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How to lose 0.71 lbs per day — break homeostasis

by Dr. Kareem F. Samhouri – CSCS, HFS

Fat loss isn’t complicated — the methods behind fat loss can be — instead of focusing on ‘which’ method is the most important or most reliable, think about your health logically. Weight loss (or gain) is all about peaks and valleys, and there’s a physiological reason for this: homeostasis.

Homeostasis is a fancy term for describing when your body is efficient, or in a state of equilibrium.

When your body reaches a new weight and stays there for a little while, it becomes incredibly good at protecting this ‘zone’ of weight. The reason being that every fluctuation in your body results in a multi-system approach to adapt to new demands — your heart requires a different strength per beat to get blood to your toes and fingers, your lung capacity changes depending upon the size of your belly, and your digestive tract gets re-positioned slightly depending upon the distribution of fat on your body.

When your body finally adapts to its new position and its new demands, it gets very efficient — the goal of your body is to use the least amount of energy for any given process — this way, you never run out of energy and end up passing out. This state of ‘body balance’ is referred to as ‘homeostasis’ and is well understood in all scientific research to be how our bodies work.

Naturally, we need to disrupt ‘homeostasis’ for fat loss to take place; otherwise, your body will actually seek to put the weight back on, as every time it has to adjust, it becomes inefficient all over again. The time period for ‘body adaptation’ to take place is 6 weeks, during which time ‘plasticity’ takes place. Plasticity refers to a permanent neurological change in your body that allows your body to recognize something new as its own. Here’s a common example of plasticity that you probably already know, but without the fancy terminology:

Muscle memory — “It’s like riding a bike.” — Despite many years without riding a bike, we seem to be able to re-learn this skill within a couple of minutes. This is a result of our brains recognizing that we’re attempting to ride a bike and choosing nerve tracts to carry out the movement that are highly efficient and were used in the past.

Riding a bike is easy for life once you learn it properly.

Now, what happens when we apply ‘plasticity’ and ‘homeostasis’ to weight loss?

First, your bodies adapt to a new demand (diet and exercise program), which causes you to lose weight.
Second, we sustain your new weight for 6 weeks, helping your body recognize this new bodyweight as ‘normal.’ Your body responds by creating ‘homeostasis,’ or a balanced state where it becomes efficient at this weight.
Third, we disrupt the balance of your body all over again and start on a new fat loss or body image goal.

By using peaks and valleys in your fat loss approach, we are nearly eliminating any chance of rebound weight gain. Plus, you’ll be able to lose a lot of fat quickly, which feels good — losing weight quickly, balancing out, and then doing it again allows you to see a result in the mirror, stay motivated, and continue to progress.

Fat loss also becomes easy for life once you learn how to communicate with your body and sustain any results you get.

From now on, let’s ‘Interval Train Fat Loss’ — use peaks and valleys to communicate with your body that it’s time for change, how to cope with the change, and then how to produce some more. Let your body learn over time that when you want to lose fat, you mean it, and you’re going to get results you can handle. Your body will stop fighting with you when you allow it enough time to balance out your hormones, movement planning, digestive issues, respiration, and circulation. This all starts with something I’ve termed ‘Body Self-Communication’ — learning how to tell your body when you’re ready for change, and how to listen when it responds.

Losing 0.71 pounds per day and keeping it off is as simple as developing a short-term plan, holding onto your results for 6 weeks, and then repeating the plan. During your peak periods, losing up to a pound per day should be very doable with the right plan — and, most importantly, you’ll be able to hold onto your results by cycling in valleys along the way.

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The New Superfoods

Nutrition

Kefir
It has more protein and less sugar than yogurt, but with the same creamy texture, tangy taste, and probiotics. These healthy bacteria are a known immune enhancer, and may protect against colon cancer, says Tamara Freuman, R.D.

Try it: Instead of yogurt in salad dressings or smoothies. Plain kefir is in the dairy aisle, but Lifeway also makes a dessert-ready frozen variety (lifeway.net).
Jicama
This slightly sweet and crunchy root veggie stars inulin, a belly-flattening fiber that acts as a prebiotic to promote helpful bacteria in the gut. It’s also an excellent source of vitamin C, which may boost collagen and fight wrinkles.

Try it:Cooked or raw in slaws, stir-fries, tacos, and salads, or tossed in lime juice and sprinkled with chili powder. Find it at farmers’ markets or Mexican groceries.
Chia
One tablespoon of these nutty-tasting edible seeds has as much fiber as a bowl of oatmeal, plus bone-building calcium and heart-healthy omega-3s. Chia is also a good source of iron, which many women don’t get enough of, notes Freuman.

Try it:On cereal, salads, and soups, or use it to thicken puddings and stir-fries. (The seeds absorb liquid and acquire a gel-like texture.) Available at natural grocery stores.
Sprouts
Three-day-old broccoli plants may contain up to 50 times more of the anticancer agent sulforaphane than mature stalks– but without the pungent taste, says Kate Geagan, R.D., author of Go Green Get Lean.

Try them:On sandwiches, wraps, pizza, baked potatoes, stews, stir-fries, tacos, and just about anything else you can think of. Pick some up at your grocery store or local farmers’ market.
Black Garlic
Fermentation gives this garlic its sweet, clove-and-caramel flavor and concentrates its natural antioxidants to nearly double that of a raw bulb. These compounds help lower cholesterol and can help decrease cancer risk, says Janet Helm, R.D., of NutritionUnplugged.com. And the black stuff comes with no nasty breath!

Try it:In fondue, sauces, pizza, and, believe
Kelp
A possible anti-breast-cancer crusader, kelp is loaded with vitamin K, calcium, and other essential nutrients. And its natural alginate fiber may help block fat, says nutritionist Christine Avanti.

Try it: In powdered form, mixed into meatballs and soups; use sheets (kombu) as uber-low-cal wrappers. Some specialty stores carry Sea Tangle Kelp Noodles (kelpnoodles.com), which have just six calories per serving!
Nutritional Yeast
A single serving of these cheese-like flakes has an incredible nine grams of satiating protein and provides more than your RDA of B vitamins to help boost energy, squash stress, and decrease your risk for chronic diseases.

Try it:As a dairy-free sub for Parmesan on popcorn, potatoes, pasta, or scrambled eggs. You can find this yeast in specialty markets or health-food stores.
Barley
This sweet, nutty supergrain is rich in niacin (for healthy hair and skin) and cancer-fighting lignans. Plus, “the soluble fiber keeps your cholesterol levels healthy, cutting your risk for heart disease,” says Geagan.

Try it: In place of pasta, rice, or oatmeal. Or swap Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Barley Flour (bobsredmill.com) for up to a third of the flour in baked goods. Both are available at regular grocery stores.

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The 7 Laws of Leanness

Nutrition

7. LAW #1: Lean People Don’t Diet:

What? Of course lean people diet! They’re just magically better at denying themselves than the rest of us are, right?

No. In reality, studies show that the number one predictor of future weight gain is being on a diet right now. Part of the reason is that restricting calories reduces strength, bone density, and muscle mass—and muscle is your body’s number-one calorie burner. So by dieting, you’re actually setting yourself up to gain more weight than ever. And a recent study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine showed that tracking your diet in a food journal can actually boost your stress levels, which in turn increases your level of a hormone called cortisol, and cortisol is linked to—you guessed it—weight gain.

6. LAW #2: Lean People Don’t Go Fat-Free:

A European study tracked nearly 90,000 people for several years and discovered that participants who tried to eat “low fat” had the same risk of being overweight as those who ate whatever they wanted.

Fat doesn’t make you fat, period. Indeed, you need fat in your diet to help you process certain nutrients, like vitamins A, D, and E, for example. And many “fat-free” foods are loaded with sugar, and therefore have even more calories than their full-fat cousins. Even the American Heart Association says that fat-free labels lead to higher consumption of unhealthy sweets. Fat keeps you full and satisfied. Fat-free will send you running back to the fridge in an hour, hungry for more.

5. LAW #3: Lean People Sit Down to Eat:

In fact, the more you sit down and enjoy your food, the leaner you’re going to be. Punishing yourself only makes you fat!

Greek researchers recently reported that eating more slowly and savoring your meal can boost levels of two hormones that make you feel fuller. And researchers at Cornell University found that when people sat down at the table with already full plates of food, they consumed up to 35 percent less than they did when eating family-style—that is, by passing serving dishes around the table.

4. LAW #4: Lean People Know What They’re Going to Eat Next:

Planning your responses to hunger may help you shed pounds faster, say Dutch researchers. They posed their subjects questions like “If you’re hungry at 4 p.m., then . . . what?” Those who had an answer (“I’ll snack on some almonds”) were more successful at losing weight than those who didn’t have an answer.

3. LAW #5: Lean People Eat Protein:

In a recent European study, people who ate moderately high levels of protein were twice as likely to lose weight and keep it off as those who didn’t eat much protein.

A New England Journal of Medicine study looked at a variety of eating plans and discovered that eating a diet high in protein and low in refined starches (like white bread) was the most effective for weight loss. Protein works on two levels: First, you burn more calories to digest it. Second, because your body has to work harder to digest a Big Mac than, say, a Ho Ho, you stay fuller longer.

2. LAW #6: Lean People Move Around:

I don’t mean climbing Kilimanjaro, breaking the tape at the Boston Marathon, or spending 24 hours at 24 Hour Fitness. I mean going for a short bike ride (20 minutes burns 200 calories), taking a leisurely walk (145 calories every 51 minutes), wrestling with your kids (another 100 calories smoked in 22 minutes), or fishing (there’s 150 calories gone in an hour—even more if you actually catch something).

Simply put, fit people stay fit by having fun. Scientists have a name for how you burn calories just enjoying yourself. It’s called NEAT: non-exercise activity thermogenesis. Sounds complicated, like something only policy wonks at a global warming summit are qualified to discuss. But it’s pretty simple: Pick a few activities that you enjoy, from tossing a stick for your dog to bowling with your best friend, and just do them more often. The average person makes 200 decisions every day that affect his or her weight. If you choose the fun option more often than not, you’ll see results.

1. LAW #7: Lean People Watch Less TV:

Instead of calling it the boob tube, maybe we should call it the man-boob tube. About 18 percent of people who watch less than two hours of TV a day have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more—the cutoff line for obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But of those who watch more than four hours of TV a day, nearly 30 percent have a BMI that high, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Look, I like TV. But all things in moderation: In a study at the University of Vermont, overweight participants who cut their daily TV time in half (from an average of 5 hours to 2.5 hours) burned an extra 119 calories a day. And a recent study of people who successfully lost weight found that 63 percent of them watched less than 10 hours of TV a week. Want more? A study in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine reported that lean people have an average of 2.6 television sets in their homes. Overweight people have an average of 3.4. Finally, researchers in Australia recently discovered that every hour in front of the television trims 22 minutes from your life. Yikes!

Thanks for reading!

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And the #1 worst carb ever is…

Nutrition

And the #1 worst carb ever is…

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Although high fructose corn syrup (called HFCS and “corn sugar”) may sound healthy, it actually is anything but. This dirt cheap, chemically-altered sweetener shuts down leptin, a fat-regulating hormone in your body that is responsible for sending “hunger signals” from your stomach to your brain.

Essentially leptin lets you know when you’re full. And when your brain doesn’t get the message, you keep eating and eating and eating while the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup, and the products that contain it, keep making more and more and more money.

Here’s an example from a recent study. Test subjects were divided into two groups—one was given a glucose (sugar) beverage to add to their diet, while the other group was given a beverage containing high fructose corn syrup to add to their diets. While both test groups gained weight, the group consuming high fructose corn syrup packed on intra-abdominal fat (or belly fat).

Why is that so startling?

It’s because this particular kind of fat causes diabetes and heart disease. So, not only is high fructose corn syrup causing you to eat more than you should, it is literally putting your health at risk.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes 42 pounds of HFCS a year. That’s more than 75,000 empty calories that have no nutritional value! What’s more, teenagers are consuming 15 to 20 teaspoons of HFCS a day when they need to be eating nutrient-dense foods for growth and lifelong health.

It’s no wonder that The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that HFCS use increased by 4,000% between 1970 and 1990. The manufacturers of HFCS really are cashing in big… just like drug dealers… while America is adding belly fat at a very dangerous rate.

Speaking of a drug, have you ever indulged in a sweet dessert that just wouldn’t fill you up no matter how much you ate? One of those treats that you have no self-control over, like, oh, I don’t know… maybe soft drinks, fruit juices, energy drinks, ice cream, pudding, jellies, most “fat-free” foods, chocolate, crackers, cereals, syrups, candies, or desserts? If that’s the case, you may want to check out the food label. Chances are it contains a large amount of high fructose corn syrup.

And remember, on American food labels ingredients are listed in order of the most abundant to the least. So if, for example, you see HFCS listed anywhere in the first five ingredients, that’s very bad. Instead, you’ll want to choose a version that doesn’t contain HFCS at all.

As an alternative to HFCS, I recommend the new zero- or low-calorie sweeteners like truvia™, Z-Sweet®, and Sun Crystals™ that are made with natural sources, such as erythritol and stevia. You can find these at most grocery stores. These natural sweeteners can be used instead of sugar packets in your hot beverages, on oatmeal, and even in baked goods to some extent.

It’s important to remember that you should use all sugar alternatives, even natural ones, sparingly. Let your body learn that it doesn’t need sweets all the time to be satisfied, and you’ll be on the fast track to better health.

Now, while High Fructose Corn Syrup just may be the #1 worst carb ever, does that mean you should be avoiding ALL carbohydrates? Absolutely not! Carbs aren’t the enemy, just like fat isn’t…these nutrients are a healthy part of any wholesome fat-burning diet.

REMEMBER SUGAR IS SUGAR

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Lose Weight Faster!

Nutrition

Double dip to lose weight fast. Tackling diet and exercise goals at the same time produces better results than focusing on one before the other, says a new study in Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Researchers split inactive people with poor eating habit into three groups: one that started an exercise program, then a diet a few months later; another that dieted first, then exercised; and a third that initiated both. A year later, the third group was the only one that still met guidelines for exercise and healthy eating.

The findings challenge common weight loss advice to work on one healthy habit at a time. But making both healthy behaviors a priority from the beginning helps make sure one doesn’t slip off your radar, says lead researcher Abby C. King, Ph.D., a professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine.

The key to success is small, gradual changes, says King. For example, use a pedometer to log more steps than you did the day before, and add one more fruit a day (or nix the chips with lunch). You’ll be able to build on your initial changes in the later weeks to achieve bigger goals—and results, King says.

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