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Dieting is Simply Too Hard

July 15, 2010 admin 2 comments

: Image via Wikipedia

Hi,

Dieting is simply too hard, says a survey titled, “Annual Report on Eating Patterns in America” (2008).

They came to this conclusion based upon the fact that more and more people are giving up on dieting.

And you know what, they are right.

Dieting is too hard.

It is hard not only from a physical aspect, but also from your mental and spiritual aspects also.

You have heard of the body, mind and spirit, right? Well, if you can get all three of these aligned to accomplish something, you will be able to accomplish it much easier.

If, one aspect is not in alignment, then your task becomes much more difficult, if not impossible.

Think of trying to push a wheelbarrow when the wheel is not attached and you will get an idea of what it is like trying to accomplish a goal when you are not aligned.

So why is dieting such a problem?

First, you body is not designed to diet. Your body is a series of checks and balances that help you function at the optimal levels.

When you are hungry a hormone called ghrelin signals you to eat. When you are full another hormone called leptin tells you to stop eating.

Every system in your body has these checks and balances. As long as that system is maintained then you will never need to diet.

So, if the system gets whacked out of balance then the body doesn’t really understand how to get back in balance, so it resists.

Let me explain. If you overeat a little bit everyday (finish all the food on your plate), the leptin learns not to react as quickly. This process is a desensitization of leptin.

So it takes more and more leptin to tell you when you are full. This is a gradual process and eventually it doesn’t work well at all.

It was found that obese people actually have very high levels of leptin, but it doesn’t work anymore.

Now there is nothing to tell you when you are full. Ghrelin has no counter force.

So you keep eating and eating and eating. Why doesn’t ghrelin slow down or stop working also?

No one knows for sure, but I am guessing it has to do with what you eat.

Your body needs nutrients to function properly. If it is not getting these nutrients, that doesn’t mean it stops wanting them.

What it means is it keeps signaling your body to keep eating until it gets the nutrients.

Try this. Eat a well balanced meal of proteins, fats and carbs. Something like wild salmon with vegetables and a sweet potato. That will give your body all the nutrients it needs and the body will be satisfied.

If you eat a meal of a double bacon burger with fries and a soda, your body will not be getting hardly any nutrients. And you will be signaled that your body still needs the nutrient. Go eat some more says your body.

This becomes a vicious cycle. And even though continual eating of bad food is not good for you, it doesn’t matter to your body. It will keep signaling you to eat more until it gets the nutrients it needs.

As you can see your body doesn’t want to go on a diet. It doesn’t know how to act on a diet and it will rebel every step of the way.

That is one of the reasons that dieting is simply too hard. Stay tuned for the mental and spiritual sides of the equation tomorrow.

Thanks,

Mike Val

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Diet and Nutrition, Uncategorized diet, Dieting, Eating, Ghrelin, Health, Leptin, Obesity, weight loss

Weight Loss Foods?

July 12, 2010 admin 1 comment

: Image via Wikipedia

Hi,

Are there really any weight loss foods? In other words, can you lose weight by eating certain foods vs. other foods.

Well, according to an article I read awhile back the answer is yes. I am not so convinced.

Basically this article said that if you ate more millet, asparagus, pomegranates, pine nuts and green tea your waistline would shrink.

While I have no problem with these foods and drinks from a health standpoint, there are a couple of problems.

First is that no food by itself is a weight loss food. Specific foods have nothing to do with weight loss or weight gain. How much you eat will control what you weigh – to a point. Which leads us to the other problem.

That eating a healthy diet and weight loss have nothing to do with each other.

Now you might think I am a little crazy to say that. After all eating a healthy diet should help you lose weight – right?

Sorry, but losing weight has to do with how much you eat and how your hormones react to the food.

Of course eating healthy is better for you. But, if you ate nothing but steak and broccoli you could gain weight and become fat.

On the other hand, if you ate nothing but cookies and ice cream, you could lose weight.

It has to do with how much you eat.

So under the above circumstances, the cookies and ice cream would be weight loss foods and the steak and broccoli would be weight gain foods.

However, even if the cookies and ice cream helped you lose weight, it still would not be healthy for you to eat all the time.

If you ate nothing but cookies and ice cream you will more than likely die much sooner and have more health problems than if you ate steak and broccoli. This has to do with how your body reacts and uses the food you ingest.

But Mike, you might say, what about the insulin spike? Won’t the ice cream and cookies diet cause you to gain weight because more sugar in your blood stream gets stored as fat?

Good point. However, it isn’t as clear cut as that. After all there are plenty of diabetics who are not fat. One of my friends is strong, muscular and ripped. Yet he has to take insulin shots every day.

So diabetes is not 100% directly correlated with eating too much sugar.

The other point is that everything we eat gets broken down into sugars anyhow. The body only functions with blood sugars – mostly glucose.

Even the steak and broccoli gets broken down into glucose. So too much steak and broccoli can raise your blood sugar levels also and cause insulin to spike in its attempt to lower your blood sugar levels.

Now it will take a lot of steak and broccoli to do that, but the point is that you can’t just make blanket statement like certain foods are weight loss foods.

Losing weight can be simple, but you have to have the correct information to do so. You can get that by reading this blog and subscribing to my ezine.

Sign up here: ezine

Big Breakfast vs. Low Carb Diet?

July 8, 2010 admin No comments

: Image via Wikipedia

Hi,

What is better for you, a big breakfast or a low carb diet?

You have probably heard of the expression, “Eat like a king at breakfast, eat like a prince at lunch and eat like a pauper at dinner”.

Supposedly, that will help you lose weight. Is there any truth to that?

Turns out yes there is some truth to that, at least as far as the breakfast is concerned.

Just to let you know, I do have a bias here. I grew up eating breakfast as a kid and I have continued this through the years.

Now, if I don’t get something in me at breakfast time, then I feel hungry all day long. Turns out that those that most people that don’t eat breakfast are setting themselves up to also feel hungry all day long.

Some research done at Virginia Commonwealth U. wanted to find out the difference between weight loss with those that ate a big breakfast vs. those that ate a low carb diet.

Those that were on the big breakfast diet ate 1240 calories per day. 640 of those calories were eaten at breakfast. There were no restrictions on the amount of protein, fats or carbs.

Those on the low carb diet only ate 1085 calories per day. Their diet was mostly protein and fats.

At first it seemed the low carb diet was causing a greater weight loss. this makes sense because of the lesser number of calories eaten per day.

However, as time passed the low carb diet ceased causing a weight loss. This happened around month 4. The big breakfast diet people kept losing weight through the entire 8 month study.

The reasoning was that the big breakfast reduced the urges to eat larger mid day and afternoon meals. It also reduced the urges to eat more snacks throughout the day.

This pretty much correlates with how I felt if I skipped breakfast.

So what is a good breakfast? Try eating oatmeal with some protein powder mixed in (after you cook the oatmeal). Top it with cinnamon and some fruit.

Want more protein? Have 2-3 eggs any way you like them. Add in some vegetables with the eggs. Add some fruit and even a slice of whole wheat toast with butter.

What you don’t want to do is have a big breakfast with carbs only. Bagels, donuts and a frappacino is not a good breafast.

Maybe I should have title this post a nutritious big breakfast or a low carb diet:-).

Thanks,

Mike Val

Dietary Supplements – Have You Read the Studies?

July 6, 2010 admin 1 comment

: Image via Wikipedia

Hi,

Dietary supplements are a multi-billion dollar industry. So if you are spending money on your supplements it might be important to know how much you should be taking.

(Image is of a trans fatty acid.)

I am going to talk about the dietary supplement CLA or conjugated linoleic acid. But, what I will share with you could hold for any supplement you take.

CLA has been shown to help people lose weight. CLA is a trans fatty acid. Whoa!! Wait a minute, everyone knows all trans fatty acids are bad for you.

Oh, if only it were that simple. This is why you can’t always believe what the “news” tells you.

CLA is also a cis fat. The difference refers to the structure of the atoms as they line up. Cis means on the same side and trans means across or on the opposite side.

This might not seem like much, but for CLA it lowers its melting point and basically makes this trans fatty acid beneficial.

CLA has other benefits beside aiding in weight loss, such as reducing the growth of cancerous tumors.

But, getting back to weight loss. It was found that taking 3.4 gms of CLA per day resulted in an average 6 pound weight loss while preserving muscle tissue. From that we can assume that most of the weight loss came from body fat.

This is a good thing. It basically does this by keeping smaller fat cells from getting bigger.

All this is great. Here is the problem though. If you didn’t read about the above mentioned study using 3.4 gms of CLA, then you probably don’t realize that you aren’t getting enough.

A sample of the CLA supplements on the marketplace show that most of them come in 500, 750 and 1000mg softgels or capsules. That would be 1/2 to 1 gm.

Yet, the instructions on the bottles of the CLA recommend 1 to 3gms capsules a day. Three grams was the highest recommended dose I found.

Most recommended 1 to 2 grams per day. If you had read about CLA and wanted to use it to help you lose weight, then you probably would not be taking enough.

That means you would be wasting your time and money. Taking 1-2 grams a day is from less than 30% to less than 60% of what you would need to get the full benefits.

So here is the problem. Are you going to take the time to find the studies and figure out what you really need to take and how much?

I would guess not. But, no worries. I love to do this stuff. So all you have to do to know what dietary supplements to take, why to take or not take them and how much to take is to keep reading this blog.

Pretty simple, huh?

Thanks for reading this one.

Mike Val

Have You Regained Weight? 4

June 30, 2010 admin No comments

Hi,

Hope you have seen all three previous posts on the have you regained weight series. If not please check the archives.

Last time we left off with the power of 36 and how it can help you maintain the weight you want.

So the premise is that you have found the lifestyle you want, you have made the choices on what to eat and how much to exercise to maintain those lifestyles.

You have gradually gotten to exactly where you want to be from a health and body weight point of view.

Now what? As mentioned last post, just getting to this point the proper way will go a long way to help maintain your healthy body.

But, there is a way to lock it in for good.

As you are aware most diets never address what to do once you reach your weight, and most people gain all the weight right back.

Part of this is because it is only natural to celebrate achieving your goal. And to most, celebrating means food and drink.

But, reaching the goal is only half the battle. Maintaining it is the other half.

And this is actually pretty simple. It only takes 36 days.

The goal is to make your new lifestyle habits permanent. Now most psychologists say it takes 21 days to make a new habit permanent.

I don’t know where they got this from. I could find no research that shows this to be true. And I know it never worked for me.

But, in my trying to find out where this came from I ran across a really interesting study about astronaut training.

Because astronauts in a weightless environment are sometimes upside down, some of them get disorientated. This makes doing simple things, while upside down, more difficult.

The researchers in this study were trying to determine what to do about this problem.

They developed some glasses that inverted the images that the astronauts saw. So even though the astronauts were in a regular upright position in the training lab, everything they saw was upside down.

They had to wear these glasses 24/7.

Well, a very interesting phenomenon happened on the 34-to 36th day for every one of the astronauts.

They reinverted the images. So even though the images they were seeing with the glasses on were still inverted, the astronauts started seeing them as normal right side up.

The body and mind were actually reprogrammed to deal with the changes.

So I put 2 and 2 together and came up with my own theory. And I do not have any proof that this works for everything, but it just seems to me that it will take 36 days for your body and mind to get used to the new you.

So after you reach the new you, then continue doing what you are doing – with no other changes – for the next 36 days to lock in the new you.

Now you will have homeostasis working for you. It will actually take a concerted effort on your part to regain the weight you have lost.

And wouldn’t that be a nice feeling, never having to worry about regaining weight.

For more information on how to change your eating patterns then you might want to check out my stop dieting book.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Have You Regained Weight? 3

June 29, 2010 admin 4 comments

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

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

Have You Regained Weight? 2

June 28, 2010 admin No comments

weighing yourself

Hi again,

Have you regained weight? If you are like most dieters the answer is yes. And as you saw in the last post, even people that give weight loss advice have problems with regaining weight.

There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important ones is based around the reason you are losing weight in the first place.

If it is for some reason like, your partner, friends, family or doctor wants you to lose weight I can almost guarantee that you will not be able to keep the weight off.

That is because the only one that counts is you. Do you want to lose weight? Now most will say yes.

But, that is really not the right question. You see, it is easy to say yes, I want to do something. It doesn’t even matter what that something is.

If it sounds good – like – do you want to be a better person – then, of course, everyone will say yes.

But, will they do anything about it? The answer is usually no.

That is because just saying yes, doesn’t mean anything. The real question should be why do you want to lose weight?

If you can answer that with at least 5 solid reasons why you want to lose weight then you have motivation.

This motivation has to come from you. So a reason like, because my doctor told me to, is not a solid reason.

These solid reasons to lose weight have to come from you. Why?

Is it because of your health? Is it because you have no energy being overweight? Is it vanity – and there is nothing wrong with a little vanity.

It doesn’t matter what your solid reasons why are. They are yours and they are the basis for you staying on a life program for losing and keeping weight off.

That is the 2nd part of the equation. To lose a few pounds is pretty easy. Most of the first few pounds will be water loss anyhow.

But, what happens when you lose the amount of weight you want to lose? Most people don’t know what to do next.

They never think about what happens after the diet is over. And that is a basic problem.

First a diet is only temporary and the whole mentality of a temporary fix is built into dieting.

Think about changing your perception. Instead of going on a diet, think about what kind of permanent changes you want in your life.

Then, decide what and how much you eat plays a role in this permanent change.

If you look at things over a long run it is easier to make the changes. And this brings up probably one of the main problems with dieting.

Which we’ll cover in the next post.

Thanks,

Mike Val

http://www.valshealthsite.com

Have You Regained Weight?

June 25, 2010 admin 40 comments

weight loss success

Hi,

Have you regained weight after dieting for so long? If so you are not alone.

Check out this post – actually a couple of years ago so I don’t remember the author – that shows what one person went through. It is from The Capessa Blog: Sharing the Wisdom of Women

Losing weight and changing one’s eating and fitness lifestyle is hard work — that’s a given — but maintaining a weight loss is even harder. There’s no longer the challenge of juggling numbers or the reward of seeing them drop, and keeping up the enthusiasm and dedication necessary to stay at the weight that you worked hard to get to doesn’t come easy.

The National Weight Registry surveys and collects data from “regular people” who have managed to maintain a weight loss of 30 pounds or more for at least one year. Based on the data that they have received from more than 7,000 people, there are certain things that almost all successful “losers” seem to do to maintain their newer and slimmer figures:

Participate in aerobic exercise for least one hour or more each day
Focus on watching calories
Keep food logs
Choose healthier and lower fat foods

I never thought I would be (nor did I want to be) one of the many people who have lost a significant amount of weight only to gain a lot of it back. But, it is high time to admit that I have gained 15 pounds since the start of the year.

Yes, that’s right. I just admitted that on the world wide web, for all to see, that I have gained back 15 of the 50 pounds I worked so hard to lose.

So what happened?

Well, I stopped doing what successful losers do to maintain a weight loss. I stopped exercising as much as I was. I started to think, “a little bit of this and a little bit of that won’t hurt.” And I stopped writing in my food log, because if I don’t write it down, it doesn’t count, right?

I lost track of calories and stopped being accountable to myself. I started to neglect myself. I stopped preparing meals and snacks ahead of time. I stopped getting up early to get to the gym because I was busy and tired. My will power began to crumble, eating special treats everyday rather than on special occasions only.

I have been watching my weight creep up these past 8 months, and instead of getting back on the beam right away, it has become a bit of a vicious cycle.

You become depressed because you know better. You get angry with yourself because you can’t believe you let yourself go. You get paranoid about what people will think—especially since you write this blog about maintaining your weight. You get emotional because getting dressed puts you in a bad mood; pants you looked awesome in a few months ago, no longer fit.

The last thing you want to do when you feel so bad about yourself is get up early the next day, go to the gym and forego the ice cream as the last days of summer arrive. I have been struggling with not throwing in the towel, not caving in and eating everything in sight, only to see the scale not budge or go up!

Now that that skeleton is out of the closet, what do I do?

Well I pick up the tools that have been so freely given to me by the successful losers that have come before me; the same tools that have helped me to be successful in the past, and I apply them again (food logs, calorie watching, exercising more). And this time I try not to think that I am ever cured from my tendency to overeat and under exercise.

In admitting my weight gain I end it there. I hold myself accountable because no one can do this for me, but me.

That pretty much sums up the problems of losing and regaining weight . Fortunately, there has been a lot of research that shows you how to easily keep it off for as long as you want.

Stay tuned as we explore this in future posts.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Did Jillian Really Say This?

June 24, 2010 admin 4 comments

: Image via Wikipedia from www.localfitness.com.au

Hi,

I just read an article on Yahoo TV by someone quoting Jillian. I had to ask myself, did Jillian really say this.

Because if she did, she really needs to update her research. You can read the article here: http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/losing-it-with-jillian-5-tips-to-greater-abs–1335

Let me just say this first. Jillian is doing a great service. She is helping people get in better shape and in effect getting much healthier.

However, assuming she did say these things, she is also propogating a lot of the myths about losing body fat and getting a six pack out there.

If even she is doing this, then is it any wonder you might be frustrated hearing all this conflicting information from the supposed experts?

All right, so what did she say and what is the problem.

1. She said a big part of ab definition is managing water weight.

While this is true for professional body builders competing before a show, it isn’t true for the average person.

Before you can even worry about ab definition, you have to lose the fat around your middle. And you have to build up the muscle, just like any other muscle.

2. She had various ways to reduce bloat.

Bloat is a temporary thing and it is the same problem as above. Lose fat, build ab muscles first, then you might have to worry about bloat.

3. She said you can spot reduce belly fat.

I can’t believe she said this. This myth of spot reduction has been scientifically disproved so many times that no one believes this any more.

Yes, if you lose weight and do abdominal exercises you will see a reduction in your waist size. But, you will not see a reduction in waist size and no reduction anywhere else. You lose body fat over all your body, not one part.

4. She said when you hit the gym go hard – 85% of max heart rate.

Okay, this is not inaccurate, but here is the problem.

My goal is for everyone to lose weight and fat in a program that they can continue for life. Most of you do not have a personal trainer or are in an isolated setting (like the TV show) that will watch and push you for the rest of your life.

So you need a program you can stick with for the rest of your life. Pushing yourself at 85% max heart rate is not that program. And most people, even trained athletes, can not do that for more than a few minutes at a time.

5. She said avoid processed foods, etc. This is true, but then she adds that it is because of the hormone cortisol being a fat storing hormone.

Body fat and hormone research is really in its infancy. And yes, cortisol can help with fat storing and muscle breakdown. But, that is only under certain circumstances.

Cortisol can actually help you build muscle and burn fat if your body is primed for this.

So, 5 statements and each one has problems. Look, I don’t know what her credentials are except that she is a famous personal trainer and is good at marketing.

So did Jillian really say those things? I don’t know.

I do know that the above remarks are at best superficial and in some cases downright wrong.

In order to lose body fat and finally see your abs is a whole lot harder than eating more watermelon.

I am working on a program designed around your hormones that will guarantee you lose body fat, get in the best shape of your life and it will be something you can easily do for life.

If you would like more information on this, then keep reading this blog, or you can sign up to get on my email list at: valshealthsite.

Thanks,

Mike Val

Exercise Time

June 1, 2010 admin No comments

Hi,

Just how long should your exercise time be?

Well, that depends upon what you are trying to do. Are you trying to build muscle or to burn fat?

Are you trying to get in better shape or just maintain what you have?

As with most things in life, everything starts with a goal in mind. It is no different with your fitness life.

Most people think long term, moderate pace aerobics are the best for fat loss. Everyone “knows” you have to walk or jog for at least 20-30 minutes to reach the fat burning zone.

Problem is, that what everyone “knows” is wrong.

Yes, you can burn some body fat if you walk or jog for 20-30 minutes or more. The problem is that you will only burn fat during the last few minutes of those 20-30 minutes.

And your fat burning will stop as soon as you stop exercising.

So if your goal is to burn body fat, then you have to walk or jog for way longer than 20-30 minutes or you have to do something different.

You could increase your pace so that you are running and this will help you burn more fat than a walk. But, still it isn’t very efficient.

And it isn’t the healthiest way to lose body fat. Now, if you do run long distances – like a marathon runner – you will lose fat and weight over a period of time.

This will also increase your risk of developing all kinds of runner’s problems. Like shin splints, sore ankles, sore knees, sore hips and back pain.

If you are older, this is not the way to go.

Not only that but there are other adverse health problems that people develop with long distant running. That is another story though.

For now we are still concerned with fat loss.

If you do stop this long term running, or jogging or walking, you will be more inclined to regain the weight you lost faster.

The reason is that this type of aerobics does nothing for your muscles. So the weight loss is not only body fat, but also muscle loss.

You will be just a smaller image of yourself.

Tommorrow we well talk about how to cut your exercise time way down, develop muscles and fuel your fat burning furnace 24-7.

Stay tuned,

Mike Val

Uncategorized exercise, exercise time, Fitness, how long to exercise, weight loss

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Dieting is Simply Too Hard

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