Tag Archives: fatloss

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.

Great way to recondition your metabolism…

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

This’ll rev up your metabolism…

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.
This does as well….

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

Years of a broken metabolism at work…

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 backnext week to look at Hormones & Fuel.

The Surprising Truth about Saturated Fats & their place in a Healthy Lifestyle.

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The misconceptions and outright lies about saturated fat and your health.

Hi Welcome Back!!

As you know I believe that there is a mountain of evidence (growing larger daily) that shows that processed carbs are the underlying cause of obesity and that a simple way to drop body fat and shift your shape is to cut them out of your diet.

Surprisingly research says you should too...

A few people have written in and asked ‘What about saturated fat? Doesn’t it cause hear t attacks and obesity?’

Here is the first of several posts on the truth about saturated fat. What I have to tell you will surprise you. It may even make you angry.

For decades we’ve been told that saturated fat will clog up our arteries and kill us. Most health professionals will tell you that fat is bad for you, that it raises the bad cholesterol (LDL), causes obesity and is a major contributing factor to heart disease & stroke. The media also pushes this line and rolls out dietician and nutritionist one after the other who agree.

The trouble is that no-one has ever proved it.

You read that right – NO-ONE HAS EVER PROVED IT!

There is better proof for these than the Lipid hypothesis

What has become Politically Correct Nutrition is based on the assumption that we should reduce our intake of fats, particularly saturated fats from animal sources. Fats from animal sources also contain cholesterol, which is presented as the other main cause of heart disease and is seen as an evil part of the a ‘civilized’ diet.

I’m here to tell you that this is a false perception. And a deadly one.

Simply put saturated fat is a normal, natural part of the human diet and has been literally from the time the first Neanderthal took a bite of animal…

Fats are essential to our health – without them you would sicken & die.

Why?

Well fats from animal and vegetable sources:
• Act as a concentrated source of energy in the diet;
• They provide essential parts of the building blocks for cell membranes
• They provide a wide variety of hormones and hormone-like substances.
• They act as carries for all of the fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E,& K
• They assist with mineral absorption
• They are an essential part of the processes involved in converting carotenes into Vitamin A
• Fats slow down absorption of food if part of a meal so it takes longer for us to feel hunger again.
• Fats are a part of what keeps our skin in condition
• Fats are involved in…
You get the picture – fats are essential to our health.

The cause of this demonization of saturated fats is a thing called the ‘Lipid Hypothesis’. (fat theory).

Now according to this fat theory there is a direct relationship between the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in someone’s diet and their incidence of coronary heart disease. This was proposed by a medical researcher in the 1953 whose name was Ancel Keys who believed that there was a connection between fat intake and mortality from heart attacks in 6 countries: Japan, Italy, England, Australia, Canada, and the USA.

His research has called the anti-fat tune for over 40 years...

What he reported was that the US had the highest heart attack rate and the highest fat intake whilst Japan had the lowest fat intake and the lowest rate of heart attacks. The other countries neatly fitted into the 2 extremes, again based on reported fat intake and heart attack incidence. Keys called this a ‘remarkable’ relationship and went public with the idea that eating fat causes heart attacks. He was quite a natural publicist and was soon on the cover of TIME gravely warning that people were ‘eating themselves to death’.

In 1970 he then said that new research had shown that it was not all fat, but rather the amount of animal fat eaten could be used as an accurate predictor of someone’s likelihood of suffering a heart attack. He also noted that there was a strong link between cholesterol and heart disease. His hypothesis was that the saturated fat derived from animals raised cholesterol and this lead to heart disease. Most Doctors and even the Heart Foundation believe this to this day – 40 years after the theory was proposed.

Thing is there are major flaws & problems with Keys & his research.
In numerous subsequent studies over the last 40 years his data and conclusions have been brought into question. For example the data he used to draw his conclusions came from only six countries – which represent only a small portion of the countries where data was available on fat consumption versus heart disease death rate.

When subsequent researches have gone back and used data from the same era, but from a greater range of countries, even with a bias towards the ‘western diet;’ they found that there was no link between fat consumption and heart disease deaths.

Read that again – NO LINK!!

So Keys’ conclusions were actually false.

Next is the fact that even in the 1950’s it was recognised that there were a number of factors that caused heart disease but Keys chose to consider only one potential factor – fat intake. He gave no consideration of other factors such as smoking rates, stress factors, sugar intake, exercise frequency etc etc.

Guess Keys forgot about these & heart disease...

It is unfortunate that his faulty research was coupled with a flair for promotion and the beginnings of the food processing industry because this confluence of factors has seen Keys study cited for over 5 decades as proof of the “fact” that saturated fat is bad for you.

There ain’t much in the way of facts here…

Since that time, numerous other studies have been conducted trying to link saturated fat intake to heart disease. The majority of these studies have failed to correlate ANY risk at all from saturated fat. A couple of them made feeble attempts at linking saturated fat to heart disease, however, it was later shown that in those studies, the data was flawed as well.

This is actually good for you...

I’ll be back with the Whys & Wherefores of the good things about saturated fats and how eating them can actually be better than good for your health…

I’d love to hear from you – so Tweet this, Face Book like this or leave a comment!

54 tips to lose fat

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Welcome back!

This week some quick but useful tips to help you lose fat (you’ll notice a lot are food based – remember you can’t out train a bad diet!!)

  1. Be clear on your fat loss goal:  Know the amount of fat you want to lose. You’re your time frame. Tell others to invoke accountability. Write in all down in an exercise book or a journal. Be clear.
  2. Have a pair of skinny jeans ready for ‘success’ day. Or a jacket o blouse or bathing costume – whatever. Just have this on display where you can see it every day. It’ll help keep you on track.
  3. Take your ‘before’ pictures. Stick them in a book with your weekly measurements next to your clear goals. (Waist, upper arm, mid-thigh, belly, chest)
    No don’t keep these ones, keep the SKINNY ones where you can see them!!
  4. Don’t weigh yourself every day.  Weigh yourself the same day at the same time every week. Take your measurements at the same time. Write them down in your book. (Don’t have a fat loss journal – get one – any old exercise book will do.) The best 2 ways to judge your progress is how your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror. Muscle weighs more than fat so you have your weight go up yet be losing fat. Be wary. “
  5. Understand that it’s not all or nothing; if you fall off the fat loss wagon, dust yourself off, don’t beat yourself up and get right back into it!! This is a journey of inches not miles…
  6. Be honest. With yourself— The only person that you fool by sneaking food or eating ‘off reservation’ is yourself.
  7. Eat breakfast.  Simply put those that ate a protein heavy breakfast ate less during the day, had more energy and less body fat. It can be eggs & bacon, a protein smoothies, nuts & yoghurt – so long as it is protein plus unprocessed carbs you’re be on the right track.
  8. Drink tea. Lots of research suggests that drinking tea (any tea EXCEPT herbal teas) stimulates your metabolism, works on body weight re-partitioning and lowers your body fat – especially belly fat.
  9. Drink more water.  2 glasses before a meal helps you feel fuller and interacts with fibre from vegetables to bulk them up. Water also helps shift fat by helping your kidneys & liver to function properly. 8 Glasses a day is good rule to follow.
  10. Get at least 8 of these bad boys into each day!

    Drop the store juice and sodas: Change to low or no-calorie drinks. Home- made iced tea, Coke Zero, diabetic sodas – all are good alternatives.

  11. Eat more veggies. Calorie sparse, nutrient dense they fill you up, without loading you up with too many calories.  Avoid the high fat/high calorie dressings.
  12. Eat eggs.  Every day.  Forget the cholesterol BS – eggs don’t raise bad cholesterol and are nature’s perfect fast food.
  13. Get enough fibre.  Think of fibre like a sponge; it absorbs water and makes you feel full. Focus on fibre, not carbs.
  14. Eat more fruits: No one ever gained weight from eating more fruit even the so called “high sugar” fruits, like bananas, melons and others.
  15. Eat more protein.  Lean protein helps satiate you, and increases your metabolism, through the thermic effect of food.
  16. Eat protein at every meal & snack.  This maximises the effects of #10
  17. Eat less Grains. Increasingly it seems that grains and grain based foods are not good for us and predispose us to fat gain and a number of debilitating diseases like arthritis. Try to cut down on them. Besides most grain based foods are highly processed and that’s definitely not good for you.
  18. Start meals with soup or a salad.  Either will help you feel full more quickly so your
    Prefer Chicken? Either is right!!

    calories at the meal will be less. E sensible with your soup and dressing choices.

  19. Steak & Salad Rules. Best way to get your veges & lean protein have a steak & salad meal at least once a day.
  20. Add cayenne pepper to your meals.  A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition showed that when compared to placebo, capsaicin (the active ingredient in cayenne) increased fat burning. Spice up your meals!!
  21. Watch your portions.  Each meal try for a palm sized portion of protein and 2 fists of non-processed carbs. Don’t Supersize.
  22. Bake, don’t fry. Slow cook in the oven or quick stir fry on the stove top. Both are healthier than pan frying.
  23. Switch to smaller plates; visually your plate looks fuller and you’ll eat less.
  24. Use a Barbeque or a grill.  Less fat, more flavour. Marinade your meat overnight to cut down on the potential of carcinogens from naked flame cooking. Don’t cook or eat well done.
  25. Keep it out of your house – or at least out of sight!!

    Keep your house crap free. Chips and Cookies and cakes and banana bread and …you can’t eat them if they’re not in the house. For those of us with families – have less of these in the house and keep them out of sight – in the garage or back shed. Studies show that the food we see more of we eat more of.

  26. Have a big bowl of fresh fruit in plain sight. See above
  27. Don’t grocery shop when you’re hungry.  Recipe for disaster. Have a meal or grab a  handful of nuts first then go shopping for food otherwise you’ll fill the trolley with all the self-control eroding processed foods you’ve been conditioned to love & want.
  28. Become a nutrition label guru: If you have to eat packaged foods check the labels and put back those with heavy sugars, Trans fats or HFCS.
  29. Decrease/eliminate processed carbs wherever possible.  They do nothing for you outside of creating a favourable environment for gaining fat
  30. Eating out? Swap side dishes with steamed veggies.  Restaurants will often allow you to switch the fries or chips with steamed veggies; all you have to do is ask.
  31. Order dressing on the side, dip the fork in dressing, and then in the salad. 
    Ready for what?? Not ready to support health or fat loss…

    This saves a ton more dressing than if one was to order it on the side, then poor the entire cup on the salad anyhow.  Less calories equals less weight.

  32. Skip buffets.  These are a trap to overeating. Don’t.
  33. Skip the Designer Coffees.  Great way to get up to an extra 500 calories in one hit. Have black coffee or a tea instead.
  34. Don’t socialise around the food tables at parties; Grab some food and move away from the table otherwise you’re more likely to pick, and eat mindlessly even though you’re not really hungry.
  35. Try to eat slower.  It takes approximately 15-20 minutes for your stomach to sense it’s full.  Eat too fast and you’ll shovel in more than you need to.
  36. Stay away from the alcohol— I‘ve written on this before – just drink sensibly – 1 or 2 a night is okay but any alcohol will put a dent into your fat loss efforts. Remember your body stops burning fat to deal with alcohol first. Plus having alcohol lowers your inhibition so you overeat other calories too – kebabs at 3 AM anyone??
  37. Take a brown bag lunch. Do this as often as possible – not only will you control what you eat but you’ll save money.
  38. Keep some healthy snacks on hand — like nuts — in your bag, your briefcase or your glove box so you’re prepared at all times. Swap them out regularly so they are always fresh
  39. If you’re working this hard today – carbs aren’t going to be a problem…

    Match your carb intake to your energy output. You need fewer carbs on the days you aren’t working out hard than the days when you are. Up the protein on non-workout days to support recovery and satiety.

  40. Have fish oil – several grams a day.  Omega-3s have more benefits than possible to list in this short blog – but one is more Omega-3 = less body fat!
  41. Wake up and exercise; not only do you burn more fat but you’re more likely to exercise in the AM than at night after a day in real world.
  42. Lift weights. Heavy weights.  Build more muscle, burn more calories.
  43. Do complex exercises like squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, chin-ups, shoulder presses and push-ups.  The more muscles you involve in each exercise the more benefit you’ll get. Leave the triceps’ kickbacks to the folk who aren’t serious about getting leaner and stronger.
  44. Cut down rest time between sets.  Just because you’re lifting heavy does not mean that you take a 10 minute break between sets. Rest long enough for your breathing to ease and then do the next set. Repeat. This keeps your metabolism surging and those calories burning…
  45. Do intervals.  HIIT = Faster fat loss. Study after study continues to show intervals are more effective for fat loss (and in less time) than traditional cardio. Ditch the treadmill and the marathon runs – get down get dirty get lean!!
  46. Sprint twice a week. Sprinters have lower fat and more muscle.  Just look at the
    A sprinter. ‘Nuff said…

    body of a sprinter vs. the body of a marathoner.

  47. If you have a dog, take it for a walk—Aim to do this every day. Set it as a routine.
  48. Buy a pedometer and aim for at least 10,000 steps each day.
  49. At work set a timer. Most of us work at a desk so set a 30 minute timer like ‘Cool Timer’ and get up for a stretch every 30 minutes. Go for a brisk walk after lunch, but sit less and move more.
  50. Try not to use internal email. Whenever possible get up and walk to a co-workers desk.
  51. Eat standing up.  In tandem with the above have your snack or lunch at work standing up – you’ll burn more calories. Want quicker meetings? Have them standing up with no chairs in the room.
  52. A classic – Use the stairs, skip the escalator and the lift.  Tried and true every bit of additional movement helps you lose fat. Doing this by itself won’t have a huge impact but as a part of the overall effort to move more it helps.
  53. Even at work – move more sit less…

    Another classic – Fidget. In Australia the Gut Buster program has this as one of its mainstays – fidgeting. Move more and more often. Get thinner.

  54. Change who you hang out with.  If your friends are all overweight, don’t show an interest in getting leaner, eat pizza or other fast foods a few times or more a week then you need to change who you’re hanging with. Research has shown conclusively that the people we hang out with can either assist or undermine our efforts to lose fat and get healthier.

Be well – see you next week.

The 30 day ‘Rip off the Fat with the Best Foods for Fat Loss’ diet…

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Welcome back!!

This week an extremely ‘doable’ 30 day fat loss via food plan… Read it, do it and you can expect dramatic and EASY Fat Loss…

Regular readers know that you can’t out train a bad diet. In your quest to lose body fat and to re-condition your metabolism food has to come first.

I’m far from the first to say and I certainly won’t be the last – and anyway you already know

Even over 70 you can look this good!!

this. It might be deep down, it be hidden but you KNOW this…

So food is first – here are some simple but effective guidelines for your nutrition. Follow these and you’ll rip off the body fat in no time (well about 30 days actually)

As a definite plus if you adopt these guidelines for the long term than you’ll likely live longer with more energy, more health and a lot more enjoyment…

Okay – the Guidelines:  Eat lots of these foods…

In order to maximise fat loss and improve overall health you need to eat:

  • Foods that are nutrient dense and calorie sparse
  • To improve the absorption of these nutrients in your gut
  • Food in a macronutrient format that improves your body composition
  • Enough good quality foods to meet as many of your micro- & macro- nutrient needs as possible from your food
  • Using sensible timing & spacing to control both cravings and hormone release

You should NOT eat:

  • Foods that harm you – and you know what they are!!
  • Foods that are calorie dense and nutrient sparse
  • Foods that say now with added vitamins!
  • Foods that contain what I’ll call antinutrients – like most grains and processed grain products
  • Foods that contain trans fats, HFCS and lots of sugar in any form.

Look there are (last time I looked 12+ months ago over 2.5 Million diets & programs out

Cops may lov’em but the trans fat keep you fat…

there. Some are good (anything by Berardi of Precision Nutrition fame or Rousseau of Warp Speed Fat for example), a few great, many crap and more than a few that deliver short term results only…

Even simplistic programs like the Slow-Carb-Diet from Tim Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Body is one that you can use long term and it does get results.

Thing is, even on the better touted diets, most of them work for so long as you are compliant. When compliance stops so does the results and fat gain usually occurs.

Here are my thoughts on using food for fat loss…

What follows is a 30 day full on program. Follow it as written and you’ll lose fat and gain energy and likely without any hunger pangs or uncontrollable cravings. It’s really that easy and this is an easy program to follow…

You might not get to look like Thor, but you will drop fat…

The program is designed around food. So if all you do is the foods I mention in the way I mention then you will lose fat.

So – are you ready to start losing some fat? If so then this is the absolute ‘no deviation allowed’ ever rule for ALL of your meals – eat your food in the following sequence:

Lean Protein first, then good Fats then Vegetables – preferably low starch ones. Lastly if you have some room left – some Fruit – berries, cherries, apples or pears preferred…

Again eat you’re your food in that order for the next 30 days.(or longer) and you’ll get your fat loss well under way…

But how does this work you ask? This is the ‘guts’ of fat loss and improving your health – buckle up!!

I recommend that you eat this way – eat your protein until you are about three quarters full, make sure that you’ve had your healthy fats and then eat veges until you are full and have had enough.

Why lie this? Getting in the amount of protein that I’m recommending will be tough – read on…

Protein.At every meal for the next 30 days eat your Protein first. And it should be solid, chewable protein – no shakes, no meal replacement powders – just good old fashioned solid protein. Why solid? Chewing your food helps to trigger satiety and this in turn a) stopsyou over eating and b) actually reduces the chance of any cravings popping up.

Don’t get me wrong I think that whey powders are a great source of protein and very

Yum…Protein!!

convenient but this program is manipulating a lot of variables (i.e. satiety triggers etc.) so the shakes are out for 30 days.

You’ll see a lot of writers these days extolling the virtues of only eating grass fed beef and wild salmon, free range eggs and chicken etc etc. and there is something to what many of them say – especially if you are in the US or Canada – about the potential health risks inherent in ‘normal’ foods, farmed the normal way. In Australia & New Zealand the use of drugs in livestock and so forth is a lot less.

It is true however that grain feed beef has a high Omega 6 to omega 3 ratio and this is a ratio that needs redressing (see Fats section below for the reasons why) But we don’t all live in a world of financial plenty…

There is the issue of cost. I know that your health is priceless, but the reality is that if you are an adult with adult responsibilities then you may not be able to afford those ‘wild’ sources of protein.

Guess what – so what.

Just eat the protein that you can afford (a quick note here along

Forget grass fed versus grain fed eat eat you can afford…

with shakes – no soy, no tofu no TVP or Quorn etc. – real flesh based protein only) and you’ll get results. Add some supplements (buying & using the few that I’ll suggest further on will still be cheaper than going the organic / grass fed / free range / wild only route) Again of you can afford it, fine go the organic route if not then leave the optimum protein sources out of your musings – if you can afford grass feed beef or free range eggs – great have them! If not, then eat the beef you can get – just try to make it as lean as possible, and the eggs you can afford.

No matter what though – eat your protein first.

How much protein? Try to eat about a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight or more. This will not be easy – a 100 gram steak contains about 21 grams of protein. So when I say 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight I don’t mean 1 gram of steak (or Chicken / veal / lamb / pork / salmon etc) I mean I gram of protein. If you weighed 200 pounds then to get your 200 grams of protein from steak you will need to eat about 100 grams (2 pounds) of steak.

Beginning to see why you won’t have to worry too much about hunger…

So in order to get this amount of protein into you each day you need to be a bit strategic and break your protein intake up over each of your daily meals – I find that if you are willing to do some prep time 4 or 5 meals a day makes this easy, but if you’re not then aim for 3 or 4.

Regardless of how often you eat you have to make the protein and the amount of protein specific to you a priority.

Sounds like you have to count calories & grams etc doesn’t it? I hate counting and I bet that you do too, so do it this way:

Figure out what you daily protein target is (for me at 205 pound it is 205 grams) and then plan your protein requirements using the tables below.

For example to get my 205 grams I’d need to eat – over my 5 meals – about 41 grams of protein a meal. So if I have 2 hamburger patties, a decent sized steak then I’m already be half way there. Add in a chicken breast, a can of tuna and a couple of eggs and I‘ve hit my protein target.

NB: 1 Ounce = approx 28grams so 4 oz of steak would weigh 112 grams

Beef

  • Hamburger patty, 4 oz – 28 grams protein
  • Steak, 6 oz – 42 grams
  • Most cuts of beef – 7 grams of protein per ounce

Chicken

  • Chicken breast, 3.5 oz – 30 grams protein
  • Chicken thigh – 10 grams (for average size)
    Lots & lots of way to cook & serve protein…
  • Drumstick – 11 grams
  • Wing – 6 grams
  • Chicken meat, cooked, 4 oz – 35 grams

Fish

  • Most fish fillets or steaks are about 22 grams of protein for 3 ½ oz (100 grams) of cooked fish, or 6 grams per ounce
  • Tuna, 6 oz can – 40 grams of protein

Pork

  • Pork chop, average – 22 grams protein
  • Pork loin or tenderloin, 4 oz – 29 grams
  • Ham, 3 oz serving – 19 grams
  • Ground pork, 1 oz raw – 5 grams; 3 oz cooked – 22 grams
  • Bacon, 1 slice – 3 grams

Eggs and Dairy (avoid yoghurt – too much sugar even in Greek styles and watch the amount of cheese you eat – remember we want to drop fat and eat lean protein!)

  • Egg, large – 6 grams protein
  • Milk, 1 cup – 8 grams
  • Cottage cheese, ½ cup – 15 grams
  • Soft cheeses (Mozzarella, Brie, Camembert) – 6 grams per oz
  • Medium cheeses (Cheddar, Swiss) – 7 or 8 grams per oz
  • Hard cheeses (Parmesan) – 10 grams per oz
One of the best sources of protein…

Fat. For the next 30 days eat healthy fats second at every meal. By fats I mean healthy quality fats, not manufactured ‘franken-fats’ like trans fats.

As I’ve written before eating good fats is essential for fat loss and health. Given the anti-fat blitz of the last few decades this seems counterintuitive but the facts are the facts – processed carbs sugars make you fat, not fat itself. Even the worst of the saturated fats has little effect on fat storage unless it is eaten with processed carbs…

The idea is to try to cook in fats like coconut or macadamia, use olive oil where & when you can, cut out the commercial vegetable oils (really seed oils) like canola, corn or peanut and the like… This way you’ll begin to limit your Omega 6 intake and increase your omega 3’s (more on this below) you’ll not only be helping your body burn more fat but you’ll be reducing one of the main causes of inflammation in the body with all of the attendant horrors like arthritis, heart disease and so forth.

There are many types of saturated fats (our body’s makes omega 9 for example) but we need to get omegas 3 & 6 from our diet. Both are needed for our health but the ratio of 6 to 3 is the problem.

For the US of A consumption patterns over the last 40 years look like this:

Among 18 – 44 year olds in the United States, saturated fat consumption was in at 30 grams per day in 1970, and 27.8 grams per day in 2005.

Omega-6 fatty acid intake, however, was 9 grams per day in 1970, and almost doubled to 17 grams by 2005. Some reports have it even higher now in 2012.

High intakes of omega-6 fatty acids have been linked to cellular inflammation — one of the main factors behind a substantial number of degenerative diseases.

This is why I think everyone should prioritise good healthy fats like this: first increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids, add in some monounsaturated fats, then use healthier saturated fats (like coconut, macadamia and cacao), and leave omega-6 fatty acids (especially from cooking oils) and less healthy saturated fats (like that in soft cheeses, pork, and chicken skin) last.

Although omega-6 fatty acids are essential to our health, they are so prevalent in so many foods that you would have to try extremely hard (and eat a significantly and dangerously limited diet) to not easily meet your daily requirement.

Healthy fats…

I want to finish this section on fat by making sure the main points are clear:

  • Omega-6 fatty acids are NOT intrinsically unhealthy – we need to consume a certain amount every day for optimal health.
  • Many very healthy foods are good sources of omega-6 fatty acids, so I am not advocating total avoidance of foods that contain omega-6 fatty acids.
  • However, our western diet contains consistently higher amounts of omega 6 and this pushes our intake of this particular fat too high. There is a very real need for this intake to be reduced because in this case, more is certainly NOT better.

Increasing your omega 3 intake is important to your health and is best done through eating deep sea oily fish (salmon or sardines for example) avocadoes, or taking a quality fish oil or krill supplement. You need to redress the 6 to 3 imbalance (some say it is as high as 20:1) as soon as possible.

The detailed benefits of omega 3 intake will be the subject of another post but for the moment take it as a given you need lots more 3 than 6 in your diet and the sooner the better.

The way to achieve this is to limit your 6 intake as much as possible and then to increase /

Don’t get ahead of yourself…

top up your 3 levels.

So eat your protein and then top up your Omega 3, by having some high quality fish oil with every meal. Aim to be having 2-3 grams of combined DHA/EPA per meal. (again – a fish oil capsule is usually 1 gram but it only contains about 450mg of 3’s so you need to take a few capsules – 5 or 6 at least)

But how much Omega 3 do I need?

Frankly I believe that everyone should be having 4-6 grams a day because of the many beneficial effects of Omega 3s’. Omega 3’s fight inflammation, help regulate insulin response, are used in a host of body repair mechanisms, are used in hormone production are important for brain health and even, it is not suggested are associated with maintaining telomere length – one of the most sought after anti-aging effects. Your body needs these…

Other writers suggest the following:

 

Abs so lower need of Omega 3’s

If you can see your abs, you have no sore joints (except after a heavy session in the gym) and have no arthritic signs then you’ll be okay with 2-3 grams a day.

If your joints ache, you have a touch or more ) of arthritis, your abs haven’t been seen for a while – then you’ll need to be having 4-8 grams total EPA/DHA per day.

If you get back to the visible abs level then you can reduce this to 3-4 grams.

Again try to divide your daily intake roughly equally across your meals.

Remember though the focus is on food so the supplements I’ll suggest will be few.

To top up the fat content of your meals try adding a tablespoon of one of these healthy fats: Butter – not dairy soft, not a blend just good old butter; ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil or best of all the rendered fats from an animal source. Yep good old lard – nothing makes cooking taste better. In fact all of these good fats when used for cooking add flavour that is second to none.

Of course if your meal is heavily weighted towards salmon, sardines, anchovies or lean

Deep sea fish are great for protein & omega 3’s

beef / pork / lamb then you can skip the added tablespoon (still use the above sources for cooking though!)

Cook your meat with the fat on, leave the skin on your chicken – these fats are not the enemy. Feel free to remove the skin or the fat after cooking if you must ( I still do with pork – just can’t eat it I’m afraid!)

For Cooking: Cook in coconut oil (low to high heat), Macadamia oil (high heat), olive oil (low temperatures) or use red palm oil (all temps) or use lard or butter.

Any other so-called vegetable oils other than those mentioned above should be banned from your table, kitchen & pantry for good – your good and the wellbeing of your family.

FAT SUMMARY:

  • The best way to get good fats into your diet is through lean protein sources such as beef, & lamb or through marine sources like oily fish – salmon sardines etc.
  • Next is to use the right oils to cook with (see above)
  • Butter & Ghee
  • A Fish Oil or Krill supplement
  • Avocado

Vegetables.  Eat these third at every meal for the next 30 days. Yep last but for fruit ( that only if you are still hungry)

You should be about 80% full after your protein & fats so now fill up the remaining 20% with veges.

Some folk will say avoid starchy vegetables like potato – ignore this have some if you want just don’t fry them because this makes them lethal in terms of adding fat.

The best path to follow is to eat as many colours of vegetables as you can every day and at every meal.

The red of capsicum, the yellow of squash, the white of cauliflower, the green of rocket, the orange of carrots – there is a lot of colour to try & fit in!!

Just finish each meal by eating a variety of vegetables until you are no longer hungry. The colour idea is important as this will ensure that you get the widest range of micronutrients

Colourful eating is key…

possible.

You can do by having a stir-fry, steamed veggies, raw veggies, a big salad, a casserole, or roasted in the oven. Have whatever makes you happy.

Use spices and olive oil and a touch of vinegar or soy for flavour.

Remember variety is the key – don’t get stuck with the same 2 or 3 vegetables – you’ll get bored and you won’t get as much nutrition as you could.

Still hungry? – then have some fruit but aim for berries or apples or pears.

What about bread you ask?

Ancestrally, we didn’t eat any processed carbs, or even a carb heavy diet, and when / if we did we didn’t eat a lot of it.

None of these…

It is only in modern times that processed carbs have become a staple of out diet.

The longer you go without processed carbs the quicker your body changes its composition and the sooner you get over any carb addiction. You’re trying to lose fat and rebalance your body.

Grain based foods are all processed and all are increasingly indicated as being related to causing various inflammatory diseases (not to mention that good old white bread spikes your blood sugar as fast & as high as table sugar…)

So no grains, no cereals and no legumes for the 30 days and you’ll lose your desire for them long before then). While legumes are a “lessor evil” when compared to grains and gluten, the anti-nutrient content (lignans, lectin, saponins) plus the carb content rules them out. All cereals and all grains out means no quinoa, no oats, no brown rice, even if those grains are also lower on the scale of anti-nutrients.

If you’re fat and need to lose some you’ve probably got at least a touch of an insulin

What you’re after – less fat, more lean…

resistance problem and some the need for some metabolic reconditioning.

Drink tea green is good hot or cold), coffee, diet sodas and lots of water. That’s it no fruit juices, no vege juices, no Coca-Cola, no chocolate shakes – just sensible low calorie beverages.

Eat the way that I‘ve suggested above and prepare to be amazed as your body changes and you feel better, stronger and leaner. The nutrient density of a meal like this is incredible.

Here is the main guideline again.

Make every meal a healthy sequence of Protein, Good Fats, and Veggies in that order.

Add in Omega 3 supplements, a multivitamin (to ensure that you get all of your micronutrients) & Vitamin D3 (if you’re not getting much sun). Anything else is surplus, and purely elective.

Try to eat only when you’re hungry but make sure you get your protein target hit every day!!

Exercise: Move more. Lift heavy weights 2- 4 times a week, for never more than an hour

Get outside & move more…

at a time. Walk often. Stand more, sit less. Do some sprints every now and again. Remember HIIT. Jump rope, ride a bike – have fun!!

Get outdoors more often for Sun and fresh air and just for not being indoors so much!

Chase down 8 or 9 or even 10 hours of sleep a night. Sleep helps you lose fat. Lack of sleep helps make & keep you fat!

Do this for 30 days and be amazed.

See you next week.…

 

Fat Loss & Alcohol – It’s not all bad news…

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Welcome back!!

This week I want to take a look at the effect of alcohol on fat loss. A couple of friends of

This Decorated Soldier no doubt enjoys a brew or two but he earns it!!

mine (both good Personal trainers) were discussing this and disagreed on the path to foloow with alcohol. One was for totally foregoing it until you had achieved your desired fat loss and the other felt that if you factored it in as something that you did not overindulge in then it was no probelm.

This made me stop and think. Pretty much I have been in the first camp – alcohol = no fat loss or at least a severe blunting of progress but…

I’m a strong advocate of a balanced lifestyle and very anti-processed foods. I am pro-exercise and protein and veges and fruit and damn it I like a drink. Or two…

Don’t get me wrong societally alcohol has been a disaster for many cultures and has caused and continues to cause untold heartbreak for many people. Yet consumed responsibly alcohol is more than a socilal lubricant it can have health benefits. in fact I  believe that alcohol can be part of a flifestyle that is healthy and active.

Okay but where does this leave the fat loss?

What you need to know about Alcohol and Fat Loss –
Alcohol is a calorie laden poison.

No getting around the fact that this is so…
Alcohol and calories

Scary isn’t it…

If you are seriously working to lose body fat then you know that you have to ingest fewer calories than you use as a major component of achieving this.

o you need to consider the calorific load of what you eat and drink and the way that what you out in your mouth is processed by your body.

Alcohol carries a seven calorie per gram load, fat contain 9 and protein and carbohydrates contain only four.
This puts alcohol right up there in terms of the potential to add calories….

But that’s not the problem – the problem lies in the foods we eat with the alcohol, and the liquids we mix it with..
If you like Bundy & Coke, or a Gin & Tonic or a scotch & Dry you are likely to be adding over 300 calories per serving to your intake. Per serving. Have 3 ot 4 and you’ve come close to taking in the equivalent of half a pound of fat calories-wise.

It’s even worse for cocktails.. But okay you use Coke Zero and the diet versions of mixers – problem fixed – right? Wrong!

When we have a drink or two we tend to be drawn towards unhealthy foods like potato

Alcohol ignites cravings for the wrong foods…

crisps, fat laden burgers or pizza – basically alcohol stimulates our cravings for the wrong type of food and these cravings are powerful things to ignore…So we drink to be sociable varous flavour receptors get switched on, some hormones are stimulated and suddenly you find yourself eating deepfried Mars bars or tacosor corn chips!

BOOM! Becuase of the add on effect of alcohol you’ve just eaten an entire day’s worth of calories (and from poor food choices! in one evening…Guess what that does to you fat loss…

But, I hear you say,  I don’t drink spirits or mixed drinks I have a brew, a beer or a wine.

More bad news – beer is associated with the release of the belly fat storing hoemone cortisol (a beer gut is often just that – a belly caused by cortisol stimulated from too much

The classic beer gut…

ale…) The calories in a glass of beer can run from under 80 to over 230 depending upon type…Red wine (in a 5 ounce serving) has about 125 calories, white wine (depending upon type – the sweeter the higher the calories) has about 100 calories and sparkling & fortified wines get into the high 100s. A nip of Scotch has 54 calories.

Processing Alcohol

I’ll go with the short version here.. Alcohol is processed in the liver, and in large quantities it places a big strain on this organ. It is viewed & treated by our bodies as a poison. It is not a coincidence that alcoholics suffer from a range of liver diseases as their alcoholism progresses.

Thing is whilst we are young our liver can handle alcohol reasonably well but over time – especially if we binge drink (try to fit a week’s worth of alcohol into one night) or drinks lots – our liver processes the alcohol less & less well. It is NOT a case of the older liver taking more time to do the same job – it just can’t do the same job. period.

But here’s the kicker becuase our body views alcohol as a poison it pretty much halts

Too much for way too long…

everything else it does to process the alcohol. A lot of fat is broken down in the lvier – this stops..the entire fat burning process throughout your body stops until the ‘poison’ has been dealt with.

The processing of alcohol require large quantities of the B group vitamins so these get depleted.and becuase they are involved in the burning of fat your fat loss gets hit from this direction as well.

Recovery and Alcohol
Alcohol – again in large amounts – will hinder how well and how fast your body recovers from your work out program. Again it is liver related but also endocrine system as well – simply processing alcohol taxes your system and depletes it. It also stops protein synthesis. remember muscles grow after exercise in response to stress. In order to repair & grow after the level of intensity required to burn fat your body neeeds to process protein.

You won’t be doing this after a big night out..

Big night out = long time before you can recovery from exercise. Which of course puts you behind in terms of momentum and… you know the rest

So just don’t drink – right?

Wrong. nearly all of the negative effects of alcohol come from having too much and from having the wrong types. Red wines at the rate of no m ore than a glass or a night will not only keep you sociable but the calorie load they’ll add, the cravings they’ll trigger and the processing they’ll require will all be much less than spirits, cocktails, beers, fortified wines or even sparkling ones. The less sweet varieties of white wine are also reletivel low impact if drunk responsibly – not as good for your health as red but still better than most of the rest. A Rose` is a good compromise.

Again though – moderation is the key. Even at 2 glasses a night your liver will have to work, your fat burning and protein synthesis will stop and you’ll need to keep an eye on your vitamn B levels. Of course if you are eating the high lean protein, high unprocessed carb and low grain diet espoused here with littl or no sugar, transfats or HFCS then the effect on your health & fat burning will be even less.

If you want rapid results in terms of fat loss then don’t drink any alcohol until you get to

All good sources if B group – but a supplement won’t hurt…

your desired level. If you want to get there but remain sociable and are not in a burning hurry then a few drinks durng the week of a decent red won’t set you back too far…

An occasional drink won’t keep you fat, but be careful heart friendly or not, antioxidant rich or not (red wine at least) if you are taking in more than a sparse couple of alcoholic drinks then you will definately hit your progress on the head. Hard…
Personally, here in Oz with Winter upon us (such as it is) I think that I might still have a glass or two of red with a roast dinner; but overall look at foregoing the alcohol until daylight savings rolls around again for Summer – that way maybe I’ll keep the winter belly under easier control…

How about you?

See you next week….

 

The 4 Fat Loss Principles You Must Know to Drop Fat Fast…

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Welcome back!!

In the spirit of last week’s list of 5, here are 4 principles that you have to apply if you are going to see fast fat loss results…

Principle the First – You gotta keep your metabolism humming along…
Cutting calories like most folk do when they decide to lose weight (ie Fat) results in a dive in the various processes that make up your moverall metabolic rate.

You eat less so you lose out on the thermic effect of food. Eating lessbecause most folk

Keep your metabolism humming – but don’t do crap like this!!

severley cut their calories back means you have less energy and so you move less and exercising becomes difficult.

Your basal metabolic rate drops off as you body enters into good ole starvation mode.

These things then combine to deliver a thump to your hormones.

Leptin (the ‘okay we’re full stop eating’ hormone) levels fall off a clif in as little as a week of moderate calorie reduction.

So you fix this by cycling your calories or even easier if you are going low carb then you must make sure that you a ‘Cheat day’ – the trick here though is to eat with some sense –

Eaten intelligently even pizza can help you lose fat…

don’t gorge and overfeed, just allow yourself to have some processed carbs one day a week if you are on a serious drop fat fast diet. ne day of ‘spiking’ your carb intake will reset your leptin levels to pretty much normal so you can cut calories for ht efollowing week and then reset again with a ‘cheat day’ and so on…

This strategy works best if you workout hard the day before your cheat day. here is a program from renowned training Expert Craig Ballantyne that you can use:

Do a minium of 3 rounds and try for 5 if possible.

Rest 15 seconds between exercises and 1 minute at the end of the circuit.

Do as many repetitions as possible in the given time.

Make sure to do a bodyweight warm-up of squats, lunges, and
pushups before this circuit (2 sets of 8-12 reps each).

1) Lunge Jumps – 20 seconds
2) Pullup or Bodyweight Row – 30 seconds
3) Spiderman Pushup – 30 seconds
4) KB Swing – 30 seconds
5) Walking Prisoner Lunge – 30 seconds
6) Cross-Body Mountain Climber – 30 seconds
7) KB Goblet Squat – 30 seconds

Lunges – work!!

By doing this you deplete your body’s store of glycogen and when you cheat the next day these stores get refilled so the extra carbs not only reset your leptin they don’t 9unless you are foolish) create a calorie overwhelm that results in fat loss. In fact doing this can help predispose your body to burn fat as preferred fuel…

Principle the Second – You gotta cut calories a lot if you want fast fat loss…

You’ve read it here before a pound of fat is 3500 calories (closer to 7200 for a kilo) and the only way that you get your body to shift those pounds / kilos is for you to eat less so your body burns more…

Of course there is more to it than just eating less – what you eat, how often and and so on all has an effect but the base line info to grab onto here is that you have to create a strong energy deficit for fat loss to occur.

Which would you rather be carrying around…

Dropping 5 kilos (about 11 pounds) of fat equates to a energy deficit of around 38,000 calories..

if you’re hooked on thinking in terms of weight loss rather than fat loss then you need to understand that a pure fat loss of 5 kilos probably means a total weight loss of 7.5 to 10 kilos becuase of fluid loss that comes along with dropping weight.

Principle the Third:  You gotta use both DIET & Exercise to achieve your fat loss.

  I’ve said it before – you can’t out train a bad diet and you can’t lose fat unless you get a number of things working together.

Forstly – take as many of the processed, then the the starchy processed carbs out of your diet as possible. Replace these with loads more vegetables, lean protein and fruit.

Step up your exercise and use HIIT protcols to get your metabolism revved up. Lift heavy weights at leat once a week to keep your muscle mass intact 9if not increase it!0 and then use cheat days to keep your homones on your side.

Is there more to it than this? Yep – but just do the above and you’ll get results better than 80% of the folk who try to lose ‘weight’…

Principle the Fourth:  You gotta keep the muscle you’ve already got… 

I mentioned this above but it is worth locking down on its own.

Muscle is more metabolically active than fat. The more you have the faster your basal

Lift heavy once or twice a week to hold onto fat burning muscle mass…

(resting) metabolism is and the more calories that you burn at rest. Likewise when you exercise if you have muscle your body will burn more calories more quickly than if you were fatter with less muscle.

Most people lose muscle when they diet becuase once your body goes into starvation mode it tries to protect fat stores and turns to breaking down muscle to supplement your energy needs. But you can stp this. Dead. How? Lift heavy weights. It has been shown in a number of studies that lifting heavy weights once or twice a week makes your body preserve if not add to) your muscle mass and gets it to burn more fat – even if you are in starvation mode due to calorie cuts.

Well there you have it – 4 principles to follow for rapid fat loss.

See you next week.

HIIT, Burst & ignore the CDC’s exercise guidelines!!

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Welcome back!

Just how much time to exercise do you need to shift weight and to recondition your metabolism?

The Centre for Disease Control in the USA recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio exercise per week for 18 – 64 year old adults in its Physical

Got 5 hours a week to spend on this??

Activity Guidelines for Americans1. On top of that, to the CDC’s credit, they also recommend at least 2 sessions per week of ‘muscle strengthening’ exercise. And that’s if you are not overweight.

This recommendation ups to 300 minutes+ of cardio and then more resistance training if you want to lose fat. That’s 5 hours a week of cardio and likely another 3 or 3 of resistance training. Say 8 hours a week. Out of the 168 hours a week that we have available to us 8 hours doesn’t seem like a lot – but let’s look a little more closely.

  • Sleep (@ 8 Hours per night) = 56 hours
  • Food preparation, eating & clean up = 15 hours
  • Hourly commute to work = 10 hours
  • Work itself = 45 hours (8 hours work + 1 Hour lunch & breaks per day, 5 days)
  • Showering, laundry, household chores = 16 hours
  • Exercise (as per the CDC) = 8 hours

That leaves 18 hours a week for shopping, TV, recreation, reading, loving etc etc or a little over 2.5 hours a day.

Real Adults have real world responsibilities…

Really for most of us finding 8 hours a week just for exercise (this does not mean sport or recreation just fat loss focussed, fitness maintaining exercise) is not really feasible for the average adult with adult responsibilities.

In a word the CDC’s recommendations are not real life practical.

Now if fat loss is an imperative in your life, if it is deeply held goal then you will find the time – but such an effort is unlikely to become a regular habit for most of us. We’ll do it short term to drop fat for an event like a wedding or a reunion, but sustaining this type of effort is just not realistic for most of us.

And let’s be honest if we were to follow these guidelines who wants  to spend 5 or so hours a week on an exercise bike, stair climber, treadmill or elliptical trainer?

Just ain’t going to happen, no where no how.

 To make matters even worse it appears that everything we have been told for years about exercising especially for fat loss has been wrong.

It is not about duration, nor about finding some mythical fat burning zone – studies from conservative sources like Harvard University indicate that the key to effective exercise for fat loss and overall health is all about intensity.

Here are some guidelines for judging your level of intensity using a PRE(perceived rate of

Stair runs – now that’s intense!!

exertion) protocol:

  • Level 1 = Warm-Up or Slow Pace
  • Level 2 = Medium (you can talk easily
  • Level 3 = Medium-High (you can still talk)
  • Level 4 = High (Talking is in short bursts
  • Level 5 = Hard as you can go (Talking is not possible)

These levels are based on your current level of personal condition.

The available data shows that the long, slow, constant-speed aerobics that we’ve all been inculcated to believe are so good for us is exactly the wrong thing for us to be doing.

 In fact I’d go as far as to say doing continuous cardio is a waste of time.

 Why?

Hmm…Cortisol and low intensity perhaps??!!

Long slow constant cardio doesn’t get your metabolism running faster, nor does it build your fat burning capability or even really condition your cardiovascular and respiratory systems. It does increase cortisol release – which is not a good thing as high cortisol is associated with belly fat accumulation.

Look I’ve posted before on the benefits to your metabolism (both reconditioning and improving), your fat loss and your overall health of HIIT (high intensity interval training).

There has been a heap of research showing that high intensity interval training is better than traditional, long, slow aerobics if you want to:

  • Recondition your metabolism
  • protect your heart
  • burn body fat
  • build lean muscle
  • boost your overall metabolism
  • reduce insulin resistance
  • decrease cortisol levels
  • increase levels of HGH
  • increase your energy levels
  • improve your sleep patterns
  • Not waste time

You can get faster results in a shorter time period using HIIT. And that was where we

The results of HIIT (and okay maybe some help genetically…)

came in – 8 hours a week of exercise for so-so results when you could do HIIT style exercise for 12 – 20 minutes three times a week, add in a couple of 30 – 45 minute resistance training sessions and you you’ve got more time and better results. (in fact if you combined the 2 into what is called metabolic resistance training then you’d get all the benefits in under 80 minutes a week! – more on MT and how to design a program next week)

This is just not me speaking – here are some results from recent studies:

Harvard School of Public Health: A study of over 7,000 people found that the more intense the exertion, the lower the risk of heart disease.

Physical Activity Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada: Compared to treadmills and hour-long aerobics classes, HIIT helps you burn fat more efficiently and quickly.

Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada: Moderately active women (not on their backside all day but not running marathons either…) lost an impressive amount of fat doing just two weeks of HIIT.

School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: Young males who did HIIT / Burst Training substantially reduced their risk for type 2 diabetes.

Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada: For people with type 2 diabetes, HIIT Training can improve blood sugar levels and reduce risks for diabetes-related complications.

The next level of HIT is a thing called ‘Burst Training.’ Regular HIIT requires intense effort for fairly short periods of time interspersed with short rest periods. Now I have to go on record here and say that I think that Burst training is largely a marketing term– if you are

Either way – HIIT or Burst – this is time efficiant and fat burning to the max!!

hitting high levels of exertion in your HIIT training then you are already ‘Bursting.’

Why this term has come about is because I think that many people say they are doing HIIT when they are really only doing timed exercise. It’s Tabatas – most folk do 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off for 4 minutes and say they’ve done a Tabata.

Unless you worked so hard during those 4 minutes that you are lying on your back sucking air then you have NOT done Tabatas – you’ve done timed interval exercise which is nowhere near as challenging or stressful. Nor does it deliver the health benefits we are after in as short a period of time as true HIIT or Tabatas.

Make no mistake unless you are going ‘balls to the wall’ for short periods of time followed by short periods of rest then you are NOT performing HIIT or Burst training. You’re working out, likely getting some benefit but far less than if you go flat out.

Burst training involves short (20 – 60 second maximum) bursts at such a high intensity that the created oxygen demand is higher than your body can supply.

Think about doing sand dune sprints, prowler sprint pushes or where Rocky runs the Philadelphia stairs…

This is so much more time efficient than the CDC’s ‘moderate cardio’…

This ‘over demand’ for oxygen creates a high level of  metabolic “stress” in your body that it depletes your glycogen stores which requires your body to not only work harder to repay this ‘oxygen debt’ but means that it has to burn more fat.

The Health benefits of “burst training” are not dissimilar to that of HIIT and include…

  • Increased fat burning
  • Increased lean muscle mass
  • Improved cardiovascular health
  • Combined aerobic and anaerobic activity
  • Increased “feel-good” beta-endorphins
  • Increased human growth hormone (HGH)
  • Increased energy
  • Improved athletic performance
  • Reduced inflammation
  • Increased EPOC

If you really want to go for it then move to what is called “Threshold” intervals. These are insanely hard bursts of intense exercise that, unlike the shorter ‘burst’ style, last anywhere from 65 seconds all the way up to 2 or sometimes 3 minutes.

Now that is a HIIT and that will burn fat & recondition your metabolism like little else!

They are also so demanding physically & mentally that you can’t do this oftenwhich

Threshold training should leave you feeling like this…

means this training style should only be used on those days when you are feeling in touch with the Universe when a flow state is nigh and you want to up the ante a bit.

Few of us mortals can train this way on a regular basis – but if you can incorporate them once a week then:

1. Research shows that performing “Threshold” intervals is one of the best ways to accelerate glycogen depletion (which = faster fat loss).

2. Test subjects who regularly performed threshold intervals burned more fat when they performed steady state or higher intensity intervals.

In other words, using the Threshold system  develops your metabolism where it becomes more adept at burning fat in less time that either HIIT or Burst style training.

So forget what the politically correct exercise guidelines are – get HIITing, Bursting or jump over your Threshold!! This is how you can recondition your metabolism in record time, get leaner, get healthier and LBN.

See you next week – don’t forget to share this!!

1)      http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html

By the time you read this you’ll need it…

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Welcome Back!!

I hope that you all had a great Christmas day and that Santa brought you what you wanted!!

I hope that you spent good times with family and friends. That the food was good & plentiful, the company enjoyable and the weather good…

Well Christmas lunch has come & gone and dinner is over, done and dusted. And you’re feeling….well stuffed, over fed, pants too tight, got a good case of belly bloat going on and that furry tongue feeling that comes from either too much alcohol. too many sweet carbs or a mixture of both. (in my case Lynne – as she always does – cooked up a superb all day feast that began with Christmas Brunch and continued all day…)

Ahh.. post Christmas Dinner bloat...

You know you should have followed the last post and eaten your Protein first but the honeyed veges looked too good, the egg nog was too plentiful, the christmas cake too inviting and well you just let go and enjoyed yourself. You let go of all of that hard won disciplne, that laser like focus on only eating to stay healthy & lean… Another Christmas day come & gone and you feel a bit guilty, like you blew it and find part of your mind saying (again) never again..

Okay time to move past this, time to get back on track, time to recognise that this was a temporary diversion and most of all time to repair some of the damage done.

So how to do this?

Firstly realise that letting go of your diet control once & a while is okay, just make sure that you climb back on the wagon. It’s really not something to beat yourself up about unless ‘once & a while’ turns into every week or….

Here’s how to get back in harness– your metabolism has been given a hiding, and your digestive system has been stressed far beyond normal limits… You need to hit the ‘reset button’.

This little trick will do what’s needed:

Once Christmas day and the following one (Boxing Day here in Australia) are done then make a decision to stay away from all highly processed, high GI foods and focus on lean Protein, fresh fruit and fibrous vegetables. Add some healthy fats via nuts & avocado and you are well on the way to getting back on track.

This means waking up and having an omelette with some Spanish onion and mushrooms in it and avoiding cereal & milk. It means grabbing an apple or a peach and some almonds for a snack, having big salads with

Drink lots of this...

olive oil dressing and chicken or turkey breast, it means avoiding breads, crackers or that the left over Christmas pudding, Pavlova or pie.

It means drinking a lot of water. A lot of water.

Eating like this will reduce the bloat, ease the stress on your digestive system and beat back those sugary carb cravings.

This works by allowing a number of things to happen – fewer carbs means your body has a chance to normalise & stabilise blood sugar levels after the havoc of the days just gone.

Your pancreas gets a break and you insulin levels will drop also. Your body will release excess fluids (high sugary carbs creates water retention – and drinking extra water when eating lower carbs actually forces a situation where excess retained water is ‘let go’).

High sugary carbs also unleash the cravings monster and eating as described above will blunt these.

So December 27th or 28th get stuck into water and left over protein, veges and fruit. Pass on the potatoes, the bread and sweets, pie & cakes. Not only will you lose the bloat but you’ll feel better quicker and be back on track for a fit & lean 2011.

Oh yeah add some gentle exercise – go for a walk, toss a Frisbee, ride a bike do some tai chi or or some swimming. The key here is to eas back into exercise not jump back in like a demon! There are some

May your dreams come true in 2012

psychological considerations for this time of year to take into account as well. Our mind tells us we should be taking it easy, we should be on holidays so our bodies are going this way as well. Don’t stop exercising just ease back into instead…

My best wishes for a Safe & Happy New Year – may 2012 be the year all your dreams come true!!

One Simple Trick to Avoid Overeating on Christmas Day…

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Welcome back!!

Happy Festive Season to you & yours from me & mine!!

Just because its Christmas doesn't mean undoing all your hard wrok...

Look – we all know the sad truth of what is going to take place once the presents are opened, the hugs exchanged, and you and your family sit down for Christmas lunch – you’re all going to eat too much, way, way too much.

If you’re like me, you vow every ear not to overindulge, and every year you slip up. (in my case it is particularly hard – my much better half Lynne is a gourmet class cook who loves to put on a huge spread for the family for Christmas and damn it she knows ALL my favourites!!)

The calm before the (eating!) storm...

Once we sit down then the aromas of the Turkey, the roast Pork, the leg of Lamb, the baked Ham; the sight of the salads, the roast vegetables, the fresh  prawns and sea food, then desserts – all combine to overwhelm even the best intentions and steeliest of wills.

So what are we supposed to do?

How can we avoid eating until we become Michelin Man-like and need to have a lie down?

How can we avoid the nasty latent sense of guilt that rears its ugly head over the next few days and makes us feel bad about our lack of control?

It’s simple – apart from the most fanatical amongst us we really can’t… BUT there is one simple thing we can do that will give us at least a modicum of control…

Eat your Protein foods first.

Gotcha!! Hah!! You thought I was going to say use smaller plates, or drink a glass of water first, or chew on a chunk of cheese – nope – a very important part of Christmas (or Hanukkah or Ramadan, or Chinese New Year – whatever your particular celebration is, no matter when it is, is to celebrate and to let go – even if it is just a bit!

Start off with the Ham or the Turkey, with the Pork or the Lamb or the Prawns – just eat your proteins first.

If you have been reading this blog for a little while  you’ll know that Protein foods not only fill you up faster, but they assist in the secretion of the chemical messengers that let your brain know you are full. Eating protein gives your leptin a kick in the pants and tells your brain that you’ve had enough.

You can use this tip even with a smorgsabord!!

Protein first eating actually cuts down on the time it takes for your brain to register that your stomach is full and you’ve eaten enough. In general it takes about 20 minutes from the time your stomach is full until your brain gets this message, but Protein has the ability to send get that message from your stomach to your brain much faster than other nutrients. Protein promotes feelings of satiety (feeling full & satisfied at the same time) better than any other food.

Eating your Protein first will prevents over eating because it helps you realize you’re well-fed and not starving!! Even better, Protein will not elevate your blood sugar as dramatically as high GI ‘fast’ carbs. A rapid rise in blood sugar (almost an instant hyperglycaemia experienced at just about every Christmas Dinner) can actually make you feel more hungry by stimulating the hormone Ghrelin which is the ‘feed me more’ appetite stimulating hormone. Protein shuts down this hormone – a good thing!

Even worse a sugar ‘high’ actually switches off your ‘stop eating you’re full’ mechanisms so you get shaky and start shovelling food in – usually faster and faster, without even really tasting it.

Even he keeps in shape over the holidays...

Instead, protein keeps your blood sugars within a normal range so you don’t go through the rollercoaster highs and lows that make you feel even less satisfied.

So Protein first, then eat the high fibre vegetables (think broccoli, green beans, asparaghus etc). These too will add your sense of satiety so you feel full & satisfied.

Once you’ve done this (and enjoyed it!!) then it is open slather – go for the high carb, low fibre fare that remains. Thing is though you’ll likely find that your servings of those desserts and so forth will be smaller and you will need less to satisfy your taste for them.

There you have it – a simple plan for Christmas that will enable you eat well, feel full & satisfied, indulge without bloating and more importantly not upset the cook by eating like a monk!!

I hope that you & your families have a great Festive Season, no matter what your spiritual beliefs.

May your God go with you!

Enjoy!

Low-carbohydrate diets look good for the prevention and treatment of cancer

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Welcome back:

This week I am presenting 2 posts from the UK. Dr John Briffa (www.Drbriffa.com) is one of the few medicos on-line that are wroth following and I thought that these 2 posts of his are well worth passing on for you to read.

Enjoy.

Low-carbohydrate diets look good for the prevention and treatment of cancer

Posted on 29 November 2011

In general terms, I recommend a diet lower in carbohydrate than conventional guidelines say is healthy. At least part of my thinking is based on abundant evidence linking a relatively carbohydrate controlled diet with benefits in terms of body weight and disease markers for conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. However, I came across a recent paper which made me think more about the impact a low-carbohydrate might have on risk of another important condition – cancer [1].

You can read a summary of the paper here and download a provisional pdf of the full paper here.

The paper starts with reference to hunter-gatherer diets, and their relatively protein-rich, low-carb nature, and remarks that cancer has been found to be rare in societies eating such a diet. It then goes on to postulate several major mechanisms that may account for this association. These include:

1. Cancer cells feed preferentially on sugar (glucose)
Glucose (from sugary and starchy foods) provides the prime fuel for cancer cells, so a diet lower in carbohydrate may therefore reduce tumour development or progression.

2. Insulin and IGF-1 can stimulate tumour cell growth
High carbohydrate diets increase levels of insulin and what is known as insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) which stimulate tumour cell growth. A lower carbohydrate diet may reduce tumour proliferation as a result.

3. Ketones suppress cancer
Very low carbohydrate diets can lead to the production of ‘ketones’ (mainly produced from fat) that suppress tumours.

4. Low-carbohydrate and ‘ketogenic’ diets ‘starve’ cancer
Low-carbohydrate diets mimic caloric restriction and ketogenic diets mimic starvation – and caloric restriction/starvation is linked to reduce tumour development and progression.

5. Low carbohydrate diets can reduce inflammation
Inflammation is believed to be a risk factor in the development of cancer, and high-carb diets encourage inflammation. Low-carbohydrate diets have been found to be more effective than low-fat ones in terms of reducing markers of inflammation.

The paper also makes the case that such diets may help better meet the nutritional needs of those with cancer.

I’ve only plucked out some of the highlights of this paper, as you can read it in its entirety if you so wish. If you do, though, you may well find that the paper makes a pretty compelling case for the role of carbohydrate-restricted diets in the prevention and treatment of cancer.

References:

1. Klement RJ, et al. Is there a role for carbohydrate restriction in the treatment and prevention of cancer? Nutrition & Metabolism 2011, 8:75

Questions raised over the role of HDL-cholesterol in cardiovascular disease

Posted on 2 December 2011

Cholesterol in the bloodstream is transported in two main forms: ‘low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol’ (LDL-cholesterol) and ‘high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol’ (HDL-cholesterol). Conventional wisdom tells us that LDL-cholesterol is responsible for the fatty build-up on the inside of arteries known as ‘atherosclerotic plaque’, but that HDL-cholesterol clears this plaque. Because of this, HDL- and LDL-cholesterols are dubbed ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol respectively.

A paper was published recently which attempted to explore further the relationship between HDL-cholesterol and risk of cardiovascular disease. Low levels of HDL-cholesterol have been associated with enhanced risk. But just because two things are associated with each other, does not mean one is causing the other.

Low HDL-cholesterol levels often go hand-in-hand with other metabolic ‘abnormalities’ including raised triglyceride (a form of blood fat) levels, raised blood pressure, raised blood sugar levels and abdominal obesity. Could it be one or more of these associated factors or other factors entirely that account for the relationship between low HDL-cholesterol levels and heightened risk of cardiovascular disease.

To answer this question, Danish scientists isolated individuals with low HDL-cholesterol levels as a result of a genetic glitch [1]. In these individuals, HDL-cholesterol levels are low, but this is usually in isolation and not in combination with other metabolic abnormalities (such as raised triglycerides, blood pressure, blood sugar and abdominal obesity).

It turns out that in these individuals with genetically determined low HDL-cholesterol levels, risk of heart attack is no higher than in the general population. The logical conclusion here is that low HDL-cholesterol does not cause heart attacks (which means that higher levels do not protect against it either). In other words, this evidence strongly suggests the link between HDL-cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease risk is only an association and not causal.

But if this is the case, could the same not be true for LDL-cholesterol too?

Many doctors and scientists will not hear of such a thing, of course, and will quote studies which show cholesterol-reduction with statin drugs reduces risk of cardiovascular disease as evidence of the fact LDL-cholesterol causes heart disease. However, as is well-recognised now, statins have many actions in the body which might reduce cardiovascular disease risk in a way which has nothing to do with cholesterol (including anti-inflammatory and blood-thinning properties).

Also, we have evidence that statins substantially reduce the risk of stroke, even though cholesterol is a weak or non-existent risk factor for stroke. And we have evidence that statins reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in individuals with normal or even low levels of cholesterol. These lines of evidence suggest that statins actually work through mechanisms that are distinct from their cholesterol-reducing properties.

I know that some will tell us that cholesterol is to be found in atherosclerotic plaque and that ‘proves’ that cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease. Actually, though, it does nothing of the sort. If I graze my knee and form a scab there, chemical analysis of the scab will reveal something called fibrin (a clotting agent). Has fibrin caused my scab? Of course not.

References:

1. Haase CL, et al. LCAT, HDL Cholesterol and Ischemic Cardiovascular Disease: A Mendelian Randomization Study of HDL Cholesterol in 54,500 Individuals. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism November 16, 2011

See you next week when I’ll be looking at 4 fat loss proptocols to follow when you want to drop fat fast!!

Be well.