Monthly Archives: November 2010

How can you fix a Broken Metabolism? Part 4

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Remember if you are more than 20lbs (10 KG) overweight the chances are your metabolism is slowing and may even, in terms of fat loss, be broken.

In the last post we looked at the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) and how meal timings, meal frequency and the macronutrient composition of meals can be used to positively affect your metabolism.

This brings us to the final strategy that needs to be incorporated into your program in order to recondition your metabolism.

The old saying ‘Move it or Lose it’ is true – humans are designed for movement and as we get older and responsibilities begin to pile up we move less and less. Not only that, but the physical work we get involved in drops off as well. This lessening in physical activity combines with diet, poor food choices and our hormonal environment to slow our metabolism and to increase our body fat.

The good news is that this decline in the physical side of our metabolism can be reversed in short order by exercising the right way.

The right way involves an integrated program that is challenging, has a high metabolic (energy) cost and works both the different muscle types as well as the cardiovascular system. With there being 3 types of muscle in your body – Smooth (such as lines the stomach & oesophagus) skeletal (think Biceps) and cardiac (heart) we need to stress the body in such a way as to do exercise that targets the skeletal & cardiac muscles. The best methods to recondition your metabolism with exercise are a combination of:

  • Weight training
  • Interval training
  • Body Weight training

I have christened this mix of modalities: Integrated Metabolics

In order to recondition your metabolism you need to undertake activities that carry a strong metabolic cost, that disrupt your normal functioning. This metabolic cost is best known as excess post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). The stronger the EPOC we can produce through exercise, the more calories we can burn in the period after we stop exercising. Workout programs that are correctly integrated have been shown to increase metabolism for up to 37 hours after the exercise was completed.

One of the issues with fat loss is that on a calorie & carb restricted program if we are not careful we can lose lean tissue mass as your body begins to break it down for fuel so it can preserve fat for a ‘rainy day.’

In the hormone post we saw that the body has some pretty sophisticated methods of keeping us from starving by preserving body fat. These methods can be traced back a long way from an evolutionary perspective. Likewise with our muscles – humans built muscle for survival reasons, and if your body needed muscle for survival it would not allow it to be broken down. So how can you replicate this conditions that would make your body want to preserve muscle whilst still burning fat?

Lifting weights for sets of 8 –15 reps with a brisk tempo is good for burning calories, but sets with weights heavy enough to force lower reps in the 4-6 range are needed to convince your body to hold onto if not increase its current amount of muscle.

Your muscle is made up of different fibre types and different rep ranges are needed to effectively work these different fibres. Type I skeletal fibres are called ‘slow twitch’ and are good for aerobic exercise, Type II are called fast twitch and are more suited to anaerobic activity. To make it even more confusing Type II are further divided into 3 types. Suffice to say that to obtain maximum metabolic benefit we need to work all types.

So for Type II we need to use multijoint exercises (like Deadlifts, Chin Ups, Rows or Squats) with weights that limit us to 4-6 reps. Then for the subsets of Type II we should move to exercises with reps in the 8-12 range and lastly for Type I we use the 12 -20 rep range. All weight lifting has some cardiac muscle conditioning effects so to an extent we are working 2 of the 3 types of muscle and all the types of muscle fibre.

But to really condition our cardiac muscle and to continue to rebuild our metabolism we need to do more. Enter interval training.

Interval training works because it alternates periods of high intensity with short periods of rest. This combination causes a high level of metabolic disturbance and leads to a strong post work out EPOC whilst ramping up the metabolism & fat burning during the work out itself. The best type of interval training combines short sharp work periods with a longer rest period before the next segment. The best way to get the most out of this is to make the rest periods ‘active’ rest – rope skipping or bench stepping both work well.

So we should finish off with circuits of bodyweight exercises like burpees, squat jumps, push ups, using rope skipping in between circuits as a form of active rest. What we are trying to achieve is a simultaneous burning of calories and boosting of our underlying metabolism so we create a massive metabolic disturbance. The bodyweight exercises chosen should aim at maximum metabolic impact with minimal impact on the already well worked muscles. This way we can avoid too much muscle soreness in subsequent days. This integrated approach results in a strong metabolic cost and very high post-workout EPOC. This combination burns fat whilst rebuilding your metabolism.

This type of Integrated metabolic training is extremely taxing; at some point during this training your body simply cannot handle more of this high intensity work. Because of this you cannot afford to work out like this every day, even every second day is extremely challenging.

Now we bring in the final element – some moderate to low intensity aerobics work on the days between the Integrated Metabolic work outs.

Although aerobic works burns more fat as a percentage of calories during a workout, it still burns less total calories than interval work. So why do it? Simply with EPOC in full swing, fat levels in the blood will be higher and so moderate aerobics can be used to burn it off. So by adding 20 minutes of moderate exercise like a jog, some sprints, bike or stepper you can really raise your level of fat loss.

If this is too much then you can replace the aerobic work with NEPA (Non-Exercise Physical Activity) such as going for a stroll in the evening.

Well there you have it – the end of our 4 part series on reconditioning your metabolism. To work properly it needs a strategic, integrated program that combines diet, food type, hormone manipulation and the right exercise modalities. More on this next time.

Calories ain’t just calories

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Hi – There is a school of thought that says a calorie is just a calorie and it does not matter where your calories come from. I, like many others do not agree with this viewpoint.

A Calorie is not a calorie

When it comes to losing fat and re-conditioning your metabolism, exercise is important – really important. But the most important part of shifting your body shape is what you put in your mouth. I would say that 80% of your results in terms of fat loss and metabolic reconditioning lies with what you eat and how you fuel your body.

A healthy fat loss program is created from a sound nutritional base and good information.

Calories:

A calorie is nothing more or less than a measure of energy. It is the amount of energy, or heat, required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). One calorie is equal to 4.184 joules, a unit of energy commonly used in many European, Asian & Oceanic countries as well as the physical sciences.

Difference between calories and kilocalories

A single calorie is a tiny amount of energy – so the “calories” referred to on food packaging and in diet plans are in fact “kilocalories” (a thousand calories, often referred to as Calories – with the capital C). With metric measurements, “kilojoules” (1000 joules – kJ) are always used.

Calories matter, as they allow the energy content of different foods to be compared – but they are by not the only factor to consider when developing a successful fat loss program.

One word of warning – do not get too hung up on counting calories. There are plenty of foods that are low-calorie but which have little or no nutritional value. These are the dreaded ‘empty calorie’ foods that impart no benefit to you if you eat them. Likewise there are plenty of ‘Low fat’ foods that are chock full of sugars and just dreadful for you and your fat loss efforts.

The old weight loss (not even considered as a fat loss) approach was to establish how many calories you needed to maintain your Basal Metabolic Rate (the amount of calories needed to survive if you were resting and doing nothing all day), add some more calories to cover off any exercise undertaken and then reduce the figure arrived at by at least 500 calories per day so you created an energy deficit.

The thinking was that all calories were equal, that your body dealt with them irrespective of origin and if you reduced your daily intake by 500 calories you would lose 3500 calories (1 lb, .5 kilo) in a week.

In many medical establishments this is still the way things are done.

It is useful to know how many calories you need to keep functioning each day, but it is the source of the calories that you eat that is important. A calorie is not just a calorie.

How about if you ate your daily requirements (say 2200 calories for a male) as hot dogs? Or if you ate nothing but Pizza, or white bread or Oreo Cookies – how would you look and feel?

Now think about how you would feel if you ate the same amount of calories as lean protein, with fruit and vegetables. Which style of eating would see you putting on the most fat and losing the most muscle mass?? The first one, of course. So a calorie is not just a calorie except as a unit of measurement.

Make no mistake eating too many calories above what your body needs, no matter what their source, will add fat to your body. However certain types of calories, & certain types of foods are predisposed to boosting your metabolism and others are predisposed to turning it off. A calorie is NOT a calorie – your body handles the calories from different types of food sources differently.

The next post will deal with reconditioning your metabolism.

A Quick Metabolism Booster

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Here is a quick way to get your metabolism firing along better than it is at the moment…

Remember a stronger metabolism equals a leaner body and less belly & body fat.

Typically in the Western world we eat like this:

  • Breakfast is the smallest meal of the day, if we eat it at all – far too many get by on Coffee on the go only…
  • Mid-morning high carb, high sugar snack & coffee to pick up energy
  • Lunch is a sandwich and soft drink, or takeaway with a juice – usually a moderate sized meal that is eaten quickly.
  • Afternoon snack – usually high sugar to fight the afternoon energy drop..
  • Dinner, the evening meal is the largest meal of the day, often eaten late at night.
  • Late night snack in front of the TV as we relax – usually processed high GI carbs

There are several problems with this:

1)      Our metabolisms are highest in the morning – skipping breakfast after your body is coming off the equivalent of an 8 hour fast is a sure way to drive your metabolism down when it is at its highest and ablest to handle a hefty influx of calories.

2)      Typically we eat the largest meal at the wrong end of the metabolic spectrum – we eat most at the end of the day when our metabolisms are slowest. A large, carb heavy meal not only slows it further but it has more chance of being stored as fat.

3)      In eating this way there are only really 2 – 3 meals there with some high sugar ‘top ups’ to energy reserves. Eating this way causes a slowing of your metabolism and an increase in fat storage.

4)      Our body goes through its repair programs during sleep readying us for the next day. These repairs generally deplete our glycogen stores and this means that our bodies can handle carbs better in the morning as it strives to replace these stores. Because we don’t top them up with a big breakfast we get the sugar cravings and end up snacking at various times during the day.

5)      At the end of the day though your carb handling is at its lowest ebb – and this means more chance of fat storage if we are piling our plates with lots of carbs – especially the processed high GI kinds…

In other words the typical Westerner has meal timings and sizings that are backwards. Because our metabolism is lowest in the evening we should be eating less then and eating the most in the morning when our body is primed to receive a hefty influx of calories.

The way to increase our metabolism is to make use of this higher ‘calorie tolerance’ by having a large high carb, high calorie (with lean protein of course!!) meal in the morning for breakfast. This way we will be spurring our metabolism on, have more energy throughout the day (and less sugar ‘hit’ cravings) and will burn more calories over the course of the day.

This is how we should eat:

Breakfast – A large sized meal, with lean protein and a higher carb intake – your biggest meal of the day in terms of calorie load.

Lunch – A moderate sized meal with moderate carb intake (ditch the soda though!)

Dinner – The smallest sized meal, with a lower carb intake – and make sure that they are low GI carbs as much as possible.

If you follow these simple recommendations and flip your calorie intake from evening to morning, I guarantee you’ll have more energy, fewer cravings, improve your metabolic rate and lose belly & body fat faster.

8 things to avoid whilst trying to Lose Fat

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The important thing is to focus on fat loss not weight loss – following these 8 tips will help you avoid some common mistakes…

1. Set unrealistic expectations

If you have 40lbs to lose it is unlikely that you will be able to drop this much fat in a month in a way that is sustainable. I mean if all you lived on were shakes and exercised like crazy you might do it, but you went back to your normal eating patterns back will come the weight. Be smart find a program that works and use it. 20lbs in 30 days is doable in a sustainable fashion, so you might have to cycle through a program a few times to reach your goal or better still set to reach your goal over a challenging but achievable time frame. 40lbs – say 3 months.

2. Weigh yourself every day

Your weight can fluctuate up to 6 lbs a day depending upon fluid & food intake, hormones and more besides. Daily weighing can be extremely discouraging. The best measurement is twofold – how you look in the mirror and how your clothes are fitting you. Remember the goal is Fat, NOT weight, loss. If you have to use the scales – use them once a month, same time, same day.

3. Skip meals

Skipping meals isn’t going to help you lose fat, but eating 5 or 6 times a day will!! Skipping meals damages your metabolism and creates issues with a number of hormones all of which combines to keep the fat on you. Our body’s deal with food better in small frequent feedings rather than 2 or 3 large ones. Studies have shown that the same amount of calories when eaten over 3 meals leads to more fat storage than if they were ingested over 6 smaller meals.

4. Completely cut carbs

It is popular to cut carbs these days and certain types of carbs should be reduced or even eliminated from your diet if you are to recondition your metabolism and lose fat.

The truth is though that carbs are our body’s main fuel source and the right types of carbs (think nutrient dense, low calorie low GI & unprocessed) will actually keep your body humming along and assist with fat loss.

The Fibre from unprocessed carbs is an important component for gut health, for regularity, for fat loss and for craving control – eat your carbs – just avoid the processed ones especially the ‘White’ ones (sugar, flour, rice etc).

5. Starve yourself

Not eating activates all sorts of hormone cascades in your body all of which are designed to ‘batten down the hatches’ to hold off what your body perceives as starvation. Your metabolism slows down, fat is preserved and carbs and muscle tissue get burned for fuel. This route of fat loss means you end up a smaller fat person.

6. Workout longer than an hour at a time

Sixty minutes is it, in fact longer workouts are the key – you can work hard or you can work long only a very few rare individuals can do both. Workouts longer than an hour increase cortisol (the belly fat hormone) levels dramatically and cut into recovery time. This is not to say that you can’t work out twice in one day – just make sure that the types of exercise are different – for example weights in the AM and sprints in the PM

7. Expect to lose Fat without exercising

Losing Fat is 80%+ diet, but unless you are reconditioning your metabolism with physical activity as well then you will not achieve all you can and in many cases run the risk of becoming a smaller fat person as lean tissue disappears due to non-use. Remember lean tissue = high metabolism. A high metabolic rate = lower fat.

This doesn’t mean that you have to hit the weight room every day – go for a bike ride, do some Pilates, do some sprints – Move dammit!!

8. Drink Alcohol

Alcohol is a poison and the body cannot store it so it has to process it immediately it is detected. This means that your fat burning comes to dead halt and your good work diet & exercise wise was for nothing.

The amount of alcohol involved is different for everyone – it may a glass of beer or wine, or a bottle – it doesn’t matter – if you are trying to lose fat you must pass on the alcohol until you reach your desired fat loss.

These are just a few tips – please sign up and get your free report to learn more practical tips to help you lose fat and get leaner.

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Welcome to Body Shape Shifters

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Thanks for finding us!

If you are over 35 and over 20lbs (18 kg) overweight you probably have a metabolism that is not working as well as it should.

The problem is that the older we get, the harder it is to stay fit, lose fat, or even keep the fat off. And if you are lucky enough to be reasonably lean – it seems almost impossible to get rid of those last few pounds.

Life is often not very fair – the closer we get to being 40 years old (and once we pass it!, our bodies begin to develop a strong reluctance to change the way they are right now. Our Bodies took a far while to get into the condition they are today and they seem to actively work against us when we try to get leaner and fitter.

Our bodies love homeostasis (the ‘let’s just keep things the way they are‘ control) and in order to change how we look and feel we need to shake things up and work against this innate physical ‘hardwiring’ of our bodies. If we don’t shake things up we won’t be able to achieve a new and diffferent state of homeostasis that works to give us less fat, more leanness, more fitness, and greater health.

It is a fact that our metabolism slows as we age, and it becomes harder to reset your body’s accepted point of  homeostasis . This ‘set-point’ determines the composition of our body and the longer we carry excess bodyfat the more used to it our body becomes and the more our body accepts this as the norm.

A broken metabolism makes it harder for us to alter the way we look & feel.

There is even more bad news – the older we get the more difficult it becomes to manipulate the hormones that our body produces to  control our body composition. Leptin, Ghrelin, Insulin, Estrogen, Testosterone & others –  the interaction of these hormones determines how  fat we are, how fat we get and how fat we remain…

The good news is that most, if not all, of this is reversible. You can recondition your metabolism®, manipulate your hormones, alter your homeostasis set point, drop body fat and become leaner, healthier and sexier. You can definately start to LBN.*

Usually the advice on how to achieve this is that you have to eat like a rabbit, exercise for hours like an athlete and live like a monk. Or you have live off of shakes, or cut out all carbs, or all fats, or… you get the idea – many of the so-called solutions that are touted as the answer are unrealistic, unhealthy, short term fixes or just an outright scam.

All of these programs seem to miss the fact that:

Real people live real lives and have real responsibilities.

Spending hours a day at a gym may fit in when you are in your 20’s or even 30’s but for real adults, with real life responsibilities our obligations get in the way. But it is possible to alter your body shape, your body composition and still live a real life.

By reconditioning your metabolism, by manipulating your hormones through food, by tweaking your lifestyle you can turn back the clock and become leaner & healthier whilst still living a real life.

To move from pudgy, or fat, to lean & fit is not ever an easy battle, but it is not an impossible one, nor do you have to put your life on hold to achieve it. By reading this blog you’ve just taken an important first step on the way to changing how you look & feel.

Our mission is simple – we want to help everyone (especially those over 35) who feels overweight, out of shape, unsexy and tired to get in control their bodies, their  fitness and to take charge of their future…

Over the next couple of months we will be posting regular updates and also giving you access to three programs for your lean, fit, sexy future:

  1. Lose 20 lbs in 30 days® – a program to kick start your body shape shift, or to end one off!! Great for getting into shape for Summer or a special event…
  2. Counterclockwise® – a 100 day program that will help you reset the biological markers of age to the maximum extent that your body is capable of – this oprogram proves that you can put an old head on a younger body!
  3. The Body Guard® program – a holistic Diet & Activity lifestyle program that you can use for the rest of your life – that will continue to improve the quality of your life and make the next 40 years as good as the first 40!!

It’s going to be fun – we look forward to your company…if you like this please invite your friends to join in…visit the facebook fan page, send us a Tweet or just leave a comment below.

* (LBN – Look Better Naked)