by Bret Smith CPT, B. A., B.S. | Move Strong Studio
Quite often I am asked “What diet should I be following?” or “What is the best diet for me?” and honestly I have no idea. That is because of a number of factors having to do with food choice, food tolerance, budget, availability, likes/dislikes, lifestyle, and nutritional bio-availability and so on.
Now don’t get me wrong I love to work with clients on their nutrition and seeing their breakthroughs is an amazing experience. I coach clients on making choices that change nutritional behavior for the better not just combining restrictive diet strategies with workouts designed to burn as many calories as possible. Rather, I help clients create a balanced nutritional strategy through successive small changes that fit their lifestyle and ability to adapt.
Most dieters are successful in the short term due to reducing calorie intake and at the expense of one or more macronutrients known as proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Vilifying one “macro” at the expense of a balanced healthy nutrition strategy just does not make sense. Macronutrients are destined to work together in the body for all kinds of important reasons not limited to hormone production/balance, vitamin/mineral delivery and absorption, digestive health and cellular energy transportation, to name a few. Some may be able to stay on a diet for a while but ultimately boredom, nutrient deficiency and a plateau effect on fat loss will occur.
People have a very close attachment to their food choices some good and some in need of help. In order to realize sound nutrient balance and the “Holy Grail” of body fat loss there first must be identification and targeting of the most critical “limiting factor”. For most this is going to require adding to nutritional strategies rather than trying to restrict a particular food. Early on it is much easier to add habits like multi vitamins, fish oil or simply increasing daily water intake. Doing something healthy and adding it to current choices creates a positive association with this new behavior. It is much more effective coaching clients on adherence to a daily multi vitamin aimed at reducing nutrient deficiency rather than saying “No more Oreos” – I say something like that and the next thing I see are clients stocking up on Costco size supplies.
Ultimately I coach clients to relentlessly pursue metabolic flexibility meaning that they learn to train, eat and recover with the goal of their bodies being able to use all the macronutrients as fuel. Through removing the limiting factors one at a time, creating nutrient balance and improving hydration most if not all of my clients discover a healthy approach to conquering the most basic challenges to their daily health and wellbeing. One step a time practiced until full adherence followed by assessment and adjustment is no magic formula. Simply, it is a strategy that works and creates lasting results.
To reach Bret email him at [email protected].
