Articles - Fat Loss & Nutrition
by Brian Copeland
Nutrition far and away has the most misinformation surrounding it from so-called experts than any other area of life I can think of. For people interested in fat loss finding the right nutrition plan can be harder than catching a connecting flight at Dulles International Airport.
In this article we will review some of the popular fad diets, the pros and the cons, and then we will discuss why there is no perfect diet for everyone but there is a perfect diet for you as an individual.
Everyone has heard of or even tried various types of fad diets, there are so many out there. All vegan diets, raw diets, juice diets, cleansing diets, Atkins-style diets, Ornish-style diets, Zone-style diets, the list goes on.
Each one of these diets brings some truth to the table and each brings its own set of "maybes" and even risks.
Most of these diets worked for the author because of his or her unique homeostatic physiology and hedonistic (desire driven) capabilities. Someone who has an inhuman capacity for discipline can eat an all vegan raw diet and be happy, me... I need a darn Oreo from time to time!!!
Followers of most of these diets fail miserably with the occasional success story. Why the occasional success story? Because you find someone who shares the physical and mental qualities of the author: intense discipline, unique physiology that supports the limited diets they eat, etc.
Let's explore some of the popular diets, pros and cons.
I've included vegetarian diets in this list but the focus will be on vegan as vegans are more restricted in what they can eat.
No one will argue that vegetables are bad for you, some will argue that fruit is bad because they contain sugar/fructose but c'mon, there are worse things out there.
Vegetables have vital phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals and if eaten raw they also contain probiotics for a healthy digestive tract. So based on that, hooray for vegetables.
But just because vegetables are good for you does not mean that meat is bad for you. Despite the silly pseudo-science going around about how eating saturated fat raises your cholesterol (it doesn't according to research) and how cholesterol leads to heart disease (once again another pervasive myth that TV commercials preach), meat should form a significant part of your nutrition.
If you want to learn more about why saturated fat and cholesterol are not bad for you read this article.
The problem with a vegan diet is that you simply cannot get optimal nutrition from vegetables, fruits and nuts alone. You need some form of meat, be it grass-fed beef, chicken, fish, eggs, etc. Notice I said optimal nutrition. Yes you can get adequate protein and essential fats from a vegan diets but adequate refers to "just enough to keep you from dying" and optimal refers to healthy, strong and virile.
Now I will admit that I know one vegan who does not look like an unhealthy emaciated weakling  (I'm sure there is more than one) but this guy also downs vegan protein powders like they are going out of style and is spot-on with his diet and consumes a lot of supplements to make up the missing nutrition he does not get from animal products and he admits that it is really hard and not for most people. If this is the life you desire then go for it, but realize it is a hard life.
One of the biggest complaints I have about an all vegan (or vegetarian diet) is that rarely do most vegans eat a lot of healthy vegetables. They do eat a heck of a lot of starchy veggies, grains, breads, pastas and other high inflammatory foods. This no doubt leads to chronic inflammation and fat accumulation (that skinny fat look) for many of them and can help to explain why so few appear to actually be... healthy... despite the goal of their form of eating.
Bottom line, while it is possible to be a healthy vegan, it is a heck of a lot of work and unless you have the discipline to give up all of the foods you love, why bother? It is completely possible to eat the foods you love while doing some more minor modifications to make them healthier for you.
Please do eat more vegetables, but enjoy animal foods as well.
If anyone tries to tell you we were designed to eat only vegetables and that meat is murder and other such nonsense then let them be angry and sad in their own little world. I'm all for the ethical treatment of animals and if you don't like animals being mistreated I'm there with you. Know your animal sources, make sure the ranches, farms, etc. let the animals get plenty of sunlight, space to roam and do cow or chicken stuff, whatever that is and make sure they are not filled with hormones and antibiotics.
 Free-range, cage-free, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, organic... these are just a few of the things you should be looking for when you buy animal products.
For beef look for grass-fed as the fat in the meat is much healthier and has Omega 3 fatty acids. Grain-fed beef is higher in inflammatory fatty acids, bad news. Cows were not meant to eat grain! They were meant to eat grass. Grain is too acidic for cows, they need grass which is highly alkaline and much healthier for their stomachs (all 4 of them).
It is important to note that humans actually physiologically are more designed towards being carnivores with herbivore tendencies.
- Like carnivores, we have a short bowl.
- Did you know that a tiny little bunny rabbit has a longer small intestine than you?
- Herbivores need that long digestive system to digest all of those fibrous greens.
- Cows have 4 stomachs and regurgitate their cud in order to digest their high levels of grass.
- Humans on the other hand have eyes on the front of our heads like a carnivore used to focus in and track our prey, as opposed to an herbivore that has eyes on the sides of its head to be on the lookout for us.
- We have canine teeth to tear meat. Granted, we do have incisors and molars to grind and cut veggies, but herbivores don't have canines.
- Herbivores have a stomach that tolerates very high alkaline PH balance, carnivores like your kitty cat must have high acidic foods.
- Humans need a more moderate but slightly more acidic diet for our digestive system. So, we are carnivores with herbivore tendencies... AKA "omnivores."
I submit for your approval...
Granted these are not exactly to scale, the intestines of each of these animals is so long that it couldn't be drawn or even shown with clarity.
Beware I am dangerous!
Don't feed me grains, feed me meat to tear apart.
No canine teeth here, give me grasses to chew and grind.
I am a huge supporter of eating more raw foods, we all should consume high quality organic raw foods in the forms of salads, certain vegetables and fruits and even meat and dairy... yes I said that. Even well respected medical professionals, such as Dr. Mercola, D.O., recommend eating certain raw dairy products, eggs, meat and fish as long as you know the source. If you get grossed out remember that many cheeses are raw and sushi is raw. If that still grosses you out then you are not ready for a raw food diet, just move to the next section!
But ultimately an entirely raw diet misses the point. Just because some raw food is good for us is no reason to make a religion out of raw food, as if only raw food was good and anything cooked was the devil. Science simply does not support this. In fact with many vegetables you cannot even get the nutrition from them unless you cook them to break them free from their chemical binding agents in the food. Tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and many more are examples.
Also, unless you plan on eating raw eggs, meat, fish, milk, etc., which I actually do, most people won't, you will be missing out on FARRRR too many important nutrients. And let's face it, how many of us have the discipline to even eat a totally raw diet? Giving up all the great foods you love... no way Jose!
So while adding plenty of healthy raw foods is a great idea, going exclusive misses the whole point and is frankly a bad idea.
This little fella loves his totally raw vegan diet... of course he does not have a human digestive system
This is actually a troubling area as cleansing and juicing has such lofty promises, some initial changes in weight (not for healthy reasons!) and near cult-like following amongst its supporters.
First cleansing diets
Cleansing refers to cleaning out the toxins in your body... What the heck are toxins? Well a number of things such as agricultural pesticides, excessive hormones and supposedly built up goop inside your colon.
Sounds like cleansing would be a good idea... maybe. Frankly every "cleansing diet" I have seen on the market is full of pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and none of them agree with each other. Only eat white fish this week and only lemon juice with mint leaves next week and only our "special protein formula" this week and so on and so forth.
Cleansing is a good idea, but cleansing should be how you eat all of the time, it is an on-going lifestyle, not an event.
What good does it do you to cleanse and then go back to eating the way you ate before?
Ok, now to those quick weight-loss juicing fads.
They promise quick weight loss and indeed they deliver... of course what you don't realize is that what you lost was water, muscle, bone, tendon, ligament, inner organ tissue such as heart, lung, brain matter, etc. The real secret to a juicing diet has nothing to do with the juice, it has to do with the fact that your caloric intake is so low that you are literally starving! But hey if you want to lose weight instead of body fat then go for it...
But would you rather lose muscle and organ weight, or body fat weight?
If you don't know the absolute definite answer to this then sleep on it and come back to this article tomorrow. You can cut off one of your legs and you have just lost weight. Losing weight isn't the real goal is it? Wouldn't you agree that the real goal is looking good in and out of your clothes?
Then you need to focus on losing body fat and building muscle.
Do you have any idea how many people have nearly died doing juicing diets, only to go back to eating like normal and regain all of their former weight or more? Let's just say lots of people and leave it at that.
Unhealthy ways to lose weight: (not recommended)
- Juice only diets
- Cut off a leg
- Heroin addiction
- Methamphetamines
- Swimming with piranhas
- Gastric bypass surgery
Healthy ways to lose weight: (recommended)
- Eat healthy foods while slightly lowering calories below maintenance level to ensure you get all of the nutrition you need to be healthy
- In other words... stop eating like a fat person and eat like a thin person... to put it bluntly
If you are not familiar with these three diets programs, Atkins is high protein/ high fat, Ornish is high carbohydrate/low fat and Zone is a balance of all three macro nutrients protein/fat/carbs.
The debate between these three diets is almost legendary with proponents drawing up battle lines and burying their heads in the sand at every fact that opposes their system.
The real facts are this, people have lost weight on all three diets. While it is true that Atkins dieters have actually had the highest success, it was only slightly better than Zone or Ornish.
The real reason that any of these diets work is that people quit eating high calorie garbage food and start controlling calories. That is the dirty little secret no-one but a few (myself included) will tell you. Control your intake of calories and you will lose weight... Shocking I know! Revolutionary... not really.
Based on research it would appear that the reason that the Atkins diet (which I neither endorse or oppose) works a little better is that it controls the hormone insulin far better than the other 2 types of diets because of its low carbohydrate consumption. But it is also possible to control insulin while still consuming carbohydrates as long as you only have 1 or 2 carb meals per day.
So when it comes to high protein/ high fat vs. low fat/ high carb vs. 40/30/30 balanced diets, all 3 can work by restricting calories. However, which is ideal for your health. I would argue that a more balanced diet is appropriate for most people while others will do well to lower their carbohydrates and increase their fats and still yet a few others will do well to lower fats a tad and up their fibrous carbs a little.
Either way high carb diets tend to be inflammatory and inflammation has been linked to virtually every disease you can name from cancer to arthritis to heart disease.
While not a diet, I would be remiss if I failed to mention Gastric Bypass surgery. Not only does this procedure forever alter your digestive system (yes you can get it undone but at that point the damage is usually done) but also it changes how and what you can eat. This is by far one of the most irresponsible surgical procedures that modern medicine allows, and there are some really irresponsible surgical procedures out there.
Gastric Bypass surgery involves either stapling the stomach so it is smaller or wrapping a fluid filled band around the stomach to prevent it from expanding. You see, the stomach is about the size of your fist but when you eat it can expand to the size of a football! And you though Baryshnikov was flexible!
Many people have died do to complications from gastric bypass surgery. Likewise, many of the people who have had this surgery initially lost some weight only to gain it back or gain even more! You see, they never changed their eating habits. I hate to be the tough-love guy but people we need to take responsibility for ourselves, we can't rely on others to fix our problems or take a magic pill to fix us.
Metabolic Flexibility refers to the ability of the human digestive system to use fats or carbohydrates for fuel. A person who is metabolically flexible can use either as a fuel source. A diabetic is not good at using carbs as a fuel source and thus should be on a high protein/ high fat diet with lower carbohydrates, and even those carbs should be very high fiber such as green leafy vegetables. Perhaps a diabetic is more of a carnivore than the rest of us...?
Most people lose metabolic flexibility... But guess what? Exercise improves your metabolic flexibility! That means people who exercise regularly are better at digesting whatever is shoved down their throats. Pretty cool huh?!
There are 3 main types of diets:
1) 3 Square Meals Per Day
2) 6-7 Meals Per Day
3) Intermittent Fasting
3 square meals per day needs no explanation. The 6-7 meals per day was popularized by Bill Philips and his Body-for-Life challenge, although he did not invent it. It promises stable blood sugar all day as opposed to the 3 meals per day but modern research has shown it to not be necessarily any better than any other meal frequency.
Intermittent fasting has some significant advantages when compared with the other two diets. In intermittent fasting you will typically either fast for an entire day per week, thus eliminating somewhere around 2,000 calories from your weekly intake. Other methods will have you fasting for half of a day and only eating for the last several hours before bed. This has its own unique advantages depending on when you get food cravings. For instance, I do not get hungry until the evening when I enjoy relaxing and pigging out! Thus, by fasting in the day time and only eating in a limited window in the evening I can still enjoy pigging out but due to feeling full my calories are automatically limited.
For the record, the whole myth about not eating before bed is totally ridiculous. It does not matter.
Now some people will do well with intermittent fasting, others will do best to stick with 3 square meals per day and still others swear by 6-7 small meals per day. And at the end of the day the one that you will stick to, is most convenient for you and make you the most happy is the best for you.
First off, don't call it a diet. A diet is something you do right now to quickly lose body fat. Rather, change your eating habits.
If you exercise and are metabolically flexible then you will likely have more options of which type of diet works best for you. However, everyone will be different for 2 main reasons:
1) Homeostatic Factors
2) Hedonistic Factors
Homeostatic refers to your body trying its best to maintain the status quo. Some people will naturally be better at eating fats versus carbs. There are several people who eat an Atkins-style diet of meat and fat and very little carbs and are muscular, ripped to the bone and healthy as can be. Others follow a more balanced diet of meat, veggies and some starchy carbs and boast the same. But your own unique physiology is more important than what worked for someone else. Once again, exercise will often give you more options by improving metabolic flexibility.
Hedonistic refers to your desires. So if homeostatic is physiologically driven hedonistic is desire driven. For instance, if you like to eat your Oreo cookies, that is not a physiological craving, that is a hedonistic craving, and it needs to be considered when designing your eating habits or you will have a hard time following your eating plan.
If you like Oreos then by God eat them, just be sensible when you eat them. They are high in calories, but a few will satisfy your cravings and help you stay on track with the rest of your eating plan.
So now you might be even more confused than ever? Or hopefully I've given you some food for thought... ha ha ha pun intended.
Either way you need a place to get started. Whether it be intermittent fasting, 3 squares, 6-7 meals per day, a balanced diet, low carb or even vegan.
I always recommend my clients begin with the Precision Nutrition course. It is designed by a wildly successful Nutritionist, Dr. John Berardi, and has quite a lot of research behind it and tons of success stories.
The Precision Nutrition course will give you the foundational education of how to eat, will offer advice on when to eat and provide recipes for making healthy foods.
But many people have a hard time making changes, let's face it, change is hard. So in addition to the Precision Nutrition program I always recommend having me help you with motivation and how to make small gradual changes so that you form lifelong changes that stick for life. After all, what good is getting lean for a month and then gaining it all back?
If you are local to me then setting up some private sessions for coaching and motivation is ideal, if you are not local to me then I suggest my phone consultation service for your coaching.
You can get the Precision Nutrition program here.
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