My experiment

I'm six weeks into my 12 Week Challenge.  It's been awesome to have the support and motivation of all of you.  I really want to thank everyone for the words of encouragement!

I've been promising to write a little more about what I am eating.  I held off doing this until now, because I wanted to experiment to figure some things out.  In previous posts, I explained what I think is important when trying to lose weight.  The two unconditional rules are to control calories, and to pile on the protein.  The details, like carb to fat ratio, carb timing, and diet set up were things that I wanted to experiment with to find out what works best for my body.

Over the past six weeks I have tried three different diet approaches.  The first was a high fat diet with carbs only after training.  The second, was a Leangains style approach, where calories were high on training days, and very low on rest days.  The third was a more traditional bodybuilding style diet, with moderate fat and moderate carbohydrates everyday.

To start off, I used the time tested approach of multiplying lean body weight  (in pounds) by 10-12 to  determine total calories.  This gave me a total caloric intake of 1750cal/day I set protein at 1 gram per pound of current bodyweight, giving 170g/day.  These two factors remained unchanged in all three dietary approaches.

High Fat Approach

I wanted to see how my body would do on a low carb diet.  I only ate carbohdrates after weight training or sprinting workouts.  This meant that two days a week I ate 150g of starchy carbs (rice or sweet potatoes) and after my toughest workout, squats and deadlifts, I ate a big re-feed of 300g of carbs.  On rest days carbs were limited to the small amounts found in green vegetables like broccoli, spinach, etc.  The remainder of my calories came from healthy fat sources like avocado, free range eggs, salmon, grass fed beef, olive oil, coconut oil, almonds....

To quickly give you a feel for how much fat I was eating, here are the numbers for a rest day (carbs ~50g from vegetables)

Fat calories  = Total Calories - Protein Calories - Carb Calories

 = 1750 - 170*4 - 50*4

=870 cal from fat

Which gives about 95g of fat (9 calories/gram of fat).  This was pretty typical on a rest day, and it is no problem to get 95g of healthy fat into your diet.  On training days, carbs were 150g and  fat was around 50g. On the re-feed days, I did my best to keep fat as low as possible (under 30g).

I felt really good eating this way.  I lost a pound a week, my energy levels were great, and my strength increased.  The one thing that is tricky with this high fat approach, is that fat being a calorie dense food at 9cal/g, fat is very easy to overeat.  It is surprising how a handful of almonds, or a little extra olive oil on a salad can push total calories up quickly.  If you are going to eat a high fat diet, you need to be diligent and make sure you hit your caloric targets.

Leangains Approach

The Leangains approach is the style of intermittent fasting popularized by Martin Berkhan.  His method is to eat 110% of your baseline calories on training days, and 70% on rest days.  There is a formula that can be used to calculate your baseline calories, you can check it out here.   My caloric requirement worked out to about 2000 cal. So my numbers looked like this:

Training Days

Calories: 2200cal

Protein: 170g

Fat: 50g 

Carbs: 265g

Rest Days

Calories: 1400cal

Protein: 170g

Fat: 60g

Carbs: 50g (green veggies only)

I continued to lose about a pound a week with this approach, but I felt terrible.  All work and no calories, makes Dave a very dull boy.  Another problem I found, was that my stomach had difficulty adjusting to the different amounts of food. I had stomach aches a couple times, and was not my normal regular self if you know what I mean...

Traditional Bodybuilding Approach

I call this a traditional bodybuilding approach for lack of a better term.  Before carbs became hated by most fat loss experts, people managed to eat carbs and still lose weight.  Curious to try for myself,  I once again set calories at 1700cal, protein at 170g, fat at 55g (30% of total calories), and made up the remainder from carbs, giving 125g of carbs. I ate this every day except for my big re-feed day, where I ate 2100 cal.  On the re-feed day, the extra calories were almost exclusively from carbs.

I felt great eating this way, but my fat loss slowed.  My strength continued to increase at the same rate as before, and my energy levels were good.  My take on the lack of fat loss, is that my insulin sensitivity is still not high enough to eat carbs without first earning them with intense training.

Cookie Cutter Diets are Ridiculous!

I did this to figure out what works best for me.  You need to experiment to see what works best for you.  It's your body, and only you can know what feels right for you.  I have decided that I like to keep calories constant every day.  I am not going to eat starchy carbs on rest days, and will fill up on healthy fat sources instead.  On training days, I will eat a nice sized serving of carbs, but will stay within my calorie targets.  Once a week, I'm going to bump the calories way up, and eat a pile of healthy carbs.  I can say with confidence that this is a sustainable, painless way for me to burn fat.

Experimenting is a great way to get in tune with your own body, and to learn how to eat in a manner that best suits you.  There are so many people blindly trying diet programs without ever considering that their body may not react to the diet in the same way as other people's.  You need to take some accountability for yourself and not be afraid to experiment a little.  As long as you eat a caloric deficit, you will continue to lose weight. The question is whether or not the diet is sustainable.  If it makes you miserable, then there is probably no chance of you sticking to it.  So, take the time to find what works best for you, and make fat loss as painless as possible.

What are some different strategies that you have used before to lose weight?  Maybe some interesting food choices that made dieting easier.  Please share your experiences with us here, and hopefully we can help people achieve their goals, without going insane.

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It Doesn't Need to be Confusing

I'm a pretty private guy. My close friends will testify to this. I hate the spot light, and always have. In the last band I was in, I earned the nickname "Davey Dance a Lot" due to my statuesque presence on stage. I am not a showman and I hate being the center of attention. When I decided that I was going to go ahead and make my private life very public it was a decision that I didn't take lightly.

I finally chose to do it for two reasons. The first is that I want to be held accountable while making this change in my life. I don't know if I could do this on my own or not, but I know that the added motivation and support that I've gotten from all of you has made me determined to give it my all.

The second reason is that there is so much garbage information about nutrition out there, that we have lost sight of how simple losing weight is. I want to prove just how uncomplicated it really is.

Doing this 12 Week Challenge publicly has had an unexpected benefit. The pressure to make this work, along with some very insightful and challenging questions from some of you have led me to think critically about my nutritional views. By recording everything and taking good notes, some facts about nutrition have become much clearer to me. The simplicity of it is almost funny.

I have been experimenting with different eating plans. To evaluate the plans, I recorded my weight, measurements in multiple places, strength levels, and general notes on how I felt while eating each way. Doing it this way allowed me to cut through all the frivolous details, and see which aspects of nutrition are truly important.

Control Calories

Energy in vs energy out is the only thing that truly matters. If you eat fewer calories than you need, you will lose weight. If you eat more, you will gain weight. No matter what else you include in your diet, you will never beat this law of thermodynamics.  Your body needs a certain amount of energy, if you consume less than that amount you will lose weight.  Cement this fact in your mind, and never ever forget it!

Pile up the Protein

Eating protein is the best way to feel full while dieting. Protein is also important for building or maintaining muscle. Building muscle should be a priority for both men and women, so eating protein should be too. Ladies if you think building muscle will make you bulky check this out. Most research suggest that 1 gram of protein for every pound of bodyweight is a good amount.  Eating more than this while dieting can be a good idea, but anyone who says you must eat extraordinary amounts (like 3g/lb) is more than likely trying to sell you protein powder.

The Devil is in the Details

Too many people advise cookie cutter diets. Everyone is different in terms of both hormones, and activity levels. For instance, my mother and I should not follow the same plan. I perform intense exercise  three or four days a week. She exercises, but not at the same intensity as me. If someone advised her to exercise like me, they would be an idiot. However, advising the two of us to eat the same way is somehow acceptable.

The individual parts of the diet boil down to the following.

1. The ratios of carbs and fats

Everyone should eat lots of protein.  The amount of carbs and fats is much more personal.  Overweight or sedentary people should eat less carbs, and more fat.  Active people need carbs to fuel athletic performance. 

2. Meal Frequency

The idea that you need to eat every two hours to "fuel the matabolic fire" is not true.  Meal frequency has no bearing on metabolic rates. For proof read this. On the flipside, the idea that you need to practice Intermittent Fasting is not true either.  There may be some benefits to fasting, but adherence to a plan is far more important.  If you want to eat thirty small meals a day, do it.  I like eating two big meals, so that's what I do.

3. Meal Timing

Once again, there is research that suggests eating big meals at night has hormonal advantages.  But, adherence to the diet is still more important.  If you would rather eat during the day, do it.  As long as you control your calories you will succeed.

4. Food Quality

There is a popular movement call If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) that has come about in the Intermittent Fasting community.  The idea is that everyday you have target amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrates to eat.  How these numbers are met is not important. If your targets allow you to eat half a cheesecake for dinner, then go nuts.  There are lots of people who use this method to eat junk food and still lose weight.  You may choose to do this, it is up to you.  I think that optimizing health should be a priority with any nutritional program, so I eat healthy food. That is only my opinion though.

Get to work!

Don't over complicate this stuff.  Get your calories in line, and then experiment with the other factors to see what makes you feel good. It may take some time to get it dialed in, but you will learn a lot about your body and your habits in the process.  If you have any questions, or would like some advice, please feel free to leave a comment here or send me a message via my facebook page.  I am working hard to learn as much as I can about making good, practical nutritional plans, so helping you reach your goals would make me very happy!

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