Why Personalized Nutrition is the need of the hour?

Personalized nutrition has its roots in the concept that one size does not fit all. We all are different individuals even though being under the same class of homosapiens. We are individuals with differences in our biochemistries, metabolism, genetics and microbiome.

A personalized nutritional program is made keeping in mind the client’s personal eating habits, body weight, body measurements and lifestyle.

The functioning of our human body is dependent on the health and functioning of various systems that are present in our body or the health of billions and trillions of cells of which these systems are made up of and which are working 24x7 to produce energy in our body.

Every system, organ, tissue or in fact we can say every cell of our body contributes to some calorie usage the entire day and these calories which are used by all the systems, organs or for that matter all the cells of the body contribute to our BMR (Basal metabolic rate) of the day. The total sum of the calorie usage in every cell of the body in rested state makes our BMR.

This clearly indicates that if all the cells or organs or systems work efficiently, they contribute more in calorie usage by our body keeping our BMR elevated. That means, if any of the systems in our body do not work efficiently, they reduce the calorie usage process reducing the BMR.

Now there are various factors which affect the calorie consumption of the various systems and trillions of cells in our body henceforth affecting our Basal metabolic rate. 

These various factors are:-

Age, gender, body type, body composition, lifestyle, hormones, medical conditions, exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress levels, genetics etc.

Every individual will have a different Bmr and every individual will have a different reason of dropping his/her Bmr. In fact, one individual himself can’t have the same Bmr all his /her life. Sometimes the Bmr or metabolism shows a rise and sometimes droops down.

As a nutritionist when I do a fitness consultation, my role is to first assess the factor affecting the client’s Bmr and making it slow and leading to fat gain. My first task as a consultant would be make those systems work efficiently which are not working efficiently as normal. This is automatically going to improve one’s metabolism thereby subsiding the calorie storage by the body delivering a beautiful byproduct that is fat loss ultimately fulfilling the client’s utmost goal.

As a nutritionist my objective is never to just make my client focus on burning calories, in fact my aim remains to make every cell, every organ and tissue of the client work efficiently so that the metabolism of the client remains high and the client burns calories even being at rest.

The nutrition program which is customized is far more than a list of foods or a generic meal template. It’s a bespoke approach to nutrition designed with the individual’s unique genetic make-up. Your Dna can reveal how your body processes different nutrients. Your lifestyle, daily habits, sleep and exercise influence your nutritional needs. Your existing health conditions, allergies or intolerances are factored, your personal preferences and most importantly your goal that is whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle or simply need to maintain a balanced diet will be taken into consideration so that your nutrition program is tailored to help achieve your goals.

Aru Chawla