Dietitian Lauren Twigge On The 5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight, And Keep It Permanently

Be consistent with meals and snacks that have protein.

One strategy that I encourage all of my clients to use is to eat consistent meals and snacks throughout the day. The recommendation starts with 3 meals and 2 snacks a day but that can be tailored to individual preferences. This gives you more opportunities to nourish your body, maintain your energy, and can also keep you out of the binge/restrict cycle that I mentioned earlier. When people are trying to change their body weight they often start to skip meals or “save calories” for other higher calorie meals that are coming later. This extreme restriction can lead to binge eating at your next meal! Instead, try to eat consistently throughout the day and focus on meals and snacks that have been built around protein. The protein content will help keep you fuller for longer, keeping you well satisfied until your next meal which will ultimately help with portion control as well!

So many of us have tried dieting. All too often though, many of us lose 10–20 pounds, but we end up gaining it back. Not only is yo-yo dieting unhealthy, it is also demoralizing and makes us feel like giving up. What exactly do we have to do to achieve a healthy body weight and to stick with it forever?

In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve A Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently” we are interviewing health and wellness professionals who can share lessons from their research and experience about how to do this.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren Twigge.

Lauren Twigge is a Dallas based registered and licensed Dietitian with a Master’s degree in Clinical Nutrition and a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science. Lauren is the Founder of Lauren Twigge Nutrition, providing a variety of nutrition services including healthy eating education, weight management, portion education, and more. Along with running her own company, Lauren works as a social media dietitian, recipe developer, blogger, and brand ambassador. Lauren is on Instagram @nutrition.at.its.roots and educates on a variety of health topics including the truth about the agricultural industry, education on where our food comes from, and discussing the role that various agricultural products can play in a healthy diet.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

Thank you so much for having me for the series! My childhood was the best and I often find myself wishing I was a little girl again. It was such a carefree time! I am originally from California and grew up in a family that is heavily involved in the agricultural industry. My family is huge and I always say that the best part of my childhood was the people that I got to spend it with. Being 1 of 7 kids, I was constantly surrounded by company and laughter and if you were ever mad at one of your siblings, you had 5 others to talk to which meant you could get away with giving someone the silent treatment for about a year! A lot of my childhood was spent outdoors and I loved to spend every free moment I had with my horses. I was an athlete growing up and played for a travelling club soccer team for most of my life. In high school, I played golf, soccer, and ran track. Because I grew up in the agriculture industry and had an interest in sports nutrition, eating well has always been a part of my life.

What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.

There have been many “who’s” and “what’s” in my life that have pushed me into being a Registered Dietitian. The biggest factor that inspired me to pursue my career as a dietitian is my farming background. The negative image that is often associated with food and farming hit me square in the face during my college years. Despite people’s interest in food and nutrition, I began to understand just how far removed people were from the agricultural industry and food production in general. This lack of exposure and knowledge opens up the door to an educational need because the reality is that people fear what they do not understand. We live in a society where Hollywood actors, Netflix documentaries, and the latest fad diets can make us unsure of what the best decision is for our own health. As a dietitian, I can tell you that the best decision for your health is the one that you can maintain and that you feel good about. You do not need to do what your neighbor does and you do not need to fear the foods that a certain Instagram account told you to avoid.

I want clients to feel confident in their choices and make their food decisions based on fact and not fear. That’s what pushed me to become a dietitian and work across social media channels the way that I do now. My goal is to bring nutrition back down to the basics for my followers on Instagram and private clients because when you break it down that way, it lifts a lot of food fears off of people’s shoulders. Once the food fears are no longer clouding our judgement, we are able to make sustainable changes and build healthy lifestyle habits. I truly attribute this desire as a dietitian to my childhood on a farm where I got to see food at its most basic level, before society had a chance to complicate it and diet culture was able to eliminate it. My goal as a dietitian is to bring everyone back to that place with food.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?

As an individual, I would say that my mom has always been my greatest cheerleader. As a dietitian, one person who stands out in particular is Janice Giddens, as Registered Dietitian who was my manager and mentor during my internship with the National Dairy Council. Janice influenced me in more ways than she probably realizes. I would actually describe her as an “unconventional dietitian” and one who has worked on so many different projects across the world that accomplish the goals she is committed to achieving. With a special interest in sustainable nutrition, Janice has hands-on farming experience and has lived abroad helping communities cultivate and establish farming systems in their area. Her use of her degree as a dietitian opened my eyes to the versatility of the RD credential. Janice was a great manager, always assigning me projects and finding ways to plug me in, but she was an even better mentor. She encouraged me to find my life’s passion and was extremely supportive when I told her about my interest in working on Instagram to educate on food and farming. She put me in touch with the proper team at NDC who cultivated my interest in becoming a media dietitian and social media health educator. I likely would not be the dietitian that I am today without Janice’s encouragement and guidance.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?

It happened when I was a dietetic intern. We were fresh into our clinical rotations and it was my third day in a new hospital. The first few days I had been really nervous and unsure of myself when going to talk to patients. On this particular day, a few of my patient visits had gone smoothly and I was feeling more confident with my ability to help patients. I felt like I was settling into my groove. I had been assigned a new patient and was ready to go talk to them. If you have ever worked in a hospital, you know how heavy some of the hospital doors can be. I went to open the door to this patient’s room and had to push it with a little more force. The door flung open, pulling me with it and causing me to fall into the patient’s room, spilling my clipboard and pens all over the floor. That day I learned to not take yourself too seriously and to always wear shoes with grip with your business casual in a hospital setting.

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Growing up, my childhood bedroom had a desk that had a glass cover over its surface. I went through a “quotes” phase and filled the entire desk surface with 3x5 index cards with quotes on them that motivated me, held me accountable, and reminded me of who I was or who I wanted to become. The one that has always stuck with me is “be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

I like this quote because it can apply to every area of our lives and it sure has applied to many areas of my life. It changes the way that I interact with friends and family. It has influenced the kind of person I have become and the line of work I chose to pursue. At the end of the day, the people that I need in my life have always supported and encouraged me as I worked toward my goals.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

I am currently working on my Learn It & Lose It Group Program, which has been my favorite program thus far and continues to amaze me! This 12 week group weight loss program features both a group and an individual aspect throughout the week. It also comes with an 80 page lesson book that covers 12 different nutrition topics. I worked countless hours on the lesson book and feel confident that the 12 topics we cover are the tools that my clients need to lose weight and keep it off! I can’t wait to see this program continue to grow and evolve.

Along with the programs I run, I have committed myself to educating others on how to properly read and understand food labels. This has been an ongoing educational series on my Instagram page, @nutrition.at.its.roots. The series is focused on dissecting different labels consumers would see on food packaging and breaking down the actual meaning behind the label. As you can tell, my focus is education heavy and I find that the more educated consumers feel about their food, the less afraid they are of food and food purchases.

For the benefit of our readers, can you briefly let us know why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field?

I am a registered and licensed dietitian with a passion for sustainable weight loss and forming healthy lifestyle habits through real food and balanced nutrition. With my master’s degree in clinical nutrition and a certificate of training in adult weight management, I utilize a science based approach to the fitness and wellness field. Through my private nutrition company, I primarily support my clients with sustainable weight loss through diet change and nutrition education. I believe that everyone can form healthy habits and achieve their goals if they are given the proper tools and then taught how to use them. With this education based approach and through constant support, consistent accountability, and tailored dietary advice, I have helped numerous clients achieve their weight loss goals and given them the tools to keep that weight off! I am the dietitian behind the Instagram page @nutrition.at.its.roots where I cover a variety of nutrition topics to a growing audience of over 15,000 followers.

OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about achieving a healthy body weight. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define a “Healthy Body Weight”?

I actually had to think long and hard about this question because this definition seems to be different for everyone. By my terms, a healthy body weight is one that supports your physical, mental, and emotional health. To me, the best definition for a healthy body weight is:

“The weight point that lives at the intersection of your clinical health and your ability to enjoy life while maintaining a healthy relationship with food.”

How can an individual learn what is a healthy body weight for them? How can we discern what is “too overweight” or what is “too underweight”?

A healthy body weight is individual and is going to look different for every single person. We are all unique and even if we ate, drank, and moved our bodies the exact same way as one another, our bodies would all look different. Part of achieving a healthy body weight is accepting these innate differences. Your healthy body weight may be higher or lower than the person next to you so it is important to check in with yourself and ask these three questions:

1) How does this weight affect my clinical health?

• If you are experiencing different clinical conditions due to your body weight, it may be time to check in and see if a 5–10% change in weight (both up OR down) would help alleviate symptoms or conditions. This is very important for people to understand. The answer to your health is not always a smaller body. The answer is not always to lose weight. We can be equally as positively impacted by an increase in body weight depending on where you are with your own weight journey.

2) How does this body weight affect my ability to enjoy my life?

• Does your body weight impact your ability to do the things that give you joy? Is it difficult to play with your children or go for a leisurely bike ride with your significant other? If so, this may not be the healthiest body weight for you. How would a change in body weight, up or down, make these things easier for you? A healthy body weight is one that freely allows you to do the little things that bring you joy and does not hold you back from living your life to the fullest.

3) Does this body weight allow me to have a healthy relationship with food?

• Is maintaining your body weight keeping you from going out to restaurants with your friends or family? Does your new diet prohibit you from eating the birthday cake at your child’s birthday party? Can you hardly go on vacation because you’re worried about the scale when you get home? If you resonate with these statements, you are likely not at your healthiest body weight. A healthy body weight is not one that feels impossible to maintain and it’s very important to assess how maintaining your body weight is impacting your overall perception of food and your ability to interact with those around you in a food setting.

No scale can tell you your perfect number. You need to assess how your own unique weight impacts your physical health, your ability to enjoy life, and your view of food and how food affects you.

This might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to expressly articulate this. Can you please share a few reasons why being over your healthy body weight, or under your healthy body weight, can be harmful to your health?

Your weight impacts more areas of your life than people often realize. Clinically speaking, weight is closely tied to blood pressure, blood sugar management, heart conditions, inflammatory conditions like arthritis, and more. Not living at a healthy body weight can increase your risk for various health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and even some cancers. Weight can have a direct impact on your energy levels, your physical ability to perform certain activities, and even keep you from playing with your kids. There is also a close mental and emotional link to weight management as well which further shows the importance of living at a healthy body weight to maintain overall health.

In contrast, can you help articulate a few examples of how a person who achieves and maintains a healthy body weight will feel better and perform better in many areas of life?

Achieving a healthy body weight can open a whole new world into your health that you may have not experienced before. Even a 5–10% change in weight can have a significant impact on your clinical health. Maintaining a healthy body weight can decrease your risk for certain health conditions and even increase your response to different medications. A healthy body weight can also enhance your overall quality of life by increasing your mood, allowing for physical activity, enhancing your self-confidence, and increasing your energy levels. A healthy body weight goes far beyond physical benefits but can impact your mental and emotional health as well.

Ok, fantastic. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently?”. If you can, please share a story or an example for each.

Start with an appropriate calorie range.

This is the first step to achieving your healthy body weight and the first thing that I work on with my clients. You may think that if you eat way less then you will lose weight way faster, or maybe by restricting certain foods or cutting out all snacks, you will have better results. While in theory this may be true for a time, and many FAD diets prey on this, this is not the sustainable approach to weight loss. By creating too large of a calorie deficit, you are opening yourself up to bingeing and restricting while also creating an environment that no longer supports the health of your body. Whether this calorie range is for weight loss or for weight gain to meet your healthy body weight, it needs to be appropriate for you. One of the biggest mistakes I see with my clients, especially when it comes to weight loss, is a very strict caloric deficit. Instead of over restricting, aim to reduce your calorie intake by 250–500 calories per day and then fill those calories with nutrient dense foods. Lowering your calories should not mean you are lowering your overall nutrition.

Look for what you can add instead of what you can remove.

This is a very important mindset shift and one that will be important for body weight maintenance. When people want to change their body weight, their mind automatically goes to “what should I remove?” While in some areas this may be beneficial, it can also lead to lifestyle changes that are too restrictive and unsustainable. Let me start by saying that every food, carbs, fats, and protein- have a place on your balanced plate. Instead of constantly aiming to remove food or food groups from your plate, ask yourself what you can add to your plate instead. Can you add more vegetables to your dinner plate? Can you add another snack to your day to avoid a 6 hour stretch of not eating? Can you add protein to your snack to balance it out? Can you add more water throughout your day? Looking for opportunities to add instead of take away will help make your diet changes feel more sustainable and in return, better support your overall health.

Be consistent with meals and snacks that have protein.

One strategy that I encourage all of my clients to use is to eat consistent meals and snacks throughout the day. The recommendation starts with 3 meals and 2 snacks a day but that can be tailored to individual preferences. This gives you more opportunities to nourish your body, maintain your energy, and can also keep you out of the binge/restrict cycle that I mentioned earlier. When people are trying to change their body weight they often start to skip meals or “save calories” for other higher calorie meals that are coming later. This extreme restriction can lead to binge eating at your next meal! Instead, try to eat consistently throughout the day and focus on meals and snacks that have been built around protein. The protein content will help keep you fuller for longer, keeping you well satisfied until your next meal which will ultimately help with portion control as well!

Get moving.

Our weight is a reflection of our bodies energy balance, or the balance between energy in and energy out. “Energy in” comes from the foods we eat and the drinks we drink. “Energy out” consists of your basal metabolic rate, the thermic effect of food, your intentional exercise and then your non-intentional exercise. The “energy out” component that we have the most influence over is our intentional exercise. There have been many research studies that have shown the individuals who achieve weight loss through diet and exercise have better long term results than those who achieve weight loss through diet alone. Exercise not only burns calories on its own, but it also helps preserve lean body mass which is imperative for weight maintenance. No matter how you do it, you want to get your body moving most days of the week and be sure to include some strength training exercises as well!

Form healthy lifestyle habits.

There are three main pillars when it comes to weight loss: diet, activity, and behavior. We get so focused on diet and exercise for weight loss that we forget all about the last pillar, behavior. Why? It’s because we don’t think that behavioral change is what gives us the results we are after. However, changing your behavior is actually what makes all of those results sustainable. Until you can make your changes a habit, your results will likely be temporary.

The emphasis of this series is how to maintain an ideal weight for the long term, and how to avoid yo-yo dieting. Specifically, how does a person who loses weight maintain that permanently and sustainably?

If weight loss is the goal, the sustainability of your weight loss journey comes down to your weight loss approach itself. If a person ONLY focuses on the results of their journey and has no interest in the process or focusing on behavioral changes, they will constantly be seeking that result over and over again. Though it may sound cheesy, we need to focus on the progress of the journey, not just the outcome.

What changes did you make to your diet, exercise, and lifestyle that supported you in your weight loss? How can you make these changes a habit?

The most effective diets are the ones that do not have an expiration date but instead become a lifestyle.

What are a few of the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they try to lose weight? What errors cause people to just snap back to their old unhealthy selves? What can they do to avoid those mistakes?

Their approach is too restrictive.

This restriction can be seen in total calorie intake or food/food groups allowed in the diet. You have heard me say it once and I will say it again, the more restrictive the diet, the less sustainable it becomes. If you restrict specific foods or food groups too much, you are more likely to crave those foods and find it difficult to manage your portions the next time you allow yourself to eat them. If you restrict calories too much, you will not be able to sustain that calorie deficit. The goal is to keep your calorie range as high as you possibly can while still being in an appropriate calorie deficit. You then want to fill these calories with as many foods and food groups as you can, making the most of your calories with nutrient dense options.

Don’t get derailed after your first weigh in.

The important thing to know about that number on the scale is that it is more complicated than what meets the eye. Many factors have an impact on the number on the scale including hormones, fluid retention, age, gender, and even the size of the last meal you ate. If you have one weight that is higher, do not let it derail you or cause you to spiral into your old, unhealthy habits. Always pay attention to your overall weight trend, stay consistent, and know that one weight does not define your weight loss journey. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to weight loss.

Don’t go too long without eating.

When you go too long without eating, you are more likely to overeat at your next meal. The best way to avoid this is to eat consistent and balanced meals or snacks that are centered around a protein option. The consistency of the calories will satiate your hunger and maintain your energy levels. The protein content of the meal or snack will help balance out the macronutrients and keep you feeling satisfied until your next meal.

Avoid cheat days.

All that cheat meals do is cheat you out of the progress you could be making. I like to compare calories to dollars when I work with my clients. Let’s think of a budget for this cheat day example. You are trying to live within a budget and you are really good at saving on weekdays and by the end of the week, you have saved up $2,500 dollars. Then, you go into the Nordstrom sale on Saturday and spend every dollar that you saved on new shoes and clothes. You won’t see any progress in your savings account and it doesn’t matter that you were good at saving up money throughout the week because at the end of the day, you still ended up spending it. Your calories are the same way. If you are trying to lose weight and you are really consistent throughout the week with hitting your appropriate weight loss calorie range, but always spend all of those calories on high calorie meals and fruity drinks on the weekends, you won’t see any progress on the scale. Just like you need to stay consistent with your savings, stay consistent with your calories and you will see progress on the scale.

Monitor all of your lifestyle habits.

You can have every great intention to lose weight, but if you are not looking at your lifestyle as a whole, achieving and maintaining weight loss is going to be extremely difficult. Stress, sleep, hormones, and other factors all impact our weight and we have control over a few of these factors. Stress, for example, increases cortisol levels which can make you crave specific foods like carbohydrates because carbohydrates contain tryptophan, an amino acid that is a precursor to serotonin. It is literally your body craving the feeling of calm. Another example is in our sleep habits. First, lack of sleep can increase cortisol and we just covered how that can turn out for us. Second, being overtired makes it very difficult to build up healthy plates or acknowledge hunger and fullness cues when they are present. If you are making changes in your diet and exercise but are still not seeing the progress, what other factors in your life do we need to look at?

How do we take all this information and integrate it into our actual lives? The truth is that we all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

A lot of this comes down to being intentional. You can have every intention to change your diet, but if you are not intentional with going to the store and filling your grocery cart with the food you need, you will likely not make changes. All of my clients start with the simple act of getting the food in their houses.

You have to start small. When we try to tackle our entire diet in one sweep, we can start to feel overwhelmed and more likely to give up altogether. Many people fall into the “all or nothing mindset” but it definitely does not have to be that way when it comes to your health. Little changes make a huge difference. Start with changing one meal or one snack at a time. If you are not a breakfast person, start by including a simple breakfast in your day. If you regularly reach for unbalanced snack items, be mindful of adding a protein to one snack throughout your day to balance it out. Start with one area of improvement. Improve it. Build the habit. Then, move on to the next area of improvement. Before you know it, your day will be filled with health supporting habits that have formed over time.

Lastly, you need to set realistic goals. We get so focused on the long term goal that we forget all about the little goals that happen along the way. I find that when you are so focused on losing 30 pounds, it can feel impossible and discouraging to know where to start. I encourage all of my clients to break it down into 10 pound goals instead. These are achievable and goals that you can reach through small, sustainable changes. When you continue to pursue these little goals, you will reach your overall goal before you know it or realize along the way that your original overall goal is no longer fitting or desired.

On the flip side, how can we prevent these ideas from just being trapped in a rarified, theoretical ideal that never gets put into practice? What specific habits can we develop to take these intellectual ideas and integrate them into our normal routine?

Stock your house with healthy options.

As I mentioned earlier, you will not choose it if it is not in your house. How can you expect yourself to eat more vegetables if you never buy enough vegetables to get you through the week? Start by getting the foods you want to eat in your house and giving yourself the chance to choose them.

Prepare for when you are unprepared.

This is one of my favorite strategies to work on with my clients. When it comes to healthy eating, a lot of us buy into the idea that “fresh is best.” While fresh is certainly great, it’s also extremely difficult to stick to healthy eating throughout the week when you eat all of your fresh items by Wednesday and the rest of your options already went bad in the back of your fridge. I tell all my clients to “prepare for when they are unprepared” and to stock their freezer and pantry with healthy options. Frozen vegetables, for example, are just as nutritious as fresh and can be the perfect way to balance out your plate when you are fresh out of fresh produce!

Make the healthy choice the convenient choice.

The reason why we snack on the things we snack on is because of convenience. The reason why we eat out during the week is because it’s convenient to stop on the way home. We need to start making healthy options the convenient options. Many people can get on board with home cooked meals and may even step up to the plate to meal prep, but this concept is especially important for snacks. Snacks are an eating opportunity just like meals are but tend to be treated as “drive by” calorie fillers. We need to be intentional with our snacks and fill them with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and proteins! Once you have your snacks planned out and balanced, go ahead and prep them ahead of time and make your healthy snacks the convenient snacks to choose.

Set reminders in your phone.

Forming habits does not need to be pretty or complicated. It can be a simple reminder on your phone on Sunday that says “pack your snacks for the week.” While it seems too easy, these reminders have been really helpful with my clients because they are sent to your phone on a regular basis and eventually, packing your snacks becomes routine and automatic.

Bring a lunch pail.

Finally, buy a lunch pail for work or school. The amount of clients that I have worked with who tell me they eat out everyday for lunch because they do not have a refrigerator to store their home cooked meal makes me want to face palm. They sell fantastic insulated lunch pails that will keep your meals and snacks cool for hours when stored with an ice pack!

Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I would love to start a movement to end food waste in the United States. This nation produces enough food to feed the population and yet, many go to bed hungry. According to Feeding America, we waste approximately 40% of the food that we produce here in the U.S. and the majority of that waste occurs in our own homes. Think about going into a grocery store, buying 3 bags of groceries and then throwing one away as you walk out of the store. Growing up in the agricultural industry, it’s sad to hear that the food that our farmers labored over is ending up in the trash. As a dietitian, it’s frustrating to know the detrimental toll that food insecurity and lack of nutritious options has on an individual’s weight and health. It’s disheartening to know that there are many who go to bed hungry or malnourished and yet there is enough food to go around for everyone. I would love to inspire a movement to rescue food waste or encourage people to donate food and repurpose it into nutritious meals that could feed those who need it.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)

I would love to meet Reese Witherspoon simply because I think she is a great example of a strong woman. Sitting with her at lunch would be a meal to remember. I also would like to mention that I have been stopped in the airport and on ski runs by people who thought I was her and wanted to take a picture! Needless to say, they were very disappointed.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

• Follow me on instagram @nutrition.at.its.roots
• Check out my website www.laurentwiggenutrition.com for nutrition blog posts, recipe ideas, and to book a 1:1 nutrition session with me.
• Join my next group weight loss program in the Fall.

Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.