My meeting with a Sports Nutritionist

LOL I would like to see scientific evidence that woman need extra calories when they release a microscopic egg during ovulation. The rest of this is common sense. Hope you didn't pay too much money for this "consultation".

Well, she is a scientist and nutritionist who trained at Mass General, so I do think she is basing this on research, darlin'.....just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't true.

Pregnant women don't even need extra calories until their 3rd trimester, and they are literally building a person. So I doubt a single follicle releasing a microscopic egg is going to necessitate 300-500 extra calories.

Just curious - are you sure you don't mean menstruation instead of ovulation? Or did she mean the entire cycle? I can see a woman needing more food at that point to replace blood and tissue loss?

You don't actually need to replace the lost blood and tissue at the time that you're losing it -- it's nothing that your body was using for its own benefit; it was just preparation in case you got pregnant. In fact, you actually net a little material for your body's own purposes, because you do reabsorb a little of the material from the uterus (most female mammals reabsorb it all). You don't replace it until your body starts rebuilding the lining of the uterus, a little later in your cycle.

Her name is Nancy Clark, in case anyone wants to check out her credentials and website. Hope this is helpful. The meeting has changed the way I've been looking at my weight loss, for the better! The diet industry has made all of us afraid to trust ourselves...and they make billions as a result.

But isn't this Nancy Clark making her little piece of the billions by giving out diet advice? Doesn't that make her part of the diet industry that has made us all afraid to trust ourselves?

LOL I would like to see scientific evidence that woman need extra calories when they release a microscopic egg during ovulation. The rest of this is common sense. Hope you didn't pay too much money for this "consultation".

Well, she is a scientist and nutritionist who trained at Mass General, so I do think she is basing this on research, darlin'.....just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't true.

10/10 for condescension. :drinker:

I'm actually going to speak to her credentials. She's a sports nutritionist. SPORTS. Not a nutritionist who specializes in weight loss. She does seem to know her stuff when it comes to sports. But knowing about sports does not mean she knows about weight loss.

A very good point - a friend did a Human Biology degree. She was so astounded by the, ah, 'simplicity' (presentation and content) of some of the lectures she shared with 'sports science' that she had actually taken a copy of the slides to show to me.
(Yes, the presentation did look like it was for first year secondary school!) She was, appreciably, sceptical of their knowledge.

Oh no. I've lost a good 130 lbs breaking most of these "rules".

And the lightest I've been my entire adult weight was when I rarely ate breakfast, as I'm typically not a breakfast person. And I maintained that for years.

Wow. What will I ever do now that I've broken so many rules? Perhaps I should regain the lost 130lbs as an act of penance?

Yet...there are those that have followed most of those rules and have lost weight.

It took me time to find what worked for me...such as I went from a non breakfast eater to now eating breakfast keeps me from binging the rest of the day. I do eat most of my calories in the afternoon because that is when I seem to be hungry and eat lighter in the evenings.

I don't think that there is an exact road map to weight loss that will get us all there in the end. I think that they only thing that will apply to most...well...actually all of us...is eating at a deficit.

Yes, but the root of the discord in this thread was the wording the OP used.

Had she come on here and said she met with a top sports nutritionist and then given some helpful tips, the contention in this thread would have likely not existed.

But check the wording:

"weight loss of more than 1 lb. per week is 97% likely to be regained and lost muscle tissue is replaced by fat when regained "

Presented as a fact. This is not a medical fact.

"people who KEEP weight off do the following: eat breakfast, don't allow themselves to get overly hungry, eat everything in moderation, exercise, weigh themselves regularly and keep a food journal. "

Presented as a fact. People who "KEEP weight off" do not all follow one specific road. They do not all have one universal relationship with hunger, they do not all eat the same timed meals, they do not all eat "everything" in moderation, they do not all weigh themselves regularly, and they do not all keep a food journal. Some people who keep weight off take some, maybe even all, of these actions. But presenting it as a universal fact that ALL people do is false.

"saving all your calories until dinner causes you to gain weight; you are supposed to fuel during the day and lose weight while you are sleeping - so eat the majority of your calories throughout the day and SPOIL YOUR APPETITE for dinner and then just have something light "

Presented as a fact. This is not a medical fact.

The OP is not presented as a list of suggested guidelines that might work. It's presented as a list of facts, and later on you'll see that Wonderwoman23 responds snarkily to folks who rebutted these so called "facts".

In high school, my friend's dad was a doctor and he told us the same thing about eating more around PMS. Glad to hear it from someone else!

I have read some things to suggest the same, during menstruation, that is. My question here is there is typically a two week window between ovulation and the start of menstruation. That leaves a lot of time for extra calories.

That's basically what I was getting at too...I have actually read in the past that women burn slightly more calories while actively menstruating (not in the PMS stage) but my impression was always that it was not a significant amount. My concern was just that telling someone they can eat an extra 300 calories a day for the two weeks after ovulation might lead to some unwanted weight gain eventually.

LOL I would like to see scientific evidence that woman need extra calories when they release a microscopic egg during ovulation. The rest of this is common sense. Hope you didn't pay too much money for this "consultation".

Well, she is a scientist and nutritionist who trained at Mass General, so I do think she is basing this on research, darlin'.....just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't true.

10/10 for condescension. :drinker:

I agree with this. Clark's not basing anything on research, but on common knowledge or myth.

Just because someone is a "sports nutritionist" does not mean they have all the answers, and she definitely does not. However, when you are trying to sell your product, you usually provide canned answers. All of her "research" has already been said in various wording at various internet venues, and most of the stuff is based on myth. However, as I said in my previous post, she did say some good stuff, which was based on common sense.

- people who KEEP weight off do the following: eat breakfast, don't allow themselves to get overly hungry, eat everything in moderation, exercise, weigh themselves regularly and keep a food journal.

:laugh:

I've been significantly underweight all my adult life (I'm 50 now) and I haven't eaten breakfast since I was about 11 or so. In fact, on a normal weekend day, I don't eat until the supper meal... too busy.

I've done no regular exercise until recently when I started experiencing menopause symptoms three years ago and became concerned about loss of muscle and bone density.

Nor have I adhered to any of the other aspects of the guru's "prescription".

I haven't read all the replies here so my apologies if this is repeated information. OP's quote of the nutritionist quoted above is derived from the National Weight Control Registry's findings, which are listed (in part) here: http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/

This is the largest study of individuals who have lost weight and kept it off in the nation.

Its findings do not reveal that these things are essential to weight maintenance...rather, these habits are associated with individuals who have successfully lost an average of 66 lbs and kept it off for 5.5 years. Basically, most people in the study who have lost have employed these methods. not everyone, of course.

I just read the first page, and I want to say, WOW! I just realized I am the most hungry during ovulation time! Funny now that since I'm done having kids and for the first time am really just learning about nutrition, my period is finally regular and I know when I ovulate! Good to know it wasn't all in my head.

However, in the end, I am going to go out on a limb and say that most of us here want to be successful at losing weight and want to be supportive of each other in that regard.

And to me it is NOT supportive offering advice that for many people can actually harm their weight loss and make it harder for them .

You may not have insinuated people 'HAD' to follow the recommendations, but things like this which been PROVEN to not be true are the sort of thing that WILL scare people if they do it.

- saving all your calories until dinner causes you to gain weight;

I would suggest it's not really a case of different perspectives, but when offering advice it should be a case of "does this advice apply to the majority of the population". If it doesn't, that needs to be clarified when the information is offered.