Okay, I believe this is a very important topic to cover since there are so many diets out there and people seem to be so utterly concerned about dieting. In today’s post I plan on going over some of the most popular fad diets, why they are bound to fail, why they are unhealthy, and what the best “diet” really is. I hate the word diet. It is too often associated with weight loss. First of all a diet can be to gain, lose or maintain weight. A person’s diet is what they eat on a daily basis. Newborns’ diets consist of milk. I just want to make sure that when I say ‘diet’ you don’t think ‘cutting calories’ or ‘lose weight’ or ‘weight watchers!’. I mean diet in it’s original form: habitual nourishment. Eat healthy for life not just a few months. The ultimate goal here is to change ones lifestyle in a beneficial way to promote health and longevity.
So to begin with, I’m going to start on the popular low/no-carb diet. Carbohydrates are a CRUCIAL part of a healthy persons diet and should be half of the calories a person intakes per day. Carbohydrates are important both for short and long term energy (reference previous post on metabolism). Low carb diets are quite dangerous especially for those that plan on doing aerobic training while on such a diet. Basically if one restricts carbs enough or cuts them out completely, the body will turn on itself and eat the muscle for the energy necessary to perform the activities. Carbohydrates are also the main fuel for the brain and central nervous system in the form of glucose. Your body will start using ketones for energy and induce a state called ketosis (when the ketones collect in the blood). The weight loss that one experiences from this state is purely from loss of water and depletion of glycogen stores from the liver and muscles. Ketogenic diets create a chemical imbalance in the body causing the blood to become very acidic. There are many physical consequences to carb restriction including, but not limited to, headaches, bad breath, dizziness, fatigue, nausea and muscle loss.

Your body is in a constant state of flux. Your skin, stomach lining, muscles, liver cells, even your skeleton… 98% of your body’s cells are replaced within a year. Every cell in your body gets recycled. In order for your body to make these new cells it needs proteins. Low protein diets are very unhealthy and promote muscle soreness, overall weakness and general fatigue. When you intake protein your body processes the amino acids and deliver them where they are needed most. In order for protein synthesis to happen, you need a supply of both essential and non-essential amino acids. If one is missing, the whole synthesis process is halted. Restriction in protein will result in protein degradation and muscle breakdown. Generally speaking, in a healthy diet 1/3 of your caloric intake should be coming from proteins.

Low fat/no fat diets can also be dangerous. Although cutting saturated fat is healthy, drastically cutting levels of unsaturated fat is not. Fats are carriers for vitamins A, D, E and K, the fat soluble vitamins. Fats provide cushioning and protection for your nerves, kidneys and liver. Research has shown that cutting unsaturated fat levels to a very limited amount can result in elevated cholesterol perhaps leading to heart attack or stroke. It is reasonable in a healthy diet for 1/6 of the caloric intake be from unsaturated fats.

Now we come to one of the most common diets out there, the low calorie diet. No personal trainer, dietitian, nutrition or physician should ever recommend less than a 1200 calorie diet for an adult human being. That amount of calories may be acceptable for an obese 7 year old, but definitely not for an adult. Most people (unless under STRICT medical supervision) should not be on less than a 1,200 calorie plan. First of all, there are many women out there subsisting (and yes, I am going to say subsisting, not living, cause there is no way in hell they feel good or happy on such a low calorie diet) on less than 1,200 or even 1,100 calories a day. They can go on like this for many many years. How?? you may ask. Simple, their metabolism has slowed down to that of a lazy sloth. If they ever tried to eat ‘normally’ again, they would gain weight initially while their metabolism picks up again (which can be avoided with exercise). Slowing down your metabolism is so counteractive in both being healthy and trying to lose weight. In such low calorie diets, it is highly improbable that a person is getting their full vitamin and mineral replenishment. The body also will not have the proper energy it needs to carry out vital processes (breathing, blood circulation, digestion) so it will turn on itself and breakdown protein in the blood, liver, muscles and pancreas to keep itself alive. Most people on low calorie diets think, ‘Oh I’ll go work out and do super aerobics and not eat anything today and I’ll be burning so much fat!’. Not so much. First of all, if you shall care to refer to my first post on metabolism, you will see that the body does not burn fat in “super aerobics” mode and secondly, when your body is struggling to find calories to just sustain life, when you do strenuous exercise your muscles will be literally eating themselves for energy. Low calorie programs cause side effects similar to ketogenic diets, but have much more severe medical consequences. Low-calorie diets should only be administered under careful medical supervision. I do not suggest any plans that contain fewer than 1,200 calories.

In a recent long-term study, 90% of the people that participated in fad diets ended up gaining 30% more weight than they started with in a matter of 3 years or less after “completing” the diet. Any healthy diet (and let’s reiterate that a diet does not mean a 12 week weight loss program) can be divided into 6 parts. Imagine a pie chart (mmm… pie). The whole pie is the amount of calories your body needs everyday + the calories it needs for the activities you do everyday. So we’re going to equally divide the pie into 6 parts. Take the number of calories in the whole pie and divide by 6. Multiply this number by 3 and you have the calories from carbs you should have around daily (4 calories per 1 gram of carbohydrates). So there goes half the pie. So now take one slice and multiply it by two and you have the amount of protein you should have per day (4 calories per gram of protein). So now 5 parts of the pie are accounted for. The last slice of pie is for fats (9 calories per gram of fat). 1 gram of alcohol, by the way, is 7 calories. For serious athletes alcohol should be avoided.

Often, trainers will adjust your suggested caloric intake to tailor them to your needs. The needs of a client training for power lifting will be different than a client that just wants to improve his golf game. Generally speaking, a balanced healthy reasonable diet coupled with an exercise program are all you need to keep your body in good physical condition. Talk to your physician or trainer (or me!) to determine a good caloric intake level for you. And stay away from the fad diets!   For anyone that is interested I can give you the proper calculations for your stats to see your basal metabolism, approximate daily caloric need, etc. Just let me know!

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