by Dr. John Neustadt

Whether it’s the keto diet, paleo diet or some other focus on restrictive eating, too often to get that beach-worthy body, people starve themselves. Yes, you might reach your short-term goal that way, but too many people can’t sustain that. Your weight–and self-esteem–yo-yo back to where they were because they never learned how to eat to promote their health for the rest of your life. You never learned to eat so their body naturally slimmed down and could stay that way. Sure, you can reduce their calories, but if the calories you’re eating are empty, then you’re sabotaging your goals. If those calories aren’t nutrient-rich, if they don’t give your body what it needs to function—to burn fat, to increase energy and to build muscle—then you’re waistline may slim down but that’s only because your body is starving.

It doesn’t have to be that way and it shouldn’t be that way. While we all want to feel fantastic in whatever we wear, there’s a way to eat that gets your body healthy so it naturally slims down and tones up and you can feel fantastic and ready for summer year-round. Implement the system I created for my patients and you’ll never have to worry about getting bathing-suit ready again.

And what is that system? It’s ridiculously simple. All you have to focus on eating plants and protein from whole foods.

Plants

Whoel fruits and vegetables provide fiber, vitamins, minerals and other plant nutrients your body needs. Fiber helps regulate blood sugar, promotes healthy gut bacteria and helps you feel full longer.

When you emphasize eating more plants, you’ll naturally be getting a healthy blend of soluble and insoluble fiber, plus additional nutrients to feel your best. The recommended daily amount of total dietary fiber is 30 grams per day. When you’re eating that much fiber, you’ll naturally be eating lots of whole foods.

Protein

The other nutrient you want to pay attention to is protein. When proteins are digested they break down into amino acids. Amino acids are like letters of the alphabet that can be combined in many ways. Our body uses amino acids to produce hormones, muscle, tendons, bone, immune proteins and much more. Protein is also an excellent way to regulate blood sugar.

The US Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of protein is about 1 gram per kilogram body weight per day. In the US that can be a bit confusing for people to figure out since we weigh ourselves in pounds and not kilograms. But there’s a simple conversion you can do to estimate the minimum amount of protein you should be eating.

Simply take your body weight and divide it by two. That will be about the minimum number of grams of protein you should be getting a day. I like to add about 10% onto that, so you can add a few grams of protein onto your estimate. But that’s the minimum amount, or the amount of protein that you should be getting through food. If you need a little extra you can also supplement protein with a protein powder, but I wouldn’t recommend taking a protein powder more than once a day.

Track What You’re Eating

I have yet to meet anyone who could tell me how much dietary fiber is in an apple, banana or cup of beans. Or how much protein is in the different foods they eat. To transition into eating this way you’ll need to quantify how many grams of fiber and protein you’re eating. It’s actually quite simple.

If you’re eating a package of food, the nutrition facts panel will tell you how many grams of fiber and protein there are in a serving of the food. You can then estimate how many servings you’re eating and how many grams of fiber and protein you’re getting.

For whole, unpackaged foods there aren’t handy nutrition facts panels you can glance at. Instead download the NBI Protein Handout and NBI Fiber Handout. These convenient resources provide the amount (in grams) of protein and fiber for common foods. You can print them up and use them as references. Patients of mine would even take the handouts to the supermarket when they were shopping to help guide them in making healthier choices. And if what you’re looking for isn’t on those handouts, a quick Google search can fill in any gaps.

Know Your Numbers

Before you run off and start increasing your protein and fiber, wait. I don’t want you to start yet. It’s important to figure out how much protein and fiber you’re eating before you change anything. So first take a piece of paper and for two days write down everything you eat. After each day sit down and estimate how many grams of total fiber and how many grams of total protein you ate. That will give you your baseline. It will show you where you are now compared to where you need to get to. It’s your starting point.

Transition into Eating This Way

After you’ve calculated your baseline (how many grams of proteins and fiber you’re eating before you changed your diet) you can start transitioning into eating this way. It’s important to transition into this because oftentimes people discover that eating more of a whole foods diet is very different from what they’ve been doing. For most people, this way of eating means they’re consuming more fruits and vegetables. More of a whole foods diet. Less packaged foods. And that can take some time to transition into doing.

This way of eating is not a short-term diet. It’s a dietary pattern that’s based on the Mediterranean Dietary Pattern that provides the raw materials your body needs to thrive. It’s a way to eat for life that has been clearly shown in hundreds of studies over more than 50 years to decrease the risk of diabetes, cancer, death from cancer, heart disease, and obesity.

What you want to do is teach your body what it’s like to eat a really nutritious and amazing diet that will give you energy and the nutrients you need. Eating this way usually requires people to start shopping a little differently. Perhaps exploring different aisles in the grocery store. Maybe buying new spices because it might require you to cook differently.

I like to tell people to transition over six weeks because wholesale, major changes done overnight tend not to be sustainable. I also tell them to do this for six days a week and take a break on the seventh day. People like to have something to look forward to, especially during the transition.

So stick to this six days a week and on the seventh day eat whatever you want. What you’ll discover is that as you’re feeling healthier and starting to slim down. You’re going to realize that on the seventh day when you go off the diet and you’re eating like crap, you’ll feel like crap too.

You’re also gonna notice that your taste buds are going to change. Foods and drink that didn’t taste that sweet before are going to taste sweeter. Things that did taste sweet to you before will taste too sweet. Your taste buds and your body are going to start to adapt to this way of eating. And you’ll start to crave healthy, nutritious foods, which is what your body thrives on anyway.

To help you transition into eating this way, rely on the Protein and Fiber handouts and be diligent about calculating the amounts you’re getting. But the goal is to develop an intuitive sense of how to eat this way. The handouts are tools to help you do that. Once you know how to eat this way you can simply stick the handouts in a drawer. Or better yet, share them with a friend and help them improve their life.

Ditch the Dieting

So ditch the dieting. Ditch the goal of getting bathing-suit ready for summer because people tend to get there and then they just put the weight back on. Set your goal to get healthy and transition into eating a healthy diet and living a healthier life so you don’t have to ever worry about getting bathing-suit ready again. Do this for six weeks and I promise that not only will you feel a difference and see a difference in the mirror, you’ll feel fantastic all year round in whatever you decide to wear.

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