Back in 2003, at Brown University, Dr. Rena Wing and her colleagues knew that the biggest problem is not taking fat off, it’s keeping fat off. So they designed a study where subjects were told to break their diet for at least two weeks. The scientists were intentionally trying to get people to go off their diet and regain weight so they could study relapse and how to best get back on the wagon afterwards.
During the controlled diet portion of the study, the subjects were put on a standard weight loss diet and told to avoid 13 foods, including cheese, burgers, cakes, and pastries. During the break part of the study, those foods were allowed again.
After breaking the diet for weeks, you would expect the subjects to regain fat like crazy. But…
The results of this study were totally unexpected…
Shockingly, the subjects didn’t regain the weight, or at least not much. Not only that, they were able to get right back on their controlled diet easily.
At the end of the year, there was no difference in the amount of weight lost between the strict all the time group and the group that took a diet break and allowed themselves to eat those fatty, sugary foods like cake.
Dr Wing’s team was flabbergasted at this outcome…
The researchers failed miserably in the sense that their hypothesis was wrong, weight was not regained, and the dieters got right back on with no problem.
But they succeeded in the sense that these results opened up a whole new set of questions and a whole new area of research: Flexible Dieting.
Here’s the gist of what flexible dieting is:
Suppose you’re trying hard to diet strictly, aiming to be perfect and have no lapses. Then something in your life happens to you, sometimes out of your control (injury, job stress, moving, vacation, etc).
You fall off your diet and then figure, “Ah what the hell, my diet is already blown” and you proceed to binge even more.
But remember what happened in the “diet break” study…
The dieters were told to go off their diet on purpose, and they gained little or no weight back and ended with the same results as the strict dieters after a year. (But they had a lot more fun eating the food they wanted to eat).
How do we explain these strange results?
How does being LESS strict on your diet produce the same fat loss – or better fat loss?
Psychologists concluded that it was largely about CONTROL. And there are two types:
1. Rigid dietary control: super strict; no cheating allowed. Aiming for 100% perfection.
2. Flexible dietary control: more relaxed; intentionally allowing a small percentage of your calories to come from favorite foods – even burgers, cheese, and cakes.
After the groundbreaking 2003 study, dozens more studies on flexible dieting confirmed it:
When you allow yourself diet breaks and allow yourself to enjoy your favorite foods, it actually works better than trying to be too rigid.
The reason is psychological:
When you include treat foods on purpose, and it’s under your control (it’s your decision), you no longer feel like you’re blowing your diet. It’s simply a part of the diet from the beginning. It’s a PLANNED diet deviation.
Some people say, “Isn’t that what having a cheat meal is?” Well, not exactly, because if including your favorite foods is part of the plan, it’s not cheating, it’s just part of the plan. “Cheating” induces guilt and that’s not helpful when you’re trying to get leaner.
It’s also important to remember that dietary flexibility does not mean a free for all cheat day. Cheat days can backfire. So can random cheat meals that are not part of the plan.
Here’s how it’s possible to eat any type of food and still lose fat…
The whole idea is to avoid rigid dieting and avoid banishing favorite foods or entire food groups, because it’s better for your mental and emotional health.
Being flexible also helps prevent bingeing because including treat foods is like a release valve.
Without that occasional pressure release, the stress and deprivation of a rigid diet can build up and “burst” in the form of a massive binge. And that can derail you completely, making it hard to get back on track.
But when practicing flexible dieting, you must still exert a certain amount of control: If you care about your health, most of your calories should still come from unprocessed nutrient-dense foods.
And if you want to lose fat, you must fit your treat foods into a specific calorie budget (deficit) with specific protein, carb and fat targets. You don’t eat the treat foods on top of your existing plan – it’s built right into the plan.
I call this “macro-based meal planning,” a system I teach in my e-book, the Burn the Fat Guide To Flexible Meal Planning (2021).
The program in this e-book uses the scientifically-proven concept of flexible dieting: You can include all your favorite foods and still lose fat as long as you make it fit your macros.
But flexible meal planning goes even further. Rather than simply thinking about individual foods, it’s about planning an entire DAY of eating with flexibility – even the number of meals and time you eat them. You can even customize your macros rather than stay locked into one macro ratio.
This “Flexible Meal Planning” is the next evolution in the field of flexible dieting.
It’s exciting. Research has continued to pour out of universities proving the power of this approach.
Not only does “being less strict on your diet burn more fat and help keep it off better,” the most recent research also says this:
Flexible dieting eliminates bingeing, cuts cravings, reduces body image disorders, and restores your relationship with food. You no longer feel deprived. And you no longer obsess over your diet.
Even more exciting, the newest iteration of flexible meal planning was just released for November 2024.
In this update of the Burn the Fat Guide to Flexible Meal Planning For Fat Loss, the biggest change is the 50 new recipes in the back of the e-book. That means it’s now like a combination of flexible meal planning guide AND fat-burning cookbook.
You can learn the Flexible Meal Planning system, and get the tasty recipes too at the page below:
==> Click Here For The Guide To Flexible Meal Planning For Fat Loss V 2.0
Tom Venuto
Author of Burn the Fat Guide to Flexible Meal Planning For Fat Loss
Founder of Burn the Fat Inner Circle
PS. If you already purchased the original 2021 1st edition of the ebook and you are now interested in the updated 2nd edition for November 2024, then you to do NOT have to buy the second edition at full price. As a Black Friday special, what I’ll do is, if you have a receipt or if your name is even just in our previous book purchase customer system, e-mail me for a 75% off discount coupon.
==> Click Here To Message Me For A Discount Coupon
Scientific references:
Wing R, et al, Prescribed “Breaks” as a means to disrupt weight control efforts, Obesity Research, Vol 11, number 2, 287-292.
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