Mary is Metabolic Typing Diet practitioner. Workout IQ is honored to share her knowledge and insight into nutrition and how foods that we choose make us or break us.

Quite a number of people resort to drastic measures to lose weight in a hurry.

One popular method is to go on a very low-calorie diet for a couple of weeks. Food intake is cut way back, even to the point of skipping meals, and eating only very small portions of food. The plan works, and the weight peels off. At least for a while.

Before long, all the weight that was lost was found again.

The first thought is usually, How did this happen?

There was no cheating, no indulgences, nor binging. The diet was followed to the letter. But, suddenly, the scale reads the same as it did before the diet. No matter what is tried, the weight stays the same. It’s as if your body was trying to sabotage you and stay the same.

You’d be tempted to think, Stupid body!

Well, sabotage is a strong word, and your body is extremely smart. This struggle to maintain the same weight is called your “setpoint”.

It is a survival mechanism that is designed to help you conserve body fat. Back in the days when we were all hunter/gatherers, food wasn’t as easy to come by, so your body is programmed to do what it can to maintain the same weight.

Your body is still working on the basic design outlined millennia ago.

It doesn’t know that in the industrialized world, food is everywhere. So, when you cut back on your caloric intake, your body automatically thinks there is a famine and will go into starvation mode.

The setpoint will kick in to protect you. Your metabolism slows down, and your appetite picks up. When in starvation mode, you need to be motivated to eat as much food as possible because your body doesn’t know when the next meal is coming.

If you’re just dieting, the increased appetite becomes a test of your will.

In 1995, researchers at Rockerfeller University found that metabolic rates in adults who had lost 10% of their body weight on an 800-calorie-a-day diet plan also had decreased their metabolic rate by 10%.

However, your setpoint can work in the opposite direction as well.

If you suddenly add weight, your metabolism speeds up and your appetite decreases. Those same researchers at Rockefeller University found those who gained 10% of their body weight had a 10% increase in their metabolic rate.

Before you reach for that brownie, you should know that the setpoint is only one factor in determining a person’s weight. There are things like hormones, genes that also have a dramatic affect.

So, what’s a person to do?

If you’re overweight, you can lower your setpoint by following these two guidelines:

1. Avoid low-calorie diets.

If you really want to reduce your caloric intake, please do so only gradually, and moderately. It’s difficult to state how many calories can be cut before inducing a metabolic slowdown. Some experts recommend you figure out how many calories you’re eating now, then reduce that by no more than 500 calories per day. The Mayo Clinic has a handy calculator for this that also factors in how active you are. And, these experts agree that you should never go below 1200 calories a day without a doctor’s supervision.

2. Exercise

Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

Exercise builds muscle, which requires more energy to maintain than fat.

For each pound of muscle, your body burns 6 calories. Doesn’t sound like much?

Well, I personally have 115 lbs of muscle, and I’m only 5′5″. So, just sitting around doing nothing, my muscles are burning nearly 700 calories a day.

Just imagine how much more I burn when I’m hefting kettlebells around the park!

Here’s a lean body mass estimator to check out how much muscle you might have. And, for you couch potatoes out there, a pound of body fat only requires 2 calories to maintain. So, get up and get going!

What’s next?

Share your experience, leave us a comment (Workout IQ is a ‘do follow’ blog).

Look forward to hearing from you.

Related Posts:

• Dieting, a consistent predictor of Weight Gain (UCLA Study)
• Dangers of Dieting
• Don’t Diet! Listen to your Body

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We knew that going on a diet is not the best way to go about losing weight (Dangers of dieting).

Now, UCLA’s study confirms that dieting is a consistent predictor of future weight gain.

( What!? )

UCLA researchers report in the April issue of American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychological Association that majority of people regain weight and then some. (You mean all those diet commercials are lies?!).

Initially folks lost 5% to 10%. On any diet!

UCLA team conducted most comprehensive and rigorous analysis of diet studies, analyzing 31 long-term studies.

The end results? Majority regained weight and then some.

Diets, in other words, are not sustainable and lead to weight gain.

Want to lose weight? Stay away from diets (Read about Metabolic Setpoint. It will help you to lose fat and keep it off).

Have you tried dieting? What happened?

What’s next?
Comment, subscribe, link to this post if you liked it.

Learn more:
10 Ways to Let Yourself Go and What to Do About It
Burns Fat, Metabolic Fire
We All Have It, The Metabolic Setpoint (How to Lose Fat and Keep It Off)

I’m here to help. Really.

My outcome is to help you with your fitness and health goals.

So help me help you.

What are you interested in?

• How to get stronger with russian kettlebells?
• How to lose weight?
• Better eating habits
• Product reviews?
• How to stay motivated?

I’m open for questions (suggestions too).

Let me know if you have questions about specific kettlebell technique, drill or exercise.

Ask your question as a comment or email it to me (denis@workoutiq.com)

I will answer as many as I can.

Look forward to hearing from you!

If asked whether we want to burn fat, most of us provide an enthusiastic ‘yes!’.

Great!

Often, however, there is a bit of discrepancy between what we say and what we do(shocking!)

What we do, often takes us in an opposite direction.

There are simple and doable(a winning combo in my opinion) strategies for igniting metabolism and burning more fat.

Ready for the insight? Ok, here is goes: to lose more fat we must eat more.

Simple? Yes, but not really.

• Eat BIG breakfast(breakfast gets to be your biggest meal!)
• Eat MEDIUM lunch(keep your lunch manageable and smaller than breakfast)
• Eat SMALL dinner(get in the habit of having a small dinner)

AND do 2-3 snacks in between.

The point?

Feed the body so that it doesn’t go into starvation mode where metabolism slows down.

The food, of course, needs to be high quality, nutritionally dense food to give your body what it needs.

Make it a must, commit to yourself and try this for a month.

Note that it is NOT a diet. You can eat all of your regular foods.

Make it habit and reap the benefits.

Enjoy!

I would like to thank our guest writer Mary Burak for contributing this article and increasing our Workout IQ.

Now that summer has arrived, we need to pay more attention to making sure we stay hydrated. This also includes maintaining a proper electrolyte balance. Most people turn to sports drinks like Gatorade, but few realize these drinks were originally developed for endurance athletes. (Think intense, duration, and heat.) But for most people, the high sugar content (14g per serving, with multiple servings in a single bottle) makes them only marginally better than sodas, and can easily derail a weight loss regimen. Your first choice should simply to drink plain water, but if you feel you need a bit more, then here is a list of products to consider when exercising on a hot day.

Emergen-C
This most often comes in packets to be added to water or juice, but they’ve recently started to offer pre-mixed bottles. The original formula includes seven mineral ascorbates (electrolytes), 1000mg of vitamin C, tons of B vitamins, and 32 active minerals. This is great for giving you a concentrated dose, with less than half the sugar (6g per packet) of Gatorade. The same company also offers a formula called Electro-Mix that supplies potassium, calcium, magnesium, maganese, and chromium without the sugar. Plus, they offer formulas for bones, joints, heart, and one with high concentration of MSM, all in a variety of flavors. Check the packaging before buying to make sure you’ve picked up the one you really want.

The best place to buy them is Walmart, but they don’t always carry it. The next best is Trader Joe’s, and sometimes Costco. Be warned that different formulas and even different flavors can have a dramatically different price ($7-$18). Whole Foods has a knock-off of the original formula but I wasn’t too thrilled by the flavor.

MRM Driven
A pre-workout drink consisting mostly of amino acids. The mix has been designed for maximum muscle performance, with a little sugar to increase the uptake. I would take this before a session of Bikram Yoga and noticed a dramatic difference in my strength and stamina. The two drawbacks are the price and that it can be difficult to find. The best place I’ve found is amazon.com.

Amino Athlete
The same concept as Driven, just in pill form. These are cheaper than Driven and can be found at Vitamin World, Whole Foods, and Elephant Pharm. Another advantage is it doesn’t contain any sugar.

Of course, you can always make your own energy drink:

Basic Oral Hydration Therapy

1 tsp salt
8 tsp sugar
5 c (1 L) water

This is mostly used to help someone recover from dehydration, but you can add Kool Aid, or lemonade (eliminate the extra sugar) to make it a bit more palatable.

Switchel

1 gal. water
2 c. sugar
1 c. molasses
1 c. vinegar
1 tsp. ginger

This was the standard “switchel” carried to the fields to quench the thirst of crews of haymakers. Maple syrup or boiled cider was sometimes substituted for molasses.

A lazy person’s version of an energy drink is to simply add a teaspoon of baking soda to a large glass of orange juice or lemonade.

No matter which product you use, just make sure you’re drinking 1-3 ounces of (non-caffeinated, non-alcoholic) fluids per pound of body weight each day.

P.S. An easy method to determine if you’re dehydrated is to pinch the skin on the back of your hand, then let go. If it springs back into place, then you’re fine. If it takes a second or two, then you’re definitely dehydrated. If it doesn’t roll back at all it is time to head to the emergency room for some intravenous saline. (The technique works on dogs, too. Just pinch the skin on the top of their head.)

Technorati Tags: electrolyte, energy, sport drinks review, sport drinks, hydration, eletrolytes, health, wellness, weight loss

To learn what why you get food cravings and what your body really means by them read this article.

You read me right.

Typical diet cycle:

• You go on a diet, deprive yourself
• Weight comes off
• You go off a diet, start eating again
• Weight comes back on and then some

A diet is typically associated with restriction. No sugar, no bread, no butter…as you deprive yourself of foods that you like, weight will come off. No doubt there. That however is only middle of the ‘diet cycle’.

As you go off a diet, the eating begins. Weight not only comes back on but the dieter is left with some extra pounds. Typical dieter gains weight from the diet! This called ‘yo-yo dieting’, and it is very common.

Read this story from a fellow blogger about her experience with diets.

In the long run, drastic dieting changes and food deprivation will leave worse off than prior to the diet. Diets are temporary, unpleasant and ineffective.

Only sustainable habits will bring permanent change.

Start small.

• Keep a food diary – be aware of what you are eating
• Listen to your body
• Eat slower – take at least 30 minutes for a meal
• Focus on your meal – turn off TV, don’t talk, close that book
• Drink more water

This seemingly little things will make a huge difference. By keeping a food diary and listening to your body you will naturally gravitate toward better foods.

You body is amazing! It knows exactly what is good or bad for it. All you have to do is tune in and listen.

Happy eating!

It knows what is best. In fact, you are your own doctor. All we have to do is to be quite for a little bit and pay attention.

When it comes to fitness and wellness there is nothing better or more effective!

Michelangelo is one the boot campers who joined Workout IQ program a couple of months ago and is making amazing progress. Weight loss, inch loss, increase in strength, energy and all around fitness.

During the 9am session of kettlebell boot camp he shared that he is not craving his old favorites(burgers, sodas, fries, deserts, late dinners).

Keep in mind that as Michelangelo’s training began there were no major changes to his diet. Amazing but not really. Believe it or not, fries, excessive sugar intake, late snacks and triple burgers are not healthy. I know, I know – shocking… Your body, however, knows that first hand.

In case of Michelangelo, why is all of a sudden, the habit of unhealthy eating that was there for years and years is now suddenly gone(after only 2 months)? I didn’t set any rules or limitations. He could be eating anything he wants. And he does. What he want and what his body needs are now in tune.

Michelangelo shared that he can now drive by 7-11(a convenience store that sells things that no human should eat) and not go in.

Michelangelo is in tune with his body and listens to what it needs.

How to tune into your body:

• Take at least 30 minutes to eat your meal
• Turn off TV/Computer as you eat
• Exercise – pick something that is fun for you and that you enjoy doing
• Think happy thoughts – make a daily list of 10 things that you are truly grateful for