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
Why Estimating Your Metabolic Rate Just Isn't Worth It
To lose weight, the standard advice is to follow this simple formula: estimate your metabolic rate to see how many calories you burn (calories out), then log your food to make sure you consume (calories in) fewer calories than you burn. By creating a deficit of say, 500 calories a day, you will lose one pound of body mass per week…or so the thinking goes.
If only losing weight were that simple. Energy balance (calories in – calories out) is the foundation of weight loss; however, the 3500 calorie rule for weight loss is misleading, we’re terrible at estimating your metabolic rate (calories out) and we aren’t great at measuring the calories you consume (calories in). We’re playing the weight loss game with faulty information.
People want to know their metabolic rate, because they want to know how many calories they can get away with eating and still lose weight. I believe this is the wrong approach and only leads to consuming too many calories a day to achieve the type of weight loss you’re looking for.
Losing weight is a social, emotional, environmental problem, not a math problem. Instead of continuing to overutilize food for pleasure, we need to (temporarily) redefine our relationship with food, build in a “margin of safety” by eating far fewer calories than the typical weight loss diet prescribes, and live with the results, knowing that you did your absolute best.
Some of the topics in today’s episode include:
- Why do we feel the need to estimate your metabolic rate? (1:11)
- We should use total daily energy expenditure, not metabolic rate (1:58)
- The Amazing Chewing Gum Diet for Detoxing and Weight Loss! (4:55)
- The two ways to measure (estimate) your metabolic rate in a lab (7:13)
- The third option to estimate your metabolic rate: an equation (13:03)
- A real life example(s) of equations being way, way off (14:16)
- The math that goes into losing weight (16:02)
- Most people with obesity actually have really high metabolic rates (16:47)
- Enlarged organs and metabolic rates in obesity and sumo wrestlers (17:19)
- How many calories can I get away with eating? Why we really measure metabolic rates (20:33)
- People notoriously underestimate the number of calories they consume (calories in) (21:35)
- We aren’t very good at estimating calories in OR calories out (22:17)
- Why you should eat the same number of calories regardless of your metabolic rate (22:44)
- Diets aren’t supposed to be fun, they’re a means to an end (23:26)
- Hypothesized weight loss in total starvation, 500, 800 calories a day for 8 weeks (25:36)
- You can only go down to eating “0” calories a day but eating more than 3,000 is easy (27:36)
- Your weight loss “margin of safety” (28:07)
- My confession about a mistake that I’ve made (29:56)
- Calorie counting (food logging) is a necessary evil (31:10)
- The precision we try to prescribe weight loss diets with is absurd and ridiculous (32:39)