Are You Intense About Losing Fat?

Are you logging in mile after mile on the treadmill or stationary bike and not getting the fat loss you desire? Maybe you lost some weight initially but now you have reached a plateau and losing weight has become rather difficult.

Maybe it's not you. Maybe it's your workout?

The definition of "insanity" is:

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I love to ride my bike and go inline skating. I did my first "century" (100 miles) on my bike back in the 90's. I would often ride my bike 17 miles to work and then home again. On the weekends, I would skate on my favorite bike path for 20 miles just for fun. One day, a coworker asked me, "If you workout and ride your bike so much, how come you have not lost any weight?" He was right. As a man, I was 6'2" at 235 lbs. and had stayed there for quite a while without losing much weight. I went to my doctor for advice. You can read what happened by clicking on my story (Is Your Scale Broken?). That did not help either. I was on my own. Eventually, I had to learn two things.

1. How to eat. I was sabotaging all of my weight loss efforts by eating the wrong kinds of foods and eating them in the wrong way. Many of my meals were served out of a box or a bag and were delivered through my car window. A few hours after that, I was hungry for another bag of junk food. I loved bagels and cream cheese, burritos and french fries, italian sausages and onion rings. Of course, I always washed it down with a large "DIET COKE" and finished it off with some low fat yogurt ice cream. Who was I kidding? It was not until I learned how to replace all that with fresh vegetables, fruit and lean protein that I began to see results. Eating more fiber and consuming the right kinds of fats did wonders. Going on a traditional, calorie starving "diet" was not an option for me. I had never met anyone who had gone on a diet and was successful at losing weight and keeping it off. Diets are programmed to fail.
2. How to exercise for fat loss. Obviously, the long steady cardio workouts on my bike and skates helped me lose a measly 5 pounds and then it seemed to stop. I knew better. I was a competitive swimmer in college. I was 90 pounds lighter (145 lbs @ 6'2") and ate over 12,000 calories a day. At that time, my ribs were sticking out and I had almost no body fat. I could not eat enough food to keep my weight up. My workouts were so hard that I was starting to lose muscle. So, what was the difference? It was the INTENSITY!! We did a lot of interval training. The theory behind interval training is this: By mixing bursts of high intensity work with low intensity periods of recovery, you're overloading both the aerobic and anaerobic systems at the same time, getting the benefits of both aspects of training simultaneously. You can realistically get a complete workout in thirty minutes with interval training. These intense, but short, sessions will cut fat off your body faster than a hot knife through butter. Weight resistance training gives you an added dimension to your fat-burning capabilities. Research has shown that regular resistance training can increase your Basal Metabolic Rate by up to 15%. So for someone burning 2000 calories per day, that's a potential 300 extra calories burned every single day. Combining interval training with resistance training would be the ultimate fat burning event.

Let me illustrate what I mean by "intensity." Watch the following video as six different people do several different weight-bearing exercises. They illustrate the intensity of interval training for four minutes. ONLY FOUR MINUTES! How many of us could carve out four minutes out of our day? Watch the guy lifting the sand bag. He lost 50 pounds doing this.





Did you hear what he said?!? For every effort you burn in high intensity exercise, you burn 9 times more fat than the aerobic calorie burn! Does that mean that I could burn just as much fat in 4 minutes as 30 minutes on the tread mill or exercise bike? Let's do the math for a minute. That would also mean that 15 minutes of this kind of training would save me 2 hours of time on the bike or treadmill. If you are like me and don't have much time to work out, this information is really good news.

If you did not catch what they were doing, it was 20 seconds of intense exercise followed by ten seconds of rest. They did this four times for a total of four minutes. This is called the Tabata Protocol. It was discovered and developed in Japan for the Japanese speed skating team. They would warm up for five minutes, followed by the 4 minutes of interval training and followed by 5 minutes of warm down. This is a total of 14 minutes.

As always, check with your doctor before you start to do any kind of physical exercise like this. Get a physical exam before trying this workout if you re over 40 or have two or more of the following risk factors: a family history of heart disease, you re a smoker, you re sedentary, you re overweight, or you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure.

If you are a beginner or have not worked out in a long time, it would be suggested that you start with 10 seconds of intense exercise followed by 30 seconds of rest. As you get better, you can gradually go to the regular Tabata Protocol of 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off.

It does not matter what exercises you are doing as long as you are moving, it get's your heart going and is a weight bearing exercise. Here are a few examples of a few more routines that will blast the fat off your body.

Kettle Bells - I bought a 35 lb. kettle bell a few weeks ago. I'm just getting started. What a fun workout! Here is a video of various exercises that could be done with this device. The lady on the left used to weigh 195 pounds. Forty four percent of that was body fat. In four months of using kettle bells, she lost 45 pounds and went to 17% body fat.




For a variation of the old push up, why not try this other version instead? It is called the Hindu push up. You don't need any special equipment. Just your own body weight.This uses more muscle and will give you more of a workout and will increase your flexibility.



If you have a Swiss Ball, here are several exercises you can do with this device:



Finally, here is an article you should read about . . .

The interval training mistake virtually everyone makes when they're trying to burn fat..

Some of the summary points of this article

Two groups of women burned 300 calories per workout session. The ones who did interval training increased fitness levels by 13 %. The women who did steady boring cardio increased fitness levels by 0%

Changes in body fat were also greater in subjects using interval training.

According to the research team, "... even if caloric expenditure during exercise is equal, higher intensity exercise may further aid weight loss due to an acute increase in energy expenditure up to 24 hours following exercise."

These findings have been confirmed by researchers from the University of Alabama, who showed that 24-hour energy expenditure was

160 calories greater in subjects performing high-intensity interval training

rather than continuous exercise. In other words, the interval training group of women continued to burn 160 more calories in the 24 hour period following their initial workout. Amazing!

Are you ready to lose some fat?

Here are some other great blog posts on this subject

New York Times: A Healthy Mix of Rest and Motion

Australia News: Eight seconds key to weight loss

Interval Training (HIIT) | Get Leaner with Less Cardio?

Drop Excess Pounds Like A MOFO With Bodyweight Exercises!

Remember talking about EPOC training?

The Ultimate Secrets to a Flat Stomach and Six Pack Abs

Lose Weight And Get Healthy Without Exercise??

Is this possible?

I guess that losing fat would be part of the picture of health. But can you truly be healthy and lose weight without exercise? I was reading a health blog recently that said exercise was not necessary for weight loss. Kim Klaver says, "Yes, I used to think exercise should be on the list to lose weight also. Only then I learned it may not be necessary for weight loss. Healthy, yes, to move around for circulation and energy...but for weight loss?"
What do the rest of you think?

There was a six month study that was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism that examined the effects of diet alone (25 percent fewer calories consumed) versus diet plus exercise (12.5 percent fewer calories consumed and 12.5 percent more calories burned) in overweight but otherwise healthy adults. Researchers hypothesized that the diet plus exercise group would lose more body fat, but results showed equal amounts of weight and fat lost in both groups.

Most diets are based on calorie restriction or deprivation. The theory is that eating fewer calories than one uses, will equal weight loss. When you do this without any exercise, you could lose more than fat. You might be losing bone and muscle as well.

It is kind of funny that they only reported the results of fat loss over a six month period. 95% of all people who take a diet pill or go on a calorie restricted diet will gain all of their weight back in a year or two. Where are these same people today? I wonder if any of them experienced some of the other results of a calorie restricted diet? These would be things like:

* Weight gain.

* Depression.* Food cravings.* Feeling tired and listless.* Constant hunger.* Reduced interest in sex.* Chronic fatigue.* Hypothyroidism.* Hormone imbalance.* Scaly skin or eczema.* Premature wrinkling of the skin.* Dandruff or dull, lifeless hair.* Mood swings.

* Chronic yeast infections.* Poor immune system- frequent colds or respiratory illnesses.* Digestive problems.

That certainly is not a way to get your health back.

On the other hand, another study reported in the Journal of The American Medical Association showed that women who exercised around three hours per week (without dieting) lost 6.9% of their body fat around their middle.

Here are a few other articles that talk about weight loss and the effects of exercise vs. diet.

Older People Who Diet Without Exercising Lose Valuable Muscle Mass

Weighing Benefits Of Exercise, Diets: Both Work For Weight Loss, But Dieters Also Lose Muscle

Exercise and weight-loss

It is a fact. You can lose weight with diet alone. People do it all the time. It might surprise you to learn what that weight consists of. It is not just fat. Bone and muscle can be a part of this equation as well. Here is an article that talks about that:

Weight Loss Through Calorie Restriction, But Not Exercise, May Lead To Bone Loss

What if you are you are spending 5 or more hours a week on the treadmill or exercise bike, you are restricting calories through diet and you find yourself getting poor results. You might even be GAINING weight! That's what happened to me. Read my story by going to my post on "Is Your Scale Broken?"

The definition of "insanity" is:

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

If you have been yo-yo dieting and can't seem to keep the weight off, you need to do something else.

If you have taken diet pills, weakened your immune system, spent hours on the toilet and gained all your weight back, you need to do get a new plan.

If you have spent hour after hour sweating on a treadmill or bike and have little or nothing to show for it (weightloss), why would you want to continue doing something that is evidently not working?

Here are a few suggestions for effective weight loss:

1. Change the way you eat. Learning how to eat is preferable to learning how to diet. Forget counting calories and carbohydrates. Go low-glycemic.

• The High-Glycemic Trap. Eating high-glycemic foods can sabotage even the best of diet plans because the resulting spike and subsequent drop in blood sugar leads to a more rapid return to feelings of hunger.
• Solution: For optimal nutrition, our bodies need a balanced variety of nutrients, including the right types of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

Carbohydrates such as white bread, white flour, pasta, white rice, and potatoes release their sugars rapidly (high-glycemic foods) and increase the blood sugars faster than if you were slapping table sugar on your tongue. Foods such as green beans, rye bread, whole apples, and cauliflower release their sugars slowly (low-glycemic foods). This rapid rise in blood sugar after a high glycemic meal stimulates the release of insulin from the pancreas, which is needed to control the blood sugar level. The blood sugar drops and our body’s crave more calories and more high-glycemic foods.We simply keep repeating this pattern over and over—day after day. Medical studies are now showing us that this type of diet causes us to become less and less sensitive to our own insulin (insulin resistance). It is a lot like crying "wolf" all of the time—we are simply stimulating the release of insulin time after time.

An estimated 24% of the adults in the U.S. have insulin resistance, also known as Syndrome X or more recently the Metabolic Syndrome.
When Is A Calorie No Longer A Calorie?
When insulin resistance is involved, a calorie is not merely a calorie any more. You can exercise and starve yourself all you want. The fact is, your fat cells start acting like a sponge and soak up all the glucose and efficiently change it into fat no matter how many calories you try to burn. The concept of "a calorie in and a calorie out" that has been the mainstay of weight loss therapy throughout the past century needs to change. When you begin to recognize the effect that insulin resistance throws into this equation, a calorie is no longer just a calorie.
Insulin resistance leads to Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X) and can finally lead to full blown diabetes. Unless you can find a way to "reverse the tracks" on insulin resistance and get back to normal, you simply will not be able to lose weight even with the most aggressive diets. In this state, the body is resistant to almost any weight loss program being advocated today. Only a program designed to reverse insulin resistance will successfully "flip the switch back again."


2. Change your exercise routine - If you are losing weight with your current exercise routine and are satisfied with your progress, stop here. Don't read any further.

How many miles have you logged on the treadmill, eliptical or stationary bike, only to discover that your weight loss efforts are just not paying off like you want them too. Listen, too much aerobics burns muscle! Take a look at the vast majority of women who take aerobics classes after work: do they ever transform their physiques? Rarely.

Interval Training - Interval training has been shown to be the most effective cardiovascular training method for improving cardiovascular endurance, sport-specific performance, boosting metabolic rate, and burning fat! You might already be doing this but are you doing it in a way that will bring optimal results?? Click here to read an article called,

The interval training mistake virtually everyone makes when they're trying to burn fat..

Some of the summary points of this article

Two groups of women burned 300 calories per workout session. The ones who did interval training increased fitness levels by 13 %. The women who did steady boring cardio increased fitness levels by 0%

Changes in body fat were also greater in subjects using interval training.

According to the research team, "... even if caloric expenditure during exercise is equal, higher intensity exercise may further aid weight loss due to an acute increase in energy expenditure up to 24 hours following exercise."

These findings have been confirmed by researchers from the University of Alabama, who showed that 24-hour energy expenditure was 160 calories greater in subjects performing high-intensity interval training rather than continuous exercise. In other words, the interval training group of women continued to burn 160 more calories in the 24 hour period following their initial workout. Amazing!

Which is better for fat loss? Long or short intervals? Shorter is better. Two groups worked out at different intervals. The first one worked out for 6 seconds @100% effort, followed by 9 second rest periods. The second group worked out for 24 seconds @100% effort, followed with 36-second rest periods.
3 x more fat calories were burned during short intervals.

If you are out riding your bike or on the stationary bike, here is a good workout for you. Warm up by easy riding for 10 minutes before you start:INTERVAL TRAINING PROGRAM

Cardio equipment: stationary or spinning bike

Purpose: burning fat

Interval training protocol: 10 sec @ 100% : 30 sec @ 60% x 18 = 12 minutes

Ensure that you use a flywheel resistance that prevents you from bouncing up and down on the seat. Thus, you should feel a good amount of resistance during the 10-second work period. You can lower the resistance if you like during the 30-second recovery. This only takes 12 minutes!

2. Resistance Training -

Aerobic exercise may burn a few hundred extra calories for dinner, but for every additional pound of muscle you gain, your body burns around 50 extra calories every day of the week. 7 days x 50 calories= 350 calories. Most of that happens while you sleep!

Research has shown that regular resistance training can increase your Basal Metabolic Rate by up to 15%. So for someone burning 2000 calories per day, that's a potential 300 extra calories, more than a Mars bar, burned every single day.

Resistance exercise can reduce bone deterioration and build bone mass, preventing osteoporosis.

Working your muscles can also inhibit the affects of sarcopenia, the age related loss of muscle mass, strength and function. After the age of thirty there is a loss of 3-5% of muscle mass per decade, making day to day tasks gradually harder to perform and slowing down metabolism - increasing the risk of weight gain.

Weight training has been proven to have a positive affect on insulin resistance, resting metabolism, blood pressure, body fat and gastrointestinal transit time, factors that are linked to illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Always make your workout about quality over quantity to get effective weight loss results. Resistance training, when done correctly, allows you to lose inches fast, see results almost immediately and boost your metabolism to burn more fat and calories every day.

Is Your Scale Broken?

I was thin most of my life and then it hit me. I started gaining weight around my middle, my thighs, chest and neck. Even my face became fat! I went to my doctor and asked him what I could do. He said, "Exercise more and eat less." Well, duh! I was expecting something a little more profound than that. I followed his advice and came back in a month. When I got on the scale, I weighed MORE! How could this be, doc? He said that when I increased my exercise, it must have made me hungrier and I must have eaten more. I don't think so. When I was younger, all I had to do was think about losing weight and it would come right off (fast). Why was it so tough now? It's a simple formula, isn't it? Burn more calories than you take in. I had done that all my life and it always worked before. What had changed?

I did not know it but I had put my body on a high-glycemic roller coaster ride. For many years, it was not a problem. My body seemed to handled it just fine with no telling symptoms. Then, all of the sudden, I started putting on 10-15 pounds a year. I was always tired in the afternoon and I found that my memory was not as good as it had been before. The results of the roller coaster had finally caught up with me.


Here's how the glycemic roller coaster works. In a healthy person, blood sugars work best in a narrow range. The glucose levels should be maintained in the body between 70 to 150 mg/dl. In 1981, Dr. David Jenkins discovered that some foods will spike your blood sugar higher than others. In the chart below, you can see what happens when you spike your blood sugar. When it gets too high, your body protects itself by releasing a fat-storage hormone called insulin. A few hours after a high-glycemic meal, your blood sugars go below the normal range. This is dangerous, so your body protects itself again by producing cortisol and adrenaline in an attempt to bring your blood sugars back up to a normal level. This is usually when you crave another high-glycemic meal. The roller coaster starts all over again.














Over the years, this kind of insulin abuse leads to insulin resistance. Your body compensates by making more and more insulin. In turn, your muscles begin to reject the glucose sent their way. Normally, 85 to 90% of all the glucose produced after eating a meal goes to the muscle cells to be either utilized for energy or stored as glycogen for immediate energy reserve in the muscle. This means that only 10-15% of the glucose ends up in our fat cells. If the insulin and glucagon levels are normal, there is a nice balance of fat being produced and broken down, and no weight gain occurs.

It Starts In The Muscle
When insulin resistance develops, muscle cells start rejecting a majority of the glucose following a meal and it is redirected to our fat cells. It is like a train switching tracks and going in a different direction. This is when the unexplained fat starts to develop around your middle at an alarming rate.

When Is A Calorie No Longer A Calorie?
When insulin resistance is involved, a calorie is not merely a calorie any more. You can exercise and starve yourself all you want. The fact is, your fat cells start acting like a sponge and soak up all the glucose and efficiently change it into fat no matter how many calories you try to burn. The concept of "a calorie in and a calorie out" that has been the mainstay of weight loss therapy throughout the past century needs to change. When you begin to recognize the effect that insulin resistance throws into this equation, a calorie is no longer just a calorie.
Insulin resistance leads to Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X) and can finally lead to full blown diabetes. Unless you can find a way to "reverse the tracks" on insulin resistance and get back to normal, you simply will not be able to lose weight even with the most aggressive diets. In this state, the body is resistant to almost any weight loss program being advocated today. Only a program designed to reverse insulin resistance will successfully "flip the switch back again."

Here is a video of Dr. Ray Strand explaining how this all happens.



Why Care About Blood Sugar?
If you're not diabetic, you probably haven't given much thought to your blood sugar, but are some compelling reasons why you should care:

• You should care if you find yourself getting sluggish or tired every afternoon.


• You should care if you reach for cookies, candy or cola when you need a shot of energy.


• You should care if you find yourself hungry late at night and raiding the refrigerator.


• You should care if your attempts at weight loss have yielded little or no success.


• You should care if you've noticed your memory or vision slipping in recent years.

These are all warning signs of blood sugar imbalance. Blood sugar is to your body what gasoline is to your car – fuel. Every cell in your body depends on it for the energy to stay alive and function. Whether you're a diabetic or not, your goal is to keep your blood sugar tank full, but not too full. Without balanced blood sugar, in addition to the health problems above, you may be increasing the risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.


How Does The Glycemic Index Work?


The glycemic index (GI) ranks foods by how they affect your blood sugar levels.

• Low-GI foods (less than 55) produce a gradual rise in blood sugar that's easy on the body.


• Foods between 55 and 70 are intermediate-GI foods


• Foods with high-GI numbers (more than 70) make blood sugar and insulin levels spike fast, which is a health threat.

Examples of high glycemic foods: White bread, white rice, white potatoes, soda pop, some fruit juices and most sugars.

Examples of low glycemic foods: Walnuts, peanuts, most fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken, turkey, tea (unsweetened), sugars like xylitol and stevia.


Research suggests keeping blood sugar from spiking pays off – low-GI foods stave off heart disease, prevent type 2 diabetes, help you evade serious side effects if you have diabetes, curb your appetite so you lose weight, and help boost energy.

The Science Behind The Glycemic Index
A study published in the November 2003 Journal of Pediatrics
showed that children who ate low-GI, high-fiber breakfasts were less hungry and ate less for lunch than kids eating a breakfast of refined sugary cereals. This is the first study to observe such an effect in a group of normal and overweight children and adds to the growing body of evidence that low-GI foods may have an important role in weight control and obesity management.

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that people who eat refined grains stripped of fiber are more likely to gain weight and be overweight compared to people eating high-fiber whole grains.

GlycemicIndex and Serum High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Concentration Among US Adults
Dietary glycemic index, an indicator of the ability of the carbohydrate to raise blood glucose levels, and glycemic load, the product of glycemic index and carbohydrate intake, have been positively related to risk of coronary heart disease
Arch Intern Med.+2001;161:572-576.

State of the Art Reviews: Glycemic Index, Obesity, and Chronic Disease.
Diets based on carbohydrate foods that are more slowly digested and absorbed (ie, low glycemic index diets) have been independently linked to reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some types of cancer. Although ongoing research is needed, the current findings, together with the fact that there are no demonstrated negative effects of a low glycemic index diet, suggest that the glycemic index should be an important consideration in the dietary management and prevention of obesity and chronic disease.
American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, Vol. 2, No. 2, 142-150 (2008)

Glycemic index, glycemic load, and chronic disease risk --a meta-analysis of observational studies
Low-GI and/or low-GL diets are independently associated with a reduced risk of certain chronic diseases. In diabetes and heart disease, the protection is comparable with that seen for whole grain and high fiber intakes. The findings support the hypothesis that *higherpostprandial glycemia is a universal mechanism for disease progression.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol.87, No. 3, 627-637, March 2008

Association between Carbohydrate Intake and Serum Lipids
Results of this study suggest that there is a complex and predominantly unfavorable effect of increased intake of highly processed carbohydrate on lipid profile, which may have implications for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and coronary heart disease. Further studies in the form of randomized controlled trials are required to investigate these associations and determine the implications for lipid management.
Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 25, No. 2, 155-163 (2006)

Potato and french fry consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in women
Nurses health study findings suggest a modest positive association between the consumption of potatoes and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. This association was more pronounced when potatoes were substituted or whole grains .
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 83, No. 2, 284-290, February 2006

FastFood, Central Nervous System Insulin Resistance, and Obesity
Dramatic increases in fast food consumption over the past 30 years have occurred in parallel with the twin epidemics of obesity and insulin resistance. Some of the properties of fast food, including its high glycemic index and its fatty acid composition, induce hyperinsulinemia and the development of insulin resistance, both peripherally (increasing energy deposition into fat), and centrally. Of course, fast food is merely the most extreme example of what has become the typical Western diet, so this phenomenon has implications for all patients with weight gain. Hyperinsulinemia is the primary initiator of CNS insulin resistance, which may in part be responsible for leptin resistance. This promotes reduced energy. Therefore, it is our contention that fast food, based on all its inherent properties discussed, must not be viewed as a marker, but rather as a primary etiologic agent in the genesis of the current obesity epidemic.
(+Arteriosclerosis,Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.+ 2005;25:2451.)© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Why Is Junk Food So Addictive?

Have you ever noticed that after eating a meal at a fast food restaurant, you feel hungry a few hours later? Why is that? Are you just plain hungry or is there something in the food that is causing this hunger? If you haven't had the chance to watch the movie, "Super Size Me", click here and watch it now for free!
"Super Size Me" is one man's journey into the world of weight gain, health problems and fast food. It's an examination of the American way of life and how we are eating ourselves to death. Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock unravels the American obesity epidemic by interviewing experts nationwide and by subjecting himself to a 'McDonald's only' diet for thirty days straight. His Sundance award-winning feature is as entertaining as it horrifying as it dives into corporate responsibility, nutritional education, school lunch programs and how we as a nation are eating ourselves to death.


Before you start to roll your eyes at this video, I understand that no one would eat all of their meals from McDonald's for a month. It's a little extreme. I know that. But, I was fascinated by the chemical effect this diet had on his brain. When he got depressed, he ate another junk food meal and felt better immediately. Wow.

McDonald's calls the people who eat there once a week, "Heavy Users." 72% of the people who eat at McDonald's are heavy users. "Super Heavy Users" eat there 3-5 times a week. 22% of the people who eat there are super heavy users!

I recently heard a registered dietitian say that people do not get addicted to food, they just get hungry. She said that we can have an "extreme hunger and the physiological drive to eat" but there is no such thing as a food addiction. Really? Do you believe that?

In 2002, McDonald's took out a full page add in the newspaper in France in which a nutritionist stated that there is no reason that anyone should visit a McDonald's more than once a week. McDonald's corporate headquarter went crazy and responded that this was only one opinion. They continued that the majority of nutritional professionals agree that McDonald's food can be a part of a healthy diet. The people who made the movie, "Super Size Me" contacted 100 nutritionists to see if this was true. Two out of 100 nutritionists said that it was ok to eat fast food two times a week or more. Twenty eight said it was ok to eat there once a week to once or twice a month. Forty five said you should never eat it and 95 of them agreed that it was a major contributor to the obesity epidemic that was sweeping America.

America is now the second fattest nation in the world. Australia has the dubious honor of being number one! The latest figures show 4 million Australians — or 26% of the adult population — are now obese compared to an estimated 25% of Americans. A further 5 million Australians are considered overweight. Are we both nations of weak-willed ninny's or is fast food physiologically addictive? I believe there is a chemical reason behind this addiction as well as a behavioral one. Let's take a look at the brain chemicals that are at work in the addiction process. Here are a few videos that talk about the chemical effects behind food addictions. The first one talks mainly about the addictive power of fast food.

FAST FOOD ADDICTION

This second video talks about the chemistry behind our addictions to food

 THE SCIENCE OF ADDICTIVE FOOD

This third video features Dr. Vincent Bellonzi as he talks about how junk food and fast food has an adverse effect on your health.

THE TRUTH ABOUT JUNK FOOD AND FAST FOOD, CLINICAL NUTRITION

Here are a few articles to read concerning the chemically addictive qualities of junk food.
Is Junk Food Addictive?

Burgers on the Brain: Can You Really Get Addicted to Fast Food? What constitutes an Addiction?

Fast Food As Addictive As Heroin, Study Confirms

What Happens to Your Body When… You Carb Binge?

For more information on fast food, obesity and addictions, click on the links below

When Does A Happy Meal Become Sad

Food Addictions

Why Diets Fail

Time To Rebuild Your New Years Resolutions

Remember those New Year's resolutions you made?

• This is the year I'm going to finally get in shape!


• This is the year I'm going to lose that weight!


• This is the year I'm finally going to . . . . . . ?

March is the month that most people give up on those resolutions. It takes a few months but the excitement and the enthusiasm are eventually gone. The new gadget or the new program just aren't working any more. They failed! So, until we discover a new gadget or program that seems even better, we settle back into the couch with a warm blanket and grab the remote control to watch reruns of Star Trek or Little House On The Prairie.
What happened? If you study the lives of those people who have made a success out of life, you will discover that prior to their success, they were great at failing! Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, tried thousands of filaments before he discovered the one that worked. Michael Jordan did not make his own high school basketball team. Abraham Lincoln lost election after election in Illinois politics before he became President. So, you are in good company if you are down right now. There is nothing wrong with falling down. There is a lot of things wrong about staying down. If at first, your plan does not succeed, you need to get yourself another plan. Stop living in the past and criticizing yourself for your mistakes. You can’t change the past, so why give it a second thought. Yesterday is a cancelled check.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
- Thomas Edison

True Success is made of mini-successes that eventually lead to one BIG mega-success. Sure, you’re gonna make mistakes along the way, but we’re human beings. We’re not designed to be perfect. We learn from our mistakes and it helps us become stronger and better in the process. You can’t be successful without failing first.
Before you get up and renew your efforts to make that important change, heed this advice.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Learn from failure. Failure can be your best friend. If you are going to win, you must change something. If you really want to have success this time, take a look at some ideas that might give you a better chance at getting there.

1. You must have a strong, driving reason to achieve your goal. You must have a burning desire to help you get there. Without that, you will probably not make it. Who do you think is going to reach a goal of losing weight and being fit? The person who just wants to fit into their tight jeans or the person who wants to live long enough to make it to their daughter's wedding? Obesity and lack of exercise have strong ties to heart disease. Who do you thing will have a better chance at financial independence? The person who just wants to make a little "mad money" or the person who wants to have the time to spend with their family before they are grown and gone? If you really don't have to have it, you will probably quit before long.


2. Have a clear, concise picture of what you want. Picture it in your mind first. Then write it down or get a picture of it and put it on the wall, by your mirror or computer. Look at it every day. Start picturing in your mind, every day, what it will be like to have already reached your goal. How will your life be different? Say to yourself, "Now that I am ___________ (financially free, thin and fit, etc), my life is better because I can now ___________? You fill in the blanks. I can't emphasize enough that you write it down or have a physical picture of what it is that you want. Carry it with you in your wallet, purse or pocket as a reminder. When the doubts come and you are feeling weak, this will help you to carry on.


3. Having a purpose is great but goals are not purposes. Now that you have your purpose and your "Why" you are doing this, it is time to write down some goals. Goals are different than purposes because they are measurable. "I want to lose weight," is not a goal. "I want to buy a house," is not a goal. "My goal is to lose 3 pounds per week" is something you can measure. The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. If you want to lose 3 pounds per week (not for everyone), it would be best to write down what you are going to do every day in order to reach this goal. You might want to walk so many miles per day, do so many push ups, crunches, eat 5 small meals per day, drink 8 glasses of filtered water or eat food that is low on the glycemic index. If you are only losing 1 pound per week, you can then adjust the details of what you are doing every day and measure again later.



4. Write it down. I know I've said this a dozen times already but it will help you to stick to your plan. There is something about writing your plan down (on paper or computer) that somehow moves you to action. They say that when a house is built, it is built three times. The first time is in the builders mind, the second is on paper and the third time is when it gets physically built!
5. Be stretchingly realistic. I borrowed my girlfriends bike one time and took it down to the gas station to fill up the tires with air. While I was doing it, the tire blew up with a loud bang. I had put in too much, too fast. I did not have a tire gauge with me. I was in a hurry and did not pay attention to the details. Rome was not built in a day. You will probably not make a million dollars in a month if you have never done that before. You will probably not lose 150 pounds in a week. So try to be realistic about what you are trying to accomplish. On the other hand, try to stretch yourself a little. Don't make your goal too easy. Look at what you are capable of doing and reset your goal. Make it a little bit harder. If you know you can run the mile in 5 minutes, set your goal for 4 minutes and 59 seconds. Stretch it a little. You never know what you are really capable of. Have you ever been to Disney World? Did you know that the whole park was built in 366 days? If you dream it, you can build it. Others have done it. Why not you? "Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can."- Henry Drummond


6. Be accountable to someone. Share your goals with someone who will take enough interest in you to check on how you are doing. Join a group of like minded people who are headed for the same goal. Most people find it easier to disappoint themselves than to disappoint others. If you sign up for an exercise class, you will be more liable to show up than you would exercising on your own. If you start a blog about your journey to weight loss, you are laying it out there for all to see. If it turns out to be your journey to weight gain, that might be embarrassing enough to turn it back around. If you want to make $5000 this month and you only make $3000, it should motivate you to turn up the heat next month. If you are trying, there are others out there who will cheer you on and help you in ways you never dreamed of.


7. Find a mentor. Learning from experience and mistakes is wonderful. How can you learn and get better without making mistakes? Right? How about learning from someone else's mistakes? A mentor is someone who has gone on the same path you are on now and is at least more successful than you are. They can share with you all the mistakes that they have made in order for you to learn and succeed faster than if you ventured out there alone. If you wanted to be a gold miner, who better to teach you than a seasoned, successful gold miner. A good mentor will not spend a lot of time giving you lectures and sermons. Instead, he/she will take you to the gold mine and teach by example. You can learn how to have a better golf swing by watching it and doing it than by reading a book or listening to a tape. If you have a mentor with you, they can spot and help you correct mistakes quickly. That could save you months and years of wasted time. That is discouraging. Discouragement leads to disappointment and that leads to quitting.


8. Get serious! Which statement would be more true? "Successful people find the time to do the important things in life" OR "People who make the time to do the important things in life are successful." I remember the first time I went out to play golf on a real golf course. I was pretty good on the golfing range. I could hit a ball pretty well and so I figured I could do the same on a golf course. I was a good athlete at age 12 so I thought I could pick this up quickly and at least be better than my mother. The first time I went out there, I expected to be like "Arnold Palmer." For you younger folks, you might understand me better if I said, "Tiger Woods." Needless to say, it was one of the most frustrating afternoons of my life. I lost 7 golf balls and my score was much higher than my IQ. My mother beat me badly too. I had not taken the game serious enough. Somebody told Jack Nicholas once that they wish they could play golf as well as he did. He turned to them quickly and said, "No, you don't." He went on to explain to them how he got up every day before sunrise to get to the course early. He talked about how many drives and chip shots he would shoot until his hands would get bloody. He then would bandage them up before going out to practice again. He would practice until the sun went down and everyone else had left the course. This is the kind of price that it takes to be a champion. A winner pays the price and does the little things that losers will not bother to do. Are you serious about your goals? What price are you willing to pay in order to get where you want to go? Some people dream of success… while others wake up and work hard at it.


9. Choose a time to get started. If you are trying to lose weight, the holiday season may not be the best time to get started. Too much temptation. Make sure it is a time that few things will get in your way and drag you down. Think about all of the things that will come along to interfere with your progress. Anticipate what those might be and figure out a plan to neutralize them before they become a problem.


10. Choose a time frame to accomplish your goal. There is something magic about 90 days. It is hard to sustain a fast pace forever. Sooner or later, you run out of steam. On the other hand, many people will sprint for a short period of time and give up right before they cross the finish line. How sad. A goal worth reaching is worth at least 90 days of effort. If you have not reached a realistic goal in 90 days, it would be time to reevaluate your efforts, fine tune your strategy and try again for another 90 days. Break it down into 30 day periods. If you want to lose 30 pounds in 90 days, you know you are on track if you have lost 10 pounds in the first month. If you have only lost 5 pounds, you know that you are going to have to change your plan. Now you will have to lose at least 13 pounds per month in the remaining 2 months.



11. Don't beat yourself up if you fail. Don't take it out on others around you either. There is nothing wrong with falling down. There is a lot wrong with laying there and not getting up. When I was younger, I had a job that I just hated. I complained all the time and had a negative attitude. I guess you could say I was depressed. One of my coworkers suggested that I take some antidepressants. He was taking them and he claimed to feel much better. Then I realized that I was in this depressing situation because of choices I had made. Complaining was not going to make things better. I had two decisions that I could make. I could choose to change my attitude or I could choose to change my job. I chose to change my job. I vividly remember the day I left my job. I drove my car about two blocks away, stopped, got out and danced around it while pumping my fist in the air. Any depression was instantly gone and without the use of drugs. My new situation payed me twice as much with only putting in half as much time. I can't believe how much of my life I wasted by laying down in my anger and depression. Life is just to short to play that game. So, if you've fallen down, find a way to get up and get on with your life. You deserve to be happy and healthy. Your family deserves to have you that way too. Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down.



12. Find a plan that works for you. Why would you want to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to invent the wheel when it has already been invented? What a waste of time and energy. Successful people don't do all the work themselves. They leverage their time by finding others who have more expertise than them and they use them to reach their goals faster. What if you found a "tried-and-true" program that could help you accomplish your goals in half the time that you could on your own? Wouldn't that make sense? "Well," you say, "some programs can cost a lot of money." Have you compared that to the cost of going-it-alone and wasting 6-8 months of time learning from all your mistakes? Have you counted the cost of failure lately? Now, which is more expensive? I am looking for something that saves me time and money in the long run. I am looking for something that works and has an impressive track record of success. A money-back-guarantee would be nice too.

So, make a plan today to get up and start over. It is never too late to start dreaming again. It is never too late to get your life back on track. Happiness is a choice. If you have to choose between misery and happiness, choose to be happy.

You, On A Diet . . . Again!

Release the hounds! It is diet season again, sports fans! The diet aisle in my local bookstore is loaded with people looking for the that hot selling new book that will give them the latest "secret" diet plan. Needless to say, it might be the twentieth book they have bought over the years, but who is counting. From pills, potions and programs to gadgets, diet food and drinks, we're gobbling them up, seeking an easy solution to our weight problems.

Weight-loss plans promise to help you shed pounds, but lots of them will do nothing more than lighten your wallet. Americans spend about $50 billion a year on weight-loss products. Before you lay out some serious cash for that new product, program or gadget, consider this. Only 5-10% of the 50 million people who go on a diet this year will actually succeed, lose the weight and keep it off.

Hey, we are Americans. We like things to be easy and we like things NOW! We are suckers for anything that says "Eat all you want and still lose weight" or "Melt away fat while you sleep." We find it hard to believe in this age of scientific breakthroughs and medical miracles that an effortless weight-loss method doesn't exist. But it doesn't.

Fraudulent fat-fighting programs were the most common consumer scam of 2007, the Better Business Bureau said, noting that complaints about diet programs have surged more than 40% in the last five years. In New York, complaints about health, beauty and fitness companies jumped 50% in just the past year.

Diet schemes run the gamut from weight-loss tea - which turns out to be little more than a warm drink - to supposed fat-dissolving injections that resulted in extensive swelling and pain, but not the hot body being promised.

Here are a few pointers when looking at a new diet plan:

1. Advertising can be deceptive, so don't believe everything you read.

An FTC review of more than 300 ads from radio, television, magazines and newspapers that ran during 2001-2002 found that a whopping 55 percent made claims promising more than the product or service could likely deliver.

Claims such as "rapid weight loss," "no diet or exercise required," "eat whatever you want" and "take it off and keep it off" are all hot buttons that advertisers use to get consumers to buy their products and services. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

2. 'Scientifically proven' or 'doctor-endorsed' doesn't mean it works.

Many products claim to be tested at "respected," "major" or "leading" medical centers or universities. Check it out. Find out if the medical center or university even exist! Where was the study conducted and where was it actually published and by whom? Was the doctor a medical doctor or a doctor of philosophy? Is he a real doctor or does he just play one on TV?!?

"Often there's no scientific evidence behind Dr. X's claims," notes Dr. George Blackburn, a member of the government-sponsored Partnership for Healthy Weight Management and assistant director of nutrition medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

And often the endorsements fail to disclose that the health professional doing the recommending has a financial interest in the product, or that he or she may not have reviewed the scientific evidence. Even if it was reviewed, he or she may not have used acceptable review standards.

3. Testimonials are not a good indicator of a product's success.

Have you ever taken a hard look at the before and after pictures that come along with the testimonials? They are hilarious. Typically, in the "before" photos, the person appears with poor posture, a neutral facial expression, unkempt hair, unfashionable clothes and washed-out skin tones. The "after" photos generally are better lit. The person stands with shoulders held back, tummy tucked in, wearing smarter-looking clothes and is carefully made up, coiffed and smiling.


Sometimes companies take healthy people, make them overeat and the "after" picture shown is really what the person looked like before they began overeating.

4. Just because the government allows it on the market doesn't mean it's safe or does what it claims.

People mistakenly think that the FDA is monitoring everything that is being put out there on the market. It gives them a false sense of security and nothing could be further from the truth.

The majority of diet products on the market today are dietary supplements. Under the DSHEA, or Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act passed by Congress in 1994, the law doesn't require the manufacturers of dietary supplements to demonstrate that their product is safe or efficacious before it goes on the market.

In the last 10 years, the FTC has brought over 100 cases against manufacturers for false and misleading claims and advertising. That is a drop in the bucket as to what is really out there.
Unless there is an "adverse affect" (something really bad) that is reported, they don't even have time to look at it. People have to die or get really sick before they will even look into it.

5. Don't believe everything you hear.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Mark Nutritionals Inc., a Texas-based company selling the Body Solutions Evening Weight Formula, advertised on the radio that you could shed unwanted pounds in your sleep without having to change your diet or exercise. How silly.

They had a really slick advertising campaign in three states. They used local DJ's to spread the word as they supplied them with product and compensated them well to share the weight loss gospel. The advertising was not misleading. It was false and bogus. The FTC went after them and Mark Nutritionals is no longer operational.

6. 'Natural' or 'herbal' doesn't guarantee safety.

One "natural" diet supplement in the news lately is ephedra. It's an amphetamine-like diet supplement derived from the Chinese herb ma huang and has been found to constrict the blood vessels, speed the heart rate and raise blood pressure.

The FDA received more than 16,000 complaints of adverse reactions to the herb, which is found in more than 200 dietary supplements sold over the counter. It has been linked to 155 deaths from heart attacks and strokes. Hundreds of ephedra victims have filed suit.

Recently, after more than six years of study, the FDA announced plans to ban the "fat-burning" herb ephedra, declaring it a hazard even for healthy adults.

But ephedra is not the only "natural" product on the FDA's watch list. It has issued warnings of "possible health hazards" against herb-supplement products containing chaparral, comfrey, willow bark and wormwood. Additional items on the watch list include supplements and so-called dieter's teas that contain senna, cascara, aloe, buckthorn and other plant-derived laxatives.

7. Fad diets don't work.
ALL of them are doomed for failure. Fad diets are a temporary solution to a long term problem. You don't need a diet. You need a long term lifestyle change. You don't need a rapid, unhealthy amount of weight loss. What goes up must come down. In terms of weight loss, it should be "What goes down, will eventually come back up (and more)." Losing it slow and steady is much healthier and gives you a better chance of keeping it off.

Hundreds of fad diets have been published over the years. If any one of them truly worked, there wouldn't be the need for another one.

8. Nothing is free. It will cost you.

All three of the largest national weight loss chains -- Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and LA Weight Loss -- continue to make millions in revenue. In 2003, Weight Watchers' revenue was approximately $943 million, while Jenny Craig saw $280 million and LA Weight Loss climbed from revenues of $105 million in 2001 to $250 million and counting in 2003.

While costs vary for each program, they could be worth it if you stick with it and do it in a healthy way. The costs of obesity are extremely high. Think about that for a moment. It's not a cosmetics issue. Successful weight loss of even five to 10 pounds can save hundreds of dollars per person and hundreds of millions of dollars to the economy in health-care costs. Programs that teach you a healthy diet and lifestyle produce the best outcomes.

9. There is no magic bullet.


Some dieters place their hopes on pills and capsules that promise to "burn," "block" or "flush" fat from the body. But science has yet to come up with a low-risk magic bullet for weight loss. Some pills may control appetite but can have serious side effects. Amphetamines, for instance, are highly addictive and can have an adverse impact on the heart and central nervous system. Other pills are utterly worthless.

Let's be realistic. You can't solve years of overeating overnight. There are no shortcuts. Exercise, proper sleep, healthy eating, nutritional supplementation and a permanent lifestyle change are the path to success.

Oh, and just in case you thought that diet sodas and other products that have aspartame, Splenda, sucralose, saccharin or other artificial sweeteners in them might be a help in losing weight, think again. Click here to read why they may be MAKING you fat!

Here is to your success this year. May this be the year that you make your breakthrough to better health and more energy to live a long and happy life. You deserve it. Be smart and do your homework and you should be on your way very soon.

If you want to learn what the Three Reasons Why Diets Fail are and what to do about it, check out my blog entry from December 31, 2007: Why Diets Fail

Another excellent post on this topic can be found on the Health and Fitness blog. Click on the following link to read Tom's post on "Health And Fitness Is Not A 12 Week Program."

P.S. Michael F. Roizen, MD, and Mehmet C. Oz, MD have written a great non-diet book called "You On A Diet." In it, they state that your waist size is more important than weight, because belly fat is so strongly linked to many health risks. So ditch the scale in favor of the tape measure. Good book.