Macros, Calories or Food quality? What makes a "good" diet?

One of those things that keeps popping up is the age-old question;
"What matters more Calories, Macros or food quality when it comes to diets?"

So today that is what I am talking about.

When does each of these matter and when do they not?
Do you really need a 40-30-30 macro split for "healthy eating"?
1g of protein per lbs of body weight????
Should you start with protein when planning your meal?
Does it need to be organic or not?

I, in a roundabout way,  answer all these questions.

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BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.

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Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions, comments or want to suggest a guest/topic     

Playing us out; "good times" by Tommy Welton

Transcript

Peter Lap: 0:00

Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with your postnatal expert, peter Laap. That, as always, would be me. Today, I am talking about the different kinds of eating, different kinds of diets, that we do. So I'm talking about eating for performance, I'm talking about eating for health and I'm talking about eating for weight management, because these things often get conflated and a lot of advice you see online is usually targeted at one specific type of audience and it's easy for that information to then seep into into your thinking, when your goals aren't actually the same, when you're eating is actually supposed to be different. So I'm going to clear it all up right 20, 25 minutes and after this it'll all be crystal clear. So, without further ado, here we go. Hey, welcome to the Healthy Postnatal Body Podcast with little old me. This is the podcast for the 16th of June 2024. And I, my friends, I'm talking about calories, macros and food quality. What matters more, peter at HealthyPostnatalBodycom. By the way, if you have any questions or comments, or would like to suggest a guest or would like to come on I know I'm behind on my correspondence. As I always say, if you've asked to come on to the podcast or send an email or representing someone, I'm a week or two behind. I'm terribly sorry. I'm very, very busy boy. If you're a member of HPNB then you will have noticed I'm Usually I respond same day and now it's like the day after. Anyways, peterhealthypostnatalbodycom, if you need anything. Calories, macros and food quality.

Peter Lap: 1:52

What matters more you know it's an age-old discussion. You know the fitness industry. This gets thrown up regularly in the fitness industry. Some personal trainers talk macros, some talk calories in, calories out and some just talk food quality. Nutritionists and dieticians can also fall into those brackets regularly, not always, not always, but you know a lot of them do, because the messaging is clearer and more straightforward. You know registered diitians, of course, being head of nutritionists and personal trainers, right? So let me get that very, very clear Registered dietitians are the people you really listen to. I'm really just talking about what matters more for everything. So for healthy eating, for weight loss, weight gain, weight management and all that sort of stuff, and for health.

Peter Lap: 2:48

I'll mainly be talking about health. You know we'll go into weight loss and weight gain a little bit in a little while, but so let's, let's, let's discuss macros. You know some people will say, for instance, calories don't really matter, just eat the right things and you'll be fine, and all that sort of stuff. Some people say, no, macros, macros make all the difference. Bodybuilders talk about this a lot right, the macros. And then it comes kind of into the bodybuilding and the food quality sort of thing. Joe Wicks was talking about food quality for a long time. You know, let's start by talking about eating for health first, yeah, and that's where we'll go. And then we'll talk about eating for weight loss, for performance and all that sort of stuff later on.

Peter Lap: 3:38

Right, first of all, let me say I mentioned macros. What are macros? Because that's quite important. So your macros are your fats, your carbs and your proteins, right. Then you have your micronutrients. Obviously, if there's a macro, there must be a micro, right? Your micronutrients are your vitamins and your minerals. I'll put them aside for now, but they are important. That's just in case you didn't know.

Peter Lap: 4:08

Now I know most of you, as most of you know, want to talk macros. That's what I'm talking about your fats, your carbs and your proteins. Now, you don't need to break that down anymore because macros are essentially as they are. You don't need to talk about. If you're looking at macros, you don't talk good fat, bad fat. Fat is fat for macros. Good carbs, bad carbs, low glycemic index, high glycemic index and all that sort of stuff. Right, good carbs, bad carbs, air quote, I'm air quoting all that sort of stuff. By the way, all that stuff doesn't matter when you're talking macronutrients, when you're talking macros, you're talking about the overall food group, and that matters for people that say the macro split is the most important thing in the world. And you find this, like I said earlier, you find this a lot in the bodybuilding world.

Peter Lap: 4:56

As you're talking for health, you're usually talking about a fairly even split across all three. Fairly even split across all three. You know it's. You know, when I was working for David Lloyd so a long, long time ago, a lot of hair ago, so to speak it was always a 40-30-30 split and that's kind of where we still are 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat, or 40% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat. That is kind of where most people end up. It's a fairly even split. You can basically go straight down the middle 33%, everything and you'll still be fine. That last 10% is actually a fairly small margin. It doesn't really matter that much which way you like to flip that. Bodybuilders would be slightly higher on protein and endurance athletes would be slightly higher on carbohydrates. But that is fundamentally where you are Now.

Peter Lap: 6:02

Macros like I said, macros are borderline, irrelevant for health. Macros don't really matter for health. I'll throw that out there. Macros don't really matter for health If you have a varied diet and you're getting some healthy fats in and all that sort of stuff. If you're eating for health, the macros become less relevant because then you're getting some healthy fats in and all that sort of stuff. If you're eating for health, the macros become less relevant because then you're focusing more on your micronutrients and all that sort of thing. So you want to get enough protein in for maintenance. But the range of protein that is sufficient for people is so wide that it's absolutely frightening. It's absolutely terrifying how wide the range for eating for protein for, say, muscle maintenance is.

Peter Lap: 6:54

If you want to maintain your muscle, you'll be fine having half a gram of protein per pound of body weight. I would argue you could probably go lower. I think the last study I saw was like 0.36%, 0.36 or something like that, so just below 0.4 of a gram per pound and all that sort of thing, and that's for maintenance. So for everybody listening to this and said, no, I need more. Yeah, if you're looking to build muscle, then yes. But if you're just looking build muscle, then yes. But if you're just looking for maintenance of a normal body so not a bodybuilder or athletic body and you don't do a tremendous amount of weightlifting but you lift a little bit of weight and all that sort of stuff then you'll be fine at roughly that half a gram per pound of body weight.

Peter Lap: 7:44

What you hear a lot in the diet industry and and the gym industry is one gram per pound of body weight. That's where your starting point is. If you're eating for, like, weight management and all that sort of stuff, that has a very little basis in reality and I know I get emails about that, but also that is based on usually weight management type of thing. Right, when people say I want to be healthy, I want to lose a bit of weight or whatever it is, I want to lose a bit of weight, whether I start, a lot of people's advice is you start with your protein intake and you want to hit one gram per pound of body weight.

Peter Lap: 8:27

Now I'll say something slightly controversial. The gram per pound of body weight is a massive, massive, huge overestimation as to what people actually need. The last study I saw that said for bodybuilders it was 0.8 of a gram per pound of body weight and this matters. So bear with me for a little bit. Then people say, yeah, but you know, I always say one gram per pound because it's easier to measure, which is true, but it's also 25% more than what bodybuilders need to eat.

Peter Lap: 8:59

And if you're giving that to normal sedentary people who don't train for a bulking up and don't train for body they don't do bodybuilder type training or athletic type training at any sort of intensity level that matches these people Then they're grossly overestimate, overeating their protein, their protein intake, the protein intake is just simply much too high. Their protein intake is just simply much too high. And the reason that matters is because a lot of people, when they pick a diet, find that their protein intake is the bit they struggle with and they're like I can't eat that much protein. I need 150 grams of protein a day, 75 kilogram per person. I need 150 grams of protein a day and I can't eat that much. And yeah, that's a lot of protein. And before you know it, you're taking protein shakes and all that sort of stuff. So let me be very clear you don't. You don't really need that much Right Um um for weight gain and muscle gain and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, you need to hit your protein and all that sort of stuff, but for normal people you don't need to go anywhere near that high.

Peter Lap: 10:10

So for your health split the food quality. I would argue that for healthy eating, food quality matters significantly more. Eating a wide variety of foods matters significantly more than what your macro split is. So for general health so you're a mother or you're active, but you're not that active. Even if you're a guy listening to this, you're active, but you're not that active. You, if you're a guy listening to this, you're active, but you're not that active. You're not as active as you possibly should be or could be. Your job is mainly sedentary. You sit a large part of the day. I know a lot of you are running after kids and all that sort of stuff, but you're still sedentary a lot, especially when you drive a lot. Then eating for health comes a lot more down to your micronutrients, getting your vitamins and your minerals in and your fiber and all that sort of stuff. So then food quality comes into it a lot more.

Peter Lap: 11:10

And I'm not talking organic versus non-organic. I don't think that is particularly relevant From a nutrients perspective. It definitely isn't. A carrot is a carrot. It doesn't matter whether they really were organically grown or non-organically grown. Non-organic just means they have a wider variety of pesticides they can use on it. But organic still uses pesticides, and still in a decent quantity and all that sort of stuff. So you know I'm not going into. Like I said, a carrot is a carrot. You get the same vitamins and fiber and all that sort of stuff from an organic carrot as you do from a non-organic carrot.

Peter Lap: 11:51

What matters is the variety in diet, and this is where a lot of people struggle when it comes to healthy eating. Eat as many whole foods as you can. So make cook as much many whole foods as you can, right. So make cook as much of your own as you can and there's no judgment, by the way. Right If your convenience meals and all that sort of stuff are fine if you need to have that. But I'm just saying that in an ideal world, if you're eating for health, your focus is on doing, on eating mainly whole foods. Get your veggies in, get your fruit in. Good quality meat beats bad quality meat. But again, from a nutrient perspective, it doesn't really matter that much. Beef is beef right at the end of the day, but eat a wider variety of stuff, so you get one of everything.

Peter Lap: 12:41

And you know, I always say a healthy diet is fundamentally plant-based, and by plant-based I mean it's veggies and it's fruit and all that sort of stuff, not, yeah, and whole foods, whole foods, predominantly plant-based. That is how you eat for health, and your macro splits are completely irrelevant, Like I said, for health, they really are. You get your proteins in, you get your good fats in, you'll level out, you'll level out. I find that most people who eat a healthy overall diet tend to get enough protein and diet tend to get enough protein and they tend to get enough healthy fats. And they might well be a bit higher on carbohydrates than, say, a bodybuilder would like to be, but that's not what you're eating for. So then, who cares? Right, if you're looking for weight loss, for weight management, I'll focus on weight loss, because that is a little bit more common.

Peter Lap: 13:44

For weight loss, calories matter, right, calories. Are calories important? Yes, calories are massively important. Not necessarily to the extent that you need to count them every day. But you know calories, by the way, just as a small as yet another aside as a waffle on my way through this thing. Calories are just energy, right, that is all. Calories are. A calorie in your food determines how much energy your body can get from the food. I'm oversimplifying this, I know this, but that's fundamentally what it is. Calories are calories. A thousand calories is a thousand calories. For weight management purposes Doesn't matter whether those calories come from a Big Mac or whether they come from a pizza or they come from a big bowl of salad. For weight management, I'm only talking about weight management. A thousand calories is a thousand calories.

Peter Lap: 14:47

Calories determine whether you gain weight or whether you lose weight or whether you stay the same weight. Fundamentally, that is just how it works. It's calories in, calories out. They also determine whether you have enough energy to function throughout the day, assuming sleep and all that and hormone levels and all that sort of stuff is equal, right, whether you, if you are on a, if you need 1,500 calories a day to function and you only eat 800, you're going to be low energy, hungry, probably hungry. Probably, if you need 2,000 calories to function on a daily basis and you eat 1,500 calories, you'll probably be slightly less hungry and you'll lose weight. If you need 2,000 calories a day, you eat 2,000 calories a day. Then you'll stay the same weight and again, everything else being equal, right. And if you eat 2,500 calories every single day, but you only need 2,000, you gain weight and that is fine. If you need 2,000 calories a day, you eat 2,500 calories one day. It's not a big deal. Don't worry, you're not going to notice the weight gain on the back of one day of overconsumption. That is not permanent. That is not permanent weight gain on any sort of noticeable level. But these things, as most of us will know, they can sneak up on us a bit right.

Peter Lap: 16:25

For weight management, like I said, calories matter. Now, of course, if you should consume 2,000 calories a day and you consume 2,000 calories of rubbish food so Big Macs and chips and all that sort of stuff every single day, you're not going to function as well as you would if you consumed 2,000 calories of, I don't know, homemade chicken casserole or a nice stew or whatever. Right, lamb roast. I've got lamb in the oven for the puppies right now. They haven't. Oh yes, that's how I roll. They've got lamb roast for dinner. So if you have that 2,000 calories worth and it comes with green beans and all that sort of stuff, then you're going to have, then you're going to function better overall because your energy levels sorry, your energy intake is matched with a good quality source of ingredients, so with your micronutrients and your vitamins and all that sort of stuff. And vitamins and minerals really really matter for the overall functioning of the body, but calories are what matters for the weight loss and weight gain fundamentally. Now, like I said, I don't, like I said before I I don't tend to do weight management that much, especially not on a postpartum podcast.

Peter Lap: 17:47

First of all, I don't think it's particularly interesting, um. Secondly, the science is all over the shop and something new comes out every single week and I don't have time to stay on top of it. The basic science is, by the way, is well established, right. I'm just saying that I don't have time to stay on top of it. And there are people that study this stuff for four to six years and they become registered dietitians and then they do this stuff for a living. So they are the experts in this. So that's why I don't do weight management. I don't think personal trainers should really do much weight management, um, to be honest, but that is just me and I've trained people for for weight loss and all that sort of stuff.

Peter Lap: 18:29

It's not difficult, um, but you are fundamentally, you know, I'm not telling people what to eat. I've always been completely diet agnostic and I don't care unless you go for one of the stupid diets. But even then, your body, your choice, is completely your choice. So for someone losing weight, like I said, consuming fewer calories is every is every starting point. You know that Morgan Sherlock, morgan Sherlock, morgan Sherlock, the guy that recently died, that guy who went on the super size me guy, he recently died, he had the McDonald's diet and he said, oh, you know, it's, it's. He went on the, he ate Big Macs for 30 days and all that sort of stuff and felt terrible. Well, there was an opposite study. It was an American or Canadian professor who ate McDonald's for a month or ate Big Macs for a month, but in a calorie deficit, and he still lost weight, right, apologies.

Peter Lap: 19:45

So fundamentally you know, calories matter for weight loss or weight gain, um, um, um, for your health, and this is if you eat, if you overconsume calories. So, for weight management, food quality matters for weight management, but not to the extent that it doesn't matter for weight loss, right? So the food quality argument, as in, food quality matters more than calories in, calories out yes, for overall health, but not for weight gain or weight loss. So you have to kind of determine what your overall goal is. If you don't know what your overall goal is, then that is a bit of a pickle.

Peter Lap: 20:40

If you only want to eat for health and I find for most people, right by far most people if they mainly consume a diet that is full of whole foods and good quality proteins and all that sort of stuff, they tend to not gain too much weight because it's difficult to eat that stuff to the levels that you'd have to to gain weight regularly, unless of course you're perimenopausal and all that sort of stuff and that perimenopausal weight can kind of creep up on you a little bit. We spoke about this a few weeks ago. It's still a calories in, calories out thing, but it just kind of sneaks up on you. But what we hear a lot from people is they say I eat healthy. Why am I gaining weight? That's fundamentally because you're consuming too many calories. It is. It is fundamentally that simple. You can overeat, over consume. On healthy food it's just more difficult because genuinely healthy food that you know that's homemade and all that sort of stuff it has you feeling fuller for longer, for faster, and that is kind of what the difference is. I'm sorry if I'm waffling a bit. By the way, I should have scripted this, scripted this better. I should have scripted it. It's all peak. Yeah, that's a fair point.

Peter Lap: 21:59

So do macros matter most? No. Do calories in do macros matter most? No, do calories in, calories out, matter most? Only if you're looking at it from a weight management perspective. Or does food quality matter most? I would argue that food quality if I include a wide variety in food, I include a wide variety in food, the types of food you eat that matters by far more than what your macro split is or what your calorie intake is for overall health and for most people. If most people could eat a little bit healthier and that's what I mean by food quality right, I don't mean organic beef versus non-organic beef, I mean I mean a variety of foods and as many whole foods as possible. That is what I would argue matters significantly more than calorie intake for most people.

Peter Lap: 23:01

Most people, in the west at least, are gaining weight, are becoming obese and all that sort of stuff because they're not consuming enough whole foods anymore. And I'm as guilty of that as the next guy. Right, um, I'm not saying I'm better and again, there's no judgment. There is just so much calorie dense stuff within easy range of for us and it's affordable, it's. It's in some cases significantly cheaper, um, definitely, the calorie is definitely cheaper, um, and it's, it's been made ridiculously tasty. I did interviews before with people that say you know about binge eating and eating disorders and all that sort of stuff, and you look at the industry that is created around fast food and convenience food and healthy looking bars and all that sort of stuff. That is really difficult to avoid. So the reason we're gaining weight on mass is because we're eating too much stuff that is ridiculously calorie dense for what it is and it's so easily accessible. And I know whole foods and all that sort of stuff are. They're hard work, right, and it's difficult when something is easy, within range, within reach.

Peter Lap: 24:27

It can be difficult to look more at food quality than anything else. Convenience matters a lot for a lot of people and rightfully so. Right and completely understandable. But in an ideal world. If you're eating for health and you have a wide variety of different kinds of whole foods, you will find that your performance is optimal, as in you will function better than if you just ate rubbish all the time. To the same extent, you'll find that your weight tends to be relatively stable. I don't find.

Peter Lap: 25:05

Like I said, a lot of people don't lose a ton of weight if they're, unless you're obese. Um, a lot of people don't lose a lot of weight. They don't gain a lot of weight either if they predominantly eat whole foods and all that sort of stuff, because portion control is significantly easier if you're, you know if you feel nice and content and all that sort of stuff, because portion control is significantly easier if you're, you know if you feel nice and content and all that sort of stuff. So I argue always that food quality is the thing that matters the most. But food quality is not what people tend to think it is.

Peter Lap: 25:35

It's not the quality of the tomato that you're eating, it's that you're eating a tomato. Right, you do the best you can. You buy the best quality food you can afford. I think almost everybody does this. I can afford to buy, like a Tesco finest tomato and all this sort of stuff, but not everybody can. So if you buy the Tesco value tomatoes, they're still tomatoes. And if you're going to make I don't know if I make a chili con carne or something like that, or just a vegetable chili or whatever I don't particularly care which kinds of chopped tomatoes I throw in my chili, I just buy a tin of chopped tomatoes. I don't buy the expensive stuff, I tend to buy the cheap stuff, because the only difference that you notice is a little bit of taste and flavor, and that's easily corrected with, like the, the tomato paste, right, you buy what you can afford to buy and you have a wide variety of stuff. Eat all the colors of the rainbow and all that sort of thing, and that is fundamentally key to eating healthy and getting healthy and being as healthy as you can be and performing as well as you can be.

Peter Lap: 26:42

Everything else is noise on the side, in my opinion. I have to add that for people to complain, you need to eat 40% fat or 40% carbs or 40% protein. That's noise, that is fluff. You need to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight. First of all, it's incorrect and secondly, secondly, it's fluff. It is complete and utter rubbish it is. It is stuff you don't need to worry about.

Peter Lap: 27:11

Eating well, eating healthy, weight management is so much easier than people think it is. Again, if you then listen listen to, like philip pape and all the sort of guys that have conversations with about body composition, it's different because their goal is different. If your goal is body composition before, then you need to focus a bit more on protein and all that. But for most people, most people in the world, are not that bothered about body composition. They just want to be a healthy weight and they want to function well. They want to be able to run after their kids and all that sort of stuff and for that, food quality wins every single time.

Peter Lap: 27:50

I will link, by the way, to the free to download little hpmb cook booklets with recipe guides and all the recipes and all that that I collated from some slash, stole from all these michelin star chefs that very kindly made this stuff available on the internet, and obviously I give credit, right, and I have permission and all that sort of stuff. But I put it all together and they're like a healthy eating sort of thing, free to download. You don't need to enter an email address or anything like that. I can't track you. I won't add you to a mailing list. I don't do any of that sort of stuff. I can't be bothered with a good mailing list, to be honest, although maybe I should. Anyways, that's my waffling done for another week, peter at HealthyPosnatalBodycom. If you have any questions in the meantime, stay well, eat well, you take care of yourself, and I'll be back next week with a wonderful, wonderful guest. Right, take care. Bye now.

Peter Lap: 28:55

Hey, where do you say this whole town could be red by the end of the day. If you feel, alright, we can throw it in drive With the radio up so loud they can hear us from now. Me and you, nothing to lose. These days are coming home. Me and you, nothing to lose. I feel it in my soul. So let's let the good times roll Down. We'll never come down. When the sun comes up, we'll be feeling how we do right now my heart's on fire, coming down to the wire While the world sleeps. We'll keep keep burning, bright and bright.

Peter Lap: 30:13

Me and you, nothing to do. These days. They come and go. Me and you, nothing to lose. I feel it in my soul. So let's let the good times go. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, let's let the good times Live. Nothing to do these days. They come and go, but I need nothing to lose. I feel it in my soul, so let's let the good times roll. Thank you.