Most people
know the flexi-diet philosophy now.
- Lower calories (click for more information)
- Calorie cycling (click for more information)
- Meal skipping - when appropriate(click for more information)
- Fasting
To make
sure most of this weight loss comes from fat stores, I add
- Higher protein intake (click for more information)
- Resistance training
For the toned look, we want to lose as much fat as possible, not muscle.
I also try
to make the diet as healthy as possible without sabotaging long term success by
being too restrictive. Lowering calories and encouraging weight loss tends to
promote health benefits for the overweight in almost every scenario, but
especially if combined with a nutritious diet. Including more anti-inflammatory
foods, calorie cycling and periods of fasting have also been scientifically
proven to improve symptoms of inflammatory diseases (heart disease, Alzheimer’s,
Asthma etc). Fasting and resistance training have also been shown to lower
insulin levels; so those worried about type 2 diabetes can also benefit from
these tactics.
I also
promote higher fiber, anti-inflammatory, and a diet rich in micronutrients and phytonutrients, in
order to maximise health and potentially improve fat loss.
Dogmatic
So, from
the outside, the approach is relatively standard, with a few funkier elements
thrown in. However, as discussed in THIS ARTICLE, people often go overboard
and get very anal about their diet. No longer can they have their favourite
foods, or ‘junk food’ is completely banished, as no one ever got a six pack
eating sugar or McDonalds, right?
Wrong
One of the key elements of the Flexible diet is that you are free to choose the
foods you wish to include in your diet. Whilst higher quality whole foods are
encouraged to make up the majority of your diet, there is still room for your
favourite foods without hampering your goals.
Yes, you can still eat chocolate, go get a burger, put sugar in your coffee and
lose weight. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the facts.
Calories
Like it or
not, calories count. In every clinical, randomly controlled trial, when people
are put on a calorie restricted diet they lose weight. Whether they eat mainly
carbs, fats or protein is irrelevant. Low calorie diets will lose weight, with
low carb tending to lose the most weight (although this is largely gut bulk and
water losses creating what seems to be a superior weight loss). When looking at
body composition, higher protein intakes promote more fat loss and more
retention of lean body mass – this is a good thing.
lose more fat, keep more muscle - protein knows how
But your
body breaks down what it eats in very basic molecules. These are then either
burned directly for energy in the cells, or stored away for later use (as fat
or glycogen). Only glucose can be stored
as glycogen, although protein can be broken down into glucose (gluconeogenesis).
Both fat and carbohydrates can be stored as fat, and protein can be indirectly
stored as fat when it is converted to glucose (and then glucose to fat).
But the
bottom line is, the amount of energy you store versus the amount which is
burned will result in a weight gain or weight loss. Period.
Burgers
But surely
we can’t go to McDonalds and expect to lose weight? Look what happened to the
Supersize me guy.
Firstly
Morgan Spurlock ate upwards of 5,000 calories a day without exercise for his ‘supersize
me’ documentary. If you eat 5000 calories of anything and sit on your ass all
day, bad things will happen. Secondly, there is something called moderation. We
can go to McDonalds once, even twice a week and still not sabotage our results.
In fact, several people have taken it a step further. Read the below two
articles quickly.
That’s
right. A guy loses 37 pounds AND drops his cholesterol level whilst tucking
away into Big Macs, sundaes and ice cream cones every single day. All he did
was make sure he controlled his calorie intake for the day (which, ironically,
is really easy to do at fast food restaurants as the calories are printed on
the box).
Inspired by
his story, Guy 2 goes off and loses 100 POUNDS and gets a six pack doing the
same. Is this a fluke? Check out the video below showing 50 year old
bodybuilder Chazz Weaver getting a 6 pack in 30 days eating nothing but
McDonalds every day.
Again, he
showed only signs of improved health, with all blood markers improving. What
are the long term results to this type of eating? Well, check out the below
video.
So even after
25,000 big macs over the course of 39 years, his weight is below average and
his health and cholesterol levels are just fine.
What about sugar?
In 1997,
Surwitt et al studied the effects of a high sugar versus low sugar diet. The link
is here
The main
points to take away from this study are;
- Both groups lost the same amounts of weight
- Both groups showed decrease in blood pressure
- Both groups lost bodyfat
- Both groups showed lower depression, hunger and negative mood
- Both groups showed increases in positive mood and vigilance
- There were no differences in metabolism between the groups.
So a diet
with almost half of the consumed energy as table sugar showed no effect on the
above variables than a diet almost devoid (4%) of sugar.
And in real
life – the famous ‘twinkie diet’ shows that this can work, as professor Haub (who
teaches nutrition nonetheless) lost 30lb by eating nothing but sugary and fatty
twinkies, just to prove the point that calories count.
Mmmmm.... Twinkies
He also
managed to improve his bio markers of health in the process (cholesterol, blood
pressure etc).
I wrote
more about sugar here
Take home notes
I am in NO
WAY recommending you ditch healthy real food and eat nothing but junk. What I
am highlighting is that junk food, in the right context, can have a viable
place in your diet. Why would I promote this? Food is great for one. Why
deprive yourself of the things you love if you can achieve just as good success
with it? Also, mental health is just as important as what you put in your
mouth. Just changing your frame of mind can have an effect on the hormones your
body releases in response to food. Lastly, we are in this for the long haul. A
good diet is one which you can stick to for the rest of your life. Deprivation
and/or restricting food groups/macronutrients has been shown to be a big
determinant in whether someone stays on their diet or not.
If your diet looks like this, you probably need to change something
If your
diet, on the whole, is rich is whole foods, vitamins, minerals, fiber. If you
exercise regularly and control your calorie intake. If your overall diet is
anti-inflammatory and you are losing weight, there is no reason why you can’t
throw the odd ‘bad food’ in there.
We can see
that it does not adversely affect the goals of both the obese, the fit, the young
or the old. And in order to keep your sanity whilst dieting, and stay in this
for the long haul, it is probably beneficial that you keep some of the foods
you love in your diet.
Bottom line
– be sensible. Extremism is never usually a good thing. Allowing around 10-20%
of your daily calories as treats, or saving them up and having a bigger treat a
couple of times a week is a good philosophy. Alan Argon, a highly respected
nutritionist wrote about this very topic here
