Natural Weight Loss

Category: Natural Weight Loss

How Important Is Water for Weight Loss?

Jun 11, 2026

Let’s talk about an often-overlooked part of a weight loss journey – water intake. Of course most of us understand that keeping yourself hydrated is a healthy thing to do. Sufficient water intake can improve your energy and mood, aid digestive health, and even help you look younger. Obviously staying hydrated is important but can it aid in weight loss?

In our weight loss centers we highly encourage our clients to stick to a hydration routine when actively trying to lose weight. Our recommendation is to try to drink at least 80 ounces of water per day. I am one to always look for the scientific “why?” with programs I suggest. In this case there is evidence that staying hydrated can aid in weight loss in at least two major ways. Let’s look at one study from 2013 which looked at 50 overweight women. In this study they were asked to drink an additional 500 ml of water per day. The results were significant reductions in not only their weight but also their body fat from pre-study measurements. A similar study showed that dieters who drank 500 ml of water before meals lost 44% more weight than those on similar plans who did not consume the additional water.

So what are the two ways that researchers believe that water aids weight loss? First, it is understood that proper hydration keeps the body’s metabolism running more efficiently, leading to an increase in calories burned. Secondly, drinking more water can make you feel full. This can lead to fewer calories being taken in. So try increasing your water intake if on a weight loss journey. Even without changing your regular routine you may start seeing noticeable results.

Does Being Overweight Really Lead to Health Problems?

May 28, 2026

In this post I would like to discuss the health implications of being overweight. I want to stick to science and data here, as there are a lot of misconceptions about being overweight and how it affects overall health.

In our weight loss offices our primary focus is to improve the health of the clients we work with. This goal even takes precedent over simply reducing the number on the scale. There are certainly many unhealthy ways to lose weight which may contribute to more health problems. These ways we want to avoid at all costs.

So what does science say about being overweight and the impact it may have on overall health? According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are several health disorders that may increase in incident due to being overweight. This list includes high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, sleep apnea, gall bladder disease, cancer, depression, and arthritis. Certainly, this is not an all-encompassing list, but it comes from one of the most reputable sources available. Harvard University also sites being overweight to an increase in memory loss and reproductive issues.

It is important to note, however, that some people can keep their health and be overweight. Whether this is due to luck, good genetics, or some other factor is unknown. Continually monitoring your health at least annually will provide the information and data you need to determine if weight is or is not affecting your personal health and wellness.

Doctors Agree! Low Carbohydrate Diets are Better than Low Calorie Diets

May 21, 2026

I recently read an article on Today.com entitled, “Can’t lose weight by eating less? Why low-carb diets may be the solution.” In this article several doctors were interviewed and compared low calorie diets to low carbohydrate diets like keto. They were all in agreement that low carbohydrate diets were superior to their low-calorie counterparts. They listed a few different reasons for this.

First, the doctors stated that dieting by restricting calories was harder to maintain. Dr. David Ludwig was quoted as saying, “While people can lose weight over the short term, very few people can manage to ignore their hunger and fight through those metabolic problems to maintain their weight loss.” If you are not satisfied with what you are eating while trying to lose weight, then you are bound to fail. In our practice we are huge believers in this principal. The client must enjoy the process of losing weight. This is the reason we have created hundreds of compliant and delicious recipes, dining out guides, tasty pre-approved products, etc.

The second reason they stated low-carb is superior to low-cal is that low-carb diets better control insulin. Dr. Ludwig was again quoted as stating; “Insulin — you can think of (it) as the ultimate fat cell fertilizer. Too much insulin, fat cells get programmed to hoard calories. So there aren’t too many calories in the blood stream. And that’s why we get hungry.” In our weight loss offices we focus on insulin control. As Dr. Ludwig states, “Insulin elevation programs your body to prefer carbohydrate metabolism instead of fat metabolism.” Low carbohydrate diet, like the ones we use with our clients, keep insulin levels low, allowing more fat to be metabolized that with simply cutting calories.

As a final thought, I am a big fan of the low carb/low-cal model, which combines the effectiveness of both. I have found it to be more effective than either individual strategy and also maintainable for life.

Permanent and Natural Weight Loss – Part 2

May 15, 2026

In the last blog we talked about the concepts of losing weight naturally and permanently. In this blog I would like to go through some specifics on how to do just that. There are 3 main concepts that we teach patients in our weight loss centers to help them along their weight loss journey. Here are the top 3…

Eliminate refined carbohydrates – this does not necessarily mean to eliminate ALL Carbohydrates are found in vegetables and fruit and are healthy when taken in this way. Refined carbs on the other hand add no nutritional value and spike insulin immediately causing an immediate halt in fat loss. The foods we have our weight loss clients eliminate include candy, bread, pasta, sodas, etc.
Fast – There is a lot of strong evidence suggesting that intermittent fasting stimulates fat loss. Most of the data points to eating all food in 6 hours and then having a period of 18 hours where you don’t eat as the best combination for weight loss. In our offices this will be a typical pattern that we will recommend to our weight loss clients.
Work through plateaus – “stick-to-itiveness” is an especially important concept when trying to lose weight. There are going to be periods of slow loss even if doing everything correctly. These are typically called weight loss plateaus. There are many techniques to break these plateaus, but sometimes it just comes down to sticking with it and waiting it out.

I hope these three tips are helpful if you are trying to lose weight naturally and then keep it off permanently.

Permanent and Natural Weight Loss Part 1

Apr 30, 2026

Many people in the United States are looking to lose weight. Intuitively they want to lose body fat and keep it off for life. In part one of these two-part series I will discuss a few key points to permanent and natural weight loss.

In our weight loss centers we focus on getting people to lose weight, for that weight lost to be fat, and then build habits so the weight loss sticks for life. There are a few keys points that we focus on with our clients to help bring this concept into focus.

First, we want people to focus on changing their body composition (losing fat) and not simply losing as much weight as they can as fast as possible. I will go into more detail about how to achieve this in part two. This is a critical piece of the mindset when starting a weight loss journey. If you just want to lose weight fast, you could fall into the trap of losing water weight, or even worse, muscle.

Second, in our weight loss centers we advocate for not building a dependency on products to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong, there are some powerful and natural substances that can and should be used temporarily to help a person start the process of weight loss. We do not want people, however, to ever feel like these products are “necessary” long term to maintain their weight. Certain healthy products and supplements can be used for life, just understand that the power to maintain your weight comes from you.

Third, you must be OK with going through plateaus. Weight loss is going to stall from time to time even if you are doing everything right. Working through these stalls (again, more on plateau breakers in an upcoming post) can be the real difference from those who are successful long term and those who are not.

I hope this helps if you are just starting off on a weight loss journey. Please be on the lookout for part 2 which will include the particulars on how to lose weight permanently and naturally.

5 Tricks for More Rapid Weight Loss

Apr 23, 2026

There are ways that you can temporarily trick your body into losing weight more rapidly. We often use these techniques in our weight loss clinic. Let’s go over 5 tricks you can use today to speed up your weight loss journey.

Drink more water. Increasing water will do several things to speed up weight loss. An increase in water intake will increase your metabolism, make you less hungry, and keep your weight from fluctuating due to digestion.
Use alternative products. Using alternative products with no calories or reduced carbohydrates is a good way to keep your diet from becoming boring while also speeding up results. Products like Mio, Zevia soda, and Palmini pasta are used in our weight loss clinics to help patients through their programs.
Snack only when hungry. Don’t snack out of boredom or routine. Learn to identify when you are hungry and snack on protein.
Eat all food in 6 hrs. This is called intermittent fasting. In our weight loss clinic we often use intermittent fasting to speed up weight loss. Research suggests that an 18-hr. fast is ideal for fat loss.
Write everything down. In our offices this is called tracking. This is a great way to understand how your body responds to your specific plan.

Try these techniques out or add them to your program to maximize the speed of your weight loss!

Does being overweight really lead to health problems?

Mar 05, 2026

It is important to note, however, that some people can keep their health and be overweight. Whether this is due to luck, good genetics, or some other factor is unknown.

Does A Poor Diet Cause Depression?

Feb 25, 2026

Today’s blog post is going to focus on the relationship between food and mood. More specifically, does a diet filled with junk food cause depression? First off, it would be easy for me to make a snap judgement and say, “of course it does.” My life, after all, revolves around helping people make healthy changes to their diet to lose weight naturally. Instead of just assuming a poor diet causes any number of health conditions I prefer to look at the data and interpret it.

My simple answer to the question of “does a poor diet cause weight loss?” is NO. As shocking as this revelation may be I believe, based on what I have read, that there is another factor that causes both a poor diet and depression. So let’s look at the research.

One popular study on the link between diet and mood found that: “A dietary pattern characterized by a high intake of fruit, vegetables, whole grain, fish, olive oil, low-fat dairy and antioxidants and low intakes of animal foods was associated with a decreased risk of depression. A dietary pattern characterized by a high consumption of red and/or processed meat, refined grains, sweets, high-fat dairy products, butter, potatoes and high-fat gravy, and low intakes of fruits and vegetables is associated with an increased risk of depression. This sounds like a slam-dunk right. One’s diet obviously effects mood and can lead to depression.

We can’t stop here, however. What if the people in the study were depressed and then turned to easy junk foods for comfort? Luckily, researchers wondered about this as well and in another large analysis they looked at baseline diet and then calculated the risk of participants later developing depression. They found that “A healthy diet (the Mediterranean diet as an example) was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing depressive symptoms.”

So that should put a bow on it. Diet directly affects mood. But wait, earlier I said that I don’t think this is the case. So why am I quoting all this research stating that food does effect mood? The reason is that I still don’t think that the research has dived deep enough to really uncover the source of the depression.

Correlation does not mean causation. Just because two factors happen together does not mean that one causes another. So what could cause both a poor diet and depression? The research is clear on this. Income-inequality, more specifically, having an extremely low income compared to the general society can contribute directly to a depressive state. People with a lower income are also much more likely to choose cheap, fatty, and unhealthy food.

In conclusion, I believe that maintaining a healthy diet can be beneficial in countless ways. It may even make you feel a little better emotionally. I don’t however believe that diets directly cause depression. Depression and poor diet can be seen to be more easily caused by having low income.

0 calories is not actually 0 calories

Feb 19, 2026

In this week’s blog post I want to discuss an obscure food labeling law that allows product manufacturers to label their products as “0-calories” even when they do contain calories. I will cite a couple examples, but this is not to bash these products. Certainly, products with calories are not “bad.” Consuming them will not necessarily lead to weight gain either. In fact, each of the products I will mention is approved in all the weight loss programs we prescribe to our patients. This post is simply about information. If you are trying to get healthy, lose weight, etc. you need to know exactly what you are putting into your body and food labels should not be misleading.

The basic rule is that if a product contains less than 5 calories per typical serving size than it can legally be labeled as a “0-calorie” or “calorie free product”. The key term here is “typical serving size.” As I will show you in the following examples, the serving size can be manipulated by food manufacturers so that they meet this 0-calorie requirement.

The first example I will share is the breath mint Tic Tacs. They are clearly labeled as a “0-calorie” product. However, the first ingredient listed is sugar. Of course, sugar contains calories, so what’s the deal here? Again, the important thing to note is the serving size. Tic Tacs serving size is listed as 1 individual Tic Tac. 1 Tic Tac is .5g and .5g of sugar is about 2 calories. So every Tic Tac is 2 calories. This is clearly under the 5-calorie cutoff, so it is labeled as calorie free. I don’t honestly know anyone who has ever eaten just one Tic Tac however, so I find this “typical serving size” a bit hard to believe.

Next, I will cite a 0-calorie cooking spray. There are a number of these containing canola oil, olive oil, etc. For this example, I will use one containing avocado oil. Although this example would be applicable to any other “0-calorie” spray as well. The avocado oil spray can was labeled as 0-calories per serving size, but the serving size was listed as ¼ second of a spray. This would equal about .25g of avocado oil. In each spray there are about 2 calories if somehow you can use only this amount. Again, I find this serving size hard to believe. I think that a 1-2 second spray to coat a pan is much more realistic.

In closing I will again state that these products can be used as part of a weight loss program. They add variety and flavor. One of the worst things that can happen during a weight loss program is boredom or the feeling like you are continuously eating bland, blah foods. When this happens either, we need to find out how to make things interesting or else the client is headed down the path towards inevitable failure. What is important is knowing that using these products does add calories. If you use them around or even a bit above the serving size, you will be fine. It is important to note that if you use them way over the serving size that you are not adding “0-calories” to your diet and these calories may add up to be significant.

How to Lose 1 lb. of Fat Every Day

Jan 15, 2026

A while back I did a video on the science behind losing up to 1 pound of fat every day. You can find this video on the Brand NUE Weight Loss YouTube channel. I quoted some research and did the calculations that proved that losing weight at this pace was possible for a lot of people. The intent of the video was just to prove that it was realistic to expect this kind of loss not to show how to go about losing 1 pound of fat per day. Naturally, most of the feedback I received in the comments of this video were like “yeah that’s great but how do we actually do it?” In this blog post I want to answer this question. Here I will give the top 4 things you can do immediately to start burning body fat at an accelerated rate (a video supplement to this post will also come out shortly).

One of the most powerful techniques that we have our weight loss clients rely on when they are actively trying to lose body fat is intermittent fasting. For most of our clients we recommend eating all food for the day in and either 6- or 8-hour window. The remainder of the day the client would fast. This is a relatively simple thing you can do that has multiple fat loss benefits. Intermittent fasting (IF) helps control insulin levels (the hormone that shuts down fat loss). IF also, surprisingly, helps control hunger. I have been using IF in some form for years and am very rarely hungry during the fasting period. In general, people who participate in just consume fewer calories per day as well.

The second thing we have most of our clients do is to follow a low-carb and low-calorie diet. We allow a variety of non-organic products to add variety to meals (salad dressings, sauces, etc.). This ensures that the “diet” does not get too boring. In our weight loss office we call this way of eating Low Calorie Dirty Keto (LCDK). This is the absolute best diet to follow to maximize daily fat loss. Our clients eat low carbohydrate meals to control insulin, but they also avoid excess fats (butter, nuts, etc.) which WILL slow weight loss. We replace these with approved products that typically wouldn’t be allowed in a clean keto program.

Third, let’s talk about supplements. This is by far the easiest thing you can do to aid your body in its fat burning quest. Now, just to be clear, there are no miracle pills that you can take that melt all the fat off your body. There are, however, some powerful natural supplements that can rev up fat loss. In our office we have a product called Ultra Diet which contains natural weight loss aids such as African mango and rhodiola. It also acts as a natural appetite suppressant. We also often use green coffee bean extract which we have found aids our clients in losing fat about 20% faster. There are also multivitamins, stress support, etc., that may be helpful. Products that have solid science behind them should absolutely be a part of a weight loss plan in my opinion.

Finally, let’s discuss water intake. Hydration is often overlooked when it comes to weight loss. Keeping yourself hydrated is, however, essential in maximizing your body’s ability to metabolize fat efficiently. In our weight loss offices we typically recommend drinking about 80 ounces of water per day. Some of this can be flavored but you do want a portion to be plain old boring water. Drinking plenty of water keeps your metabolism running correctly and it can decrease your hunger. Keeping yourself hydrated consistently can also take out daily water weight fluctuations that can occur if you are weighing yourself daily.

These are four of the simplest things you can do right away to begin losing up to 1 pound of fat per day. Before you try any of these techniques you should consult your doctor to make sure that you stay safe and healthy.