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Chapter 13 – Diet and Its Role in Health and Weight Loss

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As a general rule, the healthier a diet the better it is for losing weight; funny how that works out. This chapter is more theory than integration. Remember that I don’t want you getting into improving your diet yet because you probably aren’t ready. However, now is good time to learn what healthy eating is all about. As you go through the different phases I will prompt you to integrate dietary changes, and you may wish to refer back to this chapter for details on the subject. 

James’ Seven Basic Diet Rules

These are the rules you need to ultimately follow in order to drop significant amounts of fat and achieve some abdominal definition, as well as build muscle. I advise that you integrate them over time in a manner that is only somewhat uncomfortable. How far you go and how strictly you follow them is up to you.

  1. Get Most of Your Calories from the Grocery Store – or a farmer’s market, or steal it from your neighbor’s garden. The point is, eat much less fast food, and limit ordering in and eating out.
  2. Limit Processed / Refined Food – this means eating food in its natural forms. One tip is to always choose whole wheat / whole grains over anything white in color.
  3. Eat More Fresh Fruits and Vegetables – eat a lot of them and choose a wide variety of types and colors.
  4. Limit Fat Intake – mostly reduce saturated and trans fats.
  5. Limit Liquid Calories – this includes alcohol and excludes milk.
  6. Eat More Fish and Less Red Meat – this doesn’t mean eat fish sticks, which are highly processed and high in added bad fats. Note that red meat includes beef, pork and lamb.
  7. Quit Eating So Damn Much – learn the difference between “satisfied” and “full.” You don’t have to stuff yourself, and you don’t need to clean your plate. Going to bed a little hungry is not a bad thing.
Do those seven things and you’ll be doing better than about 98% of North Americans (although I pulled that percentage out of my ass). You’ll also lose a lot of fat and be a lot healthier. 

About Your Wife
I happen to be the guy in charge of food in my house; it’s one of the few things I get to be in charge of. It is likely that your wife does the shopping and cooking, or maybe neither of you do and instead you order in all the time.  Whatever the case may be, you need to get at least a little more involved in this process. If you happen to have a wife who is a health nut and she’s been trying to get you to eat healthy then you’re in luck. She won’t have a problem going along with this. If, however, she follows an unhealthy diet then you need to work together as a team to make this happen, because it can be difficult for only one of a pair to improve what they eat. Anyway, I’m staying way far away from that conversation. How you convince your wife (girlfriend / fiancé / life partner) to start eating healthier is your business.  

Not What You Want to Read
The content of this chapter will garner me a few one star reviews. Seriously, there are some angry anonymous posters on the Internet who get mighty pissed whenever someone tells them what they don’t want to hear (or read), or expose the faulty reasoning of someone who does tell them what they want to hear.  That being written, let’s get the low-carb diet bashing out of the way.  Low-carb diets have been slammed by the scientific and medical communities since day one, and that hasn’t changed. Remember what I wrote at the beginning of this book about the weight of scientific evidence? This is a prime example of that in action. There are plenty of low-carb advocacy books out there that cherry pick research in an effort to legitimize their claims that low carb is a good idea. Well, they’re all full of shit. It is a BAD idea.

Here is the abstract from a science advisory from the American Heart Association that sums up low carb / high protein – high fat diets succinctly and accurately. I’m going to include the full title and authors below so you can see the alphabet soup of letters the researchers who contributed to this advisory have after their names: 

Dietary Protein and Weight Reduction: A Statement for Healthcare Professionals from the Nutrition Committee of the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism of the American Heart Association 

Sachiko T. St. Jeor, RD, PhD; Barbara V. Howard, PhD; T. Elaine Prewitt, RD, DrPH; Vicki Bovee, RD, MS; Terry Bazzarre, PhD; Robert H. Eckel, MD; for the AHA Nutrition Committee “

Abstract—High-protein diets have recently been proposed as a ‘new’ strategy for successful weight loss. However, variations of these diets have been popular since the 1960s. High-protein diets typically offer wide latitude in protein food choices, are restrictive in other food choices mainly carbohydrates), and provide structured eating plans. They also often promote misconceptions about carbohydrates, insulin resistance, ketosis, and fat burning as mechanisms of action for weight loss. Although these diets may not be harmful for most healthy people for a short period of time, there are no long-term scientific studies to support their overall efficacy and safety. These diets are generally associated with higher intakes of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol because the protein is provided mainly by animal sources. In high-protein diets, weight loss is initially high due to fluid loss related to reduced carbohydrate intake, overall caloric restriction, and ketosis-induced appetite suppression. Beneficial effects on blood lipids and insulin resistance are due to the weight loss, not to the change in caloric composition. Promoters of high-protein diets promise successful results by encouraging high-protein food choices that are usually restricted in other diets, thus providing initial palatability, an attractive alternative to other weight-reduction diets that have not worked for a variety of reasons for most individuals. High-protein diets are not recommended because they restrict healthful foods that provide essential nutrients and do not provide the variety of foods needed to adequately meet nutritional needs. Individuals who follow these diets are therefore at risk for compromised vitamin and mineral intake, as well as potential cardiac, renal, bone, and liver abnormalities overall.”1 

There is also ample evidence that as a long-term weight loss strategy low-carb diets fail miserably.2 Yes, there are some studies that show low-carb to work in terms of losing weight, but this is through a combination of water loss and followers self-selecting a limited caloric intake because to rigidly follow the diet involves having limited food choices and people get sick of eating the same thing all the time so they eat less.  Heroin, methamphetamine and smoking are all proven methods for weight loss too. That doesn’t make them a good idea. 


Think I’m overstating? In 2007 the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition conducted a massive study (22,944 people over ten years) of low-carb / high-protein diets (LC/HP) vs. high-carb / low-protein (HC/LP) diets and their effect on long-term survivability.

The study reported:

“…we found that individuals with habitual diets low in carbohydrates and high in protein tend to have higher overall mortality, compared to individuals with habitual diets high in carbohydrates and low in protein. The mortality gradient is considerable, so that a modest 5-point difference in a 19-point low-carbohydrate–high-protein score with energy-adjusted components corresponds to increased mortality ratio of about 22%”3  

What this means is that it is a sliding scale, with HC/LP on the healthy end and LC/HP on the “you’re going to die young” end. Focus on making your diet closer to the former and you’ll live a lot longer and be more successful in losing weight and maintaining it.  Low-carb diets are a prime example of unscrupulous jerks making money by telling people what they want to hear. Some low-carb advocates assert that the anti-low carb movement is one big conspiracy, so let’s examine that logic for a moment: 

Hypothesis A:
Low carb is good for you and a proven effective, healthy and safe method of losing weight. However, the vast majority of the scientific, health and medical community from around the world has somehow communicated with each other and come to a unified resolution that they are going to all work together to discredit low-carb diets and make them appear like a bad idea. What is their motivation for this? Uh, well, how about that powerful bread lobby? Yeah, those guys are exerting lots of influence on just about every scientist in the world to make them say low carb is bad. Screw the Hippocratic Oath; medical professionals are against low-carb diets because lobbyists are paying them off. Either that or they are all members of PETA. It’s all a vast international anti-low carb conspiracy. The real truth about weight loss is a “secret.” It’s a “miracle.” It involves “magic.” It’s something “they don’t want you to know about.” 

Hypothesis B:
Some guy came up with a way to make sensationalist claims that were in line with what people wanted to hear and turned it into a book plus a crapload of add-ons and it made him into a gazillionairre. Then a bunch of other corrupt assholes saw what he did and said, “Me too!” and wrote their own stupid low-carb books to milk cash out of unsuspecting customers. Hmmm. Let me think about this one for a minute… Could it be that low-carb authors are just modern versions of snake oil salesmen?

Okay, I just put myself into dangerous territory because I’ve spent a fair bit of time lurking around Amazon.com and checking out reviews of various low-carb diet books to see what people are writing and I’ve come to the conclusion that there are a lot of stupid people in the world. If you think this is a harsh statement about humanity then you need to get out and mingle more often. 

The fact is that people love it when someone tells them what they want to hear. How else do you explain that mindless drivel like Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret became an international bestseller? People don’t want to learn that accomplishing worthwhile goals takes hard work. They want a quick and easy miracle cure. They hate hearing that they should limit red meat, saturated fats and cholesterol. They want to read that they can eat lots of that stuff and still be healthy and lose weight. So they buy some crap low-carb advocating book then go on Amazon.com and give it a four or five-star review, raving about how great it is. Every once in a while someone who understands nutrition goes on there and gives an insightful and logical one or two-star review, and then a bunch of the five-star givers jump all over that review in the comments section, ripping the review and the person who wrote it a third corn chute. It’s both amusing and disturbing. 

Surely low-carb advocates will say I’m a vegan promoting a PETA agenda. First off, I'm not a member of PETA. Second, I love meat and eat it regularly. Humans have evolved over centuries as omnivores and there is nothing wrong with a reasonable meat intake. I like the stuff, but I moderate my intake for health and weight control reasons. Those are the ONLY reasons. Well, I guess limiting meat intake is better for the environment as well, so add that one too. 

Okay, enough of that shit. My final message is this: don’t be gullible.  

Let’s move on. 

Diet is Not a Bad Word
It is the words that might come before it that can be bad; words like “low carb,” or “high fat,” or “junk food.”  You need to be focused on putting good words in front of the word “diet,” such as “healthy,” and “Calorie restricted,” and “reduced fat.”  


Diet is the most important part of losing weight, because even if you workout intensely for several hours a week you will not lose weight if you keep scarfing loads of high-Calorie foods. Your heart will also still be at risk even if you are athletic.

 

In addition to being the most important part, it is also the hardest for most men. That’s why if you find you are struggling with the dietary aspect of getting in shape, feel free to delay. Remember the overriding goal of permanent lifestyle change and the fact that we’re not trying to rush anything here. If you build your willpower via becoming a regular exerciser then this is a strength you can tap into later when you tackle the even more daunting task of eating a healthy, Calorie-restricted diet.

 

You want to succeed long-term, and if that means you keep eating crap for a while, then so be it.


Keeping it Simple

I’m not going to give you some drawn-out high detail diet program. You’re a guy, so when it comes to eating I suspect that you want a simple approach. Below I include a basic elaboration on the seven basic rules listed at the beginning of this chapter, along with tips on how to follow those rules. These are some high-level strategies that are guaranteed to help you lose weight. They are easy to remember and can be integrated into your lifestyle over time so that you will lose fat over the course of several months and keep it off.


I’m not going to put any recipes in this book because I’m only a mediocre cook. However, I will teach you how to recognize healthy, low-Calorie meals that you should be eating vs. the unhealthy high-Calorie foods. I’ll also recommend a few cookbooks in Appendix A. 

Appetite Control – The Key to Creating a Caloric Deficit

Prior to dissecting the seven rules I want to examine a critical aspect of weight loss: appetite control. Creating a consistent caloric deficit what creates weight loss, and the most important part of achieving this regular deficit is controlling hunger. As it turns out, a healthy diet is also one that satisfies appetite.

 

I’ll start off with the general statements, and then get into the research specifics:

  • Foods that are low in nutrients don’t satisfy. Your body gets a high dose of Calories from junk food, but still craves nutrients that are crucial to proper function. Therefore, it still sends out hunger messages after a trip to McDonalds. If you eat healthy, high-nutrient foods, not only are these lower in Calorie, but they satisfy much better because your body is receiving the nutrients it needs to function.
  • Remember what I wrote in Chapters 5 and 6 regarding fat having a low satiety factor. If you make fat a large part of your diet it isn’t decreasing your hunger.
  • Liquid Calories – even healthy ones like 100% juice – don’t satisfy nearly as well as food does (milk is an exception). This is why eating an orange is better than drinking orange juice.
  • The best tool in appetite control is to focus on foods that are low in caloric density. Low density means you get a high volume of food for a small number of Calories. Generally speaking, these foods are healthy as well. As an example, a pound of spinach has the same number of Calories as a single Oreo cookie. I’m sure you can figure out which one is healthier and satisfies hunger better.

And now, the research portion:

  • A 2005 study by Julia Ello-Martin et al., found that focusing on low caloric density food was a powerful tool for increasing satiety and losing weight.4
  • Two years later Ello-Martin et al., compared low-fat diets vs. low-fat and an increased intake of low caloric density foods (more fruits and vegetables). In a year-long study the low fat plus more fruits and vegetables group lost more weight and reported experiencing less hunger than the low fat only group.5
  • Julie Flood et al., found that regardless of whether or not the drink served with a meal had Calories (like water vs. juice, or diet soda vs. non-diet), the amount of food eaten remained the same. Therefore, by including a high-Calorie drink with a meal they ended up taking in many more Calories overall,6 which is bad for weight loss, just in case you haven’t been paying attention.
  • In 2007 Julie Flood and Barbara Rolls found that eating a “pre-load” of low-Calorie soup decreased the amount of Calories eaten at a subsequent meal so that the overall number of Calories ingested for both soup and meal was significantly less than just meal alone.7 Another study by Barbara Rolls et al. in 2004 found the same effect by eating a low-Calorie salad before a meal.8
  • In 2006 Jenny Ledikwe et al. found that a low-energy density diet – achieved by increasing fruit and vegetable intake – resulted in people consuming more food by weight (which helps control appetite because of the high volume of food), but less by number of Calories, meaning it was a good strategy for weight control.9 Another study by Ledikwe et al., a year later proved that eating a low caloric density diet assisted weight loss.10
  • Another study by Jenny Ledikwe et al. in 2006 found that a low caloric density diet was shown to be a high quality diet (meaning it was healthier).11
  • You don’t need to go out and buy new plates, because in 2007 Barbara Rolls et al. found that using a smaller plate did not decrease the number of Calories people consume.12
  • In 2003 Barbara Rolls wrote a paper outlining how the “Supersizing” of portions of calorically dense foods was a contributing factor in the obesity epidemic.13 This is why I say you need to get most of your Calories from the grocery store, because it gives you a lot more control over how much you eat.

Elaborating on the Seven Basic Diet Rules

The section above went into detail about focusing on low caloric density foods, and following the seven rules helps you do just that. Below I elaborate on each rule with some strategies for following them.


Rule #1 – Get Most of Your Calories from the Grocery Store

If you make the decision that most of what you eat comes from the grocery store, then you have done one of the best things you can to improve your diet. I credit my success at losing and sustaining a lower weight largely with sticking to this rule.

Here’s why:

  • It is the ultimate way to control what you eat. Get used to shopping for groceries once a week (or get your wife involved in this – more on that in Chapter 25) and then you only have to motivate yourself to eat healthy during that one hour each week. Go to the store with a full stomach and psychologically and practically prepare yourself for focusing on buying healthy food. Work the outside of the store where the healthier food is and try not to buy too much from the inside aisles where the processed crap is. If it helps, make a list in advance. Another tip is, when it comes to buying junk food for the kids (you probably have to get them a little or they will make your life miserable) then buy junk that you don’t like. The end result is that if all that you have access to in the house is healthy food, then that’s all you’re going to eat.
  • Takeout and fast food is low in nutrients and high in fat, sodium and Calories. Google something like “McDonalds Calories” or “Pizza Hut Calories” and you’ll find the appropriate page and see what I mean.
  • Restaurant food isn’t much better. These people want your business, and then they want you to come back. One way to do that is to make the food extra tasty, which means extra salt, extra sugar, and extra fat.
Rule #2 – Limit Processed / Refined Food

I explained this already in Myth #10, Chapter 6, but I’ll go into some more detail here:


Grains and Starches

About 95% of the grains consumed in the United States are refined, which is a dismal statement about the population’s health. The refining process strips grains of its bran and germ and therefore removes the fiber, antioxidants, minerals and other nutrients.14


White flour is 50% higher in Calories than whole wheat flour, it doesn’t satisfy appetite as well, and it lacks much of the nutritional value of whole wheat. Seriously, you’ve got to stop eating this shit. When reading ingredients look for the following: whole wheat, whole grain, whole rye, whole oats, brown rice etc.


Fruits and Vegetables

Always go for fruits and vegetables in their natural forms whenever possible. Fruit bars, sauces and jams aren’t nearly as good as real fruit. Same goes for vegetables. Apple sauce isn’t as good as eating an apple, and French fries with ketchup aren’t the same thing as eating potatoes and tomatoes. Processed fruit and vegetable products are often filled with refined sugars.


Fish and Meat
Again, you want to go for things in their natural form. So limit things like fish sticks and chicken nuggets. Smoked meats are especially bad. A large-scale 2007 report by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund reported that things like bacon, ham and luncheon meats should be avoided completely because every 48 grams (only 1.5 ounces) of these processed meats consumed each day increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 21%.15 Yes, I know that bacon and the like is yummy, but you need to start cutting down on that stuff before you get tumors in your poop chute, not to mention that it is high in Calories.   

Other Junk Food
Chips, soda, candy etc. is all bad shit that is loaded with Calories and just plain not good for you. It is full of refined sugar. I only have anecdotal evidence, but from personal experience I have found that once you get used to eating unprocessed and unrefined foods then processed food becomes distasteful. I can barely stomach fast food anymore because the white flour in the buns grosses me out so I only eat it rarely now. Also, about half a candy bar is enough to give me a stomach ache. It’s like my body doesn’t know what to do with the stuff and starts rejecting it. Bacon, however, I could eat tons of that. This is where willpower comes in. 


Rule #3 – Eat More Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Taste the rainbow, and I’m not referring to Skittles®.


As I already pointed out, a diet high in fruit and vegetable intake is great for controlling appetite and reducing weight because they are both filling and low in Calorie. It’s also very healthy overall. The best way to be healthy and get a wide variety of essential nutrients is to go for lots of different colors. Bright colors means lots of nutrients, so go for stuff that is red, orange, green, yellow, blue, purple and white.


So here is what you do: go into that part of the grocery store that has fresh produce and start loading up your cart with a bunch of different colors of both fruits and vegetables, and then go home and eat it.  

Rule #4 – Limit Fat Intake

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve read all this in other chapters. I footnoted it up the hoop in Chapters 9 and 10 so I’m not going bother doing it again.

  • Fat has a high caloric density: 9 Calories per gram vs. 4 Calories per gram of carbohydrate or protein
  • Fat has a low or almost non-existent thermic effect of food
  • Fat has a low satiety factor. It does little to decrease appetite
For these reasons alone a high fat diet makes you far more likely to be fat. There are also health issues with a high intake of bad fats. 

Bad Fats – Saturated and Trans Fats

Saturated fats are mainly found in animal products like meat, eggs, and certain types of seafood, as well as coconut oil and palm oil.


Trans fats are an example of scientists doing something bad; they “hydrogenated” liquid oils so they could better withstand the food production process and have a longer shelf life. If you follow Rule #2, you’ll be able to avoid these pretty easily.


These fats are considered bad because they are linked to heart disease. I could quote hundreds of research studies that prove this, but it has become common and accepted knowledge. It is mostly the low-carb diet advocates who question the overwhelming research. Limiting red meat intake will help reduce saturated fat, and so will choosing leaner meat. Cut or drain off the extra fat and not only will you be healthier, you won’t be ingesting all those extra Calories.

Good Fats – Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated Fats

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats include those from a variety of nuts, avocado, canola and olive oil, and fish oil. This includes the Omega fatty acids.


Although calorically dense, these fats do have beneficial health effects for cholesterol and decreasing risk of heart disease. Chances are that you have at least a somewhat high fat diet now, which is one of the reasons why you are reading this book, and decreasing the amount of fat in your diet will not be easy. However, the longer you work at it, the easier it becomes. A 2007 survey by Jenny Ledikwe uncovered that when people followed a low-fat diet they ended up losing their preference for fat over time.16 


Rule #5 - Limit Liquid Calories

As I mentioned above in the appetite control section, high-Calorie beverages do nothing to satisfy hunger. They just add a bunch of Calories.


The Really Bad – Completely “Empty” Calories

Empty means they have no nutritional value at all. These drinks should be avoided as much as possible.
  • Alcohol – the bad FAR outweighs the good. See Chapter 18 for details.
  • Sugar-containing soda – either cut it out or switch to diet. There is nothing wrong with a moderate intake of artificial sweeteners – see below in this chapter.
  • Sports drinks – as I pointed out in Chapter 15, these don’t add any value from a sports performance perspective, but they can prevent a hangover.
  • Energy drinks – many of these are full of sugar and most of the “boost” comes from caffeine. Choose coffee instead (see below for more info) if you want a jolt, just don’t add much sugar or cream. I put whole milk in mine and it adds negligible Calories.
  • High-Calorie coffee drinks – Frappa-zappa-what-the-fucka. Do you realize how many Calories are in some of these things? A quick look at the Starbucks® website showed many drinks that had 500-700 Calories. That’s insane.
  • Juice drinks without much juice – if you want juice, then drink 100% juice.
The Less Bad and the Pretty Good
  • Fruit smoothies – these things have some good ingredients, but they may also have a lot of extra Calories (if you didn’t make it yourself). I never drink them because they don’t fill you up much. Just eat regular fruit instead.
  • 100% juice – this is pretty good from a nutritional standpoint, but it has less fiber than fruit in its natural form and is not as filling. Again, choose a piece of fruit instead because it has more fiber and better controls appetite.
Milk

This doesn’t count as liquid Calories – it is more like food in liquid form, and unless you are lactose intolerant, then just drink it.


There are conspiracy theorists, PETA members and other groups saying milk is bad for you, that we can’t digest it, blah, blah, blah. I could go on with dozens of references that prove milk is good to drink, but I think all I need to write is that the vast majority of registered dieticians recommend that you drink it. It may not be the perfect food, as some have claimed, but it’s a damned good one.


I go for the non-fat kind because it has the least amount of fat and Calories. It takes some getting used to, but if you are drinking the higher fat variety then you want to gradually move down to non-fat. Check out the comparison:

  • One cup of whole milk has 160 Calories and 8 grams of fat (five of which is saturated, which is the bad kind).
  • Once cup of non-fat milk has 90 Calories and no fat at all. It also has a little more protein in it.
If you’re drinking 2%, for example, switch to 1% and once you get used to that then try the non-fat. If you hate it then try mixing 1% and non-fat for a while. Eventually you will get to liking non-fat and it will become what you prefer all the time.  Milk is also a great post-workout recovery drink because it has both carbs and protein. More on that in Phase 3. 

Rule #6 – Eat More Fish and Less Red Meat

If you go to http://caloriecount.about.com there is a good Calorie counter that lists any food you can imagine. You will find that, by weight, a lot of fish and red meat choices are pretty close in terms of amount of Calories by weight.

That being a fact, then why eat more fish?

  • Although by weight they are similar, by volume and how filling they are, fish is better. I find that six ounces of fish satisfies as much as 10 ounces of steak.
  • Fish is much healthier for your heart. Very small children need to be careful about eating too much of it because of the possibility of mercury in it, but the American Heart Association is adamant that the benefits of eating fish far outweigh the minimal risks presented to the average person by mercury.17
  • The same large, multi-year cancer study that came down on processed meats recommends limiting red meat (which includes beef, pork and lamb) because of the risk of colorectal cancer. The panel suggests you eat no more than 500 grams (cooked weight – a pound is 440 grams) of red meat a week. Just FYI, this study was five-years long, involved nine independent teams of scientists from across the globe, had hundreds of peer reviewers and 21 international experts analyzing more than 7,000 large-scale studies.18 I’m guessing that their conclusions are accurate.
Rule #7 – Quit Eating So Damn Much

This does not mean skip breakfast. As I already pointed out in Chapter 6, skipping breakfast makes you gorge later in the day. If you are going to skip any meal, skip dinner.


There is an old Chinese adage that goes: “Eat until you are eight-tenths full.” It’s good advice. Here’s some more:

  • It takes time for the messages of satiety to go from your stomach to your brain, and if you gobble food up quickly it can result in overeating, so slow down. A 2008 study of over 3,000 people found that eating fast (and/or eating until full) was closely associated with being overweight.19
  • Make a meal of things: sit at the dinner table and not in front of the TV.
  • Measure out specific portions that you think are an appropriate amount to eat.
  • Don’t eat out of the bag or the tub. Put a small amount in a bowl and then that’s it.
  • You don’t need to clean your plate.
  • Stay away from all-you-can-eat buffets.
  • Try going to bed a little hungry. Resist the temptation to eat another 500 Calories after dinner. Just accept that dinner is the last meal of the day and that’s it. Some tips to implement this are:
    • Realize that it is more likely boredom at the end of a busy day making you think you should be doing something (like eating) instead of you actually being hungry. To break this boredom, do some stretching or core work (details on that later).
    • Make a cup of hot herbal tea (not too hot – and no caffeine so you can sleep) and sip it slowly. This should kill half an hour.
    • Chew some sugarless gum.
    • Brush your teeth.
    • Go to bed.
    • Tell your wife, “Honey, I’m trying hard not to eat anything before bed, and the only thing I can think of to take my mind off food is *wink* *wink*.” You never know. It might work.
  • Don’t let yourself get too hungry in the first place.
  • Avoid alcohol, as this makes you eat more and make bad food choices.
  • Don’t smoke pot – it gives you the munchies.
  • Follow the other advice in the appetite control section above.
I should note that what I am referring to with Rule #7 isn’t volume of food, but total Calories. If it’s raw spinach then you can eat as much as you want because it only has 50 Calories per pound. I don’t think it would be humanly possible to get fat off the stuff.  

How Much of What to Eat

If you haven’t yet figured out that I, along with the vast majority of registered dieticians, recommend a high-carbohydrate diet then you haven’t been paying attention. The one qualifier is that these need to be healthy, unprocessed carbohydrates.


Here is a recommended breakdown by Calories (not grams):

  • Protein: 15-20% at the most. This gives you plenty to get as muscular as you are genetically capable of without anabolic steroids.
  • Fat: 30% at the most, 25% is better, and 20% is good if you have heart problems.
  • Carbohydrates: Whatever’s left, around 60% should be good.

I should note that I don’t pay close attention to my percentages. I have on rare occasions just to make sure that my diet is in line with this, but if you follow the rest of the advice in this chapter then it will work out pretty close, which is another case of “good enough.”


How Many Servings of What Each Day?

This comes from the Food Guide Pyramid, which is a trusted source according to everyone who isn’t a low-carber suffering from a rectal-cranial inversion:

  • 6-11 servings from the whole grain, bread, cereal, rice and pasta group
  • At least 2-4 servings from the fruit group
  • At least 3-5 servings from the vegetable group
  • 2-3 servings from the lean meat, poultry, fish, dried beans, eggs and nuts group
  • 2-3 servings from the low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese group
  • Use saturated fats and refined sugar sparingly20
What is a Serving, Anyway?

A serving is less than you think. There is some disagreement in this area, so I’ve more or less averaged things out from various sources. Here are some examples:


Grains
  • A typical bowl of cereal (minus milk) = about 3 servings
  • A large bagel = 3-4 servings
  • 2 cups of pasta = 4 servings
  • 1 cup of rice = 2 servings
Fruit
  • 1 large apple = 2 servings
  • 1 large banana = 2-3 servings
  • 12 oz glass of 100% juice = 2 servings
Vegetables
  • A large bowl of salad  = 3-4 servings
  • 1 cup of spaghetti sauce = 2 servings
  • 2 large stalks of broccoli = 3-4 servings
Meat, Fish, Beans and Eggs
  • 1 egg = 1 serving
  • 1 can of tuna = 3 servings
  • 5 oz chicken breast / steak = 2 servings
Dairy
  • 1 cup of milk = 1 serving
  • ¾ cup of yogurt = 1 serving
  • 1.5 oz of cheese = 1 serving
Time for a Reality Check

If you’re the typical North American, then right about now you are looking at the previous two sections and thinking fuck that. I mean really, this is telling you that if you eat 5 oz of chicken breast then you’re almost finished with the entire meat, fish, egg and bean group for the day. How realistic is that? Any time I eat a 12 oz steak I double the recommended amount for the day right there.


I’m not telling you that you have to follow this to the letter. These are recommendations for an optimal diet. I can tell you that I don’t follow it rigidly. I try to abide by it as closely as I can without hating my life. I like food. I love it, and I only sometimes stick to the meat limits on the food guide. It would make me miserable if I did. Still, my meat intake is less than most of the men on this continent.


I understand and accept that my health is less optimal because of this. I accept the risk. I compensate as best I can by being at a healthy weight, exercising like a fiend, eating lots of fruits and vegetables, avoiding processed food and limiting fat intake.

Good enough.


So don’t freak out. Just do your best, and then keep pushing your limits until you find a healthy place where you’re comfortable. Healthy eating is a balancing act that is the pursuit of finding an eventual happy place. I’ve found mine. I can still drink beer, order pizza sometimes, eat some potato chips and have dessert every once in a while. Because I exercise hard and eat healthy and Calorie restricted the rest of the time, I’ve got some not bad abdominal definition.


I could have much better defined abs if I was willing to sacrifice more on my diet, but I wouldn’t be nearly so happy because life without beer would suck. Remember what I wrote about in Chapter 2 about avoiding the all or nothing mentality and find your happy place. 

Water
Drinking large amounts of water has a miraculous affect on your body; it makes you have to pee a lot. There is a possibility that you’ve read about how important it is for you to drink lots of water, seeing claims that you must drink at least 8 glasses a day to “boost metabolism” and “cleanse out toxins.” First off, if you read Chapter 6 then you should be able to guess that the boost metabolism one is bogus. As for cleaning out toxins, excessive water intake has been shown to have the opposite effect because it makes the kidneys function less efficiently.21 


No on knows where the claim of 8 glasses a day comes from, but in the majority of cases this is more than what the average person needs.22 Drinking too much water can cause a medical condition called proteinuria, which is abnormal amounts of protein in the urine, and that can lead to kidney failure. In a study of 100 people who had high levels of water ingestion (average of 16 glasses a day) that were suspected to cause their proteinuria (there was no other explanation for their condition, such as other medical issues or medication), 56 agreed to follow up testing after decreasing water ingestion, and the results were that the cases of proteinuria were “largely reversed.”23


The above example was at extreme hydration levels, but it serves as a warning not to believe hype that you read on the Internet. You need to drink enough water to stay hydrated, but don’t force yourself to drink too much. Water should be your drink of choice when you are thirsty because it has zero Calories and is crucial for bodily functions, just don’t overdo it.  Also, take note that there are other sources of water. Coffee can be a source (it doesn’t dehydrate you – see section below), as well as sodas, juices and even foods like fruits and vegetables contain water. The rule of thumb is to drink when you are thirsty, and if you exercise a great deal you will be thirstier than most people. Also, if you’re urine is dark in color then you need to drink more (the exception is if you recently took a multivitamin, as this can make your pee bright yellow). 

Sources of Water
Depending on where you live, I recommend tap water. Bottled water is expensive and bad for the environment, and it goes through far less regulation and treatment than most municipal water supplies do.  

Coffee – is it Bad for You?
Coffee has been extensively researched because it has been so widely consumed for centuries. The general answer according to the medical experts is that normal consumption has no adverse health effects. “Normal” is defined as about 12 ounces – one large mug.24 A 2006 review of the research found that up to twice this amount was okay.25 This doesn’t mean you should drink more, but if you find you can tolerate two Grandes a day without going postal on your co-workers, then there isn’t much reason to change your habits (as long as you go easy on the cream and sugar because of the fat and extra Calories).  As for it causing dehydration, that’s a myth. Caffeine ingested with no water can have a small dehydrating effect, and while coffee will cause more urination than water because of the caffeine, the net result is still that coffee is a hydrating drink that also happens to make you bounce off the walls if you drink too much of it.26 

Salt and Sodium
Hypertension (high blood pressure) can cause heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure and is a leading cause of death. The World Health Organization reports that if everyone decreased their salt intake then rates of strokes, heart and kidney disease would drop.27   

North Americans have high sodium intakes because there is so much of it in prepared foods. Yes, salt is vital to survive, but chances are that you are getting way more than you need. If you follow Rule #2 then you are going to decrease your sodium intake. Couple this with taking it easy with the salt shaker and you’ll be doing great. 

Artificial Sweeteners
I find it amazing that people will consume large quantities of unregulated and questionable supplements, yet rag on something that has been extensively tested for safety by multiple regulatory agencies. The common artificial sweeteners are classified as GRAS – Generally Recognized as Safe. In giving it this determination, the World Health Organization, the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Commission, the Joint Expert Committee of Food Additions of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, and the United States Food and Drug Administration are all involved. To be classified as GRAS, the available data about the use of the substance are known and widely accepted by qualified experts and there is a consensus among them that the substance is safe under the conditions of its intended use.28 

I read that Aspartame can cause bladder cancer in male rats though. Hmmm… Scary stuff. Actually, if you look at the data, male rats are highly prone to bladder cancer in the first place - if you sneeze on the fuckers they get bladder cancer - and they received 100 times the amount any human would normally ingest.29  I eat non-fat yogurt with my morning granola and it has Sucralose in it. I drink Diet Coke sometimes as well, which has Aspartame. I’m not worried about this. Still, common sense dictates that everything should be done in moderation. 

Health Claims on Food
Time to tune up the bullshit detector:
  • Less fat or reduced fat does not mean low fat
  • Zero trans fats doesn’t mean zero fat
  • Low fat does not mean low Calorie
  • Sugar free does not mean Calorie free
  • Good source of [insert random nutrient here] doesn’t mean it’s healthy
There are many health claims made on food, and usually these are processed ones that you should be avoiding anyway. Most of them you should ignore and just stick to the seven rules. However, there are exceptions, such as picking dairy and eggs that have Omega 3 in them. Just so you know they got the Omega 3 through changing the animal feed, not some other Frankensteinian methods. 

In Defense of Salad
I remember an episode of That 70s Show where a post-heart attack Red Forman is given a salad for dinner by his wife. He gazes upon the bowl of greens with a look of utter contempt and says, “This isn’t food. This is what food eats.” 


You may have a similar attitude. Get over it.


As I’ve already shown, salads do a great job of filling you up so that you consume far less than the Calories in the salad at a later meal. Coupled with the fact that a well-prepared one is super healthy makes it a no-brainer. Seriously, when you eat one it is almost like you can feel the cells in your body slurping up the nutrients and saying, “Fuck, yeah!”


Here is my advice for making a good, healthy man salad in a manly way:

  • First off, make it a routine. The minute you walk in the door when you get home from work go into the kitchen and make your salad. Learn to do this five times a week and you will be on your way to become one healthy mofo.
  • If you’re not one for the kitchen, go out and buy yourself a nice, expensive, sharp vegetable knife. Make it yours. Make it sharp and keep it sharp. Learn to use it to chop up vegetables the way a Samurai warrior chops off heads.
  • Make it convenient. Buy a large tub of pre-washed mixed greens, baby spinach, arugula or whatever and throw it in the fridge.
  • Grab a big handful of the greens and throw it in a bowl.
  • Take your sharp knife and chop up half of a medium tomato and throw it in (uncut tomatoes stay on the counter, but put the remaining half in the fridge).
  • You are a master of fast chopping. Do it again with about a third of a red, yellow or orange bell pepper and throw it in. These go in the fridge to make them last longer.
  • For the record, my BFK (the “K” stands for “knife”) is an “ice hardened” Henckel Five Star. I have no idea was ice hardening does, but it sure sounds cool. My sharpening steel is also a Henckel and it’s diamond impregnated. I don’t care what planet you live on, impregnating things with diamonds is awesome.
  • If you want, throw in some berries.
  • Pick a low-Calorie vinaigrette. The stuff I use has 20 Calories per tablespoon (the raspberry-lime one is my favorite), and I use less than a tablespoon in a large salad.
  • Realize that the stuff will go bad quickly, so you have to start eating it right away. Chastise yourself if you have to throw any away because you let it rot.
  • Making two at the same time takes slightly longer, and will make your wife happy.

A gigantic bowl of the above has less than 100 Calories, even with a lot of berries in it. It will fill you up and make you healthier.

 

Do it.


Other Strategies for Success

Here are some additional eating tips that can help you restrict Calories and focus on eating healthy:

  • Make olive oil the only oil in your house. Cook with it instead of anything else, including butter. It may be high in Calories, but it is a healthy fat.
  • Because of the (justified) backlash against trans fats there are now non-hyrogenated margarines that you can buy that are better in terms of cholesterol than butter is (although Calories are the same). I still prefer butter because I think it tastes a lot better. Here is the tip: DON’T USE MUCH. Take some butter and eat it without anything else. It doesn’t taste very good, does it? Butter and margarine make other things taste better because of the texture it adds, but in order to accomplish this you don’t need much. Measure out a tablespoon of butter and memorize what it looks like. Know in your mind how big it is then remember that it is 100 Calories of limited nutritional value.
  • Get into a routine of healthy eating. Start planning things out in advance. Getting up ten minutes earlier can give you plenty of time to pack a healthy food for work rather than hitting the Chinese food buffet. Make a commitment that the only food you will eat at work is that which you bring with you. Once this commitment is made then you only have to be motivated to eat healthy for those few minutes that you are making your work food (I don’t call it “lunch” because I include snacks too, which are usually fruit).
  • Cheat, within reason. Take a handful of potato chips and enjoy them. Don’t glue your ass to the couch with the entire bag.
  • You don’t necessarily need to count Calories (to achieve abdominal definition you may have to), but it is good to at least have an understanding of how many Calories are in certain foods. Get in the habit of reading labels so you can see if something has a lot of Calories and then you know to either avoid or limit it.
  • Take a day off each week. This is not a go nuts binge day where you mainline chocolate milkshakes, but a day where you let down your guard a moderate amount.
  • Earn junk. If I know that I’m going to go out chugging pints of draft beer and inhaling spicy chicken wings with the boys, then I will try and do an extra bit of running in advance so I can do it guilt free.
  • Put less food on your plate. Think in advance about how much you are going to need to be satisfied and dish out that much.
  • Get enough sleep. Being well rested gives you the willpower to focus on healthy, Calorie-restricted eating.
  • Get a team behind you. Make your desire to change known to your family so that they help rather than hinder you.
  • Think before you eat. Decide if you really are hungry.
  • Pick and choose reduced fat varieties. I choose half fat mayo and half fat sour cream because they taste fine, but I’ll be damned if I’m buy reduced fat cheese. That stuff just tastes wrong. I like eating cheese, but I make sure I don’t use much.
  • Add some spices – it makes food seem more satisfying.
  • Just be more aware of what you’re putting in your mouth. Stop and think before you chew. Watch out for the unplanned Calories. Everything counts.
  • Be aware of emotional eating and drinking. If you’re in a pissy mood then blow your diet with a couple of thousand extra Calories realize that this will not improve your attitude, although going for a run might.
  • Create routines of healthy eating. Plan for times that you will focus on stuffing good things into your pie hole.
A Final Note about Hunger

Most diet books promise that you will never be hungry following their plan.


Crap.


Hunger is relative. I don’t want you to starve yourself because it results in overeating later on and in extreme cases can lead to a decrease in metabolism via the starvation response (see Chapter 5). However, you don’t get to eat as much as you might like.


Think of this: you go out for a prime rib dinner and pack away 12 ounces of awesome tasting meat, a pile of mashed potatoes and gravy, a couple of beers, and some mixed vegetables. This is what I did last night at my mom’s. No lie.


Afterwards you are stuffed. You don’t want any more food. Then someone puts a crème brûlée in front of you. Tell me you aren’t going to eat it.


Going a little hungry sometimes is a powerful tool for losing fat, but timing is everything. Don’t exercise while hungry or your performance will suffer. Eating high quality food before and after exercise is crucial to success.


If you’re going to go a little hungry, make sure it is at the end of the day. Like I wrote earlier, accept that most of the time dinner is going to be the last meal of the day and then you are finished eating until breakfast. Tough it out until bed time and you’ll stop yourself from eating another 300-500 Calories that day.


Skip the after dinner snack, but never skip breakfast or lunch if you can help it. 

Conclusion

There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?


This chapter may not include every nutritional nugget of wisdom there is, but it sure has enough so that if you follow all of it, you will be far healthier and lose a lot of fat and build muscle (as long as you are doing the exercises I recommend as well). When it comes to application of this information, it will be relayed at the appropriate stages as you progress through the phases of this book and you may wish to refer back to this chapter on occasion. You can start on some of this now if you want, or you can feel free to wait until you are in a better mental place, like after you’ve been exercising for about a month.


Buy this Book
If you want more information on the subject of healthy eating for active people, then I think one of the best books you can get is by Nancy Clark, MS, RD, entitled Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook. It comes highly recommended by experts in the area of sport nutrition, and is a top seller. It has some good recipes in it too.

 
 Notes
  1. Sachiko St. Jeor et al., “Dietary Protein and Weight Reduction,” Circulation, 104, 2001, p. 1869.
  2. S. Schick et al., “Persons Successful at Long-term Weight Loss and Maintenance Continue to Consume a Low-energy, Low-fat Diet,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 98, (4), April, 1998, p. 408; Mary Klem et al., “At Descriptive Study of Individuals Successful at Long-term Maintenance of Substantial Weight Loss,” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 66 (2), August, 1997, p. 243.
  3. A. Trichopoulou et al., “Low-carbohydrate-high-protein Diet and Long-term Survival in a General Population Cohort,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 61, May, 2007, pp. 578-579.
  4. Julia Ello-Martin et al., “The Influence of Food Portion Size and Energy Density on Energy Intake: Implications for Weight Management,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrtion, 82 (suppl.), 2005, p. 236S.
  5. Julia Ello-Martin, et al., “Dietary Energy Density in the Treatment of Obesity: A Year-long Trial Comparing Two Weight-loss Diets,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85, 2007, p. 1465.
  6. Julie Flood et al., “The Effect of Increased Beverage Portion Size on Energy Intake at a Meal, “ Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106, 2006, p. 1984.
  7. Julie Flood and Barbara Rolls, “Soup Preloads in a Variety of Forms Reduce Meal Energy Intake,” Appetite, 49, 2007, p. 626.
  8. Barbara Rolls et al., “Salad and Satiety: Energy Density and Portion Size of a First-Course Salad Affect Energy Intake at Lunch,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 104, 2004, p. 1570.
  9. Jenny Ledikwe et al., “Dietary Energy Density is Associated with Energy Intake and Weight Status in US Adults,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 83, 2006, p. 1362.
  10. Jenny Ledikwe et al., “Reductions in Dietary Energy Density are Associated with Weight Loss in Overweight and Obese Participants in the PREMIER Trial,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85, 2007, p. 1212.
  11. Jenny Ledikwe et al., “Low-Energy-Density Diets are Associated with High Diet Quality in Adults in the United States,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106, 2006, p. 1172.
  12. Barbara Rolls et al., “Using a Smaller Plate did not Reduce Energy Intake at Meals,” Appetite, 49, 2007, p. 652.
  13. Barbara Rolls, “The Supersizing of America: Portion Size and the Obesity Epidemic,” Nutrition Today, 38 (2), 2003, p. 42.
  14. Nancy Clark, Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, (Brookline, MA: Human Kinetics, 2003), p. 6.
  15. http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/10/31/cancer-study.html
  16. Jenny Ledikwe, “A reliable, valid questionnaire indicates that preference for dietary fat declines when following a reduced-fat diet,” Appetite, 49, 2007, p. 74.
  17. Nancy Clark, p. 32.
  18. http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/10/31/cancer-study.html
  19. K. Maruyama “The Joint Impact on Being Overweight of Self-reported Behaviors of Eating Quickly and Eating until Full: A Cross Sectional Survey,” BMJ, Oct 21, 2008, p. 1.
  20. Referenced from Nancy Clark, p. 5.
  21. Dan Negoianu and Stanley Goldfarb, “Just Add Water,” Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 19, 2008, p. 1.
  22. Ibid.
  23. William Clark et al., “Excessive Fluid Intake as a Novel Cause of Proteinuria,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, 178 (2), January 15, 2008, pp. 173-174.
  24. Nancy Clark, p. 65.
  25. Jane Higdon and Balz Frei, “Coffee and Health: A Review of Recent Human Research,” Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 46, 2006, p. 101.
  26. Lawrence Armstrong, “Fluid, Electrolyte, and Renal Indices of Hydration During 11 Days of Controlled Caffeine Consumption,” International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 15, 2005, p. 252; Lawrence Armstrong, Caffeine, Body-fluid Electrolyte Balance, and Exercise Performance,” International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 12 (2), June, 2002, p. 189.
  27. http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/09/20/salt-limit.html
  28. http://www.medicinenet.com/artificial_sweeteners/page2.htm; http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/grasguid.html
  29. http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2006/406_sweeteners.html