The Simple Secret to Weight Management & Stable Blood Sugar — Say Goodbye to Overeating!

February 22, 2022

Let me ask you a question: Do you go through your day wracked with hunger, or fighting with cravings for sweets or carbs? Do you feel like weight management is an uphill battle, or find that it’s nearly impossible to lose weight?

If your answer to any of the above is yes, you’re not alone. I see people struggling with these exact same issues every single day. As America’s Gut Doctor, I’m all too familiar with the challenge so many of you are facing to maintain a healthy weight!

Finding a daily routine that is healthy but also makes you feel satisfied isn’t easy. In a world filled with confusing — and oftentimes conflicting! — health and wellness advice, we could all benefit from simple solutions to everyday problems we face, like maintaining our weight.

That’s why today, I’m taking you through my simple secret to weight management, stable blood sugar, and a life without cravings. Imagine that!

Protein for Weight Management and Overeating

You’ll hear a lot of conflicting advice about the best way to maintain your weight. Many people will say that exercise is the key, others will say that the secret is in getting plenty of veggies, healthy fats, or cutting out sugar. After almost two decades of helping patients meet their weight loss goals — and then maintain their new healthy weight for good — I can tell you that the real secret to weight management is protein — more specifically, starting your day with a dose of high-quality, hypoallergenic protein.

The number one mistake most people who want to maintain a healthy weight make is consuming too little protein.

Protein is such an important macronutrient when it comes to our weight. And it’s not just me who thinks this, either!

Here are just a few of the science-backed benefits of protein:

Makes you feel full: Research tells us that protein boosts levels of peptide YY, which promotes feelings of fullness.
Reduces hunger and late-night snacking: One study showed that increasing your protein intake by 25% can reduce your appetite and lower your desire to snack late at night by half .
Boosts your metabolism: Another study showed that those who eat more protein actually burn significantly more calories throughout the day.
Helps you burn more fat: Studies show that eating high-protein foods led to volunteers burning more fat.
Helps you maintain weight loss: One study even showed that increasing protein from 15% to 18% of calories reduced weight regain by 50%!

In the same way that eating protein supports weight maintenance, when protein intake is consistently low, the body will experience negative effects that make it almost impossible to stay in shape.

Some of the telltale signs that your protein intake isn’t doing the trick:

Trouble losing or maintaining your weight
Low energy no matter what you do
Overeating or trouble with constant hunger, even after a meal
Cravings for sugar or carbs
Moodiness or mood swings
Feeling lethargic at the gym
Blood sugar highs and lows
Trouble concentrating
Not seeing results after working out consistently
Getting hungry less than 3 hours after a meal

Do you see how all these factors could create a perfect storm for weight gain? When you don’t get the right amount of protein, your body will ask for more and more food, but never feel satisfied. I’ll say it again: Low protein intake is the number one reason many people struggle to stay in shape.

Why is Pea Protein Best for Weight Management?

Now that I’ve made the case for protein as the best nutrient for weight management, you might be wondering what type of protein is best. Because let’s be honest, there’s whey, soy, pea, collagen, egg, rice — the list goes on and on — how are you supposed to know which one is the healthiest for your weight goals? To make your choice even more complicated, you’ll also see different forms of protein, like concentrates, isolates, or hydrolysates. What does it all mean?!

Protein concentrates and isolates are popular, but as America’s gut Doctor, I can’t help but be concerned about their effect on the gut. For example, whey concentrate will have dairy residues which could be a problem for anyone who is dairy sensitive. This means they are hard on the gut, cause uncomfortable bloating and sabotage your weight maintenance efforts. For this reason, I prefer hydrolysates. This type of protein not only filters out the fat and carbs, it also further heats the protein to break it down into its essential building blocks, amino acids, allowing the protein to be absorbed directly into your body without you having to break it down. This is the easiest to digest form of whey protein on the market.

My favorite source of protein is pea protein. Why? It’s great for vegetarians and vegans, pea protein is derived from the yellow split pea, a legume that is rich in protein. Many people worry about lectins in pea protein powders, but the process of extracting the protein separates it from the lectins. But where pea protein really shines is for people with food allergies/sensitivities or gut health issues, which is why this is the form of protein I picked for my HAPPY GUT ^® Nourish Protein Meal Replacement .

Your Healthy + Satiating Breakfast Solution

You can easily make a blended breakfast smoothie with the Nourish protein meal replacement to start the day with the extra peace of mind, knowing you’re getting the right amount of protein, fiber and metabolism support to maintain a healthy weight and slim waistline. That’s because the ingredients in Nourish work to help you feel satisfied and support fat burning, healthy blood sugar levels, and energy production. Say hello to effortless weight maintenance!

5 Key Nutrients for Weight Management

NOURISH Protein Meal Replacement

The HAPPY GUT ^® Nourish Meal Replacement is so much more than pea protein. In fact, I spent months formulating this shake to meet all your metabolism needs. Here are five of those ingredients that really deserve a shoutout:

1.Micronized Pea Protein

I formulated the Nourish protein powder with 16 grams of easy-to-digest, organic, non-GMO, low-allergen pea protein per serving. It also does not contain any wheat, gluten, yeast, soy, animal or dairy products, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, ingredients derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs), artificial colors, or artificial sweeteners. That means that it supports lean muscle mass, feeling full and satisfied, and balanced blood sugar without sabotaging your gut health or triggering food allergies or inflammation.

2. Creatine

The Nourish Meal Replacement contains 550 mg of stabilized creatine, an amino acid that’s important for energy reserves, maintaining lean muscle mass, and building strength and endurance. Many vegetarians have lower tissue creatine concentrations since creatine is mostly found in animal foods such as herring, pork, beef, salmon, and tuna, so it’s the perfect way to boost energy if you’re 100% plant-based or mostly-plant based.

3. Conjugated linoleic acid

Conjugated linoleic acid — try saying that ten times fast! Or, like me, you can just call it CLA. This naturally-occurring fatty acid has been shown to be useful in supporting proper fat burning, healthy blood sugar levels, and in modulating inflammation. There’s 120mg of clinically-proven CLA in each serving of Nourish.

4. Chelated minerals

I always tell my patients that eating healthy is a two step process. First, you have to get the healthy foods ONTO your plate; and then, you have to make sure the nutrients from those foods actually get ABSORBED by your body. I’ve seen so many patients who eat healthy, but due to underlying gut issues, they don’t actually absorb the nutrients from the foods they eat, or the supplements they take. That’s where chelated minerals come in — these are just the essential minerals we all know and love — like calcium, magnesium, and zinc — in a form that allows them to be absorbed much more easily, so they can get to work doing their job of supporting energy-efficient cellular metabolism.

5. Stevia

As the cherry on top, Nourish does not contain sucrose, fructose, or artificial sweeteners that threaten to spike your blood sugar and make you crave more sugar or mess with your metabolism. Instead, it’s naturally sweetened with the herb stevia, which will not affect insulin levels or disrupt blood sugar. Nourish allows you to start your day with a highly satisfying meal, without the downsides of too much added sugar.

Put all these together — and about two dozen other ingredients, including 6 grams of filling fiber, found in Nourish —and you have the ultimate morning ritual for weight management. But don’t take my word for it! I’ve had hundreds of patients tell me that the HAPPY GUT ^® Nourish Meal Replacement has been a game changer for easy and effortless weight management.

“With two flavors I love — the vanilla or chocolate smoothies taste like a dessert. I can’t believe they actually help keep my appetite low, energy high, and waist slim between detoxes.” — Michele

I truly believe that if you want a simple tool to maintain your weight long-term, it’s with the right type of “Nourishment” . It has everything you need to start your day with a healthy dose of nutrients and satisfying fullness to set yourself up for success for the rest of the day.

Dr. Vincent Pedre is a leading authority in gut health, a bestselling author, and a medical doctor with a holistic approach to wellness. With over two decades of experience, he is dedicated to helping people achieve optimal health through personalized nutrition, lifestyle adjustments, and integrative medicine.

Dr. Pedre offers personalized health consultations, as well as the comprehensive Gut-Brain Mastery Program — 6-Week Stress-Less Challenge — which is designed to help individuals biohack their brain health through their gut to reduce stress, boost mood, improve gut health, and achieve rockstar resilience.