How Many Diets Have You Been on This Year?

With summer right around the corner, it is customary for many people to want to lose a few pounds to get into their bathing suit or go to a wedding, etc. While there are many reasons to want to lose weight, the bottom line is that diets are on people’s minds during this time of year.

The definition of overweight is a person with a body mass index (BMI) over 25. A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. BMI is the Ratio of your Weight (kg) over your Height (in centimeters, square). Overweight can also be defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a health risk. Some hazards of being overweight are high blood pressure,  heart disease,  hypertension, diabetes,  sleep apnea,  joint disease,  respiratory problems,  atherosclerosis,   gallbladder disease,  hernias,  bladder control problems, psychological problems,  and some cancers.

As of today, over 126 billion dollars have been spent on weight loss programs and is rising by the minute. The typical dieter makes four attempts per year to try to lose weight. That’s pretty dismal because it means at least three diets fail, if not all four. On average people spend $800 per year on weight loss. 80 percent of dieters do it on their own, while 20 percent join a paid weight loss group or see a health professional.

Fads are part and parcel of the diet industry. Most diets are nutritionally inadequate, too hard to follow, results are too slow, use unsafe ingredients like stimulants, slow your metabolism which leads to the yo-yo effect.  The vicious diet cycle or yo-yo consists of losing both fat and muscle, leading to a reduced metabolic rate and fewer calories being burned with increased fat storage. This leads to the famine response. You then fall off the diet as your body wants to recover the muscle, so then you feast on everything in sight.  You regain the weight you lost plus about 5 extra pounds. Then you start the cycle all over again.

Why is this? and What can you do about it?

In many diets on the market, 40% of the weight lost is muscle due to inadequate protein and other essential nutrients. Most diets do not provide enough protein so you lose muscle along with fat. Remember protein builds muscle so it is essential as about 40% of your body’s weight is muscle. For instance, your heart, digestive tract, glands, arteries, and veins are all muscles.

Losing lean muscle sets you up for future weight regain because muscle is what burns calories. Muscle is key to your metabolism. Muscles are your metabolic engine, your calorie burning furnaces. Exercise heats up your muscles so you burn calories faster.

What you want is to burn fat but maintain 100% muscle mass. When you prevent muscle loss you will protect your metabolism resulting in enhanced fat loss leading to weight loss and inch loss. This increases your metabolism and increases your energy. Side effects are lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, lower elevated blood sugar levels and it helps to normalize blood pressure. Another beneficial side effect is that the yo-yo effect will be stopped as the body is not searching to replace lost muscle.

To find out about proven programs that work, feel free to contact me at http://charleneday.com/contact/ for an individualized assessment.

To your good health!

Charlene

What Diet Should I Eat?

The word diet means “a daily allowance” or “a way of life, a regimen”, depending on the origin of the word. In our current vocabulary, it usually is associated with weight loss programs. But a diet can refer to what one eats or drinks daily. So a diet goal could be to get healthy or live longer.

There are thousands of diets. Too many to list. But I thought I would mention some the common ones so you get the idea of the variety of diets out there. Weight Watchers diet, The Zone diet, Atkins diet, Paleo diet, Mediterranean diet, Ketogenic diet, Ayurvedic diet, Bernstein diet, Nutri System diet, Okinawa diet, Feingold diet, Macrobiotic diet,  Thermogenic diet, Bulletproof diet, Hallelujah diet, DASH diet, Virgin diet, Dukan diet, Low sodium diet, Alkaline diet, Plant based diet, Juice diet, Hormone diet,  Gluten free diet, Vegetarian diet, Vegan diet, Raw food diet, etc., etc.

The typical Western diet or some call it the SAD diet is a diet associated with increased disease. Many studies show that the abundance of over-processed, high-calorie, low-nutrient foods is responsible for a range of illnesses and diseases. The increase of heart disease and strokes, cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease is very apparent everywhere we look. The stats are now saying cancer will affect 1 in 2 people.  We all know people who are dealing with this diseases or have dealt with them.

So you may be asking, “What diet should I be eating? What is the right one for me?”.  There are so many choices and it can be overwhelming with all the advertising we are bombarded with.  The advertising takes us outside of our body when we really need to be listening to what our body wants.  Every day our bodies require the energy we know as calories in order to function. What is interesting is that we all have different needs.

We are all biochemically individual. What that means is that we are genetically and biologically different from each other. We are all unique and have different dietary needs. Some people need to eat meat and others do best with little or no meat.  We all process enzymes, hormones, amino acids, and vitamins differently and we have different metabolic pathways. Also, heredity, constitution, life cycle, and stress contribute to our differences.

That leads us to look at the role environment, stress, food, and emotions all play in our bodies. This is where epigenetics comes in. Previously it was thought our genes were the molecular units of heredity and we were predestined to what we inherited. It turns out that is not true anymore.  An outer expression of the genetic data called the epigenome causes the genes to express themselves differently. These modifications affect how cells “read” genes.

What we need to pay attention to is that epigenetic tags react to signals from the outside world. Now research is showing gene expression can be changed by habit, beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, emotions, diet, lifestyle, even unconscious beliefs through the epigenome. The epigenome is flexible and modifies gene expression in response to our environment.

So our individuality really needs to be taken into consideration when looking for the right diet. I have had the privilege of working with many people over the last 40 plus years and in that time have never given the same diet twice.

If you want any help tailoring a diet that is right for your body and lifestyle, please contact me at http://charleneday.com/contact/.

To your good health,

Charlene

What Is Your Gut Feeling? – The Six Stages Of Nutrition

Ever wondered how we get nourished? Here are the six stages.

1 – DIET

Diet is what we eat; nutrition is what the cells and tissues actually receive. Obviously, the better the diet, the better chance that nutrition will be improved. For this reason, it is important that you fully review your daily eating habits:

Do you habitually eat a nourishing, well-balanced breakfast or are you a “breakfast skipper”?

Do you consume “empty calorie” snack foods in place of more nutritious, sensible ones?

Do you supplement nutritional weakness with vitamins, minerals, etc?

Have you considered the amount of sugar, caffeine, alcohol, additives, chemicals, etc. in your diet and how detrimental they can be?

2 – DIGESTION

Digestion is the process by which complex foods are broken down into simple substances that the body can utilize. For example, protein foods cannot be used by the body as such but must be broken down into amino acids. The carbohydrates must be broken down into simple sugars such as glucose (blood sugar), fructose, etc. Fats are broken into fatty acids.  In short, digestion is the processes of breaking these complex substances into more simple and usable substances, to be used as energy for the tissues, organs and cells.

3 – ABSORPTION

Absorption is the process by which the products of digestion, simple sugars, amino acids and fatty acids pass through the lining of the intestinal wall and are taken directly into the bloodstream. Adequate amounts of nutrients may be eaten and digested but may still be unavailable to the cells due to poor absorbability. Poor absorbability can come from excess mucus along the intestinal walls, allergies or excesses, the condition of the capillaries feeding the stomach walls or to the cell sites, the amount of uneliminated waste at the cellular level, and the binding effect particular foods have on some nutrients which cause them to be excreted.

4 – ASSIMILATION

Assimilation is the process by which the cell assimilates nutrients from the bloodstream. Assimilation is occurring in every cell of the body to help develop new cells, they literally become your body. It is the process of absorbing vitamins, minerals, and other chemicals from food within the gastrointestinal tract. Nutrients are incorporated into every cell of the body, feeding and repairing them.  The symptoms of malabsorption are: weight loss, muscle weakness, irritability, depression, and loss of energy.

5 – CIRCULATION

Carrying the absorbed nutrients to each cell of the body is the role of the blood. Therefore, the quality of the blood, as well as the quantity, becomes important. An individual may be eating a proper diet and may be going to great lengths to assure proper digestion and absorption; however if because of impaired circulation the nutrients do not reach the cells, proper nourishment will not take place.

6 – ELIMINATION

It is important to excrete daily. What goes in must come out. It is felt by many doctors that one of the chief causes of human illness is due to autointoxication – the poisoning of the human body by waste materials absorbed by the villi (intestinal lining) into the bloodstream, and by the improper release of metabolic waste from the tissues. Re-absorption of waste affect all levels of nutrition and organ functioning, and a system which is overloaded fails to have sufficient energies for maintaining optimal health as it should, and degeneration begins to occur.

As you can see there are stages where what you are eating may not actually nourish you. If you are experiencing any digestive challenges, feel free to reach out to http://charleneday.com/contact/.

To your good health!

Charlene