A diet with an emphasis on health / wellbeing ?

[TameRacingDriver]

TLDR, I need to lose weight. However, I feel like improving my health is the most pressing priority, and most likely the most sustainable way to eat long term.

I'm curious as to what would a meal plan that considered optimal health look like in comparison to other restrictive diets that aim to cut out certain food groups, such as Keto. A diet that would provide as close as possible to the optimal amounts of vitamins, minerals, calories, protein, carbs and fats, etc.

I figure that following such a diet may not result in rapid weight loss, but that would most likely come in time.

Answers on a postcard!

[gregs656]

Relatively high in protein, moderate carbs, plenty of veg and limited snacking - or limited junk calories in general - fruit juices, sugary sodas, booze etc. Also limited heavily processed food, and preparing your own food so you know what goes into it (because things like sauces etc can add a massive amount of calories).

[grumbledoak]

I would look to ancestral diets. We were healthier as hunter gatherers than since agriculture. After it's introduction we lost inches in height, our bones became much thinner, our brains smaller.

When people managed to study the diets of primitive peoples still eating the foods they have eaten for thousands of years, they were found to be eating three times the modern RDAs.

More meat. Little green stuff for much of the year. No cereals.

[DaveGrohl]

Reduce starchy carbs, not just what you recognise as suger. Eat more fats to compensate and improve your metabolic health in general. Healthy fats though, which doesn't mean industrial vegetable oils. But don't shy away from meat and animal fats. Veg that isn't starchy is something you can't have too much of. And generally try to minimise anything that comes out of a packet or box.

Edited by DaveGrohl on Wednesday 7th April 09:21

[mcelliott]

Avoid anything processed of course, plenty of dark leafy veg, stuff like broccoli sprouts which contain Sulforaphane which is vital for reducing inflammation and fighting free radicals, lots of salmon which is high in omega 3s, I personally limit my red meat intake to once a week, but will happily eat quite a bit of organ meat, as far as other things olives, blueberries, walnuts, pomegranate, and beets are all super healthy.

Edited by mcelliott on Tuesday 6th April 21:56

[DaveGrohl]

mcelliott said:

Avoid anything processed of course, plenty of dark leafy veg, stuff like broccoli sprouts which contain Sulforaphane which is vital for reducing inflammation and fighting free radicals, lots of salmon which is high in omega 3s, I personally limit my red meat intake to once a week, but will happily eat quite a bit of organ meat, as far as other things olives, blueberries, walnuts, pomegranate, and beets are all super healthy.

Edited by mcelliott on Tuesday 6th April 21:56

Yup, forgot to mention fish, but I always do forget because I'm not a fish fan. I take omega 3 to fill in my particular blank.

[TameRacingDriver]

Thanks for the replies. Some of the suggestions look rather unappealing but I guess that's the nature of it. Reducing processed food is a fairly easy win though, and luckily I rarely drink anything with calories (apart from the booze but that's another battle). I will investigate food that I might be tolerate and find ways of adding them to my diet.

[Burrow01]

Basic requirements for your body to function are protein and fibre, carbs and fat provide energy

Best way to balance your diet without going crazy on specifics is:

Work out your daily calorie requirements - lots of online calculators. If you are looking to lose weight eat below the "maintenance" amount of calories per day.

If you look up your protein requirement - will probably be between 60- 100g per day, much more if you are doing any resistance training, and aim for that

Add on 30g of fibre per day (hard to achieve, you end up eating lots of veg and fruit)

Manage the total calories via the amount of carbs and fat you eat on top of the protein and fibre

The types of food you end up eating to achieve this - low fat protein (chicken / fish / pulses) Fibre via fruit, veg and pulses will pretty much cover your daily requirements for minerals etc

Heatlh wise, the main priority is to maintain your BMI below 30/ 25 (depending on what you can sustain) this gives the best "bang per buck" for overall health

[grumbledoak]

Burrow01 said:

Basic requirements for your body to function are protein and fibre, carbs and fat provide energy
...
If you look up your protein requirement - will probably be between 60- 100g per day, much more if you are doing any resistance training, and aim for that
...

The human body has no requirement for fibre at all. Nothing would happen if you never ate another gram of it, apart from less coming out the other end. Some would find that their IBS clears up.

Protein requirement is around 1.3g per kg lean body body weight, more if you are trying to build muscle.

[Burrow01]

grumbledoak said:

Burrow01 said:

Basic requirements for your body to function are protein and fibre, carbs and fat provide energy
...
If you look up your protein requirement - will probably be between 60- 100g per day, much more if you are doing any resistance training, and aim for that
...

The human body has no requirement for fibre at all. Nothing would happen if you never ate another gram of it, apart from less coming out the other end. Some would find that their IBS clears up.

Protein requirement is around 1.3g per kg lean body body weight, more if you are trying to build muscle.

If you are looking for a "health promoting" diet, you should include fibre

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutri...

https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/basics/...

https://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information/nutritio...

[DaveGrohl]

Burrow01 said:

grumbledoak said:

Burrow01 said:

Basic requirements for your body to function are protein and fibre, carbs and fat provide energy
...
If you look up your protein requirement - will probably be between 60- 100g per day, much more if you are doing any resistance training, and aim for that
...

The human body has no requirement for fibre at all. Nothing would happen if you never ate another gram of it, apart from less coming out the other end. Some would find that their IBS clears up.

Protein requirement is around 1.3g per kg lean body body weight, more if you are trying to build muscle.

If you are looking for a "health promoting" diet, you should include fibre

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutri...

https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/basics/...

https://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information/nutritio...

That's quite the list of recommendations that came to be from committees. Surprised you didn't include Healthline.com from the top of the google hit list too. Same old same old. Science is moving on. The human body does not need fibre in spite of "accepted/received" wisdom. Humans can also exist perfectly well without any carbs at all. Not so with proteins and fats though. The clues are in the names: essential amino acids and essential fatty acids. We die without these.

I am not advocating cutting out carbs and fibre though, to be clear, just being pedantic soz.

Edited by DaveGrohl on Wednesday 7th April 13:08

[DaveGrohl]

Burrow01 said:

Basic requirements for your body to function are protein and fibre, carbs and fat provide energy

Best way to balance your diet without going crazy on specifics is:

Work out your daily calorie requirements - lots of online calculators. If you are looking to lose weight eat below the "maintenance" amount of calories per day.

If you look up your protein requirement - will probably be between 60- 100g per day, much more if you are doing any resistance training, and aim for that

Add on 30g of fibre per day (hard to achieve, you end up eating lots of veg and fruit)

Manage the total calories via the amount of carbs and fat you eat on top of the protein and fibre

The types of food you end up eating to achieve this - low fat protein (chicken / fish / pulses) Fibre via fruit, veg and pulses will pretty much cover your daily requirements for minerals etc

Heatlh wise, the main priority is to maintain your BMI below 30/ 25 (depending on what you can sustain) this gives the best "bang per buck" for overall health

I think once you start talking about calculators you're kind of missing the point of the OP's post as far as I can see. They're wanting to move in a certain health-led direction, any subsequent weight loss is a bonus. It's relatively easy to improve one's diet without obsessing about it. Focussing on things like calories just isn't necessary or useful.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

I mentioned this in another similar thread, I would recommend reading The Obesity Code by Dr Fung. Its got lots of solid weight loss science and helped me make sense of a lot of conflicting advice.

Or look on youtube for some summary's of the book to get the gist.

[Burrow01]

DaveGrohl said:

Burrow01 said:

grumbledoak said:

Burrow01 said:

Basic requirements for your body to function are protein and fibre, carbs and fat provide energy
...
If you look up your protein requirement - will probably be between 60- 100g per day, much more if you are doing any resistance training, and aim for that
...

The human body has no requirement for fibre at all. Nothing would happen if you never ate another gram of it, apart from less coming out the other end. Some would find that their IBS clears up.

Protein requirement is around 1.3g per kg lean body body weight, more if you are trying to build muscle.

If you are looking for a "health promoting" diet, you should include fibre

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutri...

https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/basics/...

https://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information/nutritio...

That's quite the list of recommendations that came to be from committees. Surprised you didn't include Healthline.com from the top of the google hit list too. Same old same old. Science is moving on. The human body does not need fibre in spite of "accepted/received" wisdom. Humans can also exist perfectly well without any carbs at all. Not so with proteins and fats though. The clues are in the names: essential amino acids and essential fatty acids. We die without these.

I am not advocating cutting out carbs and fibre though, to be clear, just being pedantic soz.

Edited by DaveGrohl on Wednesday 7th April 13:08

My point is that yes, you can exist without fibre, but you may be / feel more healthy with it included in your diet. Do you have any links to the effects of not eating fibre?

[Burrow01]

DaveGrohl said:

Burrow01 said:

Basic requirements for your body to function are protein and fibre, carbs and fat provide energy

Best way to balance your diet without going crazy on specifics is:

Work out your daily calorie requirements - lots of online calculators. If you are looking to lose weight eat below the "maintenance" amount of calories per day.

If you look up your protein requirement - will probably be between 60- 100g per day, much more if you are doing any resistance training, and aim for that

Add on 30g of fibre per day (hard to achieve, you end up eating lots of veg and fruit)

Manage the total calories via the amount of carbs and fat you eat on top of the protein and fibre

The types of food you end up eating to achieve this - low fat protein (chicken / fish / pulses) Fibre via fruit, veg and pulses will pretty much cover your daily requirements for minerals etc

Heatlh wise, the main priority is to maintain your BMI below 30/ 25 (depending on what you can sustain) this gives the best "bang per buck" for overall health

I think once you start talking about calculators you're kind of missing the point of the OP's post as far as I can see. They're wanting to move in a certain health-led direction, any subsequent weight loss is a bonus. It's relatively easy to improve one's diet without obsessing about it. Focussing on things like calories just isn't necessary or useful.

Calculators were only to work out your calorific requirement, its only if you want to lose weight that the suggestion was to eat below maintenance, but if you want to design a healthy diet, you need to know your calorific requirement

[gregs656]

Burrow01 said:

Calculators were only to work out your calorific requirement, its only if you want to lose weight that the suggestion was to eat below maintenance, but if you want to design a healthy diet, you need to know your calorific requirement

You really don't.

[Burrow01]

gregs656 said:

You really don't.

Because?

[gregs656]

Burrow01 said:

gregs656 said:

You really don't.

Because?

It's just a fact. You don't even need to know what 'calorie' means to eat a healthy diet.

I forgot to say in my first post to drink plenty of water.

[gregs656]

TameRacingDriver said:

Thanks for the replies. Some of the suggestions look rather unappealing but I guess that's the nature of it. Reducing processed food is a fairly easy win though, and luckily I rarely drink anything with calories (apart from the booze but that's another battle). I will investigate food that I might be tolerate and find ways of adding them to my diet.

What is your diet typically at the moment? Say a work day and a weekend?

The low hanging fruit is going to be snacks, carb and sugar heavy foods, and booze.

[TameRacingDriver]

gregs656 said:

What is your diet typically at the moment? Say a work day and a weekend?

The low hanging fruit is going to be snacks, carb and sugar heavy foods, and booze.

Breakfast: Usually ready brek or weetabix with semi skim milk (and yes a *little* added sugar, maybe 1 teaspoon max)
Dinner: Sandwich of some description in white bun - e.g. cheese and cucumber, bacon and egg, chicken breast
Snacks: Half an Apple, a few strawberries, raw carrot, cucumber, dark chocolate
Tea: Chicken breast and chips + salad / Chicken Fajitas / Beefburger and chips / Chicken Breast + Spicey Rice / Sausage, Bacon, Egg, Beans / Roast chicken/beef with roast or mash, yorkshire pudding, veg, gravy

Have discovered recently bread is making me feel bloated and a bit ste, and I've always struggled to lose weight. Having burger tonight so am going bunless.

Weekends are pretty much the same, but for a tendency to eat more sweets / crisps / booze and the occasional takeaway (which I *always* regret the next day, or worse at 3am that morning).