Picture of regular store-bought turmeric powder. Dull-yellow or brown-orange color, indicating the powder has been exposed to air for a long time. This type of turmeric is only suitable as a food-coloring agent and not as a supplement.

The bright and lovely color of fresh, unoxidized turmeric root. It’s almost glowing, due to curcumin’s ability to convert UV light to yellow. 

Bad News: Regular, Store-Bought Turmeric Has Very Poor Gut Absorption. Most of It Is Oxidized and Only Suitable for Food Coloring

We have all heard that turmeric is great – it promotes radiant skin, weight loss, has many cognitive and brain benefits and can work better for pain than over the counter pain relievers! Recently, some publications explored the effectiveness of turmeric for depression and the results were very promising.
Virtually all benefit-showing studies done on turmeric, use ethanol-aqueous extracts from fresh roots. This is very different from regular, store-bought turmeric. Gut absorption of turmeric is quite low (study) and gets even lower with age, because of the reduced ability of the liver to produce bile.
Fortunately, there are ways around this! Let’s explore some great options to get all the benefits of turmeric, without having access to lab-grade turmeric extracts.

Best Option: Use Full-Range Micelle Turmeric to Get All The Health Benefits Turmeric is Known For! (Link)

This is arguably the most effective way to put turmeric in your body and actually feel, notice and experience the actual benefits turmeric is known for. Micelle turmeric uses extremely tiny droplets(about 200 times smaller than the emulsion droplets that butter consists of for example), suspended in a liquid to bypass the digestive process and ‘transport’ the turmeric straight into your cells, where it can do it’s magic – it’s the closest thing to an ‘anti-aging injection’ that you’ll find. Even compared to high-quality unoxidized turmeric extract, micelle turmeric has up to 200-times higher absorption rate and quickly gets delivered around the cells in the body.
As amazing as micelle liposomal turmeric is, it does have a slight downside – its higher price. Since making micelle solutions requires lab testing to confirm that particle size is small enough to get absorbed right through membranes, this does raise the cost slightly.
Micelle turmeric is ingested normally(orally) – because of it’s high concentration and bio-availability, only a few drops are required to experience the effects.

Option 2: Find Fresh Turmeric Root, Blend With Some Water and Coconut oil, and Add Black Pepper

The second best way to absorb turmeric is to simply get a high-quality powder or just fresh root. It’s impossible to tell with a 100% certainty how good certain turmeric powder is, without lab testing, but the color of the powder is a good indication – look for a bright, vibrant orange or yellow color. Low quality turmeric is immediately obvious by it’s ‘dullness’ – it just doesn’t look that good. If you find a high-quality powder, you can use that to make turmeric milk(recipe), which has decent absorption, due to the fat content of the milk.

The Green Tea & Chia Drink – Simple, But Powerful!

Ingredients:

• Green Tea
• Chia seeds
• Some Honey or Stevia if you want to go zero-calorie!

This drink seems simple, but is amazing in so many ways! It packs a powerful detoxing punch, thanks to it’s combination of fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and the EGCG antioxidants of green tea. The drink in the picture is prepared using matcha green tea, which is a powder you mix with water and not a tea you steep. Good matcha is quite expensive, but feel free to use regular green tea too! Matcha is quite strong as well, so if you are not used to drinking it, by all means, go with regular green tea. The caffeine from the green tea is an important component, because it stimulates the hepatic nerves in the stomach, which stimulates the liver and helps it detox. This is the same reason coffee enemas work well.

The Sour Carrot and Turmeric Drink

Ingredients:

• 60% Carrot Juice
• 20% Lemon Juice
• Some Honey
• Half a level teaspoon of turmeric

Another great detoxing drink! The detoxifying power of lemons, turmeric and honey, combined with the carotene from carrots. This drink tastes great and can be made in a large glass, instead of the shot glasses I used (come on, they are pretty). The antioxidants in turmeric are absorbed much better in combination with the lemon juice. Carrot juice has some antibacterial benefits, as does honey. This is important, because bacteria, like h.pylori, which more than 50% of people have can actually make your liver store toxins.

Rapid Weight Loss Results and Aging-Reversal After a Simple Detox Regimen?

If you’re looking for a way to quickly get rid of belly fat,  massively improve skin complexion and feel 20 years younger, a diet regimen that has been getting a lot of rave reviews lately is Erin Nielsen’s program – it’s a simple regimen that aims to control your gene expression through the foods you eat, leading to quite a rapid transformation in about 70% of people. It works particularly well for women over ~40. We have known for many years that certain spices, foods and supplements have a direct effect on gene expression. Turmeric for example, alters the expression of more than 200 genes in the human body. Certain food combinations have the power to trigger hormones like leptin and turn off inflammatory gene expression. This is why you sometimes hear about people who have lost massive amounts of weight, just after a simple juice detox.

How Liver Detoxing Works and Why It’s Important

Some people look at detoxes and cleanses as over-hyped trends, but they are actually not. Many people will lose large amounts of belly fat, just after doing a proper liver detox with juices. The reason is actually very clear and it’s no mystery at all – your liver accumulates fat-soluble toxins and in order to keep them ‘diluted’ it has to hold on to a certain amount of fat. The way the toxins are eliminated is with the help of a phytonutrient molecule, which the drinks above have plenty of. Your body uses the phytonutrients to turn the ‘stuck’ fat-soluble toxins into water-soluble ones, which are then easily removed by the kidneys. This is why you may notice some increased peeing after drinking those two powerful drinks, especially on an empty stomach in the morning.
Since the liver is involved in virtually all vital processes, the benefits you will notice from those detoxing drinks are many. Better skin, improved mood and higher energy levels are usually the first benefits people notice. Increased metabolism is often experienced as well – you can feel this by your hands feeling warmer and your energy levels increasing!

1. The Hunger-Eliminating Avocado Smoothie

This smoothie may seem too high in calories to support your weight-loss goals, but it actually lowers your total caloric intake by reducing hunger pangs and provides important nutrients to keep your metabolism going. The key is the avocado and almond fat, combined with the fiber content and the high potassium.  Potassium is one of the most important minerals for a satiating breakfast! This smoothie is also pretty high in protein, which is extremely important for weight loss. There is plenty of evidence that just making your first meal of the day a high-protein one will get you on the right track to weight loss.

Half an Avocado
1 Ounce of Almonds
1 Banana
A bit of honey (optional)
A cup of water

2. The Antioxidant Bomb

This smoothie contains a very high amount of anthocyanins and phytonutrients. It is helpful if you feel fatigued in the morning, if you are going to be exposed to strong oxidants, like cigarette smoke, sunlight or fast food. Since it’s quite acidic, it also helps with digestion and weight loss. Acid, found in vegetables neutralizes and cleanses the alkaline waste products that occur any time you ingest protein (like homocysteine). So, starting with an acidic drink full of antioxidants is a great way to prime your metabolism in the morning.

200 grams of frozen red cabbage
1 handful of blueberries
1 banana
1 cup yogurt
A dash of vanilla
A cup of water

The yogurt is there to ensure that our smoothie contains some fat! This improves the absorption of antioxidants and slows it down, providing a “timed release”. Unfortunately, this smoothie is not as good-tasting as many others, but it does include bitterness-suppressing and bad-taste-masking ingredients, so it isn’t that bad! As a general rule, the more bitter and generally “unpleasant” a vegetable is, the higher it is in antioxidants, so there is no easy way to make a smoothie that is very high in antioxidant, but also tastes amazing. To add even more to the downside, this smoothie is also a bit time-consuming to prepare and requires a bit of cleaning afterwords 🙁

3. The Stable Energy Smoothie – A Real Breakfast in a Cup

This smoothie is specifically designed to provide a very slow release of glucose and feed your brain. It is best used when you need your brain power – before an exam or job interview for example. This smoothie is relatively high in calories and it’s stable-energy release can be easily nullified by a fast-food or unhealthy meal. So, use only when needed! It’s also similar to the hunger-eliminating smoothie, but it’s a bit higher in carbs & fiber and lower in fat.

1/2 cup oats
An ounce of almonds
1 Banana
1 cup yogurt or milk

It’s no secret that cold drinks burn calories, simply because they cool the body down, and it then needs to use energy to warm back up. However, there is an even more interesting effect happening – the cold stimulates the vagus nerve and speeds up both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, raising your metabolism naturally. The liver is also stimulated, so blood flow to it increases, clearing toxins and burning stored fat.
Of course, this is not a magic drink that will make you lose 50 pounds in a week or something, but it’s a nice way to detox the liver and see some fat loss, especially if you drink it on an empty stomach in the morning.
If you want to lose body fat and detox the liver quickly, I recommend the 2-week diet plan, which will give you quick and very noticeable results just by following a few very simple dietary guidelines. Do not drink this quickly! We don’t want anyone getting a cold from this.

How it Works

The ginger also stimulates the same nerves, due to being slightly spicy. We have all heard that hot food burns calories – the chili stimulates the same nerves, which causes the body to raise it’s metabolism and you may start to sweat even when it’s cold outside. This drink does the same, only better and we avoid the sweating and feeling how, because the ice cools you down! So, give it a try. It is especially useful before a large unhealthy meal, to avoid fat storage.
Also, feel free to make your own recipe. You need acidity and spiciness, combined with ice. The ginger, honey and lemon drink tastes nice, but you can also prepare a horribly tasting vinegar and garlic drink, if for some reason you want to do that. It would have the same detoxing effect.

Cardio is often not especially effective for fat loss. Many people believe in the myth that says if you’re sweating, you’re definitely burning fat. In fact, the opposite is true – if you’re cold, your body is forced to use energy to warm your body up. Sweating just means your body is making too much heat, compared to the outside temperature. This often has turns on protective processes in the body that shut down energy production to prevent overheating – hence why you feel sleepy and tired after baking on the beach or after a hot sauna.
If you’re serious about loosing weight, give this yoga workout a try. It’s extremely effective in putting your body in a fat-burning state, and doing the workout daily will lead to quite amazing results.
What is especially effective for weight loss is continuous tension in the large muscles – the legs and the back. You’ll often find diabetics using those sort of exercises to lower their blood sugar, and intense cardio often has the opposite effect on them – it raises their blood sugar an hour after the workout, due to stress hormones being released in the adrenals and the liver. You’ll also notice sprinters have a better physique than marathon runners, which again proves the point of this article.

1. 1. Side Plank

2. Downward Facing Dog

3. Plank Flow

As you can see, those exercises put a lot of static tension on the muscles. Aim for 10 minutes of total tension, which is harder than it looks at first. There is no specific timing for each exercise – just hold the pose until you no longer can and you feel the burn. Rest for a minute, move on to the next exercise. Repeat. The squat hold is also very effective, but demanding – just holding it for 30 seconds can have a massive effect on how much carbohydrates you store on your thighs.
As you can see, the whole session is three exercises. You don’t need more. We’re not aiming for stretching here, only muscle tension. The three exercises put tension on the legs, the abdominal muscles and the upper body (shoulders).

This is just a simple pre-workout drink that I’ve been experimenting with that definitely increases my fat burning after cardio workouts. When I exercises on an empty stomach in the mornings I can really tell how much fat I have burned, just by looking at my belly an hour afterwards, or using my trusty skin calipers. I find electronic body fat percentage meters to not really be accurate and if I drink a lot of water during my workouts the results vary by a lot, because electrolyte balance affects how they work.
By observation, I have found that this drink increases my fat burning about 3 times. This is based on skin caliper tests after long workouts on an empty stomach, the “warm” feeling after a workout lasting longer, and just plain old weighing myself on a scale. This drink was not my discovery, I found it in a very interesting weight-loss program, designed to achieve maximum weight loss by using simple tweaks and rituals like that, and as every reader of this blog knows, those kinds of things just make my ears perk up.
I have a few more interesting ideas like this one to test, so stay tuned 🙂

The drink

The drink is really simple, it’s strong green tea mixed with two tablespoons of vinegar. In fact, I wish it were more complex and weird so that people would go “Wow, what a unique recipe, this must really work”, but sorry, that’s really it. Simple, but in my experience, effective. Yes, it’s not the best tasting drink on the planet, but it works and anyone can try it, provided they already have those two ingredients lying around their house.

Why vinegar and not lemon juice? Although lemon juice is a classic additive to green tea, which unlike the vinegar makes it taste better and not worse, there are certain properties that make vinegar the additive of choice here. Some people claim it’s the acetic acid, others that it’s the malic acid, which has been shown to shift energy metabolism from carbohydrates to stored body fats in studies and therefore reduce total food intake(1). In the end, we don’t really know why it works, it just does.

How does it work?

We know very well why green tea and vinegar both work separately for weight loss. They both make your body burn more fat and less carbohydrates. Normally, to start burning body fat, you would need to deplete your carbohydrate stores somewhat first, by burning about 600 calories. This is not a trivial amount, and not a lot of people who want to lose weight have the endurance to exercise that long. However, this simple drink enables you to immediately start ‘tapping’ into the fat stores. Supposedly, it’s the combination of green tea’s fat burning effect, combined with vinegar’s ability to slightly reduce the metabolism of glucose and enable you to start burning stored fat, before the carbohydrate stores in your blood and liver are depleted.

• Vinegar reduces carbohydrate metabolism and speeds up fat metabolism (2)
• Vinegar stops fat from being accumulated in the liver, enabling it to be burned off more readily(3)
• Green tea has been shown to prevent fat accumulation and speed up fat metabolism(5)
• Green tea increases fat metabolism by 3-8% when taken alone(4)

Green tea is often used as a fat-loss aid and so is vinegar, but I didn’t find any studies testing the effects of those when taken immediately before a workout.

Just try it

It’s a simple trick that anyone can try, so try it and make sure to report back your results 🙂 I’ll soon be making more tests and posting fat-burning results with and without the drink.
 
Posted by Angelina on February, 20th, 2017

Keeping a good muscle tone and retaining your muscle mass is a major issue with weight loss in women. Particularly with starvation or calorie-restrictive diets what most women find is that they lose muscle mass in addition to fat and water. You may think that muscle mass is more important for men than it is for women and you’d be wrong – muscle tone is much more important for women. This is partly because women have much less muscle to start with – once you start losing even a small percentage of it, you get the ‘flabby’ or ‘skinny-fat’ look we certainly don’t want!
How to fix this?
One way is to keep your protein intake high. Many women who try to restrict calories in order to lose weight (which we do not advocate) naturally lower their protein intake and focus on eating fruit, vegetables and whole grains. Unfortunately, the protein content of those foods is very low, which is a major reason why most vegetarians are slim and skinny. Put calorie restriction on top of that and you’ll find that you start to lose muscle mass instead of fat.
Meat and eggs are your friend here – if you are a vegetarian you can also try increasing your lentils/other beans intake in order to eat more protein. However, I would strongly advice that you include at least 50 grams of protein in your diet in order to keep good muscle tone.
Muscle tone is responsible for looking good and having a sexy body in women. Once you start losing muscle mass AND fat the results may not be as pretty as you expect. Fortunately, this can be easily reversed by increasing your protein intake and reducing carbs.
Stay fit,
Angie

Fiber does one major thing in the body – it slows down digestion and the absorption of carbohydrates, which basically reduces insulin spikes. And we all know that you can’t lose much weight if your insulin is getting spiked thorough the day. Lack of fiber is a major component of a bad diet – the standard American diet is a good example. Although whole grain breads to have some fiber, it really isn’t enough. Vegetables, fruit and beans are the best sources of fiber.
Combining fiber-rich foods with carbohydrates to achieve a ‘slow release’
The easiest way to gain weight is to eat high GI carbohydrates like white rice and bread in the absence of fiber and fat. This immediately spikes your insulin and forces your body to store the excess sugar in your blood. Adding fat and fiber to high glycemic index carbs on the other hand will slow down their release in the bloodstream and keep your blood sugar stable. This is extremely simple and easy to do and most people do it to a degree. The more fiber and healthy fats you include with your carbohydrates, the slower the release and the less the stress on your pancreas.
Stay fit,
Angie

What? Is there a difference between the two? Absolutely – burning calories is simply well… burning calories. It does not automatically equal weight loss. If the calories that you are burning come from tissue fat – you will be losing weight. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Let’s look at caloric expenditure vs weight loss and do a quick calculation:
1000g of fat = 2,2 pounds = Roughly 9000 calories
This means that in order to lose 2 pounds of body fat, you would have to burn 9000 calories. For women, this is the typical caloric requirement for about 5 days. So, not eating anything for 5 days would burn you 2,2 pounds of fat. You can see why calorie-restriction diets fail. Not to mention that your metabolism would greatly slow down after 20+ hours of starvation, leading to even slower fat burn. After starving, your body will do its best to store any excess calorie you eat in order to prevent you from dying of starvation in the future. This is much more applicable to women, as we all know intermittent fasting does work well for men.
So, there you go – trying to ‘burn calories’ is not an effective weight loss strategy. On the other hand, manipulating your metabolism and hormonal environment, by simply tweaking your diet a bit can get you much faster fat loss. By limiting calories, you are trying to ‘force’ your body to resort to burning body fat. However, there is an easier way! How to enable your body to burn body fat is different for men and women and in this article we will focus on men.
Men benefit greatly from intermittent fasting – having an 8 hour (or less) eating window and not eating the rest of the day. This is because they lack the ‘rebound’ effect women suffer from when fasting – in other words, men can fast, burn some fat and then NOT put it back on when they start eating again.

We all know the benefits of cardio exercise – a low to moderate pace exercise for a long period of time, usually more than 20 minutes. These benefits include improved mental function, feeling better overall, increased levels of energy, low resting heart rate and weight loss. Wait, weight loss? Can running, or any activity for that matter, really help you lose weight? Sadly, the answer is NO.
Why cardio exercise is not a good way to burn calories
Cardio exercise is an extremely inefficient way of burning calories. Most of your caloric expenditure is in the form of heat – heating up the body. That’s why sitting on the couch, watching TV will burn you about 100 calories per hour, compared to about 130 if you spent that time running or walking.
Why cardio exercise might help you lose weight
However, as we also know, burning calories does not equal losing weight and there are plenty of examples to support that. Cardio exercise helps you lose weight by improving your overall health, including circulatory system, insulin sensitivity and serotonin levels. The reason why being lean is considered attractive is because it is healthy. This often means that becoming more healthy will result in weight loss, if you are currently overweight.
Diet vs. Exercise
When it comes to weight loss, your diet is infinitely more important than exercising. If you regularly consume a lot of bread, pasta, sweets or other insulin-spiking foods, you will have a hard time burning off fat through exercise. Making your diet a high-fat one, will quickly lower those blood sugar spikes and will put your body into fat-burning mode – even if you don’t exercise at all. That said, exercise is recommended and even only the increased mental performance is worth it.