Travis Zipper Discusses How to Incorporate Longevity Tactics with Coaching Clients Who Really Only Want to Lose Weight
Human beings are now living longer than ever before. The global average life expectancy has increased by 5.5 years between 2000 and 2016, which is the fastest increase since the 1960s. In addition to major advances in medicine, science, and safety, some of the most important longevity tactics that people incorporate into their lives relate directly to lifestyle such as eating a healthy diet, exercising, and reducing excessive alcohol consumption. For health coaches, it can be difficult to drive these longevity tactics home when a client is focused solely on wanting to just lose weight. However, Travis Zipper outlined some basic yet important ways in which he manages to achieve this with his clients. As a nutrition coach and functional practitioner, Travis Zipper has helped over 2,000 nutrition clients reach their goals and is the Founder and Owner of Wellfitz Mentorship, a brand new style of health coaching mentorship that attempts to fill in many of the gaps that fall between simple macro counting and having to go see a doctor for a lifestyle disease.
The Blue Zones
A book by Dan Buettner was published in 2010 entitled “The Blue Zones”, which identified key geographic regions where people tend to live longer and have lower instances of chronic illness. There are five total blue zones, and they include Icaria in Greece, Ogliastra in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, and the Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda of California. Travis Zipper explains that while genetics can play a role in longevity, they only account for roughly 20–30% and many will even argue with those numbers. Some of the commonalities that are seen among ‘Blue Zone’ residents is that they consume a 85–90% plant-based diet, they have a reduced caloric intake and of which includes periods of fasting, they drink moderate to very low levels of alcohol of which mostly includes red wine, and have exercise that is built into their daily lived. There is a lot to be learned from the Blue Zones, and Travis Zipper is going to dissect them a little bit below.
Caloric Intake
The link between caloric intake and longevity currently generates a lot of interest. Animal studies suggest that a 10–50% reduction in normal calorie intake may help maximize a person’s lifespan. Given these results in animals, researchers are studying if and how caloric restriction or fasting typed diets can affect the health and lifespan of humans. As a longevity tactic, Travis Zipper explains that this particular method is also extremely effective for long-term and sustained weight loss. Caloric restriction also helps reduce body fat and overall weight, both of which when elevated are associated with shorter life spans. Reducing caloric intake can also help clients change their habits presuming they don’t eat too low of a calorie amount. But with that being said a lot of people eat out of simple boredom, or just because they have habitually eaten at a specific time every day for quite some time, and a reduction in their regular caloric intake can help break this cycle.
Food Composition
According to Travis Zipper, the second biggest factor for longevity is food composition. If a person is getting in 2000, or less, calories a day, what foods are they eating? Are they carbs, proteins, fiber, or fats? What a person who eats for longevity should do is want to just eat real and whole foods that are more nutritionally dense, like vegetables, legumes, nuts, healthy fats and lean protein such as fish. One of the commonalities among Blue Zone residents is an almost a vegetarian typed diet. Despite eating meat once or twice a week, and some fish, a vast majority of their diet consists of plant nutrients and antioxidants, which include polyphenols, carotenoids, lots of B vitamins, and lots of fruits with vitamin C. A diet that focused on highly nutrient dense foods has been directly correlated with sustaining long term weight loss and can be added into a weight loss program much easier to comply with.
It will come as no surprise that residents in the Blue Zones incorporate daily movement and moderate levels of exercise into their daily routines of which normally incorporates lots of chores and outdoor typed activities kike gardening inseparable part of life. For most of the population, at least in America, Travis Zipper explains that exercise is more of a hassle and chore rather than a privilege. One of the ways to try to successfully incorporate regular exercise into a client’s routine is to encourage some form of daily movement each day. Whether it is a walk, stretching, or yoga, any consistent form of movement will have a positive impact on your short-term weight loss as well as a person’s overall longevity. Clients will always require further motivation. As regular exercise has been shown to reduce a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s by up to 50 percent.
Lastly, and most obviously, reducing how much alcohol a person consumes and quitting smoking, will go a long way in ensuring a long life as that should be common sense by now. As quitting smoking will only help improve your clients overall physical performance as well as reducing their alcohol consumption will only help them stay on track with their dietary plans, healthy sleep patterns, and caloric restriction.
