@David – I’m not doubting what works for you, I think you’re right that calories matter. But, isn’t a “whole foods” diet lower in calories by design because the foods are less calorie dense and more filling?
And if calories are so important, why does Matt seem to think that the more calories you eat, the better? Here’s a quote from his Diet Recovery 2 book: “Some people report eating over 8,000 calories per day consistently, without gaining weight, and without going out of their way to forcefully burn calories. Even a 120-pound woman wrote in the week I’m writing this paragraph about consistently eating 3500-5000 calories per day and maintaining a rock solid 120 pound body weight with no fluctuations” (Page 80).
He doesn’t openly state that huge amounts of calories will not cause weight gain, but passages like the one above definitely imply that calories don’t matter and an excess is even better.
@Piranha- As with calories, Matt never makes a definitive statement that “junk food” is good, but he implies that it is just as nutritional as “whole” foods. Here’s another quote from Diet Recovery 2 “I would also encourage you to get real about what is and isn’t nutritious. Ice cream has the same nutrient content as human breast milk almost exactly. Pizza is extraordinarily nutritious. It’s almost a calcium overload. Cheeseburgers have lots of nutrients. I squeeze an egg and 2 ounces of milk into every slice of French Toast I eat at home” (Page 58).
I agree with Matt that being OCD about diet does way more harm than good, we should not feel stressed about the foods we eat. Health is not dependent only on our diet. But Matt’s stuff, in my opinion, is too open to interpretation. I came away from his books thinking that Ice Cream and Pizza were ok to eat in gigantic quantities. You could see how by reading both of the quotes above. He, in my eyes, is implying that excess calories will not make you gain weight, and that Ice Cream and cheeseburgers are perfeclty healthy foods.
And yeah, I might be different from the rest of you guys on here. I do have PTSD and anxiety disorders, but I have been in therapy for 3 years consistently and in that time been reading self help books and articles consistently as well. My level of stress and worry has gone done tremendously. My way of viewing things has become increasingly positive and easy going. I am probably more stressed than everybody on here, but I don’t think by much.
Is metabolic syndrome something induced by unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits or is it something that you are born with?
And again, I am grateful for Matt’s work because it really helped me to stop stressing about food and maintaining a certain weight. I just think that it is too vague sometimes and the reader is given the oppurtunity to decide for themself what he means. Maybe that was intentional so that people would just eat what they were craving. But I took it to mean that I should be eating an excess of calories from fast food and sweets until I hit 98.6 degrees. I think a phase in which I ate calorie dense refined foods was necesarry for me, but it should have been supplemented with whole foods and fruits much sooner than it was.
Maybe some people just strive on refined foods and others on whole foods.
Thanks for the responses, I enjoy hearing your input.