I want to talk about your diet routine. Not the actual foods you are eating, but the way your eating may be hurting your fat loss efforts. The ideas in this article are based on my observations while coaching body contouring clients to achieve their nutrition goals. Still, many of these concepts apply to everyone trying to lose fat, reduce water retention and bloating and overall feel more confident and look their best.What they eat is not the only thing causing weight gain, water retention, and bloating for many people. Instead, the habits around how you eat may be holding you back.For example,  I have noticed that some clients snack inconsistently throughout the day. Often it's because they are busy, causing them to overindulge at dinner.

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Have you ever been stuffed and still went for dessert?

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You think to yourself, " I'm good! I barely ate today so now I can enjoy myself!"
But what you fail to realize is that --- you are starving! You are setting yourself up for a binge because it will be impossible to stop eating now. It's a survival instinct that kicks in, saying, "go ahead, give me some more food; we might not have any food tomorrow!"
For the average person who works a 9-5 and is moderately active, these binges, even 1x per week, can be detrimental to your cryoskin results-- imagine if you are doing it every day!

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Below I've listed 6 Different Eating Pattern Types that we have observed in our nutrition coaching programs, how they can affect your fat loss or body contouring efforts, and what to do about it.

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Snacker/Binger Types

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These types eat inconsistently throughout the day and love to "graze." This pattern is not a terrible way to eat; after all, eating smaller meals frequently reduces the chance of overindulging and bloating that can often come after a big dinner. Plus, if you are super busy, this can be a convenient way to get your calories in throughout the day!
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This snack/binge pattern can go wrong when your appetite finally catches up to you at the end of the day or on the weekend. If your small meals/snacks throughout the day are not balanced and high in protein and fiber, you may lack energy by dinner time, eventually leading to a massive binge at the end of the day or on the weekend.The solution here is to plan balanced snacks and keep them everywhere you frequent so if hunger strikes (and it will), you know you've got a quick, easy "grab-and-go" option at your fingertips.

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The graze and feast pattern of eating is one of the most popular ways to eat -- dating back to our ancestors--, and you are not wrong for doing it. Make sure you focus on whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible so that the hunger monster doesn't take over you at night.

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Binge/Restrict Types

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They spend a portion of their day/week/month restricting calories and eating "clean" foods, but the diet is so restrictive that they eventually cave and binge on high-calorie dense foods. They are often frustrated with the lack of their weight loss results or feel defeated that they - YET AGAIN - couldn't lose the weight. Repeatedly, these clients have "tried every diet under the sun-- and still can't seem to lose weight." They might even think something is wrong with them (which you should always check with your doctor to be sure about). Still, this exact process of over-restriction causes a sluggish metabolism, low energy, and ultimately poor adherence to a healthy diet. While there is a place for restriction -- restricting calories and foods can psychologically be harmful to how we perceive food, and it can feed into the binge. It's the phenomenon that happens when you want something you can't have-- you start desiring it more until you finally cave!
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If you are trying to see results from Cryoskin and actively restricting foods, you might see incredible results at first. However, as soon as you start binging or overconsuming again, even if you have lost fat cells, you will get bloated and feel like the results have "disappeared."

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It might be better to take scheduled diet breaks with clients with this tendency. This process involves bringing your calories back up to maintenance and eating in a more balanced approach, then returning to a moderate calorie deficit and continuing this process until you have achieved the weight loss you are after. Psychologically, it gives you a break and slows down the pace, but makes it more sustainable and, over the long term-- helps you keep the weight off. For those more motivated by huge drops in weight, you could diet a bit more aggressively for 2-3 weeks and then bring those calories up to maintenance for 1-2 weeks.
If you are doing Cryoskin, you may be better off stabilizing your weight (coming up to maintenance calories, i.e., usually eat) and trying to stay within 1-2 pounds of your usual weight so that you are not fluctuating much. If you decide to still diet during the process, keep in mind that during the weeks you are at maintenance, you will feel a little fluffier due to the higher carb/calorie intake. Your results on those weeks might be less apparent simply because of the water retention.

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60- 40 Types

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These types have a healthy appetite and thrive by the motto, "I ate healthy all week, so now it's time to enjoy myself!" If they try to lose weight, this mentality can hold them back as they underestimate their food intake and activity levels. The inconsistency can lead to giving up the weight loss goal altogether, only to find themselves 5 pounds heavier the following year and trying another diet.
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The pitfall I see with some of our 60-40 Types is that they may have fluctuations in water retention and bloat depending on how well they "enjoyed themselves" over the weekend.As I mentioned before, fluctuations in water retention can "mask" your Cryo Slimming results after a weekend of pizza and beers-- even if you technically are not in a calorie surplus.
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When high sodium foods mix with high carb foods -- you get bloated!

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My recommendation for these types is to track their calories closely and find a 60-40 approach that doesn't have the scale creeping up in weight. Try to stay within 5 pounds of your healthy weight and maintain that. If you want to lose weight, you may be better off trying to "clean up your diet" instead of a calorie restriction, focusing on whole, unprocessed, balanced meals and becoming more of an 80-20 Type.

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Instead of restricting those weekends out, practice moderation.

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For the 60-40 Types, you need to create better habits around your foods, like eating slower, drinking more water, consuming more protein and fiber, and eating high-calorie processed foods in moderation. It's about moderation, not perfection.
If you are doing Cryoskin, scheduling your sessions mid-week or a few days after a night out might be less discouraging for your technician and you. Your results will be more consistent because you won't be bloated and retaining water from your night out. If that's not possible, track your actual weight AND measurements and find patterns there.

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Healthy Overeaters

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These are the types that are super strict about the actual food quality that they eat. Eating high-quality, whole, unprocessed foods is ideal. However, some people fail to realize that there are plenty of high-calorie dense whole foods!
High-Calorie Smoothies, Nuts, Nut Butters, Seeds, and Avocados are just a few examples of healthy higher, calorie foods that are easy to overeat. While very beneficial for you and loaded in micronutrients, it can still leave you over your energy expenditure for the day or even just incredibly high in natural sugars and carbs and lacking in protein and fiber. 😳
The biggest pitfall for these types and achieving their weight loss goals is that some have unfortunately given in to the myth that as long as something is unprocessed, it's not bad and, therefore, shouldn't cause weight gain. This idea is a myth because no matter how healthy a food is for you, you will gain weight if you overeat.Restricting processed foods is not bad if it works for you, but recheck those calories! Make sure you still eat balanced whole meals with a serving of fat/carbs, fiber, and protein.

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If you are doing Cryoskin, follow the no sugar or carb protocol on the days of your appointments. A common pitfall is to eat fruit or starchy vegetables, but these foods will be too high in sugar/carbs during your treatments. Do weekly calorie tracking to ensure you aren't sabotaging your body contouring goals with incremental weight gain.
This eating pattern is one of the easiest to fix(because you already eat unprocessed foods), but it will require a little awareness of the high-calorie dense foods.

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Remember, health nuts --Energy balance STILL matters.

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80-20 Types

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These types tend to eat a more flexible diet, with 80% of their foods coming from whole, unprocessed sources and 20% from processed or traditionally "junky" foods. While you might have had the privilege of always eating this way, most people who land here usually come from one of the other eating patterns and finally land on a happy medium. Those in the fitness industry can probably attest to being in all of these band camps at some point in our fitness careers/journeys. Still, most people land here because it's easier to maintain healthy body weight with hardly any extra planning. You are getting most of the micronutrients and macronutrients you need. However, you still have room to enjoy your life.

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The biggest pitfall here is that because you are so comfortable with your eating style, losing weight (if you want to) may take some planning because you will have to be a little more conscientious of calories/macros. People who eat this way are at a very healthy weight but may be looking to lose 5-10 more vanity pounds.

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The Undereater

The under-eater is an eater that has been chronically undereating for years. Probably half of my nutrition clients have struggled with chronic undereating. The tricky thing about being an undereater is that the body has adapted to functioning on fewer calories. To lose fat, you must drop your calories so extremely low that it would be unhealthy and sacrifice your health. Our under-eaters tend to hold a good amount of water weight and tend to be bloated. We have noticed these clients have difficulty sleeping, and their energy levels can suffer. Women who are undereaters may have irregular cycles, iron deficiencies, and other nutrition-related deficiencies. In this situation, you must work with a certified weight management coach or nutritionist to get your body to perform more optimally.

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When we work with these clients, we generally take a systematic approach to get the client to a more normal baseline before working on weight loss goals. I like to employ frequent diet breaks even after we have achieved a more normal caloric intake. Cryoskin and body contouring can be a helpful way to stay on track with your nutrition goals while you go through the process of increasing your calories. After years of chronic undereating, it can be hard to gain weight especially if you already have extra fat you are concerned with-- this is where we can help the most with our technology AND coaching program.

In Summary

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Knowing your routines and habits around food can help you enhance your body contouring results and fat loss goals. The key is to find the pattern that will work best for you in the long term. If you need help figuring this out and are a current Cryohub client, drop me a line at contact@cryohubbos.com. If you are not currently working with us in the studio, drop me a line and tell me what else you want to know about this topic.

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