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December 27, 2006
My Fad Diet
I'm sure I'm not the first person to have observed that Americans love fad diets.
No fat, no carb, no non-meat foods, no non-plant foods, no eating at this time or that, no eating white foods, no eating until after consuming a shot of oil or eight glasses of water or a cup of soup or a grapefruit. There are a zillion strange formulas for weight loss, and most of them work, at least at first, if you do them right (which most people don't) because almost all of them involve cutting calories.
Many of these diets teach a valuable lesson or two that can be incorporated into the long-term healthy lifestyle tool box. For instance, the low fat people taught us to eat higher volumes of low calorie veggies, so that we get more food for our calories. The low carb folk taught us to avoid sugar and nutrient-less carbs like bagels and pasta, while making sure we get enough protein and fat to make us feel full and provide our bodies with the building blocks of lean body mass and the essential fatty acids we require. We learned how to avoid blood sugar spikes and how to make a low calorie meal satisfying by including high-volume, low cal foods.
I find that even the strangest sounding fads can have some merit. For instance, if you start your meal with the fat source (like when I eat my almonds in my lunch before consuming the yogurt or salad) it really does minimize the blood sugar spike, leading to less hunger later. Or when you eat a low calorie, high water content soup, it slows down your eating process enough that you actually feel satisfied before you've consumed quite so many excess calories.
But the fact is, fad diets appeal to people because they offer a quick and easy solution to a problem that most people find intractable. The real truth: weight loss comes from lower calorie intake and/or increased calorie output, just isn't tons of fun. And the truth about what constitutes good nutrition, those pesky RDA's, just isn't as exciting as claiming that one miracle food, be it fish oil or grapefruit or beef, will solve all of our problems.
Many, many people who start CR, whether they're aiming for moderate or hardcore, find that for the first time, they lose weight fairly effortlessly with very little of the hunger and discomfort that they experienced on previous diets. The answer seems simple enough: when lower calories, you lose weight. And when you pay such careful attention to those pesky RDA's that you give your body what it really needs, most cravings go away. No wonder so many CR folk who had failed or gone wiggy on fad diets lose weight and feel great with a healthy CR program!
I've decided to take my CR toolbox and repackage it as a fad diet. I don't have time to write a book (though if I could write a best seller I might be able to pay someone to clean the house, which would be really nice!) so I'll just give it away for free.
I think I'll call it "The RDA Magic Diet."
Here's the basic idea: get your RDAs of every essential nutrient every day.
From food.
Get at least 70 g protein a day if you are a women, more if you're a man (though I don't have a good number for men, and they vary in size a lot, which I always found troubling since you get used to kissing someone at one height, then you break up and get another and have to get used to kissing at another height and it's very confusing. That's why I decided to settle down with one CR'd six foot tall male who is likely to live a very long time. I don't mind standing on my toes to kiss him, or making him bend down, or better yet, moving the entire encounter to a place where one can lie down. As they say, everyone is the same height in bed.)
Get at least 25% of calories from unsaturated fat sources, including one teaspoon of flax oil morning and one teaspoon night (to balance your omega 3's and 6's the easy way.) Okay, I borrowed it from the Zone, but keep in mind that I'm saying unsaturated, not meat fat.
Limit saturated fat to 10 g a day. That means that you'll get your calcium from non-fat dairy and plant sources, adding in your fat from nice olive oil, flax oil, and nuts. Or if it makes it easier for you to eat a meal or two out by consuming a salad with grilled chicken, save up your sat fat grams for those days.
Eat a no-carb breakfast. I especially like this cause it's very faddish sounding. Just protein and unsaturated fat. You know what that means: EGGWHITES! With flax oil. For those who are less carb sensitive in the morning, a whey protein shake would do fine, but I find that keeping carbs out of my breakfast keeps me less hungry and more mentally focused (not to mention less anxious) all day.
Count your calories. Just observe them. You'll start to see what's a waste and what's a good expenditure. The simple act of watching calories add up, while you're trying to get all your RDA's, will teach volumes about what is healthy food and what is not.
How's that for a fad? The magic of the RDAs is that they make cravings go away. So many people overeat, yet they're malnourished. They eat empty foods that shoot the blood sugar sky high, then they wonder whey they're hungry two hours later.
The other factor in RDA magic is that a focus on nutrition, not weight, almost immediately leads to the kind of positive attitude change that is necessary for long-term weight loss. I've found that people who lose weight successfully do so when they stop thinking of themselves as bad, lazy or lacking in discipline and create a self-image of being healthy and in control of their choices. It's hard to change your self-image when you're overweight if you focus on weight because you're constantly confronted with the mirror or the scale, reminding you that even if you had a great food day today, you're still fat. But if you focus on getting those RDAs, you very quickly start to think of yourself as a nutrition whiz, rattling off those percentages and scouring the super-market and the USDA database for better nutrients per calorie deals. You can be a success at eating nutritious food long before the weight has come off. In fact, if you get to love playing with nutritional software like I do, you'll find you have a lot less time to engage in negative self-talk! You're just too busy looking for that source of vitamin B 12...
RDA Magic is tricky because while it claims to be a weight-loss diet, it's really a healthy lifestyle that is highly addictive. Once you start giving your body what it truly needs, you'll find that your body wants to have that all the time. We lure you in with the promise of painless weight loss, but once you've started down the healthy path, forever will it dominate your destiny.
And if you won't turn to the dark side -- the dark, leafy green vegetable side, that is -- perhaps someone even more valuable to the cause will...
Posted by april at December 27, 2006 12:49 PM
Comments
"The RDA Magic Diet" - I love it!
I have a friend who goes crazy every time she sees me, telling me how great I look now that I've lost so much weight. She also always asks me what my secret is. (She's about my height - 5'2 - and weighs over 170 pounds). I always get the sense that she's sincerely interested in losing weight, yet when I try to explain what it is that I actually do, her eyes glaze over. Maybe I'll tell her I'm on the RDA Magic Diet and see if that holds her attention.
Posted by: Robin at December 20, 2006 1:08 PM
It's very true that your body stops bothering you with bad cravings once you give it the right nutrition. I've been taking CR more seriously for the past 2 weeks and I've started a mild detox program 5 days ago where I eat lots of veggies, some fruits, goat's milk products, brown rice, beans and fish. My cravings for bread and other savory flour products and coffee are gone! Actually, I craved beetroot, fat-free yogurt and almonds last night and ate a steamed, peeled beetroot like an apple, and a small bowl of yogurt with a few almonds... It was yummy and this morning the small slice of cow's cheese tasted really bad.
So, listening to your body and giving it what it needs actually helps you to get on another, healthier track.
Posted by: istanbulwitchy at December 20, 2006 3:02 PM
Hi April-
I love your "fad diet." Please please please tell me what brands and varieties of fish oil and flax oil you buy, where you store them, and how long they keep. I'm trying to get myself some more healthy fat (plus it looks like fish oil has great vitamin D) but I definitely need to know I'm buying the right thing!
-Hilary
Posted by: Hilary at December 20, 2006 3:16 PM
Is there a reason you prefer flax oil to ground flax seeds, other than personal preference? I've started eating 5-10g of ground flax in the mornings, with hot water (I make sure it's not boiling because I know you're not supposed to heat it). It comes from a sealed, dark package from a health food store, and I buy it often, so I'm not worried that it's old. I figure flax seed oil has fat, while the whole seeds (ground, because I know one can't digest them whole) have fat, protein, and fiber - all good things!
Posted by: Emily at December 21, 2006 3:18 AM
april, this is what i've been eating lately... sounds like it almost fits your plan:
breakfast:
1 cup egg whites, scrambled in a nonstick pan with 1 spritz olive oil with:
handful spinach or kale
2 tbsp salsa fresca
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp flax oil
1 centrum multivitamin
8 oz coffee
24 oz bottle of water
lunch:
1 tumaro's wheat, soy n flax flatbread microwaved for 15 seconds and filled with:
80-100 cals protein source (3 oz light albacore tuna in water, 1 quorn cutlet or boca burger, 2 lightlife veg sausages, 4 slices smoked tofurky, half block light tofu, half package veg pepperonis, 3/4 cup scrambled egg whites, half cup black eyed peas or whole foods refried black beans w/red jalepenos, 10 raw almonds, etc.)
2 tbps fat-free cream cheese
2 tbps salsa fresca
handful spinach or kale/shredded carrots/purple cabbage
2 cups steamed green veggies (broccoli, green beans, brussels sprouts, etc.) + a splash of lemon or balsamic vinegar + a dash sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 portable fruit (medium apple or orange, small banana, etc.)
8 oz green tea
24 oz bottle of water
early dinner:
6 oz non-fat plain yogurt + 1 tsp stevia and 1 tsp cinnamon mixed with:
1 cup all bran w/extra fiber
1/2 cup berries
1 tsp flax oil
1 packet emergen-c dissolved in 8 oz water
4 oz water (from water fountain at gym)
post-exercise snack:
alternating 1 packet optimum power oatmeal + 1 tsp stevia
*or*
1 cocoavia original dark chocolate bar + 1 light babybel cheese
16 oz water
sometime before bed:
8 oz pinot noir or cabernet sauvignon
1 chocolate mint calcium chew
Posted by: cc at December 21, 2006 1:10 PM
Someone with expert knowledge in the field has advised me that Centrum vitamins are of poor quality. Check out Solray's MultiVitaMins or AOR's multi(if you can buy it where you live. If not, order online). Good luck! JD
Posted by: Judith at December 22, 2006 10:08 AM
I often think it would be worthwhile to create a fad diet that is secretly CR. RDA Magic is a pretty good name for it. As you say, the rules don't have to be hard. Perhaps we should write the book together and put recipes and meal plans in there. Still would be really hard to get people to stick with it 100% - but even 80% of the time would be a while lot better than SAD.
Posted by: Little MR at December 25, 2006 2:07 PM
the RDA Magic Diet .. pointer, please, to a way to work out the appropriate RDAs ?
artifex
Posted by: artifex at December 28, 2006 10:02 PM