Boost metabolism to avoid fat gain....Today's post:  Thursday, 8-16-2018

Previously we posted on the basics of fat loss which we list next.

For many reasons men and women over 39 tend to get fatter every year.

This quote from the article listed below is just one example:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-exactly-what-you-should-be-eating-to-lose-weight-2018-08-10

“Women gained an average of 22 pounds over this time, while men gained 19 pounds. "The findings indicate that even a modest amount of weight gain may have important health consequences," he said.

Worse, early and middle adulthood is the time of life most people actually gain weight, as their metabolism slows, recurring knee and back injuries become more common.”

This post lists the basics next. 

Then we list some upgrades to the basics that help stop this dropping metabolism. 

Then we post on more ways to boost metabolism.

1.  Doing these basics usually helps avoid or stop severe obesity:

Boost your ability to overcome challenges and achieve goals and discover your strongest reasons to want fatloss. Act to cause fatloss in ways that are rewarding or make you feel empowered.

Stop eating and drinking the most fattening and things and those most harmful to your health. 

Eat organic vegetables and fruit and health OK protein foods and fats and oils and spices. And, drink chilled water and tea and coffee.

Drink some red wine in light moderation before dinner. Drink other alcoholic drinks very infrequently or not at all.

Do the exercises each week that effectively add to or keep healthy bone and muscle AND also do some of those that time efficiently keep you fit and tend to burn fat also.

Solve problems specific to you that block fatloss.

Those can include too little exercise and slow recovery from exercise and too much sitting.

They also can include bacteria in your gut that promote fatloss.

2.  Upgrades to the basics that help stop this dropping metabolism:

a)  Strength training for your large muscles in your legs and lower back and buttocks build muscle and bone if you also eat the right foods and take the right supplements. 

Men and particularly women who don’t do this lose bone and muscle a little bit each year.  Muscle and healthy bone burn calories.  If you don’t use strength training to prevent it, every year you burn fewer calories.  Your metabolism drops as a result.

Then by simply eating what they are used to eating more and more of the calories go to fat.  Worse, that then gradually accelerates as the fat makes moving around more difficult.

To combat this, strength training plus enough protein and magnesium and vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 and boron and good quality sleep keeps your bones strong.

Leg presses set to use your very strong buttocks most; squats when you can get a spotter; and deadlifts do this best.  Without a leg press machine or spotters, the deadlift alone works well.

b) Women who follow the low inflammation part of the basics well and take estrogen for the perimenopause early in the transition to menopause lose far less bone and gain far less fat.  They also have fewer things like hot flashes and night sweats and insomnia.

c) Of the other basics, it’s most important to avoid ALL artificial sweeteners and both regular and diet soft drinks, because they directly cause bone loss in multiple ways!

Note that taking statin drugs harms your mitochondria and lowers your metabolism and tends to cause and worsen diabetes because of it. Worse, this damage makes the essential strength training likely to harm you and your muscles if you do the exercises well.  Mercifully following the basics alone prevents heart attacks and stroke far better than statins do.  And they give two thirds of the people essentially zero protection besides.

d) Besides statin drugs, MSG, as we recently posted, both causes inflammation and harms your mitochondria.  By doing this it directly slows your metabolism and is proven to fatten people who use it while eating food that wouldn’t fatten them otherwise!

e) The quote also says this:  “recurring knee and back injuries become more common” suggesting the resulting lack of walking and other exercise because of this causes fat gain also.

This is true. 

It’s not yet well known; but using the low inflammation lifestyle, NOT taking over the counter pain relievers; doing the leg strength training with a lower weight at first if needed; taking vitamin D3 and K2; taking a boswellia (Frankincense) supplement; and taking vitamin C and fruit extract supplements –

-- can reduce pain, reduce it to zero, and even rebuild joints!

The strength training also gives you the muscle strength and ability to stop falls with it to enable you to keep walking instead of being in a walker or wheelchair.

Having no pain in your joints or very little also helps!

3.  More ways to boost metabolism:

a) In a recent post, we posted about a time release capsaicin capsule that looks likely to help boost metabolism enough to cause fatloss or extra fatloss in this post: 

Possible New Fatloss tool....Thursday, 7-26-2018.

If this does become available, it likely will be very important for people who are more than 20 pounds overweight and don’t exercise to have access to good air conditioning where they live and work – and to be extra careful of overheating.

This is most true for the gym or home gym where they do strength training.

b) Cool temperatures where you work and sleep also help boost metabolism and help with restful sleep.

c) Falling thyroid hormones also lower your metabolism.  So preventing or reversing that is important to stop fat gain caused by it.

Women who follow the low inflammation part of the basics well and take estrogen for the perimenopause early in the transition to menopause also tend to block drops in their thyroid hormones.

That’s critical because reduced thyroid levels lower metabolism and also reduce calories burned.

In fact, this is so true that if a woman starts gaining weight and tests as having low thyroid, that’s and indication she may be starting early menopause.

Dr Al Sears just posted that for both men and women, a low iodine intake and deficiency also tends to lower thyroid hormone as you get older.

In fact he makes a case that far more people are deficient in iodine with resulting low thyroid than is generally known.

Taking a multivitamin plus minerals usually gets you 150 mcg a day of iodine.  But if you are deficient taking a several spirulina tablets a day or a kelp capsule a day can give you enough.  I do that and the kelp capsule with 400 mcg of iodine provides the most iodine.

Taking the amino acid tyrosine also helps because your body uses it to make thyroid hormones.

Dr Sears does a nice job in his email so I include much of it here:

“"....iodine deficiency is on the upswing in the U.S. It’s a big reason why thyroid issues are becoming more and more common.

About 10% of Americans already have low thyroid function.

... a major study in the Archives of Internal Medicine says another 13 million people are undiagnosed.1

They don’t even know they have iodine deficiency and thyroid issues.

On top of cognitive impairment, low iodine levels are linked to obesity, psychiatric disorders, fibromyalgia and a variety of cancers. It can also trigger cardiac arrhythmias, osteoporosis and muscle wasting.

The U.S. daily recommendation for iodine is only 150 mcg per day.

But even if you’re only getting that, you’re not getting enough. And sadly, many people aren’t even getting that paltry amount any more.

You see, in the past the U.S. prevented iodine deficiency with iodized table salt.

But in the 1970s, our misguided government told everyone to put down the salt shaker. By cutting back on salt, most people eliminated their only source of iodine.

In fact, since the 1970s Americans quadrupled their rates of iodine deficiency.2

Now, don’t get me wrong… I don’t recommend table salt. It’s usually bleached and has residual chemicals from processing. It can also contain MSG, sugar and aluminum.

Instead, get iodine from your food. [Best is to also take seaweed supplements high in iodine too.]

Salmon

4 ounces

158 mcg

Yogurt

1 cup

154 mcg

Lobster

3.5 ounces

100 mcg

Cranberries

1 ounce

100 mcg  [cranberry extract capsules work without the high fructose and harsh taste of the juice.]

...the best food for iodine is seaweed.

But if you’re not a seaweed lover, you can take kelp tablets instead. Start with 325 mcg per day and increase it slowly. You can gradually go as high as 3,000 mcg to 6,000 mcg (3 mg to 6 mg) per day.

[Some people are allergic to iodine.  So you need a different solution if that includes you.  Definitely taking more than 600 mcg a day is not a good idea if that includes you.]

Selenium. This trace element supports normal levels of thyroxine. And your body needs it to use iodine. Taking too much iodine without selenium can lead to goiter and other thyroid problems.

I recommend getting at least 200 mcg of selenium every day. A good source is Brazil nuts. You can eat two Brazil nuts every day. Each has around 100 mcg of selenium.

[Selenium is much more bioavailable from Brazil nuts.  So eating a few of those each week and taking the 200mcg supplement once a day works well.

Important note!  Don't take more than that.  Selenium intakes of over 1,000 mcg of selenium are neuro-toxic.]

Conclusion:

There are many ways to boost your metabolism or keep it from dropping.

The more of them you do well, the better your metabolism will be. 

AND the less fat you will be—

        -- and you will stop gaining more!