Ep. #236: How to Get the Body You Want With Flexible Dieting

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my fish oil supplement, Triton. Now, Triton is a high potency, high chemical, Purity 100 percent re esterified triglyceride fish oil with added vitamin E to prevent oxidation and rancidity and natural lemon oil to prevent the noxious fish oil burps that we all know and hate.

Furthermore, Triton is made from sustainably fished deep water anchovies and sardines and is molecularly distilled to remove natural toxins and contaminants. So if you want to optimize your mental and physical health and performance, and reduce the risk of disease and dysfunction, then you want to head over to www.

[00:01:00] legionathletics. com and pick up a bottle of Triton today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10 percent on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100 percent money back guarantee that works like this.

You either love my stuff or you get your money back. Period. You don’t have to return the products, you don’t have to fill out forms, you don’t have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans, so you really can’t lose here. Head over to www. legionathletics. com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet.

And if for whatever reason they’re just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let’s get to the show. [00:02:00] Hey everybody, this is Mike from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics, and in this video podcast, I want to talk about flexible dieting.

And of course, this is something I have written a lot about and I have spoken about in previous podcasts and previous videos, but I wanted to put together a concise video that breaks down what flexible dieting is. How it works and how to use it to not only get the body that you really want, but to keep the body that you really want for the long term.

So what is flexible dieting? First, it is not a diet in the way that most people think of. diets, right? So it is a diet in dictionary sense. It’s simply a way of eating food, but it is not a way of eating that you do to lose weight or to detox your body. I guess those are probably the two main reasons why people go on diets, right?

Either to lose weight or to somehow improve their health and flexible dieting. Sure. You can use it, but [00:03:00] it’s not a way to lose weight. It’s to lose weight. And you can use it also to improve your health, but you can also use it to just maintain your weight or you can even use it to gain weight. So what flexible dieting is then is it’s simply a way of eating that is based on some simple scientific principles, some fundamentals.

of the human metabolism. So you have energy balance, which is the relationship between the number of calories or the amount of energy, right? As measured in calories that you’re eating versus the amount of energy that you are burning, which of course can also be measured in calories. And you also have macronutrient balance.

So how do those calories that you’re eating break down into the three primary macronutrients, which is, or which are protein, Carbs and fat. And finally, food choices. So where are you getting your calories and your macros as they’re called from? What foods are you eating? And what flexible dieting allows you to do then is it allows you to use those things, energy, balance, macronutrient, balance, and food choices.

[00:04:00] To manipulate your body composition as you desire. So you can use those things to lose fat. You can set up your diet in a way that it will allow you to lose fat and not muscle. Or, at least if you are going to lose muscle, it’s going to be as little as possible. You could set your diet up when you are flexible dieting to just maintain your body composition.

So you’re not really going to gain much muscle to speak of. You are not going to To speak of, and of course you’re not gonna be losing fat or muscle, either. You’re just going to maintain a state of homeostasis, I guess you could say! And then also you can use those three factors to set your diet up so you can maximize muscle gain and minimize fat.

So those are the scientific underpinnings of flexible dieting, energy balance, macronutrient balance, and food choices. And then you have four points that I guess comprise an outline of sorts that kind of comprise the core philosophy of flexible dieting, how you use those fundamentals. And the first one is, [00:05:00] as far as your body composition goes.

How much you eat is more important than what you eat. So in other words, in terms of your body fat percentage, in terms of how much lean mass that you have, how many calories you’re eating every day and how those calories break down into protein, carbs, and fats is more important than the foods that you are eating to get those calories and to get those macros.

Now as far as longterm health goes and not getting diseases and dying goes, of course the foods that you eat. Matters. You want to be getting the majority of your calories from relatively unprocessed, highly nutritious foods. That goes without saying, but as far as body composition goes, it really does not matter.

And there’s something to be said for body composition and health too. Of course, just being muscular, having above average muscularity and below average body fat levels is very healthy. It’s conducive to good health. So that’s the first point as far as body composition goes. [00:06:00] how much you’re eating is more important than what you’re eating.

So the second point here is you should tailor your daily food choices to your preferences, your goals, and your lifestyle, which means that you should be eating foods that you like every meal, every day. You should be looking forward to every meal, even when you are dieting to lose weight or dieting to lose fat.

And when you start to view foods more quantitatively than qualitatively, meaning when you start to view foods more in terms of calories and macronutrients as opposed to good or bad foods or healthy or unhealthy foods, it makes it very easy to do that. It makes it very easy to eat foods that you like every meal.

of every day. And that’s really what you want for long term sustainability. Even when you are dieting to lose weight, you should be eating foods that you like every meal of every day. Now, of course, that doesn’t mean you should be eating pizza, pop tarts and ice cream every day. You should be eating half of your [00:07:00] calories from junk food like that every day.

Hopefully there are foods that you like that are also relatively nutritious. And if you don’t like, for example, if you don’t really like. If fruits, if you don’t really like vegetables, if you don’t like whole grains, if you don’t like nuts. And these are the types of relatively unprocessed foods that you want to be at least getting several servings of each day.

Then just force yourself to eat them over and you will come to like them. There was I think it was it a movie or was it a TV, I think it was a TV series. I didn’t see it, but I heard about it where it was one of these celebrity chefs. Who actually, it may have been, it may have been a book actually, regardless what this guy did is he made a list of all the foods that he hated and he basically over the course of a year made himself eat them over and over.

And a lot of the foods were pretty gross actually, like monkey brains and snails and cow balls and shit, stuff that you would really never want to eat anyway. But what he found is after eating pretty much anything [00:08:00] about eight times. He actually came to like it and we can do the same thing.

So if you don’t like green vegetables, for example, not that you have to eat any specific green vegetable, but it is smart to include some dark leafy green type of vegetable in your diet. So let’s say, for me, I like spinach. Let’s say you don’t like spinach. If you, one, just get some recipes, learn how to cook it in a way maybe that makes it more palatable to you, and then two, just eat it over and over, you will come to like spinach.

Ultimately, though, if spinach is not your thing and you prefer something else that is dark and green, then sure, just go with that. Again, coming back to this point. Tailor your food choices to your preferences, to your goals and to your lifestyle. Make the diet work for you. Make your food choices work for you.

Again, with flexible dieting, there is no individual food that you simply can’t eat or any individual food that you have to eat.

Hey, quickly, [00:09:00] before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. If you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it.

It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say, Thank you. You can find me on Instagram at muscle for life fitness, Twitter at muscle for life and Facebook at muscle for life fitness. Okay. So the third pillar here in the philosophy of. Flexible dieting is to forgive your dietary lapses and simply keep calm and carry on.

Now, one of the great things about flexible dieting is it makes it easier to stay on track. It makes it harder to fall off the wagon, mostly because you are eating foods that you like. And also it [00:10:00] allows you to eat foods that other styles of dieting don’t allow. So again, if you’re getting, let’s say 80 percent of your daily calories are coming from relatively unprocessed and nutritious foods, you can do whatever you want with those other 20 percent of calories.

So if that means some ice cream for you, great. Have some ice cream. If that means a cookie or two, have the cookie or two. For me, I like dark chocolate, so that would be, my 20 percent now I don’t really, I would say I’d probably get. 90 to 95 percent of my daily calories from just relatively unprocessed nutritious foods.

And I do have some dark chocolate every day. I just don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I’m not into fast food or junk food. I just don’t really care. I, if I wanted to, if I wanted to a lot more of my daily calories to stuff that doesn’t really have any nutritional value, it’s just nice to eat.

Now, when we are dieting to lose fat, and especially when we have a fair amount of fat to lose, so it’s going to take a fair amount of time, we should expect to slip up now and then. We [00:11:00] should expect that we are going to end up eating too much of one thing or another. Here and there, it’s going to happen.

And the nice thing about flexible dieting is because again, it is based on scientific principles of how the human metabolism works. You can know that it’s really not that big of a deal. So what? All right. You ate 2000 calories, let’s say over your target in a day. And I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily a binge, but it might feel like a binge.

Now, many people out there that just follow different types of fad diets. They feel so bad when they do that because they don’t understand what’s going on in their bodies. They just know that, their diet says that if you eat sugar, it’s going to be stored as fat. Every gram of sugar that you eat is going to be stored as fat.

So then when they eat a bunch of sugar, they think that they just set, they have no idea how they think. Maybe they just set themselves back. Maybe now they’ve screwed up their metabolism. Even not only have they set themselves back and gain back all the fat that they lost, but now they, set [00:12:00] off a whole chain of events inside their body.

That’s going to make it impossible to continue losing fat. And that of course makes them feel even worse, which then includes It leads to more overeating. And that then of course can spiral out of control. And then they’ve given up and they really have gained back, let’s say all of the fat that they lost when they were sticking to the diet strictly and maybe even more now with flexible dieting, because you actually understand how the metabolism works.

You understand that again, all right, so you ate 2000 calories more than you planned, or let’s say you ate 5, 000 calories more. You know that it’s really just not that big of a deal. Because you really can’t gain that much body fat in a single day, regardless of how much food that you eat. And if you ate only a couple thousand calories over your target you will not gain more than let’s say a quarter pound of fat.

And depending on where those calories came from and depending on what type of exercise you’re doing, you might gain so little fat that it’s actually [00:13:00] negligible. And in the 5, 000 calorie scenario, 5, 000 calories above your target. Let’s say, you can gain a quarter to maybe a half a pound depending on again, where those calories came from and how active you are, what type of exercise you’re doing and so forth.

Regardless, even if you did gain a half a pound of fat in a day, you know that’s really not that big of a deal because it only takes. Let’s say for most people, most conditions most circumstances three or three or four days to lose a half a pound of fat. So really all you’ve done is you’ve added three or four days to your diet.

Big deal. And that’s why the flexible dieting mindset is to expect slip ups. They’re going to happen. Just set up, in your mind, a little if then trigger when you are dieting to lose weight. If you slip up and if you eat more than you planned on eating, then shrug it off and keep going because it’s just not that big of a deal.

Okay. So the fourth and final pillar of flexible dieting is long term [00:14:00] compliance is the key to sustainable improvements. And really what this comes down to is the old saw the best diet is the one that you can stick to. And there’s a lot of truth there. It really captures the essence of successful dieting, because if you can stick to the plan well enough, you don’t have to be perfect.

You just have to be good enough for long enough. Then you can reach your goal. And the idea of flexible dieting is that it is not a quick fix. It is a long term solution to controlling your body composition and controlling your health in many ways. It’s quite similar actually to how most people eat.

Most people don’t give much thought as to what they’re eating beyond what do they feel like eating. And so they don’t understand calories, they don’t understand macronutrients, they don’t understand how the metabolism works. They just eat the foods that they feel like eating when they feel like eating them.

Flexible dieting just reigns that in. It gives that some structure, it gives that some guidelines. It says that, sure, you can eat foods that you like and you should be eating foods that you like. [00:15:00] But you should also keep these things in mind. You should keep energy balance in mind and you should understand how that affects your body.

You should keep macronutrient balance in mind and understand how that affects your body. You should keep your food choices in mind and understand how that affects your body, in particular your long term health. And in the end, then what you get is you get an eating plan, I guess you’d say, that checks all of the boxes and eating plan that allows you to eat the foods that you like and eat them when you like, because that doesn’t matter when you eat carbs, for example, whether you’re eating them first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed.

That doesn’t matter as far as your body composition goes. And that also though, has energy balance working for you, has macronutrient balance working for you, meaning that you have your calories and your macros set up in accordance with your goals, whether you are trying to lose fat or just maintain or gain muscle.

And lastly, when you do it right, your eating plan gives your body enough nutrition to keep To stay healthy. And that [00:16:00] is also a lot easier to do than many people think really what it comes down to is eating a couple servings of both fruit and vegetables every day, throw in some whole grains and throw in some healthy fats.

My favorite sources of healthy fat are mono unsaturated sources like avocado and nuts, for example, and you’re there. And in terms of which fruits and vegetables if you just eat anything that you like, that’s better than nothing. If you really want to optimize your diet, you can get very specific and say, okay, so include some colorful fruits like blueberries, for example, or strawberries, because the pigments in particular are very good for the body.

And as far as vegetables go, including a variety of vegetables in your diet for example, onions, garlic, mushrooms, cruciferous vegetables, dark leafy greens, because all of them are going to provide differing amounts of essential nutrients, but they also provide Certain molecules that are hard [00:17:00] to get otherwise that are good for your body that promote good health.

But you don’t even have to go that far if you don’t want to. And if you stick to the simple guidelines of getting about 80 percent of your daily calories from relatively unprocessed nutritious food. So again, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, lean protein, and then the remaining 20 percent you do whatever you want with.

You’re doing it right. So that’s flexible dieting in a nutshell. Now, if you want to give it a go, you want to do it, then you have to first figure out how many calories you should be eating. And then you have to figure out how those calories should break down into macronutrients. And then you have to take your calories and your macros and turn those into a meal plan, actual specific foods that you’re going to eat.

And to help you do that I have an article that I wrote on flexible dieting that has a calculator that will help you figure out your calories and your macros, and also breaks down the meal planning process and links out also to another article, more in depth article I wrote on meal planning in particular.[00:18:00] 

And it should just be right up here. So if you just click this little link up here, it’ll take you to the article and just scroll down. If you want, you can read the whole thing. This though discussion that I just had summarizes all the information in the article. So if you want to just skip straight to the calculator, it’s a bad about the midpoint three quarter point through the article, you have a calculator that will help you figure out your calories and your macros.

And then if you keep reading, it will help you turn those things into a meal plan. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did and don’t mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility. And thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. [00:19:00] And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won’t miss out on any of the new goodies.

Lastly, If you didn’t like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at musclefullife. com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself, and I’m always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. Alright, that’s it.

Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my fish oil supplement.

Triton. Now, Triton is a high potency, high purity, 100 percent re esterified triglyceride fish oil with added vitamin E to prevent oxidation and rancidity and natural lemon oil to prevent the noxious fish [00:20:00] oil burps that we all know and hate. Furthermore, Triton is made from sustainably fished deep water anchovies and sardines and is molecularly distilled to remove natural toxins and contaminants.

If you want to optimize your mental and physical health and performance and reduce the risk of disease and dysfunction, then you want to head over to www. LegionAthletics. com and pick up a bottle of Triton today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast. peeps use the coupon code podcast to check out and you will save 10 percent on your entire order.

And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100 percent money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back period. You don’t have to return the products. You don’t have to fill out forms. You don’t have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans.

You really can’t lose here. Head over to www. [00:21:00] legionathletics. com now, place your order, and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they’re just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.