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Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Justin Fauci of Lean Muscle Project<\/a>. When you hear the word “diet” what\u2019s the first thing that comes to mind?<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like most men, you probably think about tiny portions of bland, boring diet foods. A small chicken breast with some steamed broccoli. Plain oatmeal. Cottage cheese. And, of course, salad. Lots and lots of salad.<\/p>\n Or perhaps you thought about one of the many trendy diets that have succeeded in grabbing the public\u2019s attention over the years: Atkins, The Zone, South Beach, or Paleo. It\u2019s likely that you\u2019ve even tried one of these diets in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t eat carbs, they make you fat!\u201d exclaim the Atkins devotees and other low-carb zealots.<\/p>\n \u201cCavemen didn\u2019t eat bread or cheese – so neither should you!\u201d shout the Paleo experts, while stirring sticks of butter into their morning coffees. Yes, that\u2019s a thing now.<\/a><\/p>\n You see, this is the common element among nearly all of these fashionable diets: food exclusion. You invariably have to stop eating certain types of food that you really enjoy.<\/p>\n To get around this, some diets have incorporated \u201ccheat days\u201d where you get to eat whatever you want on one day of the week. But the innocent idea of a cheat day often leads to dieting disaster. People use these days as an excuse to cram in as much junk food as they possibly can. After all, \u201cIt\u2019s part of the diet.\u201d I\u2019ve even known people to literally set their alarms to 12:00 a.m. so they can start cheating the very first minute of the day. Clearly, this is a recipe for failure.<\/p>\n But we\u2019re men. We love to eat, and specifically, we love to eat man food. Stuff like bacon, pizza, guacamole, and steak sandwiches. And telling us that we can\u2019t eat our favorite foods is only going to lead to short-term success at best. If we can\u2019t find a way to incorporate a dieting strategy that works, then the unfortunate truth is that sooner or later, we\u2019re going to fail.<\/p>\n Now for the good news. You don’t actually have to give up any of your favorite foods in order to lose weight. Not a single one.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t believe me? Here\u2019s a short list of just a few foods that I ate during a recent cutting phase where I lost 10 pounds and reached 7% body fat:<\/p>\n Now you really<\/em> don\u2019t believe me. But that\u2019s okay, because I\u2019m going to prove it to you, and in the process, show you exactly how you can lose as much weight as you want while eating the foods you enjoy the most.<\/p>\n I\u2019m about to reveal to you one of the most highly guarded secrets in the weight loss industry. It\u2019s mind-blowingly simple, yet if it were known and fully accepted by the general population, the weight loss industry would literally lose billions of dollars of revenue each year.<\/p>\n Are you sitting down?<\/p>\n The secret is this: in order to lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories than your body burns, on a regular basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n Hmmm. Doesn\u2019t sound like much of a secret, does it? Even though it\u2019s been proven again<\/a> and again<\/a> and again<\/a>, the reality is, most people haven\u2019t really accepted this simple truth as scientific fact.<\/p>\n How else do you explain the multi-billion dollar weight loss industry, filled to the brim with diet books, gurus, surgeries, pills, and potions?<\/p>\n Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, set out to prove that successfully losing weight is only about energy balance – consume fewer calories than you burn, and you\u2019ll lose weight. He went on a \u201cconvenience store diet,\u201d eating primarily junk food: Twinkies, Hostess cupcakes, Doritos, cereal, and Oreos. But he limited his intake of these foods to less than 1,800 calories per day.<\/p>\n The results? He lost 27 pounds in 2 months. Not too shabby.<\/p>\n Now before you suddenly stop reading this article and race off to the nearest convenience store to start your own Twinkie diet, let me first point out that this is not what I\u2019m recommending to you. It\u2019s just an extreme example to show you that weight loss is purely a function of caloric intake.<\/p>\n What I am going to show you, though, is how to use this principle to go on a healthy diet that doesn\u2019t exclude any of your favorite foods, and how a flexible diet like this can offer tremendous psychological advantages in terms of long-term success.<\/p>\n Flexible dieting is simply a way of dieting that emphasizes calorie intake and macronutrient composition over food choices. In the world of bodybuilding, flexible dieting is more commonly known as IIFYM – If It Fits Your Macros. Although this concept has been around for decades, it has only recently exploded in popularity.<\/p>\n The basic premise is this: You determine approximately how many calories you should be consuming in order to lose weight. Then you figure out your macronutrient targets – that is, how many grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat you\u2019re aiming for on any given day. (Don’t worry, I’ll show you how to do this later.) You eat a diet composed of whatever foods bring you to those numbers – hence the name, If It Fits Your Macros.<\/p>\n Does three slices of pizza fit your macros? Then it\u2019s okay to eat. The same goes for burgers, french fries, bread, pasta, tacos, chips, chocolate, etc. No food is off limits.<\/p>\n As long as you\u2019re consuming fewer calories than your body burns, you\u2019ll lose weight.<\/p>\n This is where most people grab their pitchforks and start ranting and raving about how important it is to \u201ceat clean.\u201d But of course, everybody has their own definition of what \u201cclean eating\u201d actually is, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n The paleo crowd would argue that clean eating is consuming only the foods that our human ancestors would have consumed during the Paleolithic era, which means no grains, no dairy, and no processed foods. Paleo followers eat mostly meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, vegetarians and vegans look at the meat-eating paleo crowd with horror, shocked at how civilized human beings can poison their bodies with the \u201cunnatural\u201d consumption of meat.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not forget about the low-carbers who demonize any diet with a relatively high level of carbohydrate intake, blaming carbs for everything from insidious weight gain to heart disease and diabetes. And we\u2019re not even going to talk about the recent gluten-free craze that\u2019s taking over, despite most people having absolutely no idea what gluten actually is.<\/p>\n The point is that how you define \u201cclean eating\u201d depends on who you ask – there\u2019s no universally accepted standard.<\/p>\n No matter what set of dietary principles you choose to follow, I believe that it\u2019s important to allow yourself to consume the foods you love, on a regular basis, in order to succeed with your weight loss goals.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t to say, though, that you should only <\/em>eat nutritionally-deficient junk food. For optimal health and the prevention of disease, it\u2019s important to eat a diet that\u2019s rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients.<\/p>\n The best way to maintain a balanced approach to your diet is to follow the 80\/20 rule. A minimum of 80% of your diet should be composed of nutritious whole foods, and a maximum of 20% of your diet should be the other stuff. This rule gives you plenty of room to enjoy all types of foods, without labeling any particular food as good or bad. They all have a place somewhere in your diet.<\/p>\n The 80\/20 rule allows you to enjoy a good deal of flexibility with your diet and offers significant psychological advantages over rigid diets with strict rules. In fact, in a study conducted on rigid vs. flexible dieting<\/a>, there was a strong correlation between flexible dieting and lower body weight, lower levels of depression and anxiety, and an absence of overeating.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve personally experienced the negative psychological effects of rigid food restriction. In the past, whenever I wanted to lose some body fat, I\u2019d start eating less and restricting certain foods entirely. For example, I never allowed myself to eat any sort of dessert or snack food – not even a single cookie. But after perhaps a week or two of dietary compliance, I just couldn\u2019t resist having a little bit of ice cream or chocolate. The problem was that \u201ca little bit\u201d quickly turned into an all-out binge. Because I had already broken the rules, I figured I might as well make the most of it and eat as much as I wanted, of whatever I wanted. The diet was over, and it would be days, if not weeks, before I mustered up enough conviction to start a new challenge of dietary perfection.<\/p>\n This type of all-or-nothing dieting is extremely common, and from my experience, it is the single biggest reason that most people have difficulty losing weight and keeping it off. Understanding the principles behind flexible dieting will help you avoid this massive pitfall. Because no food is considered \u201cbad,\u201d you can make literally any food fit into your diet. Eating a single cookie no longer means that you\u2019ve failed. Instead, you could theoretically eat several cookies every day, as long as they fit into your 20% maximum.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to outline exactly how you can start losing weight with flexible dieting, and I\u2019m going to make it as simple as possible. If you follow my instructions, I promise you that you will lose weight without having to ban a single food that you love.<\/p>\n Step 1 – Calculate Your Calories<\/strong><\/p>\n The first thing you need to do is figure out how many calories you should consume on a daily basis in order to put your body into a caloric deficit. This means that you will be consuming fewer calories than your body burns, and you\u2019ll start losing weight.<\/p>\n There are several fancy calculators and formulas online that will figure out a number for you based on age, height, activity level, job, etc. But all of these calculations are just estimates, and inevitably you\u2019ll have to make adjustments based on your individual needs.<\/p>\n So I start with a simple approach: multiply your body weight by 12.<\/p>\n If you currently weigh 200 pounds, then you should eat 2400 calories per day (200 x 12) to start losing weight<\/a>. That\u2019s all there is to it.<\/p>\n Step 2 – Calculate Your Macronutrients<\/strong><\/p>\n There are 3 primary macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrate. A gram of protein has 4 calories, a gram of carbohydrate has 4 calories, and a gram of fat has 9 calories.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t talk much about macronutrients in this article because I wanted to focus on the fact that weight loss is determined primarily by caloric intake. In fact, you could lose as much weight as you want without even thinking about macronutrients (recall the Twinkie diet).<\/p>\n But I\u2019m guessing that even if you\u2019re not interested in building muscle, you at least want to preserve the muscle mass you do have. To do that, you have to make sure that you\u2019re taking in an adequate amount of protein. While protein is always an essential component of human nutrition, it becomes even more important when you\u2019re dieting.<\/p>\n Again, I like to keep things as simple as possible, so here are my recommendations:<\/p>\n So for a 200-pound guy, the macronutrient targets would be 200 grams of protein (200 x 1), 80 grams of fat (200 x 0.4), and 220 grams of carbohydrates (200 x 1.1).<\/p>\n Step 3 – Start Logging Your Food Intake<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, I am going to ask you to count calories. But don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m not going to ask you to do it forever.<\/p>\n The reason I\u2019m asking you to log your calories is because quite frankly, there is no other way to know how many calories you\u2019re consuming. You may think you have an idea, but once you actually start to log it, you\u2019ll be in for a big surprise. Most people underestimate their caloric intake by a large degree.<\/p>\n These days, keeping track of your calories is easier than ever with great apps like MyFitnessPal<\/a> and FatSecret<\/a>. Just use one of these apps and attempt to hit your calorie and macronutrient goals, using whatever foods you like.<\/p>\n For weight loss, the most important number to hit regularly is your calorie target — and try to stay within 50 calories of this number each day.<\/p>\n Similarly, you should apply the same type of flexibility to your macronutrient targets. If your protein target is 200 grams, for example, it really doesn\u2019t matter if you get 190 or 210 grams. Just attempt to be within the ballpark for these numbers.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to log your food intake forever. A lot of guys eat the same foods on a regular basis, and once you dial in your diet so that you\u2019re routinely hitting your nutrition targets, you can stop logging your food.<\/p>\n Step 4 – Make Adjustments As Necessary<\/strong><\/p>\n Weigh yourself on the same day of the week, every week, after you wake up and go to the bathroom, and before you eat or drink anything.<\/p>\n If after 2 weeks you\u2019re not losing any weight, then decrease your calorie levels by 10%. So if you were consuming 2400 calories daily, lower that number to 2160. The goal is to lose 1-2 pounds per week.<\/p>\n Let me wrap this up by leaving you with a few suggestions and tips that I think will be helpful:<\/p>\n I strongly encourage you to give flexible dieting a try so you can see for yourself how freeing it is to lose weight without giving up any of your favorite foods. To me, eating great food is one of the most pleasurable experiences in life, and flexible dieting gives me the freedom to enjoy all the foods I love without any of the guilt.<\/p>\n Listen to our podcast on how to lose weight, and keep it off forever:<\/strong><\/p>\n
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The Weight Loss Secret Worth Billions Of Dollars<\/h3>\n
Introduction to Flexible Dieting\/IIFYM<\/h3>\n
What About “Clean Eating”?<\/h3>\n
The 80\/20 Rule <\/strong><\/h3>\n
How To Get Started With Flexible Dieting<\/h3>\n
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Additional Suggestions<\/h3>\n
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