The Ten Principles of Nutrition

Our great friend EC Synkowski (CNS, LDN, CF-L4!) posted this the other day and has used these as the tenets of her program on OptimizeMe Nutrition. I wanted to share it today and elaborate on all ten, because as per usual, we all need the reminder.

1. The quantity of food you eat (in calories) determines your weight: We all have a certain amount of calories that will SUSTAIN our current body weight. You can figure this number out a number of ways but the most accurate would be to just eat as you normally do for 1 week and take the average of how many calories you had. If you want to LOSE weight, you need to be under that number EVERY DAY. If you want to GAIN weight, you need to be above that number EVERY DAY.
2. The quantity of food you eat (in macronutrients) determines your body composition: If you’re eating 70% of your calories are from carbohydrates and 20% are from protein and the last 10% are from fat, like most Americans and you’re above your caloric amount then you’re going to gain weight and mostly body fat in a big, bad way. If you’re eating just enough to sustain your weight and 40% of your calories are from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and 30% from fat then you’re probably going to be pretty lean.
3. Timing only matters to the extent it affects quantity: most of us really don’t need to worry about this but if you’re trying to be competitive in anything and you aren’t getting enough calories then you should probably look at eating something post workout.
4. The quality of food (as determined by macronutrient density) determines your health: this is an easy one because as we all know it’s much better for us to eat salmon, broccoli and carrots than it is pizza and ice cream.
5. It is never one thing: weight loss OR gain require patience, consistency and a constant checks and balances.
6. All diets control quantity with varying levels of precision: the basic hallmark of any weight loss diet is to control how much you eat (calorically/macronutrient balance). The more precision generally the better and faster the results.
7. Sustainability is the most important factor in diet selection: ultimately whatever program you choose, it has to be something you can keep doing. Although, obviously being happy to eat pizza and ice cream every day is not going to help you lose weight.
8. The universal diet problem is processed foods: stop eating it if it comes in a bag or box. If it was gonna have a face or you can find it outside growing on a tree or coming out of the ground, it’s ok to eat.
9. Your diet can’t be validated: what works for you might not work for someone else.
10. There are diminishing returns on attaining perfection: at some point there is going to be some give and if it’s a major binge then what was the point of trying to be perfect?

To learn more about your nutrition and how it can impact your life, or to simply learn how to get started with making changes with your food and nutrition, schedule a time to chat with us.