how is it that NO ONE accounts for the "thermic effect of feeding" when prescribing diets? from lyle mcdonald's
The Ketogenic Diet:
TEF represents the slight increase in metabolic rate which occurs when food is ingested. The term specific dynamic action (SDA) of food is also used. The three macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein and fat have different SDA values. Protein has the highest SDA, burning off 20-25% of its total calories during digestion. If 100 calories of protein are eaten, 20-25 calories are burned during digestion. Carbohydrate is slightly less, having a SDA of 15-20%. Fat has the lowest SDA, approximately 3%.
As an average, TEF will increase caloric requirements by roughly 10% per day.
Considering many diets are high protein / carb, the TEF could be closer to 20% per day... kind of a big deal when people are trying extreme diets. Yet I haven't seen a single diet prescription which accounts for this "effect"... even Lyle seems to completely forget about it in the later chapters of his own book!
