For those of you currently using the earlier version of the website, be rest assured.  Your transition will be more than gentle.  You’ll still be able to enjoy all the wonderful features you’ve grown accustomed to, such as our unique and invaluable coaching, but in a friendlier format.  Plus, you’ll love all the additions and improvements, such as your freeQ score, new training videos, and the groundbreaking philosophy behind Eating Free.  So dive in, poke around, and get to know Eating Free.  If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, we’re here for you, as we’ve always been.  Give us a call at 866.881.1006 or email us at customerservice@eatingfree.com

For those of you who have been taken some time off from Nutrition For You, this is the best time to return and discover all the latest, exciting things happening in our world.

We hope you’ll get as much joy and satisfaction from Eating Free as we’ve had creating it.  But no matter what, as always, together, we can make sure that the weight is finally over!

20% Off on all Nutrition Coaching for a Limited Time

To celebrate our relaunch we are giving a discount of 20% to anyone that wants to use our incredible one-on-one personalized coaching.

Use discount code EatingFree to get 20% off on all coaching.

Existing members follow this link to add more coaching to your plan!

New members follow this link to take advantage of this discount.

1. Eat before you go. If you eat about thirty minutes to an hour before dining out, it will make sticking to your meal plan much easier. When your stomach is growling, making good food choices is hard. A good example of a premeal snack is a small piece of fruit, a yogurt, and a bit of low fat cheese.

2. Avoid skipping breakfast and lunch to “save up.” Skipping meals will definitely make you overeat and will slow down your metabolism.

3. Eat the lower-calorie foods first. Order soups and salads to start and you will be less hungry when the higher-calorie entree arrives.

4. If bread or chips are too tempting, REMOVE them from your table. Do not fool yourself with willpower. It is almost impossible to stop eating if it is in front of you. Practice out of sight, out of mouth.

5. Order an appetizer as your main entree.

6. Think about your choices and what will be best for your meal plan and limit your alcohol intake.

7. Ask about portion sizes and how things are cooked.

8. Request substitutions. Many restaurants are great about accommodating your needs.

9. Always ask for salad dressing and sauces on the side and do not trust a menu that describes a dressing as light. This definition is frequently misused.

10. Choose broiled, grilled, or roasted meats and steamed vegetables.

11. If portion sizes are too large, share it or ask for a “take-home bag.”

Eating before you exercise will help you improve your performance and help you attain your exercise goals. Exercising on an empty stomach will only leave you feeling tired and sluggish for the rest of the day. Remember the car analogy: your car will not run without gas in the same way that your body will not run properly without food.

The ideal pre-exercise meal should be carbohydrate rich and well tolerated.  For example,  a small banana, a slice of toast with a tablespoon of jam and a bottle of Gatorade is a great meal to have before an exercise. But the number of carbohydrates you need depends on your weight and the timing of the meal prior to exercise.  Generally, you should consume 0.5g – 2g per pound of body weight of carbohydrate 1 to 4 hours prior to exercise.  Click here to learn more.

This is one of the most commonly used phrases in the fitness world and it is incorrect. One pound of fat and one pound of muscle both weigh one pound. One pound of feathers and one pound of rocks both weigh one pound.  That being said, muscle is denser than fat and takes up less space. One pound of muscle also burns more calories than one pound of fat. Estimates indicate that one pound of muscle burns roughly fifty calories per day, while one pound of fat burns approximately two calories per day.

Thus, while fat and muscle weigh the same, adding extra muscle through exercise can be a powerful tool when it comes weight loss and maintenance.

In order to lose fat you must lose weight and to lose weight you must eat fewer calories than you are expending. Cutting just carbohydrates is not the solution. Carbohydrates are needed so you can function properly and be able to sustain your exercise plan. Plus carbohydrates actually help you burn fat as you lose weight by transporting fat cells to be metabolized. So if you are lacking carbohydrates you may stop burning fat cells. Carbohydrates, such as whole grains, are rich in B vitamins which are key elements in helping your metabolism work, thus a diet low in whole grains negatively affects your metabolism. In addition, glucose in the blood (a simple carbohydrate) and glucose in muscle in the form of glycogen (a complex carbohydrate), are the primary sources of energy when you exercise. Therefore, if carbohydrates are either missing from your diet or are being eaten in insufficient amounts, your body will be forced to attain the glucose needed for energy from protein. Your body gets energy from protein by breaking down your muscles, which causes decreased muscle mass and can be very detrimental for the functioning of your body. Plus muscle drives your resting metabolic rate, so having a higher muscle mass helps burn more fat, even while you are at rest.

• The Bacteria Buzz – Eat Your Bacteria Probiotics are known as the “friendly bacteria” found in fermented dairy products such as yogurt. Probiotics help the body’s natural gut flora to reestablish itself. Our stomach areas contain bacteria, which live inside our guts and assist with digestion and other gastric functions.  Read more.
• Alcohol: Friend or Foe? – In this informative article we discuss some of the pros and cons of alcohol consumption relating to your nutrition and diet. Read more.
• Sleep to Lose Weight? – How does getting less sleep increase the risk of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes? One explanation is the up-regulation of appetite stimulating hormones.  Appetite is regulated by hormones.  There are two major hormones in the body that regulate appetite: leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is secreted from the body’s fat cells. Leptin inhibits food intake and increases energy expenditure. Ghrelin is mainly secreted in the stomach. Ghrelin increases hunger levels and food intake and decreases energy expenditure. Read more.

You can find information on a variety of nutrition related topics including recipes in our Nutrition Encyclopedia.

In addition, strength training will help preserve existing muscle mass, which sometimes is lost during weight loss.  Maintaining an overall calorie deficit forces your body to use body fat for energy and the higher intensity and longer workouts (cardio and strength) use more energy. Note that neither form of exercise actually burns much fat during the exercise itself.  It’s the total amount of energy expended that determines how much fat you will burn. Your nutrition coach will assist you in developing an exercise plan or review your current plan and make recommendations accordingly.

In general, Nutrition for You recommends burning no more than 400 calories average per day for females and no more than 500 calories average per day for males. Nutrition for You does not recommend losing weight while training for competitions such as marathons, Ironman, and cycling events. If you are doing these types of events, fueling right and increasing your performance should be a priority. Nutrition for You coaches will help you design a sports nutrition plan that includes meals before, during and  after exercise.

You might wonder, once the weight is off, how do I maintain my hard earned achievement? The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is a website dedicated to answering this very question. They have a large registry of people who have lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off for a long period of time. The average weight loss is 60 pounds, maintained for an average of 5 to 7 years. These registered people then participate in ongoing research, which surveys their habits, successes and difficulties. This helps us to get a better understanding of the most common factors in weight loss maintenance.

1. Follow a Low-Fat Diet

It takes work to keep those hard-earned pounds off. Even though 42% of National Weight Control Registry members believe it is easier to maintain weight loss than lose weight, you still need to be careful of what you eat. It is important to continue eating a low-fat diet, even after the pounds are gone.

What do we mean by low-fat? About 25% of your calories should come from fat. An example of this is if you eat 2,500 calories per day then 625 of your calories should be from fat. This is equal to about 70g of fat per day (there are 9 calories per gram of fat). However, one thing to remember is the type of fat you eat will play a major role in your health. Most of your fats should be heart-healthy fats, such as olive oil, canola oil, salmon, flaxseeds, avocado and nuts. Continue to limit saturated fats, such as fatty meat cuts, dairy fat and tropical oils. You can tell if a fat is saturated or not by its state at room temperature. If a fat is solid (like lard) at room temperature, then it is a saturated fat. If it is a liquid (like olive oil) at room temperature, then it is a healthy fat.

Good fats are an essential part of any healthy diet, just be careful not to over do it, because they can easily lead to weight gain.

2. Record Keep

A recent study by Kaiser Permanente reported that keeping a food diary, on average, doubled the weight loss as compared to those that did not record keep. Record keeping is so important that it’s one of our key Success Tracker tools available to all of our members. For weight loss, we recommend practicing daily food record keeping. If you don’t food record keep for a day or two, don’t worry about backlogging. Just pick-up again from where you are. It is important not to let a bad day (or week!) throw you off completely. Start fresh from where you are and do not stress about past choices. Even if you are not proud of the food you are recording, just keep going.

Record keeping isn’t just for those losing weight. It is also important for those that are doing weight maintenance and weight gain. Food record keeping helps to keep you on track and makes you aware of your eating habits and choices. When on weight maintenance you do not need to food record keep everyday, but it is helpful to check in every once and a while, just to see how many calories you are consuming and to ensure you are eating from all of the food groups to ensure adequate nutrition. We recommend checking in for a total of one week every month.

3. Weigh yourself frequently

75% of the National Weight Control Registry members weigh themselves at least once a week. Whether practicing weight loss or maintenance, we recommend weighing yourself weekly. Weight can fluctuate dramatically from day to day, often 1-2 pounds or more. One day you might weigh yourself and be down 2 pounds only to find that you are back up 3 pounds the next and this can be very disheartening. If you weigh yourself once per week, you will get a much more accurate reading of how much weight you have lost or maintained.

If you are on weight maintenance and find that you have gained a few pounds, take this as a warning sign that you need to reassess what you have been eating. This is a good time to start food and exercise record keeping again to learn what is causing your weight gain. Once you see how those extra desserts or missed days at the gym are adding up you will be able to make healthy changes to stop the unwanted weight gain.

4. Eat Breakfast Daily

One of the most important behaviors in weight maintenance is to eat breakfast daily.  We know – you are sick of hearing us harp about breakfast!  But, 78% of the National Weight Control Registry members who have lost weight and maintained it eat breakfast everyday!  Besides exercise, it is the most common practice among the “losers.”  The proof is in the pudding (or high fiber cereal)!  Breakfast gives your metabolism a daily kick-start plus it helps control your appetite throughout the rest of the day. Breakfast skippers normally tend to over eat at lunch and/or get the incredible “sweet tooth” at around 3-4:00 pm.   If you skip breakfast you are beginning the day in a deficit that your body naturally wants to make up.  This leads to greater calorie consumption throughout the day and when hunger strikes, your defenses fall making it difficult to choose a healthy lunch over a hamburger and fries.  Nutrition for You recommends eating breakfast within one hour of waking and eating a meal high in fiber.  The higher the fiber the better you can regulate glucose and control your appetite.  A good high fiber breakfast should have at least 15g of fiber.  You can achieve this by choosing breakfast cereals with 5g of fiber or more per serving and adding flaxseed meal and berries.   We’ve said it before, and we will say it again, breakfast is the most important meal of the day – so don’t leave home without it!

5. Exercise

One of the most important factors in weight maintenance is exercise.  90% of the National Weight Control Registry members participate in 60-75 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week (on average).  Over half of these people walk.  For weight loss, we recommend doing at least 30 minutes of some kind of cardio activity 4-5 times per week (brisk walking is great!) and doing strength training for 20 minutes 2-3 times per week (to maintain muscle mass).  Exercise is a very important component of weight loss and maintenance.  If you can work your way up to 60 minutes per day then that is excellent.  If not, just do the best you can.  Plus it doesn’t have to happen all at once.  Even exercising in 10-minute increments 3 or more  times per day does the trick.  Be realistic about how much exercise you can do in a day.  Don’t make unattainable goals since you will only end up feeling bad about it.  If you don’t currently exercise, start off walking 15 minutes 5 times a week and slowly work your way up.  Exercise is not only a vital part of healthy weight loss and maintenance but it helps maintain bone density, enhances immunity, lowers risk of some cancers and type 2 diabetes, increases lung and circulation function, lowers incidence of anxiety and depression, enhances self-image and quality of life.  So, just do it!  We know you can.

References

Gorman, Kim.  “Strategies to Consider in the Maintenance of Intentional Weight Loss.”  Weight Management Newsletter 5.4 (2008): 1-5

National Weight Control Registry: http://www.nwcr.ws/

How our bodies react to stress has not changed since the caveman days. In our modern day society, stress acts on our bodies the same way it did during prehistoric times. What has changed as we have evolved over time are the actions we take in response to stress. In the days of old, stress was caused by events such as being pursued by wolves and having to constantly hunt for our next meal. Currently, stress is caused by bombarding emails, bills, deadlines, and phone calls. While running from wolves was great at removing the extra glucose or sugar from the bloodstream, today there is no way for this removal to occur while at the office. Extra glucose in your body produces elevated sugar in your bloodstream and if this glucose is not used up, it will result in fat deposits around the waistline.

Excess cortisol also increases our appetite, which is why many people tend to eat during stressful situations. It has been proven that fat consumption decreases cortisol which is why you tend to crave fatty foods when you feel stressed. The fat literally helps you calm down.

Another problem caused by excess cortisol, is the reduction of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, also know has “happy hormones.” Carbohydrates increase your levels of dopamine and serotonin, so it is natural for your body to crave carbohydrates (like cookies) when levels of these neurotransmitters are low. Like fats “comfort foods” help relieve stress. Comfort foods include carbohydrates such as pasta and potatoes. Carbohydrates increase serotonin levels in our body which helps to regulate feelings such as pain, sleep, anger, and bad moods.

We often use these comfort foods as a way to cope with stress. This results in the learned behavior of overeating when stressed and it is very important to break this cycle. The first step is to become aware of why we want to consume these “comfort foods” and to learn the difference between hunger and emotional food cravings.

Steps to Help Prevent Stress Eating

• Eat smaller and more frequent meals to help avoid eating excessive amounts in one sitting.
• Drink more fluids. Many times we think we are hungry, but we are really just dehydrated. Keeping a bottle of water around helps to quench thirst.
• Do light exercise or stretches. When stress rears and adrenaline levels rise, stretching loosens muscles, which promotes relaxation.
• Get enough sleep. When we are well rested, we automatically start the day with a little less stress on our shoulders.
• Distract yourself. If you are stressed and want to eat, figure out another solution to coping with the stress instead of grabbing that donut. One distraction could be squeezing a stress ball or taking a one minute break.
• Remember to breathe! When we are stressed out, our breathing can become irregular. A few deep, meditation breathes can help to calm us down and relax.

We continue our five part series where we talk about the five biggest conclusions of the National Weight Control Registry’s research.

5 Proven Behaviors for Long Term Weight Management:

1. Follow a low-fat diet
2. Record keep
3. Monitor weight frequently
4. Eat breakfast daily
5. Exercise

Exercise

One of the most important factors in weight maintenance is exercise.  90% of the National Weight Control Registry members participate in 60-75 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week (on average).  Over half of these people walk.  For weight loss, we recommend doing at least 30 minutes of some kind of cardio activity 4-5 times per week (brisk walking is great!) and doing strength training for 20 minutes 2-3 times per week (to maintain muscle mass).  Exercise is a very important component of weight loss and maintenance.  If you can work your way up to 60 minutes per day then that is excellent.  If not, just do the best you can.  Plus it doesn’t have to happen all at once.  Even exercising in 10-minute increments 3 or more  times per day does the trick.  Be realistic about how much exercise you can do in a day.  Don’t make unattainable goals since you will only end up feeling bad about it.  If you don’t currently exercise, start off walking 15 minutes 5 times a week and slowly work your way up.  Exercise is not only a vital part of healthy weight loss and maintenance but it helps maintain bone density, enhances immunity, lowers risk of some cancers and type 2 diabetes, increases lung and circulation function, lowers incidence of anxiety and depression, enhances self-image and quality of life.  So, just do it!  We know you can.

References

Gorman, Kim.  “Strategies to Consider in the Maintenance of Intentional Weight Loss.”  Weight Management Newsletter 5.4 (2008): 1-5

National Weight Control Registry: http://www.nwcr.ws/