Nutrition and Weight Loss

I’m from Texas and while it is still hitting 100 degrees daily, there are rumors other places have seasons. Our culture kicks off the fall season with talks of parties. It’s a Halloween party followed by Thanksgiving celebrations, immediately followed by Christmas/Holiday gatherings with family, business, friends, more family and topped off with a New Year’s Resolution not to overindulge again next year.

Throwing Caution to the Wind in Calorie Consumption

I am a firm believer in Halloween being the gate keeper for the Holiday Indulgence Club. It starts with costume parties, candies, goodies, cakes and treats and ends with an up trending scary trick on the scale. This trick starts the justification of putting good habits on hold because the flood of sweet cuisine is seemingly impossible to avoid or even control during the final quarter of the year. Like I said, it’s party after party after party. Sometimes multiple parties in the same week or even same day as is the case in the cornucopia like blend that has become my family.

As we have learned, it is not so much the calories we eat but the choice in the source of calories we eat that matters. However, eating four lean turkey plates with only healthy veggie choices in one day would probably be over doing it. Now, if we could step into reality and reveal what really happens. It’s more like a slice of turkey, mash potatoes, an obligatory casserole from aunt Judy, a piece of pumpkin pie…swig down a couple glasses of sweat tea and repeat at the next house. This is only Holiday number two. We have another month of this and it gets worse.

The Debt and Savings Effect

If we consider a calorie is the unit of energy used by the body then it is not difficult to equate it to the dollar we use as financial currency. The more dollars you make, the more opportunity you have to save them. Conversely, if you spend more than you make… debt accumulates.

It has been my experience that we over spend to a superlative degree during holiday seasons. This author’s article doesn’t truly support this but it does show a tendency to overspend in winter. Again, this is my experience and observation. The other thing it points out is when people run out of actual money…they turn to credit cards. I believe these tendencies start in the fall with homecomings and festivals, holiday travels, gifts, parties and a host of other expenses unique to this quarter of the year and result in overspending and accumulation of unwanted debt.

Now the reverse model is true for the body. We make or consume calories by eating and we use our total daily energy expenditure to burn or spend them. If we consume more than we burn we have an excess or a savings. Unfortunately this savings is not the phat cash in the other model but gets directly deposited into a fat cell. The building up of these “savings” creates an energy reserve of adipose tissue which can be unappealing for some people but more importantly can lead to metabolic diseases affecting the heart, vessels, brain, kidney, eyes, skin, gut, and liver if “savings” accounts accumulate in excess. The consumption and utilization of calories leading to weight changes is not as easy as 2nd grade math however. Its complicated by regulatory factors, genetics, diseases, environments, stress, and hormones, to list a few confounding factors. The main point is if you consistently over eat and make poor choices for 3 of the 12 months of the calendar year, you will likely not achieve your nutrition and weight loss goals. Moreover, if this pattern persists, over time you will find you have achieved a wealth of unwanted “savings” in the form of adipose tissue.

The “savings” in this model is the credit card debt in the monetary model. They are both unwanted results and both occur due to choices made consistently over time.

The purpose of this article is to try and survive the holiday onslaught of caloric riches with some wise steps and a healthy plan of attack.

Step Wise Action Plan

• If you think you need help then get help. If you are prone and known to struggle with cravings and over eating during holiday months then now would be a good time to consider getting a physician supervised weight loss consult or at least a health coach to help you navigate through the next few months.

• Don’t Throw Calorie Caution to the Wind– Don’t stop any good habits you have developed or post pone change until January. The best way to achieve your weight loss goal for 2024 is to avoid the added weight gain at the end of 2023.

• Eat Before you Go– If you get invited to a party or celebration where you know bad things are going to happen…eat a healthier meal or heavy healthier snack before go so you don’t consume as much of the poorer choices.

• Avoid the Sweets– Again with the Halloween Gateway. Try not to eat the Halloween candy because it’s the gateway drug to poor choices. There is nothing wrong with having a piece a chocolate , a reasonable slice of cheesecake or a scoop of ice cream but a bag of sugar is probably a bad idea. Eating refined sugar literally sends the wrong message to the brain and body regarding weight loss. It spikes blood sugar levels leading to increased insulin which is like telling the body “lots of calories coming your way! Prep the “savings” account!” This triggers a cascade of fat storing processes that are not reversed by eat something equally healthy the next bite.

• Meal Sequence– You may have been told to not eat your dessert first as a kid. When you asked why you may have gotten the standard “because I said so” or “because it’s not good for you”. Well it turns out mom was probably right again. Refined sugars found in a lot of sweet desserts are empty calories and spike blood sugar and therefor insulin. If you eat something more satiating like protein or healthy fat prior to your dessert, two things are likely to happen. 1. you will be more full and therefore theoretically consume less dessert. 2. and this is known, because of the added insulin releasing power of proteins, your blood sugar will not spike as high. (less saving account prepping).
• Drink more Water- I know it’s an easy tip but drinking more water helps in digestion, energy levels, keepings us more full, bowel health, and it’s necessary for weight loss.

Step Wise Tips

Try this

• Use the other articles in this blog to find a good healthy meal balance for you
• start eliminating unhealthy fat and carb choices and substitute protein-rich choices
• try to greatly reduce your added sugar intake per day to < 10 grams/day
• Avoid sugar/carb-laden beverages like sodas or beer

I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this article. If so, please like, subscribe and share.

Dr. C.J. Wolinski