Why is losing weight so hard?
By Jon Avula MD, DipABLM
People often think about losing weight in relation to exercise and going on an intense diet. You may have heard that losing weight all boils down to calories in vs. calories out. Since we all have unique circumstances, it’s important to tailor a weight loss program to your individual needs. However, the most important factor is what we eat and sticking with a healthy nutrition plan over years. Healthy foods and drinks to give our bodies necessary nutrients and fuel required is crucial for optimizing weight. Exercise on the other hand is most valuable for maintaining a healthy weight and is important for overall health. Other elements like metabolism, stress hormones, sleep, and medications all play a role too and should be addressed BUT our focus still needs to be on our nutrition.
Have you ever tried to go on a diet? It’s hard to even figure out which diet is the best. Do I go with the Mediterranean, low salt, cut out carbs, Atkins, Southbeach? There are so many questions and the studies on nutrition are often hard to interpret. Lifestyle Medicine can help us here by reframing the question into “are there foods that can help me become healthier?” Foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and beans are widely agreed upon that help to optimize nutrition and reduce the risk of having a heart attack or cancer. Reviewing a food diary and developing a plan to help optimize a realistic long term diet is a crucial step in improving weight and becoming healthier.
Our approach at A Healthier Way MD, is to review your current eating pattern in a judgement free way and make high impact changes. While it’s often not realistic to go from one extreme like the Standard American Diet (SAD) to another extreme of a whole food plant predominant diet, we will move towards a healthier diet in a sustainable way. We focus on foods that are high in fiber and water as these foods help keep you full, lower the daily calorie intake, lower sugars, and lower cholesterol. Our program can help with identifying foods that you can increase and help you work towards a healthier long term solution. We will even navigate the challenges of hitting a plateau of weight loss. Please reach out on our contact page to get started with an individual consult either in person or virtually so we can begin this journey together.
