The Concept of an “Energy Carbohydrate”

Recently we implemented some pretty significant changes to our programs. We have always valued eating proportionately when on a weight loss journey. We typically had clients eat balanced meals consisting of protein, vegetables and fruit (with a bit more protein in some cases). Recently, we have made changes to these parameters to include some foods that were previously banned. These newly included foods are rice, potato and oats. Almost as soon as we made the announcement of this change, we were flooded with questions on “why?” Why make this change now? Why are these foods no longer “bad”? Etc. In this short post I want to go over the rationale for these changes.

Our Approach to Program Evolution

When making a change as significant as this it is important to note that we don’t do it lightly. A significant amount of time is needed to research and then discuss the pros and cons of the change. The last thing that we ever want to do is to change something that actually makes our system less effective. Typically, the clients in our Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky weight loss offices lose about .5 pounds per day over the first month of participation. We have become known for this ability to get our clients to lose fat quickly. It is only because we implement a number of tools and techniques together that these results are possible. This becomes a situation where you tend to “not fix what isn’t broken”. Over the years, however, we have seen the need arise for clients to have more variety. So a little over a year ago we started researching and discussing new foods that could be added in to serve this purpose. In order for a new food to make the cut we had 4 requirements.

1. It needed to be able to replace the fruit portion of a meal without adding additional calories or carbohydrates.

It was critical that we only select new foods that would replace fruit as the fruit, in our programs, is simply a way to keep the energy content of food up.

2. We needed to be able to come up with a conversion for the new foods to replace fruit.

Figuring out how to weigh an measure a new food to fit our goals is no small task.

3. The new food needed to have at least the same satiety score as fruit.

In our program controlling hunger is extremely important. Fruit is pretty good at this. If we replace fruit, we must replace it with something that is equally good at suppressing hunger.

4. It must be useful.

This one is pretty simple and straightforward. If we add in something new it must fill a need. It must add something that a significant number of clients felt was missing or would make the program easier. So, after about a year of working on this (on and off, admittedly), we began including rice, potato and oats as part of all of our programs. This obviously opens up a lot of exciting options for new recipes and meals. It also makes dining out significantly easier as we found throughout the years that fruit options were very limited at many restaurants. Rice and potatoes are a staple at most dining out establishments.

In closing, please be aware that we don’t take changes to our programs lightly. When you have a good thing just keeping the status quo can be very enticing. Our philosophy will always continue to push the boundaries to better serve our clients with the mission of long term, sustainable, weight loss. This will certainly not be the last change. Details about future changes will always be made through announcements on the Brand NUE app.