counting calories Y restrict carbohydrates They may seem like expert-approved strategies for weight loss, but some dietitians disagree.
Whitney English Tabaie, MS, RDN, recently listed them among common nutrition myths in a popular online video.
she titled the clip “5 things I would NEVER do as a dietitian (again),” noting that she made some of those mistakes herself.
In her previous career as a Hollywood entertainment reporter, Tabaie said she was immersed in a culture where people were “extremely obsessed” with appearance, so quick weight loss solutions were very popular. She herself fell prey to some of that bad health advice.
“After going back to school and becoming a dietitian, I learned how inaccurate a lot of these ideas were,” Tabaie, who lives in Palo Alto, California, told TODAY.
“Simple, basic balanced nutrition isn’t sexy and it doesn’t sell…but the truth is that the general things we know about nutrition aren’t all that shocking or difficult. It’s really simple: eat whole foods, eat quality ingredients, listen to your body to tell you when you’ve had enough instead of following these extremely restrictive dietary rules.”
Here are the five things Tabaie would never do as a dietitian:
count calories
Quick shot: Counting calories leads to an obsession with quantity over quality and often backfires when trying to lose weight.
Tabaie explains: Counting calories makes sense because calories in and calories out determine whether you will maintain your weight or experience weight loss. However, it is not that simple. Health and weight loss are also determined by behaviors. When people start counting calories, they often become obsessed with these numbers: the quantity of what they eat versus the quality.
When you eat a lot of nutrient-poor, low-satisfying foods—things that are low in fiber or protein—you may eat less right away, but feel less satisfied.
People can eventually reach a breaking point and end up overcompensating and eating a lot more food later. It could be counterproductive for weight loss, and it’s also not the best option for your overall health. If you’re focusing on something that’s lower in calories versus higher in micronutrients, you may find yourself running into nutrient deficiencies.
count macros
Quick shot: Try to get protein, fat, and fiber at every meal, you don’t need to quantify.
Tabaie explains: counting macros It has become a very popular dietary technique, both for weight loss and body composition, but it is not necessary to take such a micro approach to nutrition. One, because it is not easy to simply quantify our individual differences and determine exactly what the best macronutrient composition would be.
Also, when it comes to weight loss, research shows that isocaloric diets—meaning exactly the same number of calories—result in similar amounts of weight loss, whether or not they have a different ratio of fat, carbohydrates, and protein . There is no research to show that one is specifically better than the other if calories are held constant.
There’s a caveat to that, which is that if you’re eating a certain way, say eating more fiber, you’ll actually feel fuller on fewer calories. So it’s not exactly that macronutrients don’t matter, but counting a specific amount of macronutrients isn’t necessary for weight loss and overall health.
For muscle gain goals, you need to hit a certain amount of protein. But that doesn’t need to be precisely measured, and it’s not that important to balance it specifically with carbs and fat. You just want to make sure you’re meeting your minimum protein needs.
Do a juice cleanse
Quick shot: You are not “detoxifying your system” or “resting your organs”, but loading your body with sugar.
Tabaie explains: Cleansing juices have that trendy quick-fix appeal. People think, “I’m going to do this miracle cleanse for two days, three days, or a week and it will either solve all my health problems or result in weight loss.” If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
We don’t have any randomized controlled trials on juice cleanses, but what I can say anecdotally is that it doesn’t result in long-term weight loss. Cleansing juices are very restrictive. People can eat a low amount of calories for a few days or even a week and see some weight loss, but then go back to eating as before and gain the weight back.
Cleansing juices also leave you very hungry. You get calories from sugar, but you don’t have fiber because it’s been removed from the fruit, so it takes away that satiety factor. The juice is lower in nutrients than the whole fruit. A whole apple would be a much better choice than juice.
If you want to incorporate more fruit into your diet, make a smoothie with bananas, strawberries, or blueberries, add a handful or two of vegetables, non-sweetened or non-dairy milk, and maybe some silken tofu or protein powder for balance. , nutrient-dense food that won’t leave you hungry soon after.
restrict carbohydrates
Quick shot: Carbohydrates are our vital fuel. Restricting them is ineffective and unsustainable.
Tabaie explains: The satiety factor is one of the reasons you want to include more high-fiber carbohydrates or complex carbohydrates. The fiber in carbohydrates will help people stay full longer and reduce overeating. In one randomized controlled trial, one group of participants ate a low-carbohydrate diet and the other ate a high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diet. When both groups ate as much as they wanted, the high-fiber group ate fewer calories per day and experienced greater weight loss. They felt so full that they didn’t need to eat any more.
In addition, carbohydrates are one of the most health-promoting nutrients when we eat whole foods, which means that carbohydrates come packed with fiber. High-fiber carbohydrates include whole grains, fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds.
Glucose, which is the main sugar found in carbohydrates, is what fuels our entire body. It is necessary to fuel healthy red blood cells and energy in our brains. Evolutionarily, it is our preferred energy source. Carbohydrates are found in most typical foods around the world. People like carbohydrates. It is difficult to avoid them and it is not necessary to avoid them.
Eat pizza with cauliflower dough
Quick shot: It’s gross and it’s not pizza.
Tabaie explains: This speaks to the low carb craze where we are seeing an increase in products that swap cauliflower for things like pasta or pizza.
But they’re usually not as nutrient dense as the original if you were eating a pizza crust made with whole grains with the fiber in there.
Personally, I don’t think they taste good. I know a lot of people who would rather have a hearty, wholesome brown rice dish than a cauliflower dish. That’s not for hitting cauliflower. I love cauliflower. I hope you incorporate it into your diet. It is a vegetable very rich in nutrients. But you don’t need to replace whole grains with it.
People feel forced into some of these trendy things and almost try to trick their brain into thinking they like these frankenfoods, so to speak, because they think it’s healthy, but most people would prefer a regular pizza.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
This article was originally published on HOY.com
