Sustainable Weight Loss: Can You Feel Great While Losing Weight for Good?

Brian Strickland  00:15

Alright, everyone, Hey, welcome back to another episode on Nutrition Made Simple. This is a new video series that we're doing just to cover some of these basic ideas all through the year of how to make this more simple. So I'm here with Adam Chauncey, one of our health coaches. And if you're looking to lose weight, this is your guy. He is our expert on this. Well, I mean, we have other experts, too. But you're probably the best expert, let's be honest, 

Adam Chauncey  00:41

Oh, man, I hope you're recording.

Brian Strickland  00:44

We wanted to spend some time like as we enter into a new year, we know that weight loss is going to be a top resolution for a lot of people. And there's so much misinformation out there. I mean, whether you're getting your health news from Instagram or the internet, in general, we don't know. There's a lot of fad diets, there's a lot of things that don't work. And there are a lot of things that are just simply unhealthy. They may get you the goals that you want to reach, but you're going to compromise your health along the way. So we wanted to take a few minutes to talk about weight loss, healthy ways to do it, some different options that you might have, and how to meet those goals in the new year. So to start out, Adam, let's touch on the fact like, when people consider dieting, mostly what they think of is, I need to eat less. And some people take that to the extreme of like, I've got to starve myself, or I've got it fast to like three meals a day, in order to lose weight. And while that may help you lose some weight, that's not really the best way to do it, is it?

Adam Chauncey  01:48

Sure it's really what it comes down to is sustainability. And when you when you fast, which I love. I love time restricted eating, a lot of people refer to it as intermittent fasting. But time restricted eating, you know, taking a small window of your day and trying to eat everything in that window, say eight hours or 10 hours even. I believe that works very well. And you can restrict food down in that window. And maybe you only can get three meals in. But the problem with really just not eating at all and just fasting all day long. You can do it once in a while once a week is probably great, especially for people that are metabolically dysfunctional. You know, have really high insulin scores have different kinds of conditions that require such a drastic intervention. But for the majority of folks really just trying to get off the quarantine 15 or trying to lose 20-30 pounds. There are more sustainable ways to do that, like the time restricted eated like I mentioned, not going so far into the whole calorie counting thing. Because most of the time, when you just strictly restrict calories, your body will shut down and stop burning fat. It just will. Your body wants to hold on to that fat because it is the best source of energy period. And we have to we have to play on that. So typically, what I'll do is I'll have folks you know, prioritize their protein intake to help with satiety, help them feel full when they eat. And when you prioritize protein, especially animal source protein, you're gonna get a lot of good fats with it. And with that comes usually a little bit more calories than you might be used to on a diet, 

Brian Strickland  03:33

Right.

Adam Chauncey  03:33

Which is, in this case, fine. Because if you're prioritizing protein and filling the void with fat, you're not going to have room for the carbohydrates. And you know, a lot of my folks I had a client today who she was wanting to get kick started the first year and she loves a paleo chili she makes with sweet potatoes instead of beans. 

Brian Strickland  03:54

Yep.

Adam Chauncey  03:54

I said, that's great. Let's keep it in. But let's reserve it for dinner. 

Brian Strickland  03:58

Okay. 

Adam Chauncey  03:58

So that's only dinner, and you're gonna have your source of carbs, she might get 15-20 carbs out of that meal. But the rest of the day, she's starting the day with a proper breakfast with plenty of protein, healthy fat. And who cares about the calories because I know she's only going to have that inkling of carbohydrate in the evening. And that way all her day is set up to improve her insulin sensitivity and thus help her burn fat prioritize that fat burning instead of carbohydrate.

Brian Strickland  04:27

Right. So healthy fats, healthy protein should really be the main focus, right? Those are going to help keep you full longer and decrease kind of those cravings for the carby sugary goodness that we all want.

Adam Chauncey  04:42

And now they're, you know, make no mistake, you're gonna miss the food you're eating. I mean, there's a reason why we crave them and it's because our ancestors were never designed to eat them. If it comes in a box, our ancestors didn't eat it

Brian Strickland  04:54

Right. 

Adam Chauncey  04:54

So these simple sugars trigger areas of the brain similar to hardcore drugs like heroin and cocaine. So you know, don't hold yourself to such a high standard thinking you can just avoid it at the drop of a hat, it's gonna be tough. It is. But this is definitely going to make it easier.

Brian Strickland  05:11

Yeah. And I think it's, it's important to say that it doesn't have to be all or nothing 100% of the time, right? 

Adam Chauncey  05:17

For sure, for sure.

Brian Strickland  05:18

We have people, even on staff that follow kind of like that 80/20 rule, it's, you give yourself 80% those healthy foods is healthy fats and proteins that your body needs. But then 20% of the time, like, if you want to have a single cookie, after a meal, have a cookie. It's like it's not going to be the end of the world, it's, it's not going to make like a huge impact, as long as you can keep it to that one cookie and not eat like a sleeve of cookies.

Adam Chauncey  05:45

Start small, make it an organic cookie, you know, make make it make the best possible choice. You can.

Brian Strickland  05:51

Gluten free, dairy free, low glycemic.

Adam Chauncey  05:54

You might as well skip the cookie.

Brian Strickland  05:58

All right. So with that in mind, with the healthy fats and the proteins in mind, I think it's important to say like when you are dieting, it's important to get the right foods, right. It's like you're not you can eat like a cinnamon roll and say, Oh, I didn't eat many calories, or that those are my calories and then I'm not going to eat anything else. 

Adam Chauncey  06:18

Right. 

Brian Strickland  06:19

Like your body needs particular sources of energy that's important. So besides like the fats and proteins, what are some of the other things that you would concentrate on?

Adam Chauncey  06:28

So yeah, what you're touching on is more of the kind of Instagram influencer type of style where as long as it fits my macros, I can have it and that's absolute well, garbage. The the problem with things like that is your body requires micronutrients as well as macronutrients. So the tiny nutrients that you need, like the B vitamins, your minerals, your trace minerals, your fat soluble minerals, or your fat soluble vitamins, rather, like all these things your body has to have. You ain't going to get it out of a cinnamon roll. 

Brian Strickland  07:03

Right.

Adam Chauncey  07:04

So it's very important to diversify the foods, whether you're doing a full plant based diet or a full carnivore diet, or like 80% of people thrive on something in between, balancing it is the best way to go about it and getting a actual meal. When you sit down and eat rather than just a cinnamon roll or a protein bar. You want to actually make it make it more beneficial. You want to get those micronutrients out of your macronutrients. 

Brian Strickland  07:36

Okay. So really nutrient dense foods, and I mean, obviously, green vegetables are a big part of that as well. It's like, there, there's a place for healthy fats and proteins, obviously, those are important, they're going to increase satiety, but those plants, those leafy greens, the broccolis whatever, you know, are gonna pack a punch as well.

Adam Chauncey  07:56

They will. And I'll go one step further and say for a lot of people, especially, there are many people that don't tolerate plant foods or don't like them. I would challenge you to try some liver, try some kidney. Try some stuff like that out of an animal and I know it sounds gross, but I promise you if you're my age around 30 you're probably not only your parents, but your grandparents probably ate it. You know, and you know, people talk about that argument all the time my grandparents ate this, this and this and lived to be 90. Well, they also ate chicken livers and right cow livers and you know, they didn't leave any part of the animal untouched and that's where you get the majority of those good nutrients. You actually get more in liver than you will in multiple cups of many vegetables. So if you're looking for a way to density ratio, a couple ounces of liver here and there was you know, if the broccoli turns your stomach well blend up some of that liver in with your hamburger meat.

Brian Strickland  08:55

Yeah, and that's the thing is like you can mix it in it's not like you're just you're sitting there frying up like chicken liver or you know, a kidney or whatever. And I would say like, it's likely it's important to source those well too. 

Adam Chauncey  09:08

Just like with anything you want grass fed grass finished, high quality, no antibiotics, no growth hormones, you know, everything. If you wouldn't want to subject yourself to it. You don't want your animals that you're eating to deal with it either. Or the plants don't want plants to be, you know, was that new thing? They're doing hydroponically grown where they're grown in a greenhouse in water? Well, they're not absorbing any nutrients. So just because it's fancy and expensive doesn't always mean that it's the best quality.

Brian Strickland  09:38

Yeah, and if you're looking for a local butcher, if you're in the Chattanooga area. Mainstreet Meats is a fantastic place to source your meats and they do have the organ meat is well blended. Yeah. And they'll blend it in with your hamburger meat or ground beef if that's something you're interested in well, so that's definitely an option. So beyond food Let's talk water intake.

Adam Chauncey  10:01

For sure. 

Brian Strickland  10:02

That's a big one. That's a big one that so many people struggle with is to just simply water. Yes. Some people crave it, like the dickens and drink two gallons a day, and it's no problem. And then I know people who struggle to get like two eight ounce cups in a day. 

Adam Chauncey  10:20

Yeah, 

Brian Strickland  10:20

Or don't drink any at all. And it's like, oh, well, I can survive off of coffee and Mountain Dew, which we would definitely not recommend. So, as you are kind of looking at, we'll call it dieting, but it's really just like changing the way that you eat. What are some typical water goals that you would recommend? And I know like, electrolyte balance is really important as well. We have some great electrolytes that people often use when they're eating this way, too. So what are water goals? And why are the electrolytes such an important add on with that as well?

Adam Chauncey  10:58

Sure. So electrolytes are so important because storing the water is how you stop from being dehydrated. You can drink all the water you want but if you're not storing the water, if it's passing right through you, it's not doing as much good as it could and most water especially a lot of our viewers probably drink the purified water and all that reverse osmosis etc. But a lot of those lose mineral content as they're purified. So it's essential to get those nutrients those minerals back in the water, so it absorbs. And that that alone makes a difference in many athletes' daily lives that I work with and your your standard, you know, average Joe is going to benefit just as much because they're not even trying to get that kind of water in. So if you're gonna do it, make it easy enough, make it worth your effort. So take the water, add some salt to it, add some electrolytes to it, do something like that to get the that nutrient profile up so it will work in your favor. You don't necessarily have to go out and drink an ounce of water per pound of body weight. 

Brian Strickland  11:07

Yeah. 

Adam Chauncey  11:11

You know, I'd be sitting here drinking almost 200 ounces of water. Yhat's a that's a lot. So I'm probably as conscious as I am, I might drink close to a gallon a day if I do that. But one hack that I use to get to that as I start every morning off with 20 to 30 ounces of water. I roll out of bed, and I'm drinking water until I get in the shower. 

Brian Strickland  12:27

Okay.

Adam Chauncey  12:28

While my coffee is brewing, I'm drinking water because once I get that coffee, water is gone. I'm drinking coffee for the next little bit and I get to work we get busy and I forget and then four or five o'clock rolls around and I'm doing what I'm doing right now is every few words, I'm licking my lips because I'm getting a little dehydrated. So, do what you can to get the most out of your water intake. Add the electrolytes, make it absorbable and try to get it in the most convenient time. Just try not to drink a lot of it before bed or you're going to be waking up all night going to the bathroom getting aggravated at me because I told you to drink the water.

Brian Strickland  13:04

Yeah, and Gatorade and Powerade don't count. Please. If you're looking for electrolyte sources, we have some really, really good options we've got Superieur, which is an all natural electrolytes source from Lake Superior.They're great. They've got three or four different flavors. I've got a citrus, grape and raspberries. Seriously, they taste really good. It's not an overpowering taste, but it's enough to give your water a really good flavor. And I mean, honestly, it helps me drink more water for sure when I use them. And plus, you're getting the added benefit.

Adam Chauncey  13:44

I need to touch on this too, because I can't believe I forgot to mention, but magnesium. People hear a lot about magnesium now. And I have folks coming in every day asking me about their potassium. They're having a cramp a leg, cramp, arm cramp, whatever. And they want to eat bananas to get that in. Well, a banana is about 20% pure sugar, depending on how ripe it is. So we want to avoid the bananas. But what we can do in place of that is we can eat an avocado, which has many more times the amount of potassium than a banana does, or we can even take in some magnesium supplements. And magnesium will spare potassium usage in the body. So the more magnesium you take, and the more magnesium your body has, then the less potassium you're going to lose. So you're gonna see a probably a pretty good change in those cramps and everything starting these new exercises and these new workouts you might be doing. 

Brian Strickland  14:37

Okay, cool. And on that note, let's touch on exercise for just a minute and that will be kind of our last part here. Things are weird with the pandemic. 

Adam Chauncey  14:46

Oh yeah. 

Brian Strickland  14:47

So things are closed down, gyms especially are having. I mean, I don't know if they're having a hard time necessarily or not, but it's a little odd. It's not a normal gym setting right now. So for the people that are maybe a little leery of going to the gym, or people that are going from no exercise, or pretty minimum wanting to do something as they enter into the new year, what are just some basic things that you would suggest, as far as like a fitness routine.

Adam Chauncey  15:19

The number one is, you know, don't worry about the treadmills. The treadmills are not going to help you at all, if anything, they're probably going to hurt you. So what you want to do is avoid most of what's called a steady state cardio program. And that's where you go to the gym, you see the guys or girls leaning on the treadmill, walking for the entirety of your workout or you see someone on the stair climber doing that, or, you know. It looks like they're just having a terrible time, they're not really putting forth any effort. And that's the problem, you want to put forth effort you want to stimulate the muscle. So the best way to go about that is resistance training. And that's not just me being a meathead saying, you know, you got to lift weights, you got to do bicep curls, or whatever. It really the physiology of it is, you know, the more muscle you have, the more fat you'll burn. Your muscle will utilize the surrounding fat for energy, the more you're exercising, and if you're using, you know, resistance as the mode of exercise, you're going to burn more just period. And then, of course, at the end of the exercise, if you want to throw in some cardio fine, but do some high intensity interval training, some HIIT training. And that means even for the most novice exerciser, you know, get on the, if all you have is a treadmill, get on the treadmill, start slow, speed it up for a couple minutes if you can, go back to slow, maybe do some little lunges on the treadmill, if you can for a couple minutes, then go back and do that two or three times. 10-15 minutes goes by a lot quicker than just walking back and forth. So that's the best way to do it. And you know, you don't need a whole lot of equipment you really don't. Whether you're in a gym or you're at home, if you have a couple of dumbbells, if you have a couple of chairs next to each other to do some push ups or, you know, do some wall sits, lean back against the wall and squat down, see how long you can hold it, do some planks, do some sit ups, do something to stimulate the muscles. If you're getting at least a little sore from it. If you're breaking a little bit of a sweat. If you feel the blood coming into your muscle and you feel that skin tightening, you're doing work. And that's really all it takes and you can progress from there. 

Brian Strickland  17:38

Right.

Adam Chauncey  17:39

It is okay to do something light and then you know you start get a little more comfortable go to a gym, then you can start progressing from there, but it doesn't take a lot. 

Brian Strickland  17:49

Yeah. And the weather's not great. Right now we all know that it's cold. It's dreary. But getting outside is super important even in this season. So not only are you going to get exercise by like going for a walk in your neighborhood or going on a hike, I mean, at least you get some pretty scenery on a hike, you know, and you see your surroundings in your neighborhood. But you'll also get that sunlight which is going to be paramount and vitamin D production as well which is really important right now.

Adam Chauncey  18:17

Exactly.

Brian Strickland  18:19

Well, everyone we've been a little long winded but we really hope this has been helpful. Take care and we will see you next week on another episode of Nutrition Made Simple. Thank you.