The Dieting Principles and What they Mean

 The Dieting Principles and What they Mean 

Almost every successful endeavor has been based on principles. Whether that endeavor is as big as designing a car or as relatively less impressive as gaining 5lbs of muscle mass over the course of several months. A properly-functioning car must be based on the principles of internal combustion or electricity, structural design, and computer control, among many others. A diet, similarly, must be based on principles that govern body composition, such as calorie balance, macronutrient intake, and nutrient timing.

Just as with designing a car that gets you from one place to another, all of the principles of dieting can be ranked from the most important and fundamental all the way down to the least. For example, the most important component of the car is the engine. Without it, the car doesn't go anywhere no matter what other features are included. Now, the frame and wheels come in at a close second, and the control systems right behind, but after that, the details are much less important. Even a car with only a steering wheel and pedals (no seats or displays) can get you from point A to point B, even though seats and windscreens highly enhance performance and comfort.

With diet design, there are 5 main dieting principles that we can rank from most important to least important. They are, in order:

1.) Calorie Balance
2.) Macronutrient Amounts
3.) Nutrient Timing
4.) Food Composition
5.) Supplements

Calorie balance is the most important principle of any diet and has by far the largest effect on diet outcome. It generally implies that muscle gain is mostly a matter of eating more food, and fat loss is mostly a matter of eating less food, with all other principles adding less and less to the main effect of calories. Macronutrient amounts are in second place as far as the effect on outcome is concerned. Eating the right amounts of protein, carbs, and fats in that order makes an important difference in the quest to getting leaner and more muscular. Nutrient timing comes in at third on the list, but in reality, it’s much less proportionately impactful than the first two principles. It can be an important detail and does make a very meaningful difference to those individuals who compete in strength and physique sports. Food composition comes in at a fourth place and is a very small detail of the dieting process. It’s something to be considered when the top three priorities are in order, and probably not before then; the same applies to supplements. As the name implies, “supplements” are meant to supplement an already effective diet, and are nowhere near powerful enough to overcome errors in calorie balance, macros, or timing. When designing a diet, it is imperative to address the bigger picture first. If you do that, you already have a functional diet, and addressing further details only makes it better. The last thing we'd want to do is invest all our time into the details first, and have a diet that's highly labor-intensive but doesn't actually work very well. When building a car, we want a frame with wheels that are connected to a functioning engine... much later should we concern ourselves with the air conditioning and leather seats.

 So without further ado, let's look at each dieting principle closely and gain an understanding of its impact on diet success. In following our priority list, let's take a look at the equivalent of the engine of dieting: calorie balance.