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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the one day at a time podcast. And just to remind you guys, folks, from today to bedtime. So no matter how good or bad the previous days have been in regards to being on consistency with your tracking or whatever, Today's a new day, so forget about it. Okay?
Speaker 1:And I know Easter's just been as well. Look, I gained two and a half kilograms, you know, five, six pounds over the Easter weekend, and it's mainly water. Right? I did track as well because I'm doing this, like, case study, but it's mainly water and it'll come off again like the previous week what I had with my friend's birthday just came off within three days. So if you have gained weight, it is likely water, do not be worried about it.
Speaker 1:So today's topic though, I want to talk about the effectiveness of high fat and high carbohydrate diets on body composition and maximal strength after fifteen weeks of training. So high fat, low carb versus high carb, low fat. So high fat, low carb traditionally call a keto diet and then a high carbs low fat is like people think it's bad for you blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so this study looked at comparing the two diets in terms of changing body composition and strength which is brilliant. It was men only, so there could be a difference here with women, but I'll explain a bit more about that in a minute.
Speaker 1:So they both groups performed the same training protocol for fifteen weeks. Also trained people, at least three years of training. They look in a squat bench press deadlifts and stuff like that as well. So this is a very good analysis. And both nutritional approaches were effective in terms of body fat reduction.
Speaker 1:So both worked, which we know, but the high carbs low fat group achieved greater muscle gain and significant decrease in body circumference especially in abdomen was observed in both groups as well but maximum strength significantly increased in the high carb group but decreased in the low carb, high fat group, the keto group. So I've shared this before and we know this is kind of the gist of where the research is going. There is a limitation to the study, it's quite niche, it's like males, it's physique competitors, they've got some training behind them. So it's kind of like will that apply to me and you, the average person who is not training for so many years and is trying to improve body composition to that level, maybe, probably, I don't know. It needs to be explored further.
Speaker 1:The men thing is a problem, but there is a study that showed that the resistance trained women, right? The keto diet was actually outperformed as well by the high carb diet for preserving muscle mass and increasing strength. So we have seen another study on women showing the same results. What's interesting to me in this type of stuff is that in the study as well when you look at the actual numbers, the keto diet lost a bit more fat than the high carb but as a result of losing slightly more fat, lost a huge amount of muscle. A lot more muscle was lost.
Speaker 1:And when we go through these podcasts and chats, you understand the importance of maintaining muscle mass. It was dramatic. The carb group gained five kgs. Right? So look at this.
Speaker 1:The carb group, high carb group, five kg, and the ketoglu minus one kg. Okay? So losing muscle, the other gain in muscle. So whilst the keto group may have lost a bit more fat, the risk is muscle. We've looked, last week I covered the podcast on the Minnesota starvation experiment.
Speaker 1:What that experiment showed us was that, yes, it's great, but it's not really great if it's starvation experiment. Yes, in a sense it's great that you can return to baseline after being on a semi starvation diet for twenty four weeks like they were extreme. They did return to kind of normalized numbers once the weight came back and calories came back in, sorry. But what they did observe was that the energy intake, so the group, the people had to eat way more calories beyond what they were doing before the study, which meant they gained more fat because their hunger levels didn't normalise until their muscle was regained. But to regain the muscle meant they consumed way more calories, they kept it elevated for a long time meaning they gained a lot of fat in the process.
Speaker 1:So they gained more fat and they held less muscle and their hunger signals were high until the muscle was regained. So similar here where you see people saying well keto diets show some better performance in fat loss and it's not as significant as you think, over fifteen weeks being less than a kilogram is nothing. But people will take that number and go look, keto diet is better for fat loss, but they will omit the fact that when you actually compare it to a higher carb diet or diet that actually consumes carbohydrates that they lose muscle. So it's kind of like you take one step forward and potentially three steps back. But with a diet that's not concerned about going super high fat, zero carb ketogenic diet, you're basically doing, so what I'm doing is I'm hitting my protein target, great, one step forward.
Speaker 1:I'm not losing muscle mass because I'm eating a mix of carbs and fats and proteins there, Okay, great, another step forward. My risk of muscle loss is pretty much gone because I'm high protein and I'm definitely consuming carbs and I don't care if I'm in ketosis or not. And also I'm not restricting most foods when I'm doing a carbohydrate intake diet because that means the human diet is around 50%, 60% carbs as a baseline, that's kind of where we are at naturally. And what happens when you go ketogenic is that you're saying you've got to go high fat low carb, which means you've got to cut out an entire food group. And cutting out an entire food group from us who just want to live normal lives and want to reduce body fat percentage a bit is that when you think of it this way, I've got to cut entire food groups out, you're stressing about food all the time.
Speaker 1:Can I have this, can I have that? Should I be able to have this, should I be able to have that? Oh my god, I've just consumed a carb, now will everything go wrong? That's kind of the stress it brings, the psychological element to it and it makes it way worse for us, normal folk who are just trying to lose weight, go down to a weight that we can manage, then improve on potentially steps, weight training and other elements of our health. You Remember when it comes to these research studies, and I'll keep sharing them because this is the latest one, that they're back in the approaches used and the apps you're using.
Speaker 1:The apps are based on research that's sound, research that's practical, not stuff that is unrealistic. You could easily say, hey, pick keto in the app, go and pick the keto diet in the app, you're going to lose a bit more fat. And what we're saying is And then you go okay great. And then when you start doing it like I'm really struggling, you stop binge eating, you can't do it, you're always thinking about food negatively, positively, you have this bad relationship, black and white thinking of food, you might lose some weight, put it back on. What we've done there is create chaos in your mind.
Speaker 1:We create a chaos in your mind from being narrow minded that we think that ketogenic giants are the best. And that's kind of what happens in the industry, people get sucked into one narrow viewpoint and they don't consider the psychological impact of these things. So if you are looking for an approach that is manageable, realistic, that has evidence behind it, that's not trying to make huge claims, it's just saying over time you lose one pound or one to two pounds of fat a week on a moderate deficit with high protein, you're not only going maintain your muscle mass, but you have all foods available for you to eat. Obviously limit your high fat, high salt, high sugar foods such as your cakes and your pastries and stuff like that because they're so easy to consume a lot of. That doesn't mean you shouldn't consume them because we know in the research as well where they listed what we call problem foods and most people's problem foods are high fat, high sugar, high salt foods like pizzas, chocolate, things like this.
Speaker 1:The only intervention in that specific study that showed to work for weight loss was actually to have moderate portion sizes of those foods, which ultimately means they turned the problem food into a non problem. No longer did they see it as a problem, they just managed it by saying you know what, I really do love having a glass of wine and a pizza on a Tuesday night with my husband or my wife. I really do love on a Saturday going for brunch and having a brownie or a cinnamon swirl roll from the bakery down the road. I do really love having an Oreo ice cream sandwich when the summer's coming in and you start thinking, oh I'm not allowed to have them though, and that's the start of a very destructive mindset. You go around in guilt loops and then the guilt causes you to feel bad and you might use food to overcome that bad feeling.
Speaker 1:So instead of that we say I can consume this, no problem, higher in calories, I understand my calorie budget and it's not great for my calorie budget versus foods that are unprocessed because they get more bang for your calorie buck basically, but they're not good or bad, I just need to manage my intake and get on with my life. That's really the message and that really is something that's really effective. For many people I hear stories saying it's freed me, I can't believe I was trapped in Slimming World, I can't believe I was on such low calories than MyFitnessPal, I can't believe I was following approaches to what I thought, eating carbs was bad, I can't believe I was trying to do fasted cardio in the mornings and I stayed away from carbs and this and that. All these crazy stories, it doesn't mean you're a crazy person, it just means that you take some of these snippets away they can be very convincing and you think the problem must be this one thing. But that's not true.
Speaker 1:We know that the over consumption of calories over time is what happens. People don't gain weight rapidly unless they lose it rapidly first, we start gaining weight over the years, a few pounds a month and then after two, three, four, five years you might look in the mirror and you go I'm unrecognisable, I can't believe I've let this happen. But it happens gradually, we over consume calories most of the time in a gradual manner until we start Yo Yo dieting with restrictive diets and what happens then is we lose a ton of weight in ten weeks and we pile it back on in ten weeks after that, but at the same time we lose a lot of muscle in the process so our hunger levels keep going up and up and up until that muscle is regained and sometimes it's not regained at all. And then we're in a state of higher body fat percentage, higher hunger levels, probably less active, probably feel worse about ourselves, all because we haven't understood what's happened there. So keep focusing on the basics, I'll keep sharing the research that's relevant and practical.
Speaker 1:Just remember that protein and calories equated, nothing else matters for us average folk unless you're an Olympic athlete and stuff like this. I just want you to remove any guilt you have of food you've eaten over the weekend, if you've had Easter eggs, chocolate stuff with your family, if you've consumed some alcohol, whatever, that's not the reason you're going be unhealthy in the future or no. It is the total lifestyle package we have to look at. And the big three for helping our total lifestyle go up in quality is that if we can eat our calories, protein steps, monitor our weight, we can bring our weight down to being more in line with what we should be for our height and stuff, maintain our muscle mass, we're going be in a really strong position as the time goes on, then you can start focusing on maybe I need to do some workouts twice a week, maybe I should do three workouts a week, maybe I'll go and find something I love and I'm now going more confidence. I've gone from a size eighteen to a size twelve, I've gone from a size twenty four to a size eighteen.
Speaker 1:I was talking to one member and she's saying I've always wearing black, always wearing black because it made me look thinner, didn't want to wear colour, didn't feel confident, but now my wardrobe is all colour and I feel amazing for it. Now I can wear colourful stuff, I can express who I want to be. And I'm not a size eight but I've lost some weight, I feel a lot better, I've accepted that the lifestyle I want to lead doesn't mean I'm going to have more short put abs and I'm happy and fine with that. And I understand social media is a highlight reel and that I can't compare myself to someone on social media with abs because I don't know the struggles they're going through to be that shape all year round. I can tell you they're probably not in a good place.
Speaker 1:The average person maintaining low body fat percentage should risk a lot of lifestyle stuff. So you start making all these realizations and you start feeling a little more confident in yourself, comparing and ruining your happiness now. And you realize maybe I need to have the physique of an Instagram model and the millions of a business guru online. I don't need to have the fame of an actor and I don't need to have all of these amazing things that I see online. Maybe it's the day to day moments I'm going to look back on at the end of my life that I'm going to cherish the most and we know this is true.
Speaker 1:We know this is true. So keep that in mind guys when you're focusing on these things, don't overwhelm yourself, get your one big thing done, whether it's to hit your calories today or just hit your protein or just hit your steps, if you feel like you're restarting the engine after Easter that's absolutely fine, just get back into something today, don't be too hard on yourself and I'll see you back here again for another episode tomorrow.