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Is there any valid reason to periodically allow increased carbs or is it just a glorified excuse to cheat?
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Atkins came out in 1972, and while it was not my first diet (that was a thousand calorie ADA diet) it became my preferred way to lose weight. Obviously, I never stuck with it in all these decades. Why should this time be the magical time? I've always had the "either/or" mentality, where I was succeeding or failing. It hasn't served me well. And I would generally burn out after a period of time.
Well, this time, I decided to ease up a bit. If I'm really in this for life, then I have to acknowledge that I'm not going to do it "right" all the time. Trying to do so has obviously proved to be counterproductive.
So basically, I've been "carb cycling" though not in a systematic manner. It's a little nerve-wracking because it's different, but I've lost as much weight as I ever did, which is about 10 lbs a month. I do abstain from sugar, but fruit, starchy vegetables, even a little, very little, bread sometimes; and yes, combined with fasting is beginning to feel doable to me long term. We'll see.
Regarding "cheating", I just happened to read this conversation between Chris Kresser and Robb Wolf recently and it really resonated with me:
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Why the concept of “cheating” is harmful
Chris: Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. I mean, there’s often a myopic focus on food and the particulars around food, without looking at the things that influence food intake that are non-food related. And this kind of reminds me of this whole notion—that became really popular in the Paleo world, but also, any other world that is kind of based on the idea of a strict diet rather than just eating what you should eat that’s good for you—of cheating. I just absolutely hate this kind of concept of being on this really super-strict diet and then you cheat.
Robb: Right.
Chris: To me that’s just a setup for failure. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Robb: Oh, man. Again, this is one of those things that when I talk about this people get really angry at me. It kind of flies in the face of what’s generally being recommended but—
Chris: [Crosstalk] … safe space, Robb.
Robb: Perfect. I am happy with that.
Chris: Not that you’re not going to get some email after this. But here and now, I’m not going to get them out of you.
Robb: Perfect. Okay. That’s all I need for right now. This was again something that I would kind of experience in working with people. I’d sit down and start working with somebody. We’re building a relationship, and maybe about 30 seconds into a conversation, the person is like, “So, what do I get to cheat on? Like, what are my cheats?” And initially, I was kind of like, “Okay this is a reasonable question.” I’m kind of suggesting this Paleo-type shtick, and so this person is wondering, will I ever in my life get to eat a chocolate chip cookie again. So, this is a pretty reasonable question. But over the course of time again, I slowly, empirically … this is an observational story … but I’ve noticed, these people that really lead with this cheating idea, they were a handful. There was a lot going on with these people....
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But, when we look at the word “cheat,” the Webster’s definition of the word cheat is “to take unfair advantage of someone, particularly at their expense.” So, you knew all about that and you’re like, okay, take unfair advantage—ha! Whatever way you want to eat, whether it’s Paleo, vegan, macrobiotic, or what have you, if you go off the rails from that plan, are you taking an unfair advantage of someone? Is someone suffering because of your choice? No, not at all. It’s absolutely ridiculous. But if we attach this terminology of cheating to a process that really isn’t emotional, really isn’t victimizing somebody, we still feel the emotional content, the emotional blow of feeling like we cheated on our peer group, that we did something really profoundly bad, and so, we’re taking one element of our kind of primate evolutionary history. We’re grafting on this inappropriate terminology of cheating and it guarantees that if we do anything other than absolute perfect adherence to a specific plan, that we’re now a cheater and we’re a failure and we’ve let down the peer group, we’ve let down ourselves, and so instead of saying, “Well, the next meal, I’ll be back on track,” it’s like, “Oh, screw it. It’s all hookers and cocaine now y’all. I’m going to Krispy Kreme and shutting the place down.”
So, this cheating concept, as what I’ve seen is, it’s really dangerous. It’s dangerous from the perspective that it ties a really powerful emotional trigger to a process that is really a non-issue. If you are generally eating pretty well and let’s say we eat three meals a day, seven days a week, that’s 21 meals, let’s say, 18 or 19 of those meals are generally pretty on point two or three of those meals a week kick your heels up, do whatever you want to do, and so long as that “kick your heels up time” doesn’t lead into three or four days of the, you know, wacky eating, over-the-top eating, so long as you’re not someone like me who has serious gluten issues and, like, you decide to do a gluten binge and you’re sick for a week afterwards, we have some caveats with that. But generally, if we’re on point and then we “deviate off the norm,” it just doesn’t matter. You made this point at the UCSF medical gig just a couple of days ago.
Our goal should be to be as resilient as possible. Ideally, we’re like a cockroach. We’re almost impossible to kill, and that’s a really good place to be, and it’s not to say that then you want to adopt horrible eating habits, but it would be really nice to just be as resilient as possible, and the more you play within some certain lines, that help support that resiliency. But then, when we decide to go a little bit outside the norm, it’s not cheating. It’s just living. But again, we make, we make some decisions. We understand that there are consequences. If I decide to have a couple of extra NorCal margaritas, I try to have a little earlier in the evening instead of later because I know it disorders my sleep, but sometimes I’m hanging out with friends and that’s just this what’s going to go down, and I may not feel quite as hundred percent the next day. But that’s okay within the bigger context. And so, it’s a long, convoluted treatment of my ideas on cheating, and again, it’s a pretty hot-button topic for a lot of folks. It really gets them fired up, but I think if people can think through that whole story and then kind of decouple the emotionality from the reality that, “Hey, you don’t need to be perfect all the time.” But at the same time, if you go off the rails, you’re just one meal away from being back on. Let’s not even get into this cheating discussion or any of that. https://chriskresser.com/why-we-gai...with-robb-wolf/
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