3 Reasons Why Counting Calories Isn't as Easy at It Seems

Calorie counting is easily one of the most effective ways to lose weight. Flexible dieting (or “IIFYM”) has become one of the biggest nutrition crazes as of late, with fitness influencers posting the macronutrient breakdown of their meals. They weigh their portions and track their intake. While it has been proven that a caloric deficit will ultimately result in improvements in body composition, the story isn't quite so clear cut. In fact, you may be counting your intake and misinterpreting what all of that information means.

A kilocalorie, more commonly referred to as a “calorie,” is the amount of heat that is required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water one degree Celsius. While we still have a lot yet to learn about the science of nutrition and digestion, there are a few ways in which your caloric estimates may be inaccurate.

Calorie labels aren't always accurate.

Your body breaks down all foods differently, depending on their chemical and nutritional profile. For example, researcher Janet Novotny and her colleagues tested the nutritional content of walnuts. She found that we metabolized about 21% less energy than was predicted by the labels. So, a serving of walnuts might say that it is 180 calories, but we are only possibly absorbing about 145 calories. That is a pretty substantial disparity in caloric intake!

Additionally, Gebauer at all tested different types of almonds (whole unroasted, whole roasted, chopped roasted, and almond butter) in equivalent quantities. Surprisingly, the body absorbed the most calories from the almond butter, followed by the whole chopped roasted almonds. Subjects absorbed the least amount of calories from the whole unroasted almonds. It seems as though the roasting process changes the structure of the almond's cells allowing our bodies to digest more of the nut. It appears that if you're looking for the greatest bang for your buck with nuts, the raw variation is far superior to a nut butter. The exact reason for this phenomenon is unknown to date.

Another study done by Carmody et. al. concluded, "...cooking substantially increases the energy gained from meat, leading to elevations in body mass that are not attributable to differences in food intake or activity levels." This means that we are able to absorb more calories from cooked meat than the equivalent amount of raw meat. Here, the cooking process alters the way it is digested and used for energy, in that our bodies can extract more chemicals from cooked food, as they do not have to work as hard to break them down. That is to say that one would expect to consume more calories from a well-done steak than from an equivalent sized medium-rare steak.

Dr. David Bauer notes that "calories are created equal, but their availability from foods is not equal." So what we do with the calories we consume is highly variable based on the processing (or lack thereof) of those foods.

Dietary fiber can influence weight loss.

The USDA recommends that women get about 25 grams of fiber per day, and men get 38 grams per day, yet some estimates report that many people only get 12-18 grams per day. A few studies have guessed that fiber can influence not only our satiety (leading to a decrease in caloric consumption), but also the size of our waists.

A study done by Du et. al. of fiber intake in European citizens over the course of  about 7 years found an inverse correlation between cereal fiber intake and waist circumference. This means that individuals who increased cereal fiber consumption had smaller waistlines. There was a less significant effect with fiber from fruits and vegetables.

Again, these changes in body composition may be due to the feeling of satiety that comes from an increase in fiber intake, but that is still poorly understood.

So, if you eat 500 grams of oats, the overall satisfaction is going to be very different than eating 500 grams of chocolate crispy cereal. You may find yourself hungry within an hour after eating the gummy worms, whereas the equivalent amount of oatmeal could keep you full for hours on end. If you're in a caloric deficit, it's ideal to choose foods that will give you the most volume for your calories. Our bodies cannot convert certain types of fiber (insoluble fiber) into energy, and thus, it isn't fully digested and you may not absorb as many calories from it.

Your gut bacteria influences the way you digest food.

Now, the science of the gut microbiome is quite new. There aren't a lot of papers (especially not using human subjects) dissecting the gut's influence on weight gain, but the current body of evidence seems to show clear differences in the microbiome of lean versus obese populations.

Research comparing the gut bacteria in lean and obese twins found that obese individuals had a smaller variety of gut bacteria than did their leaner twins. This discussion becomes one of the "chicken or the egg," in that we do not know if the gut bacteria changes due to fat gain, or if those with a specific type of gut bacteria are more prone to weight gain in the first place. Research over the next few years will dissect this topic more.

One case study of a woman who got a fecal matter transplant from her overweight daughter (yes, that's exactly what it sounds like) demonstrated considerable weight gain after the procedure. These procedures are typically done to eliminate harmful gut bacteria, but the side effect of an increase it fat mass was unexpected. Nearly 16 months after the procedure, the woman gained about 34 pounds. After another year-and-a-half, she gained an additional 7 pounds, despite participating in an exercise program and a liquid protein diet prescribed by a medical professional. She was tested for thyroid dysfunction to no avail. While this is a study of n=1, it lead some researchers to speculate that gut health may have a significant impact on body composition.

For now, researchers believe that some individuals with less diverse microbial communities may be more likely to gain body fat, despite their dietary habits. Some individuals can slash their caloric intake down to a mere 1,200 per day and still hold on to ample amounts of body fat.

In short, even if you’re tracking your calories closely, your estimates may be 15-20% off based on the types of foods you eat and the microbes in your gut. If your weight loss is stalling, there might be more to the story than meets the eye and you may have to tinker around with your diet to yield better results. Overall, it’s helpful to consume foods in their raw, unprocessed form (when possible) as it is likely that your body will absorb less energy from them. Additionally, more fibrous foods will keep you fuller for longer periods of time. Ultimately though, your gut bacteria may be to blame for weight gain or weight loss plateaus.

The Benefits of Cheating & How to Bounce Back After a Binge

I'm really excited to have my friend Sara back as a guest contributor! She previously wrote a fantastic article on the importance of proper meal timing.

I had approached her about writing this article, because I feel as though binging is something that everyone has fallen victim to, and there is a tremendous amount of guilt surrounding it. This article should give you peace of mind that you can still stay on track towards achieving your goals despite bumps in the road.

The Benefits of Cheating & How to Bounce Back After a Binge


People binge and eat foods that are blatantly bad for them all of the time, whether they have an excuse to do so or not. Those who work hard and eat healthy tend to turn to "cheat" meals or days to grant them a time to indulge in their favourite treats and/or shove as much food in their faces as they possibly can.

Whether you enjoy the powerful taste of something unhealthy or you sometimes want to just stop counting the calories, going into your mouth for once… it’s okay. I’m not saying it’s okay or healthy to binge eat and consume hefty amounts of salt and sugar all day, every day, or even very often. What I am saying, is that once in awhile it’s completely okay, and maybe even necessary, for you to take a break from ‘healthy’ and just enjoy yourself.

One meal or even one day of binge eating or sugary snacks will not set you back or completely throw off your progress. It can if you let it, but as long as you stay aware and in control of what you’re doing, you don’t have to crush yourself with guilt every time it happens.

The Benefits of Cheat Days

Breaking a Plateau

When I say some cheating may be necessary, I’m talking about people who are very persistent in their quest to dramatically change their body in some way or another. Those people, who eventually reach a plateau in their weight loss or gain, need something to shock their system into cooperating again.

That "shock" is a nice dose of hormones released from the body, and can be triggered by various things. The hormones insulin and leptin are a few whose release is driven by what you eat and when you eat it. They aren’t just controlled by food consumption, but that’s one of the easiest ways we can purposefully prompt that release.

Leptin and insulin are companion hormones, and the rising and falling of one can trigger the same for the other. Insulin release is triggered by the consumption of glucose, which is found in carbohydrates. Glucose is more concentrated in simpler carbs and sugars, and the shorter chains are absorbed faster, thus they have a much faster impact on blood sugar.

As insulin is released into the blood to prompt the storage of glucose, leptin is slowly released as well. Leptin is, most simply put, our feeling of fullness and hunger. As more insulin is released and more fuel is stored, leptin levels rise to tell the brain that you are satiated. Eventually leptin levels lower again when we start taking from those fuel stores, which prompts hunger and food seeking behaviour.

Leptin does not exclusively rise with insulin though, and it is heavily affected by our routines. For instance, the body suppresses your appetite while you sleep or when you get stressed out by releasing leptin, which lowers your metabolism. That way the focus can be put on your rest and recovery or a fight or flight response, instead of your hunger.

Whatever you decide to put your body through in order to get the results you’re looking for, eventually your hormones will adjust and your body will get used to your routine. These hormones are one of the main reasons that we reach plateaus, and in order to move past them, that routine needs to change. The stricter your routine and the harder you are on your body, the stronger it will fight back to adjust, and the more often you will have to throw it off course.

Strict eating habits can stress you out mentally. Having a day where you allow yourself to not worry so much about what you’re eating can be a psychological break for some people. Unfortunately, it can have the opposite effect on others. Instead, simply including a treat into their scheduled macro intake may be a bit less stressful and more rewarding, rather than breaking their normal routine measurements.

Using cheat days and meals as a reward and a source of motivation can be thin and shallow, but if you are starting up a new habit, sometimes rewards are necessary to keep you going. Shallow motivations involving rewards and punishments can be fragile, but if it keeps you going long enough to solidify that habit and find stronger self-improvement goals to motivate you, it’s better than not making any improvement at all.

If having a cheat day at the end of your week after completing several days of successful workouts is working for you, there is no point feeling guilty about it. The point of a cheat is to reduce your stress, not stress you out even more. The more control you have over the cheat day or meal, the less you are likely to stress about it or go overboard. Plan what you are going to eat, solidify your reasonings for allowing yourself that indulgence and enjoy it.

But what if something happens and you end up eating too much when you and your friends spontaneously go out to eat? Or you break your normal routine because you spotted your favourite dessert and couldn’t resist?

Regardless of whether you orchestrated a cheat or the cheat jumped you in an alleyway, if you feel like you’ve failed yourself by cheating on your carefully constructed meal plan, don’t. Dwelling on something that’s already happened is pointless, and the most best thing you can do is to focus on what you can do to recover now, and put yourself in control for next time, building a better relationship with your cheat meals.

Cheating Without Cheating

Small indulgences can be a lot easier on the body and mind to begin with, and require a lot less recovery afterwards. However, it can be difficult to change the definition of a cheat from ‘binge eating’ to simply doing something you wouldn’t normally do.

Cheating doesn’t have to be three pizzas or the whole container of ice cream–it can simply be something outside of the normal rules you hold for yourself. Have a fancy coffee with a bit higher sugar content at the end of a stressful work day. Have a drink or two at a special dinner with friends. Schedule in a day where you skip one workout to have an important bonding day with a significant other or a friend.

You can even press the definition of a cheat even further by simply adjusting your macronutrient ratio a few times a week to keep things interesting, or try a new type of exercise like swimming or sports that may not guarantee you burning the same amount of calories or using the same muscles you’re used to working. The key is to not limit yourself to just sugary and salty foods. Get creative in the ways you treat yourself, and have fun!

Although gentler and non-food/activity related cheats may not work to shock the system for those who are intent on breaking a strong plateau, they can be used as an alternative on days where you shouldn’t be cheating, but you’re craving something different. As long as you are in control and aware of what you’re doing there should be a decrease in stress, not an increase!

Recovering

If your control breaks, or your cheating sessions get really intense, it’s important to focus on your physical and mental recovery afterwards. Physically, it can be rough on your body to heavily spike sugars and hormones and mentally it can be difficult to stop the overwhelming guilt when something happens that you feel you had no control over.

Drink Water

An eating binge can be just like a drinking binge, and drinking lots of water (both during, if possible, and after) can help clear and balance the salt content in your body and combat any sort of dehydration. The best thing to do for your organs is give them a ton of fluid to flush your body. If your pee is clear, you’re doing a good job. Thirst can feel like hunger, so don’t start shoving any food in your face until you’ve had your fill of water first.

Coffee can help in a couple ways, and it’s the better option if you’re feeling stressed out and leaning towards a laxative. Don’t take a laxative. Resorting to abuse of anything that could be used for medical reasons is a terrible idea. It doesn’t matter how ‘natural’ the ingredients are. Unless it’s caffeine from normal coffee or tea, don’t play with laxatives to solve your problems.

Eat Well, Don’t Stress

Some will feel the need to overeat, because the energy from any simple, quick fuel may be long gone. Others may have little to no appetite at all. Some will be craving healthy to find balance, others will want more sugar and salt to continue feeding their cravings.

If you’re feeling like salty and sweet, stave off or have lighter versions, lightly salted nuts, fruit for sweetness. If there’s no appetite, force yourself to eat something small, and if you are able to, you can eat a bit heavier in the evening to meet your macronutrient requirements or replenish your energy stores.

Don’t overcompensate for anything you did during your cheat meal or day. You body is built to adjust, and it will return to normal on it’s own. For those who are hungry, you can rely a bit more on fats and proteins for your energy needs, but don’t cut out carbs completely. Going from a blood sugar high to a blood sugar low isn’t balance, and your goal is to restore that balance.

If you try to balance the scale yourself, you’re just creating more problems for your body to sort out, so try your best to simply return to your normal routine. It’s important to do what you need to do to mentally stabilize yourself. The less stress you make for yourself after a binge, the easier it is for your body to focus less on dealing with that stress and more on recovering.

Exercise

Though some people may be able to jump into a heavy workout the next day, others may find that impossible. The same goes for exercise as it does for food: don’t overcompensate, and let your body focus on recovering. Even if you just put on your workout clothes and do 15 minutes of exercise a light workout can be very beneficial.

Getting your body moving and your blood flowing can wake up your system and start your engine up again. It can also ease some of the mental anxiety about overeating, but again, for those who feel overly guilty, it’s important not to go overboard and exhaust yourself at the gym. Starving yourself to “burn off what I ate yesterday” will only serve to add more stress to your body and will extend the time needed to recover and find balance again. If you intend to do a full workout, ensure you are fueling yourself properly both before and after. No excuses.

Physical and mental health are important. Failing is not the end of the world. Take care, take control and enjoy yourself!




Works Cited:

1. Hall, John E., and Arthur C. Guyton. Textbook of medical physiology. Elsevier Inc., 2006.
2. Margetic, S., et al. "Leptin: a review of its peripheral actions and interactions." International Journal of Obesity & Related Metabolic Disorders 26.11 (2002).
3. Patterson, Christa M., and Martin G. Myers. "How Leptin Controls the Drive to Eat." The Korean Journal of Obesity 24.2 (2015): 69-77.
4. Van Praag, H., Fleshner, M., Schwartz, M. W., & Mattson, M. P. (2014). Exercise, energy intake, glucose homeostasis, and the brain. The Journal of Neuroscience, 34(46), 15139-15149.

Insulin and the Importance of Meal Timing

This week, I have an awesome guest post from friend and nutrition expert Sara Pindera. Sara is a friendly Canadian with a Bachelor of Science Degree, specialising in Nutrition and Nutraceuticals. She has additional experience in food and product marketing and has written numerous articles on fitness and nutrition on the Gymaholic site. You can follow her on YouTube and Instagram!




Food keeps us alive, it keeps our bodies functioning properly and fuels them for daily tasks, whatever those tasks may be. We are all individuals, different in our genetics, eating habits and activity levels, but some mechanisms function in roughly the same way for all of us.

These mechanisms have developed to protect the body and ensure our survival. Fortunately or unfortunately, most of us don’t have to fight so hard anymore, so these age old mechanisms can work against us in a sedentary lifestyle. They can even work against you in an active lifestyle, acting as drag and limiting your progress. They can also work with you, but in order to use them to your advantage, you have to better understand how they work.

If you only think of food as fuel for your body, you need to change your way of thinking. What you eat and when you eat it can have a snowball effect, setting off various triggers in the body that can magnify different bodily functions in just minutes or hours.

The ‘state’ that your body is in can have massive effects on your goals. The two main states are the fed state and the fasted state, and we cycle through these different states multiple times a day by, you guessed it, feeding and fasting. But it’s more than just that, because putting yourself in the right state at the right time can give you an incredible boost in fat loss or building muscle.

The body states are mostly characterized by the presence of two main hormones: insulin (fed state) and glucagon (fasted state). The purpose of these states and these hormones is mainly to control the blood glucose (sugar) levels.

Insulin removes excess blood glucose by pulling it into the muscle and liver, but it also promotes the uptake of fats and proteins, and facilitates the storage of these macronutrients. It’s essentially an anabolic, or building hormone. It also inhibits the actions of glucagon.

Glucagon has the exact opposite function of insulin: it is a catabolic hormone that signals the liver to breakdown its stored glucose and release it into the blood. It also triggers the breakdown of fats and inhibits the actions of insulin. You can probably see why both hormones may help or hinder your progress, depending on what your goals are.

Normal people only experience mild symptoms when blood sugar is slightly out of normal range, and we can still function even after skipping meals or eating an entire box of cookies. Our bodies simply pump out more of these hormones. There are dangerous consequences if these hormones stop working, which is why diabetics must monitor their blood sugar levels themselves. Their insulin isn’t produced properly and/or doesn’t function like it should. Diabetics must inject insulin when blood sugar is too high, or eat something sugary if their blood sugar drops too low.

Carbohydrates trigger insulin because they are usually short or long chains of glucose, but depending on the type of carbohydrate or the glycemic index (GI) of that carbohydrate, you get a lesser or more powerful release of insulin. The index works on a scale of 0-100 based on how much the food raises your blood sugar after eating. 

Low GI foods (Complex carbs like whole wheat, vegetables and beans) are slowly digested and absorbed, gradually raising blood sugar, and high GI foods (white bread, candy, are digested and absorbed rapidly, quickly spiking blood glucose levels. Proteins also signal insulin, but to a much lesser extent, and fats have no effect on insulin release.

So, if you want to lose weight, you want to be in the fasted state. This is why intermittent fasting works, because even though you tend to consume the same amount of calories in a day as you would normally, you are just increasing the amount of time you’re in the fasted state and thus burning more fuel. Consuming more complex carbohydrates like whole wheat, beans, vegetables can reduce the amount of insulin released over time and the amount of glucose stored as fat.

If you want to gain lean muscle mass and/or restore glycogen supply (storage form of glucose, main fuel for powerlifters and sprinters), you want to be in the fed state to promote building and uptake, but you also want to be in the fasted state to keep that muscle lean. 

Most people eat before exercise in order to fuel up, and it’s smart to eat 1-2 hours before your workout. A small amount of simple sugars and protein, along with moderate amounts of healthy fats is ideal for a small spike of insulin that fuels you up and clears quickly. When you start exercising, whatever insulin remains will be slowly cleared so you can break down fuel you need to workout. This means that it’s not too problematic if you do eat a lot, but it will take a lot longer for you to burn off fat if you load up on carbs and protein (thus, insulin) right before your workout.

Your pre-workout fuel is not nearly as important as your post workout fuel. Recovery is crucial in boosting your muscle weight gain. The most important time to be in the fed state is immediately after your workout, within a half an hour to be exact. This is the time where your glycogen stores are low and your muscle fibres are probably battered and torn, so your body is already in panic mode. 

The muscles will rapidly absorb glucose, fats and protein, even without much insulin stimulation at this point. Feeding yourself some simple sugars to give that extra insulin boost increases that uptake even more. It’s absolutely essential you consume most of your protein at this time, because it will but taken up and used immediately to start building and repairing those muscles. 

Whatever your body goals are, being in different states and learning how to trigger insulin can significantly improve your results. Knowledge is power, and if you understand how your body works, you can make it work for you.

6 Reasons You Aren't Meeting Your Weight-loss Goals

If I had a dime for every time someone asked me how they could lose X number of pounds in X number of time, I could probably make enough money to earn myself a spot in the Shark Tank cast. Everyone seems to have extra weight they want to lose, but yet very few of those people actually want to do something about it. Interesting.

Why aren't you meeting your weight loss goals? Here are couple possibilities as to why:

1. You're not tracking your intake. There are a million and-a-half different diets and cleanses on the market. The one thing that virtually all have in common is that maintaining a caloric deficit is paramount. To lose weight, you must be consuming less than you are expending. That's it. It's pretty simple! People say you shouldn't eat carbs, you shouldn't eat fat, you should eat carbs after dark, you should carb cycle, you should eliminate sugar/gluten/dairy/etc., you should drink lemonade everyday for a week, blah blah blah. I could continue. None of that is necessary. Just measure how much you're eating and make sure you're moving a lot. You wouldn't load an arbitrary weight on the bar and try to squat it, right? So why would you neglect to keep track of how much food you're consuming? Weigh your food portions, track everything in a food tracker (I use My Fitness Pal), and find out what a good amount of food is for you to start losing weight.
2. You're inconsistent. You eat "clean" or you track your intake Monday through Friday, and then you go hard and go out drinking and eat whole pies of pizza (guilty as charged) on the weekends. I admire your 5 days of dedication, but you're absolutely destroying all of your hard work over the course of those two days. If you feel inclined to have a day where you don't want to track your calories and just have fun, try to make sure it's not twice-a-week, every week. Make those days fewer and farther between so that you're not sabotaging your progress on the weekends.
3. You're stressed and/or sleep deprived. Adequate sleep and relaxation are underrated as methods of improving bodily composition. If your body is operating in the sympathetic, "fight or flight" nervous system, as it would in someone who is sleep-deprived and/or overworked, you are constantly in survival mode. Your body is going to instinctually hold on to excess fat (or possibly store more food as fat out of fear) if you are in a constant state of stress! 
4. You aren't moving enough outside of the gym. Your NEAT is your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or the calories you're expending during your other hours of the day. If you work out for 1-2 hours a day and spend the rest of the day sitting at work, your NEAT is going to be pretty low. If you have a physically demanding job or you go on walks/runs during the day, your NEAT is significantly higher. What you do during the rest of your day is important! Now, I understand that not everyone has the option to go on a 3 hour hike during the day, and people do work desk jobs, but try to move whenever you can! Even if it means getting up and walking around your office every half an hour. Maybe you can walk or bike to work. Take the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator. Play with your kids outside when you have time. Just move whenever you have the chance and increase your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)!
5. You aren't eating enough of your micronutrients. This is one huge mistake I made. I was carefully tracking my macronutrients (protein, carbs and fat), but I was forgetting about the micronutrients: my fiber intake, calcium, iron, potassium, Vitamin A, etc. Some of these numbers were much lower than I'd expected. It wasn't until I started monitoring all of this on MFP that I was able to increase my intake. A lot of people aren't hitting these numbers, and the foods they consume are nutritionally devoid. More nutritionally dense foods will keep you full for a longer period of time and they will help improve overall bodily function so you can go crush your workouts.



My Fitness Pal has a large database, and it's easy to use.

6. You're not working hard enough. It would be fantastic if we could just take a bunch of magic pills and maybe workout once every week for 20 minutes and miraculously have the body of a Victoria's Secret Angel or Brad Pitt in "Fight Club," but unfortunately I'm going to have to pop your bubble: weight loss doesn't work that way. No pill can substitute hours, weeks, months and years of grinding at the gym. No expensive shake is going to allow you to eat a double bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries and still look like an Adonis. Hard work is the only solution to your weight loss woes. Go to the gym as often as your schedule allows and put in the time. Dedication will help you become stronger, faster and leaner (if that is what you desire).

If you're serious about getting in shape, stop talking about tomorrow or next month. Quit making excuses and finding reasons not to do it. The truth is, none of this is easy. I'm not going to sugar-coat it. Some days I'm absolutely exhausted. There are times when people offer me free donuts or candy. Life is a constant struggle filled with temptation. Sometimes I choose to indulge, but often I just tell myself to quit whining and go to the gym anyway. This type of mental strength is the only way to see progress and achieve a lifestyle of health.

Why "Cleanses" are a Tremendous Waste of Time

Juice cleanses, or other similar food detoxes seem to be all of the rage these days. From the Whole 30, the 21 Day Sugar Detox, cayenne and lemon water cleanse, the options are seemingly infinite. Each one boasts claims that you will magically rid your intestines and other tissues of toxins or inflammation.

Before you get defensive, keep reading.

I should mention that I think, first and foremost, a healthy diet is the key to preventing or treating an array of different health problems, along with meditation, physical activity, and proper hydration. I believe fulfilling your micronutrient requirements (vitamins and minerals) should be high on everyone's list of priorities.

Now, let's analyze why (what I believe to be most) people start these cleanses in the first place: to lose weight and kickstart healthier habits. Perhaps you just got back from a vacation full of over-indulgence in junk food and alcohol. Maybe you put on a bit of unwelcome weight over the holiday season. Although I completely understand these frustrations, I think cleanses are a load of crap and a waste of money.

I am quite adamantly against them for a few reasons:

1. There is no "quick fix." When it comes to diet and exercise, everyone wants to see changes overnight. The fitness industry feeds on this desire to miraculously improve one's body as quickly as possible. Products claim to help you lose 20 pounds of fat in a month or gain 10 pounds of muscle in 3 weeks, but you must remember that these are just marketing schemes to coerce you into buying a product or subscribing to a new workout routine. The truth is that "health" is not a weekend vacation. A 7 day juice cleanse or a 30 day food detox is a start, but it is only the beginning of a lifelong commitment to wellness. Chugging down cayenne pepper for a week won't transform you into some immortal superhero!
2. Your calorie intake is too damn low! Nearly every juice cleanse I've seen brings you to around 1,000-1,300 calories a day. Unless you're in a vegetative state or you're 85 years-old, that number is way too small. If you're exercising, those numbers are along the lines of what I would call dangerous. There is no way your body can recover and progress if you're starving yourself. Not to mention, juice is low in protein and devoid of most of the fiber that comes with fruit and vegetables, so you won't feel full after consuming these juices. I'm willing to bet that your juice-only diet will leave you feeling lethargic and foggy, rather than leaving you alert and ready to take on the day.
3. It's not sustainable. I advise my clients to eat everything in moderation. I do not recommend they explicitly cut out certain foods, because, well, they're going to crave those foods nonstop! Of course I want them to eat their greens and fulfill their protein requirements, but I don't want them to go crazy in the process! Diets like the Whole 30 have an absurd amount of "no-no" foods. White potatoes, grains, dairy, refined sugar and legumes are all off limits for Whole 30ers. First of all, it can be pretty tiring to have to turn down your mom's meals because it contains XYZ, and second of all, it reinforces a disordered relationship with food! Even if you complete 30 days of "clean eating" with no cheats whatsoever, guess what you're probably going to do on day 31 or day 45? You're probably going to go on a binge-eating spree and scarf down every food you just limited from your diet for the past month and send your digestive system into agony. Why bother cleansing your system if you're only going to inevitably return to your old eating habits? Why limit your cookie intake for four weeks, just so you can snort an entire sleeve of Thin Mints afterwards?

Your kidneys and your liver are organs whose prime function is detoxification. They are more than capable of that job with or without your cleanses. The weight loss industry throws around words like "inflammation" to create fear or buzz. Commercials leave people believing they have chronic inflammation, food allergies and toxins they never even knew about before.

There aren't yet any studies to suggest that these types of cleanses actually serve any benefit to you or your body, but yet tons of "nutrition experts" swear by anecdotal evidence or bogus allegations.

I believe in moderation. If you want to have a piece of cake, have it. Just make sure you're not having the entire cake to yourself, and prioritize nutrient dense foods. Spend your whole day eating food that will fuel your body and provide you with the vitamins you need to sustain organ function. Then, every once-in-a-while, have a snack, if you want one. You'll feel less likely to completely derail your progress and binge if you aren't so strict with your diet.

Drinking the occasional fruit juice is fine, but there's absolutely no need to go on a juice-only diet unless your jaw is fused shut or you have some sort of digestive issues that you'd like to alleviate. Avoid the marketing scams and find some balance in your nutritional habits. It's pretty well-recognized that crash diets don't work, so find one you're prepared to commit to for the long haul, not just a predetermined amount of time!

What is "Healthy" to You?

The word "healthy" seems to take on a different definition in every magazine, every journal, every study and every book I read. Some people think low carbohydrate/high fat ("keto") diets are the way to go, while others preach high carbohydrate/low fat diets.

Working in the fitness industry, I've become kind of overwhelmed with the huge differences in opinion out there. People will swear to death that their diet is the best way to eat. Quite frankly, I'm pretty freaking tired of hearing it.

I created a survey for my readers and viewers, and I asked them to respond to two questions:

1. Which of these options do you associate with the word healthy?
2. Which of these dietary restrictions do you follow?

They had the option to pick as many answers as they wanted: gluten free, grain free, dairy free, Paleo, high carb/low fat, low carb/high fat, low/no sugar, low/no sodium, non GMO, cage free/free range, grass fed, IIFYM, high protein, vegetarian, vegan, organic, minimally processed, and then anything else they wanted to add.

Obviously, the responses were pretty varied. The number one, response, however, was "minimally processed." In my opinion, this is the phrase I would associate most with "healthy." If it comes from the earth, it's healthy; if it comes from a factory, it's probably not.

The books make excellent coasters...

The conclusion I've come to, based on my reading and my experience, is that there is no "optimal" diet. Forget all of those commercials telling you otherwise. The best diet, in my humble opinion, is the one that works the best for you! What is sustainable for you in the long run? What will make you excited to eat, without feeling like you're restricting yourself? If you're craving everything you can't have and you're miserable, there is no point in eating that way.

Eating healthy should not come with the loss of your sanity. Ideally, you want to feel energized, well-nourished and happy!

Find a way to eat well without deprivation. Eat intuitively, and eat minimally processed foods. I've said it before on my blog, and I'll say it again. If you stick to the food that comes from the earth, you don't need to count calories and stress out over food. If you want to eat a piece of cake every once-in-a-while, eat it! Eat well, and live happily.

Working Out for the Wrong Reasons

The other day, when I was at the hair salon, my hairdresser said something that caught me by surprise. We were discussing our professions, and how we both enjoyed what we did for a living. I told her that I was a CrossFit coach, and she responded, “Good for you! I can never seem to stick to a workout routine for more than a few months. I’m skinny, so I don’t really need to workout.” I didn’t really know how to respond. Her words had really resonated with me, though. I thought to myself, “because she’s thin, she doesn’t think exercise is a priority?”

This is neither cute nor healthy...

I can’t lie though, I’m sure at one point when I was younger, I felt the same way. We have come to associate working out with the pursuit of losing weight. Someone who is thin must be healthy, too, no?

First of all, I want to just express how much I loathe the word “skinny.” Let me just read you some of the adjectives that I found when I looked up the word “skinny in the thesaurus: “undernourished,” “emaciated,” “scrawny,” “skeletal,” and “scraggy.” Do any of these synonyms sound desirable to you? I certainly don’t find any of those terms to be endearing. I would much rather be “lean,” “fit” or even “muscular.” The word skinny denotes weakness.

Exercise is about so much more than improving my body composition, in my opinion. I want to be able to be prepared for anything life throws at me, I want to defend myself against a potential attacker on the streets, I want to move heavy objects without fear of hurting my back in the process, and of course, I want to ensure that I will avoid decrepitude as I age! Vitality is so much more important than physical appearance.

Building a lean, fit body is a wonderful perk of exercise—I certainly can’t deny that. I have grown more comfortable with my body in the process, but I have also become healthier and more resilient.

UCLA physician Preethi Srikanthan surveyed more than 3,500 participants in her research. She found that those with more lean muscle mass had significantly longer lifespans than those who lower percentages of muscle mass. Additionally, she did not find any dramatic differences between those with higher body fat percentages versus lower body fat percentages. This means that muscle mass is more important than body fat in estimating one’s overall life expectancy.

We all want to live a long, fulfilling life, right? Exercise and a healthy diet are integral ingredients in the recipe for longevity. On the other hand, those who are sedentary and eat poorly have weaker tendons, more fragile bones, weaker immune systems, and shorter lifespans than their active counterparts.

Just remember: someone who is "skinny" is not necessarily healthy.