WEIGHT LOSS NUTRITION IS A MYTH, NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE TRUTH
The internet is flooded with weight loss coaches and nutrition gurus but how do you know who to trust? Something that frustrates me as a holistic health coach, is the phrase ‘weight loss nutrition’. This is a myth. Let me teach you why and what nutrition coaching really is.
Why Diets Don’t Result in Sustained Weight Loss
There’s so much advice and differing opinions out there claiming to be the secret to weight loss. I have trained in and practiced nutrition for years and helped countless women to reach their target weight and keep their dream bodies.
When it comes to weight loss, there’s a tendency to overcomplicate nutrition…and if you think about it, there’s a lot of money to be made in confusion.
I know, because most women who coach with us report to have done all the diets - going plant based to whole 30, paleo, intermittent fasting or keto with most having tried more than 3 and chasing goals for more than 10 times, which means, none of their attempts worked (for the record, I define success not as achieving a goal but as sustaining it for at least a year post achievement). Sound like you?
It pains me to watch women fight so hard for weight loss only to end up right back where they started, or worse. When we put in so much effort to create change and change doesn't happen, we start to blame ourselves, we start to distrust our body, food and question our ability and capability (this is what I hate to see most of all).
So, if these diets don’t work, what is the secret? I want to clear up some common misconceptions so that you can start to unravel your beliefs (that are not fact) and stop wasting time and money on plans that aren't going to work.
Myth 1: No Food Will Cause Weight Loss
First, let's start with the lingo, 'weight loss nutrition'. It's a good marketing tactic, that's for sure, but there is no such thing as weight loss nutrition. There are no foods that you can eat that will directly cause weight loss, that greens powder? Nope. Eggs? Nope. Avocado? Chia? Oats? Nope. But it is what comes up if you Google 'weight loss foods'.
The fact that these come up with no explanation is where the confusion begins.
What those foods might do is improve inflammation or help you balance blood sugar. It all depends on where YOU are starting, the changes that will initially make the biggest impact. For example, if you have been eating inflammatory foods and start choosing to eat more whole non inflammatory foods, you'll likely see a lowering of weight. That weight didn't drop because those foods caused it, it dropped because inflammation dropped (unless you also lowered your calorie intake). So, myth 1, no food will cause weight loss.
I'm linking my blog “8 Factors Not To Miss For Successful Weight Loss” to share with you more about what other factors can cause weight loss without a focus on calories.
Myth 2: A Diet Means A Healthy Gut
We so often blindly diet and cut out food groups. The ‘nutrition plans’ popping up on your feed are not designed around you and your body, what works for someone else won’t always work for you.
My second point into why weight loss might happen with specific food changes is gut health. If there is an imbalance within your gut (remember you don't need to experience digestive upsets to have an imbalance), a food that creates digestive upset, is creating intestinal inflammation and eliminating that food, will have a similar response as above.
This is so, SO important... you should not eliminate this food forever and if you are finding one food and another food and yet another cause digestive upsets, it is time to look at the environment the food is going into, your gut. Most of the time the issue is not the food, but the gut itself (PS: In case you didn't know, we help our clients with this process including functional stool testing).
A common symptom of a gut imbalance: Bloating.
Most people look for the answer of "what's causing my bloat" in their food choices. And I see so many cutting out lots and lots of foods or food groups blaming the food for the bloat and gut imbalances.
One cause of your bloat could be HOW you are eating or what's going on in your gut (the environment) that is affecting your bloat.
HOW to eat to support bloat (digestion actually starts in the brain):
- Eat undistracted
- Drink water around meals
- Eat in a relaxed state (take a few deep breaths before eating)
- Set your utensil or food down between bites to support eating slower
- Chew until the food in your mouth is almost liquid
If you still find bloat present, you may need to look a bit deeper, it could also be related to:
- Chronic stress
- Low stomach acid
- Trouble breaking down food, enzymes/bile
- Overgrowths in your gut, bacteria, yeast
- Overall gut balance
What you eat does matter, but so does HOW you eat and how the food is received (your gut environment). If you are worried and feel like you need help, get in touch and we can talk through your options. The first chat is totally free, you can just see how coaching might work for you.
Myth 3: Eliminating Carbs = Weight Loss
If you eliminate carbs, yes you will likely see your weight drop down. But let's understand this. First, did you lower your overall intake when you did this? If so, there's another reason why your weight dropped. If you just lowered carbs but kept calories the same, you likely dropped some water weight.
A combination of lowering intake and lowering carbs you may see both change. Every gram of carbohydrate comes with 4 molecules of water. Water has weight. If you are in this for fat loss and not just weight loss, this greatly matters. Dropping carbs can equal temporary water weight dropped but it does not equal fat loss, unless you are dropping overall calorie intake as well.
Changing Your Beliefs Around Food and Weight Loss
Eating MORE food scares a whole lot of you. We have all grown up in a society of being thin. The pressures on women to eat less to be thinner are huge and it takes a lot to undo these ingrained beliefs.
Yet if you have been on a diet for 10+ years and are still fighting to lose weight and be your goal shape? Your body is trying to tell you something.
If you’ve spent those last 10+ years…
- Intentionally or unintentionally under eating
- Restricting calories, carbs or food groups
- Eating 1500 calories or less
And they haven’t worked? It’s time to change your perspective on dieting. It’s time to eat. More. food.
For example, I had a consultation the other day with a woman who ended up signing on to coach 1 on 1 with me.
When we spoke, she shared her thoughts about what she felt she needed to do in order to be successful with the goals she has. Responding to her thoughts, I gently gave another perspective.
I said, “If those things worked, do you think they would have worked by now?” She responded, “I guess I didn’t think of it that way, but, yes, I agree”.
If you want to create change, you must be willing to challenge your beliefs. You must be willing to try something different (likely something outside of your comfort zone). When it comes to nutrition, these beliefs lay in calorie intake. It’s hard to shift your mindset to eating more to lose weight. (I go into more detail in this blog post)
It’s great that you’ve taken an interest in doing things ‘healthier,’ but sometimes the things you believe to be ‘healthy’ aren’t healthy for YOU or for you RIGHT NOW.
It’s often that I see someone’s beliefs mismatch the needs of their body & goals and that’s a huge part of my role as a Nutrition Coach, to help a client align their actions, goals & knowledge with THEIR body’s needs.
For example - this client above is doing HIIT training 5 times per week & has poor sleep, high stress, digestive issues, eating 1500 calories, her weight is maintaining/increasing. She really likes HIIT training & she says she’s not hungry for more food. This is where we need to step back and look at why the body may be feeling threatened and start to re-align her beliefs of how to achieve weight loss with science and education.
The Truth of Nutrition and Weight Loss
Let me ask you this, have you ever practiced the ‘traditional’ way of weight loss nutrition?
Like my client above, you just start eating less (without evaluating how much you are currently eating). And you do this by eliminating. You eliminate bread, potatoes, carbs, and some foods you deem unhealthy.
There are a few key reasons as to WHY your efforts might be leaving you frustrated. I have found that those who focus only on this classic diet of eating less and doing more - focusing on details before foundations ALWAYS end up feeling the most frustrated & they’re efforts seem to be most easily washed away.
Instead, as a nutrition and weight loss coach I take a holistic approach. I get to the bottom of your lifestyle, bodily health and mindset before launching into a nutrition plan. There are reasons that you might not be getting the results you want, and they need addressing first:
Poor digestion
Hormones / Thyroid imbalances
Stress
Lack of Sleep
Too low calorie (for too long)
Accuracy in how much you’re actually eating (too high calorie or lack of knowledge around current maintenance intake needs)
Training - style, amount, execution or intensity (smarter not harder)
Adherence & consistency over time
Lack of focus on the importance of creating behaviors & routines... the foundations of a new lifestyle and way of being!
If you don't assess before you take action, you miss out on creating a strategy. Without a strategy you will lack the ability to understand why something changed and make it really REALLY hard to sustain that change.
If I had to give you 5 things to start working on that WILL MAKE THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE IN YOUR WELLNESS AND WEIGHT LOSS journey, it would be these:
Get consistent with your nutrition! And learn how much you are actually intake and of what nutrients.
Focus on building a meal planning strategy to support being able to be consistent with good nutrition when 'the busy' happens
Eat mostly colorful whole foods
Every time you eat, make sure to take in at least 25g of protein
Eat a meal of food before you drink coffee
Fat Loss is The Final Stage, Not The First
Last note here, if you are in a fat loss phase (definition = strategic time period focused on eating less), your food choices shouldn't be much different from when you are not in a fat loss phase. What IS changing, is the amount of food. I will recommend to bring a heavier focus to the needed nutrients and nutrient dense foods over less nutrient dense foods when someone is entering and in a fat loss phase, however it is the amounts, not the what that we are changing.
A personalized diet plan takes a lot of research and education which you might be able to do on your own but chances are, you’re too busy for that. This is where our VRHC coaches can help. You don’t need to sign up to a full coaching program, you can get in touch just for a nutrition and health consultation. It could be the last diet you ever do.