Most important diet adjustment for everyone

 In my previous post, I wrote about the shortcomings of the clean eating saga. 

You can read this post here:

https://fitness2thetwithdee.blogspot.com/2020/10/3-reasons-why-clean-eating-is-bs.html

In this one, I'd like to focus on the most important dietary change we need to make. And explain how just "eating clean" doesn't fix all issues and manages to create more. 

1- Biggest nutritional mistake is the overconsumption of calories 

It doesn't matter if we eat the "healthiest" diet on Earth if we're overweight we're putting our bodies in danger. Because let's think about what actually affects people's health more. 

They didn't eat enough organic food? 

They were deficient in some micronutrients? 

Or we see people so overweight that they develop type 2 diabetes?

Their arteries get blocked and they get a heart attack? 

We know damn well what's the answer to those questions. And we also know those health conditions are closely related to obesity. 

So instead of trying to micromanage our diets to follow whatever is the latest clean eating trend, it's better to focus efforts on getting our BMI into the normal range. Just with a normal BMI and some sort of regular exercise, our bodies are in a very good position. 

2- The most common reason people fall of their diet is that they are being too restrictive 

That's at least my experience. People are trying to eat everything super clean and very often way too little. 

I don't know what's going on with all grown people thinking they need to eat like birds to be fit, but I met a lot of them.

The exact steps each of us need to take depend on our situation and goals, but it doesn't have to be drastic to make a difference. Actually, drastic steps are hard to adopt. 

Who remembers the "tortoise and the hare" story? 

Slow and steady does win the race. We just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. All small changes and small wins give us the momentum to keep going. Our results start to snowball and real change is apparent. And most important this kind of change is probably there to stick around. Because it wasn't another "detox bs", "21-day shred" or I don't know what nonsense did we try. I tried so many!  

3- Energy equation is the foundation of all weight changes

The energy equation (or energy balance) is the difference between our energy input (or the number of calories that we put in our body) and our energy output, or the number of calories we burn each day. Some people refer to this as the "calories in, calories out" equation. 

Some people are having issues with accepting this. We can't just eat clean, do keto, or whatever other diet appeals to us and see fat dropping. There must be a calorie deficit. Nowhere in this world energy just disappears without a trace. Nowhere. And since body fat is again our body's stored energy it won't just disappear if we don't expend more calories than we eat. 

So for all of you who think you ate at a deficit but didn't lose weight, that's because you weren't eating at an actual deficit. It sucks I know, I been there and it's so draining to be working towards something and get nowhere despite our efforts. There are some cases when fat loss stalls despite the deficit and I hope to write about it once. But most often we simply weren't in a deficit. 

So all of this is me telling you if you're overweight, look for a way to lose fat. You can continue to eat your "guilty pleasure" foods if you like. It's not going to stop fat loss. Healthy body weight is far more important than eating clean, organic, avoiding carbs like a madman, etc...

If you're not convinced google "professor loses weight while eating junk food". 

 

Dee