Flexible diets include hamburger and chocolate; get to know – 03/25/2023 – Equilibrium

A trend on social networks and nutrition clinics, flexible diets are becoming an important strategy in combating the overweight and obesity epidemic in Brazil and the United States.

To reduce the abandonment of dietary reeducation, it is worth putting foods on the patient’s menu that seemed far from weight loss, such as hamburgers, macaroni, brigadeiro and even regular soda. In videos on social networks like Tiktok, users tell their food routine and show the daily consumption of chocolate and other goodies. What sounds unconventional, however, has been increasingly supported by science.

A US clinical study conducted from 2015 to 2019 with 271 adults aged 18 years to 65 years who were overweight or obese but had no comorbid conditions, showed that less restrictive diets cause greater long-term weight loss and decrease the chances of regain. The data was released in 2022 in the publication JAMA Network Open.

The work claims that so-called “tasty foods”, which usually have a lot of sugar, fat, salt or flavoring in their composition, tend to stimulate the brain’s reward system, making calorie counting and behavioral changes inefficient for many who need to lose weight.

Volunteers were divided into control groups, behavioral approach and a new technique that regulates food cravings. The behavioral ones were guided with more traditional diets and caloric restriction. Those in the regulation group did not receive instructions on what to eat or a formal diet plan, but they learned to recognize hunger cues, better resist cravings and curb cravings for tasty foods when they weren’t actually hungry.

In the end, the groups had similar weight loss, but those who had fewer rules were able to better stabilize their weight, while the others regained what they had lost after a while.

Another American article, published in 2017 in the Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabology of the American Physiological Society, points out that weight gain or loss is not determined by the food consumed, but by the number of calories ingested.

In this logic, diets can indeed include tasty items as long as compensations are made for more energy expenditure than caloric consumption.

The perception that very restrictive diets impair weight maintenance and a healthy life has been highlighted in the US nutritional area for at least two decades.

The study “Rigid vs. flexible dieting: association with eating disorder symptoms in non-obese women”, published in 2002 in the international journal Appetite, already showed that those who follow strict diets tend to have more disturbed body image and more symptoms of an eating disorder.

Professor Renata Cintra, from the Department of Human Sciences and Nutrition and Food Sciences at the Institute of Biosciences at Unesp (São Paulo State University), says that menus with severe dietary restrictions have proven to be ineffective.

“Restrictive diets really lead to compensation and the person often ends up having compulsive behavior, ingesting a much larger amount than they would normally consume”, says Cintra. The teacher says that the diets with the most chances of success are those that take into account the characteristics and needs of each individual.

“When there is a restriction on foods that provide emotional comfort, people end up not acquiring adequate, healthy habits. [Por isso] the consumption of not exaggerated amounts, letting the individual consume what he likes, can be beneficial”, he points out.

The rule for including these more caloric items in the diet, according to the teacher, is to avoid industrialized products and excess. “A homemade hamburger, in which we know exactly what we are consuming, will always be more appropriate”, points out the professor.

Gabriella Rocha Pegorin, a nutritionist with a master’s degree in Science from the Interdisciplinary Program in Health Sciences at Unifesp (Federal University of São Paulo), indicates that a diet only works if the patient adheres to it.

“If the patient cannot adhere to a diet because it is too restrictive or because it is not consistent with his lifestyle and preferences, there will be no success. Whether the goal is weight loss, muscle mass gain or improvement of some nutritional parameter. ideal is that we manage to make these negotiations”, he says.

The nutritionist agrees with the studies and claims that in fact flexible diets bring better results on the scale and for mental health. Pegorin claims that adapted recipes –with different types of flour, sugar or sweetener– can be more caloric than the traditional version.

“Ideally, if you feel like eating something sweet, eat it, because you end up eating more than you would if you had really followed your desire. For example, I want a brigadeiro, but I look for a fitness recipe on the internet. banana pancake that has 200 calories, then a fruit, and none of these other foods make the urge go away”, says the nutritionist.

For those who are going to include sweets in their diet, the tip is not to exceed the maximum of 10% of total daily calories with items with sugar. “Can I consume all my calories in soft drinks, pizza, hamburgers, chocolate? No. Because that way we wouldn’t be able to meet our nutrient needs, it wouldn’t be a healthy diet”, points out Pegorin.

Ana Pacheco, clinical sports nutritionist, even prescribes regular soda for those who have a lot of compulsion for food, but need to lose weight. Postgraduate in Sports Nutrition and Obesity from USP (University of São Paulo), the professional points out that the flexibility of the diet should always be established from the individual’s profile.

“These recommendations we make for healthy individuals, a person who has no pre-existing health condition. The guidelines do not include individuals with diabetes, high blood pressure, altered cholesterol”, says Pacheco.