How to fix a broken diet: 3 ways to get your eating on track. In this article I’ll share the 3 main strategies I use to help clients fix a “broken diet” and start eating better. I’ll also share how we troubleshoot eating plans when they’ve “just stopped working” and you don’t know what else to try. And, finally, I’ll show you how to use these powerful and purposeful strategies to improve your own eating. Or to help others do the same. Note: I’ve also prepared a comprehensive video seminar covering this topic. It was recorded live in London, England. So click here if you’d rather watch the seminar than read the article. Bonus: We even created a cool infographic that summarizes this article. Click here for: How to fix a broken diet: 3 ways to get your eating on track (infographic).++Nutrition “advice” often comes in buzzwords and slogans. We’ve all heard at least one of these gems: “Just eat whole foods.”“Only eat food that your grandmother would recognize.”“Eat more fat and fewer carbs.”“If it doesn’t run, fly or swim – or it isn’t a green vegetable – don’t eat it.”It’s easy to simplify healthy eating into a five- second pitch. But soundbytes aren’t enough to actually help people fix their eating and get better results. You see, when you’re an actual nutrition coach who works with real humans in the real world, slogans don’t get the job done. Real people need patient, careful, empathetic coaching. This means: Listening to their needs and what they want to accomplish. Learning how they live. Discovering what’s really important to them. And then working together to create the right nutritional approach for them, a diet that’s personal and unique, based on their goals and lifestyle. Another thing that good nutrition coaches do to help their clients? Observing their progress carefully and correcting course as necessary. Here’s why: Every diet system is going to stop working at some point. No matter how great it seems initially, that diet will break. And when it does, your next step is crucial. So, in this article, I’ll help you figure out how to get started when your diet feels broken. I’ll also share exactly how we troubleshoot nutrition plans when “they’ve just stopped working”. And then I’ll teach you how to do it all yourself. First, though, a disclaimer. I’m not going to give you a set of rules to follow. Or even share a specific diet philosophy. Instead, I’m going to share a framework for evaluation. This way, if you follow a Paleo diet, you can learn to Paleo better. If you’re a vegan, you can learn to do that better too. And, if you’re just getting started with eating healthier, you can start out right, without wasting time and energy. Step 1: Identify and remove nutritional deficiencies. Most people think they need a complete overhaul at first.“I have to cut out sugar. Plus I have to eat more protein. Not a lot of fruit, though. I have to start drinking lots of water too. Let’s call it the “Mission Impossible” approach.
After coaching over 2. I’ve come to realize that the Mission Impossible approach isn’t just difficult; it’s misguided. Because a complete overhaul rarely addresses what’s making most people feel bad in the first place. Often, people struggle with how they look and feel because their physiology doesn’t work the way it should. This can be hormonal imbalances, but it’s more often dietary deficiency: not getting the right nutrients, in the right amounts, to get the best results. Dietary deficiencies, therefore, are the first red flag that something’s wrong. Just how common are dietary deficiencies? The research in this area is pretty telling. A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition showed that it’s really hard to get all the essential vitamins and minerals from food alone. This study analyzed 7. Every single diet was deficient in at least three nutrients. Some diets were missing up to fifteen nutrients! The most common deficiencies? Dzincvitamin Ecalcium. Another study, also published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, showed that people following one of four popular diet plans (including Atkins, South Beach, and the DASH diet) were also very likely to be micronutrient deficient, particularly in six key micronutrients: vitamin B7vitamin Dvitamin Echromiumiodinemolybdenum. An elimination diet is a short-term eating plan that eliminates certain foods that may be causing allergies and other digestive reactions, then reintroduces the foods. CISSN!and!ISSN)SNS!EXAM!STUDY!GUIDE!! TIPS!FOR!PASSINGTHE!ISSN’S!SPORTS!NUTRITION!CERTIFICATION!EXAMS! Back when I was a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario, I set out to find the mythical “balanced diet.” I analyzed the intake of nearly 6. Shockingly, less than 1. Like the other studies, these folks were missing such nutrients as: zincmagnesiumvitamin Domega 3 fatty acidsprotein. Bottom line: Dietary deficiencies are very common. Chances are, you’ve got one, no matter how good you think your diet is. That’s a problem because when you’re deficient in key nutrients, your physiology doesn’t work properly. And when your body doesn’t work as it should, you feel rotten. Just how important is this first step? Energy levels, appetite, strength, endurance, and mood all rely on getting enough of these essential nutrients. When you don’t get them, things break down. That’s why you can eat “clean”, go Paleo, avoid meat, lower your carbs, or count calories – you can do “everything right” nutritionally – and still feel lousy. You need to identify your red flags from the very beginning and start eliminating them, one by one. What are the common nutritional red flags? Here are the most common deficiencies we see with new clients: water (low- level dehydration)vitamins and mineralsprotein (particularly in women and in men with low appetites)essential fatty acids (9. To find out where you stand, you could get your diet analyzed by a dietitian (this typically costs between $1. You could also record what you eat each day and enter it into an online diet calculator like the ones at Fitday or Livestrong. At Precision Nutrition, we like to make it even easier. As soon as clients begin with us, we do a quick survey of what they’re eating. From there, we help them: eat more of the protein- rich foods they prefer; drink more hydrating fluids; take in more essential fats (through the use of fish or algae oil); andeat more foods rich in the vitamins and minerals they need most. Without any other advanced screening or dietary changes, our clients quickly start feeling better. They lose fat and gain lean muscle. They feel more motivated. And their workouts become easier and better. The power of removing nutrient deficiencies. Here’s just one example (of many): Research in the British Journal of Psychiatry shows that providing fish oil and a multivitamin to prison inmates reduces aggressive and violent behavior by 3. Also, a paper published in Nutrition Reviews shows that giving children fish oil and a multivitamin improves both their behavior and intelligence scores. When our bodies don’t have the nutrients they need to do their work, we all suffer. But as soon as we get these nutrients, we thrive. Step 2: Adjust food amount and food type. Once we’re getting all the raw materials necessary for proper functioning (essential nutrients) we can move on to bigger issues. These include: food amount (what some call calorie intake); andfood composition (which includes macronutrient breakdown). Food amount and calorie counting. In our coaching programs we help clients get away from using handbooks, websites, databases, spreadsheets, and math when planning meals. You see, while we know that total food (calorie) intake matters, we’re just not fans of counting calories. To begin with, calorie counting does nothing to help us tune into our own powerful hunger and appetite cues. By learning how to listen to our own bodies, we have better long- term success in healthy eating.(Of course, not everyone knows how to do this from the start. It takes a little coaching and some practice.)Nor does calorie counting help us balance our health goals with our natural human enjoyment of food. In the short term, anyone can turn eating into a numerical and robotic exercise. But, in the long run, this strategy falls apart.(Just ask anyone who “used to” count calories. You shouldn’t have a hard time finding them.)There’s another problem with calorie counting: It’s just not all that accurate. Because of incorrect labeling, laboratory errors, and differences in food quality and preparation, calorie counts recorded on food labels and websites – even those within the USDA’s nutrient databases – can be off by as much as 2. Bottom line: even if you’re the world’s best calorie counter (and you don’t mind the soul- sucking boredom that comes along with it) the math just doesn’t add up. Calorie control without counting. We teach our clients a different approach to calorie control, using their own hand as the ultimate, portable measurement tool. For example, men might begin by eating: 2 palms of protein dense foods at each meal; 2 fists of vegetables at each meal; 2 cupped handfuls of carb dense foods at most meals; and. And women might begin by eating: 1 palm of protein dense foods at each meal; 1 fist of vegetables at each meal; 1 cupped handful of carb dense foods at most meals; and. First, we help clients see what this looks like. On a plate. Then, we adjust actual portion sizes up or down, depending on each person’s unique body and goals. For example: Men who want to add mass fast get 2 palms of protein dense foods at every meal, and — what the heck — throw in another thumb of fat or cupped handful of carbs. But men in who want to lose fat might scale down to 1- 2 palms of protein, 1 thumb of fat, and 1 cupped handful of carbs, eaten slowly and mindfully to “8. Of course, just like any other form of nutrition planning – including detailed calorie counting – this meal template is just a starting point. You can’t know exactly how your body will respond in advance. So stay flexible and “steer dynamically”. Adjust your portions based on your hunger, fullness, overall activity level, and progress towards your goals. Perhaps this can be said of all nutrition, which is a shame. Will I stay in this state in perpetuity? I have no idea, but for those interested, in the video of this post I made the case why I find NK appealing for my objectives. I love sushi (though I now mostly eat sashimi). And, over the last couple of years I’ve figured out how and when I can eat them to meet the following conditions: Stay in NK (except on a few occasions like my daughter’s birthday); Increase my anaerobic performance; Preserve most (but not all*) of the benefits I enjoyed when I was much more strict about my ketogenic diet (circa 2. How, you ask? By learning to calculate my glycogen deficit.(*) For me, the leanest body composition I achieved as an adult was in strict NK with no attempts to do what I’m about to describe below. I certainly don’t do this often, unless a lot is on the line (e. I like having this technique in my armamentarium. If you’ve watched the video in the post I linked to above, then you’re familiar with RQ. Because those carbohydrates are prioritized to replenish my glycogen stores AND I am highly insulin sensitive. Because my glycogen debt was not high. For the purpose of illustration I recorded everything I did and ate on the second day, which I rode a bit easier than the first day. The second ride took 6 hours and 5 minutes. Sure it was mostly water retention, both from the glycogen (small) and the fluid accumulating in the interstitial space (“thirds space” fluid losses, large) due to a systemic inflammatory response. Conversely, there are days I underestimate my glycogen depletion and wake up with very high BHB levels and very low glucose levels (i. BHB levels higher than glucose levels, when both measured in m. M). Final thoughts. I feel a bit like I’m in unchartered territory because the literature on nutritional ketosis hasn’t really (to my reading) explored this level of extreme activity. But, the key is knowing how much you need and when to take them. In my experience, working with athletes and non- athletes, most tend to make two errors (for lack of a better word): They over- estimate their carbohydrate requirement, and/or. They forget that no factor influences RQ – and therefore substrate requirement – more than dietary composition during lead up to event (or “life”, which is sort of the ultimate event). Know your engine, first.
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