April 30, 2025 • 21 mins
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If you grew up hearing diet rules like “don’t eat after 7pm” or “clean your plate,” this episode is for you. Today I’m breaking down five of the most common diet rules from the ’80s and ’90s and beyond — the ones that had a tiny bit of truth but ended up making us feel guilty, stuck, and confused around food.
We’ll talk about where these rules came from, what part of them still matters, and how to replace them with healthier, more sustainable habits that actually support your weight loss goals — without shame or rigidity.
You’ll learn:
- Why “don’t eat after 7pm” isn’t about the clock at all
- How the “clean plate club” messes with your hunger cues
- What really happens when you cut out all fat or carbs
- And how to stop letting outdated rules run your eating choices
Let’s clear out the old food guilt and bring in a little more freedom — you deserve it.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lisa (00:00):
This is the Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast.
I am Lisa Salisbury and this isepisode 145.
The Truth Behind the Diet Ruleswe grew up with.
Welcome to eat well.
Well, the podcast for busy womenwho want to lose weight without
constantly counting, tracking,or stressing over every bite.
(00:21):
I'm Lisa Salsbury, a certifiedhealth weight loss and life
coach, and most importantly, arecovered chronic dieter here.
You'll learn to listen to yourbody and uncover the reasons
you're reaching for food.
When you're not truly hungry,freeing you to focus on a
healthier, more fulfillingapproach to eating.
Hi all and welcome back to theEat Well Think Well Live Well
(00:43):
podcast for this last week inApril.
First I wanna remind you I'vegot a survey link in the show
notes.
I'd love to hear from you andwhat your burning questions are.
I did this about 18 months agoand it was so fun to be able to
develop episodes and seek outguests specifically to answer
your questions.
I also did a rapid fireanswering of some of the
(01:04):
questions that were less indepth, didn't need an entire
episode, and I loved that too.
So no question is too small.
Please go fill out.
That survey should take you likefour or five minutes, and
everyone that does so will beentered into a drawing for an
Amazon gift card.
Yay.
Okay, so today we're gonna talkabout those old diet rules you
(01:25):
probably grew up hearing in theeighties and nineties, depending
on how old you are, But I knowsome of these perpetuated even
longer than that.
Some of them sounded soabsolute.
Like if you ate after 7:00 PMyou'd instantly gain weight.
So I wanna revisit a few ofthese classic rules, air quotes
there that actually had a sliverof truth, but the way they were
(01:46):
taught made us feel guilty,obsessed, and just.
Bad.
Let's see what grain of truththey had and how we can possibly
reframe them if there's anyuseful tidbits in them at all.
And before you're like, Nope,I've heard all those.
I don't need to hear'em again.
I just wanna tell you why I'mdoing this.
(02:09):
It's because fad diets arealways going to exist.
Always.
We didn't get away from them inthe eighties and nineties.
They still exist.
I will talk about a couple ofthe current ones today in this
episode.
So no matter how much peoplelike me try to shout it from the
rooftops that lifestyle changeis better than any of these fad
diets.
(02:30):
There will always be some weirdtrends and people that say some
off the wall stuff to you, and Iwanna empower you to look
deeper, look deeper into thosethings, and see where the truth
is, see what is actually trueand why these fad diets latched
onto these rules.
So that you can get back to theactual truth of how wellness or
(02:52):
diet type rules might actuallyhelp you in your effort to
improve your health.
Alright, so let's start withthat classic one.
Don't eat after 7:00 PM.
So what we were told is eatinglate causes weight gain, period.
That's all we were told.
I remember thinking that thosecalories must turn straight to
stored fat if I ate after 7:00PM The truth behind it is this,
(03:17):
eating large meals right beforebed can disrupt your sleep and
possibly your digestion.
Having a rest period for yourdigestive system is super
beneficial.
Most professionals I have spokento about this have set a general
guideline would be about 12hours.
This isn't an intermittentfasting thing, it's just the
(03:38):
time that we don't eat primarilywhile you're sleeping.
That is super beneficial todigestion.
The second truth here is thatreally, if we are eating past
seven in America, that typicallymeans past dinner.
If you're in Europe or othercountries where dinner starts at
eight or even 9:00 PM then thisrule can be confusing and if not
(04:00):
downright stupid.
But traditionally, if felt like6:00 PM was dinnertime in
American households in theeighties, right?
So if you're eating past seven,you're eating past dinner.
That's, that's the crux of thisrule.
And often that eating would belike an entire meal's worth of
calories while you're watchingTV or snacking, doing homework.
So it's not that this ruleworked because your body did
(04:23):
some magical shift at 7:00 PMIt's that it worked by reducing
your caloric intake byeliminating those after dinner
calories.
Here's how it hurt us.
Made people afraid to eat evenif they were genuinely hungry,
and equated food timing withsome sort of moral failure.
(04:44):
If you are genuinely hungrybefore bed, absolutely eat a
small balanced snack, but not anentire meal.
You don't need a lot of food tofuel your body while sleeping.
You would just want to eat ifthe feeling of hunger is keeping
you awake.
But don't beat yourself up forthat.
Just take note and make somechanges to your dinner maybe the
(05:05):
next day.
You aren't going toautomatically gain weight if you
haven't over eaten during theday.
The reframe here is thinkingabout it being less about the
clock, and more about listeningto your body and honoring rest.
It's also less about the clockand more about prioritizing a
(05:27):
huge factor in weight loss,which is sleep.
And this is something that wasnot talked about at all in the
eighties and nineties, how muchsleep impacted.
Your weight loss.
So ask yourself, what do I needto sleep well tonight?
If you seriously won't be ableto go to sleep because you're
extremely hungry, yes,definitely grab a snack.
I already said that.
(05:47):
But if you are just wanting alittle something, something, you
know what I mean?
Like this is classic emotionaleating, under my definition of
being hungry in your brain andnot in your body.
Then.
Consider prioritizing sleepinstead and just go on up to
bed.
All right.
Number two, fat makes you fat.
(06:09):
What we were told is that fat,dietary fat right is bad, and
you should avoid it to loseweight.
You remember all the 100 caloriesnack packs that would be fat
free.
We got the fat free yogurt.
The fat, fat-free cookies, thefat-free salad dressings.
Do you know that snackwellsweren't even discontinued until
2022?
(06:30):
That was like three years ago.
Like that's crazy.
I can't believe people werestill eating those fat-free
cookies until just a few yearsago.
But you know this era where weall, or maybe your parents
switched to cooking spray tocook everything.
This also fed the era of theso-called light recipes.
In quotes there I subscribed tocooking Light for years, that
(06:52):
magazine, and it's myunderstanding that they had to
reduce the fat to a certainthreshold of percent of
calories, and I.
Don't remember, I think it waslike less than 30% of the
calories had to come from fat inorder to make it into the
magazine.
So what you would notice, um,and especially on the dessert
recipes, is they would be higherin sugar to boost the total
(07:14):
calories up so that the percentof calories from fat would.
Be less, right?
Does that MA math make sense?
And then they would just makethe serving size small in order
to then go back to reducing thecalories.
So we're talking like a reallyhigh sugar, lower fat brownie
that's like one inch square.
(07:35):
Uh, how, how is this likesatisfying in any way?
Um, and many of those low fatstore-bought treats would also
have an increase in sugar tomake up for the flavor and
texture lost by reducing oreliminating the fat.
This all created products orrecipes that were either the
same or actually higher incalories than their regular
(07:58):
counterparts.
But we were told that since fatwas bad.
These were the better choice,and that's how you would lose
weight.
The truth behind this is fat iscalorie dense.
Absolutely.
So portion awareness matters.
The truth is that fat has ninecalories per gram, whereas
(08:18):
protein and carbohydrates havefour calories per gram.
So that's what what it meanswhen people say fat is
calorically dense.
It has more calories per gram.
But the good news is that alittle goes a long way.
You don't have to eat high fatitems to benefit from the flavor
and texture that the rightamount of fat in a recipe will
(08:40):
contribute.
So this.
Diet rule hurt us because weended up demonizing healthy fats
and we prioritized eating lowfat, processed junk food
instead, or in my case, highsugar, low fat cookies that I
could eat a lot of in onesitting.
(09:00):
We also missed out on thesatiety and brain supporting
nutrients that those healthyfats give you.
Obviously, we wanna avoid transfats.
But healthy fats such as oliveoil, avocados, nuts and seeds
and fatty fish are essential andhelp you to feel satisfied.
So let's reframe this rule byremembering that not all fats
(09:23):
are equal.
In one of my favorite booksabout cooking and food, it's
called Salt Fat Acid.
Heat by Samin Nora, she says theaim is not to use more fat, but
to make better use of it.
I think that's such a greatreframe here.
And obviously we're not lookingto make our food greasy, right?
We don't wanna just eat, uh, putin, you know, stick in as much
(09:44):
fat as possible.
But she says quote.
fat coats the tongue, allowingvarious aromatic compounds to
stay in contact with our tastebuds for longer periods of time,
intensifying and prolonging ourexperience of various flavors.
So I think that is just sohelpful to thinking about
dietary fat.
(10:04):
It's really, it's not the aim tojust use more fat or to avoid
fat, but to make better use ofit.
So ultimately this rule isdebunked and we can think about
the healthy fats we want toincorporate into our daily
diets, knowing that it's theoverall quantity of food that is
causing the weight gain, not theincluding of the fat
(10:25):
micronutrient.
Okay.
Following up on that.
Fat conversation leads us intothe next trend, which was number
three, carbs are bad for you.
So what we were told was thatcarbs equals sugar, equals
weight gain.
We swung the other way from thefat conversation and landed into
the all fat and zero carbconversation.
(10:48):
So the truth behind it is thatrefined carbohydrates, cans
spike blood sugar and lead tomore cravings.
There's no doubt about it thatwhen my clients eat less sugar,
they end up.
Eating less sugar.
And what I mean there is thatwhen they first are working on
processing their cravings forsweetss and treats and they eat
a little less through theirthought work that we do and
(11:10):
their commitment to their goals,they notice that their desires
for more sugar go down and theyend up craving it less.
Which helps them continue to eatless sugar.
So regardless of what studiessay on blood sugar spikes from
refined carbs, basically foodscomposed of primarily sugar and
flour, you need to pay attentionto your own body and note how
(11:31):
eating these items or not eatingthem affects you.
This rule hurt us because itcreated tons of fear around
fruits, grains, and evenvegetables.
Eliminating carbohydrates alsoleads to encouraging restriction
binge cycles because eating lowcarb or no carb is not
sustainable for the vastmajority of people.
(11:53):
And that's okay.
You aren't broken if you can'tstick to keto as the fall guy,
Ryan Gosling reminds us you needcarbs.
Your brain runs on glucose.
I did a bootcamp stylechallenge.
Where even onions and bellpeppers were off limits because
of the carb content.
Super ridiculous.
(12:13):
Do not fear vegetables or fruitsof any kind.
I've had zero clients that tellme once I start eating an apple,
I just end up eating the entirebag of apples I bought.
And I think that's the problem.
Why I can't lose weight?
No, no one says this.
Fruits and vegetables are notthe problem, and even rice and
oatmeal and other whole grainsare not the problem.
(12:34):
So the reframe here is thatquality matters.
Whole carbohydrates can andshould.
Fuel your body and brain.
Women need carbs.
End of discussion.
Again, similar to the um, fatmakes You Fat Rule.
This rule is basically debunked.
(12:55):
Not all carbs are bad.
Okay, number four, this is afavorite of mine.
This rule is eat six small mealsa day.
What we were told was eatingconstantly would stoke your
metabolism.
Oh my goodness.
I can barely say this onewithout laughing.
The truth behind it is thatregular meals can help with
(13:16):
blood sugar stabilization forsome people, but the idea that
you had to eat six times per dayas if that was some magic
number.
I mean, really.
I know tons of you out there arethinking.
Yeah, I was told the six meals.
I mean, why weren't some peopletold five or seven or eight?
I don't know.
We definitely want to eat on aregular basis for sure.
(13:37):
But there is nothing abouteating frequently that actually
can help with your metabolism ina meaningful way for weight
loss.
Studies have consistently shownthat when controlled for
calories, eating six times perday, overeating three times per
day, did not provide anymeaningful metabolic benefits.
(13:59):
This rule hurt us becauseconstant grazing made us lose
touch with true hunger andfullness, and I see this all the
time.
This is the major damage.
I know.
I used to set my alarm to eatevery two hours during one,
particularly strict diet I wason, and the meals, if you can
call them, that were so tiny, inorder to keep me in a calorie
(14:22):
deficit by eating so many timesa day, I would just be counting
down the minutes to the nextone.
So instead of responding to mytrue hunger for an actual meal,
I would continue to eat thesesmall snack like portions to
just get through to the nextone.
Feeling satisfied is just asimportant to feeling hungry when
it comes to the hunger scale.
(14:42):
This idea also became one morefood rule to micromanage.
I barely wanna think of what tofeed myself three times a day,
let alone six or more times perday.
Okay, what's the reframe?
You don't need a set number ofmeals.
Learn what rhythm works best foryour body and prioritize waiting
(15:02):
for hunger to eat and theneating an actual meal to get to
that positive three on thehunger scale.
And feeling that enough feelingso that you can move on with
your day and not have to thinkabout food again in an hour.
So again, this six times a dayrule would be debunked because
it doesn't do anything for yourmetabolism.
(15:24):
But we do wanna remember thateating on a regular braces and
having breakfast and fueling ourbodies regularly is beneficial.
So we want to eat.
We want to eat regularly, butthere is no magic number of
meals.
Okay, number five.
Is, and you've heard me talkabout this, I've done a whole
(15:46):
episode on this one.
Okay.
Number five is clean your plate,or Let's be in the Clean Plate
Club.
We were told, don't waste food,finish it all, regardless of
being full.
And it was often tied to wherethe starving children were in
the world.
But the truth behind it is foodwaste matters, and gratitude for
(16:08):
food is important, but wastingfood.
Doesn't actually make you a badperson or automatically
ungrateful.
The truth is that we will haveto waste food sometimes, because
again, another old saying,sometimes your eyes are bigger
than your stomach.
That's what my grandma would sayif I couldn't finish something,
and that is okay.
(16:28):
Sometimes you just don't dish upthe exact right amount, or
you're at a restaurant and theybring out the standard portion.
They don't care how hungry youare.
The truth is that when you arein touch with your hunger and
fullness cues.
You will waste food sometimes,and that's okay.
We are human beings.
We are not robots and knowexactly how much food to put on
our plates for the amount ofhunger that we have.
(16:52):
So this rule hurts us because itbasically taught us to ignore
our fullness cues.
The eating six times a day, Ithink taught us to ignore our
hunger cues.
But this one I think is moreabout the fullness cues.
We also connected eating withguilt and obligation.
If you had parents orgrandparents or whoever was
(17:15):
feeding you, telling you that ifyou didn't eat, you were
ungrateful and that it washurting starving children
elsewhere.
So we wanna reframe this one.
It's okay to stop eating whenyou are full.
And actually the reframe here isjust the Clean Play Club is not
even cool.
Like you don't even get yourpicture in the yearbook or
anything like it's a dumb club.
(17:36):
You just throw out yourmembership card.
Um, and honestly, leftovers, ifyou're in a place where the
extra food can be saved, are agift to your future self.
That's what I had for lunchtoday, like literally right
before I recorded this.
I had leftovers from last night,and I was so happy.
You also may want to reframewith thoughts about the actual
waste.
(17:56):
I mean, I get it.
Nobody likes wasting foodbecause it feels like you're
wasting money, but is it reallybetter to waste it in your body?
Then in the garbage, you're nota human compost bin.
You don't have to finish it.
Just because it's thereconstantly eating more than you
need, then stressing about howto burn it off is also a waste.
(18:20):
A waste of time and efforteither way.
That food's not doing what youhoped.
Okay.
So the problem with all thesediet rules wasn't the original
intention.
It's possible they even camefrom well-meaning dieticians
that had the truth in mind whenthey handed them out.
It's how.
Rigid and shame inducing.
They became, and it's like a badgame of telephone.
(18:43):
I think one dietician somewherewas like, Hey, let's try not
eating after seven and see if wecan't eliminate some of that
late night stacking.
that's keeping your weight lossstack.
And then it got passed arounduntil we all believed that any
calorie consumed after a certaintime was going straight to our
hips.
It's just this bad game oftelephone where the original
intent is completely lost onmost of these rules.
(19:06):
So if you find yourself stillhearing these old voices in your
head.
I invite you to replace themwith curiosity, compassion, and
your own body wisdom.
Not only that, but when you hearof new diet rules, think about
what might have been theoriginal intent, how it's gotten
distorted, and if it's somethingthat could be useful to you or
(19:27):
if you want to just throw itright out.
I think the one that's coming tomind for me is the.
Um, the trend right now toprioritize protein, which for me
is not a trend.
It is something I work heavilywith my clients to prioritize
protein so that we aremaintaining or building our
muscle mass, and it's gottenblown completely out of
(19:48):
proportion with the carnivorefad dieting.
And so I think that's where youcan look at like maybe the
original intent of prioritizingprotein has gotten completely
and utterly distorted and all ofa sudden now we're not eating.
Any fruits or vegetables whichcompounds with the carbs are bad
rule.
So if you can see how like onetiny rule gets completely blown
(20:11):
out of proportion, watch forthose.
This isn't the end of fad diets.
There will be a new one in a fewyears and it will be just as
crazy.
I'd love for you to DM or emailme with the diet rule that
messed you up the most, and ifit's a real doozy, we might even
do a whole episode on it.
Don't forget to fill out mypodcast survey for a chance to
win that Amazon gift card.
(20:33):
And if something in today'sepisode made you think
differently or gave you thatlittle nudge you needed, that's
exactly why I do this.
If you're ready to take itfurther, I'd love to support
you.
Start with my free, what to dowhen you overeat Course that is
for you.
If you find yourself eating toomany times in a week to see
lasting weight loss, you'll getthe Reset and Recover guide and
(20:55):
figure out how to reduce yourovereats and not beat yourself
up about it.
You can also schedule a freeconsult session to see if my
full 12 week one-on-one coachingprogram is right for you.
All the links are in the shownotes.
Remember, it's not just aboutthe food, it's about empowering
yourself with choices that trulyserve you.
Have a great week and as always,thanks for listening to the Eat
(21:17):
Well Think Well Live Wellpodcast.
This is the Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast.
I am Lisa Salisbury and this isepisode 145.
The Truth Behind the Diet Ruleswe grew up with.
Welcome to eat well.
Well, the podcast for busy womenwho want to lose weight without
constantly counting, tracking,or stressing over every bite.
(00:21):
I'm Lisa Salsbury, a certifiedhealth weight loss and life
coach, and most importantly, arecovered chronic dieter here.
You'll learn to listen to yourbody and uncover the reasons
you're reaching for food.
When you're not truly hungry,freeing you to focus on a
healthier, more fulfillingapproach to eating.
Hi all and welcome back to theEat Well Think Well Live Well
(00:43):
podcast for this last week inApril.
First I wanna remind you I'vegot a survey link in the show
notes.
I'd love to hear from you andwhat your burning questions are.
I did this about 18 months agoand it was so fun to be able to
develop episodes and seek outguests specifically to answer
your questions.
I also did a rapid fireanswering of some of the
(01:04):
questions that were less indepth, didn't need an entire
episode, and I loved that too.
So no question is too small.
Please go fill out.
That survey should take you likefour or five minutes, and
everyone that does so will beentered into a drawing for an
Amazon gift card.
Yay.
Okay, so today we're gonna talkabout those old diet rules you
(01:25):
probably grew up hearing in theeighties and nineties, depending
on how old you are, But I knowsome of these perpetuated even
longer than that.
Some of them sounded soabsolute.
Like if you ate after 7:00 PMyou'd instantly gain weight.
So I wanna revisit a few ofthese classic rules, air quotes
there that actually had a sliverof truth, but the way they were
(01:46):
taught made us feel guilty,obsessed, and just.
Bad.
Let's see what grain of truththey had and how we can possibly
reframe them if there's anyuseful tidbits in them at all.
And before you're like, Nope,I've heard all those.
I don't need to hear'em again.
I just wanna tell you why I'mdoing this.
(02:09):
It's because fad diets arealways going to exist.
Always.
We didn't get away from them inthe eighties and nineties.
They still exist.
I will talk about a couple ofthe current ones today in this
episode.
So no matter how much peoplelike me try to shout it from the
rooftops that lifestyle changeis better than any of these fad
diets.
(02:30):
There will always be some weirdtrends and people that say some
off the wall stuff to you, and Iwanna empower you to look
deeper, look deeper into thosethings, and see where the truth
is, see what is actually trueand why these fad diets latched
onto these rules.
So that you can get back to theactual truth of how wellness or
(02:52):
diet type rules might actuallyhelp you in your effort to
improve your health.
Alright, so let's start withthat classic one.
Don't eat after 7:00 PM.
So what we were told is eatinglate causes weight gain, period.
That's all we were told.
I remember thinking that thosecalories must turn straight to
stored fat if I ate after 7:00PM The truth behind it is this,
(03:17):
eating large meals right beforebed can disrupt your sleep and
possibly your digestion.
Having a rest period for yourdigestive system is super
beneficial.
Most professionals I have spokento about this have set a general
guideline would be about 12hours.
This isn't an intermittentfasting thing, it's just the
(03:38):
time that we don't eat primarilywhile you're sleeping.
That is super beneficial todigestion.
The second truth here is thatreally, if we are eating past
seven in America, that typicallymeans past dinner.
If you're in Europe or othercountries where dinner starts at
eight or even 9:00 PM then thisrule can be confusing and if not
(04:00):
downright stupid.
But traditionally, if felt like6:00 PM was dinnertime in
American households in theeighties, right?
So if you're eating past seven,you're eating past dinner.
That's, that's the crux of thisrule.
And often that eating would belike an entire meal's worth of
calories while you're watchingTV or snacking, doing homework.
So it's not that this ruleworked because your body did
(04:23):
some magical shift at 7:00 PMIt's that it worked by reducing
your caloric intake byeliminating those after dinner
calories.
Here's how it hurt us.
Made people afraid to eat evenif they were genuinely hungry,
and equated food timing withsome sort of moral failure.
(04:44):
If you are genuinely hungrybefore bed, absolutely eat a
small balanced snack, but not anentire meal.
You don't need a lot of food tofuel your body while sleeping.
You would just want to eat ifthe feeling of hunger is keeping
you awake.
But don't beat yourself up forthat.
Just take note and make somechanges to your dinner maybe the
(05:05):
next day.
You aren't going toautomatically gain weight if you
haven't over eaten during theday.
The reframe here is thinkingabout it being less about the
clock, and more about listeningto your body and honoring rest.
It's also less about the clockand more about prioritizing a
(05:27):
huge factor in weight loss,which is sleep.
And this is something that wasnot talked about at all in the
eighties and nineties, how muchsleep impacted.
Your weight loss.
So ask yourself, what do I needto sleep well tonight?
If you seriously won't be ableto go to sleep because you're
extremely hungry, yes,definitely grab a snack.
I already said that.
(05:47):
But if you are just wanting alittle something, something, you
know what I mean?
Like this is classic emotionaleating, under my definition of
being hungry in your brain andnot in your body.
Then.
Consider prioritizing sleepinstead and just go on up to
bed.
All right.
Number two, fat makes you fat.
(06:09):
What we were told is that fat,dietary fat right is bad, and
you should avoid it to loseweight.
You remember all the 100 caloriesnack packs that would be fat
free.
We got the fat free yogurt.
The fat, fat-free cookies, thefat-free salad dressings.
Do you know that snackwellsweren't even discontinued until
2022?
(06:30):
That was like three years ago.
Like that's crazy.
I can't believe people werestill eating those fat-free
cookies until just a few yearsago.
But you know this era where weall, or maybe your parents
switched to cooking spray tocook everything.
This also fed the era of theso-called light recipes.
In quotes there I subscribed tocooking Light for years, that
(06:52):
magazine, and it's myunderstanding that they had to
reduce the fat to a certainthreshold of percent of
calories, and I.
Don't remember, I think it waslike less than 30% of the
calories had to come from fat inorder to make it into the
magazine.
So what you would notice, um,and especially on the dessert
recipes, is they would be higherin sugar to boost the total
(07:14):
calories up so that the percentof calories from fat would.
Be less, right?
Does that MA math make sense?
And then they would just makethe serving size small in order
to then go back to reducing thecalories.
So we're talking like a reallyhigh sugar, lower fat brownie
that's like one inch square.
(07:35):
Uh, how, how is this likesatisfying in any way?
Um, and many of those low fatstore-bought treats would also
have an increase in sugar tomake up for the flavor and
texture lost by reducing oreliminating the fat.
This all created products orrecipes that were either the
same or actually higher incalories than their regular
(07:58):
counterparts.
But we were told that since fatwas bad.
These were the better choice,and that's how you would lose
weight.
The truth behind this is fat iscalorie dense.
Absolutely.
So portion awareness matters.
The truth is that fat has ninecalories per gram, whereas
(08:18):
protein and carbohydrates havefour calories per gram.
So that's what what it meanswhen people say fat is
calorically dense.
It has more calories per gram.
But the good news is that alittle goes a long way.
You don't have to eat high fatitems to benefit from the flavor
and texture that the rightamount of fat in a recipe will
(08:40):
contribute.
So this.
Diet rule hurt us because weended up demonizing healthy fats
and we prioritized eating lowfat, processed junk food
instead, or in my case, highsugar, low fat cookies that I
could eat a lot of in onesitting.
(09:00):
We also missed out on thesatiety and brain supporting
nutrients that those healthyfats give you.
Obviously, we wanna avoid transfats.
But healthy fats such as oliveoil, avocados, nuts and seeds
and fatty fish are essential andhelp you to feel satisfied.
So let's reframe this rule byremembering that not all fats
(09:23):
are equal.
In one of my favorite booksabout cooking and food, it's
called Salt Fat Acid.
Heat by Samin Nora, she says theaim is not to use more fat, but
to make better use of it.
I think that's such a greatreframe here.
And obviously we're not lookingto make our food greasy, right?
We don't wanna just eat, uh, putin, you know, stick in as much
(09:44):
fat as possible.
But she says quote.
fat coats the tongue, allowingvarious aromatic compounds to
stay in contact with our tastebuds for longer periods of time,
intensifying and prolonging ourexperience of various flavors.
So I think that is just sohelpful to thinking about
dietary fat.
(10:04):
It's really, it's not the aim tojust use more fat or to avoid
fat, but to make better use ofit.
So ultimately this rule isdebunked and we can think about
the healthy fats we want toincorporate into our daily
diets, knowing that it's theoverall quantity of food that is
causing the weight gain, not theincluding of the fat
(10:25):
micronutrient.
Okay.
Following up on that.
Fat conversation leads us intothe next trend, which was number
three, carbs are bad for you.
So what we were told was thatcarbs equals sugar, equals
weight gain.
We swung the other way from thefat conversation and landed into
the all fat and zero carbconversation.
(10:48):
So the truth behind it is thatrefined carbohydrates, cans
spike blood sugar and lead tomore cravings.
There's no doubt about it thatwhen my clients eat less sugar,
they end up.
Eating less sugar.
And what I mean there is thatwhen they first are working on
processing their cravings forsweetss and treats and they eat
a little less through theirthought work that we do and
(11:10):
their commitment to their goals,they notice that their desires
for more sugar go down and theyend up craving it less.
Which helps them continue to eatless sugar.
So regardless of what studiessay on blood sugar spikes from
refined carbs, basically foodscomposed of primarily sugar and
flour, you need to pay attentionto your own body and note how
(11:31):
eating these items or not eatingthem affects you.
This rule hurt us because itcreated tons of fear around
fruits, grains, and evenvegetables.
Eliminating carbohydrates alsoleads to encouraging restriction
binge cycles because eating lowcarb or no carb is not
sustainable for the vastmajority of people.
(11:53):
And that's okay.
You aren't broken if you can'tstick to keto as the fall guy,
Ryan Gosling reminds us you needcarbs.
Your brain runs on glucose.
I did a bootcamp stylechallenge.
Where even onions and bellpeppers were off limits because
of the carb content.
Super ridiculous.
(12:13):
Do not fear vegetables or fruitsof any kind.
I've had zero clients that tellme once I start eating an apple,
I just end up eating the entirebag of apples I bought.
And I think that's the problem.
Why I can't lose weight?
No, no one says this.
Fruits and vegetables are notthe problem, and even rice and
oatmeal and other whole grainsare not the problem.
(12:34):
So the reframe here is thatquality matters.
Whole carbohydrates can andshould.
Fuel your body and brain.
Women need carbs.
End of discussion.
Again, similar to the um, fatmakes You Fat Rule.
This rule is basically debunked.
(12:55):
Not all carbs are bad.
Okay, number four, this is afavorite of mine.
This rule is eat six small mealsa day.
What we were told was eatingconstantly would stoke your
metabolism.
Oh my goodness.
I can barely say this onewithout laughing.
The truth behind it is thatregular meals can help with
(13:16):
blood sugar stabilization forsome people, but the idea that
you had to eat six times per dayas if that was some magic
number.
I mean, really.
I know tons of you out there arethinking.
Yeah, I was told the six meals.
I mean, why weren't some peopletold five or seven or eight?
I don't know.
We definitely want to eat on aregular basis for sure.
(13:37):
But there is nothing abouteating frequently that actually
can help with your metabolism ina meaningful way for weight
loss.
Studies have consistently shownthat when controlled for
calories, eating six times perday, overeating three times per
day, did not provide anymeaningful metabolic benefits.
(13:59):
This rule hurt us becauseconstant grazing made us lose
touch with true hunger andfullness, and I see this all the
time.
This is the major damage.
I know.
I used to set my alarm to eatevery two hours during one,
particularly strict diet I wason, and the meals, if you can
call them, that were so tiny, inorder to keep me in a calorie
(14:22):
deficit by eating so many timesa day, I would just be counting
down the minutes to the nextone.
So instead of responding to mytrue hunger for an actual meal,
I would continue to eat thesesmall snack like portions to
just get through to the nextone.
Feeling satisfied is just asimportant to feeling hungry when
it comes to the hunger scale.
(14:42):
This idea also became one morefood rule to micromanage.
I barely wanna think of what tofeed myself three times a day,
let alone six or more times perday.
Okay, what's the reframe?
You don't need a set number ofmeals.
Learn what rhythm works best foryour body and prioritize waiting
(15:02):
for hunger to eat and theneating an actual meal to get to
that positive three on thehunger scale.
And feeling that enough feelingso that you can move on with
your day and not have to thinkabout food again in an hour.
So again, this six times a dayrule would be debunked because
it doesn't do anything for yourmetabolism.
(15:24):
But we do wanna remember thateating on a regular braces and
having breakfast and fueling ourbodies regularly is beneficial.
So we want to eat.
We want to eat regularly, butthere is no magic number of
meals.
Okay, number five.
Is, and you've heard me talkabout this, I've done a whole
(15:46):
episode on this one.
Okay.
Number five is clean your plate,or Let's be in the Clean Plate
Club.
We were told, don't waste food,finish it all, regardless of
being full.
And it was often tied to wherethe starving children were in
the world.
But the truth behind it is foodwaste matters, and gratitude for
(16:08):
food is important, but wastingfood.
Doesn't actually make you a badperson or automatically
ungrateful.
The truth is that we will haveto waste food sometimes, because
again, another old saying,sometimes your eyes are bigger
than your stomach.
That's what my grandma would sayif I couldn't finish something,
and that is okay.
(16:28):
Sometimes you just don't dish upthe exact right amount, or
you're at a restaurant and theybring out the standard portion.
They don't care how hungry youare.
The truth is that when you arein touch with your hunger and
fullness cues.
You will waste food sometimes,and that's okay.
We are human beings.
We are not robots and knowexactly how much food to put on
our plates for the amount ofhunger that we have.
(16:52):
So this rule hurts us because itbasically taught us to ignore
our fullness cues.
The eating six times a day, Ithink taught us to ignore our
hunger cues.
But this one I think is moreabout the fullness cues.
We also connected eating withguilt and obligation.
If you had parents orgrandparents or whoever was
(17:15):
feeding you, telling you that ifyou didn't eat, you were
ungrateful and that it washurting starving children
elsewhere.
So we wanna reframe this one.
It's okay to stop eating whenyou are full.
And actually the reframe here isjust the Clean Play Club is not
even cool.
Like you don't even get yourpicture in the yearbook or
anything like it's a dumb club.
(17:36):
You just throw out yourmembership card.
Um, and honestly, leftovers, ifyou're in a place where the
extra food can be saved, are agift to your future self.
That's what I had for lunchtoday, like literally right
before I recorded this.
I had leftovers from last night,and I was so happy.
You also may want to reframewith thoughts about the actual
waste.
(17:56):
I mean, I get it.
Nobody likes wasting foodbecause it feels like you're
wasting money, but is it reallybetter to waste it in your body?
Then in the garbage, you're nota human compost bin.
You don't have to finish it.
Just because it's thereconstantly eating more than you
need, then stressing about howto burn it off is also a waste.
(18:20):
A waste of time and efforteither way.
That food's not doing what youhoped.
Okay.
So the problem with all thesediet rules wasn't the original
intention.
It's possible they even camefrom well-meaning dieticians
that had the truth in mind whenthey handed them out.
It's how.
Rigid and shame inducing.
They became, and it's like a badgame of telephone.
(18:43):
I think one dietician somewherewas like, Hey, let's try not
eating after seven and see if wecan't eliminate some of that
late night stacking.
that's keeping your weight lossstack.
And then it got passed arounduntil we all believed that any
calorie consumed after a certaintime was going straight to our
hips.
It's just this bad game oftelephone where the original
intent is completely lost onmost of these rules.
(19:06):
So if you find yourself stillhearing these old voices in your
head.
I invite you to replace themwith curiosity, compassion, and
your own body wisdom.
Not only that, but when you hearof new diet rules, think about
what might have been theoriginal intent, how it's gotten
distorted, and if it's somethingthat could be useful to you or
(19:27):
if you want to just throw itright out.
I think the one that's coming tomind for me is the.
Um, the trend right now toprioritize protein, which for me
is not a trend.
It is something I work heavilywith my clients to prioritize
protein so that we aremaintaining or building our
muscle mass, and it's gottenblown completely out of
(19:48):
proportion with the carnivorefad dieting.
And so I think that's where youcan look at like maybe the
original intent of prioritizingprotein has gotten completely
and utterly distorted and all ofa sudden now we're not eating.
Any fruits or vegetables whichcompounds with the carbs are bad
rule.
So if you can see how like onetiny rule gets completely blown
(20:11):
out of proportion, watch forthose.
This isn't the end of fad diets.
There will be a new one in a fewyears and it will be just as
crazy.
I'd love for you to DM or emailme with the diet rule that
messed you up the most, and ifit's a real doozy, we might even
do a whole episode on it.
Don't forget to fill out mypodcast survey for a chance to
win that Amazon gift card.
(20:33):
And if something in today'sepisode made you think
differently or gave you thatlittle nudge you needed, that's
exactly why I do this.
If you're ready to take itfurther, I'd love to support
you.
Start with my free, what to dowhen you overeat Course that is
for you.
If you find yourself eating toomany times in a week to see
lasting weight loss, you'll getthe Reset and Recover guide and
(20:55):
figure out how to reduce yourovereats and not beat yourself
up about it.
You can also schedule a freeconsult session to see if my
full 12 week one-on-one coachingprogram is right for you.
All the links are in the shownotes.
Remember, it's not just aboutthe food, it's about empowering
yourself with choices that trulyserve you.
Have a great week and as always,thanks for listening to the Eat
(21:17):
Well Think Well Live Wellpodcast.
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