A nutritional blueprint can help women going through their menopause journey. The Galveston Diet is a nutritional plan specially designed to help women undergoing menopause. It beats the weight gain that is almost a given. Middle-age weight gain is something that many women face, and the various distressing menopausal symptoms that come with it.
Even if you have been lean for the better part of your life, some of the major changes to your body can be unnerving for you. The unwanted body changes that menopause brings about can make you feel overwhelming. The shift of hormones is why you may feel the way you feel.
The journey can be taxing for some because they may give their very best, exercise hard, and eat less, yet they do not get the desired result. But all is not lost. You may still be able to lose that extra weight even if you have hit menopause. The Galveston Diet will tell you how the founder of the diet plan, Mary Claire Haver, introduced the Galveston Diet, an MD and OBGYN.
The Galveston Diet can target slower metabolism. It can also reduce inflammation, reduce the incidence of hot flashes and target the extra weight. So, here are some tips to get the diet right and lose extra weight.
The Foods to Eat
Anti-inflammatory foods are your best bet in this diet, and you need to add plenty of them to your diet. So, focus on the diet that contains lean, grass-fed protein, unsaturated fats, non-starchy vegetables, low-carb and low-sugar fruits, and unsaturated fats. You can omit the excess saturated fat that leads to weight gain by lean proteins. You can add eggs, salmon, lean, grass-fed poultry, beef, turkey, and even raw beef steak.
Besides that, you can eat plenty of Greek yogurts. It adds as many amino acids as yogurts. Also, it has the additional benefits of calcium and probiotics. Grains include quinoa, which can help in muscle-building. You can add several non-starchy veggies such as broccoli, spinach, zucchini, cucumber, celery, tomatoes, and more.
The fruits you can include are high in fiber and antioxidants, such as blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and more. When it comes to healthy fats, nuts, avocado, and extra virgin olive oil is a great addition. These foods will help lower inflammation and help you lose extra weight.
Intermittent Fasting
The next thing to remember when following this diet is to incorporate the intermittent fasting protocol of 16/8 intermittent fasting. This type of fasting will mean that you need to eat in a specific period, say you finish your last meal by 6 pm the next day you eat at ten am.
A fasting window will again follow this eating window. You need to eat all your calories within that time frame. You can eat zero-calorie fluids such as plain water, unsweetened tea, or unsweetened coffee in the fasting time frame. This way, you can also limit your calorie intake. The calorie deficit helps in weight loss. Intermittent fasting is a great way to reduce inflammation, improve insulin resistance, and reduce heart disease and high blood pressure markers.
Keto Yet Not Keto
The Galveston diet is a high fat, low carb diet. It mimics the standard keto diet in various ways, especially in its macronutrient distribution, as most daily calories come from fat. An average American diet’s macronutrient division comes from 35% fat, 16% protein, and 47% carbs. The Galveston diet gets most of its daily calories from fats, at least 70%, 20% from protein, and just 10% from carbs. The idea is to get the maximum amount of calories from fats, so it is changing your fuel refocus. Carbs are your body’s best source of energy, but in conditions like these, when your body breaks down fat for low energy, you tend to shed the extra fat with fat. Evidence show promise as it helps lose the extra fat in menopausal women.
However, is the diet as good as people claim it is? It focuses on very few grains, such as quinoa only. So, if you are following this diet, ensure you keep a close tab on the fiber intake as this diet is a little low on fiber. When you leave large food groups from your diet, the question is, how sustainable can it turn out to be? Make an informed decision before you follow any diet.