In this YouTube video, health coach Victoria S. Dorsano warns viewers about seasonal weight gain and the surge of quick‑fix detox and juice‑cleanse marketing that appears each spring. She explains that rapid weight loss methods often lead to higher body‑fat percentages and weight‑regain over time. Drawing on her experience coaching hundreds of clients, she outlines three evidence‑based, sustainable strategies for lasting weight loss: (1) prioritize lean protein intake—aiming for 1.6–2.2 g per kilogram of body weight (0.73–1 g per pound)—to boost resting metabolic rate, increase satiety hormones (GLP‑1, PYY) and reduce hunger hormone ghrelin, which can cut daily calories by roughly 400 kcal; (2) increase consumption of viscous soluble fiber (e.g., pectin, beta‑glucan, psyllium, glucomannan, guar gum) to at least 30 g per day, which slows gastric emptying, prolongs fullness, improves nutrient absorption, lowers cholesterol/triglycerides, and enhances insulin sensitivity; (3) ensure high‑quality sleep of at least seven hours per night, as short sleep raises ghrelin, lowers leptin, PYY, GLP‑1, impairs decision‑making, and heightens reward‑center response to food, collectively increasing obesity risk. She emphasizes that these macro‑level factors outweigh minor tactics like meal timing or intermittent fasting. The video includes a sponsor read for Freek Athlete, a call‑to‑action for coaching services, and a free weight‑loss guide.
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The weather is getting warmer and warmer over here in the Northern Hemisphere, and you know what that means? We're all wearing less clothes. And as we start to shed those layers of sweaters and jeans and sweatpants that we've been wearing throughout the winter and springtime, we start to notice, hmm, maybe I gained a few pounds over the winter. And that's fairly normal. It tends to happen over here, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, where we isolate in the inside environment when it's cold outside, not really pleasant weather, we're less active. It happens. But buyer beware, because this is also a very opportune time to get marketed to with a lot of detoxes and juice cleanses and things that are gonna be promises for quick weight loss. Those wellness companies have their marketing engines fine-tuned to when people start to feel like, oh, I'm bearing more skin, I'm wearing less clothes, I should be more weight-conscious now, I gotta get in shape for bikini season, all those things. They gotta budget for it, they're pushing those ads out, and most likely you've seen some of them already. Unfortunately, a lot of these detoxes and quick weight loss solutions are providing just short-term results, which you might be saying, Victoria, that's not a bad thing if I just can lose 5-10 pounds really quick, right? Well, kind of is a bad thing because here's the thing: studies have shown that rapid weight loss often leads to even more weight gain in the long term. And a majority of these studies even show that these weight loss diets that make you lose weight very quickly, whether that is a detox, a pill, or an actual program that you're you're following to lose 30 pounds in 30 days. Those things lead to a higher body fat percentage in the long run, but it also makes it harder for you to lose weight again later on when you do gain it back. So you're left with a question: what can you do to shed some weight sustainably that won't harm your health in the long run? Well, as a health coach that focuses on sustainable weight loss with my clients, there are 3 really, really simple things that I can recommend to you that I share with most of my clients that help them to lose weight sustainably and keep the weight off in the long run. So in today's video, I'm going to share those 3 things with you. But before I do, a quick word from today's sponsor. Freak Athlete has been creating some of the highest quality equipment on the market, especially for those of us who want our joints to feel great and our bodies to perform even better. Oftentimes, various aches and pains and injuries can keep us from achieving our health and fitness goals, but Freak Athlete makes it easier than ever to train the weak links that prevent many of us from being able to move forward and make some serious progress. Their equipment is designed to target areas like the knees, shins, low back, and hips, which are often areas neglected when using traditional strength training equipment. Some of their trademark pieces, such as the Multi-Sled and Tri-Flexor, have helped me to stay fit and healthy from the comfort of my own home while recovering from ACL surgery, and really continue to be a cornerstone of my daily workout routines even today. Another thing that I've loved about their equipment is that many of their pieces are modular and can be broken down easily and tucked into your gym bag to bring with you for your workout wherever you go. And get this, the folks at Freek Athlete believe in their products so much that they even have a lifetime warranty and 100-day money-back guarantee. So if you're looking amplify the way that you work out and to become a freak athlete yourself, I highly recommend looking at the equipment that Freak Athlete offers. You won't be disappointed. Go ahead and click the link below in the description and use my code Victoria S. Dorsano to get 10% off your entire purchase. And thanks again to Freak Athlete for sponsoring today's video. Okay, so the first thing to focus on if you're trying to lose weight sustainably in a way that's not going to harm your health in the long run or cause you to gain weight again in the long run is protein, focusing on protein intake. In specific, getting lean protein sources. Protein is not only important for just building muscle mass, which in itself can boost your resting metabolic rate, which means that you're burning more calories at rest, but it also helps boost our levels of satiety hormones. In specific, a higher protein intake boosts your GLP-1 and your peptide YY, which helps keep you full, and it decreases your hunger hormone ghrelin. This naturally leads to you eating fewer calories because you're feeling fuller longer. In one study, protein consumed at 30% of the total daily calories caused people to automatically drop their calorie intake by 441 calories per day, which is a huge amount. And not only that, but if you're feeling fuller longer from having enough protein throughout the day, that means you're doing less late-night snacking. And from working with hundreds of clients at this point on weight loss, I'm very well aware that late-night snacking is a huge cause of excess weight gain, of continued weight gain, and preventing somebody from losing weight. So that's a huge win— get more protein, less late-night snacking and cravings. So you might be asking at this point, how much protein do you really need to focus on weight loss? Well, the RDA, or the recommended dietary allowance, is technically 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. But keep in mind, that is just the bare minimum not to be sick. It's really just meeting your basic, basic nutritional requirements, and it doesn't consider your goals or your activities or anything like that. So with weight loss or similar body recomposition, it's important to try to get more protein than just the bare, bare minimum. The standard for weight loss is that you should hit between 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, which if you're calculating in pounds, that's 0.73 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you haven't calculated that out yet, definitely do, and I'm sorry that I had to make you do math today. All right, so the second thing to focus on if you are trying to lose weight in a sustainable way is boosting your soluble fiber intake. For whatever reason, I don't know why this isn't talked about more. I feel like fiber has kind of gotten this bad rap as being like something that your grandma takes as a Metamucil supplement, and nobody really thinks to take it as a weight loss supplement or to get it from a whole food source. And that could be a beneficial thing. But it is really, really important and really beneficial for a lot of reasons, weight loss being one of them. But I want to talk about some of those other areas that it hits as well. So for weight loss, specifically viscous soluble fiber like pectins, beta-glucan, psyllium husk, and glucomannan and guar gum all are great sources of viscous soluble fiber. And by viscous, it basically means that they turn thick, especially when they're put in water. If you let them sit too long in water, they start to kind of form this gelatinous substance, which is good because this gel actually slows down the process of gastric emptying, or the emptying of the contents of the stomach into the small intestine and all that good stuff that goes along with digestion. But because it slows down the process of gastric emptying, it actually increases your body's ability to to spend the time digesting the food, getting the best stuff out of it in the small intestine, and all that good stuff. Once it passes through that point, the end result is really a prolonged feeling of fullness and a decreased appetite while still getting optimal nutrient absorption. Furthermore, let's talk about those other benefits to fiber. Several studies have shown that if you get 30 grams of fiber daily, not only is that helping with the weight loss process, but it's also helping to lower cholesterol and triglycerides and even improve your body's response to insulin. Which basically helps you to regulate your blood sugar a lot better. So all huge wins for fiber. All right, last but not least, we're going to talk about something that is very, very, very crucial to the weight loss process and oftentimes not focused enough on. It is sleep. Wait, wait, wait, don't tune out this point because I know you've probably had a million people at this junction in your life tell you that you need to sleep more, and they're not wrong. But if you want to lose weight, getting good sleep is so important. It's going to make the process so much easier for you. And when I say good sleep, I'm saying good quality sleep and sleeping at least 7 hours. Anything short of 7 hours is called short sleep. Several studies have shown that short sleepers actually have a much higher risk of obesity and weight gain. One analysis of 20 studies including 300,000 people found a 41% increased obesity risk among adults who slept fewer than 7 hours per night. So why would short sleep be contributing to obesity and weight gain? Well, there's a few factors. Not getting enough sleep does the opposite as eating enough protein. It basically takes those hormones that we talked about, the hunger and satiety hormones, and makes them go all haywire. So when you're not getting enough sleep, your body is trying to basically seek out energy elsewhere because it's knowing that it's fatigued, that it's not feeling fully rested. And what does our body want when we're not feeling fully rested? It wants energy. Where does it get energy from? Calories. So when you get short sleep or sleep less than 7 hours, the body will typically upregulate ghrelin, meaning your hunger hormone, so you'll feel hungrier than usual. And it'll downregulate those satiety hormones like leptin and peptide YY and GLP-1 that I talked about, which makes it harder for you to feel full. So it just kind of creates all these factors working against you for your weight loss goals if you're not getting enough sleep. But aside from those hunger hormones and satiety hormones, Not getting enough sleep also affects the way that your brain works and your decision-making processes, and this makes it really hard to make good food choices and to resist really tempting ones. In addition to that, several studies have shown that our reward centers of our brain are even more stimulated by food when we are sleep deprived. So all in all, if you're not getting 7 hours of sleep, start there. Just start there. That's probably the most important point to start with because it's going to make everything else so much easier if you can get the appropriate amount of sleep. And oftentimes that's what we start with, with my clients. If weight loss is a goal and they're not getting enough sleep, we will work on their sleep hygiene. We will work on wearing something like a Whoop to track the sleep quality, to do things that we can like control in their environment and their lifestyle to enhance the quality of sleep that they're getting. Because once that piece gets figured out, everything else gets so much easier, guys. So sleep, so important. So there you have it. Those are the 3 most important things that I coach my clients on when they are trying to lose weight. Increasing your protein and fiber intake and making sure you're getting enough sleep— those 3 things are so important. A lot of the times I find that people get stuck in the minutia and they're doing something what I call is like majoring in the minors, when you're focusing on things like meal timing and intermittent fasting and fasted cardio and all these kind of really small strategies that make such a small impact when these bigger components can make such a bigger difference in the weight loss journey. So I hope these 3 items helped you get a better idea of how to focus on sustainable weight loss. And if you need more support with your weight loss journey, you can always book a call with me and apply for one-on-one coaching. I will put the link down below in the description where you can go ahead and do that easily online. And I will also drop my free weight loss guide down below in the description as well. And if you like this video and thought it was helpful, please, please, please give this video a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel, and I will see you guys next time. Bye!
