Food Energy & Weight Loss

Below is an excerpt from Part Two of

The 2004 Multi-Diet

by Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D.

Practical Guidelines for Handling Fat, Protein,
& Carbohydrate when Dieting

1. The less fat you eat the better, because dietary fat will always be added to existing bodyfat stores until needed for energy (which could be never). Paradoxically however, in order to be able to do this, you must make sure you eat a small amount of the right type of fat. You learned the basics of this in Part One and you will learn more than you ever wanted to know in More On… Essential Oil.
2. The less carbohydrate you eat the better, because more than a smallish amount of carbohydrate shuts off fat burning almost immediately. Paradoxically however, you must eat a small amount of carbohydrate because it is required for:
   1. energy by some tissues, and
   2. to burn fat normally, and
   3. to prevent proteins from being "cannibalized" to provide glucose for cells that must have glucose.

In other words, the right amount of carbohydrate keeps the brain happy while still allowing a steady stream of fat to be delivered to and burned by muscles and other tissues. Therefore, you need to strike a balance between too much and too little. This involves managing both the type and quantity of carbohydrate. More technique for doing this successfully is discussed in More On… Carbohydrate.

3. Generally, more protein is better than less protein because protein is required to keep the active tissues that burn fat functioning properly. However, if you eat too much protein, the excess will itself suppress the need to burn fat. (Many protein foods also have considerable amounts of fat in them.) Once again, you need to strike a balance between too much and too little. Your goal is to eat low-fat, high-protein foods in the proper quantities—which you will find out how to calculate in More On… Protein. [Note: a good rule-of-thumb formula for this is "one gram of protein per pound of body weight". This is not the best formula, however.]
4. If The Beast does get out of control (it inevitably happens from time to time) and forces you to "pig out", then try to direct your piggery toward either a low-fat protein food (e.g. tuna) or toward a fat-free carbohydrate food (e.g. jellybeans). Obviously, any type of pig-out will stop your weight loss immediately, but with these types of food at least you won't gain fat—and then you can examine the Multi-Diet Check Chart (which of course you’ve been using faithfully) to figure out what went wrong and resume The Multi-Diet again tomorrow.