Category Archives: Weight Management

The Hidden Reason You Get Flabby (Not Calories or Lack of Exercise)

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Diet myths abound in the health industry, but one of the biggest myths of all is the idea that a calorie is a calorie, no matter where you get it from, or what the chemical or nutritional makeup of it is.

If you care about your health and are truly working to keep your weight down, then you need to know the truth about calories as well as the substances that distort how calories work in your body.

For example, sugar is one of the major health topics in the news these days, with “sugar is sugar” news updates, ads, and counter-ads.

Now, a new video, the “Skinny on Obesity”, presents a chilling awakening on weight, weight gain, and chronic diseases like dementia, cancer, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Watch it, and you may never look the same way at sugar or calories again. Your body actually treats sugar in the same way it treats alcohol and other toxins. This is in large part how sugars can damage your liver and other organs, and why Dr. Lustig refers to sugar as a toxin. I recently wrote about this at length in the article, Is Sugar Toxic?

Obesity Goes Beyond Aesthetics

While many still shrug at the notion of obesity being anything but an aesthetic issue, this simply isn’t a truthful evaluation of the situation. The obesity epidemic threatens not only the health and longevity of a clear majority of people, it also adds a tremendous burden to our health care system. As Dr. Lustig explains in part 1 above, the eight primary diseases related to metabolic dysfunction account for a staggering 75 percent of the healthcare costs in the US.

 These diseases include:

The four diseases listed on the top row are conventionally associated with metabolic syndrome. However, as stated by Dr. Lustig, several other diseases fall within this scope as well—which are listed in the bottom row. He also explains that while obesity is associated with metabolic syndrome and all of these diseases, obesity is not the CAUSE of them; it is simply a marker. Rather, the underlying cause is metabolic dysfunction, and excessive sugar/fructose consumption is a primary driver of that.

According to Dr. Lustig, 20 percent of obese people have perfectly normal metabolic functioning, and the excess weight will not affect their overall lifespan. Ditto for 60 percent of normal-weight people. However, the MAJORITY of obese people—about 80 percent of them—do not have normal metabolic function, and 40 percent of normal-weight people also suffer from metabolic dysfunction, and are therefore prone to these obesity-related diseases… All in all, metabolic dysfunction affects a clear majority of Americans.

But why?

What’s the Cause of Rampant Metabolic Dysfunction?

One dogma that has contributed to the ever-worsening health of the Western world is the belief that “a calorie is a calorie.” This is one of the first things dieticians learn in school. Unfortunately, this is completely FALSE… Another dogmatic belief that simply isn’t true is the idea that obesity is the end result of eating too much and exercising too little; i.e. consuming more calories than you’re expending. This has led to the view that obese people are simply “lazy.”

But as Dr. Lustig points out, there are societal forces at work that go beyond personal responsibility. An increasing number of infants are now obese, and “laziness” is certainly not a label that can easily be affixed to a developing infant.  These societal forces include:

As mentioned in the featured video above, the societal changes over the past 60 years or so have created what amounts to a perfect storm; a confluence of dramatically altered food environment combined with reduced physical exertion and increased exposure to, and consumption of, a wide array of industrial- and agricultural chemicals that have a detrimental impact on the human biochemistry.

Among the dramatic changes to our food supply is the extensive use of sugar, primarily in the form of high fructose corn syrup, which is added to virtually all processed foods. And this is where the fallacy of “a calorie is a calorie” comes into play, because a calorie from fat does not impact your body in the same way a calorie from fructose does.

One Calorie Can Be Vastly Different from Another…

According to Dr. Robert Lustig, fructose is ‘isocaloric but not isometabolic.” This means you can have the same amount of calories from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or fructose and fat, but the metabolic effect will be entirely different despite the identical calorie count. This is largely because different nutrients provoke different hormonal responses, and those hormonal responses determine, among other things, how much fat you accumulate.

The average American consumes 1/3 of a pound of sugar a day. That’s five ounces or 150 grams, half of which is fructose, which is 300 percent more than the amount that will trigger biochemical havoc. And many Americans consume more than twice that amount! Thanks to the excellent work of researchers like Dr. Robert Lustig, as well as Dr. Richard Johnson, we now know that fructose:

  • Is metabolized differently from glucose, with the majority being turned directly into fat
  • Tricks your body into gaining weight by fooling your metabolism, as it turns off your body’s appetite-control system. Fructose does not appropriately stimulate insulin, which in turn does not suppress ghrelin (the “hunger hormone”) and doesn’t stimulate leptin (the “satiety hormone”), which together result in your eating more and developing insulin resistance.
  • Rapidly leads to weight gain and abdominal obesity (“beer belly”), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure—i.e., classic metabolic syndrome.
  • Over time leads to insulin resistance, which is not only an underlying factor of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but also many cancers.

This is why the idea that you can lose weight by counting calories simply doesn’t work. After fructose, other sugars and grains are likely the most excessively consumed food that promotes weight gain and chronic disease. This also includes food items that are typically viewed as healthy, such as fruit juice or even large amounts of high fructose fruits. What needs to be understood is that when consumed in large amounts, these items will also adversely affect your insulin, which is a crucially potent fat regulator. So yes, drinking large amounts of fruit juice on a daily basis can contribute to weight gain… In short, you do not get fat because you eat too many calories and don’t exercise enough. You get fat because you eat the wrong kind of calories. As long as you keep eating fructose and grains, you’re programming your body to create and store fat.

Replacing Sugars with Healthy Fats is Key for Reversing Metabolic Syndrome

I believe there are two primary dietary recommendations that, if widely implemented, could help reverse our current disease trend in short order:

  1. Severely restricting carbohydrates (sugars, fructose, and grains), and
  2. Increasing healthy fat consumption

While health authorities insist that sugar is fine “in moderation,” and that grains are an essential part of a healthy diet and can actually help you prevent heart disease, they fail to take into consideration that:

  1. Fructose is the NUMBER ONE source of calories in the US. An ingredient that is found in virtually all processed foods cannot be considered “moderate.” Even most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola, which helps explain how six-month old babies can be obese
  2. Refined carbohydrates (breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles etc) quickly breaks down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease known to man, including heart disease

Your Body NEEDS Fats for Optimal Function

Fats in general are considered the dietary villains, especially saturated fat, which many people still claim will increase your risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. However, this is simply untrue. The only really dangerous fat out there is trans fat (margarine, vegetable oils). Saturated fats are actually vital for optimal health as they are:

When cutting down on carbs, you generally need to increase your intake of healthy (ideally organic, unprocessed and minimally heated ) saturated fats. Both carbs and fats are sources of energy, but saturated fat is actually the preferred fuel for your heart. Another metabolic bonus is that fat does not raise your insulin levels, whereas carbs do.  However, it’s important to recognize the difference between grain carbs and vegetable carbs.

If you want to lower your insulin levels and reduce fat accumulation, reduce the amount of grains and sugars you eat; NOT your vegetables. In fact, you actually need to radically increase the amount of vegetables you eat when you cut grains, as by volume grains are far denser than vegetables. As for healthy fats, good sources include:

Keep in mind that olive oil should not be used for cooking. Instead, use coconut oil for cooking, frying and baking, and save the olive oil for salad dressing.  Another healthful fat you want to be mindful of is animal-based omega-3. Deficiency in this essential fat can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. For more information about omega-3′s and the best sources of this fat, please review my previous article:Are You Getting the Right Type of Omega-3 Fats?

How Much Fructose is Too Much?

As a general recommendation, I suggest keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, with a maximum of 15 grams from whole fruit. The table at the bottom of this page can help you calculate your fructose from fruit consumption. However, if you have ANY of the following health issues, then you’ll want to be very careful to limit fructose to just 15 grams per day or less, and this includes fructose from whole fruit. Ideally you’ll want to avoid ALL sources of fructose until your insulin stabilizes, and then proceed with caution.

High uric acid, in particular, is a potent marker for fructose toxicity, so if your levels are above:

  • 4 mg/dl for men
  • 3.5 mg/dl for women

… then you would be wise to avoid all forms of fructose until your levels have normalized—just as you would with high insulin levels. Here’s a quick reference list of some of the most common fruits that you can use to help you count your fructose grams:

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Children may get type II Diabetes because of Bad Sleeping Habits

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By Andreas Moritz 

Hi, this is Andreas Moritz and I am responding to a question that I receive quite frequently about children who become obese and develop type II diabetes and this is an escalating problem nowadays and I would like to address that.

We now know that diet plays a major role, but that’s not the only role that we find present in obese children or children that become diabetic. One of the major reasons is actually sleep deprivation or in some instances, having too much sleep and/or the wrong type of sleep. Many children, teenage children, they are up many hours during the night and sleep during the day, particularly during vacation time, holiday time, and they find themselves like sleeping until ten o’clock in the morning which I discussed in my book “Timeless Secrets Of Health And Rejuvenation”. it’s very detrimental to a person’s health.

Now research has shown, and that’s done at the children’s hospital of Philadelphia, that too little sleep and too much sleep both contribute to an increase in type II diabetes and what it was found that sleep deprivation basically increases blood sugar levels, suppresses insulin secretion, and once insulin is suppressed in the body, the extra sugar in the blood can then be converted into fat and that contributes to the escalation of obesity among teenagers.

There have been many studies that found, in adults… these are adult studies… that have found the same thing… that adults who become sleep-deprived or who do not sleep at the proper night hours, for example people who work the night shift, have a higher risk of developing type II diabetes. The insulin suppressing effect of lack of sleep, that when we sleep less, the insulin is not secreted in the correct amounts to keep the blood sugar at the right levels, is certainly something that we have in control.

We do have the choice to sleep early, and sleeping early should be before ten o’clock in the evening so that we wake up when the day begins and not much later than that, because the longer we sleep the worse it becomes, because once we sleep past sunrise or at least an hour or later than sunrise, our digestive ability becomes suppressed and our elimination capacity of waste products becomes suppressed, and the body is forced to hold on to urine, fecal matter, and lymph toxins, which then backwash into the system and contaminate our body.

So going to bed early, early to rise, is a very important piece of advice that I can give to teenagers and adults who want to keep the risk of developing type II diabetes and obesity at bay.

There are many studies to show that for every hour of sleep we have lost, or deprived… or being deprived of, the person increases the rate and the blood sugar levels. So this is simple advice, doesn’t cost anything and it’s very effective.

I have seen people lose weight simply by sleeping early before ten o’clock and get up early in the morning at around six o’clock, and they find that they have more energy during the day, the digestive system picks up, it’s far more effective than in a person who is sleep-deprived because when we are tired it’s not just that we feel tired but our digestive system is tired, our liver is tired, our brain and nervous system are tired, the heart becomes tired, because there is far more congestion building up in the body because of the sleep-deprivation that it makes it harder for our system to circulate blood, to circulate lymph, to eliminate waste, and to digest food.

So simple advice, please take it at heart and follow the natural rhythms of life. The circadian rhythm teaches us exactly how to live if we listen to nature, and to the advice that nature gives us simply by showing us how the light changes from light to dark, and when it’s getting dark that we are slowing down, eventually follow our instincts, our feelings, because there is a natural time where we feel tired.

It’s good not to stimulate ourselves with coffee or food so that we actually feel sleepy at the right time and go to sleep at the right time, and then wake up when nature wakes us up, and so they are that very natural cycles, they are called the circadian rhythms, which dictate and control the biological rhythms in our body, which in turn is controlled by hormones and the hormones are regulated by the circadian rhythm such as melatonin and serotonin which integrate with one another.

So when at 9:30 – 10:00 o’ clock, melatonin secretion begins, that is the sleep hormone that allows us to feel sleepy and drowsy, that’s when we should follow that natural instinctive inclination to go to rest and sleep and when the sun comes up, when the light, daylight, shows up, that’s when serotonin begins being secreted both in the brain and in the digestive system which then allows us to wake up, derive energy from the food that we have digested during the previous meals and to then follow our day to day activities.

Simple advice, cheap, inexpensive… everyone can do that or almost everyone can do that, and it’s certainly very precious and it can prevent many, many illnesses such as type II diabetes and obesity-related illnesses such as cancer.

Thank you.

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New Study Shows Obesity Rate Is Actually Far Worse than Previously Recognized

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

In the United States, where two-thirds of all states already have obesity rates exceeding 25 percent, and 12 states now have obesity rates over 30 percent, it is shocking to hear that these rates may actually be underestimated.

But this is precisely what new research has revealed.

Body-mass index (BMI), which gauges weight in relation to height and is widely used as a measure of overweight and obesity, is to blame for the flawed assessments.

Are Nearly 60% of Americans Obese?

Researchers compared BMI measurements to body fat percentage (using a DEXA scan, which is a FAR more accurate method to assess body fat percentage) among 1,400 people.

For women, about half of those who were not classified as obese according to BMI were considered obese according to body fat.

Among men, one-quarter of those not identified as obese by BMI were found to be obese by body-fat measures.

In all, nearly 40 percent of participants whose BMI classified them as overweight were actually obese when their percentage of body fat was taken into account.

According to lead author Dr. Eric Braverman, president of the nonprofit Path Foundation in New York City, “Based on BMI, about one-third of Americans are considered obese, but when other methods of measuring obesity are used, that number may be closer to 60%.”

As such, BMI also neglects to factor in how muscular you might be.

Athletes and completely out-of-shape people can have similar BMI scores, or a very muscular person could be classified as “obese” using BMI, when in reality it is mostly lean muscle accounting for their higher-than-average weight.

Dr. Braverman says of BMI:

“Some people call it the ‘baloney mass index.”

Many studies, such as one published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, have found that a high BMI was associated with a lower risk of death, a phenomenon known as the “obesity paradox.” This finding as an example of how BMI is a flawed measurement tool, as it tells you nothing about where fat is located in the body, and it appears that the location of the fat is more important than the amount of fat when it comes to measuring certain health risks, such as heart disease risks. BMI also uses weight as a measure of risk, when it is actually a high percentage of body fat that makes a person obese.

Could Testing Your Leptin Levels Make Your BMI More Useful?

The researchers found that levels of the hormone leptin were strongly associated with body fat percentage, and suggested that testing your leptin levels could therefore be used in addition to your BMI to help get a more accurate picture of your true risk of obesity and related diseases.

The hormones your fat cells produce impact how much you eat and how much fat you burn. One of these hormones is leptin, and leptin sends signals that reduce hunger, increase fat burning and reduce fat storage. That is, if your cells are communicating properly and can “hear” this message.

If you are eating a diet that is high in sugar, fructose and grains, as the sugar gets metabolized in fat cells, fat releases surges in leptin. Over time, if your body is exposed to too much leptin, it will become resistant to the leptin (just as your body can become resistant to insulin). Leptin resistance causes an increase in the visceral fat your body produces. Likewise, it is through an inflammatory process that it’s thought visceral fat causes its damage, and the same diet that makes you leptin resistant will also increase inflammation and body fat in your body. By tending to one factor — diet — you can reduce your risk of both becoming leptin resistant and producing excess visceral fat.

What’s a Better Way to Gauge Your Weight Health than BMI?

Another simple and inexpensive option is measuring your waist circumference, as a thick waist is a well-known sign of a build-up of visceral fat, a dangerous type of fat around your internal organs that is strongly linked with type 2 diabetes, heart disease and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

It is thought that visceral fat is related to the release of proteins and hormones that can cause inflammation, which in turn can damage arteries and enter your liver, affecting how your body breaks down sugars and fats. When your body routinely stores excess visceral fat, you increase your risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, vascular disease, atherosclerosis (hardening of your arteries) and an increased thickness in the walls of your heart.

Your waist size is also a powerful indicator of insulin sensitivity, as studies clearly show that measuring your waist size is one of the most powerful ways to predict your risk for diabetes. Determining your waist size is easy. With a tape measure, figure the distance around the smallest area of your abdomen below your rib cage and above your belly button. If you’re not sure if you have a healthy waist circumference, a general guide is:

  • For men, between 37 and 40 inches is overweight and more than 40 inches is obese
  • For women, 31.5-34.6 inches is overweight and more than 34.6 inches is obese

The other tool, which many experts are now leaning toward as the most accurate measure of obesity, is body fat percentage. As it sounds, this is simply the percentage of fat your body contains, and it can be a powerful indicator of your health. Too much body fat is linked to chronic health problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Too little body fat is also problematic and can cause your body to enter a catabolic state, where muscle protein is used as fuel. A general guideline from the American Council on Exercise is as follows:

How to Measure Your Body Fat

Body fat calipers are one of the most trusted and most accurate ways to measure body fat. A body fat, or skinfold, caliper is a lightweight, hand-held device that quickly and easily measures the thickness of a fold of your skin with its underlying layer of fat. Taken at three very specific locations on your body, these readings can help you estimate the total percent of body fat within your entire body.

You can also use a digital scale that determines body fat, which is what I use personally. I use an Eat Smart Precision GetFit Body Fat Scale that I picked up from Amazon for around $50. Currently my body fat measures at 13.5 percent on this scale, although I think it is actually closer to 11 percent or 12 percent. Although many body fat measurements can be inaccurate, they are nearly all more accurate than BMI, and are particularly useful to determine whether you are gaining or losing fat. Although the absolute value may be off, the direction you are going (whether your body fat is going up or down) will be very accurate, and this is an incredibly useful measure of whether you’re nearing your health goals or not.

As I mentioned earlier, a DEXA scan is probably one of the most accurate ways to measure body fat but it is not at all easy to find a center that uses them to measure body fat percentage. There are many DEXA scans out there but most are used to measure bone density. Additionally, a DEXA scan is an X-ray, which will expose you to radiation, and is far more expensive than all of the other methods discussed. For a fraction of the price of one DEXA scan you can pick up an Eat Smart scale and merely step on it each day to monitor your progress.

Remember that it is FAR better to monitor your body fat percentage than it is your total weight, as the body fat percentage is what dictates metabolic health or dysfunction — not your total weight.

Tried-and-True Tips for Reaching a Healthy Weight

Once you review the research, it’s clear that if you are serious about losing weight, you have got to strictly limit the amount of fructose in your diet, as evidence is mounting that excess sugar, and fructose in particular, is the primary factor in the obesity epidemic. So cutting soda from your diet is essential. However many fail to appreciate the importance of cutting out other sources of fructose, including those found in processed foods, fruit juice, excessive fruit and so-called “healthy” sweeteners like agave.

Ideally you should keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day and this includes fruits. This is especially true if you have insulin resistance and are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol.

For the majority of people, severely restricting carbohydrates such as sugars, fructose, and grains in your diet will be the key to weight loss. Refined carbohydrates like breakfast cereals, bagels, waffles, pretzels, and most other processed foods quickly break down to sugar, increase your insulin levels, and cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain.

As you cut these dietary villains from your meals, you need to replace them with healthy substitutes like vegetables and healthy fats (including natural saturated fats!). Your body prefers the carbohydrates in vegetables rather than grains and sugars because it slows the conversion to simple sugars like glucose, and decreases your insulin level. When you cut grains and sugar from your meals, you typically will need to radically increase the amount of vegetables you eat, as well as make sure you are also consuming protein and healthy fats regularly.

I’ve detailed a step-by-step guide to this type of healthy eating program in my comprehensive nutrition plan, and I urge you to consult this guide if you are trying to lose weight.

The foods you choose to eat will be the driving force behind successfully achieving your weight loss goals — even more so than exercise. But exercise is still important for weight loss and optimal health. The key to boosting weight loss and getting the most out of your exercise routine is to make sure to incorporate high-intensity, short-burst-type exercises, such as my Peak Fitness Program, two to three times per week. Several studies have confirmed that exercising in shorter bursts with rest periods in between burns more fat than exercising continuously for an entire session.

If you are struggling with your weight, exercise is clearly one of the key factors that can synergize the effects of healthy food choices and help you reach your short- and long-term weight loss goals.

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New Study Finds Too Much Exercise Can Delay Pregnancy in Normal-Weight Women

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Even though exercise is extremely healthy — it’s the closest physical strategy to a “miracle drug” that I can think of — it’s becoming increasingly clear that too much exercise is not.

For most people this is not an issue, because most people are not exercising enough — and particularly not intensely enough.

But there are instances where you need to carefully consider your exercise strategy to make sure it is in line with, and supporting, your health goals.

Optimizing your fertility and how long you will live are examples.

If You’re Normal Weight and Want to Get Pregnant, Avoid Over-Exercising

New research in Fertility and Sterility looked into the association between physical activity and time to pregnancy.

Among women who were overweight or obese, any type of exercise improved fertility.

But among normal-weight women, higher levels of vigorous exercise — such as running on a treadmill for an hour five days a week — appeared to make it harder to conceive, as it led to delays in becoming pregnant.

It’s long been known that strenuous exercise can cause disturbances to a woman’s monthly cycle, leading to a lack of ovulation and menses, along with other fertility problems.

This is particularly common among competitive female athletes and marathon runners.

However, the study’s author, Lauren Wise, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, suggested high-intensity exercise might also disturb implantation (when a fertilized egg attaches to the uterus).

Moderate exercise, on the other hand, led to faster times to pregnancy among all women. Only very vigorous exercise — which was defined as running, fast cycling, gymnastics or swimming for more than five hours a week — appeared to delay exercise in normal-weight (but not overweight or obese) women. Researchers concluded:

“These findings indicate that PA [physical activity] of any type might improve fertility among overweight and obese women, a subgroup at higher risk of infertility. Lean women who substitute vigorous PA with moderate PA may also improve their fertility.”

Why Less is Sometimes More When it Comes to Exercise

A growing body of research shows you may not need to spend as much time exercising as you think — provided that you are willing to put in some authentically vigorous effort when you do. Incorporating high-intensity interval training such as that advocated by fitness experts Phil Campbell or Dr. Doug McGuff can improve your fitness regimen. These types of exercises dramatically cut down on your exercise time while producing greater benefits—simply because you’re using your body as it was designed to be used.

When doing high-intensity anaerobic exercises like Peak Fitness, you can literally be done in about 20 minutes, compared to spending an hour running on the treadmill. And according to Dr. McGuff, if you’re doing Super Slow strength training, which is another form of high-intensity type training, all you need is 12 minutes a week. Yes, you read that right: 12 minutes a week!

If you perform Peak Fitness exercises correctly, it will trigger the release of human growth hormone (HGH), also known as “the fitness hormone,” which accounts for many of the health benefits of interval training.

But be mindful of your current fitness level and don’t overdo it when you first start out. Also keep in mind that there’s no “magical” speed here. It’s entirely individual, based on your current level of fitness. Some may reach their anabolic threshold by walking at a quick pace, while others may need to perform a mad-dash to get the same effect.

The remarkable effectiveness of interval training makes logical sense when you consider that this type of exertion mimics how our ancestors lived. This is also how animals and young children behave naturally (long-duration exercise really isn’t “natural”). By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health. That said, engaging in these high-intensity exercises two to three times a week is likely to lead to a decrease in body fat.

If you are seeking to get pregnant, or compete athletically, you will need slightly higher body fat stores to be in the optimal range. This may be one reason why lean women engaging in too much vigorous exercise took longer to become pregnant. The study defined about five hours a week as too much, so it’s likely that Peak Fitness exercises, which take only 20 minutes for the entire workout (with only four minutes of intense exercise) and should only be performed two or three times a week, max, would actually be beneficial.

What to Eat After Exercise to Help Optimize Fertility

Interestingly, it is virtually impossible to simultaneously optimize for both longevity and competitive fitness in terms of what you eat after a workout. This is because consuming fructose after you exercise will increase production of the hormone somatostatin, a primary purpose of which is to inhibit the production of HGH.

For most people, increasing HGH through high-intensity interval exercise is an important factor for optimizing health and longevity, so most of my readers will want to avoid sugar, fructose and juice following their workouts. But if you are seeking to optimize your fertility, or compete athletically, consuming some carbs, preferably dextrose-based, in the recovery period is probably a good idea to improve your recovery time and maximize your fertility or athletic performance. If you are not concerned about fertility or athletic performance, then lower carbs and lower percentage of body fat would be a more appropriate goal.

More Strategies for Optimizing Fertility

An estimated 1 in 6 American couples struggle with fertility each year, and there’s compelling evidence that lifestyle, diet and environmental exposures are largely to blame. Not only are you exposed to hundreds (if not thousands) of toxins each and every day, but some of the most commonly prescribed drugs, poor diet, and common vitamin deficiencies have also been linked to reduced fertility, just to name a few.

As Iva Keene, author of the Natural Fertility Prescription, stated:

“Conventional IVF and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments don’t address root causes of infertility. These root causes can include: nutritional deficiencies, toxin exposure, stress, food intolerances, allergies and immune deficiencies. These subtle but critical factors interact synergistically to impact the quality of your eggs and sperm, affecting your ability to conceive and the health of your embryo.

… during the generation and maturation of gamete cells — sperm and ovum — that form an embryo [a period of 120 days], everything that you and your partner ingest, inhale or are exposed to will influence the health of your eggs and sperm for better or worse, and the ultimate quality of the genetic building blocks you pass onto your child. This is why it’s crucial to follow a good preconception plan for a minimum of 4 months before conception. A baby is a 50-50 product of his or her parents — therefore optimizing the quality of eggs and sperm is of paramount importance.”

Some natural options to consider include:

  • Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure, a safe tanning bed or a vitamin D3 supplement. Vitamin D impacts fertility on multiple levels, including boosting levels of progesterone and estrogen in women, which may help regulate menstrual cycles and improve your likelihood of conceiving naturally. In men, vitamin D is essential for the healthy development of the nucleus of the sperm cell, improves semen quality and sperm count, and is capable of supporting healthy testosterone levels.
  • Avoid genetically engineered food, especially corn and soy. These contain significant concentrations of the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup), which has been linked to infertility in a number of studies.
  • Avoid chemicals as much as possible. Bisphenol-A (BPA), phthalates, fluoride (in drinking water), MSG, and many, many others have shown negative impacts on your reproductive health.
  • Consume a healthy diet, rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, and low in sugar and grains. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with endocrine disruptors, PCBs and mercury, supplement with a high-quality purified fish or krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab tested for purity. Eat mostly raw, fresh foods, steering clear of processed, prepackaged foods of all kinds. This way you automatically avoid hidden fructose and artificial food additives, including dangerous artificial sweeteners, food coloring and MSG. As much as possible, purchase and consume organic, locally grown and free-range foods to reduce your exposure to pesticides, fertilizers and other toxins.
  • Identify potential gluten intolerance. Celiac disease (gluten intolerance) has been linked to fertility problems in both sexes. In men, it’s associated with abnormal sperm, such as lower sperm numbers, altered shape, and reduced function. Men with untreated celiac disease may also have lower testosterone levels.
  • Be aware of electromagnetic fields (EMFs), as research suggests cell phones may impact sperm quality as well. One study found men who talked on a cell phone for more than four hours a day had the lowest average sperm counts (50 million per milliliter) and the least healthy sperm.

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Too Busy to Exercise? Get Fit in 3 Minutes a Week

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

The most recent research shows that relatively short bursts of intense exercise—even if done only a total of a few minutes each week—can deliver many of the health- and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional exercise.

By doing just three minutes of High Intensity Training (HIT) a week for four weeks, you could see significant changes in important health indices.

At some research centers, participants were able to improve their insulin sensitivity an average of 24 percent with as little as three minutes of HIT per week.

BBC News reports :

“So how does it work? …  [P]art of the explanation is (probably) that HIT uses far more of your muscle tissue than classic aerobic exercise. 

When you do HIT, you are using not just the leg muscles, but also the upper body including arms and shoulders, so that 80 percent of the body’s muscle cells are activated, compared to 20-40 percent for walking or moderate intensity jogging or cycling.”

But there’s an important caveat…

Just how well high intensity training actually works may in large part depend on your genetic makeup.

Your Genes May Determine How Little Exercise You Need

We often tend to believe that exercise will affect most people in similar ways. But that may be an oversimplification—at least when it comes to how little exercise you can get away with and still maintain good health. In the featured article, Michael Mosley offers the following explanation:

“The fact is that people respond to exercise in very different ways. In one international study 1,000 people were asked to exercise four hours a week for 20 weeks. Their aerobic fitness was measured before and after starting this regime and the results were striking. Although 15 percent of people made huge strides (so-called “super-responders”), 20 percent showed no real improvement at all (“non-responders”).

There is no suggestion that the non-responders weren’t exercising properly, it was simply that the exercise they were doing was not making them any aerobically fitter. Jamie [Timmons. Professor of ageing biology at Birmingham University] and his collaborators investigated the reasons for these variations and discovered that much of the difference could be traced to a small number of genes.  On the basis of this finding they have developed a genetic test to predict who is likely to be a responder, and who is not.”

I thought that the recent report in the BBC News was an interesting confirmation of the Peak Fitness approach I have been advocating for some time now. It is important not to get caught up in the non-responder element of the report as it is was related to aerobic fitness, which we now realize is far less important than anaerobic fitness. It is safe to assume that everyone, including you, requires the metabolic challenge to stay healthy and avoid disease. While some people may actually get more aerobically fit than others, virtually everyone seems to benefit if the exercises are done properly.

Less than One Hour a Month Can Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity by Nearly 25 Percent

Mosley tested HIT for himself, and reveals the results in the featured article. He performed the exercises on a stationary bike. After warming up, he cycled “all-out” for 20 seconds, rested for a couple of minutes, and then gave it his all for another 20 seconds. Total time; just a few minutes!  After four weeks—which amounted to a grand total of 12 minutes of intense exercise and 36 minutes of relaxed pedaling—Mosley’s insulin sensitivity had improved a respectable 24 percent. His aerobic fitness, however, remained unchanged.

He writes:

“It turns out that the genetic test they had done on me had suggested I was a non-responder and however much exercise I had done, and of whatever form, my aerobic fitness would not have improved. My dreams of winning Olympic gold ended there and then. I will continue doing HIT because I can see the benefits. It won’t suit everyone, because although it is short, it is extremely intense.”

This truly is amazing, and while aerobic fitness is indeed important, improving and maintaining good insulin sensitivity is perhaps one of the most important aspects of optimal health. Previous research has demonstrated that 20 minutes of high intensity training, two to three times a week, can yield greater results than slow and steady conventional aerobics done five times a week. But the fact that you can improve your insulin sensitivity by nearly 25 percent with a time investment of less than ONE HOUR A MONTH really should send people straight to the gym en masse…

How to Maximize the Health Benefits of  Peak Fitness Training

However, you don’t need a gym to perform high intensity interval exercises. It can be performed with virtually any type of exercise; with or without equipment. You can just as easily perform interval training by walking or running outdoors as you can using a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine.

While it’s theoretically possible to reap valuable results with as little as three minutes once a week, it might be more beneficial doing them two or three times a week for a total of four minutes of intense exertion, especially if you are not doing strength training.. You do not need to do them more often than that however. In fact, doing it more frequently than two or three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between sessions.

I personally do Peak Fitness on an elliptical once a week (see below) but currently, twice a week, I am doing a fairly intense strength training workout.  If I feel that I have plenty of energy and can complete the workout, then I continue in that frequency, but if I get tired and poop out during the session, I know it is time for me to increase my recovery time. In that case, I decrease strength training to once a week and put more time in on the Power Plate.

If you want to do more, focus on making sure you’re really pushing yourself as hard as you can during those two or three weekly sessions, rather than increasing the frequency. Intensity is KEY for reaping all the benefits interval training can offer. To perform it correctly, you’ll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 second intervals.  Here’s a summary of what a typical interval routine might look like using an elliptical:

  • Warm up for three minutes
  • Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn’t possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate
  • Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
  • Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

When you’re first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you’re doing eight during your 20 minute session. You will notice that the Peak Fitness has 30 seconds rather than 20 and goes for 8 sessions so it is a harder workout. But, as the article states, if you do less, you will still get benefits. They just may not be as dramatic as with the Peak Fitness approach.

Even Brief Exercise Produces Genetic Changes

The featured findings also support recent research published in the journal Cell Metabolism, which shows that when healthy but inactive people exercise intensely, even if the exercise is brief, it produces an immediate change in their DNA . While the underlying genetic code in the muscle remains unchanged, exercise causes important structural and chemical changes to the DNA molecules within the muscles, and this contraction-induced gene activation appears to be early events leading to the genetic reprogramming of muscle for strength, and to the structural and metabolic benefits of exercise.

Several of the genes affected by an acute bout of exercise are genes involved in fat metabolism. Specifically, the study suggests that when you exercise, your body almost immediately experiences genetic activation that increases the production of fat-busting proteins. Previous studies have identified and measured a wide variety of biochemical changes that occur during exercise. More than 20 different metabolites are affected by exercise, including compounds that help you burn calories and fat, and compounds that help stabilize your blood sugar. These biochemical changes create a positive feedback loop.

As mentioned earlier, one of the key health benefits of exercise is that it helps normalize your glucose and insulin levels by optimizing insulin receptor sensitivity. This is perhaps the most important factor for optimizing your overall health and preventing chronic disease.

Aim for a Well-Rounded Fitness Program

While high intensity interval exercises accomplish greater benefits in a fraction of the time compared to slow, endurance-type exercises like jogging, I do not recommend limiting yourself to a few minutes of exercise per week. If that’s all you have for now, then by all means, do what you can. But ideally, to truly optimize your health, you’ll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates other types of exercise as well. Without variety, your body will quickly adapt. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body.

I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program:

  1. Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.
  2. Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you’re really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program. You can also “up” the intensity by slowing it down. For more information about using super slow weight training as a form of high intensity interval exercise, please see my interview with Dr. Doug McGuff.
  3. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability. You need enough repetitions to exhaust your muscles. The weight should be heavy enough that this can be done in fewer than 12 repetitions, yet light enough to do a minimum of four repetitions. It is also important NOT to exercise the same muscle groups every day. They need at least two days of rest to recover, repair and rebuild. Exercise programs like Pilates and yoga are also great for strengthening your core muscles, as are specific exercises you can learn from a personal trainer.
  4. Stretching: My favorite type of stretching is active isolated stretches developed by Aaron Mattes. With Active Isolated Stretching, you hold each stretch for only two seconds, which works with your body’s natural physiological makeup to improve circulation and increase the elasticity of muscle joints. This technique also allows your body to repair itself and prepare for daily activity. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

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The Hidden Cause of Unexplained Weight Gain may be Poor Liver Function

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By: Derrell Jones
Source: NaturalNews.com

The issue of weight is a prevalent source of discontent especially in western cultures. It seems that we havewoken upand realized that weight control is about much more than keeping up appearances. Obesity rates have skyrocketed along with the associated adverse health conditions. Each year more and more people choose to eat right and exercise but still struggle with weight issues and chronic degenerative conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, etc. A seldom-discussed yet extremely important aspect of weight loss is liver function. Traditional diets see-saw between high fat, nutritionally void foods and weight loss gimmicks and products that actually causes people to gain weight in the long run. In the middle of all this is a liver that grows, quite literally, fattier and more sluggish by the day.

The liver has two distinct and highly important functions. First, it is the body’s chief blood detoxifier. Secondly, the liver is the body’s primary fat metabolizer. Once the liver becomes sluggish and fatty it performs neither job well and we begin to pack on the pounds in earnest and have great difficulty losing the weight once it is on.

What are some causes of a fatty liver

A high fat diet (primarily animal fat) will most likely cause the liver to malfunction over time. Animal fats tend to contain toxic materials that were trapped by the animals body. When we ingest these fats the toxins are released in the liver where they have the ability to cause damage, inducing poor liver function.

Another cause of fatty liveris artificial sweetener use. Artificial sweeteners have been touted by industry as a zero calorie marvel that will help consumers reduce calories and lose weight. What is not revealed is that artificial sweeteners generally lead to long term weight gain. How, do you ask? Artificial sweeteners completely bypass the normal digestive stages and are immediately taken into the liver. The liver basically shuts down all other metabolic processes, including metabolizing fat, to contend with the sweetener. The fats in the liver are either released – without being fully metabolized – into the blood stream to be stored as unprocessed material or theyattachthemselves to the liver. Either way,this is bad news for your weight and health.

An additional prevalent culprit behind fatty liveris excessive alcohol use. Before the alcohol causes cirrhosis it makes the liver fatty, which is the beginning of the road to dysfunctional health and weight gain.

Finally, prescription and over-the-counter medications have adverse effects on the liver. Notice that almost all of the pharmaceutical commercials mention the liver and liver function. It is because they know how detrimental their medications areto the liver and the healthdysfunctions, like weight gain, cirrhosis and liver failure that will occur when using their products. Continue taking your prescriptions but seek a holistic health professional who can assist with eliminating the underlying cause(s) of your condition which would eliminate the need for the medication.

How to avoid or reverse a fatty liver

Here are a few helpful tips that can get you started or keep you on the road to healthy liver function.

• Avoid artificial sweetener use
• Restrict or eliminate alcohol consumption
• Nourish the liver with fresh citrus juices, milk thistle, and licorice. A mixture of cayenne and lemon juice or cayenne and vegetable juice is a great liver nutritive
• Detoxify the colon to keep the digestive system flowing which increases metabolism and aids the liver in its proper functioning

It is clear that poor liver function will most likely lead to a malfunctioning and fatty liver, in turnmaking weight gain probable and weight loss unlikely. If you are working diligently at exercising and eating right but still struggle to lose weight have your liver function checked to shed light on this little-known aspect of weight management.

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Weight Loss Surgery – A Dangerous Quick-Fix Solution

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By Andreas Moritz

There are only two reasons I can think of that account for the huge success of weight-loss surgery in the United States – the Western world’s obsession with quick-fix solutions due to an unwillingness to adopt an approach that requires an iota of effort, and the mind-boggling profits that surgeons make promoting this barbaric practice. Yet here are the cold, hard facts:

Mortality Rate: Roughly 1-3 percent of individuals undergoing weight-loss surgery die within a few years after the procedure.

Additional Surgery: As many as 22 percent patients suffer complications post-surgery while still in hospital; 40 percent report complications within the first six months of surgery; and 20 percent need additional follow-up surgery to fix the complications due to the surgery.

‘Too Successful’: 30 percent of patients develop nutritional deficiencies such as anemia and osteoporosis. Sometimes, the surgery is so ‘successful’ that patients suffer, and even perish from, severe malnutrition

Failure Rate: If you don’t die of it or fall seriously ill, you are likely to be back where you started. That is because 25 percent of individuals who undergo weight-reduction procedures do not lose the weight they expected to shed. This could either be because the surgery itself was unsuccessful or the patient failed to maintain the prescribed diet post-surgery.

‘Bariatric surgery’ is a term used to describe several procedures that surgically remove large sections of the digestive tract to essentially reduce the intake of food. It works on two simple, if savage, principles: forcibly reduce appetite and food intake to drastically cut down on the calories you ingest, and restrict the ability of the now-brutalized digestive tract to absorb nutrients from food. For many morbidly obese individuals, surgery is the last resort, after numerous attempts at dieting, exercising and pharmaceutical drugs fail to work. Desperate to lead normal lives, patients consent to going under the knife, allowing a doctor to reach into their abdomen and rip out vital organs, and twist, turn, staple and stitch together what is left inside into an unnatural mess.

In other words, some obese individuals – at least 200,000 a year in the US – are making a conscious choice to be severely crippled and maimed. If these sound like harsh words, I am not exaggerating.

Being morbidly obese can be life-threatening and there is a host of health issues associated with the condition. This apart from the socially and personally challenging nature of the disease. But before we discuss alternative ways to approach this issue, let us take a brief look at why weight-reduction surgery appears to work.

There are numerous variations that go by different names such as gastric bypass surgery, biliopancreatic diversion, duodenal switch, stomach stapling, vertical banded gastroplasty and sleeve gastrectomy.

Another option, still being tested in Europe, is the ‘gastric pacer’, which is implanted on the surface of the stomach, in much the same way as a pacemaker is implanted in the heart. This gadget connects with your nervous system and connects to the brain to mimic the feeling of satiety. On other words, it makes you feel full even when you are not eating.

Contrast this with the complicated process of energy homeostasis that doctors are still unable to fully understand. The processes of energy regulation are dominated by two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, which work through a complicated series of pathways controlled by the hypothalamus. Despite decades of research, scientists are yet to uncover the exact mechanisms by which these hormones work, the neurotransmitters involved and neural pathways that relay the messages of satiety and hunger. Several pharmaceutical drugs have also tried to tinker with this delicate balance and have failed. Now here’s an electrical gadget that purports to alter a process that nature is yet to reveal to medical science!

Strip away the fancy medical jargon of weight-loss surgery and what you are left with is a stomach that is reduced to around 15 percent of its original size, a small intestine (the seat of digestion and immunity) that has had essential segments like the duodenum removed. Not only is your food intake drastically reduced, but what is left of your digestive tract is also unable to effectively process, metabolize and absorb what does go into it. Weight-loss surgery therefore radically alters your body’s biochemistry and metabolism in a way that nature never intended.

Not surprisingly, nature will revolt. Though bariatric surgery is reported to bring about dramatic results – a reduction by as much as half or more of body weight – it is also associated with dangerous medical complications.

Remember, weight-loss surgery is irreversible. You simply cannot re-attach a part of the small intestine that has been so nonchalantly snipped off or expect a portion of your stomach, rendered redundant for several months, to start working again.

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This is an excerpt from my book FEEL GREAT, LOSE WEIGHT

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