My Arch Nemesis: Belly Fat

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Belly fat is stubborn, unsightly, and unwanted. We all want to be rid of it, but it’s always there, lurking, sagging, dragging us and our self-esteem down with it. Lucky for you, I have the knowledge, skills, and experience to eliminate your pouch and bring you out from beneath your belly fat’s shadow. Just take a look at these quick tips and be the person you always knew you could be:

Flaunt what you got!

One study suggests those who have a fruit bowl in their house weigh on average eight pounds less than those who don’t. While correlation may not mean causation, it does stand to reason those with more fruit on hand are more likely to snack on fruit as opposed to something unhealthy. Pro tip: keep two kinds of fruit on hand. That way, you don’t get sick of eating the same thing all the time!

Out of sight, out of mind.

The opposite of the above, hide unhealthy temptation. As they say, “out of sight, out of mind.” A separate study found individuals who had chips or cookies (junk food) immediately visible weighed about 10lbs more than those who didn’t. What’s even more surprising?

Those with cereal boxes visible generally weighed 21lbs more than those without such sugary snacks in eyesight. Soft drinks visible? Try 25lbs more!

Smaller plates.

Really, it’s honestly that simple. Use smaller plates and you’re bound to eat smaller portions, which means less food, and less food, as you can likely guess, means a smaller waistline. Clearly, food just being in front of us makes us far more likely to eat it. So with smaller plates, not only can we physically not serve larger portions, but we will be comfortable with the smaller meals in front of us.

9-10 inch plates are recommended. If you are currently using 12 inch plates, research suggests you will reduce portion size by an immense 22%. That’s nearly a quarter of your daily diet, just with plates! Take advantage.

Follow these tips and you’ll be strutting the along the sand in your newfound beach body in no time! Till next time!

Repair Your Broken Metabolism

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Often times, I find myself repeatedly talking about the different the dangers related to chronic dieting or what other’s like to call yo-yo dieting. One of those dangers is the fact that constant dieting can break your metabolism. In other words, it can slow down your metabolism to the point where it’s extremely difficult to lose weight! As dire as this may all sound, there’s always a solution. You can repair your metabolism after years of chronic dieting. Here’s how.

The best metabolism-repairing solution I can offer is increasing something known as the “G-flux.” The G-flux involves a very simple formula: eat more, exercise more. Eating more may sound like the opposite of what you need to be doing, but let me explain. When you pair up increased calorie intake with increased exercise you increase your metabolism. Like everything in life, the trick is to learn how to balance the calorie intake with the exercise so you manage creating a negative calorie balance.

What usually happens is that when people decide to go on a diet, they either don’t exercise at all or reduce their calorie intake. This is a problem. First, not exercising or remaining sedentary will slow down your metabolism significantly. What ends up happening is that people don’t really teach their bodies to burn additional calories, hence your metabolism simply stops working in your favor. Second, when you under-eat (as many diets ask you to do) your metabolism adopts a starvation protection mechanism. Since your body doesn’t know when you will feed it again, it slows down in order to preserve whatever the little energy and nutrients you have consumed.

As you can see, as contrary as it may sound, eating and exercising more will boost and repair your metabolism. So for example, if your basal metabolic rate allows you to burn 2000 do not choose to only consume 1500 calories and leave those 500 calories to waste. This will unequivocally lead you to having a sluggish metabolism. What you should do is eat 300 more calories, so 2300 in total. Then make sure you exercise and burn 800 more calories than usual, so 2800. According to the G-flux formula, this will put you at a 500 calorie deficit, but the difference is that you have triggered and sped up your metabolism. That’s the power of the G-flux!

 

The Secrets of Leucine and Boosting Metabolism

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Everyone wants to boost their metabolism. From the most in-shape athletes to those just starting to pay attention to their health. Boosting your metabolism can help you burn excess fat, decrease your resting heart rate, and many other functions that increase your overall health.

One of the simplest and most effective ways to boost your metabolism is to increase your protein intake. Protein-rich foods increase metabolic rates over 3 times more than carbs and fats. What’s more, studies show that high protein diets can lead to greater weight loss and fat loss than calorically identical diets with lower protein.

When researchers at the University of Illinois compared the effects of high-protein diet to a standard reduced-calorie diet, they found that people who consumed more protein had a 62% higher fat loss ratio, even though both groups consumed the same number of calories. Essentially, you can consume more calories and lose more fat. The secret to that? Leucine.

Leucine is an amino acid found in protein rich foods. It’s key to preventing the loss of calorie-burning muscle when you’re trying to lose fat and age-related muscle loss.

Why is Leucine so important? Basically, muscle loss contributes to a decreased metabolism. Looking “skinny fat” and rapid rebound weight gain when resuming a normal eating routine after a diet are all things you definitely don’t want.

So how do you consume more leucine? The most leucine rich foods are Lean red meat, chicken breast, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt. If you consume one of these things with each meal, your metabolism will be in great shape!

Research also shows that leucine, when paired with intensive training can be even more beneficial. In skeletal muscle, there’s a decrease in leucine during exhaustive aerobic exercises. While those are great for burning fat, incorporating muscle building weight training into your workouts is a great way to keep your leucine production up. Which, in turn, will keep your metabolism and help you burn fat and stay in shape.

Don’t Eat Vegetables Without Olive Oil!

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We all know that veggies are awesome for your health, your waistline, and your dinner plate. Vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant phytochemicals. However, it’s sometimes not enough to just crunch away at these vegetables without adding another very important nutrient. The good news is, it’s a delicious one.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that participants who added olive oil to their salads and veggie dishes absorbed much greater amounts of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Those who skipped adding the healthy fat (or chose a fat-free dressing) absorbed almost none.

Why does olive oil matter? Well, the phytochemicals are what help to fight off inflammation, defy aging and control appetite. If you’re not absorbing phytochemicals, you may as well not be eating vegetables at all, since you’d be throwing away the vast majority of what makes them healthy and nutrient.

Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fats which have been shown definitively to increase veggie nutrient absorption. If you want to get the most out of your veggie intake, top off your salads with olive oil and vinegar. Also, add olive oil to your veggie side dishes and cook your vegetables in olive oil.

Olive oil has many other health benefits. For one, it can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Traditionally, a low-fat diet has been prescribed to prevent heart disease, diabetes and other risks associated with fat. However, more important than avoiding fat altogether is eating the right type of fat. A diet rich in monounsaturated fats such as those found in olive oil, nuts, and seeds actually protects from many of these chronic diseases.

Older individuals who consume olive oil every day can protect themselves from strokes, according to a study from France. The study looked at over 7,000 individuals with no history of stroke. After 5 years, they noticed that the participants who didn’t have strokes were also the individuals who used olive oil regularly for cooking and dressing food.

Olive oil has also been shown to slow down the aging of the heart. As we grow older, the heart goes through its own aging process. Arteries may not function as well as they once did, and that can lead to a host of other health problems. In a recent study, Spanish researchers found that an olive oil rich diet or other monounsaturated fats could improve the arterial function of elderly individuals.

 

How To Have a Healthier Thanksgiving

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With Thanksgiving coming up, chances are food is on your mind. Not just any food either, food that’s high in calories, fat and, let’s face it – deliciousness. From stuffed turkey drenched in brown gravy to sweet potato casserole topped with roasted marshmallows the Thanksgiving dinner table is the best and easiest place in the world to overindulge yourself. If you’re watching your calorie intake or your waistline, Thanksgiving can be a dangerous time. However, with the right planning and willpower, you can manage to make Thanksgiving a healthy (or at least healthier) experience.

 

Before You Eat…

For one, you need to exercise some moderation. It can be tempting to scoop mountains of mashed potatoes and stuffing onto your plate, but that can be a real problem. If you serve yourself some small portions not only can you manage your calorie intake, but you get to try everything on the table!

Also keep in mind that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about indulgence. It’s okay to eat a little more than your fill during the holidays, but make sure you balance it out. On Thanksgiving for example, have some good, light meals for breakfast and lunch and try to get in some light exercise. That way you’ll feel healthier, and hungrier when the big meal rolls around.

When it does though, there are some simple ways to keep yourself from overeating. Try taking a sip of water between bites to stop from simply stuffing food in your mouth continuously. Also, wait at least 20 minutes before going in for round two. Chances are, your body doesn’t know it’s full until then. After 20 minutes you might find that you don’t have room.

If you’re the one doing the cooking, then it’s that much easier to control how healthy the meal is. Using low-fat meats and dairy products is a simple way to lower the overall calorie load of your meal. If you use them in stuffing, pies and desserts for example, your guests won’t even notice the difference.

 

Burning Thanksgiving Calories

Even with the strongest of resolves, chances are you’ll still need to do some activity to break even calorie wise. Consider even doing some exercise on Thanksgiving. If you jog for just 60 minutes you’ll burn about 500 calories. That’s a slice of pecan pie! If you do an hour of Zumba, you can manage to have an extra piece of that sweet potato casserole.

There are even some activities you can do throughout the day that don’t require putting on your running shoes. Clearing and washing the dishes can burn about 100 calories, and helping clean up the kitchen can burn another 100. Pretty good if you had a little too much green bean casserole.

If there’s kids at your party consider this: An hour of carrying or playing around with small children can burn up to 200 calories. Shopping for 30 minutes can burn up to 80 calories. That’s enough for your mashed potatoes or dinner rolls.

 

What You Should Be Counting Instead of Calories

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calorie-countingWhile counting calories in, calories out can be a great way to help manage your meal choices, the results you achieve are much more related to the types of foods you choose than the calories alone. To this end, I’ve developed a better “counting” method for accurately determining the amount of food you should eat each day to support your body transformation goals.

It’s called the 1-100-1/2 method:

 

  • 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight
  • Less than 100 grams of carbs per day (less than 60 grams for women)
  • 1/2 gram of fat per pound of body weight

 

This is a much simpler and alarmingly more effective way of keeping track of your day to day food intake, and it’s a heck of a lot easier than writing down and adding up every ingredient you eat in a day and subtracting calories burned. This is called macronutrient counting, and it works for just about anyone looking to lose weight.

Why is it so effective? Because it’s relative to your body size, it ensures that you’re getting enough metabolism-boosting protein each day, it keeps your carbohydrate intake moderate, and it doesn’t discount healthy fats (which actually promote weight loss and muscle gain.)

By using this method, you’ll end up controlling your calorie intake simultaneously, but with a more balanced, nutrient-rich diet. A calorie from a Philly cheesesteak and a calorie from a greek salad are measured the same when you’re counting calories alone, but you’re getting very different nutritional make ups from these two meals, so you’re not getting the full picture. When you look at calories alone, your diet can actually end up really imbalanced.

If you’re looking at this and thinking.. but I’ll miss my carbs too much! Don’t worry. I still advocate a “cheat” day where you can lax on the counting for a day after you’ve put in your weeks worth of hard work, just make sure not to go overboard. Everything in moderation, including moderation.

Count Macronutrients instead of Calories

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If you are trying to meet your weight loss and body transformation goals by counting calories, then you know how difficult and tedious it is. In the end, it starts to feel more like a chore to have to be mindful of the calories contained in what you eat and that leads many people to give up too soon. But what if there were a better, more balanced way of taking into account what you eat? Counting macronutrients, not calories, is that way. Unlike counting calories, counting macronutrients requires no more than simple math and can help a person eat more balanced meals rather than trying to hit a daily calorie intake goal. A greasy burger can help you stay within your calorie goals for the day, but it won’t be very good for your body overall.

Counting macronutrients is simple. The 3 macronutrients a person needs to track in order to drop body flab are protein, carbs and fat. Each macronutrient has a set caloric value and they are:

Carbs = 4 calories per gram.

Proteins = 4 calories per gram. 

Proteins, Carbs and Fats are 3 essential Macronutrients.

Proteins, Carbs and Fats are 3 essential Macronutrients.

Fats =  9 calories per gram.

If you can determine the number of grams you should eat of each macronutrient, you will also be effectively controlling your daily calorie intake but in a way that will allow you to maintain a healthier diet than just counting calories alone. The great thing is that the formula needed to figure out how many grams of each macronutrient a person should consume is very simple:

First you must multiply your body weight by 10 to figure out what your daily calorie intake should be. If you weigh 180 pounds, that would be 180 x 10 which is 1,800.

After that, it is time to break down the 1,800 calories you should consume into a ratio of 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat. Protein is the most metabolic nutrient, so it should be what a fat burning diet is built around. Your body will also benefit from carbs and fat, so 30% of each is a great start.

To break down how many grams of each macronutrient you need, just multiply your daily calorie intake target by the percentage of each nutrient that you should consume.

For protein, for example, that would be: 1800 x 40% which equals 720 calories. But how many grams should that be? Just divide 720 calories by 4 grams (there are 4 calories per gram of protein) which will give you 180 grams.

An individual weighing 180 pounds should consume about 180g of protein. If you follow the same math for the other macronutrients, that same individual will have to consume 135g of carbs and 60g of fat daily.

The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. You should not stop taking any medication without first consulting your physician.