This is a new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. In this episode Ean Carlin talks to Alyx Cave’ from Chisel Outdoors about hiking, biking, and general outdoor fitness. What you need to know to make the most of your outdoor workout and how to stay safe. Enjoy!
PS sorry about the sound quality. Our first mike was not working out so we had to switch just before the show.
A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available. In this episode Ean Carlin talks about why we want to give up on trying to lose weight and what you need to know before you do! Enjoy!
If you really want to lose weight, you need to eat 6 small meals a day. And you never want to skip breakfast! Right? Well, that is what I was told my whole life. In fact, fairly recently I did a review (audio) on Chris Powell’s book, Choose to Lose: The Seven Day Carb Cycle Solution. In that book, he advocates six small meals a day. I followed it for a while and I lost weight!
Well the truth is I lost a little weight. And the reason I lost it was not because the diet was so great. Rather it was due to the fact that I was on a plateau and it changed things up enough to get my metabolism working again.
The six meal a day plan can work for some of the people some of the time. For example, if you take someone who is eating a bowl of granola in the morning and/ or a bagel, and switch them to 4 egg whites and half a banana, you will see results. Out of the two, the former is way worse for your blood sugar. So the six meal a day diet can work, but it does not work nearly as well as intermittent fasting (IF).
Why IF Works
There is lots of science regarding IF. I do not have the time to go into all of it here. However, I will quickly mention that the reason it works is that it allows your body to tap into your fat reserves. Your body only runs on two types of fuel–sugar and fat. When you eat 3 or 6 times a day you are fueling your body with sugar and training your body to prefer to run on sugar.
However, when you go without food for a significant period of time, you use up all your sugar. The only fuel left for your body to run on is fat. And in fact, your body runs better on fat than sugar. And the more often you run on fat, the more your body wants to run on fat preferentially.
There are lots of big words I could have used to explain the above paragraphs, but it really is that simple. If you do not have sugar in your body, you will run on fat.
Starvation Mode
But what about starvation mode? If you have been led to believe that 3-6 meals is the way to go, and that you should never skip breakfast, you may have also heard of the dreaded “starvation mode.” This is the belief that if you do not keep feeding your body every 2 hours or so you will store fat instead of burn it. Why? Because (they say) your body thinks it is going though a famine and will want to hang onto fat.
The fact of the matter is that this is simply not true. In order for your body to go into “starvation mode,” you have to go without food for a few days. But even then, you will eventually start losing weight. So do not fear. Going without breakfast, or even going without food for a day, will not not make you gain weight!
IF Programs
There are many IF programs to choose from. In the next article, I will list them and let you know which protocol I chose to lose nearly 20 pounds in about a month!
I recently did a podcast on different intermittent fasting protocols. In light of that, I thought I would write this blog based on that podcast. I’m doing this because I want to get the information out there and realize that not everyone listens to podcasts. That is to say that some people like to read more than they like to listen.
This will not be a word for word transcript of the podcast (that would just be too lengthy). What I wanted to do was talk about the different kinds of intermittent fasting plans available and which one is right for you. However, before I do that, I wanted to write a little on why I have taken up this topic.
Last October I had a shocking eye opener. Over the course of the summer, I had re-gained about 15 pounds. While I was no where near 300 pounds (the estimated weight I was at when I started to take my health seriously), I was still very depressed to have gained that amount of weight back.
How did I re-gain the weight. Well quite honestly it was just though neglect. One too many cheat meals, eating too often, not pushing myself as hard as I could have in the gym…the list goes on. And also, the fact that I was not near my original 300 pounds made it easy to over look the “relatively” small amount of weight I was gaining back.
At the first of the year, I once again got serious about my health. In about 5 weeks, I had lost the 15 pounds plus a few extra. I started giving it my all in the gym, making sure I was counting my carbs. I was also eating clean. But the big factor was tighting down on my intermittent fasting.
But one of the decisions I had to make was choosing an intermittent fasting (IF) protocol. This caused me to study which IF programs were available. So which ones are available, and which one did I choose to lose about 20 pounds? And which one should you choose? These questions will be addressed in our next post.
On this episode of A mind For Fitness Podcast, Ean Carlin talks about intermittent fasting. Also, a lot of time is spent on evaluating the different kinds of intermittent fasting protocols. Enjoy!
A new A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available. This is a good one. I come clean and talk about how I gained weight again but also how I lost it and am now more fit than ever. Enjoy!
In this episode, Ean gives the straight scoop on why low calorie, Low fat diets work for some people some of the time. As well as why it does not work for others and why you should never make it your lifestyle.
In the previous two articles, we talked about why we hit plateaus in the first place. In addition we addressed what not to do when your weight loss stalls out. In this article, we will finally turn our attention to what you actually need to do in order to overcome your plateau.
Change Things Up
If you have stopped burning fat because you are simply not following your diet correctly, then needless to say, you need to follow your workout and eating program more faithfully. However, if you have followed your diet faithfully, and you have stopped losing weight, then the answer to your problem is rather simple: change things up!
Your body has adjusted to what you are doing and as a result you have stopped losing weight. In order to fix this problem, you need to stop your old program and try a different program. There are primarily two arias that you need to change. First is diet and the second is exercise.
Diet
The first thing to change is your diet. This is not difficult to do. For example, if you have been intermittent fasting, then stop. Try eating six small meals a day, or at least switch to three meals a day.
The reverse is true also, if you have been on a diet that requires you to eat all day switch to intermittent fasting for a while.
While I do not recommend a low fat diet for the long run, I do recommend trying it for a short time. Try it for about a week and go back to LCHF. See what happens.
I also feel the same way about veganism. There is no problem in giving up meat for a week. It is another way to shock your system and get you to start burning fat again.
Exercise
It is true that 70% of your weight loss comes from diet. But 30% comes from exercise. For many out there, they have stopped losing weight because they do not exercise. If you want to start losing weight again, start exercising and see what happens.
There is also a segment of the population who are always exercising. I know it is difficult to do, but you may need to give your body a rest. In other words, stop working out for a while. This may be just what you need.
Finally, you can change the kind of workouts you are doing. In other words. If you are doing a lot of cardio, start lifting weights. If you are lifting weights, start doing more cardio.
Closing Thoughts
It can be discouraging to hit a plateau. However, the suggestions listed above proven strategies to help you start losing weight again. I know because I have seen these things work in many other people, but also I know because I have seen them work in my own life. I have hit many plateaus on my weight loss journey and have overcome every one of them. You can to. Don’t give up!
Another episode of A Mind For Fitness podcast is now available. In this episode I talk about the difference between those who succeed at weight loss and those who fail. Which camp are you in? Listen and find out.
There is a new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast. In this episode, Ean Talks about why it is more important to count carbs rather than calories. Also, what is a calorie and how you can avoid overeating. Enjoy!
Advanced Weight Loss Resources 