What Kind Of Dieter Are You Anyway?

I know the title of this piece sounds like an accusation, but really it’s based on trying to figure out what your needs actually are. People adjust their eating based on the outcomes they want, so if you’re adrift in a sea of meaningless nutritional advice, faddy diets and incomprehensible physiology alphabet soup, try going right back to the start: What do you want?

Trouble is, most diet advice assumes that people want the same outcome. 

Gainers are usually, though not always, guys. 

They want to maintain or reduce their fat levels, and build muscle. 

Starting dieters are those who begin dieting from a position of a poor diet and little exercise. 

If you’re browsing the web looking for tips for your first serious attempt at losing weight, this is you. 

Stubborn Spotters are people who are generally healthy and of a fairly good weight. 

These people want to lose a little fat and alter their body composition and appearance, they’re not trying to pack on slabs of beef or drop twenty pounds.

Of course, like any system of categorization, this is an attempt to describe reality: it isn't reality. Many people want to gain muscle and also lose a significant amount of weight; many people want to alter their body comp but have some pounds to shift too. When you’re reading through this, if you feel like you don’t fit right into one of the categories, maybe you don’t.  Use the information form all the categories that describe you. 

Read More: Not-Quite-Paleo: Carb And Dairy Foods Paleo Dieters Can Live With

That doesn't mean that breaking things down doesn't make them easier to understand.

What to Do...

If You're a Gainer:

Gainers need to eat clean caloric surplus with enough protein to grow. They also need to eat a clean diet and watch their intake of short chain carbs.  That’s really it, though: apart from those tips, not much really works.  

Getting lean will come as your body learns to repartition your food into energy and muscle instead of laying it down as lipids; you might gain some fat before you start to lean out, but that’s natural.  If you’re overweight by a significant amount, but your goal is muscularity, gun for getting strong and muscular first.  A strong person can train much harder than a weak person and a muscular person has a far easier time losing body fat.

If You're a Starting Dieter:

If your goal is to lose 120lb, how fast do you think you can do that?  Not in a couple of weeks.  Think about where you want to be eventually, but also think about where you want to be next week, next month and next year.  

A weekly target you can only hit if you live like a monk will only work if you are a monk. Otherwise, cut yourself some slack: this is a hard job which many people fail at several times before they eventually succeed, and you’ll be doing it a while.  Go easy on yourself!

Focus on the process and the outcome will take care of itself – initially, set goals like “I’ll get in the habit of not rewarding myself with sweets,’ or ‘I’ll reduce my sweet tooth.’ 

The major cause of weight gain is the increasing sweetness of – well, everything. Fruit used to be regarded as sweet in its own right. Now most fruit flavoured products are weighted down with added sugar designed to make them acceptable to our palates. 

The good news is, a sweet tooth can be killed off very fast.

Your body leans what ‘normal’ tastes like simply by tasting it. After about four or five days, it will learn a new normal. 

Try this experiment:  Eat or drink something that you normally have sugared – without any sugar.  Tastes awful, right?  I know it does, because I used to take three sugars in my tea.  Three.  But day two, it doesn't taste quite so bad.  Day three, a little better yet, but if you’re honest, you’re still not buying it. It tastes unusually sour and dry.  Day four, maybe you’re getting a bit more used to it psychologically.

But day five, six, seven?  Your brain has reset your taste buds to think of this new taste as normal.  You will stop noticing that there’s no sugar there.  (This works with salt too!)

If You're a Stubborn Spotter:

Stubborn spotters need to watch their caloric intake and tailor their exercise programs to systemic body composition changes.

If your metabolism is in good shape and you’re eating enough, using a fairly high-fat, high protein diet paired with some form of HIIT can be highly effective in improving body composition.  High fat, high protein diets tend to stabilize blood sugar and slow digestive transit and absorption, meaning you have fewer ‘hungry moments’ between meals, while HIIT increases metabolic rate for long periods after you stop training.  The two together mean you’ll eat less and burn more fat.

For many people, the lower abdomen is a spot they wish to reduce. Whether you’re a guy and you worry over your love handles, or you’re a lady who’s had a belly full of her muffin top, there are things you can do here that are specific to the area.  What you need it to tighten and strengthen the entire abdominal area – not just the ‘six-pack’ rectus abdominus.

Read More: Staying Happy While Dieting

If you’re a gainer, try to eat as much as possible. As long as it’s clean it won’t do you any harm.  Remember you need to eat enough to fuel growth, training and everyday life.  Use supplement shakes – they’re cheap and your body doesn’t react to liquid food with satiation signals, meaning you won’t feel stuffed but can get some extra calories.

Starting Dieters should begin by eliminating their sweet tooth.  Get rid of artificial sweeteners too – they mess with your brain and keep you hooked on sweetness.  Experiment with other flavours – cinnamon, for instance.  Once you stop nuking your taste buds with sugar and salt you discover that food actually tastes of something!  Never eat in front of the TV, never eat from a bag or box, and try not to eat anything you didn’t cook yourself or at home.  And stick with it!

Stubborn Spotters need to focus on how they hold themselves and train for good alignment – good posture is about a lot more than standing like you’re in the army.