Personalized Dieting: A Look Into Nutrigenetics

Have you ever wondered why some people achieve great results following certain diets while others don’t seem to drop a single pound of body fat doing pretty much the same?  

There are many people who try to lose weight by choosing standard weight loss programs of low-fat or low-carbohydrate diets. Recent research shows that a weight loss diet must be easy to stick to, should be sustainable in the long run and, most importantly, should be personalized as per the dieters needs. Hormones, genetic factors and emotional status can all contribute to the struggle of losing weight. The key is to look out for a diet that suits your mind and your body type.

Types Of Over-Eaters

Researchers from the Oxford and Cambridge universities conducted a three month experiment on 75 over-eaters and identified three most common categories of people:

• Feasters: These are the people who eat too much and never feel full because of the low production of a hormone that triggers the feeling of fullness to the brain. Such people reacted best to diets rich in proteins.
• Cravers: These are the people who think constantly about food. They have low resistance to curb their cravings. Theses constant cravers are likely to carry genetic risk factors for being overweight. Such people responded best to intermittent fasting diets like 5:2 diet plan.
• Emotional Eaters: This group is for people who eat as a reaction to their feelings. These people have the most success rate with weight loss club style diet sessions and support.

The results show that it is important that people first understand their eating habits and the cause of their particular weight problems before going for a ‘one size fits all’ diet plan approach.

Dieting Evolution

Scientists at Stanford University measured the long-term effects of weight loss using a few diets assigned at random. The results showed that there were some participants who lost weight on one type of diet while others did not. The participants were then tested for 3 specific gene variations and it was found that people who were using the diet most compatible with their genes lost as much as 2.5 times more weight than those who didn’t. 

This link between genes and nutrition is quite simple. Our genes control the hormones and enzymes levels. Hormones and enzymes, in turn, regulate the basic level of all metabolites in our body. They control how the nutrients and calories are taken in and get metabolized in our body.

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There are various signs that can help you to figure out which category of eater you belong to and what diet will suit you the best.

Which Category Of Eaters You Belong To?

To help you find this out, try to answer the questions below.

1. Is food always on your mind?
2. While cooking, do you feel tempted to eat something?
3. While passing a plate of chips or biscuits or snacks, do you usually pick one?
4. Do you feel hungry all the time and crave to eat something or the other?
5. Do you eat more when you are lonely?
6. Do you eat more when you are stressed?
7. Do you eat more when you are excited or anxious?
8. Do you eat more and your eating speed is high when you are angry?
9. Do you eat large potions at a time?
10. When in a party/restaurant, do your friends seem to get full earlier than you?
11. At the end of the meal, do you still feel that you haven’t had enough?
12. Whenever you start eating, do you feel you cannot stop even if you have had enough?

Feasters: These people cannot stop eating in a single sitting. Since these people do not secrete enough hormones from their gut to let their brains know that they are full, a high protein and low glycemic index (GI) diet suits them the best.

Their food usually takes longer to digest, so it’s better to include more protein, green leafy vegetables and replace high GI foods like white rice, white bread, pasta, cakes with their low GI alternatives like brown rice, whole wheat breads and pastas.

Constant Cravers: These people enjoy the food above anything else and are at highest risk for obesity. So if one of joys of your life is food, what can you do to shed those extra kilos? Intermittent fasting (two out of seven days) seems to be the only solution for them, while binging on healthy alternatives on the regular days.

Basically, people under this category need to change their eating habits to improve their lifestyle, and on the days when they are fasting they have to consume no more than 800 calories.

Emotional Eaters: People in this group use food to self-medicate, be it the times of high stress, anxiety, crisis or excitement. The key to help these people is to support them in their emotional problems which drive them to eat without even realizing how much they have eaten. Structured diets and clear guidance on how much food can be eaten should be the base of their weight loss regime.

See Also: Food Cravings May Originate In Your Belly, Not Your Brain

More than one category: These might be people who love eating and also are emotional eaters. Also, there may be people who are feasters as well as emotional eaters. One may also fall under all three categories. In such cases, you need to analyze your diet deeper and try a couple of different approaches before hitting on the right kind of diet.

This will gradually teach your brain and body how to eat healthier and enjoy it. In a way, by having foods you love in small portions quenches your cravings and motivates you to live a healthier lifestyle.