Are you struggling to achieve lasting weight loss? You’re not alone. Millions of Canadians and Americans feel frustrated and defeated by restrictive diets. What if there was a better way to lose weight than fad diets? Mounting scientific evidence shows you can achieve lasting weight loss with holistic nutrition strategies. These strategies can be learned at home, thanks to the available holistic nutrition certification program.
Discover a Healthy Relationship with Food
You can feel empowered about what you eat. Learning more about holistic nutrition will allow you to discover weight loss tips and develop simple strategies for busy lifestyles that actually work. A holistic nutrition approach to weight loss considers all aspects of wellness (body, mind, and spirit). It’s effective. Let’s discover why.
How Holistic Nutrition for Weight Loss Works
Diet is not the only thing impacting your weight. From exercise to sleep, and stress to the microbes in your gut, when you take a holistic approach and consider the larger picture sustainable weight loss becomes easier.
Sleep: Without enough sleep, it’s even harder to manage your weight. Why? Sleep affects your hunger hormones (ghrelin and leptin). Make sleep a priority – studies show better sleep health is associated with greater weight and fat loss.
Understanding the Gut Microbiome: Host to billions of microbes that influence everything from your appetite to your mood, the gut microbiome plays a significant role in weight management. Holistic nutrition understands this complex relationship, encouraging a diet filled with foods that support the gut microbiome. Healthy gut microbiomes help in weight management through the regulation of metabolism, as well as producing more serotonin promoting better mood to support coping and sleep.
Food as Medicine: You can leverage food choices to improve satiety, reduce cravings, and support a healthy metabolism. There’s a science to weight loss – it includes the use of healthy proteins, fats, and fiber-rich plants to help you feel full, nourished, and energized. A holistic nutrition certification program for weight loss teaches you the power of nutrient-dense foods for weight management.
Stress Management: Stress negatively impacts your body’s ability to properly digest food. Stress reduces:
- Nutrient absorption
- Serotonin (happy hormone) production
- Stomach acid
Mindful Eating: There are both physical and mental benefits to being mindful. Mindfulness is having an awareness of your emotions and body. Mindful eating takes this concept a step further. Since stress greatly impacts your digestive system, mindful eating can help modulate the gut’s stress response, promoting rest and better digestion.
Scientific Review: Why Fad Diets Don’t Work for Weight Loss
Fad diets often promote quick fixes. But, they require drastic restricted calorie intake that can end up depriving your body of essential nutrients. The greatest concern in the use of these weight loss strategies can lead to yo-yo dieting, frustration, and health complications. Instead, science shows a holistic nutrition approach can lead to healthier body composition, which promotes sustainable weight loss, as well as more energy, better sleep, and a happier mood.
Most concerning of all, fad diets tend to lead to muscle loss, not fat loss – that’s an unhealthy change. A common requirement of fad diets is calorie restriction. When you don’t eat enough, it makes your body switch on survival mechanisms, shifting how you metabolize energy. It can trigger the body to burn muscle, not fat.
Studies show calorie-restrictive weight-loss strategies, such as fad diets or GLP-1 medications, result in undesirable muscle loss. A review of 18 randomized controlled trials published in the journal Current Diabetes Reviews, noted during GLP-1 medication use, muscle loss makes up 20% to 50% of weight lost.
Holistic Nutrition Tips for Weight Loss, Not Muscle Loss
- Less is Not More
Studies found muscle loss is less when the calorie restriction is less drastic. You can achieve this by adopting healthy lifestyle habits that include a holistic nutrition eating plan rich in nutritious foods, good sleep, stress management, and regular exercise. A holistic nutrition certification online program can show you how.
- Eat More Protein
A study of 207 adults found those who ate a higher protein diet (1 g of protein, per kg of body weight, per day) were able to retain more muscle than those who consumed less protein. Bonus: By focusing on protein the adults tended to eat more green vegetables and less refined grains or added sugar. All of these shifts are part of a holistic nutrition eating plan.
- Exercise Often
Evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is with regular physical activity. A daily, hour-long brisk walk can preserve muscle mass, suggests experts. If you keep this up for 3 months, your endurance training program may help you increase your muscle mass by 7% to 11%, according to research.
Lasting Weight Loss: Learn For Yourself How Holistic Nutrition Can Help
A holistic nutrition program can help you understand how food impacts your body and overall health. As such, you may want to enroll at one of CSNN’s branches to gain knowledge and tools to create a personalized plan that nourishes your body, mind, and spirit.
The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition offers holistic nutrition certification programs, whether for people who want to lose weight to those wanting to become a practitioner and help others.
CSNN’s Natural Nutrition Program covers a wide range of topics, including:
- Functional Anatomy and Physiology
- Macronutrients and Micronutrients
- Digestion, Absorption, & Metabolism
- Nutritional Assessment & Planning
- Food & Nutrient Interactions
- The Role of Food in Chronic Disease Management
- And much more!
There are flexible learning formats and schedule to accommodate busy schedules, no matter where you are. Whether you’re looking to transform your own health or pursue a career in the field of holistic nutrition, a nutrition certification program from CSNN can be your transformative first step.
Ready to embark on a journey of holistic health and unlock your full potential? Visit CSNN today!
References:
Gut microbiome-brain alliance: a landscape view into mental and gastrointestinal health and disorders. ACS Chem Neurosci 2023 May 17; 14(10): 171-1763.
Mindful eating: a review of how the stress-digestion-mindfulness triad may modulate and improve gastrointestinal and digestive function. Integr Med (Encinitas): 2019 Aug; 18(4): 48-53.
High protein intake during caloric restriction improves diet quality and attenuates loss of lean body mass. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2022 Jul; 30(7): 1411-1419.
Preserving healthy muscle during weight loss. Adv Nutr 2017 May; 8(3): 511-519.
The association of weight loss with changes in the gut microbiota diversity, composition, and intestinal permeability: a systematic review. Gut Microbes 2022; 14(1): 2020068.
Effects of dietary protein intake on body composition changes after weight loss in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutr Rev 2016 Mar; 7(4): 210-224.
Resistance training prevents muscle loss induced by caloric restriction in obese elderly individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients 2018 Apr; 10(4): 423.
Insufficient sleep predicts poor weight loss maintenance after 1 year. Sleep 2023 May; 46(5): zsac295.