Diet Culture and Putting on Timber

I have submitted my English Literature dissertation. As the word count for my dissertation increased, so did my waist circumference. So, today I am writing to you about my weight gain. And diet in relation to that.

My weight has fluctuated during my adult life so far. I’m well into my 22rd year on Earth, so we’re talking about nearly half a decade. I gained a bunch of weight in the past which compounded to about 13 stone, and then I managed to lose it again. Recently, with the University stress and… other stress… I managed to gain a substantial amount of it back. I weighed myself this morning and I was twelve stone eleven.

• 12St 11lb / 81kg

This puts my BMI comfortably in the overweight category for my height, and I’m not tall. It’s also nearly back up to my maximum weight.

My body fat percentage sits at 20% according to Calculator.com (1). Their measurements are based on the ‘U.S. Navy Method’ (2) and places me in the middle of average according to the American Council on Exercise (3).

Based on these, I am going to suggest I am somewhere between the upper end of normal weight and overweight. To be clear, I am not bothered by carrying some extra timber. I was always the skinny guy growing up, so I derive some gratification from being on the bigger side. I also have plans to play rugby in the next season, a bit of bulk certainly doesn’t hurt on the field.

The problem is, I’m not gaining it in the right way. I’m doing it through eating massive amounts of really unhealthy food. This is a habit I’m getting better at controlling, but I was addicted to junk food in the same manner I was addicted to nicotine. I’m not all the way better, either. Yesterday I consumed a large Dairy Milk bar in the morning, and a Galaxy chocolate bar of equally-enormous dimensions in the afternoon. This is on top of three meals that I wolfed down, and a slew of snacks.

As my reader, this is my advice to you. If you know your habits aren’t healthy, focus on the habits and not the numbers- While I’m getting back in the gym, I should expect to find I gain weight in muscle (4) which can tip the scale regardless. The BMI test has been shown to have an ethnic bias (5) and a slew of other problems (6). I would posit that it’s a good rough guide, which is why I’ve mentioned it at all; just be aware that your fitness doesn’t come down to a single number. Your goals are individual to you.

Losing weight inherently requires that you either eat less calories or burn more of them. A hypocaloric diet. But remember: Weight is a complex interplay of genetics, environment, culture and sociological circumstances. In fact, studies show ‘a nutritionally balanced [emphasis on nutrition] hypocaloric diet has been the recommendation of most dietitians who are counseling patients’ (7). Obviously, this book chapter recommends eating less calories, but it also emphasises the importance of a balanced diet. This is as opposed to emphasising calorie-cutting as a benchmark of dietary perfection (perfection doesn’t exist).

I have my own experience with this.

Weight and its Influences

I have spent the equivalent of years gorging myself on quantities of junk food that could probably send other people to hospital. In such a time, I also don’t seem to have gained more than a few stone. My organs might be crying, but outwardly I seem to have a genetic propensity to not put on much weight, and when I’ve taken action to lose it I generally succeed. Other people in my life have also commented on both the speed at which I eat and the quantities of it. Whenever I binge on food, which I have previously done for months at a time, I surprise myself in retrospect that I’ve only been to hospital once in my life, and I’m not convinced that my diet was a factor. So that’s genetics. Probably. Kind of. There’s also likely some genetic factors which influence my propensity to eat a lot, and quickly. I still have the power to change this, but genetics might influence the addictive pattern I keep noticing.

Then, there’s the environmental factors. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking finances, stress and conditioning.

A quick Google search takes me to an academic article, revealing other factors such as ‘Food Availability […] Transportation [and] Work Environment’ (8). If it were me writing this, I would have added disability to that list. The social systems around us, and the degree of accessibility of certain systems, compels the way we live, and the way we live is like a code-formula which dictates the weight we gain or don’t gain (all else being equal). When I was at school, I would have to walk a mile and a half every morning to get there. I’ve never been one to drag my feet and I would get there in about half an hour. I don’t recall being late even once.

That exercise- and the pace at which I performed it- probably influenced my decision to take up running in high school. Being a skinny child, running probably contributed to the stable weight I sustained throughout adolescence. Fast-forward to the present, I am a chubby adult, in the last year of an undergraduate degree. Bringing myself to university in the morning generally involves performing a similar amount of exercise, but I don’t go in every day, and I have long breaks in between terms. Recently, my lifestyle has been sedentary, asides from the occasional jog. With shifting timetables and variable contact hours, I watched my weight fluctuate on the scale dependent on how often I was commuting to the University. During holidays, I would watch my weight positively balloon, because I was sitting at home all day. My life as an undergraduate is coming to an end, and I’m jumping into a busy job after this is all said and done. When that becomes my reality, the temptation to overeat will likely become even greater. I have a few months to make some progress in terms of my mental resolve, and hopefully my body too, for reasons of co-occurrence.

I’ve long had daily and weekly routines, written out and followed to varying extents. However, my general tendency is to go to bed later than I say I will, wake up late, eat a mountain of horrendous processed food, and struggle to get tasks done. I’ve come to understand that a routine requires mental fortitude. I can get done everything I want to, but I must retain a modicom of discipline in my life, a foundation which is built upon sleep, diet and exercise. Writing this blog is motivation for me to kick these factors of health into line. Marking the commencement of a weight management journey on this site should compel me to see it through. Am I sitting here with a packet of Wispa Bites? Yes. Am I going to eat them? Yes.

Am I going to stop eating senselessly? Yes.

On that last point I am resolved. It’s the one that matters.

How I want to Manage my Weight

I have pursued many diets and approaches to weight loss. During the latter half of the last decade, I was drawn in by Jordan Peterson. Like most boys and young men, anybody who talks about masculinity and dominance is- and remains- incredibly alluring to me. I soon discovered Peterson’s ravings about the carnivore diet (9) and soon thought I’d give it a try. I managed to subsist on an all-meat diet for a number of months, and the mental benefits were quick to take effect. Within a week, I was clear-headed and all the negative mental chatter went away. It seemed quite miraculous. My interpretation of this, as far as I understand the science, is that ketogenic processes associated with low-carb diets can produce a sense of euphoria or mental clarity (10). I quickly began raving about it, mostly to the bemusement of adults and peers around me. I can’t really argue I suffered any notable-ill effects from short-term implementation. There are testimonies of people finding use in them (11) and others use it as a modified elimination diet (12), so long as the aim is to reintroduce other foods. I’m not saying it’s not worth trying as a last resort. Having said that, Dr. Chinta Sidharthan has evidence proving the diet is really risky.

‘A systematic review of meat consumption and health risks found that excessive red and processed meat intake is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Research has also found that high-meat diets can lead to an increase in trimethylamine N-oxide, a compound linked to cardiovascular disease risk. Furthermore, a recent study highlighted the potential risk of kidney stones associated with the carnivore diet.’ (13)

Why did I give it up? I can’t remember. This is something I did as a teenager. As an adult, reason itself tells me a carnivore diet can’t be sustainable. I have a better understanding about how nutrition works and I can’t imagine that most people could sustain themselves on this diet without any ill-effects. I get the sense that I was bored with it, and my friend Noran was concerned I had lost too much weight, and I think he might have been right.

I think the carnivore diet could benefit some people. The problem is I threw myself at it because it made me feel better. Well, recreational drugs aren’t good, despite the fact they make their users feel good. So goes dieting. You’ve got to follow the evidence, rather than being a disciple of a radical diet espoused by a humanities professor- for example.

An ex-girlfriend of mine is a vegan, and she’s taken me to vegan restaurants before now. I have to say, I have enjoyed the food every time. I dared a vegan burger the last time we met up as friends. The texture was beautiful, it was aromatic, and one could tell that time was taken to construct flavour, in the pursuit of matching the taste of beef. It was a bit too much for me, and I did not manage to finish it. However, I did think about that burger afterwards, and the possibilities that plant-based diets bring (14). So watch this space.

However, let’s leave that where it is for now.

I found an image to accompany this blog post, an image from Lauren Manning. It is a picture of a gingerbread man, and within the quote it says ‘DIETS ARE SAD. Instead, enjoy proper food, three times a day. (Not too much, not too little.)’ (15). Any radical diet is likely to be unhealthy in the long run. Case in point, I can’t promote the carnivore diet to anyone. I advise you to work on the principle that diversity is best in food, as it is in life.

So, I’ve covered an example of radical eating, what about attempts to restrict eating?

À la the bygone era of my Petersonian zeal, I have also found myself swept up in fasting fads. While the carnivore diet allows you to eat as much as you want, so long as it is meat, fasting methods require you to not eat for a given period. I’ve managed to complete 16:8 (16) and 18:6 fasts (17) before, but I have consistently failed to last a full day. I recall, in the past, how I often intended to complete a full-day fast, only to eat two meals before I had remembered the intention. I remain interested in the subject of fasting, and the possible benefits it brings (18). Part of the reasoning for this is the proported effect of intermittent fasting on blood sugar control (19). However, everything in life is a balance. Defenders of fasting will claim that it is the miracle cure to all disease.

My dad always says that if something sounds too good to be true, it is. How can not eating food magically turn you into a longevity superhero? It bloody doesn’t. It might be helpful, but it isn’t the elixir of life. I’ll stake my reputation on that.

It is also true that prolonged fasts can cause spikes of cortisol (20) and actually increase insulin resistance (21). If you’re not familiar with what this means, just know that both of those things are bad (cortisol is a stress hormone and insulin resistance precurses diabetes). Furthermore, a new observational study has suggested an association between 8-hour restricted eating and cardiovascular death (22). Put simply, fasting can be taken too far and knock you off kilter. Instead, nutritionist Marissa Kai Miluk says to ‘prioritize eating three meals a day first and foremost’ (23).

I am aiming for three meals a day. My approach to fasting will be to engage with it once in a while, but not to have a specific fasting regimen. I will advise you to keep a keen eye on the the world of fasting: Who knows what other benefits the evidence will demonstrate. Just remember, it’s no miracle cure. You’d have already heard about it, if it was. Be advised: those with eating disorders related to calorie restriction should not engage with fasting. Certain demographics may also be at risk from fasting.

Seeing as dieting is not a perfect science, I am not aiming for perfect solutions.

Instead of having some restrictive checklist to eat by, I will be making intuitive and mindful choices based on what’s available to me (24, 25). Three meals a day seems to be my natural tendency. As for weight management, the intuitive eating movement involves accepting your body type. As I have mentioned previously, my dietary concerns center on unhealthy habits. My fatness seems to be downstream from that. If my dietary habits improve, and I discover I remain overweight, that’s not a problem. As I have said, I like being a bit on the heavier side. Rediscovering my former slimness would be just as satisfying- but not necessarily more satisfying. I’ll just have to see what my body does. I will accept myself either way.

Every week I will post a diet update. Exercise and sleep are the other integral factors in weight loss, and I will be posting about both of these topics in due course.

Again, watch this space.

Thank you for reading. I hope you found this exploration of diet topics useful.

Regards,

Jed.

Sources

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