Toxic Waist?

Alcohol isn't the only thing your liver treats as toxic waste...and they all can lead to a toxic waist (I'd like to apologize for that pun). There are plenty of other things we put into our system that stunt the liver's ability to function at full force. Every time we do it, we are limiting our body's ability to metabolize (particularly fat) and ultimately encouraging it to store up fats rather than burn them off.

The list of “toxins” (clearly, these are not all actually toxic, they are just sort of treated that way) is both somewhat expected and surprising. I'm not going to go into great detail here; the fact that they distract your liver from it's metabolic duties is the most important thing. Each can contribute to an unhealthy live and besides weight problems (including weight gain, difficulty losing weight, pot belly, cellulite), an unhealthy liver can also cause\contribute to indigestion, acid reflux, gall stones, vomiting attacks, constipation, depression, anger, poor concentration, overheating of the body, sugar craving, heart disease, high blood pressure, clogged arteries, strokes, fatty organs, weakened bones and allergies (just to name a few).

The list includes:

• Food additives and preservatives
• Alcohol
• Pesticides
• Antibiotics
• Sugar (BOTH natural and artificial)
• High Fat Foods
• Carcinogens

We won't go into great detail here in terms of what to do about this (that's for the next post), but a few things are just obvious: avoid junk food (gobs of sugar, fat, additives and preservatives), buy from local farmer's markets (less pesticides), drink less alcohol, avoid sweet stuff (even artificially sweet), grill but grill lightly (not too much char) and go easy on the antibiotics.

It's pretty clear that a healthy liver is essential to both weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight. So what do we do to get back to having a healthy liver? Three things: 1) reduce\remove, 2) restore and 3) repeat. In the next post we will also look at each of these.

Don't Drink and Loose Weight

I have good news and bad news. First, the good news: less than 5% of the calories you consume in alcoholic drinks are turned into fat (let the wild rumpus begin!...just don't do it drinking – you haven't heard the bad news). The bad news is this: it's not the calories in the drink that make you fat – it's the alcohol (let the wild juicing parties begin?).

How does alcohol make you fat if so little of it is converted to fat? Let's review. From a past post entitled, Last Call For Alcohol:

“While the calories aren't converted to fat, adult beverages have a really devastating affect on your body's ability to burn fat. Here's the geek-lite of what happens. Your body converts a tiny bit of the calories into fat. It pushes the rest of it on to the liver (cheers!) and the liver, using alcohol dehydrogenase (a very useful little enzyme), converts it into acetate (specifically into acetic acid, then acetate). What's acetate? Well, it's basically a fat and it gets delivered directly to your bloodstream.

At this point you may be saying, I thought you said alcohol mostly was converted into fat? But that's not what I said. I said it wasn't converted to the kind of fat that gets deposited on your belly or other places. It does get converted into acetate (a kind of fat) and delivered directly to the bloodstream. The acetate in your blood stream then becomes your body's main source of fuel. Not needing the stored fat for fuel, your body shuts down most of the system that handles that function (research suggest that fat metabolism can drop as much as 73%). The problem then is, it's not like a light switch, once it is off it takes it a while to get fired back up.”

So, it both stops you from burning stored fat AND it shuts down metabolism (and your metabolism starts up slowly). If you are drinking most nights, you are fighting a vicious and ultimately losing weight loss battle. By the time you finally 1) burn off the acetate floating around in your body and 2) finally get your metabolism turned back on, you are reloading the system.

Time to get all science-geeky on why alcohol has this affect. Your liver actually has priority levels in determining where it puts its energy. Job #1: process alcohol and turn it into acetate. While it is busy doing this, the metabolic process (specifically the processing of fats) takes a back seat and your metabolic rate slows to a crawl. Worse yet, now that all that wonderful acetate is coursing through your veins, your liver can take a break, even after it has processed the alcohol, because right now your body has a ready energy source. That means, for quite a while after you drink, you are not only not burning stored fats...you are also storing more fats! (the circle just gets more and more viscous...but we are not even done yet).

There is one last thing that we need to talk about – Fatty Liver (seriously? My LIVER can be fat...good grief, that just doesn't seem fair). The heavy use of alcohol (considered to be more than 6 servings at once or more than 4 or so servings a week) on a consistent bases is one of the causes of a fatty liver. Another cause is being obese (the ultimate 'you're fat because you are fat' slap in the face).

Here's the problem with a fatty liver – once it heads that way, it likes it. Rather than being a fat burning and pumping station, it starts being a fat storing station. In doing so, it starts slowing down metabolism. The result, particularly in middle-age (30-60), is a liver roll around your mid-section (some call it a beer belly or love handles).

The condition can be reverse and you can start losing weight again. The difficult news is that depending how severe the condition is, it can take three to twelve months to get it back to a fully functioning fat burning and pumping station.

In future posts, we'll be looking at just how to do that...but a good place to start is in limiting your alcohol intake.

Liver Delivery

I'm beginning to think the most important organ in weight loss is your liver. It's not really surprising that it took so long for me to figure it out. Let's face it, if you are not a doctor or nurse (or thought about being one), how many of us really know all the things in which the liver plays a role?

Well not only is it a lot, most of them are directly connected to our weight and, therefor, weight loss. There are far too many of them, so I'm going to try to cover this over the next few post rather than in one very LONG post. I hope to convince you (and me, for that matter) that taking care of your liver (even doing somethings to help it out!) is of vital importance if you want to lose weight and stay healthy!

The first thing we need to do is understand why it is true. So, we need to develop a better understanding of what it is that the liver does.

Your liver performs a lot of different essential functions for your body including: protein synthesis, detoxification, production of digestive chemicals and glycogen storage. Most important, in terms of weight loss, it plays a major role in metabolism. The two large blood vessels that are connected to the liver (portal vein and hepatic artery) divide into capillaries and ultimately connect to the lobules of the liver. And here's the part that matters when you are trying to loose weight – those lobules are made up of millions of tiny little hepatic cells...and those hepatic cells are massive metabolizers!

Now among the liver's other jobs is pumping metabolized fats out of the body – that's right, it's BOTH a fat burning and fat pumping organ – NICE! Here's the thing though, if you aren't doing your part to help it function at it's best, then your liver doesn't pump all the fats out, many of them are recirculated...which contributes to being overweight.

On top of all that, if the liver is damaged by toxins (busy cleaning them up) or clogged up with a lot of waste, it is not able to remove the fat that circulates in your bloodstream and ultimately that fat will collect as fatty deposits on organs (visceral fat) and under the sin (subcutaneous fat).

Bottom line: if you want your liver to deliver on all of it's vital functions; if you want to maintain a healthy body and weight – keeping your liver happy is vitally important. So, in the next few posts, I'll look at some of the things we can do to help it out a bit.

Too Long...Too Much

OK, so it has been way TOO LONG since my last post and (I suspect not so coincidentally) I have gained way TOO MUCH weight in that time. Along with some friends (and friends of friends), I have started an exercise accountability group called Synergy Energy (join us if you'd like). But I've found that while it is encouraging, there really doesn't seem to be a way for it to hold the members accountable, without it being overly intrusive in people's lives.

Well, that set me to thinking about who we should be accountable too (don't worry, the preacher isn't about to step into the pulpit on this) and I couldn't help but conclude - ourselves.

The reality is, there is very little in this life over which we can actually have complete control. Oh, we like to think we do, but that's just a facade we design for our own sense of comfort. I'm not saying that that is a bad thing; in many ways it is the ultimate coping mechanism. But there are a few things over which we do have nearly complete control. One of those is our weight.

Now it is true that there are those who have medical issues that cause them to have much less control over their weight, but even in those cases they can choose to be at the healthiest weight they can manage. And it is also true that it is much harder for some people to maintain a healthy weight than others (dang metabolism!), but it is also true that someone who is 5 foot 6 inches has a much harder time of dunking a basketball than someone who is 6 foot 6inches, but Spud Webb not only did it but he also the NBA dunk contest in 1986.

The point is we tend to let our self prescribed "realities" dictate what we believe we can and can't do. That's true in general and it is true for weight loss as well.

I, like many other people, tend to pretend for the preservation of my own positive self image that there is just too much going on in life to do what it takes to loose weight and keep it off. I tell myself I have too many responsibilities and too little time, to lose weight. Which is a real blessing when you think about it - I get to have my cake and eat it too (quite literally and quite unfortunately). I get to be fat and not feel too bad about it because I have excused it away and managed to preserve a bit of a positive self image (albeit contrived) as well.

Life is to short to live in this constant state of self created false reality (unfortunately, for those of us who are overweight, life is statistically shorter than those who are fit). So, today I jump back on the fitness wagon...time to stop being under-fit.

Whose with me?!

Magically Delicious?

It's MAGIC! That's what some people would have you believe about certain foods. You've heard of them before I'm sure – food that actually MAKE you lose weight! Everything from grapefruit to celery have been grouped into this category and I suspect many a person have made a pretty penny (or thousands) telling us all about it.

Folks, I'm here to tell you there is no such thing as Negative Calorie Food! That's an oxymoron of the likes of “jumbo shrimp,” “Dodge Ram” and “Holy War.” It just doesn't make sense. Food, by its nature, has calories.

Admittedly, the essence of most of the arguments are somewhat true (if not quite a bit off base). Celery for instance. The argument is that you burn more calories chewing it than are actually in it. Guess what? IT'S TRUE (please keep reading before you go buy a cart load). The net “negative calories” from chewing a stalk of celery is about 10 calories. You can eat yourself skinny? Puh-leeaasse!

Given that there are about 3500 calories in a pound, you'd need to eat 350 stalks to lose 1 lb. But even that probably wouldn't work because of the kind of calories you'd be putting into your system (namely celery calories). We won't go into detail on this one, but your body is not going to thank you for it and it is likely to have an overall negative impact on losing weight (I guess, in that way, it is a “negative” calorie food).

The bottom line is that some of these foods might make good snacks, but quite frankly most fruits and vegetable make good, low calorie snacks. There is nothing magical about certain ones.

Don't look for magic beans (or celery or grapfruit or whatever). Weight loss takes really serious commitment, exercise, and a well planned and monitored diet...and there's nothing magical about that. It is hard work – but it is SO worth it!

Mid-week check in and I've lost another 3 lbs. That's a total of 30 lbs so far. I've gone down one shirt size and lost about 3 inches in my waist.

I'll be on hiatus for a few days. So, in the meantime. Keep at it and use the time to think about what other fitness related topics you want to know about...and then let me hear from you!

Crunch Time?

Crunches\Sit-ups will not help you lose weight around your tummy...at least not any more than push-ups or many other exercises.

There is a long standing myth that if you want to lose that belly, you need to do more sit-ups. I can not tell you how happy I would be if that were true, but the reality is: targeted weight loss (weight loss that focuses on one specific "problem area") is a scam.

The reason for this is pretty simple actually. When your muscles burn fat (that's a big part of their fuel) they don't just burn it from the fat closest to them. Your body is a fully integrated system. When muscles burn fat, it comes from all over.

Crunches\Sit-ups ARE a great exercise. When you exercise you want to get as many muscles as possible involved and there are a lot of muscles in your mid-section. And...that washboard abs look is achieved (in part) by doing crunches. The problem is, you can actually have washboard abs but they can be covered by fat if you aren't living a healthy lifestyle.

The trick to losing belly fat is the exact same trick to losing ANY fat. Exercise (build muscle, keep your resting metabolism up) and eat a healthy diet (very little bad fats, sugars and enough protein, vitamins and fiber).

For many of us, when we start a weight loss program some of our belly goes first (probably sub-cutaneous belly fat), but that last bit (probably visceral fat) seems to be the hardest to get rid of. The trick is, just like before when you hit plateaus (I still can't believe that's the way to spell that), trust your system.

Also, now that you are in better shape, it might be time to step up the interval training a bit. So, try short bursts of whatever exercise you are doing followed by a recovery period of exercise. In other words, if you are jogging in place (a great weight loss exercise), try doing a 45 second burst of energy every 5 minutes and then resume your normal jogging pace. This has lots of health benefits, but the one I like best is that it is a very good way of encouraging your body to burn visceral fat.

So, it's not that crunches are bad – they are actually good! They just might not be doing what you think they are!

Keep at it – you can do this! And let me know what fitness tip you'd like to know about!

What Do You Want?

My message at church today (don't worry I"m not going to give you a sermon here) was “Wisdom vs. Truthiness” and I looked at how God delights daily in wisdom. As I prepared for it, I came across a story that I didn't use, but thought it would be great for this blog.

It's a story about a proud young man who came to Socrates asking for knowledge. He walked up to the muscular philosopher and said, "O great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge."

Socrates recognized a pompous numbskull when he saw one. He led the young man through the streets, to the sea, and chest deep into water.

Then he asked, "What do you want?"

"Knowledge, O wise Socrates," said the young man with a smile.

Socrates put his strong hands on the man's shoulders and pushed him under. Thirty seconds later Socrates let him up. "What do you want?" he asked again.

"Wisdom," the young man sputtered, "O great and wise Socrates."

Socrates crunched him under again. Thirty seconds passed, thirty-five. Forty. Socrates let him up. The man was gasping. "What do you want, young man?"

Between heavy, heaving breaths the fellow wheezed, "Knowledge, O wise and wonderful..."

Socrates jammed him under again Forty seconds passed. Fifty. "What do you want?"

"Air!" the young man screeched. "I need air!"

"When you want knowledge as you have just wanted air, then you will have knowledge."

...The question is “what do you want?” The last time I lost a lot of weight my parents were talking to me about it. I told them that I had arrived at the conclusion that losing weight (particularly a LOT of weight) is only for those who really, REALY want it. Sort of like the guy in the story wants air. Otherwise, you set yourself up for mild success and ultimate failure, and let's face it, we overweight people tend to feel bad enough about our weight; we certainly don't need something else to feel bad about!

You have to need it. That's what's going to give you the determination to exercise diligently, put down foods with wasted calories (like cake, chips, and yes even salad dressing), and say a polite “no thank you” when offered an extra adult beverage or bowl of ice cream.

Wanting it is not quiet enough. Lot's of us fat people WANT to lose weight. Self-help guru Tony Robbins would say that if you want something you are ensuring exactly that – that you'll continue to want it. You have to be determined to get it. It's the mindset of needing it and determination to have it that will ultimately work.

I can't help but quote Yoda here as well. when it come to weight loss, "Do or do not. There is not try."

Lost one more pound! That's five for the week - 27 total!

Seriously, let me hear from you! What would you like to know more about?

Why You Stressin'?

You have probably heard it said that stress causes you to gain weight. Those of us who eat to deal with stress have no doubt that it is true, but those who can't eat when they are stressed probably think the whole idea sounds a bit nutty.

The reality is our bodies actually are wired to get fatter under stress (we'll talk about why in a minutes). For those of us trying to use our natural external response to stress (over or under eating) to argue for or against stress having a role in weight gain, I'd just ask you to pause for a minute and think about it. It is not the actual stress that is making you gain or lose weight – its the over or under eating!

What I'm talking about is much more diabolical than that. It relates to all kinds of stressors. It can be the stress of life, the bodily stress of an internal injury or even the stress put on your body from under-eating or fasting. (I know - it seems odd that that fasting can make you gain weight...that's because it can't).

The reality is the concept that stress cause you to gain weight is sort of true...but not really. What I mean is (while certain stress might make you gain weight) what stress really does is increase the amount of fat produced by the body, which deceases its ability to burn fat and increase its desire to make more fat.

It's a primative instinct of the body. A long, long time ago (in a land far, far away), stress was primarily an indication of threat (come to think of it, it really is sort of the same thing now) and in the face of threat the animalistic instinct is simply survival. One of the keys to survival is sustenance. So, when stressed our bodies start converting more of the food that we eat over to fat in order to have something stored up for the tough times in order to insure survival. So, while it is possible that you are still loosing weight while stressed out – it is very likely that you are also becoming less fit because you are increasing your Body Mass Index.

So, stress is evil. It's that simple. Stress can kill a fitness program – and you may not even know it is happening. What can you do? Well...(your going to LOVE this), one of the VERY best ways of relieving stress is exercise! (I told you that exercise is more important than diet!).

Other things that will help: Support group; don't keep it inside, talk with family and friends. (First walk it out, then talk it out). Laugh: a lot, even at things that aren't that funny – maybe even the thing you are stressed about. Sleep more. Slow down; maybe yoga is for you (it's not for me...so maybe its for you...it's gotta' be for somebody). Take a few really deep breaths; you'll be surprised what a little extra oxygenated blood will do for you. Finally, learn to let go of the things you can not control; try using my mantra for such occasions which came from my Benedictine Monk Spirituality Professor, “It is what it is.”

Dropped another 2 lbs – that's 4 for the week so far! 26 total.

Let me hear from you. What do you want to know more about.

And keep at it – you can do this!

Die Diet, Die!

Diets don't work. Really. Sure you can lose weight with diets, but making your diet your primary focus (which is what diets do – hence the name), does not address the problem.

Look at it this way, if (before they were outlawed) your neighbor had tossed a Lawn Dart that inadvertently crossed your shared fence and landed directly in your noggin and you went to the doctor and his or her solution was simply to shoot your head full of Novocain and then send you home – well let's just say I am quite certain you'd never be going back to that quack again. Yet, we go back to diets over and over again, even though each time we only receive temporary fixes that don't address the real issues at hand.

Much like the doctor who treats the symptom (pain in the head) rather than the issue (there is a lawn dart sticking out of your head), we treat the symptom (weighing too much) rather than the real issue (unhealthy lifestyle and bodies that are bad fat burners) when we go to diets over and over again, only to never quite lose all the weight we needed to lose and frequently gaining much of it, if not all of it, back.

We don't need Novocain (diets) to mask the issue and when we make a particular “diet” the primary way we lose weight, that is actually what we are doing. We are probably losing some weight, but in the end we are not transforming our bodies into lean bodies – just lighter bodies.

You can not permanently become a skinny person on a diet. End of story. Diets do not produce muscle. Worse yet overweight people actually store up more fat from the calories they do eat than skinny people (I know, I know – life is very cruel). You need to change your body to that of a lean person not a lighter person. You need to be treating the real issue not the symptom.

There is only one way to do this. Exercise. Plenty of skinny people, while not over weight, are over fat...because they don't exercise. Even blessed with naturally high metabolism, they are very unhealthy because their Body Mas Index (indicator of body fatness) is high and it is always a big surprise to friends when they have heart problems. A diet will not fix that situation. Exercise will.

A diet will not fix my issue (or yours). Exercise will. And not just a walk around the block every day. While that is a good start, it is not what your body needs to build more muscles to convert yourself to a lean fat burning machine rather than the fat producing machines that we over-fat people are.

You need, at least 4 times a week, to exercise for more than 20 continuous minutes (no stopping and starting) at 65-80 percent of your maximum heart rate. Now, forget about that “65-80 percent of your maximum heart rate.” Don't forget about doing it, just don't worry about calculating it. We could learn to do it and to measure our heart rate while exercising – but where's the fun in that. Just use one of these two measures. After 12 minutes you should either be breathing deeply but not gasping for air or you should only be able to carry on limited conversations not tell stories. After you hit 20 minutes you are in the zone for turning fat marbleized muscle in to lean mean fat burning machines.

I do need to say, the RIGHT diet will help you get to your lean body faster, but it should not be your primary focus – that should be exercise.

Since my last post, I've dropped another 2 lbs. That's a total of 24 lbs in a little over 4 weeks. I had hoped for 25 in 4 weeks, but that's still pretty good!

Keep at it – you can do this! And, please, let me hear from you. What do you want to hear more about?

Lean Not Light or Weights not Weight

In my last post, Give Me Some Skin, I said I'd go into some more detail about what you can do to reduce your body fat percentage.

The good news is that you already know all of the answers...the bad new is that, really, you already know all of the answers. If you have been reading this blog from the beginning, you have the foundation for loosing body fat. Yes, this is a weight loss blog, but my approach to weight loss isn't to make the scales give you a lower reading. If it were, I wouldn't have allowed myself to go about 10 days with no weight loss what-so-ever. I could have easily lost weight during that time by encouraging the loss of muscle. Instead, I spent the middle of those 10 days, watching my weight increase by 4 pounds – and I continued to lift weights KNOWING that it might increase my weight for the short term. Why?

Because I trusted my system, a system that is actually more interested in a healthy body than a low weight body. A health body is one that has an appropriate body fat percentage. The interesting thing is that when you have the right body fat percentage – you tend to be an appropriate weight for your ages, sex and height.

Much like in my second article, Kick It Up A Notch (or 2 or 3), where I said the most important thing about losing weight isn't calories, or protein, or exercise but rather metabolism - the goal for losing weight isn't to get the scale to read the number for which you are looking; it's to get your body fat to an appropriate level – everything else you want (including no loose skin) comes with it.

So, my personal system isn't so much a “weight loss” system as it is a “fat loss” system. That's why, in post after post, I talk about what good fat burners muscles are. Changing your diet alone will not help you get rid of loose skin (fat loss); it may help you lose weight, but as we know now – the two are not the same.

For continued fat loss you have to build muscle. That also means that eating too low a calorie diet, while possibly helping you lose weight, is not going to help you lose loose skin (you have no IDEA how hard I worked to use those two words next to each other – English major in me I'm afraid...). When you deprive your body of the appropriate amount of calories it goes into starvation mode, saving up the long term energy sources (fat) and burning of the quick sources (muscle). So, the first thing is to eat enough.

The next thing to do is don't eat too much – because you want to build muscle, not fat.

Then, begin understanding your metabolism – that's your best tool for burning fat (as long as you are not eating too little). One of the keys of ramping up your metabolism is building muscle. And the best way to build muscle is exercise.

So, like with everything else in weight loss, there is no magic pill (and don't believe the marketers that try to tell you otherwise). It takes work and dedication. It takes exercise and just the right amount of calories …. and enough patience to trust that over time the system will work.

And that is a great lead into my latest news. Since my last check in where I had lost 3 lbs after going 10 days with no weight loss, I have lost another 4 lbs! W00t! That's 7 lbs so far this week!

Keep at it and let me hear from you!

Give Me Some Skin

If you have ever lost serious amounts of weight before (I've lost 60 lbs and 90 lbs), you know about one of the most difficult problems that comes along with it (the following may not be suitable for squeamish readers): loose skin. Uggh.

Some would have you believe that the only/best solution for this problem is surgery. I have good news. That is not true. I also have bad news – it does take time and patients. OK, AND perseverance. Even after hitting your target weight, if you have skin that doesn't quite fit your new body, you still have some work ahead of you. Of course, if you think about how good you feel about your new body size, how proud you are of yourself for doing it, well – you can only imagine what it will fill like when you are no long afraid to hide it at the pool or beach.

So here's what you need to know about “resizing” skin (I've “resized” from XXXL to L before so trust me it can be done). First know that skin is very elastic (every once-pregnant woman can tell you this). The other thing to understand is fat and its relationship with your skin. As long as there is a thin layer of fat under that skin, it will be difficult for it to contract. So, your body fat percentage is very important in getting your body to completely resize. What that means is even if you have hit your target weight, you may now have to start thinking about a target body fat (something around 16% for men and around 26% for women). Here's something I can promise you, you will not see someone with loose sin who has very low body fat. Except in extenuating circumstances, it just doesn't happen.

How long you've had your skin stretched out also plays a role in its ability to return to your new body size. After all a pregnant woman has stretched her skin for only nine months therefor it still retains some of its original elasticity. So, returning the skin to its original size will probably happen faster. If you've been overweight for years it may take much longer to get it back to size. But remember – IT IS WORTH IT!

As I mentioned in my last article, H20 plays a vital role in the body, particularly in the operations of your organs. Well, your skin is an organ and hydration also plays and important role in its elasticity. So, stay well hydrated!

There are a few other things that have been shown to be beneficial in trying to tighten skin back up. The best results I've read about are with copper. So make sure you have the Recommended Daily Allowance in your diet (or daily vitamins). Other supplements that can be helpful: Vitamin C and E.

Don't think for a minute that you will need to resort to surgery (besides that might just be masking the issue not fixing it). What you need to give it is a little time, perseverance and patients.

Hey! This was my first response to one of you. Thanks for the question! Keep them coming.

After a week and a half of no weight loss, I've lost 3 lbs in the past 2 days! W00t! Keep at it – you can do this!

Update: I will be posting about WHAT to do to reduce your body fat percentage tomorrow.

Kicking Your Coke Habit

There's a quiet little study out there with some really surprising results. The American Heart Association's publication Circulation published a study in 2007 that isn't getting the press it deserves and my guess is Pepsi and Coke are pretty happy about it.

The impact on the study for those who are trying to lose weight (and the most surprising part of the study) is that dark carbonated drinks cause weight GAIN – even the DIET DRINKS! (Go ahead, go clear you pantries of all those Diet Cokes, Diet Dr. Peppers, and what-have-you... I'll wait....)

Now don't go throwing away all your diet drinks. While there is still controversy over whether they help or hinder weight loss, the jury is still out on them. What is clear is that DARK carbonated drinks (whether regular or diet) have a negative effect on weight loss. The real culprit in all of this seems to be caramel coloring.

Various studies link caramel coloring with insulin resistance which leads to metabolic syndrome, both of which are related to weight gain – worse than that – they are specifically linked to weight gain around the midsection (boo to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome). On top of that, insulin resistance also contributes to inability to focus, fatigue, sleepiness and depression. All of which can have negative effects on keeping that old metabolism running. Now there are a lot of really interesting science geek explanations for these that are related to blood and glucose, but how about you just trust me on this one? (That way we don't help induce sleepiness in any of the insulin resistant among us).

My personal experience is this. Early last year as I was trying to loose weight and was having some mild success. I had switched from Coke to Coke Zero as my primary beverage of choice. Reading the article from Circulation and another piece of research that I think came out of Canada, I switched to Sprite Zero. As I remember, that was about the time my weight loss gained new momentum. Was it because of the elimination of caramel coloring from my diet? I have no idea, but the research combined with the timing of cutting it out of my diet makes me think it was.

I now drink store brand diet lemon-lime or diet ginger ale (remember ginger helps seed up metabolism). If you want to go extreme, buy only the clearer Diet Rite products - there sweeteners are different than the ones used by the other companies and (as of yet) have not been link to weight gain in any major study.

As I've mentioned before, my personal weight loss plan is about the cumulative effect of lots of techniques that have small (sometimes questionable) effects on overall metabolism. This is just one of them – but in my mind it is one of the more important ones.

Keep at it – you can do this!

Get Wet

You, my friend, are a bunch of water. A bunch. As a matter of fact, your body is PRIMARILY water. That's right - humans, when born, are about 73% water. That changes as we grow up, but we still remain primarily comprised of good ol' H2O (Women about 55% and men 60%). Also, keep in mind that blood is mostly water which means it plays a big roll in transporting oxygen to your organs, which as we know, is very important in enzyme biosythesis which plays an important roll in weight loss because of it's roll in metabolism. Water also makes up 75% of your brain. (Insert your own dehydrated joke here).

One of the important things that that means, when it come to weight loss, is that (being made of water) our organs and various bodily systems need water to function well. Being well hydrated, much like a machine being well lubricated, means our bodies will be able to operate at their top efficiency (all other things help constant).

Why does that matter to weight loss? A couple of reasons actually, but one primary reason. People who have been with the blog from the beginning won't be surprised to hear that it is related to...(wait for it, wait for it) metabolism! It's actually very straight forward logic here (none of that science\weight loss\geek stuff needed). Part of our metabolism is defined by how much energy our bodies are using. The more systems that are working away, the more energy you use. If you are dehydrated your systems will start working at a lower efficiency in relation to how much water is available. So, being well hydrated all the time means you are giving your body one of it's most important tools in working at maximum efficiency and thus keeping you metabolism running well also!

How much? Well, between one and seven liters a day! It actually varies between people depending on physical activity, humidity, etc. The good news is a good 20% of that comes just from the foods you eat. The other good news is that it is perfectly fine to get the rest of it from sources other than straight up water...with two exceptions: non-diet sodas and alcohol. Both of them have a lot of sugars (and calories) which is just going to get in the way of getting the aqua that you need. As a matter of fact, when it come to alcohol, for every drink you have it should be matched by an equal amount of water (and that's over and above the amount you would normally need for a healthy and happy system). For that matter, my tip about keeping a little caffeine in your system also means you need a little more water because caffeine (as I mentioned) is a natural diuretic.

You can go a week without food (bad idea – yes even on a diet – ok, ok more on that later), but not water. As a matter of fact, even a small deficiency (say 2%) will leave you feeling tired. Which means less activity (probably less exercise) and that means lower metabolism...well, it's not a good idea.

There are lots of other reasons to drink enough water including: muscles require more water, digestion works better with it, it tends to mask the body's huger response, and the list could go on. The bottom line is – DRINK UP. Just don't way over do it. In general your kidneys (if they are in good working condition) are going to take care of the extra, but you can have too much which can lead to water intoxication and hyponatremia. Google it if you'd like – you don't want to go there.

One last related note - DO NOT drink from plastic bottles that contain BPA. How do you know if it does? If it is #7 plastic (most Nalgene type bottles) it probably has it. One other related note – so do most canned foods. Some scientist believe BPA present heath risks.

I'm looking for weight loss topics you'd like to know about. So, let me hear from you.

Oh - and I finally lost that 4 lbs I had put on last week (probably from the muscles gain) and started back down hill - another pound lost!

Keep at it – you can do this!

Just The Fats Ma'am

I have bad news (hey, whaddya' expect? It's a weight loss blog). You don't just have fat. You have two kinds of fat. (No that is not the fat version of the joke, “He's two kinds of stupid.”) . Our bodies are comprised of two kind of fat: subcutaneous and visceral. The question you should be asking yourself about now is, “why do I care?”

Well, have you ever noticed that when you loose weight belly fat is not only the hardest to get rid of but the last to go? That's probably because it is visceral fat and because visceral fat is so deeply embedded, it is twice as hard to loose. Subcutaneous fat is the fat the resides just under your skin (hence, subcutaneous – clever huh?). Diet alone will actually help to reduce subcutaneous fat. But visceral fat is a different story. It seems to be very stubborn.

Visceral fat is sometimes called organ fat, because it is the fat that not only makes beer bellies, but also wraps around your organs (very dangerous stuff this visceral fat). That is actually a bit of a misnomer because both fats are actually organs themselves. Yep – that's right. Fat isn't just a lifeless blob, it is an organ that produces hormones (we've mentioned that before) and even sends signals to a lot of other organs.

Back on topic – Visceral fat is deeply embedded, surrounds organs, and leads to all kinds of health issues including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and hypertension. So, while it takes longer to get rid of, you really want to get rid of this stuff. The question is how?

Exercise - and not light exercise. You need to get at it. At least 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise, 6 days a week. Don't fall into the trap that infomercials perpetuate – you can not spot reduce. In other words, sit-ups do not focus your fat burning in the stomach area. It will help tone those muscles so that eventually, once the visceral fat is gone, you'll be well toned, but nothing more.

If you want better, faster results, try interval training. It is the best way to loose visceral fat. Interval training basically means going at the exercise hard very briefly and the taking it a little easier for a bit, then repeating the process. You may recall me mentioning that as I get into shape I like to start each mile of my bike ride with a sprint. Well, as I continue to get into shape, I like to increase the interval at which I do a sprint but, at the same time, I shorten the length of the sprint.

Research shows that the quicker the intervals of intense work out, the greater the results in lowering visceral fat – even when the duration of each intense workout segment is shorter! So, as I ride my bike I sprint for say 10 sections of pavement then peddle at a moderate pace for 15 – sprint, peddle – sprint, peddle – sprint, peddle – sprint, peddle.

So, find the interval training that works best for you and get at it! We've got fat to burn!

I'm looking for weight loss topics you'd like to know about. So, let me hear from you.

Keep at it – you can do this!

Last Call For Alcohol

I've got good new and I've got bad news. Everybody has heard about the infamous “beer belly.” The basic idea is that alcohol calories get turned to fat and goes right to your gut! Well, here's the good news, that simply is not true, nor does it get turned to fat a deposited anywhere else (at least not in substantial quantities). Only a very small percentage of the calories from alcoholic drinks are actually converted into that kind of fat! Great news, right? Well...not exactly.

While the calories aren't converted to fat, adult beverages have a really devastating affect on your body's ability to burn fat. Here's the geek-lite of what happens. Your body converts a tiny bit of the calories into fat. It pushes the rest of it on to the liver (cheers!) and the liver, using alcohol dehydrogenase (a very useful little enzyme), converts it into acetate (specifically into acetic acid, then acetate). What's acetate? Well, it's basically a fat and it gets delivered directly to your bloodstream.

At this point you may be saying, I thought you said alcohol mostly was converted into fat? But that's not what I said. I said it wasn't converted to the kind of fat that gets deposited on your belly or other places. It does get converted into acetate (a kind of fat) and delivered directly to the bloodstream. The acetate in your blood stream then becomes your body's main source of fuel. Not needing the stored fat for fuel, your body shuts down most of the system that handles that function (research suggest that fat metabolism can drop as much as 73%). The problem then is, it's not like a light switch, once it is off it takes it a while to get fired back up.

So, double damage. You loose a few hours of fat reduction while the alcohol is in your system and then you loose the hours it takes to get the system fired back up! Worse yet, try a few drinks after dinner, then just as the alcohol is working it's way out of your system, go to bed and become as physically dormant as you ever get. You could lose almost half a day's worth of fat burning!

And it's worse than that. Alcohol makes you hungry. A number of studies have show that people consuming alcohol are much more likely to increase their calorie intake. Worse yet, remember those fantastic fat burners? Some people call them muscles. Alcohol actually contributes to breaking them down. It increases a hormone called cortisol which is particularly good at taking out muscles and it decreases the production of testosterone which, of course, helps build muscles. Another double whammy!

So, am I saying we should all be on the wagon? No. Not at all. There is some evidence suggesting that a small amount of alcohol (and I mean small – like 150 calories total), will slightly increase your ability to lose weight. How much is 150? 1 beer - 5ish oz. of wine - and mixed drinks are all over the board. Something simple like a gin and tonic or a diet coke and whiskey, you can pretty much just count on one.

I'm looking for weight loss topics you'd like to know about. So, let me hear from you.

Keep at it – you can do this!

Buzz! Buzz!

When I diet, I get my caffeine buzz on. All-the-while, the debate on whether I should be doing this rages on. There are those who believe that a lot of overweight people are insulin resistant and therefor shouldn't use caffeine because it causes you to gain weight (there's some real geeky biology stuff we could go into right here to explain it, but let's just skip it this time...you trust me, right)? The funny thing is most diet pills CONTAIN caffeine, so what's going on here?

Well, my thoughts are that there may be those who are overweight and insulin resistant (it would be unusual to be insulin resistant and not be at least a little overweight) and they shouldn't use caffeine, but there must be a lot more of us who aren't or those manufactures wouldn't be putting it in their products (it's one thing to put stuff in there that doesn't really work, but to use something that might make your clients GAIN weight...not happening. They want your money. Greed is a powerful motivator).

I personally think it is very beneficial to add caffeine to your diet when loosing weight, as long as you aren't ACTUALY insulin resistant. Think about it this way. When you cut calories out of your diet, you are essentially cutting back on the fuel you offer your body. Not only that, when you are doing it to loose weight, you are cutting your calories back below the fuel level your body needs on a daily bases. That's part of why it is so easy to get tired when you are dieting. Well, if there is one thing that can give you pretty instant energy – it's caffeine (three cheers!). On a side note: this also makes it a good choice just before a workout!

Not only that, studies show that it does increase your metabolism – more specifically there is some speculation that it increases thermogenesis, which is one of the ways your body burns up fuel (food). Add to it the fact that caffeine is a natural diuretic...so, well – let's just leave it at that – 'kay?

So, I try to start a little caffeine flowing in the morning and keep a little (not tons) in my system all day long. As a part of my larger plan, it seems to work really well. Plus...I really like caffeine, so it is a win-win!

One last thought - if you are a person who takes to stress easily, keep in mind that caffeine can heighten the experience of stress and anxiety. Study after study have shown that being stressed or anxious frequently are causes of weight gain. So, think about it carefully before you decide to get your caffeine buzz on!

I'm holding steady on the weight loss today. No gains, no losses.

Keep at it – you can do this! And let me hear from you.

Dude, You Threw Off My Grove

I've decided to go back through my previous post and clean them up a little. You may have noticed my annoying little habit of staying focused on the point at hand at the expense of other possibly useful information (usually, found in brackets like this with a promise to explain it latter). So, I'm going back over them and posting the other (possibly useful) information.

The first I want to cover comes from “Dumbells - Yeah, I'm Talking To You." We talked about the importance of both aerobic and anaerobic exercise. At some point, in my oh-so-charming-way, I offhandedly mentioned the importance of changing the types of exercise you do – not just switching back and forth from one type of aerobic exercise to one type of anaerobic exercise.

Well, besides the simple (and slightly obvious) reason of it helping you avoid getting bored of your exercise, there is also a very good physical reason for it. Plateaus (did I spell that right? Hmmm, just looks odd – weird word). That's right plateaus (seriously, looks odd doesn't it?). If you've ever dieted before or tried to achieve an exercise goal before, you know that that six letter word is really a four letter word (so to speak).

Nothing can suck the drive and focus right out of you like hitting a week long plateaus (does somebody wanna' look that up ? 'Cause it still looks wrong to me). Repeating the same exercises over and over, while probably giving you early success, is a sure fire way to hit plateaus (if for no other reason than getting bored). Really, though, it makes sense. Most of us who are overweight are also under-exercised. So, we work the same muscles over and over and produced pretty good (and sort of instant) results. However, there is a point at which those particular muscles become reasonably well worked and the improvements on them and our added weight loss due to new muscle begins to decline and eventually level off.

Like I've mentioned before, that Darwin was on to something. Our bodies do adapt and remarkably quickly I might add. Our body's systems (muscular, cardio-vascular) adapt to training routines faster than you might think. So, don't let your routine be...well, so routine. Mix it up. Exercise different muscles and give them all a chance to perform (that means you'll be making even MORE fat burners!).

So, while many of us like routine, when it comes to loosing weight, it is not your friend. So get out of that groove and and rotate your exercises to maximize your results.

Oh, and two of those four pound I gained are already gone - nice!

Keep at it – you can do this! And let me hear from you.

Trust the Force...

Today's post is more of a reminder than anything. In reality, it's probably more of a pep-talk to myself.

When it comes to weight loss plans, there are a few things that are important to keep in mind. First of all – understand why the plan you are using works. (That's the reason I spend so much time on the slightly geeky/science side of weight loss). In part, that means understanding how it affects your body and what the likely outcomes are. Basically, I'm saying don't just follow a diet\exercise plan blindly.

That brings us to what might be one of the most important things to keep in mind. While, you should not follow a diet\exercise plan blindly (that is, follow it without understanding why it works), once you do understand why it works and how it is likely to affect your body, you should trust in it implicitly and stick to it.

What does that mean? Well, I had a major let down today. After loosing 15 lbs in 2 weeks, when I stepped on the scales this morning, I had gained 4 lbs. in about 24 hours! Egad! My calorie count for the previous 24 hours had been in the range of 1800 – basically on target for me - and my protein was around 120 grams – a little low for what I like, but more than enough.

After thinking back over the weekend, I realized that I had actually done relatively well. Admittedly, on my Cheat Day I probably added on the high end of what I allowed (say, 1000 calories), but 1000 calories does not a pound make (let alone 4!!). So, I thought through my exercising as well and realized, while I had not been riding my bike in over four days, I had worked out hard with free weights ALL FOUR DAYS! Well, knowing about how my diet and exercise affects my body, I quickly realized that I had probably put on a lot more muscle (those wonderful fat burning friends!) than I usually would in a four day period. Given that muscle is about 20% denser than fat...well, it's not completely surprising that I put on weight.

My gut (and I DO mean GUT) instinct was to freak out and go to an extreme to drop that weight back off, but I reminded myself that I am already wearing smaller clothes and just retired a belt I purchased only four weeks ago. The system is working and I need to trust in it. Understanding how and why my system works, just makes it all the easier to find that trust.

Keep at it – you can do this! As Yoda says, "Do or do not, there is no try."

Let me hear from you.

¡Muy Caliente!

Some like it hot. I like it hotter. That's right. Mo' hotta', mo' betta'. And it pays off when you are dieting too!

Various studies have arrived at different percentages of increase to your metabolic rate, but one thing is for certain – spicy foods do increase it! Foods/spices that have been tested include: red chili, black pepper, ginger, cumin, capsaicin, and turmeric. Capsaicin is the part of the chili pepper that makes it nice and hot and it seems to be able to play a significant role in weight loss. And while it is the biggest player in weight loss, keep in mind that some studies showed the best way to maximize the weight loss benefits of spicy food is to mix them.

After taking capsaicin, studies have shown increases in metabolism ranging from 8 percent to 50 percent, with the increase lasting anywhere from a short period of time to 3 hours. Even if it is only 8 percent, keep in mind that we are working on the perfect storm here. We aren't looking for the one magic weight loss bullet (it doesn't exist). What we are looking for is more of a buckshot approach – a whole bunch of little tweaks that add up to reaching our target weight!

Some of the research also indicated that people who lost weight by including spicy foods (particularly those with capsaicin in them), were more likely to maintain a healthy weight after reaching their target weight. So, even if you don't buy into the fact that hot foods make your metabolism burn hotter, it's worth adding them in to your diet just for the post-loss upside! If you need another reason, a study from Canada (lots of good food studies come out of Canada – seriously) showed that consuming hot food (in the study it was hot sauce) before the meal, reduced the amount of calories the participants chose to have during the meal.

The bottom line is spicy foods make it easier for your body to burn fat, they encourage you to eat less and they help you keep it off after you've lost it! What's not to like?

Two things to keep in mind though, spicy foods do not mix with ulcers or heartburn. So, if you suffer from either, stay away from them. Also, if you get hold of something that is just way too hot for you to handle, hit the milk to cool yourself down.

So, crank up the heat and tell your fat, “Burn baby, burn.”

Keep at it – you can do this! And let me hear from you.

Put The Fork Down And Back Away From The Plate

Cheat Day! Who Hoo! I've decided that on cheat day, Sunday (don't you just LOVE the fact that a minister made “Cheat day” Sunday?! I know I do!), I will also give myself a little break on the blog. There will still be a post, but it will be short and to the point – a lot less science\health geek stuff! (You may celebrate now). So, without further adieu todays post:

There is a hormone that scientists recently discovered that is produced in the stomach that tell your brain, “Stop eating, ya' big dummy – we're full!” The thing is, once you are full it takes 20 minutes for the stomach to start producing the hormone (ok, so a little science\health geeky stuff).

Ever watch an over-weight person eat? It certainly isn't true for all of us over-weight people (talking about me, not necessarily you), but frequently what you'll find is that we are fast eaters. Clearly, that is a problem when it takes 20 minutes for you brain to get the message you are full. We are high achievers in getting more calories into our bellies before our brain knows what's going on. Um, Congrats?

There is one simple trick that helps immensely with this issue: put your fork down. No, I'm not making an overly simplistic joke at your expense; I'm not suggesting you just need to stop eating if you don't want to gain weight. Just put your fork down...between every bite. Do not pick it up until you have completely finished the previous bite (and yes that goes for spoons too). I think over time, you will be very pleased with the results.

End of week two and after cheat day, I'm on an even keel – total of 15 lbs lost. That's 3 lbs for the week.