What Is Flexible Dieting And How To Get Started

What are your first thoughts when you hear the word “dieting”?

Before we talk about flexible dieting…

Well, what if I told you…

That you didn’t have to do any of the above?

What if I told you…

That there was an easier and more enjoyable to diet and lose fat while still enjoying the foods you love?

This is where Flexible Dieting comes in.

In this article, I’m going to explain exactly what is flexible dieting and how to get started.

The Problem With Only Focusing On Calories

Now, if have been poking around any of my content or the vast sea of fitness content out there, you’ll likely have heard the term “calorie deficit.”

If you haven’t and are new to this whole fitness thing, here’s one of my YouTube videos breaking down what a calorie deficit is, how to get in one, and tips to success:

Otherwise, I’ll skip over all the little details.

Simply put, a calorie deficit is consistently eating fewer calories than your body burns.

Now, here comes the important part. So feel free to reread these next few sentences as many times as it takes for you to understand the concept.

This means that as long as you’re eating fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

And last time I checked, all foods contain calories.

This means…you can eat any foods you want and still lose weight as long as you stay in a calorie deficit.

But wait…while your initial reaction probably was, “Yes! Austin said I can eat all the pizza, ice cream, and cake I want in a deficit!”

And to this, I say, while yes, you can, it doesn’t mean you should if you want your diet to be successful and not suck.

Here are some side effects you may experience if all you eat are highly palatable, low satiating, high calorie-dense foods:

• Not getting to eat as much as you wanted
• Not feeling full and satiated from the amount of food you ate
• Not wanting to stop at the portion sizes needed to stay in your calorie deficit
• Not getting the necessary nutrients from your diet
• Feeling sluggish or low energy

The list goes on, but to put things simply if you only eat these types of foods:

The Problem With Always “Eating Clean”

On the flip side of that coin, we have constantly trying to “eat clean” or sticking to solely eating whole, nutritious foods with little to no room for treats and social event foods.

While this yields great results (for as long as you can stick to it), what happens when you have that guru proclaimed “bad” or “off-plan” food?

You feel overwhelmingly guilty which leads to the urge to go into the mentalities of being…

“All-or-nothing” where if you feel like you aren’t perfect with your training and nutrition then what’s the point of even doing it. You decide that one slip-up is an excuse to keep slipping up for the rest of the day/week/weekend/month.

OR…

You feel like you need to “reset your diet.” All those extra calories you ate? You think they’re all going to magically go straight to the fat tank. The result? You try to “reset” it by over-restricting your diet or doing extra cardio to burn it off the following day.

First off, if you are currently struggling with knowing exactly what to do after eating too much, go check out my other article here.

Otherwise, this is the problem with constantly focusing on “eating clean.”

It works really great until you want to go out to a restaurant and socialize with friends and family (like a normal person with a social life). /sarcasm/

Enter Flexible Dieting

Now, if only there were a way to combine the two of these approaches… 🤔

Oh wait, there is! It’s called flexible dieting.

Pretty self-explanatory (I hope).

The concept of being ‘flexible’ while ‘dieting’.

Groundbreaking. I know.

So what is it exactly?

It follows a popular fitness concept known as the “80/20 rule.”

It’s where the majority of your diet/calories consists of whole, nutritious, minimally processed foods (~80-90%).

And then the rest of your diet/calories consisting of more highly processed, and not-so-nutritious, treat foods (~10-20%).

Here’s how this would work in a real-life example:

Let’s say your calorie deficit target is 2,000 calories. (If you want to know how to get started on tracking calories and macros, check out my other article here)

1,600-1,800 of your daily calories should ideally come from whole, nutritious, minimally processed foods like lean protein sources, fruits, vegetables, and other starchy and fibrous food sources.

The rest of your 200-400 calories? Literally, anything you want. Want some cake? Go for it. Want more chicken, broccoli, and rice? You do you, but I would much rather have cake.

Note that these numbers don’t have to be exact. If you wanted slightly more calories worth of less nutritious foods, then go for it. Just know that it’ll cost you more calories.

But if you are fine making that trade-off and it allows you to enjoy your diet and stay consistent? Well, then that’s fucking awesome 🙂

What Flexible Dieting Is NOT

Alright, now that we know what flexible dieting IS, let’s talk about what flexible dieting is NOT.

Flexible dieting is NOT the same thing as If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM).

If you aren’t familiar with IIFYM, this is the idea that you can eat anything you want as long as the food fits into your macros and calorie targets.

As discussed earlier, we can see how this can become a problem when your macros are filled with things like pizza, donuts, and ice cream.

Flexible dieting is different from IIFYM because of the incorporation of the “80/20 rule” as mentioned above.

Flexible dieting is based on the idea that you should have a main focus on whole, nutritious foods most of the time while also leaving room to enjoy non-nutritious foods.

Whereas IIFYM has no structure other than to simply eat anything you want as long as you “hit your macros.”

Ultimately, flexible dieting is not eating whatever you want, whenever you want. It’s about knowing that you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want.

Reasons Why Flexible Dieting Works So Well

Better Relationship With Food

Rather than labeling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and saying “I can’t have this and only can have that”, you’re allowed all foods in moderation.

By allowing yourself to enjoy foods from all categories and not seeing any specific type of food as “off-limits” you don’t feel guilty after eating certain foods and don’t feel the need to use food and exercise as forms of reward and punishment.

You simply see food as food and allow yourself to make intelligent decisions to eat certain foods for certain reasons in accordance with reaching your goals.

Sure, being successful with your diet will require some sacrifice and restriction, but it will also helping you realize that success is going to be so much more dependent on being consistent rather than being perfect with your diet and training.

Better Adherence

This one isn’t so obvious to a lot of people.

The reason being is that most of us aren’t long-term thinkers.

We like to think in the context of weeks and months rather than years.

However, if you want to get your fitness results and keep them for the rest of your life? That timeline is going to be in years.

This is why quick-fix and super strict diets don’t work.

While you may get the results really quickly, you most likely won’t be able to keep them.

If a diet tells you to not to eat pizza, and you love pizza. How long do you really think you can say no to pizza?

Likely not long…

Rather than having to say yes to this and no to that, it’s yes to everything.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you can say yes to everything in unlimited quantities.

It’s still a matter of staying within your calorie target.

However, just like with budgeting, you know that you can spend your money on anything, but you also know that it’s smarter to be setting your money aside for emergencies than it is to be blowing every dollar at the club and bar every weekend.

Learning That You Actually Can Eat Anything While Making Progress

This is one of the biggest lessons that my coaching clients along with myself during my own fitness journey have learned.

It’s realizing that no food is off-limits.

And honestly, once you finally fully realize this concept, it’s such a freeing feeling knowing that you aren’t bound by any “food rules.”

Having this empowering feeling not only allows you to eat whatever you want guilt-free but also helps you realize that you are 100% in control of your nutritional decisions.

Because when you allow yourself to eat whatever you want within reason and moderation, this removes the “bad” label on certain foods.

This, in turn, will prevent you from having an all-or-nothing mindset, help you know that you can get back on track at any moment in time, and allows you to trust yourself to make decisions that best balance your health, goals, and enjoyment.

A Common Misinterpretation About Flexible Dieting

One thing I see many people misconstrue is that when they see fitness creators like myself eating not-so-healthy foods on the weekends, having dedicated “cheat days”, etc. and they immediately jump to the conclusion of “wow, I wish I had their genetics so that I can eat like that all the time and maintain that physique.”

This is simply untrue because unfortunately all of us have to obey the laws of thermodynamics.

Here’s the simple truth: many fitness creators, including myself, practice flexible dieting and eat healthy, nutritious foods most of the time, and allowing ourselves to enjoy treats and not-so-healthy foods some of the time.

However, here’s the part you’re likely missing from your point of view: these same fitness creators only show you what they’re eating on their “off-plan” days. As you can imagine, it’s obviously less exciting to watch someone eat a chicken salad with a side of oatmeal than watching someone eat an entire 16-inch pepperoni pizza.

Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t people out there who can get away with eating whatever they want in large quantities.

However, what I am saying is those types of people are a very small percentage of the population so more likely than not, you’re not seeing the entire picture.

Calories in and calories out still matter. You’re just not seeing all of the calories both on and off-camera.

New Age Flexible Dieting?

After having been an active member of the fitness industry for the past 11 years, I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go along with ideals that have flourished and died out.

That being said, in recent years, it is becoming increasingly popular to turn conventionally “unhealthy” and high-calorie recipes and spin them into lower-calorie dishes.

Call it what you will, “the anabolic diet”, “high protein low calorie ____”, “protein _____”.

The name possibilities are endless.

However, here is my 100% honest take on this style of dieting after having struggled for years with dieting and finally finding true moderation and balance today.

But I should also put the disclaimer that this is my opinion and my opinion only from the culmination of my years of experience and that you should only use my take as a guide to help you ultimately find what works best for you.

While this new type of flexible dieting incorporating “macro-friendly replacement foods” has worked wonders for many people including myself, I do not think it is the superior way of dieting.

Like I have said many times before, the best diet is the one you can be consistent with.

If you find that you are able to eat food that “tastes good enough” and can help you stick with your diet and reach your goals.

That’s fucking awesome.

But I’m not going to sit here and tell you that protein powder, almond milk, frozen fruit, and guar gum blended with ice (protein ice cream) is going to taste like an authentic pint of Ben & Jerry’s…

Sure it might taste almost as good, but don’t expect it to taste like the real thing.

However, if you find that you’re someone who won’t be satisfied constantly trying to “replace” what you’re craving all the time, then surviving purely off of “low-calorie recipes” won’t be successful.

Like it or not, food for many of us isn’t just a source of physical satisfaction, there’s also an emotional and mental satisfaction that comes with it.

Because no matter how much you try to convince yourself that your protein shake tastes like chocolate milk, deep down you know it’s not true.

Of course, that’s not to say that you should be always be giving in to your emotional cravings, but just be aware it’s completely fine to indulge it from time to time because we humans are inherently emotional creatures.

And this is where actually setting calories aside to eat the actual thing you’re craving can be helpful.

You get the true emotional and mental satisfaction of eating the “real” thing.

This is something I’ve struggled with for many years.

I thought the answer to my cravings and hunger was to always suppress them and replace them with eating these high-protein low-calorie replacement recipes.

Yet, no matter how much I stuffed myself, I never felt truly satisfied until I started eating the actual foods I wanted.

So while yes, I believe that these high-protein low-calorie replacement foods are awesome because they have helped tons of people feel less restricted while dieting, they are meant to be treated like every other food: eaten in moderation.

Final Thoughts

Just to wrap things up, here’s a quick recap of Flexible Dieting:

• A calorie deficit is king. You can implement flexible dieting all you want, but if you aren’t in a calorie deficit, you aren’t going to lose weight.
• Flexible dieting isn’t the magic cure all. While this method works for a lot of people, it also doesn’t work for a lot of other people.
• Flexible dieting is not a free for all IIFYM approach. While technically, yes, as long as you are in a calorie deficit and “hit your macros”, you will lose weight. However, if your diet mainly consists of pizza, fried chicken, fast food, ice cream, and various desserts, you probably won’t feel or function at your best despite the weight loss. Having your diet mainly consist of whole, nutritious, minimally processed foods will help your body get the micronutrients it needs to function. (Aim for ~80-90% of the “healthy” stuff and ~10-20% of the “other” stuff)
• Flexible dieting is not meant to be scrutinized over. Just because there are general guidelines of having most of your diet consist of whole, nutritious, minimally processed foods does not mean you have to be adhering to the 80/20 or 90/10 rule all of the time and if you don’t follow it to a tee then you messed up. As the name states, flexible dieting is meant to be flexible. This means that you can have whatever you want (within reason of course). So if you happen to be super busy one day and can’t get all of your ideal meals as planned? Tired of eating salads and healthy foods for today? Enjoy yourself, make smart(ish) choices (or not), but always remember you can always hop right back on track immediately after because…

Flexible dieting is not eating whatever you want, whenever you want. It’s about knowing that you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want.

Remember that you are always in control and have the choice of what foods you want at the moment.

There are no right or wrong answers.

Just decide if that choice is truly worth it for you at that moment and accept it and move on.

Only you know what feels right for you.

Until next time,

-Aus

Coaching Opportunity

I am currently taking on new clients for online coaching.

A few benefits of this program include:

• Customized nutrition plan tailored to your individual needs and goals
• Customized training plan to help you build muscle, lose fat, and feel better
• Daily accountability and support to ensure that you never feel “alone” or “stuck” on your journey to bettering yourself.

The best part: you can do this from anywhere in the world.

You can apply here for more info.