The Low Carb Craze and Other Dieting Mistakes
Dear BMTers,
Low carb this and low carb that?that’s all you hear nowadays. Kinda reminds me of something that was the craze a few years ago?The Low or No Fat Craze?Can you remember where that got us? Still Fat!!!
Well my friends this Low Carb Craze is going to bring us to the same exact place?Yep?Still Fat!
Listen, anyone who tries Low carb dieting will experience some Short Term success?but it’s only short term.
I know some of you are tired of hearing me repeat myself but any diet or exercise machine in and of itself will not work!
A successful Fitness Program must incorporate 5 Strategies:
1. A Compelling Reason to Change
2. Proper Nutrition
3. Progressive Resistance Training
4. Moderate Aerobic Exercise
5. Consistency
If you’re missing any one of these strategies you will not experience the success that you crave.
Why the Low Carb diets without Progressive Resistance Training will not work in the long run.
We need to build lean muscle on our bodies.
Why do we need to build lean muscle on our bodies? Building lean muscle will boost metabolism and that is what we want to achieve.
You’ll even start burning more calories even while you rest. Right now I’m going to let you in on one of the biggest secrets on burning fat ever revealed:
Lean Muscle Burns Fat!
And, the more lean muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. That is a statement that you can take to the bank! I guarantee it!
Listen, all these people that go on these Fad diets are really losing water and lean muscle weight.
They Are Not Losing Any Fat Whatsoever!
How can they be if I just got finished telling you that in order for us to lose any fat,(and I did mean any fat!) you must have lean muscle tissue for the fat to go be burned up in?
Our bodies are smart; our fat just can’t go away it must be burned up in a muscle cell.
And if you’re not doing any Progressive Weight Resistance Training, well then, you’re not building any new lean muscle tissue.
Which means, you guessed it?you won’t be burning fat any time soon!!!
Don’t you see? The people that go on these Fad (starvation) diets turn into "skinny fat" people. Sure they lose weight, but they lose the wrong kind of weight.
Since these people usually don’t perform any weight resistance training and are only probably taking diet pills, and doing hours of aerobic exercise, they are losing water (from the low calorie, low carb diet) and lean muscle (from doing to much aerobic exercise and not having the right amount and the proper ratios of food in their bodies).
So what is left?
FAT!!!
They have no muscle tone whatsoever! What these people should be doing is learning how to lift weights and get stronger progressively! The only way to do that is?
Get A Little Stronger Each And Every Workout If you’re not getting stronger each and every workout than you are doing something wrong!
Then all you have to do is add: A Compelling Reason to Change, Proper Nutrition, Moderate Aerobic Exercise, and Consistency to be Successful
A great example of dieting the wrong way in my opinion is Anna Nicole Smith’s recent "weight loss".
From a distance she looks great! But get closer and clear the smoke and you will find that she transformed herself into what I explained before a "skinny fat person".
Did you hear her interviewed lately on shows like Larry King Live and Regis and Kelly?
She says she takes Trim Spa’s Ephedra Free Diet Pills. And she eats like only once per day if she’s lucky. And I would bet my life, kids, wife, and the house that she never ever does a workout with weights on a consistent basis!!!
So let’s see what happened?
Most people think that to lose excess body fat, they must stop eating altogether. This is where they are totally wrong. Starvation?(what else would you call not eating?) triggers a metabolic response where, your metabolism will actually slow down and become more efficient in order to preserve body tissue in the case of a shortage of future nutrition.
This is precisely what we don’t want. Another way people think they’re "eating right" is having fruit & coffee for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a bowl of pasta for dinner. – Nope, that’s not the answer either. Some people don’t eat anything the whole day and "save themselves" for a big huge dinner! That’s not the answer either.
To find the answer, you have to think back to caveman days. Back then, there were no supermarkets or convenience stores to easily get whatever you want and whenever you want it.
The caveman didn’t know when his next meal was coming. He only ate when he made the big kill and would literally gorge and overstuff himself until he couldn’t move! Why? Because he knew that he might not eat again for days or even worse?weeks.
What this did was make our bodies very bad at processing our food. Since our bodies didn’t know when we were going to eat next, they were forced to revert into something known as?
"Survival Mode"
Whenever you eat, your digestive system converts most of your food?(especially large amounts of carbohydrates) to glucose (blood sugar). It’s a very complicated process but I’ll do my best to sum it up in a nutshell?
Anytime we eat while were in "survival mode," because of the molasses-pace the metabolism is at, the body converts most of the glucose?in conjunction with the hormone insulin?to fat. This is why people who constantly starve themselves can gain weight while eating only once a day!
We’d like to speed up our metabolism, but unfortunately over thousands and thousands of years our bodies haven’t changed much from the days of the cave man. Every time we eat, our bodies are already automatically going to convert it to fat?even if it’s fat free! Where’s the justice??? So how do we change our body from fat storer to fat burner? We have to learn to use proper nutrition.
So the question is?what is proper nutrition? OK? in a nutshell, my idea of proper nutrition is 4 to 5 portion-controlled, balanced meals about every 3 hours throughout the day.
By eating this way throughout the day, you’ll effortlessly speed up your metabolism. Think of it this way. If you have a campfire burning and you don’t add wood to the fire, eventually the campfire will burn out.
But if you add a little wood every few hours, the campfire will continue to burn, and burn nice and hot! So you see, the human metabolism is like the fire?never or rarely feed it, and it will slow down. Feed it every few hours and it has no choice but to speed up.
What Is A Portion-Controlled Meal You Ask?
A portion-controlled meal is sensible portion of a lean protein, a sensible portion of a starchy carbohydrate, and a sensible portion of a fibrous carbohydrate.
Lean protein foods:
– Skinless chicken breast
– Skinless turkey breast
– Tuna fish
– Most fish in general
– Egg whites
– Protein powder
Starchy carbohydrates:
– Sweet potato
– Potato
– Rice
– Pasta
– Oatmeal
– Whole grain wheat bread
Fibrous Carbohydrates:
– Corn
– Broccoli
– Cauliflower
– Asparagus
– Peppers
Here are a few examples of a portion-controlled meal:
Chicken breast with corn & rice
Lean steak with potato & broccoli
Fish with rice & salad
Chicken pita sandwich
Egg white omelet with mushrooms & oatmeal or farina
A “typical” day of eating on Bare Minimum Training might be :
7:00am: egg white omelet and oatmeal
10:00am: yogurt with cottage cheese
1:00 pm: tuna pita sandwich
4:00 pm: mushroom turkey burger on a whole grain bun
7:00 pm: Salmon with rice
8 8-ounce glasses of spring water (throughout entire day)
So you see if Anna Nicole Smith does not start to implement Proper Nutrition and a sound fitness program like Bare Minimum Training?
She’s setting yourself up for Failure?sure she has short term success but eventually she’ll gain all the weight back!!! I hope she doesn’t gain the weight back?but she must change her ways if there’s any hope for long term success.
Take care,
Bill Belfert
Copyright 2004 – 2005. Bill Belfert, Managing Member Bare Minimum Training LLC. All rights reserved. No liability is assumed by Bare Minimum Training LLC., Nor the author for any information contained herein. This text does not provide medical advice. Specific medical advice should be obtained from a doctor. Bare Minimum Training LLC. advises all to consult a physician and gain medical clearance before you begin any new nutrition, exercise, or dietary supplement program
Bill Belfert, THE World’s #1 No-B.S. Body Transformation Specialist, Shows Busy People How To Get EXTRAORDINARY Results FAST With His Breakthrough Weight Training Program & Total Fitness System By Only Going To The Gym Twice Per Week For 20 Minutes Or Less! AND, What’s More, You Only Need Moderate Cardio 3 Times Per Week For Only 18 Minutes!
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Why Diets DONT Work
One of the biggest scams ever successfully pulled on the American public is – somewhat appropriately – a 4-letter word. That word is, of course, Diet. By now you have seen advertisements for more diets than you can easily remember, and have also most likely seen an article or television show debunking some of those diets. Unfortunately, the art of shooting holes through the credibility of a diet plan is normally done by ANOTHER diet company, solely for the purpose of getting you to use their product instead. Well, this article has nothing to sell, nor really anything to gain, save the knowledge that hopefully the reader – that’s you – will put down the Diet Madness Menu, and get a real world point of view on why diets don’t work, and what you can do about it.
Eating, the Lost Art
If you are considering a diet, or have in the past, your primary motivation was most likely to lose weight. What if I was to tell you that in order to lose weight, you actually need to eat MORE than you have in the past? You would probably shake your head at that crazy idea, and think that it was some new fad that could in no way assist you in your weight loss goals. Of course, the fact that every diet you’ve ever heard of was at one point “some new fad” would probably never even cross your mind. Nonetheless, the fact remains that most people do need to eat more than they presently are in order to lose weight, but the trick comes in eating the right kinds of foods, in the right ratios of nutrients, and at the right times of day. Sound tricky? Perhaps, but I assure you, it is really quite simple. However, the purpose of this article is not to inform you of the benefits of eating, but merely to let you know that eating is indeed a very effective way to lose excess bodyweight, and to explain how diets keep that from happening.
Stating the Obvious
Although most people do not think of the “latest diet” in these terms, hopefully the following question will make you consider what is pretty obvious if you stop to think about it. If the new “Last Diet You’ll Ever Need” was really that good at making you melt away pounds while sitting on the couch munching “Carbo Craze Chips” or was even remotely effective at burning off your spare tire while inhaling the sweet scents of “Aerospace’s Aromatic Air Baubles”, then why isn’t everyone already thin??
Seriously – think about it. Every time you hear about the latest diet or the most up to date exercise device that only takes 20 minutes per day, they always say that you will never need another system! The advertised system – no matter how logical or even outlandish as it may seem – is always touted at being better than ever, and the last system you will ever need. Well, if that were true, don’t you think that the manufacturer of that system would not only become wealthier than anyone in history, but would also become famous as the person who FINALLY solved the obesity problem in our world? Don’t you think that person could also afford to advertise their product during prime time on TV, instead of late at night? Don’t you think that system would become known throughout the world – throughout history itself – as a turning point in human development?
So, I’ll ask you the same question again: If the solution is already out there, why do we need to keep coming up with new solutions?? The answer is, of course, very simple – these systems don’t work, and the human populace is simply looking for a non-existent quick fix to getting rid of too many late night excursions to the local burger joint, or to the fact they should have taken stock in beer while they were in college. Then what does work? Human physiology.
Metabolism
Metabolism is defined as the rate at which your body processes food. In other words, how fast your body burns calories. The faster your metabolism, the more food you can eat without gaining weight. How do you control your metabolism? By eating a nutrient-dense meal every 3 to 3 ? hours. This practice “stokes your internal furnace”, for lack of a better analogy. Think of your body as an old-style locomotive that had coal shoveled into the combustion chamber one shovel at a time. If you didn’t shovel in coal fast enough, the locomotive would slow down, and your body is no different. If you don’t eat often enough, your metabolism slows down and you don’t burn through calories very quickly. In addition, not only does your rate of calorie consumption go down, but your body starts storing almost everything that you do eat as bodyfat! So, in essence, every time you starve yourself in your honest effort to “stick to your diet”, you are actually slowing down your metabolism as well as making your body more efficient at building padding for you to sit on at baseball games.
Muscle
“I don’t care” you say. You believe that in order to lose weight you need to starve. Okay, that’s wrong, but I’ll explain why that thinking is flawed. Your body needs energy so you can live through any given day. The amount of energy that you need is determined by your Basal Metabolic Rate, and by your activity level for that day. For most people, this amounts to between 1,500 and 2,500 calories per day. Well, if your calorie-restricted diet doesn’t allow you that many calories, your body will find a way to survive anyway. It does this by breaking down your muscle tissue and using it for energy. “So what?” you say. You don’t care, as long as the scale says you are losing weight, right?
What if I told you that the ONLY place on your body that you can burn bodyfat for fuel is your muscles? What if I told you that the more muscle tissue you lose on a calorie-restricted diet, the fewer calories you can eat after the muscle loss? What if I told you that after losing 20 lbs on a calorie-restricted diet, your total bodyfat level will have dropped very little, if at all? What if I told you that by using muscle mass for energy, you have literally crippled your body’s ability to burn bodyfat in the future, and that by the laws of Nature (which we can’t change, by the way), you will absolutely put the weight back on, and probably gain more weight than you ever had before?
If I told you all of that, would you still want to burn muscle tissue for energy while starving yourself to stick to your diet, paying $8 a bag for Carbo Chips, and $20 a session for Aromatic Air Baubles?
On the other hand, perhaps the laws of Nature don’t apply to you. In that case, be sure to tune in tonight – I believe the “Lose Weight While You Eat Butter Fried Bacon” diet is going to be featured on a new infomercial. It is, after all, The Last Diet You Will Ever Need!
Aaron Potts is the owner and creator of Fitness Destinations, a content-filled health and fitness website for consumers as well as professionals in the fitness industry. Aaron’s experience in the health and fitness industry includes one on one personal training in many different environments, maintenance of several health-related websites, and authoring of many fitness-related products for consumers and fitness professionals. fitnessdestinations.com
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