Weight Loss After Six Weeks Using Nutrient Optimiser

It was exciting to see how well people did in the Nutrient Optimiser Challenge which was held to celebrate the launch of Nutrient Optimiser.  

The results of the challenge demonstrate the positive benefits of quantitatively optimising nutrient density and satiety and benefits of the Nutrient Optimiser to create sustainable improvements in diet quality, body composition and metabolic health.   

The key findings were:

• Participants significantly improved their diet quality over the first two weeks which led to a reduction in body fat and blood glucose levels.  
• The average weight loss was 5.1% during the six weeks.
• People who identified as insulin resistant lost weight at the same rate as the rest of the participants.
• Users who paid to be part of the prize pool lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t.

What is Nutrient Optimiser?

Nutrient Optimiser is an automated nutrition program that considers biometric data, goals and current food intake to provide personalised recommendations to optimise a user’s nutrition and lifestyle habits to improve metabolic health markers including body fat, weight, blood glucose and energy levels.  

The Nutrient Optimiser includes a range of tools that enable users to progressively improve their diet to align with personal goals, including:

• weight loss,
• blood sugar,
• lean bulking,
• nutritional ketosis,
• nutrient-dense maintenance, and
• endurance athlete/bulking.  

The Challenge

Participants were given the opportunity to enter a free challenge between 2 January and 10 February 2019, with a particular focus on weight loss and blood sugar management.

Participants aiming to lose weight were provided with a meal plan optimised for nutrient density and satiety.  Participants whose primary goal was to reduce blood sugar used a lower insulin load meal plan.   

Participants were educated and encouraged to make use of the various tools embedded within the Nutrient Optimiser to incrementally improve their current diet by adding in new foods and recipes.    

Instruction and support were provided in the Nutrient Optimiser Facebook Group, with additional troubleshooting provided via Facebook Messenger and reminders provided via Facebook Messenger Bot.  

Meal plans

While the Nutrient Optimiser onboarding process provided an indication of calorie requirements, the primary focus was on food quality.   A range of foods and meals were rotated to ensure that participants obtained adequate levels of all essential micronutrients.  

However, in line with the intended design of the high satiety meal plan, calorie intake decreased as a consequence of the food choices rather than actively restricting calories.   

A common response from participants was that they were “too full” on their assigned meal plan to meet the maximum calorie target and had to drop snacks or meals allowed on the meal plan.  

Prize pool

Users were given the opportunity to participate in a prize pool.  Proceeds were shared with the winners in each of the three categories.

Weight loss progress was calculated based on the average of the first three measurements versus the final three measurements.  Photographic evidence of start and finish measurements were shared in the Nutrient Optimiser Facebook Group and/or uploaded into the platform to verify data.  

Winners

Huge congratulations to our winners who put in a massive effort.

rank	weight loss	weight & glucose	blood glucose
1	Magdalena	Paul	Paul
2	Nick	Sunny	Sunny
3	Paul	Sergey	Sergey

Magdalena dropped 18.5% of her starting body weight.   Magdalena was very active in the habit tracking and currently holds the number two position on the nutrient density leaderboard (check out her full nutrition fingerprint report here).  

Nick who lost 10.9% of his initial body weight during the six-weeks (and 12.4% between his highest and lowest weight logged since starting with the Nutrient Optimiser).  

Paul lost 9.3% of his body weight during the competition (and 10.5% between his highest and lowest weight recorded using the platform).  

Paul also made fantastic progress with his blood sugars!

Weight loss achieved

The chart below shows weight loss vs time across all 103 participants, with an average of 5.1% achieved.  

Of the 103 participants who recorded start and finish weights, 101 lost weight.

The average rate of weight loss was 0.76% per week during the competition.

It seems that 0.5% is a reasonable minimum rate of loss for most people.   A weekly weight loss of 1.0% or more per week is possible. However, a continued loss of more than 1.0% per week may not be sustainable and may cause a rebound in appetite.

Insulin resistant vs insulin sensitive

We wanted to understand whether there was any difference in how people responded to the high satiety nutrient-dense meals based on whether they identified as insulin resistant or insulin sensitive.

Although we encourage people with elevated blood sugars to moderate their carbohydrate intake, there was minimal difference in the rate of weight loss based when they focused on the nutrient-dense high-satiety foods.  

Prize pool vs free

People who participated in the prize pool were less likely to drop out and lost approximately twice as much weight.  

The chart below shows the change in weight for the ten people who lost the most weight, with nearly 12% of their body weight lost during the six weeks.

Summary

These results demonstrate improvements in energy and significant amounts of weight loss by focusing on helping users improve their micronutrient profile.  

• On average, participants lost 5.1% of their starting body weight over the five-week at an average rate of 0.75% per week.
• People who identified as insulin resistant lost weight at the same rate as everyone else.  
• People who participated in the prize pool lost twice as much weight.

More

Check out the following articles for more detail:

• Weight loss after six weeks using Nutrient Optimiser
• Real-life responses
• Blood glucose, ketone and insulin changes
• Waist, body fat and lean mass
• Nutritional Optimisation Pro Tips 
• What does nutrient density look like?