Dr. Terry Simpson, of Phoenix, said there were some non-believers when he first mentioned a very unique diet he was supervising. “I don’t think anyone believed we’d see any weight loss success, following a diet that consisted of just beer and sausage. I’m a physician, and I wasn’t sure what to expect either. The results were pretty surprising, and defy most people’s logic,” shared the weight loss surgeon.

Could a diet made up of two components: beer and sausage, not known for being low calorie foods, actually help you to lose weight? For the past 3 years, one Phoenix man has followed the beer and sausage diet for the entire month of October. Evo Terra began his Oktoberfest themed diet in 2010, under the supervision of Dr. Terry Simpson, and the two diligently tracked the results.

“Evo drank up to six beers each day, and had two sausages each day, for the entire month of October. And would you believe he not only lost weight, but other health factors improved, as well? Of course when we started the diet 3 years ago, we weren’t sure what the results would be after 30 days, but I don’t think we expected the success Evo experienced,” remarked Simpson.

Evo successfully dropped 14 pounds the first October, and has consistently lost weight each consecutive year. His cholesterol levels went down, and his blood chemistry got better, said Simpson.

“It was a fun diet for me to supervise,” said the doctor. “I like collecting data, and let’s face it, a lot of what we know about food, calories, and how our body uses nutrients is based on statistics gathered from large group studies. There aren’t a lot of studies run on an individual. This beer and sausage diet allowed us to get new data on how the body processes and interacts with very specific foods, when limited to a very specific portion, for a controlled amount of time,” said Dr. Simpson.

According to Dr. Simpson, this wasn’t just a “throw caution to the wind, eat as much as you want, drink as much as you want” diet. He and Evo carefully designed the diet not to exceed 1,500 calories per day, and portion control was important. According to Dr. Simpson, one of the most important things learned from this experiment is – a calorie is just a calorie.

Originally appeared on DigitalJournal.com