Nick Norwitz presents a study of TORD, a ketogenic diet program that kept participants under 30g carbs daily without calorie counting. The intervention combined keto with real-time messaging support, online coaching, and biofeedback, designed to help people escape the cycle of repeated diet failures.
Now pause for a moment and consider if you or someone you know has ever found themselves in this valley of diet despair. Okay, sadness over. The Metabolic Health Clinic took on this challenge and enrolled 50 participants in an intense multimodal lifestyle change program abbreviated TORD, and I'll unpack that in a moment, but it's centered on patients consuming a ketogenic diet with fewer than 30 grams of total carbohydrates per day. But patients were explicitly told not to attempt caloric restriction and instead eat according to their subjective hunger. Okay, now what is TORD? It stands for Text-Based Communications and Messaging, Online Interactions, Wellness Coaching, Asynchronous Education and Community Support, Real-Time Biofeedback, and Diet—focusing on a ketogenic diet, with or without time-restricted feeding or intermittent fasting. Basically, in addition to the ketogenic diet, patients were given access to a messaging platform where they could contact members of the healthcare team in real time to get their questions answered. I'll tell you, drawing from experience with my own coaching, this form of support is invaluable.
