New information on how to keep lost fat off....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 9-19-2013

Recently my email with features on Yahoo highlighted information on how to keep off fat you lost.

The article was written by, Kristin Kirkpatrick, M.S., R.D., L.D.  Manager of Wellness Nutrition Services at Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute.

Her title was:  “The Real Weight Loss Battle: Keeping It Off” and it was first posted on09/01/2011.

This post lists her points.

1.  One of her points adds a dramatically important reason to eat raw vegetables and very lightly cooked vegetables that still have some crunch to them and eat raw nuts, un-oiled and not salted  that are also crunchy!

She quotes research that found that chewing more turns down a hormone called ghrelin that causes you to feel strong hunger.

“In this particular study, blood tests taken 90 minutes after eating showed that individuals that chewed 40 times (as opposed to 15) had much lower levels of ghrelin and thus, ate less due to decreased appetite.”

This is an extremely important point.  This is why eating some raw or very lightly cooked vegetables at almost every meal except breakfast is so helpful.  It not only is very high in nutrition and low in calories and filling due to the high fiber content, you have to chew it more to eat it!  So you are not only more full and nourished, your hunger itself goes down too!

Also, advice like “chew more” ruins the enjoyment of food if you count chews plus hardly anyone is so into health as to get themselves to do that every time!

But if you include raw vegetables and very lightly cooked vegetables at almost every lunch and dinner and some snacks, you do it automatically.

And you also get your hunger turned down by the extra fiber too.  Plus their low calorie content helps you eat more food and less calories at the same time!

2.  She also highlights that removing things like potato chips and soft drinks and other sources of lots of sugar or large boosts in blood sugar or insulin must be a permanent life style upgrade.

She paints a picture of your fat cells just waiting for you to begin eating or drinking just a little bit of those so they can gain all their fat back!

(It’s our hope that by helping people learn just how relentlessly fattening these are and how harmful they are to health that people will write them off and never have them again. 

Any exceptions need to be extremely rare and very carefully limited to avoid this.)

Adding health OK protein foods and fats and oils also helps with this as they turn down hunger far better than these high glycemic fast insulin producers do. 

Eating health OK fats and oils also turns down another hunger hormone called CKK -- which is why people who include them in moderation lose more fat and keep it off far better because they stick to healthy eating far more often than people who only eat nonfat and super low fat foods.

By finding or developing tasty combination recipes for salad and vegetable main dishes that incorporate such vegetables and health OK protein foods and fats and oils and some whole fruit plus skillful use of spices you can develop a set of recipes that you really enjoy eating. 

Using extra virgin olive oil -- and cooked and raw diced onion and minced fresh garlic – IF those are to your taste – can really help with this as it dramatically improves your chances of continuing your healthy eating. 

These foods and spices also are very strongly health protective particularly if organic.

Eating a version of the Mediterranean diet that features lots of organic vegetables and removes most of the bread and pasta dishes is a great way to do this.  (You can also now find or make breads and pasta using no grain at all which also works.  “Paleo Bread” does this very well.)

3.  She also makes the point that at times, you will have to make an extra effort to keep doing the things that removed the fat and are keeping it from returning.

“You did it! You lost the weight and now you're looking and feeling like a million bucks.

….How can you….(not) regain (your lost fat) when…many others have failed?’

“ It won't be easy, but with hard work -- and a few tactics you may not have thought of -- you may just beat the odds.”

This is far easier if you set things up where you eat health OK foods that taste good; you get into a routine of eating these things regularly; and you eat the foods that cut your hunger with fewer calories.

It also helps to increase your calorie burn with effective strength training and short periods of high intensity cardio.  This allows you to eat more without the fat returning.

And, last but not least, this is why an ongoing and well run support group that teaches these things would be so helpful.

As many of you know we are working on that to offer you!