So I’m at my favorite coffee shop the other day getting settled in for my morning routine of coffee, a snack, and some writing. I go up to the counter and order a coffee and a muffin. The girl behind the counter kinda knows me now and was even helping me count glasses of water a few weeks ago when I was experimenting with a water load. The point is she has some idea that I’m involved in health/fitness/working out as a career and thinks I’m ‘into health’ or something like that.

Would combining the fruit salad with the muffin make it healthier?

So when I simply ordered a muffin and coffee she responded with this statement “Don’t you want to add a fruit salad to that to make it healthy?”

To which I replied “oh that’s not necessary, I’m just gonna rip the top off the muffin and eat it, and throw out the bottom”

After I said that I got a lecture about being wasteful and starving people etc…as if my overeating on muffins and fruit salad is somehow going to solve the worlds food problems.

The moral of the story is that the prevailing mentality is that you can add more food and thus more calories to a meal in order to somehow make it more ‘healthy’.

Lets just look at the two options.We’ll take her option first.

She was suggesting I have a coffee (approx 100 calories) + a full muffin (approx 400 calories) + fruit salad (approx 150 calories) for a grand total of 650 calories for my morning snack.

My suggestion was to have a coffee (100 calories) + half a muffin (approx 200 calories) for a grand total of 300 calories for a very satisfying morning coffee and snack.

This is a classic example of the gap in understanding between what really matters when it comes to health, weight loss, and looking and feeling your best.

We cannot simply add more ‘healthy’ items to a meal to offset the supposed ‘unhealthy’ ones.

The total calories will always matter more than what those calories are comprised of.

This is to say nothing about the fact that I was not intending to eat only muffins and coffee all day. For my preference on that particular day, a coffee and half a muffin is exactly what I wanted and it fits with my health/fitness goals. There was plenty of time and opportunity for me to get my fill of veggies, fruit, and other higher fiber and so called ‘healthy’ items later that day.

The point is there is no perfect foods to eat, or perfect meal combinations to have. If you want a muffin go ahead and have one. If maintaining a particular body shape/weight/size/look matters to you then perhaps you need to pay attention to how many muffins you  eat, or how big they are (in which case you can use the muffin top only technique) instead of either eliminating them all together or even worse, adding even more food to your muffin snack just to make it seem healthier.

In the end total calories and how much you exercise is going to affect your overall health to a far greater degree than a complicated and calculated mix of ‘the right foods’.

John

I received an email the other day that sums up how popular diet/fitness misinformation can leave people frustrated, upset, angry and eventually to flat out give up on the idea of getting in shape.

So the email went something like this:

“I just read your book and it says my RMR is approx 1250 calories. I want to lose 2lbs per week because that is supposed to be a realistic weight loss goal…but to do that you say you have to create a 1000 calorie deficit each day, that means I can only eat 250 calories per day…but I also heard that you should never eat below 1200 calories per day…so how is this possible?!”

What is a realistic weight loss goal?

Of course I’m paraphrasing and this is not the exact words, but this is a very typical email I get every week.

There are a few different flaws and fallacies in this statement…did you notice them? If not, I’ll show you.

Fallacy #1. There is no scientific proof that 2lbs per week of weight loss is a safe or realistic goal that all adults humans can or should expect to achieve. This is a claim based on FTC advertising standards. You only hear this number because marketers aren’t allowed to say any more by law. If they could the number would likely be 10lbs per week. That doesn’t make it any more or less correct, because neither number is based on scientific evidence.

A 6’5 260lbs man can easily expect to lose up to even 4lbs per week, however a 5’1 woman is hardly in the same position. Instead of setting a weight loss goal based on poundage (ie: 1lbs, 2lbs, 3lbs per week) you should be looking at it as a percentage of your bodyweight.

A 6’0 tall man who weights 220lbs with a RMR of approximately 2000 cals/day could easily create a 1000 calorie deficit each day by cutting his calories to 1500/day and burning an additional 500 calories in a good hard workout (mix of weights and cardio).

1500 is still plenty of calories to feel relatively satisfied while still creating a fair sized deficit to facilitate a significant weekly weight loss.

Also 2lbs of weight loss represents less than 1% of his total bodyweight.

Now change the person to a 5’1 woman with an RMR of 1250 calories. She would have to eat around 750 calories per day as well as burning off an additional 500 in the gym. This is starting to sound more like torture than a reasonable diet plan.

The fallacy is that 2lbs is a good target for all body sizes…it is not. Smaller people have smaller metabolisms and shouldn’t expect to lose as much total weight as a bigger person. It would be more realistic for her to shoot for 1lbs of weight loss which would only require a 500 calorie daily deficit…this could be achieved with a much more reasonably daily calorie intake around 1000 calories with a 250 calorie burn from a workout. Doesn’t that sound much more realistic?!

Fallacy #2: 1200 calories is the minimum you should eat in a day

I don’t know where this number comes from and I will be spending some time in the near future looking it up. However based on the RDI and RDA for nutrients the actual lower limit for calories (when you add up the individual recommendations for protein, carbs and fats) comes out to around 800 calories per day for women and 900 for men. So even according to the RDA you can easily eat well below 1200 and get your daily requirements of protein carbs and fats.

These two false assumptions are leading many people down a path of frustration and weight loss failure.

Setting realistic weight loss goals is the first step to success.

Letting go of your fear of eating less food is the second step.

Once you realize it’s ok to eat a bit less food then you will start to see things really change.

John

Getting in shape and then staying in shape is a daily personal challenge. Your level of dedication and commitment to yourself is what will determine how far you can take your body and how well you can maintain it.

The underlying message is that it’s all about you. It’s your body, your effort, your decision, your results, your triumph, your failure, your struggle, your personal growth, your reward.

In the end, you gotta put in the time to get the results.

It has nothing to do with anyone else besides you. Nobody else will care if you just let yourself go and give up on your body, in fact our society makes it quite easy to do this as so many other people are doing it. Blending into the masses and having an average (or below average) body is quite easy to do. In fact it takes zero effort to be ‘just like everyone else’.

The real effort comes in when you try to do something better, something more with yourself, something worth doing.

At this point you’re choosing to separate yourself from the norm and do something better. This is where it gets tougher, this is where you get push back…this is also where you get recognized for being and doing something most other people cannot or will not do.

Some people will judge, some will throw arrows, some will try to hold you back. But in the end it’s your personal commitment to yourself that will determine if you succeed or fail. Nobody else can make you succeed, and nobody else can make you fail. Your success or failure will be yours to own.

Changing your body is one of the only things you can truly do by yourself for yourself (sure social support helps) but in the end, you have to make it happen.

The only question is ‘will you do it’?

John

I was having a good discussion about calories in vs out the other day and someone made a statement that really struck me. We were discussing the common reaction of shock and disbelief when people realize how low their BMR really is and how few calories they really need on a daily basis to lose weight.

Do you really think the bigger burger will allow you to enjoy life more than the smaller one?

We then started to discuss that this refusal to accept the truth about our calorie needs (and how low they really are) is at the root of why people fall for diet scams that promise you to be able to eat as much food as you want (as long as they’re the right kinds). Of course this style of dieting always fails because you’re never taught what is really responsible for weight loss (a caloric deficit).

At this point I asked what the big deal was about eating less and why it’s so unappealing that people will fight against it even in the face of sound logic and scientific evidence.

And then someone said this statement: “People fear eating less calories because they think it means they’re not going to enjoy life as much”

That’s pretty sad…it’s sad because it’s true.

Essentially calories, and food, and the unchecked ability to eat as much food as we like seems to be one of the only sources of enjoyment or pleasure in a persons life (this is sad).

So the concept of taking even a few calories away on a daily basis (say 500) sounds or feels like you’re literally taking away that persons ability to enjoy life or be happy.

Now think about that for a moment. If the happiness of your life comes down to the volume of calories you can eat in a day, then you’ve got some major work to do in all areas.

Yes food is important, it’s fun, it’s part of celebrations and social events and all of that stuff…but it shouldn’t be the sole source of your happiness. If you’ve got a well adjusted life and you’ve got your relationships, emotions, career, and finances in control, then food shouldn’t/won’t be your primary source of pleasure/escape/enjoyment.

Unfortunately many people don’t have their relationships, finances, career in shape, and one of the easiest ways to relieve the stress and pressure is to mass consume calories. So I guess from this standpoint it would suck to tell a person to eat less of them.

To me the root of most weight problems has nothing to do with nutrition and everything to do with getting the rest of your life in order. Once you start working on the other area’s of your life eating less food becomes much easier.

John

I’ve been interviewing some fitness and figure competitors as well as some bodybuilders and people who coach these types of competitors for their shows. After speaking with many of these people I’ve started to realize that there is a fundamental disconnect between the idea of ‘fat loss’, ‘muscle building’, and obtaining a particular look.

For people with 20% or more bodyfat, the main issue is simply fat loss. until you’re sub 10% none of the advanced bodybuilding nutrition techniques are going to make any difference.

At this condition the type of foods and when he ate them will make a difference on how Arnolds Abs looked.

Once you start reaching the single digit bodyfat levels things start to change. This is when the types of food you eat, when you eat and how you train can change the look of your body on a moment to moment basis.

Let me repeat, unless you’re in single digit bodyfat %  none of this will matter.

And this is the problem most people have when they’re ‘researching’ how to get in shape. Most people hear about what bodybuilders and fitness competitors are doing but don’t realize most of the advanced techniques are only put in use and of benefit for people who are already leaner than most of the population would ever hope to be.

For the vast majority of people, getting down to 10-12% bodyfat (for men) and below 20% for women is going to be attainable with a rather simple plan of eating less total calories (no matter what they are and when you choose to eat them).

This will get you in better shape than 95% of the population. Taking it to the next level and stepping on stage is where the more advanced techniques start to matter.

The take home message is to first be honest with where you currently are. This will determine where to best place your effort and focus.

John