Every single person’s body is unique and has unique needs, which is one of many reasons why fad diets can be so baffling and unhelpful.
Whilst it is important to eat healthily, a lot of publicised and particularly rigid diets are profoundly counterproductive for reasons you may not expect. Working with a menopause nutritionist to ensure your body is getting the right balance of macronutrients to thrive is a great idea!
Unsustainable Deprivation
A lot of diets are focused on strict calorie control, which is at best only one part of the puzzle and at worst can be outright counterproductive.
Ensuring you have enough quality nutrients and are keeping active are much more important in the long run than restricting calories. The focus on nutrient content is far more beneficial than simply calorie consumption, ensuring you have everything you need to keep happy and healthy.
Inconsistency
The best diets are those you can stick to in the long term and that focus on maintaining healthy blood sugar levels as this is critical in preventing of long term and all too common conditions such as Type II Diabetes and even Alzheimer’s.
By design, a lot of diets are designed with the short term in mind, which is often the cause of the “yo-yo effect”.
Metabolism
Long term calorie restriction can have the reverse effect, sending signals to the brain that food is ‘scarce’. We are programmed to conserve energy in times of scarcity so not eating enough can prevent you from losing weight!
When the body takes in less food, processes slow down which leads to fatigue, low energy and greater cravings.
It takes a while after ending a diet for balance to return which is why in so many cases people gain weight post calorie restriction.
Nutritional Therapy takes a different approach, taking the focus away from calories and onto healthy proteins, fats and complex carbohydrates.
Get in touch to find out more!