Your Health is ONLY 10% Due to Exercise!

Have you ever known anyone who maintains a great exercise program….but they never seem to lose the weight?  How frustrating is that! What most people don’t know is exercise is only half of the equation.  I tell my clients that losing fat comes down to 80% what you put in your mouth, 10% exercise, and 10% genetics.

You heard right….80%!! If you aren’t seeing results with your exercise program, chances are you need to put more emphasis on what you are actually eating.  Specifically, the three aspects of your nutrition that you should consider are quantity, timing, and quality.

Let’s look at quantity first.  Most “diets” will state that in order for you to lose weight you have to cut your calories way down and most people tend to skip meals in order to accomplish this. The bottom line is you need to eat enough good calories to nourish your body, especially if you are exercising!  If you aren’t nourishing your body it will automatically go into a false state of starvation and it will fiercely hold on to fat for future energy stores.  And, in order to reserve energy, your metabolism slows down.

Next, let’s talk about timing.  If you are properly eating the right composition of good carbohydrates, fats and proteins consistently throughout the day, you won’t feel deprived and resort to snacking on empty, high calorie foods to give you the energy boost your body is craving.

Some people skip meals, mistakenly thinking that is helping them lose weight. But that actually results in binging and craving unhealthy foods that you would normally avoid. This is called a deprivation/binge cycle.  For effective weight loss, the right eating habit is to not skip meals but eat every 2 ½ to 3 hours.  I suggest eating three small meals and three healthy snacks throughout the day.  Smaller portions are better digested and used by your body.  It’s a paradigm shift for most people but they tend to find that their cravings for sugar and salt completely disappear when eating this way and their metabolism shifts into high gear.

Last but not least, let’s talk about quality.  Eating a clean, nutrient-rich diet, made up of plenty of saturated fat, protein and fresh fruits and vegetables which are organic, grass-fed, and wild-caught is optimum for health and weight maintenance.  Specifically, buy your fruits and vegetables that do not have a hard outer layer, organically (see the Dirty Dozen), all poultry and beef purchased should state “no antibiotics, no hormones added”, and all fish should be wild-caught.  And yes, I said saturated fat. Organic butter is actually very good for you. Your body must have saturated fats for proper brain function, cell development, and satiety.

Quality does not mean the foods you see advertised on television. These processed foods can derail any weight loss program. They contain food additives that are often allergenic and can cause insulin to spike, along with added chemicals that increase food cravings, cause water retention, and can actually cause weight gain.  The results are food products with empty calories, unknown long term health effects, and almost certain capacity for making people fat.

Have you ever seen someone sit down and eat a large bag of potato chips in one sitting? Our bodies want to eat until they’re satisfied, but these foods simply don’t satisfy us.  What our body really desires is to be fed quality, nutrient dense foods.  When you eat empty caloric foods, it still craves nutrition which is one reason people gain weight.

Check out my this free educational webinar on our 30 Days to Healthy Living program if you want to lose those extra pounds by just making a few simple lifestyle changes WITHOUT feeling deprived to feel great, look great…naturally!