Cutting Calories & Health: The Accidental Awesome Of A Flawed Study

cutting calorie benefits old scale in store

Photo: Calum MacAulay, Unsplash

Cutting Calorie Health Benefits. Restrictions=Miracles:

Nobody’s perfect. Some of us have a lot of things to fix, like being overweight or fat.

And through any process of improvement there are always stumbles along the way.

But as you go, you fall down, pick yourself up, try to extract the value from the event,

And then get going.

Well, important milestones in life and research often follow the same pattern.

And if one result from a Duke-centered study is right, every little bit Does help and could lead to widespread benefits, even if they are found-out by accident…

The Crazy Old Coots Of Calorie-Restriction:

So one of the more-diffcult ends of the dieting world, right up there with Keto,

Is called Calorie-Restriction; and it does what it says on the tin.

You give yourself less than the TDEE-calculator recommended amount,

And you get some benefits as a result.

But it’s perhaps even a bit harder than Keto to maintain properly.

Though the short-answer for the CALERIE study’s recent result is that if people reduce their intake by even a little bit that is 1/2 the standard reduction, unexpected health-benefits occur all across the body that the researchers never expected to find at that level.

Read on to find out more…

Scary Numbers! Super-Geeks!:

Let’s do this backwards, the light at the end of the tunnel first, then the scary-stuff.

So in a previous publication with very humble aims, researchers found that Calorie-Counting works;

-Even if it’s far-from-perfect!

Now the scary part: When studies discuss Calorie-Restriction, they are usually conducted at somewhere between deficits of 40% and 25%.

And as we stated previously in the post on neuro-muscular junctions lasting longer and being healthier with calorie-restriction even more than with just exercise,

Those percentages are bananas.

Serious Calorie-Restriction Is For Pros Only!:

No normal human being would want to survive on those reductions.

And it would be nearly-impossible to get all the Macro-Nutrients, Micro-Nutrients, Vitamins & Minerals you need every day to survive on those plans.

Even the guy on the PBS show, “Scientific American Frontiers” with Alan Alda was preparing the most impractical, crazy food to try.

And he looked a little too-much like The Unabomber while doing it.

The CALERIE Study’s Accidental Awesome:

But then, an amazing accident happened during the “CALERIE” Calorie-Reduction study,

Whose initial target was: 25% Reduction!

Their subjects failed.

In the 2-year period, the 143 subjects, aged 21-50 were not able to cut their daily intake by 25%.

They only cut it an average of 12%.

:: drumroll please ::

But that was still good-enough anyway!

Everyone who cut their intake by that much got the following benefits:
1) Lower Blood-Pressure
2) Lower LDL (bad) Cholesterol
3) Lower Triglycerides (bad. fat in the blood)
4) Better Blood-Sugar Control
5) Better Metabolism
6) Lower Risk Of Disease

The lead author of the study also noted that based on even the modest results, a person would likely have to take a lot of prescription meds to get anywhere close.

What Are Some Of Calorie-Restriction’s Other Benefits?:

One of the reasons this study would have been done in the first place,

Is that Calorie-Reduction is alleged to have several benefits, like:
1) Life-Extension
2) Reduction In All Diseases
3) Reduction In Age-Related Tissue Damage
4) Improvements in Every Part Of Body-Chemistry
5) Reduction In All Cellular-Damage
6) Reduction Of Inflammation
7) Slower Brain-Aging
8) Reduction in Dementia from Zombie-Cell Removal

So you can see why researchers would want to study it so closely.

Furthermore, with respect to Life-Extension, it’s one of the Only things we know that can accomplish that.

The others are likely:
1) Cardiovascular Exercise
2) Intermittent Fasting

Is Calorie-Cutting Reduction Doable For Normal People?:

Whatever you do, if you’re thinking about making big changes to your diet,

Always work closely with your doctor and preferably a nutritionist, too.

A small reduction in calories along the lines of what the CALERIE subjects managed,

Is not too bad in my personal experience, as I’ve done close to that level for awhile.

But you have to be a little more vigilant towards reducing “empty calories”,

And more careful toward the end of the crazy guys on the science shows,

Who essentially eat a horsebread salad all day, grow a beard, and look just like The Unabomber.

JUMP BONUS! Calorie Reduction Clip From SFA:

Video: Scientific American Frontiers “Fat & Happy” Episode

Avoid Empty Calories & Be Careful:

But the first thing to do would be to stop over at TDEEcalculator.net,

Find out your ideal number of calories per day and shoot for that, even if imperfectly.

Because as-stated before, there is at least one well-supported study saying it works.

Then, once you’ve established that base of personal knowledge,

Trying to reduce sugar, fast-carbs, and eventually do a mild reduction off your ideal numbers might be feasible.

But everyone is different and so are your health-issues and histories.

The only one who can clear you for serious changes is your doctor who understands your case.

Small Reductions More Doable, But Eat As Nutritiously As You Can:

But depending on your age, weight, gender, & activity-level, if you’re already eating 2400 calories/day like the people in the study,

There may be a good chance that cutting 200-300 calories is possible for you too.

And who knows what the limits are if you pair that with Intermittent-Fasting!

Either way the potential health-benefits of even mild calorie cutting are so attractive, that if you can get the right medical guidance, it just might be worth a shot.