willibrord

CyclingBK

I don’t understand diets that deny certain types of calories. Don’t eat bread? That’s insane to me.

Isnt weight loss just calories in vs calories burned?

I can understand how meticulously planning and following a diet would create motivation and focus to stay on it.

But it seems far more simple to eat the “big three”, protein, carbs, and fat in ratios and amounts that satisfy your hunger and still promote weight loss.

Carbonfiberboy 

Longitudinal dietary studies show that actually being on a particular diet more frequently results in failure than success. It's the negative reinforcement problem of not being perfect. For a while, positivity wins, but nobody's perfect. I think that over time, the negativity gets them down and they give up on the diet. People on diets will gain weight and have poorer health over time than those who simply eat less of what they eat now because seesawing is worse than being stable.

That said, there are many ways of eating less and exercising more. Calorie counting works for many people. I always suggest simply eating less and watching the scale every day. If weight goes down, however slowly, you're doing it right. It works best to decrease portion sizes very little, and then later, very little again, etc.

ThermionicScott 

[citation needed]

wolfchild

There are two main reasons why people reject certain types of calories and refuse to eat certain foods:

No 1 - False idea that certain foods are bad for you... Example: meat will cause cancer, eggs will cause heart attack and bread or rice will make you fat.

No 2 - Ideological beliefs... Example: eating meat makes you a murderer and an unethical immoral person.


People fail to realize that food has only one purpose: To supply fuel and nutrients so your body can stay healthy and produce enough energy to perform it's daily physical and mental functions and repair and recover itself after strenuous physical activity such as hard labour or exercise.

Happy Feet

Hardly.

People make food choices for all sorts of reasons, both good and bad, educated and trend following. Every athlete that seriously wants to improve performance at some point looks to their diet to include and exclude certain factors.

While the basic formula of calories in vs calories out does apply, in a general sense, you can also look at those calories as to the nutrition they provide.

A cup of sugar, for example, is 773 calories but the effect of eating it would be detrimental over time. You would certainly get an energy spike or rush, and if exercising that might be valuable, that's why people use glucose gels, but it would come with an equally downward rebound as a massive amount of insulin were released to process that sugar in the body. Over time, this sort of diet (sugars based) would create a yoyo effect of highs and lows, insulin resistance and possible diabetes and cause faster cycles of hunger which would lead to over eating.

Take those same calories as complex carbohydrates and the insulin response would be more gradual. You wouldn't get the immediate sugar rush but the energy release would be more constant and metered and the feeling of fullness would last longer, leading to longer cycles between feelings of hunger and subsequently less overeating. Same calories but different results in available energy and long term weight control.

Proteins and fats are important for various body functions like building muscle and metabolism but the primary source of energy for work should come from slow acting complex carbohydrates. Our guts are generalist in nature, which is why we can flex from keto to starchy foods, but when we look to large animals that have both power and sustained speed, they eat grasses and whole grains. No well muscled race horse at the Kentucky derby eats meat, nor do gazelles, oxen or gorillas. One might point out that fast big cats like lions and tigers do eat meat but their guts are detrimentally specialized. They may starve in climates when generalists thrive if they miss a catch, and they are really only good for short bursts of speed followed by long periods of lethargy while they digest. Not really what most athletes want. As it is, most plant eating prey, in their prime, can outrun meat eating predators so they (the predators) need to seek the old, young or sick and hunt in packs.

In a pinch, food is food; but for overall athletic strategies some calories are better than others.

Seattle Forrest

​​​​​​It's also for enjoyment to some extent (carry that too far and you'll get fat, but all work and no play makes Jack a full boy) and for social bonding. The social aspect is a big problem with diets that eliminate entire good groups, it's also why fake meat looks like meat. Loneliness is as bad for your health as being obese. It's important to break bread with friends, family, loved ones.

redlude97

I prescribe to intermittent fasting/time restricted eating. I don't judge you on what you eat, just when you eat it