Low carb, low fat, high protein, alternate day fasting, cutting out ultra processed food, eating multiple small meals a day, time restricted feeding, Keto, Paleo, you name it, what do they all have in common (besides energy balance)? They all rely on some variation of the 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories.

Although all diets claim to have their own “special secrets”, “magic recipes” and/or fancy narratives on how and why they work, they all use some combination of portion control, food frequency, and energy density to reduce the number of calories you eat each day.

We have 41 different well studied diet types, and yet, they all depend on just three calorie cutting methods. In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch discusses how to utilize these three strategies in establishing your nutrition rules and controlling your food environment to create a diet that you can stick to for the long term.

Only you can decide what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat. There’s just too many variables and too many decisions to be made for someone else to tell you how to do it. It’s daunting and difficult to start. But it’s worth it. You get out, what you put into it. Take the time to start building a solid diet foundation today.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include:

• The 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories (1:50)
• Fad diets are a one trick pony (4:02)
• Fad diets: an overly crude and blunt instrument for a complex problem (4:43)
• People hate uncertainty, fad diets solve this (5:46)
• Food logging: you ate what you ate, big deal, please don’t take it personally (7:29)
• Fad diets are a “quick fix, get rich quick scheme” often ending in ruin (8:54)
• Should you build your house on sand or stone? (12:20)
• Fad diets are fool’s gold (13:30)
• The portion size, food frequency, and energy density of breakfast tacos (14:07)
• My reluctance to use reduced fat and/or artificially sweetened products (24:49)
• Food logging sucks but you have to do it (28:10)
• Weight loss should be psychology based, not math based (33:27)

Many of us have a nearly unlimited access to a wide variety of ultra-processed, highly palatable, energy dense food. And yet, most of us don’t gorge ourselves on these ultra processed foods at every waking moment like a bear in September. But why don’t we?

With the risk of oversimplification, I think that most of us have some level of restraint (outside of hunger and satiety, because we know that can be overridden) based upon an internal framework of what they should be eating and how much of that food or drink they should be consuming. Even the most uninhibited eater has his limits.

People have some level of reasoning and rationale behind what they eat and how much of it they eat. I call this reasoning and rationale your “nutrition rules”. Nutrition rules are self-imposed (somewhat) arbitrary boundaries that help guide your eating. Some people have extremely loose rules while others have very strict rules, but everyone has some set of rules, whether clearly defined or clear as mud.

I encourage you to make your own nutrition rules that fit your life and your goals, not someone else’s (i.e. a fad diet’s). Your nutrition rules should follow the golden rule of energy balance by limiting unnecessary calories from fat, carbohydrate, and snacks, while also allowing you to fully enjoy calories from fat, carbohydrate, and snacks. You just can’t be open to eating ALL OF THEM.

By establishing your own set of nutrition rules you’ll be able to automate and streamline your eating decisions, thus reducing your decision load (fatigue) throughout the day and freeing up more space to tackle some of the more pressing and important problems that you’re likely to encounter throughout your day.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include:

• How much weight can you lose on a diet, exercise, meds or surgery? (1:31)
• What is your dream weight, goal weight, happy weight, and acceptable weight? (2:46)
• The first weight loss conversation you need to have (6:17)
• Flooding the zone with bullshit (8:51)
• What are Nutrition Rules? (12:18)
• Nutrition Rules = Setting Boundaries = Self-Binding (13:58)
• Mostly positive, yet mixed reviews of James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits (14:44)
• Fad diets are based upon arbitrary nutrition rules (17:33)
• You can’t trust government scientists, but you can trust gurus? (18:32)
• Any diet that is not of your own making is a fad diet (20:48)
• The golden rule of nutrition (27:13)
• Design your nutrition rules to limit unnecessary excess calories (28:35)
• How I limit some fats and how that allows to me to enjoy other fats (29:12)
• How I limit some carbs and how that allows to me enjoy other carbs (31:36)
• My relationship with alcohol and snacks (36:19)
• Fad diets depend upon executing one rule exceptionally well, forever (42:52)
• I’m not against fad diets per se, but I am against fad diet magic (43:48)
• There’s 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories and 3 and only 3 ways to eat too many (47:10)
• What is decision fatigue? (48:28)

Weight loss conversations should start out like this: weight loss is a lot harder than you think it is and it is a lot harder than you’ve been told it is. You’re going to lose less weight than you think you should and you’re going to lose less weight than everyone has told you that you will lose.

Let’s set that all aside for a minute and talk about how much weight you can actually expect to lose on a diet and let’s talk about how much weight you can expect to lose by increasing your nutrition knowledge, exercise, diet and exercise, meal replacements, low calorie diets, very low calorie diets, intensive lifestyle modification, weight loss medications, and weight loss surgery.

Now that you know what you’re up against and what to expect, let’s see if you’re open to resetting your expectations and what method of weight loss (if any) you would like to commit to. Because if you decide to do it, you need to go “all in” and do it, that is if you want to be successful.

It’s going to take a considerable amount of effort, but it’s worth it. Start living by design, and not by default.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include:

• Who cares if you lose 14.6 lbs. or 12 lbs. on a diet, they’re both underwhelming (2:31)
• What really pisses me off about people being lied to (6:42))
• Even if you know it is too good to be true, it’s difficult to not fall for it (7:55)
• There’s no number of reviews, degrees, or testimonials to filter out the good from the bad (8:42)
• The weight loss doctor who didn’t want to “start a war” with me (9:40)
• Why I don’t really care about diets lasting less than 6 months (15:05)
• Weight loss success is really the study of weight maintenance, not weight loss (17:25)
• The first 3 months of a weight loss diet are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!! (19:41)
• The “J” shaped or “flattened J shaped” weight loss curve that every diet follows (19:41)
• What a Rodney Atkins’ country song and weight loss have in common (22:26)
• The more restrictive and intense the diet, the greater the transition danger is (23:35)
• The 3500 calorie rule is not 100% fat loss, you lose lean tissue too (27:24)
• Weight loss is NOT linear, it’s just not that predictable (28:44)
• Why weight loss is expressed as a percentage and not as total pounds lost (29:57)
• Extreme variability in weight lost in dieting; why every diet can work and fail (32:14)
• The myth of finding “the right” diet for your body type or physiology (33:53)
• Finding “the right” diet type is not the same as playing the lottery (35:21)
• Live by design, not by default (35:59)
• Can knowing more about nutrition (education) help you lose weight? (36:49)
• How much weight can you lose through exercise? (39:14)
• How much weight can you lose on a diet? (43:09)
• How much weight can you lose through diet AND exercise? (44:15)
• How much weight can you lose with meal replacements? (45:45)
• How much weight can you lose with very low calorie diets (VLCDs)? (46:36)
• How much weight can you lose with intensive lifestyle modification? (46:36)
• How much weight can you lose with weight loss medications? (49:09)
• Is microdosing weight loss medications an effective strategy? (53:29)
• How much weight can you lose with bariatric surgery? (54:42)
• Summary of weight loss with diet, exercise, behavior modification, meds, and surgery (56:25)
• What is your dream weight, goal weight, happy weight, and acceptable weight? (58:15)
• If you have a lot of weight to lose, sorry to say it, but you might be screwed (1:03:12)
• Don’t give up, but you may want to change your expectations (1:03:21)