What’s a Discretionary Calorie Allowance? (and How it Can Improve Dietary Adherence)

Image by the author

July 23, 2021. The day that I wrote the ‘3 Reasons Why Flexible Dieting May Be Your Last Diet’ article. Obviously, I was chemically altered because howthefuckelse I would have written such a great article? Which, I hope, steered some of you into a healthier relationship with food.

One part of the article seriously limited the size of my circle of clean-eating-all-day-err-day friends. I said:

Flexible dieting follows the 80/20 rule. Around 80% of your food choices should come from whole, minimally processed foods like lean meats, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, etc. The rest can come from less nutritious foods (and there’s no reason to beat yourself up for it).

I followed it up with this infographic (because I heard something about people memorizing visual information better):

Image by the author

But today, for no reason that I can attach a rational explanation to, my brain went ‘Hey, Egis, do you even know where that 20% allowance came from?’ As I mentioned before, at the time of writing the flexible dieting article I was chemically altered so I just rolled with the 80/20…