Why I am against counting calories, Minnesota Starvation Experiment, and for eating Real Food

The first thing you may think is, "Max, you are pretty fit and not fat, and you are a long distance runner, so why would you even think or talk about calories???" I would say that is a good question, but it is true that I have counted calories in the past. Now let me say that in high school and the first half of my freshman year, I could give a crap about calories and just ate whatever I wanted. It wasn't until December of 2009 that I began to think about food as something else.

Walking home from school one day (Yes, I only live 1.1 miles away), I started to think about the amount of bread I eat each day. Did I really need to eat 5-6 slices each day? (This was before I cut out gluten too!) Then I thought even more, what about these cookies and cakes I eat each night at home, were these even necessary? From that day on I decided to cut out this junk food, and hopefully my running would improve.

Well cutting out the junk food made me lose weight, and losing weight made me think I could run even faster. Counting calories was a big thing to me during the next 6 months, making sure I did not eat more than 2500 calories so I would get even lighter. Then it became about not gaining weight, cause you know, you can run faster the lighter you are (yea right...). I went from 135 to 115 pounds over that time period, standing at 5 foot 5.

So what happened, aside from the extreme weakness, loss of energy, and depression? Oh yea, I ran fast for one month than crashed and burned. It was not until I started force feeding myself in May that I ran the times I was in shape to.

I began to eat "primal" that June, gorging myself daily for that summer and fall. I stuffed myself silly each night, making sure that I was completely full, and then I ate more. Those 6 months of going to bed hungry made me subconsciously overeat.

Here is the thing though, my metabolism did slow down dramatically. I was eating more than I ever had, and despite running 10-11 miles a day, I still put on body fat. Although I'm basically back to normal now, the eating disorder lingered for months. I would count calories just to see how much I was consuming. I wouldn't restrict, and I would go through junk food binges almost weekly. (Maybe you've experience a binge...sitting in the kitchen eating everything in sight until uncomfortably full... )

Why Do I Think Counting Calories is bad, even for weight loss?

So if you are overweight, and you want to lose weight, you might decide to count calories. And sure, if you eat less than your body expends, you can lose weight initially. But then your metabolism slows down, and losing weight becomes harder. Calories expended varies from person to person, depending on metabolism. Stress, sleep, weight, activity level, muscle, and the quality of your food all play a role.

 Minnesota Starvation Experiment

While Ancel Keys is responsible for the false fear and hatred toward saturated fat, he did a great study called the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. He took 36 men and had them eat 3,200 calories for 12 weeks, and then cut it to 1,560 for 6 months, eating foods that solidera may have eaten in World War 2.

As a result, after only 6 months, many of the men had a preoccupation with food. They struggled between gulping thier food down, or eating it slowly and savoring it and playing with it. They constantly drank coffee and tea, being limited to 9 a day. One man chewed up to 40 pieces of gum a day. Some collected cooking tools like cookbooks and pans. They had no sex drive. They suffered distress and depression. They had trouble concentrating. One man said the most interesting part of movies were when the people in the film were eating. There were decreases in body temperature, heart rate, and respiration, and in basal metabolic rate (calories burned each day).
Following the experiment some men became chefs. Some could not stop force feeding and binge eating, up to 10,000 calories a day, to the point of being sick. It took 5 months more for some men to resume regular eating.

While not as extreme, I could relate to some of these. I drank a LOT of tea (before my coffee days), in place of eating food. I would go on the computer and look at pictures of food. It was pretty bad, and it makes me sad to see people who voluntarily restrict calories for long periods of time, especially when they are lucky enough to have access to a lot of food.

Real Food

is what I recommend. (Refer to a previous post for my definition of real food). If you are eating healthy whole real food, you will not be tempted to overeat and binge. If you eat enough real food and LISTEN to your body and when you are hungry, your metabolism should function normally.

I think counting calories makes a person a slave to food. Food should be something to be enjoyed, should be thought of as energy and fuel. I hate seeing people obsess over calories. Calories are not a day in day out thing. Enjoy the food, keep it healthy and real, and don't stress about it!
 

Fats!

Yes, fat is indeed a fun topic. You may have heard many things about fat. Perhaps you heard that fat is bad in general, and that eliminating fat would be the healthiest way to live. Or maybe you know that some fats are good, like avocado and fish, but to avoid the bad fats. One thing that makes fats exciting is the misinformation.

Lets get right to it. Fat is a macro-nutrient, and has roughly 9 calories per gram (5 more calories per gram than its siblings protein and carbohydrate!) So does this mean that fat makes you fat? Is going on a low fat diet healthy? Short answer is, no and no. Fat is a great way to help keep you full, and a great way to help you absorb vitamins and minerals, especially the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. So that low fat milk you may be drinking is a good way to not absorb the vitamin D that was put into it. And I can tell you, when I was eating low fat for the 6 months of my minor eating disorder, lets just say I was weak, felt sick, and had no sex drive. (This could be due to the low calories and high energy output as well.)

We need to break down fats into 4 categorizes, and if you are familiar with nutrition you should know them. Mono-unsaturated, poly-unsaturated, saturated, and trans fat. If you follow mainstream you may believe that saturated fat can clog arteries, and that you should only be consuming unsaturated fat. The USDA even recommends only less than 10 percent of your diet comes from saturated fat! (Future reference..don't listen to the USDA) Thats not a lot of coconut products at all. Another short answer that I'll get into another time - saturated fat is not bad for you, and although it raises HDL cholesterol, having high cholesterol does not mean you are going to have a heart attack (Heart attacks happen at both high and low total cholesterol levels.)

So, as far as I am concerned, saturated fat does not have any negative effects to the body, and according to Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon, saturated fat has health benefits.  Saturated fat is found in many animal products like meat and dairy (butter, cheese etc). It is also found in tropical oils like coconut and palm oil.

Mono-unsaturated fat is another healthy fat, which can be found in many plant products like avocado and olives (olive oil), and in some animal foods (for example beef). This seems to be the fat that almost everyone agrees is healthy.

Poly-unsaturated fat, in my opinion a driving force in many modern diseases, is where the confusion comes in. The fat, as can be seen by its name, is made of mainly two fatty acids, omega 3 and omega 6. Both are essential, and a balance of 1:1 is ideal and natural. Our ancestors probably had a 1:1 balance. Due to our screwed up food system today, it is extremely hard to find that balance, and shit vegetable oils which are subsidized and pushed as "healthy" like canola, corn, and cottonseed oil are cheap and abundant. They are rancid at room temperature and prone to even more oxidation when exposed to heat and pressure. That, in addition to how conventional meat and eggs are raised, and the amount of junk food many people eat, leads to the imbalance being up to 25:1 in some individuals. This inflammation, in my opinion, is a main force in heart disease. According to Dr. Chris Kresser, disease like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and more are caused by this inflammation and imbalance.

Finally, trans fat, is what many can agree is no good to eat at all. An unnatural fat, it is the result of vegeatble oils which have been partially hydrogenated in order to make the liquid oil solid at room temperature. Think of margarine, a liquid turned solid to resemble butter (which is healthy for you.) This process of hydrogenation is foreign to the body and unnatural. Look out in many processed foods, partially hydrogenated oil is everywhere. Food labels can say "no trans fat" if the grams of partially hydrogenated oil are less than .5 per serving. When saturated fat got the bad rap in the 60s (more on this later), hydrogenated oils started replace healthy coconut oils and animal fats like lard in modern restaurants and food establishments. Sadly, many places still use trans fat, although NYC establishments have banned it.

Well hopefully that was interesting.

Eating while away from home

So I think I'll start this blog talking about how to eat healthy while away from home. As I sit here drinking hazelnut coffee with coconut oil and cinnamon, I feel I should first define what healthy food actually is.

In my opinion, healthy food is real food. Real food is unprocessed or natural food. That is the simplest way to look at what healthy food is. Bread, for example, is a processed food. An apple, or an egg, is a whole real food. Now obviously the context makes a difference. A few bananas might be the healthiest thing for an active healthy person, especially after just working out. But for the old sedentary person who is pre diabetic, perhaps a few bananas would not be the best option (despite it being a healthy whole food.)

So you might be wondering now what I eat. Well, without getting into it too much, I eat a good amount of healthy fats like coconut products, grass fed butter, and avocados. I eat a shit ton of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and fruit (especially bananas) making up the bulk of my carbohydrate intake. I eat a lot of eggs and beef, but unfortunately not as much grass fed or free range as I should be. I'm looking to add more white rice and canned wild salmon/ sardines into my diet.

Now that you can see what I consider healthy, lets pretend you are out on the go and want to keep eating healthy. If you plan to bring food with you, it is very easy to pack some solid protein like hard boiled eggs, cold cuts like roast beef or turkey, or any type of meat or fish you cooked at home. I like to pack cooked sweet potatoes and normal potatoes on the go, and often I use the potato as "bread" for my sandwich. Avocados, dark chocolate and fruit travel well and are quite filling.

Woops, you forgot to pack a lunch with you but are out all day.  Well if you happen to live in a somewhat busy area, I'm sure you can find a place to buy some food. Don't always assume that you can not eat healthy while buying food out. In my opinion, if you keep it mostly whole and real, you can be suprised at what you can buy out. Don't like to eat the bread? Order a sandwich and toss the bun. Don't want to consume rancid vegetable oils? Tell them to hold the sugar or oily sauce.

Obviously cooking at home and preparing your own meals are best since you know what goes into what you are eating, but eating out can be just as enjoyable if you make mostly right choices. Remember, stressing about eating unhealthy is probably worse than eating some junk.

Another option is just fasting. Stay tuned for another exciting blog post.

It's a Blog

Well, I decided to create a blog. I feel like I know a good amount about (and love) nutrition a fitness, so I figure why not write about it here and there. Who knows, maybe I'll even make a YouTube channel for this stuff in the future. (Not like I have not made ones in the past on music and video games...just Google it.) I will admit first and foremost that I am not a great writer, but I spend hours each day learning and reading about nutrition and fitness, particularly nutrition.

I will try my best not to be boring. I'd love to talk about a variety of topics that interest me in addition to health and fitness. I have been running for the past seven years, and coach my fellow long distance running teammates, so I might post some things about that too.

Another fun fact is that I had a minor eating disorder in the winter and spring of 2010, I like to call it my almost accidentally anorexic phase. I was severely under eating while running about 75 miles a week for six months, leading to a slew of negative effects, most notably weakness and depression. In the interest of laziness, I link to a guest post I left on Primal Toad's website. Primal Toad's website with my guest post (Man check out that frail body). I will write more of this later, I'll leave it that coming out of this stage lead me to a primal/paleo lifestyle that greatly improved my health and running.

Another thing about running, while I do it for my team, I would not do it for exercise. I would just do it for fun. More on that later too I guess.

Maybe its a good time to mention that I majored in history and have no interest in it at all. I shunned the dietetics major due to my refusal to sit and listen to conventional wisdom's view on nutrition. Oh man, I should have majored in Fitness and Exercise Science, I hear they don't teach much nutrition there. Does the major matter anyway? 

Anyway, hope I stirred the pot for better posts in the future. Just having fun with this now.