
Melissa Renner regularly rides her bike to work at the Allen County Public Library in downtown Fort Wayne — how cool is that?
Last week I wrote about how I’ve recently switched from monitoring carbs to fat grams. While it’s true that part of it is just shaking things up for variety’s sake, the underlying reason is that I was pretty inspired by an interview I did with a fellow runner who discovered she’d developed prediabetes.
In this week’s News-Sentinel column, Melissa Renner describes how she tackled her problem by joining the YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program. She lost 15 pounds and got her blood sugar back in the normal range not by counting carbs – which is what most people associate with diabetes – but by counting fat grams.
“We focus on fat because it’s the most calorie-dense thing we eat,” explains Dan Wolf, a DPP lifestyle coach who lost 65 pounds and lowered his blood sugar readings when he went through the program in 2011. It’s also considered a more sustainable approach – which is what Renner told me she’s found to be the case as well.
I may or may not “sustain” my current focus on fat grams. But after talking with Renner, I do know that I’m going to have my blood sugar tested sometime soon – just in case.