Category Archives: Reconditioning your Metabolism

Vitamin B & Fat Loss

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome back:

This week we’re going to look at three special B-Group Vitamins that compliment your fat-loss quest, while keeping you healthy and strong.

Losing body fat is a bit like fighting a war – you need the right strategy the right weapons and the right troops plus the will to overcome if you are going to win.

To win the war against excess body fat, the B-Group Vitamins should be amongst your best friends and a part of your arsenal. They’re a vital component of nutrition that enables your body to turn food into energy.

It is easier to work out and to exercise your will power when you are full of energy – without the B-group Vitamins your energy levels will be low and your ability to recondition your metabolism and to withstand temptation will fall. This in turn will make your fat-shedding efforts so much the harder…

There are three (3) main B vitamins that I want focus on. Individually they are important to your health – when used together they keep you strong, healthy, energised and compliment your fat loss efforts.

But first – What are B-Group vitamins exactly?

The B-Group Vitamins

The B-Group Vitamins are water-soluble vitamins. This simply means that they once they are processed by your body any excess is excreted in your urine.

Overdosing on B-Group is rarely an issue…

This also means that they are quickly depleted in situations of high sweat loss and activity. Because water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body in appreciable amounts and are used up and depleted rapidly, it’s important that you ensure that you are getting enough of them by eating foods that are rich in these vitamins or by taking a supplement to make sure that you have adequate levels in your system.

I recommend that you do both.

Drinking alcohol also increases the need for the B-Group Vitamins so after a heavy session of ‘glass raising’ taking a B supplement before hitting the sack is always a good idea. It’s even better if sleep is followed by another Vitamin B Group tab or 2 upon rising the next morning.

There are eight B-vitamins, which include thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid (B9), cyanocobalamin (B12), pantothenic acid and biotin.
These vitamins act as coenzymes and as catalysts in the chemical reactions that transfer energy from the food we eat to our body systems.

They are essential for the breakdown of the macronutrients(Carbs to glucose,

Hangover – alcohol increases your Vitamin B needs – a lot!!

proteins & fats to a number of elements essential for the repair and maintenance, growth, normal functioning of our nervous system and healthy hair, skin and nails. You need to be getting B-group Vitamins everyday – without them you’ll ail.

Several of these B-Group Vitamins are especially important to having a fast (ie fat burning) metabolism and by extension a leaner, fitter body.

Pyridoxine: Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 has three chemical forms (as pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine) and is the B-group Vitamin most necessary for proper protein metabolism. The coenzyme form of B6 is associated with more than 100 other enzymes which are critical for amino acid breakdown from protein foods and the conversion of certain amino acids from one type to another.

Amino acids as you know are essentially the body’s building blocks and are a necessary part of tissue repair, muscle growth, nerve sheaths, nails, hair etc etc.

B6 also helps your body to access and use the glycogen in your muscle cells for energy when you are moving and especially when you are working out. No glycogen = no movement.

If you’re not sleeping then your B-Group needs go up!!

Also the breakdown of glycogen plays an important part in the regulation of blood sugar levels (blood sugar is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver but once these areas are full the excess is stored as body fat!).

Another important function of B6 is its ability to diminish the actions of hormones such as cortisol – the stress hormone. As we’ve previously explored on this blog when you’re under stress your body releases lots of cortisol which does a number of negative things primarily for our discussion – it promotes the storage of belly fat. It also promotes the breakdown & use of muscle tissue as fuel.

Great double whammy – you store more fat and lose muscle so your metabolism slows even further…

Adequate B6 levels are critical in times of stress (bad stress like job, money or relationship worries or even good stress like exercise) so your body does not store extra body fat and use precious muscle protein for energy.

Because B6 is so important for protein metabolism, it’s requirement depends on the

B-group helps you feel like this!!

amount of protein you consume on a daily basis. An intake of about 1.6 mg of B6 for every 100 g of protein is considered by the National Academy of Sciences to meet the needs of adults under normal conditions .

However, for athletes and people that exercise regularly (and often eat more protein), their vitamin B6 requirements will be higher given the greater need for energy and protein metabolism. Scientific studies have shown that exercise greatly depletes B6 levels in the body and needs to be kept in check through supplementation.

As you can see, when you’re an active person consuming more protein than the” Average Westerner”, your needs for vitamin B6 are increased, and it’s critical you get at least the minimum amount in each day.

Some of your best food sources of B6 include fortified cereals, potatoes, bananas, chickpeas and chicken (contains ~ 0.5-0.7 mg), but even if you are eating those foods you’d be wise to take a B-Group supplement.

Cobalamins: Vitamin B12.
What we call Vitamin B12 is actually a collection of compounds that are different molecules all containing the element cobalt. The most common form is the B12 vitamin known as cyanocobalamin.

The various forms of B12 work in the body to maintain normal brain and nervous system development and function, and play a role in influencing DNA synthesis and regulation.

B12 also plays an important role in the metabolism of fatty acids and creation of energy from foods containing fats.

You’ll hit the wall without enough B-Group Vitamins in your system… 

People with insufficient B12 in their diet suffer fatigue, depression, and can develop poor memory. In severe cases cracks may form in the corner of their mouth ( a condition known as angular cheilitis).

The cause of this tiredness and skin damage is related in part to B12’s role in red blood cell production which is necessary to carry oxygen and iron through the body. Because of this B12 is important in assisting the prevention of anaemia.

Athletes and hard exercisers may have low body B12 status, due to their increased metabolism and the raised demand for this vitamin to be used repair damaged blood cells and injured muscle tissue; and to carry more oxygen around in the blood while exercising.

This means that if you are working out regularly and hard then you will need more than the average daily allowance of ~2.4 mcg/day.

Vitamin B12 is only found in animal based foods so vegetarians – especially vegans – are

Good B6 Source – Chicken!!

at risk of developing the above mentioned symptoms of deficiency unless they supplement their dietary income.

The foods highest in B12 are shellfish (mussels, lobster), oily fish (trout, salmon, tuna), and organ meats (liver).

Biotin
Biotin is an essential cofactor for several key enzymes in the production of glucose (& glycogen) and the metabolism of fats and proteins. For example, in order for the liver to make glucose (through a process called gluconeogenesis), an enzyme essential to this process called pyruvate carboxylase requires biotin in order to function correctly. No biotin no liver produced glucose…

Biotin is also needed for the breakdown of the branch chain amino acids from protein (leucine, isoleucine and valine), and some fatty acids from fat-containing foods.

B-Group Vitamins help when you’re stressed…

People who exercise often have an increased need for biotin for several reasons:

• Increased metabolism resulting in the loss of this vitamin in urine or sweat
• Increased mitochondrial enzymes that require more biotin for cofactors
• Increased need for tissue repair and maintenance
• Increased food intake requiring biotin for metabolism

The richest source of Biotin is cooked eggs (Forget the ‘Rocky’ raw egg eating – raw egg whites bind biotin due to the protein avidin). Although the average daily allowance is set at least 30 mcg of biotin each day, there is no toxicity associated from higher intakes, especially in people who are active.

B-Group Vitamins = Good Health

As you can see, ideal intake of these B-Group Vitamins helps gives your body the energy

B-Group Vitamins help you look like this…

to exercise hard, so that you can burn more fat and build more lean muscle. If you’re constantly tired because your metabolism is sluggish, if you can’t create the right energy from the food you eat then you’ll be unable to rid your body of excess body fat or achieve a lean, strong physique. So, make sure that you get plenty of these simple but potent vitamins via eating unprocessed foods and topping up with a supplement.

If you do so then your body will lose fat, your metabolism will run better and your overall health will improve.

See you next week.

 

5 Truths about Fat Loss

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome back!!

Here are five truths about fat loss that you often do not get told by the ‘weight loss gurus’ out there:

1. Prepare to be uncomfortable – At least for the first while.

In order to ose fat you have to make changes and as we have seen inprevious posts your body doen’t like change very much. in fact it fights it!! Thsi means that if you are serious about fat loss and are using a real program you will feel uncomfortable for a little while while your body starts to accept and then utilse the changes you are making.

One of the easiest changes to make is to eat less. by this I mean try to eat less than you are normallycomfortable with.

Changes from a poor to a good diet can be a litle uncomfotable for a few days...

We all know that lose fat we have to create some form of calorie deficit on a regular basis and a simple way to do this is to eat less than what has become ‘normal’ for us.

The key to doing this succesfuly is to eat foods that promote a feeling of satiety – and this means lean proteins, fibrous carbs and good fats with a distinct lowering of processed carbs.
If you can do this on a regular basis, eating less will quickly become the new ‘eating normal’ for you.

2. This is a tough one, especially in this day of media overkill interms of how we should look & act – but compare yourself to yourself.

No two people’s shapes are the same, everyone has a different body shape so it makes no sense at all to say I don’t look like Brad Pitt (I don’t!) or Angelina Joie ( I definately don’t!!) as no=one does.

The photos we see on magazine covers of either celebrities, models or just ‘beautiful people’ are photshopped, airbrushed, and taken from expertly lit photo shoots done by professionals. No real person can look like that without the same technology and support (make-up, lighting, personal chefs etc etc) being available. Yet we tend to compare us to these images and almost EVERY picture you see a completely unrealistic illustration of a human body. And like it or not, no matter how hard we try we will never look like these images…

It will take a while to get to look like this - if ever. be your best, not the media's...

By all means use the mass media images as a means of inspiration but the ONLY person you should be comparing yourself to is yourself. Use the mirror and way your clothes fit to chart progress and focus on becoming the best that you can, not the bestt hat Photshop can produce…

3. Be in a hurry but be patient. At the same time.

Sounds crazy but what I mean is that there is NO evidence to back up the idea that the maximum ‘safe’ fat loss is a couple of pounds a week. This is an arbitary number that has gained widespread acceptance without any scientific backing.

It is possible to lose a lot of weight more quickly than this – but (notice I said weight and not fat) the usual drastic means often mean fluid loss, wrecked metabolisms and ending up a skinny fat person.

You can safely lose over 20 pound of fat in a month by using the right protocols – eating nutrient dense, calorie sparse foods; increasing your lean protein intake, exercising so you maintain muscle mass and increase your metabolic rate and use diet tricks that manipulate your hormones and enable you to successfully combat your body’s desire to maintain the status quo. These things usesd together will deliver a string fat loss.

So you you sould be in a hurry to get on the right program and begin to make the necessary changes so your metabolism becomes fitred up again.

Move it more...

You should be patient as even with a fat loss of 20 pounds in a month you are unlikely to see thaose 6-pack abs or get as lean as you want. This is where you keep at it and twatch the results come.

In my experience most 30 -day body recompositions for someone who is over 30 pounds overweight progress something like this:

First Week – Some cravings, your body is fighting back some soreness from unaccustomed exercise.

Second Week – The odd craving or 2 surfaces, your body is getting used to eating differently, you have dropped some size, exercise is not as challenging and you feel stronger.

Third Week – No cravings, visible changes, clothes fit better you are stringer & feel fitter & stronger, energy levels rise.

Fourth Week– Waist measurements are lower, your shape is diffeent- especially in the arms & legs and under the chin; the food is second nature, the exercise a habit and you are seein gthe results of a 20 pond fat loss and feeling great.

Feel fitter & stronger...

Again – this is generic – how your body and your mind react will be unique to you but in general if you follow a program like the ones outlined in previous blogs thisis what will happen.

4. Just because you are exercising more does not mean that you can eat more. Not yet.

Remeber you are trtying to fire up your metabolism and a proper program will enable you to eat the right fuel and not feel hungry. However there is a persistent myth that just because you exercise you can ‘reward’ yourself by eating lots more or even re-introducing some of the foods that got you fat in the first place.

Wrong – you cannot & should not. At least not until you are at your goal shape (again shape NOT weight). Once you are there you can switch to a maintenance program and frankly after 30 plus days of eating correctly you will not likely want to over eat or eat junk. (NB a good program allows for ‘Cheat days” where you eat what you want but again over time even on the cheat days you’ll find your desire for poor food much diminished.)

5. Lastly understand that your weight will flucuate over your fat loss journey.

So don’t weigh yourself every day – this is the quickest route to depression and falling off the leannes wagon there is.

Your goal is fat loss, part of this is increasing lean mass. Lean masss weighs more than fat so the scales could show you even gaining some weight in the early weeks. Add to this diferences in fluid intake & retention, Menses, the differing effects of different foods and your weight can alter as much as 6 or 7 pounds from day to day.

Get off the damn scales!!

Use the mirror, use your clothes and if you have to use the scales do it once a week at the same time and on the same day.

Stay the course and focus on the monthly trend.

I’ll be back soon!! Be well!!

Post Christmas – Recovery from Over Indulging…

Posted on by
3

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

Well Christmas 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.

You mean there's more...

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 and well you just let go and enjoyed youself. Another Christmas day come & gone and you feel a bit guilty and find part of your mind saying (again) never again..

Okay time to move past this, time to get back on track, tme 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.

Here’s how – your metabolism has been given a hiding, your digestive system has been stressed far beyond normal limits so you need to hit the ‘reset button’.

This little trick will do the 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.

You'll need lots of this...

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

... and lots of 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.

My best wishes for a Safe & Happy New Year – may 2011 be the year all your dreams come true!!

How can you fix a Broken Metabolism? Part 4

Posted on by
5

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.

A Quick Metabolism Booster

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Welcome to Body Shape Shifters

Posted on by
3

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)