The Problem with Online Diet Diaries
Has anyone used an online diet diary and struggled to lose weight, based on the site's recommendations?
The main problem with the recommendations are the inflated proportion of carbohydrates allowed per day. This model is based on the 'old' diet pyramid and the 'old' idea that you should consume 50-60% of you're food as carbohydrate.
So I started a profile using a popular site and entered my personal data into the calorie calculator (giving myself a modest activity level to match the average Joe). In terms of daily carbohydrate consumption, the calculator recommended the following: 240gm of carbohydrate per day. For those that don't know what this means, think of 2 slices of bread. A sandwich with no filling contains 30gm of carbohydrate. So for arguments sake, I could eat 16 slices of bread per day and lose half a kilo of body fat per week (according to the online diary). So I went out and bought 7 loafs of bread for the week! I didn't, but how absurd does this sound?? ok, so this wouldn't happen realistically but the equivalent might be: a bowl of muesli, a bowl of pasta, a bowl of rice, a serve of yoghurt, 2 pieces of fruit and still room for 2 slices of bread! Who eats this much and stays lean? Add to this, it only makes up 50% of what I should be eating for the day - the other 50% would come from fat and protein intake.
Further to this, how much insulin will the body have to pump out in order to deal with this carbohydrate load? Enough that this hormone will trigger the problematic effect of "holding on to fat stores" rather than releasing it to burn as fuel. Consume this much carbohydrate and you're body will NEVER release fat from your belly, hips and butt! Oh, unless you run for 1 hour every day...... this is where the problem lies; in modern society, so many of us sit for 8-12 hours a day so we don't need that much carbohydrate fuel anymore.
What of those that want to add muscle bulk? this high carb intake allows little room for adequate protein intake to achieve muscle gain. What about diabetics who could benefit from gaining muscle, which effectively acts as a "sponge" to clear sugar from the blood faster?
If you want to know how to do this thing right, book an appointment with me and I'll show you the realistic, tailored approach to authentic weight loss and muscle gain.
Anthony Schinella, B.App.Sc (Hons.)
