Food and exercise because these are much more personalized strategies and less straightforward than managing sleep. As with all the content on this site I expect to update periodically. Also, please make sure to check with your doctor if you have any questions or concerns regarding making any changes. I'm not a doctor, just a busy person who works on strategies. For the moment here's what I want you to think about:
I've experimented with many diet plans and relationships with food over the last 25 years. In the end there is one simple message that we all know:
lose weight by eating less,
gain weight by eating more,
eat nutritious food to feel healthy.
Now, there is more complication to this, because the quality and type of food you take in will impact your health and your ability to control your appetite. Your stress levels, sleep, and physical activity will also factor in here—it's hard to make changes in your food intake if you aren't sleeping well and if you don't have your stress/anxiety moderately well managed. Furthermore, some physical activity can stimulate appetite, other physical activity can reduce appetite. But if you start feeling confused or uncertain, please just return to these words above.
- Eating less/more to lose/gain weight.
- Eating to feel healthy.
- Macronutrient composition and timing.
- Food choices to control appetite.
- Awareness and control of inflammation.
- Food as a source of joy and other emotions.
- Culture and food.
- Putting it all together. Some strategies for managing food in a busy life.
I'll add more details about these subtopics as time permits.
1. Managing Weight
I've had a few periods in life where I've gained a lot of weight (40 lbs or more) rapidly. I've had to spend a lot of my life trying to maintain or get to a healthy weight. After doing a lot of exercise and managing my food intake to various levels, I'm left to conclude that food intake has to be the primary strategy for managing your weight. Depending on how you're exercising, more exercise can increase your appetite, which may work against getting to a goal better body composition. Also, if you're a busy person, there is a limit to the amount that you can exercise because you have to spend your time managing other responsibilities.
Here are some strategies for how to eat less:
- Counting calories and keeping a food journal. This works for some people and is helpful in building an awareness of what your food intake is. I eat a wide variety of food and dislike the amount of time commitment and uptight detail needed for this strategy. So, I'd only suggest doing this for a week or a month, in order to build an understanding of what you're eating. It's a useful exercise, but I don't see this as a long-term strategy, i.e., something that is a healthy part of life.
- Learn about different levels of feeling full. Play with what you can cut back, see how you feel if you make small changes to eat just a little less at your meals.
- Learn how to control your appetite. See Section 4, below.
- Drink more water.
- Time limits. Stop eating after a certain time in the evening. For instance, get to 8 PM and say, "I'm done for today!"
- Fasting. Since about 2005 there has been a lot of development in the fitness and nutrition world playing around with the idea of timed calorie restriction, a.k.a. fasting. My experience is that this can be an effective strategy for losing a lot of weight, but you have to have your stress management and sleep under control if you're going to stick with any attempts for fasting. Also, it helps if you've learned about appetite management first. If you cannot focus because you are feeling super hungry, it's hard to motivate or stick to any fasting strategy. Two strategies that have been developed for fasting and which can work well (if you've got your stress levels under control) are "Intermittent Fasting" and the "5-2 Program". With Intermittent fasting, you refrain from caloric intake for about 16 to 72 hours, allowing some minor intake of minerals or 1 cup of coffee. Obviously, start with a shorter duration before going longer, and be careful/pay attention to how you feel if you do any activity in a fasted state. With the "5-2 Program", you eat normally for 5 days of the week, but on 2 days of the week you limit your caloric intake to ~500 calories. Here's a discussion of my experience and what has worked well for me.
- Adjust macronutrient balance. Macronutrients are the protein, fat, and carbohydrates that you consume. Over the last 20 years, many diet and nutrition plans have been developed that play around with these, with some evidence that both low-carb eating and low-fat eating can provide approaches to weight management. My take on these is that weight loss only occurs on either of these approaches if you are also lowering your caloric intake. In general I find it's easier not to overeat on a lower carb diet. How strict you are about limiting carbohydrate intake will have to depend on your stress and activity levels. I like to take the approach of "earn your carbs", i.e., eat protein, veggies, and fats for most of the day, but have more carbs and sugar mostly after doing some exercise.
- Limit caloric beverage intake. Because most beverages lack fiber, it is easy to consume many calories in the form of beverages without feeling full from them. I've found that limiting my intake of caloric beverages has been relatively easy to implement, with the exception of coffee, which I love too much to eliminate.
- Cut down on sugar. Related to the beverage intake is sugar intake. I find that I end up in a feedback loop if I eat too much sugar, where my blood sugar spikes and crashes and keeps me feeling hungry. If I instead keep sugar intake to modest levels for most of the day, my energy levels and appetite are much more even and much easier to manage.
I've never had much of a problem with or need for gaining weight, so this will be a question to which to return sometime later.
For more internet wisdom on managing weight, here's a link that I think is a handy starting point:
4. Managing Appetite
I wrote a post on some of my thoughts about managing appetite. Please check it out here. Bottom line: eat your carbs after exercise but keep them limited during the rest of the day.
6. Joy and Other Emotions
Eating good food is one of the most direct and accessible paths to wonderful and beautiful experiences. You may not be able to afford many things, but you can still probably bring yourself some joy through eating something delicious.
Because food can tie so closely with pleasure, it's possible to overdo it. It's best to get most of your joy in life in ways that don't require consuming anything. Then food can be something that enriches your life on top of that.
When you're stressed out, food can become a coping mechanism. Stress eating is a direct path to overeating, and also can lead to choosing the lowest quality foods (just high in sugar, salt, and fat without a lot of other nutrition). One of the best ways to deal with stress eating is to redirect. First, you have to recognize that you're stress eating. You had some candy, now you're going back for more? And more? Are you sure you really want that? Then move to a different physical space from what your overdoing. Then divert yourself to something completely different: go for a walk, get outside, go fly a kite, do some math. The key is to get your mind off of the food and onto something else. Use your time to plan out some alternative, healthier food that you will eat.
Because food can tie so closely with pleasure, it's possible to overdo it. It's best to get most of your joy in life in ways that don't require consuming anything. Then food can be something that enriches your life on top of that.
When you're stressed out, food can become a coping mechanism. Stress eating is a direct path to overeating, and also can lead to choosing the lowest quality foods (just high in sugar, salt, and fat without a lot of other nutrition). One of the best ways to deal with stress eating is to redirect. First, you have to recognize that you're stress eating. You had some candy, now you're going back for more? And more? Are you sure you really want that? Then move to a different physical space from what your overdoing. Then divert yourself to something completely different: go for a walk, get outside, go fly a kite, do some math. The key is to get your mind off of the food and onto something else. Use your time to plan out some alternative, healthier food that you will eat.
