Diet: Intake and Expenditure

Seeing as though it is the season to be jolly, and much eating and drinking will be taking place over the next week I thought it only pertinent to cover diet today. I personally stick to a "seefood"diet, I see food and I eat it. I literally eat what I want, when I want. I am one of the lucky ones. I have been between 135 and 145 lbs for over 20 years, and with the amount of training I do I don't expect that to change much in the next 20 years. (I hope) Most people on the other hand struggle to maintain their weight, and are on one diet or another. There are many good diets out there today to chose from. There are many Bad diets out there to chose from. I take a different approach than most. Rather than try and push people towards a certain diet, I try and get them to think more in terms of Intake and Expenditure. I use the following story to illustrate my point;

You have just started a new job, and with that job you have been given a company car. Every Monday morning you have to go to the same Gas station and put in $100 dollars worth of gas. So you drive around for a week, and next Monday you go to the station and put in another $100. Now you have the 100 plus what ever you hadn't driven out before you put the $100 in this Monday. This Continues for a Month. At the end of the Month you have about $200 worth of gas in your Car.

This is the principle of intake and expenditure If you don't expend what you take in, your body will store it for you. I ask clients to count their calories every day for a week, and then calculate how much exercise they have done in a week. Try it, I am sure you will be very surprised by the result. The number you get is your deficit. It's how many calories you didn't burn off. Once again, if you don't burn it off your body will assume you want it to store it for you, which it does rather well.

Diet is always going to be a contentious issue. People on either side of the spectrum will push their own diet and philosophies on you. Not every diet will work for you. Not every diet is going to be good for every person. Try them, test them, and make your own judgments as to which one works for you. Don't just take the word of some internet Meme with a skinny model on facebook. 

Which brings me to my last point. Stop mocking people who use a different diet or have a different opinion than you do. This is America, everyone has the right to chose whatever they want. Chastising someone because you feel that your way or diet is better is immature, and only serves to point out your own insecurities. I have plenty of opinions about diets that people wont like. I keep them to myself, and I most certainly wont be posting that opinion to Facebook every single day looking for affirmation.