A short rant on diets and dieting
Nutrition has never been more popular. There’s a constant flow of different diets surrounding the media and everyone has their opinion when it comes to what works and what doesn’t. There are more books, DVDs, television shows and online courses than anyone cares to read, see or attend.
Some blame the quantities of the food that we are eating and say that the problem is that we eat too much. Others put the blame on carbohydrates and processed foods saying that these two villains are making us sick and overweight. The carbohydrates and the processed food-thinking have their merits as long as the will doesn’t exceed the energy balance - you don’t eat more than you expend. I bet you know someone that has lost a lot of weight following some of the more popular diets out there.
I bet this person also swears by its effectiveness and preaching that they have tried everything and that this is the only way to go if you want results.
Maybe you’re one of these lost souls who found the light in the darkest of hours. As they say-night is the darkest just before dawn (Batman reference for all of you superhero-nerds out there). I’m one of those guys who think that the truth lies somewhere in the middle, that there’s more than one side to each story. The calories and the macros do matter, but so does the quality of the food. Just because you skip out on the carbs and the processed foods you can't be in a calorie surplus if you want to lose weight. But if you don’t give a shit about where the food comes from and basing your nutritional intake on processed crap, that won’t give you much bang for your (calorie) buck, you’re equally screwed and it won't take long before you’re back on square one again.
But there needs to be some form of rules and structure if a diet is going to be successful. The problem emerges when the diet, its rules and earthly leaders get cult-like characteristics where neither the rules surrounding the diet or its leaders can be challenged, and if they are, things can get ugly. Some people get so caught up in their diet that it almost gets the same characteristics as a marriage. The diet is like a religion where you pledge your eternal allegiance.
On the surface, popular diets may look very different. But if you scratch the surface, you will see that they all have one thing in common - they make you eat less than you expend- aka put you in a calorie deficit. Diet gurus and authors use different kinds of methods and rules, which makes the reader and user blind to the actual truth; that they, in the end, end up in a calorie deficit.
If you tell someone that carbs, sugar and insulin make them fat, they will automatically cut out things like bread, ice cream, candy, cookies, unicorns, rainbows and other awesome stuff that makes life worth living and easy to overeat. BAM, a calorie deficit is a fact and the person starts to lose weight and praises the diet guru who told him to stay away from these deadly but so (deadly) delicious foods. Some diets also encourage a higher protein and fiber intake, which over time will put you in a calorie deficit.
Every dieter out there has to find something that works for them, may it be one of the more popular diets like low carb high fat, keto, paleo or IIFYM.
They may all be good and work as long as you can adhere and implement it into your lifestyle.
If there is anything that you should take away from this short rant, it’s that there are no magic tricks out there, no shortcuts, no one size fits all-only hard work and consistency. If your goal is to lose weight, get yourself in a calorie deficit with a diet set-up that you can sustain for a longer period of time and supplement with some heavy weight lifting to increase/retain muscle mass and increase quality of life.
And because it’s awesome.
If your goal is to put on mass (which we’ll cover in another future article), eat in a moderate surplus, set protein intake >1.6g/kg body weight and train with a moderate to high volume with progressively heavier weights.
Hope you enjoyed the article. Until next time-take care! /Coach Daniel
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