Myth 2 - To loose weight, you need to eat 5-6 small meals per day and exercise regularly

Tommy from Sweden lost 50% of his weight on LCHF.
After 2 years, he maintained LCHF lifestyle as well as
his weight.

When I was searching around the web for data on different diets, I have noticed that every single diet which was performed under scientific and controlled conditions, supervised by medical experts and strictly followed by the subjects, WORKED! Every single one of them. The low fat - high carb, high protein (Dukan), Montignac, Mediteranian, Atkins, paleo, South Beach, Slimming World, Weightwatchers, Rosemary Conley... When they were performed scientifically, they all worked.




So, if they all work, why is the world getting fatter and fatter? And why was this happening to me?

I believe there is a big difference between dieting in a scientifically controlled environment and dieting "privately". The level of commitment of people participating in scientific experiments is much higher, since they are usually selected according to their personal capabilities of following an experiment. In addition to that, they usually sign a contract with financial covenants, making them more difficult to stop. However, in the "real world", we usually can not fully commit to a very strict eating and exercising schedule, since most of us are often victims of our professions and family obligations. For this reason, all diets show very good results in scientific studies (otherwise, they probably wouldn't be called "diets" in the first place), but most of them fail in the real world.

By understanding how our bodies process carbohydrates and fat (I wrote about that in Myth 1), it is not difficult to see the problems with most diets. First of all, most diets rely on glucose as the main energy source. Glucose is a "rapid come, rapid go" sort of fuel. It comes with insulin spikes after every meal, only burning a small part of consumed glucose as fuel and store the rest of it as glycogen and fat. Worst of all, insulin spikes cause constant hunger and cravings. To minimize these, diets advise to eat small meals several times a day, by which insulin spikes are smaller and energy delivery better matches the needs. In addition to that, they call for regular physical exercise (like 60-120 minutes 3-4 times per day). The purpose of exercises is to burn excess glycogen and induce part time ketosis.

Most diets work, but can you commit to their schedule?

Although these diets work very well in scientific conditions, most people find them to be impossible to follow in the real world. When I tried one such diet, I managed to stay on it for three months. After that, I couldn't take it anymore. All I was doing was packing small portions of food and spending my evenings either in a fitness studio, or staying at home "licking the wounds" from previous training session. I have spent a lot of time shopping  for fresh ingredients and preparing all the food. I could barely eat outside and my social life ceased to exist, since I didn't have any time left for meeting friends and family. Although the plan was successful (in three months, I lost 9 kilograms), most of the time I was tired, hungry and miserable. And when I talked about it with some diet specialists, doctors and fitness trainers, they told me that I am probably just lazy and that things will get better once I get used to them. They (or I) didn't! After 3 months, my progress stopped. Although I followed the plan, I haven't lost any more weight and I wasn't getting any better physically. Then, I dropped the entire thing.

Looking around on the internet, I have noticed, that there are many people out there who could tell a similar story. Are we really all just plain lazy? REALLY? ALL OF US??

In BBC's documentary "The Atkins Diet" they have shown a comparison of two groups: one on a low carb high fat Atkins diet and the other on a high carb diet with strict eating plan and exercise. Both groups followed the diets strictly and both of them lost weight. But the Atkins group lost much more weight and in addition to that, reported that they found following the diet very easy, while the other group struggled. And I found most remarkable was that, although people on the Atkins diet were allowed to overeat, they actually didn't! They have explained that they simply weren't that hungry. So, let's summarize that bit:

• Eating whatever you like, except carbs,
• in any amount you like,
• whenever you like,
• and not only loose weight,
• but loose it quicker than the guys following a strict diet plan and exercise?

Just by looking that part of the documentary, I was sold!

Sam Feltham after 21 days of 5.000 kcal LCHF diet.
Doesn't he look great at every stage?

Morgan Spurlock after a 30 day high carb McDonald's "diet".

Quite recently, a guy called Sam Feltham, owner of a website Smash The Fat, started doing a series of experiments. He was inspired by the movie Supersize Me, where narrator Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days. On average, he ate an average of 5.000 kcal per day and after 30 days, he gained a bit over 11 kilos. Sam Feltham repeated the experiment, substituting the McDonald's diet with LCHF diet. For 21 days, he ate an astonishing 5.800 kcal per day (more than twice the recommended amount), strictly following LCHF rules. In 21 days, he gained only 1,7 kilos, while his wasteline actually went down! Just look at him on the picture. That's the guy who kept eating double LCHF portions for 21 days! You can read a more detailed analysis of his results on the Diet Doctor's website (What Happens If You Eat 5,800 Calories Daily on an LCHF Diet?), while here you can read the actual Sam's thoughts.

Sam Feltham's new project is to repeat the experiment, but this time being on a high carb diet. At the moment, he is at his 14th day and has gained 4.3 kilos so far! Furthermore, he gained 7 centimeters of waistline. As you can see, he is doing well in following Spurlock's footsteps. You can read Sam's updates of his experiment here, I recommend you to check it out.

Morgan Spurlock and Sam Feltham are just at the tip of the iceberg. Two guys that publicly revealed things that most of us already knew, but refused to see.

To summarize my thoughts about the second myth. Eating 5-6 small meals per day and exercise regularly is has proven to be way to loose weight, but most people simply can't follow it more than a few weeks. It makes much more sense to induce a permanent state of ketosis, where the body is in constant fat burning mode and where insulin variations are close to none. Not only that it is much more realistic to expect that people are more likely to follow a diet which is full of tasty food and comes with no eating and exercise schedule. Most data show that such diet is also much more efficient than others.