Let me define the term diet.  Your diet is what you eat.  Nothing more or less. Everything that goes into your mouth is your diet. Today that may be a certain amount of weight watchers points, tomorrow it may be burgers, fries and regular soda. Perhaps it is coffee and something sweet for breakfast every morning or sugared cereal. OK, have I made my point that your diet is what YOU are eating.

When you (I am making this personal) want to lose weight, lower your cholesterol or accomplish some other “health-related” goal you usually change your diet. My patients will tell me “I am eating healthier” by which they almost always mean no red meat and less fat.  This reduces calories but does not always improve health.  When I ate oatmeal instead food from a snack machine, my coworkers said I “always eat so healthy”.

Are my patients right about healthy eating?  Were my coworkers correct about my diet?

The purpose of eating is to supply your cells with the energy they need to perform their functions and to regenerate your body.  The body’s purpose is to carry around your brain so you can enjoy life.  Food is not burned!  That is why calories are such a poor way to determine energy consumption and are not the best way to determine if you are eating properly.

I have written on this blog and in articles linked below that a calorie is not a calorie. That is to say not all calories are created equal.  Calories from different sources are processed differently and have different effects on our metabolism.  When we diet to lose weight we are trying to do one of two things - A. improve our appearance or B. improve our health”. “A” is by far the most prevalent reason for “going on a diet”.  People want to look better naked!  I even taught a course and still offer it for home study. I called it Recipe to Look Better Naked. The idea was to get the attention of those who wanted to “lose weight” for this purpose.

The problem with this motivation is that the person doing it wants rapid results and doesn’t consider what happens as a result. People cut calories, do without whole food groups and lose weight but it isn’t all just excess fat - some of the “weight” lost is from lean tissue.  The stuff you need to make that loss permanent. One of the funniest cartoons I saw was one that depicted a large group of blobs with stick arms and legs and faces. They were standing in a group and the picture was labeled “Your Fat”. The blob in the foreground was checking its watch and the caption read “OK, its about time for us to go back.” It was funny because it depicted what we have all seen and some of us have experienced - we lose weight only to have it return and then surpass the weight we were when we started to lose.

What you want to do is “really” eat healthy.  That means you need vegetables, some fruit, good quality protein, and just enough calories to survive the day.  You don’t want to stimulate insulin from too many calories and especially calories from sugars. You don’t want to stress the body by eating too little and then have cortisol come to the rescue because you don’t need to make your body feel starved in the midst of plenty.  Those muscles that move your body need some stress - we used to call it work - but we work our brains hard and not our muscles. Even those who work their muscles tend to over consume the wrong mix and amount of foods and often end up with lots of extra fat inside their belly. If your muscles are more dense - we would say stronger - they use more energy all the time. The amount of energy consumed by your body at rest is called the basal metabolic rate. It is basal or the bottom amount of energy you need to maintain your bones, muscles, brain and vital organs while lying still.  The more muscle, the higher this energy requirement. This means that some form of muscle building exercise has got to be part of your weight management plan.

If you want to learn more about weight management principles, you need to do three things now.  First, ask me a question in the comments section. Your email is hidden to all but me and that is so I can reply to you and so that I eliminate spam. Second, be sure you join my Personal Empowerment Plan so you can hear me tell you things you need to know to best accomplish your total wellness. Third, sign up for Ask Bruce Anything so you can submit questions and receive answers in real time once a month either on the phone or through your computer.

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