Ever felt like you are doing absolutely everything right but still struggling to lose those extra pounds? Maybe you’re getting a little heavier, despite following the best dieting tips whilst eating all the right foods? Before you blame karma, poor genetics, stress or your girlfriend/ boyfriend, you might simply be misinformed.
It’s probably not your fault, there is a ton of misleading misinformation out there and alot of the “nutrition guru’s” are really just trying to sell you something. Unfortunately, just because a certain food is considered “good” or “healthy” by the fitness or dieting community doesn’t mean it will help you towards your weightloss goals. In fact, you can even lose weight eating very unhealthy food, take a look at the man who lost 27 lbs eating twinkies. The reality is weight loss is determined by the following equation:
Energy Input (Food Calories) VS Energy Output (Calorie Expenditure)
There is a caveat to eating crappy food, it will make you feel like garbage, cause cravings, lead to nutritional deficiencies and seriously mess up your hormones; not good for weightloss. Generally speaking, when you’re eating less, you want maximize the nutrition that you getting through a diet composed of whole natural unprocessed foods. The misconception is that all of these foods contribute to a smaller waist line.
The following is a list of “healthy” foods, praised by some health practitioners & diet communities, that can still be sabotaging your weight loss.
Healthy Foods that can still give you a Gut
Bullet Proof Coffee (Coffee + Butter & MCT Oil)
Popularized by the infamous Bullet Proof Diet, this coffee concoction has been touted as being everything from the world’s best appetite suppressant to the ultimate cognitive enhancement.
According to these folks, one should have a cup of joe mixed with two heaping tablespoons of Butter and MCT Oil instead of breakfast. MCT Oil (medium chain triglycerides) are fats that act like carbohydrates, they get burned for immediate energy and bypass regular digestion.
The thinking behind this mixture is that since you haven’t really eaten yet, you will remain in “fat burning mode” and the pounds will just fall right off. Apparently, because you have only eaten fat, your body is primed and ready to use fat as fuel thus making fat calories to no longer matter… right?
The whole premise behind this beverage is flawed, eating fat does not put you into a fat burning or Ketogenic state; an absence of carbohydrate consumption will. Coffee in it of itself is a strong enough appetite suppressant and any of the potential benefits of a morning fasted state would be negated by the addition of these oils. Your body will always preferentially burn the calories provided by the rapidly digested MCT oil and later, the butter before your own body fat.
While there is something to be said about the energetic benefits of caffeine and the improved blood sugar levels of a diet higher in fat; drinking coffee mixed with oil is a shitty weight loss strategy. The main proponent of this beverage also happens to sell “Upgraded Coffee” and “the world’s best MCT Oil” amoungst other low-carb dieting products.
The Solution: Here are two alternative strategies that I can guarantee will be more effective for your weight loss goals
- Skip breakfast and drink black coffee – No, you will not wither away and die or lose any of your hard earned muscle mass by skipping a meal. In fact, there are a ton of health benefits to including periods of fasting in your diet, one of which is creating a hormonal environment that is more favorable for muscle retention during weightloss
- Eat a well balanced meal first thing in the morning- If your the type of person who feels as though they absolutely NEED something in the morning then skip the butter coffee and opt for something a little more substantial. Aim for a decent serving of protein (eggs, bacon chicken,etc), some healthy fats (avocado, butter coconut oil) and some non-starchy vegetables or berries. If you plan on going for a mid morning workout, feel free to include some complex carbohydrates like sweet potato, rice or oats.
Nuts
Often, the idea of eating nuts as a healthy snack is associated with the image of athletic backpackers, rock climbers and the outdoors man. This is no coincidence, nuts are a perfect fit for these folks, they are an incredibly dense portable source of calories which is often sought after fuel for these activities. For the average desk jockey or student, the need for a 1000 calorie boost the size of your palm is completely unnecessary.
Nuts can still be a great addition to your diet, they are a great source of vitamins & minerals, fiber and healthy fats, but for weight loss they shouldn’t make up the bulk of your diet. To put this in perspective, a cup of macadamia nuts is about 960 Calories, where an apple roughly the same size is about 80 calories; one could easily mindlessly eat the a cup of nuts but it is unlikely you will end up eating 12 apples.
Now, I’m not saying one food is better than the other; both are great choices; macadamia nuts are an awesome source of omega 3’s and apples contain a ton of fiber. Context is key; do you need that many extra calories, what’s the rest of your nutrition look like, do you have any food intolerances; these are all things to be considered.
The Solution:
- Ration your Nuts – You’re not a squirrel trying to pack as much in as possible before a long winter; there is no shortage of nut sacks in today’s society. If you can’t resist these delicious little morsels, my recommendation is to hold off on bringing the entire bag and measure out a single serving (roughly one closed handful). You’ll likely be surprised how little it is.
- Avoid Nut Mixes – There is nothing wrong with enjoying a couple salted, seasoned or dark chocolate covered nuts on occasion but if weightloss is your goal; you are setting yourself up for disaster. These calorie bombs are designed so that you literally cannot stop eating them due to their Hyper Palatability, a studied science of making food irresistible through a mixture of salt, sugar and fat.
Fruit
One thing just about every diet agrees on is the inclusion of fruits and vegetables is a good thing. Unfortunately, clumping the two together is does the public major disservice as they are different in terms energy content (calories), nutrition and impact on blood sugar.
Fruits and Vegetables both contains a ton of essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants but fruit comes packaged with lots of natural sugar. Since this sugar is combined with fiber and water, it doesn’t have the same adverse effects on your body as refined added sugars such as the ones’ in Soda’s & Candy; it still shouldn’t be completely overlooked.
To put this in context, Bananas have been touted as an excellent source of potassium, fiber and vitamin C; but they contain ~100KCALs with ~16g of sugar. Eating the same weight of the less popular magical green, Spinach, offers nearly double the Potassium, triple the vitamin C , nearly the same fiber content, sitting at only ~3KCALs and 0.4g of sugar! Now I realize we are comparing apples to oranges (in this case Banana’s to Spinach) each serve there own purpose,the banana will obviously provide you with more energy. They should be eaten in context, one you choose to have during lunch at work while the other might serve to promote recovery after an intense workout.
The Solution
- Eat less fruit and more veggies– In general, given the sedentary nature of our lifestyle, my recommendation is to aim for more servings of vegetables and a couple servings of fruit. This makes sense historically, fruit was a pretty scarce commodity back in the day as it was only seasonal and difficult to preserve. Logically, it would be natural to structure our our diets around primarily vegetables, meats / fish, nuts & seeds with the occasional fruit thrown into the mix.
- Eat the right fruit– All fruits are not created equal and it is up to you to pick the right ones for your lifestyle. I suggest to get majority of your fruit intake from low glycemic fruit such as blueberries, raspberries, cantaloupe, peaches and apples, while having the more tropical fruits in moderation. The only “fruit” that should be avoided entirely is prepackaged dried fruit, which are nearly nutritionally equivalent to gummy bears given their high sugar content, added preservatives and lack of fiber.
Soy Products (soy milk, soybean oil, tofu, etc)
When soy first came on the scene it seemed like the holy grail for Vegetarians on paper, per 100g it contains a ton of Iron, Magnesium, Calcium and 36g of protein per serving to boot.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a free horse and Soy is actually one of the worst things you can put in your body. It turns out, the apparent nutrient content of Soy should be disregarded due to it’s High Phytate content; a substance in certain vegetables that binds to minerals and reduces their ability to be absorbed. These Phytates tend to interfere specifically with the absorption of Iron, Magnesium, Zinc and Calcium; all of which would make Soy desirable.
In recent years, as you might already know, soy has also been most popularly demonized for it’s supposed ability to give men breasts and crush every inch of one’s masculinity.
While this is clearly an overstatement, soy does contain hefty amounts of Phytoestrogens in the form of Isoflavones. These plant compounds look a whole lot like the human steroid hormone Estrogen and our bodies can’t always tell the difference. When you frequently consume Soy, you can actually activate your body’s estrogen receptors which in turn can cause you to express feminine genetics. Sorry ladies, Women are also not immune to the dangers of Soy, as these same Endocrine Disruptors can also turn off female gene expression.
Not only are your gonads at risk, Soy Isoflavones may also take a hit on your Thyroid by interfering with Thyroid peroxidase; an enzyme responsible for many of the thyroidal hormones. These imbalances can seriously screw up your weight loss as these hormones are literally responsible for entire metabolic state. So If your gaining weight, find your voice is a pitch higher, or your mood is about as consistent as Donald Trump’s political views, it might be time chuck the soy milk.
The Solution: Unless you are vegetarian, there is no need to include soy products in your diet, there are plenty of whole food alternatives that far superior sources of these nutrients. For you veggie folk out there:
- Switch To other Plant Based Alternatives – Luckily for you, we live in age of abundance and you tons of superior alternatives. If you are a Soy milk fanatic try switching over to different plant based product such as Almond, Cashew or Coconut milk, just remember that these products aren’t a great source of protein and you may need to supplement with some extra of plant based protein powder (I recommend Sun Warrior)
- Eat Better Soy- If you’re vegan or vegetarian, soy might be a necessary staple for you in getting ample nutrition . You’re not completely out of luck, you can stick with fermented soy products such Tofu, Tempeh, Miso and Nato; these are the types of soy primarily eaten by the Eastern World. Fermented Soy does not contain nearly the same amount of Phytates as your processed typical American Soy products and you are actually able to reap some of it’s nutritional benefits (calcium, iron, magnesium.)
Wrapping Things Up
In reality, if some fruits, a piece of tofu or overdoing it on occasion with nuts are the biggest fallacies in your diet; you’re doing pretty damn well.
This article is not meant to make you scared of food, nor condemn you to a lifetime of meticulously measuring and tracking your intake; that is much less healthy. I simply want you to be a little more mindful about your food intake and skeptical about all the diet information out there. Anytime there is a ton of information on a particular subject on the internet you can almost garauntee nearly half of it will be bullshit.
That includes anything in this article, some people do really well eating a lot of these foods and if they are something you truly enjoy; please don’t restrict them from your diet. My goal is to dispell some of the common myths, biased information and bad ideas, while providing you with the honest truth and keep moving forward.
Thanks for Moving Forward
-Jake Pierce
StrengthCraft 