In this episode, Ian Carlin talks about why low carb dieting is a great place to start but it will most likely will not get you to optimal health. Also, what you need to know about switching gyms. Enjoy!
Tag Archives: exercise
Ways to Make Your Commitment to Weight Loss Easier (Audio)
In this episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast, Ian gives advice on how to make keeping your goals much easier. Enjoy!
Intermittent Fasting Wars PT. 3
There are many, many IF plans out there. It is the latest craze (for good reason). However, in my opinion, there are only three main protocols. Everything else is a variant of these three plans. So what are these there plans.
- Alternate Day.
- Eat Stop Eat.
- The Warrior Diet.
Alternate Day
First there is alternate day fasting. It is what it sounds like. You fast for 24 hours every other day. For example, on day one, you would wake up and eat normally until 5 P. M. Then you would stop eating until the next day at 5 P. M. After that, you repeat the process.
Eat Stop Eat
This method advocates two 24 hour fasts a week. Then, the participant can eat normally throughout the non-fast days. So it may look something like this: Thursday, stop eating at 5:00 P.M. Fast until Friday 5:00 P.M. Then eat normally over the weekend until Sunday at 5:00 PM. Fast until Monday at 5:00 P.M. Then eat normally from Monday until Thursday.
It’s important to note that eating normally does not mean that you eat like it is Thanksgiving . However, it does mean that you can eat more high-carb foods. So if you are going out for breakfast, you do not have to eat just the eggs and bacon. You are welcome to eat the hash-browns, and toast as well. Likewise, if you are going to have a steak for dinner. You can also eat a potato.
Warrior Diet
The Warrior Diet is a daily fast of 20 hours. Then there is a four hour eating window. During the four hour eating window you are encouraged to do a few things. One is to eat a salad and a good amount of protean. However, you can eat anything. This would include pizza and ice cream. Also, you are encouraged to overeat. That’s right. You are encouraged to overeat.
Other IF Plans
Many other plans are simply a mixing or modification of the three above. For example Bulletproof IF is like Eat Stop Eat in some ways and in some ways it is like the Warrior Diet. You may only choose to IF two days a week. In that way it is like Eat Stop Eat. But you may fast for 20 hours on those days. In that way it is like the Warrior Diet. However, it is not recommended on Bulletproof that you eat high-carb or processed food. So you cannot eat just anything. Also, you are allowed to have Bulletproof coffee which contains fats.
Another plan in Lean Gains. This is kind of like the Warrior diet. On this plan you daily fast but for only 16 hours. However, your meals should be sensible without a lot of high-carb foods.
Over Simplification
I have to admit that I am over simplifying these diets quite a bit. I do this for two reasons. One is for the sake of time. The second reason is that I do not want to give away these authors diet plans for free. That would be unethical. So if there is something I missed please remember that I am over simplifying on purpose.
Closing Remarks
The list of IF plans is plentiful. In the final article of this series, I will talk about the plan I used to lose 20 pounds in 5 weeks, which plan you should choose, and some closing observations about IF.
What You Need To Try Before You Give Up (Audio)
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!
The Intermittent Fasting Wars PT. 1(Written)
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.
The Intermittent Fasting Wars (Podcast)
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!
True Confessions: How I Gained Weight Again (And How I lost It Audio)
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!
The Wild Diet Review (Audio)
On this episode of A Mind For Fitness, Ean is reviewing Abel James’s book, The Wild Diet. Enjoy
Why Traditional Diets Work For Some People
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.
Overcoming Your Plateau
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!
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