You can look thin on the outside, and still be fat – it’s called skinny-fat

“Skinny-fat”.  It sounds like a conflict in terms – like “jumbo shrimp” or “freezer burn”.  But I see skinny-fat clients all the time – they’re people who look as if their weight is about right, but they’ve actually got a lot of excess body fat.  And – hard as this may be to believe – some of these people are, technically, obese.  You’d be wrong to think that all obese people are large.  Obesity simply means that someone has too much body fat – regardless of their weight they can be skinny-fat.  So even if body weight falls within a ‘normal’ range, a person can still be obese. Or to put it another way, normal weight + high body fat = “skinny-fat”. Read more »

Most of my clients know the healthy eating drill pretty well – keep your fats down, eat plenty of fruits and veggies, make most of your grains “whole” and focus on low fat protein. But many of them have adopted some eating habits that they truly believe are healthy – and I have to spend some time trying to convince them otherwise. These eating habits sound like they’re healthy – but they really end up being less so when they’re put into practice. Are your eating habits as healthy as you think they are? Read more »

Some of the most challenging clients I have are the ones who have a lot of weight to lose, who need a complete diet and lifestyle overhaul…and who take me to task on every suggestion I make. Pack a lunch instead of going to the drive through once a week? “Can’t – no time in the morning”. Get up a half hour earlier to take a walk? “Nope – too tired”. Get rid of the ice cream in the freezer? “No can do – I keep it there for the kids”. Mind you, I’m not asking them to make all these changes all at once, but some people really resist even the smallest change. Sometimes they’re afraid to fail, or they feel the sacrifice is too much. Sometimes, the rewards aren’t readily apparent. So when someone has a lot of bad habits that need to be broken, the best thing I can do is to try to help them prioritize – and work on the easiest things first. Read more »

When it comes to eating well and exercising, Americans seem to be pretty good at “talking the talk”.  Most of us claim that we’re taking in less fat, sugar and red meat, that we’re eating more fruits and veggies, and that we’re exercising regularly.  But when it comes to actually “walking the walk”, it’s a different story.  There seems to be a big gap between the number of people who intend to engage in these healthy behaviors and the number who actually do.   And that seems to suggest that knowledge alone isn’t enough when it comes to adopting healthy behaviors – just because we know what we should be doing, doesn’t mean we actually will.

A few months back, the results of a survey¹ were released by a market research firm that’s been tracking the eating behaviors of millions of Americans for over 30 years.  The survey presented adults with a series of statements related to nutrition and healthy lifestyle behaviors – things like, “I exercise regularly” or “I limit my sugar intake”.  The participants were then asked two things – how often they actually followed these behaviors over the previous twelve months, and how often in the next year they expected to.

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