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Calories and Weight Gain

October 13, 2010 admin 8 comments

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Hi,

There is a silly debate going on in the diet guru world right now. It has to do with calories and weight gain.

Some say that it doesn’t matter what you eat. It only matters how much.

So if you eat more calories than you expend or burn then you will gain weight. If you eat less calories than you burn then you will lose weight.

This is pretty straight forward and easy to understand.

But, there is another group that says it is more important what you eat then how much you eat.

Now the smarter ones in this group do add the caveat that there are limits to how much you can eat. In other words, overall calories are important.

This group believes that if you eat more carbs, then you will gain weight. If you eat more protein then you will lose weight or not gain.

So what is the truth?

They are both right to a degree.

This has to do with how your body uses the food or energy it takes in.

Some people will eat and eat and eat and still not gain weight. For some of them it doesn’t matter if they eat fat, carbs or protein. They have a higher metabolism and can process more food without gaining weight.

Wouldn’t you like that problem?

Well you can have it. Just not to the same degree.

Yes, overall calories do matter. However, your body will adjust to the overall calories. Most people notice this when they go on a diet.

As less food comes in, the metabolism slows.

However, when you eat more, the metabolism speeds up. To a degree. You can’t just eat more and more food and expect your metabolism to keep pace.

Your body has a system of checks and balances and if this gets to far out of whack, then – in this case – weight gain is a consequence.

But, what about the high protein diets that are the rage.

Here, is the thing. You can eat more protein than you can carbs (especially processed carbs) and not gain body weight.

That is because your body takes a certain amount of energy to process foods. It takes more to process protein than it does carbs.

And your body needs protein more than it needs processed carbs.

Too many processed carbs plays havoc with your whole hormone system which can more easily lead to weight gain.

But eating too much protein can lead to weight gain also.

So the bottom line is, you can not get away from the formula that more calories in than burned leads to weight gain.

However, what you eat also affects the amount of weight gain or loss you have.

So to lose weight start by eating less processed carbs and upping your protein intake. Even if your calorie level doesn’t change, you should see a drop in weight.

Calories and weight gain can be tricky and we’ll talk more about this in future issues.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Growth Hormone and Fat Loss

October 11, 2010 admin 17 comments

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Hi,

Can growth hormone (GH) help with fat loss?

The short answer is yes.

A study done back in 2008 showed that growth hormone helps build muscle and helps raise the body’s metabolism.

In this study the metabolism of a group of middle aged men was raised by an average of 172 calories per day.

Now that might not seem like much, but think about it over a years period of time. That 172 calories per day becomes 62780 calories in 1 year.

Divide that by 3500 calories in a pound and you would lose almost 18 pounds in a year.

Yes, I know that doesn’t really compare to the marketing hype surrounding diet pills, exercise programs, diet programs and all the other scams out there.

But, 18 pounds in a year is a good goal to shoot for. And you get this just by taking some GH.

These figures are pretty close to what actually happened. The men were given GH (by injection) for 6 months and gained 5.5 pounds of muscle and lost 8.8% of body fat.

Now, here is the problem. The injections.

The injections work. The problem is, other methods of administering GH have not shown the same results.

Fortunately, there are ways to raise your GH levels without injections or taking it orally.

This is through good old exercise.

Now regular exercise will raise it a bit, but by doing specific exercises and with specific intensities, you can amplify the results.

A typical GH enhancing exercise would be the squat. The squat has always been a great exercise for building overall strength and muscle and one of the reasons is because of its GH boosting properties.

I loved doing the squat. But, after back surgery it is no longer an option. So lunges and leg presses are what works for me.

Any exercise where you are using as many muscles in the body as possible at the same time are GH boosting exercises.

To get the most you have to use weights. So just a body weight squat will not give you the same GH boost that squating with 315 pounds across your back will.

To use lots of weight most people will have to go to a gym. But, there is another way.

That is to do pretty much non-stop exercises. This is a type of high intensity exercise that can also work and you only need your body.

Let’s use leg exercises as an example.

Start out with doing squats for 36 seconds non – stop. Rest for 10 seconds. Do another set and rest for 10 seconds.

Then do side to side squats. (I will put a video of these up soon). Start in your normal squat position and do a full squat. While in the down position, step out to the right side with your right foot. Bring your left foot to the right as you stand up.

Reverse this by going to the left. Do this exercise for 36 seconds. Rest 10 seconds and repeat 1 more time.

On to lunges. Do around the world lunges. This is done like so:

Do a forward lunge and step back. With the same leg, step to a side lunge and step back. Follow up with a rear lunge and step back. Now do the same thing with the other leg.

Do this for as many reps as you can. Make sure you do proper lunges. Form is more important than speed.

When you can’t do any more, rest 10 seconds. The finish with stationary forward lunges. Just step forward into a lunge position with one leg. Stay there and do as many lunges as possible or 36 seconds, whichever comes first.

Rest 10 seconds and repeat with the other leg.

Then collapse.

This group of exercises uses almost every muscle in the body. And the intensity factor will make your GH skyrocket.

Not only that, but this exercise session will ignite your EPOC to accelerate your fat burning from another angle.

Try this and your growth hormone will surge and your fat loss accelerate.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Soda and Weight Loss

September 29, 2010 admin 1 comment

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Hi,

Just read an interesting statistic in Health News Weekly today. If you stopped drinking soda what would your weight loss be?

It is estimated that the average person in the US drinks 600 twelve ounce sodas a year. At an average of 40 grams of sugar per drink that is a lot of extra sugar per year.

Each gram of sugar has 4 calories. So you – as an average American – are drinking 96000 calories from soda a year.

Since 3500 calories = 1 pound that is 27 pounds of extra weight you are gaining every year from sugar. And that is just from soda.

You can easily double or triple that amount when you count all the rest of the sugar you eat.

Is it any wonder that it is so easy to gain weight.

And so hard to take it off.

So does that mean if you stop drinking soda you could lose 27 pounds of weight in a year?

No.

Losing weight doesn’t work that easily.

While you can lose 27 pounds in a year, you have to do more than just stop drinking soda.

Whenever you reduce your calories, your metabolism also slows down. This is just a natural survival response.

Fortunately, there are ways around this. The easiest way is to increase your movement.

Whether you start walking, riding a bike, doing calesthenics, or weight lifting – everything helps.

Maybe you won’t lose 27 pounds, but you just might lose more!

So that is it in a nutshell.

Increase your movement, cut out your soda and the weight loss will come.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Is Your Cardio Working For You?

September 15, 2010 admin 5 comments

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Hi,

Many people use and think that cardio is the only real way to lose body fat. But, is your cardio working for you?

Turns out that cardio obviously does have fat burning properties. However, it is not the most efficient way to burn body fat.

First off, you have to do a lot of cardio to burn a lot of fat. And you will almost never get any kind of after burn effect.

However, some people seem to do quite fine with just cardio, while others can do cardio for several hours a week and not lose any fat.

What gives? Well that is exactly what some British researches wanted to find out.

So they designed a study where 35 overweight men and women (non exercisers) did the same cardio protocol 5 times per week for 12 weeks.

The average weight loss was 8.2 pounds. But, that is only part of the story.

One person lost 32.3 pounds and one gained 3.74 pounds. That is just over 36 pounds in difference.

Why did this happen? Turns out that there was a diffence in the participants that lost a good bit of weight and in the participants that didn’t lose so much weight.

This is a compensation mechanism. And it is something a lot of people are guilty of.

The over compensators actually raised their calorie intake by around 250 calories a day. The cardio sessions were making these people extra hungry.

Those that lost the most weight did not experience an increase in hunger from doing the cardio.

Many people have a tendency to think that if they exercise a certain amount they are entitled to an extra treat.

This is a sure fire way to sabotage your fat burning. I think this is the single biggest reason that many people don’t get the full benefits of their exercise program.

To make sure your cardio is working for you, make sure you are not an over compensator.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Do You Want to Live Longer?

September 1, 2010 admin No comments

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Hi,

Do you want to live longer? What if you knew a way to live longer that is simple to do? Would you do it?

Some research out of the University of Florida’s Institute on Aging measured the effects of oxidation (bad) on DNA.

They found a way that reduced these effects over the year’s period of time for the study.

All you had to do was eat 20% less food. Now that is pretty simple. But it is not so easy. 20% is a pretty big drop.

Out of 2000 calories that is a 400 calorie drop per day.

Yes, I know there are diets out there that proclaim you can drop 500-1000 calories a day and lose weight just by watching TV.

Problem is most people can’t even stay on a 2-300 drop in calories a day, let alone a 1000 calorie a day drop.

And, if you have been reading these posts for any length of time, you already know the problems of drastic food reduction to lose weight.

But, in this controlled study, it was found that the oxidative damage to DNA was significantly decreased with a reduction in calories.

The same thing was found with a 20% increase in energy expenditure via exercise.

So exercise 20% more or eat 20% less.

Here is an even better idea. Put the two together to get your 20%. In other words, just decrease your eating by 10% and increase your exercise by 10%.

Again, this is simple, but for many not so easy to do. However, a 10% reduction in eating sounds way better than a 20% reduction.

And doing some more exercise every day sounds better than a lot more exercise every day.

Now this study didn’t go into details on what was eaten or what kind of exercise was done.

However, if you are getting nutrient rich whole foods, your body will be satisfied and not even miss the extra food.

If you exercise the right way you can increase your energy expenditure by 20% in a matter of just minutes a day.

So if you want to live longer put those two points into practice. It is simple and almost easy.

Stay tuned as we explore this in further posts.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Why Do We Eat So Much Junk Food?

August 6, 2010 admin 2 comments

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Hi,

Do we really need to eat so much junk food?

You might think that we need so many calories a day to live. This is actually partially true.

While we do need a certain minimum amount of calories to survive, we also need a certain amount of nutrients to function.

So it is possible for someone to eat a very highly nutritional meal with only 500 calories in it. Do this 3 times a day and add another 1-200 calories of a nutritional snack(s) and your body is satisfied throughout the day.

Not only is it satisfied, but it signals the rest of your body and its hormones saying “Hey, I’m good. Don’t need anymore food”.

On the other hand you could also go to a fast food joint and munch down 1500 calories in one meal. Do this a couple of times a day, add in a few high sugar sodas and candy snacks throughout the day and you could easily top 4000 calories a day.

Yet, your body is not happy. It is not getting enough nutrients. It is getting way to many calories, but not enough nutrients.

So it signals your body by saying, “Hey, I need some nutrients. Eat more. Give me my nutrients.”

So your body will actually realign your hormones. It will encourge ghrelin, the hunger hormone to tell your brain to eat more.

It will stop the leptin hormone (tells your brain it is full) from working.

At first it will cause the leptin to counter balance the ghrelin. But, over time it takes more and more leptin to counter balance ghrelin.

And eventually, it gives up.

Overweight and obese people have very high levels of leptin. But, since it stops functioning these people keep on eating with no counter balance to stop it.

Add this to the fact that most fast and junk foods do taste good and you can see how hard it is to counter this.

Don’t worry there are ways to get your hormones back in balance again.

Just keep reading this blog.

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Double the Calories You Burn?

July 7, 2010 admin 2 comments

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Hi,

I saw a headline in Health World a while back that caught my eye. It said you could double the calories you burn when you exercise.

As with most claims in the exercise and fitness worlds it doesn’t give you the whole truth.

The article went on to mention that it was possible to double the amount of calories you burn when you exercise by adding aerobic exercise to your routine.

It claimed that regular aerobic exercise will burn calories after you stop exercising by up to 8 hours afterwards.

Somehow they interpreted that “fact” to mean that if you do aerobic exercise and burn 100 calories you will then burn an additional 100 calories after you stop doing the exercise.

Unfortunately, they gave no proof of this. Nor did they cite any research proving this.

And there is a reason for this. It just isn’t true.

Pretty much the research shows that regular aerobic exercise does burn calories while you are doing it.

And you will actually get into a fat burning stage after approximately 20 minutes.

But, as soon as you stop the aerobic exercise that is pretty much it. You get no or very little EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. And certainly not 8 hours worth.

You might have heard it called oxygen debt. This is the debt that has to be repaid after intense exercise. Note the term intense.

That is the key. Most people do not do intense aerobics.

Go to any gym in the country and watch the people doing aerobics on all the different kinds of aerobic machines. Watch people walking or jogging along the street.

That is what aerobics are for most. A slow to medium paced workout.

Very seldom to you see anyone doing sprints or running as hard as they can up 10 flights of stairs.

I see people looking at me when I am on an exercise bike. I pedal like a madman for 20, 30, 45 or even up to 75 seconds. Then I relax and pedal slowly for 10 to 20 seconds.

I keep doing that for 7 to 20 minutes depending on whether I have done a weight training workout prior to the “aerobics”.

But, you should see the looks I get. It is almost funny. I can just see their minds going, what in the hell is that guy doing.

Well, I am burning fat.

So in this case adding high intensity exercise does indeed increase the after burn effect for up to 48 hours afterwards.

Why is this? Because low intensity to medium intensity exercise influences your hormones to burn sugars.

High intensity exercise – even if you burn much less calories during the exercise time – influences your hormones to burn body fat.

Big, big difference in your appearance.

So yes you can actually more than double the calories you burn over the long term. But, you won’t be able to do it with low to moderate intensity aerobics.

We’ll talk more about hormones and how they influence your physique in coming posts. Stay tuned.

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

Have You Regained Weight? 3

June 29, 2010 admin 4 comments

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Hi,

This is part three in the have you regained weight series. Please check out the archives for parts 1 and 2.

Last post I left you hanging with a major problem with making those permanent changes.

You might remember, I proposed that instead of going on a temporary diet (all diets are temporary) you should look at how eating will affect your permanent lifestyle goals.

If you decide that – for example – eating a little less calories and eating a healthier diet is something you want to do on a permanent basis that is great.

But there is a problem. That problem has to do with how your mind and body work together.

So you have made your decision and now you are eager to get started. This is only natural, but it is a problem.

Most people will do two things. They will drastically reduce their calories and start (or greatly increase) exercising.

However, doing these two things is setting you up for failure. I would say that these two things are the number one reason people will regain the weight.

Anytime you make drastic changes to your lifestyle patterns, your body, your mind and your spirit are going to resist.

Your normal pattern is something you are used to. It is something that is considered normal by your whole essence. It is called homeostasis and it means basically “the same old, same old”.

You want to stay the same, even if you think you want to change. Your body is set up to stay the same.

Yet, you can change. You just have to do it gradually. Making drastic changes only causes your body to fight you. It causes your mind to fight you. And it sucks the spirit right out of you.

Oh, it doesn’t happen on the first day, but it does happen. And it happens in a relatively short time.

Look at your original weight gain. Did you gain 20 pounds in a few days? Probably not. You did it over several months, or even a few years. A little bit at a time.

That is how you lose the weight naturally – over a period of time. Now it doesn’t take several months or even years to lose 20 pounds, but you are not going to do it – and keep it off – in just a few days or weeks.

If you look at your weight loss goals as where you want to be permanently, then it becomes easier to plan for and actually do. You don’t have to worry about what to do when the diet is over, because you are already doing it.

And it has become a part of your lifestyle. Once you reach your desired weight loss this becomes your new you. Your new homeostasis. And just like before, your body will resist changing from your new weight.

To really make sure of this, you will use the power of 36 to lock this in place.

Find out how the power of 36 will keep you from regaining weight in the next post.

Thanks,

Mike Val

valshealthblog.com

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Calories and Weight Gain

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