Weight Loss: 5 KeysTo Success

                                                                                Guest article provided by www.nutriiq.ca 

Introduction

As a Nutritionist, I see many clients with different life stories and different underlying health conditions. Let me tell you that for the majority of them, the main health goal they declare is weight loss. They are also looking for a magic super-food or a miracle supplement that to pop and be a success. 

They come to me because they had so many failures before on restrictive diets and/or calorie counting. But if only weight loss was as simple as counting calories or eating a super-food!

In this article, I would like to point to 5 success factors that can make or break your journey. And let me remind you: counting calories does count!

 

Maintaining Nutrient Homeostasis

Losing weight has an aesthetic and health appeal. We are ready to eat anything, or literally close our mouths completely and eat nothing to achieve the goal. Unfortunately, restrictive diets have one drawback: they cause nutrient imbalance. And that, in turn, can lead to minor problems like cramps, a frightening disease diagnosis that in fact is a nutrient deficiency, or even a health scare. One of the most obvious examples is rhabdomyolysis most often caused by over-exercising. Another is a deficiency of vitamin B12 mistaken for COPD in the older population.

My advice is to check the nutrient balance at least on a weekly basis and add foods or supplements to the diet as needed. And there is no need to run to the doctor for the test! Nutri-IQ Virtual Lab at www.nutriiq.ca can perform nutrient balance analysis instantly, virtually, and as effectively for a fraction of laboratory assay cost.

 

Detox

Please note that weight loss and increased fat burning are often associated with increased toxicity in the body. It comes from heavy metals, PBA and such stored in the fat and released subsequently to the bloodstream. By the way, Nutri-IQ Virtual Lab can also help identify these toxicities.

How do these toxicities look? All of a sudden, you have a pounding headache, feel nauseous, and your GI tract seems to stop working.

That means that the speed of fat burning is higher than the speed of detoxification by your liver and kidneys. The toxins are now free-flowing through your body.

Don’t worry! This is actually a signal to slow down as you are doing too good of a job. And there is a simple detox for that. Fasting for at least 24 hours may completely alleviate these symptoms.

 

Knowing Your Genes

Doing weight loss according to your body type is the key to successful weight loss and maintenance. The obesity-associated gene (FTO) had been associated with susceptibility to obesity, but the association appears to be modified by diet. In a nutshell, the genotypes differ by the response to exercise, calorie restriction, or carb restriction. As I noticed with my clients, knowing the genotype not only helps shape immediate weight-loss behavior (diet composition and exercise amount) but also assists in maintaining the weight.

No wonder, as the genetic tests are not cheap and you would need to protect your investment!

 

Workout Timing

The purpose of the workout is dual. It is the direct burning of calories, but also an attempt to shift the metabolic pattern of your body. You would start losing good chucks of weight when your body will start burning fat for fuel.

Our bodies respond to exercise differently depending on the time of the day. It is scientifically proven that workouts performed at least 1 hour before breakfast lead to better fat-burning capacity in the body. If you cannot hit the gym that early (or your trainer is a late raiser), going for a 1-hour walk before breakfast would do the trick.

And if you exercise right after the meal, be ready not to weight loss, but for a slight increase in your weight!

 

Super-food, Anyone?

Speaking of the fat-burning capacity, I need to mention that there are indeed some super-foods that help this tectonic shift. Well, not exactly foods, teas!

Multiple studies had shown that hibiscus tea helps our bodies to burn fat for fuel. The optimal daily – doable – intake is 2 cups of hibiscus tea and 1 cup of lemon verbena tea. If you would like to take hibiscus tea only, that’ll be 10 cups daily… not that drinkable I think. But this is a pure matter of personal preference.

Anyway, the reward is high: in a controlled study, with the same fitness regimen and the same calorie intake, people on a combination of hibiscus tea and lemon verbena tea lost 4 pounds more monthly because their fat-burning capacity increased greatly!

 

Questions?

I would be happy to answer any questions you have on this matter. Just contact me at consult@nutriiq.ca