The world, technology, and the pace of our lives seems to move faster and faster each year.  Your life not that long ago is different in so many ways from the one you’re living today.  But what about the food you eat?  Has that changed?  To any casual social media observer, dietary advice and what you’re supposed to eat seems to change every day.

And yet, dietary advice has barely budged in the last 40 years!  Starting in 1980, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) have encouraged Americans to limit saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, alcohol, and yes, excess sugar.

In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch talks about how the low-carbohydrate advocates rail against the DGAs as being too carbohydrate based, yet their wish to make the DGAs more fat and protein based are historically, environmentally, health, and budgetarily impractical.

Overly reductionist scientific factoids and tidbits are great for producing unlimited social media content but lack the big picture programming, interconnectedness, and nuance, housed Ato Z in one location, required for successful lifestyle change and optimal wellness.

And finally, the Grouch wishes we could burn all of health & wellness down and start over, beginning anew with only those who meet a minimum bar of competence.  But he knows that won’t happen because marketing, persuasion, and entertainment are what drives nutrition, not cold hard facts and science. 

Weight loss advice in 2035 will probably look a lot like it looks in 2025.  The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss, Your Behavioral Obesity Risk Score (BORS), The 3 and Only 3 Ways to Cut Calories, and Nutrition Rules and Decision Fatigue will remain pillars of any good lifestyle management plan.  There are no magic cures, quick fixes, or even science (outside of GLP-1s) coming to save us. 

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• 1980: the first edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) (3:27)
• The 7 dietary guidelines of 1980 (3:50)
• The 4 dietary guidelines of 2020 – 2025 (4:13)
• The DGAs have NEVER promoted eating sugar (5:28)
• It’s easier to reduce saturated fat than it is to reduce carbohydrate (8:12)
• It’s completely impractical for everyone to eat low carb (8:54)
• Food labeling is so deceptive (and yet within the rules) (10:58)
• When fad diets become part of your personal identity (14:01)
• Mainstream, regular diet advice is BORING! (16:34)
• Why are we obese? Occam’s razor: too many calories (17:24)
• Keeping the nutrition waters muddy is advantageous to most (22:27)
• Why social media cannot and will never work for nutrition education (23:24)
• People are ok with being lied to if it makes them feel safe/ok (28:32)
• In dieting, nothing is ever new, everything is just recycled (30:09)
• All of nutrition can be viewed through one of two lenses/camps (32:45)
• Exercising cells in a flask is not exercise (36:48)
• I hate supplements, especially in grocery stores (40:10)
• An endless amount of overly reductionist nutrition advice (42:18)
• Who is best at giving nutrition advice? (43:52)
• Timeless nutrition advice (49:32)
• Blow up health & wellness and start over from scratch (54:22)
• Marketing and entertainment will always dominate nutrition (56:17)
• The ENORMOUS DANGER of non expert persuasive speech (58:55)

Food addiction is a somewhat controversial topic.  Can you really be “addicted” to something necessary for life (i.e., food, air, water)?  Based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), the technical answer is, yes.

In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch asks whether the identification of food addiction is helpful to clients and practitioners in losing weight or whether it provides a “permission structure” enabling them to continue eating junk food and becoming an excuse for their ultimate failure.

Based on the YFAS, 25% of people with overweight or obesity are food addicted but interestingly, so are 11% of normal weight individuals.  Is food addiction concept creep or a simple expression such as “I’m starving” or “I’m freezing” or is there something more to it?

While there’s no clear answer to any of these questions, the frontline therapies for people with and without food addiction for weight loss are very similar: medications, lifestyle modification, and bariatric surgery.  We love to blame individuals for addictions; however, culture and environment are often overlooked, ignored or downplayed.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Food addiction as concept creep (0:28)
• Is food addiction a permission structure to eat junk food? (3:51)
• Food addiction OR life circumstances and food environment? (5:53)
• Sometimes your best still just isn’t good enough (7:52)
• I’m a defender of fast food, carbs, and ultra processed food (15:36)
• Junk food in “selective moderation” (15:57)
• Nutrition rules, self-binding, and setting boundaries (17:26)
• Eliminate problematic foods you can’t control from your diet (18:14)
• The two most accepted methods for identifying food addiction (21:15)
• Food addiction prevalence: 25% with overweight/obese and 11% lean individuals (27:07)
• Food addiction may be relatively short lived, transient, and self-correcting (31:08)
• Is food addiction real? Yes, but you may have to squint to see it (31:48)
• How do we treat food addiction? (32:20)
• There’s essentially no difference in how you treat someone with or without food addiction (37:08)
• I prefer “level of problematic eating” to the term food addiction (39:19)
• Chocolate, sex, nicotine, cocaine, and amphetamines (41:40)
• What heroin users during the Vietnam war taught us about addiction (45:00)
• The woman who just couldn’t stop eating McDonalds (48:12)
• I can’t put food addiction in the same category as other addictions (49:47)

There’s literally nothing you can eat that is universally agreed upon to be good for you.  Not even fruits and vegetables.  You can build out the old food guide pyramid with the foods that people are judging, demonizing, and vilifying with every single category: grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy.  So, what then are we supposed to eat?

The basis of all fad diets is fear, avoidance, and demonization that is largely determined not by scientific evidence or superior results, rather, is based upon personal preference and rationalization/justification.

In the United States we have a calories problem and there is no “superfooding”, or “nutrienting” our way out of it.  Food judgement and demonization makes some foods untouchable and off-limits but then also limits the options that we have to reduce our calories through portion control and selective moderation.

Each food is a tool, a means to an end.  There are no “good” foods or “bad” foods.  Some foods are nutrient dense and fulfill our nutrient needs while others are for pure pleasure.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Food situations I have been judged for (0:50)
• Everything You Eat Will Kill You! (8:48)
• Clean eating perfectionist health nirvana utopia (11:03)
• Weight Loss: It’s Not (All) About the Food (12:48)
• Is It Better to Eat 5 or 15 Servings of Fruits and Vegetables? (14:15)
• I don’t really like eating fruits and vegetables (15:33)
• Everyone rationalizes and justifies what they eat (17:25)
• I really like clean eating, but they take it a step too far (21:12)
• When the benefit of clean eating wears off (22:27)
• I’m not a huge fan of cheat days (27:27)
• How Much Junk Food is Too Much Junk Food? (28:34)
• The basis of all fad diets: fear, avoidance, and demonization (30:33)
• Different purposes: there are no “good” or “bad” foods (35:05)

Weight loss is the result of consuming less calories than you burn (calories in < calories out).  Most weight loss diets are sold to you with the idea that some foods are “good” for you (i.e., fat and protein) while others are “bad” for you (i.e., carbs and ultra processed foods).  There is a notion that if you just stopped eating the “wrong” foods and replaced them with the “right” foods that you’ll lose weight.

But what exactly are these “right” foods and “wrong” foods?  Diets focused on eliminating ultra processed foods (Paleo), eating the right macronutrients (Keto, Atkins), manipulating meal timing (alternate day fasting, time restricted feeding), and reducing hunger (Keto, high protein) aren’t any more effective than one another or their opposite counterparts.  But why is that?

Maybe it’s because weight loss, despite being treated like a good food bad food math equation, isn’t actually about the food at all.  14 of 25 weight change correlations are not directly related to food, only 2 of the 9 factors associated with increased longevity are connected to food, and only 1 of 8 categories of wellbeing are associated with nutrition.

In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch talks about exploring some of the “upstream” decisions that determine what we eat and how much of it we eat.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Why do we try to solve the problem with the problem? (0:26)
• Ultra-processed food, macros, meal timing, and hunger don’t really matter (1:25)
• Food has no inherent meaning, only the one you attach to it (6:28)
• 14 of 25 weight change correlations are not about food (7:31)
• Only 2 of 9 longevity factors are about the food (8:36)
• The Blue Zones and “the Power 9” (9:09)
• Nutrition: only 1 part of 8 components of wellness (12:14)
• Like an NFL quarterback, nutrition gets too much credit and too much blame (14:39)
• Can you achieve wellness without good nutrition? (16:55)
• Can you have good wellbeing with only good nutrition? (17:41)
• What are a few simple questions to ask yourself to be well? (18:19)
• What’s enough? (20:09)
• Everything in “selective moderation” (21:32)
• What is essential? (23:46)
• The myth of “having it all” (24:54)
• Try to ignore the noise, which is almost everything (29:11)
• The opposite argument, weight loss IS all about the food (32:48)
• I’m absolutely against food warning labels (33:50)
• My problem with blaming ultra-processed foods (35:49)
• Our ancestors would have killed for our modern food environment (39:57)

In today’s episode Todd discusses the 25 things that DO MATTER for weight change and the 14 things that DO NOT seem to matter to weight change, based on his analysis of The Paper Database.

He also discusses the possibility/utility of creating a weight change (loss) app called the “Behavioral Obesity Risk Score" (BORS) to help you assess your risk of becoming and/or staying obese based upon your diet, lifestyle, environment, and emotional regulation.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• What is your Behavioral Obesity Risk Score (BORS)? (0:55)
• In nutrition, everything is relative (1:16)
• The law of diminishing returns (5:31)
• Breakfast eating weight gainers be damned! (8:13)
• Be cautious in going down the “but I’m different” rabbit hole (10:18)
• I despise gamification and wellness challenges, but I could do it with BORS (14:11)

Things that DO MATTER for weight change (21:41)

• #1: Driving (21:50)
• #2: Emotional Eating (23:13)
• #3: Depression (26:00)
• #4: Short Sleep Duration (29:06)
• #5: Shift Work (30:48)
• #6: Evening Chronotype (31:51)
• #7: The Holidays (32:41)
• #8: Overeating Occasions/Celebrations (34:10)
• #9: Weekends (36:08)
• #10: Full Fat Dairy (37:37)
• #11: Soup (39:18)
• #12: Liquor (40:44)
• #13: Energy Density & Portion Size (41:30)
• #14: Cognitive Restraint (42:50)
• #15: Palatability (43:58)
• #16: Socioeconomic (45:55)
• #17: Nuts & Cereal (48:31)
• #18: Dieting vs. Dietary Restraint (50:04)
• #19: Age (51:45)
• #20: Early Weight Loss & Adaptive Thermogenesis (52:52)

Things that DO NOT seem to MATTER for weight change (54:35)

• #1: The % of Macros in the Diet (ratio of carbs, fats, & protein) (54:44)
• #2: Diet Type (55:32)
• #3: Glycemic Index & the Carbohydrate/Insulin Hypothesis (55:56)
• #4: Small Frequent Meals (57:25)
• #5: Fat Burning (58:09)
• #6: Breakfast (59:54)
• #7: Nutrition Education/Food Labels (1:00:33)
• #8: Exercise Type (1:05:09)
• #9: Eating Speed (1:05:26)
• #10: Plate Size (1:08:40)
• #11: Hunger/Appetite (1:10:31)
• #12: Food Craving (1:11:18)
• #13: Stepped Care (1:11:18)
• #14: Marijuana Use  (1:11:18)
• Other Considerations: Time & Money

There are hundreds of diet types and thousands of diet do’s and diet don’ts for weight loss.  And yet, what does every diet type have in common?  The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss.

It doesn’t matter if you eat low carb or high carb, low fat or high fat, Paleo, Keto, or alternate day fast.  Eat fat to burn fat, lift weights or run, drink water before meals, eat after 6pm, eat slowly, avoid carbs to keep your insulin low, protein and keto to suppress your appetite, or avoid ultra processed foods like the plague.

All of the (oftentimes) contradictory, factoids and tidbits, hacks, tips, and tricks do not matter.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Weight loss advice hasn’t changed for decades, and it won’t change (2:03)
• A comprehensive list of all the diet interventions for weight loss (3:26)
• Should SNAP benefits really exclude soda? (7:51)
• If all diets suck the same, can I just pick the one I like? (10:51)
• Stay suffering in the familiar or embrace freedom and uncertainty? (12:11)
• The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss are… (15:05)
• #1 Meal plan to create a calorie deficit (15:25)
• #2 Log your food daily and self-correct as needed (19:59)
• How long do I have to food log for? (21:08)
• Food logging is really just “checking your work” (23:06)
• Hunger, satiety, and intuitive eating are relatively worthless in the 21st century (24:09)
• Food logging in real time, not daily (24:32)
• #3 Exercise 300 minutes a week (25:22)
• Will Smith, Hugh Jackman, and the jacked Cross-Fitter (28:23)
• Todd’s exercise history and the importance of being flexible (33:35)
• I’ve never regretted doing a workout (43:03)
• Don’t worry about doing things right or knowing what to do (44:39)
• #4 Weigh yourself at least once weekly (46:41)
• #5 Control your food environment (51:48)

To lose weight, the standard advice is to follow this simple formula: estimate your metabolic rate to see how many calories you burn (calories out), then log your food to make sure you consume (calories in) fewer calories than you burn.  By creating a deficit of say, 500 calories a day, you will lose one pound of body mass per week…or so the thinking goes.

If only losing weight were that simple.  Energy balance (calories in – calories out) is the foundation of weight loss; however, the 3500 calorie rule for weight loss is misleading, we’re terrible at estimating your metabolic rate (calories out) and we aren’t great at measuring the calories you consume (calories in).  We’re playing the weight loss game with faulty information.

People want to know their metabolic rate, because they want to know how many calories they can get away with eating and still lose weight.  I believe this is the wrong approach and only leads to consuming too many calories a day to achieve the type of weight loss you’re looking for.

Losing weight is a social, emotional, environmental problem, not a math problem.  Instead of continuing to overutilize food for pleasure, we need to (temporarily) redefine our relationship with food, build in a “margin of safety” by eating far fewer calories than the typical weight loss diet prescribes, and live with the results, knowing that you did your absolute best.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Why do we feel the need to estimate your metabolic rate? (1:11)
• We should use total daily energy expenditure, not metabolic rate (1:58)
• The Amazing Chewing Gum Diet for Detoxing and Weight Loss! (4:55)
• The two ways to measure (estimate) your metabolic rate in a lab (7:13)
• The third option to estimate your metabolic rate: an equation (13:03)
• A real life example(s) of equations being way, way off (14:16)
• The math that goes into losing weight (16:02)
• Most people with obesity actually have really high metabolic rates (16:47)
• Enlarged organs and metabolic rates in obesity and sumo wrestlers (17:19)
• How many calories can I get away with eating? Why we really measure metabolic rates (20:33)
• People notoriously underestimate the number of calories they consume (calories in) (21:35)
• We aren’t very good at estimating calories in OR calories out (22:17)
• Why you should eat the same number of calories regardless of your metabolic rate (22:44)
• Diets aren’t supposed to be fun, they’re a means to an end (23:26)
• Hypothesized weight loss in total starvation, 500, 800 calories a day for 8 weeks (25:36)
• You can only go down to eating “0” calories a day but eating more than 3,000 is easy (27:36)
• Your weight loss “margin of safety” (28:07)
• My confession about a mistake that I’ve made (29:56)
• Calorie counting (food logging) is a necessary evil (31:10)
• The precision we try to prescribe weight loss diets with is absurd and ridiculous (32:39)

Low carb, low fat, high protein, alternate day fasting, cutting out ultra processed food, eating multiple small meals a day, time restricted feeding, Keto, Paleo, you name it, what do they all have in common (besides energy balance)?  They all rely on some variation of the 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories.  

Although all diets claim to have their own “special secrets”, “magic recipes” and/or fancy narratives on how and why they work, they all use some combination of portion control, food frequency, and energy density to reduce the number of calories you eat each day.

We have 41 different well studied diet types, and yet, they all depend on just three calorie cutting methods.  In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch discusses how to utilize these three strategies in establishing your nutrition rules and controlling your food environment to create a diet that you can stick to for the long term.

Only you can decide what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat.  There’s just too many variables and too many decisions to be made for someone else to tell you how to do it.  It’s daunting and difficult to start.  But it’s worth it.  You get out, what you put into it.  Take the time to start building a solid diet foundation today.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• The 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories (1:50)
• Fad diets are a one trick pony (4:02)
• Fad diets: an overly crude and blunt instrument for a complex problem (4:43)
• People hate uncertainty, fad diets solve this (5:46)
• Food logging: you ate what you ate, big deal, please don’t take it personally (7:29)
• Fad diets are a “quick fix, get rich quick scheme” often ending in ruin (8:54)
• Should you build your house on sand or stone? (12:20)
• Fad diets are fool’s gold (13:30)
• The portion size, food frequency, and energy density of breakfast tacos (14:07)
• My reluctance to use reduced fat and/or artificially sweetened products (24:49)
• Food logging sucks but you have to do it (28:10)
• Weight loss should be psychology based, not math based (33:27)

Many of us have a nearly unlimited access to a wide variety of ultra-processed, highly palatable, energy dense food.  And yet, most of us don’t gorge ourselves on these ultra processed foods at every waking moment like a bear in September.  But why don’t we?

With the risk of oversimplification, I think that most of us have some level of restraint (outside of hunger and satiety, because we know that can be overridden) based upon an internal framework of what they should be eating and how much of that food or drink they should be consuming.  Even the most uninhibited eater has his limits.  

People have some level of reasoning and rationale behind what they eat and how much of it they eat.  I call this reasoning and rationale your “nutrition rules”.  Nutrition rules are self-imposed (somewhat) arbitrary boundaries that help guide your eating.  Some people have extremely loose rules while others have very strict rules, but everyone has some set of rules, whether clearly defined or clear as mud.

I encourage you to make your own nutrition rules that fit your life and your goals, not someone else’s (i.e. a fad diet’s).  Your nutrition rules should follow the golden rule of energy balance by limiting unnecessary calories from fat, carbohydrate, and snacks, while also allowing you to fully enjoy calories from fat, carbohydrate, and snacks.  You just can’t be open to eating ALL OF THEM.

By establishing your own set of nutrition rules you’ll be able to automate and streamline your eating decisions, thus reducing your decision load (fatigue) throughout the day and freeing up more space to tackle some of the more pressing and important problems that you’re likely to encounter throughout your day.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• How much weight can you lose on a diet, exercise, meds or surgery? (1:31)
• What is your dream weight, goal weight, happy weight, and acceptable weight? (2:46)
• The first weight loss conversation you need to have (6:17)
• Flooding the zone with bullshit (8:51)
• What are Nutrition Rules? (12:18)
• Nutrition Rules = Setting Boundaries = Self-Binding (13:58)
• Mostly positive, yet mixed reviews of James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits (14:44)
• Fad diets are based upon arbitrary nutrition rules (17:33)
• You can’t trust government scientists, but you can trust gurus? (18:32)
• Any diet that is not of your own making is a fad diet (20:48)
• The golden rule of nutrition (27:13)
• Design your nutrition rules to limit unnecessary excess calories (28:35)
• How I limit some fats and how that allows to me to enjoy other fats (29:12)
• How I limit some carbs and how that allows to me enjoy other carbs (31:36)
• My relationship with alcohol and snacks (36:19)
• Fad diets depend upon executing one rule exceptionally well, forever (42:52)
• I’m not against fad diets per se, but I am against fad diet magic (43:48)
• There’s 3 and only 3 ways to cut calories and 3 and only 3 ways to eat too many (47:10)
• What is decision fatigue? (48:28)

Weight loss conversations should start out like this: weight loss is a lot harder than you think it is and it is a lot harder than you’ve been told it is.  You’re going to lose less weight than you think you should and you’re going to lose less weight than everyone has told you that you will lose.

Let’s set that all aside for a minute and talk about how much weight you can actually expect to lose on a diet and let’s talk about how much weight you can expect to lose by increasing your nutrition knowledge, exercise, diet and exercise, meal replacements, low calorie diets, very low calorie diets, intensive lifestyle modification, weight loss medications, and weight loss surgery.

Now that you know what you’re up against and what to expect, let’s see if you’re open to resetting your expectations and what method of weight loss (if any) you would like to commit to.  Because if you decide to do it, you need to go “all in” and do it, that is if you want to be successful.

It’s going to take a considerable amount of effort, but it’s worth it.  Start living by design, and not by default.

Some of the topics in today’s episode include: 

• Who cares if you lose 14.6 lbs. or 12 lbs. on a diet, they’re both underwhelming (2:31)
• What really pisses me off about people being lied to (6:42))
• Even if you know it is too good to be true, it’s difficult to not fall for it (7:55)
• There’s no number of reviews, degrees, or testimonials to filter out the good from the bad (8:42)
• The weight loss doctor who didn’t want to “start a war” with me (9:40)
• Why I don’t really care about diets lasting less than 6 months (15:05)
• Weight loss success is really the study of weight maintenance, not weight loss (17:25)
• The first 3 months of a weight loss diet are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!! (19:41)
• The “J” shaped or “flattened J shaped” weight loss curve that every diet follows (19:41)
• What a Rodney Atkins’ country song and weight loss have in common (22:26)
• The more restrictive and intense the diet, the greater the transition danger is (23:35)
• The 3500 calorie rule is not 100% fat loss, you lose lean tissue too (27:24)
• Weight loss is NOT linear, it’s just not that predictable (28:44)
• Why weight loss is expressed as a percentage and not as total pounds lost (29:57)
• Extreme variability in weight lost in dieting; why every diet can work and fail (32:14)
• The myth of finding “the right” diet for your body type or physiology (33:53)
• Finding “the right” diet type is not the same as playing the lottery (35:21)
• Live by design, not by default (35:59)
• Can knowing more about nutrition (education) help you lose weight? (36:49)
• How much weight can you lose through exercise? (39:14)
• How much weight can you lose on a diet? (43:09)
• How much weight can you lose through diet AND exercise? (44:15)
• How much weight can you lose with meal replacements? (45:45)
• How much weight can you lose with very low calorie diets (VLCDs)? (46:36)
• How much weight can you lose with intensive lifestyle modification? (46:36)
• How much weight can you lose with weight loss medications? (49:09)
• Is microdosing weight loss medications an effective strategy? (53:29)
• How much weight can you lose with bariatric surgery? (54:42)
• Summary of weight loss with diet, exercise, behavior modification, meds, and surgery (56:25)
• What is your dream weight, goal weight, happy weight, and acceptable weight? (58:15)
• If you have a lot of weight to lose, sorry to say it, but you might be screwed (1:03:12)
• Don’t give up, but you may want to change your expectations (1:03:21)