September 3, 2024 • 38 mins
Are you relying on the latest weight loss medications, or have you ever wondered if there’s a better way? In this episode of The Nutrition Couch, dietitians Leanne Ward and Susie Burrell break down new research revealing how a diet rich in protein and fibre can deliver results that rival popular medications like Ozempic—without the unwanted side effects.
Join us as we explore:
- Surprising findings from a recent study that compares the effectiveness of lifestyle changes versus weight loss drugs.
- Practical tips on how to naturally enhance weight loss and improve your overall health by making small but impactful tweaks to your daily habits.
- When it’s actually okay to skip a meal and how to listen to your body’s true hunger signals.
- The truth behind the rise of processed meat snacks in supermarkets: are they a convenient choice or just another marketing gimmick?
Plus, we answer a listener’s question about why your weight can fluctuate by up to two kilos in a day and what it really means for your progress.
Whether you’re currently using weight loss medications or exploring natural alternatives, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you achieve sustainable results.
If you find our insights helpful, be sure to subscribe, rate, and review our podcast!
Join our community on Instagram for more tips, product reviews, and health inspiration.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you tried one of the newest weight loss medications
or have you ever thought about it? Indeed, the range
of semi glue tight drugs like ozen Pick have revolutionized
the weight loss industry. But what if we told you
there was a sneaky little diet that does exactly the
same thing. Well, today, on the Nutrition Couch, we have
some new exciting research to talk to you about where
(00:21):
you can achieve similar weight loss results as taking some
of the big key medications. Hi, I'm Leanne Ward and
I'm Cizyburrow, and together we bring you the Nutrition Couch,
the weekly podcast that gives you up to date on
everything that you need to know in the world of nutrition,
as well as some new diet research. We chat when
is it okay to skip a meal? We also go
(00:42):
through a new range of meat products we found at
the supermarket. And our listener question is all about body
weight fluctuations. So to kick up today, Susie, there was
a new study. Now, granted it was only a small study,
but it came out a couple of months ago, but
it's some really interesting things to talk about today.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So the study in all was only.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Twenty two people, including nine men, and thirteen women aged
between thirty and sixty fours. They were adults in the study.
But the interesting thing about the study was that it
really focused on people taking semaglutide, so that's the active
ingredient in Ozenpic and Wagobi had lost about on average
eight percent of their body weight in the first year,
(01:21):
which is a great statistic and obviously the reason why
these weight loss medications are so popular. But what they
also found was that those same people also lost a
bit of muscle mass and suffered from some intestinal complaints
as well. So this new study, granted that it's only small,
was really interesting because it highlighted some key areas of
diet without the intervention from the weight loss medications. So
(01:45):
at the one year mark in this new study, successful
dietis which were forty one percent of the participants had
actually lost an average of twelve point nine percent of
their body weight compared to the eight percent of the
people taking the weight loss medications and a month mark,
so half of that the participants who ate more protein
and fiber lost on average seven point one kilos, but
(02:07):
had minimal loss of muscle mass and no tummy issues,
so it's sort of that study that shows you that
diet and lifestyle can be even better than weight loss
medications for some people, and that as dieticians is basically
what we want to hear because we know that when
you're making lifestyle changes, you're eating better, you're adding more fiber,
and you're adding more protein in you're making lifestyle changes overall,
(02:31):
it's far more likely that your results will actually last
long term because we do know so many people that
have taken these weight loss medications, and granted they're a
great option for a lot of people, but if you're
not changing your knowledge and your habits and your behaviors
and your lifestyle along with the weight loss that some
of these medications provide, you're very likely to not actually
(02:52):
maintain that weight loss long term. So it was a
really interesting study that the base of the study or
the diet changes that the participate it's made. We're eating
more protein and fiber because we do know that that
helps with sotiety, it helps with metabolism, it helps with
muscle mass.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So it's an interesting study.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It points us in the right direction to know that
what we recommend as dietitians for our clients is obviously
the right things one would hope, right, But it also
sort of highlights the fact that the fiber is really
protective from a gut health benefit as well, and adding
more fiber in your diet doesn't seem to give anybody
extra intestinal sort of complaints either. So I just thought
a really really interesting study. What is your take on
(03:30):
this overall?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I thought straight away, the headlines are going around quite
often now, you know, we had one recently about the oats,
the soluble fiber in oats being made up into that
mix that you consume before a meal to emulate the
effects of oz and peak, which does slow down gut
trans at time, so the food is slightly sort of
delayed emptying from the stomach, which will aid satiety. And
(03:56):
I think it's great that we're starting to compare the
outcome with these drugs because in my experience, just as
many people who take them with success have taken them
short term and not got success. Because I still don't
think it is clearly communicated by the pharmaceutical companies who
make these medications and also the doctors prescribing them that
(04:16):
they are not to work in isolation. And I still
think there's a belief with the idea of weight loss
medication that you take it and you don't have to
do anything else. Basically, from my perspective, they are drugs
that aid natural metabolic processes. So for people who have
insatiable hunger or insulin regulation issues, they will certainly help
to increase insulin production and help regulate appetite. But if
(04:39):
you don't significantly cut your dietary intake in line with
those drugs, you will not lose weight, or if the
dose is bumped up very aggressively. So I'll routinely see
someone who's maybe seen a GP the GPS, yes, you
can have it, and they will very quickly go from
point five to one up to even one point five milligrams.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Now now the.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
People feel so sick and so nauseous, they don't eat,
and they lose loads of weight. But then as soon
as they stop taking the medication, they haven't changed any
of their underlying behavior and it all goes back on again.
So it's either a commitment to be on them forever,
which we don't know the long term effects, to be honest,
or an acceptance that they work in conjunction with diet
and exercise. And I just don't think that that's clearly communicated. Now,
(05:24):
what was of interest to me in that study was
that the key principles that we will work on with
all of our clients for results, whether they're on a
weight loss medication or not, is to significantly increase their
dietary fiber intake and to significantly increase their protein intake.
There's more and more evidence mounting to show the benefits
of maintaining high fiber for digestive health obviously for full
(05:44):
factor general health and wellbeing. And then on top of that,
a higher protein diet naturally reduces carbohydrate intake, keeps you
full of for longer after eating, helps to protect the
metabolic changes from perimenopause and menopause. So for me, that's
just basic dietary outcome what we would prescribe for anyone
who wanted to lose consistent amounts of weight over a
(06:05):
long term period, and then if you did that in
conjunction with the weight loss medication, you get outstanding results.
Because eight percent I think they reported on the weightless medications.
If you were taking a weight loss medication, I would
be expecting more than eight percent if you're obese. So
I actually thought that was a very moderate weight loss
for those medications. So to give you some sort of
examples of weight loss that Ley added, I will.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Work with as dieticians.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
We can't really do testimonials, but certainly we can sort
of give case experience on what our clients routinely achieve.
If I've got a client who wants to lose twenty
kilos and say is eighty ninety one hundred kilos, I
will allocate about three to four months for a ten
kilo loss. So most of my clients. There's a few
who maybe not if they've got sort of insulin resistance
(06:50):
or if they're not very active, but my clients, most
of them would easily lose eight to ten kilos in
three to four months.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
That's what I expect.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I then am aiming for twenty to thirty kilos over
a twelve month period, so that even without those medications,
that's the weight loss I'm working on with my clients.
So if I had someone on OZI and PEAK, I
would be expecting at least that which is upwards of
fifteen twenty percent of body weight. Because if you're going
to invest that much money on those medications, they're very expensive,
(07:17):
you would want to be giving it your all from diet, exercise,
and be aiming for twenty thirty forty kilos over a
twelve month period for me to justify it, because I
can get ten kilos off someone even if they're instul
and resistant in a three four month period, if they're
doing their exercise and diet.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
And to me, that's the difference.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
If people aren't getting those results on the weight loss medications,
I know they're not exercising and it's a short term
solution because they're not improving metabolic function and they're falsely
using the medication to give them a false weight loss result.
And you'll know people who are doing it. I could
name you ten clients of mine who have done that
or tried these medications and ended up back with me
because ultimately they need to change their diet and habits
(07:55):
long term, and I say to them, I would like
to do it without the medication. I will only use
the medication if I absolutely have to. Because in the
old daisly Ann, when you were just a young student
at university, all we had was met forman.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
For people with insulin issues.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So we with the endocrinologists would use met forman and
get exactly the same weight loss results as they do
with those in peak. It would just take a little
bit longer to bring down those insulin levels initially. But
I often just use met forma because it's got no
side effects, it's inexpensive, it's a great anti cancer agent,
and you don't have to pay all that money that
you're paying for those others, So I often get good
(08:29):
results just from that without resorting. I only resort to
the semiglue tie glps if I've got a severely insulin
resistant client or someone who has literally already lost twenty
kilos and is at a flat line. But they're never
my first go to because I can do a lot
with diet exercise as you can with that right prescription.
So I think that study just emulated that an eight
percent weight loss with a GLP is not overly high.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I think we can do so much more with diet
and exercise, and like you, you know, I tend to get
the same about eight to ten kilos three or four months,
which is a great result. And a lot of my
clients aren't actually really exercising initially, particularly if they've got
a large amount of weight to lose. They have a
client of might had thirty kilos. We don't start them
off with weight loss because they're carrying around so much
additional load. It's putting additional stretch on the back, the
(09:13):
hips and knees. They're in pain when they exercise some
of my clients. So we start with the weight loss.
If you can get ten twenty kilos off those bodies,
they're going to move a lot better, and then we'll
you know, generally increase the exercise from there as well.
But I think the issue is with most people who
take these injectible weight loss medications, they want the results quick,
and they want them fast because it is obviously so
(09:33):
much harder to do the diet and the exercise than
it is to just self inject a drug once a week.
But the real interesting thing about this study was that,
as we both said, it's not actually a huge amount
of weight loss that you see from these drugs after
the first year. Then you also get some gut health issues,
like so many people feel so sick and nauseous, they've bloated,
they've got pain that you know, they feel sick all
(09:54):
the time. That's why they're not eating, that's why they're
losing weight. But to me, the key difference was the
loss of muscle mass, because we know that with our
clients we promote a higher protein diet. And the interesting
thing about the study was they only increase the participants
protein to eighty grams a day. I would not even
really say that was high protein to me, that standard
I would want all of my clients, regardless of if
they were trying to lose weight or not, to be
(10:15):
on it roughly about eighty grams a day unless you're
an absolutely tiny, tiny human like you're, you know, five
foot nothing or under. I really think most people should
be on eighty grams of protein. I would think that
a higher protein diet to me is upwards around that
kind of one hundred gram markle for most people. Around
that one point two grams per kilogram of body weight
per day is sort of a higher protein diet to me.
(10:36):
So I found it interesting that they got such great results.
What I wouldn't even classify that as a higher protein diet.
But I think the kicker is when you put protein
and fiber together, because you really get those satiating effects
from it, and when you're on the weightless drugs, if
you're not really exercising, you're not eating well, you're just
occasionally snacking on stuff. Yes, you're going to lose body weight,
(10:57):
but some of that is body fat, but some of
that is alsomuscle mass. And we know what happens is
that over time your metabolism down regulate. So it might
be great that you lose ten kilos in six months
taking these drugs or in three months, but if you're
losing muscle mass as well longer term, that's going to
come back on again because A you haven't changed your
diet and your lifestyle, and b your metabolism has been
(11:18):
negatively impacted, which we do know that over time you
will start to get hungry, you will start to eat more,
and then that's where that yo, your dieting tends to happen.
Where you lose it, you regain it, you lose it,
you regain it because you haven't supported your muscle mass.
So you and I both pro changing diet and lifestyle
first and foremost as the foundation, and then bring some
(11:39):
of these weight loss medications in where needed for the
right client. And I think that it was really great
that this study showed exactly that.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Because the five is coming from having more fresh food
through the day, like so many clients. So I will
see initially we'll be having just their plain toast in
the morning. Even if it's protein toast, they'll just be
having the tuna crackers or the tuna rapt for there's
never the bulk there that completes the meal. It's not
a meal if there's not fresh food. That's a really
good lifestyle mantra. When I'm creating a meal or even
(12:08):
a snack for the kids, if there's no fresh food,
I don't count it as a meal. You've always got
to have the fresh food or the cut up vegetables
or the component of the meal. Or to me, like
you go to tie your ortopad tie, there's not much protein.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
There's hardly any veggies.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
You've got to always complete the meals on the snacks
that will automatically improve your nutrition dramatically. But something you
said then just triggered me. I wanted to talk about
this on another episode. Injecting a drug is not doing
the work. Talking to your dietitian is not doing the work.
Whenever I have clients who might have had a little break,
they always want to have an appointment because they feel
(12:43):
then they've done something because that's their action. They've done
something and seen me. But I want them to change
the diet first and send their diaries through because that's
the work. So you've got to make sure you're doing
the work at some point. And the work is going
for a walk, it's logging your calories, it's preparing your
meals in advance. Got to be doing the work if
you expect results. Yeah, and unfortunately it's just not as
(13:04):
easy as injecting or taking a pill. Ultimately, you have
to be doing the work. So that's always a good
question to check in at. So a topic we have
sort of debated what we're going to chat about today.
There's always so many good nutrition topics to talk about,
but we also want to make sure that we have
lots of variety for you guys, and we're just not
always talking about weight loss. We want to give you
the latest research and nutrition. And something that came across
(13:26):
my desk this week was and someone wanted me to
write an article on skipping breakfast, and I thought that
lends itself to a little bit of a discussion about
when is it actually okay to skip a meal? Because
quite frequently when I'm reviewing my client's food diaries, and
I'll sort of look and I'll think, Wow, you've been
out to dinner and that was a really big, sort
(13:48):
of indulgent meal.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
And then I'll see that.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Breakfast was still consumed at say six am the next day,
and I oft have just questioned my client and say,
were you hungry. And a frequent piece of feedback i'll
have from clients is, oh, I thought it was better
to eat because I don't want to lose my metabolism
or have a like. You know, there's a belief that
if you don't eat, you'll have a reduction in metabolism.
You should never skip a meal.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You slow it down.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, yes, you slow metabolism by skipping a meal. And
then I realize that's a commonly held belief because we
were certainly told that for metabolism it's best to eat regularly,
and skipping food for periods of time reduces metabolic rate.
So I thought it was good to have a little
discussion about the science of that. So certainly, Leanne and
I are not advocating skipping meals. In general, balance meals
(14:35):
three or four times a day will keep your glucose
and appetite well regulated. It will ensure you're ticking the
boxes on all your key nutrients. It will prevent that
binge eating that happens when we have skipped lunch or
afternoon tea. And certainly with the bulk of my clients,
I'm working on regular balanced meals to control appetite and
get the nutrition.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
But there are always.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Differences on a weekly basis because food intake is not stable,
and nor should it be. Every single day will be different.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Every day.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Your activity is different, your hormones are different, your metabolic
needs are different. So if you find one day a
week you get to four o'clock in the afternoon, or
you've had a late lunch or a heavy lunch, and
you're not hungry for afternoon tea, I would say it's
okay to skip it, unless you're not going out to
dinner till nine o'clock and you know then that you're
going to get over hungry. Or the same thing if
it's a weekend and you had a heavy meal the
(15:25):
night before and you wake up and you're genuinely not
hungry at six or seven, it's okay to skip breakfast occasionally.
So I guess in summary, it's okay to skip a
meal when you're genuinely not hungry. It's okay to skip
a meal when you're sick. It's okay to skip a
meal when you've had heavier meals so you're not hungry,
or you've eaten out. So I think, yes, in theory,
(15:47):
it's important to eat regularly, but I would expect at
least once or twice a week. You may not just
feel like dinner for whatever reason, and that's okay. That's
actually good because it means you're much more in tune
with your body, whereas a lot of and even myself, oh,
there's quite many nightsly and I probably don't need dinner,
but I sort of have it because you have it
with the kids, and so remind you occasionally it's okay.
(16:07):
You just may not have moved that much that day.
Your lunch might have had more calories than you realized hormonly.
It might be the time of the month when you
don't need as many calories, so you know, really be
attuned to that and don't be scared. A reduction in
metabolic rate from skipping a meal happens over weeks, if.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Not months, not one meal.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So you would have to be severely calorie deprived for
at least a week, if not more, and you see
that from shows like Survivor before it will negatively impact metabolism.
So certainly there's no issue with occasionally skipping a meal.
As I said, not encouraging that, but if you're not hungry,
it's not about I did to push a meal back
a little bit of time till you get that rumbling
(16:45):
and your tummy, and you can become a little bit
more aware of what your natural appetite is doing, because
humans in general will always overeat as opposed to underreat.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, and I think the only caveat there would be
I sometimes have clients who say, look, I never feel hungry,
and that's where I them, Look, it is really important
to start eating regular meals, regular well balanced meals, to
get that metabolism firing again. So if you're somebody that
regularly does feel hungry, and you know you're doing a
lot of exercise, and then occasionally you're like, look, I've
had a big lunch. I went out for a three
(17:14):
course meal with my work. You know, colleagues, I don't
really need dinner. I have a light to dinner. Absolutely okay,
But like Susie said, I think it is a very
commonly held belief. I remember even going through university, like
a lot of people, I.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Think back then it was almost this.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Even as dieticians, I had this belief very early on
in my career that you want to eat regularly to
almost like stoke the fire, like stoke the metabolism.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You don't want to skip meal.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Skipping meals is really really bad and certainly, like Susie,
we're absolutely not advocating it. But if you're genuinely not hungry,
there's nothing wrong with skipping a meal. And often on
the weekend I have some of my clients will have
a sleep in, you know, if they don't have young
children and they're blessed enough to have a sleep in,
and good on you take that opportunity absolutely, But if
you're going to have a sleep in, then they might
wake up. They might go for a bit of a
(17:57):
you know, a bit of a brunch, a little bit
of a heavier meal out. They might get you know,
some eggs and bacon or whatnot, and a coffee. And
if they're having that you know, breakfast brunch at nine
thirty ten o'clock, they don't need to eat lunch at
twelve pm. So I often will say to them, either
push it back to two o'clock or have a more
substantial afternoon tea snack where you might have some tuna
on some grainy crackers, or a bit of cucumbers or tomato,
(18:18):
or a bit of goat cheese and some corn thins
with some tomato. Right, so you don't necessarily always have
to eat on the clock, and you don't always have
to have three solid meals a day. Now, we're not
saying you should skip meals, but really be guided by
that hunger and listen to that hunger. And think, if
I exercise really regularly Monday to Friday, but on the
weekend I don't really do too much but pot around
(18:38):
the house. I might go get some groceries, I might
have a sleepy and I might have a bigger lunch
out with friends.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Then you probably don't need three meals a day.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
And I think we've been conditioned to have this belief
that unless we eat small meals regularly, we're never actually
going to be able to lose weight. So I think
though Susie and I regularly see with our clients, sometimes
they're just eating for the sake of eating, because they're
too scared because they think, oh, it's going to negatively
impact my metabolism or my weight loss journey. So I
think it's just a really important reminder that nothing about
(19:08):
nutrition science is black or white. I mean, for some
people it might be really negative to skip a meal.
I've certainly had clients where I worked with them that
have had more poor relationships with food, bit of disordered eating,
where skipping a meal, even if they're not really hungry
for it, will then promote more of a binge later
on that night. So for those types of clients, I
would absolutely say it's really important to eat regularly, but
(19:29):
have a bit of a light meal if you're not
genuinely hungry for it.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You might have a nice chicken.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And veggie soup versus your normal you know, tuna salad,
sandwich or whatever it might be. So it really comes
down to each person and individually how you respond to that.
But if you're not genuinely hungry for it, and you
just had a meal an hour or two later because
breakfast was pushed back a few hours because you had
a lovely sleep in, you probably don't need your normal lunch.
They're all really good, I guess points to consider and
(19:54):
just an important discussion to have because I'm sure that
there are still people out there who genuinely believe that
it will make it hard to lose weight if they
are skipping meals, and certainly if you're doing that regularly,
it probably will because you're not really getting in the
adequate nutrients or protein that's needed. But take all the
studies around intimate and fasting. There's a lot of skipping
meals that go into something like intimate and fasting, and
(20:16):
metabolically people are just fine. As long as you're genuinely
getting your protein intake in throughout that eating window, then
you know your metabolism should be just fine overall, as
long as your calories aren't too low for too long.
So there's a few I think caveats here, but the
baseline message is listen to your body, adjust your intake
day to day because we don't do the same thing
(20:37):
every single day, and we shouldn't be eating the same
amount of food every single day.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I just have one thing I want to add because
I really want to use the word caveat.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
It's a good word, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I've got one more caveat. I did say to a
client this week, and she's this teacher, so has a
big early day, so she'll have her meal sort of
in the morning, and then she sort of was getting
to two or three o'clock in the afternoon and hadn't eaten.
Because I think that happens often in medical fields, teachers,
where you just go and start the day and just
(21:08):
anything could happen at any time, and sometimes you just
can't eat. Like I've got some doctors and you know,
sometimes doing surgery, they just like literally cannot eat. But
I did say to that client, I really don't want
you to go more than five hours or so in
the day without eating, because I know the follow on
effect of that.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
We don't want to.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Certainly be promoting that skipping meals is good either, because
I think what's happening for some very busy people is
they probably are hungry at lunchtime, but for whatever reason,
they're heightened emotionally, they didn't notice the hunger and they
sort of go into that fight or flight response, and
then that can lead to binging. Certainly, so for busy
women in the day in general, I wouldn't want you
to go more than about five hours, because if you
(21:48):
do exercise harder I've got an intense job, you might
not notice the hunger. But keep that sort of if
you're getting to one two o'clock and you haven't eaten
since seven or eight, it's time to eat something, even
if you then go through to dinner. So I think
that's a class example of busy women that does pop up.
So that's sort of a reference point as well. All right, Lenne,
I want to talk about meat because this is a
bugbear of mine at the moment in supermarkets, this rise
(22:10):
of process meat snacks. I think we've covered it on
the podcast a few weeks ago. I've written a few
articles on it. And then I was shopping last week
because we're always shopping looking for products, and I saw
that there are these new deli meats in the processed
meat section, but they're not process meat in the sense
that they don't contain night trates. So there's like pull pork,
(22:31):
there's a chicken snitzel, and they're across all brands. I
saw several brands in the supermarket. I'm going to talk
about just one today, just randomly, but I wanted to
nut it out with you your thoughts, because I'm a bit.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Torn about it.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So the one I've chosen because obviously we talk a
lot about protein and the importance of protein for snack food,
and our point with processed meats like salamis, hands, turkeys
is that they contain the night trates, which we know
are damaging to the intestine wall and can increase the
risk of a number of digestive cancers. So certainly anything
like sausages, bacon, salami, ham foods we don't want to
(23:05):
actively include in the diet. It's been recommended from the
World Health Organization we proactively limit them because of their
risk and increased cancer risk. But this new range, so
this is the primo reserved chicken sinsil. But as I said,
there's several there's pull pork, there's all different ones. And
the one I've chosen, it's one hundred and thirty grams
six dollars and it looks like the pul pork doesn't
(23:25):
have a crumb on it, but it looks it looks okay,
you know, like if I was someone shopping, I'd be thinking, oh, well,
that's you know, fresh meat, and that's protein rich. It's
also gluten free, which is interesting because it does have
a crumb on it. And when I look at the
ingredients land it says chicken, but there's no percentage listed,
and that bothers me. I'd like to know the percentage
(23:46):
of chicken. Then flour, it's a rice flour, which is
why they're claiming gluten free or staining gluten free. It's
got soy protein, vegetable oil, salt, acidity regulators, thickener, dried vegetables,
mineral salts, deck stros so, no nitrates added there, so
it's not a preserved meat. And the nutritionals on it.
(24:06):
Keep in mind it's only one hundred and thirty grams serve.
It's quite light, but per one hundred Actually they're claiming
the serve sizes are smaller, but the pack's only one
hundred and thirty grams, which is not large.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Mine says one fifty grams.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
Interesting, it's one fifty.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
It says one thirty on my coal's website. I don't
know my PREMI reserved against it's a one thirty, But
then it says the serving size is smaller than one
hundred grams. Sometimes the nutritionals on the supermarkets an't always
right so I'll give you per hundred grams, which is
sort of a serve we would normally use for chicken,
which is about palm size, So it's just about two
(24:42):
hundred and fifty calories. It's got sixteen grams of protein,
seven grams of carbohydrate. The fat is really like, actually,
have I got the nutritionals? What's to hang on to
spare with me? Fifteen point four So it's reasonably high fat,
like we would say less than three grams per hundred
So it's a high fat product, which I think, Oh, well,
(25:05):
what sort of chicken are they using?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Are they not using chicken breast? So I'm a bit
torn with it.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Now. The pulled pork I think was leaner, but it
had a massive ingredient list on it, like and it
had MSG added. So yeah, I think we're going to
see more and more of these as the meat manufacturers
steer away and try and broaden their reach so they're
not serving as much process meat. But you know, I'm
(25:32):
just thinking if a client asked me about them, it's
got some protein, but that one's really high and fat.
I'm just having a look now at the pulled pork,
which is lower. So the pulled pork is five point
seven grams per hundred, so definitely leaner. It still doesn't
tell me the percentage of pork and the marinade, which
bothers me. I don't know why they're not listing that.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
We also can't go past the sodium, like on the
chicken sysil there's seven hundred milligrams of sodium in one
hundred grand. That's a small serve for seven hundred milligrams
of sodium. There's a lot.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah, So I think it was just a discussion to say, yes,
these products are there. They're still pretty processed, and I
think you can even though they don't have the nitrates,
they're still process so that protein content is higher than
say a ham or a turkey, but they're fairly highly processed.
And I'd be saying to Primo, you need a dietitian
(26:23):
on that staff to try and clean up some of
these products, because you've got one issue with all these
products that contain nitrates, and then you're trying to make
healthier options that aren't so healthy. So I think they
need some dietitian advice, to be honest. But I think
if you're looking at a processed food, we would still
state that that pull pork is ultra processed, would we
with that level of ingredient list because it's got MSG added,
(26:46):
it's got flavors.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I think so yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And also because and it's not all protein, like there's
sixteen point six grams of protein and one hundred grams,
which is fine, but it's not all coming from the chicken.
They're adding soy protein in there as well to boost
the protein overall. So if it was just pure chicken,
it's not they're adding soy protein in. I think with
the crumbing of that, like, what is the crumbing even?
(27:09):
Is it crumbed in flour?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Sorry?
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Yeah, so I agree, it's not clear on the list.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
No, And I think the fat because there's a little
bit of vegetable oil which is obviously used in the crumbing,
but that wouldn't explain fifteen point four grams of fat
per one hundred grands. It's got to be that they're
using all of the offcuts of chicken. And when I
look at the photo that is processed chicken, I don't
care which way you look at it, that does not
look like chicken brust. That is absolutely processed chicken. So
(27:35):
is it better than having salami or bacon potentially, but
it's also not something I would ever write into a
meal plan for my client if they were on the run.
If they're like, look, my choices are macas or going
to coals and grabbing one of these with a salad bag,
I'd be like, cool, great choice, eat that today, But
I certainly wouldn't be recommending it on a regular occasion
for my clients. It is good and free as well,
(27:57):
which is interesting because it's got maize flour, maize flour
and rice flour in it, so it's an okay option
for our gluten free clients as well. But it's like
a quick and easy, occasional choice where you really stuck anythin.
I've just got to grab this, whack it into a
wrap or put it into a salad bag, and it
may work for the day, but it's certainly not something
that we want to see in our kids' lunchboxes every
(28:18):
single day, because I agree this is a this is
an ultra processed food.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
To me.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
They've manufactured it to be a higher protein content on purpose,
and it is still higher fat, which I think they're
just using random offcuts of chicken.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Well, it's masquerading. We're not sure.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
We don't know because there's no transparency over the percentage chicken,
and absolutely maybe that's a way of masking it. And
what we're encouraging food producers is to be transparent and
make some decent products. So, because I sort of just
picked it up quickly and thought, oh, that's kind of interesting,
and I was like, oh, I don't know where that sits.
I think we'll keep an eye out and see if
there are some better ones that emerge that we could say, yes,
(28:53):
this is a source of lead chicken that you could
add to a sandwich that's better than ham or turkey.
I'm yet to see one, and I'm disappointed in the
quality that's currently there. I think that the food companies
can do a lot better with these products, you know,
if you have time or even like, I'd prefer some
of them. We've covered them previously in other episodes. Some
of the pre crumbed options in supermarket like Wells have
(29:15):
got one that's like ninety something percent chicken. There's certainly
better options out there if you don't have capacity to
crumb your own. But yeah, I sort of I'd give
it like a five out of ten like, it's not
something i'd prescribe all. I wouldn't buy it and use
it myself basically because I find that crumbing. And when
you say about the chicken being odd, or I wouldn't
buy the pook because it's got a MSG or similar
(29:36):
like a flavor enhants are added. So yeah, we'll just
watch this space because I think we will start to
see better ones, and certainly Leanne and I will share
with you if we do find when we're happy with.
But I just quickly looked at it and going, oh,
they're and new And as I said, doesn't surprise me
that the process meat companies are moving into different ranges
because the writing's on the wall about when they're actually
going to have to take nitrates out of process meat
(29:57):
in general. That's coming, I would say, in the next
ten years. So yeah, I think it's just watched this space.
But I thought it was an interesting discussion point because
you probably have noticed them, and there's more and more
of them coming out. So we'll try and find a
good one maybe to talk about next week.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
And then our listener question for the week is I
weigh myself regularly, but my weights can vary by as
much as one to two quilas a day.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
So that's a really great question. And I have a
lot of clients who get very worried when the.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Scales go up.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
They say, look, I lost aquilo the first week, seven
hundred grams the next week, and now it's gone up
two hundred grams. When I've been on track, I've been
doing all the right things.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Why is this?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And that's why it's so important not to let your
emotions dictate the number on the scale. I always said
in my clients the scale is a metal box. Don't
give it any emotion. It's just a number. Think about
it like an accountant would like, How am I going
to use this number to interpret it?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
What is actually happening.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
So there's many things that can cause the scale to
go up, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's an increase
in fat mass.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
A lot of times. I mean, sure, if you've been
off track, you've been.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Drinking a ton, you've been eating a ton, you haven't
been exercising, Yeah, your weight's probably caught up, right. But
if you've been on track, you've been doing all the
right things, and you jump on the scales and they
go up it's very likely what I call a bit
of a fluid bump. So there's a couple of reasons
for this. The biggest one is females is due to
our periods and our ovulation. So throughout your menstrual cycle,
(31:14):
which for the average in inverted commas female is around
twenty eight days, your hormone levels will fluctuate quite dramatically
across the month. So hormones can affect fluid retention, so
you may feel more bloated and puffy and heavy during
certain phases of your menstrual cycle. For a lot of women,
it's around that ovulation time for a day or two,
and that it's a couple of days pre period and
(31:36):
then about day one of your cycle for most women. Now,
if you're entering through those per those menopause, all those
postmenopause or years, you also might see some fluid and
hormonal shifts as well. The other big thing that can
influence the scale is alcohol. Generally, alcohol causes your body
to retain a little bit of fluid. It does tend
to dehydrate you in the first instance, but then it
(31:57):
also can make that body kind of retain a bit
more fluid. Also, given that a lot of people drink
alcohol with a lot of salty foods.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
They might be eating.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Chips and cheese and you know a sneaky two am kebab.
Nobody tends to drink a lot of alcohol and sit
down to a really clean chicken salad. So generally alcohol
goes hand in hand with higher salt foods, and you're
having foods that are higher in salt. Salt essentially acts
like a sponge in the body. It retains the water
in their bodies. If you're having a lot of salt,
so you go out for a really nice Chinese meal,
(32:26):
there's a lot of salt in that meal, and so
the body will be retaining fluid. If you jump on
the scales the next day, and the last one is carbohydrate.
So for every gram of carbohydrate you eat, this is
the science behind it, your body will naturally store two
to three grams of water with that. So if you
have a higher carbohydrate diet, even if it's in line
with the calorie deficit, the carbohydrates will allow you to
(32:48):
weigh heavier on the scale. That's why when most people
undertake a really low carboochido diet that first week, it's
very common to see people lose between two to five
kilos on the scale. Most of that is fluid weight.
You're essentially peeing out the carbs that are stored in
your muscles and your liver because you're not eating any carbs,
and your body's getting rid of the glucose stores that
(33:09):
it's stored in your body, which is a lot of
the water as well. So there can be a lot
of fluid shifts. And that's why I encourage my clients
to weigh themselves if the goal is fauloss and they
don't mind weighing themselves about twice a week, because what
we look for is the trend in the week. If
one number is up and the one numbers down, will
take the lower weight, and this is if they've been
on track. If they've been totally off track, which doesn't
(33:29):
happen regularly when you're working with the dietitian because you've
got that great accountability, right, we disregard that number. If
you know you've been on track, the scale is probably up,
you've probably gained a little bit. But if you know
you've been on track and the number goes up, often
I'll say to my clients, right, well, what's happening is
at that time of month, are you opulating? Have you
had a bigger carve meal or a salty meal the
night before, did you weigh yourself at two pm when
(33:50):
you should have done it first thing in the morning,
you dehydrated, or have you not been to the bathroom
in a couple of days. That's another thing where if
you're sluggish and your bowels aren't moving regularly, that can
all also retain a little bit on the scale as well.
I know sometimes clients have say, oh, I weighed myself
and then I went and I did a number two,
and I jump back on the scales and I lost
a whole kilo, So that in itself can also susi's
(34:10):
pulling a horrified face at me. That can also cause
a drop in the scale as well, if you go
to the bathroom and you do a number two. So
they're probably all of the reasons why this scale weight
might vary, But it's just really important to keep in
mind that just because the scale goes up doesn't necessarily
mean you're off track or it's a fat gain. Often
it's just a little bit of a fluid bump, and
(34:31):
what you'll see is that will naturally come back down
in a couple of days. Not that I'm encouraging you
to weigh yourself daily, but it is a nice little experiment.
Sometimes I get my clients to do a three day
weight check, you know, way way way for three days
in a row, just to see that naturally come back
down again. So it just confirms to them that, oh,
it was a fluid bump, I am on track, and
the motivations there to kind of continue on with the plan.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
What do you think about this?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, I usually say no more than twice a week
weight so I always say Tuesday Friday, after the weekend,
before the weekend, inevitably because of the alcohol and salt
issue that pops up when we eat out. And I
always get my clients in their measurements as well. And
I certainly have some clients who don't like the scales
at all, and I have no issue with that as
long as they're doing you know, some body measurements.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
But I certainly have clients.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Who weigh a free day regardless, and yeah, they find
it interesting to watch that trajectory, particularly if you have
lost quite a lot of weight, So say you're upwards
of ten kilos, you'll find that you might have a
period where the weight doesn't move a lot, and then
all of a sudden, it moves like two kilos. And
I always say, if you've had fat stored for a
long time, so say you've carried weight for many years,
the body just doesn't get rid of it. You have
(35:37):
to mobilize it to burn. And that's sometimes why you
might not be seeing any change on the scales, even
though your numbers are good, and you might even be
losing size, and then all of a sudden, you'll see
a drop in in body weight, because yeah, it takes
a lot of energy to metabolize fat. The body doesn't
like to lose weight. It's quite a big metabolic process.
And I also find that if clients have gone and
done a big session at the gym, they'll always be
(35:58):
heavier the next day because remember, if you've done a
big workout, so I'm talking like intense, like a big
run or a spin class or a CrossFit, your muscles
attract a lot of fluid in recovery, so there's kind
of swollen, so you'll be heavier always after a weights workout.
So if you've done a massive workout and the next
day you're like a kilo heavier. Don't stress, it'll just
be like a fluid inflammation issue. So that kind of
(36:20):
thing affects it as well. So I think, yeah, just
don't be too attached to as long as the general
trajectory is down over the course of a month and
the body size is changing, you want sort of several
different measures, because yeah, you can have I've got quite
a few South African clients and they'll eat some biltong
which is so packed for a sodium and put on
two or three kilos. So yeah, the food can have
a profound effect, particularly eating out. Just think on celebrity
(36:43):
cooking shows how much salt they use. Like I always
laugh people say to me, oh, how much salt. Well,
that's got a lot of salt. You're adding salt. I'm thinking,
do you know how much salt chefs add in a restaurant.
They literally get a spoon and spoon it in like
it's not a sprinkle, like it is bucket loads. Like
I reckon that meal you eat out at a restaurant,
it's got two thousand and three thousand milligrams of sodium, easy,
(37:04):
just from the seasonings that they use. So you've got
to be really mindful that if you eat out frequently,
you're going to get a false response on the scales
just because of the massive load of salt in that
kind of food.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, and I think it was a really important point
you said, look at the trend over time, not one
weight in isolation. Don't ever freak out at the scale
goes up. Actually, look at the trend. What's it doing
across the week, what's it doing across the month, And
that'll give you a far better indication of where you're
heading versus just one number in time.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
All right, Well, that.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Brings us to the end of the nutrition couch for
another week. If your diet needs a little bit more
protein after our protein discussion today, or if you find
yourself needing a little bit of a hot chocolate to
rest and relax you, or one to support.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Beauty and Collagen stores.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Our new range of designed by Dieticians protein and hot
chocolates are online at designed Bydietitians dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And we thank you for your continued support with our
new products.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
We're very proud of them and we will get you
guys in the very next episode.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Have a great week,
Have you tried one of the newest weight loss medications
or have you ever thought about it? Indeed, the range
of semi glue tight drugs like ozen Pick have revolutionized
the weight loss industry. But what if we told you
there was a sneaky little diet that does exactly the
same thing. Well, today, on the Nutrition Couch, we have
some new exciting research to talk to you about where
(00:21):
you can achieve similar weight loss results as taking some
of the big key medications. Hi, I'm Leanne Ward and
I'm Cizyburrow, and together we bring you the Nutrition Couch,
the weekly podcast that gives you up to date on
everything that you need to know in the world of nutrition,
as well as some new diet research. We chat when
is it okay to skip a meal? We also go
(00:42):
through a new range of meat products we found at
the supermarket. And our listener question is all about body
weight fluctuations. So to kick up today, Susie, there was
a new study. Now, granted it was only a small study,
but it came out a couple of months ago, but
it's some really interesting things to talk about today.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So the study in all was only.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Twenty two people, including nine men, and thirteen women aged
between thirty and sixty fours. They were adults in the study.
But the interesting thing about the study was that it
really focused on people taking semaglutide, so that's the active
ingredient in Ozenpic and Wagobi had lost about on average
eight percent of their body weight in the first year,
(01:21):
which is a great statistic and obviously the reason why
these weight loss medications are so popular. But what they
also found was that those same people also lost a
bit of muscle mass and suffered from some intestinal complaints
as well. So this new study, granted that it's only small,
was really interesting because it highlighted some key areas of
diet without the intervention from the weight loss medications. So
(01:45):
at the one year mark in this new study, successful
dietis which were forty one percent of the participants had
actually lost an average of twelve point nine percent of
their body weight compared to the eight percent of the
people taking the weight loss medications and a month mark,
so half of that the participants who ate more protein
and fiber lost on average seven point one kilos, but
(02:07):
had minimal loss of muscle mass and no tummy issues,
so it's sort of that study that shows you that
diet and lifestyle can be even better than weight loss
medications for some people, and that as dieticians is basically
what we want to hear because we know that when
you're making lifestyle changes, you're eating better, you're adding more fiber,
and you're adding more protein in you're making lifestyle changes overall,
(02:31):
it's far more likely that your results will actually last
long term because we do know so many people that
have taken these weight loss medications, and granted they're a
great option for a lot of people, but if you're
not changing your knowledge and your habits and your behaviors
and your lifestyle along with the weight loss that some
of these medications provide, you're very likely to not actually
(02:52):
maintain that weight loss long term. So it was a
really interesting study that the base of the study or
the diet changes that the participate it's made. We're eating
more protein and fiber because we do know that that
helps with sotiety, it helps with metabolism, it helps with
muscle mass.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So it's an interesting study.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It points us in the right direction to know that
what we recommend as dietitians for our clients is obviously
the right things one would hope, right, But it also
sort of highlights the fact that the fiber is really
protective from a gut health benefit as well, and adding
more fiber in your diet doesn't seem to give anybody
extra intestinal sort of complaints either. So I just thought
a really really interesting study. What is your take on
(03:30):
this overall?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
I thought straight away, the headlines are going around quite
often now, you know, we had one recently about the oats,
the soluble fiber in oats being made up into that
mix that you consume before a meal to emulate the
effects of oz and peak, which does slow down gut
trans at time, so the food is slightly sort of
delayed emptying from the stomach, which will aid satiety. And
(03:56):
I think it's great that we're starting to compare the
outcome with these drugs because in my experience, just as
many people who take them with success have taken them
short term and not got success. Because I still don't
think it is clearly communicated by the pharmaceutical companies who
make these medications and also the doctors prescribing them that
(04:16):
they are not to work in isolation. And I still
think there's a belief with the idea of weight loss
medication that you take it and you don't have to
do anything else. Basically, from my perspective, they are drugs
that aid natural metabolic processes. So for people who have
insatiable hunger or insulin regulation issues, they will certainly help
to increase insulin production and help regulate appetite. But if
(04:39):
you don't significantly cut your dietary intake in line with
those drugs, you will not lose weight, or if the
dose is bumped up very aggressively. So I'll routinely see
someone who's maybe seen a GP the GPS, yes, you
can have it, and they will very quickly go from
point five to one up to even one point five milligrams.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Now now the.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
People feel so sick and so nauseous, they don't eat,
and they lose loads of weight. But then as soon
as they stop taking the medication, they haven't changed any
of their underlying behavior and it all goes back on again.
So it's either a commitment to be on them forever,
which we don't know the long term effects, to be honest,
or an acceptance that they work in conjunction with diet
and exercise. And I just don't think that that's clearly communicated. Now,
(05:24):
what was of interest to me in that study was
that the key principles that we will work on with
all of our clients for results, whether they're on a
weight loss medication or not, is to significantly increase their
dietary fiber intake and to significantly increase their protein intake.
There's more and more evidence mounting to show the benefits
of maintaining high fiber for digestive health obviously for full
(05:44):
factor general health and wellbeing. And then on top of that,
a higher protein diet naturally reduces carbohydrate intake, keeps you
full of for longer after eating, helps to protect the
metabolic changes from perimenopause and menopause. So for me, that's
just basic dietary outcome what we would prescribe for anyone
who wanted to lose consistent amounts of weight over a
(06:05):
long term period, and then if you did that in
conjunction with the weight loss medication, you get outstanding results.
Because eight percent I think they reported on the weightless medications.
If you were taking a weight loss medication, I would
be expecting more than eight percent if you're obese. So
I actually thought that was a very moderate weight loss
for those medications. So to give you some sort of
examples of weight loss that Ley added, I will.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Work with as dieticians.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
We can't really do testimonials, but certainly we can sort
of give case experience on what our clients routinely achieve.
If I've got a client who wants to lose twenty
kilos and say is eighty ninety one hundred kilos, I
will allocate about three to four months for a ten
kilo loss. So most of my clients. There's a few
who maybe not if they've got sort of insulin resistance
(06:50):
or if they're not very active, but my clients, most
of them would easily lose eight to ten kilos in
three to four months.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
That's what I expect.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I then am aiming for twenty to thirty kilos over
a twelve month period, so that even without those medications,
that's the weight loss I'm working on with my clients.
So if I had someone on OZI and PEAK, I
would be expecting at least that which is upwards of
fifteen twenty percent of body weight. Because if you're going
to invest that much money on those medications, they're very expensive,
(07:17):
you would want to be giving it your all from diet, exercise,
and be aiming for twenty thirty forty kilos over a
twelve month period for me to justify it, because I
can get ten kilos off someone even if they're instul
and resistant in a three four month period, if they're
doing their exercise and diet.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
And to me, that's the difference.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
If people aren't getting those results on the weight loss medications,
I know they're not exercising and it's a short term
solution because they're not improving metabolic function and they're falsely
using the medication to give them a false weight loss result.
And you'll know people who are doing it. I could
name you ten clients of mine who have done that
or tried these medications and ended up back with me
because ultimately they need to change their diet and habits
(07:55):
long term, and I say to them, I would like
to do it without the medication. I will only use
the medication if I absolutely have to. Because in the
old daisly Ann, when you were just a young student
at university, all we had was met forman.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
For people with insulin issues.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So we with the endocrinologists would use met forman and
get exactly the same weight loss results as they do
with those in peak. It would just take a little
bit longer to bring down those insulin levels initially. But
I often just use met forma because it's got no
side effects, it's inexpensive, it's a great anti cancer agent,
and you don't have to pay all that money that
you're paying for those others, So I often get good
(08:29):
results just from that without resorting. I only resort to
the semiglue tie glps if I've got a severely insulin
resistant client or someone who has literally already lost twenty
kilos and is at a flat line. But they're never
my first go to because I can do a lot
with diet exercise as you can with that right prescription.
So I think that study just emulated that an eight
percent weight loss with a GLP is not overly high.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I think we can do so much more with diet
and exercise, and like you, you know, I tend to get
the same about eight to ten kilos three or four months,
which is a great result. And a lot of my
clients aren't actually really exercising initially, particularly if they've got
a large amount of weight to lose. They have a
client of might had thirty kilos. We don't start them
off with weight loss because they're carrying around so much
additional load. It's putting additional stretch on the back, the
(09:13):
hips and knees. They're in pain when they exercise some
of my clients. So we start with the weight loss.
If you can get ten twenty kilos off those bodies,
they're going to move a lot better, and then we'll
you know, generally increase the exercise from there as well.
But I think the issue is with most people who
take these injectible weight loss medications, they want the results quick,
and they want them fast because it is obviously so
(09:33):
much harder to do the diet and the exercise than
it is to just self inject a drug once a week.
But the real interesting thing about this study was that,
as we both said, it's not actually a huge amount
of weight loss that you see from these drugs after
the first year. Then you also get some gut health issues,
like so many people feel so sick and nauseous, they've bloated,
they've got pain that you know, they feel sick all
(09:54):
the time. That's why they're not eating, that's why they're
losing weight. But to me, the key difference was the
loss of muscle mass, because we know that with our
clients we promote a higher protein diet. And the interesting
thing about the study was they only increase the participants
protein to eighty grams a day. I would not even
really say that was high protein to me, that standard
I would want all of my clients, regardless of if
they were trying to lose weight or not, to be
(10:15):
on it roughly about eighty grams a day unless you're
an absolutely tiny, tiny human like you're, you know, five
foot nothing or under. I really think most people should
be on eighty grams of protein. I would think that
a higher protein diet to me is upwards around that
kind of one hundred gram markle for most people. Around
that one point two grams per kilogram of body weight
per day is sort of a higher protein diet to me.
(10:36):
So I found it interesting that they got such great results.
What I wouldn't even classify that as a higher protein diet.
But I think the kicker is when you put protein
and fiber together, because you really get those satiating effects
from it, and when you're on the weightless drugs, if
you're not really exercising, you're not eating well, you're just
occasionally snacking on stuff. Yes, you're going to lose body weight,
(10:57):
but some of that is body fat, but some of
that is alsomuscle mass. And we know what happens is
that over time your metabolism down regulate. So it might
be great that you lose ten kilos in six months
taking these drugs or in three months, but if you're
losing muscle mass as well longer term, that's going to
come back on again because A you haven't changed your
diet and your lifestyle, and b your metabolism has been
(11:18):
negatively impacted, which we do know that over time you
will start to get hungry, you will start to eat more,
and then that's where that yo, your dieting tends to happen.
Where you lose it, you regain it, you lose it,
you regain it because you haven't supported your muscle mass.
So you and I both pro changing diet and lifestyle
first and foremost as the foundation, and then bring some
(11:39):
of these weight loss medications in where needed for the
right client. And I think that it was really great
that this study showed exactly that.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Because the five is coming from having more fresh food
through the day, like so many clients. So I will
see initially we'll be having just their plain toast in
the morning. Even if it's protein toast, they'll just be
having the tuna crackers or the tuna rapt for there's
never the bulk there that completes the meal. It's not
a meal if there's not fresh food. That's a really
good lifestyle mantra. When I'm creating a meal or even
(12:08):
a snack for the kids, if there's no fresh food,
I don't count it as a meal. You've always got
to have the fresh food or the cut up vegetables
or the component of the meal. Or to me, like
you go to tie your ortopad tie, there's not much protein.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
There's hardly any veggies.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
You've got to always complete the meals on the snacks
that will automatically improve your nutrition dramatically. But something you
said then just triggered me. I wanted to talk about
this on another episode. Injecting a drug is not doing
the work. Talking to your dietitian is not doing the work.
Whenever I have clients who might have had a little break,
they always want to have an appointment because they feel
(12:43):
then they've done something because that's their action. They've done
something and seen me. But I want them to change
the diet first and send their diaries through because that's
the work. So you've got to make sure you're doing
the work at some point. And the work is going
for a walk, it's logging your calories, it's preparing your
meals in advance. Got to be doing the work if
you expect results. Yeah, and unfortunately it's just not as
(13:04):
easy as injecting or taking a pill. Ultimately, you have
to be doing the work. So that's always a good
question to check in at. So a topic we have
sort of debated what we're going to chat about today.
There's always so many good nutrition topics to talk about,
but we also want to make sure that we have
lots of variety for you guys, and we're just not
always talking about weight loss. We want to give you
the latest research and nutrition. And something that came across
(13:26):
my desk this week was and someone wanted me to
write an article on skipping breakfast, and I thought that
lends itself to a little bit of a discussion about
when is it actually okay to skip a meal? Because
quite frequently when I'm reviewing my client's food diaries, and
I'll sort of look and I'll think, Wow, you've been
out to dinner and that was a really big, sort
(13:48):
of indulgent meal.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
And then I'll see that.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Breakfast was still consumed at say six am the next day,
and I oft have just questioned my client and say,
were you hungry. And a frequent piece of feedback i'll
have from clients is, oh, I thought it was better
to eat because I don't want to lose my metabolism
or have a like. You know, there's a belief that
if you don't eat, you'll have a reduction in metabolism.
You should never skip a meal.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You slow it down.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, yes, you slow metabolism by skipping a meal. And
then I realize that's a commonly held belief because we
were certainly told that for metabolism it's best to eat regularly,
and skipping food for periods of time reduces metabolic rate.
So I thought it was good to have a little
discussion about the science of that. So certainly, Leanne and
I are not advocating skipping meals. In general, balance meals
(14:35):
three or four times a day will keep your glucose
and appetite well regulated. It will ensure you're ticking the
boxes on all your key nutrients. It will prevent that
binge eating that happens when we have skipped lunch or
afternoon tea. And certainly with the bulk of my clients,
I'm working on regular balanced meals to control appetite and
get the nutrition.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
But there are always.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Differences on a weekly basis because food intake is not stable,
and nor should it be. Every single day will be different.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Every day.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Your activity is different, your hormones are different, your metabolic
needs are different. So if you find one day a
week you get to four o'clock in the afternoon, or
you've had a late lunch or a heavy lunch, and
you're not hungry for afternoon tea, I would say it's
okay to skip it, unless you're not going out to
dinner till nine o'clock and you know then that you're
going to get over hungry. Or the same thing if
it's a weekend and you had a heavy meal the
(15:25):
night before and you wake up and you're genuinely not
hungry at six or seven, it's okay to skip breakfast occasionally.
So I guess in summary, it's okay to skip a
meal when you're genuinely not hungry. It's okay to skip
a meal when you're sick. It's okay to skip a
meal when you've had heavier meals so you're not hungry,
or you've eaten out. So I think, yes, in theory,
(15:47):
it's important to eat regularly, but I would expect at
least once or twice a week. You may not just
feel like dinner for whatever reason, and that's okay. That's
actually good because it means you're much more in tune
with your body, whereas a lot of and even myself, oh,
there's quite many nightsly and I probably don't need dinner,
but I sort of have it because you have it
with the kids, and so remind you occasionally it's okay.
(16:07):
You just may not have moved that much that day.
Your lunch might have had more calories than you realized hormonly.
It might be the time of the month when you
don't need as many calories, so you know, really be
attuned to that and don't be scared. A reduction in
metabolic rate from skipping a meal happens over weeks, if.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Not months, not one meal.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So you would have to be severely calorie deprived for
at least a week, if not more, and you see
that from shows like Survivor before it will negatively impact metabolism.
So certainly there's no issue with occasionally skipping a meal.
As I said, not encouraging that, but if you're not hungry,
it's not about I did to push a meal back
a little bit of time till you get that rumbling
(16:45):
and your tummy, and you can become a little bit
more aware of what your natural appetite is doing, because
humans in general will always overeat as opposed to underreat.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, and I think the only caveat there would be
I sometimes have clients who say, look, I never feel hungry,
and that's where I them, Look, it is really important
to start eating regular meals, regular well balanced meals, to
get that metabolism firing again. So if you're somebody that
regularly does feel hungry, and you know you're doing a
lot of exercise, and then occasionally you're like, look, I've
had a big lunch. I went out for a three
(17:14):
course meal with my work. You know, colleagues, I don't
really need dinner. I have a light to dinner. Absolutely okay,
But like Susie said, I think it is a very
commonly held belief. I remember even going through university, like
a lot of people, I.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Think back then it was almost this.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Even as dieticians, I had this belief very early on
in my career that you want to eat regularly to
almost like stoke the fire, like stoke the metabolism.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You don't want to skip meal.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Skipping meals is really really bad and certainly, like Susie,
we're absolutely not advocating it. But if you're genuinely not hungry,
there's nothing wrong with skipping a meal. And often on
the weekend I have some of my clients will have
a sleep in, you know, if they don't have young
children and they're blessed enough to have a sleep in,
and good on you take that opportunity absolutely, But if
you're going to have a sleep in, then they might
wake up. They might go for a bit of a
(17:57):
you know, a bit of a brunch, a little bit
of a heavier meal out. They might get you know,
some eggs and bacon or whatnot, and a coffee. And
if they're having that you know, breakfast brunch at nine
thirty ten o'clock, they don't need to eat lunch at
twelve pm. So I often will say to them, either
push it back to two o'clock or have a more
substantial afternoon tea snack where you might have some tuna
on some grainy crackers, or a bit of cucumbers or tomato,
(18:18):
or a bit of goat cheese and some corn thins
with some tomato. Right, so you don't necessarily always have
to eat on the clock, and you don't always have
to have three solid meals a day. Now, we're not
saying you should skip meals, but really be guided by
that hunger and listen to that hunger. And think, if
I exercise really regularly Monday to Friday, but on the
weekend I don't really do too much but pot around
(18:38):
the house. I might go get some groceries, I might
have a sleepy and I might have a bigger lunch
out with friends.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Then you probably don't need three meals a day.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
And I think we've been conditioned to have this belief
that unless we eat small meals regularly, we're never actually
going to be able to lose weight. So I think
though Susie and I regularly see with our clients, sometimes
they're just eating for the sake of eating, because they're
too scared because they think, oh, it's going to negatively
impact my metabolism or my weight loss journey. So I
think it's just a really important reminder that nothing about
(19:08):
nutrition science is black or white. I mean, for some
people it might be really negative to skip a meal.
I've certainly had clients where I worked with them that
have had more poor relationships with food, bit of disordered eating,
where skipping a meal, even if they're not really hungry
for it, will then promote more of a binge later
on that night. So for those types of clients, I
would absolutely say it's really important to eat regularly, but
(19:29):
have a bit of a light meal if you're not
genuinely hungry for it.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You might have a nice chicken.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And veggie soup versus your normal you know, tuna salad,
sandwich or whatever it might be. So it really comes
down to each person and individually how you respond to that.
But if you're not genuinely hungry for it, and you
just had a meal an hour or two later because
breakfast was pushed back a few hours because you had
a lovely sleep in, you probably don't need your normal lunch.
They're all really good, I guess points to consider and
(19:54):
just an important discussion to have because I'm sure that
there are still people out there who genuinely believe that
it will make it hard to lose weight if they
are skipping meals, and certainly if you're doing that regularly,
it probably will because you're not really getting in the
adequate nutrients or protein that's needed. But take all the
studies around intimate and fasting. There's a lot of skipping
meals that go into something like intimate and fasting, and
(20:16):
metabolically people are just fine. As long as you're genuinely
getting your protein intake in throughout that eating window, then
you know your metabolism should be just fine overall, as
long as your calories aren't too low for too long.
So there's a few I think caveats here, but the
baseline message is listen to your body, adjust your intake
day to day because we don't do the same thing
(20:37):
every single day, and we shouldn't be eating the same
amount of food every single day.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I just have one thing I want to add because
I really want to use the word caveat.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
It's a good word, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I've got one more caveat. I did say to a
client this week, and she's this teacher, so has a
big early day, so she'll have her meal sort of
in the morning, and then she sort of was getting
to two or three o'clock in the afternoon and hadn't eaten.
Because I think that happens often in medical fields, teachers,
where you just go and start the day and just
(21:08):
anything could happen at any time, and sometimes you just
can't eat. Like I've got some doctors and you know,
sometimes doing surgery, they just like literally cannot eat. But
I did say to that client, I really don't want
you to go more than five hours or so in
the day without eating, because I know the follow on
effect of that.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
We don't want to.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Certainly be promoting that skipping meals is good either, because
I think what's happening for some very busy people is
they probably are hungry at lunchtime, but for whatever reason,
they're heightened emotionally, they didn't notice the hunger and they
sort of go into that fight or flight response, and
then that can lead to binging. Certainly, so for busy
women in the day in general, I wouldn't want you
to go more than about five hours, because if you
(21:48):
do exercise harder I've got an intense job, you might
not notice the hunger. But keep that sort of if
you're getting to one two o'clock and you haven't eaten
since seven or eight, it's time to eat something, even
if you then go through to dinner. So I think
that's a class example of busy women that does pop up.
So that's sort of a reference point as well. All right, Lenne,
I want to talk about meat because this is a
bugbear of mine at the moment in supermarkets, this rise
(22:10):
of process meat snacks. I think we've covered it on
the podcast a few weeks ago. I've written a few
articles on it. And then I was shopping last week
because we're always shopping looking for products, and I saw
that there are these new deli meats in the processed
meat section, but they're not process meat in the sense
that they don't contain night trates. So there's like pull pork,
(22:31):
there's a chicken snitzel, and they're across all brands. I
saw several brands in the supermarket. I'm going to talk
about just one today, just randomly, but I wanted to
nut it out with you your thoughts, because I'm a bit.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
Torn about it.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
So the one I've chosen because obviously we talk a
lot about protein and the importance of protein for snack food,
and our point with processed meats like salamis, hands, turkeys
is that they contain the night trates, which we know
are damaging to the intestine wall and can increase the
risk of a number of digestive cancers. So certainly anything
like sausages, bacon, salami, ham foods we don't want to
(23:05):
actively include in the diet. It's been recommended from the
World Health Organization we proactively limit them because of their
risk and increased cancer risk. But this new range, so
this is the primo reserved chicken sinsil. But as I said,
there's several there's pull pork, there's all different ones. And
the one I've chosen, it's one hundred and thirty grams
six dollars and it looks like the pul pork doesn't
(23:25):
have a crumb on it, but it looks it looks okay,
you know, like if I was someone shopping, I'd be thinking, oh, well,
that's you know, fresh meat, and that's protein rich. It's
also gluten free, which is interesting because it does have
a crumb on it. And when I look at the
ingredients land it says chicken, but there's no percentage listed,
and that bothers me. I'd like to know the percentage
(23:46):
of chicken. Then flour, it's a rice flour, which is
why they're claiming gluten free or staining gluten free. It's
got soy protein, vegetable oil, salt, acidity regulators, thickener, dried vegetables,
mineral salts, deck stros so, no nitrates added there, so
it's not a preserved meat. And the nutritionals on it.
(24:06):
Keep in mind it's only one hundred and thirty grams serve.
It's quite light, but per one hundred Actually they're claiming
the serve sizes are smaller, but the pack's only one
hundred and thirty grams, which is not large.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Mine says one fifty grams.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
Interesting, it's one fifty.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
It says one thirty on my coal's website. I don't
know my PREMI reserved against it's a one thirty, But
then it says the serving size is smaller than one
hundred grams. Sometimes the nutritionals on the supermarkets an't always
right so I'll give you per hundred grams, which is
sort of a serve we would normally use for chicken,
which is about palm size, So it's just about two
(24:42):
hundred and fifty calories. It's got sixteen grams of protein,
seven grams of carbohydrate. The fat is really like, actually,
have I got the nutritionals? What's to hang on to
spare with me? Fifteen point four So it's reasonably high fat,
like we would say less than three grams per hundred
So it's a high fat product, which I think, Oh, well,
(25:05):
what sort of chicken are they using?
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Are they not using chicken breast? So I'm a bit
torn with it.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Now. The pulled pork I think was leaner, but it
had a massive ingredient list on it, like and it
had MSG added. So yeah, I think we're going to
see more and more of these as the meat manufacturers
steer away and try and broaden their reach so they're
not serving as much process meat. But you know, I'm
(25:32):
just thinking if a client asked me about them, it's
got some protein, but that one's really high and fat.
I'm just having a look now at the pulled pork,
which is lower. So the pulled pork is five point
seven grams per hundred, so definitely leaner. It still doesn't
tell me the percentage of pork and the marinade, which
bothers me. I don't know why they're not listing that.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
We also can't go past the sodium, like on the
chicken sysil there's seven hundred milligrams of sodium in one
hundred grand. That's a small serve for seven hundred milligrams
of sodium. There's a lot.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah, So I think it was just a discussion to say, yes,
these products are there. They're still pretty processed, and I
think you can even though they don't have the nitrates,
they're still process so that protein content is higher than
say a ham or a turkey, but they're fairly highly processed.
And I'd be saying to Primo, you need a dietitian
(26:23):
on that staff to try and clean up some of
these products, because you've got one issue with all these
products that contain nitrates, and then you're trying to make
healthier options that aren't so healthy. So I think they
need some dietitian advice, to be honest. But I think
if you're looking at a processed food, we would still
state that that pull pork is ultra processed, would we
with that level of ingredient list because it's got MSG added,
(26:46):
it's got flavors.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I think so yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And also because and it's not all protein, like there's
sixteen point six grams of protein and one hundred grams,
which is fine, but it's not all coming from the chicken.
They're adding soy protein in there as well to boost
the protein overall. So if it was just pure chicken,
it's not they're adding soy protein in. I think with
the crumbing of that, like, what is the crumbing even?
(27:09):
Is it crumbed in flour?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Sorry?
Speaker 4 (27:11):
Yeah, so I agree, it's not clear on the list.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
No, And I think the fat because there's a little
bit of vegetable oil which is obviously used in the crumbing,
but that wouldn't explain fifteen point four grams of fat
per one hundred grands. It's got to be that they're
using all of the offcuts of chicken. And when I
look at the photo that is processed chicken, I don't
care which way you look at it, that does not
look like chicken brust. That is absolutely processed chicken. So
(27:35):
is it better than having salami or bacon potentially, but
it's also not something I would ever write into a
meal plan for my client if they were on the run.
If they're like, look, my choices are macas or going
to coals and grabbing one of these with a salad bag,
I'd be like, cool, great choice, eat that today, But
I certainly wouldn't be recommending it on a regular occasion
for my clients. It is good and free as well,
(27:57):
which is interesting because it's got maize flour, maize flour
and rice flour in it, so it's an okay option
for our gluten free clients as well. But it's like
a quick and easy, occasional choice where you really stuck anythin.
I've just got to grab this, whack it into a
wrap or put it into a salad bag, and it
may work for the day, but it's certainly not something
that we want to see in our kids' lunchboxes every
(28:18):
single day, because I agree this is a this is
an ultra processed food.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
To me.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
They've manufactured it to be a higher protein content on purpose,
and it is still higher fat, which I think they're
just using random offcuts of chicken.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Well, it's masquerading. We're not sure.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
We don't know because there's no transparency over the percentage chicken,
and absolutely maybe that's a way of masking it. And
what we're encouraging food producers is to be transparent and
make some decent products. So, because I sort of just
picked it up quickly and thought, oh, that's kind of interesting,
and I was like, oh, I don't know where that sits.
I think we'll keep an eye out and see if
there are some better ones that emerge that we could say, yes,
(28:53):
this is a source of lead chicken that you could
add to a sandwich that's better than ham or turkey.
I'm yet to see one, and I'm disappointed in the
quality that's currently there. I think that the food companies
can do a lot better with these products, you know,
if you have time or even like, I'd prefer some
of them. We've covered them previously in other episodes. Some
of the pre crumbed options in supermarket like Wells have
(29:15):
got one that's like ninety something percent chicken. There's certainly
better options out there if you don't have capacity to
crumb your own. But yeah, I sort of I'd give
it like a five out of ten like, it's not
something i'd prescribe all. I wouldn't buy it and use
it myself basically because I find that crumbing. And when
you say about the chicken being odd, or I wouldn't
buy the pook because it's got a MSG or similar
(29:36):
like a flavor enhants are added. So yeah, we'll just
watch this space because I think we will start to
see better ones, and certainly Leanne and I will share
with you if we do find when we're happy with.
But I just quickly looked at it and going, oh,
they're and new And as I said, doesn't surprise me
that the process meat companies are moving into different ranges
because the writing's on the wall about when they're actually
going to have to take nitrates out of process meat
(29:57):
in general. That's coming, I would say, in the next
ten years. So yeah, I think it's just watched this space.
But I thought it was an interesting discussion point because
you probably have noticed them, and there's more and more
of them coming out. So we'll try and find a
good one maybe to talk about next week.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
And then our listener question for the week is I
weigh myself regularly, but my weights can vary by as
much as one to two quilas a day.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
So that's a really great question. And I have a
lot of clients who get very worried when the.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Scales go up.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
They say, look, I lost aquilo the first week, seven
hundred grams the next week, and now it's gone up
two hundred grams. When I've been on track, I've been
doing all the right things.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Why is this?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And that's why it's so important not to let your
emotions dictate the number on the scale. I always said
in my clients the scale is a metal box. Don't
give it any emotion. It's just a number. Think about
it like an accountant would like, How am I going
to use this number to interpret it?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
What is actually happening.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
So there's many things that can cause the scale to
go up, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's an increase
in fat mass.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
A lot of times. I mean, sure, if you've been
off track, you've been.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Drinking a ton, you've been eating a ton, you haven't
been exercising, Yeah, your weight's probably caught up, right. But
if you've been on track, you've been doing all the
right things, and you jump on the scales and they
go up it's very likely what I call a bit
of a fluid bump. So there's a couple of reasons
for this. The biggest one is females is due to
our periods and our ovulation. So throughout your menstrual cycle,
(31:14):
which for the average in inverted commas female is around
twenty eight days, your hormone levels will fluctuate quite dramatically
across the month. So hormones can affect fluid retention, so
you may feel more bloated and puffy and heavy during
certain phases of your menstrual cycle. For a lot of women,
it's around that ovulation time for a day or two,
and that it's a couple of days pre period and
(31:36):
then about day one of your cycle for most women. Now,
if you're entering through those per those menopause, all those
postmenopause or years, you also might see some fluid and
hormonal shifts as well. The other big thing that can
influence the scale is alcohol. Generally, alcohol causes your body
to retain a little bit of fluid. It does tend
to dehydrate you in the first instance, but then it
(31:57):
also can make that body kind of retain a bit
more fluid. Also, given that a lot of people drink
alcohol with a lot of salty foods.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
They might be eating.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Chips and cheese and you know a sneaky two am kebab.
Nobody tends to drink a lot of alcohol and sit
down to a really clean chicken salad. So generally alcohol
goes hand in hand with higher salt foods, and you're
having foods that are higher in salt. Salt essentially acts
like a sponge in the body. It retains the water
in their bodies. If you're having a lot of salt,
so you go out for a really nice Chinese meal,
(32:26):
there's a lot of salt in that meal, and so
the body will be retaining fluid. If you jump on
the scales the next day, and the last one is carbohydrate.
So for every gram of carbohydrate you eat, this is
the science behind it, your body will naturally store two
to three grams of water with that. So if you
have a higher carbohydrate diet, even if it's in line
with the calorie deficit, the carbohydrates will allow you to
(32:48):
weigh heavier on the scale. That's why when most people
undertake a really low carboochido diet that first week, it's
very common to see people lose between two to five
kilos on the scale. Most of that is fluid weight.
You're essentially peeing out the carbs that are stored in
your muscles and your liver because you're not eating any carbs,
and your body's getting rid of the glucose stores that
(33:09):
it's stored in your body, which is a lot of
the water as well. So there can be a lot
of fluid shifts. And that's why I encourage my clients
to weigh themselves if the goal is fauloss and they
don't mind weighing themselves about twice a week, because what
we look for is the trend in the week. If
one number is up and the one numbers down, will
take the lower weight, and this is if they've been
on track. If they've been totally off track, which doesn't
(33:29):
happen regularly when you're working with the dietitian because you've
got that great accountability, right, we disregard that number. If
you know you've been on track, the scale is probably up,
you've probably gained a little bit. But if you know
you've been on track and the number goes up, often
I'll say to my clients, right, well, what's happening is
at that time of month, are you opulating? Have you
had a bigger carve meal or a salty meal the
night before, did you weigh yourself at two pm when
(33:50):
you should have done it first thing in the morning,
you dehydrated, or have you not been to the bathroom
in a couple of days. That's another thing where if
you're sluggish and your bowels aren't moving regularly, that can
all also retain a little bit on the scale as well.
I know sometimes clients have say, oh, I weighed myself
and then I went and I did a number two,
and I jump back on the scales and I lost
a whole kilo, So that in itself can also susi's
(34:10):
pulling a horrified face at me. That can also cause
a drop in the scale as well, if you go
to the bathroom and you do a number two. So
they're probably all of the reasons why this scale weight
might vary, But it's just really important to keep in
mind that just because the scale goes up doesn't necessarily
mean you're off track or it's a fat gain. Often
it's just a little bit of a fluid bump, and
(34:31):
what you'll see is that will naturally come back down
in a couple of days. Not that I'm encouraging you
to weigh yourself daily, but it is a nice little experiment.
Sometimes I get my clients to do a three day
weight check, you know, way way way for three days
in a row, just to see that naturally come back
down again. So it just confirms to them that, oh,
it was a fluid bump, I am on track, and
the motivations there to kind of continue on with the plan.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
What do you think about this?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, I usually say no more than twice a week
weight so I always say Tuesday Friday, after the weekend,
before the weekend, inevitably because of the alcohol and salt
issue that pops up when we eat out. And I
always get my clients in their measurements as well. And
I certainly have some clients who don't like the scales
at all, and I have no issue with that as
long as they're doing you know, some body measurements.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
But I certainly have clients.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Who weigh a free day regardless, and yeah, they find
it interesting to watch that trajectory, particularly if you have
lost quite a lot of weight, So say you're upwards
of ten kilos, you'll find that you might have a
period where the weight doesn't move a lot, and then
all of a sudden, it moves like two kilos. And
I always say, if you've had fat stored for a
long time, so say you've carried weight for many years,
the body just doesn't get rid of it. You have
(35:37):
to mobilize it to burn. And that's sometimes why you
might not be seeing any change on the scales, even
though your numbers are good, and you might even be
losing size, and then all of a sudden, you'll see
a drop in in body weight, because yeah, it takes
a lot of energy to metabolize fat. The body doesn't
like to lose weight. It's quite a big metabolic process.
And I also find that if clients have gone and
done a big session at the gym, they'll always be
(35:58):
heavier the next day because remember, if you've done a
big workout, so I'm talking like intense, like a big
run or a spin class or a CrossFit, your muscles
attract a lot of fluid in recovery, so there's kind
of swollen, so you'll be heavier always after a weights workout.
So if you've done a massive workout and the next
day you're like a kilo heavier. Don't stress, it'll just
be like a fluid inflammation issue. So that kind of
(36:20):
thing affects it as well. So I think, yeah, just
don't be too attached to as long as the general
trajectory is down over the course of a month and
the body size is changing, you want sort of several
different measures, because yeah, you can have I've got quite
a few South African clients and they'll eat some biltong
which is so packed for a sodium and put on
two or three kilos. So yeah, the food can have
a profound effect, particularly eating out. Just think on celebrity
(36:43):
cooking shows how much salt they use. Like I always
laugh people say to me, oh, how much salt. Well,
that's got a lot of salt. You're adding salt. I'm thinking,
do you know how much salt chefs add in a restaurant.
They literally get a spoon and spoon it in like
it's not a sprinkle, like it is bucket loads. Like
I reckon that meal you eat out at a restaurant,
it's got two thousand and three thousand milligrams of sodium, easy,
(37:04):
just from the seasonings that they use. So you've got
to be really mindful that if you eat out frequently,
you're going to get a false response on the scales
just because of the massive load of salt in that
kind of food.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, and I think it was a really important point
you said, look at the trend over time, not one
weight in isolation. Don't ever freak out at the scale
goes up. Actually, look at the trend. What's it doing
across the week, what's it doing across the month, And
that'll give you a far better indication of where you're
heading versus just one number in time.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
All right, Well, that.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Brings us to the end of the nutrition couch for
another week. If your diet needs a little bit more
protein after our protein discussion today, or if you find
yourself needing a little bit of a hot chocolate to
rest and relax you, or one to support.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Beauty and Collagen stores.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Our new range of designed by Dieticians protein and hot
chocolates are online at designed Bydietitians dot com.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And we thank you for your continued support with our
new products.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
We're very proud of them and we will get you
guys in the very next episode.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Have a great week,
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