The Endless Diet Chase
From Director of Health Alex Maples
Over the last decade I’ve searched high and low for the “perfect” diet – from strict veganism to eating like a carnivore and many things in between – trying to find something that would finally make keeping the weight off easy. I failed time and time again. Each of these diets, with all of their specific rules and their good food/bad food paradigms, worked at first. But then I’d ultimately find a way to regress back to my old ways. Why did this pattern continue even as my approach changed?
All diets work the same way: They restrict your options with the intent of limiting the amount of calories you consume. For some people, this works really well. For others, like me, it works for a while – until we figure out how to circumvent the system.
The Vegetarian High
The first diet I identified with was vegetarianism. It spoke to my young, idealistic self. “I can eat in a way that creates less suffering in the world? Plus all these crunchy chicks think it’s cool? I’m in!” This was the diet that helped me drop from 350 pounds down to 185. Pretty incredible results right? Well, yeah. But it’s worth mentioning that during this time I also went from being unable to jog for more than 10 seconds to competing in triathlons and spending 20 hours a week running, swimming, or biking. With that level of activity, I likely would have lost weight with any reasonable dietary approach.
Eventually my body rebelled, I developed severe overuse injuries – tendonitis in both Achilles and elbows. Looking back, it was my body’s way of shutting me down because I was pushing it too hard and not fueling it appropriately. This is not to say that vegetarian diets are bad, or that you shouldn’t compete in endurance sports. Instead, I was being dumb about how I was choosing to go about it.
The thing is, I was just following the rules: no meat. That left everything else on the table and, seeing as I was burning an absurd amount of calories (and spending so much time training I didn’t have time to eat all that often), I lost weight – a lot of it.
The Protein Awakening
Even though I had success, my approach was fundamentally flawed. I would ride my bike 10 miles to a friend’s party, drink a bunch of beer, and then ride back, stopping at a gas station for a couple of Clif Bars on the way home. I never even thought about protein. No wonder my joints started to wear out.
I ate eggs and beans for breakfast and dinner, so I figured I was covered. If I had to guess, I was eating somewhere between 50-70 grams of protein a day as a 185-pound man with a huge training load. If I were coaching that person today, I would tell him to eat at least 140 grams – preferably more.
When the injuries started piling up, my mileage plummeted. I didn’t have any other dietary tools, so I ballooned back up to 220+. Panicked after watching my hard work unravel, I knew I had to do something. A friend recommended a podcast, The Fat-Burning Man, which in turn led me to Mark Sisson and the Primal Blueprint.
The Paleo Pivot
That’s right: I went from vegetarian (eating almost nothing but carbs) to a full-on paleo/keto diet. Pretty much a 180. And you know what? It worked. I dropped back down to 200 pounds and started feeling better. I ate pounds of meat and giant salads. I swapped some mileage for kettlebell training and found that, despite being 15 pounds heavier than at the peak of my endurance training, I was happier with how I looked and felt better because I had some muscle on my frame.
This approach served me initially, but then I started gaining weight back – again. It happened slowly, but over a couple of years I added 20 pounds. I was still lifting, so some of it was muscle, and I was still a far cry from 350. But it was a slow creep that was worrying me, particularly because I didn’t understand how or why it was happening. I was only eating “clean” food. How could I still be struggling with my weight?
The “Clean Food” Trap
The diet gurus I followed insisted calories were irrelevant. Dave Asprey said things like, “Your body is a chemistry set, not a calculator.” Gary Taubes famously promoted Good Calories, Bad Calories. Jason Fung said, “When you eat and what you eat matters more than how much you eat.”
Food quality matters, and building a diet on unprocessed natural foods is wise. But the claim that “calories don’t matter” is fundamentally misguided.
Being young and dumb, I fell hook, line, and sinker. Everything I ate was “clean,” but I would gorge myself on these foods and then wonder why I couldn’t keep off those last 20 pounds – even when I went full-bore on intermittent fasting, priding myself on how small of an eating window I could stick to.
For the record, I eventually compressed my eating to daily two-hour “feasts” (more accurately, binges). I felt like crap everyday but was propped up by stress hormones that created the promised mental clarity. Meanwhile, I wondered why my physique and my health deteriorated when I was so “disciplined” about eating clean foods once a day. In reality, I was pounding fatty meats, mixed nuts, kale drenched in bacon fat, and dark chocolate to the point of explosion every night (and then starving myself for most of the next day, every day).
The Social Cost of Diet Extremism
Beyond the physical impacts, my dietary zealotry affected relationships. I brought my own food to family gatherings and refused to eat anything they prepared because it wasn't organic, contained preservatives, or (horror of horrors) included seed oils. The result? I alienated my family, making them feel judged and shamed because I, "Mr. High and Mighty," was doing everything "right." My food issues became entangled with a broader pattern of arrogance. That’s one I'm still working to overcome.
The Training Misadventure
My training approach during this period was equally misguided. The same "experts" convinced me to focus exclusively on "functional" training with kettlebells, clubs, and sandbags. I believed bench pressing would destroy my body and that exercises became more effective when performed in unstable positions because they would "recruit maximum muscle fibers." (Spoiler: they don't.)
I honestly believed that any exercise was better if you did it on a BOSU ball. That anybody doing curls was a vain idiot that didn’t understand how the body really worked. That every session had to be different because of “muscle confusion.” Meanwhile, I was swinging weights around with no thought as to what muscle I was training or how to measure progress. All the while pulverizing my joints in the process.
And if HIIT was supposedly the fat-loss holy grail, wouldn't it work even better after an 18-hour fast? So I'd fast as long as possible, train intensely, then gorge on "clean food" once daily, convinced I was optimizing every variable. Yet somehow, I remained overweight.
The Fundamental Principles I Finally Discovered
My approach to nutrition and training has transformed over recent years. By setting aside rigid dogma and focusing on evidence-based principles, I've achieved better results with less restriction. Instead of chasing dietary perfection, I now follow these principles:
1. Calorie Awareness Matters
Looking back, I see that I was consistently overeating. Each new diet worked initially because limited options forced me into a temporary calorie deficit. Then my adaptable brain found diet-compliant foods I could overeat, and the weight returned. In all of my dietary shenanigans up to this point, I had never once considered how many calories I was actually consuming.
Now I work to keep my calories in check. Sometimes I track calories; sometimes I don’t. Tracking has been a powerful tool to learn how many calories are in the food I’m eating and what portion sizes really look like (I’m looking at you, peanut butter).
For anyone pursuing weight loss, I strongly recommend tracking calories and measuring portions for at least a couple of weeks. The awareness is transformative. Countless clients have been shocked to discover they were consuming an extra thousand calories in nuts or adding 600 calories of creamer to their morning coffee without realizing it. Addressing these behaviors is low-hanging fruit with outsized payoff.
Tracking also helps you learn your maintenance, deficit, and surplus ranges so you can regulate intake later without tracking forever.
2. Prioritize Protein
Most of my meals are built around protein – a big deal when it comes to both satiety and muscle mass. For me to consider something a protein source, it needs a roughly 2:1 protein-to-fat ratio (in grams). I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 90%-93% lean ground beef, 93% ground turkey, shrimp, zero-fat greek yogurt, and egg whites mixed with whole eggs as the base for a lot of my meals.
You can always opt for leaner cuts (chicken breast over chicken thighs or just egg whites), but I find having a little more fat makes things more palatable, meaning I’m more likely to actually eat them regularly. I still eat fattier meats like a good ribeye, skin-on chicken, and fattier pork, but when I do I balance that meal by opting for something leaner in the meals before or after.
At my current weight of 210 pounds, I aim for 210 grams of protein daily. Based on available research, anywhere from 0.6-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight is optimal for maximizing benefits. I don't stress if I drift a bit – consistency over time matters more than daily perfection.
3. Emphasize Whole Foods Without Absolutism
I eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods like potatoes and beans. These foods help me feel satisfied with fewer calories and contain micronutrients and fiber that help support overall health. Nothing is off-limits; I just recognize that if I have too many high-calorie, high-palatability foods, I have a harder time keeping my calories in check and feeling full.
Going out to eat is no longer taboo. If I’m actively trying to lose weight, I generally avoid it, but during times of maintenance, eating at restaurants can be totally fine and enjoyable. I just try not to go overboard.
And, things like diet soda can be a great way to have something palatable without wrecking my calories (sorry for shaming you about the Diet Coke, Mom). If you’re concerned with aspartame (even though most of the evidence says it’s innocuous), there are stevia-based options like Zevia. You don’t have to deprive yourself of pleasure to be healthy. Just be smart about how you indulge.
4. Rethink Fasting
I stopped making fasting central to my approach. It’s not inherently harmful, but constant fasting creates physiological stress that I just don’t need. Instead of testing my willpower through hunger endurance, I now distribute adequate calories at regular intervals so that, even during caloric restriction, I maintain energy and well-being throughout the day.
Occasional fasting can help you reconnect with genuine hunger signals, but it's not the ultimate weight loss solution. Depending on your goals, extended fasting may actually impede progress. Regular protein consumption protects muscle, whereas prolonged fasting creates extended periods without protein. That means potentially slowing muscle development or even accelerating muscle breakdown.
5. Implement Diet Breaks
I don’t perpetually diet anymore. There are times when I’m dialed in and times when I’m more relaxed. Taking breaks can actually re-sensitize your body to a calorie deficit, lessen food focus, and improve results.
In recent years, my goal has been to gain muscle, which means I’ve even started having periods of intentionally gaining weight. Given my history of being obese, this stressed me out at first. Seeing the number on the scale go up felt like going backwards.
Letting go of that mindset has been enormously beneficial. The number on the scale is just data, not a moral score. In the appropriate context, gaining weight is actually good. And, even when it isn’t my goal, I don’t panic because I know I have the tools to lose weight when the time comes. As a result, holidays and family gatherings aren’t stressful anymore (at least not because of the food). I don’t ask my family if the food they want to share with me is up to my standards. I say thank you and enjoy it knowing they made it with love. I recognize it’s just one day and there is no reason why I can’t go back to the healthy habits I’ve built afterward.
6. Train Smart, And Hard
My exercise approach has similarly evolved. I bench press. I do primarily stable exercises because they actually do recruit more muscle fibers. I even do “vanity” exercises like lateral raises and curls (GASP!). Turns out bigger shoulders are often also healthier, more functional shoulders. I still like to play around with “functional” movements that challenge balance and coordination – but I view them as a supplement instead of the way to train.
Rather than maximal exertion every session, I follow a systematic plan prioritizing gradual improvement. I've learned that progress doesn't require destroying myself each workout and that leaving some energy in reserve actually enhances long-term development. This approach has dramatically reduced my injuries, making consistency possible.
After the havoc I wreaked on my shoulders in my early days of weight training, I learned that having a plan ensures I don’t overdo it on one specific muscle or movement. Most muscles, especially big ones like your legs, chest, and back, respond best to twice-a-week training. You don’t have to be super sore after every workout – but odds are if you are never sore you could be working a little harder. Anywhere from 5–30 reps is good for muscle growth. While I was recovering, high rep sets helped me rebuild the ability to lift pain-free over time. Now that my shoulders have less pain, I’ve been able to work back into lower rep ranges and lift heavier again. I use both low and high reps because they both feel good and are effective for my goals.
7. Rethink Cardio
I don’t spend hours doing cardio anymore. I was using it as a means to balance my caloric budget, but it was actually counterproductive to my goals. I wanted to be healthy and fit; trying to use cardio to accomplish that just made me skinny. Excessive cardio not only consumes time but can actively deplete muscle mass. There are limits to the idea that if a little bit of something is good a lot will be better.
Running and biking are great ways to build cardiovascular endurance, but if you build your entire movement practice around them you’ll end up stiff, injured, and under muscled (as I learned in my endurance phase). Dynamic sports (tennis, pickleball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee) are also great ways to build cardiovascular endurance while also asking your body to move in different ways. They’re also social and fun. Walking is also underrated: it supports the caloric budget without accumulating a bunch of fatigue on your joints.
I’m not saying don’t run. But if running is all you do for fitness, consider expanding your horizons – you might find other things you enjoy.
The Results: Progress Without Perfection
As a result of these changes, my body is in the best shape it’s ever been. I feel great, am happy with my appearance and, while I’m not quite satisfied (I’m not sure I ever will be), I’m proud of the body that I’ve built. Better still, I enjoy the process now that I know how to improve it and can see measurable progress. More than anything, this exploration has helped me to fall in love with the physical practices that I do – so it doesn’t take a ton of discipline to stick to them.
I can’t help but laugh when I look back at my younger self, so strong in his convictions. Kurt Vonnegut said, “There are times in life where your only two options are to laugh or cry, and I choose to laugh because there’s less to clean up afterward.” It’s that kind of laughter. When I think about how hard I was working, in all the wrong ways, I feel sad. I look back and think that if the younger me just had some of these insights, he’d have gotten so much more out of all that effort.
I hate seeing other people doing the same thing. Trying their damnedest to slay a giant that is actually just a windmill, when the real solution is right under their nose. I don’t regret my journey. Instead, I’m incredibly grateful. The lessons sting, but not without purpose. I had to go through it to know what I know now, and to be able to help others navigate their own journeys.
Regardless of what diet you choose, make sure it’s built on a foundation of the basics. Focus on managing calories, getting enough protein, and exercising in sustainable ways. Everything else is just preference.
