06/29/2025
Having trouble losing body fat or improving body composition?
I want to touch on a few things that may be limiting your weight loss or body comp goals.
Many people believe that losing weight is simple as "move more and eat less" or "expend more calories than I consume".
That seems pretty reasonable and it can work for a short period of time. That is pretty much the basis of the "Biggest Loser" show. The contestants work out to exhaustion and eat in a drastic caloric deficit for a few months. But, what happens to almost all of the Biggest Losers after the show? They gain the weight back and then some.
Why? Because they aren't focusing on their hormones!
Optimal hormonal levels are the key to sustained weight loss and health.
If all you are focused on is "I need to eat less and move more" you are setting your self up for constant hunger, mood issues, decreased energy, and eventual failure.
If you are eating a nutrient dense diet, getting proper restorative sleep, managing stress, and working out at the proper intensity, then you will optimize your hormones and the energy-out part of the equation will be optimized.
We need to stop focusing solely on the "calorie" and start focusing on how we can optimize our mitochondria and hormones.
The food you consume is much more complex than just how many calories you are consuming. What signals and instructions is that food giving to your body? A dinner of Steak, asparagus, and a sweet potato will have much different effect on your body as the same amount of calories of pasta, garlic bread and a soda.
For example,
Consuming ultra processed food such as a jelly filled donut will:
-Cause insulin to spike, resulting in eventual hypoglycemia (less energy)
-Disrupt your gut microbiome from the gluten and glyphosate.
-Damage your mitochondria from the fried industrial seed oils (again less energy).
-Increase systemic inflammation which will increase cortisol.
-The increase in cortisol will decrease testosterone
-The increase in inflammation may potentially make you less likely to workout or at the least make it less enjoyable to workout due to pain in your joints.
-Ultra processed foods are also terrible for your recovery, sleep, and neurotransmitters such as dopamine (less motivation to move and again...less energy)
I could go on and on, but you get the point by now. The quality of the food you eat has a dramatic impact on how you feel, your hormones, your motivation, your recovery, your mood....all of these things will effect how likely you are to stick with your weight loss journey. The QUALITY of the calories coming in will have a giant impact on the amount of calories being expended.
We need to stop thinking as food as just calories. It's not merely a mathematical equation that will allow you to lose body fat and improve body composition long term. Think of food as fuel. Think of food as a tool that will improve your hormones and metabolism. Focus more on the nutrients of food and the signals those nutrients give to your body as opposed to just thinking that less calories equals more weight loss.
If you focus on eating real, unprocessed whole foods you will naturally eat less and you will have the energy and motivation to move more. If you consume the right foods you won't be battling hunger constantly, which will allow you to make a lifestyle change and not simply a 2 month crash diet with an eventual regain of all the progress you made.
Our philosophy at Teager Nutrition is to give you the tools you need to optimize your hormones and energy. We have found that we don't need to meticulously measure calories with our clients if we can optimize your thyroid, cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, insulin, neurotransmitters, ghrelin, leptin, ect.... If those hormones are running efficiently, then the calories in calories out model takes care of itself with a lot less motivation and effort required. Our goal is to have your cells and mitochondria working so efficiently that you will be able to add more food to your diet instead of the conventional paradigm of continuous caloric constriction in order to lose more weight.
Sure, you can lose weight by weighing your food and cutting calories. But how much of that weight loss is lean tissue such as muscle? How sustainable is that? How long before your thyroid and metabolism starts to fight back from lack of nutrient dense food? Once your metabolism drops, will you have enough willpower to cut even more calories?
Its hard enough to get the proper nutrients eating 3000 calories on the Standard American Diet (SAD). It will obviously be even harder at 2,500.....then harder at 2000.... and almost impossible lower than that.
Our goal is to have you eat more, which means more nutrients, which will lead to heathier cells, which will naturally lead to more movement due to improved energy levels.
Our method takes time. If you are looking to drop 30 lbs in a month, then you should probably find someone else. If you are looking for LONG-TERM health improvements with the side effect of improving body composition, then consider booking an appointment with us.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Teager Nutrition
