The new year is here and this is the time of year when folks are thinking of new ways to get back on track with their health goals, especially weight loss.
Here are 5 tips to Help You Lose Pounds:
Eat 5 grams of fiber before each meal
Eat Balanced Meals with fiber, fat, and protein
Avoid Sugar Bombs
Assess Your Weight in a New Way
Improve your food quality when you do eat
Eat 5 grams of fiber before each meal
Among other things, adding 5 grams of fiber helps improve satiety, balance blood sugars, and it supports detoxification and elimination. All are key components of a healthy lifestyle-based weight loss program that gets lasting results.
We love using PGX Fiber as an easy-to-use supplement. In clinical trials people experienced 10lb weight loss with use. In our group programs it really helps curb appetite and cut cravings.
We also recommend adding 5 grams of fiber via 1 tablespoon of chia seeds or flax seeds. But, essentially, you can use any 5 grams of fiber that you like. Check out our BNH Wellness Fiber Guide to use as a resource.
Eat Balanced Meals with fiber, fat, and protein
Eating balanced meals that have fiber, fat, and protein allows for balanced blood sugar levels which improve insulin and in turn the balance of ghrelin and leptin key hormones needed for optimal metabolism for weight loss. Ghrelin is known as the hunger hormone. The higher your levels of ghrelin, the hungrier you get. The lower your levels, the more full you feel and the easier it is to eat fewer calories. Leptin on the other hand is supposed to tell our brains when we have enough fat stored and no longer need to eat but instead can burn calories at a normal rate. Eating balanced meals helps to prevent insulin and leptin resistance. Key metabolic functions needed for weight loss.
Avoid Sugar Bombs
Limit or avoid sugar bombs that show up in the form of cookies, cakes, sodas, juice, sweet tea, candy, binge-drinking sweet cocktails, and even large intakes of starchy low-fiber carbohydrates like pasta, bread, and crackers. Work with a BNH Wellness Dietitian to learn how to manage this. Sugar bombs cause blood sugar spikes which are when your blood sugar rises and then falls sharply after eating. In the short term, sugar bombs can cause lethargy and hunger in the longterm your body may not be able to lower blood sugar effectively, which can lead to insulin resistance, leptin resistance, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes
Assess Your Weight in a New Way
Take appropriate weight measures and ensure you are looking at your weight comprehensively. Remember that your body loses weight based on many factors: your gender, age, genetics, and other factors beyond your control. Just because you aren't losing weight in your hips doesn't mean you're not losing weight somewhere. It may just be from a place you don't much care about. Consider other methods to measure success, beyond the scale. Learn more about assessing your weight in a New Way
Using other ways to measure weight loss progress is important for maintaining motivation and helping you realize that you are making changes, no matter what the scale says. This is particularly true for folks who are looking to lose only a small amount of weight.
Improve Your Food Quality
Research and my clinical experience as a dietitian for over 20 years find that people who cut back on added sugar, refined grains, and highly processed foods while concentrating on eating plenty of vegetables and whole foods — without worrying about counting calories or limiting portion sizes — lost significant amounts of weight over the course of a year. This strategy works for people whether they follow diets that are mostly low in fat or mostly low in carbohydrates. Weight loss success does not appear to be influenced by genetics or insulin response to carbohydrates.
The research lends strong support to the notion that diet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most easily in the long run. Food quality is key for fat loss. The hardest part of this equation is knowing what constitutes quality food. Book a visit with a BNH Wellness Dietitian to learn how to recognize real food or Register for our upcoming FREE CLASS: KEY STEPS TO A HEALTHIER YOU class that addresses this.
Using a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement is a great way to jumpstart your weight loss, providing key nutrients that may be missing, especially if you suspect you have been eating highly processed, lower quality foods. Here are vitamin/mineral supplments recommended by our registered dietitians skilled in functional nutrition.
PROGRAMS
Check out our Many Programs to help you achieve the Weight Loss you want for 2023
30 Day Detox - Choose this if you want 6 - 16 lbs of weight loss in 30 days improved energy and sleep in a group setting with lots of education.
SLIM SLIM Tea Program - If you want a simpler way to lose 6 - 15 lbs in 45 days by sipping yourself slim with your daily tea, this is for you.
FOUNDATIONS Program - This is great for the person who wants a comprehensive health makeover with functional lab testing, group support, and one-on-one counseling. This is great for the person who wants to resolve a chronic issue or improve their longevity.
DRIS Packages - Choose one of our 16, 8, or 4-session program packages to get one-on-one clinical counseling with a registered dietitian skilled in Functional Nutrition. This is great for the person who wants simple clinical nutrition support that gets results week after week.
Membership Programs - This program is for folks who want an inexpensive program with lots of value, menus, recipes, exercise that gets weight loss and health improvement results without all the commitment of one on one or group programming at super affordable price points as low as $25/month.
Nutrition in Action Self Serve Courses - These courses are great for the person who is a self-starter and wants to improve health at their own pace with daily education, menus, recipes and exericse.