After decades of fad diets and fast weight loss promises many of us are fed up. Instead of these weight loss plans delivering their promises, we have become more overweight, less healthy, and emotionally depleted. To top it all off, we are worried that solving our weight problem will always prove illusory. We’re very close to giving up, as many of us feel defeated and wary of starting over again with “the next new thing.”
And yet, as attested to in the National Weight Control Registry, which has recorded substantial weight loss of over 10,000 people for many years, being tired of the weight loss merry-go-round is a good place to be.
If we’re ready to throw in the towel with dubious “quick-fix” schemes when it comes to weight loss, real and lasting change might be just around the corner!
The Best Diet for You
Getting off the yo-yo diet train and beyond the “six weeks to six-pack abs” programs is essential to reach your long-term weight loss goals. There is no perfect plan that turns everything around in two weeks. But there is the best diet for your body! Your best diet is not necessarily low-carb, keto, or paleo, or even the geographically-based ones like the Mediterranean or French-Women-Don’t-Get-Fat.
The best diet out there is one you can stick to. The best diet is one that you can incorporate into your lifestyle permanently.
But we all know that the weight loss journey is hard. It’s full of ups and downs, stalls, and frustrations. While a center for medical weight loss will work with you to find the best approach for you, some tried-and-true tricks can help you sustain your weight loss over a lifetime.
Diet Tricks of the Trade
Good diet tools–or tricks of the trade–can build up weight loss momentum and sustain the topsy-turvy journey toward weight goals and maintenance. Some of our favorite recommendations include intermittent fasting and green tea. There is an incredible amount of science behind the powerful effects that both fasting and green tea create for people who have struggled for years with their weight.
Intermittent Fasting
One of our favorite recommendations is intermittent fasting. The concept of intermittent fasting is based on the fact that when the body has a surplus of sugars, it is going to choose to use those for cellular energy production first. The body knows that a build-up of blood sugar can be very inflammatory and toxic, so it chooses to use sugar for fuel first as a protective mechanism to keep blood sugar from being inappropriately elevated. But the body can decide to use glucose for fuel first when it is in readily available supply.
Assuming we have dinner and we stop, we allow there to be a period of fasting until the next day. During this time, the available excess glucose for cellular energy production will dwindle. Then a very natural, miraculous thing happens. The body starts to burn fat for fuel. This is a similar pattern to primal times. We gorged on food when it was readily available in the summer, and then when the seasons changed, we ate much less during the winter. The body would be forced to change from using glucose as its first source of fuel to using fat for fuel.
Cellular metabolism allows us to use ketones as a substitute for glucose in energy production. A lot of people think of ketones as being a negative thing. That is because ketones are often mentioned in conventional media in reference to type II diabetes. In this context, insulin resistance is so bad that cells can’t get to sugar they need, and they are forced to use ketones for fuel. This situation can go from bad to worse as blood sugar increases along with ketones. This situation is very inflammatory to the body. But with normal metabolism cycles when there is not enough glucose for fuel, the body will naturally switch over to burning fat. But the key is, you have to allow enough time in between sessions of eating and fasting to let fat become the source of fuel rather than glucose.
There are many ways to incorporate intermittent fasting into your life. One day per week without eating is one way people find great success. They may forgo all food for one full day and instead enjoy water or sparkling water with lemon or lime, herbal teas, and green tea. But this approach is much easier for some people than others due to a variety of factors, including their emotional relationship with food or physical conditions.
For those who don’t want to spend an entire day fasting, they have had great success by incorporating fasting into their daily routine. Instead of eating meals every few hours, people will create a longer window of time during which they cease eating. The body is thus forced to use fat for fuel. One popular ratio of eating to fasting is 16:8, sixteen hours of fasting (which includes your time asleep) to an eight-hour eating window. This approach can be useful under many different circumstances throughout the year, including vacations and holidays. Once adjusted to the change, many people report weight loss along with feeling wonderful and incredibly alert.
These are just a few examples. There are many more because millions of people have found that intermittent fasting results in weight loss. While it is not safe for people who have dramatic issues with their adrenal function, it is a tool that can provide many people with success. Those who have adrenal issues will need to work on healing that hormone function first. Then they can get into intermittent fasting. Our weight loss clinic here in Joplin, MO, can help you heal and create a winning strategy.
Green Tea
Another incredible tool that we recommend is green tea. Green tea has a very powerful antioxidant called EGCG. It also helps to increase metabolic rate. This is separate from caffeine, which also increases our metabolic rate and can also be useful in weight loss. But too much caffeine can be detrimental to the body’s overall function by putting it into a stress mode. EGCG in green tea, however, is a wonderful way to increase metabolism without stress. Most people can consume it three or four times per day. Taking it as a supplement is also very powerful in promoting fat burning.
Where to Start
Approaching a complete weight loss with a mindset that avoids yo-yo dieting and embraces new tools to sustain you on your journey is most effective when joined with a team to help you. Our new service, the PNOE metabolism assessment opens the door to your body’s secrets. By understanding your metabolic function in detail, we can develop a fully personalized weight loss plan that includes tailored nutrition, exercise guidance, and holistic health support.
Don’t jump on the diet train ever again that leads you down the path of failure and frustration. It just doesn’t have to be that way. We’re ready to create a plan that works, that sticks, and provides you with tried and true tricks of the trade.
Get started today with a PNOE metabolism assessment!
