THE DIET EXPERIMENT

Dieting and healthy eating can become an obsession. Especially if you are in the fitness world. There are so many different diets out there, some better than other, one more extreme than another. Its a bit sick to be honest. When I dieted down for my show in May, there was times I couldnt stop thinking about food, note that I am a foodie and I do think about food all the time but it came to a point where it became mentally exhausting. I ended up researching if I actually had to consume 6 meals a day, regards to my previous post I stopped that, some days I had 4 meals some days 5 or 6. Although I still consumed the amount of calories I was meant to be eating, just with fewer bigger meals. Just that took a big burden off my shoulders.

Im always online reading about new diets and lifestyles everyday, to see if there is anything new to the market and also educate myself in different types of lifestyles(diets). For instance, yesterday I read about the banana diet, eat over 30 bananas a day. I like bananas, but 30+ bananas a day?!' Jeez!

 Earlier this year I decided to do a diet experiment and Im gonna take that into action later this year. Probably in October as I got 2nd place in UKBFF Scottish Championship and got an invite to the British Finals in October, so will have to start cutting again very soon. So an diet experiment wouldnt be good to start right now. 

I dont know how long this experiment will take, as there is quite a few I want to try out. And I want to do them for 30 days. The reason for this is I want to find out what diet is best for staying healthy, lean and still gaining muscles. And what would work for me and give me a more relaxed relationship to food. After my competition Ive been eating a lot just because I can, not because I wanted it but because Im "allowed". Trust me, these cutting diets for competition mess up with your head quite a lot. But on the plus side, as I was sober for 5 months, and got to proper know the benefits of that,  now I actually prefer to stay sober. But I will write more about that in another post.

If there is any diets you would like me to try please comment below. 

Heres a few diets that will take part in my diet experiment:

- The Anabolic Diet

- Full Keto (start off with fat fasting)

- Carb Cycling 

- Rebuild Diet

- Vegetarian

- Vegan

- Raw Diet

- Intermittent fasting

- Carb nite

- The Blood Type Diet

As you can see there is quite a few I want to try, here is 10 months of different diets! I havent decided if this will be in one go or it will be spaced out. Also havent decided which one Im going to start off with first, but I think The Rebuild Diet would be a good starting point. I will write up a proper description of each diet and also everyday meal plans when I start the project. Maybe you want to join me?

Note flexible dieting is a very popular lifestyle in the fitness world; you have a certain amount of fat, carbs and protein you have each day, you can eat whatever you want as long as it fits your macros and hit your fibre intake(30g+ a day). Although this works great for a lot of people, I know myself and I cant count calories and be on my fitnesspal everyday as it makes me obsessed, so even though I think this is a great lifestyle, it is not for me. As this experiment is to find out what works best for me, and let you guys know how they all work and maybe you can find something that would suit you. 

But I must say, looking at the vegetarian, vegan and the raw diet I can now say that I do not think those would be anything for me, as I do love meat and eat a lot of it. But, I dont know until I try.

Please let me know in the comments below what you want me to start off with or if there is any other diets you think I should give a go.

As for the moment Im gonna stop eating everything just because I can and eat healthy as normal, maybe do small experiments here and there, right now Im going to consume a lot of liquid meals to give my digestion a bit of a rest and see if I can get rid of that extra fat Ive gained after my competition because of all the carbs and wine Ive been consuming. 

Ill keep you posted.

Stay Happy!

DOES FREQUENT FEEDING SPEED UP YOUR METABOLISM?

Since the first time I got introduced to a "bodybuilding" meal plan. I was told 5-6 meals a day is how you should eat, because it "speeds" up your metabolism. And thats what Ive read and heard pretty much everywhere since. And I have always tried to eat this way. People have been saying to me; "How can you eat that much?" "Isn't it exhausting eating all the time?" "I could never bring food with me everywhere." And so on. I normally responded with "its not for everyone" or "well if you want it enough you do it". Simple as that. I do still live by those words. But after been reading and researching a bit lately, I have sat a question mark to the typical "6 meals a day plan". Does it really speed up the metabolism? And is it really optimal or even necessary?  

When I first came across articles telling me you do not need to consume your calories over 6 meals a day, was when I was reading about "Intermittent fasting". Which is when you have a time period you eat and when you dont. Normally a 16:8 or a 14:10 ratio. 16 hrs fast and 8 hrs feed. Or there are many other ways you can do it. And also different types of fasting. But we can get into that another time.
However, reading these articles about IF was telling me it does not matter if you eat your daily calories over 2-3 or 6 meals. Some even say you can consume it in one sitting, but do not think many people would be able to eat 2000 -/+ kcal in one meal(Which I do not think is a good thing to do anyway). As we are not saying eat whatever you want here, still consuming nutritious whole foods are important. Also note 2000 kcal of chicken and broccoli is significant more in volume than a pizza.

Anyway, doing some further research I found some studies that slams the frequent feeding off the horse:

In one study they had two test groups, one consuming 6 meals a day and the other 3 meals a day. What they found that there were no difference in fat oxidation for the two test groups. But what they did find was that the subjects eating 6 meals per day, felt more hunger and less satisfied and would have a desire to eat more = more energy consumed = weight gain right?

In another study the two test subject groups where again eating 6 or 3 meals a day, with the same amount of calories consumed. This was tested on obese men and women, both groups lost weight, but there was no indication saying the high meal frequency speeded up the metabolism.

So why are we still being told to eat 6 meals per day? If anyone does have the answer to this, I would love to hear about it, or have any newer studies that disproves this.

Do I support this? I support what the data says. I do not think 1-2 meals per day is optimal, but if that works for you and you have a healthy relationship with your food and yourself great. And the same if you eat 6 or 8 meals per day. Always remember to do what is optimal for you and your health. But frequent feeding does not speed up your metabolism or have any other health benefits.
I think we should all stop complicating things and go back to basic. Hungry? Eat. Satisfied? Stop. Repeat cycle.

(This blogpost was just a very brief comment on this subject. I would like to go into more detail later)