I finally got to write a proper blog post. As you may have seen, we had the EPNC conference recently, and my website had some font trouble, so I have been supremely busy until now. However, now I’m squarely here doing one of the things I love – helping you lose some fat. Indeed, it’s time for diet tips part 3!
The first and second parts of the series contained some fundamentals, while the previous issue was some purely random stuff. This time, it’s like a combination of those two.
Near the end of this post, you are about to see a small random tip, and something completely unrelated to diet issues whatsoever. However, what precedes them is of such upmost importance that it definitely justifies this post being called Part 3, rather than Misc semi-useful crap or something like that.
Indeed, I began this very series with the most important recommendation – don’t eat too much crap. However, I was recently triggered to realize that this might not be an issue for some people. Most people do know too much ice cream is not good for fat loss.
Hence, the majority of this post approaches the problem of crap-eating from a different angle, with some new definitions and considerations.
So, enjoy!
Don’t eat too good
This week, a Finnish nutritionist (or a registered dietician or something, don’t really care about the exact term) blurted out in a newspaper interview that food doesn’t always have to taste good. I use the verb blurt intentionally, since the phrasing in the paper caused a huge social media uproar because whoknowswhat.
Sidenote: that kind of shows a part of why we have an obesity problem here. If so many people get so angry about a few words, by one person, about food…Then maybe food has been raised on a bit too high of a pedestal on the societal level.
But back to the point. You know what the funny thing is?
I actually agree with her. At least with her original meaning, that she later had to clarify on her Facebook page, thanks to the less-than-clear reporting by the newspaper in question.
But I say it again, this time with a slightly less scandalous phrasing.
Food doesn’t always have to be delicious.
There. I said it. And it’s especially true when fat loss is your goal.
You see, humans are hedonistic creatures. We like to eat food, and we like to eat lots of delicious food.
And the fundamental requirement for fat loss is to consume less food, in the energy-contents sense, compared to your expenditure. Even most die-hard low-carbers tend to agree with that.
Now, maybe you’re one of those very restrained (be it in the good or in the bad sense) individuals, who are extremely mindful of their eating and can keep their portions sensible no matter what delicacy they are served. Or, maybe you are actually counting calories and/or macronutrients like I am, and Excel your way into leanness. But even if that’s true, the following might still be useful to you. So bear with me (see the bear joke in the previous link).
But – especially if you are prone to getting slightly chubby – it will be good idea to not test your willpower with intentionally tempting dishes.
Now, there are some implications and hypotheses that simply believing your resolve infinite will go a long way of strenghtening it. That’s probably the case.
But, chances are it still won’t be infinite in the true sense. What I mean is, have pizza for dinner often enough, and you will eat more than necessary sooner or later. That’s a statistical near-certainty.
My point is: eating too delicious food too often will increase the probability of overeating.
So, what do I recommend instead? Dry unflavoured chicken breast and rubbery potatoes?
Luckily, no.
I recommend you have good food most of the time. For dieting, most of the time could mean all week except for Friday evening, and the occasional social event. For maintaining weight and body fat, you can slip quite a bit more often. But keep a close eye on the scale and the mirror. Fat gain is a slippery slope indeed.
And what do I mean by good?
I mean there are foods that almost everybody loves – pizza, burgers, tortillas, and the like. You can health them up with chicken and low-fat cheese to your heart’s content, but you’ll still end up eating too much. I know. I’ve done that, and counted my macros afterwards.
So, those goodies are better reserved for special occasions, and even then worth keeping a watch over.
But, pretty much any other decent home-cooked dish should be okay. There are probably a few personal exceptions, that you just happen to absolutely love for some weird reason or another. For me, it’s chili con carne. I could eat a kettleful.
This is actually yet another application of the beloved Pareto principle. I mean a typical home-cooked meal will taste good with relatively little effort. However, to make it delicious would require a lot more time and effort.
So, it’s like a win-win. Make yourself some decent chow most of the time – and save time and lose fat in the process. Sounds like a deal, right?
How to cook
So, how to make those aforementioned decent meals.
Well, I have a surefire process.
- First, have some medium-fat ground beef (or pork), or some sliced chicken breast in a large pan. Fry that in a spoonfull of the cooking oil of your choice.
- Next, add some carbs. Pasta, rice, and potatoes are all fine. Keep to the amount rougly similar to the amount of meat. Significantly more if you are trying to gain weight. Somewhat less if you are in the final few weeks of your fat loss diet.
- Then, time for the secret ingredient. Add a can or tube of tomato pyree. Works like magic, it really does. Both the taste and consistency get much better.
Makes food good. Does the body good, too. - Finally, add some vegetables. In the pan, if you use frozen ones. On your plate, if you have fresh stuff that you can eat raw. The amount should be equal to the meat and carbs combined.
That’s it. Easy as that, and you can easily cook for three meals at once. Six, if you have a large pan and a freezer to store a part of the food.
Not delicious, but good. And that’s the goal for most of the time, remember?
What also happens when you diet
So, what should you expect when your body fat goes down?
Well, apart from looking and feeling better, and having people regard you more highly, your alcohol tolerance changes.
A lot.
I noticed it again very recently. Or should it be re-noticed…
Anyway, my tolerance has never been anything stellar. I’m a happy drunk, and I get that way from relatively meager amounts. That was a nice quality to have as a poor student, by the way.
But that modest tolerance gets even smaller when I diet down to six-pack levels. And vice versa: now that I have massed into a barely visible four-pack I barely notice anything from a drink or two. Liked it better the other way round, have to admit.
Anyway, those changes are something that you should know, especially if you like to consume larger amounts of booze quite infrequently.
Something other than diet
You have now read more than one thousand words about dieting, so maybe it’s time for something different.
You know how people talk about birds and bees, especially in countries where childrens’ education about the basics of human behaviour may not be so stellar?
How the hell does that make sense? The euphemism, I mean. Bees pollenate. Birds reproduce. That’s the extent of their similarities. Both also happen to have DNA and cellular metabolism, but we don’t use them as a symbol for that.
For your information, in Finland we say flowers and bees. You know, because bees actually move the reproductive cells of flowers to where they should go. Now that I think of it, it does sound more like artificial insemination of farm animals rather than species reproduction, but it still has no birds included.
That’s all for today. Hope I didn’t offend anybody this time. If I did, get a thicker skin and come again.
Until next time, I’m off for holidays!
-Antti
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