Can diet, exercise cure Type 2 diabetes? How one woman beat it

As President Joe Biden noted on the steps of the White House when he proclaimed November National Diabetes Month, the disease — particularly Type 2 diabetes — is an American problem that isn’t going away.

According to statistics from the American Diabetes Association, nearly 5,000 people are diagnosed with Type 2 every day, adding up to 34 million Americans — about 1 in 10 — who are currently battling the disease.

“I call on all Americans to join in activities that raise diabetes awareness and help prevent, treat, and manage this disease,” urged the president.

Or, in Jody’s case, reverse it.

* * *

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Jody Reid, a mother of three who reversed her Type 2 diabetes through exercise and diet, right, runs with daughter Kaylyn,13, during a fitness class at Roy CrossFit in Roy on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Jody Reid is a 36-year-old mother of three with many diabetic relatives, a sweet tooth, a desk job at the IRS — and a membership to the Roy CrossFit workout gym.

All these factors contribute to her story. One that begins in despair and ends in her joining a rare club of people who once were diabetic, and now aren’t.

Unbeknown to her, Jody’s battle with diabetes began when she was born. A long line of aunts, uncles, grandparents, on both sides, had contracted Type 2 diabetes before her, suggesting a strong genetic disposition to the disease.

Then there’s her affection for sweets. As she puts it, given a choice between kale and a KitKat, “I’ll take the KitKat every time.”

Add in the job she’s held at the IRS since 2006 that requires sitting at a desk for eight hours a day.

If that sounds like a recipe looking for a diabetes diagnosis … well, it was in Jody’s case.

She was just 31 when the doctors warned her she was prediabetic — a danger zone where your sugar level numbers are trending in the wrong direction (it’s estimated 94 million Americans are prediabetic).

In response, Jody joined a gym. She chose a crossfit gym near her home — CrossFit workouts feature high intensity interval training, usually in groups — because her sister, Jenny, had joined a CrossFit gym and “lost a bunch of weight.”

“I thought I’d be able to exercise my way out of it,” Jody says. Plus she’d drop some pounds in the process.

Instead, just the opposite occurred.

Based on someone mistakenly advising her, “If you’re CrossFitting you can eat whatever you want,” before and after workouts she continued to inhale the candy and chocolates she kept stashed in her car’s console.

She gained weight.

Worse, at the beginning of 2019 her blood work revealed she had crossed the line from prediabetic to full-fledged Type 2 diabetes. The doctor sent her home with Metformin, the starter medication often given to new diabetics.

She came to the gym that day sobbing. She found plenty of sympathy, but she also found a stern warning from her coach, Van Aston, who is also a physician’s assistant.

“I get emotional talking about it,” says Jody, “but he just looked at me and he said, ‘You have to take this seriously. This disease kills people every day.’

“That scared me. Nobody had put it that harshly, and I needed it to rock my world. I’d been in denial, avoiding the truth, because it was hard to swallow the pill that I was doing it to myself.”

Shortly after that, the gym sponsored a nutrition challenge. Jody signed up. She was committed with a capital C. She cut out the junk food, she educated herself about proper nutrition and added healthy food to her diet. She drank 100 ounces of water a day. She put in her 10,000 steps. She attended CrossFit classes six days a week.

Her weight plummeted to 160 pounds (she’d been 220 when she joined the gym two years earlier). Her energy returned. She could tie her shoes without having to take a break. When she got in the car there was a big gap between her stomach and the steering wheel.

And those were just the hors d’oeuvres.

In July she went back to the doctor for her six-month checkup.

“They take your blood work and tell you they’ll call the next day if there’s anything to report,” she explains.

The next day her phone rang.

“This cute little nurse said, ‘Your numbers are awesome. You have reversed the Type 2 diabetes. They are so good you’re not even prediabetic any more.’”

After celebrating with her husband and kids, Jody was back at the gym, sobbing again. But this time, instead of sympathy, she received “high-fives, hugs, tears.” The same people who commiserated with her in January celebrated with her in July.

“We did the happy dance,” remembers gym owner Kevin Lundell. “It was a big freakin’ deal.”

* * *

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Jody Reid, a mother of three who reversed her Type 2 diabetes through exercise and diet, participates in a fitness class at Roy CrossFit in Roy on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Three years have come and gone since Jody reversed her diabetes. She continues to eat better. She admits she has her lapses. “I’m still addicted to sweets,” she says, confessing to what she calls “a bender” she went on during the holidays last year.

She was relieved when her blood work numbers were still OK after that. “I thought I was doing awful but I think overall my habits are significantly better than the behavior that led to the Type 2 diabetes. The changes and choices I made then influence the choices I make today.

“I’m not perfect, but now I know about nutrition and what I need to do to stay healthy. It’s hard work. It’s not always uphill, it’s not always downhill, but it’s never a straight line.”

Her CrossFit classes remain a daily staple.

“How awesome this CrossFit community is,” she says, “to be surrounded by people who want to be healthier, who want you to be healthier, who cheer you on to do hard things. I’m way healthier in my 30s than I was in my 20s, and happier. It’s easier to live life when you’re feeling better.”

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Jody Reid, a mother of three who reversed her Type 2 diabetes through exercise and diet, is pictured at Roy CrossFit in Roy on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Your ‘Healthy’ Diet May Not Be as Healthy as You Think, Study Finds

When you’re hoping to eliminate fat, any amount of factors can weaken your solve and get in the way of development. But in several instances, the scale may possibly refuse to budge, even if you have been sticking to your approach. Findings from a research exhibit that portion of the issue could lie in our dietary perceptions and misperceptions.

Researchers found that people today seeking to shed body weight generally overestimated how nutritious their diet regime was, a hole that could sabotage bodyweight-decline attempts. The preliminary exploration will be presented at the American Coronary heart Association’s Scientific Classes 2022, held in man or woman in Chicago and pretty much, November 5 to 7.

“We found that even though persons normally know that fruits and veggies are nutritious, there may possibly be a disconnect involving what researchers and health care gurus contemplate to be a nutritious and balanced food plan in contrast with what the general public thinks is a healthy and balanced diet,” reported examine author Jessica Cheng, PhD, a postdoctoral investigate fellow in epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan College of Community Wellness and in basic inner medicine at Massachusetts Basic Medical center, the two in Boston, in a press launch.

About Fifty percent of Adults in the U.S. Try to Eliminate Body weight Each Yr

Virtually 50 {bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of U.S. adults try to lose pounds every calendar year, according to the Centers for Disorder Regulate and Prevention (CDC) (PDF), with a the greater part attempting to take in a lot more fruits, greens, and salads.

The 3 Billion People Who Can’t Afford a Healthy Diet

Visualized: The Biggest Donors of the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections

This year’s midterm election is expected to set a new spending record, with over $9 billion being raised. This is significantly higher than the previous record of $7 billion, which was set in 2018.

According to a recent analysis by the Washington Post, $1 billion of these funds can be attributed to the top 50 donors. In typical Visual Capitalist style, we’ve illustrated this data to provide you with better insight.

Overview of the Data

The following table lists the top 10 individual donors of the 2022 midterm elections.

Rank Name Affiliation Total Donation (USD millions)
#1 George Soros Democrat $129
#2 Elizabeth & Richard Uihlein Republican $70
#3 Kenneth Griffin Republican $66
#4 Jeffrey Yass Republican $48
#5 Sam Bankman-Fried Democrat $39
#6 Stephen Schwarzman Republican $33
#7 Timothy Mellon Republican $33
#8 Larry Ellison Republican $31
#9 Peter Thiel Republican $30
#10 Patrick & Shirley Ryan Republican $27

Sorting this top 10 donor list by party, we can see that $168 million was raised for the Democrats, and $338 million for the Republicans.

Continue reading below for some interesting background info on all 10 of these individuals. Net worth values were gathered from Forbes on November 1, 2022.

George Soros (Net worth: $7B)

George Soros is a Hungarian-born American billionaire, widely known for his philanthropical efforts and for “breaking” the Bank of England. He has had an illustrious career as a hedge fund manager, founding Soros Fund Management in 1970. Visit this page to see the top 100 holdings of Soros Fund Management’s portfolio.

Soros has donated over $30 billion of his fortune to various causes and charities. He is the founder and chairman of two Super PACs (political action committees) named Democracy PAC and Democracy PAC II.

Unlike regular PACs, Super PACs face no limits in terms of fundraising or political spending.

Elizabeth & Richard Uihlein (Combined net worth: $7B)

Elizabeth & Richard Uihlein are the founders of Uline, one of North America’s largest distributors of logistics supplies (boxes, tape, gloves, etc.). The company makes several billion in sales per year.

The couple have gained media attention for making substantial donations to the Republican party. According to Forbes, the Uihleins have donated a total of $194 million since the 1990s.

Kenneth Griffin (Net worth: $31B)

Kenneth Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel, a hedge fund based in the U.S. He also owns Citadel Securities, which is the largest market maker on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Market makers act as a middleman in financial markets by facilitating buy and sell orders for investors. Using equities (stocks) as an example, when a market maker receives an order from a buyer, it sells shares from its own inventory. This enables the stock market to run smoothly.

Griffin found himself in the spotlight during the GameStop short squeeze when his firm provided emergency funding to Melvin Capital Management.

Jeffrey Yass (Net worth: $30B)

Once a pro gambler, Jeffrey Yass is a cofounder of Susquehanna International Group (SIG), a successful trading firm based in Philadelphia. SIG specializes in quantitative research and trading, which involves the use of computer algorithms to identify opportunities.

Yass is frequently cited as the richest person in the state of Pennsylvania and has gained media attention for his large political contributions.

Sam Bankman-Fried (Net worth: $17B)

Sam Bankman-Fried is the founder and CEO of FTX, which is currently the world’s third largest cryptocurrency exchange behind Binance and Coinbase. The company is based in the Bahamas and offers trading in more than 300 cryptocurrencies.

In May 2022, Bankman-Fried declared that he was willing to donate “north of $100 million” in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. He has since backtracked this comment.

At some point, when you’ve given your message to voters, there’s just not a whole lot more you can do.
– Sam Bankman-Fried

Stephen Schwarzman (Net worth: $35B)

Stephen Schwarzman is the chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group, a globally recognized private equity firm. Blackstone’s portfolio of companies includes Ancestry.com, a well-known family history service, and Bumble, a popular online dating platform.

Shown below, Schwarzman’s wealth has increased substantially since 2020.

The 3 Billion People Who Can’t Afford a Healthy Diet

The bulk of Schwarzman’s political contributions have gone towards the Senate Leadership Fund, an independent Super PAC which aims to build a Republican Senate majority.

Timothy Mellon (Family net worth: $11B)

Timothy Mellon was the chairman and majority owner of Pan Am Systems, a privately held company with operations in transportation, manufacturing, and energy. In November 2020, CSX Corporation announced it had signed an agreement to purchase Pan Am. The sale was approved in April 2022.

Mellon made headlines in 2021 when it was revealed that he made a whopping $53 million donation to the Texas border wall fund. At the time of reporting, this represented 98{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of total funding.

Larry Ellison (Net worth: $102B)

Larry Ellison is the chairman and cofounder of Oracle, one of the world’s largest software companies. Oracle is listed on the NYSE and has a market cap of over $200 billion. Ellison was also a Tesla board member from December 2018 to August 2022.

The vast majority of his political contributions have gone towards the Opportunity Matters Fund, which supports candidates who promote the Opportunity Agenda. It calls for enhanced financial literacy, apprenticeships, and education options.

Peter Thiel (Net worth: $4B)

Peter Thiel is a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist, perhaps best known for cofounding PayPal. He also cofounded Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company, and is a general partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital firm with investments in major names such as SpaceX.

Thiel is one of the Republican Party’s largest donors, a position that sets him apart from many other Silicon Valley figures. In February 2022, it was reported that he would be stepping down as a Meta board member.

Patrick and Shirley Ryan (Patrick’s net worth: $9B)

Patrick Ryan is the founder and retired CEO of AON Corporation, one of the world’s largest insurance companies. In 2010, he founded another company known as Ryan Specialty Group, which provides services to insurance brokers.

Together with his wife Shirley, the Ryans have made large donations towards the Senate Leadership Fund and other Republican groups.

At any age, a healthy diet can extend your life

Remark

No make any difference how old you are, or how a great deal junk food items you eat, it’s hardly ever also late to start out undoing the hurt brought about by a weak diet plan.

Which is the information from researchers who research how our meals decisions affect our existence spans and our risk of developing ailments. They have identified that individuals can attain sizable health positive aspects at any age by chopping back again on hugely processed foodstuff loaded with salt, sugar and other additives and replacing them with more wholesome meals like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, lentils, seafood and total grains.

The previously you start out, the improved. Next a healthy diet plan from a youthful age potential customers to the greatest gains in everyday living expectancy. But even individuals who wait around until eventually center age or later on to increase their feeding on routines however can add a long time to their lives.

The investigation is empowering for a number of good reasons. It exhibits that you do not essentially have to rework your food plan to attain benefits. Even compact variations, like introducing a handful of nuts to your day-to-day diet program as a midday snack and reducing back on processed meats like ham and scorching canines can likely insert decades to your daily life. And it implies that even if you are in your 60s or older, building these rather smaller variations to your eating plan could still lead to big rewards.

A healthier foods improve at any age

In a analyze in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists followed approximately 74,000 people in between the ages of 30 and 75 for over two a long time. Through that time, they analyzed their diets and lifestyle patterns and tracked alterations in what they ate. The scientists made use of numerous scoring devices to assess the high-quality of their diet programs, including the Alternate Wholesome Feeding on Index, which was produced by nutrition gurus at the Harvard T.H. Chan College of Public Wellbeing.

The index gives very low scores to unhealthy meals and increased scores to much healthier food items. Amongst the foodstuff that been given substantial scores had been fruits, greens, nuts, seeds, beans, complete grains and foods prosperous in unsaturated fats and heart-nutritious omega-3 fatty acids, like fish, avocados and olive oil. Some of the harmful meals that acquired reduced scores have been factors like red and processed meats and meals higher in sodium and added sugars, this sort of as sugar-sweetened beverages, pizza, potato chips and other junk food items.

What are ultra-processed food items? What need to I consume rather?

The more nutritious foods persons ate, and the much less junk food items they eaten, the larger their diet program scores. The researchers discovered that folks who experienced continually higher diet regime scores have been up to 14 p.c considerably less probably to die of any trigger in the course of the study period of time when compared to individuals who experienced persistently very poor weight loss plans.

But potentially most significant: Individuals who enhanced their taking in practices saw significant added benefits. The researchers located that individuals who enhanced their diet plan scores by just 20 p.c throughout the examine experienced at minimum an 8 percent reduction in mortality through the review time period and a 7 to 15 percent fall in their probability of dying from heart illness, specially. Acquiring a 20 p.c maximize in your eating plan score could be as simple as changing the sugary drinks in your food plan with sparkling water and eating at least one handful of nuts or one serving of beans or lentils day by day, stated Mercedes Sotos-Pieto, the direct writer of the review.

She pointed out that most of the contributors in the analyze were being around 60 several years previous, demonstrating that it’s in no way also late to reward from an advancement in your consuming practices. The reductions in mortality amid people today who improved their feeding on patterns mostly stemmed from a decreased incidence of cardiovascular illness, which is strongly motivated by diet regime. Cardiovascular condition is the primary trigger of loss of life worldwide.

Just add nuts, grains, beans and peas

Sotos-Pieto observed that feeding on a additional healthy diet plan by making compact and gradual advancements in your meals options about time can enable you reduce bodyweight and reduce your cholesterol stages, blood tension, blood sugar and inflammation — all of which can increase your cardiovascular health and lessen your likelihood of owning a coronary heart assault or stroke.

“It’s not vital to drastically transform your life-style,” mentioned Sotos-Pieto, an assistant professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and an adjunct professor at Harvard’s School of Community Wellness. “Choose modest targets that you can attain and maintain above time.”

In one more analyze printed previously this yr in PLOS Medication, researchers analyzed significant quantities of details on the affect that unique foodstuff have on the possibility of premature death. Then they utilised that data, together with other study on deaths and continual disease fees, to estimate how variations in a person’s eating plan might influence their life expectancy at unique ages.

The researchers located that a 20-calendar year-outdated who switched from the typical Western eating plan to an optimum Mediterranean-model diet plan (and stuck with it) could add on regular 11 to 13 several years to his or her lifetime expectancy. But even seniors could gain: A 60-yr-previous who built this change could strengthen their existence expectancy by up to 9 decades, and an 80-12 months-old could obtain about a few-and-a-50 {bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} years.

The examine uncovered that the biggest gains in lifestyle expectancy stemmed from having extra legumes these as beans, peas, lentils and peanuts. If overhauling your diet program appears like a overwhelming job, then get started little by introducing a number of significantly essential meals to your diet program.

  • Consume a handful of nuts each individual working day
  • Increase a couple servings of total grains to your diet plan. Change to brown rice instead of white rice.
  • Take in at the very least just one cup of beans, lentils or peas day by day. Increase chickpeas to a salad eat a burrito bowl with black or pinto beans.
  • Incorporate nut butters (peanut butter or almond butter) to toast, oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast.

The outsize health and fitness benefits you obtain from eating more legumes, nuts and whole grains stems from their metabolic profile, claimed Lars Fadnes, the lead writer of the PLOS Drugs analyze and a professor at the University of Bergen in Norway. These food items are nutrient-dense, made up of massive quantities of fiber, natural vitamins and minerals.

Legumes for illustration are higher in protein and they include many B natural vitamins, iron, copper, magnesium, manganese, zinc and phosphorous, he explained. These food items have also been revealed in medical trials to reduce irritation and increase cholesterol stages and other metabolic markers that affect your daily life span.

Fadnes emphasised that if you eat a whole lot of junk food items, the before you transform your taking in behaviors the far better. Even for men and women who are overweight, older and in poor metabolic overall health, the benefits you can achieve from feeding on far more wholesome foods, he claimed, “are possible to be substantial.”

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Do you have a problem about balanced eating? E-mail EatingLab@washpost.com and we might response your concern in a upcoming column.

Trying to Lose Weight? You May Be Overestimating Your Diet, Study Finds

Are you one of the roughly 50{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of Individuals hoping to lose pounds? If so, what rating would you give the nutrient density of your food plan? A modest, new examine demonstrates that your score would most very likely fall quick of what general public health organizations think about balanced.

The info was introduced this 7 days at the American Coronary heart Association’s Scientific Classes 2022 and located that only 1 in 4 dieters precisely assessed how balanced their food plan was. 

The review adopted 116 people involving the ages of 35 and 58 who were being attempting to get rid of body weight. Everyone met with a registered dietitian to explore their diet regime and tracked their every day foods and drink intake by way of a fitness application for one 12 months. In addition to tracking foodstuff and consume, they also had been needed to don a device that adopted their physical activity. At the beginning and end of the study, participants finished a two-working day, 24-hour recall of their diet program. The foods recorded in the recall have been then calculated to deliver a healthful feeding on index (HEI) rating. The HEI assesses how shut a participant’s food plan is to the US nutritional guidelines. The higher the rating, the greater quality of the eating plan. Individuals ended up also asked to self-score their eating plan as perfectly. At the completion of the examine, 1 in 4 men and women had an HEI rating that agreed with their perceived self-scores. Research authors noted that lower high quality diets may generally guide to aggravation and pounds attain.

The study’s guide author, Dr. Jess Cheng, is a postdoctoral fellow division of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan University of General public Wellness and the Section of Standard Internal Medication at Massachusetts Normal Hospital. Cheng finished the exploration though she was a predoctoral fellow/Ph.D. candidate at the College of Pittsburgh Faculty of Public Health. She informed These days that “there is data from NHANES (Nationwide Health and fitness and Nutrition Examination Survey) that summarizes people’s procedures when attempting to eliminate excess weight. These facts recommend that although folks do attempt to change the good quality of their diet, exercise and eating significantly less are extra typically used tactics than changing the intake of sure foodstuff (e.g., fruit and sugar).”

Cheng also pointed out that “it’s achievable there is confusion regarding what a wholesome eating plan is, which might be dealt with by general public wellness sources and healthcare specialists.”

If you are seeking to lose body weight, how can you be guaranteed you are executing it in a way that promotes both overall health and bodyweight reduction? Here are 5 strategies to get started off.

Focus on high-quality of energy more than quantity of calories

When it will come to healthful feeding on, the excellent of your energy will generally trump the amount. When you choose to eat anything, question by yourself what reward food stuff will have on your health and fitness, pounds loss objectives and longevity. Then, emphasis on consuming meals that satisfy this need at minimum 90{bf0515afdcaddba073662ceb89fbb62b6b1bf123143c0e06b788e1946e8c353f} of the time. One way to do this is to lessen the intake of extremely-processed foods, which give energy, nevertheless no authentic nourishment. Change the potato chip with roasted chickpeas and the scorching canine with a wild salmon sandwich on a cauliflower bun, for illustration. If you continue to want to concentrate on monitoring figures, aim on the range of hours in your ingesting window. Several research demonstrate that just consuming your foods in an 8-10 hour window (a kind of fasting termed time-restricted having) may well assist to drop lbs.

Find specialist assistance

When it comes to healthy ingesting, you may possibly require to dig further into free of charge, public wellbeing means. Cheng stated that “consumers may perhaps be acquainted with MyPlate, which changed the Food stuff Pyramid and which presents a good visible depiction of a healthy plate. Nevertheless, they may well not be mindful that there are healthier recipes and other assets to check your information and develop nourishment knowledge and techniques accessible on the MyPlate web site.” She also indicates that “consumers might also go over their food plan with their overall health treatment supplier who may be in a position to refer them to added means or to a skilled such as a dietitian.”

Shop for foodstuff that fills you up

Receiving most of your calories from plants is a great way to make sure that you get plenty of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Fiber, balanced fats and protein increase satiety and fullness — meaning you’ll try to eat a lot less about the system of the day. One particular way to do this is to merely concentration on far more coloration. Goal for 7 colours just about every day amongst foods and snacks. For illustration, have some whole grain metal-slash oats with berries for breakfast, an apple with almond butter for a snack, and blended greens salad with added virgin olive oil and grilled salmon for lunch. For protein, colorful beans and lentils give each protein and fiber. For men and women hunting to mix in some animal resources of protein, higher-high-quality sources these as salmon, skinless white meat poultry, and small amounts of lean cuts of meat, these as wild bison, may possibly assistance to fill protein requires. 

Regard the power of rest

Rest is important for effective excess weight reduction. Aiming for a 7-hour window, for example, has been demonstrated to assist enhance brain wellbeing and may also aid to boost unwanted fat decline and inhibit extreme hunger and cravings.   

Glimpse past the scale

In the current review, members were asked to weigh on their own day by day. This everyday habit may possibly direct to an more than-reliance on locating success with the amount on the scale. Accurate achievements in overall health may perhaps start out with a reduction in stomach fat nonetheless, enhancements in metabolic quantities that assess lipid and blood sugar degrees, as well as liver enzymes, will be the accurate key to longevity. If weighing yourself day by day can help you keep on observe, it’s worthy of hoping, but it can not replace a yearly check out to your primary care supplier who can assess other important measurements that may perhaps be much more crucial to your in general wellness.

Dropping body weight — and maintaining it off — is difficult. You are human so you won’t be the picture of perfectionism each and every day. That’s not only usual but expected. As an alternative, target on getting nutrient-dense meals and making well being your major aim. The excess weight will almost certainly start off falling off if you do.

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Trying to Lose Weight? You May Be Overestimating Your Diet, Study Finds