The Balance Factor^©(BF) is the result of a 10+-year pilot study conducted on a small community in Ontario, Canada. It started as an observational experiment with no external funding, no time limitation, and no need to defend a dissertation. It emanated from hours spent waiting for children to finish piano lessons, sports practises, and school meetings – converting them to precious moments poring through a magnitude of articles to get clues as to why permanent weight loss is something so elusive for so many.

In time, these clues pointed towards a solution that looked nothing like the solutions that were guiding our obese nation towards improved health. It pointed to excess body fat as the culprit as opposed to excess weight. It pointed to eating a CONSISTENT amount of calories while being in a comfortable calorie deficit rather than suffering through strict calorie deprivation. It pointed to the need to address not only the physical body but the emotional, mental, and overall, metabolic stability of the person as a whole. It pointed to the importance of tracking CALORIE and CARBOHYDRATE VARIABILITY and assessing each person’s response to nutrients on an individual basis.

The Balance Factor^© was developed as a tool to test these solutions. Study participants could use the Balance Factor^© to identify the macronutrient ratios of a food or meal relative to the acceptable macronutrient ranges recommended by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This allowed the participant to:

1. identify foods or combinations of foods that fell within these recommended ranges and/or,
2. identify an individualized and ideal macronutrient ratio that was easily sustainable, and
3. minimize carbohydrate variability.

The results showed an improvement in the body’s ability to regulate homeostasis as well as the metabolic flexibility necessary to remove excess body fat to optimize health and reduce risk of metabolic disease.

Today, the Balance Factor^© has been developed into the Balance Factor^© Program to address not only the body’s physiological needs but the emotional and mental ones as well. The Balance Factor^© Program utilizes an equation, the Balance Factor^© , based on the recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and focuses on restoring the ideal environment for the body to stabilize itself and optimize its health. It uses The Balance Factor^© App to identify and track foods or meals that meet nutritional requirements and macronutrient ranges that reduce the risk of obesity and metabolic disease. The Balance Factor^© Playbook is a collection of observations and strategies in understanding how the body responds to nutrients. It provides a path forward for those in the community who have not been able to sustain a healthy eating style and therefore, not been able to achieve or maintain an ideal and healthy body size. It’s an idea worth sharing – one that steps back to look at the big picture of an individual’s wellness instead of just focusing on ‘weight issues’.

There’s more…

The Balance Factor^© teaches you to balance your plant or animal based macronutrients (Carbs, Fats, Proteins) at every meal while you make endless combinations of the foods you love to eat.

The Balance Factor^© is a number derived from the Nutrition Facts label that can be found by downloading The Balance Factor app and Balance Factor Food Lover app in the Apple app store. Both are free apps for Apple users. These apps give you the Balance Factors^©  for more than 12 000 foods in the grocery store including the menu items from over 50 of your favourite restaurant chains.

How does the Balance Factor^© work?

Choose a food you wish to eat and use the app to look at its Balance Factor^©(BF). (If the app doesn’t have your favourite foods in its database, it calculates the BF for you!)

• A BF = 0 means a good balance of carbohydrates to proteins + fat as per the recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide/U.S. Dietary Guidelines.
• A BF > 0 (+ve number) means the food or meal has a higher ratio of carbohydrates to proteins + fats as per the recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide.
• A BF < 0 (-ve number) means the food or meal has a higher ratio of proteins + fats to carbohydrates as per the recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide.

Check out our membership page in the menu bar above and download The Balance Factor^© app to get a free one-month membership that will expire on it’s own – no strings attached. Customize a Balance Factor^© Playbook that provides answers and strategies individualized to your unique eating style and for the cost of a Caramel Macchiato a month, you can get access to personal support, barcode scanning, progress graphs, success measures, meal planning, and a sleep/inflammation/pain/anxiety trend program while having more fun than you have ever had with food!

Regardless of your eating style, the Balance Factor^© Program keeps you in a steady state that gives your body a physical, metabolic and mental advantage towards being healthy!