For Weight loss

Protein supplements could play a big part in your success with weight loss and have long been a part of bodybuilder’s dietary regime. These muscular athletes take protein supplements because it helps to increase metabolism and maintain healthy muscle mass.

Metabolism is basically the rate at which your body burns calories. This rate can differ significantly from person to person and is dependent on a number of factors, which includes age, physical condition and the amount of fat and muscle in your body. When you increase metabolism, you speed up the rate and therefore burn calories faster and lose inches quicker.

Factors That Cause Low Metabolism
At birth you have a very high metabolism but as years pass by your metabolism rate decreases, so you need fewer calories per day. If adjustments aren’t made to your diet or exercise plan, you may put on a few pounds as you grow older and find it harder to lose inches where you want to the most. Adding protein supplements to you diet will help increase metabolism and decrease some of the restrictions of your diet.

Some of the biggest culprits of low metabolism involve how we eat; fasting, a low calorie diet, snacking throughout the day on high sugared foods (candy, colas, cakes, gum), eating or drinking too much sugar containing foods.

I am sure you’ve heard it said before but well worth repeating…you must drink at least 8 8-ounce glasses of water a day to maintain an optimal metabolism rate.

Increase Metabolism
You can increase metabolism as much as two to three times by eating proteins versus carbohydrates and fats. Protein is fuel for the body and a very efficient fuel at that. Chicken, lean meats, and dairy products are excellent choices for protein sources. Adding protein supplements is a way to insure you are getting enough protein in your diet.

Strength and resistance training helps to build muscle and muscle burns more calories to maintain itself than fat. If you have low body fat and are muscular then you have a high metabolism and on the other hand if you have a higher percentage of body fat than you should, you will have a low metabolism. That’s why protein supplements are so popular with athletes. They’re fuel for the body that helps to increase metabolism and maintain healthy muscle structure, which in turn helps you shed pounds and lose inches from your body more efficiently.

Body Detoxification

Body detoxification has been a popular subject in the media in recent days and for good reason. Body detoxification involves taking steps to remove chemicals and toxins accumulated in the body and help you to maintain optimal health. Body detoxification also helps to restart a sluggish system, aid to digestion, and give you added energy.

Make sure that the body detoxification program, you choose is nutritionally sound and safe and that you are receiving the nutrients you need to maintain a healthy body during the process.

Metabolism is the main factor in why we gain weight or don’t gain weight. Having the right type of fuel to keep your body running at its best is important.

Remember that you can increase metabolism as much as two to three times by eating proteins versus carbohydrates and fats. But don’t cut out carbohydrates altogether. Choose complex high-fiber carbohydrates like high-fiber vegetables and cereals; these burn more calories than simple carbs. Consider adding protein supplements to your dietary plan for that extra fuel your body needs.

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A new low-carb vs. low-fat diet has come out, and the Dr. Atkins camp is claiming victory, although the low-fat camp of Dr. Dean Ornish is crying foul. But I’ll show you the truth about the results below…it isn’t what you expect!

According to the NY Times “In a tightly controlled dieting experiment, obese people lost an average of just 6 to 10 pounds over two years…the results highlight the difficulty of weight loss and the fact that most diets do not work well.”

The scientists studied 322 moderately obese men and women following one of three diets, either a low fat diet (less than 30% of calories from fat – which really isn’t “low fat” as Dr. Ornish correctly points out); a Mediterranean diet; or the Atkins low-carb diet. (In the interest of full disclosure, the study was partly financed by the Atkins Research Foundation.)

The researchers did not claim one diet to be better than another, although the low-carb and mediterranean diet groups lost more weight (10 pounds) compared to the low-fat group (6 pounds).

In fact, men and women responded very differently to the diets. Women lost the most weight with the mediterranean diet (14 pounds) and the least with
the low carb diet (5 pounds), while the men lost the most with the low carb diet (11 pounds).

The results all clearly all over the board. The researchers concluded the results were modest, but still improved the subject’s health. However, all this information misses the main result of this study.

And despite what the NY Times wants you to believe, it’s not, “diets don’t work”. It’s that, “Dieters” don’t work. After all, if I worked with 322 moderately obese people for TWO YEARS, I’d be ashamed if they only lost 6-10 pounds.

The dirty truth about diets – the politically incorrect truth that no one wants to admit because it takes away all excuses for a lack of personal
responsibility – is that DIETS DO WORK.

On the other hand, I’d bet that almost every subject in that study lied about how compliant they were with the diet they were assigned. But that’s HUMAN NATURE. We all think we eat better than we do.

And that’s how you end up with 322 people dieting for two years, and all they can achieve is an average of 8 pounds of weight loss. It’s not the diets that aren’t working! It’s the dieters that are the problem!

So if you are having trouble sticking to your nutrition, or if you are confused about low-carb vs. low-fat, just take a deep breath and follow my 5 simple rules…

1) Find out how much you are eating now. Use Fitday.

2) If you are not losing weight, eat less.

3) Eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and good protein sources. Don’t eat junk from a bag or a box.

4) Give yourself one treat meal per week to look forward to – not a treat day, just a treat meal.

5) Plan ahead. Prepare your meals (spend 1-2 hours on the weekend getting your meals and meal plan ready for the week). Identify obstacles and come up with solutions to avoid them.

That is it. Very simple. Most people do pretty well on 1-3 and even 5, but mess up on number 4. I often hear how well someone did all day long, but then while making dinner they snack on upwards of 500 calories of their kid’s treats, or other processed carbohydrates they have lying around the house.

The little things can add up to big time problems. So take a good long look at everything you eat. And all of this can be avoided if you follow rule #5. Combine my five simple nutrition rules with three short workouts per week of resistance training and interval training, and you have a very manageable fat loss plan that can fit any busy lifestyle. You don’t have to be a doctor to figure out how to eat for fat loss.

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I was at the grocery store the other day and had to shake my head at all of the deceptive labels with everything claiming all sorts of things that are supposedly “healthy”, but aren’t really.

One of the things that really disturbed me was that I saw several examples of healthy foods in their natural state, but I saw counterfeit versions of these foods claiming that they were healthier than the original…

Yet in reality, all of these counterfeit versions were actually MUCH worse for you than the original… and they still have the guts to claim that their overly processed “junkified” versions are better.

This is food marketing deception at it’s worst!

Example #1: Product claiming “Better than peanut butter”

This product is ludicrous! I can’t believe anyone would ever believe that this junk is better for them than natural peanut butter.

First of all, if you buy a good simple peanut butter (organic is best), it is usually nothing but 2 ingredients… peanuts and salt. And they don’t add much salt so it’s not high in sodium.

However, this counterfeit peanut butter which claimed it was “better than peanut butter” (trying to seem healthier than peanut butter based on it’s label claims) had a list of junk in it you wouldn’t believe. First of all, they strip away all of the healthy fats from the peanuts so that it is a “low fat” product. Ok, now you’ve just taken away one of the healthiest parts of the product…the appetite satisfying healthy fats that you need to control cravings and manage more stable blood sugar levels.

To make things worse, the healthy fats were replaced with 2 different types of sugary syrups as well as additional dehydrated cane juice (aka SUGAR), in addition to added refined starches.

This product has taken something as simple and natural as peanut butter, and turned it into what should really be called some sort of processed candy. Yet, they claim that it’s healthier than peanut butter. And somehow they get away with deceiving people like this. Don’t be their fool!

Example #2: Product claiming to be “better than eggs”.

I won’t get as detailed on this one because I recently talked about this entire topic in another article.
But basically, this product was just egg whites with a bunch of added chemical colorings, flavorings, and other nonsense, including fake added vitamins.

Again, this product has essentially ruined a good thing by removing the healthiest part… the YOLKS! And yes, the yolks ARE the healthiest part of the egg. Anybody that tells you different doesn’t understand much about true nutrition. The important thing to look for in quality whole eggs are cage-free and organic.

Example #3: A product claiming to be “better than butter”.

This was essentially crappy margarine loaded with highly processed and deadly trans fats, yet it had the nerve to claim it was “better than butter”.

Heck NO!

Even low quality butter is healthier than margarine. One problem with butter is pesticides and hormones from improperly raised cows.

For this reason, you always want to choose organic butter, and if you can find “grass-fed” butter, I would say it that it can be healthy for you. In fact, adding a little butter to your steamed vegetables helps your body to absorb more of the vitamins and minerals in the veggies.
Also, due to the content of stable saturated fats in butter, this makes butter one of the best oils to cook with. Oils high in polyunsaturated oils are the worst to cook with due to their highly unstable nature. And no, the saturated fat in butter is NOT bad for you.
If you found this information interesting, do yourself a favor and get more information about living a healthier life.

Looking good is feeling good!

Until next time… Don’t be lazy… be lean.

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