Simple Rules for a Sustainable Healthy Diet | Jeff Cavaliere & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Importance Of Counting Calories

00:00You may have no idea how many calories you're actually having until you actually count them. You also become aware of many of the things that you are taking for granted that you're just doing almost second nature that is just not healthy. You're eating things that repetitively that are just not healthy or drinking things that are just not healthy.

00:16And when someone asks you to log what you're eating, you become very aware of every calorie you put in your body. So that's part of it. The second thing is there's an education that goes into learning how many calories each food has. I can't tell you how many people they they'll think that chicken parmesan is the same as grilled chicken just because it's chicken and they're very different in terms of their caloric impact.

00:39So educating yourself on to about what those um macronutrient profiles look like for whatever food you're having is part of the process too cuz ultimately where you want to be able to get to is can you make equivalent swaps in your head on the fly wherever you are.

00:57Right? That would be nutritional freedom. As far as what that day would look like, what I try to do is I try to build my base around protein. I always have. The reason for that is I it's one of those macronutrients that I know I need to build lean muscle.

01:12It's one that I know can provide satiety. Um it's one that I know is important to everything I'm trying to pursue and what everyone really should be trying to pursue. They are trying to be healthy. So they should base their meal around that first.

01:26Start with your

How To Build Your Plate

01:28protein. And I I usually use a visual way of doing that where I just say, "Hey, take your plate and divide onethird of that plate or that meal if you're having it in separate plates or separate dishes. One third of that meal should come from a lean source of protein."

01:40And that could be chicken, fish, beef, whatever it is that you prefer, but have that be the the the one/3. And then divide the rest of your plate with carbohydrates, preferably in a two to one ratio with fibrous carbohydrates to starchy carbohydrates.

01:57So the fibers being the the green, the vegetables, asparagus, the broccoli, and then the starchy carbohydrates, the rice, potatoes, pasta. I don't believe me personally, I don't believe that I should eliminate my starchy carbohydrates. Again, inherently I'm an athlete and I know that that's, you know, served a very important purpose for me for energy, for fuel resources, for glycogen, for my muscles that I don't I don't avoid that.

02:20Plus, I know that I could never long-term restrict myself from carbohydrates. So, when I started out, I said, I have to adopt a plan here that I know I can stick to. If it was taking away pasta and taking away oatmeal and taking away the things, there's no way that I could sustain that.

02:36So, I don't think that

Managing Cravings & Fats

02:38people should try to start out on some change to their diet where they're restricting foods they know they're never going to be able to maintain long term or keep away long term so that if you can learn to manage them and eat eat them in a way that's more controlled because the rest of the stuff on your plate is actually helping to minimize your cravings for that or or controlling your portion sizes there.

02:59That's the long-term goal I think. And then overarching overall that calorically just because it's it's a fact of nature, fats are more calorically dense than carbohydrates and proteins. So just be aware of your fats. I know a lot of people who go down the path of healthy eating and they're putting olive oil on everything and avocado on everything because they're healthy foods, but they're putting so much of it because they want to feel like they're doing they're doing the healthy thing.

03:27But you're also skyrocketing your calories. So, you have to at least be aware where where and how you're applying your fats because calorically they will add up. I have nothing against fat. I think everybody should have it. I think it it should be part of every meal.

03:39I'm just saying it should be you need to be aware of your fat content. I try to go low sugar as much as I possibly can. I do not try I I try to avoid processed foods. I try to avoid um blatant sugars unless it's my birthday and I'm having my carrot cake.

03:54But for the most part, that's really your only quote unquote. That's not my That's not my only like, you know, that that's a that's become an urban myth a little bit. Maybe I'll have it twice a year, but but no, I I don't I don't I really try not to um indulge in those things, but I'm not missing it.

04:10I really enjoy it when I have it, but I'm not depriving myself of it along the way. If people felt deprived and have it more often, you could have I could have

The Clean Omnivore Approach

04:18a piece of carrot cake uh once a week and probably not have anything happen to my physique. So the fact that I don't is just really more out of habit than anything else. But if you're in a plan where you feel so deprived that you know you're pulling your hair out and you're trying to like the first chance you get to just jump off your diet and and eat all the things that you you really were keeping yourself away from, then you're on the wrong plan.

04:39So I think that no matter what it is, whether it be keto, whether it be the what I I guess you'd call this a bodybuilder style diet that I eat or or I call it clean omnivore. There you go. Yeah. you know, like you're not like I basically eat the same as you, although I I suppose I probably a little little high on the fats sometimes just cuz I mean I I love, you know, nuts and parmesan cheese and a little bit bit little bit of butter and some olive oil and stuff which which are all good foods.

05:05It's just that calorically there's an impact there. And if you're going to eat them, what I always recommend people do is again you could just cut back a little bit on some of the other portion sizes to just to accommodate calorically for what you're doing.

05:19But I do think that that concept of the equivalent swaps is big because if you learn to eat the way I just suggested and there's no magic behind what I do. It's just been very I've been very consistent with it is that you'll be able to make swats when you go anywhere.

05:35What's a protein I could have here today? What's the restaurant have? Oh, they only have uh uh pork chops. Okay, fine. I'll have a pork chop. Like like you you can you're visually just replacing equivalents on the plate. Sometimes it doesn't always work.

05:47I I just did a video where I talked about a steak and a and a grilled chicken breast are potentially uh the same protein in terms of their protein content, but they're not the same calorically because the steak has a lot more fat than the chicken breast does.

06:02So, you might have a smaller steak to make that equivalent swap out. But that's only going to come through your understanding and knowledge of the foods and what they contain. So, that early phase of learning what they have is is important there.

06:13But ultimately,

Consistency & Nutritional Freedom

06:16nutritional freedom comes from the ability to be consistent with what you do. I talk a lot about the fact that we can get to the gym, we can train for an hour. It's not easy for people, especially to do it at a high enough intensity level, but we can train for an hour, go home, and feel like, I did my work today.

06:33I feel good. I did what I was supposed to do. Great. Your nutritional job just started. You now have to figure out how do I navigate the next 23 hours whether I'm asleep or I'm awake but how am I gonna navigate the next 23 hours because that's what nutrition is.

06:46That challenge is infinitely harder. And the reason why a lot of people struggle with their weight is because they have to figure out how to get that right and do that in a repeatable way day in day out day in and day out. And I've been doing what I've been doing here now with my nutrition approach for 30 years.

07:0130 years. So when people ask me is it hard? It's for me it's not hard at all, but it wasn't super easy in the beginning. It just t there's a process to go through to get it there. And I was willing to to go slowly, but also not sacrifice the things that I really knew I wouldn't be able to live without.

07:18So therefore, I could live with it for forever. And I think people make way too aggressive changes when it comes to nutrition. They're basically, you're not just changing your diet, you're changing your habits and you're changing your lifestyle.

07:29So when you go and you start making these radical changes to your nutrition plan because you're on a diet, it does not work. Listen, what you described what I'll just call clean omnivore is I think is it's just an awesome way to approach nutrition for a couple of reasons.

07:45One, it works. Like you said, it's flexible. Even with travel, you can always make some adjustment toward that. It handles

Avoiding Marketing Based Nutrition

07:53the protein needs thing pretty much on its own. I mean, you have to make sure you eat enough of those meals and enough protein. But as you were saying it, I I realized that it gets people if they adopt this mindset that you do that you have for nutrition.

08:07It gets them out and away from the marketing based draw of nutrition cuz people say like, "Oh, like protein bar or you know, high high protein yogurt." And listen, there's some great yogurts. I love Bulgarian yogurt. It's like Greek yogurt's great.

08:20Bulgarian yogurt, no no disrespect to the Greeks. Love Greek food, by the way, too. But Bulgarian yogurt so good. full fat Bulgarian yogurt or lowfat Bulgarian amazing and yeah and it you know the Bulgarians are known for their strength in many ways but you get outside that the marketing pole and you start thinking about food for its macronutrient content and its micronutrient content and quality as opposed to like the packaging based stuff because even the nonprocessed or non- highly processed foods mostly we're reaching for them because of what's on the label like the

08:55colors the the words and these And what you're describing is completely different. It's getting to the the the actual food. I think that's a very uh very important not so subtle distinction. And once people make that switch, they're really in the driver's seat.

09:08It's not like you're like have to go prepare every meal, this kind of thing. Well, yeah. I mean, and again, even with some of the the push towards higher protein foods now, again, the packaging is brag bragging about the protein content, but they've also increased the sugar, they've increased the fat, and it's like you've you've all you've made is a higher protein.

09:24I mean, even Snickers has a high protein bar. Are you serious? Yeah, I Snickers are Milky Way. They have a high protein bar. It's like, okay, this is this is insanity. So, show me the seauite of the Snickers. Uh, you know, I'm going to get in trouble for this, but whatever.

09:37Um, I I want to see how fit these people actually look, you know, and if they're eating that stuff, you know, it's like something tells me they're not. Yeah. Thank you again for for being a voice of reason in in the nutrition space.

Sustainable Habits For Success

09:50Yeah. And I'm not a nutritionist, you I I I and people are quick to remind me of that when I whenever I speak of nutrition. I'm only speaking from my experience both with myself and anybody I've ever advised on how to do that. It works. It's it's sensible and um it's something that could be sustained.

10:05So for me, that's what's most important with nutrition. And again, I don't fixate on any one particular way. If if doing keto works for you, great. As long as you can sustain your your eating that way, great. because all we're trying to do is manage our weight long term and and and not sacrifice other elements of our health in the process.

10:23So, if it works for you, cool. But this is what's worked for me.