Your Shortcut to Better Health

When it comes to losing weight, a lot of people are overly focusing on their exercise, or even using it as an excuse – “I don’t have time to go to the gym right now, I’ll start my diet in the summer/winter/etc.” In reality, exercise keeps you healthy, increases your energy levels and can prevent a lot of serious health issues later in life, such as cardiovascular disease. However, when it comes to losing weight, burning off the calories you eat through exercise is not a very effective strategy.
Although an hour or more of exercise can burn 500-1000 calories, not a lot of people have the energy to exercise this much, especially people who have a lot of unwanted body fat. If your diet is heavy on the carbohydrate and sugar side, such long exercise would plummet your blood sugar levels and create a lot of hunger pangs an hour or two later.

Exercise is not very effective for getting rid of visceral (‘belly’) fat.

A big issue many overweight people have is their visceral fat, which is very different from subcutaneous fat – the fat you have under your skin. Although your body starts using the fat under your skin for energy about 20 minutes in the exercise, the visceral fat is rarely resorted to. This type of fat is largely caused by ingesting unnatural substances, like the preservatives and artificial sweeteners found in many unhealthy foods. It is also a result of insulin resistance, which is largely caused by fructose, fast food and of course lack of physical activity.

Your body does not burn fat for the first ~20 minutes of exercising

Sure, burning off the calories creates a calorie deficit, which would ultimately lead to loss of body fat. However, this is only true if you can sustain a negative-caloric intake for a very long time. Not a lot of people can do this and deal with the hunger pangs, headaches and the general feeling of not feeling well. Most people tend to undo the caloric expenditure created by exercise soon after by eating a meal rich in carbohydrates. At least one study has been found that most people underestimate the amount of calories they eat and vastly overestimate the amount of healthy food they eat, such as vegetables. It is very easy to fool yourself.
That said, even 10 minutes of moderate exercise has a ton of benefits for your health, cardiovascular system and metabolism. So, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exercise at all if you don’t have 20 minutes – just don’t do it solely for losing weight.

Should You Exercise?

Of course. Exercise is one of the most important things you can do for your health. However, too many people neglect their diet and focus on exercise. They see it as a chore, but as something that would ultimately help them lose weight, so they do it. After a few weeks (usually less), when they realize they haven’t lost any weight they usually stop exercising. Exercise, but don’t assume it will magically melt of body fat. Instead, focus on your diet. Let’s talk a bit about this.

What About Diet?

When it comes to your diet, should you try to limit your calories? What should you eat? Do limit your calories, but not by that much. Make sure you are not in a caloric surplus. For most people, the ~2,000 calories per day is a good guideline. Here’s the most important thing – make sure your protein intake is adequate and that most of it comes with your morning meal. Aim for 30g of protein with your breakfast, as difficult as that is to achieve with the most commonly consumed breakfast foods. Aim for 60g of protein daily. Then, make sure you have some greens in your diet for fiber and magnesium. Spinach is probably best, but opt for whatever you want. If you exercise, time it so that you don’t consume any food 2 hours before and 2 hours after the exercise.
Also in general, try not to eat fancy foods that your body is not used to. Humans evolved eating meat, vegetables, nuts and fruits and this is what your body is adapted to. Grains and legumes are still fine, but don’t go overboard with them. As a general rule, if a food contains any ingredient a 4-year old child doesn’t recognize, you probably shouldn’t be putting it in your body.
Don’t drink calories – when you drink something because you are thirsty, make it water or tea. Even orange juice will slow down your progress, as healthy as many people think it is.
That’s about it – stick to this for a month or two and see how it goes!

Which Diet Works Best for Quickly Getting Rid of Unwanted Fat?

You can find the best diet strategy for quickly melting unwanted fat here. The main problem is that there is so much conflicting information out there and people trying to sell you ‘magic pills’ that people are more confused than ever. Unfortunately, most of the weight loss information out there is false, not based on proven principles and in general – ineffective. Too many people start following an ineffective diet strategy only to be disappointed. As a result, they are even less likely to give a 100% effort on their next diet, because they don’t believe they will achieve results regardless. This is a dangerous downwards spiral to get stuck into, so make sure that if you are following any diet program it is proven and actually does work.
Angelina

Posted by Angelina on March 12th, 2014

Do You Have a Magnesium Deficiency?

Blood tests are not a reliable way of revealing magnesium levels, as more than 90% of magnesium in the body is found in muscle tissue, bones and the heart. Muscle biopsy is used for accurate measurements, but it’s not a standard practice. However, looking at your lifestyle can easily tell you if your magnesium levels are optimal. If you experience stress on a daily basis and eat a standard diet, it’s safe to say that you can benefit from increasing your magnesium intake.
Drinking unnecessarily large amounts of water – something that is often advocated as a healthy thing to do is also a good way to deplete your magnesium, as your kidneys always remove all the magnesium during the first filtration process, reabsorbing 95% of it back afterwards. 5% is lost in urine.
Through modern farming and agriculture, soil levels of magnesium are progressively decreasing. Although fertilizers are added, foods still contain lower amounts of magnesium then a 100 years ago.

Does Magnesium Deficiency Affect Weight Loss and can it flip your fat-burning switch ‘on’?

Magnesium does have a small effect on weight loss, because it’s an integral part of energy production, since ATP(the chemical all cells use for energy) contains a Magnesium atom in the center. If you want to flip your fat-burning switch on, I suggest a more focused approach, like the one described in the beta switch book.

How Does Magnesium Deficiency Cause Weight Gain?

There are a lot of studies linking magnesium deficiency to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, both of which precede obesity. Magnesium is a critical mineral for energy production and lack of it makes it hard for your body to burn calories. It also increases fatigue, which limits your level of physical activity.
We have all heard or read that green shakes and green leafy vegetables help you lose weight. This is a complex process, but magnesium certainly does play a critical role in it. Since chlorophyll is the ‘green stuff’ in plants and it’s atomic structure is based on a magnesium atom in the center, everything that is green is a source of magnesium.

Other Benefits of Magnesium

Magnesium is found to reverse heart disease (link), improve insulin resistance, cure depression and boost energy levels. You can see why it is critical to make sure you have a sufficient intake. Magnesium is quickly depleted during stress and anxiety, alcohol intake and a higher water intake.

How to Replenish Magnesium

The two best ways are eating nuts & greens. Nuts come from trees (with the exception of the peanut, which is actually a legume), which have a deep root system that is not affected by the soil-depletion of magnesium we see in recent years. Leafy greens are also a good source, but you have to consume about three to four ounces per day to get any significant amount of magnesium, making blended shakes very suitable for that purpose.
100g of most nuts contain about 200mg of Magnesium, which is about half of the recommended daily intake.
Supplements work very well if you get the correct type. Magnesium oxide is very poorly absorbed as it is not water soluble. Magnesium citrate and other organic forms of magnesium work very well and have a high boo-availability.
In order to increase magnesium levels, you have to consume magnesium-rich foods daily. Make it a rule for 30-days to consume 100g of spinach or a few ounces of nuts daily. Your body will thank you! Make sure you check the magnesium levels of foods you consume, by using http://nutritiondata.self.com/ for example. Some leafy greens are still poor in magnesium. Kale for example, contains only 18mg per 100g, making you have to consume about 3 pounds of it daily to boost your magnesium levels.
You can also find a mineral water with a high magnesium content – look for brand that have 50mg/Liter or more. This is actually how we likely got our magnesium requirements for the majority of human evolution!

What you will notice

You will notice higher energy levels combined with being more relaxed, as paradoxical as that sounds. If I don’t take my magnesium supplement for a week or two and don’t eat magnesium-rich foods because I’m traveling I notice a huge difference and I’m unable to complete my usual workouts because of fatigue. Needles to say, this can definitely make you store more fat.
Wishing you great health,
Angelina

We have all heard the advice to eat smaller portions and space them out throughout the day. Although this sounds nice in theory, it actually is worse than eating three regular meals. Here are the three main reasons:

• Snacking decreases insulin sensitivity. In simple terms, it makes it more difficult for your muscles and organs to use glucose, making your body store it as fat.
• Paradoxically, it makes you hungrier. Having a little 150-200 calorie snack every hour will leave you in a state of constant cravings for sugar and sweets. You can never get enough. Your body is adapted to prevent you from starving, so it instinctively wants you to eat food that’s around you. It’s only after you have a regular meal that you feel full and no longer can think about food.
• It puts stress on your body and causes a constant stream of insulin spikes and lows, which ultimately makes you gain fat and feel sluggish. It also makes you feel stress, because you are constantly focusing on restricting your eating with every meal you have, instead of eating until you are full.

Now don’t get me wrong – eating healthy snacks all day is definitely better than eating three large fast-food meals. However, you can have the best of both worlds – try eating three to four decent-sized meals and see how you feel and whether or not your food cravings decrease.

But I will feel hungry between meals?

I have given this advice to many people and they all think this won’t work until they try it. Most people who are constantly snacking think they will feel hungry and uncomfortable when they have to not eat for several hours after their ‘regular meal’. However, most find that the opposite is the case – once you have a satiating meal, you feel full – something you usually never experience while snacking.
Try to eat meals that are high in protein and are not carbohydrate-heavy. Eating cereals and bread toasts without including some lean protein in the mix will again leave you feeling hungry, as the carbohydrates are digested extremely fast in the absence of adequate protein content, leading to a huge insulin spike and ultimately – even lower levels of blood sugar. Fortunately, most ‘main’ dishes you can order at a restaurant or cook at home already take this into account and contain adequate levels of protein!
Posted by Angelina on March 06 2014
Stay healthy,
Angelina

 

When most people think of what they have to do in order to lose a substantial amount of fat, they imagine exhausting workouts, making salad your staple dish and feeling hungry all the time. In reality, this approach fails much more often than it succeeds. The more you feel like you are struggling, the more reasons your brain thinks of to avoid the action. In reality, just because something is hard, doesn’t mean it works. I’ve seen plenty of people lose a very substantial amount of fat, just by making simple changes to their eating habits and then sticking to them. I’ve also seen plenty of people buy a gym membership, throw away all the unhealthy foods in their fridge and try to make a big change in order to lose weight, only to give up in a week or two.
In this article, we will discuss a simple diet change that can skyrocket your weight loss, boost your metabolism and give you fast and noticeable weight loss results – simply changing your breakfast from a high-carbohydrate one to a high-protein one.

The Breakfast Most People Have

Almost everyone these days has a high-carbohydrate low-protein/low-fat breakfast. In fact, the healthier a breakfast looks, the higher in carbohydrates it usually is. When most people think of a healthy breakfast, they imagine oats with fruit, like the picture above. Unfortunately, this combination has a high glycemic index, is very high in carbs and contains very little protein. As a result, it slows down your metabolism and forces your body to store a certain amount of the carbohydrates as fat. Although relatively ‘natural’ and free of unhealthy additives, it does not promote weight loss.

Turning Your fat-burning Switch ON

A high-protein breakfast is one way to kick-start your metabolism. What’s interesting, is that women, unlike men can ‘flip’ their fat-burning switch on hormonally, by making certain dietary tweaks (like described in the beta switch). Many women think they are at a disadvantage, because past a certain age, we seem to gain weight easier and lose it harder than men. That’s because men have testosterone, which takes care of fat-burning up to a point. What most women don’t know is that they have much more powerful fat-burning hormones, like thyroxine and estrogen (which burns fat, only if it’s ‘triggered’ to do so), so they are definitley not at a disadvantage.

What to Eat Instead?

Instead, you want a high-protein and moderate-fat breakfast. Not only will this boost your metabolism, but it will make you feel full. Protein is very satiating, unlike carbohydrates that get metabolized quickly, cause an insulin spike and ultimately leave you even more hungry an hour or two later. It’s a dangerous cycle that is a major cause of obesity. Meat and nuts would be the ultimate example of a high-protein breakfast, which many athletes use. I cannot recommend it highly enough, but it’s understandable that some people wouldn’t enjoy such a breakfast. Instead, you can make a quick protein shake that is yogurt-based. It is fine for the shake to contain some fruit, but aim for at least 20-30g of protein. The easiest way to achieve this is to use protein powder, but again I realize many people are not going to do that.
So, here are a few recipes for a high-protein breakfast that work very well for weight loss:
100g cottage cheese + 200ml soy milk + 20g nuts + enough fruit to make it fine-tasting Protein: ~20g
100g tofu + 200ml soy milk + 20g nuts + 1 banana Protein: ~20g
50g peanut butter + 200ml soy milk + 1 banana Protein:~20g
You can find many high-protein recipes for smoothies with a simple search. I personally use hemp protein powder or other nut-protein powder in a shake with yogurt and some fruit. Nut protein powders can be found at health-food stores and are manufactured simply by squeezing the oil out of nuts. Most nuts have a typical nutrition profile of about 50g fat and 25g protein per 100g. When you squeeze the oil out you are left with about 40g of protein per 100g, which makes it very easy to create a breakfast smoothie that pack 30g of protein or more.
To summarize: Having a high-carb, low-protein breakfast shuts down your metabolism – instead have a high-protein, moderate to low-carb, like eggs, meat, nuts, dairy, soy, etc. This will immediately turn your fat-burning switch on, regardless of whether or not you exercise. Try it!
Wishing you great health,
-Angelina

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Posted by Angelina on March 05 2014