Nutrition

The Benefits Of Eating More Protein

The Benefits Of Eating More Protein

Published by on May 25, 2023 | Leave a response

You need to eat adequate protein to ensure your body is working at peak performance and has all the building blocks necessary. One of the many benefits of eating more protein is improved weight control. Protein fills you up and leaves you feeling fuller for a longer period. It lowers your ghrelin—the hunger hormone—level and increases peptide YY—a gut hormone that makes you feel full. One study showed that when obese women increased protein intake from 15% of their calories to 30% of their caloric intake, they reduced the number of calories they ate by an average of 441 daily without intentionally trying.

You’ll build stronger bones when you eat more protein.

You may have read that a higher protein intake causes calcium to leach from bones to neutralize the increased acid load from protein. Most people would believe it would make a higher protein diet bad for bones, but that’s not true. Over the long term, consuming more protein helps build stronger bones. Studies show that people consuming more protein have more bone mass as they age and a lowered risk of fracture or osteoporosis. More protein also helps maintain muscle mass, reducing the risk of osteoporosis.

More protein aids in gaining muscle mass.

Protein is a building block for muscles. It’s why you eat a combination of carbs and protein before and after a tough strength-building workout. It helps maintain and build muscle mass. If you’re trying to lose weight, consume protein to ensure you won’t lose muscle mass. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does, so the more you have the higher your metabolism.

Consuming more protein can help you lose weight in other ways.

Are you prone to late-night snacks or crave food between meals? Protein not only helps you feel fuller, but it also can reduce cravings. Craving food isn’t the same as being hungry and late-night snacking normally doesn’t involve hunger either. Studies show that by upping your protein intake to 25% of your caloric intake, you can reduce daytime cravings by as much as 60% and nighttime snacking by 50%. Consuming protein can also increase your metabolism while you digest it. It’s the thermic effect that increases calories burned and keeps the metabolic fires burning throughout the day.

  • You’ll reduce the risk of a heart attack when you increase your protein intake. Controlled trials show that a higher protein diet reduced blood pressure and even reduced other risk factors for heart disease.
  • If you have an injury, protein helps the body do repairs faster. Whether you cut your hand chopping vegetables or fell outside, eating more protein provides the nutrients necessary to speed recovery.
  • Increasing protein in your diet can make weight loss easier and help maintain that weight loss. An increase in your protein intake can help you keep weight off permanently.
  • People often worry that too much protein can damage their kidneys. If you have a kidney problem, a high intake of protein may be harmful. For everyone else, a diet higher in protein won’t affect your kidneys.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in
How To Stop Feeling Guilty About Overeating

How To Stop Feeling Guilty About Overeating

Published by on May 15, 2023 | Leave a response

People who overeat consistently use food to cope with negative feelings. They stuff down those feelings with food. If overeating is followed by feeling guilty, it adds another negative emotion, and creates a bigger problem. Break the pattern and stop feeling guilty. Guilt drives the compulsion and makes food even more important as an emotional crutch. The shame adds to the feeling of worthlessness and being out of control.

Is it a bad habit, compulsive-addictive behavior, or a way to prove you’re not worthy?

There are many reasons for compulsive overeating. Sometimes, it starts innocently with a desire to look and feel better. Instead of simply looking at healthy food choices, people attach words like good food and bad food, making it more of a struggle of good v evil rather than simply eating a healthy diet. That elevates each infraction to a whole new level. Food can also become your addiction of choice. Foods high in sugar, fat, and salt trigger areas of the brain that cause your body to trigger feel-good hormones. Finding why you overeat will give you a better idea of why, help you control it better, and remove the stigmas.

Learn more about your overeating and guilt with a food/emotion diary.

Instead of tracking every bite of food, track the emotions you felt when you ate the food. Is the message in your head “I shouldn’t eat this,” or “I’m bad if I eat that”? Write down why you should or shouldn’t consume certain foods. Jot down all the self-talk and see how often you taunt yourself with negative input. Before you put your food/emotion diary away, ask yourself if you sincerely want that food and if it’s what your body needs. You might find that sometimes you don’t want it. For those times you do, give yourself permission to eat it without guilt. Eating becomes a decision which gives you control.

Become your own best friend.

Guilt comes with an onslaught of insults inside your head. Ask yourself, “Would I talk to my best friend that way?” If the answer is no, become your own best friend. If you ate the pint of Ben and Jerry’s in your freezer in record time, are you telling yourself you’re a failure, worthless, or something just as berating? Give yourself the talk you’d like to hear from a best friend.

  • If you’re truly craving a specific food, yet berating yourself after eating it, you’re taking all the pleasure out of eating it. Allowing yourself to feel that pleasure without guilt can reduce the need to do it more frequently.
  • Seek professional help if you can’t quit overeating or feeling guilty about it. There’s nothing wrong with getting help.
  • End the deprivation and quit starvation diets. You may be feeling guilty about consuming food that’s necessary for sustenance. Complete deprivation is as bad as overeating followed by guilt. In both instances, you’re punishing yourself.
  • Eat mindfully. Rather than making shame or guilt your focus, turn your attention to the food and savor the experience. Appreciate its appearance, texture, and taste, savoring each bite. You can get as much pleasure from a small amount without overeating.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in ,
How Not To Gain Weight On A Cruise

How Not To Gain Weight On A Cruise

Published by on May 5, 2023 | Leave a response

Even though Louisville, KY, is one of the nicest places to be, sometimes it’s fun to get away from it. People often find taking a cruise is a perfect way. Food plays an important role on any cruise and sometimes people report they gain weight and lose their momentum on a cruise, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can enjoy yourself and may even shed a pound or two when you follow a few easy steps.

Stay active.

There’s a lot to do on a cruise, so take advantage of the situation. Find an active shore excursion you’d enjoy, such as a walking sightseeing tour, snorkeling, kayaking. or biking. You’ll see the sights and make memories, while burning calories. Work out at the gym when you’re not taking an active side trip, swim in the pool, or tour the boat. Don’t forget to use the stairs. When planning a meal, choose an option furthest from you and walk. You’ll burn more calories and aid digestion after a meal.

Go for healthier options and healthier food outlets.

Cruise ships offer a lot of options for meals. Choose healthier options. Instead of a heavy dessert, opt for a sorbet for most meals. You don’t have to deny yourself every meal. Choose one meal you’ll use to splurge. Many people make it to the last night to avoid being tempted every night. Say no to the breadbasket and yes to fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits and vegetables can become a gourmet treat when prepared by a talented chef. Avoid dishes with high calorie, creamy sauces.

Keep a bottle of water available at all times.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how water boosts your energy and fills you up. Many cruises focus on fun in the sun, so having a bottle of water at your side constantly fits right into the picture. If you’re on a cold weather cruise, make that water in the cabin and green or herbal tea on the deck. Drink a bottle of water before dining and you’ll eat less. Studies show that subjects experienced weight loss by drinking eight ounces of water before a meal, even though they changed nothing else.

  • Limit drinks to lower-calorie options like white wine, light beer, or vodka. Avoid sugary, creamy ones that may have as many calories as an entire meal.
  • Give yourself permission to enjoy a treat. You’re on vacation, so enjoy. That doesn’t mean you need to become a glutton. Pick one meal a day to splurge, or one every other day. The rest of the time, enjoy healthy but lower-calorie foods.
  • Some dining venues offer a healthy menu with more fresh fruit and vegetable options, no fried food, and main dishes fit for a weight-watching king. Do your research before the trip and opt for the healthiest food outlets.
  • The buffet can be a friend or enemy if you’re trying to prevent weight gain. If you choose the buffet, survey all the options first, then fill your plate. Avoid wearing elastic waistbands and opt for traditional clothing that becomes tight if you overeat.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in , ,
How To Start A Low Carb Diet

How To Start A Low Carb Diet

Published by on April 25, 2023 | Leave a response

In recent years, the low carb diet has gained popularity. Even though eating healthier is a simpler solution that doesn’t require calorie or carb counting, it’s true that carb counting does work. One of the main reasons it works is that low carb foods are often low calorie foods. Low carb foods are often whole foods that don’t contain added sugar and are part of a program focused on healthy eating.

What is a low carb diet?

Carbohydrates are macronutrients, just as protein and fat are. A low carb diet limits carbs, which are found mostly in plant-based foods. Not all carbs are bad. There are three types of carbohydrates: sugar, starch, and fiber. Those three types are all necessary for the body to be healthy. Healthier carbs like fruits, vegetables, nuts, milk, grains, and beans, should be part of your diet, but food with added sugar and highly processed foods shouldn’t. That often eliminates special diet foods that are low in fat, since sugar often replaces the fat to provide the flavor lost when the fat was removed. Pasta and bread are normally missing in a low carb diet, too.

How a low carb diet works.

The belief behind a low carb diet is that the diet will change the way the body gets its energy or calories. It will stop getting its energy from carbohydrates and get it from fat and protein. When the body gets calories from carbs, the body changes the carbs’ glucose to glycogen, then it stores the glycogen in the liver. When the liver is full, the glycogen converts to fat. When you limit carbs, the body must get its fuel somewhere else, which is body fat.

The pros and cons of a low carb diet.

Low carb diets can help reduce insulin resistance, a precursor of Type 2 diabetes. It lowers the levels of insulin released. It also aids in lowering the bad LDL cholesterol levels and increases the good HDL levels. It helps stabilize both triglyceride and blood sugar levels. Extremely restrictive low carb diets have side effects like constipation, headaches, lethargy, heart palpitations, and irritability. It can cause undue stress on the kidneys.

  • Extreme low carb diets like the keto diet can lead to nutritional deficiencies. Studies show that extreme low carb diets didn’t provide enough of 15 of the 27 vitamins and minerals the body requires for good health.
  • Often people mistakenly overeat high fat foods like bacon. While bacon will set the body into a state of ketosis, it’s not the healthiest way to do it and can add too much sodium to the diet.
  • You can get many of the same benefits of a low carb diet by simply giving up food with added sugar, highly processed food, pasta, and bread. Always talk to your health care professional first before starting any diet.
  • At Body Sculptors, we provide personalized nutritional plans. It contains menus, shopping lists, recipes and helps you track your nutritional intake, making losing weight and getting fit easier.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in , ,
Healthy Habits = Healthy Life

Healthy Habits = Healthy Life

Published by on April 15, 2023 | Leave a response

Living a healthy life in Louisville, KY, is all about having healthy habits. It isn’t about eating a salad once in a while or buying a gym membership and using it once or twice. It’s about the things you do every day that make a difference. Developing habits take a while, and many people start with one change and after a month or two, add another. The changes can be as simple as drinking tea or coffee without sugar to something more involved like a program of fitness. It doesn’t matter where you start. The important part is getting started.

A healthier diet should be a goal.

If you’re slamming down quickie burgers like there is no tomorrow, there may not be one for you. To have a healthier body, you have to have a healthy diet. A healthy diet doesn’t mean dieting but making smarter choices. Choose more greens, several selections of vegetables, and lean meat, fish, or poultry. Instead of high-sugar, high-calorie pastry, opt for fresh fruit as a dessert. If you’re overweight, changing your eating habits is necessary to lose weight. The sad truth is that obesity is on the rise in America and many of the obese are also malnourished.

Get moving.

Consider all the changes that have occurred in the last fifty or sixty years. Everyone used to be more physical. Adults would spend time playing tennis, roller skating, or bowling and kids loved playing games outside. Today, everyone is stuck in front of a screen and the only active muscles are in their hands. You’ll rust out before you wear out, so get up and move. Start a program of regular exercise. Make it a habit, so schedule it at the same time every day to ensure it becomes a habit. You don’t have to workout at the gym every time, you can take walks or do other activities.

You probably don’t get enough sleep.

Burning a candle at both ends has become a badge of honor in the US. Unfortunately, that’s bad for your heart and can even make you pack on pounds. Lack of sleep can cause a hormone imbalance between leptin—the satiety hormone—-and ghrelin—the hunger hormone. If you don’t get enough sleep, the body produces less leptin and more ghrelin, so you want to eat more and you gain weight. Lack of sleep can affect your memory, increase the risk of diabetes and negatively affect your immune system. Create a sleep schedule and stick with it until it becomes a habit.

  • If you want an easier way to ensure you eat healthier, our fitness plans are perfect. We provide a personalized menu, a grocery list and recipes. All you do is buy the food.
  • Don’t forget to drink plenty of water and hydrate often, especially in hot weather or when exercising. Even mild dehydration has side effects. For instance, it can make you feel sleepy. The next time you’re tired, drink a bottle of cold water and you’ll probably feel more awake.
  • When you make a change, focus on staying with that change for a minimum of nine weeks. Studies show the average time for forming a habit is 66 days.
  • Eating healthy includes what you drink. Soft drinks or fancy coffee drinks are high in sugar, calories, and ingredients that can be harmful to you. Don’t forget to include snacks in your meal plan.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in , , ,
Diet And Nutrition For Constipation

Diet And Nutrition For Constipation

Published by on April 5, 2023 | Leave a response

Your diet dictates the nutrients your body receives, but it also affects other areas of your health besides nutrition. It can cause digestive issues, like diarrhea and constipation. Constipation is a problem many people have, but few want to discuss it, especially with friends. Instead of addressing the underlying issue, many resort to taking laxatives, which can lead to laxative dependency, particularly if you take stimulant types of laxatives.

A lot of things play a role in developing constipation.

The amount of fiber in your diet, your level of hydration, and how active you are all play an important role in keeping your colon healthy and normal bowel movements. A simple change like riding a bike for a half hour a night stimulates your elimination system to provide bathroom success. Another important factor is hydration. Even minor dehydration can affect bowel movements, leaving your waste dry and hard to pass. Increasing the water you drink daily can keep your system at peak performance.

Changing your diet to include more whole plant-based foods can also change your potty pattern.

Whole foods, like whole grains, or fresh fruits and vegetables, contain fiber. There are two types of fiber. The first type is insoluble fiber. That is found in whole grains, bran, and vegetables. Insoluble fiber provides bulk to the stool to help it pass through the colon. The second type of fiber is soluble fiber. Soluble fiber absorbs fluid and keeps the waste soft and easier to pass. It’s found in lentils, fruits, vegetables, nuts, oat bran, and peas. Soluble fiber binds with toxins and excess cholesterol, then it’s removed from the body with other waste. Soluble fiber also helps feed beneficial bacteria, which also helps with constipation.

Just because you don’t go every day doesn’t mean you’re constipated.

Some people go as often as three times a day, while others may only go a couple of times a week. Normal bowel movements vary. How can you tell if you’re constipated? The first sign is that you feel like you have to go, straining on the toilet, but don’t have a productive session. You are bloated and if you go, only small hard pellets come out. It’s not about the number of days, but how you feel.

  • Eating food high in omega-3 fatty acids can help keep your bowel movements consistent. Foods that contain it include salmon and other fatty fish, krill oil, and flaxseed.
  • Eating juicy fruit and vegetables will help you in two ways. Both provide fiber and increase your intake of liquids, which helps counter dehydration.
  • If you’re adding fiber to your diet, increase it slowly. Increasing it too rapidly can also cause bloating and constipation. When you increase fiber intake, make sure you increase your intake of water, too.
  • Prunes are known for their constipation-busting benefits. Not only are prunes high in fiber, but they also contain sorbitol, which is a natural laxative. The sorbitol in prunes is often used in chewing gum and candies, which may also cause digestive issues.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in ,
How Salt Might Affect Your Weight Loss

How Salt Might Affect Your Weight Loss

Published by on February 25, 2023 | Leave a response

If your resolution is to lose weight, think twice about grabbing that salt shaker at every meal. It can affect your goal of weight loss. Most people realize that consuming too much salt can cause water retention, which makes you weigh more. Salt’s chemical composition is sodium and chloride—NaCl.  Sodium regulates the balance of water in the body. If you are dehydrated, it causes the water/sodium content to be out of balance. You need more water to regain that balance and dilute the sodium content. Your body hoards the fluid, causing edema, bloating and weight gain. That’s temporary, but there’s another way that too much salt can cause weight gain that is more permanent.

Salt is one spice that doesn’t make you feel fuller.

Some spices add flavor and can add to that full feeling you get after a meal. Salt isn’t one of them. Salt not only can potentially cause your blood pressure to rise, but it can also cause a more permanent type of problem. Scientific studies show that people who eat more salt on their food actually drink less water, but they did one more thing. They ate more. The more salt the people used, the higher their intake of food, which led to permanent weight gain.

Preparing for space travel brings research in other areas.

Many discoveries were made during the space race. Scratch-resistant lenses, artificial limbs, the insulin pump, LASIK surgery, solar cells, water filtration, invisible braces, freeze-dried food, phones with cameras, CAT scans, memory foam, portable computers, LEDs, the computer mouse and many other things we take for granted came from the space race. Testing dietary theories we use today was also part of the preparation. One study focused on how salt affected the body. The Russian cosmonauts-in-training ate a consistent diet, but then the diet was changed. The only change that was made was the amount of salt, doubling the recommended amount to 12 grams. After weeks on the high salt diet, the salt was reduced to 9 grams, then finally to the normal 6 grams a day.

The results of the experiment were very telling.

The Russian study also followed levels of hunger, while adjusting the levels of salt. When the salt level was high, the cosmonauts-in-training were constantly hungry. As the amount of salt was reduced, so was the hunger level. Other studies back that hypothesis. One Australian study linked childhood obesity to a high salt diet. Their conclusion was that the body mistook thirst for hunger or, the children satisfied the thirst with higher calorie soft drinks.

  • Another Australian study found that people who ate a high salt diet tended to increase their caloric intake by approximately 11%. Was thirst mistaken for hunger or did salt make them hungrier?
  • Consumption of high amounts of salt requires the body to create urea, which is important to maintain the water/sodium balance. That requires more calories, which may be why people eating salt were hungrier.
  • Even if salt doesn’t cause you to feel hungrier, consuming too much salt isn’t healthy for a number of reasons. It’s associated with stomach cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease.
  • The sodium and chloride in salt play an important role in the body. It helps regulate nerve function, muscle contraction, blood pressure and fluid balance. A sensitivity to salt may cause a higher potential for blood pressure problems.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in , ,
What To Know About Keto

What To Know About Keto

Published by on February 15, 2023 | Leave a response

While we don’t necessarily recommend a keto diet at Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, but instead provide an easier route that’s personalized and doesn’t require calorie or carb counting, there are a lot of questions about the keto diet. The keto diet puts the body into a state of ketosis. That’s where is burns fat for energy, rather than glucose. This type of diet has been around for many years and was originally used to help control seizures in the 1920s. By the 1980s, bodybuilders discovered it and made it a popular weight loss option.

Keto diets are good for more than just preventing seizures caused by epilepsy and weight loss.

There are many benefits to the keto diet. The first is that it reduces the amount of food you eat with added sugar and processed food, just by its lower carbohydrate nature. Reducing sugar is a huge benefit for the body. However, it was also noted for its ability to improve mental focus. Even though it burns body fat, it also helps preserve lean muscle mass.

A keto diet manages the balance of macronutrients.

When you cut the amount of glucose that comes from eating carbs and supplement fat and protein, it causes the body to switch to burning fat for energy. How much do you have to change your diet? The average diet has far too high of carbohydrate count. Even worse, those carbs come primarily from added sugar. A keto diet reduces the percentage of calories from well over 60% from carbs to a diet that has a ratio of 10-20% from protein, 5-10% from carbs and the rest from fat.

It becomes about the type of carbs you eat.

Vegetables and fruits have carbs, so do quinoa, dairy and nuts. You need those in your diet. They’re also lower in carbs and calories. However, not all vegetables, fruit or dairy are low in carbs, but there’s also net carbs to consider. There are three categories of dietary carbohydrates, sugar, starches and fiber. Fiber isn’t digested by humans, even though the microbiome in the gut uses them as food. Even though many vegetables have carbs, not all the carbs are available for the body, since they are fiber. Cutting out foods high in sugar, low in fiber or higher in starch are the ones the carbs that need to be lowered in the diet.

  • Cutting out food with added sugar and refined carbs is the first step to a healthy diet and also to a keto diet. Choosing vegetables that are high in fiber produce a much lower net carb gain, since the carbs can’t be used.
  • There are some dangers to the keto diet. The keto diet can cause constipation, bone damage, heart disease, kidney stones, nutritional deficiencies, and low blood pressure. People with gallbladder, pancreas or thyroid problems should avoid a keto diet.
  • You need to choose your fat source wisely on a keto diet. While bacon is a source of fat, avocados are better, since they have many other nutrients. Choosing meat from grass fed beef is better than choosing meat from traditionally raised beef.
  • One problem with a keto diet is constipation. Many people cut back on vegetables and grain products that are high in fiber, which slows digestion and makes you feel out of sorts, often called the keto flu.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in , ,
Will Hormones Make You Gain Weight?

Will Hormones Make You Gain Weight?

Published by on February 5, 2023 | Leave a response

Many times when you hear people complain that they can’t lose weight, it’s because they aren’t following the program. Either they ignore the calories they consume either at meals or in soft drinks and snacks or fail to exercise regularly. However, there are cases when your hormones are out of balance, which makes it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it. It’s one reason I tell people to keep a food and exercise diary, so we can find precisely where the problem is.

You have a lot of different types of hormones.

When people think of hormones, their mind immediately goes to estrogen, testosterone and progesterone, the sex hormones, but the body has far more than just those three. Hormones are the messengers of the body. They trigger different responses, including emotional responses. Those feel good hormones that provide a runner’s high are examples. Hormones can determine when you get hungry or feel full—ghrelin, the hunger hormone and leptin, the satiety hormone. Lack of sleep causes you to produce too much ghrelin. Too much insulin or excess cortisol may be the culprits behind belly fat.

If belly fat is a problem, maybe it’s stress that’s the underlying cause.

As noted before, both insulin and cortisol are linked to belly fat. You can help control both with exercise and proper diet. Cortisol occurs when you’re under stress. Learning methods to control stress or exercising to burn off the hormone helps. The fight or flight response to stress triggers cortisol production. Exercise mimics running or fighting, burning it off. As for insulin resistance, exercise improves glucose uptake and helps reduce belly fat, which is associated with insulin resistance. The best exercise to do is HIIT—high intensity interval training, weight lifting, sprinting and even increasing the amount you walk.

Look for other signs of thyroid hormonal imbalances.

I hear people complain of an inactive thyroid all the time. Besides weight gain, there are other signals this is the problem. Frequent constipation, sensitivity to heat or cold, fatigue, dry skin, hair loss and irregular heartbeat can also occur. Your thyroid regulates metabolism and can make a difference whether you lose weight or gain it. Sometimes, you can avoid problems by eating a healthy diet and avoiding stress. Start by cutting out sugar and highly processed food. Always consult with your doctor first.

  • No hormone is good or bad. You need them all, but you need them in balance. There are hormones to speed heart rate and ones to slow it. Balancing glucagon and insulin can make the difference between healthy and diabetic or hypoglycemic.
  • Most women find sex hormones out of balance during menopause, causing weight gain. Cutting out coffee, exercising more, eating more fruits, vegetables and phytoestrogenic foods consuming healthy fats and cutting back on sugar and salt can help,
  • Cutting out foods with added sugar can be a big help, regardless of the type of hormonal imbalance. Sugar causes inflammation, which leads to other problems, like insulin resistance, weight gain and oxidative stress.
  • Find ways to relax and reduce stress levels that work quickly. While exercise does that, you can’t always do jumping jacks when you need to relax, but you may be able to use breathing techniques or meditation.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in , ,