I have been heavy all my life and tend to put on weight easily if I'm not very careful. A typical endomorph I suppose. I have become sort of a self taught expert on nutrition because I have had to be. In my experience a low carb diet is the most effective for keeping healthy and maintaining or losing weight. Nutritionally, carbs are the only macronutrient you can happily live without. Cut out 100% of protein intake, you die. Cut out 100% of fat intake, you die. That said, in some manner it still comes down to creating a caloric deficit to lose fat. Ideally, a small deficit in caloric intake with a significant increase in activity is the best approach.
I've studied and tried just about all "diets" through the years. Intrafitt, Atkins, The Zone, South Beach, Body for Life and most recently Precision Nutrition, they all have their pros and cons and I have learned things from all of them, including what not to do. I think the best and simplest prescription I have ever read for a "diet" comes from the early days of Crossfit, “eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar.” Crossfit tends to follow the zone diet and will increase fat intake when they need more energy for workouts for athletes with low body fat %. The zone balances carbs, protein and fat in a 40/30/30 ratio and carbs come almost exclusively from veggies and some fruit.
Precision Nutrition is really good for creating positive habits with your diet. I started learning about Precision Nutrition when my son was training for baseball with a world class strength and conditioning coach in Hudson, MA. It is the system they used for their athletes. It was more about habits and less about what you eat but they were specific about the what and how much to eat. They don't look at good foods or bad foods (with a few exceptions) rather they look at food choices as better and worse and strive to always make better choices. Eat only when hungry (8+ on a 1-10 scale), eat slowly and eat until 80% full were three of the key principles. I try to apply those habits with the low carb diet and it is pretty effective.
Someone mentioned BMI earlier and I'm generally not a fan. I think body fat % is a better measure, although admittedly more difficult to calculate accurately.
Precision nutrition has some great free resources on their site:
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/blog
Dr. Michael Eades has a good blog on low carb eating:
https://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/
Great post adding some science and actual knowledge to my theories based on observation or personal testing.
Carbs have their place and I see it as injecting water or nitrous into the combustion chamber. If I am doing something "endurance" like a day long White Mountain hike I will pack carbs to support the fat burn.
For most quick hits, like an hour long PT session, I dont need energy support......but I will be very hungry afterwards.
I think the idea of the athletes carbo loading is dumb. Living near Boston the stories of Marathoners loading up on pasta the night before now makes no sense to me. These peeps would eat a big bowl of pasta, get an immediate carb high/low and a bloated feeling but the unused fuel has been turned into fat - an energy source their body is loathe to use because that is only for strategic surplus - they have not changed their furnace over to burning fat which is a 2-3 week process that requires carb starvation.
I see this in my daughters T1D. When she is sick and not eating her blood sugar numbers are perfect but.....her body is releasing ketones attempting to fuel her brain/systems but she is not a ketone burner....she risks running into ketosis and is in immediate danger. We have to try and force popsicles into her in order to get some insulin going to lower ketones. Of course when you are sick and throwing up popsicles are not even desirable and its a struggle. I understand that the first T1D to receive insulin in MA was a 30 odd year old woman - an insanely old age for someone to live to with "juvenile" diabetes. Her father kept her alive that long on a diet consisting of eggs and butter. Ive been told she wasnt healthy, very thin, very weak, but she survived long enough to see the invention of insulin and if I recall right she lived into her 80s.
My daily diet is monotonously unchanging but extremely satisfying taste wise and performance wise.
I tend to eat 6-7 pm dinner so I generally skip breakfast...kind of a mini fast. Black coffee only.
At 1000 I have a cup of mixed berries (blue, black, straw, raz) with unsweetened coconut milk vanilla yogurt. There is also a small amount of 92% cocoa chocolate added.
At 1200 (Just finished it was fantastic) is a salad (non iceberg lettuce) peppers, olives, broccoli sprouts, some sort of protein and full fat no/low sugar dressing.
At 1330 1/4 cup of mixed nuts (small amount of 92% cocoa chocolate) and black coffee.
1600 some cheese or more nuts, usually both. There is a gallon plus container of mixed nuts on the counter 24/7/365.
Dinner is meat and shit like green beans, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, or cauliflower fried in olive oil.
and water.....all day drink water.
Very tasty, filling but not bloating, easy to make, I dont do any weighing shit or ever feel like I am depriving myself.
I do break and have sugar on occasion usually birthday cake with ice cream.....a headache is sure to follow.
Good deserts that dont bother me - I mix my own whipped cream with vanilla over berries or Ill eat a coconut based unsweetened ice cream.......good tasty stuff.
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