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There have been a number of questions from you and one of our readers had a number of good ones. Below are just a few of the things you've asked about and some answers we hope will be helpful.

I am using a program that tells me the calories, protein, fiber, and other nutrients in what I'm eating and it tells me I'm not getting enough of many of these. Am I getting enough?

I suspect your nutrition tracker is programmed to compare your intake with someone who is eating a regular diet, not a diet that is lower in calories.

The Mayo Clinic Diet has been analyzed for its nutritional adequacy and people who have been on it have had vitamin levels measured, so if you're following it as prescribed, you'll be fine.

It would be extremely unusual to not get enough fiber on this diet because of unlimited amounts of vegetables and fruits along with whole grains. Regarding calories, although you start out at a prescribed level that may seem too low, remember you can eat generous amounts of vegetables and fruits.

This will increase your calorie intake a little, but not too much. We've taken that into consideration in our calorie levels. Also, most people tend to eat a few more calories than what they think they're eating. Ultimately, what counts is if you're losing weight at an appropriate rate (approximately 1-2 pounds per week in the Live It! phase).

How can I convert servings on The Mayo Clinic Diet to calories and protein?

The number of calories per serving from each of the food groups and the amount of food in a serving for most foods is listed on pages 210-223.

Just total up the calories from all your servings in each food group for the day (with the correct amount of food in each serving) and you should get pretty close. Most foods contain a little protein, even those that are not in the protein/dairy group.

So, you'll be getting more protein in your overall diet than just the protein from the foods in the protein/dairy group and for this reason it's difficult (and may not be necessary) to calculate exactly how much. The bottom line is if you follow the pyramid and our guidelines, you'll get enough protein.

I thought monounsaturated fats were the best and I'm trying to focus on them. Why does The Mayo Clinic Diet seems to lump all fats together?

We don't lump all fats together — we emphasize unsaturated fats and especially monounsaturated fat (see page 28-29, Eat Healthy Fats) You're right, there is evidence they have a beneficial effect on health, so if you like olive oil and nuts, include them in your diet (just watch the number of servings!).

The Mayo Clinic Diet does not seem to count the carbs in vegetables and fruits, only whole grains. How do I know how many carbs I'm getting?

In terms of carbs, we realize you'll be getting some in vegetables and fruits — but if you follow the program your total intake will be fine. We wanted to make this simple so you don't have to worry about counting carbs. In general, foods contain a mixture of carbs, protein and fat. The foods in each of our food groups are good sources of the nutrients in that group, but may also contain other nutrients.

We designed The Mayo Clinic Diet and the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid to meet your needs and do it safely. We also designed it to be simple. While you may not have all the same details that other programs may use, realize that if you follow our guidelines you should do fine — don't make it too hard. Good luck!

- Don Hensrud

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Our weekly general interest
e-newsletter keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics.

Recently, there was an article in a medical journal on myths about obesity, and there are many. Why is this?

Losing weight is challenging as everyone knows. And much more complex than it seems. It's much more than just eating less and exercising more. Because we don't understand weight loss well enough to be more successful, we search for explanations — and myths are created. Here are a few of these myths:

The reason why I weigh more is my metabolic rate is low. As people gain weight they increase not only body fat, but also some muscle to support that fat. Approximately 20-30 percent of excess weight is muscle. Muscle tissue burns calories, so the more muscle someone has, the greater the metabolic rate. So in general, the more someone weighs, the greater their metabolic rate. This doesn't include calories burned through physical activity. The reason why I weigh more is my thyroid isn't working well. It's true that weight gain will occur in someone who has advanced hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormone). However, weight gain doesn't occur until someone has had hypothyroidism severely and for a long time. The vast majority of people whose thyroid gland isn't working properly have it discovered on a laboratory test when it's mild, long before it affects body weight. A simple blood test can tell if your thyroid gland is working properly. Small changes in calorie intake will cause large changes in body weight over time. Occasionally, someone will state something such as: If you eat one less cookie each day, and that cookie contains 100 calories, then by doing the math you should lose more than 10 pounds after one year. Yet, why don't we know more people who've accomplished this? It's because as we lose weight, we burn less calories (our metabolic rate decreases as discussed above). This is also one of the reasons why we hit a plateau when we lose weight, and one of the complexities of weight loss.

There are many other weight loss myths. In our book, "The Mayo Clinic Diet," we have tried to take some of the myths and complexities out of weight loss. We try to explain things simply and provide a program that people can understand and follow. While weight loss is still challenging, we believe this can help.

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