In a few conversations and posts I’ve seen in Ray Peat Groups this week, people are advising others not to calorie restrict or go into a calorie deficit. Supposedly it’s no good for their health.
Is this true though? What exactly does everyone mean by calorie deficit or calorie restriction?
I frequently get asked what I eat in a day. So I thought I would document it, to help others out.
So overall I aim for 1,800 calories – 100g protein, 40g of fat and the rest carbs per day. I won’t always hit these targets, as measuring and counting every ounce of food I eat is not conducive to a balanced, happy life for me. However every quarter or so, I plug everything into cronometer.com to see what’s what, and if anything needs adjusting.
Ray Peat weight loss is elusive for many, mainly due to following wrong advice. Hopefully by the end of this article you may figure out where you are going wrong.
Interesting reading in the Ray Peat groups recently and the study where a bunch of guys were given 6,000 calories and no exercise. It demonstrated that while their metabolism increased, so too did their fat and other, not so great, health markers.
While the study was extreme, I think it was a great example of how too many people emphasise the increase of calories as the only way to get to health and a higher metabolism using Dr Ray Peat principles. (Anything under 2,500 calories was deemed to be an eating disorder! What?)
I had told dear friend Maryanne about the progress of my book and she listened intently like the loyal and beautiful friend that she is. She has heard about this book and the way I eat for about two years now, so perhaps it is sounding more like blah, blah, blah to her now. I can’t help it though as everyone is trying to figure out how to lose weight fast, without a thought about how it may affect their health.
Anyway, so we moved on to her news. She proceeded to tell me about a naturopath she saw who told her about these weight loss drops to suppress your hunger and the diet you eat of only 500 calories.
What the?
I stopped in my tracks and my jaw dropped open. Involuntarily I started shaking my head and blurted out, “Nooooooo!”
I read others articles, blog posts, facebook and instagram posts on weight loss and health because obviously it interests me. It alarms me to read that people are still doing more of the same rubbish that I was up to 20 years ago trying to lose weight.
One particularly horrifying tale was a Fasting Diet Water Detox for 20 days! Really?
The writer was adamant that fasting was beneficial. I’m sure I’ve also read something along those lines too. However this type of extreme fast should be highly controlled – think resting and taking naps. You definitely shouldn’t be trying to live your normal life at the same time or exercising, as it’s pretty dangerous. Situations can happen like passing out when you are trying to drive to work, organs shutting down from lack of nutrients. The worst part was that she wasn’t doing it this for the purported health benefits, it was for weight loss!
This got me thinking about the whole yo-yo diet thing and why it seems like we go on a cycle of ‘on the wagon’ and ‘off the wagon’ and having to ‘start again on Monday’ over and over again.