You Must Eat Healthy To Lose Weight

#5 – You must eat “healthy” foods to lose weight (chocolate, donuts and pizza will ruin weight loss results)

Answer: FALSE

Your body has no idea what you would consider a ‘healthy’ food. And I challenge anyone to actually define “healthy food”. The idea of ‘healthy’ eating and healthy foods is a marketing made myth.

Eating for weight loss is and always will be calories in vs calories out. You can achieve a calorie deficit with any types of food you like. I have personally just lost about 29 pounds in the past 10-11 weeks and I have eaten at least 1 donut every day and pizza and chicken wings each weekend.

I make no claim about the healthy-ness of these food items, but I am sure the main stream opinion is that these foods are unhealthy and would make weight loss impossible. <– both are untrue.

John

Posted by johnbarban in Health, Weight Loss

13 Responses to “5 You Must eat “Healthy” to Lose Weight – Answer”

Beth Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 am
Isn’t this one of your logical fallacies? Who says that these foods “make weight loss impossible”?

Me, I don’t think they make weight loss impossible, but I do think that they make it far more difficult — mostly from a compliance standpoint — so a donut a day isn’t part of my agenda.

BTW, if he’s not in your regular reads, I’d suggest adding Dr. Sharma. He has a far more nuanced approach to weight loss than most mainstream opinions: http://www.drsharma.ca/

Another is Stephan Guyanot, who really has me thinking about the question of food quality and diet: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/
Claus Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Hi John,

Just a question…. why are there no such thing as “healthy foods”? I mean if we put the “calories in vs. calories out”-approach aside, are vegetables not healthier than fries? I’m not sure I get the point… can you please elaborate?
johnbarban Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Claus,

Please provide me with the definition of “Healthy”

John
johnbarban Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Beth,

I see what you’re saying about a logical fallacy, but this sentiment isn’t my own, it is an overriding theme in the fitness and nutrition industry and that is:

“As long as you are eating healthy foods you can eat as much of them as you like and still lose weight.”

You may not find it stated as bluntly as this, but that is the message that many people tend to pick up from the dividing of foods into “good” and “bad” categories.

The low carb revolution was just such an instance. Many people actually believed that as long as they weren’t eating carbs they could eat as much protein and fat as possible and still lose weight. At no point did anyone pushing low carb explain or admit that cutting carbs was simply a gimmick for reducing total calories. Instead most people believed that it had something do to with insulin and blood sugar control etc. <– which is irrelevant to weight loss if you’re not in a caloric deficit.

Same thing with low fat foods. Some (not all) people believe that as long as something is “low fat” they can eat it ad lib and still lose weight. It might sound ridiculous to you and me, but I get these kinds of questions all the time. (I’ve had students who are varsity athletes doing a human nutrition or kinesiology degree believe this sort of stuff!!!)

I agree that for some people it might be easier to avoid certain foods simply because they cannot control themselves with those foods.

Bottom line is that weight loss is no walk in the park, it’s freaking hard work to stay disciplined and eat in a caloric deficit for an extended period. <– but this is not a story anyone can sell.

JB
Claus Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Definition of “healthy”:

I don’t think I can. I may get your point.
Claus Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Maybe….

Fruits and vegetables, don’t they contain more vitamins than fries for example? Eating lots of greens is said to help ones immune system and prevent sickness. Is this wrong?
biggahboy Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
This is an eye opener for me, I have been doing a low carb diet on and off & its has been hard for me…maybe because I work a physically demanding job or I just love bread (cause I do love bread), but on the weekends I have a tendency to pig out and eat a lot with the excuse that I’ve been eating right all week. Now I’m actually at a plateau. I love my bread so I’m just gonna cut back on it a lil bit and make sure I take in less calories each day.
johnbarban Says:
November 25th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Claus,

I agree that you probably can’t go wrong choosing fruits and veggies as a major chunk of your diet, but the operative word is ‘choose’.

If you want to eat pizza and chicken wings and beer for the rest of your life and you are perfectly happy accepting what (if anything) that does to the look and shape of your body and the length and quality of your life, then who is anyone to tell you that you’re doing anything wrong.

Again this all comes back to the definition of health. Without a clearly defined definition of health there is no possible way to categories anything as good or bad for you.

Here is an example that should clear this all up:

My grandfather lived to be 90 years old and he smoked a pack of cigarettes per day well into his 70′s and drank 1-2 bottles of wine each day well into his 80′s and his entire diet consisted of pasta, red meat, and bread…the old man barely ever ate fruits or veggies…does that sound healthy by todays modern recommendations? Probably not…but he lived to 90 years old, and he was pretty active right up till his final few years…sooo what is healthy? I sure as hell don’t know.

JB
RYan Says:
November 25th, 2009 at 11:25 am
i agree with you john,
i’ve tried many diets, low carb, low fat, carb cycling etc…..i felt fats and carbs were my enemies. I train 5 days a week for 3 years, but i couldn’t see my sixpack. BUt oneday i found a great book, ESE.
i enjoy my life today. I eat what i want eat, but still see my sixpack abs. I train my body just 3 times a week, full body workout. Some people in my gym do low carb diet, low fat diet. They eat “boiled chicken breast”…but still can’t see they sixpack.

if you want see your sixpack, just eat less, eat everything that you want to eat. Enjoy ur relations with foods.

sorry for my english
Al Says:
November 30th, 2009 at 10:19 am
That is what I love about Brad Pilon and you, John: you guys use ESE, but you don’t preach it either. You realize that it is just another means to an end: EATING LESS. From now on i will enjoy eating food again without worrying about WHAT i am eating.
Aditya Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 1:31 am
John has nailed it! This is what I always talk about and this is what I follow!

‘Calorie In – Calorie Out’

Tagging food as ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ is seriously so not right! It is not needed at all. Foods like Whole Foods, Veggies ‘can’ be called ‘good’ but that I think is a personal opinion. It all depends.

I am at 8% body fat. And I was 15% a year back. I have been juggling between Warrior Diet and ESE between weeks for almost 10 months now. And trust me on this, I have been eating whatever I like. I might be having a cookie/chicken wing every day for weeks, I have atleast 3 pints of beer every weekend (part of me as I am a part time/hobby photografer and I get invited to parties regularly) and I eat really normal. What I do is I go on a fast right before and right after a Feast Day (Weekends for me). In total I would fast 3 times a week. I workout 4 times a week.This is all I do, no nothing special about the diet. And I still lost weight and still losing it, maybe I go into maintenance once in a while!

This is how it works, I have noticed. I am no fitness expert but I just live by one line ‘Calories In – Calories Out’, when it comes to being lean!

Great Job John, keep em coming!
Aditya Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 1:35 am
And I forgot to mention one thing. The people around me, they have all sort of misconception about fasting. They think I am ‘Destroying’ my metabolism by fasting and eating stuff like Pizzas and Fasting like crazy. They all do that 6 meal thing, eat only healthy stuff like Salads, Granola Bars (Damn How much I have told, they are missing out on the good things in life) while I eat Pizzas, Chocolate Fudge and My Fridge is loaded with Ice Cream/Beer. And the difference is I have a decent abs definition and they are the pudgy fat ones

Like its said, ‘Calories In – Calories Out’. Thats all what matters!
johnbarban Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Aditya,

Thanks for sharing your story.

It really is pretty simple when it comes to eating for weight loss.

JB

5 You Must eat “Healthy” to Lose Weight – Answer

13 Responses to “5 You Must eat “Healthy” to Lose Weight – Answer”

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