What is the Right Nutrition Plan for You?
When I talk to my clients, I always stress the importance of understanding who they are mentally, emotionally, and physically so that we can strategize the best nutrition plan for them. As a physician life coach, I have worked with hundreds of physicians who are stretched for time, and deciding on and committing to a nutrition plan seems daunting. Well, you came to the right place.
Deciding on a nutrition plan will help you achieve optimal health by focusing on a primary goal - whether it be fat loss, muscle gain, improved fitness, ending emotional eating, avoiding restrictive eating patterns, and/or staying far away from diet culture mentality.
When I discuss nutrition strategy, there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, we have to know your history of dieting. Any individual who has "dieted" in the past runs the risk of having leptin resistance. With leptin resistance, I often hear, "I'm eating 500 calories per day and the scale isn't budging.” Leptin is a hormone made in our fat cells. When we have adequate body fat, our leptin levels are high. When we start to lose body fat, our leptin levels start to decrease. When our leptin decreases low enough, it signals our body to stop releasing body fat. With leptin resistance, our body does not sense that we have adequate leptin and our body will not release body fat despite having plenty.
There are many weight loss doctors out there along with many coaching programs that address nutrition. I am board certified in obesity medicine, and I am also a certified physician coach. But, I do not consider myself a weight loss doctor or coach. I consider myself a physician coach who specializes in optimal body composition by focusing on body fat loss while preventing muscle mass loss. This is something that mainstream weight loss programs do not address, and it is essential to understand.
The diet culture focuses so much on "weight loss," but what that indicates is that our body is losing mass and we don't know from where. We want to preserve lean muscle mass and focus on fat loss so that we can preserve our basal metabolic rate. We can do this by incorporating strength training along with proper nutrition. To lose body fat, we have to be in a calorie deficit. To gain lean muscle mass, we typically have to be eating maintenance calories or be in a calorie surplus, depending on our body type. For example, a mesomorph body type that has a tendency to put muscle mass on may be able to do so by eating maintenance calories, while an ectomorph or naturally thin body type may need to be eating in a surplus.
When you are looking for a program to help you adopt a nutrition strategy to honor your authentic body, we want to make sure that we are keeping a few things in mind. Will the nutrition strategy that you adopt be sustainable so that you can achieve long-term weight loss, which is focused on body fat loss and lean muscle mass maintenance? Next, does it incorporate mindset strategies to allow for the understanding of how our thoughts create our actions?
If we want different results, we must have different beliefs. To keep getting the same results, we can keep the same beliefs. For example, if we believe, "I will have to change, restrict my eating, and go hungry to reach my goal," then this will make us feel unmotivated to take action. But, if we believe, "I can learn a new process that is enjoyable and will allow me to achieve my optimal health," we will be curious, motivated, maybe even excited. Physician wellness and preventing physician burnout involves us feeding our body in a way that is not only strategic, but enjoyable.
Now, let's get to it.
I typically start educating my clients on understanding their unique body type so that they can start to honor who they are. Our body types, also known as somatotypes, are unique to us. So, what we are born with, we will keep throughout life. Now, our body composition can change over time, but our body type cannot. With that being said, we can optimize our body composition at any phase of life. Many of my clients in menopause are now sporting their most optimized body composition to date.
The 3 somatotypes include ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. Ectomorph is the naturally thin body type that may have more difficulty gaining muscle mass, mesomorphs are the naturally muscular body type that can gain muscle with ease, and the endomorph body type is one that has a decent amount of muscle and tends to carry additional body fat. Most of us are a combination body type with mesomorph-endomorph being the most common type. It is so empowering once we do understand the body type we were given because it can help us to develop a "neutral scale" mentality. And, once we understand our body type, we can identify our primary goal so that we can select our nutrition strategy.
Let's start with intuitive eating. The first thing I want to clear up about intuitive eating is that we choose intuitive eating to build a better relationship with ourselves, our bodies, and our food. It is not the plan that we should adopt with the intention of losing body fat or gaining muscle. Now, those things can happen as a secondary effect. But, the primary goal is to heal ourselves from within. If you have emotional eating that has created endless amounts of food chatter, and you are engaging in a lot of negative self-talk toward your body, intuitive eating is what I recommend to help the healing process.
Many are afraid to jump into intuitive eating because it may feel like a loss of control. But, let me say this. On the other side of that feeling of "loss of control" is a discovery of "self-trust." Intuitive eating is about trusting the process and committing to meeting your authentic body when you honor it. We don't know what your authentic body will weigh, what its body fat percentage will be, or even how it moves. But, you will get to meet it and love it and embrace it and heal from all of the shame and disappointment that the diet culture teaches us.
Intuitive eating relies on becoming in touch with your hunger scale. This is where we commit to getting hungry before we eat. We then become more aware and begin to learn what our cues are for when we are satisfied with eating. Observing for fullness is what I like to call it. Intuitive eating encourages us to allow our feelings. Again, if putting an end to emotional eating is your focus, then intuitive eating is the top strategy. With intuitive eating, we start to move our bodies in a way where we get to actually love movement. Intuitive eating often feels peaceful when we pursue it in the way it was meant to be selected. I believe that taking time to become an intuitive eater is one of the most powerful things we can do to not only understand, but to heal the relationship we have with food and our body.
Mindful Eating is being present with your hunger, your fullness, the experience of eating, the flavors, and the textures of food. It is using all 5 senses to experience your food. Like intuitive eating, the goal is to listen to our body in order to honor what nourishment we prefer. On a recent trip, we indulged in a dining experience for the senses. It was a 12-course meal that required you to see, smell, feel, hear, and taste the food. The experience lasted 4 hours, and it was incredibly satisfying.
Mindful Eating and Intuitive Eating do have subtle differences. Mindful Eating engages the senses and promotes reduction in distractions during meals, while Intuitive Eating incorporates mindfulness and other tools to reconnect with the body and strengthen the relationship we have with food and our body. Intuitive Eating and Mindful Eating can be done together. Mindful Eating is typically adopted for a more healing approach to nutrition, however, secondary results like body fat loss, improved fitness, and lean muscle mass maintenance are common.
Traditional Calculated Macros can sound intimidating to some. And if mindset work is not incorporated well before calculating macros is attempted, then it can very much feel like a strategy soaked in diet mentality. But, if we can go through the steps of healing ourselves with intuitive eating, becoming more mindful, and then choose a specific goal that will honor our authentic body, then Calculated Macros can be a very powerful strategy.
The benefits of Calculated Macros is that we can optimize nutrition for any goal we may have, whether it be body fat loss, muscle gain, muscle mass maintenance, improved performance, and the list goes on. It is also a great way for us to get data so that we can direct our strategy as we move forward in the process. For example: for body fat loss, if we are not optimizing our macronutrients, then we have potential to lose muscle along with body fat. When this happens, our basal metabolic rate can decrease, and we will inevitably regain weight over time. For some, calculating macros is empowering because it takes the guesswork out. But, I do not love starting with Calculated Macros for someone who is working toward moving away from diet mentality and trying to heal through intuitive eating first.
Mindful Macros® is my trade-marked nutrition program. Mindful Macros® encompasses strategies from intuitive eating, mindful eating, and Calculated Macros. We target our primary goal by adopting a nutrition strategy that requires us to eyeball portions and balance our food groups, but without weighing or measuring. Great for someone who wants a gentle but highly effective strategy.
Bottom line. Any plan can work. But, for long-term sustainability, we have to meet you where you are.
So, where are you? What speaks to you? The decision is yours and this can be amazing, pleasurable, empowering, and effective. Small changes over time that you can be consistent with is the winning strategy, no matter what plan you pick.
Want to learn more about how my coaching programs help women physicians achieve optimal health? Click HERE for a private info call with our Concierge team!
About Ali Novitsky, MD
Dr. Novitsky is certified by the Life Coach School, Obesity Board Certified, a physician speaker, and fitness enthusiast. Ali helps women physicians achieve their optimal health with scientific, yet intuitive, principles that work.
Follow Ali Novitsky, MD on Facebook or Instagram.
Subscribe to Life Coaching for Women Physicians on Apple Podcasts.