Weight Management
We emphasise the importance of both nutrition and exercise when it comes to weight management. With a personalised nutrition plan and customised exercise program, we can help you achieve your weight loss goals and maintain a healthy weight for life.
Weight loss is an important goal for aesthetic and health reasons. Weight loss will also help with many of the conditions that women struggle with through the lifespan, including reproductive issues, menopausal symptoms, IBS and PCOS.
There are two unhelpful myths regarding weight loss. The first is that there is a magic ingredient or method and if only we could figure out what this was, excess body weight would simply melt away. The second unhelpful myth is that weight loss is impossible. Weight loss messes with our metabolisms and so trying to lose weight is futile. Neither of these myths is true. If you want to live at a different weight then you will have to live in a different way but if you are prepared to make the necessary changes, you can lose weight and keep that weight off.
There’s an important distinction between eating for weight loss and dieting. Eating for weight loss involves using strategies that will naturally lead to consuming fewer calories without sacrificing enjoyment of food or feeling hungry all the time. This way of eating can be sustained for a lifetime because the strategies become intuitive and can be built around the foods and meals that you enjoy. Not coincidently, these strategies also optimise long term health regardless of weight loss.
By contrast, dieting involves constant monitoring of food intake, counting calories or macros and restriction of foods or food groups. Dieting is generally not enjoyable and compliance to diets of whatever type is generally poor, leading to periods of weight loss followed by weight regain. It is not always compatible with long-term health. For example, some (but not all) low carb regimes will increase blood cholesterol and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. And some diets are so restrictive that adherents can end up with nutritional deficiencies.
For those with significant weight to lose (more than roughly 10% or your current body weight) changing your eating habits may not be enough. This is commonly because people who are carrying this much extra weight have greater obstacles to overcome to maintain energy balance. Specifically, we now know that genetic variability in brain structure between individuals is responsible for differences in body weight. Some people have a brain structure that gives them a bigger appetite and an even slightly bigger appetite causes small increases in food intake that over time cause unhealthy weight gain. There is now medication that addresses this specific issue by reducing appetite and these medicines, despite only being available for a short time, have already been shown to significantly reduce body weight and improve health, especially cardiovascular health. These medicines represent an extraordinary medical breakthrough as an effective treatment for what is a damaging medical condition and its use should be compared to cholesterol or blood pressure lowering therapy, not as indicative of a personal failure to manage one’s own weight.
Nutrition for Women can help you develop strategies to manage your body weight and support your best long-term health alone or in conjunction with weight loss medicine*.
*Weight loss medication is a prescription-only medicine and must be prescribed by a medical doctor.
Getting Started
Want to talk?
If you're ready to improve your nutrition and overall health but you're not sure where to start, book a free discovery call with us. During this call, we can discuss your needs and goals and help you decide on the best course of action. Don't let the first step hold you back, let's take it together!