Through my years in athletics since 1980 I have seen many athletes and fitness enthusiasts destroy their health and metabolism through well-intentioned but ill-advised diets.  I may myself have been one of these.

Every diet that works, be it paleo, carnivore, Atkins, Zone, Intermittent fasting (aka time-restricted feeding), vegetarianism, etc, works largely because of calorie restriction.  That is, you eat less energy in food than you expend with your daily activities. 

After decades of failed yo-yo diets you would think that we would have realized by now that calorie restriction does not work.  And as happened with my friend’s wife last year, it can even kill you.

Here are the simple reasons why though restricting your calories may help you lose weight in the short term, all your discipline and self-deprivation will not yield the lasting results you are hoping for:

Metabolic Derangement Triple-Punch 
1) Your body is perfectly designed to survive short term periods of food shortages.  However, if it suffers a prolonged period of calorie restriction, it goes into survival mode.  It prepares for famine by burning muscle for fuel and shuttling any extra calories preferentially to fat storage to help see you through lean times.  Yes, by restricting calories you are programming your body to burn muscle and store fat.  You are starving yourself into obesity.

2) Muscle has a high metabolic rate meaning it burns energy even at rest.  When your body burns muscle for fuel it slows your metabolism so that when you eventually return to normal eating patterns, you will burn fewer calories and thus what used to be a regular meal now becomes excessive and you will be more prone to putting on weight in the form of fat.  You have slowed your metabolism.

3) Leptin and Ghrelin are hormones that regulate hunger and satiety.  Overeating of processed foods or prolonged calorie restriction may impair the functioning of these hormones leading to excessive appetite or failure to register satiety.  You have destroyed your appetite regulators.

Competing in judo through university, I saw many fit, young athletes cut weight regularly to make their division weight cut offs.  After each weight cut, they tended to gain back a few more pounds than they lost.  All in the form of fat.  By the end of their competitive careers, many of these twenty-somethings were already overweight despite their active lifestyles.  They essentially dieted themselves into obesity.  Recently, one of these athletes, a friend and former training partner a year or two older than myself, had his lower leg amputated due to diabetes. 

Muscle Loss Hypothesis
Now researchers are proposing a new theory that suggests a fourth mechanism by which calorie restriction leads to obesity.  Post diet hyperphagia (overeating) continues not until you regain your previous body weight but, until you rebuild the muscle that you lost while dieting. 

This means that if your post-calorie restriction diet is deficient in protein then, your hunger mechanism will continue indefinitely.  And from what I have observed, most people are not eating enough protein to maintain muscle, never mind regaining lost muscle.      

What Should You Do Instead of Dieting?
We’ve always been taught that to lose weight requires self discipline and self-deprivation.  We’ve been taught that people are overweight because they are gluttons.  It isn’t true.  Overweight is not a character flaw.  And those insatiable food cravings you struggle with are simply your body signalling that it isn’t getting the nutrients that it needs.

Instead of eating less, you need to eat more.  Specifically, more protein.  The problem is that peanut butter does not qualify as protein.  Neither do any other nuts or seeds regardless of what you have been told.  Even yogurt and milk are not fantastic protein sources.  Don’t believe me?  Check the labels.  What does your milk carton say?  Maybe something like 13 grams of carbohydrates and 9 grams of protein per serving.  If you rely on these products for your protein you will be getting far too many calories from carbs before you hit your required 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass.
Likewise, proteins that do not have a balance of the essential amino acids will not satisfy your body’s requirements.  That means beans, lentils, peas will not do the trick either. 

If you want to be lean and healthy, you will need to derive the bulk of your protein from high quality animal sources which contain the full complement of essential amino acids and are low in carbohydrates to boot. 

You may not like it.  I did not.  That doesn’t make it less true.  You can have your preferences or you can have results.  Arguing with your biological reality won’t change it.  Herbivores evolved to synthesize most of the essential amino acids themselves.  You did not.  You evolved to get your essential amino acids from animals.       

Friday Make Up Day

1) Empower Reset #5-0
1 min Belly Breathing
30/30 sec Head Nods/Rotations

5 mins
20 Deadbugs
20 Windshield Wipers
20 Shoulder Pullovers
20 Egg Rolls

5 mins
20 Bird Dogs
10/10 Kickstand Rocks
10 Plank Bird Dogs
10 Judo Push Up Rocks

5 mins
10 Get Ups
20 Ring Row Squats
20 Alt Ring Row Reverse Lunges

2 Rounds (2 mins each):
Hollow Rocks
Skin-the-cats
Headstand/Tripod with knee tuck and extend

Bar Pullovers

2) 3 rounds for time of:
20 sumo deadlift high pulls
40 GHD sit-ups
120 double-unders

3) Jackie
1,000 Meter Row
50 Thrusters
30 Pullups