Are all calories created equal? Eating a simple sugar versus eating a complex carbohydrate from a potato, for instance, will have a different impact on fat burning. Sugars create a hormonal response that locks in stored body fat while complex carbohydrates provide a slow release of energy to our bodies. What about fat? Are all fats equal? Van Marken, Lichenbelt et al (1997) showed that the polyunsaturated fat-to-saturated fat ratio is important for metabolic rates. An increased ratio leads to a 3% metabolic boost in daily metabolism (Berardi[1]). Wouldn’t it then make sense to opt for fat sources other than beef or pork, and consume more sources of good fats such as fish?

Then there is the thermic effect of food. This simply means that it takes energy to digest food. Some foods take a little more work than others. For example, for every 100 calories of fat you eat, roughly five calories are burned in digestion, 10 calories for every 100 calories of carbohydrates, and 20-25 calories for every 100 calories of protein. This is why it is extremely important to include a source of protein with each meal.

Now we can see that not all carbohydrates are equal to fats as far as caloric intake. Eating the same number of calories from either will have a different impact on our bodies. The pictures below provide good examples of these foods.

In this picture (eggs, shrimp, salad, brown rice, carrots, chicken breast, potato, salmon, turkey, bread, oatmeal, peppers, canned tuna)

Both of these pictures contain 2,000 calories. If you were to consume either of these each day for a year, though they contain the same number of calories, would you look and feel the same? Absolutely NOT! The “Calorie Warnings” are becoming exhausted and are not producing results. Begin by eating unprocessed foods and cutting back on sugars; soon positive changes will occur and your metabolism will inevitably speed up.

[1] Dr. Berardi (www.johnberardi.com)

An interesting article found on www.cnn.com

Basically, the article says that sugar or anything that turns into sugar and enters the bloodstream can be linked to increased wrinkles. What’s the best bet to combat wrinkles? Reduce sugar from the diet. Obvious sources would be sodas and desserts, but often less thought of are things like fruit juice and flavored yogurts. Besides nutrition excess exposure to sun and cigarette smoke play the biggest role in wrinkles, but it just makes sense to make better food choices as well. Supplementing with vitamin C can be beneficial as well for skin health according to some dermatologists.

Fast Weight Loss

It is intimidating to go into a bookstore and sort through the hundreds of diet books in the aisle trying to make sense of it all. As if being pummeled by diet books aren’t enough, you can rarely watch television without “miracle diet pill” propaganda. It’s no wonder people are more confused than ever about weight loss. First let me clear up some of this confusion.

Any diet program or pill that promises “fast and easy weight loss” should immediately throw up a red flag. Successful weight loss is a process and cannot be achieved overnight. The FDA recommends one to two pounds of weight loss per week. Now, before you get discouraged about the amount of time it may take to achieve your goal, just think of how wonderful you feel about the way you look. Isn’t that feeling worth the correct approach, if it will lead to lasting results?

You may ask why is it recommended to only lose one to two pounds per week. Any time the body loses more than two pounds per week it is more than just fat weight you’re losing. Water weight and muscle tissue are a part of that weight loss. The majority of your body is composed of water. Some popular diet programs cause a good deal of water loss. This water weight is easily regained and does little to nothing to change your appearance.

Water loss tricks a person into thinking the diet is successful. Losing muscle tissue will cause weight loss, however in the long term you are wreaking havoc on your body. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, in other words, the site on the body where fat is burned. Simply put, if you have less muscle on your body, you will weigh less, but you lower your metabolism and burn fewer calories. This ultimately leads to regaining the weight you have lost; since you have less muscle than you had, you end up gaining more weight than you originally lost.

If your goal is to lose weight, it should be fat tissue that you want to lose thus relying solely on a scale to measure your success is going to set you up for possible failure. Any product that does not incorporate nutritional changes and exercise as part of a weight loss plan is flawed from the beginning. Each is an integral part in attaining and maintaining your weight loss goals. Remember, fast and easy should not be included in promising weight loss. Successful weight loss can be achieved, but takes time; it is up to you to take the first step!

Cycle Training

Have you ever been exercising to the point of exhaustion, but not seen any results? One of the biggest reasons is the failure to consistently alter your training program. Too often I see people doing the same activities over and over again, and yet never achieve their fitness goals.

One of the main reasons to cycle your training routine is to continually provide a stimulus to your body that forces it to change. In other words, if you don’t change your routine at the very least every three to four weeks then your body will become accustomed to what is asked of it and results will begin to slow or come to a halt. Ever hear someone say they “hit a plateau”? No matter what they do or how much they exercise, they aren’t seeing any change. It’s a safe assumption that it’s because they’re doing the same routine as when they first started.

Now it’s not possible for us to continually progress in a linear fashion. We can only get so strong; we can only get so lean. If that weren’t the case then we’d all be lifting dump trucks.

If you do not cycle your exercise routine, not only will results slow or come to a stop, but continuing to perform the same routine all the time can also lead to injury. Repeatedly putting stress on the body (exercise is stress, although a good stress) will begin to put wear and tear on bodily tissues. Often in the gym I will have a patron come up to me complaining of shoulder pain, and upon further investigation, they are typically performing the same exercise which would be the ever-popular bench press. Thus not allowing their body time to recuperate.

Another reason to cycle your training is to prevent mental burnout. Ever do a routine so often that your motivation and enthusiasm to exercise starts to diminish? If you’re not finding exercise enjoyable you’re less likely to stick with the routine.

I’ve found that changing my clients’ routine every three to fourweeks seems to work best for progression. Remember, if you repeatedly do the same thing over and over and expect results, you’re fooling yourself.

Albert Einstein said it best, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

We all want a higher metabolism and every fitness guru throws the word around, yet very few actually define it. If I were to ask you what metabolism means, could you tell me? Here’s a typical response: “It’s that thing that skinny people have and I don’t. Skinny people have a high metabolism and can eat whatever they want, yet I even look at a cookie and I gain two pounds.”

What if you too could rev up your metabolism and be one of those eat whatever you want people. The good news is that you can, it just takes some changes to make it possible.

Metabolism simply means the speed with which your body burns through food. If you want to increase your metabolism, then you simply need to tell your body to burn through food faster, which means putting unprocessed foods into your body frequently. If you do this your body will, in turn, increase the speed with which it burns through that food.

For example, say you were only given one banana to survive off of each day. Would your body want to burn through that banana quickly? Or would it take its time so that you have energy for later? Now, what if you were to eat a meal every three hours? Your body would then burn through that food rather quickly since you’re giving yourself an ongoing supply of energy. Quite contrary to popular diet wisdom isn’t it?

That’s where diets fail you! Diets teach you to avoid food, which will create rapid weight loss in a short period of time. However, more weight ends up coming back. What has happened is you’ve slowed down your metabolism as a result of your diet.

From now on anytime you see the word diet “be warned”! Diets wreak havoc on metabolism. Sure you might be saying, “But yeah I’ve lost 20 lbs before on Atkins, I’ve lost 10 lbs on Weight Watchers, and I’ve lost 15 lbs on Slim-Fast.” Well, if any of those actually worked, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. The good news is, none of those diets work for anyone in the long-term. Advertisers deceive you into thinking that these diets work, and when they don’t you feel the blame. You’re not to blame.

There are three components to metabolism:

• Muscle (the amount you have)
• Thyroid hormones
• Frequency and type of meals you ingest

Dieting also has a negative impact on your thyroid hormones. By not eating enough food to sustain proper functioning, the thyroid will alter its production of T3 and T4 hormones which will slow down metabolism.

Fat tissue is burned in muscle. The more muscle you have on your body the more calories you burn. Ever wonder why men can eat more than women? This is one of the reasons. You have to perform resistance training to stimulate muscle in order to increase your metabolism. If you’re not on a resistance-training program yet, you should be. The benefits outside of weight loss are numerous, but any weight loss program that neglects resistance training is flawed from the beginning.

Finally, how often you eat throughout the day as well as the quality of those calories will have a direct impact on metabolism. Eating five to six meals a day rather than the typical three meals a day is superior when it comes to fat loss. Studies have shown that when two groups of people ate the same number of calories per day, the group that ate more often not only burned more body fat, but also decreased their blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. The tough part is actually being able to eat the often throughout the day. Later articles will share tips and tricks on how to master this tough challenge.

In the meantime, be sure you eat enough food frequently throughout the day and start a resistance-training program immediately. You too will start losing body fat and enjoy being one of those eat whatever I want people.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts in water, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon Old Bay ™ Seasoning
• 1/2 pound fresh crabmeat, picked over for cartilage and shell fragments

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place cream cheese in a medium baking dish with 3/4 of the artichoke hearts and Old Bay Seasoning TM. Blend until smooth. Gently fold in crabmeat, taking care not to break up lumps.
3. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until surface is golden brown. Remove from heat and garnish with remaining artichoke hearts.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Servings Per Recipe: 24

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 84

• Total Fat: 6.6g
• Cholesterol: 28mg
• Sodium: 215mg
• Total Carbs: 2.3g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.6g
• Protein: 4.1g

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
• 3 pounds boneless pork ribs
• 1 (18 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour can of beef broth into slow cooker, and add boneless pork ribs. Cook on High heat for 4 hours, or until meat shreds easily. Remove meat, and shred with two forks. It will seem that it’s not working right away, but it will.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Transfer the shredded pork to a Dutch oven or iron skillet, and stir in barbeque sauce.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Servings Per Recipe: 12

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 323

• Total Fat: 18.8g
• Cholesterol: 83mg
• Sodium: 496mg
• Total Carbs: 5.4g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.5g
• Protein: 31g

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 sweet onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 2 (15.5 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 mango – peeled, seeded and diced
• 1 banana, peeled and sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco™), or to taste
• 1 (15 ounce) can light coconut milk
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup sour cream, for garnish
• 1/2 cup chopped red bell peppers, for garnish

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the olive oil in a deep, heavy pot, and heat over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion, garlic, and 1 red pepper; cook until onion is transparent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the black beans. Add the mango, banana, cumin, ginger, and hot pepper sauce; stir and cook until fruit softens. Pour in the coconut milk and vegetable broth. Bring soup mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, and simmer until liquid reduces, about 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Place soup in batches into a blender, and blend until smooth; or use a stick blender to blend in the soup pot. Serve garnished with dollops of sour cream and sprinkled with red bell pepper.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Servings Per Recipe: 8

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 245

• Total Fat: 10.2g
• Cholesterol: 6mg
• Sodium: 612mg
• Total Carbs: 31.2g
• Dietary Fiber: 9.4g
• Protein: 8.6g

INGREDIENTS

• 4 (4 ounce) wild salmon fillets
• sea salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced

DIRECTIONS

1. Season salmon fillets to taste with sea salt, and place into a shallow, glass dish. Whisk together vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and rosemary; pour over salmon fillets. Cover, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat, and lightly oil grate.
3. Remove salmon from marinade, and shake off excess. Discard remaining marinade. Cook on preheated grill until fish is opaque in the center and flakes easily with a fork, about 4 minutes per side.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Servings Per Recipe: 4

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 280

• Total Fat: 21.1g
• Cholesterol: 56mg
• Sodium: 160mg
• Total Carbs: 2.2g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.1g
• Protein: 19.7g

INGREDIENTS

• 4 (6 ounce) fillets of wild salmon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 slices lemon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat a large heavy skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes.
2. Coat salmon with olive oil. Place in skillet, and increase heat to high. Cook for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with capers, and salt and pepper. Turn salmon over, and cook for 5 minutes, or until browned. Salmon is done when it flakes easily with a fork.
3. Transfer salmon to individual plates, and garnish with lemon slices.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Servings Per Recipe: 4

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 371

• Total Fat: 25.1g
• Cholesterol: 99mg
• Sodium: 300mg
• Total Carbs: 1.7g
•     Dietary Fiber: 0.8g
• Protein: 33.7g