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.

How you can fix a Broken Metabolism Part 3

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How can you fix a Broken Metabolism? Part 3

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 effect diet can have on our hormones and how this in turn affects our metabolism in terms of fat storage or fat loss. We saw how certain eating patterns and foods can trigger fat storage and the anti-starvation hormones which in turn blunt our metabolism and decrease lean tissue.

Today we look at the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

  • Thermic Effect of Food

o   Macronutrient ‘Burn rates’

o   Food timing

o   Meal Frequency

Just eating burns calories. Every bite, chew& swallow, each step of digestion, transport & storage in the processing of food creates what is called the “Thermic Effect of Food.” (TEF). And certain foods require more energy, more metabolic involvement to be processed.

TEF accounts for as much as 10% of our daily calorie expenditure so if we can optimise it we will recondition our metabolism that much faster and for the long term.

Protein for example has a thermic effect  or burn rate as high as 30% while the burn rate for fat is as low as 2 or 3%. In fact dietary fat is so easily processed that it creates little thermic effect on the body at all. The quickest way I know to put on loads of body fat is to eat simple carbs with fat and no protein or fibre…

Carbohydrate has a burn rate that falls between the two and depends upon the type of carbohydrate being eaten. Complex, lower GI carbs require more processing and therefore create a stronger thermic effect than high GI carbs and simple sugars & starches.

If you eat an equal number of calories of protein, of fat and of carbohydrates, the calories in the fat are more likely to end up on your waist as fewer of them are burned off by the thermic effect. If you are eating the right foods you are not only re-conditioning your metabolism but you are burning more calories.

Even better, studies show that the leaner you get the more your TEF increases, and for people who exercise their TEF is even higher. It is almost unfair – the leaner you are the more calories you burn from just eating, whereas the fatter you are the less calories eating consumes…just another reason why reconditioning your metabolism is so important.

You can take major steps in re-conditioning and re-igniting your metabolism by eating foods that are nutrient dense, fibrous and require more effort from your body to process. Likewise you can bring it to a screaming halt by eating too many of the wrong, easy to process foods.

This leads again to an earlier point – not all calories are equal. A calorie is no more than a convenient measure of energy, but calories from different sources require different amounts of energy for our bodies to process them.

So if you eat protein your metabolic rate will rise approximately 30% which means that for every calorie you eat from a protein source your body will burn 30% of one of its’ own calories. For every 100 calories of protein your body will burn 30 calories just to process it.

This is like getting a 30% off discount in calorie intake without the calorie crash scenario. So 100 calories of protein is really a ‘net’ 70 calories – you get 30 for ‘free’

If you eat 100 calories of Carbs your body will burn 10 – 20 calories (on average) to process them. This means that if you eat 500 calories, 10% of them will be burned off by the thermic effect, leaving only 450.

If you eat 100 calories of fat, then your body will burn only 5 calories of its own for processing.

A gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate. So a gram of fat not only gives you more calories, but a smaller percentage of them will be burned off by the thermic effect.

While the vitamins and antioxidants in vegetables & fruit are great for you, the fibre is where the rubber really meets the road as far as your metabolism goes. Your body expends a lot more calories digesting fibre and protein than it does simply digesting carbohydrates.

This does not mean that you should only eat protein in your quest to lose body fat, nor should you be blind to the beneficial effects of some types of fat on your metabolism & overall health. What it does mean is that you need to know how to combine protein, complex carbs and ‘good’ fats so that they work optimally to re-condition your metabolism.

Don’t forget our next post will look at the ways that you can use exercise to recondition your metabolism.

  • Exercise

o   Weight bearing – lean = Higher metabolism

o   Cardio – work long or work hard can’t do both

o   Metabolic Circuits – HIIT, drive metabolism up and keep it up for up to 30 hours after

o   NEPA – non-exercise physical activity move more!!

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How you can fix a Broken Metabolism Part 2

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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.

Today we look at the Affect of Diet on Hormones:

  • The Affect of Diet on Hormones:

o   Fat Storage

o   Fat Sparing

o   Fat Burning

The hormones in question are:

  • Cortisol – the stress & belly fat storing hormone
  • Leptin – the anti-starvation hormone,
  • Ghrelin – the ‘I’m hungry‘ hormone
  • Insulin – The blood sugar controller

In the last post we looked at the effect various foods can have on our metabolism – either raising it or blunting it. Now we need to look at the effect of diet on our hormones. Hormones are responsible for just about every physiological / chemical process that starts or stops in our bodies.

How we react to stress, how happy we are, how quickly a bruise disappears, a cut heals, a fingernail grows, how much lean tissue we create, how much fat we store (& where), gain or burn for fuel, how & what is repaired – our hormones control all of this and more besides.

To lose a pound of fat we have to shed / use / forego 3500 calories. That is the mathematical fact and in the past most fat loss programs looked at cutting calories as the main way to lose fat. What they did not take into account was the type of calories (see http://bodyshapeshiftersonline.com/?p=100) or the unintended consequences of calorie restriction on our body’s hormonal systems.

Our bodies equate a sudden & sustained drop in calories (especially those from carbohydrates) as a famine situation and they have a sophisticated defence system to stop us starving. If our body thinks we are starving then these hormonal systems kick in and fat loss becomes that much harder.

In many ways successful fat loss has more to do with our body’s hormonal environment than any other factor. As important as exercise and metabolic training is, as important as sleep and the right fuel is – the battle to lose fat is won or lost largely on the hormonal side. And this side of the equation is incredibly complex. Because of this complexity the discussion on hormones & their manipulation here will be necessarily lacking in depth and detail.

Unlike poking out your tongue, whistling, lifting your arm, rolling your eyes or breathing more deeply we cannot consciously control our hormones or their actions. But we can manipulate them in a gross sense through diet, sleep and exercise. Further if we know what certain hormones do and what triggers their actions we can at least alter our internal environment enough to make these hormones work with us rather against us as we work on losing body fat.

Cortisol:

Cortisol is not a villain – it is essential to our health and performs many beneficial functions. Cortisol is released in response to physical, emotional & mental stress. If this stress is constant it signals your body that it’s under attack and your body responds by increasing the amount of cortisol in circulation. Through cortisol, our bodies by increase our belly fat reserves. This location not only offers protection to our organs but also positions this fuel source for easy availability for sudden energy needs.

Too much cortisol has the following effects:

  • Increased belly fat storage
  • Increased sugar cravings
  • Lowered immune system
  • Slower healing
  • Increased lean tissue breakdown
  • Decreased Liver function
  • Impaired cognitive performance
  • Suppressed thyroid function
  • Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycaemia
  • Decreased bone density
  • Higher blood pressure
  • Higher LDL (the ‘bad’ cholesterol)
  • Lower HDL (the ‘good’ cholesterol)

So how do we manipulate our cortisol levels?

Firstly by getting more sleep. Cortisol levels can increase by up to 30% just from missing some sleep. Getting at least 8 hours a night is a solid way to reduce Cortisol.

Secondly by lifting heavy weights. Although Cortisol is released in response to stress and weight lifting is a physical stress – lifting heavy weights also increases the release of Human Growth Hormone. HGH has many actions but one of which is to reduce cortisol levels. (HGH levels also increase with sleep – another reason to use sleep to blunt cortisol)By heavy weight lifting that increases HGH release

Thirdly by eating frequently. It takes only 14 days to kick in fully but by eating ‘mini-meals’ no more than 3 hours apart, during the day has been shown to reduce Cortisol levels by up to 17%.

Lastly decrease your intake of simple starches (breads, pastas, processed junk) and sugars. In a vicious circle increased sugar intake increases the release of cortisol which in turn increase the craving for sugar which…

Leptin

Sharply lowering carbs creates lower leptin levels in the body. Falling leptin levels triggers signals to the brain suggesting that a famine is imminent and that the body needs to slow the metabolism, hold onto fat and try to maintain the current state of homeostasis in terms of body composition. Low leptin levels are the surest way to hold onto body fat.

Fortunately it is relatively easy to fix – add more carbs back into your diet, and eat 5 – 6 times a day. Whilst it takes a week for leptin levels to drop, they can be replaced with only a day of carb loading. This is the thinking behind carb cycling diets.

Ghrelin

Ghrelin is the hormone which controls cravings – heightened levels of it mean that your appetite is elevated. Ghrelin reacts in concert with Leptin so long carbs, sustained low calorie intake and low leptin levels means that ghrelin levels rise and you are hungry. The fix for ghrelin is the same for leptin – add in more carbs and if leptin rises ghrelin will fall and appetite drops off as well.

Insulin

Insulin is most associated in people’s minds with diabetes and fat storage – two things no-one wants. However a bit like Cortisol Insulin is not a villain – it is the main hormone responsible for helping your body recover properly after exercise. Insulin increases blood transport to and from your muscle cells so the “waste products” of exercise, like carbon dioxide, can be removed; helps reduce elevated cortisol levels that are formed during intense exercise, which helps reduce stress on your body and ensures that the muscles get sufficient nutrients for repair.

Insulin is both a storage and a transport hormone. It transports glucose from the blood into the muscles (&liver) to replenish glycogen stores. When these are full it then changes to a storage medium and moves the excess glucose into your body’s fat cells.

So if your glycogen stores (muscle & liver sites) are full and you eat enough simple carbs to cause a blood sugar spike then insulin spikes as well and stores the excess glucose in the fat cells. Creating a ‘spike’ in blood sugar causes the body to ‘over react’ and release a surge of insulin. This causes a sudden drop in blood sugar creating tiredness and increased fat storage.

Unfortunately high insulin levels triggers a halt in fat burning when there is glucose present in the blood stream. Basically Insulin activates the shift from fat to glucose burning.

We can manipulate Insulin by:

  • Eating 5-6 times a day (seeing a pattern here?) which keeps blood sugar levels & therefore insulin levels more stable.
  • Eating complex carbs and avoiding simple carbs, sugars & starches which quickly metabolise into blood sugar.
  • Increasing the amounts of healthy fats in our diet.

Don’t forget our next post will look at the ways that you can use the burn rate of different macronutrient types, meal timings & meal frequency to recondition your metabolism.

So we can manipulate our hormones by eating 5 -6 times a day, avoiding / reducing simple carb intake, getting enough sleep and exercising with heavy weights.

Next time we’ll look at the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

  • Thermic Effect of Food

o   Macronutrient ‘Burn rates’

o   Food timing

o   Meal Frequency

Don’t forget our next post will look at the ways that you can use just eating food itself to recondition your metabolism.

How you can fix a Broken Metabolism Part 1

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How can you fix a Broken Metabolism? Part 1

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.

The next 4 Blog posts will look at the four main areas that not only affect fat loss but which we can influence to achieve a leaner, fitter body in the most efficient manner.

Let’s be clear everything we do, every process that takes place in our bodies, is an output of our metabolism. There are some areas where we can effect changes to it and the area we are most interested in is the area of fat loss.

Here is a quick overview of the various factors you need to strategically combine to recondition a flagging metabolism so that it is more efficient at creating fat loss…

  • Food types that:

o   Boost Metabolism

o   Blunt Metabolism

  • The Hormonal Affects of Food:

o   Fat Storage

o   Fat Sparing

o   Fat Burning

  • The Thermic Effect of Food:

o   Macronutrient ‘Burn rates’

o   Food timing

o   Meal Frequency

  • Exercise:

o   Weight bearing – lean = Higher metabolism

o   Cardio – work long or work hard can’t do both

o   Metabolic Circuits – HIIT, drive metabolism up and keep it up for up to 30 hours after

o   NEPA – non-exercise physical activity move more!!

Any attempt to shed body fat and to become leaner & fitter is at least 80% diet. But the diet part of the equation is not as simple as the old fashioned ‘just cut calories’ approach. This is not only outmoded but leads to poor results. As we saw in an earlier post ( http://bodyshapeshiftersonline.com/?p=100)  a calorie is NOT just a calorie except as a way of measuring energy.

We now know that certain foods can increase our metabolism, these are Metabolic Fuels.

Metabolic Fuels tend to be low in sugar, lightly or un-processed and closer to nature than many of the foods you eat at the moment. These are nutrient dense foods that promote feelings of fullness, provide metabolism supporting vitamins & minerals and amino acids. They increase our metabolism by requiring more energy to process (see the upcoming part 3 for TEF), by providing essential vitamins, mineral, fatty acids and proteins for body repair & growth and by keeping blood sugar levels (see Part 2 – hormones) steady.

Metabolic Fuels:

  • Any lean type of lean protein – including whey protein powder
  • Eggs.
  • High fibre complex carbs like Oatmeal
  • Fibre rich vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, cabbage, and brussel sprouts.
  • Dark green leafy vegetables like Kale, spinach.
  • Tomatoes.
  • Blueberries and other whole fruits.
  • Cherries.
  • Beans – any type
  • Nuts – especially Walnuts
  • Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids from fish oil
  • Healthy Fats like Olive Oil, Coconut oil
  • Greek style Yogurt.
  • Green tea.
  • Ice water. It costs your body around 9 calories to warm up ice water to body temperature – 25 calories per glass instead of 16.
  • Dark Chocolate: Lots of antioxidants at the 70% or higher cocoa level. Just don’t eat the whole block you only need a square or 2.

Spicy Metabolic Fuels:

Chillies, curries, and other spices – many of these contain a substance called capsaicin. Capsaicin can fire up your metabolism (some studies have shown a 50 percent increase in metabolism for 3 hours after eating capsaicin), act as an anti-oxidant and assist in stabilising blood sugar.

Here are some of my favourite metabolic & flavour enhancing spices:

  • Cayenne pepper
  • Chilli powder
  • Black pepper
  • Turmeric
  • Cinnamon
  • Ginger
    • Garlic Coriander / Cilantro

This is not a complete list by any means but the rule of thumb here is the closer to nature a food is, the more beneficial it is for reconditioning your metabolism.

On the other side our culture is full of highly processed denatured, nutrient sparse foods that blunt & slow our metabolism.

These foods lack fibre, are quick to be processed by our bodies, convert easily to sugar and often need vitamins & minerals added back to them to give them some nutritional value after processing.

Food Like:

  • Sugars – fructose, sucrose, dextrose, maltodextrin, to name but a few varieties
  • White Flour & white flour products like white bread, cookies, & biscuits
  • White Rice, rice crackers
  • Noodles
  • Semolina
  • Most pastas
  • Soda Pops
  • Cakes & Baked Goods
  • Commercial Fruit Juices
  • Most commercial yoghurts – especially low fat varieties (this usually means high sugar!!)
  • Virtually any packaged product that screams ‘Low fat’

The rule of thumb here is if it contains ‘white carbs’ (think flour, sugar & rice) it is best avoided or at least eaten sparingly. If it promises to be ‘low fat’ – check out the sugar content because high sugar is worse than saturated fat for your metabolism. If your Grandmother would not easily recognise it as food think twice.

Mum was right lots of leafy vegetables and fruit along with lean protein is the best way to eat.

Foods can also elicit a hormonal response from our bodies based upon calorie numbers and the quantities and types of macronutrient present. These responses can be either fat burning or fat storing.

Simply put look to move towarss food swith the fewest number of ingredients on the label. Generally fewer ingredieints means less processed and less processed means more nutrition and less calories…

Next time we’ll look at the Hormonal Affects of Food

  • The Hormonal Affects of Food:

o   Fat Storage

o   Fat Sparing

o   Fat Burning

I hope you found the information above of interest. We’ll be back in a couple of days to look at Hormones & fuel.

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)