Summer is just around the corner and many of us have managed to pack on a few extra, what I call “winter pounds” – need to keep warm, after all. Below are some tips to help you jumpstart your summer.

Getting started

To be successful with a weight management plan, it is important to first determine why you want to achieve a different weight. Are you trying to avoid health problems, feel better, have more energy, be able to play with your children or grandchildren, sleep better, decrease a medication, or live longer? Whatever your reason, once you have identified it, you will have an easier time sticking to a program.

10 tips for making meaningful change

1. Focus on healthy lifestyle changes.

2. Set realistic and achievable goals.

3. Set one goal that has nothing to do with weight.

4. Engage in daily structured activities, including exercise.

5. Make healthy eating a daily activity.

6. Be sure you’re adopting habits you can keep.

7. Adopt new habits slowly.

8. Enlist support from family and friends.

9. Stock your kitchen with the foods you need to get started.

10. Set a specific start date.

The nuts and bolts of the Thorne Weight Management Program

We put together the Thorne Weight Management Program. This program provides a comprehensive plan for how to eat, exercise, and supplement. We recommend doing the program in two-week increments, unless otherwise advised, and then it can be repeated for another two weeks or as many times as advised. Although we recommend a specific timeframe, the idea is to develop healthy, lifelong habits.

Diet

Meals should be small and have only one serving of each food group as outlined below. No meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) should provide more than about 400 calories. By following the meal plan outlined below, you will be eating three meals and one snack daily.

Portion control

A very easy way to get the right amount of food each day for your body size is to use your hand to help you measure. You can do this for most foods on the list.

How to fill your plate

Each meal should have:

  • 1 serving of protein – palm-sized
  • 1 serving of vegetables – equal to three handfuls

Note: 1 serving of fruit (equal to one handful) can be substituted for 1 serving of vegetables once per day.

Each day you should have:

  • 1 serving of healthy fats – equal to three fingers of nuts or 1-2 Tbsp oil or nut butter
  • ½ to 1 ounce of water per pound of body weight per day

Note: Each day, you should drink half of your body weight in ounces of liquid. For example, someone who weighs 150 pounds should drink a minimum of 75 ounces of liquid per day. There are about 17 ounces of water in a standard-sized half-liter water bottle, which translates to drinking 4.5 bottles worth of fluid daily.

Meal timing

  • Stay hydrated: Begin your day by drinking 17 ounces of water and then drink water throughout the day.
  • Eat breakfast: Try to eat breakfast within one hour of waking up.
  • Space it out: Eat your balanced meals every 4-6 hours plus one snack.
  • Stop before 10: Don’t eat after 10 pm. If you are hungry late at night, then have one serving of fruit or nuts.

Supplement support

MediBolic® – 1 scoop twice daily (which will provide you with one full 2-scoop serving daily)

MediBolic, the cornerstone supplement to this program, is a rice and pea protein-based nutritional supplement with added soluble fiber, a complete multi-vitamin/mineral complex, and additional unique botanicals and nutrients for weight and metabolic support.*

With two scoops per day, it provides 140 calories, plus 18 g of protein, 10 g of fiber, and only 6 g of sugar per day (with 0 g added sugars). The fiber (hydrolyzed guar gum) supports healthy blood-sugar levels and a sense of fullness.*

Specialty herbal and nutrient additions, including cinnamon, jambolan, green tea, and resveratrol, support metabolism, thermogenesis (fat burning), maintenance of healthy blood sugar, and fat metabolism.*

FloraMend Prime Probiotic® – 1 capsule in the morning with breakfast or a morning shake

FloraMend Prime Probiotic helps maintain a healthy balance of beneficial intestinal flora (the good bugs).* One of the primary beneficial probiotics in FloraMend is Lactobacillus gasseri, which was found in a human study to result in an average 4.6-percent reduction in visceral and subcutaneous fat tissue with accompanying positive effects on body weight, waist circumference, and body mass index.* Healthy levels of Bifidobacterium might also provide protection against weight gain, particularly in childhood.*

Super EPA – 2 gelcapsin the evening with dinner or an evening shake

Super EPA, which contains omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil, helps maintain healthy levels of blood sugar and triglycerides, promotes a healthy insulin response, provides healthy fats, and benefits heart health.* Omega-3 fatty acids also help support a healthy inflammatory response in adipocytes (fat cells).* Inflammation of fat cells has been implicated in obesity.

Putting it all together: Sample meal plan with supplements

We encourage you to customize your meal plans based on the allowed food lists on pages 6-9 in Thorne's Weight Management Program guide.

Exercise

Try to get 30-60 minutes per day of moderate physical activity or 10,000 steps each day monitored with a pedometer, a Fitbit, or other activity tracker. You can break up the exercise in blocks as small as 10 minutes.

Sleep 

Scientific studies increasingly show that a lack of sleep harms metabolism and promotes weight gain. Adults need at least seven hours of sleep nightly to have a healthy metabolism. When you don’t get the necessary amount of sleep, you have more ghrelin and less leptin. So what does that mean? 

  • Ghrelin is a hormone that signals us to eat.
  • Leptin is a hormone that signals us to stop eating.

When these hormones are not in balance, it’s much harder to control eating behavior.

We hope these tips and this guide will help you have a healthy summer!