Eat meals and snacks at regular times every day (Possible Strategies)

  • Less tendency to over eat next meal
    • Particularly if meal is higher fat
    • Less probability to eat easily accessible calorie dense snacks
  • Regular eating may keep metabolism high
    • Particularly digestion of higher fiber foods
    • Thermoneogenesis: calories converted to body heat
  • Maintains energy level throughout day
    • Potentially higher caloric expenditure during activity

Eat higher carbohydrates meal (with protein) very soon after exercise (Guidelines)

  • Improves post workout recovery (Niles 2001)
    • Faster rate of muscle glycogen re-synthesis
      • 50% more glycogen can be stored (Friedman 1991)
    • Improved performance in subsequent exercise
    • Less muscle damage
  • Increased protein synthesis
    • Nearly 3 fold increase (Levenhagen 2001)
    • Decreases post exercise cortisol levels
  • Increase lean muscle mass (Esmarck 2001, Holm 2004)
  • Decreases risk of injury (Flakoll 2004)

Eat fruits or vegetables

  • Source of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients
    • See Vegetable and Fruit Color Codes
    • See benefits of cruciferous vegetables
  • May spare calcium and glutamine
    • See balancing dietary pH

Eat high fiber foods (Possible Strategies)

  • Less tendency to eat calorie dense foods
    • By filling up on vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains
  • Fiber can decrease the absorption of dietary fat
    • Fiber acts a barrier in the intestines
  • May help stabilize blood sugar levels
    • See fiber’s effect on insulin studies
  • Helps prevent constipation by adding mass to stool
  • Also see fiber’s other health benefits

Decrease saturated and hydrogenated fat (Possible Strategies)

  • Too much saturated fat or hydrogenated fat may increase risk of heart disease and certain cancers
  • Lower fat food are less calorie dense
    • 4 Calories per gram of carbohydrates and protein
    • 7 Calories per gram of alcohol
    • 9 Calories per gram of fat
  • Dietary fat is more likely to convert to body fat than carbohydrates or protein
    • It takes 20% more energy for the body to convert carbohydrates or protein to body fat than it does to convert dietary fat to body fat
  • Less tendency to over eat
    • Particularly if previous meal or snack is small or skipped
    • Fat is more palatable
    • Also see: Dietary Fat and Appetite Control

Limit sugar consumption

  • Chronic sugar consumption has been linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome
  • See High Fructose Corn Syrup Q&A
  • See Sugar: The Bitter Truth video seminar

Eat a variety of foods from each food group every day

  • Better insures ingestion of all essential nutrients
  • Decreases risk of developing food intolerance’s