Nutrition is definitely an overwhelming topic. This is where Peter Attia’s nutritional framework comes in. He says we always have 3 levers we can pull on.
- When we eat. (Time Restriction – TR)
- How much we eat. (Caloric Restriction – CR)
- What we eat. (Dietary Restriction – DR)
This high-level way of thinking is essentially independent of diet and lifestyle. Everyone has these levers whether they like it or not.
What to eat can be very tricky to figure out (DR). It might be easier to start with the other levers. You can easily get a rough estimate of how many calories you need to maintain your weight. You can use a calculator such as this one.
Always pull one of the levers; often pull two; sometimes pull all three.
Peter attia
Play around with the animation below. You might want to click on the Algebra calculator to just see the graph. Hit the minus zoom button twice to see the whole cube.
I am not super strict with nutrition. I try to listen to my body and self-regulate as I go. My weight and body fat percentage has been relatively stable for the past 5 years so it seems to be working for me. My levers currently look something like this:
Time Restriction – TR
- I tend to eat breakfast (break fast) at around 9 am when I work from home. I basically eat whenever I am hungry or when there is a natural pause in my work. I like to eat a big breakfast and take time to enjoy it.
- I try not to eat past 8 pm. There are exceptions of course but I have found that I lose on sleep quality if I eat too close to bedtime.
Caloric Restriction – CR
The calculators say I need around 3000 calories to maintain my weight. I have found that most days I was slightly under this baseline when I tracked my calories for a month using myFitnessPal. This could be due to underreporting which is common when it comes to tracking calories. It could also be partially due to the other 2 levers that tend to decrease my net caloric intake.
Dietary Restriction – DR
- I do not follow a specific diet.
- I try to eat home-cooked meals. I would say that we eat at home arounds 5 days per week.
- I try to limit processed foods and increase the consumption of whole foods.
- I don’t drink calories. I only drink tea and water.
- I limit alcohol consumption.
Pulling none of the levers results in the “standard American Diet” (the S.A.D. diet). People seem to have poor health outcomes when they eat whenever they want (no TR), how much they feel like (no CR), and whatever they want (no DR). Everyone pulls these levers in a unique way throughout their lives. What are your levers set to right now?