The Nutrition Grouch
The weight loss industry is, has been, and always will be a dumpster fire. People like to say health & wellness (of which weight loss is a part of) is “broken” or full of “misinformation” but that is being too generous because it implies that some of it is good or that it is actually fixable. It is damaged beyond repair. If it were possible, I would burn it to the ground and start over.
While it is impractical to try to summarize what’s wrong with the industry in one podcast description, my premise is this: there is a truly astronomical amount of information that neither our media nor our professionals are able to communicate to you in a meaningful way without losing all context, applicability to real life, and/or the ability to see how all of the pieces fit together.
The media should just stop covering health & wellness because their soundbites explain nothing and are little more than headlines and talking points. They may raise awareness but not understanding, leading to the illusion of explanatory depth. Academics actually know what they are talking about and could help educate us but are too busy with their work and only some are engaged with the public. Most academics look down on and laugh at the quacks and zealots in the field but it’s the quacks and zealots that have the real power.
Businesses do not have the right people in place (PhDs or medical professionals) to drive product and service development (that’s left to the MBAs). After the brand is established, the number one rule is that you must protect and promote the brand no matter how myopic, self-serving, or unimportant that brand is. Healthcare is for the (already) sick and public health is so surface level.
When it comes to their health, the public is lazy. They want the most entertaining, convenient, and positive information available, even if it is at the expense of achieving their goals. Hard work, I think not. Let me take the path of least resistance and “do it on the side”. There’s no reason for real change.
Instead of being stuck in pedaling the news of the day, disconnected factoids and tidbits, overly reductionist, cliché, idealistic, magic cures, easy fixes, secrets, tips, tricks, hacks, fads, gimmicks, cherry-picked, binary, good/bad, flashy, insanely optimistic, exaggerated, fantasy land, sunshine and rainbows, theoretical, testimonial based weight loss information -- let’s come up with a more comprehensive, systematic, sustainable, realistic, semi-automated, results-oriented, pragmatic approach to weight loss with a slice of common sense.
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time (years and decades) thinking about the thousands of nuances of weight loss (just Google Energy Balance Nutrition Consulting, The Paper Database, or The Science of Dieting). I’ve also spent thousands of hours trying to understand why the health & wellness field isn’t actually science based despite the information being readily available.
I am so fed up and exhausted by it all. It is so broken that on many days I want to say forget it. I’m done with this. It can’t be fixed. I’m a smart motivated guy that can take my talents elsewhere (LeBron). But something keeps drawing me back. It’s like a sickness or a bad relationship. I just can’t get out of it. At my core, it’s who I am. In this podcast I want to offer you truly science-based weight loss advice, critiques of the weight loss industry/diet culture, and thoughts on my experiences and failings in the profession. And with that, I bring you The Nutrition Grouch.
The Nutrition Grouch
There are 3 and Only 3 Ways to Cut Calories
Low carb, low fat, high protein, alternate day fasting, cutting out ultra processed food, eating multiple small meals a day, time restricted feeding, Keto, Paleo, you name it, what do they all have in common (besides energy balance)? They all rely on some variation of the 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories.
Although all diets claim to have their own “special secrets”, “magic recipes” and/or fancy narratives on how and why they work, they all use some combination of portion control, food frequency, and energy density to reduce the number of calories you eat each day.
We have 41 different well studied diet types, and yet, they all depend on just three calorie cutting methods. In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch discusses how to utilize these three strategies in establishing your nutrition rules and controlling your food environment to create a diet that you can stick to for the long term.
Only you can decide what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat. There’s just too many variables and too many decisions to be made for someone else to tell you how to do it. It’s daunting and difficult to start. But it’s worth it. You get out, what you put into it. Take the time to start building a solid diet foundation today.
Some of the topics in today’s episode include:
- The 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories (1:50)
- Fad diets are a one trick pony (4:02)
- Fad diets: an overly crude and blunt instrument for a complex problem (4:43)
- People hate uncertainty, fad diets solve this (5:46)
- Food logging: you ate what you ate, big deal, please don’t take it personally (7:29)
- Fad diets are a “quick fix, get rich quick scheme” often ending in ruin (8:54)
- Should you build your house on sand or stone? (12:20)
- Fad diets are fool’s gold (13:30)
- The portion size, food frequency, and energy density of breakfast tacos (14:07)
- My reluctance to use reduced fat and/or artificially sweetened products (24:49)
- Food logging sucks but you have to do it (28:10)
- Weight loss should be psychology based, not math based (33:27)