Comparing Diet Plans

So I've spoken to both Nick and Dan about what we should all be eating, and the general advice I gave, and what the P90X nutrition guide advises, is to cut the carbs. Carbs, it seems, leads to fat. Especially processed carbs, like white rice, bread, pasta, etc. So cut the carbs, get slim. Easy, right?

Then this week as I entered my second of low carb dieting I began to get really sluggish. Low energy, brain fuzzy. I was averaging about 150g of carbs a day, but given my high activity level, clearly that wasn't enough.

So I decided to look a little closer into this accepted wisdom of carbs=bad, and whom did I turn to?

That's right. Mr. Lyle McDonald. (I can see Dan rolling his eyes now.)

He's got a great series of articles (of course) where he compares the main diets out there, and points out their strengths and weaknesses. He discusses the low fat, high carb diet, the moderate diet where everything is about equal, and the low carb, high fat diet. Check out his analysis here.

The upshot is that if you're doing a lot of exercise like we are, a moderate to high carb diet can be a good thing. There's no hard and fast rule here, one size fits all, but I've decided I'm definitely going to up my carb intake to about 40% (1200 calories/day) for the next week or so and see how I do. I think I'm going to go for a 30 protein/40 carb/30 fat split, and see how I feel.

Having had a bowl of granola this morning along with milk and a banana (about 500 calories), I can report in that I've got more energy today than I've had all week.

Anyways, if you're curious about what you should be eating and why, check out those articles.