What is the bro diet, and is it healthy?

Social media buzzed about The Bro Diet.

No, it’s not the latest viral horror movie to involve consuming meatheads – although this is probably in the works as we speak.

Instead, the Bro Diet is eating plan To gain muscle and/or lose weight, drawn from the bodybuilding traditions of the 1970s.

Both are highly disciplined, which appeals to diet connoisseurs, yet fans find them very simple and easy to follow.

What is the bro diet?

You can say that the Bro Diet is Meal preparation On steroids, figuratively speaking.

Insinuated from beliefs around the gym, the diet focuses on simple, complete sources of protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

It is a starter version of the system known as IIFYM (if it fits your macros), where the top priority is to consume a certain amount of these macronutrients—protein, carbs, and fats—each day.

What can you eat on the bro diet?

“The Bro diet includes many healthy whole foods such as chicken, rice, vegetables, oatmeal, eggs and especially egg whites, and discourages consumption of saturated fat, sugar and alcohol“Says Jim White, ACM, XP, CPTa registered dietitian and certified personal trainer in Norfolk, Virginia.

While there are many ways to interpret the Bro Diet, it creates a predictable and easily quantifiable set of foods to help dieters create a calorie deficit.

Bro dieters often prep these foods in advance and put them in the fridge containers To be heated quickly or eaten as is.

While there are no rules against spices or creative preparations, most dieters tend to keep things very simple.

Instagram is full of pictures (tagged # brodet) from meal prep bowls filled with unseasoned chicken breasts, plain rice and vegetables.

To outside observers, the biggest blow against the system is that it can appear bland and repetitive.

But for proponents of the diet, simplicity has its virtues.

“Some people need variety and some don’t,” aka Dieter Brothers “legendary power” He said on the Reddit forum /r/naturalbodybuilding.

“I can eat the same thing every day and be satisfied. It helps to be distracted while eating, like watching TV or YouTube. It clears my mind about it. A simple and delicious recipe for me is slow roasting in a cooking pot. Buy a roasting pan, put it in the water.” In a slow cooker, put it in the onion soup, let it simmer for 8 hours.”

But he added, “My other recipe was just meat.”

What are the benefits of the Bro Diet?

“When you look at the Bro diet from a scientific perspective, there are both beneficial aspects of the diet and some inherent pitfalls,” White says.

First, the good news. The two main principles of the Bro Diet have been found to be highly effective for weight loss and muscle building:

• Planning for the future
• Control the amount (although there is no set number of calories)

It’s easy to follow and stick with, and it shows just how popular meal prep is.

“Structured meal plans, with frequency (some Bro dieters eat six meals a day, others participate in the standard three), offer the best success rates for sticking to the diet,” says White.

“Regularly planned meals reduce hunger and improve appetite control. Regular meals may also affect our health – increasing the frequency of meals appears to have a positive effect on various blood parameters, especially LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol and insulin.”

What are the disadvantages of bro diet?

But the diet is not without its potential problems:

• Bro dieters can focus on protein and toss the veggies aside. An unbalanced focus on protein or an omission of other beneficial nutrients is bad for your body.
• Focusing too much on routine can mess with your head.
• The boredom factor can undermine the desired results.

White says there are many pitfalls in the Bro diet.

“Although a monotonous diet has proven to be an effective strategy for successfully losing and maintaining weight, an individual who lacks diversity in their diet can end up having gaps in their nutrition. When you are always consuming the same foods, you should also consider In micronutrients, or vitamins and minerals, you may be missing out and are essential for your body to function and stay healthy,” explains White.

For example, bodybuilders’ diets tend to overemphasize protein while reducing carbohydrates; but Research has shown White says that eating fast-acting carbohydrates along with protein is essential for effective muscle growth.

Also, the repetition and careful planning involved in the diet may inspire—or lead to food rebellion and unhealthy eating patterns.

“This can lead to overeating, guilt after cheat meals, and can reinforce generally unhealthy behaviors such as avoiding social situations in which food is present and missing out on celebrations,” White says. “There are many stories among competitive bodybuilders of battles fought with eating disorders and disordered and distorted eating patterns. body shape. “

bottom line

These days, Instagram-friendly eating plans seem to come and go at an increasingly rapid rate. Trying the Bro Diet (or a modified version) won’t necessarily lead to a nutritional disaster.

It can be a good short-term option to reset your diet, after which you resume one classic—scientifically backed—recommendation for a healthy diet: variety.

“Several studies show that people who consume the largest group of healthy foods are less likely to develop metabolic syndrome and tend to have smaller waists, lower blood sugar levels and lower blood pressure,” White says. “Research has also found that eating a variety of foods boosts the diversity of gut bacteria, which appear to play a role in everything from heart disease prevention, to general mood, immunity, and belly fat storage.”

As you restart your eating habits, the Bro Diet can also help develop robust meal prep practices. White emphasizes versatility with this process, too.

“If you have a busy lifestyle and love the idea of ​​meal prep, just make sure you rotate different recipes and meals in the cycle each week,” he says.