Everything in moderation...Myth??

Jessicadollyy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/everything-in-moderation_n_953804.html

Pretty interesting... take a look.

-jess

samf36

I think I will go eat bacon and ice cream to eat back my work out calories for the day.

joejccva71

I think I will go eat bacon and ice cream to eat back my work out calories for the day.

Me too!

Oh wait....*shakes fist at Lyle McDonald for creating RFL*

Behl9

good read! in many cases a healthy, well-balanced diet will take care of itself

Cris725

Ok seriously....I completely believe "everything in moderation". (At least for me). I still eat some of the same crap I always ate. I just make sure I can "afford" it in my calories, carbs, fat, etc. My diet has never been bad, I was just eating more than I should have been. I literally just cut back on my portion sizes, started getting more exercise, and I've lost 31 pounds. (And I didnt do that by wishing on stars obviously). I even eat out periodically.

Sidesteal

Hard to comment without seeing the studies they used to form their opinions, but I thought the article was shortsighted in many ways.

For starters:

According to this theory, one problem with counting calories is that you are (wrongly) assuming that all calories are created equal. Eating fewer calories won't do your health any favors if all those calories come from reduced-fat potato chips and Tasti D-Lite.

I'm pretty sure most people that count calories are not complete asshats and for the most part, people understand that a diet composed entirely of potato chips and soda wouldn't produce a good end-result.

The twinkie diet, while just using a 1-person sample (so statistically it's irrelevant), is a good example of how health markers improve simply by restricting energy intake and losing weight, even with inadequate nutrition by societal standards (and in this case, common sense standards). It literally is one counter-example to the above quote in that, it sure did do someone's health a favor because he lost weight, and going from obese to "normal" will do wonders for most people.

But, to wrap up my thoughts on this quote, most people in the "calorie is a calorie" camp never claim that fat = protein or that carbs = fat. Macronutrients are not all equal and you need to pay attention to make sure you are sufficient in p/f and micros.

A study conducted at Harvard School of Public Health focused on which diet and lifestyle factors prevent weight gain in the first place. “We found that the conventional wisdom to focus only on total calories, or even on total fat or sugars, will be less effective than focusing on the quality of the overall diet,” says lead author of the study Darius Mozaffarian, M.D., a cardiologist and epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The results showed that, when it comes to losing weight, it’s actually more about quality than quantity when it comes to what you put in your mouth. “Eating more of several specific foods was actually associated with relative weight loss,” says Dr. Mozaffarian. “This indicates that the path to eating fewer calories is not to simply count calories, but to focus on consuming a more healthy diet in general.”

Dr. Mozaffarian points out that one of his major problems with caloric theory is that people choose the wrong targets for "good" versus "bad" foods. They select foods as "good" based on low calories, fat or sugar per serving rather than overall dietary quality and health effects. A good example is nuts, which have 165 calories per serving but have actually been proven to aid in weight loss. Soda, on the other hand, has fewer (120) calories per serving, but has been linked to weight gain.

Very hard to comment without seeing the actual study, which was probably epidemiological and showed absolutely no causative relationship.

But, I bolded one part above, which suggest that yes, energy intake is still ultimately what matters. They are just suggesting that counting the calories isn't enough due to behavioral cues or apparently, peoples inability to determine that fruits and nuts are healthier than soda, which is almost an insulting premise.

For example, if you consume too much sugar it changes your protein structure for the entire life of that protein, which is 180 days -- so that means that the protein stops doing its job for 180 days.”

This is news to me, but I'd entertain any peer reviewed studies that support this as long as they indicate context and dosage. As a blanket statement alone it sounds like eating cookies will prevent that protein shake from working, and as much sugar as I eat I'd say I'm nowhere near the threshold because I'm definitely gaining lean mass despite all the ice cream.

Overall I didn't like most of the article (this is my personal opinion), but if they provided research to support the claims they make I'd love to see it.

Kassieisproud

Its a good article and everything the said does have so truth to it and no one kill me for saying this but it seems like newbie information if youve been on this diet/get healthy thing for a while im sure you would have come to the realization that all calories are not created equal on your own because if you just eat junk you will feel sluggish and even if your always under im sure the person will eventually hit a wall in their weight loss

PeaceCorpsKat

Love this article just because I am getting sick of people trying to offer me "diet" food because I am trying to get in shape. I am on a 100% real foods diet - not just to lose weight, but because I am disgusted with the crazy fake stuff that ends up in every type of food we consume in america. I have cut all added sugar out of my diet, yet people still try to convince me to add stevia or splenda - it makes me spitting angry with them.

And people try to get me to have food that I don't want or need because "everything in moderation is okay." It isn't moderation when it is every day and a giant portion.

I think they have a really good point. We need to concentrate on eating healthy things. I think we need to remember that food should fuel our body and that should be the aim.

Masterdo

This post was really poorly written in general... they mix everything up, cite no study in particular, and with the current think tank mentality, you can get a white coat "Dr." to say anything you want. A nice example I read recently would be : http://www.weightymatters.ca/2012/03/what-reading-that-eat-chocolate-be.html

With their calories from chocolate in small quantities "don't count".

Of course macronutrients matter, what people should take from the proverbial "a calorie is a calorie" or everything in moderation, is that once you hit your important macro goals, you can then fill up with whatever you want for the goal... And the reverse also applies, if your daily goal is 2000 calories, but you eat 2400 calories of very very good Vegan-Organic-Fair-Trade-Baby-Seal-Friendly food... Well, you will still gain.

They mix good information (like low relationship between eating fats and gaining weight) with twisted interpretations of other studies. No one said that eating ONLY low fat chips for your allotted calories will make you lose weight in any study.

This would be a better source for information I think :

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/is-a-calorie-a-calorie.html

The author actually goes over the data sets that people used in different studies on that very subject, and basically comes to the conclusion that : Once you reach your protein goal, shuffling fat/carbs around with various source makes little difference, approaching negligible.

almc170

Interesting...the source of this article is YouBeauty.com. Click on the link to the site's founder, Dr. Roizen, and you'll see he co-authored a book with Dr. Oz. Makes me prettty skeptical on general principal.