It’s A Lifestyle…Not A Diet!!!

As a result implementing and training hundreds of nutrition programs with physicians, nationwide, and counseling thousands of patients in private practice, in the past 15 years, it has become very clear that often, physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists and personal trainers are either too general or too restrictive when it comes to nutritional counseling with their patients or their clients. In many cases, it is because of a lack of time or lack of experience or training that is true.

One of the keys to good nutritional compliance is not to promote food restrictions; all foods can be eaten when balanced properly. All people are different and require different foods depending on their lifestyle, beliefs, culture, and level of understanding of nutrition. Within 30 minutes of meeting a client one on one, face-to-face, a good nutritionist should be able to asses in what direction a client is interested in going and on what level you are willing to commit. A good nutritionist should adjust the clients nutrition program accordingly.

While nutritional testing and nutritional supplements are important for some people, many clinical nutritionists just focus on nutritional products or expensive nutritional testing and not food. Clients often try commercial weight loss programs, temporary “Diets”, or even get professional advice and find their nutritional program or advice is too restrictive or too general. Often clients do not get the results they were looking for, or the regain the weight they lost and blame themselves for failure. This is unfortunate for the chronic dieter.

One of the keys to good nutritional compliance is you have to like and enjoy, your nutritional program. By understanding a little of the science behind nutrition, this will give you the ability to have you endless variety, flexibility so you can develop eating habits that compliment you and your lifestyle. As a result of understanding what you need to do and why you need to it, you will be empowered, and your nutritional program will be a positive uplifting experience, one that should nourish your body and spirit.

What percentage of your calories burned (utilized) within a 24-hour period are burned (used up) while you are at complete rest? When we talk about complete rest we mean in bed sleeping, sitting, not moving. Lets use Nancy, as an example, a nurse, who is 56-years-old, 5’ 4’’ inches tall and is 150 pounds with normal thyroid function. Nancy completes a fast walk / jog on a treadmill, 4 days per week for 30 minutes, her heart rate goal is approximately, 150 beats per minute, and she uses 10-pound weights twice per week for an upper body sculpting class for 25 minutes. She averages exercising approximately 170 minutes each week or an average of 24 minutes per day. Nancy’s exercise commitment is above average for a typical American.

Most clients tell me that they think that the percentage of calories used up in a 24-hour period at complete rest is around 10% to 20% of the total amount for a 24-hour period. In Nancy’s case, like most people she uses approximately 70% of her daily calories at complete rest. This means that only approximately 30% of her average calories per day come from moving around and exercise (on an average day exercising 4 days per week a total of 170 minutes per week). By the way, If Nancy did not exercise at all, 84% of her calorie needs would come from a, “resting state”. Her exercise program only uses approximately 10% of her total calories. The other 6% of her calories come from daily living calories which could be walking around at work and light house cleaning etc.

Remember, anyone who is just motivated to exercise by calculating the calories used up during exercise, may be missing one of the primary reasons to exercise. Yes, cardiopulmonary fitness is important, and yes burning some body fat is a good thing, but increases in lean muscle mass through proper diet and exercise, will help raise your metabolic rate, which will help you lose weight at complete rest and while working out.

Finally, the point, since a large portion of your daily calories (approximately 75-80% of total calories) are expended at complete rest it should become apparent that the need to fuel your metabolism, and increase lean muscle mass, should be your primary goal of your nutrition program. Again, 75-80%% of your ability to lose weight happens at complete rest, so it is very important to either preserve, or promote lean mass, which increases metabolism and promotes weight loss.

Many Americans, who follow a very low fat diet, or are chronic yo - yo dieters, or think that a very low calorie diets with or without appetite suppressants, or skipping meals are the answer to losing weight. More often these imbalances promote, fat synthesis, moodiness, irritability, fatigue and loss of lean muscle, which is usually counter productive to increasing lean muscle mass and reduction of body fat.

Remember, chronic yo - yo dieting (weight cycling – repeated cycles of weight loss and regain) is often unhealthier than the risk factors before weight loss and regain. The researchers specifically mention physical conditions such as heart disease and certain cancers, reduced metabolic rate and psychological factors like depression, anxiety, anger, low self-esteem, and social isolation.

Nancy used to go most of the day not eating, not eating balanced, or not eating enough food. In all 3 cases Nancy’s blood sugar levels were not optimized and instead of just burning body fat, like we all want to believe, she was burning muscle protein and converting protein to sugar for energy. Many times clients find out they are not overeating; their proportions of carbohydrate, protein, and fat percentages are not maximized for their, age, metabolism, activity level, sex…etc. This leads to the problems with hunger, cravings, and decreased metabolism….

The higher the fasting blood sugar the higher the risk for developing Diabetes. American Diabetes Association announces a new diagnosis and disease— PRE–DIABETES. According to the research, unmanaged PRE-DIABETES can become diabetes.

#1 Try to eat at least every 3 to 4 hours, or there’s the problem of low blood sugar, hunger, appetite, cravings, irritability, moodiness, and LOSS OF LEAN MUSCLE.

#2 Try to food combine a lean protein with a high fiber carbohydrate at meals and snacks. The goal is to produce a slow release of energy that will last 3 to 4 hours.

#3 Concentrate on foods to decrease cancer and heart disease, and lose weight by accident, as a result of following an anti-aging blood sugar management program!

#4 Consider having your metabolic rate measured and a custom nutritional program designed for you based on your lifestyle.