This Is Why You’re Fat:
Really Surprising Reasons

Jasmine at Nurse Practitioner Schools recently emailed me an article they have on their website and has gaven me permission to publish it. Discover some of the reasons why you may not be able to lose body weight & stubborn fat. Also make time to check out their website www.nursepractitionerschools.org for more health info .

We all know that eating too much and exercising too little are sure-fire ways to get fat and unhealthy. But did you know that things like your marital status and pesticides can influence your weight, too? Here, we'll take a look at surprising reasons why you might be overweight.

You're not sleeping enough. You may be gaining weight due to a lack of sleep. Your body experiences stress from not getting enough sleep, which causes you to store fat more efficiently. Little sleep also contributes to stress, which may make you turn to food for coping.

You're married. Many couples gain an average of 5 pounds within two years of marriage. Together, your food choices are compromised, and your eating habits change. When you have someone to eat dinner with every night, you're more likely to have a large meal with multiple courses.

You're taking prescription drugs. Certain drugs can cause weight gain, fluid retention, and increased appetite. Read the fine print on your prescription and talk to your doctor about how your drugs can impact other areas of your health. If you must take a prescription with these side effects, talk to your doctor about what you can do to balance them out.

You're stressed out. As you cope with life's demands, you may also be adding to your waistline. Many people reach for food to deal with stress. Additionally, the fight or flight response that happens with stress triggers a process that causes our bodies to store fuel and slow down metabolism.

You drink too much. Even infrequent binge drinking can contribute to abdominal fat. Four or more drinks on one occasion, even just once a week will likely cause weight gain. People who drink small amounts more regularly are significantly less susceptible to weight gain from alcohol. Hard liquor drinkers are especially at risk.

You're starving yourself. Although eating less food is a good way to lose weight, taking it to the extreme is harmful. When you deprive yourself of food, it is counterproductive. Starvation causes the body to store food and slow your metabolism, which in the long run will cause you to gain weight. Instead, you should eat small, regular meals.

You weren't breast fed. At this point, there's nothing you can do about it, but bottle-fed babies (who grow into adults) have an increased obesity rate. You can't change your past, but if you decide to have children, you should breastfeed them if you are able.

You're going through menopause. As women reach menopause, they experience a natural slowing of metabolism. Menopause's hormonal changes can also bring on depression, hunger, and insufficient sleep. Estrogen favors weight gain in the lower body, so with a loss of this hormone, women going through menopause often gain more weight in the middle.

You're ingesting "obesogens." Obesogens are chemicals that alter your metabolism hormones and cause us to gain weight. They are also known as "endocrine-disrupting chemicals." Common obesogens are Bisophenol A, found in plastic, can linings, and baby teething toys; PFOA and PFOS on non-stick pans, stain-resistant clothing, carpets, and more; phthalates in soft plastics, fragrances, and other consumer products; as well as pesticides found in food and other products.

My comments:
As you can see from the list above there are more reasons other than a bad diet & lack of exercise that can have an adverse affect on your waistline and health.

In my opinion the first and foremost action to take when it comes to dieting and improving the way you look is to forget about calories and think nutrients! The complete opposite to what the diet industry tells you to do. Your body only knows nutrients contrary to what you may believe. If you eat a slice of cake your body doesn’t scream oh no here comes 500 calories, then says to itself, not to worry because if I only get fed another 500 calories today everything will be all right. If this were the case there would be a lot more thin people. Those people who live on low calorie diets that consist of nothing but processed food would all be slim but this isn’t the case. Listen very carefully to what I am telling you, calories in versus calories out is out of date science. It looks like the right thing on paper but in reality it doesn’t work.

Your body sees foods as chemicals and nothing more. If you get the balance wrong with processed foods or if you eat too many carbohydrates, proteins or fats then everything changes. Before you know it the nutrients don’t get to where your body needs them and hormones are released to cope with the biological stress. This leads to muscle loss and a slow metabolism ending with you piling on the pounds.

Get it right and your body will need a lot less food to feel satisfied and full. All you have to do is dump processed foods and eat natural foods in a ratio to suit your body. This way you will control the hormones that store fat and the hormones that make you feel hungry.

Thanks for reading
Anthony

The summer months are here and I’m not surprised the warmer weather encourages more people to take up exercise and show more interest in looking after themselves. It can be the best time of the year if you are in good shape, more confidence and excuses to wear what you want without feeling uncomfortable. On the other hand it can be the worse time of the year if you aren’t in tip top condition. After all it is the only time of the year when we go about our day-to-day business wearing less clothing because of the heat, meaning fewer options to cover up problem areas of the body. Our body shape says a lot about ourselves and practically reveals what kind of diet and lifestyle we lead. This is difficult to hide in summer clothes.

Remember your diet and fitness looks after your body shape. There is no better incentive to get motivated then the hotter weather and booked holidays at home and abroad.

I get enquires all year round from first timers who are interested in personal training and what to expect. I’m going to use this space this month to attempt to briefly explain the process in as few words as possible.

The first step is to arrange a free consultation to discuss what the person wants to achieve. I prefer a face-to-face meeting to phone consultations because it gives me a chance to know the person’s strengths and weaknesses. This can be difficult to gauge over the phone and it is far too essential to risk not getting correct if I am to be the one responsible for their goals. This is what I get paid to do, to help people reach their goal. From this meeting I can draft up a plan of action that will put the persons goal into motion. All diet and exercise principles are covered and fully explained. Progression is the key and my coaching methods comply with this rule. In a nutshell this is the foundation of my business. Nothing glam or complicated because if you aren’t doing the basics then there is no point worrying about anything fancy.

I still believe I am years ahead of the gym chains and offer a service they will probably never be able to imitate. A private gym for one-on-one training that means no crowds or sharing. This gives a clean and private atmosphere with no joining fee; no membership fee and you even get a private changing room. There is an option for a regular time slot and savings with block bookings. Last but not least the training packages are for individual needs, including nutrition & lifestyle coaching and body transformation training. You are taught in a step-by-step fashion towards each personal goal. There is even a food shopping service if required, meal preparation help and frequent reviews with a view of teaching you the best way to review your own progress.

Don’t get me wrong; I think there will always be a place in society for commercial gyms but times are changing and more and more gym members want quicker results and better guidance. The answer for this is personal training in whichever format is most suitable for the individual.

We had a fitness boom in the 80’s and the new millennium brought the information age and media manipulation. This has helped create a resurge in popularity for being body conscious. Hence the reason people expect more from their efforts these days. Speculating about exercise and dieting on a whim is what they used to do decades ago. Providing that commitment isn’t an issue no one should be struggling with getting results in this day and age.

Thanks for reading
Anthony

Acai berry is the latest in a long line of super foods that is supposed to miraculously answer your weight and body fat issues with a swallow of a pill. I meet people all the time that lead a lousy lifestyle and eat garbage. They buy wonder supplements by the skip load in the hope of an easy turnaround. On the surface it is easy to believe the hype. For instance celebrities endorse acai berry by the dozen and it is a natural food so there should be little if any concern. Or should there be? Read on and discover why acai berry has fallen prey to a global marketing con.

Whenever the diet industry gets excited about one type of food you should be very cautious and open-minded. There are literally dozens of natural super foods that are teeming with nutrients and vitality for the body but you only ever hear about the ones that can be processed into a moneymaking enterprise, especially if it can be made into a recurring revenue stream. Yes, believe it or not no matter what it says on the label or how good a celebrity says it is there is always a money motif behind the hype.

If you are concerned about your weight and your health it is important to get your nutrients from nature rather than a bottle of tablets or processed juice. You need a variety of nutrients from different food groups. Protein, carbohydrates and fats are needed daily, preferably all from natural foods apposed to processed foods. The quantities from these food groups required for weight and fat loss differ from individual to individual. Learning to listen to your response after eating different foods and their quantities is the only way to succeed in dieting. Fine tuning your diet is an individual action as we all respond differently to the same diet. If this sounds complicated think again. I have explained exactly how to modify the diet for fat loss results in my book. Go to www.fatlossevery10days.com for more information.

Remember that acai berry is a fruit and fruits are carbohydrates. Using acai berry instead of or in place of a balanced diet doesn’t cancel the need for other nutrients in the diet. As a matter of fact increasing carbohydrate intake for many people would cause weight gain because of the insulin response caused by the sugar that carbohydrate foods contain.

So be cautious and begin to understand that no amount of supplements in the world can correct a bad diet and change your health and appearance at the same time.

Thanks for reading
Anthony

Quick Ways to Get The Maximum Results with Dieting and Exercise

Some real advice you won’t find in fitness magazines or gossip columns. Have you tried eliminating certain foods from the diet? The clean diet approach helps you lose pounds and inches in less time with the added benefit of building health from the inside out. This applies to anyone wanting to get the best results from their training and for those who are looking at improving their overall aesthetics.

To achieve maximum results it is essential to follow the eight guidelines below.

1. Drink plenty of mineral water
2. Eat only natural fresh, non-processed foods
3. Cut out all pasteurised and processed dairy products
4. Cut out all sugar
5. Cut out all wheat
6. Cut out all alcohol
7. Cut out all caffeine
8. Eat organic whenever possible

I'm not saying you have to stick to these guidelines forever and everyday for the rest of your life but if you did you would be guaranteed a higher level of health than someone who didn't.

The point I want to get across is if you eliminate the foods above for at least 30 days and implement the guidelines into your day-to-day lifestyle then you will achieve quick fat loss results. It may be the only way to get the ball rolling.

On the other hand it may not be practical or possible for certain personalities to adopt an all or nothing approach, if this is the case carry on reading.

Diets normally fail because people cut out too much too soon and their bodies miss the comfort foods they have become attached to. A better approach would be to wean off the foods that are preventing results and/or find a healthier replacement. Lets look at an example.

Sugar could be initially replaced with brown sugar. Brown sugar is far from being a wonder food that will help you with your goals but it is a small step in the right direction. From there you could replace sugar for fruits or dried fruits and maybe then to a natural sweetener if needed. With natural I don’t mean anything processed and made by man-made chemicals that brags zero calories because that wouldn’t help you either. There are natural herbs found in nature that are just as sweet and can be found in most health food shops.

I hope this gets you thinking and you are able to see how practical and easy it can be to transform eating a bad food into eating a healthy one without any drastic actions. More options and in-depth advice about all the foods above can be found in my book over at www.fatlossevery10days.com

When you are happy with your results you could gradually reintroduce the banned foods on the list back into your diet. When you begin to reintroduce the banned foods into your diet you will be able to monitor your response to see which foods have an adverse effect on your health and body fat. If a food from the banned list doesn't agree with your digestion, complexion or reverses your body shape then you know to say goodbye to it.

Also recording your response after each meal in a food diary is the absolute best way to help you quickly establish which foods react differently to your body.

Thanks for reading
Anthony

Make a commitment to yourself for the year ahead!

We are already well into 2010. The binging, the lack of exercise and the lack of trying will have probably come to your attention in the shape of fat. The first few months of a new year is a time for change and the summit of the searching season. We all want answers that will zap the fat away in one easy solution.

The 2nd Edition of 'Fat Loss Every 10 Days' is now available for download.

The digital nutrition blueprint costs less than a Personal Training session.  
It has more information than the first edition and easy navigation for speedy results. If you haven't got your copy yet don't delay - the information you get has taken me 18 months to compile and make easy to implement.
 
Grab your copy now at www.fatlossevery10days.com

What follows are some of the best tips for fighting the fat.

Do you drink enough water?

Water is your daily detox Doctor. Aim to drink mineral water daily, in-between meals at room temperature is the best way in my opinion. This will help improve overall health. Always start your day with 2-3 glasses of water. Try and have 2 glasses of water 20 minutes before each meal. Generally most people do best on between 2-3 litres a day.

It is important to point out that it is better to listen to your body to tell you how much you need rather than follow someone else’s advice. There is no magic number but too little will likely be detrimental to fat loss goals and maintaining good health.

Do you eat carbohydrates by themselves?

Just think how common and easy it is to eat carbohydrates by themselves. Vending machine snacks, sandwiches and fruit are readily available and overly consumed in today’s fast paced world. They are all carbohydrate rich foods and don’t contain anywhere near enough protein for most people to keep their blood sugar levels balanced afterwards.

Poor blood sugar management is the culprit for fat gain and it also speeds up the aging process.

Are you overloading on gluten?

Wheat and foods containing gluten can be very hard to digest and intolerance to this can cause gut inflammation as well as other allergy troubles.

Try eliminating gluten for 30 days to see what difference it makes to the way you feel and look.

Are you a sugar addict?

Avoid sugar especially artificial sweeteners found in processed foods and drinks, always check the labels. Eating sugar creates a never-ending roller coaster ride for hormones such as insulin and cortisol, both fat storing hormones.

To help wean off sugar try natural alternatives like stevia, a natural herb you can find in health food shops.

Are you drinking yourself fat?

Drinking alcohol has some of the same traits has eating sugar, it is rapidly absorbed and effects blood sugar levels. You are drinking empty calories that have no nutritional benefit whatsoever to your body, and if consumed near meal times can serve as a blocking agent to certain vitamins and minerals.

If you want the best results and quick then you must stay away from alcohol. Otherwise eat fat and protein with alcohol to slow down the absorption and balance the ratio of carbohydrates (the alcohol) to proteins and fats.

The easiest and quickest way to get rid of a beer gut!

Pints of beer drunk frequently are going to swell up and distend the stomach regardless of an individual’s body fat levels. Some men regularly drink at least half a dozen pints in one drinking session. The pressure of retaining pints of high calorie fluids is going to swell even the leanest person’s belly.

High levels of visceral fat also cause the beer belly look. Visceral fat is internal fat. It is actually underneath your six-pack muscles and covers your organs. People who have high levels of visceral fat are also insulin resistant and need to avoid sugary, processed and starchy foods.

Obviously the best way to lose a beer belly is to stop drinking beer!

If you don’t drink beer and still have what looks like a beer belly then you will need to lose the visceral fat. Given that visceral fat is an indication of severe insulin resistance then the first step is to manage insulin levels by limiting certain carbohydrates in the diet and sugary processed foods.

Eliminating breads, pastas, ready-made meals and basically anything that comes in a fancy packaging with unpronounceable ingredients including so called healthy cereals is the fastest way to drop fat. Then it can take as little as a couple of weeks to see a major change in the size of your beer belly.

Beer is a terrible choice of drink for someone who wants to lose body fat. Beer has empty calories and has an estrogenic effect. Hops are highly estrogenic and are considered the main causes for beer bellies and man boobs on men.

Exercise recommendations for beer bellies and man boobs should be something that gets your heart rate high and panting like a dog. Resistance type training is the most effective way to exercise for someone wanting to burn fat. Weights burn more calories than cardiovascular exercises such as the treadmill and rowing machine. You need to approach resistance training with a view to sweat and work hard in order to get the best results.

Thanks for reading
Anthony

 

Easiest & Quickest Weight Loss Solutions – Keep a Food Diary

One of the reasons for keeping a food diary is to let yourself know what goes in your mouth every day of the week. People adopt unhealthy habits that they become accustomed to and forget how much junk food they actually consume. It is time to be honest.

Without keeping a food diary you are likely to miss some vital information about yourself. A food diary is more than just recording the foods you eat day by day. A food diary will tell you accurately what works for and against your body.

It may seem like a tedious task but it will only take you a couple of minutes each day at the most. Doing so will uncover your strengths and weaknesses.

Be patient and fill in your food diary a day at a time. The more accurate it is the more you will get from it.

Carry your food diary around with you everywhere you go for the next seven days and fill it in as you go about your business.

Below are some tips of how to describe how you feel after each meal. The window is from a few minutes to a few hours after each meal.

Different responses:
Feel satisfied
Feel full but comfortable
Have renewed energy

If you get any of the above responses and you are progressing with weight loss and reducing fat you are on to a winner.

But on the other hand if you are experiencing any of the descriptions below:

Feel full but still hungry
Have cravings
Feel tired
Feel bloated

You will need to adjust your ratios and/or eliminate problem foods. To name just a few types of food that needs to be held back until you begin to see results - processed foods, sugar, caffeine, alcohol and most dairy products.

Even if you are progressing with fat loss and your weight is coming down but experiencing negative responses after each meal your body is obviously not running at its optimum level.

It is advisable to keep experimenting and see what works best for you. Put simpler, do you need more protein with your meals and less carbohydrates or vice versa? Referring to your food diary for feedback and guidance is the easiest way to tweak your diet for fat loss results and achieving good health.

For more information about problem foods for fat loss goals and other helpful tips go to www.fatlossevery10days.com and sign up for my FREE 10 days coaching.

I have just completed the second edition of Fat Loss Every 10 Days. Keep checking blog.fatlossevery10days.com over the next week or so for the date it will be available for download.

Thanks for reading
Anthony


 

Tips to Overcome Diet Obstacles

Do you have a history of yoyo dieting and putting weight on easily? Unable to lose stubborn body fat? Does the diet and exercise thing haunt you and are you tired of it? I have observed peoples diet weaknesses and compiled a few tips to help you with issues and hard times. Use them straight away to help you win the battle of the fat at the height of the diet calendar.

Fuel the body with natural dense foods

Throw out all the processed foods from your diet and begin to reap the benefits of real foods. Real foods are foods you find in the ground or on the tress, swim in the ocean or run in the wild. Real foods are heaving with natural goodness that your body needs for optimal health. No amount of processed foods in your diet dressed in synthetic vitamins is ever going to replace what you can get from nature. Once you replace all your processed foods with natural foods you will begin to unlock one of the first pathways to progressive fat loss.

Burn fat with weights, not on a hamster wheel

Muscle tissue is metabolically active, for every pound of muscle you add to your body you will burn an additional 50 calories. Don’t make the mistake of thinking low calorie diets and loads of cardiovascular exercise will help you drop weight or fat. It will make your situation worse in the long term because you risk losing calorie hungry muscle tissue. It isn’t possible to build muscle tissue with the type of cardiovascular exercises health clubs have made popular. Training with resistance is very important for your success and needs to be the priority in your exercise regime.

Forget calories, think nutrients

Your body only knows nutrients contrary to what you may believe. If you eat a slice of cake your body doesn’t scream oh no here comes 500 calories, then says to itself, not to worry because if I only get fed another 500 calories today everything will be all right. If this were the case there would be a lot more thin people especially those who live on low calorie diets. Listen very carefully to what I am spelling out here, calories in versus calories out is out of date science. It looks like the right thing on paper but in reality it doesn’t work.

Your body sees foods as chemicals and nothing more. If you get the balance wrong with processed foods or too many carbohydrates, proteins or fats then everything changes. Counting calories is the least of your problems.

Before you know it the nutrients don’t get to where your body needs them and hormones are released to cope with the biological stress. This leads to muscle loss and a slow metabolism ending with you piling on the pounds.

If this sounds complicated think again. I have explained exactly how to modify the diet for fat loss results in my book. Go to www.fatlossevery10days.com for more information.

Thanks for reading
Anthony