Flexible Dieting: My Experiment
Flexible Dieting: An
Introduction
There are macro and micronutrients. Macronutrients (macros)
consist of protein, fat, and carbs. Each of these has a different caloric
value. Flexible dieting uses a certain construct of calories to either help you
cut, maintain, or gain weight. So it’s not simple calorie counting, it’s
optimizing your calorie intake with the right levels of macronutrients. It
allows you to be flexible in that you can use your macros however you want,
whether it’s on a burger or some lean meat with vegetables. The ideal goal is
to eat healthy most of the time, allowing for treats or more calorie dense
foods in moderation.
You may have seen this at the bottom of a label. It tells
you that each gram of fat is worth 9 calories, and protein and carbs are worth
4 each. The fact that fat is more calorie dense is part of what has led to the
misconception that fat makes you fat. Fat does NOT make you fat. You just can’t
eat fatty everything, or you’d be consuming excess calories.
That's all I'll say about the principles of flexible dieting for now. This article is a good introduction to counting macros if
you want to know a little more.
Pre-Contemplation
I am one who knows well that theory and practice are not the
same thing. For over two years I’ve followed many fitness people on their
health journeys. I’ve watched them do extreme competition preparation dieting
and fall into eating disorders. I’ve watched them be obsessive. And I’ve
watched many of them recover through flexible dieting.
I wrote a little bit about it last year. My observations
were that it seemed like a pretty sustainable and balanced approach to eating
and weight management. And though I’ve sat and read and watched these women
make some amazing changes, I haven’t jumped in myself. Because though I
understood the principles, I knew it would be different to actually try it
myself.
The reasons why I’ve delayed are kind of complex. I’ll get
only slightly into some of the reasons why.
2. I love my body. I’ve always had a small struggle
with my weight and body image. But in the past five years or so, I’ve come to
love and appreciate what my body can do. I’ve taken the focus off my weight and
put it onto its strengths, loving my body now, not how it used to be.
3. I love to exercise. Turning a passion into an
obligation is a great way to blow out the fire. (Refer to studies about how
kids love to read and then start hating to read in junior high.) Exercise has
NEVER been about weight loss for me. It’s been about health, strength, and
stress-relief. Treating my body right.
4. Fear of extremes. I value balance and
moderation. I don’t want to be obsessed with fitness and eat “only healthy
food,” and cut off that aspect of socializing with people.
5. Fear of failure. I’ve tried and quit diets
before. I’m pretty sure everyone has. I don’t like to “start” something like a
big project, as the accountability actually makes me feel more pressure. I know
my perfectionistic tendencies, so I know that when I “start a diet” and tell
other people, it actually works against me because I get a little bit
psychotic.
Because of these things, I’ve never wanted to commit to a
certain way of eating. I didn’t want to do another diet. I didn’t want to hurt
and deprive my body. I didn’t want to hate exercise. I didn’t want to be “that
crazy fitness girl.” I didn’t want to fail.
It shouldn’t surprise you then, that I was in the
pre-contemplation stage of the “Stages of Change” model below for a long, long
time.
Contemplation
My moving on to the “contemplation” phase took me a long
time, too. It was baby steps. First, I ordered Krissy Cagney’s book on flexible
dieting in November, 2014. I started to read it and got distracted. I never
finished it and just wasn’t ready to commit.
In the next few months I started thinking more seriously
about pursuing at least a side career in health and fitness. I know that to
build a client base, I have to be able to put in time, sacrifice, and
commitment, and show people what success looks like; I have to understand the
struggle.
Let’s be real, who wants a chubby physical trainer? I have a
lot of muscle and strength, and I decided that it was time to burn off the top
layer hiding all the good stuff underneath. After several years of serious
commitment to physical activity, I decided it was time for the outside to
accurately reflect my views and my hard work. If I loved my body as much as I
claimed to, it was time to drop some weight and treat it the right way.
I’ve told myself for a long time there are lots of women who
would be happy to look like me. That didn’t make me satisfied though. My personal
best is different from others, and it was time for me to accept that I had
progress to make in order to feel fully comfortable in my own skin.
A couple of months ago I didn’t like what I saw on a quick
video clip of me at school. I realized that I could love myself and still want
to change myself. It’s an odd balance, and I still haven’t completely found it.
Recognizing that I will never reach perfection is important, but I can always
strive to be better because I love
myself.
Preparation
After reaching these conclusions, on February 18, I decided
I would start studying Cagney’s book more intently. I’d start figuring out my
numbers. I’d see if it would even feel possible to me. I entered the
preparation phase. I spent a couple of hours measuring and calculating, trying
to figure out my lean body mass, my activity level, my maintenance and “cut”
calories, and all of the stuff in between.
Without putting any pressure on myself, I decided to “just
try a few days” tracking on MyFitnessPal to see how things would go. I had
tracked on MFP before, sometimes for several weeks at a time. I figured it
could be a helpful tool for me. I didn’t really tell anyone what I was trying
to do. It was just that: a trial.
Action
On February 23, I jumped in—the action phase. That was the
same day my personal nutrition class through Shaw Academy began. It seems
interesting that I’d start counting macros on a Monday, and start on the same
day as my nutrition class (sounds a lot like a commitment). But again, I just
wanted to see how things would go. I didn’t want to put pressure on myself or
beat myself up if I couldn’t make it work. I gave myself room to make mistakes,
to embrace flexible dieting as a learning process.
I would be the absolute biggest liar if I said this whole
thing has been easy. It hasn’t. I’ve had maybe two or three days where I’ve hit
within 5 grams of my macros. But so what? Who cares? I’m trying! I really have
been trying. And that’s where I’m allowing myself to learn and grow.
Results and Thoughts
So here’s how it has gone down. I started tracking macros 31
days ago, and I am now about 6 pounds lighter than when I started, even with
all my imperfect days. It took me the first week to accept that losing the fat
would be a process, that I would have bad days, and that it was OK to have bad
days. I understand that we gain weight over a long period of time, so we should
lose it over a long period of time as well. Losing weight fast never worked
long-term for me or most anyone else.
There have been days where I’ve been hungry. There have been
days where I’ve been too full to even hit my calorie goal. I’m still having
some major struggles a month into this.
For one, it is hard to get to 115g protein (and it was
recently upped to 120)! I am not an enthusiastic meat eater (I almost vomited
eating my chicken at lunch on Monday, no lie). I don’t love egg whites. Nuts
take a lot of fat macros away. Beans? Protein powder? Meh. It is HARD!
Secondly, I don’t like to math. Yes, math is a verb now.
Figuring out fractions and decimals and things when I’m not eating a full
portion size isn’t my favorite.
Third, it takes more planning than I might like in order to
be successful. You think of “flexible dieting” as being able to fit in what you
want to eat and then just adjust based on that. It’s not that easy. I don’t
know how enthused Patrick is when I have to weigh my spaghetti squash before we
can eat. But it’s important to know how much I eat so I know how much I have
LEFT to eat!
Fourth, lots of my favorite unhealthy foods are not in the
system. Donuts are hard to track, Waffle Love doesn’t have nutrition facts
available, and neither does Sweet Tooth Fairy. So I go off imitation recipes or
similar items and cross my fingers that those are somewhat close. I had to put
a sandwich in today in all separate parts and just hope the macros were close
(it was a catered lunch at a conference).
Fifth, I haven’t been certain if it’s better to come up
short on one or two macros and go over on another, but still be under my
calories. It’s hard to find a balance, especially if you don’t plan your day.
You don’t want too big of a deficit because rapid weight loss isn’t good for
several reasons.
Sixth, I wasn’t sure how to adjust my numbers for my
activity level, as I felt that MFP was adding too many calories and other
macros when I put in my exercise. I didn’t want to rely on their formulas. I’d
rather have accurate numbers for me individually.
I could go on. The point is, I’m still learning. I’m not
good at it yet. But I’ve still seen
results. I still enjoy life and food and have seen the numbers on the scale
go down. It’s encouraging, and I haven’t seen that in a long time.
Tweaking and Getting
Assistance
A couple of weeks into the process, I was still questioning
everything I had calculated. I wanted to know if my calculations would work
even during my training for a half marathon. There are days I’m running four
miles, and on Saturdays 6-7-8 or more miles to come. I’m not an expert at this,
so figuring out how to “tweak” my carbohydrates on more active days, and how
that would affect my fat intake, was hindering me from feeling confident about
the numbers I was trying to reach (plus feeling hungry on highly active days
wasn’t the most fun). I didn’t want to be creating too much of a deficit, nor
did I want to go over. So I emailed Dallas Sainsbury (@dallassrae on
Instagram).
She offered to do my macros for me for a discounted price
since I had already bought her cheat sheet. I sent her my training plan and
filled out her intake form. For $25, it was worth it to me to know someone who
knows what she is doing is the one who calculated my macros.
Dallas has given me a variety of macros. For example, on my medium training days (MWF and either Tues/Thurs), I’m supposed to get to
1702 calories. That breaks down into 58g fat, 175g carb, and 120g protein
because of how much running I am doing. On Monday, I hit the mark—within 5-9
grams of every macro (1721-54g fat, 165g carb, and 123g protein). Again, I
won’t call it easy. I wanted a Biscoff and Cream waffle so bad that day, but I
couldn’t make it fit with what I had left in my macros. So I “settled” for part
of a chocolate Oreo concrete from Culver’s. I ended up having a protein shake
with peanut butter and some Cocoa Puffs too. If this isn’t winning, I don’t
know what is. I reached my goal and ended the day full and satisfied.
Yesterday, Tuesday, was a low day. On low activity days, I’m
supposed to hit 1525-120p-115c-65f. I went 20g over on my carbs and was 8g
under on my fat, but spot on with my protein. Today, Wednesday I am over my
calories (1790). I’m under on my carbs (17g) and protein (21g), but over on my
fat (15g). Since I’ve reached my calorie goal, I’m stopping for the day rather
than having more protein. Is this the right call? I don’t know. I’m still
learning. But you can see I'm not perfect at this.
In short, it has certainly been a journey. I’ve had to learn
in my life that it is OK to fall short. It takes time to learn new things and
to adjust, even if you’ve been watching others do it for a long time. Relapse
is a regular part of the Stages of Change Cycle. It is no reason to quit. We
can keep trying as many times as we need to, rejoin the cycle at any point. And
so with flexible dieting, I will. If I can lose weight slowly and in the right
way for both my mind and body, I will continue on this road. I owe it to
myself.
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