PODCAST · health
The Nutrition Grouch
by Todd Weber, PhD
The weight loss industry is, has been, and always will be a dumpster fire. People like to say health & wellness (of which weight loss is a part of) is “broken” or full of “misinformation” but that is being too generous because it implies that some of it is good or that it is actually fixable. It is damaged beyond repair. If it were possible, I would burn it to the ground and start over. While it is impractical to try to summarize what’s wrong with the industry in one podcast description, my premise is this: there is a truly astronomical amount of information that neither our media nor our professionals are able to communicate to you in a meaningful way without losing all context, applicability to real life, and/or the ability to see how all of the pieces fit together. The media should just stop covering health & wellness because their soundbites explain nothing and are little more than headlines and talking points. They may raise awareness but not u
Episodes
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50: What's Enough? Part II: Obsessions
Half of the things that we think we “have to do” are not essential. “I have to watch that football game”. “I have to get my daughter’s teacher a Christmas present”. “I have to get new clothes for work”. “I have to get to the gym today”. And many of the things that we “obsess about” and the goals...
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49: What's Enough?
How much of anything do you really need? What’s enough to make you happy? In today’s episode The Nutrition Grouch wrestles with the idea of “what’s enough?”. So many of us have so much, and yet, it never seems to be enough. Humans have an insatiable appetite for more. But more isn’t always better...
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48: What Will Weight Loss Advice in 2035 Look Like?
The world, technology, and the pace of our lives seems to move faster and faster each year. Your life not that long ago is different in so many ways from the one you’re living today. But what about the food you eat? Has that changed? To any casual social media observer, dietary advice and what...
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47: Food Addiction
Food addiction is a somewhat controversial topic. Can you really be “addicted” to something necessary for life (i.e., food, air, water)? Based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), the technical answer is, yes. In today’s…
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46: Food Judgement and Demonization is Holding Us Back
There’s literally nothing you can eat that is universally agreed upon to be good for you. Not even fruits and vegetables. You can build out the old food guide pyramid with the foods that people are judging, demonizing, and vilifying with every single category: grains, fruits, vegetables, meat…
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45: Weight Loss: It's Not (All) About the Food
Weight loss is the result of consuming less calories than you burn (calories in < calories out). Most weight loss diets are sold to you with the idea that some foods are “good” for you (i.e., fat and protein) while others are “bad” for you (i.e., carbs and ultra processed foods). There is a…
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44: Do You Know Your Behavioral Obesity Risk Score (BORS)?
In today’s episode Todd discusses the 25 things that DO MATTER for weight change and the 14 things that DO NOT seem to matter to weight change, based on his analysis of The Paper Database. He also discusses the possibility/utility of creating a weight change (loss) app called the “Behavioral...
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43: The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss
There are hundreds of diet types and thousands of diet do’s and diet don’ts for weight loss. And yet, what does every diet type have in common? The 5 Universal Laws of Weight Loss. It doesn’t matter if you eat low carb or high carb, low fat or high fat, Paleo, Keto, or alternate day fast. Eat fat...
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42: Why Estimating Your Metabolic Rate Just Isn't Worth It
To lose weight, the standard advice is to follow this simple formula: estimate your metabolic rate to see how many calories you burn (calories out), then log your food to make sure you consume (calories in) fewer calories than you burn. By creating a deficit of say, 500 calories a day, you will...
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41: There are 3 and Only 3 Ways to Cut Calories
Low carb, low fat, high protein, alternate day fasting, cutting out ultra processed food, eating multiple small meals a day, time restricted feeding, Keto, Paleo, you name it, what do they all have in common (besides energy balance)? They all rely on some variation of the 3 and only 3 ways to cut...
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40: Nutrition Rules and Decision Fatigue
Many of us have a nearly unlimited access to a wide variety of ultra-processed, highly palatable, energy dense food. And yet, most of us don’t gorge ourselves on these ultra processed foods at every waking moment like a bear in September. But why don’t we? With the risk of oversimplification, I...
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39: How Much Weight Can You Actually Lose on a Diet?
Weight loss conversations should start out like this: weight loss is a lot harder than you think it is and it is a lot harder than you’ve been told it is. You’re going to lose less weight than you think you should and you’re going to lose less weight than everyone has told you that you will lose....
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38: Everyone is Lying to You About Weight Loss
Diets aren’t sold with facts; they’re sold with testimonials. And the reason diets are sold this way, is because if you actually knew how little weight you were going to lose on a diet or how hard it would be to maintain your weight loss, you probably wouldn’t even bother. You would think the...
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37: Learning How to Live Your Life
What do you spend your leisure time doing? Is it something you enjoy doing, or is it something you used to enjoy doing but are still doing it out of routine or habit? In today’s episode, Todd and Jeff discuss some of the things in their lives that just don’t really serve their health and…
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36: Carbs: Which Ones Should You Actually Eat?
Not all carbs are created equal, with some being better than others. But how can you tell? In part III of our miniseries on carbohydrates, The Nutrition Grouch reviews the nutrition epidemiology literature to discuss what types of carbohydrates you should be eating, based on the literature. Some...
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35: Carbs: Common Misconceptions and Fallacies
In part II of our miniseries on carbohydrates, Jeff Burkart of Brave Chicken and I talk more about how in most cases carbs, are not only NOT harmful, but in many cases they're actually beneficial to you. Some of the topics in today's episode include: Three ways science shows us that carbs do not...
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34: Carbs: The Most Misunderstood and Vilified Macronutrient
Most rational people realize that there are different varieties, types, and sources of carbohydrate. But the dialogue around carbs is not a rational one. We’re far more likely to hear about how carbs are bad, period. They make you fat. They give you diabetes. You shouldn’t be eating them. There’s...
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33: Everyone Needs an Enemy
It may sound crazy, but everyone needs an enemy. Not the kind that wants to hurt you, but someone or something to fight against. If you don't find something to fight against, you may find yourself lacking purpose and floundering in the wind. Enemies can help define who you are by helping you...
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32: How Much Junk Food is Too Much Junk Food?
We all eat (some) junk food, but exactly how much is too much? What exactly is junk food and are some junk foods worse than others? In today's episode, The Nutrition Grouch explains that while there is a strong dose response relationship between ultra-processed food intake and type 2 diabetes…
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31: Why Nutrition is Not a Transactional Service
You can pay someone to make so many of life's problems go away but this simply isn't the case with your nutrition. No one else can do the work for you, you have to do the work. While there are a number of products and services that can reduce or even eliminate your cooking burden, none of them…
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30: The Major Mistake Nutrition Education Keeps Making
We keep treating nutrition and weight management as a logic and reasoning problem when it is not. The math is simple, eat fewer calories than you burn, and you'll lose weight. If you know the number of calories in a food, you'll make the decision to eat it or not eat it to stay within your daily...
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29: Why I am Transitioning from Nutrition to Wellness
Good nutrition is not the same as wellness. In fact, nutrition is only a subset of a subset of wellness. And yet, if you listen to many of the experts in the field, you'd think that good nutrition is the be all, end all, of health. In today's episode the Nutrition Grouch talks about how he used…
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28: Kitchen Essentials and Other Meal Planning Tricks
In episode 27, I provided you with the foundation of meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking, in what I like to call "the weekly meal cycle". But I couldn't tell you EVERYTHING you needed to know in one episode. So, today's episode in an extension of episode 27 and looks to fill in the gaps…
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27: The Weekly Meal Cycle: How I Meal Plan
The weekly meal cycle is a concept that I coined to describe all the steps that go into meal planning: from finding recipes to creating grocery lists, grocery shopping, cooking, eating, running out of food, and starting the process all over again. In today's episode the Nutrition Grouch talks…
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26: The Importance of Flexibility and Having a Plan A, B, C, and D
If you can't perform your preferred mode of exercising, what's your backup plan? If you can't run, do you bike? If you can't bike, do you swim? If you can't swim, do you lift weights? If you don't have weights available, do you use resistance bands? If you don't have resistance bands, do you do...
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25: Summer Vacation!
Summer, summer, summertime! Ah, summer vacation, a time to rest, relax, rejuvenate, enjoy the great outdoors, and the many hours of daylight. Summertime is also a time when your eating goes sideways, and your food environment gets destroyed. In today's episode the Nutrition Grouch explains why he...
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24: Hunger Actually has Very Little to Do with Weight Loss
Hunger is often reported as one of the biggest reasons why a weight loss diet fails. And yet, dietary strategies to reduce hunger, such as drinking more water, eating more protein, fiber, fruits, and vegetables, and even going on a ketogenic diet are no more effective than diets without a hunger...
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23: The 5 Things Fad Diets Actually Get Right
I really don't like fad diets but there are a few things that they actually do get right. In today's episode I talk about 5 of the things they do get right as well as what some of the pitfalls of even those five "positives" are. To get to that point, we first discuss the multiple diets and diet...
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22: My Love/Hate Relationship with Nutrition
I love nutrition but I hate the way it is practiced. In my opinion, there's academic nutrition based upon science, facts, figures, and knowledge and then there's the business of nutrition based upon sales, marketing, and persuasion. I just can't figure out how to compete in the business of...
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21: Where is Weight Loss or Healthy Eating on Your Priority List?
No one ever has enough time. Everyone is too busy. Meal planning becomes an afterthought and meal decisions are made in the moment. Pardon my pun, but this is not a recipe for success. Diets work in the short-term because they help you create a negative energy balance and provide you with a…
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20: McDonalds is Not the Enemy
Is McDonalds really that bad for you? Yes, it is. But it's not McDonalds that is bad, it's how much and how often you eat McDonalds that is bad. The poison is in the dose. By focusing so intently on hating McDonalds people are missing the other culprits that make up the majority of our calories…
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19: The Small Changes Approach to Dieting versus Diet Perfectionism
Change is super freaking hard. In an effort to get people to change their diets, many practitioners have advocated for a "small changes" approach. That is, make a few small changes to your existing diet and exercise to make the change a little easier to get started. On the other side of things…
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18: The Bright Side of Negativity
"Clean coal" and "light cigarettes" make about as much sense as the "bright side of negativity". In general, it's almost always to your advantage to be positive than negative. On today's episode, The Nutrition Grouch talks about why he was shocked to realize that he sounded so negative and does…
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17: Sigh Inducing Marketing Buzzwords & Nutrition Philosophies
Anyone who knows anything about nutrition, knows that the vast majority of nutrition buzzwords are made up, don’t mean anything, misinterpreted, or stolen from an unrelated industry. These buzzwords belong in works of fiction, not nutritional science. If students in a college class used even a...
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16: Why Wellness Influencers Suck
Wellness influencers of today are all too often modern-day snake oil salesmen who also happen to be masters of social media. Enthusiasm, optimism, passion, and artistry trumps evidence, knowledge, facts, and expertise. Most wellness influencers know very little about nutrition, metabolism, or...
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15: Everything You Need to Know about GLP-1 Weight Loss Medications
GLP-1 weight loss medications are game changing. Outside of bariatric (weight loss) surgery, there isn’t another diet, exercise or lifestyle modification program that can help you achieve a 15-25% weight loss. Yet, these medications do have some serious and uncomfortable side effects. On today’s...
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14: Why Recent Studies Don't Mean Shit
According to a recent study…… who cares what your recent study says! Is it earth shattering? Paradigm shifting? Revolutionary? Game changing? Groundbreaking? No, it is not. But that’s not what the news media, internet ads, and radio spots will tell you. Outside of weight loss medications (a...
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13: Nutrition is Way Too Much Like Politics
Nutrition and Politics are two seemingly very different fields/disciplines, yet they have far too much in common. In today’s episode The Nutrition Grouch illustrates the ways in which the disciplines are structured, and how their individual incentives are at odds with actually helping people live...
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12: Eight Tips to Survive Holiday Eating
Christmas decorations, lights, cards, music, parties, presents………and eating advice. Every year we do the same things for the holidays, one of which is giving cliched, watered-down holiday eating advice. In today’s episode, The Nutrition Grouch provides his Eight Tips to Survive Holiday Eating and...
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11: Starvation Mode
Anyone who diets, will at some point, go through a weight loss stall or a weight loss plateau. Many people will tell you that your body may have entered “Starvation Mode”. In starvation mode your body “thinks” you are starving and will no longer allow you to lose any more weight. But is…
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10: How to Burn Fat and Lose Weight
People are obsessed with burning fat to lose weight. Millions of products, services, and careers are based upon the relationship between fat burning and weight loss. In today’s podcast, The Nutrition Grouch explains why he thinks burning fat is actually very overrated. Burning fat isn’t actually...
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09: I Want to Burn Fat and Build Muscle
Fat – Bad! Muscle - Good! The Nutrition Grouch explores yet another example of overly simplistic, binary, good/bad thinking in the health & wellness industry. And grumbles that no one takes the time to talk about How much fat is too much? How much muscle do you really need? That people with…
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08: My Frustrating and at Times Comical Job Odyssey
The Nutrition Grouch tells the story of his 10-year job odyssey and why it is reflective of a truly broken health & wellness industry. He ponders why there is apparently no place for someone who has taught at Concorde Career College Johnson and Wales University - Denver The Community College of...
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07: My Weight Journey/Narrative
The Nutrition Grouch (Todd) shares how and why his weight has fluctuated by 40 pounds over the years in his autobiographical weight narrative AND why it is important for people to know their own story. Includes Beer drinking and weightlifting in college Riding 100s of miles at Iowa State and…
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06: The 15 Keys to Weight Management: Keys 9-15
Recap of keys 1-8 including what Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking Fast and Slow” System 1 versus System 2 comparison means for decision making when it comes to your food and food environment. Why diet is more important than exercise to lose weight (but you still have to exercise). Why Todd hasn’t been...
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05: The 15 Keys to Weight Management: Keys 1-8
The Nutrition Grouch shares the first 8 of his 15 keys to weight management. Items discussed include trying not to be so hard on yourself, the role of your food environment and how it has caused obesity but can also cure it, our snack culture, setting realistic weight loss expectations, how there...
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04: The Best Diet to Lose Weight Ever! - Part I
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Despite all the wild claims and massive positivity claiming otherwise, there is no “best” diet. There isn’t even a “right” diet for you. The idea of a “right” diet is a very American, individualistic concept. Yes, humans are different but there...
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03: Privilege
Todd talks about how privileged he feels to have avoided Covid for so long (got it for the first time last week) and how these "life" privileges (advantages) directly affect how he eats. He also discusses how he became a stay at home dad, the importance of a weekly meal cycle, how to overcome...
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02: Who is the Nutrition Grouch?
In today’s episode, Todd Weber, PhD (aka, The Nutrition Grouch) talks about his small town, west central Wisconsin upbringing, choosing a college, changing majors, being an idiot, reading Muscle & Fitness, going to school forever (BS, MS, PhD), creating a 5000 paper database on weight management,...
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01: Introduction to The Nutrition Grouch
The weight loss industry is, has been, and always will be a dumpster fire. People like to say health & wellness (of which weight loss is a part of) is “broken” or full of “misinformation” but that is being too generous because it implies that some of it is good or that it is actually fixable. It…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The weight loss industry is, has been, and always will be a dumpster fire. People like to say health & wellness (of which weight loss is a part of) is “broken” or full of “misinformation” but that is being too generous because it implies that some of it is good or that it is actually fixable. It is damaged beyond repair. If it were possible, I would burn it to the ground and start over.
While it is impractical to try to summarize what’s wrong with the industry in one podcast description, my premise is this: there is a truly astronomical amount of information that neither our media nor our professionals are able to communicate to you in a meaningful way without losing all context, applicability to real life, and/or the ability to see how all of the pieces fit together.
The media should just stop covering health & wellness because their soundbites explain nothing and are little more than headlines and talking points. They may raise awareness but not u
HOSTED BY
Todd Weber, PhD
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Nutrition Grouch have?
The Nutrition Grouch currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Nutrition Grouch about?
The weight loss industry is, has been, and always will be a dumpster fire. People like to say health & wellness (of which weight loss is a part of) is “broken” or full of “misinformation” but that is being too generous because it implies that some of it is good or that it is actually fixable. It is...
How often does The Nutrition Grouch release new episodes?
The Nutrition Grouch has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Nutrition Grouch?
You can listen to The Nutrition Grouch on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Nutrition Grouch?
The Nutrition Grouch is created and hosted by Todd Weber, PhD.
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