I firmly believe there is no such thing as a good or bad food if you don’t consider the dose. In other words you can achieve any lifestyle/fitness/body composition goal you want eating a mix of foods that include the so called ‘bad’ foods.

The only way to improve a Twinkie: Deep Fry it!

If you stop and think about all the foods that are considered ‘good’ and all the foods that are considered ‘bad’ you will quickly find out that one of the most consistent things about each group is their relative caloric density.

In other words, most foods that are considered ‘bad’ are very calorically dense (they are high in calories per gram), and the foods that are considered good largely end up being lower in caloric density (less calories per gram).

Could it be that the good and bad food people are really just trying to say ‘high’ vs ‘low’ caloric density foods?

If it’s not caloric density what could it be? Vitamin content? Mineral Content? Fiber? Fat (or lack thereof)? Some other yet discovered ‘phytonutrient’?

If this secondary list is what really makes a food good or bad then a multivitamin protein paste or bar would have to be considered the best food, but that doesn’t seem right does it?

I think the answer is food is just food, and all of it can have it’s place in any diet no matter what your goals are…even a Twinkie…and damn are they ever tasty!

But if I’m wrong can you let me know what you think the criteria should be for judging if a food should be deemed ‘good’ or ‘bad’?

John

Gators Won Big Time

At the tailgate we crushed some serious food…biscuits with sausage gravy, beef short ribs, sausages, burgers, bacon, eggs, 3 kinds of potatoes, parfait, apple pie, key lime pie, and some other stuff that I can’t remember the name of.

The point is at a tailgate it was perfectly fine to eat all of these foods and everyone was enjoying themselves.

But some of those same foods could be items that other people would literally be afraid to eat. I think some people are actually afraid of certain foods imagining that they can really do some sort of ‘damage’ to your body.

This is a misplaced fear directed a a specific food instead of a specific amount of food.

I’ve already mentioned the concept of toxic calories, and I think that the bigger danger to your longevity and health isn’t a particular food but too much total food.

The negative effects of eating excessive carbs, or excessive fat, or excessive sugar are very real, but they require you to be in a total calorie excess as well.

In other words, sugar and fat are perfectly fine to eat if you’re not over doing it with your total calories.

Most of the commentators on the evils of sugar or ‘simple carbs’ or saturated fat typically leave out the specific question ‘how much’.

More often than not you get a complex sounding (but highly over simplified) explanation of what they think the body is doing when you eat sugar or fat, and then tell you never to eat them again.

The concept of total calories or dose is rarely discussed and the cult of eating ‘healthy food’ instead of a ‘healthy AMOUNT of food’ continues.

In my opinion the best thing you can do for the look and health of your body is get a handle on your total number of calories. Once you’ve got that under control you can mix and match combination’s of food as you wish until you’ve got a routine that satisfies your appetite and your body image ideals.

JB

Do Whatever it takes to remember what you've eaten.

So I’m in the middle of a short weight loss run (looking to lose about 10lbs) by mid sept…I’ll put pictures up when I’m at my goal size/weight.

I’m shooting for around 1200-1500 calories per day. As I eat throughout the day I keep a running total in my head (rough numbers) of how many calories I’ve consumed and when the number gets into the 1200-1500 range I just stop eating.

This is a pretty simple system and it’s working well (I actually have no idea how you could possibly lose weight any other way without knowing how much you’re eating, but I digress)

The crazy thing is how easy it is to forget an entire meal you’ve eaten. The other day I was thinking of having a snack or something to eat before going to the gym and as I was thinking of all the things I ate that I day I concluded that I was only at 1000 calories so far…so I thought to myself I’m good to go for a pre gym snack.

Then on my way to get my snack I remembered an entire meal that I had forgotten to count into my total daily calories! And I had only eaten that meal a few hours ago.

I was shocked how easy it was for me to forget what I had eaten so easily and so soon after eating it.

Well thanks to my memory kicking in (albeit a bit late) I realized it wasn’t the best idea to have the preworkout snack.

So I just headed to the gym without and that kept me right on track for my weight loss calorie total for the day.

The point is that calorie counting does work IF you can remember all the food you’ve eaten! That is the biggest trick of all.

If you don’t believe me try it right now. Try to think of all the food you’ve eaten in the past 24-48 hours, it’s not that easy, and I’ll bet you that you can’t think of it all right now and at some point later today another thing you’ve eaten will pop into your head.

Doing this exercise will show you just how much and how often you eat and how easy it is to forget.

John

Guess How Many Calories Are In This Pizza

This is a personal sized ‘Chicken Pizza’ that my friend Becky Osterhout (Venus Index model and fitness competitor) made for me.

Tomorrow I’ll have a video up showing you exactly how she made it, but for today I just want you to guess at how many calories you think are in this pizza?

The pizza is about 5 inches in diameter (just in case you can’t tell from the pic)

I’ll be revealing the actual calorie count in tomorrows video.

John

Who should be eating more and who should be eating less?

I went out for a steak dinner this weekend and like I normally do, I split an entree with my date. We ordered a 10 oz striploin steak with vegetables and a baked potato on the side and started with a soup and some of that awesome house bread that any good steak house always serves.

This one entree split between two people is more than enough food. So we always just order one entree and share it.

The interesting part is when the food actually gets served to us.

The waitress told the kitchen to split the entree in half on two plates…think about that for a second.

They served a 180lbs man the same amount of food as a 120lbs woman. Doesn’t really make sense does it?

This is one of the fundamental problems women face when eating with men…they typically get served the exact same amount of food as the man and may feel some pressure to eat more than they want (or perhaps are tempted to overeat)

This is just another example of the assumption that all people can/should eat the same amount of food as each other (which of course is false)

No matter where you are or who serves you, it’s up to you to decide how much food you will or won’t eat. If you’re the type who will eat all that is served to you, then the easiest thing to do is ask to have less food served. That way you can eat till your plate is clean and still be satisfied that you kept your calories under control.

John