Heather Bedard, C.H.E.
One of the top three things that motivated me to start doing what I do was my frustration with all of the confusing narratives out there about diets. I was tired of never knowing if I was doing the best thing for my body and I felt like there had to be a better way than trying every new diet that came along. One of the most damaging messages out there, is that it is ok to restrict calories for weight loss or that you can do a 21 day highly restrictive diet plan to prep for swimsuit season and it not affect your overall health.
The problem with any diet is that it is only good for as long as you can do it. Once those 21 days are up, or you feel so hungry you just can’t take it anymore, the weight loss is up, and you are back to where you started…with even more weight gain on top of it all. As frustrating as that is, you’ll be happy to know there is a better way…a way that you can eat, not be hungry, and find your optimal weight!
All food has energy and the amount of energy that your body burns above the rate of your resting metabolism is one of the important factors to sustained weight loss. This rate is called thermogenesis and is directly affected by how often you eat.[1] Bonus…people who eat more often burn at a higher rate than people who don’t eat as much or eat at irregular intervals. Most people feel comfortable at 5-6 times a day. It probably goes without saying, but what you eat at these times is important. If you are constantly eating treats and handfuls of chips, not only will you be eating more calories than your body can effectively burn off, but you will also be consuming food with little nutrient density and working against your body’s immune and hormonal functions. You can do a simple thing to help your health by eating more often, which can also lower your cholesterol and insulin.[2]
If you are not eating often enough, your blood glucose levels will drop causing amino acids to be released from your lean muscle. These amino acids are then converted to glucose. (This is one of the reasons that working out on an empty stomach is not helpful to your strength goals.)[3] If your blood sugar levels are very high or very low, this can also increase weight gain.[4]
In other words, if you are severely restricting your calories, you can reduce your lean muscle mass, increase your fat stores, and reduce your resting metabolism as I mentioned above.[5],[6] All these things are counterproductive to your goals. As you will have learned if you went through the HealthCARE Basics 1.0 and 2.0 courses, our goal isn’t to lose weight to look good for a season, or to fit into that special outfit for a night on the town. Our goal is long-term health; health that is sustainable over years. Our eating patterns can help us to prevent diseases or create them. They can take away our mental stress or add to it. While changing your eating pattern to a more optimal one takes some adjustment, it is worth it in the sense that you don’t have to stress over your diet, you don’t have to wonder if you are harming your body, or if it will really work. You stay consistent, and you will reap the benefits.
I love a whole food, plant-based diet for this very reason…the food you eat has optimal nutrition, you can stay satisfied while eating fewer calories, and it is sustainable as a lifestyle. Big-time benefits! A study on the differing effects of high-fat or high-carbohydrate meals on food hedonics in overweight and obese individuals showed this very thing.[7] 65 people were enrolled in the study and were randomized to a high-fat, low-carb diet or low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Participants that consumed the low-fat, high-carb diet felt fuller than their low carb eating counterparts even though they were eating less calories.
In another clinical trial, at the end of 6 months, women who ate low-calorie foods like fruits and vegetables, and prepared these foods with less fat, lost 40% more weight than women who restricted portion sizes and tried to control their fat intake.[8] The researchers found that eating more of the right foods was better than the traditional advice to eat smaller portions. Part of the effectiveness of this was that people were able to eat the amount of food they were used to and didn’t feel restricted. If you are eating the right foods, then it is totally possible to eat more and weigh less!
One of the biggest tips I can give you is to view your increased eating times as meals as opposed to a few meals interspersed with snacks. Snacks give the mental image of a handful of crackers or chips, while meals tend to help you to envision more nutrient dense options. Make the majority of your food intake fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, and you will feel full, eat less calories, and be well on your way to losing weight and keeping it off in a sustainable way.
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[1] Farshchi HR, Taylor MA, Mcdonald IA. “Decreased thermic effect of food after an irregular compared with a regular meal pattern in healthy lean women.” Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2004 May;28(5):653-660
[2] Jenkins DJ, Wolever TM, Vuksan V et al. “Nibbling vs gorging: metabolic advantage of increased meal frequency.” NEJM 1989 Oct’321(14):929-934
[3] Felig P, Wahren J. “Amino acid metabolism in exercising man.” J Clin Invest 1971 Dec;50(12):2703-2714
[4] Russell-Jones D, Khan R. “Insulin-associated weight gain in diabetes–causes, effects and coping strategies.” Diabetes Obes Metab 2007 Nov;9(6):799-812.
[5] Heshka S, Yng NU, Wang J, Burt P, Pi-Sunyer FX. “Weight loss and change in resting metabolic rate.” Am J clin Nutr 1990 dec;5(6):891-986
[6] Luke A, Schoeller DA. “Basal metabolic rate, fat-free mass, and body cell mass during energy restriction.” Metabolism 1992 Apr;41(4):450-456
[7] Hopkins M, Gibbons C, Caudwell P, Blundell JE, Finlayson G. Differing effects of high-fat or high-carbohydrate meals on food hedonics in overweight and obese individuals. Br J Nutr. 2016;115(10):1875-1884. doi:10.1017/S0007114516000775
[8] Ello-Martin J, Roe L, Rolls B. “A diet reduced in energy density results in greater weight loss than a diet reduced in fat.” Obes Res 2004;12:A23