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How to Stay on Track With Weight Loss in the Real World: Events, Restaurants, Parties & More
Losing weight is challenging enough without the added pressure of social events, dinners out, parties, and holidays. These occasions often come with tempting foods, alcohol, and a relaxed atmosphere that can easily throw even the most committed dieter off track. Yet continuing to make progress in the real world — outside the controlled environment of your home, where you decide what’s in the cupboards and what’s in sight — is absolutely possible with smart planning and simpl
Nicole McGregor
Feb 73 min read


Transforming Emotional Eating: Strategies for Habit Replacement and Mindful Choices
Emotional eating often sneaks into daily life unnoticed. Many people find themselves reaching for snacks not because of hunger but due to stress, boredom, or other feelings. This habit can make dieting frustrating and lead to cycles of guilt and overeating. Understanding how to pause, reflect, and replace emotional eating with healthier habits can create lasting behaviour change. This post explores practical strategies to help dieters regain control and make mindful choices a
Nicole McGregor
Feb 74 min read


Weight Loss Drugs vs Lifestyle Changes: Pros, Cons, and Long-Term Benefits of Maintaining Lean Muscle
Weight loss is a common goal for many people, especially those who are overweight or obese. With the rise of weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Saxenda—GLP-1 receptor agonists that have gained popularity—there’s a growing debate about whether medication or lifestyle changes offer better results. This post explores the pros and cons of both approaches, with a focus on why lifestyle changes often provide more sustainable benefits, especially when it comes to maintainin
Nicole McGregor
Feb 75 min read


How to Lose Weight in Menopause — and Why Old Methods Stop Working
Weight loss during menopause can feel like an uphill battle. Many women find that the dieting and exercise routines that worked well in their 30s no longer deliver the same results in their 40s and beyond. This shift is frustrating and confusing, but it has clear reasons rooted in how the body changes during peri and post-menopause. Understanding these changes and adjusting your approach to nutrition and lifestyle can unlock effective weight loss strategies tailored to this s
Nicole McGregor
Feb 73 min read


Building healthy habits that last -no willpower needed
Most people don’t struggle with healthy eating because they don’t know what to do. They struggle because knowing and doing are two very different skills. After 17 years working in nutrition, this has become one of the clearest patterns I see. Most people already understand the basics: eat more vegetables, include protein, drink water, limit ultra-processed foods and don’t rely solely on caffeine to get through the day. But information is rarely the missing piece. What’s missi
Nicole McGregor
Feb 75 min read


Should I be eating and drinking low fat products?
For many decades now, health authorities have recommended a low-fat diet. This recommendation has been widely accepted in the mainstream medical community. Although recent studies have raised some questions about the validity of these guidelines, most health authorities have not changed their position. The issue is still controversial and the guidelines remain largely unchanged, even though their scientific foundation has weakened. So are low-fat diets truly effective at prev
Nicole McGregor
Jul 15, 20223 min read


What are the best food for the brain?
When you read articles like this in Alzheimer’s disease journals, about how “Eating more berries may reduce cognitive decline in the elderly,” they’re talking about observational studies like this, where “berry intake appears to delay cognitive aging by up to 2.5 years” in the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, or the “intake of nuts” appearing to delay brain aging by two years. They’re just talking about associations. Berry-eaters and nut-eaters tend to have better brain function
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20222 min read


Can the plastic chemical BPA cause weight gain?
The purported link between hormone-disrupting plastics chemicals, like BPA, and obesity was initially based, in part, on observations...
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20223 min read


Artificial sweeteners and weight
Erythritol, the too-good-to-be-true nontoxic, low-calorie, tooth-friendly sweetener that may even act as an antioxidant. What’s the...
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20221 min read


How alcohol affects your weight loss
Drinking alcohol is a favourite pastime for humans, both socially and culturally. However, alcohol also plays a large role in weight...
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20223 min read


Gut microbes and obesity
Only one in ten of the cells in your body is human. The other 90% are bacteria; we have about 100 trillion of them on us, and in us. The...
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20222 min read


Fasting and weight loss
Fasting can certainly trigger rapid and significant weight loss, but how well does it hold up over the long term? Some research groups have reported surprisingly discouraging results. In one study, participants started at an average weight of about 270 pounds and, as is common with obesity, continued gaining weight in the six months leading up to the fast. After 24 days of what researchers called “inpatient starvation,” they lost a dramatic 27 pounds. But what happened afterw
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20222 min read


Does skipping breakfast help us lose weight?
Where did this whole breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day concept come from? Powerful corporate interests such as the...
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20222 min read


Are supplements worth taking?
Supplements often come in tablet or capsule form and typically refer to vitamins or minerals but may also include other components of foods such as herbs and plant materials such as ginseng, garlic, and green tea. Despite the promises made by some manufacturers, the recommendations from World Cancer Research Fund UK (WCRF UK) is to not take supplements to protect against cancer and to instead meet nutritional needs through diet alone. Some supplements can actually increase ca
Nicole McGregor
Jul 4, 20222 min read


What are the best foods to eat for weight loss?
Protein is often described as the most satiating macronutrient. People often report feeling fuller after eating a meal high in protein, comp
Nicole McGregor
Jul 3, 20223 min read


Can eating vegetables reduce depression?
Studies have linked the consumption of fruits and vegetables with enhanced well-being. A systematic review of research found evidence that consuming fruits and vegetables “was associated with increased psychological well-being.” Okay, but that’s just an association. A famous criticism in this area of research is that maybe there’s just some inherent personality trait or type of family upbringing that might lead people simultaneously to eat in a healthy way and also to have be
Nicole McGregor
Jul 3, 20221 min read


How much water should we drink a day?
A lot of the papers extolling the need for proper hydration are funded by the bottled water industry. Turns out the often quoted “drink at least eight glasses of water a day” has little underpinning scientific evidence. Surprisingly, the recommendation is traced back to a 1921 paper where the author measured his own pee and sweat, and determined we lose about 3% of our body weight in water a day, which comes out to be about eight cups. More recently studies have found evidenc
Nicole McGregor
Jul 3, 20222 min read


Do weight loss drugs work?
Studies show that many doctors overestimate the possible weight loss ability of weight-loss drugs. This is likely because some clinical...
Nicole McGregor
Jun 16, 20223 min read


Which foods satiate and which hijack our appetite?
Protein is often described as the most satiating macronutrient. People often report feeling fuller after eating a meal high in protein, compared to a high carbohydrate or high fat meal. However, does that feeling of fullness last? For weight loss, you need to look at not only the satiety ratings but if this resulted in consuming fewer calories consumed later following the meal. Contrary to what is the common belief, research shows that actually the protein consumed in a meal
Nicole McGregor
Jun 16, 20222 min read
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