Weight Loss

Category: Weight Loss

UDF Protein Shake Review

Sep 03, 2026

United Dairy Farmer’s protein shakes – sounds delicious and healthy. But are they truly a “healthy” alternative to the traditional malt? In this blog we will discuss calories, carbs, protein, as well as give an opinion on taste.

First things first, there are about a dozen different varieties of protein shakes to choose from at UDF. They have everything from traditional chocolate and vanilla to peanut butter and cappuccino. All have around 28 grams of protein which is more than a traditional malt at UDF. We were told by a worker that the higher protein content was due to the ice cream they specifically use for the protein shakes; ice cream which has a higher cream content.

Ok – so what about calories and carbohydrates of these versus the traditional malts? When we looked up this information, we were surprised to find that for the chocolate version (the one we tried) the calories and carbs (sugar) were HIGHER in the protein shake as compared to the traditional malt.

Now on to taste. We found the chocolate protein shake tasted like a Wendy’s chocolate frosty. This was not a bad thing, but we prefer the traditional malt shake taste more. Essentially it makes it a toss up on taste, all dependent on personal preference.

When it comes to what is healthier, we base our opinion on the fact that we are always looking for options that support weight loss and weight management goals. Thus, based on the nutrition content, the UDF protein shakes would not be a good option for someone focusing on either of these goals. It would be better to treat on a traditional malt than be deceived into thinking consuming more protein in a shake makes it healthy.

How Important is Tracking During a Weight Loss Journey?

Aug 06, 2026

Tracking things like your food, nutrition supplements, weight, water, etc. can seem like an extremely tedious task when beginning a weight loss journey. It can seem much simpler to just keep general mental notes about how you are progressing. So how important is tracking when trying to lose weight? My short answer is that it is invaluable for several reasons which I will detail in this blog post. In our weight loss offices we always have our clients track what they are doing. The main reason we have them track is that doing so gives us information that we can use to make plan adjustments along the way. Let’s say for example that your weight isn’t changing like we expected it to. In this scenario we can look at the pattern of weight loss on the tracking sheet to determine if changes are needed. Another key reason to track is your tracking sheet keeps a record of times that you have been “off plan.” If you are not following the plan that was working for you, you should not expect the same results.

So what should you be tracking? As stated above, the minimum level of detail we ask our weight loss clients to track is daily weight, all food consumed, supplements taken, water consumption and any notes or feelings they had throughout the day. Tracking can seem tedious at times but is a smart habit to implement if you want to lose weight right and avoid unnecessary frustration.

The Top 4 Techniques for Fast Weight Loss

Jul 30, 2026

So what specifically do we do? I get this question all the time. I often write about different techniques and methods to lose weight. I also review certain “diets” that are popular (especially with celebrities). I do, however, feel that there is a core set of techniques that are especially important when trying to lose weight. In this blog I would like to describe these four techniques in detail.

First off, I need to preface this entire blog by stating that when I refer to “weight loss” what I really mean is “fat loss.” There are certainly some easy ways to gimmick the scale to move lower which are unhealthy and unproductive. We don’t want our clients to be temporarily tricking the scale by losing water weight, or even worse, by losing muscle mass. While I understand that everyone who wants to lose weight inherently wants to reduce body fat, with some plans the two do not go hand in hand. With that out of the way let’s talk about the four most important weight loss techniques/strategies/tools (these can be used interchangeably) in my opinion.

Whenever a new patient comes into our weight loss center, we always have them change their diet. For some this can be a complete overhaul of how they are eating and for some it is only a slight modification. It is obvious dietary modification is essential for weight loss. It is important, however, to change your diet based on your individual needs. Gender, age, metabolism, health history and even likes and dislikes all play a factor in what eating plan will work for you. It is for this reason that we evaluate each of our weight loss clients thoroughly before making any recommendations.
Second, and of equal importance, is the taking of certain natural products to make the process easier. We will often make recommendations to our clients about taking certain supplements. These can help with hunger, stress, nutritional deficiencies, or simply help speed up the weight loss process. You should only use products that are natural and have no chance of forming a dependency. Some examples of products that we recommend include green coffee bean extract and raspberry ketones.
Now let’s talk about support and accountability. If losing weight and maintaining it were easy we would not have the current obesity epidemic. The fact is people need to be surrounded with support, guidance and need to be held accountable for their actions. Without a proper support system any well intentioned plan is bound to fail in my opinion.
Finally let’s talk about maintenance. Eventually all our weight loss clients no longer want or need to lose weight. While this is certainly a cause for celebration, we need to have a maintenance program already in place, so we don’t end up back in the same situation. In our offices the mentality of maintenance begins on day one. We treat weight loss as an inevitability if our methods are followed. Maintenance, in many cases, is where diet programs fail.

I hope this helps answer some of the questions about how I advise our weight loss clients. Please contact one of our offices if you have further questions.

Brand NUE Supplement Bundles

Jul 22, 2026

I am coming to you with some exciting news! We are rolling out a new feature to help our clients with maintenance and save them money. This feature is our new product bundles. In this blog I would like to describe the four product bundles that we now offer and for whom they might be appropriate.

First let me explain a little about why it is important to use nutrition supplements when trying to lose weight and then when trying to maintain a weight loss. What I tell our weight loss clients is that successful weight loss requires several different factors working together. Let’s use an example of a table. A table has four legs under it to be stable. Let’s say the four legs represent 4 components of a successful weight loss journey. We will call leg one learning how to prepare food. Leg two will be staying hydrated. The third leg is continued support and accountability. The fourth leg will be nutrition supplements. Now with all four in place you have a stable and solid foundation to build on. If you chop one leg off the table it gets wobbly. I feel, therefore, that there is no reason to not implement everything that we know is scientifically effective at helping people lose weight. Supplements are a big part of keeping that stable foundation.

Let’s now go through the four bundles and talk about who each is for. All these bundles can be found in our shop at BrandNUEweightloss.com. The first bundle is the Brand NUE Multivitamin along with the Brand NUE Green Coffee Bean extract capsules. This bundle will be good for someone trying to lose weight or someone who is trying to maintain their weight. We have observed that using green coffee bean extract helps clients lose about 20% faster if they are trying to lose weight and it makes it 20% harder to regain weight if they are in maintenance.

Our second bundle includes the first two products mentioned along with the Brand NUE Stress Support product. Stress can cause several health problems including high blood pressure, sleep difficulty, headaches, etc. One of the major things it can cause, however, is weight gain. This is especially true when it comes to weight gain around the midsection (belly fat). For individuals who have high stress lives or are particularly susceptible to stress we recommend this bundle.

These two bundles will be appropriate for 95% of people concerned with their weight. We do, however, have two other bundles for specific situations. Bundle 3 will include the Brand NUE Stress Support and Brand NUE Green Coffee Bean Extract capsules. This will be for someone trying to lose or maintain their weight, and has a high level of stress, but wants to continue taking their own multivitamin.

Our final bundle includes our stress support and our multivitamin. In this on green coffee bean extract is left out. This will be our least effective bundle when it comes to weight loss. This bundle is for the person who is extremely sensitive to caffeine. Now, the active ingredient in the green coffee bean product is not caffeine. It is chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic acid is what helps to speed up fat loss. There is, however, about a half a cup of coffee worth of caffeine in one green coffee bean capsule. So for those who cannot have caffeine at all this bundle will be appropriate for them.

Please check out BrandNUEweightloss.com for more information on these and other products.

Selfishness is Necessary for Weight Loss

Jul 09, 2026

In this post I would like to discuss a major mental barrier that we often encounter in our weight loss centers. This issue, for lack of a better term, is the fear of being selfish. The term “selfish” has an obvious negative connotation. And this connotation is well deserved if we use the definition stated by Merriam-Webster. The dictionary defines selfish as “concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself: seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others”. In my opinion, and in the opinion of many philosophers throughout history, selfishness is not necessarily a negative thing. According to Nietzsche, selfishness is a valuable trait for an individual to possess as it allows the person to achieve more from their own life. The desire to better one’s own situation does not need to be conflated with the disregard for another’s feelings or needs. These two things do not need to go together. Voltaire said the same thing in a similar way. He stated that “It is better to be a gay monster, than a sentimental bore”. His statement basically means that it is better to focus on one’s self and self-improvement than to always be focused on what others are doing.

We get so caught up in what other people are doing, whether it is celebrity gossip or politics, and generally these are situations we have absolutely no control over. We feed off gossip and friends’ drama. For Nietzsche, Voltaire, and myself, these are a waste of energy. A focus on self-improvement is the most noble of pursuits. It is the best path towards personal fulfillment and simultaneously the best way to improve society.

So, what does all of this have to do with weight loss? Quite simply, selfishness is required to live at a healthy weight in a society that is set up for people to be overweight. To lose weight and to maintain that weight loss you must be willing to do things that put your health first. You must be willing to order at restaurants that may cause the waiter to have to write down a bit more. You must be willing to decline invitations to go to the bar because you need to get a workout in. You must put yourself and your needs first.

What comes along with this are other emotions that are often seen as negative, these being pride and vanity. In my opinion, neither of these are negative either. People have the right to feel good about how they look. People should feel pride if they are able to lose weight and improve their health. Embrace these emotions. Understand that if you don’t feel comfortable in your own skin that you are not a bad person for wanting to change that (in fact, quite the opposite in my opinion!). If you accomplish a goal that few others can, you should know that you put in the work and embrace that pride. These are significant motivators that can keep you from sliding back into old patterns. Pride is good. So be a gay monster.

Diet Coke and Weight Loss

Jul 02, 2026

People often want to use a variety of “diet” or “0 calorie” products when trying to lose weight. Today we are going to talk about one of the most popular diet products out there, Diet Coke. Is it a good tool for weight loss or not?

Firstly, Diet Coke is a 0-calorie drink. It will not add any calories to your daily intake. With this being said, it should be a slam dunk “yes” for is this a useful product when trying to lose weight. It is not that simple, however. We are constantly asked about diet sodas in our weight loss centers. The truth is that there has been research linking diet sodas to weight gain at a higher rate than even regular soda. How could this be if Diet Coke has 0 calories? Most of the research I have read on it boils it down to 2 hypotheses. First, the artificial sweeteners in Diet Coke may artificially elevate insulin and make it harder for you to metabolize fat. Second, your body recognizes the sweet sensation when you ingest an artificial sweetener, but it does not get the caloric reward. You, therefore, become hungrier for sweets and are more susceptible to straying from the diet you are on.

With solid alternatives like Zevia soda, my opinion is that we can leave Diet Coke alone when trying to lose weight. This is what I always instruct my patients who are trying to lose weight quickly.

“Cheating” On Your Diet

Jun 18, 2026

I was recently on a weeklong vacation. Even when I am traveling, I like to try to eat as healthy as possible and keep my activity level up. During my trip I was consistently uploading to my social media pictures of the different restaurants we were eating at and how I ordered healthy dishes. After a few of these posts I thought to myself, “Maybe everyone else doesn’t want to eat this way on vacation.” I was making these posts to prove that it is possible to maintain a diet even when traveling but I felt that it came off as “you better maintain your diet when traveling.” I 100% do not believe this to be that case. In our weight loss offices we teach our clients that losing weight and eating healthy needs to be balanced with living a life you enjoy. Because of this my next post was on this topic exactly. Here is what I wrote, “Reality check! Our last few posts have been about staying on plan even when on vacation. The truth is – being 100% on plan 100% of time isn’t realistic. You should never feel guilty about having your favorite meal or indulging occasionally. This program is for life and in life sometimes you just want some lasagna and garlic bread 😁.” If you are trying to reshape your relationship with food to slim down, get healthy, feel more confident, etc. it is important to remember that sometimes you are going to give into cravings and that is okay. In our weight loss offices we never use the term “cheating” when referring to eating junk food. We simply call these situations “choices.” If you choose to have pizza, ice cream, French fries, etc. you should never feel ashamed or like you have messed up. You simply made a choice which will cause your body (and potentially weight) to behave in a certain way. If you go into these situations knowing the outcome and are ready to resume afterwards, I think straying from a strict diet can actually be a good thing. Doing so can drive home the point that a few slices of pizza will not completely derail a solid weight loss plan.

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.

Do GLP-1’s Slow Natural GLP-1 Production?

Jun 04, 2026

In this blog post I want to review an interesting article I just read regarding GLP-1 medications. The article was posted on BBC.com for those interested in reading it in its entirety.

One of the major (not the only major, just one of the major) issues with the new GLP-1 drugs (tirzepatide and semaglutide) used for weight loss is that once a patient stops using the drugs they almost always regain the weight lost. A study in 2021 showed that After 68 weeks of semaglutide injections, the average patient lost more than 15% of their body weight, but within 12 months of treatment ending, patients regained two thirds of their prior weight loss on average. On top of this, the weight gain happened much more rapidly than the weight loss. The question is “why?”

Dr. Martin Whyte states in the article that the doses of GLP-1 provided by semaglutide and tirzepatide are far greater than the body would naturally expect to receive, he says, which may suppress the body’s ability to secrete GLP-1 on its own. As a result, people’s hunger may return even more voraciously when they cease their doses. He hypothesizes that taking GLP-1 medication makes it more difficult for your body to make its own, natural, GLP-1. GLP-1 regulates hunger naturally so not producing it can cause hunger to become out of control. He goes on to state, “What may be happening, and we don’t know for sure, is that when you stop them, your body’s left in a GLP-1 deficit which has a major impact on the satiety signal going to the brain.”

Again, this is an assumption made by Dr. Whyte. Unfortunately, before approving this medication, this mechanism was not confirmed. The mechanism does make sense, however, if we look at how other natural hormones produced by the body respond when we take synthetic versions. When women go through hormone replacement therapy or men start testosterone replacement therapy, the extra hormones the receive exogenously slow the natural production of hormones in the body.

If this is the case, then the only treatment for success is to treat with these medications for life. This point is underscored by another doctor quoted in the article. Dr. Domenica Rubino states that “I try to explain that these are chronic medications, but everyone secretly feels, ‘Yeah, but you know what, I’m different, and once I hit my weight goal, I’ll be ok.’ But the reality is, the brain is quite powerful.”

The warning here, in my estimation, is that if you are going to start these drugs to lose weight then you better be prepared to stay on them for the rest of your life. You must also fully understand the long-term side effects and costs associated with taking them. I, along with Dr. Rubino, see a severe disconnect with this reality and the perception of people starting these medications for weight management. It is up to health care professionals to fully educate patients on these, and other issues, related to taking medications before recommending treatment.

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.