Easy start fat loss tips, part IV....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 4-28-2016

A recent Parade Magazine article covered a number of ways people have successfully lost weight.

So, it occurred to me to leverage their article into a set of things that can be easy to do to start successful fat loss after reading it.

This is part IV of the part III post I did a week ago and of the first one I posted 3 weeks ago!:

Last time, Thursday, 4-21-2016, we said it would have:

a) What kinds of exercises work best for fat loss?

We posted that & ran out of time:

So, here are these two topics this time, in part IV:

b) How to eat enough health OK carbs to avoid excess hunger WITHOUT de-railing fat loss-- while also removing more fat each month.

c) And, how better sleep helps you be healthier, think better, AND be less fat—

-- plus the set of the easiest things to do to help create better sleep you can do right away. 

Here’s: 

b) How to eat enough health OK carbs to avoid excess hunger WITHOUT de-railing fat loss-- while also removing more fat each month.

It’s quite clear that eating high protein diet with effective strength training enables you to lose only fat when you lose fat on the scale.

And, separate research shows that eating fewer calories but lots of protein tends to prevent the failsafe famine response or turn it on much less than the same calories but without the high protein.

Similarly, every diet that has good results in supporting good health – and fat loss -- has 6 or more servings of organic nonstarchy vegetables or approaches it.

Eating that many vegetables keeps your tummy full enough to help minimize hunger also.

So does eating at least one organic, low glycemic fruit such as berries or whole apples and some kind of health OK oil such as avocados, extra virgin olive oil, raw tree nuts for those not allergic, and coconut and coconut oil or omega 3 oils from wild caught fish – even some butter or cheese or yogurt from cows fed only grass.  (Some of those are good sources of protein also.)

This kind of health supporting and high protein, low carb diet IS the core of what to eat for good health and for permanent fat loss.

But a surprising number of people who manage to eat this way and lose fat, get enough of the failsafe famine response or dislike of no longer having ANY real treat foods, that they stop doing it and most gain the fat back.

People who eat too few carbohydrates or carbohydrate containing foods sometime find their energy is low.  They find that they feel lousy.  Or if trying to gain muscle, they don’t gain any even with enough protein and effective strength training.

The very good news is that you can fix each of these things with a few strategies that give you more carbohydrate foods and even treats but not every day.

The basic strategy is that you have some low carb days and some medium carb days mostly using health OK carbs.

(It also helps to have only some form of sugar as a pure treat carbohydrate-- rather than a food with wheat or high fructose corn syrup, etc.)

You can vary this by the day of the week.  In fact, research found that people who cut carbs and calories two days a week lost nearly as much fat as people who cut back carbs all seven days.

But the two day a week people felt better and kept doing it! AND they kept the fat off.

The seven day a week people mostly gave up and gained all the fat back.  Oops!

From Vince del Monte I learned that you can also do this by the week. 

His four week protocol (which I follow) is to:

Cut carbs moderately on week one.

Eat a bit more carbs on week two but not too many.

Cut back extra carbs almost entirely on week three.

And then allow yourself the most carbs on week four.

And, make your strongest effort to do more reps or increase the weight you use on week four.

The exciting thing he found was that during the first three weeks you lose fat or keep off the fat you already lost.

Then you do gain a bit on the scale on week four; but some to all of that weight is muscle!

Some people get good results by also fasting one day a week also.  (Using Vince’s method, you would do that weeks one, two, and three but not week four.)

The other major strategy, I learned from Mike Matthews.  He has two specialties:

How to lose fat without losing muscle.

& How to gain muscle without adding fat.

His major strategy is to eat a high protein diet that just covers the calories you burn and is mostly low carb but not 100%.

Then when you want to lose fat, cut just enough carbs to do so.

When you want to gain muscle without gaining too much fat, add just enough carbs to do so.

He has an eBook you can get for each one of those strategy sets.

And, if you get on his email list as I have, you get great articles from him.

(Although he doesn’t aim for health as much as I, see www.muscleforlife.com with Mike Matthews to learn how to use strength training plus high protein eating plus some restriction of carbs and calories to lose fat effectively.)

Two other points:

*Often one of the best ways to get more carbs is to add them at breakfast by eating your daily organic fruit using one of the ones higher in carbs and glycemic index or by adding a second fruit that is higher in carbs and glycemic index.

You gain two benefits that way:  You add to the protective effect of eating the fruit.

**And, you do the least harm because with the high protein you eat at breakfast, the overall glycemic index and impact of the higher carb fruit is minimized.  AND, your body tends to process carbs best at breakfast.

I eat thawed, organic, wild blueberries that I get frozen at Whole Foods three mornings a week.

On my low carb days I eat no other fruit.   But on my high carb days, I add three Tablespoons of organic raisins and one organic prune to the blueberries.

It tastes good. It adds extra nutrition and fiber; and it adds carbs.

**Other health OK carbs to add or add more of on your days when you have more include raw tree nuts if you aren’t allergic.  Their track record is incredibly positive.  They do have carbs; but they have enough protein and health OK oils and fiber, their glycemic index is ZERO!

People who eat raw tree nuts a few times a week in fact take in more calories and carbs which makes them less hungry than people who don’t.  In fact, nuts turn off hunger so well, people who eat nuts a few times a week WEIGH LESS and have LESS belly fat than those who don’t!

Early on, it was found that people who eat raw tree nuts or avocados or extra virgin olive oil or a combination lived longer and had less heart disease than people who don’t.

Now, research is showing that people who eat those foods also get less cancer!

***Another fruit that adds carbs that tastes good and is convenient to add is organic, no sugar, applesauce.  (Just be very careful NOT to get applesauce with sugar added.)  You get a nice flavor and a cool taste if you keep yours in your refrigerator.  And you get soluble fiber that has some heart protective ability to lower LDL cholesterol.

****The other category of health OK carbs to add are the high carotene slightly starchy vegetables:

Yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, and pumpkin puree all work.

Not only that, they have the most health effect if you eat them, hot (or cold  after first cooking them) with a bit of extra virgin olive oil or butter from grass fed cows because the health OK oils dramatically increase the bioavailability of the carotenes.

Also, carrots have so much fiber they are low in glycemic load AND in addition to beta carotene they are the highest in alpha carotene.

That’s important because the higher people test on alpha carotene, the healthier they are overall!

Organic carrots also have HUNDREDS of other carotenes that very likely add to your good health from eating them.

They also work well raw either as carrot sticks or sliced up slaw style.

(A great snack that is filling and great for you is to have a carrot stick or two and some tree nuts such as pecans.)

Another astonishing fact is that if you eat carotenes often, they color your skin slightly orange or red.  Research found that this makes you “look healthy” to others!

Even more astonishing, the research found that people knew you looked healthier but could NOT say why!

c) How better sleep helps you be healthier, think better, AND be less fat—

-- plus the set of the easiest things to do to help create better sleep you can do right away. 

*Research has found that just like eating enough carbs, getting enough good quality sleep makes you feel better and think better and have greater energy reserves.

Too little sleep makes you a bit more likely to eat too many carbs as a way to compensate.

As a result, people who get more good quality sleep lose fat more easily and keep it off more easily.

In today’s world it can be hard to find time to sleep 8 hours. 

But if you always sleep at least 6 hours and tend to sleep close to 7 hours most nights AND you get good quality sleep, that really helps you to lose fat and keep it off.

**Here are some easy ways to do this:

   Banish TVs and TV watching from your bedroom and only watch the most interesting 10 to 14 hours of TV a week or less.

Watching more than that is fattening in 3 ways: it uses less calories than sleeping; it often prevents getting enough sleep; and all the things to eat and drink that make you fat and sick are heavily advertised on TV!

   Always get up at exactly the same time on weekday mornings; and get up as close to that time as you can on weekends.

(Your body will then be most efficient at falling asleep and giving you sound, restful sleep.)

   Do some kind of vigorous exercise each morning even if it is only a brisk 7 minute walk or a variable or interval cardio routine that long.

Research has consistently found that doing this kind of exercise enables people to fall asleep quickly and get more deep sleep.

   Get a Nidra or other kind of sleep mask after making your bedroom as dark as possible.  This is shown to be very effective at helping you get deep and refreshing sleep.

Best of all, if you go to Amazon you can have your sleep mask in a few days for less than $20.

I was astonished to experience how effective this is!

You can do it too.

    My sleep doctor taught me this one!

Have your last caffeine of the day by noon or 2 PM and only drink one or two alcoholic drinks AND only drink them BEFORE dinner.

I’ve tried it and it works great!

I find I DO get better less restless sleep and now have little trouble staying asleep all night.

There are dozens of other things you can do to sleep better that work; but by doing THIS set of easy ones, you can add those as you can later and still sleep well right away!