I have said before that there are many different types of diets for the different needs and goals people have. For example, there is a huge difference between what a professional athlete considers a “good diet” and what a middle aged person looking to lose a few pounds that have accumulated over the years may consider a “good diet.” Which is right? Well… they both are. Your diet should suit your lifestyle and your goals. However, it is important to keep in mind that no matter what your goals are, the more aggressive approach you take, the more likely you will fail. In other words, if you want to lose 30 lbs in two months it is probably not going to happen. If it does, you are almost guaranteed to gain it all (and then some) back again. The more moderate your goals are, the more likely you will be able to sustain them for a long period of time; or ideally for the rest of your life. Hence, dieting is a lifestyle change. You should not really be “on a diet” simply “my diet (the way and what I eat) is this.”
If you read my blog posts on “Dieting for Dummies” then you will be reminded of the different degrees of dieting that accompany different goals. There are far too many variables from genetics to lifestyles and everything in between to assume that any one “fad” diet is going to work for everyone. There is just too much uncertainty involved. Where do we get concrete information and results? I will tell you.
In spite of having innumerous variables that are impossible to accurately calculate and compensate for, there are a few certainties or “givens” as I call them. What is a given? A given universally true. It is fact. It is not subject to change via activity level or genetic makeup or anything else. Ironically, the same givens are true for everyone while the specifics of each given are as wide varying as the people applying them. What are these “magic” Givens you I speak of?...
We are given a few concrete pieces of information prior to building a diet. 1) Your lifestyle (how active you are in your everyday life including your exercise routine). 2) The amount of energy you are consuming (the calories you’re eating). 3) Your weight. What do these mean? They mean that given your current activity level and energy in take, respective of the sources you are getting your energy from, you WILL weight what you currently weigh. How do I know this? Because the fact is that you DO weight ### lbs and you DO consume #### calories per day, and your daily routine IS what you do every day. “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.” Got it?
So what needs to happen? If your weight is what you want to change, then one of the other two variables are going to need to be altered. That is, you will either need to adopt a more active lifestyle (to expend more energy) – OR – adapt and restrict your diet (so that you consume less energy). I am a vicious advocate of the idea that you cannot out work a shitty diet. If you think you can eat whatever you want because you work out a lot, you’re dead wrong. You may be in the gym flexing in front of mirrors 6 days per week for hours at a time, but if you spend the rest of your day feeding your face with grease-burgers, potato chips, and candy bars while you sit in your cubicle you’re not really going to get very far. Ideally you would change both factors in this equation. That is, become more active by exercising more (frequency and intensity are preferred routes to volume) and by moderating your energy intake. Now it’s time for some examples.
With my current fitness and activity level (that is, if I continue exercising and going about my daily activities in exactly the same amount of volume, frequency, and intensity that I do currently) I need to consume about 1800 calories per day to maintain a weight of 165 lbs. How do I know all of this with such scientific certainty? Well, I DO weight 165 lbs and DO consume about 1800 calories per day and my exercise regimen and daily activity levels ARE constant on a day-to-day and long term basis. OK, so now you know that if you maintain your current activity level (either exercising or not, having a physically demanding job or not), if you do not change anything in your day-to-day life but alter my diet, I will lose weight. Great, but where do I go from here?
Personally, I have a very low percentage of body fat, so I am not participating in the following example. The numbers shown above are accurate and truthful to myself, but below they will be used purely as a mathematical speculation to demonstrate the dieting process. Now, let’s say that I wanted to lose 10 lbs. The first thing that I have to do after choosing a goal is to decide upon a reasonable time frame to complete it. You should NOT try to lose any more than 2lbs per week. This is not healthy, though I have done it and have seen others do it as well and keep the weight off. My professional recommendation is to plan to lose about 5lbs per month (4weeks) which meets the generally recommended criteria of 1-2 lbs per week. The same is also true of gaining weight. More than 2/week is too much, a good goal would be the same as losing weight; 1-2 lbs per week or about 5 lbs per month. That is a little over 1 lb per week which is plenty doable and will also not be so harsh on the body that you cannot sustain yourself throughout the day or keep the weight off once your goal has been met. So, with that in mind, my theoretical goal of losing 10lbs should take me about 2 months, or 8 weeks. Using a little mathematical reduction here, that’s 1.25 lbs per week. Time for more math. To gain/lose 1 lb of dietary body weight (not from fluids or excrement) you need to have a caloric surplus/deficit of 3500 calories. 1.25 lbs x 3500 calories/lb = 4375. I need to have a caloric deficit of 4375 calories per week. Divide this by 7 and we find that I need to have a daily caloric deficit of 625 calories per day. Subtract that from my previous caloric intake (1800) and we find that if my daily activity level and exercise regimen stay the same, I can plan on losing 10 lbs in about 8 weeks if I reduce my caloric intake from 1800 calories to about 1175 calories. Now you see why it is so absurd to attempt to lose over 2lbs per week. To do so in the same time frame, I would have needed to go from eating 1800 calories per day to ONLY 550 calories per day! That is, of course, assuming that my diet is not being aided by additional exercise during the weight loss process. While extreme, this does paint an accurate and educational picture.
A SPECIAL NOTE: There should also be importance placed on the kinds of food you are eating. This is one of those intangible details that cannot be accurately depicted. Your body may respond differently to different types of foods and digest/absorb/excrete them at different rates as well. What I typically find in clients that I train is that they are actually not eating enough calories to lose weight! What I mean by this is that though they may only be eating 1200 calories per day, they may perhaps actually lose weight if the EAT MORE! Why is this? The 1200 calories they were eating before were 1200 calories of shit; pizza, alcohol, fatty, greasy, calorie-dense, starch-loaded, and sugary foods. One client in particular was actually able to lose weight while eating (compared to his previous 1200 calories/day) a whopping 2000 calories/day of clean food. He was eating more, felt more full, had more energy throughout the day, and his body was reaping the rewards of feeding it adequate nutrients in proper ratios. Macronutrient ratios are a topic for an entirely different post though J
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