SS 164 – The Best Nutrition for Fat Loss

 

As part of this month’s theme on fat loss, Grant and Heavey cover nutrition for fat loss. With all the fad and extreme diets out there, can you guess which is the right one for you? Listen in as they dish out the truth about fat loss nutrition.

 

[01:05] Why Get a Life Insurance

 

Life insurance helps you take care of your family after you’re gone. Good thing, Health IQ has special deals for people into health and fitness. Check it out!

 

[02:48] Weighing Scale Without the Numbers

 

A new article talks about this new kind of weighing scale, where instead of giving you a number, it displays a color. Green means you’re gaining weight. Gray means you’re maintaining your weight, and Blue means you’re losing weight.

 

Rather than keeping track of numbers that only makes you feel uncomfortable, seeing that baseline through colors on your iPhone app, Grant says this is a more sensitive way of keeping track of your weight.

 

At the end of the day, Heavey says it’s about finding a system or things you can be motivated about. If the numbers are driving you crazy, maybe you get motivation from the colors, although less precise.

 

[06:25] Keto Diet for Weight Loss

 

Grant mentions this email from a listener, Kenji, who’s from Alaska. He raises this question about the ketogenic diet, which he has found easier to stick to compared to the other diets he has done. He wants the hosts to touch more on this topic, which they will eventually get to.

 

Heavey finds it interesting how Kenji is finding it easier to adhere to keto considering so many people are having a hard time sticking to it. Most of your calories come from fat when you’re on this type of diet and at some point, you could get tired of doing this. This means over 50% of your calories come from fat. Therefore, you’re not eating from predominantly meat sources, but from fat sources like cheese.

 

[11:05] Diets Are Tactics

 

Moreover, Heavey points out that diets are simply tactics. Every year, people resolve to lose weight. They would usually pick some extreme diet like keto, which can be considered extreme since it’s a lot different than what most people are doing. Paleo used to be extreme before, although it could still be extreme now to someone who doesn’t pay attention to nutrition at all. With this said, “extreme” is relative.

 

Most people select their diet based on what’s popular and that’s usually their number one criteria. Someone they know may have had some success on that diet. Usually, people tend to gravitate towards these diets that are ultra-restrictive, thinking it’s how you achieve success.

 

[12:15] What Is the Right Diet for Weight Loss?

 

Heavey explains there is no right diet. You could use any kind of diet and you could lose fat. You can do this pretty comfortably across most diets. Having read different research and comparisons of diet, Heavey has found that in the studies, people are all losing fat. Therefore, the type of diet is not the problem but losing fat and keeping it off is.

 

[13:25] The Basketball Coach Analogy

 

Again, diets are just tactics. Heavey illustrates this analogy of the diet to a basketball coach. The coach’s objective is to win the game. He knows the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing team as well as those of his players. Based on all that data, he designs the strategy to win the game. He’s not going to say he’s playing with the Sixers and so he’ll focus on three pointers to win the game. It’s like saying you’re going to do diet X this year.

 

Sensibly, Grant raises his point that Phil Jackson, a basketball coach with the most winning games, does this second approach. He doesn’t care who his opponent is or who his players are. He has a system that is so good that if he’s able to teach it well enough and have the team adhere to it and bring in competent players, nobody can beat him. Heavey, on the other hand, says that they’d still be filtering based on players.

 

Alternatively, Gregg Popovich changes his system based on who he’s got. Instead of designing the perfect system, he tries to maximize the results of his players and changes the system to match his players.

 

[15:50] What Diet Should You Stick To?

 

So you’ve got different strategies here for different coaches. This is the same with some people who have tried different kinds of diet. People get results from a specific type of diet, while others don’t. Hence, you really have to find a system that is going to work for you, and that will align with your lifestyle and desires and outcomes and everything. It has to account for everything.

 

You may not understand the underlying principles of a diet, but when you try a diet, be sure to check in with yourself every once in a while. Ultimately, you have to be able to take yourself away from these tactics and focus on the underlying principles of weight loss if you really want to succeed.

 

Grant mentions that one of the problems with these diets is having to think too much, meaning you have to measure your food. This could be so hard to stick to. Again, it depends on the person. Picking the diet that works for you has to be something that makes you eat less and has to be something that you can stick to. If you can adhere to these two things and find a diet that can make these work for you, then you’re going to succeed.

 

[19:48] Underlying Principles of Diet: Satiety and Protein

 

Satiety is one of the underlying principles of diet and the number one lever you have with satiety is by increasing protein. Protein has been proven to be the most satiating macro. Plus, it burns more calories while we digest it. It keeps you fuller and it makes you burn calories while you’re sitting there. Heavey then recommends that if you’re looking for a fat loss diet, you should be focusing on protein as a fundamental piece of it.

 

[22:02] Sustainability is Critical

 

Moreover, sustainability is another key here and you have to pay attention to what’s happening in your life. Reason is you need to regularly check in with yourself if you’re going to pick a system. Perhaps you don’t have to really be strict on following the system. Rather, be protein forward and then add something else that will keep your interest to allow you to sustain this diet.

 

[22:55] Satiety and Fiber

 

The other piece of satiety is fiber, which is very powerful for keeping you full. For those on a ketogenic diet, there are foods they can choose to get fiber from to make them satiated. So just like protein, fiber should be fundamental in fat loss type diets.

 

Fiber and protein, therefore, are your two biggest levers when you’re trying to lose fat.

 

[24:15] Water and Palatability

 

Water is another element that can increase satiety. Drink lots of water before your meal because it’s fills up your belly.

 

Then also, try your best to avoid overeating. This can be done by adjusting your food’s flavor depending on the seasoning you add to it.

 

One popular diet hack is eating white potatoes and doing it for a few days out of a week, repeated weekly. You can eat as much as they want, but can’t put any seasoning to it – no salt, no pepper, no butter – just straight up white potatoes.

 

This has been proven based in research, to be effective for fat loss. Why? Because the water is not palatable. You’re going to get bored really fast. This goes back to your motivation for doing a fat loss diet. The point is that if you put less seasoning on your food and make it less tastier, you’re going to eat less of it. This is a trick to long-term weight loss.

 

[28:00] What’s Your Priority?

 

You can eat delicious food. However, if you want to eat delicious food in every meal of your day, then your priority is not losing weight but eating delicious food. This all comes down to your priority. Losing weight is not easy. If you want to lose weight, you have to make it a priority. If it is your priority, focus on limiting your caloric intake and making sure it’s sustainable for you. Pick any diet you want that hits those two factors and you will lose weight.

 

[29:03] Find a Diet/Gym Buddy

 

Another key to losing weight is finding a diet or gym buddy who can hold you accountable and check in on your progress to help motivate you. You can focus on satiety or motivation via progress or things that make sustainable. Then you get results.

 

[30:25] Design Your Own Diet!

 

Heavey adds that if you’re interested in learning about designing a diet that checks all these boxes, he has created a video course which you can check out on www.strengthandscotch.com/nutrition. He will teach you how to design a nutrition program that is suitable for you based on your preferences and lifestyle.

 

[31:25] A Quick Dive into the Green Spot Irish Whiskey

 

Grant and Heavey are having an Irish Whiskey on this episode. What makes it unique is that it has been distilled three times instead of twice. Grant says this is true of all Irish whiskeys he’s aware of. The more you distill it, the less of the flavor comes through. This is easier to drink if you’re someone opposed to all that flavor.

 

Typically. scotch-drinking people want the flavor and most scotch/whiskeys are only distilled twice. Green Spot, specifically, is one of the few that does a single pot still whiskey. Compared to a single malt and unlike scotch, Irish whiskey will add the malted and unmalted barley, which adds to a whole another flavor. What you’d normally lose with a triple distillation in a lot of Irish whiskeys you’re actually gaining by adding all this unmalted barley. So you’re getting a more unique flavor. Also, unmalted barley adds fullness to a flavor.

 

The single malt scotches are all one ingredient – one distillery, one grain, all malted. But with Green Spot, there’s this blend of malted and unmalted, but a single pot means there’s one distillery, their expression, just a different, unique take of creating a whiskey. And for Grant, this is the closest thing to tasting like a scotch.

 

Grant explains that distilleries are very big on tradition. Some may change their bottling based on the market. However in the grand scheme of things, they’re doing what they’ve always done, which is to make their flavor as best as they can regardless of which country they come from.

 

Links:

www.healthiq.com/scotch

Article: https://www.gearbrain.com/shapa-smart-scale-hides-weight-2518604674.html

www.strengthandscotch.com/nutrition