Flexible Dieting

When you hear the word "diet", what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

If you’re like most people, you probably thought about tiny portions of bland, BORING diet foods….

A small chicken breast with some steamed broccoli. Plain oatmeal. Cottage cheese. And, of course, salad.

Lots and lots of salad.

Or perhaps you thought about one of the many trendy diets like Atkins, The Zone, South Beach, or Paleo. It’s likely that you’ve even tried one of these diets in the past!

"Don’t eat carbs, they make you fat!"

"Cavemen didn’t eat bread or cheese – so neither should you!"

These types of diets ask you to eliminate entire categories of food, and of course that means you’ll be forced to give up many of the foods that you love.

And you know what?

It’s insanely hard to stick to a diet when you never get to satisfy your cravings.

But what if we told you that you could lose weight and get lean and ripped without having to give up ANY of your favorite foods?

Would you call us crazy, out-of-our-minds nutjobs if we told you that we were able to diet down to just 7% bodyfat while eating stuff like:

chicken with pasta and Italian bread

chicken pad thai

a whole Domino’s cheese pizza

steak burrito with a side of chips and guacamole

cheeseburger and fries

ice cream, Oreos, Nutella, Pop Tarts, and other sweets

Ya, at this point you’ve probably realized that we’re not your typical fitness guys. We love food, we love to eat, and we find absolutely no shame in that.

But we’ve also figured out how you can have your cake and eat it too - literally!

The truth is that you can get outstanding fitness results without excluding ANY of the foods that you love - no matter what they are.

You just have to know how to fit those "bad" foods into a healthy, balanced diet, and we’re going to show you exactly how to do that.

But first, we’re going to review one of the most important lessons you’ve learned so far…

Remember the GOLDEN RULE?

Your body has to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight.

If you missed yesterday’s email titled "Is cardio necessary?" then you should pause for a moment and go back to read that email, because you really must understand that losing and gaining weight is PURELY a function of how many calories you’re consuming.

Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, set out to prove this very principle - that successfully losing weight is only about energy balance.

To do so, Mark went on a "convenience store diet," eating primarily junk food: Twinkies, Hostess cupcakes, Doritos, cereal, and Oreos. But he limited his intake of these foods to less than 1,800 calories per day.

The results? He lost 27 pounds in 2 months. Not too shabby.

Now before you suddenly stop reading this article and race off to the nearest convenience store to start your own Twinkie diet, let us emphasize that this is NOT what we’re recommending to you.

It’s just an extreme example to show you that weight loss is purely a function of caloric intake.

What we ARE going to show you, though, is how to use this principle to go on a healthy diet that doesn’t exclude any of your favorite foods…

...and how a flexible diet like this can offer tremendous psychological advantages in terms of long-term success.

INTRODUCING FLEXIBLE DIETING

The basic premise of flexible dieting is this:

You determine approximately how many calories you should be consuming in order to lose weight. Then you figure out your macronutrient targets – that is, how many grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat you’re aiming for on any given day.

As long as you hit your numbers - the right amount of calories, protein, carbs, and fat - then you can eat whatever you want.

Does three slices of pizza fit your numbers? Then it’s okay to eat.

The same goes for burgers, french fries, bread, pasta, tacos, chips, chocolate, etc.

No food is off limits.

THE 80/20 RULE

We believe that it’s important to allow yourself to consume the foods you love, on a regular basis, in order to succeed with your weight loss goals.

This isn’t to say, though, that you should only eat nutritionally-deficient junk food.

For optimal health and the prevention of disease, it’s important to eat a diet that’s rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients.

The best way to maintain a balanced approach to your diet is to follow the 80/20 rule:

A minimum of 80% of your diet should be composed of nutritious whole foods, and a maximum of 20% of your diet should be the other stuff.

This rule gives you plenty of room to enjoy all types of foods, without labeling any particular food as good or bad. They all have a place somewhere in your diet.

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING

Step 1 - Calculate Your Calories

The first thing you need to do is figure out how many calories you should consume on a daily basis in order to put your body into a caloric deficit.

This means that you will be consuming fewer calories than your body burns, and you’ll start losing weight.

There are several fancy calculators and formulas online that will figure out a number for you based on age, height, activity level, job, etc. But all of these calculations are just estimates, and besides, you’ll probably have to make adjustments based on your individual needs anyway.

So let’s start with a simple approach: just multiply your body weight by 12.

If you currently weigh 200 pounds, then you should eat 2400 calories per day (200 x 12) to start losing weight. That’s all there is to it.

Step 2 - Calculate Your Macronutrients

There are 3 primary macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrate. A gram of protein has 4 calories, a gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories, and a gram of fat has 9 calories.

At this point, we’re going to keep things as simple as possible, so start with this:

Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.

Eat 0.4 grams of fat per pound of body weight.

Eat 1.1 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight.

For a 200-pound person, the macronutrient targets would be 200 grams of protein (200 x 1), 80 grams of fat (200 x 0.4), and 220 grams of carbohydrates (200 x 1.1).

Step 3 - Start Logging Your Food Intake

These days, keeping track of your calories is easier than ever with great apps like MyFitnessPal and FatSecret. Just use one of these apps and attempt to hit your calorie and macronutrient goals, using whatever foods you like.

You don’t have to log your food intake forever. A lot of people eat the same foods on a regular basis, and once you dial in your diet so that you’re routinely hitting your nutrition targets, you can stop logging your food.