Tuesday 11 August 2015

Weight Loss that Actually Works`

Weight management begins by focusing on your health. Effective strategies involve optimizing lifestyle factors, whole food eating, and establishing a regular exercise routine.

Weight loss is a hot topic these days, with new diet strategies appearing on bookshelves and the Internet on a daily basis. Did you know there are alternatives to fad diets? A naturopathic clinic toronto to effective weight management is the solution to achieving the body you want in a safe and sustainable way.

The first principle of naturopath weight loss is to not focus on weight loss. The key is to focus on improving your health. It’s not about calories, or portion sizes or the way you look. It’s about feeling your best and having your best health possible (and as an amazing consequence, looking your best as well).

The benefits of living at your healthy weight are astronomical. Weight management is at the heart of chronic disease prevention. Specifically, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, joint stress and body composition (relative make-up of fat vs. lean muscle) are all positively influenced by a healthy weight. Furthermore, your risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoarthritis are greatly reduced.


So what differentiates naturopath weight loss from other strategies?

Treating the Whole Person:
A naturopath takes your overall health into consideration when coming up with an effective weight management strategy. This means they’ll consider your health history and rule out any secondary causes of potential weight gain. More than that, they’ll work with your lifestyle to come up with dietary and exercise regimes that can be practically and sustainably carried forward.

Expect an in-depth history of factors like sleep, stress, work-life, relationships and more. Weight management is influenced by so many unexpected factors, and it’s important to consider each one. For example, chronic stress increases cortisol (aka the stress hormone), which impacts metabolism and fat deposition.

Dietary Recommendations:
A naturopath weight loss regime begins with establishing healthy eating principles. Rather than focusing on specific foods and nutrients, it’s best to come up with general guidelines that are easy to follow in a variety of environments (home, work, social gatherings, etc.). These guidelines are whole-food eating.

Whole Food Eating:
•    Cook from fresh ingredients
•    Nothing processed or packaged
•    Avoid refined sugars (aka glucose, corn syrup, sugar cane, rice syrup)
•    Nothing deep fried

 An example:
Whole-Food   
A stew made with carrots, celery, barley, and vegetable broth.

Not Whole-Food
Kraft Dinner made with “sodium phosphate, sodium alginate and natural flavor”

The Ingredient Test: Look at the ingredients of what you’re eating and ask yourself “Is everything on this list a food I could eat on it’s own”. If you can say yes to every ingredient (not including spices), your food passes the test.

Exercise:
The final component to naturopath weight loss is establishing a regular exercise regime. You don’t have to become a marathon runner, but you should be getting 30-60 min of exercise 4-5 times a week. Exercise increases overall metabolism by shifting the body into an energy burning state. Additionally, weight training increases muscle mass, which not only increases fat burning, but benefits insulin sensitivity as well.


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