The 80/20 rule is stupid. There. I said it. But let’s back track a little bit. What is the 80/20 rule? The theory goes that as long as what you eat 80% of the time is good, you can “cheat” 20% of the time. And that, my friends is stupid.
First, a little history. In the 19th century, an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto saw that 20% of Italy’s population had 80% of the wealth. Then other social scientists saw that it applies to other aspects of life. Self-help gurus helped spread the word. Eventually, idealistic, well-meaning nutritionists caught on, and started espousing the same philosophy. Too bad that it’s wrong.
Why is it wrong? Just do the math. If you can have a “bad” meal 20% of the time, that means that one in every 5 meals will be a bad meal. If you’re eating 3 meals per day, 1 bad meal in 5 would be a “bad” meal every 1.5 days. Good luck losing weight or achieving health that way.
For most people, a “bad” meal will contain the foods they crave most: something with wheat, dairy, corn and/or eggs (think ice cream, chocolate, pizza, chips, etc.). And if you’re not sensitive to any of those, that’s not so much of a problem. But we find with most of our clients, there is some sort of a sensitivity to those.
And you’re probably thinking “I’m not sensitive to anything.” No. You may not be allergic to anything, but you likely don’t know what you’re sensitive to, because allergies and sensitivities are not the same thing. A sensitivity is like a low-level allergy. You might not go into anaphylactic shock, but you will be bloated, or get a headache, or yes, even gain body fat.
With some of our clients, we see one bad meal set them back 1-2 weeks. Just 1 meal!!! Can you imagine what would happen if this meal was repeated once every 1.5 days? Frustration and stagnation, that’s what.
One of the reasons we’re having such great success with our clients is that we identify their sensitivities and strictly avoid them. We repeatedly see drops of 1-2 inches in waist circumference and 5-10 pounds in a 2-week period. In fact, one client lost nearly 2 inches and 9 pounds when he wasn’t overweight to begin with.
So rather than following some nonsense 80/20 rule, follow the Igor rule: if what you’re doing isn’t working, change what you’re doing.
If you need help with that, let me know.
