Metabolism – What it is, How You Can Make It Work For You Part 7

Posted on August 4, 2012 by jghethe

Welcome Back !

As different as we all are there is one area that affects us all the same way – Sleep or rather the lack of it. Two of the things that have the greatest blunting effect on your metabolism are stress & a lack of sleep.

Stress and Lack of Sleep can affect your Metabolism

As mentioned earlier your BMR & RMR both decrease as you get older. This means that it is harder for your body to burn calories and harder for you to lose fat. A daily routine of conscious, challenging exercise not only improves your health and fitness, but it increases your RMR.

Stress has both positive and negative impacts on our metabolism.

In reaction to any stress our body initially increases our metabolism, but when the stress becomes prolonged or chronic then the opposite occurs and our metabolism slows down.

The famous ‘Fight of Flight’ response is our body’s reaction to stress. But this heightened physical state can only be sustained for short periods before the body exhausts its stores of the main hormones it responds with.

During periods of stress, your hypothalamus (sort of the hormone control centre – see the Lose 20 in 30 Hormone Primer) instructs the adrenal glands to release three chemicals – epinephrine (adrenaline), norepinephrine and cortisol – into your bloodstream. Initially these three chemicals act to speed up your heart rate, your respiration, your blood pressure, and your overall metabolism.

Epinephrine breaks down glycogen into glucose in the liver, and both it and norepinephrine

increase the amount of circulating free fatty acids for use as a readily available fuel source. However once these have hormones have done their job and we have not used the fuel available then the cortisol kicks in and acts in its role as the belly fat storing hormone. The more prolonged the stress the higher your cortisol levels & the more belly fat you store.

Cortisol serves many important functions, including the rapid release of glycogen stores for immediate energy. But persistent cortisol release requires that other vital systems effectively shut down – immunity, digestion, healthy endocrine function, and so on. Among other stress-health associations, the link between elevated cortisol and weight gain has already been clearly established.

Chronic stress, largely through your hormone system, can disrupt your digestive system resulting in a lower uptake of nutrients and to the stomach producing higher than normal amounts of digestive acids on a prolonged basis. This can lead to IBS – Irritable Bowel Syndrome which definitely lowers nutrient uptake. Stress can often cause our abdomen to become bloated, creating cramping, constipation or even diarrhoea. Even worse studies suggest that stress may make a person more susceptible to the bacteria that cause peptic ulcers.

All of these conditions lead to a lowering of your RMR.

The good news is that if the stress is removed, the body quickly improves and your RMR is raised.

How to de-stress? – Get your sleep!!

Inadequate sleep interferes with nearly every aspect of your fitness & fat loss program. The negative effects of lack of sleep cannot be overstated.

Tired people burn fewer calories because they lack the energy to exercise or work out intensely. Some studies show that even if sleep deprived folk exercise for the same length of time as rested individuals they burn far fewer calories / kilojoules.

Lack of sleep not only makes you too tired to exercise, but it negatively affects your hormone system by altering the hormone levels in your body. Miss enough sleep and you’re effectively disrupting your biological processes, especially those that control & regulate your metabolism.

Lack of sleep affects the levels of cortisol, leptin and ghrelin, three hormones linked with muscle catabolism, belly fat storage, appetite and eating behaviours. Researchers at Stanford University found that when you are sleep deprived, your body decreases production of leptin, (the ‘I’m full & don’t need to eat any more’ hormone) at the same time it increases levels of ghrelin, the hormone that triggers feelings of hunger, and our old friend cortisol – which exists to store fat around your belly and increase the catabolism (tearing down) of your muscle tissue.

The researchers found that nearly three-quarters of the people they studied slept less than

8 hours per night, and that the increase in obesity was directly proportional to the decrease in sleep. This goes a long way towards explaining why very sleep-deprived people are nearly twice as likely to be obese.

Lack of sleep also causes levels of growth hormone to decline. Growth Hormone naturally blunts & counteracts the effects of cortisol so lowering it raises the effects of cortisol. This reduces your muscle mass, your strength, decreases your recovery ability, increases your fat tissue stores, and weakens your immune system.

Too little sleep also raises your Insulin levels increase. This, as we now know, increased insulin makes fat control difficult due to its effect on storing blood sugar as fat. Sleep deprivation also leads to low energy levels which often bring about the dreaded candy / cookie / chip cravings which turn into binges which in turn lead to more insulin release and fat storage – especially if your glycogen stores in your liver & muscles are full. There is even some research which suggests that lack of sleep reduces your body’s ability to store as much glycogen as when it is fully rested. This means that even more blood sugar has to be cleared from your blood stream and with less glycogen storage available, it gets shunted into fat cells.

About 25% of the adult population are insulin resistant. This means that your pancreas

has to pump out a lot more insulin to achieve that same blood sugar clearing effect. It turns out that excessive insulin reduces the ability of your body to burn fat for energy even after the glucose is cleared. Insulin resistance also typically leads to an increase in under the muscle, “visceral fat” around the organs, particularly in the abdomen, and this increases the risk of heart disease. Insulin resistance is even more common if you have diabetes in your family, or if your diet has been high in sugars and other processed carbs, and saturated fats.

Fortunately, by keeping your carbohydrates low-glycemic, and by exercising you reduce the need for this excessive output of insulin, and you keep your fat-burning in high gear. By itself Exercise improves insulin sensitivity.

Even better news is that is improving your sleep immediately reduces the negative effects on your hormone levels & their effect on your body. If you reduce the amount of stress in your life and get more sleep each night, your normal BMR will return. This is not easy in the modern world, with its fast pace, work commutes, paucity of easily available good foods and the general demands on your time, but it can be done.

As for the number of hours of sleep, there’s no one-size-fits-all number of prescribed hours. The right amount for you is based on your individual sleep requirements, although there’s some evidence indicating that somewhere around seven hours a night is ideal from a general health perspective.

Still, numerous factors can influence the amount of sleep you need, such as pregnancy, illness and stress levels, for example. As a general guideline, if you feel sluggish and foggy-headed upon waking, you’re likely not getting enough sleep, or the quality of your sleep is not very good.

Unfortunately, many people are quick to jump on the pill wagon once they start having

sleep problems. But sleeping pills come with numerous side effects and can cause more harm than good – better by far to try to reduce the stressors in your life. At the very least a solid exercise program not only helps burn fat but has been proven to lower the levels of the ‘stress’ hormones in your body.

Bottom line for a healthy metabolism you need at least 7 hours of sleep a night.

See with part 8 next week…

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Metabolism – What it is & How you can make it work for you Part 6

Posted on July 28, 2012 by jghethe

HI & Welocme back!!

Today we’ll take a quick look at other factors that affect your RMR.

Your RMR isn’t just affected by your TEA & TEF (Thermic Effect of Activity & Thermic Effect of Food) – there are a large number of factors that often work in combination.

Some of these are:

Body size – Because of their size adult bodies have more metabolic active tissue and a
higher RMR than a child. This does not hold true for obese folk as they have a lower RMR in general than lean folk. So to raise your RMR – get leaner
Age – Our metabolism slows with age, due to loss muscle tissue along with hormonal and neurological changes. Not a lot we can do about getting older but keep an eye out for the ‘Counterclockwise’ program (coming later in 2011) which is a 100 day program aimed at reducing your biological markers of age.
Growth – Babies, infants, children and teenagers all have a much higher energy demand per unit of body weight than adults. This is due to the energy demands of growth, the energy needed to maintain their body temperature when little, and the fact that (apart perhaps from teenagers) they are so physically active.
Gender – In general – men have faster metabolisms than women because they tend to be larger, have more muscle tissue and have proportionately less body fat.
Genetic predisposition – Your metabolic rate can also be partly decided by your genes.
Amount of lean muscle tissue – Muscle burns more calories than fat – even at rest. The higher your proportion of muscle tissue to fat the better for your metabolism.
Amount of body fat – Fat cells are metabolically less active than muscle cells (and most other tissues in your body) and burn far fewer calories. It’s simple: the more fat you have the slower your metabolism.
Hormonal and nervous systems – Your RMR is controlled by the nervous and hormonal systems; and any hormonal imbalances (Insulin resistance, or increased Cortisol due to excessive stress, decreased Leptin or raised Ghrelin for example) influences how quickly or slowly your body burns calories / kilojoules. You can affect your hormones through carb manipulation, other dietary ‘tricks’, sleep and exercise. – See the accompanying Lose 20 in 30 Hormone Primer
Dietary deficiencies – If, for example, your diet is low in iodine this reduces thyroid function, which in turn slows your metabolism. (The Lose 20 in 30 Nutrition program makes it damn near impossible to be deficient!)
Environmental temperature – By cooling or heating our immediate environment we can increase out RMR by causing the body to work harder to maintain our normal body temperature. Being too hot or too cold both burns calories / kilojoules.
Infection or illness – In most cases our RMR increases when we are ill because our body has to work harder to build new tissues and to create an immune response. Not recommended for fat loss.

Crash dieting, starving or fasting – Eating too few calories / kilojoules encourages our body to slow its metabolism to conserve energy; this means that your RMR can drop by up to 15 per cent if the change is sudden. Not recommended.
Loss of lean weight due to sudden calorie restriction. This often happens when people go on a strict restricted calorie diet, forcing the body into what is known as “negative nitrogen balance.” This means that more protein is lost than is replaced through your diet and is a sign of more catabolism than is normal. This nitrogen imbalance causes a gradual loss in lean weight and lowers the RMR. On the upcoming Lose 20 in 30 program we avoid this by using a combination of calorie sparse, but nutrient dense foods – with a heavy emphasis on ingesting sufficient quantities of good protein along with an exercise regime that creates the need for your body to maintain its current muscle level if not increase it. This in turn forces your body to take more & more energy from your fat stores. (see the soon to be released Lose 20 in 30 Workout Program for details)
Drugs – A number of drugs, legal, illegal, prescription and non-prescription can be used to increase your RMR. Caffeine is a good example of a legal drug that affects metabolism. Body builders used to use a ‘stack’ of caffeine, ephedrine and aspirin (in a specific ratio which I am NOT going to divulge) to really burn fat as well as some anti-asthma (no NOT Puffers) medications. These had obvious side-effects but they worked by amping up the RMR – something you can do but through effort not pill popping!!

Take Away: So if we manipulate our TEF & TEA wisely & strategically, we can increase our RMR and BMR which leads to a faster overall metabolism, a shift away from fat storage and a healthier, leaner body.

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Part seven next week….

Metabolism – What it is & How you can make it work for you Part 5

Posted on July 21, 2012 by jghethe

Welcome back – last time we looked at the thermic effect of food – how the foods you eat can increase or slow down your metabolism. This time we’re looking at TEA – the Thermic Effect of Activity.

Factors Affecting TEA

It is easy to have an effect on your TEA – move more, sit less, and exercise 6 days a week using HIIT & metabolic conditioning protocols (like those found in upcoming the Lose 20 in 30 Exercise program).

Weighted vest training is a great example of MetCon training!!

Take the stairs, park further away, spend some of each day at work standing up – just add more activity to your day on top of conscious, challenging exercise.

Long traditional cardio is NOT the best way to increase your TEA – you need to use an interval style approach to max out your TEA. The best way to recondition your metabolism is to use a mix of resistance training, interval training and a training style called Metabolic Conditioning. (MetCon)

Ensuring that you work out using strategies that elicit a high metabolic cost, uses high EPOC inducing exercises will increase your RMR and reset your metabolic set point over a short period of time (you’ll see changes in under 30 days!). Again – the use of high intensity intervals, metabolic conditioning, and resistance training are the best forms of exercise to achieve a faster metabolism and a leaner body. (see my other post on HIIT)

The more active we are, the harder we work our bodies & increase the demands on our muscles, the more energy we need for fuel and more importantly the more energy we need for recovery. Regular, challenging exercise increases lean muscle mass and ‘teaches’ the body to burn kilojoules at a faster rate, even when at rest. In this way we can alter what the body currently has as its homeostatic set point for a new one. Remember your body likes things to stay the same so if you add regular exercise this becomes the ‘norm’ and your body adjusts to cater for and adapt to this.

By improving / increasing your TEF & TEA you can in turn raise your RMR. As we have seen – this is important because your RMR accounts for the majority of your calorie / kilojoule burn & use. The higher it is, the more you burn and the leaner you become…

Exercise is the other metabolic affecting variable that we can manipulate, but it needs to be done strategically using the right exercise protocols & techniques.

Metabolic Energy Pathways

There are three different metabolic pathways that the body can use in order to tap into its energy stores.

Looks complicated but using this to your advantage isn’t!!

Without going in-depth to biochemistry, the three energy pathways are:

ATP/PC – This is your quickest and most powerful energy source. It is instantly available and requires no oxygen. ATP itself is the raw fuel for exercise as it is the chemical that drives muscular action. However our bodies only store enough for between 6 & 10 seconds – after that it has to start manufacturing more ATP.
Anaerobic Glycolysis – This is the next quickest energy source and is the way your body creates ATP without oxygen. It is also the process that creates the ‘burn’ in your muscles. This energy system is good for 2 -3 minutes of activity and enables you to continue a relatively high level of activity but it does create a high level of muscle fatigue. This makes it difficult to continue using this metabolic pathway beyond the initial couple of minutes.
Aerobic– This last system is the slowest to act and is good for fuelling a moderate activity level. However it can sustain this level of activity virtually for as long as there is fuel available to use. The aerobic system is the process your body uses to produce ATP but with oxygen.

Following high intensity activity, the aerobic system is required for recovery and to re-establish balance within the body, removing the metabolic by-products, re-synthesising metabolic compounds such as creatine phosphate and providing energy for the repair of exercise induced tissue damage. (She’s definately got her TEF & TEA working for her!!)

In a simple way, our normal energy system is primarily the aerobic system, with the ATP-PC and Glycolitic systems acting as reserves. They provide extra power when needed, but are a very limited resource in comparison.

When we talk about metabolic conditioning exercise we are talking about a strategic exercise protocol that works all three of these energy pathways. (See the Lose 20 in 30 Exercise manual coming soon!)

That’s it for this week – next time we’ll look at other factors that affect your resting metabolic rate – some will surprise you!!

Be well!!

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Metabolism – What it is & How you can make it work for you Part 4

Posted on July 7, 2012 by jghethe

Welcome back!!

Today – Factors affecting the Thermic Effect of Food

Harnessing the Power of TEF
TEF can be affected in four ways

Overeating
The composition up of the foods we eat
When we eat
The number of times that we eat
Exercise

Overeating:

Your TEF can be raised by simply overeating as the body has to use more energy to digest a larger amount of food. This means that even if you ate 3500 calories (the number in a pound of fat) you still would not put on that pound as your body would use some of the calories as TEF. How strong the TEF effect on the 3500

calories would be depends upon what they made out of. If it was high GI, high processed carbs or fat your store more as fat than if it was made up of protein and low GI unprocessed carbs. Bottomline is that you would still put on fat, so overeating is not recommended.

NB There is no such thing as a ‘negative calorie’ food. Even celery requires less energy to burn that it contributes to your calorific intake.

The composition of the foods we eat:

As we have seen the different macronutrients all have a different thermic effect when we eat them. In order to maximise our fat burn and to increase our metabolism we should be eating protein with every meal, keeping fats generally low, avoid processed carbohydrates and eat un- / low processed, low GI, Low GI load carbs. The up coming Lose 20 in 30 Fuel manual explains all of this in greater detail.

It is important to note though that research has shown that that just upping your protein intake whilst severely reducing your overall calories does not produce enough of an increase in your TEF to offset the overall metabolic reduction such calorie restriction cause. Research has also shown that adding spices such as chilli and curry to your food increases your metabolism overall, but particularly your TEF.

When we eat:

Our TEF is higher (average 16%) in the morning than in the evening (average 11%) according to the American Journal of Nutrition. The variance is not huge but we should harness this to work for us. Every little bit helps when it comes to altering our metabolic set point.

You should also try to eat the majority of your carbs in the morning as your body is coming off the enforced ‘fast’ we call sleep. Carbs early gets your metabolism moving and research shows that carbs eaten earlier in the day are less likely to be stored as fat.

The number of times we eat:

Eating more often increases our TEF. But research has shown that the number of meals consumed has to be consistent from day to day for this to have maximum metabolic effect.

Research from Queens University has shown that eating in an irregular daily meal pattern (three meals one day, four the next, then two, then six then…) results in a significantly lower TEF than that found in folk who eating to a regular meal pattern. The TEF is even more enhanced in those who eat six meals per day. (Again don’t think of plates of food, but rather 3 main meals and three ‘snacks or top ups)

Food calories that are in excess of our body’s immediate needs tend to be shunted towards fat storage and are far less likely used for either energy, muscle growth / tissue repair or storage as glycogen. This is why eating 5 or 6 times a day not only increases your metabolism by the thermic effect of food but it also means that meal sizes are smaller and there is less chance of an ‘on the spot’ overload of calories.

Exercise:

Yep exercise. People who regularly perform exercise that is has a high metabolic cost actually have a higher TEF that that of sedentary people. This remains true even if you compare two groups of people that have similar fat free masses. Even more interesting this increase in TEF is not age dependent which means that the natural age related decrease in metabolism can be positively affected by challenging exercise.

Challenging exercise has also been shown to increase the TEF of carbs when they are ingested in the 45

minute post-exercise fuelling window. This means that not only is your insulin sensitivity heightened after exercise, but you burn more energy to digest the carbs and they are less likely to go into fat storage.

This means that you can give your TEF a ‘nudge’ every time you exercise and that you increase the efficiency of your post-workout fuelling.

So in summary we can affect the TEF in several ways:

Eat more protein and eat it at every meal
Eat hot spicy foods for example foods containing chilli, horseradish and mustard.
Eat more carbs in the AM than PM
Eat less fat
Eat a consistent number of meals each day – 5 or 6 is best
Exercise more

Maximising your TEF is important but it is only one part of the overall metabolic picture.

Take Away: Eat more in the AM than PM, eat often, and become familiar with the ‘burn’ rates of your food so you can maximise the TEF of your Fuel.

How you can fix a Broken Metabolism Part 3

Posted on June 30, 2012 by jghethe

How can you fix a Broken Metabolism? Part 3

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

In the last post we looked at the effect diet can have on our hormones and how this in turn affects our metabolism in terms of fat storage or fat loss. We saw how certain eating

patterns and foods can trigger fat storage and the anti-starvation hormones which in turn blunt our metabolism and decrease lean tissue.

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

Thermic Effect of Food

Macronutrient ‘Burn rates’
Food timing
Meal Frequency

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

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

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

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

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

metabolism but you are burning more calories.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

your metabolism.

Exercise

Weight bearing – Being Lean = Higher metabolism
Cardio – work long or work hard can’t do both
Metabolic Circuits – HIIT, drive metabolism up and keep it up for up to 30 hours after
NEPA – non-exercise physical activity move more!!

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How you can fix a Broken Metabolism Part 2

Posted on June 23, 2012 by jghethe

Welcome Back!!

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.

No sign of a broken metabolism here…

Today in part 2 of how to fix a broken metabolism we look at the Affect of Diet on Hormones:

The Affect of Diet on Hormones:

Fat Storage
Fat Sparing
Fat Burning

The main hormones in question are:

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

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

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

No excess fat here – this is a peak metabolism…

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

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

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

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

Cortisol:

Cortisol is not a villain – it is essential to our health and performs many beneficial functions. Cortisol is released in response to physical, emotional & mental stress. If this stress is constant it signals your body that it’s under attack and your body responds by

The best way to stop the negative effects of Cortisol – get plenty of sleep!!

increasing the amount of cortisol in circulation. Through cortisol, our bodies by increase our belly fat reserves. This location not only offers protection to our organs but also positions this fuel source for easy availability for sudden energy needs.

Too much cortisol has the following effects:

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

So how do we manipulate our cortisol levels?

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

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

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

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

Leptin

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

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

Ghrelin

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

Insulin

Insulin is most associated in people’s minds with diabetes and fat storage – two things no-one wants. However a bit like Cortisol Insulin is not a villain – it is the main hormone responsible for helping your body recover properly after exercise. Insulin increases blood

Insulin resistance is a result mainly of a poor Western diet…

transport to and from your muscle cells so the “waste products” of exercise, like carbon dioxide, can be removed; helps reduce elevated cortisol levels that are formed during intense exercise, which helps reduce stress on your body and ensures that the muscles get sufficient nutrients for repair.

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

So if your glycogen stores (muscle & liver sites) are full and you eat enough simple carbs to cause a blood sugar spike then insulin spikes as well and stores the excess glucose in

Here’s one way to help overcome insulin resistance – move heavy weights…

the fat cells. Creating a ‘spike’ in blood sugar causes the body to ‘over react’ and release a surge of insulin. This causes a sudden drop in blood sugar creating tiredness and increased fat storage.

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

We can manipulate Insulin by:

Eating 5-6 times a day (seeing a pattern here?) which keeps blood sugar levels & therefore insulin levels more stable.
Eating complex carbs and avoiding simple carbs, sugars & starches which quickly metabolise into blood sugar.
Cut out processed foods as much as possible – including Bread, Biscuits, Cakes
Basically up your vegetable and fruit intake, cut out the grain based foods…
Increasing the amounts of healthy fats in our diet.

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

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

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

Thermic Effect of Food

Macronutrient ‘Burn rates’
Food timing
Meal Frequency

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

Be well!!

How you can fix a Broken Metabolism Part 1

Posted on June 16, 2012 by jghethe

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.

Posted on June 9, 2012 by jghethe

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

Posted on June 2, 2012 by jghethe

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!!)

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.
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.
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!!
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. “
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…
Be honest. With yourself— The only person that you fool by sneaking food or eating ‘off reservation’ is yourself.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eat eggs. Every day. Forget the cholesterol BS – eggs don’t raise bad cholesterol and are nature’s perfect fast food.
Get enough fibre. Think of fibre like a sponge; it absorbs water and makes you feel full. Focus on fibre, not carbs.
Eat more fruits: No one ever gained weight from eating more fruit even the so called “high sugar” fruits, like bananas, melons and others.
Eat more protein. Lean protein helps satiate you, and increases your metabolism, through the thermic effect of food.
Eat protein at every meal & snack. This maximises the effects of #10
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.
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.
Steak & Salad Rules. Best way to get your veges & lean protein have a steak & salad meal at least once a day.
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!!
Watch your portions. Each meal try for a palm sized portion of protein and 2 fists of non-processed carbs. Don’t Supersize.
Bake, don’t fry. Slow cook in the oven or quick stir fry on the stove top. Both are healthier than pan frying.
Switch to smaller plates; visually your plate looks fuller and you’ll eat less.
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.
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.
Have a big bowl of fresh fruit in plain sight. See above
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.
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.
Decrease/eliminate processed carbs wherever possible. They do nothing for you outside of creating a favourable environment for gaining fat
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.
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.
Skip buffets. These are a trap to overeating. Don’t.
Skip the Designer Coffees. Great way to get up to an extra 500 calories in one hit. Have black coffee or a tea instead.
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.
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.
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??
Take a brown bag lunch. Do this as often as possible – not only will you control what you eat but you’ll save money.
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
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.
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!
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.
Lift weights. Heavy weights. Build more muscle, burn more calories.
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.
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…
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!!
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.
If you have a dog, take it for a walk—Aim to do this every day. Set it as a routine.
Buy a pedometer and aim for at least 10,000 steps each day.
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.
Try not to use internal email. Whenever possible get up and walk to a co-workers desk.
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.
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.
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.
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.

A quick Food Change That Will Lower Body Fat.

Posted on May 25, 2012 by jghethe

Hi – Welcome back!!

Here is a quick food change that will lower your body fat:

It’s really quite simple – choose and eat more vegetables and fibrous fruits as your main carbohydrate sources and ditch the starchy foods.

Why?

Well every Carb you eat, no matter what type gets broken down to glucose (blood sugar).

So a slice of white bread, cup of rice, a pear , an apple a piece of broccoli or that iceberg lettuce all end up being processed by your body to end up as its’ preferred fuel source – glucose.

If this is the case then why is the type of carb we eat so important and how can it affect our body fat??

It’s really quite simple – different types of carbs are metabolised at different rates by your body. A couple of posts a go I referred to the Thermic Effect of Food and how different food types are processed at different rates by our bodies.

Processing food goes further than just macronutrient type though – different sub-types of macronutrients are processed at different rates. So with carbs some are processed more quickly than others.

This difference processing rate affects how quickly glucose is produced and even how much.
High Glycemic Index Carbs (ie those carbs that are closest to glucose already) are processed more quickly than Low GI carbs (the ones furthest away from glucose). The other way to look at these is processed versus lightly or un-processed carbs.

Processed carbs tend to be high GI and are processed rapidly whilst low GI carbs are digested more slowly.

So why does this matter? Well the quicker a carb is processed the quicker glucose is created and ‘dumped’ into the blood stream. This is handy for quick energy boosts. The slower carbs are digested, the slower glucose is released into the blood stream which leads to a more sustained the energy release.

Therefore complex carbohydrates should be your main choice for energy because they offer more of a sustained energy supply. Simple carbohydrates create a quick boost of energy followed by a rapid decline, almost like a “crash.”

Complex carbohydrates mainly come from those lightly or unprocessed foods which are high in fibre. Foods like nuts, broccoli, peas, and green beans.

Sidebar: Fruit is often called a simple carb – not true for all fruits. Those fruits with a significant amount of fibre are actually digested slowly. So yes grapes will be processed quickly but apples or kiwi fruit will not. On the other hand most types of breads are ‘quick carbs’ their lack of fibre means quick digestion, quick glucose release…

There are three reasons to switch from a diet full of starchy carbohydrates like bread, pasta, and rice to a diet with more fibrous, leafy ones like vegetables. First is the metabolism raising effect of eating more fibrous carbs – we’ve already mentioned the Thermic Effect of Food.

Add more of these to your diet...

Secondly is that by switching away from starchy, processed carbs we will see a drop in the number of calories ingested without (more likely an increase!) a drop in nutrients. Starchy carbohydrates like bread and pasta are more calorie dense than fibrous, leafy ones like vegetables.

The third reason to eat this way is the fact that sudden ‘spurts’ of glucose into the blood stream causes insulin to be released.

Insulin’s role in this case is to ensure that the glucose is shunted into storage as glycogen in the liver & the muscles. If the storage in these areas is full the glucose is stored in fat cells. Quick spurts of blood sugar are more likely to create this insulin response than slower sustained glucose release.

So what we want is to eat more of the foods that make us feel & stay full, that raise our metabolic rate, and at the same time giving us the nutrients that we need. Many processed starchy carbs are nutritional wastelands, quick to digest and do not promote feelings of fullness. Unprocessed carbs like fruit & vegetables are nutrient dense, fibre rich and calorie low – unless they are deep fried or drowned in margarine or butter..

I believe that for effective and permanent fat loss to occur it is important to choose foods that offer high fibre, high volume, high nutrient content, low calories and a sustained glucose release. Eating this way, you do not feel empty and because you are feeling full you tend to avoid developing the cravings that make staying on a change of diet so hard.

Look I know that you are thinking: ‘I can’t live without Bread / rice / pasta / biscuits etc’ Nor should you. But if you want to drop some fat and get your metabolism firing better you need to moderate the amount of High GI, starchy processed carbs that you eat. The sensible middle path to take here is to eat true multigrain breads, swap the white rice for brown and durum pasta for a more fibrous variety.

If you put your mind to it this is surprisingly easy and the Bread etc becomes not only less important on a daily basis but more enjoyable when eaten less often.

I’ll be back in a couiple of days – in the meantime why not leave a comment, Tweet us or visit our Face Book Fan Page???

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