Recently, in my never-ending quest to find hacks to improve metabolism, I ran across the value of fiber to improve metabolism efficiency. All the health experts I came across recommended 25 grams of fiber per day, minimum, for women, but ideally 35-45 grams and ideally for men, 40-50 grams daily. So I set off to track my fiber, and to my horror, I discovered I was barely achieving 10 grams daily!! After I stopped clutching my pearls, I set off to add in more fiber. I learned a few things about how to do this, which I will share, of course. But before I do that, I want to highlight for you a little bit of sciency stuff to help you understand why it’s so important for overall health, but specifically for managing weight.
One way fiber leads to weight loss/maintenance is that it helps you to feel full and satiated. You will feel less hungry, have fewer cravings, and out of control eating frenzies. The basic ways in which fiber helps our metabolic processes, however, is even more impressive. There are two types of fiber – soluble, and insoluble. Soluble fiber absorbs fluid, water and stabilizes blood sugar. It essentially helps to slow the process down of metabolizing sugars so that the sugar you eat does not create a sugar spike in your blood. Why do we care about blood sugar spikes? The more glucose you have in your blood stream, the more insulin your pancreas will release to manage it. The insulin helps to move the glucose into cells to use for energy, but any extra sugar is stored in your liver, muscles, and FAT cells! Eating too much sugar over a period of time, thereby creating sugar spikes, can result in your body losing its sensitivity to insulin (which causes weight gain bc the fat cells get overloaded with the excess sugar). It can also result in sugar crashing and carb cravings. Soluble fiber also helps your metabolism because it breaks down into short chain fatty acids which can expedite fat-burning and slow down the production of new fat. Additionally, soluble fiber helps good gut bacteria to outgrow bad gut bacteria. Insoluble fiber cleans up the system and helps to pull out toxins and broken down substances – did you know that some experts claim that the average person eating the Standard American Diet is carrying 5 to 10 lbs of excess waste in their bodies? As you can see, increasing fiber is an incredibly powerful strategy for improving your body’s metabolism and weight management. Are you motivated yet!!!??
How I increased my daily consumption of fiber:
ate more avocado – one avocado has an astonishingly high amount of fiber – 15 grams! It’s also delicious with a little salt, pepper, maybe some lime or lemon juice or even a sprinkle of garlic. (another surprising discovery as I added new salad additions – 1 cup of celery has 1.9 g fiber)
added nuts and seeds to my salads – chia seeds have 6 grams of fiber! Most nuts have about 1 gram per 2 tbsp, but these add up and they help make your salad crunchy and satiating (or add them to your oatmeal or yogurt)
increased my consumption of beans - so this was a little of a challenge because I know that beans have 50% carb to fiber ratio – 2 oz beans has 8 carbs, approximately 4 grams of fiber. But listen – 2 oz is not that much. 8 carbs is not that much. Adding a small side of beans instead of pasta or rice is a much better use of your carbs. Half a cup of white rice has 20 g of carbs and only about 1 g of fiber
did not rely on leafy greens for my fiber – leafy greens are a must – they are incredibly healthy and nutritious – however, you cannot just eat salad to get your fiber – 1 cup of spinach is only 0.7 g fiber. (ugh)
increased my broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous veggies from 1 cup to 2 cups (2 cups cooked – 4 grams fiber) and squashes (butternut squash roasted cubed 1 cup - 6 g!)
added a fiber drink about 30 to 45 minutes before my dinner – quick and easy way to add fiber (6 grams), but it also has 9 g of carbs, so this is not something to overdo (Doterra Fiber, see the link for my favorite products in resources section). I also discovered Glucammanan (link below), which is made from the root of the cognac plant. It is soluble fiber so it is recommended to be combined with water about 30 minutes before you eat because it swells in your stomach. It leads you to feeling more full and eating less AND it gets the necessary fiber in your gut to help slow the breakdown of sugar into your blood stream.
Potential Challenges:
As with any change in your diet, especially when narrow-focused, it’s common to experience some side effects. For me, it was feeling slightly sluggish bowels the first few days. This is supposedly normal, as it takes your body some time to adjust to the extra fiber. When the label on the fiber drinks say, “combine with 10 oz water”, this is not OPTIONAL! It’s really crucial for you to do so, and just in general when increasing fiber, you want to increase your consumption of water overall. Now you know I always encourage the use of essential oils, especially to add to water, so the ones I used most frequently as my gut got acclimated was a combo of wild orange and fennel, or simply the Doterra Digest Zen blend. Once I adjusted my consumption of water, everything was smooth sailing WINK. Keep in mind, too, that using digestive enzymes will help your stomach break down the food and fiber more quickly so you can decrease that discomfort (Doterra Terrazyme, luckily, has the enzyme alpha galactosidase, which helps to break down fibers). The other caution to keep in mind is that not all fiber is created equal. The fiber from chia seeds, although it is labeled as 6 grams, also swells in your body, so there is an increased effect from that particular source of fiber. So while I do think it’s important to ensure you are getting enough fiber, what is enough for you may be different than what is enough for me, simply due to the sourcing. So take the recommended 25 grams as a recommendation, not a rule. I’d bet, though, that you could benefit from increasing your fiber regardless. So just start there.
At this point in the experiment (1 week in), I have lost no weight and have yet to achieve even the minimum 25 grams of fiber, despite my hacks (got to 24 one day!). However, I will say that I thoroughly enjoy feeling completely satiated between meals. There is no hunger (keep in mind that I already eat protein and healthy fats at each meal, so if you are not doing that, you may not have similar results). Because there is no hunger, I’ve been able to be patient and wait the hour for my roasted veggies or baked chicken without reaching for a snack.
I successfully curb my appetite by having a salad loaded with seeds and berries or fiber-rich palatable raw veggies such as carrots, cucumbers, avocado and radishes. By the time I start my cooked meal, I’ve already added kale (1 g), ½ avocado (5 g), radishes (1 g), nuts (2 g), 3 slices tomato (.5 g), so I'm not starving and I calmly eat my main course.
What was the point, you might ask, if I never achieved my goal of 25 grams and didn’t lose any weight? Well, I learned some valuable lessons. First, I reaffirmed for myself that most recommendations should be a guide, not a rule, since they are simply not based on a whole body concept and how the systems work together. Think about those who are doing Keto diets (with little to no carbs)– they are nowhere near the # of recommended fiber since fiber would be avoided theoretically as a carb-filled food, yet, many claim to be regular, able to keep weight off, and don’t have sugar balance issues. I also learned that if you try to get your fiber by eating low carb leafy greens all day, you will never get there and you will be lacking in tons of important nutrients. You will create a different deficiency. So, before you go focusing exclusively on increasing your fiber count, it’s probably best to simply make sure you are eating a wide variety of vegetables and fruits (thereby ensuring both soluble and insoluble fiber and well-rounded nutrition). Trying out new recipes was helpful for increasing this variety, and it actually was energizing and fun! I really LOVE prosciutto wrapped over cucumber, carrots sticks and a savory dressing (I used a mustard vinaigrette, but I could see an Italian dressing being tasty too) as an appetizer. I'll be sharing this one with one of my health coaching clients whose goal right now is to increase her vegetables, but who also loves Italian food. Don't you think this is a divine combo of those two?
I particularly enjoyed the romaine and broccoli salad recipe from The Genuis Kitchen, by Max Lugavere (top picture). I simply slightly steamed some broccoli and mixed with chopped romaine. To increase the fiber, I added half an avocado and some celery. And the tahini dressing (I used the anchovy fillet, but you don’t have to) woke up my taste buds so much, I found myself looking forward to this salad almost daily. Finally, I was reminded of the value of nuts and seeds – I simply am not eating enough seeds, and that is one food group I am willing to add without compromising my concern for carbs. I love hemp and chia seeds, which, as it so happens, have a high level of the coveted OMEGA 3s. (Just remember to choose nuts and seeds NOT roasted in BAD oils such as canola, sunflower, safflower - see resources section).
Experiments are good. They can pull us out of a rut and make our daily routines more interesting. Sometimes they lead us to recognizing what the most reasonable goals are for us, or help us to fine-tune our strategies. As I'm sure you know, deciding what to eat every can be a drag, so it's fun to jazz it up a little. For those of us who live in an area of four seasons, this is what we do anyway to keep things interesting - summer meals are very different from winter meals, and we are GRATEFUL for the variety! Here’s to YOUR next experiment!
Sending Hugs and Encouragement,
Aimee
PS: If you follow me on Facebook (Aimee Lighty) or Instagram @aimee_lighty, I have been posting some of my recipe experiments, so be sure to look for those.
Resources
https://youtu.be/XNO0VsZkmJA How Seeds Oils make you fat
https://youtu.be/sr0pG5Tg0D0 Inflammatory effects of Vegetables Oils
https://youtu.be/dNAw5_hZnyUHow Fiber helps you lose weight
https://youtu.be/_sHthj7dXs0 Top 21: High-Fiber foods
Aimee’s favorite products to help with increasing fiber, managing digestive distress while doing so, and improving metabolism/curbing sugar spikes: https://www.doterra.com/US/en/create-cart/enrollment?OwnerID=451272&salesOrg=USOTG&acctType=WC&60219088=1&60207065=1&30170001=1&60214361=1&35110001=1&60209244=1&30030001=1&31370001=1
댓글