7 New Ways To A Healthy Weight
7 Experts Guide You
Through Their Successful
Weight Loss Programs
Find The Perfect Diet For You. Look Inside….
TOPIC: WEIGHT LOSS TRENDS
The science of epigenetics, the (now-known) plasticity of the genome, reveals that our lifestyle choices, including our emotional states, all affect physical outcomes that either threaten our health and set us up for disease or create an environment conducive to our good health and longevity. From David Perlmutter, MD, in Effortless Healing by Joseph Mercola, MD
7 New Ways To A Healthy Weight
As we go to press, Consumer Affairs reports that nearly 70% of Americans are either overweight or obese.1 That is 7:10 persons. In the 1950s, this number was 1:10!
Here, I review seven new approaches by seven experts. All of them have been (or still are) in the trenches of individual coaching, and all have successfully guided hundreds and even thousands of clients to sustainable weight loss. And, all of them are promoting a healthy weight lifestyle.
My intent is to give you sufficient information to evaluate the plans for yourself. Also please note that each book I discuss could stand on its own as a Nutrition News topic. Even then, the newsletter is not a book.
Let’s find the perfect “diet” for you….
7 New Ways To A Healthy Weight
Footnote:
1 On their website Consumer Affairs offers the 10 most reviewed diet programs. Go to www.consumeraffairs.com/nutrition/nutrition.htm.
“Your Fat Is Not Your Fault”
This is one theme common to the authors. Other common themes include poor or inappropriate diet, inflammation, malfunctioning digestion, and allergenic foods.
Along with environmental toxins, these are named as the underlying causes of bloat and toxic fat deposits. However, the experts don’t always agree with each other.2
Mindset, a customized approach, eating whole foods and “fit fats”, eliminating common food allergens, detoxification plans, and healing the gut trend throughout.
Although to a person, the authors disdain the old eat-less-exercise-more approach, you’ll notice that you’ll be eating differently, often asked to fast, and be directed to follow an exercise routine.
All the programs are designed to keep you from feeling hungry, even those which utilize intermittent fasting. However, fasting is a learned mental discipline and can cause some discomfort on fasting days.
FYI: If you are over 40 and have trouble losing weight, you may need to supplement CoenzymeQ10. In one study, CoQ-deficient people took 100 mg per day. At the end of nine weeks, they had lost 30 lbs compared with only 13 lbs in the nondeficient group.
“Your Fat Is Not Your Fault”
Footnote
2 For example, whether or not to eat breakfast is sometimes a bone of contention.
Drop Unwanted Pounds For Good
Brain-Powered Weight Loss, Eliza Kingsford with Debora Yost
Eliza Kingsford is the Executive Director of Wellspring Weight Loss Programs and a licensed psychotherapist.
Specializing in weight management, body image, food addiction, and eating disorders, she asserts that what you eat has nothing to do with what you know about weight loss, and everything to do with how you feel and think about food.
The book is a workbook. There are practices to change ingrained behaviors. The idea is to reprogram your mind around the way you think about food, such that nutrient dense whole foods become your preferred choices. Kingsford’s goal is for you to develop a “healthy obsession”.
Following her 11 steps can end overeating and eliminate unwanted pounds. I paraphrase some of them here:
- Cultivate a Weight Loss Mindset (Take accountability.)
- Face Your Biological Truth (Most overweight people are prone to overweight.)
- Find Your “Wise Mind” (Mindless eating is a key cause of overweight.)
- Adopt a New Lifestyle of Healthy Eating Using 10 Nutrition Principles3
- “Move It Or Lose It”
- Set SMART Goals and Plans (Specific, Measurable,Attainable, Realistic, and Timely)
- Use Your Healthy Obsession and Commit to Being a Long Term Weight Controller (LTWC).
In her smart and intriguing book, Ms. Kingsford recognizes the 24/7 bombardment of both food and marketing that have created an “obesogenic” environment and acknowledges the challenge faced in overcoming that.
Siri Says: Seems to me that Ms. Kingsford’s gimmick-free plan is a measure of one’s commitment to successfully reaching and maintaining a healthy weight for a lifetime.
Drop Unwanted Pounds For Good
Footonte
3 Sorry we don’t have the space to explore these.
7 New Ways To A Healthy Weight Help Your Body Fix Itself
Effortless Healing, Joseph Mercola, MD
Dr. Mercola also promotes lifestyle: “Don’t be on a diet; rather, eat healthy”. He promises that following his “9 Simple Ways to Sidestep Illness” can help you “shed excess weight” and restore your health.
The “9 Simple Ways” are obvious—and life changing if you follow them.
#1: Drink Pure Water;
#2: Eat Your Veggies;
#3: Burn Fat for Fuel;
#4: Exercise Less and Gain More Benefits;
#5: Enjoy the Sun and Get Your Vitamin D;
#6: Let Your Gut Flourish;
#7: Clean Your Brain With Sleep; #8: …Stay Grounded;
#9: Avoid 6 (so-called) “Health Foods”. Each healing principle contains unexpected value, including specific science and lifestyle tips.
We discuss numbers 3, 4, and 9.
Burn Fat
#3: “Burn Fat for Fuel”—This is the key to weight loss. By eating only within 8-10 hours each day, eg, between 10/11a and 7/8p (8-10 hours), your body fasts for 14-16 hours daily. [Note: Many American bodies are only fasting when they are sleeping. SK]
The result of Dr. M’s recommendation is a type of intermittent fasting. The majority of your calories come from veggies and healthy fats. Completely skip the high carbohydrate foods, particularly sugar and grains.
Dr. M comments: “Training your body to burn fat for fuel and eating [as noted above] creates the conditions your body needs to function optimally…and ward off diseases effortlessly. This is the most powerful benefit of effortless healing.”4
Exercise
#4: Exercising less for more benefits—Recent studies show that increasing the amount of time we stand each day may be more important than regular exercise. [Dr. M uses a standing desk. SK] Besides spending more time standing, high-intensity interval exercise several times each week, plus resistance training and stretching are recommended.
Foods To Avoid
#9: The 6 health foods to avoid—These are whole grains, including brown rice; natural sweeteners such as agave; unfermented soy products, including soymilk and tofu; vegetable oils (except olive and coconut); most types of fish; conventional yogurt. Why? Thorough explanations are in the book.
Siri Says: I am a big fan of Joe Mercola’s website and of the wonderful work he does to ensure food quality. However, I find him to be a “my-way-or-the-highway” kind of guy with very definite opinions.
7 New Ways To A Healthy Weight Help Your Body Fix Itself
4 For more details of the benefits of intermittent fasting (IF), see Nutrition News, “5:2 – Is It For You?”.
Say Good-Bye To One-Size-Fits-All Diets
Wired To Eat, Robb Wolf
Robb Wolf, a biochemist and health expert, is the author of the bestselling The Paleo Solution. Let me state immediately: This is not an approach for vegetarians or for semi-vegetarians.
Wolf emphasizes that we are genetically wired to eat more and move less, exactly the opposite of what we need to do to maintain our health – and a healthy weight. Phases One and Two of the plan are used to determine how to successfully go up against our genetics.
In Phase One, you discover where you are on the insulin resistance spectrum. For 30 days, you eat 3x/day. Snacks, if needed, are beef jerky, fruit, veggies, and a small handful of nuts. Each meal is made up of lean protein, fiber (from the carbs you are eating), appropriate carb content (75-150g from fruits, veggies, and roots – no grains), and enough healthy fat to make food tasty.
Protein and fiber are at the crux of this plan because of their proven satiety effects.
(Wolf provides food lists to support menus, and suggests taking one day weekly to prepare food in advance. He also gives recommendations for people with autoimmune disorders.)
During Phase 2, the 7-Day Carb Test, the deep carb foods are tested. Examples are rice and beans and fruits like mangos and bananas. Monitoring blood sugar levels reveals optimal carb intake. You are looking for a per meal carb load that works to keep your metabolism optimal and to maintain your own healthy weight
In Phase Three, Robb reminds you to continue to eat as you did during the 30 days while integrating the heavier carbs that keep your body happy. In the final chapter he discusses the use of therapeutic ketosis and fasting.
Siri Says: Personally, I would need a lot of support to complete the first 40 days of this program.
On the plus side, Robb reminds us more than once of the importance of a good night’s sleep. He warns that we can effectively block the weight loss process simply by not getting sufficient sleep every night.
A Revolutionary Weight-Loss Plan
Diet Right For Your Personality Type, Jen Widerstrom
Jen Widerstrom is an athlete, weight-loss expert, and star of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. Her basic premise is that many diets fail because they don’t take into consideration individual tendencies or triggers, motivational patterns, or lifelong habits that are ingrained into our personalities. As she writes,
“Even someone with the strongest willpower in the world can find it tough to stick to a plan that works for someone else, but not for them”.
Through her experience, Ms. W identified five core personality types. She then designed five different approaches to weight management that could be adapted to suit each individual. The five personalities are:
The Organized Doer
The Swinger
The Rebel
The Everyday Hero
The Never-Ever
Ms. W provides a personality assessment so that you can identify your personality type. Briefly, The Organized Doer is a type A personality who craves routine and rules. The Swinger is the adventurous type who is finds success in variety, change, and the ability to make choices each day. The Rebel tends to be impulsive and noncommittal. They need to find their own flow and have boundaries that provide varied guidelines.
The Everyday Hero is the person who tends to put other people’s needs before their own. They need a streamlined plan that is easy to set up “with as few obstacles as possible”. The Never-Ever is out of touch with their health and fitness, or may have given up. This person needs to step away from negative self talk. From their program, they learn how their decisions influence behavior.
Each personality type has a chapter devoted to how they operate and includes four weeks of menu plans and recipes to fit that profile.
Ms. W also includes chapters on mental preparedness for dieting success and the meaning of healthy eating. Recipes contain cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, oatmeal, plus spouted bread and tortillas. In the final section of the book, Ms. W demonstrates beautifully a variety of 16 minute workouts.
Siri Says: Diet Right For Your Personality Type contains the most novel approach to dieting of the seven books reviewed here. I highly recommend that you complete Jen’s personality assessment. I believe the information you gain can help you to know in advance how you would fare on a particular program and how to customize varying plans to your own personality.
Lose Pounds, Inches – And Your Wrinkles!
Dr. Kellyann’s BONE BROTH DIET,
Kellyann Petrucci, MS, ND
All that and lose up to 15 pounds in 21 days! According to the New York Times, bone broth “ranks with green juice and coconut water as the next magic potion…for perfect health”.
Dr. Kellyann, naturopath and a weight loss specialist, says bone broth delivers concentrated healing. The broth is made by simmering meat, poultry, or fish bones for hours until the collagen of the bones turns into gelatin. The result is a nutrient-rich liquid, which Dr. K calls “liquid gold”.
According to Dr. K, there are three main benefits to drinking bone broth:
1) Gelatin strengthens your skin by providing the material for the body to make new collagen.
2) Gelatin fights inflammation. Less inflammation equals faster weight loss. It also reduces symptoms of autoimmune disorders, bringing relief to those with arthritis, celiac disease, and psoriasis.
3) Gelatin heals the gut. It is thought that gelatin stabilizes the gut mucosa by decreasing damage from excess acid. Other variables explaining this phenomenon are discussed in depth by Dr. K.
This diet plan also uses intermittent fasting. During the 3-week program, you will fast on bone broth any two nonconsecutive days each week.
On fasting days, you consume up to 6 cups of bone broth or 5 cups of broth and an approved snack at 7:00p. This is very appealing when you cook up one of Dr. K’s delicious, hearty bone broth recipes with salt and spices.
In essence, with Dr. K, you are living on bone broth, meat and eggs, specific fruits and veggies, plus healthy fats. Keep in mind, it’s only for 3 weeks and promises great results.
Siri Says: This is not a diet for vegetarians. The downside of the plan is that rapid weight loss is easily followed by rapid weight gain.
Dr. K suggests re-instituting the two weekly fasting days when you experience weight gain. She also states that if you’re chronically stressed, sad, or angry, you will likely regain the weight.
Although Dr. Kellyann has some suggestions about this, I want to refer you to Ms. Kingsford’s book, which addresses seriously the emotional component of weight loss.
Turbocharge Your Metabolism!
The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet, Yuri Elkaim
Author of the bestselling The All-Day Energy Diet, Elkaim, nutritionist and renowned fitness expert5, posits that no combination of calorie cutting, exercise, or restrictive dieting can help people unless they set their bodies to burn fat all day, all night, 24/7. His solution is the 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula, which resets your metabolism to lose up to 5 pounds per week.
What is the 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula? It is 21 days of prescriptive eating and exercise that lead to weight loss and the beginning of total fitness.
The 5-day cycle is Day 1: Low Carb Day / Day 2: 1-Day Feast [Not what you think. SK] / Day 3: 1-Day Fast / Day 4: Regular Calorie Day / Day 5: Low Calorie Day. Repeat 4 times.6
Elkaim asserts that today’s overweight epidemic is due not only to inappropriate eating but to numerous environmental stressors.
To remove some stressors, his food lists exclude the following common allergens: caffeine, dairy, wheat, rye, oats (unless gluten-free), refined sugar and agave syrup, most packaged foods, fast foods, soy, and vegetable oils.
There are many delicious foods to eat (including beans and fit fats). Small amounts of goat milk products, plus ditto honey and maple syrup are also allowed.
What happens to 5-day cycling when you reach your 22nd day? In the final chapter, “How To Stay Lean For Life”, Elkaim draws on your 21 day experience and focuses your attention on being a “body whisperer”. He gives 3 options for modifying food-cycling and includes 10 Fat Loss Commandments.7
Siri Says: With the 5-Day Food-Cycling, Elkaim elevates “food as medicine” and “eating on purpose” to a new level.
I acknowledge his precise science- and experience- based directives as the new way to weight loss. 5-Day Food-Cycling really is a formula for whole body fitness. Elkaim encourages vegetarian protein sources.
Turbocharge Your Metabolism!
Footnote
5 A former professional soccer player, Yuri Elkaim was also the strength-and-conditioning and nutrition coach for seven seasons at the University of Toronto.
6 Because the diet begins with two consecutive low carb days, there are 21 days total.
7 Late in 2016, Rodale Books published Elkaim’s The All-Day Fat-Burning Cookbook, containing over 125 recipes. (They look delicious.)
Stop Dieting Backward!
The Prime, Kulreet Chaudary, MD, with Eve Adamson
Dr. Chaudary is an integrative neurologist whose eating programs are based on her expertise, personal journey, and culture. Her book jacket declares “No Diet Required”.
Like other authors reviewed in these pages, Chaudary takes the position that weight is not about food but about the body’s internal state. She believes that in order to lose weight, your body must be “primed”. Prime first, lose weight second!
Priming isn’t about weight loss but about rebalancing your system to reduce inflammation, purge biochemical junk, restore gut bacteria, repair digestion, and restoring biochemical processes that keep your body healthy and disease-free.
Because she is a neurologist, she explains the connection between the brain and the gut. She points out how debased foods filled with sugar, salt, and fat have ruined our taste for real food and what we can do about that.
There are four action stages that make up “The Prime”: Activate a Biochemical Shift; Crush Cravings (No Willpower Required!); Ignite Energy and Fat; Biohack Your Lifestyle Habits.
In each stage, you add herbs and spices—simple change-ups that fulfill the intent of that stage. Following Chaudary’s suggestions for achieving a newly balanced, healthy system, your body will automatically shed unwanted pounds.
All this takes place in the first 40 pages of the book. In the remaining pages, Chaudary explains the science behind the stages; goes more deeply into each stage and includes tips for “Living Primed”; and finally imparts “Secrets of the Super-Primed”. This last section teaches you to live according Ayurvedic wisdom. Chaudary comments that she has one foot in Western medicine and the other in Ayurveda, one of the world’s oldest healing systems.
Siri Says: This is an interesting, simple, and appealing way to detoxify and rebalance your system. I’m smitten and am trying some of Dr. Chaudary’s ancient nostrums.
Fit Fats
Every author agrees, these are the fats that are fit to eat:
OILS
Coconut
Olive
Hempseed
Flax Fish
Algae
FAT SOURCES
Organic butter/ghee
Avocado
Olives
Coconut
