The 80/20 Rule: Food

The Pareto principle, named after Vilfredo Pareto (an Italian engineer, economist, and philosopher), also known as the 80/20 rule, states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

We do not need to get caught up in the exact percentages, but rather, let’s focus on the implication of the 80/20 rule.

What do I mean? Well, the inverse of the 80/20 rule would state that roughly 20% of your effects come from 80% of the causes.

If not, here it is in plain English. It means we are spending a lot of time doing tasks that do not do much if anything to benefit our lives, our jobs, etc. If you think about it, you likely have experienced this or already know it to be true. You fret and fret over the exact wording of an email to your supervisor. Deleting your draft several times, starting over, coming back to it after a coffee break. Only to have the supervisor gloss over the carefully crafted email with a one or two word response. But there are likely a few tasks at work that you engage in at work that, assuming they are done well, result in most of your productivity as measured by your supervisor. More time spent at those few important tasks reaps greater dividends than time spent on the bulk of your tasks. In the case of employment, this does not mean that you shirk your responsibilities, but it can guide your time management.

One more example, if you are in sales you may find that a large percentage of your sales come from a few select products. And also, that a large chunk of your sales is also coming from a select group of clients. Focusing more of your energy on the specific products that sell well and on the certain clients that tend to be your reliable customers will pay off. And the reverse is also true, that you would not want to overspend your efforts trying to sell products that don’t want to move off the shelf to clients who do not want to buy!

The lesson: Focus on what’s important!

Let’s apply the 80/20 principle to the area of food. You should be focusing on a few relatively simple items that will by far give you the vast amount of your results.

For instance, if you are focused on losing fat, you should be focused on burning more calories than you consume. Imagine someone consuming two “protein cookies” per day and wondering why the scale was not heading down. This person had glanced at the nutritional facts but never really noticed anything more than the total calories. She thought was consuming 200 calories twice daily and that it was mostly protein. If that was the case, she’d be doing okay, right? However, when she finally looked closely at the labeling she learned each cookie was two servings and it had plenty of filler carbohydrates. So 800 calories total (and 400 more than what she thought) and lots of extra carbs. Do you think 400 extra calories may be enough to “tip the scales” (pun intended) in the favor of gaining fat rather than losing fat?

You should be concerned with eating adequate protein. Imagine you are working out hard in the gym as well 3 to 4 days per week. And you focus all of your energy on constructing a beautiful diet of mostly whole foods; lots of vegetables, occasional fruit, some whole grains and essentials fats. Only, you forgot the protein, not completely mind you, it just got lost in the mix. It’s dismally low on your list. And yet, your body is begging for it to recover from your workouts in addition to the normal building and repairing that goes in your body.

You should be concerned with eating your vegetables and eating mostly whole foods (see Grandma was right!). Remember when you couldn’t leave the table until that last pile of green stuff on your plate was gone? Remember when you were not allowed to have the cookie until you had something nutritious?

Well, it turns out, Grandma, with all of her craziness, was on to something. Vegetables are chock full of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Whole foods, will have more nutrients as compared to the over processed junk you find on much of the store shelves. The longer the ingredient list, the more likely it is filled with additives, preservatives and extra sugars that you really do not want or need. The processed junk will leave you craving more while whole foods tend to leave you actually feeling satisfied after a meal.

That, in my opinion, is the 20 percent that will give you 80 percent of your results. Not overeating, consuming adequate protein, eating vegetables and whole foods.

Is that what people concern themselves with? Unfortunately, often the answer is no. Many people spend an excessive amount of time concerning themselves with fasting, intermittent fasting, fad diets (take your pick), liquid diets, cleanses, detoxes, specific “miracle” food that is sure to do “melt belly fat” or “make you lose inches overnight”

I am purposely and not going to do into detail on the items listed above. Why? Then I’d be violating the 80/20 rule.