Recent Nutrition Study Explores Weight Loss, Processed Foods, and Calories

You’re sitting at a table, hungry for a snack, and only have two food choices in front of you – a few apple slices, each piece dabbed with a bit of peanut butter or a glazed donut.

Apple slices and peanut butter are obviously the healthier choice, but then you notice a note card that is placed upside down in front of each plate.

You flip them over and they say the same thing: 200 calories.

If each snack is 200 calories, does it matter which one you choose? Is one choice really any better than the other?

Today, I want to share with you a study that recently came out exploring weight loss, processed foods, and calories.

Researchers put two groups on two different diets – one highly processed, the other unprocessed.

Here’s what they found.

“Despite the ultra-processed and unprocessed diets being matched for daily presented calories, sugar, fat, fiber, and macronutrients, people consumed more calories when exposed to the ultra-processed diet as compared to the unprocessed diet…

Furthermore, people gained weight on the ultra-processed diet and lost weight on the unprocessed diet. Limiting consumption of ultra-processed food may be an effective strategy for obesity prevention and treatment.”

If you’re interested in the full study, you can read it here.

This is a good time for me to talk a little about dieting.

I believe that diets, like fashion, go in and out of style, but the way our bodies work doesn’t.

Regardless, we like to try “on” different diets that are trending to see if they “fit” – perhaps “this one” will shock my body and help me lose weight.

But the same things always happen – we either can’t stick to them because they’re way too hard to do beyond a few weeks, or later on we find that these diets are unhealthy for our bodies in the short- and/or long-term.

It’s my belief that we make nutrition way too complicated when it’s actually pretty simple.

Just like the study found, those who ate a highly processed diet gained weight and those who ate an unprocessed diet lost weight, and I’m almost certain these findings didn’t surprise you.

Look, if you want to lose a quick 20 pounds before your high school reunion, then a crash diet is probably going to work – you’re motivated, you have a measurable goal, and you can do any diet for a few weeks if you really wanted to.

What happens after the reunion is a different story.

But what about those who simply want to live in a healthy body – you know, one that looks, feels, and performs well?

That’s going to require a different approach, much like the one described in the study.

Simply limiting processed foods is going to help you feel better and you’ll probably lose weight as well.

You don’t have to eliminate processed foods altogether, but thinking differently when it comes to your food choices is really the key.

Even though both are 200 calories, choosing the apple slices and peanut butter over the donut for that afternoon snack is a better choice on many levels.

But I know you know that. In fact, you probably know a lot about nutrition.

You’ve probably researched it extensively and tried different ways of eating over the years.

At this point, you know what to do, but maybe you have a hard time doing it.

If this is you, I don’t think you have a motivation problem.

In other words, I truly don’t believe that if you just tried hard enough, you could eat healthier, lose weight, and feel better.

I think you’re trying really hard and have been for a long time.

But more information is not what you need – there is more nutrition information online than you can possibly read in your lifetime anyway.

So if it’s not a motivation problem, then what could it be?

First, eating a healthy diet is simple, but it’s not easy.

Based on my experience, the biggest encumbrance usually has to do with time management, scheduling, and accountability.

If you’re not eating the way you want to be eating, keep in mind that it also doesn’t necessarily require a complete overhaul of your life; instead, it might just involve a bit of tweaking.

By the way, my coach-approach is not “one-size-fits-all.” Rather, I’d like to think of myself more like a tailor – but instead of looking at your clothing, I look at how you spend your time, your lifestyle, the choices you make, and see how we can make a few often minor and manageable tweaks that can promote a healthier life overall.

Here’s why I tell you this.

Because of my “tailored-approach,” unfortunately, I can’t provide a cookie cutter answer to making changes to your specific lifestyle, but know that I’m here to help you do that if and when you’re ready.

But for now, think of small, simple, and easy switches, replacements, or upgrades you can make to your nutrition that are going to get the ball rolling for you.

For example, many years ago, I made one healthy choice that got the ball rolling big time for me – I forewent the fries that came with my club sandwich at a restaurant.

This was a big deal for me at the time, especially growing up being taught to not waste food.

I had to “unlearn” this “wasting food” lesson from my childhood and constantly remind myself that my stomach is not a garbage disposal – I don’t have to eat everything I’m served.

I soon realized that instead of letting food go to waste by leaving it on my plate, I could just ask the server to “hold” the fries, or coke, or mayo, for example.

Then, when I began studying behavior change, I learned that what I was also doing was “tweaking my environment” by making the right behaviors easier and the wrong behaviors harder.

By asking my server to “hold the fries,” I didn’t feel tempted to eat them with my sandwich… because they weren’t even there!

Without knowing it, I was making the right behavior easier.

Since, many of my clients use this strategy and others like it, such as asking the server to bring out only half of the sandwich, for example, box the other half to go, and don’t deliver that to-go box until the check arrives.

Back to the day I forewent the fries, believe it or not, this is a day I still think back about with pride.

It truly was a game-changer because by taking that small action, I sent a big message to myself that I was serious about my health goals.

So today, think about one tweak (maybe a small feat to an outsider, but a big deal for you) that you can make to your nutrition – one that might just get the ball rolling for you that doesn’t stop this time.

One tweak that might be little, but sends a big message to you and your future, healthy self.

Remember, the little things are the big things.

What little thing can you do this week that could possibly make a big difference for you?

It’s your turn to take care of you,

 

 

 

It’s Your Turn to Take Care of You!

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