When it comes to building a sound nutritional strategy both for health and for body composition (fat loss, muscle building or both), my ideas about nutrition currently reside upon the 4 pillars that I have listed below.
It's important to continue reading and progressing as our understanding of how nutrition affects the body evolves, the following four approaches are a great place to start your exploration. At the end of this article you'll be find a link which will allow you to keep exploring these ideas in-depth.
Primal
What: This is often lopped in with "Paleo" eating, but Primal gives a bit more of a nod to the fact that we do actually live in the modern world. I would sum Primal eating up with the following assertion. If your great grandmother wouldn't recognize it, it's NOT FOOD. Primal eating is about getting back to the basics of what our bodies evolved to thrive on. The best place for tons of free information is Mark's Daily Apple.
When & Why: No matter what nutritional strategy I'm pursuing at any given time, it is always infused by the Primal philosophy. I make exceptions, but I believe in eating whole and naturally grown foods most of the time. It's what our bodies thrive on. The "food-like" substances that are generally passed off as food - using colorful boxes and wrappings - are not and will never be food, even if they taste good.
Potatoes Not Prozac
What: PnP deals primarily with the problem of sugar addiction. The author of the book, Kathleen DesMaisons, explains how the chemical reality of sugar addiction is very similar to that of alcoholism. She then proceeds to lay out a plan to overcome it in a 7 step incremental process.
When & Why: I used this when I first made a big shift towards more Primal eating. I was introduced to it by Coach Scott Sonnon. I can attest to the efficacy of the approach, as I kicked sugar and even coffee (though I've since picked the coffee back up) with surprising ease. I do still indulge in sugar from time to time though. And when it gets away from me, I usually go back to a PnP based diet for a while to get it back under control.
Intermittent Fasting
What: This is pretty simple. You stop eating for a while (up to 24 hours) and then you start again. I follow the Eat Stop Eat approach, which consists of one or two 24 hour fasts during the week. Although simple, what happens in your body is quite complex. The best explanation I've found is from Brad Pilon.
Why: Tons of people lose weight with Intermittent Fasting. I've never been able to. I especially like it for the health benefits and the periodic bouts of feeling empty and alert. I also use it when I'm in "steady" mode - not trying to lose or gain any weight. It lets me eat a bit more or indulge in more calorie dense foods during the "feeding" periods.
Berardi's Precision Nutrition
What: There's a lot more to it, but we can pin the "six feedings a day" moniker to Berardi's approach. He recommends veggies and whole protein during each of these six feedings, and builds his strategies around a list of ten "commandments" that are simple and effective. John Berardi is one of the first influences I latched onto when moving away from the mainstream media version of "healthy eating."
When & Why: For the past few years, I've maintained that this nutritional approach is best suited to very active people who are training a lot or who are participating in some type of sport or recreation at a high level of intensity and frequency. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm using a very similar approach to this right now given the high volume of training that I'm doing.
In conclusion, success in finding and adhering to a nutritional strategy is a very individual thing. What works for one may not work for another. But there are principles at play which are universal from one person to the next. The sources above are a great starting point if you would like to dig deeper into your own dietary practices. To find more information about all of them in one place, visit this page on no-nonsense healthy fat loss.
