00:00All right, what's going on everyone and Happy New Year. So in this video what I want to do is go
00:03through the top five mistakes that I see people making with their diet, especially now here in
00:07the new year, as many people are trying to lose fat, build muscle, and get healthier. And even
00:12though I do see these things as mistakes, anyone who's committed to doing their best to improve
00:16their body composition does deserve some credit. So if you found any of these things working for
00:20you, then that's totally fine. So with that out of the way, let's dig into the first common diet
00:24mistake, which is simply focusing far too much on the little details. And this is what we call
00:29putting the cart before the horse or majoring in the minors. Now because there is so much
00:34information out there on nutrition, and every voice on this topic tends to try to spin their
00:38info in some unique way, people tend to start focusing on the minor details that aren't actually
00:42moving the needle much when it comes to losing fat or building muscle. For example, many people
00:47will switch to organic produce thinking it's going to help them lose more weight or improve
00:50their health. Whereas in reality, if it makes any difference at all, it's extremely small,
00:55especially for the cost. One systematic review published in the Annals of Internal Medicine
00:59looking at over 200 independent studies on organic versus conventional foods, found no evidence
01:05that organic food is more nutritious. In fact, out of those 200 plus studies, only one nutrient,
01:10phosphorus, was superior in organic foods, and even that effect went away when the researchers
01:14removed a single study from their analysis. Granted, many people choose organic because they think
01:18it's safer, but this is far from agreed upon as well. So while there could be some benefits,
01:23it's far from the first thing people should turn to in making a change to their diet,
01:26and often can distract from what really matters, which we'll get to. Another example of this is
01:30the glycemic index. Not many people realize that glycemic index values only apply when foods are
01:35eaten on their own. Even though white rice is considered a high glycemic carb source, when is
01:40the last time you ate a plate of white rice on its own? Chances are you'll be combining that rice with
01:45a protein source like salmon and hopefully a vegetable source. In this case, the fat from the salmon and the
01:50fiber from the broccoli will slow down the rate of digestion so that the blood sugar spike you'd normally see
01:56is significantly blunted. So under most circumstances, unless you're a diabetic, you don't
02:00really need to worry about the glycemic index too much. Now that isn't to say the glycemic index is
02:05totally useless. For example, I try to prioritize low glycemic carb sources in a low-fat pre-workout
02:10meal, but it still occupies way too much of the limelight for people trying to lose fat or get healthier
02:15and can once again distract from the things that really matter. I also think meal timing hogs too much
02:20of the spotlight. Originally, people used to think that you had to eat six meals a day to stoke the
02:25metabolic furnace, but that turned out to be a complete myth. Now, most people seem to have flipped
02:29to the exact opposite stance. Now, fasting is the key, and you should only eat one or two meals a day.
02:34However, emerging evidence suggests that the benefits here just come down to daily caloric intake for
02:38the most part. So in my opinion, how many meals you should eat per day should be mostly up to personal
02:43preference and whatever's going to allow you to adhere to your caloric targets better overall. Assuming
02:47your goal is fat loss, intermittent fasting might help you stick to your diet better, whereas eating more meals
02:52per day might help someone else stick to theirs better. Ultimately, because total daily caloric
02:56intake and total daily protein intake are going to drive 90 plus percent of your results when it comes
03:01to body composition, especially as a beginner, these details usually are the things that can either be
03:06dictated by your schedule or just ignored depending on how much you want to squeeze out those one to two
03:11percentage points of optimization. Now, the second mistake many people make is thinking in black and
03:15white or good and bad terms. This is so common in the mainstream media where you see the target shifting
03:20from fats being bad to carbs being bad to carbs are okay, but sugar is bad. Whereas in reality,
03:26there are so many shades of gray to these blanket statements. And all of these things can be bad if
03:31they're leading to excessive fat gain or if they're displacing other nutrients in the diet, but none of
03:35them are really bad in a vacuum. You just need to look at the diet as a whole and all of these common
03:40culprits can have a place in a healthy diet. So when it comes to health, rather than setting up an
03:44exclusive diet where you pick things out that you should never eat, I prefer to set up an inclusive diet
03:50and instead focus on prioritizing certain foods and nutrients. So for example, when it comes to health,
03:55there are a few guiding principles that you can set up. First, you want to aim for at least three to four
03:59servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit per day. Second, you want to rotate your sources of
04:04fruits and vegetables and eat foods of different colors. You should also try to eat fatty fish once or
04:08twice a week and overall try to stick to a whole foods, minimally processed diet 80 to 90% of the time.
04:14Then for the other 10 to 20% of calories, you can eat what you enjoy, which is going to improve your adherence over time
04:19without derailing your progress. Okay, so number three is making sudden drastic changes to your diet.
04:24This is really common in the new year when motivation is high and people want to get their results right away.
04:30So you'll see some people slashing their calories in half, trying to lose 20 to 30 pounds in a month,
04:34and by the same token, you'll see some people who want to build muscle load up on weight gainer shakes
04:39and eat as many calories as they can stomach. And while I love the motivation, generally it is more effective over the long term
04:44to go with a more moderate and sustainable approach. So when cutting, a slower rate of weight loss is going to
04:49preserve muscle mass so much better, meaning if you crash diet on very low calories, you may lose more weight,
04:55especially in the short term, but you'll also risk losing a larger proportion of that weight from muscle.
05:00And in my coaching experience, you also run a greater risk of rebounding after you reach your goal weight.
05:04Most people just end up feeling so deprived after a crash diet that they end up gaining all the weight back anyway.
05:09So when it comes to both cutting and bulking, a more gradual approach is usually more effective.
05:14For fat loss, I generally recommend a deficit no bigger than 25%. As a rough ballpark, losing about 1% of your body weight per week
05:21will maximize fat loss while minimizing muscle loss. So if you weigh 200 pounds, losing about 2 pounds per week
05:28it's going to make sure you preserve as much muscle as possible while losing fat.
05:32Granted, this does depend on your starting level of body fat, and I really like this figure from Revive Stronger
05:37where you can see that the more body fat you have, the more you can get away with faster rates of weight loss
05:42without risking as much muscle loss.
05:44Now when it comes to gaining, it really depends on how experienced you are.
05:47Because you'll have a greater capacity to build muscle as a beginner, you can generally get away with bigger caloric surpluses.
05:52So for a new lifter with the primary goal of building lean mass, I recommend starting at about 25% above maintenance.
05:59In the case of so-called hard gainers, your metabolism might adapt upward so aggressively
06:04that you need to just bump calories way higher than what the math would show to actually gain weight.
06:09But regardless, for beginners, aiming to gain 1-1.5% of your body weight per month
06:14is a good target to maximize muscle gain while avoiding fat gain.
06:17And as you get more and more advanced, you'll want to scale those numbers back.
06:20So while these guidelines won't capture every scenario, they should hopefully give you some better footing
06:25than just slashing your calories in half or eating as much as possible.
06:28Alright, mistake number four is relying on nutrition documentaries as a legitimate source of information.
06:33Now I can't say every nutrition documentary ever made is bad, but I've seen all the popular ones
06:38and I haven't seen one yet that I'd actually recommend.
06:40And the reason for this is that they're generally created by producers that already have an idea in mind
06:45that they then try to prove to you.
06:47And in nutrition, this is especially easy to do because there are so many divergent findings in the scientific literature.
06:52So any documentarian could just go searching for studies that support their position
06:56and then piece it together into a narrative that feels very convincing to the viewer.
07:00You can contrast this with actual scientific literature where the goal isn't to prove any given position,
07:05but rather to collect evidence and draw conclusions based on whatever the data says,
07:09whether it supports your bias or not.
07:11Also, just because something is on television or on Netflix or even has a bunch of views on YouTube
07:15doesn't mean it's reliable.
07:17Generally, this sort of reach just comes from whether or not the content is emotionally appealing enough
07:21to attract a broad audience and that tends to come with a lot of bias.
07:25So rather than turning to Netflix, I'd recommend reading actual research reviews.
07:28Now, these aren't free, but they are affordable for what you get.
07:31And I'll just put a table up here of the ones that I personally subscribe to
07:34and I'll link them down below as well.
07:36And what you get from these is information coming directly from the scientific literature as a whole
07:40rather than one producer's point of view that's often twisted to fit a narrative.
07:44Okay, and the final mistake is focusing too much on supplements.
07:47Now, that isn't to say all supplements don't work.
07:49It's just that we should be putting them at the very tip of the iceberg,
07:52but most people who want to lose weight or build muscle turn to supplements as a first course of action.
07:57Now, as a beginner, I think the only supplement I'd strongly recommend is whey protein powder,
08:01simply because getting in enough protein from whole food sources alone is often pretty tough.
08:05Also, if you're looking for a little extra edge, you can use creatine and caffeine
08:09as they're both well supported by a solid body of science.
08:11But beyond those, the evidence supporting supplementation starts to get much more mixed
08:15and in my opinion should apply to more intermediate to advanced level trainees
08:19looking to squeeze out every little bit of progress that they can.
08:21And in my nutrition guide, I organize supplements into tiers of priority
08:25and I'll put that up here as well in case you guys are curious which supplements I recommend over others.
08:29So that's it for this one, guys.
08:30If you're interested in learning more about my full approach to nutrition,
08:33I recommend checking out my nutrition guide over at jeffnipper.com
08:36where researcher Chris Barakat and I explain exactly how to set up your calories, macros,
08:40and every other element of your diet depending on what your main goal is,
08:43whether it's to lose fat, build muscle, or do both at the same time.
08:46And for the new year, I'm offering the nutrition guide at 20% off
08:49with the purchase of any training program on my website, including my new full body routine.
08:53So I'll put a link to the nutrition guide over here next to my head if you guys would like to check it out.
08:56Don't forget to leave me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video, subscribe if you haven't already,
09:00and I'll see you guys all here in the next one.
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