Something interesting I was thinking about the other day... Let's say you burn, on average, 2500 calories a day. Whatever, we just need a number here. And you eat 6000 calories a day (that's a lot of food, but can be realistically consumed by an average person). If a pound of fat is 3500 calories, you'd be gaining 1 pound every single day (well that's the issue at hand). Now, let's say you were to continue this pattern for a month. Hell, let's up the ante. Say you burn 2500 calories a day, but you eat 9500 calories a day!!! That's a 7000 calorie surplus. If you were to do this now, for one month, 30 days, theoretically, you would gain 60 pounds! Holy F!!! But what I was wondering is, "Would that really happen?" Think about it. A month is not that long of a time. If fat loss/gain is purely a numbers game, then experts would say you'd be 60 pounds fatter in a month... could this really be?
My Humble Theory
Honestly, I doubt you'd gain 60 pounds following this trend. Especially not 60 pounds of pure fat. I think the body would possibly not absorb everything, or bypass nutrients somehow. However, you would obviously gain a substantial amount of fat so don't go on the 9500 calorie diet tomorrow, please:) Anyway, that's not the focus of this post anyhow, just some food for thought.
The Importance of Macronutrients
I'm sure you or someone you know has Googled about this diet or that diet... Atkins, Zone, Pritkin, Raw Food Diet... I could go on for days. With so many different theories, all coming from the "experts" how are you supposed to know what the heck to eat!? Sound like you? Well I have tried many different diets and seen what works and what doesn't work for me. What works best for me is the Paleo Diet. Why?
1. I tend to eat less food overall while staying full.
2. It's lower-carb as a by-product which works for me for faster fat loss.
3. The recipes are usually easy, so I can actually whip it up in the kitchen!
4. Kills off craving for junk food and sugar, so I don't cheat as much.
5. Tastes good.
Okay, now if you're wondering what the heck the Paleo Diet is, then read my other Ezine post on it. The Paleo Diet is not a "Fad Diet." It's more of a lifestyle diet, which means less of a roller coaster effect. It revolves around natural, unprocessed foods, specifically meats, nuts, veggies, and fruits. I don't want to dive too far into debating diets on this post, that's another time. But the point is that macronutrients (carbs, fats, and protein) will affect hormones and your body will respond to them differently.
If you haven't heard of Gary Taubes, he is a well-touted nutritional expert and, author of "Good Calories, Bad Calories." The FDA I'm sure hates him, because he goes against the Conventional Wisdom grain to the max. His book explains in detail the mechanics of food energy and how it's processed by the body. Not only the quantity, but also the type of macronutrients that are consumed.
Here's a summary of some of his key principles from his book and readings:
* Counting calories is overrated. It's sometimes overlooked as to where those calories come from because of the effect they have on hormones (carbs, fat, protein).
* Refined carbs and sugar cause a quick spike in insulin(high glycemic index). Insulin is a storage hormone and is largely responsible for bodyfat accumulation, especially for endomorphs or people who tend to gain weight easily.
* People eat food to fuel the body, but carbs will often make you feel lethargic and actually end up with less energy than before.
I recommend you read some of Taubes' stuff or watch some of his videos. Heck, buy his book if you want. You'll probably wind up a bit more enlightened than you are now regarding dieting and the like.
Okay, so there are the people who focus solely on macros, thinking on Atkins they can eat 5000 cal/day of fatty meat and lose weight super quick. They forget, or pretend to forget, that how much you eat also makes a big difference.Then there's the other guys...
The Other Side of the Equation
The "other guys" so to speak, run with the idea that it doesn't matter what you eat, but only how much you eat. Okay, to an extent, they're right. If you burn 2500 calories a day and eat nothing but Twinkies, but only 800 calories worth(what is that, like half a Twinkie?) you will lose weight. That's right! Maybe I'll sell an eBook on the "Twinkie Diet" and make millions. But I won't, because they might consider me a serial killer if I did. And besides the obvious reasons, here's why this diet would suck:
1. Your diet would be a 100% processed, refined diet... yuck.
2. Nothing but carbs and fat... a bad combination, and oops, no protein. Byebye muscles!
3. Carbs will make you hungrier, so you'd be miserably starving all the time... 800 calories of anything and you're likely to be starving all day.
4. You'd probably die in a week... not really, but your arteries might scream at you.
Obviously, no one is going to take this route (God, please don't), but the fact is, 800 calories of ANYTHING a day, and you're gonna lose weight because you're burning well over 800 calories a day even in a coma. But what kind of weight, muscle? Water? Maybe some fat, but with the loss of everything else, you may wind up looking worse than before.
Nutritional "Experts" are Constantly Playing it Safe
"Don't try and eat more than a 500 calorie deficit a day, or you'll go into starvation mode and lose muscle." How many times have you heard that before? Okay, let me first say, that is BS. I can attest to that firsthand. Low calorie diets can work wonders, it's chronic extremely-low calorie diets where metabolism will slow down and bad things will happen. You could safely go two weeks at even a 800-1000 calorie deficit and as long as you keep following a resistance training program at least a few times a week, you will lose hardly any muscle if any.
So the bottom line is that What you eat and How much you eat are both significantly important factors. Don't get caught up so much into what kind of diet you get into that you forget to watch your calories. But also don't let yourself believe that "I'm on the XYZ Diet and so I can eat however much I want" either. I know, I know... it's tough. You gotta pay attention to quite a few things, but if this were easy, everyone would walk around with a Hollywood Body year round.
I recommend doing some research on the Paleo Diet for recipes and some more detailed info. I honestly believe it's the easiest, healthiest, and most effective way to an ideal body weight and optimum health.
