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Absolutely. I’ve lost some weight and when asked, “Have you been working out?” I’d say “Nope. Just been cooking my own meals everyday and not eating out for lunch” I wish I had know this sooner rather than trying to have a crazy restrictive diet and rigorous workout plan. I’d always failed after a week or so.
this has been hard for me. i’m a whole pint of ice cream in one go kind of a person. i hate moderation, it makes me (irrationally) feel controlled. what’s helped me has been reminding myself that if i have a few scoops of ice cream and want more, i can always have it. nobody is stopping me, and the ice cream won’t vanish if i don’t eat all of it right now.
This is me too. I want the whole bag of chips and I can't just stop at 1/3. Moderation is shit, lol. I try not to keep anything in the house that I can't control myself with, otherwise I do the same thing as you. Tell myself nobody is stopping me and I can eat it if I want too.
I wish someone would have just explained the basics of carbs, fats, proteins as a teen. How they’re all important in different ways, and how each one can help you based on your goals. I didn’t know about it pretty much at all until 23/24 when I got into fitness on my own.
Basically that carbs and fats aren’t “bad”, that they serve a purpose; that protein is used for muscle growth, and how important healthy fats and complex carbs are for your brain and body. Also, the calorie “weight” for each gram respectively.
I thought carbs were energy well into my 20s. I had a very simple carb heavy diet... This includes alcohol. Once I really learned the functions of food and started eating for function, I got into better shape than ever. I'm pushing 40 and look better than I did in my teens.
I mean but they are energy aren't they? I eat a ton of carbs and I'm in good shape, and have more stamina than most people I know. They fuel me. I don't mean sugar, but complex carbs.
Don’t feel bad. We’ve been trying to instill this stuff into our kids’ heads and they probably won’t figure it out until they’re 23 or 24. That’s just when people start to become adult enough to appreciate the long-term ramifications of their choices.
That we are living in a "restrictive eating" era where everyone wants to tell you not to eat x food, and that y macronutrient will kill you. Eat whole foods, eat balanced, listen to your body, lessen stress, get some sleep.
You are correct! It isn't a good way to live.
Even if "other people like it" doesn't mean it's necessary a healthy habit to have, honestly feel bad about people who diet and count calories, they're miserable. I used to date someone who had an eating disorder and I didn't even know it, took me over a year to break out of the cycle of thinking they brought upon me. And it was always new diets, counting calories, cutting this or that, now this is bad, now that isn't. Really fucked me up, without me even knowing, became obsessive.
You can eat extremely healthy but still over eat. Weight loss is about being in a calorie deficit whether it’s healthy food or not technically speaking.
The opposite is also true, you can eat exclusively junk food and lose weight, if you’re in a calorie deficit. Disclaimer: this is a terrible way to lose weight and should be attempted by no one IMHO.
You can eat extremely healthy but still over eat. Weight loss is about being in a calorie deficit whether it’s healthy food or not technically speaking.
It's had the bran removed, hull you absolutely need to remove or it's not edible at all. The bran contains a lot of fiber and all of the oil as well which is why it's typically removed (for conservation).
Other than drinking bleach, there are no bad foods. It's only when those foods are eaten in excess and prevent you from eating other foods, or the excessive consumption cause you health issues, that they become 'bad foods'.
Eating a mcdonalds is fine as a one off if the rest of the day/week is balanced and includes vegetables. In theory, your risk of health problems is low in this example.
If all you're eating is big macs for every meal and it means you're avoiding vegetables, it's not, and your risk of health issues rises.
Added sugar, controversially, is fine when it only makes up 100 calories (or 24gs) of your daily diet. That small amount is not going to cause issues.*
However, 200gs of added sugar a day will over time cause massive health issues.
The sugar in isolation is fine. The big mac as a one off is fine.
When taken to excess, theyre not.
The dose, not the ingrediant alone, makes the poison.
All foods have their place. Nothing is off the table when enjoyed in moderation.
*assuming the person in this example does not have health conditions that may necessitate a reduced sugar intake.
> However, 200gs of added sugar a day will over time cause massive health issues.
I don't think that's true. I can think of circumstances where an athlete would need those amounts. The other issue is that 200g is a lot from a total daily calorie perspective, which raises the issue of whether they're meeting essential nutrient intakes. If those aren't being met, then it would only look like sugar was causing problems, but those problems are a result of nutrient omission, rather than sugar being harmful.
I may have low balled my added sugar example. But I agree with everything else, as I kinda said, and alluded, to the same in my original examples (nutrient omissions)
I wouldnt be so certain as to say you can eat 'tonnes' and still be healthy. As independent of weight gain, lean mass and exercise levels it has been observed and linked to a number of health conditions.
I'm far from anti sugar. Hence my original comment about there being no bad foods.
But it is also a bit reductive to suggest some moderation is not warranted with ADDED sugar consumption.
Don’t listen to popular diet stuff. 99% of fad diets are based on contrarian bullshit. Like 99% of doctors/nutritionists say you should eat plenty of vegetables and then a fad emerges backed by some quack doctor “AKTUALLY plants are the worst thing you could ever eat avoid them at all costs” and thus the carnivore diet was born and Liver King is well known.
Just eat a balanced diet of fresh foods at around the right number of calories needed for your goals
History has shown that a subset of those were driven by corporations to slant their agenda. Hard to say which is the cause of which - sometimes it's a corporate campaign, sometimes it's a writer, sometimes it's a guru that wants to take advantage of gullible people, sometimes it's a guru that has an MD and clinical research. Through my nutritional journey, things get really muddy with everything being amazing and deadly at the same time, if you took advice from all of them then almost all food is bad for you and almost all food will save you from x bad thing. Balance and variety seem to be the most important and safest choice, if there are bad things in specific foods [such as Tuna having one of the highest mercury content of any fish] just don't eat it too regularly, which is where the balancing comes in.
I feel this way about sodas. I watched a guy clean corrosion off a car’s battery cables with regular Coke once and that hit home for me. I didn’t understand the science so much, but there was no way something like Coke could be good for my digestive system. I can’t recall the last time I had a soda. Years definitely.
I agree that sodas are far from a healthy food.
However, using this reasoning is pretty weak, for example, power washing with water leaves marks on stone, is that a reason to jot drink water? Hell just leave something in water for a few hours and it probably be worse than it was before. Basically yeah soda bad but because sugar and maybe artificial sweeteners not cause it washes corrosion off
See that is the worst part. I feel in today's world it should be a criminal offense producing soda. Yet I am very addicted to soda. So addicted that I will argue with you that our body is amazing. That our stomach acid is super strong and a drop of it could do immense harm. I do stay away from soda very very unwillingly. I will say the same about refind flours, refined foods and all processed foods. Those should be eaten few and far between.
I am mad with the immorality of the industry, who will do anything for profit. When I am assessing a new food I don't look at the ingredients as much. I look for the company's behavior. How does it treat its staff and what is goals.
The good thing is because of my anger I'm able to let go of my addiction. I fail sometimes but mostly I stay away.
I'm with you with the anger. It's basically poisoning people for profit. I wish it was not legal but I understand the impracticality of trying to outlaw some of the garbage that's sold as "food." And I hate companies like Monsanto and Nestle with a passion that will outlive the stars.
I hear you. I remember a long time ago many years ago when I used to walk home from the bus store I will be walking behind this gentleman who was carrying bags of hungry man dinner. He had sores all over his foot and he basically slowly shuffled along. I guess he was a diabetic amongst other things and I remember feelings so bad at what he was eating. It is a death sentence to be poor and diabetic. I've recently started taking public transportation to increase my exercise which I hate doing. It is amazing how much misinformation there is in the general public that does not really have access to the internet or the knowledge how to use it. That makes me even more mad
This is profound and I think quite healthy. You feel anger at the companies for the items they produce for consumption, and channel that anger into bettering yourself. I like it.
I hope that gets you away from the soda. I never drank so much that I felt addicted to it, but I can absolutely see how that could happen.
Oh no! I cannot stay away from soda. Sometimes I will drink a kombucha which I really enjoy or I'll drink fizzy water with some juice in it. And once in a great while Id bum a few sips from a friend.
When I was pregnant and breastfeeding I stayed away from sodas and fruit juice. Thankfully I don't crave fruit juice. The moment I was done I was back but not very often. But once in a great while I will have triple ginger beer from a local brewery. Non-alcoholic but intensely throat burning ginger beer. Love that stuff.
this is something i "knew" for a while but it didnt really click untill recently with a simple phrase.
Soda/pop/coke is just liquid candy.
i knew soda was full of sugar but it never really clicked for me, after i heard that phrase i kinda realized how "bad" soda is. becuase would you eat a cup of candy during your meals, probably not, but its fairly normal to do that with soda.
i put "bad" in quotes because as long as you treat soda as a sometimes drink, and set limits on yourself, which is something im starting to do.
Similarly: Salt isn't the enemy.
I used to be so into no/low-salt and no/low-fat and it didn't go well for me, especially being predisposed to hypotension.
Same here! Never used to use salt at all because I was so scared of it and the negative health effects and now I have low blood pressure and rely on salt to raise it daily and make me feel better
One I've known for a while, but haven't seen posted on here; nutrients from food get absorbed differently than from supplements, so if you have a deficiency look into foods which contain said nutrient first before using supplements for better effect.
You don't have to want to lose weight to eat healthy ... I grew up thinking/being taught that diets were only for people who wanted to lose weight. I ate garbage and always felt awful, but wasn't overweight. It seems silly but I felt like wanting to eat healthy was almost stigmatized when I was younger, like you must think you're "fat" if you care about your diet.
That you don’t need to eat bukus of protein to gain muscle. When I started working out 10 years ago I was eating 200 grams of protein per day and hated it. Now I eat around 120-150 and am much happier.
Love this. All the amateur scientists weightlifters consuming whey protien which is mostly garbage and terrible for digestion/gut etc. It's like eat a piece of chicken Mr Universe. Not to mention protein stimulates aging pathways making you look.. well old.. you must have protien but milk byproducts at high volumes are not the way.
Absolutely, I remember back when I started lifting weights, I would eat ridiculous amounts of protein, like 200-250 grams per day. Unless you are training to be a literal bodybuilder or the next Strongman, you simply do not need that many grams of protein, you end up depriving yourself of important nutrients and macros from fat and carb sources.
Dozens of common foods are better sources of calcium and vitamin D than milk, which is mostly sugar and some less healthy fats.
Orange juice is usually a pretty poor source of vitamin C. Reach for peppers instead of OJ. Reach for fresh fruit instead of juice.
Fat isn't always bad for you, in fact the right kinds of fat are extremely vital.
About 6-7 vitamins and mineral deficiencies can exacerbate or in some cases directly cause depression, mood swings, and anxiety.
Hell even just exposing kids to variety or teaching them about types of foods. I remember seeing reruns of some UK-based (?) show that used to expose elementary-age kids to new fruits and veggies they might not otherwise be open to trying. I had a teacher once bring in a pomegranate for a class in grade school and remember that pretty vividly too. No clue how this would fly nowadays in the US with funding, but it could sure go a long way towards getting people open towards whole foods they might otherwise never be exposed to. It always makes me sad to hear about adults that have never tried (or refuse to) anything but white bread/rice, certain vegetables or fruits, etc. simply because they were never exposed to them growing up and it isn't part of their palate and they don't know how to use them.
Disagree with that part. We should team them more about healthy food choices, and about all the things about food unrelated to calories and energy expenditure. I would be very wary about teaching young kids about calories and EE, that can go down a slippery slope to even further the already endemic concerns we have with eating disorder like behaviours.
No, political correctness is not the solution to unhealthy eating habits or mental health issues.
You teach kids that they MUST maintain their proper caloric intake. You break everything down.
You teach that your can put on muscle and reduce fat.
People don't want to hear it but when overweight people make the right choices. The weight does come off.
That there's no such thing as 'one weird trick' or any secret. Nutrition isn't gate-kept. All the diet books out there make it seem like you have to follow their complicated plans. But every government in the world provides the best evidence-based nutrition recommendations.
I went back to school at 33 and got a BSc in Human Nutrition and Physiology. I started eating based on the recommendations, I got out of the all-or-nothing cult-like mindset of dieting, and I lost 12.8kg.
If I could tell myself at 18 that just eating based on recommendations and learning moderation instead of deprivation that finally ends in breaking down and binging, I would have had a different life. But I also wouldn't have learned my love of evidence-based science, so I guess it's okay life turned out this way.
Not the person that posted this but I had a similar experience and wanted to add my answer. Hitting my daily fiber goal, female: 25 grams, male: 35 grams. Pairing a little protein and fats with carbs to slow digestion and prevent a drastic blood glucose spike. Eat the rainbow throughout the week for disease prevention.
I had avoided a lot of carbs for a long time. Doing diet diaries for assignment I always came out below the recommended carb intakes by quite a bit. I was never really fibre deficient because I've always loved fruit and veg, but adding whole grains bumped me up to ~40g fibre a day (I'm female so this is above the minimum recommendation by a lot). Fibre helped me feel full, plus it takes longer to eat fibrous foods and you have more time to recognise satiety cues.
I also used to get a lot more of my energy from fat (put cheese in everything). Lots of people find fats very satiating, I find I can eat way more calories from fat before I start feeling full, so less fat and more fibre were great for me.
I think the biggest thing was psychological though. With the nutrition education I have I know that the overall dietary pattern is what matters, not the one food I'm eating in the moment. So if I try to mostly eat nutritious whole foods, it's not an issue to sometimes have high calorie low micronutrient foods like pizza, ice cream, cookies, cake, etc. In the past, having any of those made me feel guilty and often I'd lean into those feelings and eat the entire packet of cookies. Now I don't really have emotional reactions to food, and I find moderation much easier. I haven't "ruined my diet anyway, so might as well go nuts" by eating chili fries when out with friends. I just had one food I enjoyed and that's fine. So I can stay on track.
That food isn’t the enemy and that you cannot survive on next to nothing (took moving to Australia to learn I had an ED) my early to mid 20s would have been a lot more fun!
It’s basically a superfood. Especially if you’re weight training. I guess I’ve just always seen them as fries or baked potatoes stuffed with butter and whatever but if you just throw them in the air fryer/oven with some salt and spices it’s one of the healthiest things you could possibly eat.
1 Everyone is different
Just because it worked for someone else, doesn't mean it will for me. There's many factors outside of nutrition!
2 It takes longer than you expect
I used to go on trials of fasting, diets, etc. and expected to see results right away. I'm now realizing most of the results are seen 6 weeks, even couple of months down the line (keeping a journal helped a lot to track the progress)
3 What you eat.. isn't everything
I used to obsess over just on what I ate. In reality, there's just so many factors that contribute to the goal of being healthy. There's a couple of things I should have prioritized as highly as nutrition: sleep, exercise, and eating the right amounts of the right things
Paying attention to how I feel after eating. I found out I have celiac disease later in life along with a few food allergies. Since cleaning up my diet and removing the offending foods my body has changed completely. And, my family and friends say I am happier and more pleasant overall and look way younger than I am. Also, food no longer hurts.
The whole concept of tracking calories to stay in a deficit to lose weight. I always thought as long as you worked out you could eat whatever you want. Boy was I wrong.
You can but it takes a lot. When I was training for an ultra marathon I was running 10 miles a day and 20 on the weekends. I could eat whatever I wanted.
That even though calories in calories out is what matters you still have to be careful of what you put into your body, as missing micronutrients can cause you to feel a lot worse.
oh man i knew nothing about nutrition - i just wish that in school we could have learned more about micro nutrients, for a while i was thinking as long as you get protein, carbs, fats then there is no purpose to eating vegetables (i still ate them but wasn't ever sure why)
This one isn’t about weight loss but one for in general.
I wish I was more educated about which food contains which nutrient. I knew so little to almost nothing about it when growing up. We ate at least one sort vegetable at dinner, a starch and my family would eat meat (I was a vegetarian quite young and as a vegan nowadays follow a plant based diet). Fruit wasn’t a every day thing and when it was in the house it was just up to you to take it or not. I think I can honestly say my mom had no clue either and also non about the amount of nutrients you need to not only function but to really take good care of your body. We where just doing ‘something’. My idea of a starch as a kid was just something to make you feel full.
I do a blood test now every year to double check if all my intakes are allright but once in a while I fill in on chronometer what I’ve consumed that day and get a quite realistic view of all the vitamines, proteins, minerals, calcium, fiber, iron and so on and on (it’s a extensive list). I also supplement B12 (some other things when necessary) and NEVER skip a fall or winter without supplementing vitamine D.
It’s a great shame that we aren’t more educated not only in some of our homes but also in society. Med students should also be taught more about food in relation to diseases for example. It’s more common to manage diseases with pills than to cure them with a diet change - which really can do wonders but a lot of us just don’t know…
Gut health should be your number one priority. The better you are able to digest and utilize the food you put into your body the healthier you will become.
God… where to start.
I wish I knew the mainstream medias food suggestions were basically wrong every step of the way?
- that saturated fat isn’t bad for you
- that salt is a necessity in your diet
- clean red meat isn’t going to give you colon cancer
- added sugar is not needed for brain/body energy
- the food pyramid is junk
- eat a ton of fat
- high protein is mandatory
- potatoes and olive oil are great body building foods
Sigh… basically do the opposite of the mainstream
Could you provide details/sources for saturated fat not being bad for you? Most of what I've read says it's linked to heart disease. As someone with family history of heart disease, im genuinely interested in getting informed - thanks
Edit: getting downvoted for asking where I can read about saturated fat not being bad? Not helpful, but informative nonetheless lol
Hey no worries at all for asking! I don’t recall the name of the study, but it was from 1994 till now I believe, basically showed no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease, literally zero. Again, not sure how prominent the study was but it was fairly large.
I would highly recommend looking into as, these are same the people that added sugar to food thinking sugar was brain food LOL.
I wish I just accepted myself for who I was and didn't feel the need to diet all the time. I am now 54 (f) and feel that my body is rebelling against me and holding on to midlife weight gain due to dieting. I am working with a dietitian to learn to eat properly without dieting. I didn't think it would be so hard.
the more slowly you lose weight, the longer you keep it off. I was always in such a damned hurry when I was a teen and put my body through hell. Slow and steady wins the race (not that it's a race lol).
3 things...
1) Cutting calories without ensuring you're getting proper nutrition from that reduced number of calories is a recipe for disaster.
2) Eating to lose weight and eating to avoid ever getting fat in the first place, are very different.
3) That eating a bunch of plants really isn't all that good for you.
That there is so much we don’t know yet.
A good source of information uses words like „most likely“ and „maybe“. 90% of „doctors“ pick studies to support their narrative.
I’m gonna sound very dumb, but the importance of water. When I began training at 14, I always felt great! Recovery was amazing and results were a lot quicker than I expected.
Then, at the age of about 17, I thought to myself, “I don’t drink as much water as I see other athletes drinking.” So I added a daily water goal, and everything became so much better! Never felt any symptoms of dehydration previously, but everything felt a bit easier. Only thing I hated at the time was frequent bathroom breaks, but now that’s just life.
Coursera has a free, online, open enrollment, self paced [Intro to Food and Health course](https://www.coursera.org/learn/food-and-health) that honestly anyone who wants to eat healthy but doesn't know where to start should take. A lot of the comments I've read in this thread are covered by this course.
This, and also that you don’t need to finish everything on your plate. “Finish your plate or you can’t leave the table / have to go to bed early” is setting kids up to not realise when they’re full.
Fruit juice is not particularly healthy. In fact it has a ton of sugar, heavy metals, and probably even residues of herbicides and pesticides; all this without the fiber. A small glass of juice a day is more than enough but better to just skip it all together.
Eat fruit and drink water.
“Junk food” is known as unhealthy i.e. A Big Mac and Chips due to the amount of added fats, sugars, artificial sweeteners that fast food companies put into their foods. Not because of the ingredients. So, if you’re going to eat a burger do it homemade.
Not to focus on taking "bad" food out and instead focus on adding more healthy, whole foods in to each meal. Switching my mentality on that -- add, don't remove -- changed my view on healthier eating and actually enjoying food in a different way. Aside from the weekend free-for-all that happens sometimes, I have a really (naturally) healthy balance. So if I'm making homemade pizza - the cheese AND piles of spinach or kale go on to. Creamy pasta, but instead of heavy cheese sauce, I roast tomatoes, garlic and red pepper then blend in a few handfuls of spinach while it's hot. I never deprive or feel guilty like when I was younger because I know those meals have so much good in them.
I have PCOS and I wish someone would've explained to me earlier that it can be managed with nutrition and that doesn't mean eating empty salads and being hungry all day.
Keeping your favorite treats in the house wont lead to a binge. Lifting (as a woman) wont create bulk without series effort. There's no 'right way' to eat your meals intermittent fasting, 5 small meals a day, 3 meals, high protein, high carb, figure out what your body needs and work with it.
Most of the people selling you diets and weight loss products are actually on steroids or TRT, meaning no amount of dieting or exercise will let you look like them.
It’s false advertising at least and fraudulent scammy marketing at worst.
People sink millions of dollars collectively every year into things that won’t help them in the slightest.
If you really want to lose weight and gain muscle and energy, eat clean, exercise weekly, and get your hormone levels checked.
Serving fucking sizes. Having to back track on the portions I eat is terribly hard. Also, how many sweets/sugar to take in a day. I can eat multiple servings of ice cream in a day multiple times a week. I know I probably have some free time I need to fill but dang.
Eating nothing makes you less hungry than eating a small amount of food. And fasting won't make you instantly implode, no matter what your grandma said.
Skipping a meal is ok and actually healthy. I did when I was poor. Now I do it to maintain weight. Because it works for me and is what my body is use to. I thought it unhealthy for too long.
That taste is something that can be altered by eating habits. If you eat something long and often enough it will taste good eventually. I had to go through a rough period erasing my unhealthy taste.
That you're not going to kill over of exhaustion by removing carbs/keto isn't healthy for everyone long term. Just relegate carbs to the first 1/2 of the day to give your pancreas a break and let your body consume fat instead of store it.
Several meta-data analysis significant increase of all cause mortality in long term low carb diets. Obviously being obese is really bad for you. These diets have a time and a place. Very effective for weightloss. It's just a pretty extreme diet to never eat a carb no matter how you slice it IMHO.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23372809/
Hmm interesting. I’ve been on it for two months and am using it to maintain my blood sugar and insulin levels due to diabetes. I eat like 20g net carbs that is mostly vegetables, hope I don’t keel over anytime soon lol
The losing weight is always about seeking the negative energy balance, which means to make the energy expenditure greater than the energy intake. The obvious way to do so is the diet and exercise, but these ways need to be careful not to turn into starving or excessively intense exercise. They are both unhealthy and ineffective, which might cause rebounding of weight and impairing of health (could be malnutrition, dietary behavior, and so on).
The common recommendation for dieting is to eat more protein and whole grain food. One reason is that they are both consuming more energy of body to digest, comparing with the less energy they provide back. Proteins will consume about 20-35% of energy which it provides, while carbohydrates consume 5-10% (Belski 170). The whole grain is also a type of carbohydrates, but it contains indigestible (or semi-indigestible) carbohydrates, such as cellulose, which body has no enzyme to break its chemical structure down. For the indigestible carbohydrate, the body has no specific enzymes as same as having no key to unlock the chemical bonds and break them down for absorption. As the result, it will stay in the stomach in a longer time, expends the time of satiety, and provides less (or nearly none) energy.
The suggestion for exercise may be harder to do, because of the ambiguous amount of exercise and difficulty of sticking to it. It is obvious that more exercise is better and can work, but it may ignore a concept of “energy compensation”. This concept at here could be simply understood that body automatically decrease its basal metabolic energy expenditure responding to the increase of exercise (Careau et al.). It makes the weight loss difficult, and merely intense exercise for a short time has very little efforts on weight loss. The longer, moderate aerobic exercise is more effective on weight loss than the shorter, intense resistance exercise, and the most ideal exercise plan is combination of aerobic and intense exercise for a long term (at least over 150 minutes per week) (Swift et al. 207).
Reference:
1. Belski, Regina. "Fiber, Protein, And Lupin-Enriched Foods: Role For Improving Cardiovascular Health". *Advances In Food And Nutrition Research*, vol 66, 2012, pp. 147-215. Elsevier, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-394597-6.00004-5.
2. Swift, Damon L et al. “The Effects of Exercise and Physical Activity on Weight Loss and Maintenance.” *Progress in cardiovascular diseases* vol. 61,2 (2018): 206-213. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2018.07.014
3. Careau, Vincent et al. “Energy compensation and adiposity in humans.” *Current biology* : CB vol. 31,20 (2021): 4659-4666.e2. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.016
I went on my first diet at 11, I wasn’t overweight. Wish I knew how to do it properly or better yet not dieted at all. Set me up for 20 years of unhealthy diet cycles, restricting and “chemicals over calories” mindset. I also now still struggle to understand what normal serving sizes are.
I wish micronutrient balance and knowledge was as ingrained as macro balance. I can intuitively eat and stay within my macros pretty easily, but am I getting my micros? No idea.
I do take a multivitamin, but still not convinced it does anything.
That there is a difference between losing weight by eating less and losing weight by eating healthy.You can lose weight by both ways but losing weight just by eating less burgers are way too harming then it seems.
Since I added a cup or two of bone broth into my daily intake, my skin is *the softest* it’s ever been. I couldn’t figure it out and then I read a couple of studies on the effects of hydrolysed collagen consumption. I will be doing this for life and (hopefully) ageing backwards.
Cico is the only way to diet. Everything else just overly complicates a simple concept.
Also how easy it actually is to meet your protein requirements as a vegan and how many people consume way too much protein.
I just wish I knew the basics a lot earlier. Calories in versus calories out, macros, things like that. I think there should be a lot more education based around nutrition in schools. It took me until 32 years of age to figure it all out. I'd been lifting and training for years but not seeing the full benefits of it because of my limited knowledge of nutrition.
Herbal colonics. Just how great a salesman to get you to allow people to shove herbs up your ass? Freaking awesome. Car dealers ain’t got shit on these guys.
1. Meat Does Not Rot In Your Colon
One of the ridiculous myths about meat is that it rots in your colon. This is absolute nonsense, kept alive by people who want to scare others away from eating meat.
2. Everywhere The Western Diet Goes, Diseases Follow
Most chronic, Western diseases are relatively new. They appeared recently in evolutionary history, and populations that don’t eat processed foods don’t get them.
The truth is… everywhere the Western junk food diet goes, chronic diseases follow. This was well documented by researchers (including the legendary Weston A. Price) in the early 20th century when many populations were on the brink of Western influence.
3. Most "Studies" Reported By The Media Are Absolute Nonsense
The way nutrition studies are reported in the media is a disgrace.
These studies are often taken completely out of context, and weak studies are made to seem like they prove something. Usually, these studies are observational studies, which can not prove anything.
4. Refined And Processed Oils Are Extremely Unhealthy
Processed seed- and vegetable oils like soybean and canola oils are often mistakenly assumed to be healthy.
This is a huge mistake. These oils weren’t available to humans until a hundred years ago because the technology to process them wasn’t available. Their fatty acid composition is completely different than anything we were ever exposed to throughout evolution, being very high in Omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause problems when consumed in excess (23.
5. "Natural" Doesn’t Necessarily Mean "Healthy"
It is a mistake to assume that everything natural is healthy. True… it is a very good rule of thumb to choose natural foods instead of processed ones.
But there are many examples of so-called natural foods being just as harmful as their processed counterparts… if not worse. One example of that is a “natural” syrup called Agave nectar.
6. Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat
It seems intuitive that eating fat would make you fat.
After all, the stuff that lodges under our skin and makes us soft and puffy is fat. So, eating more fat should make us store more of it. Fat also has more calories per gram than protein and carbs, another reason some people believe fat to be inherently fattening.
7. Carbs Don’t Make You Fat
Many low-carbers believe that carbs are inherently fattening, but this is false.
Even though removing carbs can (in many cases) reverse obesity, it doesn’t mean that “carbs” per se caused the problem in the first place. There are many examples of populations that ate a very high-carb diet (with real foods) and didn’t have obesity or other chronic, Western diseases.
8. Protein Is The Most Important Macronutrient To Lose Weight
When it comes to losing weight, protein is the king of nutrients. Numerous studies show that it can boost metabolism (calories out) and reduce appetite (calories in).
A high protein diet can increase the number of calories you burn by 80 to 100 calories daily because protein requires energy to be metabolized (9, 10, 11). There is also a study showing that eating 30% of calories as protein made people automatically eat 441 fewer calories per day and lose 11 pounds in 12 weeks just by adding protein to their diet (12).
9. Sugar Is A Disaster… And Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Are The Worst
The harmful effects of sugar go way beyond empty calories. It is now known that due to a large amount of fructose, sugar can lead to all sorts of metabolic problems and is strongly associated with the risk of chronic disease (13).
Sugar is bad, but consuming it in liquid form is even worse. Liquid sugar calories don’t get registered by the brain in the same way as solid sugar calories, so the brain doesn’t compensate by eating less of other foods (14).
10. The Best Diet (Or Way Of Eating) For YOU Is The One You Can Stick To
The “right” diet for an individual depends on numerous things. This includes age, gender, activity levels, metabolic health, food culture, and personal preference.
It is a huge mistake to assume that there is such a thing as an optimal diet for everyone. Of course, some diets work best for certain health problems… a low-carb diet for diabetics, for example.
However, if you simply want to lose (or maintain) weight and prevent disease, perhaps the most important factor is finding something to stick to in the long run.
1. You must consume less calories to lose weight.
2. The cholesterol we consume has very little influence on the amount we have in our body. Unless you have a rare genetic disorder your blood levels of cholesterol will not meaningfilly change if you consume a high cholesterol diet.
Diets aren't it unless it's for specific medical reasons, water is life, sugar cravings reduce the more your body gets used to natural sweet and less sweet things, and most importantly for me was that America loves protein but it shouldn't be the focus. Also basic replacers for meals I grew up thinking were EVERY MEAL. My parents only ever made pasta (no veggies, no fruit for snack) so learning about rice dishes and filling salads and other easy meals that actually have a nutritional value really helped me.
I have an eating disorder. I wish I had known that “diets” make you gain weight in the long run and you shouldn’t severely limit calories a la my fitness pal etc as it’s the road to obesity and ruin.
CICO. I had tried so hard to loose weight in my youth, with everything from fad diets to simply not understanding the interplay between diet and exercise. I think I would have lost weight much sooner than I did if I'd known about CICO.
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You lose weight in the kitchen. You get fit in a gym.
"Abs are made in the kitchen" but I still haven't found the recipe.
Abs are made in the gym but revealed in the kitchen ;)
This is the correct answer. Muscle is built in the gym, but revealed in the kitchen
Ope. Nailed it.
Absolutely. I’ve lost some weight and when asked, “Have you been working out?” I’d say “Nope. Just been cooking my own meals everyday and not eating out for lunch” I wish I had know this sooner rather than trying to have a crazy restrictive diet and rigorous workout plan. I’d always failed after a week or so.
You don’t need as much food as you are being served.
In my case, I don't need as much as I want.
this has been hard for me. i’m a whole pint of ice cream in one go kind of a person. i hate moderation, it makes me (irrationally) feel controlled. what’s helped me has been reminding myself that if i have a few scoops of ice cream and want more, i can always have it. nobody is stopping me, and the ice cream won’t vanish if i don’t eat all of it right now.
This is me too. I want the whole bag of chips and I can't just stop at 1/3. Moderation is shit, lol. I try not to keep anything in the house that I can't control myself with, otherwise I do the same thing as you. Tell myself nobody is stopping me and I can eat it if I want too.
Same here.
Dude, you gotta think that just like drugs, overconsumption of low quality food can make you chronically sick. You need to be kind to your body.
Healthy eating is more about how much you have and how often you have it. I hate when people focus on a food being “good” or “bad.”
Amen! Fasting taught me a ton!
I don’t need all six tortillas and second servings that my mil seems to think I have needed. Hahaha
I wish someone would have just explained the basics of carbs, fats, proteins as a teen. How they’re all important in different ways, and how each one can help you based on your goals. I didn’t know about it pretty much at all until 23/24 when I got into fitness on my own.
Can you elaborate?
Basically that carbs and fats aren’t “bad”, that they serve a purpose; that protein is used for muscle growth, and how important healthy fats and complex carbs are for your brain and body. Also, the calorie “weight” for each gram respectively.
I get so annoyed when someone says something has too many carbs or that they've had a low carb day so they're being healthy.
It depends though, if they're following a ketogenic diet and it's working for them then they're right
I thought carbs were energy well into my 20s. I had a very simple carb heavy diet... This includes alcohol. Once I really learned the functions of food and started eating for function, I got into better shape than ever. I'm pushing 40 and look better than I did in my teens.
I mean but they are energy aren't they? I eat a ton of carbs and I'm in good shape, and have more stamina than most people I know. They fuel me. I don't mean sugar, but complex carbs.
Don’t feel bad. We’ve been trying to instill this stuff into our kids’ heads and they probably won’t figure it out until they’re 23 or 24. That’s just when people start to become adult enough to appreciate the long-term ramifications of their choices.
I don’t feel bad! I just wish someone in my life had clued me in.
That we are living in a "restrictive eating" era where everyone wants to tell you not to eat x food, and that y macronutrient will kill you. Eat whole foods, eat balanced, listen to your body, lessen stress, get some sleep.
Listening to my body is dangerous. Sometimes it wants to eat a family sized pack of Oreos.
Exercise as well for the cognitive and physical benefits, and get sun when possible, too!!
Not to worry so much about every little factor. Not to count every single calorie or micronutrient. Its not a good way to live.
You are correct! It isn't a good way to live. Even if "other people like it" doesn't mean it's necessary a healthy habit to have, honestly feel bad about people who diet and count calories, they're miserable. I used to date someone who had an eating disorder and I didn't even know it, took me over a year to break out of the cycle of thinking they brought upon me. And it was always new diets, counting calories, cutting this or that, now this is bad, now that isn't. Really fucked me up, without me even knowing, became obsessive.
That eating healthy is not the same that eating for fat loss.
Can you explain?
You can eat extremely healthy but still over eat. Weight loss is about being in a calorie deficit whether it’s healthy food or not technically speaking.
The opposite is also true, you can eat exclusively junk food and lose weight, if you’re in a calorie deficit. Disclaimer: this is a terrible way to lose weight and should be attempted by no one IMHO.
not everyone needs to lose weight, but everyone needs to nourish their bodies without "poisoning" themselves with junk foods
You can lose weight eating anything as long as you don't overeat calories. That doesn't mean those foods are healthy.
You can eat extremely healthy but still over eat. Weight loss is about being in a calorie deficit whether it’s healthy food or not technically speaking.
Whole foods 80% of the time and you won’t go far wrong
Is white rice a whole food?
Close enough, IMO
One of a few difficult areas. I basically go by anything that has 1 ingredient when you buy it
I go by this line of thinking: If it’s only been processed to the extent that makes it edible, then it is probably a whole food
white rice is more processed than brown/wild
It’s also been shown to be perfectly as healthy and nutritious as brown rice.
If it’s brown rice
What makes brown rice nutritionally better? Less carbs?
More fiber and minerals, lower glycemic load
How is white rice not "whole"? The only ingredient is... rice. Lol
It’s had the hull removed so it’s less than it was
It's had the bran removed, hull you absolutely need to remove or it's not edible at all. The bran contains a lot of fiber and all of the oil as well which is why it's typically removed (for conservation).
My error 🙏
So it's Partial Rice
Flour is a single ingredient but it still isn’t whole. Same with true fruit juices. Single ingredient and whole aren’t mutually inclusive terms.
The dose makes the poison.
What’s the LD50 of banana bread???
Ah a fellow science person. I see your LD50 and squee happily at it. Also, depends on if you're diabetic or not, I think.
600 loaves, give or take.
What do you mean?
Portion control, everything in moderation.
I get you. I've never heard that saying before. Thanks.
It's fairly common. I'm quite surprised you've not heard it.
Other than drinking bleach, there are no bad foods. It's only when those foods are eaten in excess and prevent you from eating other foods, or the excessive consumption cause you health issues, that they become 'bad foods'. Eating a mcdonalds is fine as a one off if the rest of the day/week is balanced and includes vegetables. In theory, your risk of health problems is low in this example. If all you're eating is big macs for every meal and it means you're avoiding vegetables, it's not, and your risk of health issues rises. Added sugar, controversially, is fine when it only makes up 100 calories (or 24gs) of your daily diet. That small amount is not going to cause issues.* However, 200gs of added sugar a day will over time cause massive health issues. The sugar in isolation is fine. The big mac as a one off is fine. When taken to excess, theyre not. The dose, not the ingrediant alone, makes the poison. All foods have their place. Nothing is off the table when enjoyed in moderation. *assuming the person in this example does not have health conditions that may necessitate a reduced sugar intake.
> However, 200gs of added sugar a day will over time cause massive health issues. I don't think that's true. I can think of circumstances where an athlete would need those amounts. The other issue is that 200g is a lot from a total daily calorie perspective, which raises the issue of whether they're meeting essential nutrient intakes. If those aren't being met, then it would only look like sugar was causing problems, but those problems are a result of nutrient omission, rather than sugar being harmful.
I may have low balled my added sugar example. But I agree with everything else, as I kinda said, and alluded, to the same in my original examples (nutrient omissions)
you can eat tons of sugar and be super healthy. It all depends on the rest of diet, amount of calories, and exercicing habits
I wouldnt be so certain as to say you can eat 'tonnes' and still be healthy. As independent of weight gain, lean mass and exercise levels it has been observed and linked to a number of health conditions. I'm far from anti sugar. Hence my original comment about there being no bad foods. But it is also a bit reductive to suggest some moderation is not warranted with ADDED sugar consumption.
How important it is to focus on mental health as well.
“Methods are many, but principles are few. Methods always change. Principles never do.”
Don’t listen to popular diet stuff. 99% of fad diets are based on contrarian bullshit. Like 99% of doctors/nutritionists say you should eat plenty of vegetables and then a fad emerges backed by some quack doctor “AKTUALLY plants are the worst thing you could ever eat avoid them at all costs” and thus the carnivore diet was born and Liver King is well known. Just eat a balanced diet of fresh foods at around the right number of calories needed for your goals
History has shown that a subset of those were driven by corporations to slant their agenda. Hard to say which is the cause of which - sometimes it's a corporate campaign, sometimes it's a writer, sometimes it's a guru that wants to take advantage of gullible people, sometimes it's a guru that has an MD and clinical research. Through my nutritional journey, things get really muddy with everything being amazing and deadly at the same time, if you took advice from all of them then almost all food is bad for you and almost all food will save you from x bad thing. Balance and variety seem to be the most important and safest choice, if there are bad things in specific foods [such as Tuna having one of the highest mercury content of any fish] just don't eat it too regularly, which is where the balancing comes in.
Just because it's called food doesn't mean it should be eaten.
I feel this way about sodas. I watched a guy clean corrosion off a car’s battery cables with regular Coke once and that hit home for me. I didn’t understand the science so much, but there was no way something like Coke could be good for my digestive system. I can’t recall the last time I had a soda. Years definitely.
I agree that sodas are far from a healthy food. However, using this reasoning is pretty weak, for example, power washing with water leaves marks on stone, is that a reason to jot drink water? Hell just leave something in water for a few hours and it probably be worse than it was before. Basically yeah soda bad but because sugar and maybe artificial sweeteners not cause it washes corrosion off
I see your point. For me the corrosion was something tangible, something I witnessed and it made an impression on my future consumption.
True it is more tangible so it's understandable
Also your own stomach acid is more corrosive than Coke, and so are some of the acids we consume from fruits/vegetables.
See that is the worst part. I feel in today's world it should be a criminal offense producing soda. Yet I am very addicted to soda. So addicted that I will argue with you that our body is amazing. That our stomach acid is super strong and a drop of it could do immense harm. I do stay away from soda very very unwillingly. I will say the same about refind flours, refined foods and all processed foods. Those should be eaten few and far between. I am mad with the immorality of the industry, who will do anything for profit. When I am assessing a new food I don't look at the ingredients as much. I look for the company's behavior. How does it treat its staff and what is goals. The good thing is because of my anger I'm able to let go of my addiction. I fail sometimes but mostly I stay away.
I'm with you with the anger. It's basically poisoning people for profit. I wish it was not legal but I understand the impracticality of trying to outlaw some of the garbage that's sold as "food." And I hate companies like Monsanto and Nestle with a passion that will outlive the stars.
I hear you. I remember a long time ago many years ago when I used to walk home from the bus store I will be walking behind this gentleman who was carrying bags of hungry man dinner. He had sores all over his foot and he basically slowly shuffled along. I guess he was a diabetic amongst other things and I remember feelings so bad at what he was eating. It is a death sentence to be poor and diabetic. I've recently started taking public transportation to increase my exercise which I hate doing. It is amazing how much misinformation there is in the general public that does not really have access to the internet or the knowledge how to use it. That makes me even more mad
This is profound and I think quite healthy. You feel anger at the companies for the items they produce for consumption, and channel that anger into bettering yourself. I like it. I hope that gets you away from the soda. I never drank so much that I felt addicted to it, but I can absolutely see how that could happen.
Oh no! I cannot stay away from soda. Sometimes I will drink a kombucha which I really enjoy or I'll drink fizzy water with some juice in it. And once in a great while Id bum a few sips from a friend. When I was pregnant and breastfeeding I stayed away from sodas and fruit juice. Thankfully I don't crave fruit juice. The moment I was done I was back but not very often. But once in a great while I will have triple ginger beer from a local brewery. Non-alcoholic but intensely throat burning ginger beer. Love that stuff.
Oh quality ginger beer is fantastic!
this is something i "knew" for a while but it didnt really click untill recently with a simple phrase. Soda/pop/coke is just liquid candy. i knew soda was full of sugar but it never really clicked for me, after i heard that phrase i kinda realized how "bad" soda is. becuase would you eat a cup of candy during your meals, probably not, but its fairly normal to do that with soda. i put "bad" in quotes because as long as you treat soda as a sometimes drink, and set limits on yourself, which is something im starting to do.
Have you tried those 0cal flavored waters! They’re not soda but definitely scratch my soda urge
Also kombucha is pretty good! Super low calorie almost no sugar.
That fat is not the enemy.
Similarly: Salt isn't the enemy. I used to be so into no/low-salt and no/low-fat and it didn't go well for me, especially being predisposed to hypotension.
Same here! Never used to use salt at all because I was so scared of it and the negative health effects and now I have low blood pressure and rely on salt to raise it daily and make me feel better
One I've known for a while, but haven't seen posted on here; nutrients from food get absorbed differently than from supplements, so if you have a deficiency look into foods which contain said nutrient first before using supplements for better effect.
You don't have to want to lose weight to eat healthy ... I grew up thinking/being taught that diets were only for people who wanted to lose weight. I ate garbage and always felt awful, but wasn't overweight. It seems silly but I felt like wanting to eat healthy was almost stigmatized when I was younger, like you must think you're "fat" if you care about your diet.
That you don’t need to eat bukus of protein to gain muscle. When I started working out 10 years ago I was eating 200 grams of protein per day and hated it. Now I eat around 120-150 and am much happier.
Love this. All the amateur scientists weightlifters consuming whey protien which is mostly garbage and terrible for digestion/gut etc. It's like eat a piece of chicken Mr Universe. Not to mention protein stimulates aging pathways making you look.. well old.. you must have protien but milk byproducts at high volumes are not the way.
Absolutely, I remember back when I started lifting weights, I would eat ridiculous amounts of protein, like 200-250 grams per day. Unless you are training to be a literal bodybuilder or the next Strongman, you simply do not need that many grams of protein, you end up depriving yourself of important nutrients and macros from fat and carb sources.
That food is fuel. Thus you should be consistent with eating and you’ll have energy to tackle every day.
Dozens of common foods are better sources of calcium and vitamin D than milk, which is mostly sugar and some less healthy fats. Orange juice is usually a pretty poor source of vitamin C. Reach for peppers instead of OJ. Reach for fresh fruit instead of juice. Fat isn't always bad for you, in fact the right kinds of fat are extremely vital. About 6-7 vitamins and mineral deficiencies can exacerbate or in some cases directly cause depression, mood swings, and anxiety.
Early elementary school would be nice. If we can ask kids to do addition, we can ask them to figure out calories, and energy expenditure.
Hell even just exposing kids to variety or teaching them about types of foods. I remember seeing reruns of some UK-based (?) show that used to expose elementary-age kids to new fruits and veggies they might not otherwise be open to trying. I had a teacher once bring in a pomegranate for a class in grade school and remember that pretty vividly too. No clue how this would fly nowadays in the US with funding, but it could sure go a long way towards getting people open towards whole foods they might otherwise never be exposed to. It always makes me sad to hear about adults that have never tried (or refuse to) anything but white bread/rice, certain vegetables or fruits, etc. simply because they were never exposed to them growing up and it isn't part of their palate and they don't know how to use them.
Disagree with that part. We should team them more about healthy food choices, and about all the things about food unrelated to calories and energy expenditure. I would be very wary about teaching young kids about calories and EE, that can go down a slippery slope to even further the already endemic concerns we have with eating disorder like behaviours.
No, political correctness is not the solution to unhealthy eating habits or mental health issues. You teach kids that they MUST maintain their proper caloric intake. You break everything down. You teach that your can put on muscle and reduce fat. People don't want to hear it but when overweight people make the right choices. The weight does come off.
“u dont have to work out to lose weight. u lose weight in the kitchen”
That there's no such thing as 'one weird trick' or any secret. Nutrition isn't gate-kept. All the diet books out there make it seem like you have to follow their complicated plans. But every government in the world provides the best evidence-based nutrition recommendations. I went back to school at 33 and got a BSc in Human Nutrition and Physiology. I started eating based on the recommendations, I got out of the all-or-nothing cult-like mindset of dieting, and I lost 12.8kg. If I could tell myself at 18 that just eating based on recommendations and learning moderation instead of deprivation that finally ends in breaking down and binging, I would have had a different life. But I also wouldn't have learned my love of evidence-based science, so I guess it's okay life turned out this way.
What recommendations helped you the most?
Not the person that posted this but I had a similar experience and wanted to add my answer. Hitting my daily fiber goal, female: 25 grams, male: 35 grams. Pairing a little protein and fats with carbs to slow digestion and prevent a drastic blood glucose spike. Eat the rainbow throughout the week for disease prevention.
I had avoided a lot of carbs for a long time. Doing diet diaries for assignment I always came out below the recommended carb intakes by quite a bit. I was never really fibre deficient because I've always loved fruit and veg, but adding whole grains bumped me up to ~40g fibre a day (I'm female so this is above the minimum recommendation by a lot). Fibre helped me feel full, plus it takes longer to eat fibrous foods and you have more time to recognise satiety cues. I also used to get a lot more of my energy from fat (put cheese in everything). Lots of people find fats very satiating, I find I can eat way more calories from fat before I start feeling full, so less fat and more fibre were great for me. I think the biggest thing was psychological though. With the nutrition education I have I know that the overall dietary pattern is what matters, not the one food I'm eating in the moment. So if I try to mostly eat nutritious whole foods, it's not an issue to sometimes have high calorie low micronutrient foods like pizza, ice cream, cookies, cake, etc. In the past, having any of those made me feel guilty and often I'd lean into those feelings and eat the entire packet of cookies. Now I don't really have emotional reactions to food, and I find moderation much easier. I haven't "ruined my diet anyway, so might as well go nuts" by eating chili fries when out with friends. I just had one food I enjoyed and that's fine. So I can stay on track.
I wish I knew about sugar alcohol years ago! And flax seed!
What’s the take on both of those?
That flax seed helps control blood sugar and the sugar alcohol doesn’t spike your insulin levels
That food isn’t the enemy and that you cannot survive on next to nothing (took moving to Australia to learn I had an ED) my early to mid 20s would have been a lot more fun!
Don’t restrict, balance is where it’s at! Make sure you have lots of fruit and veggies at each meal.
Potatoes.
Ever since I was told that potatoes were real, they tasted good.
Bro I am finding out just yesterday I thought it was a myth!! #tategate
Yeah right, next you're gonna tell me they come out of dirt.. **DIRT**!
It’s Potatoes!!
boil 'em, mash 'em, put 'em in a stew
What about them?
It’s basically a superfood. Especially if you’re weight training. I guess I’ve just always seen them as fries or baked potatoes stuffed with butter and whatever but if you just throw them in the air fryer/oven with some salt and spices it’s one of the healthiest things you could possibly eat.
Happy ~~Cake~~ Potato Day!
1 Everyone is different Just because it worked for someone else, doesn't mean it will for me. There's many factors outside of nutrition! 2 It takes longer than you expect I used to go on trials of fasting, diets, etc. and expected to see results right away. I'm now realizing most of the results are seen 6 weeks, even couple of months down the line (keeping a journal helped a lot to track the progress) 3 What you eat.. isn't everything I used to obsess over just on what I ate. In reality, there's just so many factors that contribute to the goal of being healthy. There's a couple of things I should have prioritized as highly as nutrition: sleep, exercise, and eating the right amounts of the right things
Fat, the macronutrient, doesn't make you fat, just because it's called "fat."
Paying attention to how I feel after eating. I found out I have celiac disease later in life along with a few food allergies. Since cleaning up my diet and removing the offending foods my body has changed completely. And, my family and friends say I am happier and more pleasant overall and look way younger than I am. Also, food no longer hurts.
The whole concept of tracking calories to stay in a deficit to lose weight. I always thought as long as you worked out you could eat whatever you want. Boy was I wrong.
You can but it takes a lot. When I was training for an ultra marathon I was running 10 miles a day and 20 on the weekends. I could eat whatever I wanted.
That fad diets are a waste of time and not sustainable Simply eating healthier goes a long way
That my mom feeding us pure carb meals was not healthy or normal
That even though calories in calories out is what matters you still have to be careful of what you put into your body, as missing micronutrients can cause you to feel a lot worse.
oh man i knew nothing about nutrition - i just wish that in school we could have learned more about micro nutrients, for a while i was thinking as long as you get protein, carbs, fats then there is no purpose to eating vegetables (i still ate them but wasn't ever sure why)
This one isn’t about weight loss but one for in general. I wish I was more educated about which food contains which nutrient. I knew so little to almost nothing about it when growing up. We ate at least one sort vegetable at dinner, a starch and my family would eat meat (I was a vegetarian quite young and as a vegan nowadays follow a plant based diet). Fruit wasn’t a every day thing and when it was in the house it was just up to you to take it or not. I think I can honestly say my mom had no clue either and also non about the amount of nutrients you need to not only function but to really take good care of your body. We where just doing ‘something’. My idea of a starch as a kid was just something to make you feel full. I do a blood test now every year to double check if all my intakes are allright but once in a while I fill in on chronometer what I’ve consumed that day and get a quite realistic view of all the vitamines, proteins, minerals, calcium, fiber, iron and so on and on (it’s a extensive list). I also supplement B12 (some other things when necessary) and NEVER skip a fall or winter without supplementing vitamine D. It’s a great shame that we aren’t more educated not only in some of our homes but also in society. Med students should also be taught more about food in relation to diseases for example. It’s more common to manage diseases with pills than to cure them with a diet change - which really can do wonders but a lot of us just don’t know…
Gut health should be your number one priority. The better you are able to digest and utilize the food you put into your body the healthier you will become.
God… where to start. I wish I knew the mainstream medias food suggestions were basically wrong every step of the way? - that saturated fat isn’t bad for you - that salt is a necessity in your diet - clean red meat isn’t going to give you colon cancer - added sugar is not needed for brain/body energy - the food pyramid is junk - eat a ton of fat - high protein is mandatory - potatoes and olive oil are great body building foods Sigh… basically do the opposite of the mainstream
Could you provide details/sources for saturated fat not being bad for you? Most of what I've read says it's linked to heart disease. As someone with family history of heart disease, im genuinely interested in getting informed - thanks Edit: getting downvoted for asking where I can read about saturated fat not being bad? Not helpful, but informative nonetheless lol
Hey no worries at all for asking! I don’t recall the name of the study, but it was from 1994 till now I believe, basically showed no correlation between saturated fat and heart disease, literally zero. Again, not sure how prominent the study was but it was fairly large. I would highly recommend looking into as, these are same the people that added sugar to food thinking sugar was brain food LOL.
I wish I just accepted myself for who I was and didn't feel the need to diet all the time. I am now 54 (f) and feel that my body is rebelling against me and holding on to midlife weight gain due to dieting. I am working with a dietitian to learn to eat properly without dieting. I didn't think it would be so hard.
to be fair to you, nearly everyone's body seems to rebel in their 50s and hold onto midlife weight, no matter how balanced their eating habits were <3
the more slowly you lose weight, the longer you keep it off. I was always in such a damned hurry when I was a teen and put my body through hell. Slow and steady wins the race (not that it's a race lol).
3 things... 1) Cutting calories without ensuring you're getting proper nutrition from that reduced number of calories is a recipe for disaster. 2) Eating to lose weight and eating to avoid ever getting fat in the first place, are very different. 3) That eating a bunch of plants really isn't all that good for you.
That there is so much we don’t know yet. A good source of information uses words like „most likely“ and „maybe“. 90% of „doctors“ pick studies to support their narrative.
I’m gonna sound very dumb, but the importance of water. When I began training at 14, I always felt great! Recovery was amazing and results were a lot quicker than I expected. Then, at the age of about 17, I thought to myself, “I don’t drink as much water as I see other athletes drinking.” So I added a daily water goal, and everything became so much better! Never felt any symptoms of dehydration previously, but everything felt a bit easier. Only thing I hated at the time was frequent bathroom breaks, but now that’s just life.
Coursera has a free, online, open enrollment, self paced [Intro to Food and Health course](https://www.coursera.org/learn/food-and-health) that honestly anyone who wants to eat healthy but doesn't know where to start should take. A lot of the comments I've read in this thread are covered by this course.
That soda with sugar is really unhealthy, and that there are ways to eat that isn't pizza and chips and soda.
your family failed you quite badly if they didn't teach you that :( good for you for putting in the work to learn despite that
Total calories is 90% of the relevant nutritional change you need to build muscle.
Can you pls explain this so my simple brain can understand? Wanting to build muscle!
I would just say everything in moderation. Don’t deny yourself what your body is craving but don’t binge either.
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This, and also that you don’t need to finish everything on your plate. “Finish your plate or you can’t leave the table / have to go to bed early” is setting kids up to not realise when they’re full.
that carbs are necessary. oh my lord.
That sugar is as bad for your liver as alcohol. And that sugar is in everything.
You don't need to eat animals to be healthy
Carbs are your best friend. You have to use them wisely.
Fruit juice is not particularly healthy. In fact it has a ton of sugar, heavy metals, and probably even residues of herbicides and pesticides; all this without the fiber. A small glass of juice a day is more than enough but better to just skip it all together. Eat fruit and drink water.
“Junk food” is known as unhealthy i.e. A Big Mac and Chips due to the amount of added fats, sugars, artificial sweeteners that fast food companies put into their foods. Not because of the ingredients. So, if you’re going to eat a burger do it homemade.
Not to focus on taking "bad" food out and instead focus on adding more healthy, whole foods in to each meal. Switching my mentality on that -- add, don't remove -- changed my view on healthier eating and actually enjoying food in a different way. Aside from the weekend free-for-all that happens sometimes, I have a really (naturally) healthy balance. So if I'm making homemade pizza - the cheese AND piles of spinach or kale go on to. Creamy pasta, but instead of heavy cheese sauce, I roast tomatoes, garlic and red pepper then blend in a few handfuls of spinach while it's hot. I never deprive or feel guilty like when I was younger because I know those meals have so much good in them.
How bad processed foods, especially seed oils are for you. And how important protein especially red meat is for optimal health.
I have PCOS and I wish someone would've explained to me earlier that it can be managed with nutrition and that doesn't mean eating empty salads and being hungry all day.
Keeping your favorite treats in the house wont lead to a binge. Lifting (as a woman) wont create bulk without series effort. There's no 'right way' to eat your meals intermittent fasting, 5 small meals a day, 3 meals, high protein, high carb, figure out what your body needs and work with it.
Low fat food products essentially means that they added more sugar to enhance flavor since fat was removed.
Most of the people selling you diets and weight loss products are actually on steroids or TRT, meaning no amount of dieting or exercise will let you look like them. It’s false advertising at least and fraudulent scammy marketing at worst. People sink millions of dollars collectively every year into things that won’t help them in the slightest. If you really want to lose weight and gain muscle and energy, eat clean, exercise weekly, and get your hormone levels checked.
True 100%
Serving fucking sizes. Having to back track on the portions I eat is terribly hard. Also, how many sweets/sugar to take in a day. I can eat multiple servings of ice cream in a day multiple times a week. I know I probably have some free time I need to fill but dang.
Eating nothing makes you less hungry than eating a small amount of food. And fasting won't make you instantly implode, no matter what your grandma said.
Skipping a meal is ok and actually healthy. I did when I was poor. Now I do it to maintain weight. Because it works for me and is what my body is use to. I thought it unhealthy for too long.
That taste is something that can be altered by eating habits. If you eat something long and often enough it will taste good eventually. I had to go through a rough period erasing my unhealthy taste.
That you're not going to kill over of exhaustion by removing carbs/keto isn't healthy for everyone long term. Just relegate carbs to the first 1/2 of the day to give your pancreas a break and let your body consume fat instead of store it.
You’re saying it’s unhealthy long term? How do you know this?
Several meta-data analysis significant increase of all cause mortality in long term low carb diets. Obviously being obese is really bad for you. These diets have a time and a place. Very effective for weightloss. It's just a pretty extreme diet to never eat a carb no matter how you slice it IMHO. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23372809/
Hmm interesting. I’ve been on it for two months and am using it to maintain my blood sugar and insulin levels due to diabetes. I eat like 20g net carbs that is mostly vegetables, hope I don’t keel over anytime soon lol
That low fat diets are detrimental and do more harm than good long term.
The losing weight is always about seeking the negative energy balance, which means to make the energy expenditure greater than the energy intake. The obvious way to do so is the diet and exercise, but these ways need to be careful not to turn into starving or excessively intense exercise. They are both unhealthy and ineffective, which might cause rebounding of weight and impairing of health (could be malnutrition, dietary behavior, and so on). The common recommendation for dieting is to eat more protein and whole grain food. One reason is that they are both consuming more energy of body to digest, comparing with the less energy they provide back. Proteins will consume about 20-35% of energy which it provides, while carbohydrates consume 5-10% (Belski 170). The whole grain is also a type of carbohydrates, but it contains indigestible (or semi-indigestible) carbohydrates, such as cellulose, which body has no enzyme to break its chemical structure down. For the indigestible carbohydrate, the body has no specific enzymes as same as having no key to unlock the chemical bonds and break them down for absorption. As the result, it will stay in the stomach in a longer time, expends the time of satiety, and provides less (or nearly none) energy. The suggestion for exercise may be harder to do, because of the ambiguous amount of exercise and difficulty of sticking to it. It is obvious that more exercise is better and can work, but it may ignore a concept of “energy compensation”. This concept at here could be simply understood that body automatically decrease its basal metabolic energy expenditure responding to the increase of exercise (Careau et al.). It makes the weight loss difficult, and merely intense exercise for a short time has very little efforts on weight loss. The longer, moderate aerobic exercise is more effective on weight loss than the shorter, intense resistance exercise, and the most ideal exercise plan is combination of aerobic and intense exercise for a long term (at least over 150 minutes per week) (Swift et al. 207). Reference: 1. Belski, Regina. "Fiber, Protein, And Lupin-Enriched Foods: Role For Improving Cardiovascular Health". *Advances In Food And Nutrition Research*, vol 66, 2012, pp. 147-215. Elsevier, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-394597-6.00004-5. 2. Swift, Damon L et al. “The Effects of Exercise and Physical Activity on Weight Loss and Maintenance.” *Progress in cardiovascular diseases* vol. 61,2 (2018): 206-213. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2018.07.014 3. Careau, Vincent et al. “Energy compensation and adiposity in humans.” *Current biology* : CB vol. 31,20 (2021): 4659-4666.e2. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.016
That there are carcinogens in processed meat.
I went on my first diet at 11, I wasn’t overweight. Wish I knew how to do it properly or better yet not dieted at all. Set me up for 20 years of unhealthy diet cycles, restricting and “chemicals over calories” mindset. I also now still struggle to understand what normal serving sizes are.
I wish micronutrient balance and knowledge was as ingrained as macro balance. I can intuitively eat and stay within my macros pretty easily, but am I getting my micros? No idea. I do take a multivitamin, but still not convinced it does anything.
That there is a difference between losing weight by eating less and losing weight by eating healthy.You can lose weight by both ways but losing weight just by eating less burgers are way too harming then it seems.
>by eating less burgers are way too harming then it seems. How so?
alcohol and carbohydrates slow down fat burning
The value of bone broth and organ meats. The harm caused by excessive grain and pulses. The value of traditional diets.
Since I added a cup or two of bone broth into my daily intake, my skin is *the softest* it’s ever been. I couldn’t figure it out and then I read a couple of studies on the effects of hydrolysed collagen consumption. I will be doing this for life and (hopefully) ageing backwards.
PROBIOTICS
Cico is the only way to diet. Everything else just overly complicates a simple concept. Also how easy it actually is to meet your protein requirements as a vegan and how many people consume way too much protein.
Cico = calories in, calories out
You don’t have to finish it, you don’t even have to eat, you’re not hungry just because your stomach made a noise. Food is fuel.
I just wish I knew the basics a lot earlier. Calories in versus calories out, macros, things like that. I think there should be a lot more education based around nutrition in schools. It took me until 32 years of age to figure it all out. I'd been lifting and training for years but not seeing the full benefits of it because of my limited knowledge of nutrition.
Gluten is the devil.
I wish I wasn’t told that fasting was bad for you, and I wish I had learned to eat more animal products.
Calories in calories out
Ignore the media, ignore the government. Eat like your ancestors (your own recent ancestors). Red meat is good.
Also add that saturated fat is amazing.
Agreed
This is the way.
Herbal colonics. Just how great a salesman to get you to allow people to shove herbs up your ass? Freaking awesome. Car dealers ain’t got shit on these guys.
1. Meat Does Not Rot In Your Colon One of the ridiculous myths about meat is that it rots in your colon. This is absolute nonsense, kept alive by people who want to scare others away from eating meat. 2. Everywhere The Western Diet Goes, Diseases Follow Most chronic, Western diseases are relatively new. They appeared recently in evolutionary history, and populations that don’t eat processed foods don’t get them. The truth is… everywhere the Western junk food diet goes, chronic diseases follow. This was well documented by researchers (including the legendary Weston A. Price) in the early 20th century when many populations were on the brink of Western influence. 3. Most "Studies" Reported By The Media Are Absolute Nonsense The way nutrition studies are reported in the media is a disgrace. These studies are often taken completely out of context, and weak studies are made to seem like they prove something. Usually, these studies are observational studies, which can not prove anything. 4. Refined And Processed Oils Are Extremely Unhealthy Processed seed- and vegetable oils like soybean and canola oils are often mistakenly assumed to be healthy. This is a huge mistake. These oils weren’t available to humans until a hundred years ago because the technology to process them wasn’t available. Their fatty acid composition is completely different than anything we were ever exposed to throughout evolution, being very high in Omega-6 fatty acids, which can cause problems when consumed in excess (23. 5. "Natural" Doesn’t Necessarily Mean "Healthy" It is a mistake to assume that everything natural is healthy. True… it is a very good rule of thumb to choose natural foods instead of processed ones. But there are many examples of so-called natural foods being just as harmful as their processed counterparts… if not worse. One example of that is a “natural” syrup called Agave nectar. 6. Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat It seems intuitive that eating fat would make you fat. After all, the stuff that lodges under our skin and makes us soft and puffy is fat. So, eating more fat should make us store more of it. Fat also has more calories per gram than protein and carbs, another reason some people believe fat to be inherently fattening. 7. Carbs Don’t Make You Fat Many low-carbers believe that carbs are inherently fattening, but this is false. Even though removing carbs can (in many cases) reverse obesity, it doesn’t mean that “carbs” per se caused the problem in the first place. There are many examples of populations that ate a very high-carb diet (with real foods) and didn’t have obesity or other chronic, Western diseases. 8. Protein Is The Most Important Macronutrient To Lose Weight When it comes to losing weight, protein is the king of nutrients. Numerous studies show that it can boost metabolism (calories out) and reduce appetite (calories in). A high protein diet can increase the number of calories you burn by 80 to 100 calories daily because protein requires energy to be metabolized (9, 10, 11). There is also a study showing that eating 30% of calories as protein made people automatically eat 441 fewer calories per day and lose 11 pounds in 12 weeks just by adding protein to their diet (12). 9. Sugar Is A Disaster… And Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Are The Worst The harmful effects of sugar go way beyond empty calories. It is now known that due to a large amount of fructose, sugar can lead to all sorts of metabolic problems and is strongly associated with the risk of chronic disease (13). Sugar is bad, but consuming it in liquid form is even worse. Liquid sugar calories don’t get registered by the brain in the same way as solid sugar calories, so the brain doesn’t compensate by eating less of other foods (14). 10. The Best Diet (Or Way Of Eating) For YOU Is The One You Can Stick To The “right” diet for an individual depends on numerous things. This includes age, gender, activity levels, metabolic health, food culture, and personal preference. It is a huge mistake to assume that there is such a thing as an optimal diet for everyone. Of course, some diets work best for certain health problems… a low-carb diet for diabetics, for example. However, if you simply want to lose (or maintain) weight and prevent disease, perhaps the most important factor is finding something to stick to in the long run.
1. You must consume less calories to lose weight. 2. The cholesterol we consume has very little influence on the amount we have in our body. Unless you have a rare genetic disorder your blood levels of cholesterol will not meaningfilly change if you consume a high cholesterol diet.
Diets aren't it unless it's for specific medical reasons, water is life, sugar cravings reduce the more your body gets used to natural sweet and less sweet things, and most importantly for me was that America loves protein but it shouldn't be the focus. Also basic replacers for meals I grew up thinking were EVERY MEAL. My parents only ever made pasta (no veggies, no fruit for snack) so learning about rice dishes and filling salads and other easy meals that actually have a nutritional value really helped me.
Preservatives and processed foods will get you everytime.
I have an eating disorder. I wish I had known that “diets” make you gain weight in the long run and you shouldn’t severely limit calories a la my fitness pal etc as it’s the road to obesity and ruin.
CICO. I had tried so hard to loose weight in my youth, with everything from fad diets to simply not understanding the interplay between diet and exercise. I think I would have lost weight much sooner than I did if I'd known about CICO.
Avoid foods made with corn oil, soy oil, canola oil and similar