Occam's Razor

The Power of Simplicity in Decision-Making

We humans have a knack for making the simple, complicated, and nowhere is that more prevalent than in the industry of health and fitness.

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”.

Albert Einstein

The History of Occam’s Razor

The now-famous, mental model is attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century friar, philosopher, and theologian but in fact, there were many before him who used the framework such as Aristotle when he said, “We may assume superiority, other things being equal, of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses”.  Occam's razor as it is now known, can also be known as the principle of parsimony or the law of simplicity has been expanded on by many a thinker, but it was William of Occam who brought the rather ‘simple’ mental model to light when he said, “Plurality should not be posited without necessity”. In simpler terms if there are two competing theories, the simpler explanation is typically to be preferred. Here’s a quick real-life example:

Your husband is late home from work, and you can’t get hold of him. What is more likely to be true: He’s stuck in traffic and can’t answer his phone, or he’s dead after driving 80 miles an hour into a wall?

Occam’s razor is used in the medical, science, and engineering fields and probably should be used more in the investment field but we don’t have to have a Ph.D. to benefit from this simple but comforting mental model. We can use it in everyday life and somewhere we would benefit from simplicity, from cutting the signal from the noise, the wheat from the chaff is when it comes to your health.

To my knowledge, there is nothing more powerful for managing one's weight than understanding calories in vs. calories out. Yet despite this people are drawn to fad diets, supplementations, wearables, and certain exercises to promote weight loss. When it comes to health & fitness you are the customer. When you consume content, you are targeted at every instance, from every angle. There are of course genuine people online who free of charge (they want clicks on their YT videos to grow and monetize and perhaps they sell something as well) go out of their way to separate fact from fiction. Here’s an example of somebody who does such a thing: https://www.youtube.com/@JeffNippard. If you consume more calories than you burn, you’re deemed to be in a surplus and you will inevitably put on weight. Conversely, if you do not eat as many calories as you burn you will be in a deficit and will lose weight. It does not matter if you are on a ketogenic diet or vegan diet if you eat more calories than you burn you will gain weight. I know of two vegans. One is an ultra-marathon runner and the other has never exercised a day in their life. I’ll let you figure out which one’s overweight.

To put this into a greater light this year a man called Kevin Maginnis lost 58.5 pounds in 100 days eating nothing other than, wait for it, McDonald’s! The OG fast food empire is known for exactly the opposite of weight loss. So how did Kevin lose so much weight, so fast from eating only McDonalds? These are exactly his words “Half a plate to lose the weight – three-quarters of a plate to maintain the weight, any food, including McDonald’s”. Kevin knew that if he limited the total intake (calories) of food and did nothing else, he would lose weight (Occam’s Razor). In fact, when he ordered from McDonald’s, he only ate half the portion he ordered (such a waste). To make things even better his wife joined him halfway through his ‘diet’ and lost 20lbs. Then there was an ‘expert’ on nutrition and health (a doctor if you could believe it) who said, “The diet isn’t for everyone”, cautioning people to make sure they eat their fruit and veg. How ironic. No mention of the key concept of healthy weight management. I can eat 5 fruits and veg a day easily, but I can also do that whilst eating 3 mixed kebabs.

Reckon I’ll be the embodiment of good health?

When faced with 2 competing theories, in this case, a new diet (bear in mind dieting typically means calorie restriction) or calorie restriction you’d be better off going with the simpler theory, especially when one is essentially the other with extra layers on top. Occam’s razor isn’t without its faults and sometimes the complicated way is the better way but for those who live an ordinary life, why make your life harder than it needs to be?