Laura Schoenfeld: I mean, honestly, it sounds like she is probably just not eating enough, if she is skipping meals. She’s weight conscious, which a lot of women who are weight conscious if they get busy, then they don’t see any reason not to skip meals because they want to lose weight. A lot of women, unfortunately, believe that skipping meals regularly is a good strategy for weight loss. If she is athletic, then maybe she is exercising a lot, so her calorie needs are higher as well.
Honestly, I don’t think that the blood sugar supplements are going to do anything for her because it sounds like the problem is that she is probably just not eating enough, and she may not be eating enough carbohydrate either. If somebody is literally just not getting enough calories to support her energy needs, she is going to have blood sugar issues no matter what kind of nutritional either supplements, chromium, cinnamon, or any of these other things that would affect blood sugar. It sounds like she definitely needs to be just eating more.
As far as snacks and diet timing, I mean the timing is not necessarily that big of a deal, but if she is not eating meals, or if she is skipping eating after working out or anything like that, it is just going to come down to total intake. I would definitely look at how much she is eating. Also, there may be a little bit of disordered thoughts around food with this particular woman, so there may be some counseling that needs to go on as far as getting her to not feel like she should be skipping meals, just because when you have a mentality like that, it is really easy to just default to not eating when you’re busy. Obviously, having kids, she is probably mostly worried about her kids eating, which is totally normal, but I would definitely talk to her about getting in meals regularly.
For example, if she is skipping lunch, then finding a way to eat something even if it is like a smoothie, leftovers, or something like that. She absolutely needs to be eating regular meals, especially if she is doing a lot of activity. This, to me, sounds definitely like it is undereating, overexercising, and somewhat of a disordered relationship with food situation, and that is definitely going to cause blood sugar dysregulation. Again, those supplements are really not designed for that kind of situation. Those are more designed for people who have insulin resistance, PCOS, inflammatory conditions, or diabetes, that kind of stuff as opposed to someone who is active and just not eating enough. It sounds kind of basic, but you’d be surprised how many people I see in this situation.
Just to finish what Edie said. She says, “Yes, I think there may be some disordered eating here. I was a little intimidated by trying to address it.” If you’re not trained in disordered eating or counseling, it is totally reasonable to feel that way, and I do think that that is where referring out to someone who specializes in that kind of approach could be helpful. I don’t know if you are a nutritionist, an acupuncturist, or whatever your speciality is, but if you don’t feel comfortable talking to this client about disordered eating, but you think it is important, and it is causing a lot of health problems, then having that conversation to get her hooked up with a nutritionist who specializes in disordered eating is going to be really important.