Sooooooooo I’m going to call out a fad diet that’s been bugging me for over a year, possibly 2, for being complete BS without naming it…
From the glamour of IG, it promotes eating all the nutrient dense foods – potatoes, root veggies, butter, dairy, etc. – eating 3 meals a day plus as many snacks as you need, along with adrenal cocktails, juices and more.
To be clear, I’m not a fan of any fad diet.
Why?
Because they make it out to seem like their diet is the solution for everyone.
The problem with this is that it is just as bad as allopathic medicine!
While they can be therapeutic and beneficial to sum, it is not ideal for everyone and can be masking true dysfunction that goes longer undetected because you’ve identified a way to coast.
Every individual is unique and I am a strong proponent for eating delicious food that you enjoy while understanding how it effects your energy, mood, and your short and long-term goals.
Why I got beef with this specific fad diet?!
First, this can and may be beneficial to you, if that is the season of life you are in right now.
Sometimes, we need to survive and that is okay.
But it can fuel blood sugar issues, if you don’t already have them.
In fact, I think many with dysregulated blood sugar find this diet and start to feel better because they are working with their issues instead of addressing the problem at hand.
Back to the first bullet, postpartum and minimal help, sleep, demanding baby – you are in survival and this can be very supportive at this time.
Tricky right?!
While this diet may make you feel amazing, you may wonder why you are gaining weight (altho you have been told that is healing).
Before we get into the why I am frustrated with this fad diet being plastered all over social media like it is godsend for women when really for most people they are just masking their blood sugar dysfunction, do any of these sound like you?
- Increased cravings for sugars and carbs
- Increased hunger and not satisfied from a meal
- Weight gain
- Increased blood pressure
- Difficulty losing weight
- Tired in the afternoon
- Ravenous hunger
- Irritable, anxious, nervous, light-headed if meals are missed
- Jittery or shaky between meals
- Headaches
- Brain fog
- Difficulty concentrating / thinking clearly
- Can’t sleep at night – difficulty falling asleep or waking up unable to go back to sleep immediately
- Hormone issues, including thyroid and fertility
Now if you happen to follow the diet I’m referring to, do you experience any of these if you were not to follow them for a day or week?
Did you know….
- Your brain tightly regulates the amount of glucose (sugar) in your blood stream at any given moment?
- At any given time the ideal amount is about 4g of glucose in an optimal range of 70 to 90 mg/dL?
- When outside of that range, the brain starts sending signals to the body to triggers the:
- Release of glucose into the blood stream, if it drops below 70 mg/Dl
- Storage of glucose into cells, if it raises above 90mg/dL
Dang those numbers seem to be lower than what allopathic medicine deems “normal”.
Unfortunately, “normal” blood labs just equates you being aligned with the majority of the population, not necessarily what is for optimal health….
What you may see are:
- Higher blood glucose readings 2 hours after eating (ideal is less than 100 mg/dL)
- Hemoglobin A1c above 5.5
- Triglycerides above 100
So if you are having issues losing weight and/or going in the opposite direction of where you are trying to get, this can be super fucking frustrating following this particular fad diet.
Why?
When our blood sugar rises, insulin is released by the pancreas into the bloodstream to signal the uptake of glucose into the cell.
Where does excess glucose beyond our immediate need go?
First, to be stored in the liver to be used later to maintain your blood glucose levels in between meals.
Next, muscles so that they have fuel, such as during your HIIT workout.
The kicker here is that the liver stores about 400 calories worth of glucose while muscles vary depending on what you got between 1,400 – 2,000 calories (the more muscle, the more you can store).
Here’s the problem >> you are eating all day long – 3 meals plus snacks and all the sugary drinks and coffee.
How long do you really go in between eating or drinking soda/coffee?
Now don’t get me wrong, you’re tired as AF, you get impatient, irritable, start screaming at your kids if you don’t eat every 2 hours. You feel better eating all the fruit and potatoes, along with heavy cream and milk on a daily basis.
That adrenal cocktail really pushes you over for another hour.
Dude I get it!
But as I said earlier, you are just fueling the issue by riding the blood sugar rollercoaster.
Plus, that’s a lot of snack food.
You should be able to go between meals without needing to snack, getting irritated, shaky, or a headache, or feeling like your head is going to hit the desk.
You got stores in the liver and your muscles to keep you going between eating.
But if you don’t take long enough breaks in between to allow your body to tap into those stores found in your liver and muscles, what happens?
Well glucose stores are at capacity within your liver and muscles but blood sugar is going up and we need to get glucose out ASAP to lower into ideal levels the body can manage
So excess glucose gets stored as fat, or adipose tissue.
This is where I have the issue. Yes, some individuals may benefit from gaining some weight.
But if you continue to gain weight, you can’t go longer than 2 hours without eating or drinking something other than water + minerals, you are always hungry, and you search for something sweet after eating (or you need something sweet in every meal), you really need to ask yourself is this fad diet an excuse to being gluttonous or is it really helping me achieve my goals?
Yes, we need protein, fat, and carbohydrates!
This isn’t a push for the carnivore diet.
But what many don’t realize is that every individual is unique and the amount of each macro nutrient – protein, fat, and carbs – is unique to that individual based on their goals, stress levels, activity levels, sleep, and more.
And it is kind of this seesaw analogy, it is either high carb and low fat OR high fat and low carb.
High carb AND fat leads to excess adipose tissue and you aren’t ever going to tap into your fat stores to burn them for energy!
To use the fire analogy, carbs are the kindling. You need to constantly stoke the fire to keep it going by consuming carbs.
While fats are the logs. You can eat some fat and leave to go do something and the fire will continue to burn.
You can’t eat excessive amounts of both all day long!
If you are constantly eating, you never tap into the fat reserves to use them as fuel therefore burning fat off!
May be why IF is making a big run too but not going to touch that one today, maybe another time.
You should be able to be able to eat a delicious meal, have energy to do what you want without getting irritable or impatient before your next meal.
Get real honest with yourself:
- How often are you eating?
- How much fat am I eating?
- How much carbs am I eating?
- How long can I go feeling great without getting tired or irritated?
- How well do I sleep?
To start addressing the true underlying issues, you need to start figuring out how to create macro nutrient balanced meals to keep you full and satisfied with balanced energy and mood until your next meal. That’s what I do with clients and teach in REBOOT.
You can schedule your free Connection Call now to get started ASAP.
