The Fit Blog

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with someone about calorie counting, food quality and starvation mode. It turned out that he tried to lose weight by counting calories. In a two week period, adjusting his diet to be 200 calories sub basil metabolic rate, he didn’t lose one single kilo. Definitely a frustrating experience, but not to be discouraged and being a super intelligent individual, he figured out what was going on. His basal metabolic rate had actually dropped because of his diet. He had essentially gone into starvation mode and his body was trying to compensate!

When a person drops caloric intake by any significant amount, the body will react (appropriately) by going into a kind of starvation mode. It will actually slow down in order to compensate with the lower availability of energy. So if your basal metabolic rate requires 1800 calories, then lowering your caloric intake to 1600 may actually cause your metabolic rate to drop to that same level and as such, you end up suffering with hunger for nothing! (This isn’t all true, of course. There is lots of evidence that this “starvation mode” is actually beneficial for long term health and aging).

So what did this person do to compensate? He found out that the only way that counting calories would work for him was to eat zero empty calories. That’s zero sugar or low quality carbs. The amount of food that he ate wasn’t the only variable on his weight loss. The quality of food became a huge parameter. He started eating high quality food consisting of lots of veggies (spinach in particular) and fish (he’s a fan of salmon). After increasing the quality of his food, he noticed huge strides forward with respect to weight loss. And this wasn’t the only thing he noticed. I don’t want to make this sound as though it would be common, but his hair actually began growing in thicker and darker!

I’m not suggesting that people who go on calorie restricted diets will experience the same thing, but after noticing some grey on my thinning head the other day, I’m seriously considering following his lead.

Regardless of his fountain of youth like experience, at least it can be fair to say that low calorie diets on top of high quality food is definitely the way to go for those looking to quickly drop weight. Add a comprehensive exercise program on top of that, and your metabolic rate may not decrease as much due to metabolic “starvation compensation” and you will definitely notice serious results.

2 Comments | In: diet | tags: diet, food quality, starvation. | #

“How can I fit into this dress in just a couple of weeks?”
“How can I lose 5 lbs before I go down South?”
“Reunion next month. Can I lose 10 lbs?”

These are questions that I hear all the time. And testimonials can be found all over the Internet and Television suggesting that it’s actually possible to lose obscene amounts of weight quickly and easily.

Well, is it true?  Can you lose weight fast?  Yes you can! As unbelievable as it may be, you can lose weight quickly and astonishingly enough, without sacrificing  hours per day and without starving yourself.

Unfortunately there are such things as unrealistic goals.  Those testimonials where people lose 10 lbs in one week are either extreme cases or incredibly exaggerated.  But, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to lose the weight or inches that you want to lose in order to meet a short term goal.

Here are some tips to lose weight quickly.

Increase your metabolism.  Amazing things can happen when you simply spread your eating out through the day.  Eat 5 to 6 times during the day instead of your usual three.  Keep feeding yourself and your metabolism will work harder to keep up.  Many people find that simply eating the same types of food that they usually do but spreading it out into 5 to 6 smaller meals throughout the day causes their metabolism to increase and fat is lost.

A good suggestion is to eat 6 times per day, every 3 hours.  Maybe at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm.  Even if not hungry, it’s important to eat.  Not eating and instead starving yourself will cause your body to go into a starvation mode in which your body may attempt to hold on to fat, rather than lose it.

Work large muscle groups.  Do squats or lunges which impact your quads.  If you don’t feel comfortable with barbell squats, do dumbbell squats or even air squats.  Leg presses are also useful for working the hamstrings and quadriceps muscles. Core exercises – leg lifts, sit-ups, planks also work large sets of muscles.  Working larger muscle groups will burn more calories.  It also enables greater caloric burn in less time, helping to maximize the effectiveness of a single workout.

Perform circuits.  Put 2 or three different exercises together and do them back to back with a medium to high intensity.  This sort of high intensity circuit training will cause increase caloric burn during the workout, enable you to get in and out of the gym quickly and an abundance of evidence exists suggesting that your metabolic rate increases and remains high for hours after your workout, well into a resting state.

Eat a balanced diet.  Many suggest to focus on protein, but ultimately, that can cause unbalanced hormones and can lead to feeling pretty blah.  Skip the sugar completely.  And skip foods that easily turn into sugar.  Sugar causes insulin to rise and as such an unbalanced hormonal state in which fat is easily stored and held.  skip out on simple breads.  Whole wheat if anything.  Eat lots of veggies and small amounts of protein at every meal.  Chicken or fish preferably.  Stay away from super high fat foods simply because of the high calories that come with them.  But don’t shy away from fat all together.  Fat from things like nuts and olives are very healthy and can help give you a feeling of satiety during a meal.

Personally, I try to avoid eating out as much as possible and I have some staple meals that take virtually no time to prepare.  Salads can be purchased pre-made at most grocery stores in a variety of various styles.  I also like to get pre-cooked chicken strips.  Nitrate and preservative free packages have also recently come out on the market.  Apples and berries also help supplement my morning Kashi cereal with low fat milk.  Egg whites, hard boiled eggs and lots and lots of frozen veggies. Did I already mention the frozen veggies?  Having apples close at hand are good for the inevitable snack craving.

Get your sleep!  An often overlooked but essential part of dieting is sleeping.  Evidence exists that suggests poor sleeping patterns or inefficient amounts of sleep can lead to complications in weight loss.  Get at least 7 hours of sleep and if you sleep in til 9am on Sunday, you’re actually doing your body good.

With these tips and a good exercise program, losing weight quickly may not actually be that out of your reach.

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Canadian Thanksgiving just passed and along with it, many people likely passed out due to the infamous turkey coma – the indulgence of food to the point of requiring the pants unbuttoned. In the process, I’m also sure that most of us who are keen on keeping our diets fairly well in check likely through it all out the window and took part in the indulgence, joining in quite willingly to the feeding frenzy. Personally there were a couple of times over the course of the long weekend that I let out the sigh – the pre turkey coma sigh – the universal language for “oh my god I’m stuffed”.

But for the lucky few who survive to tell the story, turkey leftovers are dealt around and for days on end, the smell of turkey fills the air at offices around the country as employees microwave tupper wares filled with Thanksgiving’s bird.

Fortunately, Turkey is a great source of protein and skip the bread and mashed potatoes and substitute with veggies to have a great and cheap paleo meal! Even the gravy, assuming no added sugar, is completely paleo friendly.

Remember – meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar, which unfortunately doesn’t include pumpkin pie… although Thanksgiving exceptions are generally overlooked.

No Comments | In: diet, paleo | tags: diet, paleo, turkey. | #

I’ve been experimenting with making “acceptably Paleo” food.  Yesterday I made a batch of almond and flax seed “bread”.  The recipe needs some tweaking, but here’s the details:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups Ground Almond
• 3/4 cups Ground Flax Seed
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 2 tbsp natural honey
• 4 oz unsweetened apple sauce

1. Combine all ingredients into a bowl
2. Mix “dough” well with hands
3. Grease a shallow baking tray
4. Spread out the “dough” no the baking tray.  I just used my hands, but you could probably use a rolling pin too.  I spread it out until it was about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch high.
5. Place in oven on 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.
6. Done.  Cut into sizes about 3 inches by 3 inches.

As I said, the recipe needs some tweaking.  Please let me know if you have any ideas!

No Comments | In: diet, recipe | tags: homemade paleo bread, low carb bread, low carb bread recipe, low carb recipe, paleo, paleo bread, Paleo diet, paleo recipe, recipe. | #

Low-carb dieting is nothing new. In fact, what some may consider to be a “fad diet” goes back nearly 150 years!!

William Banting, a teacher who had problems fighting obesity is one of the first recorded testaments to a low carb diet. After numerous failed attempts to lose his stubborn fat, Banting took the suggestion from a doctor to try a certain diet. This certain diet, although not referred to as such, is for the most part a low-carb diet.

According to Banting himself, the new diet didn’t only solve his weight issue, it also cured him of some of his ailments. In his astonishment at what a change in diet could do for him, Banting felt it his duty to spread the word of the low-carb lifestyle.

In 1863, at his own cost, Banting printed and distributed a pamphlet called, “Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public”. In this open letter, he describes his diet failures and how this miracle low-carb method worked so well for him and others whom he passed the idea on to.

As far as I can tell, given that the book was published well before 1900, it is in the public domain. I’ve transcribed it from a pdf version of the original that I found and have made it available for your own perusal below. The writing is a bit on the “old style” side, but I found it to be quite interesting and definitely recommend it to you, should you be interested at all in diet. It’s astonishing how little things have changed.

(Keep in mind that the word, “Corpulence”, is a middle English word for obesity)

…

No Comments | In: Uncategorized, diet | tags: bant, banting, diet, letter of corpulence, low carb, low-carb diet, obesity, william banting. | #

I have to say I’m super skeptical of this. In September 2008, there was an apparent shortage of bananas across Japan due to Japanese opera singer, Kumiko Mori, announcing on national television that she lost 15 lbs in 6 weeks by dieting as follows:

- Eat 1 or more raw bananas for breakfast, with room temperature water
- Eat whatever you want for lunch and dinner
- Dinner must be eaten by 8pm
- No dessert
- Eat until satisfied, not stuffed
- Drink only water
- An afternoon snack is fine by 3pm – chocolate or cookies is allowed (although donuts are frowned upon)
- Exercise is optional

Huh… You don’t say. Maybe the Japanese have super high metabolisms, but this is an absolutely terrible diet.

First the obvious – glad to see that donuts are frowned upon, but chocolate and cookies are not really ok mid-afternoon snacks. Then the whole banana concept. Bananas are nutritious – there’s no doubt of that as they’re loaded with vitamins and minerals. However, with an average banana containing over 27g of total carbohydrates, over 14g of sugar, and barely a notice of protein or fat, a bunch of bananas in the morning are hardly a good day starter for a weight loss diet.

The high sugar and low protein contents of the banana throw hormones around a bit, causing an insulin spike, potentially lending a hand to weight gain, rather than loss. The chocolate and donuts in the afternoon certainly don’t help and between those and the bananas, the whole diet would seem to keep insulin levels high throughout the day.

This is, of course, my opinion. I have never tried the morning banana diet and don’t intend to. However, I can’t imagine it being an effective way to lose weight.

Judge for yourself – visit the morningbanana.com to find out more.

No Comments | In: diet | tags: bananas. | #

We saw Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” taking on the fast food industry by having the him gorge himself on McDonald’s at least 3 times per day, claiming that if he kept going at his pace, the high fat content would surely kill him. For years, the public has been made to believe that eating fat makes us fat and causes health problems. Now a new documentary, “Fat Head“, by Tom Naughton, is coming out to attempt to use Spurlock’s documentary techniques against him and the rest of the anti-fat community.
Here’s a trailer:

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Food – breatharians may claim it isn’t needed, but for the overwhelming majority of us, there’s no denying that food is a critical part of life. Unfortunately, what we should eat to be healthy is a seemingly constant debate resulting in ever changing diet books and programs.

Trying to dissect the volumes of volumes of information is incredibly difficult for the average person. What makes it even more difficult for us is that none of the information is consistent and it seems that even the experts get everything wrong. If they can’t figure out what we should eat, then what’s a guy looking for a healthy diet supposed to do?

The answer is research, and lots of it. Over the last little while I’ve been reading all that I can on nutrition, attempting to not get stuck in the fads and one solution fits all kind of mentality. It’s difficult trying to make heads or tails of nutrition, but I’ve come across some great stuff that I thought I’d share.

While there are more and more “fad” diets coming out with books and all sorts of highly marketed material aimed primarily at sucking dieters dry of their hard earned cash, many of the more recent diet programs are incredibly closely related and for the most part, they follow similar principles. Atkins, Zone, Paleo, Glucose Revolution, South Beach and countless more diets all basically revolve around the idea of low carbs. While some of them such as Zone and South Beach mask the low carb idea around insulin or glycemic indecies, ultimately they paint refined, high density carbs as evil and prescribe significant amounts of protein and fat as a crucial part of the diet. Read on…

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After the Christmas holidays, after all the beer and chocolate and rolls and more chocolate and more beer, I’m going to start 2008 off on the right foot and once again, enter the Zone.  Time to get out the zone block charts and work on my eyeballing skills.

While searching around the net for some Zone recipes to prepare the shopping list for this week, I came across a PBS broadcast from 2004 called “Losing It”.  The program chronicles the weight loss attempts of a group of individuals attempting to lose a few inches.  From stomach bypass surgery to Weight Watchers, each of them goes at the challenge in a different way.  The program also talks about low calorie diets and how carbs should be moderated and they hit home the point about how fats shouldn’t necessarily be considered evil and how they, in fact, are an important dietary element.  Classic elements of diets like the Zone.  The results of the “study” are also interesting (although hopefully not surprising) as the most successful of the dieters was on the Zone.

Fortunately PBS isn’t too caught up in making money and they offer some of their programs for watching online.  Losing It can be found here for your viewing pleasure.

1 Comment | In: diet | | #

I just had to scan this in and post it. Again – from this month’s issue of Men’s Health. Reminds me of Taco Bell’s Cheesy Fries and my daily intake of calories during University (mmmm chili cheese fries). Looks awesome. Tastes great. But nearly 3000 calories? Geesh!

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There is a large body of evidence that having a severely caloric restricted diet can result in a longer life span while maintaining a youthful appearance.

Now new research from the University of Buffalo has found that this sort of diet can also help maintain physical fitness into advanced age, slowing the progression of physical disability.

The study found that rats who were fed a severely low caloric diet were able to keep lean muscle mass while those rats who were fed a normal diet actually lost lean muscle mass and gained more fat. The low calorie rats also had higher physical performance scores.

Unfortunately translating the diet from rats to humans would be very difficult. The rats in the study were living on a 40 precent reduced calorie diet. This would be practically impossible for a human. However, according to Tongjian You, the principal investigator on the study, an 8-percent reduced calorie diet could be both doable and beneficial for humans.

For more information, see the official news release, here.

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Obesity may have been a status symbol at one point in our tiny history.  Having an abundance of midsection was correlated to having wealth and the riches to afford lavishness in the 17th century.  If that were still the case, you’d expect every other person to be in the money these days.  Or at least 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women.

A new global study revealed that 4 in 10 men and 3 in 10 women are overweight, while 24 percent of men and 27 percent of women are obese, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study consisted of looking at over 160,000 people ranging in age from 18 to 80 over 63 countries across five continents.  The results of the study provide a sneak peak at body fat worldwide.  And by sneak peak, I mean showing something that is becoming common knowledge – that obesity is pandemic.  With “one half to two thirds” of the study population being overweight or obese, that is practically an understatement.

Rather than look at BMI (body mass index – a height to weight ratio), the study looked at waist circumference.  According to the lead author of the study, waist circumference is not only easier to measure in a clinical setting, it is also a better indicator of heart disease and diabetes risk.

In the study, 168,159 people (69,409 men, 98,750 women) from 18 to 80 years old (average age 48) in 63 countries across five continents were evaluated by their primary care physicians.

“For men, each increase of approximately 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) means an increased frequency of about 35 percent for heart disease and for women an increase of approximately six inches (15 centimeters) equates to a 40 percent increase for heart disease. Even in people who are lean, an increasing waist circumference means increasing risk for heart disease and diabetes.”

So what has happened to make our World  so obese?  If it is such a health issue and not uncommon sense, then why is it becoming more and more of a problem?  It’s great that we know all the facts but what about a solution?

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Sometimes you feel hungry when you don’t really need to eat. Typically in these moments are in between meals and usually less healthy choices are made – we reach for the bag of chips or chocolate bars – yes, the joys of snack time.

But what if there was a simple way to control those cravings. A recent study from Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland found that chewing gum before snacking could help reduce hunger and promote a sense of fullness. The study showed that the average caloric intake from snacking was reduced by 25 calories among dieters and over 35 calories among non-dieters. Although seemingly insignificant, over the long term these calories add up. The study participants also reported that gum chewing helped improve mood and contentment.

So grab a stick of juicy fruit (sugar free) the taste is gonna move you (less towards the fridge door). I know… terrible joke attempt.

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