The Only Diet Advice That Works

nicholaspihl@gmail.com–Thoughts–

The Only Diet Advice That Works? Eat more vegetables.

Here’s why most approaches don’t work:

  1. Willpower isn’t sustainable. You’ll have the least willpower when you’re hungry or craving something. There are biological changes happening in your brain when you have low blood sugar which make it crave unhealthy food. In those moments, depending on this same brain to be the voice of reason isn’t going to get you very far.
  2. Avoiding sweets, skipping desserts, holding back from an extra helping…All these things create a scarcity mentality; you feel like you’re depriving yourself of something. So not surprisingly, most people are miserable when they’re trying to lose weight. Misery is not a sustainable system.
  3. We’re wired to be good at “doing” not “abstaining.” Humans aren’t that much different from dogs in this respect. Have you ever yelled at a dog for jumping up on you, and then had it continue that behavior no matter how many times you yell at it? In that context, the dog has two options. Jumping is awesome for the dog. It feels super good, it’s exciting, it gets the owner’s attention (which is better than no attention). The second option isn’t really an option at all, it’s just the absence of jumping. It’s nothing. Jumping beats nothing all the time, just like having cake always feels better than not having cake.
  4. This is speculative, but I suspect that when you are tricking your body into starving itself, your body reacts accordingly. When I’m trying to eat less, I feel colder, especially in my hands and feet. Probably, my body is try to conserve energy.

The case for vegetables:

  1. When you fill yourself up with vegetables, there’s just not as much room for anything else. Vegetables are extremely low in calories. It is physically impossible to get fat off them. And when they occupy the same space that used to be filled with cheeseburgers, you end up consuming far fewer calories.
  2. You aren’t depriving yourself when you eat vegetables. You’re indulging in something different. As Brad Pendergraft said in our conversation, “the best way to kick an old habit it to start a new one.” You’re replacing a habit of eating extra bread/cheese/butter/dessert/sweets with a habit of eating nutritious food. Not only this, but when you eat vegetables, you’re creating an improved identity for yourself. You train yourself to think, “I am the kind of person that eats vegetables. I am healthy.” This makes the habit more sustainable.
  3. This is weird to say in a country as prosperous as mine, but most people here are a little malnourished. Even me. I eat fairly healthily, but when I spent two weeks this summer eating a pound of vegetables each day, I felt amazing things happening in my body. I was sharper, happier, more creative… I actually craved exercise (which is weird), and I even slept better. Everybody needs more vegetables because they’ll feel way better. By contrast, I don’t think anyone ever feels “good” while they’re on a diet. We all know that fuzzy, low-blood sugar headache. Skip that. Focus on feeling good instead.
  4. Eating vegetables is an action, not the absence of one. You’re like that dog from the above example, but when you eat vegetables, you’re a dog who gets treats when he goes to his dog bed instead of jumping up on guests. That’s a happier dog, a more focused dog, and a better-behaved dog than the one whose owners loudly insist, “no jump! no jump!”
  5. You can still eat unhealthy stuff you like. As always there’s a catch. Once you eat the minimum amount of vegetables, odds are that you won’t want that cake/milkshake/pie/chips/cookies/extra lasagna as badly, and will be less likely to binge on it. That sharp reward you used to get will be duller. Junk food just won’t sound as good as often. This is the only part that sucks, because it kind of feels like you can’t enjoy junk food as much. I guess, though, that’s kind of the point. (A close analogy is drinking beer on a full stomach vs drinking beer on an empty stomach. You’ll probably still like the beer if you have it on a full stomach, but the buzz you get won’t be nearly as potent as it will if you drink it on an empty stomach. You lose that “rush” of sugar and endorphins that unhealthy food provides, and while that’s ultimately a good thing, you should expect to miss it a little bit.)

So how do you put that into action? Eat at least a pound of vegetables each day. (If you’re not 185 pounds like me, that translates as roughly an ounce per 12 pounds of body weight). A pound isn’t even really a lot of food, but it crowds out a lot of higher calorie food.