Dr. Jonny Bowden

Category: Weight-Loss

  • Understand Brain Chemistry to Burn Fat & Beat Cravings

    Understand Brain Chemistry to Burn Fat & Beat Cravings

    A new study in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism shows your brain finds cheap, high-calorie foods especially rewarding.

    Researchers here studied brain activity to better understand how your appetite works and, more importantly, how your brain associates reward with the foods you eat.

    As you might guess, brain chemistry is an incredibly complex science, and every piece of the puzzle can help in scientists’ understanding about obesity.

    “[T]here has been great interest in looking at the brain for the source of vulnerability to overeating in a world of cheap, abundant, high-calorie food,” said researcher Dr. Alain Dagher. “As a result of this research, differences between lean and obese individuals are starting to emerge.”

    Dr. Dagher discovered obese people have brains more “activated” to sweet foods. So eating a bowl of Chunky Monkey ice cream would be more rewarding than, say, a bowl of Brussels sprouts.

    Studies like these help scientists better understand brain signals that motivate you to overeat and how different things – edible or not – stimulate reward areas in your brain.

    What I want to focus on is how anticipation fuels your brain’s reward mechanism and your tendency to overeat.

    To better understand this, I want you to recall memorable events in your life. Maybe it was a first kiss, or a big vacation, or an exquisite five-course dinner at a Michelin-rated restaurant.

    Whatever pleasurable activity you recalled, I’ll bet the idea of doing those things actually provided your brain more euphoria than doing them.

    Don’t get me wrong. That kiss or vacation or dinner certainly provided pleasure, but anticipation offers its own gratification.

    The same thing happens with food. Anticipating eating certain foods and actually eating these foods involve separate mechanisms in your brain.

    Let’s say you’re at the mall, you’ve just had lunch, and you pass by one of those gourmet cinnamon bun places. Even though you’re hardly hungry, the wafting smell instantly makes you think I want a cinnamon bun…

    Suddenly, everything else – finding a bargain at the Gap, for instance, and trying to figure out what color towels to buy your aunt for her birthday – takes a backseat to that craving.

    Your anticipation to eat a hot cinnamon bun plays a key role in your desire to overeat.

    A brain chemical called dopamine contributes to this process. Dopamine controls pleasure and aids your brain’s “reward circuitry.”

    There’s nothing wrong with dopamine and anticipation. It’s how we evolved as a species, after all. But problems arise when you associate pleasure with the wrong stimuli or when the system breaks.

    At that point your reward circuitry becomes hijacked, your “enough!” switch becomes blunted, and addiction is all too often the end result.

    Ultimately, that hot cinnamon bun fails to satisfy. Even though it doesn’t taste great, you find yourself visiting the mall much more often to get your fix.

    For some people, a hot cinnamon bun is a one-time enjoyable experience. But if every time you visit the mall you immediately think hot cinnamon bun, the reward connects to the substance.

    Two things happen. You strengthen the association between the cue (hot cinnamon bun) and reward (that dopamine blast). And the cue itself (the thought or sight of a hot cinnamon bun) ignites dopamine circuits, where you have little control over your behavior.

    Dopamine is what fuels your drive to get that hot cinnamon bun when it feels like nothing else will satisfy you, and when you certainly know you don’t need (or even want) it.

    Pair that cinnamon bun with a powerful emotional stimuli—say, wonderful memories of your grandmother baking them—and those powerful associations release so much dopamine that your reward circuits become hijacked.

    Next time you notice a powerful craving for something sweet, stop and become aware of what’s going on in your brain. Is the anticipation of eating it more rewarding than actually eating it?

    Then determine if something else would equally satisfy you. Maybe take your dog for a long walk in the sunshine, for instance, or a hot bath.

    Chances are, once you engage in that non-food activity, the craving will dissipate.

    And even if it doesn’t, you’re one step closer to understanding your brain mechanism to curb your overeating.

  • Low-Glycemic Diet Burns Fat & Keeps You Fuller

    A recent presentation at the Institute of Food Technologists’ Wellness meeting showed that eating a low-glycemic breakfast could prevent blood sugar spikes and crashes. It might even help you put the brakes on your late-morning Krispy Kreme detour.

    One study that researchers presented here looked at how low-glycemic almonds for breakfast steadied blood sugar and helped people stay full and focused all morning.

    The study, which appeared in the journal Nutrition and Metabolism, showed that people who ate whole almonds at breakfast felt full longer and had steady blood sugar levels compared to people who ate a high-glycemic breakfast like, say, a Pop Tart with orange juice.

    As an added bonus, researchers also found that eating a low-glycemic breakfast means you eat less food the rest of your day.

    You’ve no doubt heard about the glycemic index, which ranks how much a particular food raises your blood sugar levels.

    Your body rapidly absorbs high-glycemic foods, which spike and crash your blood sugar to leave you hungry and tired.

    High-glycemic foods also raise your insulin levels. Elevated insulin levels contribute to diabetes, heart disease, and aging.

    Insulin is also a powerful storage hormone, and it stores one thing really well: fat.

    You get my point. High-glycemic foods are not your friend for fat loss, increased energy, or overall health.

    Lower-glycemic foods, on the other hand, create a steadier rise in blood sugar and insulin levels. Because you’ve got balanced insulin levels, you burn (rather than store) fat and maintain steady energy.

    Let’s say you choose Special K with skim milk, a banana, and orange juice for breakfast. It’s almost entirely fat free and low in calories, so it’s got to be healthy, right?

    Nope.

    The high-glycemic carbohydrates, in fact, will raise your blood sugar, which triggers an insulin response. So as you know, you’re going to store fat.

    And once insulin pulls your blood sugar back down, you’re hungry again. That hunger will most likely strike late morning when you reach for one of those 100-calorie packs of cookies, where after you’ll create the same blood sugar roller coaster.

    You see how a high-glycemic breakfast sets you up for disaster. You also understand how people who scrupulously count calories, despite their best intentions, struggle with fat loss.

    On the other hand, having a higher-protein, low-glycemic breakfast – say, an omelet or a protein smoothie – keeps your blood sugar levels steady all morning.

    Now, the glycemic index is useful to a point, but it doesn’t take into account portion size. That’s what the glycemic load does. So whereas carrots, which still get a bad rep in some circles, are high on the glycemic index, when you take into account how many you actually eat, they have a very low glycemic load.

    In other words, you’d have to eat a ton of carrots – something you’re unlikely to do – to significantly raise your blood sugar.

    Experts debate the glycemic index’s usefulness. Some people find it confusing and tedious.

    Critics point out an important flaw: it looks at foods in isolation, whereas in reality you’re eating foods in different combinations that the glycemic index couldn’t possibly account for.

    I think the glycemic index is useful to a point, and that the glycemic load is a little more comprehensive and accurate. But you can lose weight and stay healthy just fine without ever consulting a glycemic chart.

    Don’t want to deal with numbers and measurements? I’ll make it really simple. Eat less sugar, less processed foods, and fewer foods that convert to sugar in your body.

    If you want to simplify that even further, stick with a low-carb diet, which reduces or eliminates sugar and processed foods.

    Eat the diet your ancestors ate – lean protein, fruits and vegetables, good fat, nuts and seeds – and you’ll be eating a low-glycemic diet without worrying about the numbers.

  • Low Carb Beats Low Fat for Fat Loss & More

    A study that Johns Hopkins researchers presented at a recent American Heart Association meeting showed the more belly fat you lose, the better your arteries can expand, which allows more blood to flow to your heart, brain, and other areas.

    The six-month study divided 60 men and women into two groups that combined either a low-fat or low-carb diet with moderate exercise. Both groups ate the same number of calories.

    Researchers used a blood flow test to evaluate participants’ vascular health. They measured how much blood reached their fingertips before, during, and after a blood pressure cuff restricted arterial flow.

    Measuring blood flow to your fingertips, by the way, provides an indication about your overall vascular health.

    The more belly fat these people lost, the more blood flowed to their fingertips, indicating better arterial function.

    “Our study demonstrated that the amount of improvement in the vessels was directly linked to how much central, or belly fat, the individuals lost, regardless of which diet they were on,” said lead researcher and John Hopkins professor Kerry J. Stewart.

    “This is important since there have been concerns that a low-carb diet, which means eating more fat, may have a harmful effect on cardiovascular health. These results showed no harmful effects from the low-carb diet.”

    If you’ve seen firsthand how powerfully a low-carb diet helps burn fat and boost health, you’re thrilled with these kinds of studies. Finally, researchers admit a low-carb diet trumps low-fat diets for fat loss as well as vascular (and other) health measures.

    Better late than never.

    But the news gets even better: participants on a low-carb diet in this study lost an average of 10 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet.

    “After six months, those who were on the low-carb diet lost an average of 28.9 pounds versus 18.7 pounds among those on the low-fat diet,” Kerry said.

    If you follow these studies, you know researchers allow a wide margin for what they consider a low-carb diet. Some studies severely limit carb intake to Atkins Induction levels (20 grams or less). Others are a little more, shall we say, lenient.

    This was one of the more lenient studies.

    Researchers here restricted carbs to 30% of the low-carb group’s diet, coming from foods like bread, pasta, and fruit.

    Which, as you know, isn’t exactly low carb.

    I wonder what would have happened if researchers put these participants an even more restricted low-carb diet that focused on lean protein, good fats, leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds, and berries.

    In other words, the same kind of diet our Paleo ancestors thrived on, and the one I think we’re most adapted to today.

    I’m betting that their fat loss and vascular health would have improved even more.

    That’s what I find so impressive. Even though the low-carb group devoured up to 30% of their carbs as bread and pasta, they still lost an average of 10 more pounds than the low-fat group.

    Even reducing your carbs a little bit can provide health benefits and fat loss.

    But why do it halfway? After all, eating a low-carb (say, around 50 grams a day), moderate-protein, higher-fat whole foods diet allows you to eat the most nutrient-rich, satisfying, fat-burning foods on the planet.

    Check out my new low-carb weight loss program Unleash Your Thin if you want more details.

  • Build Muscle and Burn Fat? Choose Protein!

    A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found eating a low-protein diet makes your body more likely to store fat around your liver, kidneys, and other organs.

    You might not think any type of body fat could be good, but trust me: fat hanging around these organs is especially bad.

    On the other hand, researchers here found a higher-protein diet increases muscle and boosts your metabolism.

    The study recorded everything 25 people ate over 12 weeks. And I mean everything: these people were confined to a hospital ward and closely monitored. None of them were smuggling in Little Debbies or anything else not on the well-regulated menu.

    Researchers gave these participants about a thousand extra calories every day. One group got those extra calories as protein, the other from carbs.

    Not surprisingly, both groups gained weight…

    • The low-protein group lost muscle and gained fat eating those thousand extra calories as carbs.
    • The higher-protein group gained about the same amount of muscle as the carb group gained fat.
    • So while both groups gained weight, the protein group gained less fat and more muscle than the carb group.

    Now, imagine you didn’t eat those extra thousand calories like participants did in this study.

    The reality is, eating the right amount of carbs or protein can help you lose weight. But you don’t want to lose weight. You want to lose fat and gain muscle.

    No contest: you want to eat a higher-protein diet.

    But this study also reveals something more profound, which cutting-edge nutritionists like myself have argued for decades:

    A calorie is not a calorie.

    Protein has completely different metabolic effects than carbohydrate.

    Let’s take a look at 2 different dinner scenarios with the same amount of calories:

    1. Let’s say you eat 500 calories of pasta and ice cream. For one, that’s not a lot of food: a small bowl of pasta and a couple scoops of ice cream. This meal would raise blood sugar, which would trigger the hormone insulin. Insulin’s job is to get sugar into your cells. But insulin does something else very well: it stores fat. Guaranteed too that a few hours later, you’ll be hungry again. And it won’t be for Brussels sprouts.
    2. But let’s say you instead decide to eat 500 calories of wild salmon and spinach. The omega-3 fatty acids in the salmon will have zero effect on insulin. Protein, however, does trigger insulin (though not to the degree carbs do), but it also signals insulin’s sister hormone glucagon, which performs the opposite feat: it releases fat from fat cells. Overall, these hormones balance each other out. The protein and good fats in the salmon, coupled with the fiber in spinach, will keep you full far longer, while performing all the amazing physiological feats protein and fat do in your body.

    Both meals have the same amount of calories. But they have completely different effects in your body.

    I could trot out dozens of studies that prove protein is far superior to carbs to curb appetite, build muscle, spike metabolism, and burn fat.

    A study in The American Journal of Nutrition, for instance, concluded a high-protein breakfast keeps you fuller longer than whatever low-fat/ high-carb concoction passes as breakfast food these days.

    And a study in The New England Journal of Medicine that looked at 1,209 adults over six months concluded a protein-rich diet helps you burn fat and maintain fat loss much more effectively than carbohydrates.

    You get it. Protein is that important. It burns fat and aids in about a zillion other things in your body, from building hormones and antibodies to preventing muscle breakdown.

    Want to lose weight? You could choose any number of diets, from lowering calories to eating a high-carb, lower-fat diet.

    But want to lose fat? No contest: higher-protein, reduced-carb eating is your most effective fat burning, muscle-building option.

     

    Sources:

    • Blom WA, et al. Effect of a high-protein breakfast on the postprandial ghrelin response. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Feb;83(2):211-20.
    • Larsen TM, et al. Diets with High or Low Protein Content and Glycemic Index for Weight-Loss Maintenance. N Engl J Med. 2010 Nov 25;363(22):2102-13.
  • Supplements Lousy for Fat Loss

    Supplements Lousy for Fat Loss

    Newsflash: there’s no magic bullet for fat loss. (But you already knew that.)

    That’s what Melinda Manore concluded after examining America’s $2.4 billion weight-loss supplement industry. Her results appear in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

    Manore, a professor of nutrition and exercise sciences at Oregon State University, began this study by categorizing supplements into four categories:

    1. Blockers such as carb blockers or fat blockers
    2. Stimulants: caffeine and ephedra, for instance, which increase metabolism
    3. Body composition changers: supplements like conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) that reduce fat
    4. Appetite suppressants like fiber

    Manore found several problems with these supplements. One is that many of them lacked clinical trials to prove they work.

    Two, the studies that showed a particular supplement did work more often than not yielded an unimpressive two-pound or less weight loss benefit compared to the supplement placebo.

    In other words, hardly the rapid fat burners some supplements claim to be.

    “What people want is to lose weight and maintain or increase lean tissue mass,” Manore said. “There is no evidence that any one supplement does this. And some have side effects ranging from the unpleasant, such as bloating and gas, to very serious issues such as strokes and heart problems.”

    Not all of Manore’s news was grim. She found green tea and fiber, for instance, could stimulate fat loss, but only when you combine them with the right diet and exercise.

    Now, if you’ve read my book Living Low Carb, you know I call fiber the number-one supplement for weight loss. Most of us don’t get enough of this important nutrient that helps promote satiety, lower your hunger hormone ghrelin, and balance blood sugar levels.

    I’m also a big fan of green tea and green tea supplements for fat loss.

    But you can’t swallow a glassful of psyllium husk and then go down in the Krispy Kremes. Likewise, you can’t chug green tea with your Starbucks scone and watch the pounds melt away.

    In other words, you’ve got to combine fiber and green tea with optimal foods and exercise for effective, lasting fat loss.

    (Read my take on a recent study where they fed green tea extract to obese mice »)

    Manore inevitably provides advice for fat loss, most of which is decent even if you’ve heard it before: move more, eat more vegetables, start your meal with a salad, eat fruit rather than fruit juice, and ditch the processed crap. Sound familiar?

    Can’t argue with any of that.

    However, she seriously misfires when she recommends reducing high-fat foods to lose weight. Manore evidently never got the memo that the right fats, such as almonds, coconut oil, and avocado, can actually help burn fat.

    The take-home here – again, this is nothing new – is that some weight loss supplements prove more effective than others if you use them with an effective diet and exercise plan. Otherwise, you’re just throwing money away.

    In my experience, a lower-carb diet with optimal protein and fat, combined with burst training and weight resistance, provides amazing results.

    Adding fiber and green tea to that plan can give you an extra boost to reduce cravings and step up fat burning. Just don’t expect them to do much if you don’t step up your diet and exercise.

  • 5 Simple Rules for Eating at Restaurants

    A recent study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior concludes you can eat out and still burn fat.

    In this study, 35 healthy middle-aged women participated in a six-week program called Mindful Restaurant Eating, which teaches people how to eat out healthfully.

    Now, keep in mind the goal of Mindful Restaurant Eating was to prevent weight gain in these women, who fell into that perimenopausal age range where weight gain and ensuing problems like diabetes and heart disease more frequently occur.

    In other words, researchers did not intend Mindful Restaurant Eating as a weight-loss program.

    But that’s exactly what happened.

    Researchers found these women who completed this program lost much more weight, ate fewer calories, and had fewer issues when they ate out. The program taught them how to choose healthy entrees and resist going face down in the peanut butter brownie bottom cheesecake.

    You’re probably asking how these women lost weight eating out. After all, restaurant food often proves notorious for being loaded with sugar, trans fat, heavy sauces, and all kind of other things that don’t promote fat loss.

    The answer is hardly groundbreaking. These women learned to make smart choices in restaurants with fewer calories and lower fat.

    While I’m all for reducing the gargantuan portion sizes most restaurants serve, I don’t think you need to focus so scrupulously on calories, and you need to worry even less on fat.

    Don’t get me wrong. Some of those entrees at places like Cheesecake Factory have 3,000 calories and are loaded with damaged and even trans fats. You definitely need to pay attention to those things.

    But rather than obsess over numbers, I want you to focus on quality foods when you eat out. Choose whole, unprocessed foods your great-grandparents might have prepared.

    By making smart substitutions, you can easily customize your plate in restaurants for optimal fat loss.

    Employ these five strategies the next time you eat out and you’ll get similar (and probably even better) benefits as the women did in that study:

    • Swamp the breadbasket for olives. You know as soon as your server puts down that breadbasket, you’re going to dive right in. Don’t let that happen. (If your friends insist, ask them to take one piece and ask your server to remove the rest.) Olives, raw vegetables with salsa, and even a cheese plate make far better starter options.
    • Swap the app for a salad. A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed women who eat a 100-calorie salad ate less food during their meal. I’m talking a small salad here, not one of those zillion-calorie salads loaded with creamy dressing and dried fruit.
    • Swap the pasta for lean protein. A big plate of fettuccini Alfredo is a surefire way to spike and crash your blood sugar and store fat. Choose a lean protein instead such as salmon, poultry, lamb, or steak. And avoid any meat with the words “breaded” or “battered” beside it.
    • Swap the starch for another vegetable. Rather than the rice pilaf or baked potato, request sautéed spinach with garlic or whatever other vegetable sounds good. You’ll spike your nutrient quota while reducing the meal’s glycemic load. And I bet that spinach will be just as delicious as the potato.
    • Swap the sugary dessert for fresh fruit. The easiest way to undo a healthy meal is a big, gooey dessert. Ask instead for fresh berries in cream or the fruit-and-cheese plate along with a cup of green or herbal tea.

    Sources:

    • http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120110093557.htm
    • Rolls BJ, et al. Salad and satiety: energy density and portion size of a first-course salad affect energy intake at lunch. J Am Diet Assoc. 2004 Oct;104(10):1570-6.
  • Tip 281: Increase Fat Burning During Exercise

    Tip 281: Increase Fat Burning During Exercise

    The following is a guest article by my good friend and colleague, Charles Poliquin.

    Tip 281: Increase Fat Burning During Exercise with Strategic Nutrition to Get Lean

    by Charles Poliquin

    Increase your rate of fat burning while strength training with optimal pre-workout nutrition to get lean. By eating the right nutrients before working out, you can increase work capacity, performance, and speed recovery from intense exercise. Many misconceptions exist about the best way to burn the most fat during exercise but a review in the British Journal of Nutrition provides a guide to get leaner and stronger.

    Proven strategies to boost fat burning with pre-workout nutrition include the following:

    1. Eat low-glycemic carbs with protein before training
    2. Avoid fructose and milk
    3. Load l-carnitine in the muscles
    4. Drink caffeinated green tea
    5. Take fish oil

    Pre-workout nutrition may influence the rate of fat burning when exercising by as much as 66 percent. Burning fat rather than carbohydrates during strength training is best because it can lead to the best body composition. If you’re doing endurance or high-intensity interval training, burning fat will increase your performance and time to exhaustion because increasing the use of fat for fuel spares glycogen (fuel source from carbohydrates).

    Eat low-glycemic carbs with protein at least an hour before training to maximize fat burning. Low-glycemic carbs include green vegetables, some fruits, and grains that have a glycemic-lowering nutrient added to them like rye bread with fenugreek. Low-glycemic carbs will produce a slow, gradual increase in blood sugar to support energy levels and fat burning because it will reduce pre-exercise muscle glycogen concentration and increase the availability of fat use for fuel. Basically, by eating this way, you’re telling your body what to burn and when to burn it to produce the most energy.

    Fructose is a sugar that is found in fruit and is everywhere in processed foods in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. Avoid it pre-workout. Limit fructose in your diet because it blunts fat burning but it also lowers the glycemic response of carbohydrates—just not in a favorable way for overall metabolism. Eating fructose actually inhibits fat burning during and after exercise to a greater extent than eating high-glycemic carbs with glucose like bread or cereal. Not only does fructose stop the use of fat for energy, it makes the cells more resistant to insulin, putting you at risk for diabetes. It also leads to higher blood lactate concentrations during exercise. Greater lactate production will impede performance and is counterproductive.

    Along with avoiding fructose, stay away from milk proteins because they are particularly “insulinotropic,” which means that they will cause persistently high insulin levels. This puts you at greater risk of insulin resistance and diabetes.

    On the flipside, regularly taking fish oil in your pre-workout meal will improve fat burning and insulin sensitivity. Fish oil improves gene activity that tells the body to use fat for energy within minutes of ingesting it. Fish oil also increases blood flow to fat tissue, which is considered a limiting factor in the use of fat for fuel during exercise. Basically, fish oil is a highly liquid and permeable fat and it helps everything to move more fluidly in the body (like a well-oiled machine).

    Together with the amino acid composite l-carnitine, fish oil increases the transport of fats into the cells to be used for energy in the body. By raising the level of muscle carnitine, you make the body more efficient at processing fuel so that it can burn more fat, spare glycogen, clear lactate and bump up anabolic hormone response. Ideally, you want to take carnitine regularly to “load” it into the muscles, but you can also take it with your pre-workout meal for best results.

    Carnitine availability is reduced when muscle glycogen content is elevated, making it all the more important to ensure you are moderating your glycemic load before training. Carnitine will boost performance for strength athletes, but it’s especially effective at increasing performance during endurance exercise. One study indicated a 55 percent reduction in muscle glycogen use after carnitine loading for six month. The glycogen sparing effect of burning more fat means endurance athletes will be able to “tap into” these glycogen stores at the later stages of a race or training run.

    Green tea with caffeine is an awesome addition to any athlete’s diet because the antioxidant content in the tea combined with the caffeine can increase fat burning by up to 15 percent. It has also been shown to elevate fat burning for 24 hours after ingestion. Caffeinated coffee can also boost performance and fat burning, but recent evidence suggests green tea may be better. Include caffeine from both sources for best results.

    References:

    Gonzalez, J., Stevenson, E. New Perspectives on Nutritional Interventions to Augment Lipid Utilization during Exercise. British Journal of Nutrition. 2012. 107, 339-349.

    Fernandez, J., Da Silva-Grigolettos, M. A Dose of Fructose Induces Oxidative Stress During Endurance and Strength Exercise. Journal of Sports Science. 2009. 27(12), 1323-1334.

    Charles Poliquin, M.Sc., is one of the top strength and conditioning experts in the world. He’s trained olympic medalists in 12 different sports and has written many books and over 500 columns. His site,  http://www.strengthsensei.com/charles-poliquin/, is a terrific resource for real, science-based information about physical fitness.

  • Dessert With Breakfast Helps You Lose Weight? Hmm…

    Will a heaping slice of Entenmann’s cheese Danish with your vegetable omelet help you get lean and sexy?

    Researchers at Tel Aviv University recently discovered that having dessert with your breakfast could help you lose weight. When you enjoy that chocolate cake in the morning, they argue, your body can burn off the sugar throughout the day.

    During the 32-week long study, researchers assigned 193 obese, non-diabetic adults to one of two identical-calorie diets. Men ate 1,600 calories and women ate 1,400 calories a day.

    One group, however, ate a 300-calorie breakfast while the other had a 600-calorie breakfast that included dessert.

    During the first half of the study, both groups lost an average of 33 pounds. But the second half dramatically changed the game.

    Whereas the low-carb breakfast group regained about 22 pounds, the dessert-for-breakfast group actually lost an additional 15 pounds, or a total of about 40 more pounds than the low-calorie breakfast group. What’s more, they kept off those pounds longer.

    Researchers also noticed that unlike the smaller-breakfast group, the dessert-for-breakfast people “experienced few if any cravings for these foods later in the day.”

    Here’s my opinion. The higher-calorie breakfast group lost more fat and kept it off not from eating chocolate cake, but because they ate a bigger breakfast, period. Numerous studies show people who eat a substantial breakfast are leaner and stay fuller throughout the morning.

    A study in the American Journal of Nutrition, for instance, showed people who ate a hearty protein-based breakfast like a vegetable omelet were less likely to go down in that mid-morning box of Krispy Kremes their co-workers bring in than people who ate a bowl of Special K with skim milk.

    Despite what these researchers claim, having that cheese Danish for breakfast can set you up for a metabolic disaster. For one, you’re going to have a blood sugar spike and crash that leaves you running for a Starbucks low-fat muffin and a grande latte about 10 a.m.

    And how many people stop with just one doughnut? You’re more likely after you eat that Krispy Kreme (or whatever your breakfast indulgence includes) to say to hell with it and recklessly abandon your healthy eating the rest of the day.

    And if you have any aspect of metabolic syndrome – and most of us do – dessert at breakfast will just exacerbate that insulin resistance and the host of problems that accompany it.

    I’m not a fan of total deprivation, however, and I want to tell you about the next best thing to a chocolate milkshake for breakfast.

    I love to toss a scoop of whey protein into the blender with some frozen berries along with some unsweetened coconut or almond milk and – bam! – I get a cold, creamy drink that isn’t a milkshake but is pretty rock and roll and far healthier.

    But I don’t want you using one of those hulking store-bought tubs of whey, which are often packed with sugar, artificial sweeteners, trans fat, and other crap.

    Whey Cool from Designs for Health, on the other hand, is the absolute best whey protein on the market. It’s non-denatured and low-temperature produced to protect the immune-boosting amino acids. And it comes loaded with 20 – 24 grams of the highest-quality protein in every scoop.

    This is the whey protein I use every morning.

    The milk used in this whey comes from grass-fed cows. Whey Cool also contains excellent amounts of the glutathione precursor cysteine, as well as other immune-boosting components like lactoferrin, immunoglobulins, and serum albumin.

    Let’s talk taste. Unlike others on the market, Whey Cool doesn’t have a weird or chemical aftertaste. The natural chocolate and vanilla flavors are low in sugar and sweetened with xylitol and stevia, two beneficial sweeteners.

    Best of all, a Whey Cool shake won’t send your blood sugar on a rollercoaster ride like that cheese Danish. The protein keeps you full and focused all morning, while the delicious flavors will satisfy your sweet tooth.

    Check out Whey Cool and let me know if you agree that it’s the next best thing to a milkshake without the sugar crash.

  • Another Reason to Skip Diet Sodas

    A new study shows people who regularly drink diet sodas are 43% more likely to suffer a stroke, heart attack, and other vascular problems than people who didn’t touch diet soda.

    Researchers weren’t sure what exactly in the diet soda triggers that increased vascular risk, but something does.

    The study, which appeared in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, interestingly found people who drink regular soda and only have, say, one diet soda each week don’t have these vascular issues.

    Now, the take-home from this study is not to engulf Coke and only occasionally have a Diet Coke. I want you to ditch soda, period, whether it’s sweetened with aspartame or high-fructose corn syrup.

    Nobody pays much attention when I say diet soda can give you a heart attack or stroke. But mention that  it makes you fat, and suddenly people get all riled up: “But, wait… It’s diet soda. And it has no calories…”

    Don’t shoot the messenger. Studies verify diet soda can pack on the pounds and lots worse.

    One study, for instance, showed that diet soda drinkers who drank just two cans a day got fatter than people who drank two cans of regular soda. No kidding.

    Another study showed drinking diet soda daily significantly increases your risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

    But wait, you say. Diet sodas don’t have any sugar, so how could they contribute to diabetes?

    A study in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine explained this predicament. In a nutshell, sweetness without the calories could increase your appetite and makes you reach for the Sausalito cookies.

    Scientists call this phenomenon “calorie dysregulation.” Ever noticed when you’re drinking a Diet Coke you suddenly get cravings for something crunchy or sweet?

    Those Yale researchers also concluded diet sodas trigger sugar craving and sugar dependence.

    That could happen for several reasons. One, the diet soda’s exacerbated sweetness could make you crave more sugar.

    And your body could mistake the aspartame for real sugar. Your pancreas responds with insulin, which among its other duties stores fat and takes your blood sugar on a rollercoaster ride.

    The end result is more cravings. And trust me, when I say cravings, I don’t mean for wild salmon and broccoli.

    Oh, and don’t even get me started about the numerous problems aspartame can create.

    Look, I know kicking the diet soda habit can be brutal, especially if Diet Coke to you falls into one of the four food groups. If cold turkey seems torture, at least cut back to one can a week. (Or, okay, one a day if your habit is that bad.)

    You might also dump the diet soda for seltzer water flavored with lemon or lime. The water’s carbonation has a similar mouth feel to diet soda without the aspartame and other nasty ingredients.

  • It’s Not Sexy… But It Works for Weight Loss!

    It’s Not Sexy… But It Works for Weight Loss!

    Mention fiber, and you might immediately recall those gigantic tubs of Metamucil your grandma stocked up on at warehouse stores. In other words: not sexy.

    I don’t need to remind you of fiber’s many benefits, which include reducing inflammation, triglycerides, and cholesterol. But I really get people’s attention when I say fiber is the number-one supplement for weight loss.

    Fiber helps you burn fat in several way:

    • delays stomach emptying
    • curbs ghrelin (your hunger hormone that tells your brain to eat)
    • buffers carbs so your blood sugar doesn’t spike so dramatically

    In short: nobody likes to talk about fiber, but it works.

    A decades-long study just published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health concludes that our paltry-fiber modern diet contributes to diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

    No kidding.

    “Consuming adequate quantities of dietary fiber can lead to improvements in gastrointestinal health, and reduction in susceptibility to diseases such as diverticular disease, heart disease, colon cancer, and diabetes,” researchers concluded. “Increased consumption has also been associated with increased satiety and weight loss.”

    The study also argued that supplements are an easy way to get more fiber in your diet.

    Here’s a super-quick fiber lesson. There are two forms of dietary fiber: soluble and insoluble.

    • Soluble fiber forms a gel-like substance that, among its many duties, binds cholesterol and balances your blood sugar.
    • Insoluble fiber, on the other hand, absorbs water and keeps things moving along.

    In other words, you benefit from both types.

    The average American gets a sad 5 – 14 grams of fiber a day. Our lean, athletic Paleo ancestors put us to shame by getting a whopping 60 grams or more!

    I want you to eat as many fiber-rich foods you can every day. Nuts and seeds, leafy green vegetables, legumes, berries and other fruits like avocados are loaded with fiber.

    Now, granted, you can get enough fiber from food, but it takes a lot of planning and math. And even when you do load up on high-fiber foods, it’s not always easy to get 50 – 60 grams a day. Let’s face it: few of us are getting anywhere near that amount in our diet.

    There are lots of really great fiber supplements on the market. But PaleoFiber from Designs for Health is the Rolls Royce of them all.

    Each serving of PaleoFiber contains 8 grams of fiber from 12 sources including fruits, vegetables, roots, seeds, and tree extracts like apple pectin and prune fiber. The formulation mimics the diet our Paleo ancestors thrived on and the one you’re most likely to thrive on too.

    What’s more, PaleoFiber packs prebiotics from inulin, probiotics, and a powerful antioxidant punch. You’re not going to find those benefits in your drugstore run-of-the-mill fiber powder.

    I love to toss a scoop of PaleoFiber mixes in my morning protein smoothie to get a powerful fiber wallop. Unlike other fiber powders, PaleoFiber comes in a pleasant-tasting original or delicious berry that makes meeting your fiber quota quick and pleasant.

    So eat as many varieties of fibrous vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds as you can. And then ratchet it up a few notches with PaleoFiber to get therapeutic amounts of this nutrient that can benefit your health in numerous ways and help you get the lean, sexy body you want.