Help! I’m losing too much weight!

Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse.

Yeah, so we are back with another question from the vault, I guess you could say.

All right.

Yeah, so we're not going to do a listener question this week. We'll be back to those next week. But we had a specific topic we wanted to touch on because it comes up a lot in the Facebook group, which is the Kidney Stone Prevention Facebook group.

There's thousands of people in there. You can join in, join in on the conversation. But it's one that comes up for a subset of the people in that group.

Yes, and it is, "Ever since I started a low-oxalate diet, I've lost way too much weight." Now, most people are going to be like, "Oh, too bad for you. You can't keep weight on." But it is a problem. It's a big problem.

So, these are people typically I work with,

I work with them in the Kidney Stone Prevention Course, but typically these people, because they know people are like, "Oh, too bad. So sad for you that you're losing too much weight." So typically these are private patients, and they do struggle because of this.

So, when you do the Kidney Stone Diet, if you're overweight, you will lose weight because what are we talking about here? Forget about the oxalate, let's not focus on that. When we lower sugar and salt, you're going to eat healthier, so you will typically lose weight.

I'm going to remind you guys though this, some people say, "Hey, I've gained a few pounds." When you're incorporating calcium back into your diet, nobody here is young enough where we can put a few hundred extra calories in without taking them away somewhere. So remember that, too. All right, so for people who are losing too much weight,

This always means one thing. They are, they are taking away too many foods. They're so freaked out about the oxalate portion.

Many of these people have never even done a 24-hour urine— Really, Luke? Lay down.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

I love you. I love you.

Anyone listening, that's Jill's dog.

A big chocolate lab. So many people will say, "Okay, they're they're taking away too many foods because they've been told to lower their oxalate." First of all, this generic lower the oxalate, what does that really mean, lower your oxalate?

So people then, st—, they just stop eating anything with oxalate, which is all plant food, people, so that's not good for you. So, the thing is, there's so much you can eat, I promise you there's so much you can eat. People take away everything.

Avocado is a great example. "Avocados are high. This is very high." Well,

Forget about the adjectives describing foods. If you get 100 mg a day of oxalate, which is how much you can have unless a doctor has told you otherwise, you can see on the Harvard list, there's so many foods you can eat, right? So you got to take away spinach, you got to take away almonds, you got to take away raspberries, and a couple other things.

But everything else, people are like, "I have peanut butter I can't have." Yes, you can! Two tablespoons is 26 mg of oxalate. You still have, whatever, 83, whatever, I can't add!

But I'm just saying you still have plenty to eat. So, guys, if you are losing too much weight on the Kidney Stone Diet, you're not eating enough is the problem because you're so worried about oxalate. That has been my experience for the last couple decades.

So please know that there is so much more you can eat than you think. And that is why

I made the safe list, which is still the Harvard list. I just took away the adjectives describing the foods because when you give somebody a list and the adjectives saying high and very high, they don't look at numbers anymore. So from the Harvard list, I made the Safe Harvard List, which just takes away the adjectives so you can see clearly, "Here's a portion size of food.

Here's how much oxalate. Work it into your day."

So, you know, in my meal plan service, I'll put sweet potatoes in there. And then in every recipe I give in that service, I write a Kidney Stone Safe Diet Tip. And I'll say, "I know you think I'm— there's something wrong with me that I put sweet potatoes in here because it's a high-oxalate food, but you can clearly see based upon the portion size I use, you can still eat sweet potatoes.

You just can't have five a day because you're a bodybuilder and that's all you're eating."

So you can certainly work in most foods on a low-oxalate diet. It's lowering oxalate, taking away the highest, highest, few oxalate foods, but eating everything else in portion size, getting your calcium every day. And, guys, you can really start putting some weight back on.

So to wrap this up, the point is this:

Eat a wide variety of foods, not the same foods over and over that the high— that are highest in oxalate. And you get 100 mg a day unless the doctor has told you otherwise. So there's plenty, plenty to eat.

So I don't want you losing any more weight. I understand, also, the fear with kidney stone disease. They hit you out of the blue.

You're being rushed to the. You have stents and ureteroscopies and lithotripsies and all this craziness, not to mention the unbelievable pain you're in.

So when a patient goes through all that, of course they're going to be freaked out. Of course they're going to worry about every little morsel they put in their mouth. This happens in my practice every single day.

It's a daily thing, and that's why I wanted to address it today. So when people in the Facebook group can say, "I'm losing too much weight," I'm going to put this link right over there so they can see this video and understand that they're depriving themselves

Too much now, out of the fear and the anxiety and the shock of what they've just gone through. It makes perfect sense. But now, especially during COVID, I don't want anybody being less weight, and God forbid they got sick and they don't have any now reserves.

So people, if you're having— if you're struggling, you need to gain some weight, please know that there's plenty to eat. Go to kidneystonediet.com or just Google "the safe— the safe oxalate list Jill" and you'll find it, okay? And find that list and then read the article that goes with it so you understand how to use it.

That's everything I wanted to say. In one breath!

Well, yeah!

Yeah, yeah, really.

But that's important. I mean if someone needs help either direction, I mean losing weight or gaining weight, like you have so much experience working with thousands of patients over the years on both sides, every part of that spectrum, which you're there to help.

Yes, I have a lot of people lose weight, too. Absolutely, absolutely.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and when it comes to, fitness and stuff as well, I know we've talked about maybe integrating a little something in the future because like this is this is a holistic approach to health because you've you've done the, like they say, 10,000 hours, I mean hundreds of thousands of hours in this space, so you can help people out wherever they are on their journey with this.

Well, I think the biggest joy for me, of course, I care about kidney stone disease because people have suffered so long and so much, right? And there's not really enough help out there to guide somebody through what they need to learn. But the bigger part is I just love each person I talk to, even though I've talked to so many people, everyone's just a little bit different.

So everybody who comes to me, it's like a little puzzle trying to figure out not just what's going— the point is talking to them,

Listening to them, where their obstacles are, how they struggle. Everyone's a little bit different. What's getting in their way to live a healthier life as far as eating and exercising goes.

What is in the way? And then trying to figure out how they can best hear the information. How I talk to one patient may be totally different on how I talk to another patient.

And you've got to listen to people well so you understand how to help them.

Look, I could just throw out lists all day long like everybody else does, but that's not helping people. We've got to talk to people and listen to them to find out where they struggle and help them through those obstacles, and perhaps turn some lights on in their head so they do hear something a different way and it's more doable now, right?

They can really say, "Oh, my god, I can really do this." That's what turns me on about working in this sector.

That, you know, having successful patients who work really hard and figure out what's getting in their way, so then they can be successful long term, not just for, you know, Susan's wedding that she has to look adorable in. No, you want to do it long term because you want to fight disease, you want to make sure you pre— prevent stones and every other disease if you possibly can because, as we all know, being sick is terrible, just terrible.

Yeah, for sure. So, if you want to work with Jill, head over to kidneystonediet.com where you can find the Kidney Stone Prevention Course. And the course is a self-directed, video series, but as Jill said, working with people, there are group calls.

So, every week, Jill is in the call with you. You can ask questions. She's helping you along your journey along with the rest of the community, and that is that's that is the course.

That is what really makes it shine and why people

Keep coming back. I mean, they're working directly with you and getting so much value out of out of that, service.

Absolutely. And they're like office hours, because people will say, "Well, I can't make every day course." Some people come once a month, some people come twice a week, some people come to everyone. So, it— they're there up— you know, you plan it around what you got going on.

You don't have to come to everyone. That is a support group to help you and educate you even more, more specifically tweak to you. And then, lead— and then that's it, I promise.

The other thing is, people just come to get motivated by me and to listen to what other people are going through, and then they could help them, too. So, it's very supportive, it's very helpful, but there's a lot of motivation in there. I always have something to say, as we all know, I'm pretty long winded, to motivate you or have you think about something a little bit differently.

So, always trying to perk you up and make you think so you could change things or keep it going. That's what that group is for, too. Many people stay in that support group to lose weight, and they're very successful because they work very hard.

Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, if that sounds like it's the right fit for you, head on over to kidneystonediet.com, and you'll find the course right on the home page, along with all the free resources, the meal plans, the free recipes, the email newsletter, a link to the Facebook group, and everything. But, yeah, if you have a question—

I'm on friggin' TikTok now!

You are! That's awesome.

You're everywhere! What do I do? And I have to say, so I only have two little things up there right now.

TikTok is pretty addictive. I— I don't really need to be on TikTok. I had no idea.

And my son is like, "Really? Can I just have one social media that you ain'on? I don't want to see you." I said, "Then don't follow me.

What are you doing?" Like, "I don't follow you, but sometimes you pop up on my thing." Like, yeah, so now I'm on TikTok, too. I got to get more of Jeff on there.

Yeah, yeah. That'll be— that'll be coming soon. But, yeah, you can, find Jill everywhere.

You can find this on YouTube. You might be watching right now, but, yeah, we appreciate no matter where you are, consuming the content and sharing with people in need of it. Yeah, that'll do it for this week.

Then, and I almost did my outro for my show, but that'll do it for this week, and we'll see you all next time.

Bye, everybody!