How to improve your fatloss efforts....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 6-30-2016

I’d planned this post on another topic.  But I found something so well done and clear that can help people start or improve their fat loss efforts, it took priority!

Here it is:

Hector Santiago, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, points out that even a small promise kept can work wonders.

“I improve my game by one step at a time,” Santiago says. “I constantly make small adjustments when I have to and repeat the ones that work until they become habits. The result is my skills get better and I’m a better player.

” Santiago says that a basic health pledge can work the same way. “Playing baseball has shown me that better choices don’t have to be huge to get good results. A promise to make simple health improvements in your daily routine and sticking to them will pay off. You don’t have to promise to run a marathon right off the bat. Steady dedication wins more pennants than home runs.”

From:  “Pledge4Health: Take the Pledge and Turn Health Goals into Reality”

by: Michael Stouder, MD  06/27/2016

This is great advice!

Know what works well now and ensure you keep doing it until it becomes a habit.

Know what needs to be fixed or needs to be replaced with something more effective;

try some solutions;

then add the solutions that work to the things you ensure you keep doing until they too become habits.

Do this and your performance will improve.  Keep doing this and your performance will improve a lot!

1.  Some fat loss actions are like whether or not pitcher Santiago shows up to work or not.

Some foods and drinks do little more than fatten you and enrich the providers.

Soft drinks – both diet and regular and any refined grain food including chips and fries and packaged snacks and desserts and most refined grain breads are all fat gain foods.  Excessive sugar and artificial sweeteners also test to be in this group.

Simply learning what they are and stopping them all is mandatory.

Not doing so is as effective for fat loss as not showing up to pitch is to pitchers like Hector Santiago. 

2.  Similar to this and very often in the SAME foods and drinks is stopping any foods or drinks that contain ingredients that harm your health and waste your calorie intake on foods that make you sick.

Many of these ingredients are proven heart attack starters.  Others tend to cause Alzheimer’s disease and MS and cancers.  Some cause fatty liver which can be fatal too.

Why waste your calories on these things when there are so many good for you foods and drinks it’s hard to eat as many as you’d like without taking in too many calories??

Simply learning what they are and stopping them all is mandatory.

Not doing so is as effective for fat loss as not showing up to pitch is to pitchers like Hector Santiago. 

In addition, because they are almost all fattening too, every time you turn down consuming them because you do not WANT heart attacks or mental decline etc, you just successfully avoided add those calories to the fat you wish to be rid of!

Here are a few of those: 

High fructose corn syrup; other forms of free fructose such as agave nectar, fruit juice, fruit juice concentrate, and powdered fructose.

Refined grain hybrid wheat and even whole grain hybrid wheat also cause disease, particularly type 2 diabetes and heart disease.  Hybrid wheat also tends to CAUSE harmful and unpleasant reactions to gluten.

Most other grains tend to cause similar problems as they also tend to boost blood sugar and triglycerides.   That helps cause diabetes and heart disease too.

Rice does this and is also fattening AND currently has health damaging amounts of arsenic.

The book Anticancer documents that the excessive omega 6 oils in grains and oils made from grains causes high chronic inflammation which helps cause heart disease and some cancers and helps cause Alzheimer’s disease.

So soy oil and corn oil and canola oil also help cause disease.

So, minimizing all other grains is also wise.  Oatmeal, quinoa, barley, and buckwheat may be OK for some people in moderation and not as fattening or harmful as other grains. 

Artificial sweeteners belong here too.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest rates them all as mildly carcinogenic.  Sucralose and possibly others kill your probiotic bacteria which can result in disease and gut bacteria that keep you fat.  Aspartame has cause the symptoms of MS which leave when people stop ingesting it; and it may cause MS and other autoimmune diseases if you ingest it too many years.  The capper is that they reliably fatten MORE than sugar does.  Worse they add to your belly fat and visceral fat more than sugar.

MSG.  Not only has MSG been implicated as being a cause of Alzheimer’s disease and autoimmune disease and maybe autism, it too fattens the people who ingest it. 

(The people who ingest MSG are fatter even than people who take in the same number of calories but who eat no MSG!)

Hydrogenated oils also belong here!  Simply put, they have been directly proven to be heart attack starters causing your LDL to become the small particle kind that causes heart disease!

How much causing of heart disease do you want to do?  If you are like me, the answer is zero!

In fact, if you don’t want heart disease the only safe intake of hydrogenated oils is also zero!

You can still find sources today that suggest eating less hydrogenated oils.  That advice is harmful if you follow it.  It’s flat out totally incorrect!

Here’s why:  Manmade hydrogenated oils are not things your body processes well.  So when you ingest some your body only gets rid of part of it each day.  One source says it takes about a month before it’s all gone.

So if you eat just a bit of hydrogenated oils EVERY DAY, by the end of a month you have enough build up of this heart attack starter to do you real harm!

To make room for the fats and oils that support good health from olives and nuts and avocados and wild caught fish and coconuts, and animals only fed their natural diet, it makes sense to cut ALL of the grain oils and hydrogenated oils from what you eat.

3.  People who eat a high protein diet and do regular strength training and some high intensity short duration cardio AND cut back on calories enough to lose fat, get three huge benefits:

ALL of the weight they lose is fat!

Their health improves and their aging slows.

And best of all, they can cut fewer calories and eat more and still lose fat!

Finding versions of these exercises that you can do and keep doing – and doing better is challenging.

It’s certainly worth it for health and permanent fat loss.

This is where Hector Santiago’s advice is very valuable:

““Playing baseball has shown me that better choices don’t have to be huge to get good results. A promise to make simple health improvements in your daily routine and sticking to them will pay off. You don’t have to promise to run a marathon right off the bat. Steady dedication wins more pennants than home runs.”

Try some cardio that is vigorous that you build up to very gradually.  Rest or slow down after you begin to be out of breath or about 30 seconds later whichever comes first.  Build up to 3 to 6 of these each time or day you do them.  And do them 3 or 4 days a week.

Do effective strength training at least two days a week with at least one day between sessions.  Find a way to do exercises that work the big muscles of your lower back and butt, and legs.

Both in direct calorie burn and in building muscle so those parts of you burn more calories 24 hours a day, these are the muscles that will get results.

I have found that having an exercise session the same weekday each week by routine is a great way to ensure you keep doing this. Every Weds and Friday morning I do an 8 minute cardio session and on Saturday morning I do half an hour of slow rep strength training.  This is an easy routine to keep doing! 

And, it is similarly well known that doing your exercise sessions or most of them early enough each morning before the variable demands of your day can prevent them REALLY helps.

The third way to make this reliable is to have journal where you keep a brief record each time you exercise. This not only helps your maintain your routine, it motivates you when you see your progress over time,

4.  Did you know that there is a way to ensure good health that makes fat loss so easy many people lose 25 pounds of fat with no other effort when they begin it?

There is! Like exercise, it is spectacularly effective in protecting your health too.

But also like exercise, if you haven’t been doing it, it takes some real effort to build up to doing it enough.

This is another area where Hector Santiago’s advice is very valuable:

““Playing baseball has shown me that better choices don’t have to be huge to get good results. A promise to make simple health improvements in your daily routine and sticking to them will pay off. You don’t have to promise to run a marathon right off the bat. Steady dedication wins more pennants than home runs.”

UK researchers found that people who eat 6 or more servings of real vegetables each day (NOT potatoes or French Fries or chips) are something like 40% less likely to die from any cause than people who don’t.

It cuts their death rate from heart disease and strokes and cancer too!

The researchers also found that ONE serving of a whole fresh fruit each day cut BOTH the ischemic or obstructive kind of strokes and was even better at cutting the bleeding in the brain hemorrhagic strokes – AND cut the death rate from them too!

So begin to find ways to eat vegetables each day that you continue to do as a weekly and daily routine.

Cruciferous vegetables that are raw or lightly steamed also prevent cancer.

Greens and yellow and organge vegetables high in carotenes protect you best if cooked or pureed and eaten with extra virgin olive oil or other health OK oil because it makes the carotenes bioavailable.  Those carotenes also prevent cancer; keep you healthy overall; and even make you LOOK healthier.

Onions and garlic help prevent heart disease and the sulfur in them helps keep your joints from causing you pain.  Skillfully used, they can help savory foods taste really good.

These foods are super high in nutrition and water and fiber and low in calories.

This is so effective for fat loss, almost everyone who eats both that much organic vegetables and fruit each day will not stay fat AND if they have lost fat, they are much LESS likely to gain any back.

Improving in each of these areas and maintain the actions that are effective DOES take effort.

Learn what works well for you now and ensure you keep doing it until it becomes a habit.

Discover what needs to be fixed or needs to be replaced with something more effective;

try some solutions;

then add the solutions that work to the things you ensure you keep doing until they too become habits.

And remember:

Hector Santiago, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, points out that even a small promise kept can work wonders.

“I improve my game by one step at a time,” Santiago says. “I constantly make small adjustments when I have to and repeat the ones that work until they become habits. The result is my skills get better and I’m a better player.

” Santiago says that a basic health pledge can work the same way. “Playing baseball has shown me that better choices don’t have to be huge to get good results. A promise to make simple health improvements in your daily routine and sticking to them will pay off. You don’t have to promise to run a marathon right off the bat. Steady dedication wins more pennants than home runs.”   

Prevent bone loss during menopause....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 6-28-2016

Researchers came up with the idea that if women in the early stages of menopause were tested for normal bone formation and bone breakdown BEFORE menopause –

and the researchers made a measure of a ratio between them so that normal or a bit more bone formation and normal or a bit less bone breakdown would show a higher ratio while less bone formation than normal and/or more bone breakdown than normal and less bone formation than normal would show a low ratio,

then women with a high ratio before menopause would likely lose less bone than women who had a low ratio who would lose more.

And, this reasonable idea was shown to be accurate.

Here’s the Medical News Today item and link:

Index could help identify women at risk for rapid bone loss

http://mnt.to/l/4FDt

Researchers have developed an index to better predict which women may experience faster bone loss across the menopause transition, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's...

-----Original Message-----

From: Medical News Today

To: iehealth

Sent: Fri, Jun 24, 2016 2:05 pm

Subject: MNT daily newsletter - 24 June 2016 

On WebMD, the two measures relating to normal bone formation were:

Osteocalcin and vitamin D levels in the blood.

Osteocalcin is a direct measure of bone formation.

Vitamin D levels are included as a bone formation precursor because adequate vitamin D3 levels are “essential for your body's absorption of calcium. You can….(have)…” plenty of calcium, but if you don't have enough vitamin D, it won't be efficiently absorbed by your body.”

It may be desirable to have readings of over 50; but readings of less than 50 result in less bone formation.  [We now know that the real optimum intake of vitamin D3 is 7,000 to 10,000 iu a day or more. And, D2 is dramatically less effective and is unsafe at over 4,000 iu a day.]

The measure of bone loss was:

 “Urinary N-telopeptide of type I collagen, or uNTX. This is a marker of bone resorption, or loss of bone.”

This suggests that a woman who begins with low bone formation and high bone loss BEFORE menopause will lose more bone while a woman with relatively high bone formation and low bone loss will lose less.

That is apparently what the researchers found.

And, this suggests this testing to enable women and their doctors to prevent harmful levels of bone loss during menopause.

The problem as readers of my previous posts on this subject know, is that most doctors now use ineffective and or dangerous methods when effective and safe methods exist!

1.  Taking the artificial estrogen without having the woman doing so be on an anti-inflammation and anti-cancer lifestyle has been shown to cause a much higher risk of cancer.

The solution is to have the woman go on an anti-inflammation and anti-cancer lifestyle, see the book “Anticancer;” and to use low or moderately low doses of the bioidentical estrogen.  (Adding omega 3 oil and DHA supplements and eating wild caught fish high in them and using ginger as a supplement and/or spice also helps.)

2.  The drugs to increase bone density are truly woeful.  They do NOT increase strong and healthy bone formation and have horrid side effects.  The bones resulting are harder but not stronger and break MORE easily.  NOT a good idea at all!

The much better news is that by doing the things that DO cause strong and healthy bone formation and having the woman STOP doing the thing that has been widespread that CAUSES bone loss, it is quite possible to stop bone loss and add strong and healthy bone formation.

a)  No woman who wishes to avoid osteoporosis and particularly no woman about to go through menopause who has a low reading on this ratio should ever drink ANY soft drinks – either regular or diet. 

Both the phosphoric acid in colas and the carbonic acid that makes the “carbonation” or bubbles leach minerals from the bones of people who drink them.

b)  The really good news is that we have so many effective ways to add strong and healthy bone formation.

*The big one is weight bearing exercise and strength training.

If you do those two or more times a week and do them well and eat enough protein they tend to cause strong and healthy bone formation.

Walking and dancing and running and jump rope and using a mini-trampoline all work.

So does effective strength training.  Every muscle you strength train you not only make stronger, when you do, the bones underneath each muscle also become stronger.

In fact, one of the most effective kinds of strength training, slow rep strength training was initially developed to see if a doing relatively heavy leg presses would increase bone strength and formation in women who already had some bone loss.  And, it did cause them to have bone formation as predicted.

Further study shows this only works well in people who get an adequate protein intake.  This has been estimated at a three fourths of a gram of protein per pound of lean bodyweight to a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight in people who are not overfat.

*And you can add to this effect by taking the real optimum intake of vitamin D3 is 7,000 to 10,000 iu a day or more.

*Between dairy foods and beans and vegetables high in calcium and calcium being in almost all multivitamin plus minerals etc, almost everyone gets enough calcium.

But there are 3 things that are needed to have the calcium build strong and healthy bones. 

Besides vitamin D3, there are two other essentials many, if not most, women do not get enough of.

Vitamin K2 acts as a calcium director in the body.  It along with vitamin D3 sends calcium to build bones AND it STOP calcium from going into your arteries!  So it also protects your heart.

Animal and seafood protein sources and fats from naturally fed animals contain vitamin K2 and there are also supplements for it.  Bone broth from grass fed cows is available and is a source of K2.  So is natto a fermented soy product which ideally is from nonGMO soybeans.

The other catalyst you need to build bone is magnesium.  If you get the high intake or organic greens now known to be essential for good health and eat raw tree nuts regularly – or take 400 mg or more magnesium as a supplement, you will build bone better.  Oddly, this is MORE important than calcium intake but a majority of women today are deficient in magnesium.

*Lastly, there is a mineral that makes bones of people who take it much stronger.  People who take 3 mg a day of boron get this effect.

This means that women who take or eat these things and do strength training and/or weight bearing exercise will have much stronger bones that will stay strong and be hard – not easy—to break!   

Better than Obesity Surgery....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 6-23-2016

A new and better way has just been FDA approved!

Background:

Today’s doctors are not trained to teach lifestyle upgrades -- though some do know that stopping junky foods and soft drinks and eating better and exercising are protective.

And, although there are some parts of that which can cut the medical risks of obesity relatively quickly, most doctors do not yet know this.

And, for people with BMI readings of over 35 and over 40 who are 50 or 100 or more pounds too fat, there ARE often causes of this which can be challenging to overcome.

So, when various kinds of stomach size reducing surgery was tried and seemed to work, this has become the current recommendation of many doctors.

Some doctors in groups are even given that as a protocol to go to.

It just is NOT a very good choice!

It’s surgery, so there is a death rate. 

And, it’s also undesirable because it leaves the person having it in an abnormal state where they cannot eat enough food to get good nutrition.

Conceptually, it’s like cutting off the hand of a thief to prevent repeat stealing.

Even worse, some people manage to gain the fat back anyway!

Of course the best solution is to teach the lifestyle upgrades that are the foundation of permanent fat loss and good health and then follow a net calorie cut back plan that is both sustainable and does NOT trigger the famine response – and use specific solutions to things that prevent fat loss such as ongoing stress or taking some drugs.

And, no matter what way fat is lost, to keep it off, you must do those things to keep it off!

That said, aren’t there some ways to jump start fat loss in very obese people other than obesity surgery?

Yes.

We’ve already posted on using cool laser direct fat reduction treatments as an effective way to force fat loss to start.

It’s expensive and time consuming during the treatments.

But if all you need is that initial unblocking to start the process, it may be a great way to go!

There is no death rate.  There is no cutting, which in today’s era of antibiotic resistant bacteria may gradually become more and more important.  And you remain physically normal after the procedure.

Isn’t there a way that removes more fat than this without using the undesirable obesity surgery?

Yes, the FDA just approved it in fact:

“http://whdh.com/news/fda-approves-stomach-draining-obesity-treatment/

FDA approves stomach-draining obesity treatment

ASHINGTON (AP) — A new weight loss device offers a novel approach to cutting calories: draining them from the stomach before they are fully digested.

The AspireAssist system consists of a thin tube implanted in the stomach, connecting to an outside port on the skin of the belly. About 20 minutes after finishing a meal, users connect the port to an external device, which drains some of the recently-consumed food into the toilet.

The manufacturer — Aspire Bariatrics based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania — says its system removes about 30 percent of food stored in the stomach before it begins causing weight gain.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the device on Tuesday for adults who are obese, with a body mass index of 35 to 55, and have not been able to lose weight with other methods.

It’s the latest option for millions of obese Americans who have been unable to lose weight via more traditional methods. Obesity is considered one of the nation’s leading public health problems because it can trigger diabetes and lead to heart disease and other serious health problems.

About 38 percent of all U.S. adults are obese. A 5-foot-9 person would be obese at 203 pounds.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that rates of obesity among women had reached 40 percent for the first time. That compares to a 35 percent obesity rate for men.

The FDA said it approved the new device based on studies showing patients lost an average of 12 percent of their total body weight one year after the procedure. That compared to 3.6 percent weight loss for patients who didn’t receive the device.

Side effects seen with AspireAssist included nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea.”

I read its initial testing report on Medical News Today several months ago.

In that report they removed more than 30% of the food and made faster fat loss progress.

They did find that people who had it done who went back to fattening lifestyles gained the fat back.

BUT, they also found the people who learned and did the lifestyle upgrades that support good health and do NOT fatten, kept the fat off!

Though there is some surgery involved and some daily extra work, the surgery for this new method is less invasive, reversible; and best of all, you remain normal and intact!

This method is dramatically better than the obesity surgery now in current use.  It works, is somewhat safer, and is as effective and MUCH more desirable.

So, if you must have more help than cool lasers to succeed at starting significant fat loss, there is NOW a method you can use.

New way that exercise heals and slows aging....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 6-21-2016

Ever read about experiments showing successful healing using stem cells?

Targeted use of stem cells looks like it will one day be in routine use to repair heart failure and damage from heart attacks that people survive and even damage from severe strokes.

(Medical News Today recently reported research at Stanford using stem cells to repair strokes that literally took people who couldn’t talk and needed institutional care and restored them to normal life.)

These will not be vetted as safe and in general use for many years, unfortunately.

But for partial repair, you can do it today or start next week!

We already know that regular vigorous exercise such as effective strength training and more vigorous short cardio with rests or slow down periods for recovery in between have stunning anti-aging effects.

One study found that people who do this kind of exercise every weeks for years get better heart health readings every year they do them!

Then there was the rather astonishing study at Stanford University.

There was an existing group of over 50 regular exercisers who began as runners but tended to go to other forms of exercise at Stanford to compare to a control group at Stanford who had the same access to good medical care and stable employment as professors or staff at Stanford.

The advantage of the exercisers was quite convincing.  The exercisers aged more slowly.  They lived longer. And they had fewer strokes and heart attacks.

The groups were both advantaged compared to average US adults.  But the exercisers were dramatically healthier and aged more slowly.

From separate studies we also know why this is the case!:

We know that exercised muscles have genes that express the same youthful genetic message as younger ones. 

We know that such exercise causes the development of new mitochondria which keeps the cellular energy and ability to move in exercisers at a much more youthful level.

We know that exercised muscles release BDNF which grows new nerves and brain cells.  So exercise also tends to prevent or even help reverse mental decline

And, we know that all over their bodies, their telomeres stay longer which directly slows aging!

NOW new research has also found that exercised muscles cause the formation and release of new stem cells.

Yesterday, Dr Al Sears sent an email with that news

(Dr Sears created and teaches a form of vigorous short cardio with rests or slow down periods for recovery in between that begins at a very easy and safe level but gradually progresses to more vigorous levels.  He calls it PACE and the P stands for Progressive.)

He begins by saying how very effective such exercise is for growing more mitochondria.

Then he adds the news that exercise also releases stem cells that have healing and repair properties.

Here’s the key quote from his email:  

“Swedish researchers studied what happens in muscle cells during bouts of short, high-intensity exercise.5 They asked a group of people to perform 30 seconds of maximum exertion cycling followed by a brief period of rest.

Repeating this just six times triggered the generation of healthy new mitochondria in ALL of the subjects.

PACE also boosts your supply of stem cells. Your body uses these healthy master cells to regenerate damaged tissue in any organ from your brain to your heart to your liver.

Your reserve of stem cells drops as you age but the right kind of exercise can replenish your supply.

A recent study in the European Heart Journal showed that vigorous exercise in mice activated 60% of their cardiac stem cells. After just two weeks of exercise the mice had a seven percent increase in their cardiomyocytes, the "beating" cells in heart tissue. 6

It works for humans, too. In another study, a simple exercise program made dormant stem cells in the heart leap into action. And amazingly, these new stem cells could help remodel the heart in a group of heart failure patients.7

Other studies show strenuous exercise can lead to high levels of stem cells in bone, liver, and other organs. These stem cells can morph into exactly the kind of cells your body needs.

 They have been shown to help heal heart attacks, stroke, skin burns, and nerve damage from toxins.  They also prevent infections and repair muscle and tissue damage.”

For more serious damage, we may need to wait for the larger, more focused infusion of stem cells for more complete healing.

But for mild heart attacks or the early stages of heart failure or mild strokes, things like brisk walking for a bit and walking a bit slower to catch your breath done several times each week may help cure the damage!

(Of course eating and taking supplements in a way that tends to prevent strokes and heart attacks as you do so is safer and more likely to work!)

My monthly fatloss report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 6-20-2016

A.  Here's the key news. 

1.  I gained about one pound from 161 to 162. 

(Neither of my two scales will measure to the hundredth of a pound or reliably weigh me at the same weight two times in a row!

Last month, I had a doctor’s appointment; and the scale in my doctor’s office DID measure to the hundredth of a pound!  So, just now I phoned to see if I might get the brand of the manufacturer.  If that company will sell to individuals for less than $200 I’ll get one and let you  know in this post and do one just on that topic.  That one costs over $800 and is a bit large since it has the height measure too.  I’ve no room or budget for that one, unfortunately.

However with the help of the distributor rep for the scale in my doctor’s office, I DID find one for about $90.  It sounds like it weighs the same weight with the same reading two times in a row-- instead of two readings and please guess what the real weight was -- as the two I have now do!

And, while it reads to the tenth of a pound in pounds, I think it reads to the hundredth of a Kilogram!  IF that’s so, you can calculate the weight to the hundredth of a pound too!

By next month I hope to have this one and try it!  I may be done if it works that well!

If not, some company must have this; and almost all of us trying to lose fat or add muscle will buy one if we simply find out which company!)

I’m actually about the same weight.  Since last week was my week to eat more and hit the weights hard to see if I can add muscle, this week we are in now is my cut down week; and by next Saturday, I’ll be at 161 or less.

2. Did I add muscle last week and last month?  Maybe I did. 

My chest measure was a bit higher -- a quarter to half an inch; my waist was the same; and my hips were about a quarter of an inch more.

And, I seem still to be getting stronger, particularly on my dumbbell curl and calf raises for my injured left calf.  I’m also stronger in my dumbbell squats and deadlift than when I began them.

I have now been taking 200 mg a day more ursolic acid for about a month in addition to the 45 mg a day I was taking.

I also am improving in my jump rope.  Today I found out that the fast reps I do on my short sets of jump rope have been found to grow new mitochondria and stem cells, particularly if I keep doing a bit more each week.

I’m now at my goal weight or very close to it, 161 pounds.  But when I looked good at that weight several years ago I clearly had something like 16 pounds more muscle since I clearly need to lose about 16 pounds of fat to look good now!

However, I’m making some progress perhaps, due to losing about six pounds since the end of last year that I’ve kept off, I’m beginning to look leaner in the mirror!  (Continuing my strength training also has helped do that!)

And, I found a way to use more weight exercising my legs which despite having too much fat, has possibly added some muscle to them.  (See details later in this report.)

My legs feel much more muscular and hard than they did a few months ago. 

So If I can add another level of weight to my exercises for them which I plan to do in July and lose another few pounds of fat, they will begin to look muscular

too!

(Also, there is a gym I can go to that has much more weight, that I will try out and eventually work out at two to four times a month at least. 

When I can do that, the amount of weight I can use for my legs, butt, and lower back more than doubles!

I can afford to go to that gym now.  Once I can schedule it in and get to and from the gym also, I’ll do it.)

3.  Since the changes I reported on the last few times resulted in a bit more fatloss, a pound or so, I’ll keep doing them!

And, in fact, though I’ve not yet lost a lot more fat, I have kept off that initial five pounds and the more recent pound off also!

a) Before, for breakfast, with my fruit of the day, I had been continuing to eat 4 ounces of oatmeal every other day plus milk and a bit less than that in cooked lentils with no milk every other day. 

Also, I had just eaten the cooked lentils with no milk each day on my cut down week.  And, even though I was not losing belly fat, my blood sugar and heart measures have been excellent.

BUT  I found out that the reason zero non-wheat grains and beans—including lentils—are included in the Paleo diet – for health reasons! – is that they contain lectins.  Many foods do; but in low enough concentrations their health impact is small.

Both oatmeal and lentils have soluble fiber that helps remove excess LDL cholesterol.

However, the huge news is that these lectins DO have a big impact on belly fat. 

They cause some harm to the lining of your gut – contributing to acid reflux – AND causing your body to add to your intestines in size and cause extra fluid retention. 

I realized that this means that if I cut oatmeal and lentils another 95 to 100 % AND replaced them with nonfat cottage cheese with as much protein and fewer calories too – PLUS I did that EVERY WEEK, not just my cut down week, over time I’d have a shot at losing more fat each month.  That’s because I’d stop gaining back so much by eating fewer calories on the weeks that weren’t my cut down week.

And, if that information is accurate, it may also mean that I’ll lose two inches or more on my waist from losing the excess intestinal growth and retained fluid IN ADDITION TO any inches lost from losing fat.

The best news is that eating in this new way is quite doable.

So, if it works as well as I expect it to do eventually I’ll have lost more on the scale and may also have more progress to show on losing inches off my waist too.

So, far I am still losing fat as shown by looking more muscular.

I want to gain more muscle in my upper back and chest than I lose in fat and want to add more muscle in my buttocks and lower back AND show all my fat loss on my waist.

I had hoped that by this time, after 10 weeks on the new program, the loss on my waist should finally show more inches off.

Nope.  In fact, the tape measures I use are not super accurate as I have to hold them myself; and I try to do two waist measures: one where my tummy is about as slightly tense as if I was walking and one where it’s quite relaxed as if I had just eaten dinner and was relaxing after.

My tummy still makes me look quite fat even though the rest of me is beginning to look better.

So to make that happen I will need to keep losing fat for quite some time; and/or use the cold laser direct fat removal; or find a supplement that actually causes extra belly fat removal.

(So far, none of the supplements with the reputation of helping lose belly fat or total fat has had ANY effect. 

But there is one I’m already taking to help me add muscle, ursolic acid, that I needed to take more of that to get the full effect.

And some studies DID also show increased belly fat loss too when people took as much as I do now, about 4 weeks so far.

(My post, Tuesday, 5-24-2016 has more details.)

4.  My calorie cut back week:

I keep the added whey protein and most of my protein foods such as milk from grass fed cows at breakfast I mix the whey into, the wild caught canned & smoked salmon, and 4 whole eggs from pastured chickens a week, and my regular nonfat cottage cheese; and the protein I get from broccoli and artichoke hearts.

But I cut some of my cheese from grass fed cows about in half by eliminating a third of it in one set of dishes and substituting all of it with nonfat cottage cheese at other times.

[NEW information this month:  I had been reluctant to do this since the cottage cheese was possibly from cattle fed GM, genetically modified, grain that was sprayed with pesticide and herbicides despite being nonfat.

But the good news is that the organic lowfat cottage cheese has very little more fat or calories and is NOT from cattle fed GM, genetically modified, grain that was sprayed with pesticide and herbicides.

So I can use it a bit more to replace full fat cheese from grass fed cows.  And I have been since shortly after my last report.]

I cut out all of my oatmeal and lentils and ate nonfat cottage cheese instead. (This step also eliminated about 24 ounces or more a week of the whole milk from grass fed cows I was having on the oatmeal on those two days each week.)

I cut my dark chocolate and Brazil nuts in half that I was using for treats.

(I cut my Tablespoons of Apple Sauce each week from 10 to 3; and have made that every week too since my first week doing it.)

I do still eat 100% of my daily piece of fruit.

And, I cut my extra virgin olive oil one Tablespoon servings from 10 to 7 by using only one each day instead of adding a second one three times a week.

[This I’d only done on my one cut back week of four.  Now, I’ll do it three weeks of four.]

And, because of its extremely high nutrition, very appetite reducing effect, and its very health enhancing very strong percentage of monosaturated oils, I kept the two tablespoons a day of avocado paste.  

[One research study shows eating avocado and extra virgin olive oil and raw tree nuts is very heart protective within just a few weeks of beginning them.  And another shows that avocado has heart protective effects within a few minutes of eating it too!]

Because I kept the things I kept that were high protein, or high nutrition, or high fiber and mostly cut extra fat or carbs, I wasn’t even hungrier than usual much to my great surprise!

5.  My original plan was to cut 40% one week of four. 

But two things happened.  My cuts did cause weight loss which was almost certainly all fat during that one week of four. And, it has reliably done so each month.

But the cuts were likely more like 20 or 30% AND over the other 3 weeks of four I seem to be gaining it back minus any muscle I’ve gained.

So, that means I’m not making the progress on fat loss I want to make yet.

As you may have seen in my recent post, I can cut back more weeks than one of four as long as my cuts don’t cut below my basal metabolism.  Since my calculation showed my basal metabolism is only 50 or 60% of what I’m now eating on my gain week, that means that I can cut THREE weeks of four instead of one.

(If I CAN cut 30 or 40% each week without the famine response acting up,

AND I only cut 25 to 30% three weeks of four, particularly by eating a high nutrition, high protein style, I should be able to lose more fat with no famine response effects!)

So, that is my new plan.

The plan is to cut 2 or 3 pounds by eating 25 to 30% less for three weeks and then add about a pound on my plus week

Hopefully, that means that I’ll now begin to remove at least of pound of fat each month.

If that works, I’ll drop below my goal weight unless I manage to add more muscle.

We’ll see if that happens!

6.  Boosting protein without boosting calories:

For, example, I had been eating the double dose of whey every other day otherwise.

Now, I do it every day. 

And, I’ll eat a bit less no sugar apple sauce every week and nonfat cottage cheese instead of lentils every week.

(In addition to cutting back on lectin sources, these changes may cut my calories another 5% for the year.)

Since I wrote that earlier, I’ve also cut back a bit on the cottage cheese and added a Saturday night protein only dinner.  I had a turkey burger with a half slice of pineapple once and herbed skinless chicken breast twice in the last three Saturdays.

7..  What if I also get the muscle gain effect of Vince Del Monte’s students and gain five or six pounds of muscle over the upcoming year too!

If that happens my waist will finally shrink and I’ll lose visceral fat with the extra health benefits that produces!

So I am working to make that happen too!

Last month I said I’d have more on that this month. 

I’ve been doing a split squat style deadlift for 5 to 7 slow rep repetitions twice a week once with the 40 in my left hand and once with the 50 in my right hand and then a repeat changing the 50 to my left hand.

I already have begun stepping forward more than I was plus it has gotten easier to do those more challenging version exercises.  Stepping forward more increases the weight on my thigh and hip muscles. And, I can feel the hip muscles work harder.

So, I’m soon going to buy a 70 pound dumbbell and will use a 50 and a 70 instead of a 40 and a 50.  That will add to my leg muscles and my glute muscles in the back of my hips.

My hope is that it will add at least a pound of muscle which will force a loss of 3 pounds of fat and a drop of more 2 pounds on the scale – AND it will add to my looking less fat!

8.  Conclusion

I’ve made more progress this year since January than I’ve done for quite a while. 

And, I’m working to both cut my calorie intake more without cutting protein or nutrition –

AND to add more muscle.

Since each of those two parts is backed by specific and doable plans, I think I’ll finally begin to see more progress by the end of the year – and maybe by next month!

How and why to cut belly fat....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 6-16-2016

A.  The biggest two reasons to lose fat are to protect your health and improve your appearance.

1.  If you have more than a little bit of belly fat, it puts your health at risk itself – in addition to any health risks of the stress or bad eating or too little exercise that put it there.

Mike Geary wrote this: 

“What people don’t realize is that excess abdominal fat, is not just ugly, it is also a dangerous risk factor to your health! Scientific research has demonstrated in many studies that although it is unhealthy to have excess body fat throughout your body, it is particularly dangerous to have excess abdominal fat.

Most people do not realize that there are two types of fat in the abs area. The first type that covers up abs and prevents them from being visible is called subcutaneous fat and lies directly beneath the skin and above of the abdominal muscles.

The 2nd type of abdominal fat is called visceral fat, and that lies a bit deeper in the abdomen, beneath the muscle and surrounding the organs. Visceral fat plays a role in giving certain men a "beer belly" look where their abdomen protrudes excessively and at the same time, feels hard if you push on it.

Both of these fats, subcutaneous fat and visceral fat in your abs area are very serious health risk factors. Science proves that excessive visceral fat is far more dangerous than subcutaneous fat. Both types of fat greatly increase your risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, sleep apnea, and various forms of cancer. Other well known degenerative diseases are involved too.

One of the reasons visceral fat is so dangerous is it releases inflammatory molecules into your body on a consistent basis."

Another is that since it shares space with your vital internal organs, heart. lungs, and liver, they become less able to protect you, give you good health, and keep you alive.  This is one of the ways enough too much belly fat and the internal visceral fat that goes with it causes high blood pressure and sleep apnea and acid reflux.

Based on my experience a large waist measurement reflects internal visceral fat even more than the subcutaneous fat just underneath the skin.

2.  And, if you have more than a little bit of belly fat, you look fat even if the rest of you is lean.

(Personal note:  I developed acid reflux which was caused mostly by gaining belly fat.  And my belly fat and the proton pump inhibitors I took for it plus stress gave me high blood pressure.

And, after my recent effective strength training and the fat loss I have managed, my legs, arms, chest and shoulders look lean while my middle still looks fat.

And when I stand straight, my belly sticks forward several inches too far.  So I still look fat.)

B.  In fact, your waist measure may be the best indicator of how fat you are, NOT BMI, and how much health risk you are likely to be under.

If you are male and muscular, you can be fat by BMI, over 30 or even over 35, but have little or no excess fat.

Worse, and more common in both sexes, if you are sedentary and have little muscle tone or development, you can have a desirable BMI such as 23 or 24; but your internal or visceral fat may put your health at risk and only show in your belly and waist measurement.

Statistics currently show that about a third of people in the United States are fat by BMI.  But besides that group, a sixth of the people in the United States have lower enough BMI but show as fat by their waist measurement.  This means that half of the people in the United States are too fat, roughly speaking. 

(This is much worse in many Southern states and better in California, Colorado, and most the New England states.)

And even more revealing measure by which even more people likely show as being too fat is the waist hip measurement.

Here’s how to use it.  You want to be in the Low Risk category.

Low Risk Men .90 or below   Women .80 or below

Moderate Risk Men .91 to .99   Women .81 to .84

High Risk  Men 1.0 or above  Women .85 or above

Mike Matthews (See Muscle For Life  Build Muscle. Stay Lean. Get Strong. For Life.

at www.muscleforlife.com/.)  says his experience shows that to lose your belly fat, the biggest key is to lose enough of your extra fat to get enough below a percent body fat. 

He has studied it and found that men 9 to 12% fat is low enough but not too low; and

women 17 to 21 % fat is low enough but not too low.

It is possible to get somewhat lower than that for some athletes and bodybuilders; but much below that range tends to produce health problems.

So besides following the health rules that help you keep off fat you lose by upgrading your lifestyle, you need to lose fat until you get into that range.

There are ways to measure your percent fat with calipers and more.  But the most accurate is to compare yourself in the mirror to pictures of men and women with different percent body fat.  And, these pictures are online.

(My current status is that I look about 12% fat above and below my waist and 20 to 24% fat at my waist. And, the calipers I got that go by a pinch of external fat on my waist have me at 19% which is likely about right.   My waist hip ratio now is a very poor 1.09/)

At 161 pounds I have about 31 pounds of fat now.  So to get to 10 % and lose my excess belly fat and stay the same weight, I would need to gain 15 pounds of muscle and lose 15 pounds of fat.  Oddly that much muscle burns three times as many calories so I might be able to then eat MORE calories.  Then I’d have 16 pounds of fat at 161 pounds and be just below 10% fat.

Without using steroids at my age, even using heavier weights in the squat, leg press, and deadlift which I do plan to do and am progressing towards, adding 3 pounds of muscle may be more achievable.  So, I’d have to lose more like 14 pounds of fat in addition to replacing the 3 pounds of fat with muscle to get to 10% fat.  Then I’d have 14 pounds of fat and weigh 150 pounds and again would be a bit below 10% fat.  But to do that I’d need to wind up eating less.)

To lose that much fat you need to do four things: 

1.  Totally avoid fattening foods and drinks.  Soft drinks, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, all wheat, and most grains and the foods made from them -- all need to go!

2. Eat a LOT of organic vegetables, some organic whole fresh fruit, and health safe protein and some health safe oils.

3.  Create a calorie deficit as low as you can without going below your basal metabolism until you get to your % fat goal -- AND lower your base intake to match what keeps you at that level after that - which may be less than you eat now. 

4.  Also do effective strength training. Then you will lose only muscle and lose MORE fat.

You will also likely wind up gaining muscle and eating more without gaining the fat back.

Doing higher intensity interval cardio helps -- plus you will stay mentally sharp & live longer.

So, if you do those exercises you are dramatically more likely to keep off the fat you lose.