Find your weight loss plan.

Lately I've been reading "The metabolic Typing diet" by William Wolcott and Trish Fahey. It is one of the first diet books that suggests different eating strategies.

More weight loss wisdom

Avoid snack foods with the “OH” sound in the name. Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Hostess Ho Hos, etc. – Donna David

Never eat something that is pretending to be something else; e.g, no “textured vegetable protein” or veggie burgers (fake meat), no artificial sweeteners, no margarine (fake butter), no “low fat” sour cream, no turkey bacon, no “chocolate-flavour sauce” that doesn’t contain chocolate, no “quorn.” If I want something that tastes like meat or butter, I would rather have the real thing than some chemical concoction pretending to be healthful. – Sonya Legg

Weight loss or entertainment?

I ask myself that question sometimes. What do people want more: a weight loss workout or an entertaining one? I was reading an article in the paper the other day. I was about another one of those miracle machines. It makes you feel great, gives you a great burn, and you’ll look like a movie star soon. It looks like every body is after the next machine. They want the new piece of equipment that will be the answer to their bulging mid section. A machine that would make them look fantastic with no effort. A machine that does the exercise for you.

I used to have this client that wanted to do new exercises every workout. Because she was easily bored. Well, first I’m not here to entertain you. And second, how can we progress if you are always learning a move?

Well wake up and smell the sweat. That is not how it works. First, find a routine that you like. And second, learn how to perform the exercises properly. And third, perform them as hard as you can. That is how you will get your body to change. And if you want to be entertained, go catch a movie after your workout.

Weight loss quotes.

Here are a few quotes that I found in the New York Times magazine.

After spending some time with people with eating disorders, I came up with this rule: “Don’t create rules for eating if their only purpose is to help you feel more in control.” I try to eat healthfully, but if there’s a choice between eating ice cream and spending all day obsessing about eating ice cream, I’m going to eat ice cream! – Laura Usher

If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you are not hungry. – Emma Foot

It’s better to pay the grocer than the doctor. – John Forti

Different strokes for different folks

When it comes to weight loss programs, we are not the same. There's no one size fits all solution. Unfortunately, most weight loss system and diet books try to do that. And as it works for some individuals, we see their newly skinny bodies in before and after pictures. Great marketing approach that helps racking in the money.

We never hear about the ones that had a hard time. Or did not have any success. One of my clients got herself sick after trying a diet plan that worked for one of her friends. So spend some time in finding what brings you the best overall health benefits. Plan for the long haul, not for a quick fix.

I don’t feel like working out

Man, these days I really don’t want to do it. I drag my butt around and come up with excuses not to workout. Then I start blaming the lack of light, blah, blah, blah. And then I think of the people that read this blog for motivation. And sometime I feel like a fraud. But you know what, it can happen to any of us. The important thing is just to get going again. Just find time for a short workout. That’s what I did. I exercised for 20 min. I felt pretty god. I was happy to have done it and to have taken action out of my slump. And my hamstrings were sore.

So if you fall off the horse, don’t dwell on it. Just keep your focus on what you want to achieve and get back at it.

Fat is not fattening

If you look for it, the evidence that low fat diets don’t really work is there. A review article that was published in 2002 could not relate dietary fat intake and weight gain. It looks like once again we are being misled to think that we should be afraid of fat and delve into carbs. You need to find the balance that works for you. The right proportions of protein, fat and carbohydrates will keep you slim and full of energy.
See “What is your metabolic type?” posted on October 5, 200

Diet pop is no help

I was reading a Kevin Trudeau book the other day. He was reporting results of a study that looks into the effects of diet pop. Does it really help to lose weight? Well, he used two groups of kids. The first one drank diet pop and the second one kept on drinking regular pop. What do you think the results were? The diet pop kids got fatter and the regular pop ones stayed the same. Maybe it is time you re-think your choice. Pop is crap but if you will drink it, stay with the real stuff.

Easy strategy for weight loss

I was surprised by this article in the New York Times magazine. The article was on calorie restriction diets. And what caught my attention was the fact that people tend to eat the same weight of food every day. The problem is that some days we eat more calorie dense foods.

So if you want to lose weight, focus on foods that bring a lot of nutrition but low calories. An example is an apple, low calories for the weight. Conversely, alcohol has a lot of calories with little nutrition.

Thus make the bulk of your food, high nutrition and low calories. Dr. Phil calls it high yield foods. Looks like fruits and vegetables win the comparison again. Non of the low fat crap allowed.

Listen to your body

Yes, listen to it. It’s talking to you. And it does so every minute of every day. It communicates to you what is going on inside. Your body doesn’t use words. It communicates with emotions, feelings and sensations. But don’t worry, this won’t be a “feelings” article.

My point is, your body tells you if something is going wrong. We are the idiots that ignore the message. As an example, notice how you feel after a meal. Does it give you a boost or does it make you feel sleepy? If you feel sleepy, that meal had the wrong foods or proportions for you. Food is our source of energy. It should not leave you feeling sluggish. Unless you eat foods that are wrong for you..

So, 1-2 hours after a meal, notice how you feel and learn from the message your body is sending you.

The dirty secret of weight machines

It kills me when I see an obese person that is trying to lose weight, on a biceps curl machine. It is a waste of time. It is such a small muscle and burn few calories. Moreover, machines do not help you wit h posture or core strength. Thus you need to use a lot of them to cover your whole body. And machines work your muscles in isolation which never happens in real life.

Invest your workout time in exercises that use as many muscles as you can. And learn a variety of bodyweight exercises. If you can’t perform a chin up, what the hell are you doing on a biceps curl machine?

Do you see yourself as a fat person?

Most people that have a weight problem have a bad perception of themselves. Earl Nightingale discovered that we become what we think about. Thus if you constantly think about the weight you have to lose and feel bad about being overweight, it will always stay as your reality. Change you mind and it may bring positive change.

Here’s a story that may seem unrelated. But to me it shows how little change can change any situations.

A few weeks ago I was reading a book on psychology. And, it was from a therapist who had a different approach to treatment. Now stay with me, this is interesting. The patient was a man in his 40s suffering from depression. He would just be at home and be depressed. And it’s all he would talk about. The therapist asked him to go to his local library and be depressed there. So the patient followed the recommendation. Nothing really changed for a week. Then, he decided that since he was in a library, he might check some books. He always had an interest in cave exploration and found some books on it. A few days later, he met another guy who had the same interest. Then they planned their first exploration trip. Long story short, the patient found something else to talk about and he forgot about depression.

The therapist knew it would be hard to treat the patient if he stayed home. He just changed the environment and something happened. It could have not worked at all, but it was worth a shot. So, what are you thinking about? How do you see yourself?

Power breakfast

I don't know about you but I like my breakfast. When I wake up in the morning, I need to eat. And I like a big breakfast. My metabolic type is Mixed with a tendency towards Protein. And lately, I've been trying to include veggies in my breakfast. I can now make a great veggie omelette. But I wanted a bit more. So, here is what I came up with yesterday. I made a three-egg omelette with onions and red bell peppers and added salsa on top of it. It was great. And to boost my veggies I had a big green salad with a dressing of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Man, it was great. And I wasn’t even hungry for my mid-pm snack. Give it a try.

Weight loss and water intake

Now I know what you are thinking. How can water make a difference in weight loss if has no calories? I'll give you one good reason. It can boost your metabolic rate.

Yes sir it can. By eating a lot of unhealthy foods, get a lot of toxins in our bodies. And those just clog our system, making it slower. And the best solution for pollution is dilution. By drinking plenty of water, you will help your body get rid of the toxins and let it work properly. Thus an increased metabolic rate and more calories burned.

Now, how much water should you drink? The recommended 8 glasses is a good rule of thumb. And that is clean water, nothing added to it. You have to add more if you drink caffeinated drinks, if you exercise and if the weather is warm.

A new path to self-esteem

Do you lack self confidence? Would you like to have better relationships? Well, there are steps to get there. And you need to take care of your basic physiological needs first. In the 40s, psychologist Dr Abraham Maslow presented the hierarchy of needs. At the bottom, you have physiological needs like water, sleep and food. And from that base, you move on to other levels.

Based on this information, it is hard to have self esteem and confidence if we don’t eat well. We need to first nourish our bodies in order to attain the higher levels. In our society, we drive expensive cars and eat cheap food. We try to gain self-esteem by getting other’s approval. Why not try a little shift here. Treat your body very well first and see what happens.

Are you going to wait for the New Year… again?

Today is the 283rd day of 2009. We have 82 more days to go. Did you make some resolutions this year? Did it involve getting in shape and losing some weight? How is that goal coming along? If you are like most people, your waist has not changed or you are wearing a larger size.

So try this little exercise. Picture yourself at a fork in the road. On your right, you see yourself on October 10, 2010, if you don’t take action. You are unhappy, unhealthy and still fatter. And if you look to your left, there’s a new you. You look slimmer and have more energy. And you are really happy about your life.

Which path are you going to take? What are you going to do with your 82 days?

Did you hate Phys Ed in high school?

Remember when you were in high school. Remember those days that you had to go to the gym for physical education. Did you dread it? I hated it too. I know it may be hard to believe. In my last year of high school I was able to take an extra math class in order to get out of phys ed.

What they called physical education was more about sports education. And I could not stand the constant focus on performance. I did not care about putting the little birdie in the back corridor. I just wanted to have fun by running around and smacking that birdie. That class was no fun. And I know that I’m not alone. There are a lot of you out there.

So you may wonder how I became a personal trainer. I started working out in my bedroom as a teenager. And I’ve always been fascinated with the human body. How it works and how it auto regulates. And when I started to study the physiology of exercise, I was hooked.

What I’m trying to say is that you need to let go of the gym class syndrome. High school has been over for a few years but I know it still haunts most of you, especially when you join a fitness facility. So find an exercise routine or activity you enjoy. And remember that it is all about you. Your challenge is to improve yourself. You don’t need to join a gym. You can workout at home and save the travelling time. Does it sound like a plan?

Don’t break your bad habits

Yes you read it right. You should not try to break your old habits. For most of us it will lead to failure. So what should you do if you want to lose eight and have bad habits. The answer is to switch to a better habit.

Yes, take your bad or disgusting habit and switch it to a good, healthy one. Let’s say watch TV after dinner. Just trying to not watch TV will be really hard. You have to find something to do that will get you closer to your goal. You could go out and take a walk. If you have a tendency to snack on garbage, just buy healthy snacks. Don’t let temptation enter your house. Personally, I was in the habit of drinking coffee every morning. It felt like I did not have control over it. One morning I started drinking tea and I found that I was satisfied with the warm tea.

I would like to know what your habit switching successes are. Please share your experience. It may help someone.

The ultimate advice to lose weight.

So her I am trying to make this as simple as possible. And to sum it up in one sentence, one piece of advice. Not an easy task against such a big problem. But before that, let’s look at what it takes to lose one pound of fat.

One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. That is what you need to burn in order to be lighter by one pound. So if you plan on losing one pound per week, you need to create a deficit of 500 calories every day. As an example, you could cut 250 calories from you diet and burn 250 calories through exercise every day. A little less input, a little more output.

I think I got it. Here is the ultimate advice to lose weight.

EAT LESS, MOVE MORE

"If my middle is so soft, why is the rest of my life so hard"
-- Paul Simon

Flat abs for ever

I know it’s hard to believe. And it has nothing to do with how many crunches you can do. Thus this advice will help you get a flat gut, not necessarily a 6-pack. What I want you to understand is that there’s something pushing your abs from the inside out. Yes there’s internal fat. And even if you lose the extra fat, you may still have a paunch belly. Why?

One of the possibilities is that you have a food intolerance. Meaning there’s one or more foods that your body just doesn’t agree with. And when you eat that food, it wreaks havoc in you gut. This will create internal pain for your body and the last thing in needs is pressure to the inflamed area. Thus your gut muscles get the order to relax and be loose. Imagine this going on for a few years and you can imagine the end results. Abdominal muscles that are harder to recruit and keep hard.

What should you do? Start by being aware of how certain foods make you feel. A lot of people have a problem with gluten. It makes them feel like a hot air balloon (no pun intended). As an example, if you suspect flour products to be the problem, eliminate them all from your diet for a week. And see if your gut feels differently. This is called an elimination diet. It is a trial and error approach to finding why is it so hard to keep your abs flat.

What is you metabolic type?

We all have different biochemistry. That means that we respond to a given food differently. As an example, I love peanut butter. And other people can die from it. Even though there are general guidelines that we should follow, we need to tweak our nutrition plan. You need to find a plan that works for you. To help you with that, here are a few questions that can help you determine your metabolic type.

Do you prefer:
A. Dark meat
B. Light meat


How would you describe yourself?
A. I live to eat
B. I eat to live


Do you often...
A. Add salt to your food
B. Find food too salty


I prefer my dairy products...
A. Richer, like full fat yogurt and cheeses
B. Lighter, like low fat yogurt and cheeses

About snacking
A. I feel better when I snack between meals
B. I don’t need to eat between meals

What type of breakfast you prefer?
A. Large breakfast including protein and fat
B. Light breakfast with cereal, fruits and bread

Results:

Carbohydrate (%) Protein (%) Fat (%)
Mostly A 35 45 20
Mix of A and B 50 40 10
Mostly B 70 20 10

These are just a few questions based on the research of Weston A. Price. He was a pionner in the field of nutrition. He studied different cultures that continued with their traditional way of eating. And our metabolic type is based on what our ancestors ate naturally.

I this the new face of malnutrition?

Do you remember the UNICEF ads of the 80s? We were urged to send money to help feed a malnourished kid. Do you remember the images? I was a child with a belly. That was the image of being malnourished. And our donations were to go toward getting them good food.

Fast forward to today. And walk down your street. You will soon see the new face of malnutrition, obese adults and kids. They probably eat too much of the wrong things. Which are foods that give a lot of calories and very little nutrition. Thus, their bodies send them for more food, in search of the missing nutrients. Now I understand that we don’t have the same genes, some of us got lucky. And if your genes tend to keep you well insulated, it is the hand you were dealt. Now, how are you going to play the game?

Nutrition is more than counting calories. You’ll get proper nutrition by making wiser food choices. If you are in the habit of writing a food diary, try to change one processed food for a wholesome one. And gradually work your way out of the nutrition-less foods. Eat a variety of fresh and wholesome foods. It will give your body the vitamins, nutrients and minerals it needs. Treat your body right and it will return the favour.

Eating garbage food and taking a multi-vitamin won’t cut it. It is the equivalent of building a house with rotten wood and using gold nails.

An even more sensitive subject

This one had nothing to do with food. It is more about an added benefit of fat loss. It could actually improve your sexual performance.

I guess I got you interested now. While, being fit will give you more endurance in any activity, you will also improve your blood lipid profile. By having less fat in your blood, you reduce the clogging of your arteries. Consequently, it will improve blood flow (See Sept 27 posts) and improve your erection. Just in case you did not know, an erection is caused by an increased blood flow to the penis.

On the flip side, erectile dysfunction could be a sign of future cardiac problems. The arteries in the penis are small and get clogged early.

This is a sensitive subject

I knew that I’d have to tackle this subject at one point. And for most of us, we have a hard time cutting down on this one. I am talking about alcohol.

The calories from alcohol, being liquid, won’t do much to keep you full. And you have to count them as part of your carbohydrates at meal time. It means that you should reduce your other carbs if you decide to drink alcohol with your meal. (See Balanced Meal post on Sept 9) Moreover, try to avoid alcohol on an empty stomach. Always eat some protein before you start drinking. It will slow down its absorption thus keeping you sober a little longer.

The importance of planning your fat loss journey

I’m sure you’ve heard this one before. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And I’ve seen this many times during my years in fitness clubs. New members start to workout and then life gets in the way. They just think that they fit exercising when ever they can. Truth is, you need to schedule it like any other appointment. And respect it. That’s why personal training works for most people. It gives them a fixed time. And I found it works well with the business crowd. Without an appointment, they always find something else to do.

Here’s the strategy. After you’ve decided to include an exercise routine in your life, decide when you’ll do it. Write down days and times that work for you. It may be Mon, Wed and Fri at 6pm for 60 min. Or if you don’t have that chunk of time you be more comfortable with 15 min workouts at 6:30 am and 12 noon. Just find what works for you. I’m sure you can drop one of those TV shows for your workout. The best exercise routine is the one that you’ll do.