by bityard | 2025-04-24 19:27:40+00:00
I have done quite a lot of self-directed hobbyist research on diets, obesity, and metabolic health over the last decade or so. My takeaway was that mainstream dietary advice is ridiculously upside-down and even most of the niche subcultures within the mainstream (vegan, paleo, etc) are wrong too as they are primarily based on warm fuzzies and the "appeal to nature" logical fallacy. This is not helped by the fact that nutritional science is extremely hard, so most of the studies we see are wrong (small sample size, incorrect measurements, assumptions based on conclusions from previous bad studies without questioning them), which is why you constantly hear about studies that conclude the exact opposite of a previous similar-looking study.

That said, I _highly_ recommend personal experimentation when it comes to diet. But the author of this article seems to be trying a bunch of random unrelated things and seeing what sticks to the wall while dressing it up with graphs.

The first thing is that the author seems to be surprised that eating a a ton of high-carb diet resulted in weight gain. Well, yeah. It's a VERY well settled fact that high-carb foods cause insulin levels in the blood to spike. As a hormone, insulin has many jobs and one of the biggies is to trigger energy storage in adipose tissue.

The only way to counter this on a high-carb diet is to make sure the calories you eat (calories in) is a lower number than the calories you expend (TDEE, calories out). This is harder than it sounds for most people for various reasons that I won't get into. But it does work, if you are diligent about counting calories. The body will only store energy if it has the surplus in the bloodstream to do so, regardless of what insulin is doing.

So I'm not actually a huge proponent of CICO (calories in, calories out) as the sole and singular method of losing weight because it doesn't account for the fact that the three main macros (carbs, protein, fat) are processed by the body in different ways. So it's easy to get to malnutrition or skinny-fat if you don't take a more holistic view. But the author was apparently eating up to 5,300 calories a day in bison, rice, fruit, and honey and then was surprised that not only did they gain weight, they also got sick of eating those things. That is WAY too much food for basically anyone.

The author did get something right towards the middle: dropping a hyper-palatable food from their diet (the marinara sauce). If you eat ONLY things you thoroughly enjoy, you are more likely to develop picky eating habits AND overeat those things you like and will NOT be interested in things that are more nutritionally varied. Every meal you eat does not (and should not) be a grand taste sensation. Save the fancy meals for the weekend or gatherings with friends/family.

The number one thing I'd recommend to someone who is trying to lose weight but can't wrap their head around which diets even work and can't be arsed to count their calories and TDEE is: Try to eat ONLY when you are actually hungry. Not just snacky or bored. How do you know when you are ACTUALLY hungry?

* It's been at least 6 hours since you last had anything at all to eat

* Your stomach may or may not grumble a bit (if it does, that is fine, you are doing NO damage to yourself by waiting to eat)

* The big one: You would strongly consider eating things you normally wouldn't reach for if there are other options around. For me, that's carrots. I won't normally eat a carrot voluntarily, they're just bland and unpleasant to chew. But if I'm really hungry, I could devour a whole bowl of them no problem.