The Naked Dr….

Most people are under the impression that you have to suffer to lose weight. You have to deprive yourself of the things you enjoy most. After many years researching weight loss I can tell you that this is wrong.

For long term natural weight loss you MUST feed your body! All the fad diets that are available today starve your body of something important and have led to the yo-yo dieting epidemic that is sweeping the western world today. By eating the right foods to boost your metabolism your body will eat into your fat stores.

Every time you eat your body has to make a choice about what to do with that food. It can either use it as energy or store it as fat. When your body gets the signal that food is scarce (i.e. low/restricted nutrient diets) it slows down your metabolism to conserve energy decreasing the amount of calories burned on a daily basis.

As your metabolism adjusts to your lower calorific intake, by using up less energy, you have to reduce your calorie intake again and again to stay one step ahead of your metabolism, eventually ending up on a starvation diet!

By adapting your diet to focus mainly on types of food that do not break down to glucose rapidly (i.e. release their energy at a slow and steady rate) you will find that your glucose levels, and therefore insulin production, will stay low. By releasing energy slowly throughout the day you will find you have more energy, focus and drive. Your metabolism will be super charged and your fat will begin to melt away.

I dislike using the phrase going on a diet because this has two connotations. The first is that you will be limiting what you eat, going hungry and not enjoying food to the full. The second is that it will end once you have reached your goal. Once you come off the diet and return to eating normally the weight is very likely to creep back on within a few weeks.

Instead I prefer to talk about long term natural weight loss by changing your lifestyle and the foods you eat for the rest of your life. You do not have to stop eating all the foods that you love. Instead adopting a healthy eating approach and rewarding yourself now and again with your favourite (but perhaps not so healthy) foods will keep you focussed and content in your new lifestyle.

Here are my 5 secrets to long term natural weight loss:

Secret 1:

Try to eat approximately 15-20% below your calorie maintenance level. This is the amount of calories your body needs to function on a daily basis. This is only a reduction of approximately 300-400 calories per day.

Secret 2:

Spread your calories throughout the day by eating 5 or 6 smaller meals instead of the more traditional 2 to 3 big ones.  This will keep your blood glucose and insulin levels low and your hunger under control.

Secret 3:

With each meal make sure you eat a source of lean protein. Protein is essential when you are trying to burn fat as it is vital for toning and building muscle.

Secret 4:

Try to eat natural, complex carbohydrates such as vegetables, oats, beans, brown rice, anything wholemeal and whole grain.

Complex carbohydrates are digested at a slower rate than simple carbohydrates (White rice/pasta/flour and confectionary) and stop glucose spikes in the blood. By keeping blood glucose levels stable insulin is kept low reducing the amount of fat stored, especially around the tummy.

Secret 5:

Avoid all refined or simple carbohydrates (White rice/pasta/flour and confectionary). These are easily digested and result in spikes in your blood glucose levels. Subsequently insulin removes excess glucose and stores it as fat.

Follow these simple secrets and you will lose weight, burn more fat and discover how easy it actually is to manage your weight.

Too many people these days aspire to being thin. Most people looking to lose some weight think of being thin, not fit and toned. A healthy, fit lifestyle only brings positives while dieting can lead to a wide range of problems. When you slim down, tone up and get fit you feel fantastic about yourself, inside and out.

Exercise helps you slim down, tone up and get fit by using excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. Your body weight is regulated by the number of calories you eat and use each day. Everything you eat contains calories, and everything you do uses calories, including sleeping, breathing, and digesting food.

Regular exercise is an important part of effective weight loss and weight maintenance. It can help prevent several diseases and improve your overall health. Exercise decreases stress hormones and increases endorphins (the body’s natural feel good hormone) and will boost your metabolism which means you actually burn more calories!  It doesn’t matter what type of physical activity you do sports, the gym, housework or gardening, all are equally good.

Just remember, balance in the answer. When you eat more calories than you need to perform your day’s activities, your body stores the extra calories as fat and you gain weight. When you eat fewer calories than you need each day, your body uses up the calories stored as fat and you lose weight.

To make your body burn calories faster you have to increase your activity levels, forcing your body to draw upon its fuel reserves, the energy stored in fat cells. Research has shown that combining cardio with interval and weight training is the best way to slim down, tone up and get fit. Don’t shy away from weights, they help to tone up the entire body and rev up your metabolism, which means you burn more calories each day!

Try to concentrate on the body’s major muscle groups, the chest, legs and back.  Without picking up a dumbbell you can work all these major muscle groups doing a few push ups, squats, lunges, pelvic lifts, even climbing the stairs!

What you eat is just as important as what you do. In general diets starve your body of something essential. Fad diets are fad because they more often than not involve dropping a whole food group from your diet which is neither healthy nor possible long term. So while you may drop a few pounds initially it is not sustainable in the long term.

A varied diet is key, mixing all the essential food groups which are your building blocks to a healthy body. Eat complex carbohydrates like oats, brown rice and sweet potatoes, proteins such as fish and chicken, healthy fats like nuts and virgin oils and fruit and veg, which are a good source of fibre and carbs.

Think like a cow and graze throughout the day.  5 or 6 smaller meals spread evenly through the day is a far healthier way to eat that the more traditional 3 meals a day. You will find you don’t get as hungry and so will eat less overall in a day. You will fire your metabolism 5 or 6 times a day instead of three which will keep your energy levels up and reduce the amount of fat deposited in your body as your insulin levels stay on an even keel and do not spiral out of control.

Obesity is reaching crisis levels in much of the developed world. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention a third of adults in the US are obese and a further third are overweight. This epidemic is not specific to the US however with the UK and many other developed countries facing an obesity epidemic.

Why are so many people overweight? And why is it so difficult to lose excess weight and more importantly keep it off? Weight loss can be described using a simple formula:

Eat Fewer Calories + Exercise = Sustainable Weight Loss

However if it was as simple as that obesity and related health issues would not be the number one lifestyle related health concern in many countries.

In evolutionary terms our bodies are specifically designed to store energy as fat to sustain us during times of famine. These fat stores are our primary reserves to be called upon when food is scarce. In our modern world food is no longer scarce to vast populations of the world. No longer do we have to go out and hunt for food. For most people who live in the developed world hunting and scavenging requires a simple trip to the supermarket where we load up on high calorie, high fat, and low nutrient foods.

Staying trim, in a modern world of hyped up marketing messages bombarded at us every day in every way possible and the convenience of fast food, would seem to be becoming a dwindling possibility.

But is it really? Almost everybody who tries to diet fails in the long run. Many dieters end up weighing more a couple of years after the diet than they did before, further fuelling the obesity epidemic. This is reflected in the steady stream of fad diets and miracle cures fed to us by the media.

People will always look for the quick fix and there seems to be an insatiable appetite for pills, potions, diet programs and anything that promises to help you shed pounds quickly and without any apparent effort.  The weight didn’t arrive overnight so how people can expect to lose it in a short time without moderating their diet or exercise is incredible. Yet so many products promise just this.

Many factors contribute to the problem of obesity and many people can avoid obesity with simple lifestyle changes. Rather than throw yourself on the mercy of some diet guru and adopt a very restricted diet program it would be far better to adopt a few lifestyle changes that you can incorporate into your daily life without much effort.

Looking at your own behaviour is the best place to start. What prompts you to overeat or eat junk food in preference to a healthier option? How do your family and friends eat and what image do they have of food. Do you eat to live or live to eat? How do your family and friends influence how and what you eat. Does a bad day at the office lead to a binge later on?

Recognising how we feel about food and how we let cravings dictate how we eat will go a long way to giving us clues about stopping the obesity epidemic and how we can avoid obesity with simple lifestyle changes.

Behavioural studies on obesity, its causes and on dieting in general shed some light on how to reverse the current trend. Rather than overhauling your entire lifestyle by implementing a strict diet and exercise regime it seems making more modest and gradual changes is more productive in the long run.

Gradually changing one or two things is easier to do and less rigorous to sustain.  For example cutting out some high calorie and fatty foods instead of ditching an entire food group has been proven to be more effective for long term weight loss.  Using the stairs instead of taking the lift or elevator is a very small change but can make a huge difference in the long run. Setting smaller attainable goals and adding to them as you progress is far better than setting goals which at the outset feel impossible.

Keeping track of these smaller goals by weighing or measuring yourself, recording calories each day and keeping a record of the amount of exercise you have managed each week allows you to immediately see what progress you have made. By keeping records you can also see when you have achieved each small goal which will give you a sense of satisfaction and keep you moving forward.

Fat is unsightly but essential. This is where you store any extra energy that your body doesn’t use. Unless you are doing the right kind of exercise and eating the right kind of food it can be very hard to shift any excess body fat. This is because your body wants to store fat as a source of readily available energy. In fact your body is programmed by evolution to do exactly this. So when you are trying to lose belly fat and tone up you are in actual fact fighting against evolution. This is why it is so easy to pile on the pounds but so hard to lose belly fast and tone up.

To burn fat and get toned it is necessary to have the right combination of a healthy balanced diet and a regular exercise program that suits your needs and requirements. What you eat is very important but it is equally important not to starve yourself. When you reduce your calorie intake too far your body starts to store fat as it thinks it is starving which defeats the point and is why fad diets don’t work. Cutting out certain foods groups has a similar effect as the body requires all food groups to function properly, fat, carbohydrate, protein and fibre.

One pound of fat in the body contains the equivalent of 3500 calories and to lose this fat your body must take in fewer calories than it expends.  This can be done by either reducing the number of calories you take in each day or by increasing the number of calories you burn each day.  The best way to do it is by a combination of both.

To lose one pound of fat each week it is necessary to create a calorie deficit of 500 calories each day (500×7=3500).  The best way to do this is by decreasing calorie intake by 250 calories and burning 250 more calories each day.

There are 2 types of exercises that you need to do to start burning fat.  The first of these is cardio type exercises such as running, swimming or boxing. If you want to lose belly fat and tone up fast them you have to be prepared to put in the time and effort.  A half hour cardio workout will help to burn between 150 and 300 calories.

The second type of exercise is weight training.  Many women avoid weight training; however it is just as important as cardio. The big danger with a reduced calorie diet and lots of cardio exercise is the loss of muscle mass, which can lead to a reduction in metabolism and burning fewer calories. Weight training or strength training is great for toning muscles in the body and for increasing strength and flexibility.  Increasing your muscle mass will, in turn, increase your metabolism and result in you burning more calories, even when you are not working out.

Your weight lifting routine when it comes to toning should only involve light weights and if possible should be done just before a cardio workout.  This helps to burn 2-3 times more fat than just doing cardio alone as resistance training sends the metabolism sky rocketing and is the most effective fat burner.

Losing weight helps to improve health and energy and build strength as well as protecting against a range of negative health issues and boosting self-confidence.  When you have achieved your target weight you will be able to feel great about what you’ve accomplished.

Your metabolic rate is the speed at which your body burns calories. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of calories you burn just by being alive, sleeping, eating, doing house work etc. Your BMR accounts for approximately 60% of your calories burn each day.

Speeding up your metabolism is the key to losing weight. Surprisingly the traditional method of weight loss, dieting, can have the opposite effect and result in weight gain. A diet where you limit what you eat, instead of eating what your body needs, triggers your body to actually hold onto available fat as it thinks there is not enough food to go around and therefore lays down fat stores or reserves.

When your body gets the signal that food is scarce (i.e. low/restricted nutrient diets) it slows down your metabolism to conserve energy decreasing the amount of calories burned on a daily basis. As your metabolism adjusts to your lower calorific intake, by using up less energy, you have to reduce your calorie intake again and again to stay one step ahead of your metabolism, eventually ending up on a starvation diet!

Of course after the fad diet when you have lost a few pounds and decide to return to a more normal eating regime your body is all confused. First, your metabolism has been significantly lowered, so the calories you are now eating will be used up at a much slower rate, leaving all the extra calories to be stored in fat cells. Your body will also automatically want to build up extra fat stores with these extra calories in case another famine occurs in the future.

This is known as the Yo-Yo dieting effect.

The only effective way to get rid of fat is to feed your body to keep your metabolism firing on all cylinders. By eating the right foods to boost your metabolism your body will eat into your fat stores. Eating smaller more regular meals will fire up your metabolism and keep it high. Eating little and often, say 5 or 6 smaller meals a day, has the added benefit of firing up your digestive processes which have been shown to have a thermogenic effect. This means that the more times you get your digestive juices flowing the more energy your body uses to digest and disseminate the food around your body. So, just by eating more times a day you can burn more calories than if you ate the same number of calories in 3 meals.

What you eat is just as important, if not more important, than how many times you eat. Foods like refined carbohydrates (white bread, rice and pasta) and sugars (all types of confectionary and processed foods) are easily digested down to glucose and so tend to raise the glucose level in your blood very quickly. As a result your body will produce insulin to remove the high levels of glucose and so maintain a healthy level in your blood. Of course what happens to the glucose that is removed? You got it; it is turned in to fat and stored for a rainy day.

While refined carbohydrates and sugars are easily digested there are a number of other foods that are not and therefore have very little effect on blood glucose levels and insulin production. These foods help you maintain a steady blood glucose level and keep your energy levels constant.

These are, Proteins: meat, fish eggs, dairy products, nuts and seeds; Complex carbohydrates: whole grains, wholemeal bread, whole wheat pasta, lentils and pulses; Fibre: whole grains, lentils, pulses, fruit and vegetables; Fats: mono-unsaturated oils such as olive oil, oily fish (omega-3), nuts and seeds. Avoid saturated fats and processed foods high in fats.

By adapting your diet to focus mainly on types of food that do not break down to glucose rapidly (i.e. release their energy at a slow and steady rate) you will find that your glucose levels, and therefore insulin production, will stay low. By releasing energy slowly throughout the day you will find you have more energy, focus and drive. Your metabolism will be super charged and your fat will begin to melt away.

Lots of women think burning fat is all about slogging away at the gym for hours on end. It’s hardly any wonder enough of us aren’t doing the correct amount of exercise. However, this is not true. Even a slight increase in the amount you move your body will have an impact on shifting that stubborn belly fat.

Studies, focussing on subcutaneous fat loss, have shown that women who regularly exercised 3 to 4 times a week had a far greater reduction in their subcutaneous fat over a period of time, than those that didn’t exercise. Approximately 60% of total weight lost in the group who exercised was subcutaneous fat, while in the dieters group only 30% of total weight loss was attributed to subcutaneous fat.

Interval training is the best way to maximise your results. To burn fat with interval training you should change the intensity of your workout between low, moderate and high intensity levels while working out.

Low intensity is considered to be approximately 50 %  of your maximum heart rate, moderate is when you train at 70 % of your maximum heart rate and high is when you train at approximately 80 % of your maximum heart rate.  Alternating between low, medium and high intensities allows you to work hard for short periods of time increasing the number of calories you use.

To work out your maximum heart rate and your training intensity use the following:

Maximum heart rate = 220-Age

Low intensity workout rate = Maximum heart rate x 0.5 (50%)

Moderate intensity workout rate = Maximum heart rate x 0.7 (70%)

High intensity workout rate = Maximum heart rate x 0.8 (80%)

Low intensity workouts are mainly for looking after your health and are ideal for beginners or those looking for a gentle workout. Moderate or medium intensity workouts are often referred to as the fat burning zone. This is because this level of workout is sustainable for longer periods of time allowing you to use fat as the main source of energy, but to do so you usually have to work out for longer periods of time (40 mins or so). High intensity workouts are used mainly to improve your fitness and stamina. It is generally known as the aerobic training zone, working at a higher intensity which is more challenging for your body.

To begin with alternate between low and moderate intensities and as your fitness improves alternate between low and high or medium and high intensities. You can make your cardio workout a lot more time efficient and effective and burn fat with interval training.

To burn fat with interval training start with 20 minutes of steady walking or running every day, stand tall, lead with your feet, draw your belly button in and breathe rhythmically. Build up to adding in 1 minute bursts of fast walking five times during the 20 minutes. When you feel ready, build up to 10 fast one minute bursts interspersed with 10 slow one minute bursts.

If walking or running is not suitable for you, follow the same principal for cycling, rowing, swimming or any type of cardio workout that suits you, any exercise that gets your heart pumping. Find a sport or cardio exercise that you enjoy and you’ll be far more likely to keep it up.

Have you ever wondered what your ideal weight should be? Apart from as thin as humanly possible!

Ideal weight does not necessarily mean having an ideal body, although I’m sure many of us use it to describe that. Ideal weight is a medical term that refers to how much you should weigh, based on your height, gender and age. For years people looked up their weight on tables drawn from insurance company statistics. While those are still around today, doctors now use a few different and more accurate methods to determine ideal weights.

The main ones are measuring your body mass index (BMI), measuring your waist circumference and measuring your waist-to-hip ratio.

• Body Mass Index (BMI): The body mass index is a measurement that compares a person’s weight and height to determine the overall fitness of the individual. BMI calculation does not actually measure percentage of total body fat, but it is a tool used to estimate what is considered a healthy weight based on a person’s height. BMI is currently the most widely used body weight diagnostic tool. It does have its down side though as it doesn’t take into account variations in build through bone density and muscle but it does provide us with a good range for what is considered normal. The body mass index is defined as your body weight divided by the square of your height. The formula is universally expressed as kg/m2 and is calculated as follows:  BMI=your weight in Kg divided by the square of your height in meters. A healthy BMI for an adult is generally considered to fall between 18.5 and 25. Over 25 is considered to be in the overweight category, 30 or higher is considered obese and above 40 dangerously or morbidly obese.
• Waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio: These two measurements give an indication of how much fat is located around your middle. Fat around your middle (typically ‘apple’ shape) is regarded as more dangerous than fat located around other parts of your body like your hips (typically ‘pear’ shape). A high waist circumference and a high waist-to-hip ratio are indicators of greater risk for many diseases associated with being overweight such as heart disease and diabetes. Your waist circumference should be measured at the level of your belly button. Ideally your waist circumference should be below 31.5 inches (79cm) for a woman and below 37 inches (92.5cm) for a man. When calculating your waist-to-hip ratio you should measure your hip circumference at the level of the two bones that stick out at the front of your hips. Divide your waist circumference by your hip circumference to calculate the ratio. Your waist to hip ratio should be below 0.8 for a woman and 1.0 for a man.

These three measurements will give you a good indication of your overall weight and body fat distribution. While BMI has flaws, it gives a good indication for the average person of where they fall in the weight scale and whether they are a healthy weight or obese. An expanding waistline or high waist to hip ratio suggests a greater health risk as fat is more likely to be stored around the internal organs.

Ideally using BMI with waist or waist to hip ratio will give you a more accurate picture of what is going on.

Many of today’s diet plans or weight loss systems concentrate on people’s desire to have a slimmer, more attractive body fast. They focus on promises of quick weight loss. I’m sure we’ve all seen headlines like this:

“Lose 20 pounds in 10 days without trying!”

Not many focus on the more important aspect of healthy, long lasting weight loss. Many people do not relalise that it is virtually impossible to lose much more than 2 or 3 pounds of fat in one week.

Any weight loss above this is only water which can be regained by drinking some. Not exactly permanent is it? Or, it could be due to muscle wasting, where your body breaks down muscle tissue to overcompensate for not getting the energy it requires from your food intake. This can be very dangerous and will reduce you bodies natural metabolic rate which will in the long run make it far more difficult to lose weight AND keep it off!

While many of these diets do provide quick weight loss in the beginning (note weight loss not FAT loss), they usually provide only short term results because they can cause your metabolism to slow down (due to restricting your calorific intake) meaning you have to eat less and less to keep losing weight. This is why some diets can lead to a ‘plateaux effect’ where you can find it almost impossible to lose any more weight.

The ‘plateaux effect’ frequently leads people to give up on their diet through frustration, and inevitably the weight creeps back on. You don’t notice at first but a few weeks down the line and suddenly those sexy new jeans don’t fit anymore. “How did that happen?!”

Natural weight loss is far more effective, providing long lasting benefits to both your waistline and general health. Eating healthier, smaller portions and adding a little exercise can make a huge difference in the ‘battle of the bulge’ and will lead to a slimmer and healthier you.

One of the overriding factors in the success of maintaining long term weight loss is changing our behaviour and our relationship with food, so there’s no worries about pilling on the pounds once you go back to ‘eating normally’ again. By changing your attitude to food you are eating normally and that’s that!

Have you ever wondered how some ‘lucky’ people can eat just about anything and never put on any weight?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all do that?

Sometimes we think: 

“when I’m thin…I’ll be happy…get that great promotion…find the perfect guy…”

Naturally thin people go through the same range of emotions as, for want of a better word, un-naturally thin people. The only difference being that they do not attribute every little thing that goes wrong, or not right, to the fact that they are carrying a few extra pounds!

As a result you will find that they have a much healthier relationship with food. In fact you may find that naturally thin people never worry about their weight. They have a stable weight and probably never weigh, measure or otherwise keep track of their body’s dimensions.

The fact is they don’t need to weigh themselves, because they trust theirbodies to regulate their weight. They also trust their body to tell them when they are hungry and when they are full. Eating when they are hungry and stopping when they are full, even if that means leaving some food on the plate!

Shock…horror!

People in general eat because they;

1. Physically hungry (75-100% of the time)
2. Physically desire something (0-25% of the time)
3. Emotionally desire something (0-10% of the time)

The key is to be attuned to the body’s signals of what it needs and to keep everything in proportion. This means its fine to eat something just because you want it, or to occasionally eat because you’re having a bad day. Just make sure you are aware of what you are eating and why. Pay attention to why you are eating and make your choices consciously and in proportion.

Have you tried every possible diet on the planet? Survived on nothing but cabbage soup, tried the baby food diet (eating jars of kiddie mush!), the bleak food diet (doesn’t sound very appetising does it?), the Martha’s Vineyard diet (a strict regime of juices and soups) or the low/no carbohydrate approach and binged on steak and cheese with Dr Atkins?

It’s highly likely that you’ve tried some sort of fad or crash diet, lost  weight quickly , only to pile the pounds on again after the initial rush of enthusiasm following  one or two weeks of depriving yourself of essential food groups.

Let’s face it slimming can sometimes feel like a bit of a rollercoaster. One minute you’re flying high full of the joys of life and then next you hit rock bottom. Did you know the vast majority of people using fad diets to lose weight end up heavier and fatter than when they started? This is because most of these diets promote unrealistic and unsustainable eating habits.

Can you imagine how difficult it would be to stay on a very low carbohydrate diet in the long term? Or a high protein diet, or living on cabbage soup for the rest of your life or taking dietary supplements for a long period of time?

These methods are temporary solutions and may cause you to lose some weight but as soon as you return to more ‘normal’ eating habits you’ll find that the weight comes back with vengeance, not to mention the health risks associated with these fad diets!

Hope is not lost….it seems as though many of us are starting to wise up about how best to lose weight and the so called ‘miracle diets’ are at last going out of fashion. 

Many people have decided it’s time to get off the diet rollercoaster and rather than put our faith in fad, quick fix diets that are full of empty promises, (and empty tummies in most cases!) we are instead facing up to the fact that the only way to lose weight, and keep it off, is to eat healthy, balanced meals and take regular exercise.

People have always looked for miracle cures, but there is no great mystery to weight loss. If you put more calories into your body than you use on a daily basis, you will gradually gain weight.

So, if you are looking for safe permanent weight loss without using pills, special foods, or gimmicks of any sort, then you simply must keep in touch.