personalized nutrition

Working With a Nutrition Coach Can Be the Missing Piece in Your Health Puzzle

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, making healthy food choices is absolutely one of the best ways to improve your overall health. The food we eat impacts everything from the microbes in our gut to how much inflammation we have in our body to what disease we may be living with down the road. However, as anyone who has ever tried to change their eating habits knows, behavior change is the toughest nut to crack. Luckily, certified health and nutrition coaches devoted to helping people make healthy changes are becoming the new normal in the worlds of healthcare and wellness. Nutrition and wellness coaches have been dubbed “the missing link” in a healthcare industry that spends $8.3 trillion a year globally on healthcare, and $4.4 trillion on wellness, but can’t stem the tide of chronic illness, according to the 2022 Global Wellness Trends Report. Today’s certified nutrition coaches receive rigorous training to offer a more personalized, nuanced approach to getting you healthy in mind, body and spirit. This National Nutrition Month, we share 10 reasons why you should consider working with (or becoming!!) a certified nutrition coach. 10 Reasons to Work with a Nutrition Coach Time is everything Working with a certified nutrition coach offers an entirely new and unique approach to healthcare and wellness. Certified nutrition coaches are wellness professionals who are trained in evidence-based practices that can help motivate people and give them the assistance they need to hit realistic well-being goals. This model is very different from the 15-minute doctor’s appointment where you’re typically given a prescription or a referral to another physician at the end. Nutrition coaches, in contrast, spend time with you (typically an hour a week for at least 3 months) to see real change begin to happen. This is because real behavioral change takes time and commitment on the part of the client and the coach. Goodbye wellness resort, hello nutrition coach Previously, when someone got serious about making radical lifestyle changes, they often opted for a weeklong (or longer) visit to a health spa or resort. This approach was reserved for those who could afford it (both financially and time-wise). With a nutrition coach, you no longer have to travel to a pricey—and often remote—resort. Your weekly wellness appointment can take place in person at home or in an office, or as a telehealth visit via an app. The human touch Speaking of technology, one of the biggest perks of a nutrition coach is that they’re an actual human being who can empathize with your plight and feel your pain—and joy—while on your wellness journey. An “avalanche of digital health companies (are) promising to revolutionize everything from chronic disease management to weight loss by automating personalized health coaching,” according to the 2022 Global Wellness Report. The problem with this is that all the coach-bots are taking the human out of the equation. There is absolutely a place for a Peloton instructor shouting at you from a screen, but when it comes to making real lifestyle changes, nothing compares to a sustained, human-to-human interaction—like that with a certified health and wellness coach. Learn how to navigate diet trends and information There is so much information out there about how to eat right that separating fact from fiction and healthy from unhealthy can be really tough. A nutrition coach can help you cut through misinformation and learn how to navigate diet trends, nutrition labels and media coverage in a way that best serves your unique needs. Have food intolerances? A nutrition coach can walk you through an elimination diet to figure out exactly what’s troubling you. Want to increase energy or lose weight? They’ll work through food choices and personalized programs so that you don’t feel deprived and are better equipped to stick with your commitment toward better health. Even if you’re just curious about trying a popular eating regimen, a trained nutrition coach can help you determine if it’s right for you and how it can best nourish and support your body. RELATED: From Candida to Hashimoto’s: 5 Diets Decoded for Modern Maladies and Pesky Symptoms Share healthy food choices with your family Many people who are interested in nutrition are in charge of making health decisions for their whole family. If this sounds like you, working with a nutrition coach can help you review your own food habits and identify healthy tips that you can take home to your whole family. Weaving wellness into the fabric of your home life can help set your family up for lifelong health, happiness and independence. RELATED: Healthy Eating 101: How to Eat Healthy in College Create healthful food habits One of the best reasons to work with a nutrition coach is to receive guidance in developing healthful eating habits and creating a loving mindset around food. Even if you know what you need to do to feel better, the accountability and support offered by a coach can make a world of difference to help you turn a behavior into a healthy long-term habit. Accountability is a powerful tool for motivation. One study by the Association for Talent Development found that workers tasked with completing a goal had a 95% likelihood of completing it if they had a specific accountability appointment. In contrast, they had a 25% likelihood of completing it when they consciously decided to do it. Working with a nutrition coach can keep you accountable and set you up for success in achieving your food goals and creating sustainable lifestyle change. Overcome emotional eating If you struggle with emotional eating or disordered eating, it’s important to know that you’re not alone. Emotional eating is one of the most common challenges people experience while addressing their eating habits. Of course, anything that stirs powerful emotions can be difficult to work through on your own. This is where a trained professional can help you understand your unique triggers and resolutions. A trained and certified nutrition coach has the tools to identify emotional eating

Diets Decoded: Macro Counting

Is Macro Counting Healthy? We’re going to let you in on a little secret. Most popular healthy diets that are touted for weight loss—from Paleo to Mediterranean and vegetarian—share many of the same basic principles. All involve eating whole foods (as opposed to packaged and processed) and filling your plate with quality sources of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and vitamin-, mineral-, and fiber-rich vegetables. (Again, we’re talking about the ones that fall somewhere on the healthy spectrum, not unhealthy fad diets like, ahem, the Grapefruit Diet.) However, each proposes a slightly different path that leads to fulfilling those principles. In this column, we’ll be breaking them down for you, one by one, so you can figure out which (if any!) is right for you. We’ll explain the facts and then provide quick, actionable tips on how to follow the diet as part of a Nutritious Life. You’ve probably heard fitness influencers or healthy eating enthusiasts talk about “counting their macros.” But what does that really mean? Essentially, they are monitoring how many grams (and calories) they consume from the three macronutrients—carbohydrate, protein and fat. The idea is that if you create a calorie deficit and properly proportion how much of each macronutrient you eat in a day, you’ll achieve your desired weight and, at the same time, reach other health goals—including maintaining or building muscle. Here, we have Macro Counting decoded. What is Macro Counting? Macros aka macronutrients are the calorie-providing nutrients that your body needs in large quantities. The three macronutrients—protein, carbohydrate and fat—each play a unique role and are essential for optimal health. To calculate your calorie needs and macro proportions, the specific target numbers will depend on sex, age, physical activity and weight and fitness goals, so there’s no one-size-fits-all formula. It’s recommended that you aim to get 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh. The remaining number of calories will be made up of carbs and fat set to round out your daily calorie intake. For example, you may determine that you need 1800 calories per day, so those calories should be 40% carbs (720 calories), 35% protein (630 calories) and 25% fat (450 calories). Instead of counting your total caloric intake for the day, you’ll be counting the macros. What You Eat You can eat anything as long as you stay within your target numbers for each macronutrient. Check out the popular #ifitfitsyourmacros for inspo. There are no specific recommendations on the types of foods you should eat, so you decide how you want to meet your proportioned daily macro amounts. What You Don’t Eat No foods are off limits in macro counting. You can enjoy all your favorite foods as long as they don’t put you over your macronutrient target numbers. Want a slice of cake after dinner? Go for it! But if you’ve already consumed all your carbs for the day, you’ll have to skip that cake. Pros and Cons Tracking your macros can help you pay more attention to what you eat and provide clear guidelines when making food choices. Unlike many popular diets today, macro counting doesn’t eliminate or demonize any foods. The flexibility and ability to tailor your intake to your own needs and goals means this approach may be more sustainable than other weight-loss diets. However, there’s no evidence to suggest that specifically monitoring macronutrients will provide greater weight-loss benefits than other calorie-restriction diets. A 2-year clinical trial randomly assigned participants to four different reduced-calorie diets varying in macronutrient composition; however, they didn’t find any clinically meaningful differences in weight loss. Plus, calculating and monitoring your macro intake can be time-consuming and tedious. While there are apps and fitness trackers that can help, it still requires a lot of legwork on your part. This monitoring can also promote an unhealthy obsession with food and induce stress and anxiety, which makes it more difficult to stick with it for the long haul. It’s important to note, while macro counting is a step-up from calorie counting, it still ignores micronutrients and overall food quality. Eating 100 grams of carbs from bagels, chips and cookies will not provide the same health benefits as eating 100 grams of carbs from whole grains, vegetables and fruit. Research shows that quality, not just quantity, matters when it comes to your diet’s impact on your overall health. The Bottom Line There’s nothing magical about this diet approach— you’re creating a calorie deficit and eating a specific proportion of macronutrients. If you find tracking your intake helpful and consume mostly whole unprocessed foods, then counting macros can be an effective and flexible way to lose weight and get lean. If calculating and monitoring macronutrient intake sounds difficult and stressful, then you’ll probably be better off focusing on eating whole foods and listening to your hunger and fullness cues to monitor your intake.