Do you want to grow bolder with your health? Lose weight, look great and feel good about yourself? You’ve seen talk show guests touting that you should take raspberry ketones or completely cut wheat from your diet in order to lose weight. Let’s get real…there’re a zillion unproven yet hyped weight loss miracles at your finger tips on the Internet.

But who’s really getting the benefit…your body or the pocket of the person or company promoting the latest miracle? Come on…weight loss is hard work…right? If all of these miracle products worked, our country wouldn’t be fatter than ever.

So, I went to the prime time nutritionist to give it to us straight…the registered dietitian and James Beard award-winning chef who has successfully worked with contestants for 13 seasons on TV’s The Biggest Loser. Cheryl Forberg knows what she’s doing and she joins me on the podcast this week.

Cheryl says that each contestant on the show has a personalized tailored calorie budget just for them. She meets with each person and provides instruction and guidance on the new healthy eating plan.

Fat Blasting Tip: Cheryl shares that one diet does not fit all. Each person has different needs … a different metabolic rate. Don’t miss this: muscle tissue burn 9-10 times as many calories as fat tissue. Exercise helps maintain this fat-burning muscle mass as you lose weight.

Cheryl suggests to only change one thing at a time and consider this: lose the white stuff as much as possible which means white flour, added sugars, white pasta, white rice, etc. Swap them for the whole grain versions such as brown rice, whole wheat flour, multi grain or high fiber, low glycemic pasta such as Dreamfields or trendy items such as quinoa.

Be sure and check out Cheryl’s new book: Cooking with Quinoa for Dummies.  If you haven’t tried quinoa, it’s a seed with grain like properties and is pronounced keen-wa. Cheryl’s simple way to cook it is to 2 parts liquid to one part quinoa. You can mix cooked quinoa with nuts, cinnamon and dried fruit for breakfast as a hot cereal or use broth in place of water and add herbs/spices for a quinoa side dish.

And this fat blasting tip from Cheryl may surprise you: skipping meals, particularly breakfast, promotes weight GAIN. She says that skipping meals makes you eat too much, too fast, and eat the wrong things. You lose your natural hunger cues.

Having a party? Try Cheryl’s recipe for Chunky Onion Dip.

Want more tips from Cheryl to help keep you grow bolder with your health? Listen to this week’s podcast below.