs in a day based on your height, weight, age, and gender) which I usually calculate for every patient in my clinic. For most patients, they can eat the #800gChallenge® 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or even more times and not go over their calorie needs for the day.

As an example, imagine that based on my height, weight, age, and gender my TEE is 2800 calories in a day. That means that I could eat the #800gChallenge® about 5, 6, or even 7 times (7 x 400 calories = 2800 calories) in a day and not go over my caloric needs. Now I couldn't eat it 5 times in a day. In fact during one of my away rotations in Boston during my bariatric endoscopy training, I attempted to do the #800gChallenge® for 30 days. Surprisingly, I only hit 800 grams about two or three times. Not only was it a lot of food, but the food was so filling. And it really required me to plan ahead and commit to eating the #800gChallenge® that day. This is when I realized that the #800gChallenge® wasn't hard to understand or hard to eat. It was hard to implement because eating that many servings of fruits and vegetables is not the norm in our culture. It takes some intention.

The next picture I scroll to on the website with patients while counseling is the picture of the calorie comparison between a slide of iced pound cake and a plate of fruits and vegetables. This is a critical thing for patients to understand. I like to tell patients, "I can make a calorie deficit in hot fudge sundays and lose weight but I don't recommend it." What I mean is that I can make a calorie deficit eating high calorie, processed foods, I just won't be eating too much food. And Synkowski has donned this image pair with the appropriate statement that we all hear so often from patients struggling to make a calorie deficit (ie lose weight) and that is, "I hardly eat anything, and I can't lose weight."

My response to this statement is always the same, "I believe you that you aren't eating that much food. Because you are probably trying to make a calorie deficit in highly processed, high calorie foods. So you don't have to eat much to go over your TEE for the day." If I can convince a patient to try the #800gChallenge® then they should easily be able to make a calorie deficit without having to count calories. As Elle Woods said, "It's a completely brilliant plan!" And it is. EC Synkowski is a genius. She didn't invent the health benefits of eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables, but she pitches it in a way that is easy to understand with great pictures.

And it makes my life so easy because I can pull up the website and run through the pictures and the examples right there in clinic. And then the patients can go home and play around on the website themselves later if they have more questions about what counts and what doesn't. The easy way to thing about it is, "Any fruit, any vegetable, any time, in any amount." No fruit or vegetable is off limits (barring an allergy or dietary restriction related to a condition such as coumadin or dialysis as per your physicians recommendations). I should mention here that I think that even patients with Type 2 diabetes can eat any fruit or vegetable. The benefits far outweigh the risk and I will get into that in another post on another day. People don't get diabetes from eating too much fruit. I shamelessly plug some of her merch whenever I get a chance. This use to be available on her website but I missed my chance to buy it. But she has some other cute stuff. Click on this picture to check it out.

But that's not all.....In fact, there is another amazing reason why the #800gChallenge® is incredible. And it has to do with the new class of anti-obesity medications, the incretin mimetic drugs better known as GLP1s such as liraglutide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide. These drugs that are being created to treat diabetes and obesity are mimicking gut hormones like GLP1 which is released naturally in GI tract in response to eating fruits and vegetables (carbohydrates). Many patients are frustrated that they can't get these medications due to lack of coverage, high cost, or low supply. But I find it really reassuring that we can naturally increase our own GLP1 levels by eating more fruits and vegetables. Even if I was prescribing the medication to a patient, I would still be recommending that they do the #800gChallenge® if they want the medication to work and to see the full benefit of it. So if you can't get the medication, all hope isn't lost. You can start with naturally increasing your levels of GLP1 by eating the #800gChallenge®.

For more information about the #800gChallenge®, check out the website at https://optimizemenutrition.com/800g-Challenge. It's free unless you are up for the official challenge which comes with some accountability. Let me know if the comments if you tried the #800gChallenge® and what you think.