In every book I have read there are a few paramount basics that are touted. Ultimately the idea is to ensure calories in are less than calories out. This creates a caloric deficit. Technically, the convenience store diet may help you lose weight in the short term. This diet is where you literally eat twinkies and chips in an amount less than what your total caloric expenditure is for the day. However, the caveat is most likely whole body inflammation, brain fog, nutrient deficit (due to lack of nutrients in the food itself and lack of nutrient absorption due to inflammation), lack of daily performance, illness and ultimately chronic disease.
This simplistic view point is one way of looking at things but the majority of people fail their weight loss goals. If something is so simple, why do most fail? Why do most fail multiple times? My goal is to accomplish a goal. Why accomplish the goal again if it is not a fun goal in the first place but a necessary goal? If the goal is to repeat a championship or make your second (or third or fourth etc., million) or even to visit a beautiful location again, then enjoy. This is healthy. But if the goal is to lose weight again, then it’s time to ask yourself, “What am I doing”? It is not necessary to lose weight multiple times! Achieve your ideal weight and body shape and move on!!! Perhaps this simple method doesn’t work as there’s a lack of understanding. Perhaps it’s more than willpower and habits. I have always found that understanding the foundation of a theory helps with implementing the success of that theory. If you are having trouble losing the weight, there are some basics that are often overlooked. Yes, they have to do with lifestyle.
When you encounter stress, your body releases hormones involved in the fight or flight (sympathetic) response. One such hormone is cortisol. This increases blood pressure, increases neuron firing to improve thought time and inhibits non- essential functions such as digestion, protein synthesis and immune function. This is a primal function essential for survival. Aside from a race, lift, or meeting a deadline, excessive production will leave you fatigued, fat and sick. Cortisol suppresses the secretion of the hormone insulin. Therefore, glucose is inhibited from cellular uptake and disrupts insulin- signaling to your muscles. The result of chronic stress causes insulin resistance (diabetes), leading to the inability to shed weight, increases inflammation (decreases bioavailability of your food), which leads to chronic diseases and increased requests from your brain to eat as your body is rarely receiving the nutrients it needs to survive, dyslipidemia and hypertension. Individuals who often have the most difficult time in losing weight is the aggressive, super accomplished type- A personalities (especially males). They may get to a point where their progress in weight loss comes to a screeching halt. Once they learn to manage the daily stressors they encounter and find balance, cortisol levels are reduced and their stomach is flat or even abs begin to shine through. Another cause of excess cortisol is overtraining. Exercise releases cortisol in order to provide your muscles with enough glycogen to complete the activity. Without adequate rest and recovery, muscle growth is halted, athletic results dip, and body fat ensues. This does not just happen with athletes. This happens to many individuals who are poised on working out in the gym or running/ biking/ swimming in order to lose weight that they are unknowingly sabotaging themselves of success. This is where working with a highly trained health professional is paramount to find your success. Other daily stressors that spike cortisol include: New job Death of someone close to you Relationship conflict Sexual frustration Academic pressures Boredom Environmental toxins Excessive chronic hot or cold exposure Oxygen deprivation Uncomfortable clothing Social media Lack of love and support Heart Rate Variability One of the best ways to know if you are chronically stressed is by measuring your heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is the variability in the amount of time between each heartbeat and can be used to track your nervous system health and recovery status. When the parasympathetic rest-and-digest nervous system is activated, it releases acetylcholine to induce a low heart rate and a state of relaxation. Your HRV will be highest at this point, so a high HRV indicates a low state of stress. If your body is in a state of fatigue, your beat to beat rhythm variation falls, meaning if you were to look at the reading of your HRV, it would be very regimented. Ideal is to have a greater degree of variability. If you see a consistently low HRV (below 80 for instance), or values that greatly differ from day to day (70 one day, 90 another day, 60 the next day). Tracking your HRV allows you to see if you are overstressing your body, producing excess cortisol or becoming weight-loss resistant. The experiences I have had in monitoring my HRV as well as others is that a low variability arises from a poor diet, improper breath patterns (shallow breathing), stress from “life”, overtraining, environmental toxins (EMF’s, WiFi, Bluetooth, water, food), and lack of sunlight. 2. Sleep The accepted amount of sleep humans should achieve is 7.6 hours. This means on average, only 35% of Americans get the recommended amount of sleep. This leads to sleep deprivation and has deleterious effects on the body. Lack of sleep weakens your immune and nervous system. You become vulnerable to pathogens and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and other forms of dementia. It also leads to fat gain! When you get less than five hours of sleep per night, you develop insulin resistance and increased ghrelin production (hormone responsible for appetite) and reduction of leptin (the hormone that tells you that your stomach is full). This leads to diabetes and obesity. Sleep deprivation also leads to increased cortisol levels, glucose intolerance and increases in sympathetic nervous system activity. The funktacular part of this is that it is not a chronic habit that causes these problems. Only one single night of lack of sleep will cause the beginning of this cascade of events. Lack of sleep leads to an inability to metabolize glucose while causing the desire for an increase in sugar laden foods. Have you ever noticed when you are sleep deprived you have a greater desire to eat, “whatever”? This is why. 3. Snacking, Post Workout, and Whenever Calories How often have you heard of the strategy to eat right after physical activity or seen individuals (perhaps this is you), who carries a refrigerator full of tupperware with them wherever they go? Even if you are in the gym working out, often times the amount individuals eat post workout exceed those in which they burned during their workout! There is a theory that you need to eat five to six small meals per day to increase your metabolism. However, this idea has since been debunked by actual science. The amount of thermic effect produced by eating is not clinically significant to actually cause weight loss. If anything, many small meals per day can be utilized in order to help individuals with portion control. Aside from that, there is no benefit. Five to six small meals per day though will increase what is called glycemic variability. Glycemic variability can be defined as swings in blood glucose levels. This also is directly proportional to insulin levels and reduction of insulin sensitivity therefore creating a greater risk of metabolic disease. On the inverse side of frequent eating is intermittent fasting, where you may only eat 1 to 2 meals per day over a 12-16 hour feeding window. This has been shown to release more growth hormones and increase the anti-aging effect of your cells and yes, increases lipolysis (fat burn). When you eat more frequently, blood sugar levels may be elevated longer causing your body to burn glucose and not fat for fuel. Uninformed advocates of the “starvation mode” paradigm are- uninformed. It is just not true. It takes around 72 hours for your body to begin to catabolise muscle and four weeks to decrease thyroid activity and as a result, decrease your metabolism. With intermittent fasting, you increase norepinephrine, which signals adipose tissue (fat cells) to undergo what is known as lysis (breakdown). Therefore, instead of eating less, eating less frequently. As previously discussed, individuals feel they must eat carbs and protein immediately following their workouts in order to repair damaged tissues and amp up anabolic growth with the insulin spike due to increased carbs. The only problem with this is the results are not clinically significant in order to achieve the benefits believed by most bodybuilders over the last few decades. It also takes (depending on what you eat) a few hours to actually digest the food you eat. Therefore, the food you eat prior to working out will be fueling your post workout recovery. If you are doing two a day or three a day workouts, yes...increased caloric intake may be needed to sustain movement. However, if it’s fat loss you seek, understand eating less often is key. 4. Lack of Motion An object in motion stays in motion. Obviously Newton never ran Spartan races up mountains. All joking aside, humans were meant to move. The sedentary lifestyle that millions of Americans enjoy is an ingredient for a health disaster. The definition of health is lack of disease. Lack of movement will increase risk of disease and cause lack of health. I personally attempt to stand while I do computer work. I will stand on a vibration plate if I have been sitting for too long or even after I arrive to the office after driving. I do this to force my muscles to contract at 30 times per second and flush my lymphatic system and oxygenate my body to perform better. I even started to excuse myself to the restroom while at dinner and if sitting for an hour will knock out 30 air squats. I personally do this not because I am some oddity or exercise addict. I do this to remain mobile and flush my system of stagnation. If sitting for long periods of time causes blood to pool in your lower extremity sitting there deoxygenated, I want to oxygenate that area of my body as our bodies need oxygen to burn fat. By sitting for long periods of time, our bodies also undergo unfavorable changes in insulin signaling, glucose transport, and lipoprotein lipase (the primary enzyme responsible for breaking down fat). By sitting for eight hours per day, the human body often does not expend enough energy to burn the food you eat each day. You end up having an abundance of calories each day, even if you find a way to make it to the gym and burn the usual 200 calories. This leads to fat deposition and weight gain! The solution is simple. Move more. Take the stairs. Stand while you work. Use a vibration plate. Do some bathroom air squats (make sure your pants are not too tight or you may discover a slight breeze for the remainder for the day on your back side). 5. Overexercising The overexercise king is the first to admit to you that excess physical exertion can lead to excessive levels of cortisol and inflammation. Personally I over exercise (as it would relate to one's health and not fitness as the two are not equal and often indirectly correlated) when training for a Spartan Race, CrossFit, or in the future climbing Mt. Everest. Exercise as it’s often portrayed on television is an extremely unhealthy way and a sure fire way to cause excessive inflammation, hormonal dysregulation, increased cortisol and injury. Human physiology is what it is. As much as we may want our bodies to be in a constant state of go, they are not designed this way. In order to gain strength, you must cause damage (micro tears) to muscle fibers. You do this by lifting or pulling a heavy load. As your body repairs itself, it does so in a manner that is conducive to garner increased strength so the next time you lift that weight, your body will be able to properly accommodate it. To build muscular endurance, the approach is similar. You do this by increasing the time the load places tension on the muscle. You must cause a physiological adaptation and you do this by lifting heavier weights. Once you can handle a weight for a prescribed amount of repetitions (depending on your goal and program), it is prudent to increase the load. If you do not, your body will cease to adapt favorably. When done right, your body will increase red blood cell count, mitochondria in the cells, motor units and increased CNS capacity. However, you do not need to do this daily. This is why I like working with the ARX so much. After years of being a strength and conditioning coach and spending countless hours in the gym with both athletes and for myself- once can place this load on your muscles (bones, joints, etc) in a manner that is consistent with both strength and endurance gains. It then takes a week for adequate recovery for your muscle cells to adapt and perform stronger. Constant pounding daily will result in a quantifiable decrease in output, strength and performance. After overtraining and very difficult competition, athletes often find themselves ill. By overtraining and pushing beyond the required time for recovery, one may experience decreased immune function, fatigue, mood changes, difficulty with sleep, suppressed appetite, fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. This can be corrected with more days off. Days off should not be confused with eating bon bon’s and being a couch potato. They can include sauna sessions, massage, vibration plate, walking (not up the side of a mountain), etc. It includes gentle activities that does not intensely stress the body and nervous system. 6. Too Much Cardio First and foremost, cardio is an activity in which your heart beats. Therefore, while sitting or lying down or even standing while reading this, technically you are doing cardio. But we all know this is now the idea of what cardio is when it comes to physical fitness. There is a lot of debate over what cardio is good v. what is bad. Some feel that running is king while others claim it will increase your fat tissue. Whether it be running, stair stepping, elliptical or HIIT- too much of something is not a good thing. If something is good, more is not necessarily better. No, cardio does not make you fat. Too much however, does break down tissues including muscle. Have you ever heard of someone who was supposedly in the epitome of shape and ran marathons and suddenly dropped dead at an age far too young? An example of this is Jim Fix, who wrote the 1977 best selling book, The Complete Guide to Running. At 52 he died of a sudden heart attack while running. Ultra marathoner Micah True died at 58 during only a 12 mile run despite being used to running over 100 miles at a time. Phidippides was the famous Greek messenger for which the marathon is created died after running over 175 miles in just two days. There are countless other instances of this as well. It obviously does not happen to everyone but overtraining cardio causes an enlargement of the heart muscle and scarring, which causes even more stress on the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. Too much cardio can dilate the right side of the heart, increase troponin and natriuretic peptides and increase fibrosis (the scarring just mentioned). Most likely this is responsible for ventricular tachyarrhythmia and sudden death. Remember that health and fitness are not the same. Just because you can run 100 miles in a day does not mean your body is healthy as a result. Don’t get me wrong as lots of cardio done in a progressive manner will increase your endurance. It may not be beneficial for your waist line though. I know quite a few endurance athletes that struggle with their waistline. The reason is that chronic cardio creates extreme states of metabolic deficiency. Your body’s main functions are: fight or flee, food, and f...um...procreate. As long as you are safe, have enough nutrients and can live up to survival of the fittest, your bodies cells have done their job. As a result of these basic needs, your body must be efficient. It must also be able to produce the greatest amount of output when required. When you perform long bouts of cardio, your body will first want to shed as much weight as possible (efficiency). It also will do whatever it can to store as much energy as possible (stored as fat). It does this because of the amount of energy that is required for these long bouts of cardio. Your body will break down muscle to shed itself of weight and store fat due to its source of fuel! In order to shed itself of muscle, your body will downregulate hormones such as human growth hormone and testosterone. Both of these are essential for growth, development and repair/ recovery. The only way to make long slow cardio work for you to burn fat is for you to do hours of excessive cardio. In essence you will have to become an ultra marathoner. This is neither time efficient or healthy. It actually appears aerobic exercise is only effective as individuals would hope when you are untrained. But for those who have been exercising for some time, long slow cardio becomes less and less effective. Those who are well trained should utilize a true high intensity interval training program. This is not to be confused with what is actually cardio group classes (you know the ones where you go from station to station without any rest). This is true all out holding nothing back followed by a full recovery. It’s been discovered that HIIT is more effective at reducing subcutaneous fat than long slow cardio while preserving muscle mass. Take a look at a distance runner versus a sprinter. Who looks fitter with more muscle and less fat? HIIT also has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity, therefore reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. As the bouts are much quicker, your heart is not being strained for nearly as long. On the A.I. fitness bike CAR.O.L. we utilize at Functionised, individuals do just 2 x 20 second sprints 2x-3x per week. This is the equivalent of a 45 minute jog each session when it comes to cardio and you are done in under 10 minutes. 7. Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID) Your body will adapt to the demands placed upon it. Over time, doing the same movements again and again will cause a decreased physiological response. In layman’s terms, if you only do 10 pushups per day or only long slow cardio, your body will cease to respond. This results in fewer gains and less fat burned. This is where individuals believe they plateau. They haven’t plateaued because their body won’t respond any longer. They have reached a plateau because they are no longer challenging their cells to adapt. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Then the definition of sanity should be doing something different to get a different result. 8. Type of fat White fat is bad (WAT). That’s about as simple as it can be stated when it comes to thermogenesis and fat. White fat will do no good when it comes to increasing fat burning. This is because white fat lacks the mitochondria that brown adipose tissue (BAT) contains. BAT is located around the clavicles, sternum and rib cage. It generates heat by mobilizing energy stored in white fat. This is known as cold thermogenesis. It has been shown that exposure to cold increases brown fat and allows your body to be more efficient in burning white fat. This is a common technique I utilize with bodybuilders where they ice themselves daily or in winter stand outside naked for 20 minutes. The key is exposure to temperatures under 55 degrees. Be careful though not to burn yourself with ice and cause yourself harm. 9. Hormones When it comes to the dysfunction of your endocrine system (hormones), individuals tend to think this occurs later in life. With the plethora of chemicals we are bombarded with on a daily basis from pesticides to fumes, alcohol, heavy metals, plastics ( PCBs, DDT, DDE, and BPA), food additives, lack of sleep, poor digestion, pharmaceuticals, bacteria, viruses, fungi, wifi signals, electromagnetic frequencies and so forth- our endocrine system can get messed up and weight gain is one of the many symptoms that ensues. Hormone imbalances occur in both genders. However, women do appear to be affected more when it comes to fat loss. As a woman ages, progesterone (a hormone that protects against excessive fat deposition), decreases as does estrogen. Estrogen promotes the formation of tissue. With the right balance, fat gain is not necessarily a problem. However, progesterone decreases as a rate faster than does estrogen thus allowing for greater fat retention. In men, testosterone decreases with age and estrogen rises. The same effects occur in men in women as a result. If you’re not testing you’re guessing and always test for success. So to determine if hormone imbalances are the problem, have a hormone panel done. Regardless if your hormones are imbalanced or not, you should be eating the foods described in this book minus what shows positive for food sensitivities. You should also be filtering your water to eliminate toxins and metals such as reverse osmosis. Ensure though that you either add trace minerals to the water or obtain a unit with a built in remineralizer to ensure you are consuming calcium, magnesium and potassium. Also ensure you drink out of glass containers and not plastic to eliminate absorption of toxins found in plastic. Even water bottles in a fridge made a trek from across the country in a hot trailer where chemicals are sure to have leached into your water. 10. Food Sensitivities One of the common themes of this book is, “if you’re not testing you’re guessing and always test for success”. While food allergies can lead to anaphylaxis (IgE), lesser reactions cause widespread internal and chronic inflammation (IgG). When you consume an antigen (foreign invaders) as your body registers some foods, your body will release white blood cells to combat what you believed to be “healthy”. It could be a piece of salmon, cinnamon, pepper, chicken, etc. There’s no way to know this unless you are tested for it. When there’s a subtle food intolerance, physiological dysfunctions may occur such as low levels of enzymes that are used to break down other foods and allow you to absorb vital nutrients. You could theoretically be consuming 100% of your daily vitamins and minerals yet be deficient due to the inability to absorb them because of chronic inflammation. As a further result, your gut microbiota will be altered and affect your mind and other various bodily functions. The lesson here is: get tested! 11. Nutrient Deficiencies Now that you understand why you may have nutrient deficiencies it’s important to understand that these can and will not only lead to diseased states but also to fat gain. Micronutrients are necessary for cells to function. Each mineral is both uniquely important and important as many work in synergy (such as vitamin D needs magnesium levels to be adequate for proper formation). Once food sensitivities are identified and your body can reduce its level of inflammation, it’s pertinent to understand which micronutrients you may still be deficient in. Without this analysis to identify nutritional deficiencies that may lead you to chronic disease, poor sleep quality, poor cognitive function and poor musculoskeletal function- Again, get tested! 13. Thyroid This is a big one as at times this problem is either under diagnosed or overdiagnosed and used as a scapegoat. Your thyroid gland is your main source of metabolism regulation. It produces the hormones necessary to secrete T4 (triiodothyronine), which converts to T3 (thyroxine). T3 influences the rate of metabolism of each cell in your body. If your thyroid is not producing enough T4 or T3, weight gain typically ensues. A sluggish thyroid can be congenital. It is rare but some individuals are born this way. Though rare in the US, deficiencies in iodine and selenium can lead to reduced thyroid function. It should be noted that excess mineral intake such as selenium can have an inverse effect. Some of the side effects are: kidney damage, bad breath, metallic tasting mouth, nausea, diarrhea, rashes, irritability, and brittle nails or hair. So before automatically going to the supplement store and reaching for iodine and selenium, get tested for thyroid function or you may do yourself more harm than good. Excessive stress levels cause dysfunction of the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is the part of your brain that produces TSH releasing hormone. This signals your anterior pituitary to release thyroid stimulating hormone, which will cause your thyroid to produce T4 and T3. Long term carbohydrate restricted diets can also reduce thyroid function. Those that live a ketogenic lifestyle may find that down the road, their thyroid function will be lowered and they may achieve the muffin top they never wanted. Nutrient deficiencies, stressful lifestyles and improper macronutrient portioning is a crazy combination for decreasing the function of your metabolism gland. A diet rich in seaweed, cod, tuna, and eggs will ensure adequate iodine intake. Mushrooms, meat, brazil nuts, sprouted beans, tuna and seeds will get your intake of selenium. 13. Eating Patterns There has been enough research to see how irregular eating results in decreased postprandial energy expenditure as compared to regular patterns of eating. It’s been shown individuals who eat on regular schedules achieve better insulin sensitivity and improved triglyceride levels and postprandial thermogenesis. This leads one to believe that regular meal patterns allow your body to be more receptive to weight and fat loss. Irregular eating patterns leads to a dysregulated metabolism. By eating at regular intervals, your body should achieve a healthier status. |
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