Losing Weight Is More Than Limiting Calories

by | Mar 3, 2013 | Uncategorized

Since the New Year, many people have been implementing cleanses as a sort of a jump-start to feeling good and losing weight. I advocate periodic cleanses, but as you will see, not for the usual superficial reason of calorie restriction.

Many people still view calorie restriction as king when it comes to weight loss. No doubt calories are very important. They are our body’s fuel, and there will probably never be a way to over consume those calories and not put extra fuel into the storage “fat tank.”

But when it comes to losing weight successfully and quickly, it’s about a lot more than simple calorie restriction, and the difference between weight loss programs that work and those that only provide extra frustration always comes down to more than the calorie.

A properly designed weight loss approach is not just the result of taking calories out of your budget. One needs to also incorporate a food elimination program to the mix to some degree.

There are three major ways that this extra step supports fast weight loss and helps you overcome weight loss resistance:

1: Reduces inflammation.
2: Reduces glycemic load
3: Allows better control of two very important hormones.

Reducing Inflammation Makes Weight Loss Easier
Most people realize that having excess fat is not good, but many don’t realize that excess fat is actually characterized as a chronic state of low-grade inflammation. Inflammation makes it hard for our body to lose weight because it fights some of the natural hormonal responses we have to food and hunger, such as through increasing levels of IL-6 and TNF, two inflammatory cytokins which decrease insulin sensitivity signaling. Cytokins are types of signaling regulators produced throughout the body.

These cytokines make your insulin less effective, and you are more likely to store excess fuel as fat as a result.
Many common foods today contain proteins which people are often sensitive to, but not outright allergic to. These sensitivities can go undetected for years because they do not cause the same debilitating symptoms an acute allergy would, but may still undermine one’s health by increasing inflammation within the body.

For example, eliminating certain foods that doctor’s patient’s are sensitive to has been shown to be effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease with strong connections to chronic inflammation.

Even if your body does not suffer from an overt form of inflammation, chances are that increased inflammation is still adversely affecting your health and weight loss goals. My increasingly popular cabbage soup cleanse eliminates all of the common foods which provoke common inflammatory responses in the body. For many people this is the missing step standing between them and their goals.

In a few days I will expand on the cleanse I offer to my newsletter readers and go into the details for those of you that may be interested. For now it is important to understand that weight loss is about more than just calories in and calories out.

Insulin Tells Your Body To Either Use Energy Or Store It
Foods, which are high in easily digested starches and sugars, also known as high glycemic foods, cause our body to release more insulin. Insulin is not a bad hormone in and of itself–it does exactly what it is supposed to do, which is help our body get rid of excess sugar in our blood.

The problem is that the modern diet, with its highly-processed and rapidly-digested ‘foods’, causes an undue amount of sugar to be unloaded upon our blood all at once. When our blood sugar gets too high (hyperglycemia), our body releases extra insulin to counter it.

The first thing insulin wants to do is get our muscles to take that sugar up and use it for energy, but the unfortunate truth is that the highly-processed diet we eat often goes hand-in-hand with a sedentary lifestyle.

If the muscles can’t use the sugar, then insulin tells your body to store it as fat, long-term storage designed for a time when food might be scarce. For most, this time will thankfully never come, but we still have to live with the results of a diet which spikes our blood sugar and insulin levels.

Keeping insulin levels low also means our body is focusing less on storing fat and focusing more on releasing it. Why? Because…

Glucagon Tells Your Body To Take Energy Back Out Of Storage!
Insulin may be the most well-known hormone which controls blood sugar, but there is another hormone which is just as important: glucagon. Glucagon is a pancreatic hormone that raises blood sugar by promoting conversion of glycogen to glucose in the liver. Whereas insulin acts to keep your blood sugar from running too high, glucagon works to keep your blood sugar from running too low.

Where insulin tells your body to store extra energy as fat, glucagon tells your body to release extra energy from that fat. This is one reason people feel better when starting a cleanse.

Do Not Do This When Trying To Lose Weight
A myth which has been ingrained in our beliefs is that blood sugar is inherently unstable, and we need a constant stream of calories to ensure it never dips or spikes. Now people are running out to buy little snack packs and trying to eat exactly 100 calories every hour to make sure their blood sugar remains stable.

This is actually one of the worst things you can do for blood sugar stability, and worse still is that this will actually fight your ability to lose weight.

If insulin is the storage hormone, then glucagon is the “take from storage” hormone. The problem is that insulin responds rapidly to the increase in blood sugar that eating causes, allowing us to store excess energy readily, but glucagon has a much slower response which only happens after we have gone through that fuel, a process which can take up to four hours!

If you attempt to control blood sugar by eating often, the only metabolic change you are likely to make is that your body will be releasing more insulin and less glucagon. By actively suppressing glucagon secretion, your body is less likely to take energy back out of storage, and weight loss will be slow.

When you allow healthy intervals between your meals, your body gets the chance to use its own natural blood sugar stabilizer, the hormone glucagon. The result is your body spends more time in “take from storage mode” and you lose weight more readily!

Just as what you eat during a cleanse is important, a smart cleanse plan addresses the timing of when you eat allowing your hormones to work exactly as they were intended to and allowing you to experience better results.

Weight Loss Success Is Not Just About Cutting Calories
If you are only focused on reducing how many calories you are consuming, then you are missing a big piece of the puzzle! Cutting calories can only take you so far before you hit a weight-loss wall, and it’s no wonder so many programs just don’t provide long-term results.

Cutting calories is only effective if your body is capable of picking up the slack. Reducing inflammation and better regulating your blood sugar-controlling hormones allow your body to actually burn the fat it has been storing, not just reduce your overall energy levels. When these additional goals are met, weight loss occurs naturally, and you’ll actually feel great while doing it! If you are like me, feeling better is secondary to losing weight. However, a well designed jump start such as a smartly designed cleanse that address inflammation reduction, a lowered glycemic load, and the ability to control insulin and glucagon has the capacity to not only make us feel better but to lose weight as well.

My cleansing clients lose 4 – 11 pounds on a 4 day cleanse, and 6 – 14 on a week-long cleanse. This is typical, but I am not into gimmicks. I am into helping people feel good and lose weight. It’s important they know what to expect in the long run after the cleanse. Gaining half of the weight back is typical when they go back to their regular diets. But maintaining three quarters of the weight off is highly possible if they simple adhere to making a couple dietary change afterwards on a fairly consistent basis. This change can be as simple as eating protein, fiber and good fat for breakfast, and committing to a non starchy lighter than typical dinner a few days of the week.

In a few days I will provide information on the increasingly popular cabbage soup weight loss jump start plan that I have been offering to clients. I will type on the subject line, Cabbage Soup Jump Start Information, so that only those of you that have an interest will open and read. And by the way, this jump start cleanse includes protein – a necessary component to fighting inflammation and ridding toxins in the body.

What Artists Can Tell Us About Our Health

by | Oct 11, 2011 | Uncategorized

There is a story I’ve heard. And like many stories, the question is never whether it is real, but whether you can learn something from it. Here’s one such story that if you are aiming to improve your health and lose weight, you should read.

Picasso is touring a school with someone who wants to know why the institute of education is failing the children. Picasso asks a roomful of six-year-old children, “Who here is a painter?” All hands go up. “Who here is a dancer?” “Who is a singer?” All hands go up. “Who here is a storyteller?” All hands go up. He walks down the hall to where the seventeen-year-old children are taking classes and he asks the same questions. Few, if any hands go up. “There’s your problem,” says Picasso. “Schools train our children not to be painters, dancers, singers, and storytellers.”

The meaning of the story is something that we may relate to better in the midst of our careers, but it should have meaning to many of us, regardless of our ages, who are striving to improve the quality of our lives.

Few would disagree that we’ve become conditioned over time to believe that as we age, we must settle for less than optimal health. Like the older children in the story, we have become conditioned to expect less of ourselves and less of our physical bodies. I am not suggesting that we are ageless and this is not an article on how to live forever. This article is about living a healthy lifestyle that makes us look and feel our most optimal at any given age.

You Have What It Takes
When people tell me that they can’t lose weight and keep it off, I say that they most definitely can! What often happens is that most people buy into weight loss regimens, lose weight, and then gain it back. They buy products and weight loss tactics, that don’t appear gimmicky, but that are, and that lure them into believing they will lose weight, look good, feel better, and be happy.

It’s nothing new to understand that the role of promoters is to make us believe we can lose weight, keep it off, and live happily ever after. When this doesn’t happen, or if it does, and the weight soon reappears, dieters are left disillusioned in their weight loss abilities until… another book comes out, another product is marketed, or an improved weight loss tactic comes on the scene again, starting the whole dysfunctional process all over again.

Fortunately, many health coaches, including myself have been gaining traction in helping people understand the right way to lose weight and keep it off. Our successes are increasing, and many people, even those once previously anxious for quick weight losses are realizing the compounding effects of losing weight smartly. Theyuse less medications, have more energy, more vitality, more confidence, more lean muscle mass, better health numbers, and best of all, they’ve created lifestyle changes that keep the weight off for life!

Below is an illustration of our differences. See if it helps. Also, see if it helps you get a better understanding of why programs that don’t engage you mentally in the decision making process/personal responsibility fail. Savvy health coaches bring awareness. They help their clients strategize a system to help them not just lose weight, but keep it off for life!

PROMOTERS SAY And What HEALTH COACHES SAY
It’s easy. No thinking involved It’s manageable. Let’s put a plan together individualized for you.

You will be sexy! Health is sexy! Continuing to lose and gain is not sexy.

Just buy these products. Just use your gray matter.

It costs only $2.00 a day. Reduction/elimination of meds is possible.

Eat whatever you want. Eating for enjoyment and health is possible.

You Have What It Takes
You are a singer and a dancer and a storyteller and an artist. You are all the various things you want to be. You might never play ball like you did as a child, but you look good – you feel good- you are a living breathing being, living at your most optimal level for who you are today! You might never play for the NBA but why should that keep you sidelined in silence?

You choose how your days are spent. You know in your heart that being your healthy best comes down to making solid lifestyle choices, using your gray matter, and changing your behaviors. You know that most lifestyle plans featured today are just diversional tactics, keeping you from doing the real work of being lean and fit. You know, that any “feeling good plan”, that does not engage you, challenge you, and question you, is not going to work. And you realize that like a young singer, dancer, painter, or storyteller, you can’t be seeking the nostrums of the promoters. This is your day though. What is it going to be?