Basic supplement stacks for different goals and target groups

With the plethora of supplements currently available on the market, it is not always easy to find the right combination for the desired goal. The possible combinations of different supplements are practically endless and as long as two supplements do not interfere with each other's effects, it is in principle possible to combine them and achieve positive results.

This article provides a brief overview of possible basic supplement stacks for different training goals and different groups of exercisers. Basic in this context means that these supplement stacks focus on proven basic supplements that offer the most value for money for the respective goal. Products whose effects have not been clearly proven have been deliberately avoided, which of course does not mean that supplements not used in these stacks are ineffective or bad. Rather, the aim is to achieve the best possible results with the lowest possible budget. If money only plays a subordinate role, there are of course many other possible supplements that can be used to further optimize the effectiveness of the stacks presented.

The stacks presented are general examples that will work well for the majority of users. These stacks are not set in stone and there is absolutely nothing to stop you adapting them to your individual needs. Of course, you should always keep in mind that these stacks only work if training and nutrition are right and the body is given enough rest for recovery and regeneration. Ultimately, supplements, also known as dietary supplements, are exactly what their name implies: they are supplements that complement an already good training plan and a good nutrition plan, making them more effective. Mistakes in training and nutrition cannot be compensated for by supplements, or only to a small extent. But enough of an introduction. Here are the promised supplement stacks:

The beginner stack

• Multivitamin - multimineral preparation
• Weight Gainer (for hardgainers) or
• Whey protein (for exercisers who put on fat quickly)
• Dessicated Liver (tablets made from dried beef liver)
• Vitamin C

For beginners, these are all the supplements they will need to make extreme gains. The mere fact of starting to train with weights will stimulate amazing muscle growth and if you make the effort to study the basics of training and proper nutrition, the supplements listed will limit the possible mistakes. These supplements provide a solid foundation for building a muscular body.

A multivitamin-multimineral supplement provides a solid base and prevents deficiencies in one or more of these essential nutrients. For this reason, it makes sense to use a multivitamin-multimineral supplement all year round. This should be taken with a meal - preferably breakfast - as vitamins and minerals are better absorbed by the body when combined with food.

Although Dessicated Liver (pressed, dried beef liver) tablets - one of the standard supplements from the golden age of bodybuilding - have been somewhat forgotten, they are an excellent source of natural vitamins (especially B vitamins), iron, calcium, phosphorus and amino acids. The unit of measurement for Dessicated Liver is grains. Beginners should consume 120 grains (usually 4 tablets) in the morning and another 120 grains with dinner to maintain an anabolic environment.

A weight gainer is an excellent way of supplying the body with important protein and carbohydrates for muscle building in a simple and convenient way. In particular, weight gainers will help trainers who find it difficult to get enough calories and nutrients from their normal diet to compensate for nutritional deficiencies. Weight gainers can either be consumed in addition to meals or can replace meals if it is not possible to eat a meal rich in protein and carbohydrates every 2 to 3 hours. Consumed after exercise, weight gainers will help provide the body with what it needs to recover and replenish energy stores. Exercisers who are already overweight or easily gain fat should avoid weight gainers and instead use a good whey protein to ensure adequate protein intake for optimal muscle building.

Taking 1000 mg of vitamin C after training will keep energy levels high, boost the immune system and, together with other nutrients, produce anabolic effects.

The stack limited to the absolute essentials

• Multivitamin- Multimineral preparation
• B-vitamin complex

This is a stack for exercisers with a very limited budget, such as students, who cannot afford expensive food, let alone supplements, but still want to build muscle. These exercisers often limit themselves to low-cost foods and cheap protein sources such as low-fat quark, eggs and the occasional meat to provide them with the macronutrients they need to build muscle. Such a diet is often not particularly varied or balanced. In this situation, a multivitamin and multimineral supplement can ensure an adequate supply of the required micronutrients and prevent deficiency symptoms. It should be taken with a meal - preferably with breakfast - as vitamins and minerals are better absorbed by the body in combination with food.

A high-dose B vitamin complex, ideally taken with a meal other than the multivitamin and multimineral supplement, will optimize the use of carbohydrates, protein and fat, the use of oxygen and the production of amino acids, as the body has a greater need for certain vitamins of the vitamin B complex when protein intake is increased and for muscle building.

If the diet already ensures a sufficient supply of vitamins and minerals, this stack can also be reduced to the vitamin B complex, which ensures that you can get the maximum out of your diet.

The Power Stack

• Vitamin C
• Weight Gainer
• ZMA
• Creatine
• A training drink with dextrose, Vitargo or maltodextrin

This is a stack specifically designed for strength athletes such as powerlifters and bodybuilders who are looking to increase their strength and be able to move heavier weights. The supplements used are aimed directly at increasing the strength available during training.

The ZMA supplement is taken on an empty stomach about 30 minutes before going to bed. The increased testosterone levels caused by the ZMA overnight and the high zinc and magnesium levels provide a solid basis for more strength.

When taking creatine, a loading phase is not necessary and you start directly with two doses of 5 grams of creatine per day. The first dose is taken in the morning and about 20 to 30 minutes after taking it you should drink some juice to increase insulin levels, which promote the transport of creatine into the muscles. The other 5 grams of creatine and 1000 mg of vitamin C are taken about an hour before training. This will increase energy and strength during training. You will feel stronger, tire more slowly and be able to move heavier weights.

During training, you should drink a training drink that preferably contains a high-glycemic carbohydrate source such as maltodextrin, Vitargo or dextrose. The carbohydrates contained in this drink help to replenish glycogen stores during training and thus enable longer and harder training sessions as well as the movement of heavier weights.

The weight gainer ensures a sufficient supply of macronutrients. Consuming such a shake twice a day - preferably between meals and immediately after training - ensures that the ultimate anabolic component, known as food, is available throughout the day. This also ensures that the other supplements are used by the body for what they are intended.

The basic mass stack

• Multivitamin- Multimineral supplement
• Weight Gainer
• Vitamin B complex
• Creatine

This stack is tailored to the average recreational bodybuilder who wants to perform a mass-building phase. The goal is to build as much muscle mass as possible while not gaining more fat than is necessary to achieve this muscle growth.

The multivitamin-multimineral preparation is taken in the morning with breakfast and the vitamin B complex before another large meal, preferably lunch. Taking it later than lunch makes it less effective, as the main purpose of the B vitamins is to enable the body to use the protein consumed more effectively. The weight gainer is used to achieve the 6 to 7 meals required for optimal mass gain. It is particularly important to use the weight gainer directly after training as a post-workout meal.

In the case of creatine, a 5 to 6 day loading phase is initially carried out with this and the following stacks for mass building, during which either 3 portions of 7 grams or 4 to 5 portions of 5 grams of creatine are taken simultaneously throughout the day, whereby one of these portions should be consumed after training. This ensures that the body's creatine stores are filled to the maximum within a short period of time.

Thereafter, 5 grams of creatine twice a day is sufficient to maintain the maximum level of creatine stores. The creatine intake is continued as long as further gains are recorded. After this, you can stop taking creatine for four weeks and then start again.

The difference between creatine intake for maximum strength increase and maximum mass gain is that the second creatine portion of the day is not taken before training, but in combination with the post-workout shake after training. The reason for this is that creatine is used less to improve short-term energy release and more to promote regeneration, increase fluid absorption into the muscles and restore energy reserves.

The mass stack for advanced users

• Multivitamin-multimineral preparation
• Weight Gainer
• Vitamin B complex
• Creatine
• Dessicated Liver
• Vitamin C
• ZMA

This is a mass stack for dedicated bodybuilders who don't mind investing extra money for additional gains. Although at first glance this stack may seem to contain quite a large amount of supplements, it is actually quite cost effective and all of its ingredients have numerous synergistic effects. Basically, it is the basic mass stack described above with the addition of vitamin C, ZMA and Dessicated Liver. These additional, relatively inexpensive supplements can save money spent on food by reducing the need for fruit and vegetables. This allows you to eat more calorie-dense foods that enable further gains. This stack is actually all you need for amazing gains in muscle mass.

For this stack you take the instructions for the basic mass stack 1 to 1 and add 1000 mg of vitamin C to the post-workout shake, take ZMA on an empty stomach 45 minutes before going to bed and drink your last shake 15 minutes before going to bed. The Dessicated Liver tablets should be taken three times a day, evenly distributed throughout the day - e.g. with breakfast, lunch and dinner, with each portion containing around 120 grains.

The ultimate mass stack

• Multivitamin-multimineral preparation
• Weight Gainer
• Vitamin B complex
• Creatine
• Dessicated Liver
• Vitamin C
• ZMA
• Optional: testosterone booster or prohormones

This stack is for advanced bodybuilders who have already built up quite a bit of muscle mass and are not afraid to invest additional money and accept manipulation of the body's own hormone balance. While most testosterone boosters are generally more or less harmless to health, the use of prohormones or hormonal supplements, if these are still available at all, represents a significant intervention in the body's hormonal balance and can also have some side effects. In addition, you need to be well versed in optimal nutrition and training in order to get the most out of the effects of these special supplements.

In this stack, the multivitamin-multimineral supplement is taken in the morning with breakfast and the vitamin B complex with lunch. Vitamin C is taken 500 mg in the morning with breakfast and a further 1000 mg with the post-workout shake. As far as creatine intake is concerned, as already described, load up with 3 x 7g or 4 to 5 x 5 grams of creatine for 5 days, followed by 5 grams after training during the rest of the cycle.

In addition to 4 solid high-calorie meals, 3 to 4 weight gainer shakes per day are consumed after training, before going to bed, between breakfast and lunch and in the afternoon. A portion of 150 to 180 grains of the Dessicated Liver tablets is taken with breakfast, lunch and dinner.

You start taking ZMA 45 minutes before going to bed during the last three days of the testosterone booster or prohormone intake cycle and continue taking it for a further 2 to 3 weeks after stopping the testosterone booster or prohormones in order to restore the body's own testosterone production to its full potential - which is more common with prohormones but rather rare with testosterone boosters.

The stack for overweight people

• Multivitamin - multimineral preparation
• chitosan
• fat burner
• Whey protein or casein

Many bodybuilders build up mass first, then try to firm up and "sculpt" this new mass and then diet to achieve good definition. However, for those who are very overweight, it is usually better to achieve a moderate body fat percentage in the region of 15% before starting to build mass and the associated high calorie and nutrient intake. Carrying around too much weight will affect energy and endurance. With the help of the following stack, overweight people can achieve just that. This stack, combined with the right diet, can help you lose large amounts of excess fat.

The diet should consist of a maximum of three solid meals and two protein shakes, with a reduced intake of carbohydrates. The rule of thumb for maximum calorie intake is 22 calories per kilogram of fat-free body mass or less. As individual calorie requirements can vary greatly, this is of course only a guideline that needs to be adjusted up or down depending on the weight loss achieved.

In the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening, you eat a meal of solid food and supplement these meals with a protein shake containing 30 grams of whey protein or casein in the late morning and afternoon. With one of the main meals, preferably breakfast, you should take a multivitamin-multimineral supplement to prevent a possible micronutrient deficiency resulting from the restricted calorie intake.

A good fat burner can be helpful to support the metabolism and reduce hunger. In addition, you can take chitosan with fatty meals, which can bind some of the dietary fats so that they are excreted undigested.

The fat loss stack for the beach body

• Multivitamin - multimineral preparation
• fat burner
• Glutamine

When summer comes around, most recreational bodybuilders try to lose some excess fat to cut a good figure on the beach or at the outdoor pool and impress the girls. The following stack is specifically tailored to this target group.

As with any diet, the most important thing with this stack is of course the right diet and a sufficiently large calorie deficit. The calorie intake should be kept below 22 kcal per kilogram of body weight and adjusted as necessary depending on the progress of the diet. To achieve this, the carbohydrate intake should primarily be reduced, while an adequate protein intake and a sufficient supply of healthy fats should be maintained.

A good fat burner can help to increase the metabolic rate and calorie consumption while suppressing the appetite. Once carbohydrate intake begins to fall short of protein intake, it's time to supplement with glutamine to prevent the body from eating muscle protein, which would result in muscle loss. To protect hard-earned muscle mass from breakdown during the diet, 3 to 4 servings of 5 grams of glutamine should be consumed daily between meals, spread evenly throughout the day.

Fat loss stack for competition preparation

• Multivitamin-multimineral preparation
• Vitamin B complex
• fat burner
• Whey protein
• Glutamine
• HMB
• Chromium Picolinate
• creatine

This is a stack for all those who want to achieve extreme definition as quickly as possible and are not afraid of additional costs. This stack is intended for competitive bodybuilders, for example, who want to become as defined as possible and as bulky as possible at the same time. Since such a diet can take a little longer and a lot of supplements are used, such a stack is of course not cheap.

As with the other stacks, the multivitamin-multimineral supplement should be taken with breakfast and the vitamin B complex with lunch. Chromium picolinate is taken twice a day - preferably 30 minutes before lunch and 30 minutes before dinner - in a dosage of 400 to 800 mg. It should be noted that chromium picolinate only has an effect if there is a deficiency of this trace element, as the body will only absorb what it needs, regardless of the amount taken.

As far as the fat burner is concerned, it is best to stick to the manufacturer's recommended intake. General recommendations are not possible due to the countless fat burners available with a wide variety of ingredients and ingredient dosages.

You should consume 2 solid meals and 3 protein shakes per day as a meal replacement, as well as an additional protein shake after training. As soon as your carbohydrate intake falls below your protein intake, you should take 5 grams of glutamine four times a day between meals or with a wheyshake to prevent muscle breakdown.

You should take 2 grams of HMB three times a day, evenly distributed throughout the day. If the diet lasts longer than 8 weeks and the cost of HMB seems too high, HMB supplementation can also be limited to the last 8 weeks of the diet.

To look particularly muscular on the day of the competition, you can start a creatine loading phase 4 days before the competition in combination with low-glycemic carbohydrates. However, you should definitely avoid starting too early with the carbohydrates, as this would affect your competition form. A little extra potassium can do no harm during these last few days.

How to solve problems like excessive counting, clean eating and Paleo

Almost all diets will work at first, but the unsatisfying results and neuroticism that follow later will prove significantly more trouble than the whole thing is worth. You need to know when to follow the rules and when it's okay to break them. Here are three examples.

1 - Counting calories and macronutrients

What it's about:

A control of the amount of food you eat by counting calories and macronutrients(protein, carbs and fat).

Why it's not optimal:

Aiming for a quantitative intake of food has its place and justification. I've used and defended it myself before. But doing this to prepare for a competition or to develop a general awareness of your calorie and macronutrient intake is different than trying to stick to a predetermined set of numbers long term.

It's mentally draining and is it really healthy to go through life without being able to add up the calorie value of everything you put in your mouth? After strictly following such plans, women have contacted me about the following problem: an obsessive fear of eating without controlling their macronutrient ratio or calorie intake. This sounds like OCD, which is a mental illness - not something you should try to develop.

It can lead to downplaying food quality. If your meals consist of a chicken breast, 1.5 Oreo cookies, 107 grams of ice cream and exactly fifteen green beans, you may start to lose sight of the big picture.

Your calorie needs fluctuate from day to day. Your energy expenditure is not a fixed value. The amount of calories you use and need is not the same from day to day. And it is quite possible to lose fat if you consume more total calories than the calorie calculator (or a formula) on a website indicates for your maintenance calorie intake.

Also, it's not particularly useful to have to stick to a predetermined number of calories on a day when you've exercised harder than normal or when you have hormonal fluctuations. And losing fat doesn't mean you have to be hungry. As a side note, habitually eating too few calories to maintain a calorie deficit won't exactly have a positive effect on your metabolic rate.

And if you're a person whose workouts are constantly varying and always intense, you'll have even more of a problem. Some days you will need more food and others less, so using a calorie calculator will not be helpful, especially if it requires you to override your appetite.

In addition to exercise, there are many other variables that will affect your energy expenditure and metabolism:

• The temperature of the room you are in
• The amount of time you are on your feet
• How much sex you have
• The amount of spices in your last meal
• The duration of a cold shower
• Recent marijuana use, which could have a thermogenic effect
• Alcohol consumption, which delays your ability to burn fat

These are just a few variables that affect the amount of calories you burn and therefore need from day to day. So do you really think you'll learn anything about your body's actual needs if you train yourself to eat only by the numbers (instead of paying attention to your energy and appetite)?

In addition to this, the calorie counts themselves are also ambiguous. Even if you consume the same amount of energy every day, the number of calories listed for the food you eat in calorie tables or on the packaging can vary up to 20% up and down. So no matter how carefully you count your calories, the result could be up to 20% above or below the actual calorie count.

You can look at every label, consult all the calorie tables and weigh every bite of food and still the 2000 kcal you come up with could actually be 2400, 1600 or, if you're lucky, somewhere between the two. And yet many people who count calories and macronutrients are often fanatical about getting the numbers perfect.

A calorie is not a calorie and not all carbohydrates are the same. Let's assume that calorie tables and labels are actually accurate. Even in this case, the calories and macronutrients contained in different foods behave differently in the body. The body does not treat all calories the same and it does not treat the same macronutrients in the same way. This is true even if you compare carbohydrates to carbohydrates, proteins to proteins and fats to fats. Resistant starch is an excellent example. Just like beet sugar, resistant starch is a carbohydrate, but the two have a completely different effect on the body, especially when consumed regularly.

Similarly, fat consumed in the form of linolenic acid has a greater and more problematic impact on your waistline and metabolism than other types of fat, even if the calorie intake is the same.

This is why it doesn't make sense to lump macronutrients together in a way as if there is no difference. If you are counting macronutrients and a large portion of your carbohydrates come from foods that contain resistant starch, then you will get different results than if your carbs come primarily from high sugar junk food. No, the results won't necessarily be immediate, but your gut bacteria, your energy, your hormones, your metabolism and your appetite will know the difference... and your long-term results will be affected too.

You should also consider the thermic effect of food when counting calories but not macronutrients. The human body must expend energy to digest food. Digesting protein is the most costly in terms of calories - it costs the body more energy than digesting carbohydrates or fats. The digestion of dietary fats requires the least energy. So are all calories the same? No. Are at least all the same macronutrients the same? No.

How you can do better:

If you've never paid attention to calories or macronutrients, you should. It will show you how to compare foods and estimate calories and nutrients. Those who have never paid attention to this are often shocked when they find out that they are not getting nearly enough protein.

But at some point, you should be able to stop checking and counting and use what you've learned without having to enter everything into an app on your smartphone. Even monitoring your food intake for a few weeks should give you a pretty solid idea of the foods you eat most often. You should also have a rough idea of how much you need to feel good depending on your workouts, recovery needs, time of the month, appetite, etc

If you are doing the whole thing to lose fat, then overriding your hunger to stay below a target will do the exact opposite of what you want. If you do this long enough, you won't know what you're eating without the help of an app. No diet should make you so ignorant of your body's signals.

And remember that when it comes to hard training, consuming maximum amounts of energy requires energy again. So being too pedantic about your calorie deficit can also be counterproductive.

If you think you'll gain weight if you don't control your calories, then perhaps you need to get to the bottom of certain issues that are causing you to eat when you're not hungry. Or maybe you need to start making more quality food choices and eating meals that are more filling with fewer calories. If you can't control yourself or eat sensibly using your appetite as a tool, then you have a whole different set of problems.

You can get leaner and maintain a lower weight without pulling out your phone before every meal, but to do this you need to improve your food preferences and trust your appetite. If you're counting macronutrients and weighing out mountains of ice cream to maintain a perfectly average-looking body, realize that you can achieve the same results without the neurosis required to control every crumb you shove in your mouth.

2 - Clean eating

What it's all about:

A way of eating that emphasizes "natural" and unprocessed foods and includes fewer processed products and less refined sugar.

Why it's not optimal:

Even trying to eat clean can lead to obsessive thinking, and if you're eliminating one food after another from your diet without really knowing why, your efforts are doomed to fail. Not to mention that the oversimplified rhetoric of "eat only what's natural" is nonsense.

Many processed foods are packed with nutrients and can help dieters reach their goals, while many "natural" foods can sabotage your fat loss efforts if you eat too much of them. Quality lean breakfast meats, for example, are high in protein and make an excellent sandwich topping, despite being a processed food. Fish is another good example. You would have to eat several pounds of fatty fish to get the benefits of a few "processed" fish oil capsules. Protein powders and workout supplements are other examples of processed foods that can increase muscle growth, fat loss, performance and recovery.

And then there's this "if you can't pronounce it" bullshit that says you shouldn't eat something if you can't pronounce one of the ingredients. Or this "If your grandmother doesn't know it, you shouldn't eat it." But healthy and beneficial foods often have fancy names and your fluency shouldn't affect your diet. If your grandmother lived during the post-war era, she probably didn't concern herself with advanced nutrition, but simply ate what was available.

Not only do we have the ability to choose from what is available, but we can also manipulate those choices depending on our specific goals. An example: citrulline malate, which protects muscles from fatigue and helps them recover faster from an intense workout. If you didn't use it because your grandmother didn't know it, then the developments of this century would probably pass you by.

Nuts, on the other hand, are one of those unprocessed foods that people who want to eat clean really like to eat and often eat too much of. And even though nuts are very healthy in reasonable amounts, eating too much of them will not have a positive effect on your body composition. The same goes for all those natural organic sweeteners, butter from grass-fed cattle, fruit juices, dried fruits, etc.

How you can do better:

Appreciating food quality is great, but not keeping track of the calories and macronutrients your food contains is a surefire way to sabotage yourself. If you're consuming 5,000 or more "unprocessed" kcal per day, find a smarter way to satisfy your appetite.

Monitor your food intake for a while to develop a general awareness of your total calorie intake and macronutrient intake. This does not mean becoming more obsessive. It means taking advice from a nutrition calculator and eating for your goals.

If you find it easy to choose foods with high nutrient density, then you are already one step ahead. Now you should be more strategic about deciding which foods will support your performance and body composition and which will turn into a disappointing calorie bomb after just a few bites.

3 - Paleo

What it's about:

This is a way of eating clean, but avoiding anything that comes from agriculture. No rice, no oatmeal and no other grain products. There are varying degrees of strictness, ranging from no dairy to a more relaxed approach that only bans processed foods and grains.

Why it's not ideal:

This approach is primarily detrimental if you're an exerciser who regularly works out at the gym and uses high-intensity exercise. Convinced Paleo followers even have a term for people like us: "chronic exercisers." - as if regular workouts were a disease. (Are people who love books chronic readers?) You can make any behavior sound bad by calling it chronic.

But this categorization simply means that their way of eating is not optimal for people who want to build impressive muscles and a high performance body. In fact, those who train hard and follow a Paleo diet often can't recover fast enough to train regularly. Nor can they satisfy their appetite for fast-digesting, carbohydrate-rich foods using a Paleo nutritional approach. Many of them will therefore have cheat days packed with non-Paleo junk food, trapping them in a cycle of hardcore Paleo days followed by fast food binges.

The second reason that the Paleo approach can be suboptimal is that, just like "clean eating", there are numerous Paleo foods that are very high in calories and therefore easy to overeat - bacon, nuts, butter, dried fruit and coconut oil are just a few of these. And if these are eaten in excess, they will make fat loss impossible.

How you can do better:

People who work out with weights occasionally need a spike in insulin levels to reach their performance goals. A coconut and kale smoothie won't do the trick. But because insulin is portrayed as "the hormone that makes you fat," dieters try to avoid it at all costs, while simultaneously encouraging the development of their Paleo-approved man boobs.

If you're a "chronic exerciser," here's what you should do:

1. First, make peace with select processed foods and supplements that serve your purposes (increased performance, satiety, anabolism, and energy). Keep in mind that foods that satiate your appetite are very different from foods that satiate the appetite of the average American who doesn't train as hard or as often as you do.
2. Next, try swapping out some of your higher fat foods for starchy carbohydrates. Beans, oatmeal, rice and potatoes are examples of satiating foods that are nutrient dense and the lectins won't kill you. if you're worried about binding to the vitamins and minerals in your diet and preventing you from absorbing those nutrients, relax, because you're probably taking in more than enough nutrients. Whatever bindings should come about will not be enough to put you in a vitamin or mineral deficit. Eating enough carbohydrates to replenish your glycogen stores and give you energy to perform will likely reduce your desire to have one or more cheat days every weekend.
3. Become aware of the portion sizes of things that are the most calorie dense. Hint: they are usually very high in fat like coconut oil, bacon, butter, nuts, cream, etc. - these are the things that will sabotage your fat loss efforts if you eat too much of them. And trust me, if you feel a craving for carbohydrates and override that appetite, you will be tempted to eat too much high fat calorie bombs.

So which diet is best?

How about a diet based on common sense? In a perfect world, you would eat the right amounts of delicious yet beneficial (or at least not bad) foods and use your appetite to work out when and how much you should eat. You would enjoy your meals and be as lean, fit and athletic as you want to be.

The problem is that our food preferences and eating habits have gotten out of control, which is why it's hard for most people to use common sense when it comes to nutrition. The excessive palatability of the standard Western diet has led us to develop some really bad eating habits. And dieting has become the antidote.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this. Diet comes from the Greek word diata, which simply means daily or lifestyle. So trying out a new lifestyle to improve your appetite and your health is a good thing - if you learn something from it. Dieting should make you a smarter eater - if it doesn't, then you're doing it wrong because you're not learning anything.

They say you have to learn the rules to know how to break them. So if you're dieting and you're no longer seeing results, then you should start thinking about which parts of the diet you can keep and which you should get rid of. Don't be anti-diet, but don't become a diet fanatic either. Don't lose your head. Follow the rules first. Give them an honest chance. Read a damn book on how to do it right.

There are people who use diets that have been molded by headlines and hearsay. They are the ones who make a half-hearted effort to follow the rules without knowing why. Then when they fail, they claim that dieting doesn't work. Don't become one of these people.

The most important thing to realize is that very detailed dietary guidelines are a poor cure for underlying problems such as binge eating. And if you are a binge eater, don't start dieting in the first place. Instead, keep a food diary to increase your awareness of what you eat, why you eat and when you eat. Take care of this first.

Almost every diet involves something useful (apart from a few exceptions, like the HCG diet or everything celebrities do). Use what you learn and use it for the long term.

By Dani Shugart | 12/29/15

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/problem-with-your-stupid-diet