Revive Stronger

The Omniscient (all knowing) Dieter

By Steve Hall

The omniscient dieter is all knowing.

But, they’ve been many other dieters before getting to this point.

They’ve had to go through many different ways of eating, seeing the good, the bad, and experiencing success and failure. This experience has laid the foundation for the development of becoming an omniscient dieter, and once there, there is no going back.

In my honest opinion, everyone should strive to become an omniscient, all knowing dieter.

Table of Contents

Stage 1] The ‘Gatekeeper’ Dieter

At this stage you don’t really know much about your diet.

You know there are foods you like, and others you do not like. You also may not have a lot of control over what you get to eat, you’re cooked meals at home, you’re left with what your parents have in the house. At this point in your dieting life you have quite a blinkered way of eating.

Your parents are effectively…

the ‘gatekeepers’ who control what you do and do not eat

…to an extent.

If they love chicken, no doubt you’ll be eating a lot of chicken, if they’re vegetarian, then hey maybe you’re now a veggie. At this point they also may influence your subjective thoughts about food, you may be told ‘junk’ is bad and that you should really eat your fruit and vegetables.

At this time your dieting experience is fairly limited, and your views of food are somewhat guided by the gatekeepers of what goes in your gob.

Stage 2] The Yoyo Dieter

As you get older you start to take the reigns of your own eating, becoming your own gatekeeper. This might start happening as you cook at home, and then fully develop as you move out or go to university. At this point you’re left to your own devices, and you have to make more decisions about what you eat.

At this time your views on food are essentially;

tasty, yuck, OK, healthy/good and unhealthy/bad.

This is the stage many people get stuck within, they never progress to the next stages let alone the omniscience dieting stage. Now your views are not just left to what your parents told you, but also the media and whatever you choose to take in. This is the most confusing and frustrating stage.

At this point you’re likely trying many different diets, to cut, to bulk and have success with some and not others. The problem is you don’t really know why some work and others don’t, and that in the end the results don’t seem to stick around. We’ve all heard of the yoyo dieter, and this is the stage they reside.

Stage 3] The Pubmed Dieter

A very small percentage of the population make it to this stage, and if you’re on my blog, you probably have, so well done.

The Pubmed stage is:

exciting, scary and enlightening all at once.

You learn about Calories, protein, fat, carbs and the role of different micronutrients. The diets you’ve been on before all start to mesh into one, as you learn that the reason they worked for a short time was because they restricted the Calories you took in. It all takes a while to sink in, but you become aware of some big names in the industry such as Lyle McDonald and Alan Aragon, and thousands who have got fantastic results using if it fits your macros.

At this point you feel like you know it all, and that’s that.

So long as you hit your macros by the end of the day, and get most of your food from wholesome sources, you’re A OK, there’s nothing more too it. You go about your day posting up your tubs of ice cream and protein bar reviews on Instagram and troll clean eating accounts.

You don’t think there is evidence to suggest meal plans are required.
You don’t think there is evidence to suggest any reason low carb diets are superior.
You don’t think there is evidence to suggest Intermittent Fasting is better than hitting macros by the end of the day.

And you’re not wrong.

This stage is OK, you’re at least getting results because you know what makes a diet successful or not.

Stage 4] The Omniscient Dieter

What makes this stage so amazing is you’ve been through all the above.

You’ve eaten to your tastes and preferences, with little knowledge of nutrition
You’ve trialled tonnes of different diets, had successes and failures.
You’ve educated yourself in the fundamental basics in nutritional success.

This vast amount of experience is fantastic and the only thing stopping someone going from Stage 3 to 4 is an open mind. This is something you very likely have because the fact is, to get from Stage 2 to 3 you have your preconceived beliefs challenged, but you listen to science, fact and keep your mind open.

To be an omniscient dieter requires a different sort of open mind.

Think about what you know, you know that eating without any idea of what you’re eating doesn’t take you towards your goals and nor does restrictive dieting approaches, and that so long as the fundamentals are met (Calories, Macros etc.) you can move towards your goals.

But does that mean your past experiences are useless, and that…..

there is only one diet for success? ==> No.

The omniscient dieter realises that each of these approaches has their own good and bad points, and can accept each for their own, they do not sit in camp clean or camp macros. They realise that the reason many diets fail is due to the fact they’re unsustainable, the person can’t stick to them.

Why do we stop doing something? We stop if it causes us stress.

The way I eat has really evolved over the years, from not having a clue, to all the protein and ‘clean’ foods, to hitting my macros on the head and now…well I don’t know what to call it.

I don’t intuitively eat really.
I don’t hit macros exactly.
I kinda eat clean.

No, I do know what to call it, I’m a dieter that ‘knows all’ and can select an appropriate diet for my goals. The diet chosen will differ between different people, and the KEY aspect I think here is finding the diet that causes the LEAST stress for you.

Me for example, someone who is obsessive, stubborn etc. etc. you know typical bodybuilder I like some structure, BUT I also appreciate having flexibility and for lack of a better term ‘living a little’.

Most of my time I aim to hit macros within a range

^ that range will tighten and loosen depending on my goal at the time.

When needed I inject flexibility or other dietary strategies for example:

When dieting I might fast in the morning if I have a big meal out later.
When eating plenty and I want to eat some different foods/out I’ll just default to Protein and Calories.
Possibly I’ll ‘Calorie Cycle’ and have higher and lower days depending on life’s events and just hit a weekly average.
On holiday or times away from routine I’ll intuitively eat, vaguely keeping track in my head and eating plenty of protein.

^ I’m never doing one form, it’s always an evolving combo, because I am an omniscient dieter:

In the past I was firmly in different camps, like ‘I gotta eat clean’ (like I wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t wholegrain or brown — so racist to my white carbs) and then it doesn’t matter, so long as it fits.

Now I don’t really see it that way, my eating just represents what I find least stressful at the time, that still supports my goals.

[bctt tweet=”my eating just represents what I find least stressful at the time” username=”revivestronger”]

This is what an omniscient dieter does, they select a diet that is based on the fundamental principles of nutrition that leads to the least stress for them at that particular time. By ‘knowing all’ they also realise they don’t know everything, because that’s impossible, science is dynamic and ever evolving, new diets will come out, new research will come out and the omniscient dieter will keep their mind open and add this to their arsenal.

The omniscient dieter selects a diet that is based on the fundamental principles of nutrition that leads to the least stress for them at that particular time

The omniscient dieter adheres to their ‘diet’ year round, and their diet may never look the same year round, or even day to day.

WHAT NEXT?

If you liked this, you will love:

Join my free facebook group or add me on snapchat (revivestronger) and ask your questions there, I will respond asap. Or if you’re after a fresh training programme I have a free 4 week plan using DUP that you can download for free here.

One more thing…

Do you have a friend who would love the above? Share this article with them and let me know what they think.

[bctt tweet=”The Omniscient (all knowing) Dieter” username=”revivestronger”]