Nutrition

5 expert-approved ways to tip the scale in your favor

By Ashley Balcerzak,

You see them all the time—infomercials, emails, and Facebook posts that claim to have the secret to dropping those stubborn winter pounds so you look better on the beach this summer. They pitch a “breakthrough” diet or a metabolism-boosting extract. Often, it doesn’t live up to the promise.

That’s exactly what we’re here to save you from. “A hugely important thing to remember is that there are no weight-loss ‘secrets,’ ” says Alan Aragon, M.S., and the Men’s Health weight-loss coach. “Time, patience, and determination are required, along with owning up to the fact that it’s a difficult process.” There are no tricks that can transform you into Cristiano Ronaldo, and thinking they exist only leads to discouragement and failure.

So what does work? We spoke with five of the top weight-loss specialists in the country, and each offered one piece of advice to help you work toward the body you want.

The Advice: Remember basic math.

The Expert: Alan Aragon, M.S., Men’s Health weight-loss coach

To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume, says Aragon. Common sense, right? As most of us know, that simple rule can be hard to follow if your diet doesn’t allow for your favorite foods. Aragon’s solution: Plan “cheat days” where you can eat what you want, but plan ahead so you still end up with a calorie deficit for the week.

And while you want to incorporate exercise, don’t over-rely on it. or you’ll burn yourself out with endless cardio or gym sessions, Aragon says. Instead, have a plan and follow it consistently. If your nutrition and fitness schedule concludes with two days of pushing yourself to the limit, says Aragon, you’re doing something wrong.

The Advice: Eat real food.

The Expert: David Katz, M.D., founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center

At the request of scientific publisher Annual Reviews, Dr. Katz pursued the question: What mainstream diet works best? He scoured through the options, from Paleo to vegan and much more. After weighing the pros and cons of each strategy, Katz found no clear winner. He did discover a helpful common pattern: Consuming real foods—or minimally processed foods, including plants—promotes health and prevents disease. “Focus on these foods and the nutrients will sort themselves out,” says Katz.

Need help sorting through processed products? With the help of top nutritional experts, Katz developed Nuval, a guide that calculates a food’s nutritional score. The higher the number, the greater the health value.

The Advice: Eat foods fill you up.

The Expert: Christopher Mohr, PH.D., RD, president of Mohr Results in Louisville, Kentucky

Refined carbohydrates are foods from which the grain—and most of the nutritional value—is extracted when processed. Think white bread, pretzels, and plain pasta. They spike your blood sugar which then drops like a roller-coaster, making you hungry for more. Replace refined carbs with a cup of fat-free cottage cheese with fruit or wild salmon, Mohr says. The protein-filled foods will keep you fuller and prevent overeating, as well as helping you build and maintain lean-muscle mass. Choosing foods with 20 to 30 grams of protein and/or more healthy fiber is crucial, says Mohr.

The Advice: Strive for average.

The Expert: Mike Roussell, PH.D., Men’s Health nutrition advisor  

 Reaching for the middle doesn’t seem like the right way to approach a goal, but in this case, average is good. Trying to do too much too soon—losing 20 pounds of fat or gaining 20 pounds of muscle in a month—is a recipe for disaster, Roussell says. These aggressive goals lead to extremes in calorie-cutting and binging, called hyperbolic dieting, and produces unsustainable, short-term results. “Ask yourself—is my diet today the average of what I’d like it to always be? If the answer is yes, then you are doing it right,” Roussell says.

The Advice: Eliminate mindless munching.

The Expert: David Sarwer, Ph.D., director of the Albert J. Stunkard Weight Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania

“In our overly scheduled daily lives, we rarely pay attention to what we eat and drink throughout the day,” Sarwer says. Instead of running to the vending machine every time your stomach rumbles, plan out healthy snack breaks throughout the day. Trade a low-calorie snack bar for that bagel in the break room, or a handful of almonds to replace your afternoon bag of chips. The simple act of thinking about and controlling what you consume will work wonders.

Here are  seven steps to create life-improving habits. 

1) Decide on the ONE habit that you would like to develop. It’s tempting to pick up 3 or 4 healthy habits, but choosing just one new habit is realistic and doable.  Looking to change too many things like cleaning up your eating, quitting smoking, starting to exercise, stopping frivolous spending and keeping the house organized is setting yourself up to fail.

PICK ONE THING – Choose the ONE thing that you think would have the biggest impact to improve your life TODAY.

Make baby steps towards your goal. Set yourself up for SUCCESS by doing things one at a time, one day at a time.

Here are some healthy habit ideas:

• Don’t eat after 7pm each night.
• Bring your lunch to work instead of eating fast food.
• Exercise 4 times a week before work for 20 minutes.
• Reduce sugar intake.
• Eat more protein.

2) Write your new habit down on paper. Also include your 3 main motivators for developing this new habit, the obstacles you’ll face, and your strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Here’s an example:

• My new habit is to workout 3-4 times a week.
• My 3 main motivators are 1) to feel confident in my bathing suit this summer, 2) to have more energy, and 3) to fit into my jeans more comfortably.
• The obstacles I will face are 1) not having the energy to go to my session after work, 2) not having enough money to pay for sessions, and 3) not having my spouse’s support.
• I will overcome these obstacles by 1) doing my workouts before work instead of after work, so I have more energy, 2) cutting down on frivolous spending to ensure that I can afford it, and 3) asking my spouse to join me so we can get in shape together.

3) Commit fully to your new habit, in a public way. This could mean posting it on Facebook, or simply announcing it at the dinner table. Put yourself in a position where you’ll be embarrassed to give up on your new habit. 

4) Keep track of your progress. You could keep a detailed journal or simply make a check mark on each calendar day that you successfully exercise your new habit. 

5) Keep yourself publicly accountable. This means either status updates on Facebook or verbal status updates at the dinner table. Your friends and family are in a position to offer you support, so don’t shy away from those close to you.  

6) When you fail, figure out what went wrong so that you can plan around it in the future. 

7) Reward yourself for your success. Ensure your reward supports your overall goal. So if your goal is to reduce sugar, your reward shouldn’t be a sugary treat. Think of a non-food reward that you’ll enjoy.

Wouldn’t it be nice to experience this sort of success?

The world isn’t what it used to be.

Everyday our bodies are under attack because we now live in an era of relentless toxic exposure from plastics, pesticides, and obesity additives.

These harmful chemicals can be found everywhere. They are in the water we drink, the foods we eat, and the very air we breathe. And don’t forget about all the lotions, creams, shampoos, deodorants, and air fresheners we use.

Even our cookware can be toxic. Byproducts from Teflon pans, plastic particles from spatulas, and cooking sprays loaded with propellants.

Dangerous compounds like insecticides, PCB’s, heavy metals, benzene, dioxin, phthalates, pesticides, DDT metabolites, flame retardants, styrene, xylene and dichlorobenzene…all have been routinely found in the stool, urine and blood of average people all around the globe just like YOU.

Even newborn infants, not yet exposed to the outside world, are in danger.

In 2005, the American Red Cross took samples of fetal cord blood from 10 newborns and found a shocking 287 chemicals inside the samples, which included dioxins, phthalates, pesticides, Teflon byproducts, flame retardants and many others.

And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. A study published in the journal Neurotoxicology took samples of the first bowel movement of 426 infants.

– 84% contained mercury

– 27% contained lead

– 27% percent had DDT, a pesticide that was banned in the US for the last 25+ years

There’s no escaping this toxic burden.

It’s ALL inside your body right now and it’s harming your cells, causing severe inflammation, clogging up your liver, stopping your body from getting rid of unwanted belly fat – and it’s aging your body at an accelerated rate.

Fortunately, there are few simple “tweaks” you can make to your diet, starting today, that can help your body eliminate this toxic burden and get your fat loss moving again, while helping you look and feel younger.

I’ve spent the last several years teaching these simple fat flushing techniques to men and women of all ages. All you have to do is simply add the 4 foods below into your nutrition plan, and you can instantly begin your fight against the chemical burden that’s inside your body at this very moment.

But proceed with caution: What you’re about to discover is not some extreme cleansing plan, or a dangerous detox method that you normally hear about in health and fitness circles. In fact, it’s so stupid simple and easy to use, that your local health professional will probably think I’m nuts. But I am NOT!

These 4 foods will help you purify your body
of chemical build-up, reduce chronic
inflammation, cleanse your liver of fat storing
toxins and flush away your “trapped” fat –
all in 7 days or LESS.

You read it right. Simply add these 4 foods below to your diet, starting today, and it will take you less than 7 short days to dramatically reduce inflammation and cleanse your liver – helping you begin the process of flushing away your “trapped” fat cells.

Plus, Four “Common Yet Dangerous” Oils You Should Never
Eat… If You Want to Heal, Beautify and Restore Your Body!

Mother Nature is incredibly generous in the way she provides – offering a bounty of fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins, minerals and nutrients to nourish your body so you can enjoy a long healthy life.

One fruit in particular – the coconut – is so abundant in its healing properties it’s referred to as “the tree of life.” And before World War II, people living in island countries, like the Philippines, consumed a diet that consisted mainly of rice, root crops, vegetables and an abundance of the ultra-healing superfood, the coconut.

The coconut is a “functional food” rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber – the essential nutritional building blocks for perfect health.

For generations, island people considered it “The Cure for All Illness” and consumed the meat, milk and coconut oil daily. Although this diet was high in saturated fat, Western conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart disease were virtually unheard of.

Filipinos and islanders were instead rewarded with a lovely youthful complexion, soft wrinkle-free skin, almost no skin cancer – even with excessive exposure to year round sun – and abundant good health.

Coconut oil in particular has been shown to protect you from viruses, bacteria, infection, cancer, thyroid, brain and heart problems… plus beautifies your skin – and even burns fat!

Coconut oil – a saturated fat – is chock-full of health-promoting properties – and is in no way responsible for high cholesterol, obesity, heart disease and the bad effects you’ve been led to believe.

Finally, modern medicine and science are starting to realize this fundamental truth… and it’s been a long time coming. But sadly not before heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and a whole host of other catastrophic diseases have reached epidemic proportions!

The Saturated-Fat Myth That Robbed
You of Your Good Health!

The Four Unhealthy
“Healthy Oils” You Should Never Consume!

Canola – Animals and insects avoid it in nature, here’s why you should too…There is no such thing as a canola in nature. Canola oil is actually a modified version of rapeseed oil. Asian and Indian cultures used rapeseed oil for centuries, but it was never consumed in the large quantities that Americans do.

The rape plant (in the mustard family) contains cyanide-containing compounds and wild animals and even insects avoid it in nature.

The refining process of deodorizing and bleaching to become canola oil involves exposing rapeseed oil to high heat, which greatly reduces the omega 3 content (perhaps it’s only original redeeming factor).

Consumption of this “GMO Oil” has been linked to muscular disorders and fatty degeneration of the heart, kidneys, adrenals and thyroid gland. To avoid it, check labels closely – even in so-called healthy products – because it’s practically everywhere.