Tag Archives: Muscle

This is Why You Are Overeating Pt. 2 (Written)

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In the last blog, we began to talk about why we overeat. In that article, we addressed one major reason why, namely we do not let our stomach regulate our intake of food. In this article, we will address three more reason why we overeat.

Toxins That Interfere With Our Appetite

One reason we overeat has to do with the fact that we consume “foods” that interfere with the hormones that regulate our appetite. These are toxins like MSG and Aspartame. Most processed snack food has MSG. And most diet drinks have Aspartame. This is why its easy to eat a whole bag of Doritos and a diet Coke and still be hungry for a meal.

Contrast this with the the effects of real food. I may be able to eat a whole can of Pringles and still want to eat more. However, if I ate the same amount of potatoes that it takes to  make a whole can of Pringles, I would probably not want much else.

Drinking Sugar 

Still another problem in over consumption is what we drink. This is particularly true regarding soda and fruit juice. This stuff is bad for your health for many reason. Also, it is just not filling. Someone can easily drink a days worth of calories in soda or fruit juice and still eat a days worth of calories in solid food.

The other problem is smoothies. It is important to keep in mind that not all smoothies are created equal. Some are almost identical to soda or fruit juice in their content. But even the best of smoothies can pose a problem if you are trying to lose weight. A smoothie can be a great way to get your vitamins and minerals. In many diets, it is used as a meal replacement. But because a smoothie can be healthy people  see it as a “free” food. Meaning that you can have them whenever you want. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people eat their meal and have a smoothie to drink. People think they are doing something healthy, but In reality they are just having two meals.

Should be Sleeping 

The last problem, at least for this blog, is that people eat when they should be sleeping. When you do not get sleep, your body craves energy. And even though you may not actually need food, your body will trick you into thinking that you are hungry.

The sad news is not only will you be falsely hungry, you will be hungry for all the wrong food. You body is saying, “We need energy quick. Grab the closest high-carb item.” The good news is there is a simple answer to this problem–sleep!

Conclusion 

We overeat as a culture. But you do not have to be part of that. Let your stomach regulate your intake of food. Avoid foods that suppress the hormones that tell you you are full. Don’t drink your meals. And don’t eat when you should be sleeping. Follow these guidelines and it is nearly impossible to overeat.

This is Why You Are Over Eating Part 1 (Written)

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First off, I want to say that this is not a blog vindicating the calorie myth. That said, the truth is we in western culture simply consume too much food. This over consumption is resulting in weight gain. It is awesome to be on a low-carb diet and not have to starve in order to lose weight. However, this does not mean that every meal should be a carb-free version of thanks giving.

What I want to talk about over the next two blog posts is why we overeat. In this blog, I will talk about one of the major reasons. What is that reason? Simply put, we let other things other than our stomach regulate when we are done eating.

So if we are not letting our stomach regulate our consumption of food, then what do we let regulate it?

What’s Left on The Plate 

Often we let the plate tell us whether or not we are finished eating. Or to put it another way, when our plate is empty, we are done eating.

Paul McKenna has done experiments where he takes people out to breakfast. At breakfast he lets them order what ever they want and eat as much as they want. Most of the time the participants finish their plates. Then he takes the same subjects out on a different day and has them repeat the experience with one major edition–he blindfolds them.

The result is that most of the subjects only finish half of their food. Why? They are forced to listen to their stomach instead of their eyes in order to determine if they are full. The lesson here is to consciously check in with your stomach to see if you are actually full. If you are, stop eating.

Eating Too Fast 

Another way we do not listen to our stomach is that we eat too fast. To my shame, I have gone to an all you can eat buffet and finished two plates in under 10 min. While I was working on my third plate, I discovered that I was not only that I was full but stuffed.

It takes a while for satiety signal from our food to set it. If we eat too fast we can over ride this signal.

Eating At Meal Times 

There is also eating because it is meal time. That is to say we do not eat because we are hungry but we eat because it is “time” to eat. Most often this happens in the morning or at lunch.

In the morning, we are told that we should eat because we are suppose to eat breakfast even if we are not hungry. And personally speaking,  I am not that hungry in the morning.

Then there is lunch. We are at work and the lunch break begins and we are suppose to eat even if we are not hungry. I cannot tell you how many times I have eaten lunch because it was “lunch time” even though I really did not want to eat.

Even though this happens mostly at breakfast and lunch, dinner can play into this too. If you have had a late or a substantial lunch, you may not be hungry at dinner time. But we eat anyway because it’s dinner time.

But why do we do this? There is no law that says you have to eat at meal times. You should eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full.

Other Distractions 

Finally, there are other distractions. People can be distracted by conversation, TV, Internet, children…. Before you know it you are eating more than you should.

There is nothing inherently wrong with doing these things while you eat. However, check in with yourself to find out whether or not you are full. You may be surprised to find out that you are no longer hungry sooner than you think.

Final Thoughts

In closing, the only thing that should really dictate whether or not you should eat is your stomach. If truly listen to your stomach and eat only when you are hungry and stop when you full you will find that you will eat much less.

This is Why You Are Over Eating (Audio)

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A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now up. This episode is all about why we overeat and how to stop. Enjoy!

Seven Things to Expect When Carb-Cycling With Dirty Carbs (Written)

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Carb-cycling is generally thought of as a healthy part of your low-carb lifestyle. This means that as part of your eating protocol it is OK and even beneficial to eat a large amount carbs once every week or two. However, this brings us to an important question: What kind of carbs should you eat on your heavy carb-days? For example, should one carb up with a bunch of bananas or a pizza? Does it matter?

The truth is different experts have different opinions on this topic. Some recommend a cheat meal where no food is prohibited. Some (a very few) recommend that you should only carb-up with things like pizza and ice. Others recommend that you should only use fruit and starchy vegetables on your high-carb day.

This article is not intended to sift though all this information and tell you what is the right protocol for you. Nor am I your moral judge who is going to think less of you if you eat a pizza on your carb-day instead of a sweet potato. The truth is, I have had carbed up using both. However, if you do chose to eat “dirty” carbs for your high-carb meals, here is what you can expect:

Cravings 

What I have noticed is that if I carb-up on “clean” carbs, I do not have strong cravings for bad food the next day. However, if I eat, for example, Chinese food, I really want more high-carb food the next day. In fact, I have noticed that it takes a day or two for my cravings to go away.

Over Eating

Another problem is overeating. Many dirty carbs have MSG and other excito-toxins that stimulate appetite. This is why, personally speaking, I can open up a bag of Doritos and eat the whole thing, but if I open a bag of organic, non-GMO corn chips, I cannot eat the whole bag. I’m sure many of the readers could identify.

Weight Gain

Weight gain happens any time you carbo-load. This is mostly water and has to do with glycogyn and processes I’m not going to go into here. But, in my own personal experience, I gain much more when I carb up with dirty carbs.

In addition, I have noticed that it takes much longer to lose this weight. For example, if I carb up with clean carbs I’m normally back down to my regular weight by the end of the next day. But with dirty carbs, it takes at least two and sometimes three days to lose those extra pounds.

Headache

Headache is another phenomenon. This has to do with inflammation. Carbs in general can cause inflammation on their own. However, inflammation is heightened with dirty carbs because of all the added toxins found in these carb sources.

Brain Fog

Brain fog happens for the same reason as headache. Toxins in your food will have an affect on your ability to think clearly.

Sluggishness

It’s not only your brain that suffers. Your body suffers too. Toxins just make you feel lazy like every movement takes extra effort.

Diarrhea 

Finally there is disaster pants. This happens because the body is just trying its best to get those dirty carbs out of your system. Why? because if you eat low-carb and clean all week long, you body gets use to those types of foods. It is not use to not high-carb, refined food. When it hits your system your body just wants to get rid of it.

Should You Cheat With Dirty Carbs

Given all the above data, some might wonder if they should eat dirty carbs or not. Like I said above, I am not your moral judge. If you decide to carb-cycle with pizza instead of bananas, that is up to you. In fact, I have chosen the dirty carb over the clean one more often than I would like to admit. In fact, what I have noticed for myself is that when I first started to carb-cycle, I pretty much used all dirty carbs. This was due to the fact that those were the foods I was craving. So when I would have my free meal, I would go nuts. But the longer I have been healthy, the less I want those foods even on a free day/meal. So if you want to eat a dirty carb, that is your decision. You just need to be aware of the results and take them into consideration when you make that choice.

Intermittent Fasting Wars PT. 4

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This is the final installment in this short series of articles on intermittent fasting (IF). In this article, I will explain what IF protocol I used and why. Also, I will give you some tips on choosing an intermittent fasting protocol for yourself.

Which IF I Used

I chose the Warrior Diet because it was, in my opinion, the easiest to follow.  Why? First off it is a daily plan. I did not have to remember whether this was a day I was eating or not. I just did the same thing every day.

Also, on the Warrior Diet I got to eat every day which made it easier to stick to my low-carb lifestyle. This did not always happen as I will explain later, but being able to eat every day made low-carb a more viable option. On the other hand, when I experimented with alternate day fasting and Eat Stop Eat one of the biggest problems I had with these diets is that after 24 hours of fasting, I wanted to eat everything in sight. On these diets you are allowed to eat normally which I have described in previous posts. But after a 24 hour fast I wanted to eat like it was Thanksgiving.

Like I said above, I did not always eat low-carb when I was on the Warrior Diet. And the truth is that you do not have to. But I did eat low-carb most of the time. However, the ability to eat whatever I wanted during my eating window allowed me to be more flexible while eating with my friends and family.

Which IF Plan Should You Do? 

First off, do not be afraid to experiment.  And do not be afraid to switch to another plan if one is not working out. But you must be able to chose a plan that you will stick to and that will fit into your life. If you live alone and do not mind skipping a day of eating, you might do better on alternate day fasting or Eat Stop Eat. If you have a family and you eat with them every night, you might do better on the Warrior Diet. Just remember the best plan is the one you will actually do.

Final Observation

One more thing I noticed about IF that I wanted to mention has to do with the fact that a lot of these plans allow you to have carbs during your eating window. However, what I noticed is that the the longer your eating window is the more low-carb you need to go in order to see results. For example, if you are going to break your fast between 14-18 hours and give yourself a longer eating window, you need to really be cautious of the carbs you are eating. Basically you need to stick to a low-carb diet. On the other hand if you fast for 20 plus hours you have a greater tolerance for carbs. This means that if you only eat for say two hours, you can eat more carbs and still lose weight.

Why Low Carb Is Not Enough (Audio)

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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!

Ways to Make Your Commitment to Weight Loss Easier (Audio)

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In this episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast, Ian gives advice on how to make keeping your goals much easier. Enjoy!

 

The Intermittent Fasting Wars Pt. 2 (Written)

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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!

The Intermittent Fasting Wars PT. 1(Written)

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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.

Getting Past Your Plateau (Podcast)

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A new episode of A Mind For Fitness Podcast is now available. In this episode, Ean talks about why we hit plateaus. And what we should and should not do about it. Enjoy!