All Diets Work: The Importance of Calories
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com
In the article All Diets Work: A Qualification I made a quick qualification regarding my original statement that ‘all diets work’; today I want to expand a bit on something I mentioned on in that article. That something is the importance of calories.
Now, I have read a LOT of diet books; too many frankly. Most follow a fairly standard organization (the first chapter always explaining that YOUR FAT IS NOT YOUR FAULT) and, with very very few exceptions, most will tell you that ‘calorie restricted diets don’t work for weight loss’ and that whatever magic they are selling is the key to quick, easy (and of course permanent) weight loss.
What is Body Fat?
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com
Note: The following is the entirety of Chapter 2 from my Stubborn Fat Solution.
Most people think they know all there is to know about body fat; I’m here to tell you that that isn’t the case. If you’ve read my articles, you may have seen some of this before but I want to make sure everyone is on the same page before I deluge you with the technical bits.
All Diets Work: Qualification
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com
In An Introduction to the Psychology and Physiology of Dieting, I made a statement that I imagine many will take some issue with; that statement was, in effect, that all diets work. At least to some degree.
I want to qualify that a little bit.
Fundamentally, any diet that is restricted in calories will cause weight loss. Of course, dieters, ideally, shouldn’t only be concerned with the scale.
An Introduction to the Psychology and Physiology of Dieting
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com
In the next series of articles, I want to take a look at some aspects of dieting, both physiological and psychological.
Frankly, in a lot of ways, I think addressing the psychological aspects of dieting is far far more important than the physiology or nutrient metabolism or what have you. Simply put, at this point, with 40+ years of dedicated nutritional research, I think we have a pretty good idea of what is required for a diet to generate weight or fat loss.
Yes, we can always quibble about the details of what the ‘perfect’ fat loss diet should or shouldn’t be but when you start looking, you start to realize that there is no single perfect diet.
Issues of genetics, insulin resistance, food preference,
How Detail Oriented Do You Need to Be?
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com
If the internet has accomplished one thing, it’s making people extremely obsessive compulsive about the most minute details of their training program and diet. Arguments and flame wars erupt over the absolutely least consequential of things. How many minutes should pass between sets, how long after workout before you drink your liquid beef aminos with waxy maize starch, stuff like that.
Of course, I’m as guilty as everyone else, I worry about such things and my books often contribute to the problem by providing fairly detail-oriented approaches to diet and training. However, I’m often writing for a fairly small population of folks (trying to reach the extreme low-end of leanness) for whom such details may matter.
Introduction to Dieting
I am credited with having made the following statement on an internet newsgroup “Diet books tell you that you don’t have to reduce calories to lose weight, and then trick you into doing it anyway.” In this article, I want to look at some basic concepts related to dieting, the myriad weight-loss diets that exist, etc.
Mainstream dieting
Arguably the simplest diet of all is a rather basic ‘just eat less’ approach to weight loss (or ‘just eat more’ approach to weight gain). By making a conscious effort to eat less food over the course of the day, folks reduce calories and lose weight. There’s no magic, it’s simply food proportioning. Such an approach to dieting isn’t fundamentally flawed and, when it works, it works fine.
You Are Not Different
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com
All over the internet, on forums dedicated to everything from weight loss to muscle gain, people will loudly argue that they are different. “My metabolism is different.”, “My nervous system is different”, “My muscles are different”, things of that sort. Everyone is a unique and delicate flower, just like their mom told them.
This usually follows them explaining why the good advice that others have used can’t possibly work for them. They are also usually the ones making no progress who won’t even consider trying something else. THEY. ARE. DIFFERENT.
Metabolic Rate Overview
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposition.com
In the article You Are Not Different, I made reference to the concept of energy balance and it’s time to expand on that concept. In the most simplistic form, we can define energy balance as Energy balance = energy in – energy out.
Energy in is food, since this is the only place that human can absorb energy (calories and joules are both measures of energy). That side of the equation is relatively simple, just add up your total caloric intake. Actually it’s not because the different macronutrients are handled a little bit differently from one another so it’s not simply calories, but that’s another topic for another section. Energy out is the topic of the next several chapters but ultimately represents how many calories you expend in a day.
Carbohydrate and Fat Controversies Part 1
By Lyle McDonald: www.bodyrecomposotion.com
In this article, I want to look at carbohydrate and fat intake in terms of the various arguments and debates that tend to surround them.
The main controversy here revolves around what amounts of carbohydrates and/or fat are ideal, healthy, recommended, etc. and that’s what I’ll focus on. I’m not going to deal with body composition explicitly in this article, I’ll save that for another day.
Top Ten Fasting Myths Debunked
November 4th Addendum: Section added at the end of the article.
Everyone who learns about nutrition through the usual channels, be it fitness magazines, mainstream diet books and forums, gets cursed with the prevailing belief system of what constitutes a good diet.
Though specific dietary recommendations vary slightly depending on who you listen to, there are many common denominators and "rules" that you are told you must adhere to. Call it broscience, incompetence or ignorance, same thing. We've all been there and we've all followed these rules. Led like sheep, not knowing better. Trusting that those we listen to knew what they were talking about. While these dietary myths run rampant in the bodybuilding and fitness community, you'll find that many are being endlessly propagated in the mainstream as well.
Upon closer scrutiny, the great majority lack scientific basis. They are born out out of half-truths, faulty conclusions drawn from poorly conducted studies or created when a study gets cited out of context.
Sometimes, what's claimed is even in exact opposition to what really occurs at a physiological level. Many people believe that alcohol is fattening, more so than any other macronutrient. Yet, if you look at how inefficiently the body converts ethanol to fat, you'll find that it's completely backwards. I talked about this in "The Truth about Alcohol, Fat Loss and Muscle Growth". Also note how the proposed negative effect of alcohol on muscle growth doesn't even exist in the scientific literature.
You'll see similar examples in this article. For example, in short-term fasting, it's often claimed that metabolic rate slows down - yet looking at the studies, the opposite is true.
The myths I'll debunk today are being kept alive by:
1. Repetition. Repeat something often enough and it becomes the truth. If everyone is saying the same thing, it must be true. No need to look into it and think for yourself. The fact that bodybuilders and fitness celebrities keep propagating these myths doesn't help either. Most people reason that if these people do it, it must be great. Unfortunately, bodybuilders and fitness celebrities might just be one of the last people on earth you should listen to if you want objective and accurate opinions in nutrition.
