{"id":19349,"date":"2024-08-05T18:41:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T18:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/?p=19349"},"modified":"2024-08-06T21:02:53","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T21:02:53","slug":"can-you-really-be-diet-resistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/everything-else\/can-you-really-be-diet-resistant\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you really be Diet Resistant?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1992, a study was conducted on weight loss resistant individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this study, the lab specifically studied people who reported eating less than 1200 calories daily and had bodies that were resistant to losing weight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Researchers set out to explore this phenomenon:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Were their bodies kicking into starvation mode?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did their bodies process calories differently?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Was something else going on?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They brought these people into a metabolic ward, and used an energy tracking system that involved \u201cdoubly-labeled water.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/3w5bJPMDtUf6TNUWGNpFhi\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Essentially, these techniques allowed them to track everything <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exactly: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much energy was expelled via waste, sweat, or breath, how many calories were consumed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the gold standard for tracking calories \u201cin\u201d and tracking calories \u201cout.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Group 1 included the people above who were described as \u201cdiet resistant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Group 2 was the control group: people who had zero history of \u201cdietary resistance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What did this study reveal?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What was different about how Group 1 processed calories compared to Group 2?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The result:<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/1454084\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><b>not much<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><b>!<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate in the subjects with diet resistance (group 1) were within 5 percent of the predicted values for body composition, and there was no significant difference between groups 1 and 2 in the thermic effects of food and exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b>Here\u2019s what the study DID reveal:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subjects in Group 1 drastically underestimated how many calories they were eating by an average of 47%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This meant they thought they were eating 1200 calories, but actually consumed 1800 calories or more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Group 1 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">also<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> overestimated how many calories they burned through exercise by 51%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which meant if they thought they had burned 300 calories exercising, they really only burned 200 calories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Combine these two things and most of us have a massive discrepancy between how much we think we eat, and how much we actually eat.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>We humans suck at all sorts of things!<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Life is hard, and<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\/blog\/dont-like-exercise\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we humans aren\u2019t cut out to thrive in a world of abundance<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the same time, we\u2019re pretty bad at quite a few things:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We often<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\/blog\/be-careful-what-you-measure\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">measure the wrong thing<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\/blog\/what-we-get-wrong-about-time\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">suck at time<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We suck at counting calories.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>I can tell you what we\u2019re really good at though: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">crafting narratives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/tFRLTjr4G28KiTRyPqSsrX\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our brains will jump through hoops to craft a story that explains why our body doesn\u2019t obey the same laws of thermodynamics as everybody else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s similar to the story we tell ourselves about getting older: \u201cOf course I gained weight, my metabolism slowed down when I hit 20\/30\/40 years old,\u201d when<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/blog\/surprising-findings-about-metabolism-and-age-202110082613\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">science tells a different story<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our brains are convinced by these narratives far more easily than accepting the uncomfortable reality:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we are<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\/blog\/how-to-lose-weight-without-dieting-5-rules-of-weight-loss\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">trying to lose weight<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but the scale isn\u2019t going down, we are eating more than we realize.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">YES, hormones and stress and life and our environment and relationship with food can impact how much food we eat, or the types of food we crave. Some people have medical conditions that impact how their bodies respond to calories or exercise\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But when it comes to the number on the scale, our bodies still obey thermodynamics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is actually amazing news, if we can accept it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So let\u2019s start there.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Self-compassionate Acceptance<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>If we\u2019re telling ourselves a narrative that we\u2019re broken and progress is hopeless, we can start with self-compassionate acceptance:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course we suck at counting calories!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course we don\u2019t know how much we actually eat!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re not cut out for this type of environment in which delicious, calorie-dense food is always available.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That doesn\u2019t make us a bad person, nor does it mean we need to shame ourselves or beat ourselves up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Instead, we can accept that we\u2019re bad at this (because everybody is), and then adjust our behavior accordingly:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can learn how to actually track calories, educate ourselves on actual serving sizes for our favorite foods or meals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can work on<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\/blog\/healthy-eating\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">eating more nutrient rich, filling foods<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that have less calories. Lean protein, fruits and vegetables. It\u2019s quite tough to \u201covereat\u201d vegetables!<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can cut back on easily consumed liquid calories and switch to zero calorie beverages.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can use<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\/blog\/ulysses-pacts\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ulysses Pacts<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u200b<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to protect ourselves from\u2026ourselves.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And even then, despite our best efforts, we should accept that we\u2019ll <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">still<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> eat more than we think each day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not because we\u2019re broken, dumb, or stupid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But because we\u2019re human.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>-Steve<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\/blog\/diet-resistant\/\">Can you really be Diet Resistant?<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nerdfitness.com\">Nerd Fitness<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1992, a study was conducted on weight loss resistant individuals. In this study, the lab specifically studied people who reported eating less than 1200 calories daily and had bodies that were resistant to losing weight. Researchers set out to explore this phenomenon: Were their bodies kicking into starvation mode? Did their bodies process calories&#8230;<br \/>\nThe post Can you really be Diet Resistant? first appeared on Nerd Fitness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":""},"categories":[20,1,21,22,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19349"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19349"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19354,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19349\/revisions\/19354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestratefinders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}