Photo Credit: alancleaver_2000
A diet, in the general sense of the word, can encompass many different meanings to every individual. For the off-season bodybuilder, it means truckloads of food, lots of protein and the occasional trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet. To the Paleo-obsessed, it means no processed carbohydrates, HFCS, and whatever else they feel like including or excluding depending on how they feel about their ancestors’ diet. To the figure athlete getting ready for a show, the word depicts 16 weeks of starvation and lots of boring food choices.
Dieting, to most of us, means a strict or controlled period of time where we eat less and move more in hopes of torching our body fat into oblivion.
So how in the hell do the words “flexible” and “dieting” fit into the same heading, book title or even in the same article? Have I gone crazy or did I just have too much to drink today?
Flexible dieting is nothing new; however it’s rarely practiced by most individuals.
Let’s first take look into most diets for a second.
Hopeless Rigidity Ensues
For your average dieter, most set a time frame to lose a certain amount of weight or body fat. I’d venture to say that most set unrealistic expectations and many create a plan that is more rigid than your 6th grade, ex-sergeant P.E. coach.
A week or so into their diet, something terrible happens. They get invited out to a movie or out to dinner with some friends for a birthday celebration. At this point, they have two choices. They could easily say no and appear weird or even superior to their friends due to their their almighty diet or they could plan this night out into their flexible diet and enjoy the time spent with good company.
Whatever choice an individual makes is highly based upon their views and beliefs about dieting as a whole. It’s all about what dieting represents to them. For the fitness-obsessed, it’s usually the first option they go for. Instead of choosing a flexible diet and incorporating a free meal now and again, they choose to snub their friends’ invitation so they can eat broccoli and chicken alone by themselves at home.
At one point in my life, this was totally me. I was rather miserable.
If any of what I’ve described sounds uncomfortably familiar, please keep reading. I want to highly encourage you through some of my personal experiences to adopt some flexible dieting principles you can utilize for a lifetime.
Previous Dieting Blunders
I’ll never forget a mistake I made a few years ago. I was preparing for a photo shoot and had dialed in my diet like nobody’s business. I was on point to reaching my goal of 12-weeks-to-a-photography-ready-body. I didn’t practice any of the flexible dieting principles that I practice now.
I didn’t incorporate any refeeds or any “cheat meals.” My diet consisted of too much bland chicken, tuna and green veggies. While I wasn’t starving, I sure felt like it most of the time due to my rigid 2.359-hour timing of all 7 meals.
I did,however, reach my goal. I got very lean. I got a nice tan and looked damn sexy in a pair of tight swim trunks. I even saw a photo of mine in one of the sales ads for the local paper.
While this was all fine and dandy, I royally screwed my physique over the next week. After 12 weeks of inflexible dieting, I stuffed my face like a starved Ethiopian might.
I hit up the all-you-can-eat Chinese food buffet twice. I ate all the foods I’d restricted over the past 12 weeks. Pasta, honey rolls, pizza, calamari, pad Thai, and every other yummy food in existence.
I’d basically undone the last 6 weeks of dieting in one damn week. It’s no surprise though. The damage could’ve been entirely avoidable if I’d done a few things differently. Here’s what I should’ve done to avoid this mess altogether.
- Do a carbohydrate refeed when necessary. – On any diet, an important hormone (along with many others) to keep happy is leptin. When dieting down and being in a consistent caloric deficit, there will be a drop in leptin and some other various hormones (thyroid hormones such as T3/T4). Low levels of leptin result in hunger and a slight decrease in metabolic rate. However, when you do a carb refeed, the acute results are a bump in leptin and other hormones, which will also increase metabolic rate. Another positive of refeeding when necessary is a “break” from constant hunger, plus lots of stored energy in the form of glycogen for the upcoming workouts. This, in turn means you hang onto that sacred muscle mass. For more interesting information on leptin, read this.
- Allowed a few cheat meals here and there. – In reality, when you look at the long-term, how far could a slice of cheesecake really set you back? Now an entire pie might have a more negative effect but eating a slice of cake or pie for your best friend’s birthday celebration will do wonders for your adherence. You’ll be reminded every so often of what the tastier foods are like so when you’re done with your diet, it’s not very tempting to pig out because you didn’t deprive yourself.
My Current Stand on the Flexible Diet
Just last Monday (3/15) I started a moderate diet to shed a bit of the winter fluff and prepare myself for playing in the summer sun and some possible shoots with a local photographer. All week was fairly easy. I walked to class instead of driving to ensure my NEAT increased.
I made sure to eat a lot of protein, tone down my training volume and focus on strength work. During this week, despite eating a fair amount of carbohydrate, I managed to drop some water and the scale weight is on its way down. I rarely step on the scale, anyhow because my preferred method of monitoring fat loss is via the mirror method.
So, everything was going just as planned. Strength is being maintained, calories are controlled and monitored and I’m literally walking my ass off. So far, so good.
Then came the weekend.
I called a friend I haven’t hung out with in months and we decided to go out Saturday night for barbeque dinner and some liquid bread (um, most call this beer).
Now, two or three years ago, I would’ve been freaking out about how I was going to account for my intake. I would’ve even considered cancelling for fear of messing up my diet.
However, I enjoyed Saturday night very much. It’s funny to tell people you’re dieting while stuffing your face with pulled pork, beans and cornbread and washing it all down with a cold brew.
Did this night out screw up my diet? I think not and allow me to explain.
Saturday morning, I woke up and had my usual coffee. I swallowed a rather thick MPI shake from TrueProtein that I got for free (thanks to all who use my code JCD370 when ordering their protein!!). If you order from them, the premium flavors are the only way to go – I like Dutch Chocolate Fudge the best.
Then, once I finished up with some client work on the computer, I headed over to my mother’s place and went for a nice walk in giant park behind her apartment. The walk through the woods lasted about an hour and accounted for some nice, steady state cardio.
When I got in, I had a ham sandwich and about 400g worth of chicken breast.
This was all I had for the day before going out and annihilating some roasted piggy sandwiches. The best part about the meal was that it was free and all we could eat. Evidently my friend did some contract work for the owner and his money is not accepted in this particular restaurant.
Flexible Dieting Summary
There are no hard and fast rules when dieting. Remember that reaching your goals should be high on your list of priorities but you don’t have to be rigid for the duration of the diet. This rings especially true if you don’t have a time-specific deadline like a show or a photo shoot.
I particularly like to set goals with a loose time frame as opposed to a strict one. This ensures I make the most of my time and ensure I drop weight optimally rather than cut any corners. For more information on goal setting, read this.
Remember to
- Use refeeds and free meals to your advantage.
- Give yourself a break if unexpected family gatherings or outings affect your daily deficit.
- Keep your long-term goal in mind.
- Spend time with your loved ones.
- Eat your mother’s spinach casserole.
If you want a more comprehensive resource on flexible dieting, I highly recommend Lyle McDonald’s A Guide to Flexible Dieting.
This article was good timing. I was beating myself up for eating 300 extra calories today but this article made me realize its a marathon and not a sprint to look great naked. I had a nice strip steak and my favorite wine for dinner. Oh, and I had a couple hershey kisses with an after dinner glass of wine. Feels liberating. Tomorrow, eat right and prepare for the week of doing good.
Glad you enjoyed this one, Ken.
Yea, last night I went out and had a sushi roll after the show. Just made sure my protein was met for the day. No worries.
I’m having some problems with my IF all around I can’t go below 13-14% and I don’t know what am I doing wrong. And also I’m studying gastronomy; in the morning and at least 3 days a week I’m cooking and most of the time I have to try my food, I try to eat as little as possible but how can that ruin my daily fasting?
I wrote you a few weeks back and my progress isn’t as good as I was expecting, in 2 months and half I lost like 9 pounds, I’m trying to be flexible with my food and everything but each week that pass I’m starting to think to do it the old way.
Hope it’s just a plateu or maybe I’m a little paranoid, or both.
what have you been doing in terms of training? A little food during the fast may ruin the fast but doesn’t mean your fat loss should stall. If you look at your timeline… 2.5 months = 10 weeks. 9lbs in 10 weeks is almost a pound per week, which in my book, is pretty decent.
How heavy are you?
how many weeks have gone by without losing weight?
Yeah, this was definitely me. I recently stopped obsessing over what I eat and at what times. It was so liberating! I just got tired of chicken and rice and being tied down to eating every three hours. Last spring I read some stuff by L. Norton and I decided to ditch the timing rule, thing is that I was already subscribing to the AARR but I was still to hesitant to follow it, blind stupitidy and being married to the old ways.
But I still ate from a select menu, then I signed up to work with a certain someone online and it was so liberating. I learned a lot and now I enjoy food and eat out plenty, I’ve even learned how to manipulate foods in post places so it’s still close to my macros and have a pretty good meal too. Sometime I don’t care and just pig out.
I haven’t tried my newfound strategies on a cut but I will soon. I probably won’t be doing much ice cream and chips, which I do on a daily basis right now, but I’ll indulge every so often.
We’ll see
trust me. you’ll love the psychological benefits that come from your new lifestyle when you aim for some moderate fat loss.
I was going to ask what you meant by moderate fat loss but I forget that you don’t actually weigh yourself consistently.
I’m guessing somewhere less than the coveted 2lbs a week, you might have mentioned it in your book so I’ll go take a look…I have a horrible memory.
yea, I don’t like weighing myself. It does nothing but aggravate a person if you’re counting on a steady decline.
2lbs of fat loss per week is doable if you like to starve.
I have a book?
LOL, you’re ebook, I count is a book.
um weird. Is it for sale?
Great one JC!
Lyle’s, A Guide to Flexible Dieting, is the first book I purchased of his and by far my favorite.
Some nuggets of fat loss info in this post JC – good work!
As you know, I’m all about Rule Free and flexible living in all aspects. You never know what life will chuck at you, so better to be flexible and adapt. Also when it comes to fat loss I think people are more at risk of screwing it all up if they try to stick to rigid diets. These are not sustainable for most (and if they are, as you told us – we tend to go on a bender and ruin it all).
Personally, I like a moderate fast twice a week, a good dose of exercise and some cheeky treats on the weekend (as this is usually social time), or if I’m presented with buffet or a party environment. Life’s to short to pass up on the cake all the time!!
yea, cake is good. that’s why I had some after the barbecue.
Mmmm – I cannot wait for the summer to come to London when we can finally get out our bbqs for some garden feasting! This is when I tend to use flexible fasting and exercise to compensate for my diet (misbehaviour)…
Solid post man, I think it’s good to introduce some new concepts and topics to the world of dieting and putting an easy to understand spin on things.
Ironically I had just been doing my own personal research on leptin and saw some articles via http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/index.php?s=%22bodyweight+regulation:+leptin%22 and it also highlighted why some people have low sex drive after extensive dieting etc.
I was previously on an Anabolic Diet but then went on a more paleo path but I figure I should probably visit more extensively some of the things talked about here.
Thanks Eugene.
I don’t know too much about the AD but I haven’t read too many good things about it, as far as anecdotal accounts go.
What lead you down the Paleo road and where are you teetering now?
I probably am not as well-versed scientifically as I could be but as I see it, the AD and Paleo diet do share some similar traits and I think if you remove the “weekend refeeds” on the AD and clean up the diet a bit in regards to acceptable carbs, the AD and Paleo menus are quite similar.
But I found myself getting to a point where I still felt I could lose a bit more fat especially around the lower abdomen area. So I simply cut out any AD refeeds without any real basis just on the assumption, less carbs = more cut without any notion of hormonal balance.
There were times when I felt over the Christmas break that I felt these pretty much all you can eat desserts weren’t really harming me in the mirror check… I wasn’t sure the basis but then again as of late I felt that after having some success going virtually grain/sugar-less, I was still having trouble… hence I started investigating leptin.
I have been trying to do more intermittent fastings electing to go with just two meals a day, 10:30 am and 7:30 pm (with a workout @ ~5pm). Performance wise, I feel as though I’m in some of the greatest shape of my life even more so than when I was playing pro soccer (perhaps all the medium chain triglycerides haha) and body composition-wise, likewise. But I’m still looking to crack into expand my 4-pack into a 6-pack (but I agree with your previous article, your abs will look different every day of the week).
Some good links you posted in this article, I checked out some of the stuff on leangains.
it’s good that you’re doing your research. There’s so much info that one could cover; it’s absolutely ridiculous.
Leangains is a great site. Martin’s a really smart dude and lives in the research. And regarding your comments about leptin, it’s one of the reasons he is able to stay so lean.
because, in general, the dieted down folks are low on leptin why overfat folks have high levels. The somewhat frequent carb refeeds give a bump in leptin which helps people stay lean and maintain a low body fat.
pretty cool stuff.
Thanks for the link love buddy!
This paleo man stuck on 20lbs of muscle without lifting a weight (but ran my ass off) and got leaner since January. Some say bullshit… but the mirror, scale & clothes don’t lie. Come to the dark side for 30 days my friend
JC cannot live on roots, worms and fat alone.
Me either
Roots are too starchy, can’t dig worms fast enough for my appetite, and it’s hard to come by good fat. It’s easy & tasty once you re-evaluate what is “food”.