Thousands of people are getting results on a higher fat, low carb, moderate protein style diet. They’re dropping excess weight, thinking better, and having new found energy. But what about those of you who are NOT getting results?
You’re following a ‘healthy diet’, full of colorful vegetables, lots of good fats and enough protein to meet your needs. You’ve stopped eating sugar and processed packaged foods (or kept these at an absolute minimum) and even started to exercise more.
But you’re STILL struggling! Feeling like it’s not made much of a difference! The scale hasn’t budged and you’re still tired!
Take Kelly for example:
Kelly was already following a healthy, whole foods diet, however, she still wasn’t reaching her personal health goals.
After diving in deeper, I found a few missing pieces that turned this all around for her.
In just 10 days, she was finally able to get fast results.
It was like the light switch turned on, her body responded and she got what she wanted from her new health regime.
All that work was finally paying off!
You’ll learn about these in just a few short minutes.
Are you someone still struggling with your diet? Have you been on a higher fat diet (think Paleo, Keto, FODMAPS, or GAPS) and STILL NOT getting results?
Top 3 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Results On A ‘Healthy Diet’
1. You are not taking enough of a ‘break’ from eating.
I call this FEED WELL, FAST WELL. Magic happens when you don’t eat! Not eating, allows your body to stop digesting and start doing these two things:
The first is – burn your stored body fat as fuel! YES, BINGO! You burn fat! This is game changing for those looking to attain a better body composition. Body fat is really just food energy stored away for later use. When you don’t eat, your body grabs from it’s body fat stores and uses it for energy.
Not only that, you’ve effectively lowered your inflammation – the key driver to all chronic disease.
In time, your body simply becomes more metabolically efficient and you feel this as more energy , better mood, and ready for a more productive day.
The second is – recycle old warn out proteins for new healthier ones! Commonly referred to as autophagy, this is when your body has a chance to get rid of old worn out cells and make healthier, more robust ones. Think of this process as building Lego. Using old non functional shaped pieces from other Lego sets to build a brand new functional design.
Your body is much the same. Breaking down old worn out, crappy proteins into it’s components , amino acids and then using them to rebuild newer, more functional proteins.
Getting into a better body shape can be as easy as taking breaks from eating! For my clients, I recommend a daily practice of fasting 14 hours from dinner to breakfast. (for those that have heard of the term, intermittent fasting, this is the same thing). And it’s easy. Many clients report back, that by just having 1 litre of water first thing in the morning alongside their organic coffee or green tea, all before their first meal of the day, they start seeing their body change to a leaner, healthier, fitter person.
If you take anything from this article – I highly suggest you hydrate first thing in the morning, remain in a fasted state, and eat your first meal ONLY when truly hungry. This for most people is 12 to 14, even 16 hours! And – it’s a good thing.
Will you break down precious muscle tissue while engaging in overnight intermittent fasts?
The muscle you’ve been working so hard to build from the days in the gym?
For this answer – we check in with the experts.
Dr Jason Fung, one of the leading experts in the field of fasting shares with us that the body is not that stupid! If that were the case, we would not have survived as a race.
So, according to Dr Fung and many others in the field of fasting – the answer is NO
What the body does instead is gobble up useless proteins for energy or reconstruct into more useful ones. For anyone looking to learn more about Fasting, I highly recommend Dr Fung’s book, The Complete Guide to Fasting, Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting. It’s an easy, fast read and can answer many of your questions on this subject. I know it did for me.
What is you can’t go 14 hours without eating?
All is not lost. If you cannot go 14 hours without eating (dinner to breakfast), this can be a tell-tale sign WHY you still are not getting results from your healthy diet.
Simple solutions to get better at Fasting:
- Go about it at an incremental pace. Start with just 12 hours, then, after your body adjusts, extend it to finally reach the 14-hour mark.
- Dive deeper and get some blood work done. Test these important markers; Fasting Insulin, Glucose Fasting, and Hemoglobin A1C.
- Dive even deeper and get more advanced testing. This includes the addition of HOMA IR (marker for insulin resistance and subsequent risk of diabetes, heart disease, weight gain, and even early stages of Alzheimer’s), Adiponectin (marker for inflammation and subsequent risk of weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes), Leptin (marker for hunger/satiety signals and your risk of over or under eating). High levels of Leptin can indicate Leptin Resistance – a root cause of being overweight.
2. You haven’t addressed problems that were there before you started your ‘healthy diet’ – Paleo, Keto or otherwise.
A higher fat, lower carb, moderate style diet is great to balance blood sugar, clear out toxins, train the body to use fat as fuel (instead of sugar), and increase nutrient status. However, some people need more than just a healthy diet to get their health to where they want it.
Common missing pieces to dropping weight, getting more energy, and even fixing existing health problems include:
Energy Deficit – There is simply not enough energy to fuel the body. Proper energy delivery includes the collective efforts of the mitochondria, thyroid, adrenals, liver, gut, heart and lungs.
Together, these are responsible for producing the energy molecule ATP. The energy currency of your body.
To help you understand energy mechanics, I like the analogy of a car. This I learned after reading Dr. Sarah Myhill’s book, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalitis, It’s mitochondria, not hypochondria.
- Engine – mitochondria.
- Accelerator pedal – thyroid.
- Gearbox – adrenals.
- Filters – liver.
- Fuel – gut (and diet).
- Fuel and oxygen delivery – heart.
- Oxygen – lungs.
If anyone of these organs, glands, or systems are not working well, you won’t be either.
Symptoms that arise from energy deficit – Mild to Severe
Mild Symptoms
- Hard to get up in the morning, sleep in on weekends.
- Use caffeine and sugary carbs to get energy.
- Look forward to sleep and rest time.
- Stop enjoying yourself.
- Lose usual stamina.
- Lose muscle strength.
- Become moody, irritable, and anxious – having fun means expending energy.
- Feel mildly stressed – the symptoms of stress arises when the brain knows it does not have the energy to deal with physical, emotional, and mental demands.
- Joint and muscle stiffness – more than usual. For tissues to slide over each other with minimal friction requires them to be at the right temperature. This requires proper energy – poor energy usually equates to low temperature.
Severe Symptoms
- Quick to fatigue during exercise.
- Pain due to excessive lactic acid build-up.
- Slow recovery from exercise and delayed fatigue. Exercise just wipes you out!
- Foggy brain. The brain is very demanding of energy.
- Dizzy spells.
- Very low mood and depression.
- The feeling of doom and severe stress.
- Intolerance to both cold and heat.
- Variable blurred vision. The muscles of the eye are very energy-dependent.
- Noise intolerance.
- Shortness of breath.
- Susceptible to infection. Always ‘coming down with something’.
- Loss of libido.
Simple solutions to get to the root cause of your health problem.
- Test Don’t Guess. See a qualified health professional to run these basic tests. In fact, I recommend everyone to run a basic run of tests that include the following: See my Blood Tests – Recommended.
- Get Advanced Testing. Get a bigger picture of your health with more thorough testing. I personally have found the Micronutrient Test and Cardio Metabolic and Pre Diabetes Test invaluable in my private practice. Here’s why. Spectracell labs Micronutrient test is a comprehensive analysis of 31 vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, antioxidants, and metabolites. Knowing your levels can better detect underlying organ, glandular, or whole body systems weaknesses.
Overwhelming evidence reveals that micronutrient deficiencies are associated with poor energy delivery status and inflammation (key drivers to all health conditions)
Blood doesn’t lie. Testing blood is like looking under the hood. You don’t really know until you take a closer look.
DID YOU KNOW…….
- Carnitine is needed to burn fat. If you don’t have enough carnitine, you can’t efficiently burn fat! On a KETO DIET and still not dropping weight? This may be why. Carnitine is involved in the metabolism of ketones for energy. Carnitine effectively targets visceral adipose tissue (belly fat). Carnitine also improves muscle recovery. A deficiency also can accompany muscle weakness and early fatigue. More specifically supplementation can improve blood parameters such as myoglobin, creatine kinase and malondialdehyde
My levels of creatine kinase were OFF THE CHARTS! (reference ranges are <175)
My level was 1037!
Clinically, creatine kinase is assayed in blood tests as a marker of damage of CK-rich tissue such as in myocardial infarction (heart attack), rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle breakdown), muscular dystrophy, autoimmune myositides, and acute kidney injury.[4]
This was before I had my micronutrient test and found it to be borderline deficient in carnitine.
After supplementing with carnitine, my creatine kinase lowered to 318.
See the connection? My body needed more carnitine then it was getting from my diet.
Knowing that consistent exercise increases creatine kinase (as this enzyme stays in the blood for up to a week), I am a lot more comfortable with this level than the last. Still a little bit to go, however, I am on the right track.
This is all because I did my blood work.
- Magnesium is needed to feel calm and happy. If you don’t have intracellular magnesium, your body can’t do 320 functions. Magnesium is a cofactor for the neurotransmitters that control emotion, hyperactivity, and attention. Are you someone who tends to ‘overreact’? Magnesium deficiency can induce anxiety and emotional hyper-reactivity. It also has well-documented evidence that it can lift depression. Magnesium plays a key role in daily energy and sleep quality. Also for proper vitamin D assimilation strong bones, and healthy metabolism (losing weight).
- Zinc is needed for proper digestion. Not enough zinc and you can’t activate almost 200 enzymes that play a role in proper digestion (got constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, cramps)? Zinc is also needed for better mood (with its involvement with increasing melatonin, serotonin, and dopamine), healthy metabolism (by improving insulin sensitivity and converting T4 to T3), and proper immune system (by regulating immune cell signal transduction specifically T cell), In fact when you see low zinc and low manganese it raises a red flag to do further testing for Lyme’s disease.
- Choline is needed for proper gallbladder function (bile). Eating a higher fat diet, gaining weight and feeling nauseous? Do you have belly fat? Have you been told you have Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease? You may be deficient in choline. In fact, according to Ann Louise Gittleman, PhD, CNS and author of Radical Metabolism (a book I am currently reading), up to 90% or women over the age of 40 are choline-deficient. Choline is a very important nutrient and first discovered in bile. The choline in bile helps with the break down of fats. What we want is healthy, free flowing bile. Not toxic bile that is thick and sticky. When your bile is sick – you get sick – it’s that simple. Choline is so important, it helps control the deposition of fats in your organs – especially the liver! And we all know the importance of a good liver. Liver and your gall bladder together make up your hepatic system. The primary system that keeps you clean and lean through proper detoxification.
As you can see, testing for micronutrients that may not be present in enough quantities can be game changing – even life-giving to individuals.
Being low in specific nutrients may be why you are not getting results from your healthy diet.
You never truly know unless you test!
The tests I’ve done on myself also showed one of the markers – Lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a) as its commonly known, is an extremely atherogenic lipoprotein that is strongly linked to blood clots. My score was sky high! This puts me at a high risk for heart disease.
Interestingly enough Lp(a) is largely determined by my genes and not from diet and lifestyle. Both my grandparents died of heart attacks in their early 50s.
I turn 51 years of age this week and after receiving my blood test reports, I have started on Linus Pauling’s Protocol (vitamin C, lysine, and proline).
3. It’s not always about what you put in, it’s also about what comes out. Time to talk – Poo and Pee. Yup. Something we all need to take a look at to properly gauge how your healthy diet is working for you.
A well put together diet is one of the cornerstones to being fit n healthy. Noticed I said Fit AND Healthy. Not JUST Fit or not JUST Healthy. Both can be done, however, in order to achieve this, we need to be cognoscente of our ability to remove toxins.
A sudden spike on the bathroom scale or a lowered level of exercise performance may have less to do with what goes into your body than what is coming out of it (or in this case, what isn’t).
Healthy consistent bowel movements (at least one, ideally two per day) and regular trips to the toilet (many doing #1 – aka peeing), and supporting this beautiful symphony of healthy food and water in with the removal of acid waste – out. This is where a properly done detox regime can help.
Ahhh, my specialty! I just needed to add a plugin for that. For help with detox, please contact me at contact Michale. Let’s get the party started! In a good way, so to speak.
Getting back to the topic at hand…..poo and pee.
If toxic waste remains in the body too long, proteins putrefy (producing toxic ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and other toxins). Carbohydrates ferment (producing ethyl alcohol, methane gas, or excess lactic acid) and fats turn rancid (creating highly toxic molecules that destroy your own production of vitamins and nutrients).
Basically you end up feeling congested (mucus is a liver issue) with body pain (acid toxins are a kidney issue). Yuck!
Have you ever know someone who eats, drinks, smokes and is still relatively healthy? While others who make better choices with their diet and lifestyle develop illness?
It doesn’t make sense, does it?
It got to do with their own toxic threshold. The greater the toxins coming in and less coming out – the greater the chance of illness (aka Yuck).
Here is a quick test to check for your Toxic Load. adp_detox_questionnaire_v2
Want more information on how to detox your way to health, click here on my last article
Boost energy, banish cravings, balance hormones with DETOX
So……..lets go full circle and get back to Kelly.
What did I do to help Kelly get fast results in just 10 days.
She was already eating a healthy whole foods diet, exercising regularly, drinking enough water and sleeping well. All good check marks to an overall healthy diet and lifestyle plan.
However, here’s the missing pieces that helped move the dial to the physic she was after and whole body health.
What I recommended was a 14 hr fast (for fat burning and cellular clean up), increased her protein a little (to build muscle), adjusted her carbohydrate choices (to assist in fat burning by balancing insulin levels), and used my UNDAS for detoxing her liver, kidney and gut (fat burning organs).
According to Kelly, it was easy to follow and she finally got the health results she was after.
I truly hope you may have new found hope and a better direction with your own health strategy. I know I have and many of my personal clients.
Are you interested in taking your health to the next level?
Not getting results and want to get Leaner. Stronger. Fitter?
I offer Personalized Nutritional Plans and the Spectracell Micronutrient, Cardiometabolic and Pre Diabetes, and Hormone tests.
Contact Me – Get One On One Help – Personalized Nutritional Consulting
SAMPLE CARDIOMETABOLIC AND PRE DIABETES TEST
Nutrient Correlation – Deficiencies Linked to Weight
Also, Please share this with someone you love who is struggling with their health.
It can make the world of difference!
Drink 1 litre towards your required amount of filtered water. Drink the rest between meals and not too close to bedtime. BENEFITS: Aids in detox. Rehydrates for easy fat loss. Recharges energy. Your required amount of water for the day is ___ 
EM = Exercise More
GET OUTSIDE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. Spending time outside (sunglass free) keeps your Circadian Rhythm in check. This helps with the entire hormonal cascade and leptin to work properly. Getting outside and in nature is an excellent way to balance stress. Strive for 20 minutes in the morning and 20-30 minutes in the afternoon. Ideally, go for an easy walk after dinner. This helps with good digestion, fat loss and best sleep.