Tag Archives: weight loss

Weight Loss

Free Yourself From Carbohydrate Cravings

Do you ever get tired of feeling hungry all the time?

Do you feel like you’re always craving carbs?

Are the two related?

Absolutely! Carbs can be addictive like drugs and other habit-forming substance. Simple carbs like bread and chips and foods loaded with sugar trigger a dopamine release stimulating the pleasure regions of the brain involved in cravings and addictions.

We crave salty chips or sweets, but the craving isn’t because the food tastes great, it’s because of the carb’s effect on the brain.

More than eighty percent of all the sugar you consume goes to your brain. This creates a spike in your blood sugar. When your blood sugar crashes after the spike, your brain thinks it can’t function anymore, and you crave more carbs.

The good news is that, like with any addiction, we can take steps to stop the cravings.

The first and most important step is to take away the “drug”, in this case, simple carbs. Identify the triggers that make you turn toward carbs and take proactive steps to do something different when the craving hits. For example, you can eat protein instead. Protein fills you up and provides some glucose (sugar) to your cells that has the same effect as simple carbs without spiking your blood sugar.

If you tend to crave chips, trying eating nuts and/or seeds instead. Nuts contain protein and healthy fat which help fill you up, and just enough carbs to satisfy a carb craving.

If you tend to crave sweets, google “fat bombs” and you’ll find a ton of great recipes! You’ll get the taste of sweet while filling up on healthy fats.

These same foods are all part of a ketogenic diet, one of the most effective ways to stop carb cravings. With ketosis, your body isn’t relying on sugar to function, it’s relying on fat. Your brain will stop telling you to eat more sugar.

Bye bye cravings!

 

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Weight Loss

7 Steps to be a Fat-Burning Machine

The following are steps you can take to become a fat burning machine:

 

  1. The first and most important step is to stick like glue to a low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat food eating program for a minimum of 2-3 weeks, and optimally up to 6 weeks to ensure a metabolic change takes place. That means don’t cheat at all.
  2. Start your day (whether that’s at a traditional breakfast time or whenever you get hungry) with adequate protein and fat. That might include bacon and eggs, cheese and sausage, or last night’s leftovers. The important thing is “don’t skimp on protein and fat!” This will keep you satiated and satisfied till your next meal.
  3. Do as much “easy” movement/exercise as you can … walking, casual biking, etc. Keep your heart rate under “180 minus your age” to tap into fat stores. (Don’t worry about a minimum heart rate.)
  4. If you are able, occasionally (once-a-week) perform 10-30 second spurts of high-intensity activity to increase fat-burning capabilities.
  5. If you want a few “extra” carbs for whatever reason (preferably from whole foods like fruit or additional veggies like carrots, for example), have them right before or right after an exercise session. If before, you will burn them off during exercise; if after, they will replenish stored glucose in the muscles.
  6. Minimize snacks and stick to meals only.
  7. Once you are able to go 5-6 hours between meals, experiment with intermittent fasting or meal-skipping to increase your body’s ability to burn fat first. This is most easily done by skipping breakfast or skipping dinner and extends the natural fast everyone does when they sleep at night. Continue to drink water (and coffee or unsweetened tea if you’d like) during fasting times. (Keep in mind that fasting doesn’t necessarily mean consuming less overall calories for the day. It means that the calories you do eat will be consumed in a narrower window of time which has been shown to have a positive effect on managing weight. [1])

Follow those steps and you will be on your way to becoming a fat burning machine.

 

[1] http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131%2814%2900498-7

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Weight Loss

Why can’t I lose body fat?

How many times have you asked: “why can’t I lose body fat?”

At any given time, our body burns a mix of fuel sources … fats, carbs, protein, and for those eating low carb, ketones.  Ketones are a byproduct of being an efficient fat burner and can be used by lots of cells in the body … muscle, nerves, cardiac, and even the brain. What the body chooses for fuel depends on how a person eats and how they move.

 

Body fat is stored energy which is supposed to be accessible when food is unavailable. But for those eating a typical American diet high in sugars and starches, it’s inaccessible for a number of reasons:

 

  1. One reason is due to constant grazing. The body has a continual food source all day long. People can’t or don’t go long enough between meals for their body to need to tap into fat stores.

 

  1. A second reason is tied to insulin. When people eat foods containing sugar or starch, the body releases insulin to carry the glucose into muscle cells, and when the muscle cells are full, any excess is carried to the liver to be converted into and stored as fat. Once in the liver, insulin “locks” the fat into the cell. When food is unavailable, the body will burn the small stored supply of muscle and liver glycogen, but it can’t tap into fat stores. They are “locked” tight and the body then has to resort to breaking down muscle for energy.

 

  1. A third reason involves exercise. When a person exercises too intensely (heart rate is greater than “180 minus your age”), the body quickly burns through stored glucose instead of using fat energy to sustain the exercise. If exercising for an extended period of time, the body again resorts to breaking down muscle for energy due to fat stores being “locked” tight.

 

Fortunately, there are ways to become a fat-burning machine. Learn them, and you will give yourself a significant advantage to living a healthier life at a healthier weight!

 

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Weight Loss

Can You Lose Weight Quickly AND Safely?

Everyone “knows” that slow, gradual weight loss produces the best long-term results and that fast weight loss is unsafe and unhealthy.

We’ve been fed that line for years. But is it actually true?

There seems to be more support that the opposite is true — that rapid initial weight loss is associated with better long-term weight maintenance. [1]

One study showed that those who hit their short-term weight loss goals (12.5% reduction in body weight) were more likely to stick with the program that was helping them get there. [2]

Which just goes to show you that slow and steady does not always win the race.

It makes sense if you think about it. If you can lose weight right away (in your first few weeks), you not only get the satisfaction of your weight-loss plan working, you also feel better and regain energy more quickly. Who wouldn’t want to keep doing that?

But is rapid weight loss safe?

It is as long as you’re choosing a plan that results in losing (mostly) fat and not lean muscle mass.

A basic lower-carb, higher-fat food plan is one of the simplest and most effective methods for losing weight quickly. Diets that compare eating until you’re satiated on low-carb versus eating until you’re satiated on calorie-restricted show that the low-carb option results in faster weight loss.

Plus fat is an excellent fuel source that burns cleanly and is consistently associated with improved health markers including an increase in insulin sensitivity (which also decreases fat storage), normalization of blood lipids (which influences metabolism), and restoration of oxidative stress biomarkers (which decreases your chances of developing a number of diseases.

So you get the best of both worlds — quick weight loss and better health!

Want to keep that weight off for the long-term? Then look for a program that combines weight loss with education. It isn’t about a short-term change in what you put in your mouth. It’s about knowing and understanding how food affects you and how to eat in the real world that’s going to keep the weight from flying back on.

If you’re tired of past weight loss efforts not getting you to where you want to be, then maybe it’s time to check out Medithin Weight Loss Clinics. Since early 2011, we’ve been helping people in Southern Wisconsin lose weight and learn how to keep it off. Medithin offers a physician-supervised weight loss program that is safe, proven effective, and affordable. Patients are assessed, and their progress is monitored, by a physician and medical staff to ensure optimum care and support in reaching their weight loss goals.

To learn more, go to:

http://www.medithinweightlossclinics.com/our_program.php

And be sure you take a look at our testimonials here:

http://www.medithinweightlossclinics.com/testimonials.php

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12119640
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11707557
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20443094
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25459211

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