Eating ‘Healthy Food’ Does not Equal Weight Loss

The following is guest post from John Barban. John is a professional strength coach and author of  “The Anything GoesDiet” and “Venus Index Workout”

I personally don’t believe in good vs bad food, and that all foods can be part of a weight loss program.

So what is the deal with ‘healthy’ food anyway? Why do so many marketers talk about it?

The issue is that they are confusing the concept of ‘healthy eating’ with ‘weight loss’.

You can overeat ‘healthy’ food just like any other food. Some items like raw fruit and veggies are difficult to overeating…but other than these two categories all food can be overeaten. And overeating causes weight gain no matter what the food is…even so called ‘healthy food’.

Overeating healthy food doesn’t make you any healthier than if you overeat any other kind of food. That is because health and bodyweight are directly related.

Almost every known marker of health improves as you lose weight.

This includes blood pressure, heart rate, blood lipids, triglycerides, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, liver enzymes etc.

So the weight loss itself is what is healthy. Suggesting there is a correct or healthier way to eat to lose weight is like saying there is a healthier way to become healthy. It just doesn’t hold water when you actually look at the research.

So whatever foods you choose to eat that fit your lifestyle and allow you to stay on track with your weight loss progress are exactly the right foods for you to eat.

Staying in a positive frame of mind and feeling less isolated and less deprived during your weight loss journey is much more important than creating regimented good food vs bad food lists and beating yourself up every time you ‘cheat’ off of your lists.

Remember that weight loss itself will produce just about every measurable health benefit you can think of. And the way you lose weight is creating a caloric deficit with foods you like and
can manage.

If you feel like you also want to change some of the food items you regularly eat then that is something completely different and a project you can start after you lose the weight.

Eating less calories than the you burn equals weight loss. Stay focused on what works for weight loss and leave the endless ‘healthy eating’ debate for another time in your life.