Thanks to everyone who has commented on my original post. It has given me a lot of food for thought…pardon the pun. It clearly shows that there is more than one way to skin a cat and achieve our goals.
I think this also clearly shows the value of the forum and the nice thing is that because we are all interested in these topics there has not been any bad feelings/comments/attitudes and it has all been done in a constructive manner.
I can now understand why @Nate_Pearson and TR have been holding off on a nutrition podcast as it’s a total minefield…that having been said I hope they persevere and find a way.
@Nate_Pearson I think we should all maybe agree that it is coach @chad fault for recommending Dr. Fung book in the first place … just kidding.
GUYS PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, THIS IS AWSOME AND VERY HELPFUL/INFORMATIVE. Looking forward to today’s podcast!
Guys I can only talk about this from personal experience, my own and my athletes.
I use the 5:2 diet when trying to lose weight when training and trying not to ruin my training. The 5:2 diet for anyone who has not heard of it, is 2 days a week 600 calories on your fasting day and no real restrictions on other days.
I split the 2 days up, so I do Monday, as I’m normally sure I have eaten and drunk to well over the weekend and normally Thursday, as Friday tends to be a lighter day, before weekend training. On these days I tend to follow the recipes in Michael Mosley’s books, just to make it simple.
The three things I get out of the diet are, not having to count calories every day, better hydration on the days I do the diet (as I drink a lot to keep my stomach full) and weight lose, normally around a kg (2.2lb) a week.
Once I reach my target, whether 66kg for cycling or 68kg for triathlon then I go to either none or one day, depending on the sort of week.
Hi Nate! Thank you for taking the time to participate in this kind of discussion (and all the others on the forum, not to mention the lots of times you’ve debated this on the podcast )
I think you’re hitting the nail on the head as to why people are confused about Dr. Fungs remarks. If someone reads the obesity code carefully, they will notice that he does not dispute the laws of thermodynamics. Instead, he literally refers to the same features of a healthy diet you mention above. (IIRC, in the book he makes a remark like “don’t be a dumbass and eat a donut for lunch, even if it fits your macros. Eat what your grandmother would have called a healthy diet”).
I’ve lost a bunch of weight myself and spoken to medical professionals about it. What I noticed was a lot of them not really trusting the “calorie counting & willpower” approach I was taking. There was some amount of suprise or even disbelief about the success I was ultimately having. This will most likely come from the real life experience of being a MD/internist. A huge percentage of their patients would get better if they just lost weight - be it for their high blood pressure, back pain, diabetes or what have you. Still, they almost never do, even if instructed by their doctor.
Dr. Fung comes from a background of treating patients for diabetes. He may have the same pessimism about telling patients to “just eat less and move more” - which I’m sure he knows would work, but doesn’t work IRL, which is why he has chosen this as the sort of caricature of schoolbook treatment of obesity he is painting in his book and lectures.
So he’s putting other points front & center, like his theories about the benefits of intermittent fasting. In the end, he could succeed in manipulating people into managing their hunger and eating less calories this way
Dr Fungs approach no doubt works. Because for the most part if people try IF, they will natural consume less calories than their standard diet due to a smaller eating window. If this method works for some people, more power to them! But when a diet is treated as a “magic pill” it really gets stupid.
For every diet there is a “Dr Fung” to point out the massive benefits of their chosen path. Which diet works for the individual is completely subjective and personal. Personally Keto is just too restrictive for me, but IIFYM works great. I think people should experiment, see what works for them, what they can sustain. Let’s be honest, any of the main diets like IF, Keto, IIFYM etc are going to be better than the SAD.
I agree. It’s hard to track calories in too, even with a food scale.
You can kinda go about it in reverse. If you think you’re in a 300 calorie deficit and you’re not losing weight go to 500. Keep doing it until you lose weight.
I also think my general advice of “go to bed hungry” is a good rule of thumb to run a caloric deficit.
Physiology - sorry, thought you might have read my previous comment about utilizing CU Boulder’s physiology department for testing and/or CSU’s. I’m not sure we have physio-therapists in the states? Seems like they would be a good resource for physical ailments, strains and pains (I think we call them ‘athletic trainers’?)
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