Thoughts about weight loss

Have you ever felt like a hamster on an exercise wheel? That's how I feel minus the exercise wheel. I feel like I am going around and around, and not getting anywhere. My work schedule is still crazy but my allergies ARE improving. I ate well today but I have totally stopped writing down my food intake. When I look back at my blog to when I was having weight loss success...guess what? I

Not Focused on Weight Loss...

Still sick... still overwhelmed at work.... and not focused on my weight loss. This has to stop. I worked too hard this summer to gain it all back. Starting tomorrow morning, I WILL focus on my own needs again. On a more positive note, my son came home from college on Friday night for a weekend visit. It was so wonderful to see him...I really miss him!

Weigh In

I weighed in today...I gained. I weighed in at 205...grrr. I have nobody to blame but myself.That's the bad news...the good news is that today I ate well and drank plenty of water. I am not going to beat myself up for gaining weight. I've been sick and stressed...those are the facts, however, I need to make sure that I don't keep slipping. I hope all is going well in your world of weight

My weight loss statement for the day...

I want to lose weight so I can look and feel great in my clothing.

I'm sick~ugh!

Well speaking of "life getting in the way", I have been sick for a week now. I'm having severe problems with my sinus/allergies. I went to bed last night at 10:30, and if you can believe it, I slept straight through to 4:00 this afternoon! I guess I needed the sleep! I haven't really focused on my food intake the last few days (meaning, I'm not writing things down), but I am trying to make

Still Sick...

Life is getting in the way...again...but I'm fighting back!This is the same allergy/ sinus stuff I had at the exact time last year. Last year's bout lasted on and off for about 5 months...it was ugly! I lost my voice several times, for a week each...I ran fevers, couldn't sleep, and I missed a lot of work. I'm so hoping the medication I'm on now will keep those symptoms at bay this time.

Have You Noticed...

I'm sure you're like me and have read countless other weight loss blogs. Have you noticed, that many of these blogs tend to be extremely negative? Why do we become negative? I think the main reason is that sometime life gets in the way of our weight loss. When this starts to happen, we tend to lose focus and then things begin to feel hopeless, and hopelessness tends to lead to failure....does

Weight Loss Motivation

"Don't let what you can't do interfere with what you can do." AnonymousLately I haven't been able to get exercise in because of my schedule...so what?? I am NOT going to let this keep me from experiencing success! I might take me a little longer to reach my goal, but I WILL get there!Have a great day!Candee

Weigh In

I'm not going to win any prizes for the speed of my weight loss but I'll take it...every little bit lost is heading in the right direction!This week I lost another 1/2 pound...for a grand total of -19 1/2 lbs.I stayed after school today but the rest of the week is looking good! Yeah! I'm starting to see the "light at the end of the tunnel", and can see that my over time is just about over! Not

Putting the nutrition information together.

This is a step-by-step on using all the information presented to build your meal plans. Remember to do through this part once every 5 weeks because as you are losing weight your caloric needs will change so today’s calculations won’t be relevant 5 weeks from now.

=Put together the accelerated fat loss meal plan=

Step 1. Calculate your maintenance level calorie needs.

How to do this was presented in the “How many calories do you need?” section of this chapter.

The activity level coefficient you should choose as a beginner is Light Active (1.35 multiplier) because you will be doing three exercise sessions per week. When you reach intermediate or advanced level you can start using the moderate or very active multipliers.

So for now:

(Maintenance calorie needs) = (BMR calorie needs) x 1.35 (Light Active) [calories]

Example: Maintenance calorie needs for me.

Stats: male, 20 years, 173 cm height, 81 kg, 12% body fat. BMR (Harris-Benedict) 66 + (13.7 x 81 kg) + (5x 173 cm) – (6.8 x 20 years) = 1904 calories 12% body fat -> 88% lean muscle mass; 0.88 x 81 kg = 71.28 kg lean body mass BMR (Katch-McArdel) 370+ 21.6 x 71.28 kg = 1909 calories You can see that both methods produce about the same result. My activity level multiplier: 1.35 (Light Active) (Maintenance calorie needs) = 1904 x 1.35 = 2570 calories.

Step 2. Decide by how much you want to reduce your calorie intake.

A 15% to 20% calorie reduction should be enough, when combined with exercising, to produce steady fat loss. But it will take a lot of time with suck a small decrease in calorie intake to lose fat.

If you are impatient and/or very obese make a 25% to 30% calorie reduction.

Don’t go below 30% to prevent the starvation mode response.

So your calorie intake could be:

(Calorie intake) = (Maintenance calorie needs) – 0.20 x (Maintenance calorie needs)

Or for faster fat loss:

(Calorie intake) = (Maintenance calorie needs) – 0.30 x (Maintenance calorie needs)

Example: Calorie reduction needs for me.

Because my body fat is quite low, 20% calorie reduction is enough for me. (Calorie intake) = (Maintenance calorie needs) – 0.20 x (Maintenance calorie needs) (Maintenance calorie needs) = 2570 calories. (Calorie intake)= 2570 – 0.20 x 2570 = 2056 ≈ 2000 calories

Step 3. Calculate how much protein, carbs and good fats you should be eating.

All the calculations must be made using the (Calorie intake) calculated at step two.

40% of calories should come from carbs.

1 gram of carbs equals 4 calories.

50% of carbs should be starchy carbs. A portion of starchy carbs equals 15 grams.

50% of carbs should be starchy carbs. A portion of fibrous carbs equals 5 grams.

You should not eat any simple carbs (no fruit and dairy no refined foods; review simple carbs to see what you should not eat).

(Calories from carbs) = 0.40 x (Calorie intake) [calories]

(Grams of carbs) = (Calories from carbs) / 4 [grams]

(Grams of starchy carbs) = 0.50 x (Grams of carbs) [grams]

(Portions of starchy carbs) = (Grams of starchy carbs) / 15 [portions]

(Grams of fibrous carbs) = 0.50 x (Grams of carbs) [grams]

(Portions of fibrous carbs) = (Grams of fibrous carbs) / 5 [portions]

40% of calories should come from protein.

1 gram of protein equals 4 calories. A portion of fats equals 7 grams of protein.

(Calories from protein) = 0.40 x (Calorie intake) [calories]

(Grams of protein) = (Calories from protein) / 4 [grams]

(Portions of protein) = (Grams of protein) / 7 [portions]

20% of calories should come from good fats

1 gram of fat equals 9 calories. A portion of fats equals 5 grams of fats.

(Calories from fats) = 0.20 x (Calorie intake) [calories]

(Grams of fats) = (Calories from fat) / 9 [grams]

(Portions of fat) = (Grams of fats) / 5 [portions]

Example: The calculations made according to my calorie needs.

(Calorie intake) ≈ 2000 calories (Calories from carbs) = 0.40 x 2000 calories = 800 calories (Grams of carbs) = 800 calories / 4 calories =200 g (Grams of starchy carbs) = 0.5 x 200 g = 100 g (Portions of starchy carbs) = 100 g / 15 g ≈ 6.6 portions (Grams of fibrous carbs) = 0.5 x 200 g = 100 g (Portions of fibrous carbs) = 100 g / 5 g = 20 portions (Calories from protein) = 0.40 x 2000 calories = 800 calories (Grams of protein) = 800 calories / 4 calories = 200 g (Portions of protein) = 200 g / 7 g ≈ 28.5 portions (Calories from fats) = 0.20 x 2000 calories = 400 calories (Grams of fats) = 400 calories / 9 calories ≈ 45 g (Portions of fats) = 45 g / 5 g = 9 portions

Observation: After doing you will see that the number of portions is large. For example 20 portions of protein sounds a lot but, on this eating system, portion sizes are very small – if you were eating chicken you would get the 7 g of protein found in a portion from a piece of meat the size of a matchbox.

Step 4. Redo step 3, only this time make the calculations for maintenance level caloric intake.

You need to know how many portions of fat, carbs and protein you should be eating to maintain your current weight because, as mentioned in “How to adjust your calorie consumption for fat loss”, you will be zigzagging your calories: 3 days fat loss and one day maintenance.

There’s no point to rewrite the formulas again, just redo step 3 but this time using the (Maintenance calorie needs) calculated at step one.

Example: The calculations made according to my calorie needs.

(Calorie intake) = (Maintenance calorie needs) = 2570 calories. ≈ 2500 calories The calculations are simple so I won’t waste more time on this.

Step 5. Calculate the amount of water you should be drinking.

Water consumption should be:
On high calorie days: (Maintenance calorie needs) {calculated at step 1} x 1.25 ml

On low calorie days: (Caloric intake) {calculated at step 2} x 1.25 ml

Feel free to increase the quantity if you want to but no more than 1.5 per calorie “burned” and remember to drink water every 2 hours even if you are not thirsty.

Example: Amount of water I need on a low calorie day.

(Calorie intake) ≈ 2000 calories (water) = 2000 x 1.25 = 2500 ml = 2.5 liters

Step 6. Spread your portions over the four meals a day according to the menu template.

You need to do this operation once for maintenance level and once for reduced calorie intake, again because of the zigzag.

The menu template looks like this:

Meal 1 – Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (medium serving)

Meal 2 – Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 3 - Lean Protein (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables), good fats

Meal 4 - Lean Protein (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables), good fats

Your are eating a medium serving of protein with every meal which means that your are eating approximately (Portions of protein)/4 portions of protein at every meal.

The same with fibrous carbs and good fats: you are eating (Portions of fibrous carbs)/3 portions of fibrous carbs at every one of the 3 meal you will be serving fibrous carbs at and eating (Portions of fat)/2 portions of good fats at each of the 2 meals involving good fats consumption.

The way you should eat starchy carbs is 2/3 of total starchy carb portions at the first meal and the rest (1/2) at the second one.

When the number of portions per meal is not a round number round; example if you would calculate that you need 6.34 portions of something per meal then round the number to 6.

After you calculate the portions rewrite the menu template using the appropriate portions for every meal.

Example:

The protein, carb and fat portions that should be used are the ones calculated at step 3 and 4. Calculations for reduced calorie intake(using the number of portions calculated at step 3): Protein: 28.5 portions / 4 meals = 7 portions per meal. Fibrous carbs: 20 portions / 3 meals ≈ 6 portions per meal Starchy carbs - first meal: 6.6 portions x 2/3 of number of portions ≈ 4 portions - second meal: (rest of starch carb portions) = 2 Healthy fats: 9 portions / 2 meals ≈ 4 portions per meal The menu rewritten: Meal 1 – 7 portions protein, 3 portions starchy carbs Meal 2 – 7 portions protein, 3 portions starchy carbs, 6 portions fibrous carbs Meal 3 – 7 portions protein, 6 portions fibrous carbs, 4 portions fats Meal 4 – 7 portions protein, 6 portions fibrous carbs, 4 portions fats ------------------------------------- Total: 28 portions protein, 6 portions Starchy carbs, 18 portions fibrous carbs, 8 portions good fats Calculations for maintenance level calorie consumption using the number of portions calculated at step 4): It’s pretty straight forward so I’ll let you crunch the numbers.

Step 7. Combine step 6 with foods from the approved lists to build efficient fat burning meals.

By step 7 you have 2 menu templates that present the amount of portions of protein, carbs and fat you should be eating in total and the way to arrange them in meals – one for maintenance level calorie intake (high calorie day) and the other of reduced calorie intake (low calorie day). Now all you got to do is look in the approved lists of foods and pic which ones you want to eat on a given day.

In the approved food lists, next to every food you will find the amount of it that should be considered a portion.

Source	Portion size	Protein/portion
Chicken breast	1 oz or 28.35 g	7 g
…	….	7 g
Egg whites	1 egg white	7 g

For example if I would have to eat 7 portions of protein at a meal, I could look at the approved list of protein sources (fragment of it presented above) and pick:

• a 7 oz piece of chicken or
• 7 egg whites or
• a 5 oz chicken breast and 2 egg whites.

Source	Portion size	Starchy carbs/portion
Baked potato	2 oz or 57 g	15 g
…	…	…
Brown rice	2.5 oz or 70g	15 g

For example if I would have to eat 2 portions of starchy at a meal, I could look at the approved list of starchy carb sources (fragment of it presented above) and pick:

· A 4 oz baked potato

· 5 oz brown rice

Example on how I could choose my portions on a low calorie day. The principles are the same for the high calorie day just there are more portions to eat then on the low calorie day.

Here’s my menu template: Meal 1 – 7 portions protein, 4 portions starchy carbs Meal 2 – 7 portions protein, 2 portions starchy carbs, 6 portions fibrous carbs Meal 3 – 7 portions protein, 6 portions fibrous carbs, 4 portions fats Meal 4 – 7 portions protein, 6 portions fibrous carbs, 4 portions fats A meal build on this template: Meal 1 4 oz turkey breast boiled [4 portions of protein] 3 egg white omelet [3 portions protein] 4 oz oatmeal [4 portions starchy carbs] Meal 2 7oz Chicken breast [7 portions of protein] 4 oz baked potato (no butter toping) [2 portions starchy carbs] Green paper, tomato and cucumber salad (use some olive oil) [6 portions of fibrous carbs] Meal 3 7 oz water packed tuna [7 portions of protein] 3 cups broccoli [6 portions of fibrous carbs] a piece of avocado [4 portions good fats] Meal 4 7 oz lean beef [7 portions of protein] Peas and a carrot-celery salad [6 portions of fibrous carbs] A hand full of peanuts [4 portions good fats]

Observations:

• Usually, it’s best to stick with one protein and starchy carb source per meal, but you can combine fibrous carb and fat sources.

• Always eat your protein first!

• Because fibrous carbs have very low calorie density you will be eating large quantities of them. The probability that you won’t be able to eat the recommended number of portions of fibrous carbs is very high. It’s not a problem if you can’t eat all of your fibrous carbs. Listen to your body, if you fill full don’t force feed yourself in order to meet the recommended number of portions, you’ll just be hurting yourself.

• It is possible to even gain weight first before you start losing fat .That’s because you are building your muscles and the bodies is receiving nutrients that it never received before that help it flourish. Don’t rely on your weight as a measurement for your progress – muscle is denser than fat meaning that roughly 3 lbs of muscle occupies the same amount of volume as 1 lb of fat. Remember that your goal is to lose fat not weight. There are situations where a person’s weight stayed the same during the diet but he replaced all of the fat with muscle mass and so, even if he weighed the same, his appearance changed completely – he reengineered a blob of fat into a lean, chiseled physic that is turning heads and demanding respect.

• Because of the amount of food that you will be eating the only way to make the diet work is to eat as clean as possible and pay special attention to the way your food is cooked (review “IV. How to eat your food for maximum fat loss.” )“Don’t eat food that is not found in the approved food lists.” for reasons why you should do this and how to do this).

• Don’t ruin your diet by eating junk food and simple carbs, saturated fats and trans fatty acid containing products (review the sections on simple carbs, saturated fats and trans fatty acids)

• Never drink your calories; the only liquid accepted is water!

• Zigzag your calorie intake for the best results: 3 low calorie days, followed by a high calorie day.

Accelerated Fat Loss Menu Template

Calorie rations should be as following: 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat.

Meal 1 – Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (large serving)

Meal 2 – Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 3 - Lean Protein (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables), good fats

Meal 4 - Lean Protein (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables), good fats

Observations:

• On this menu simple carbs are completely removed, starch carbs are only allowed before 12 AM -1 PM and there are 2 good fat servings. Protein consumption is increased so water consumption should be increased as well.

• You should not stay on this menu for more then a few weeks. Cycle it with the Maintenance/ Fat loss Menu until you reach your desired body fat.

Maintenance/Fat loss Menu Template

Calorie rations should be as following: 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat.

Meal 1 – Lean Protein (small serving), Starchy carbs (large serving), Simple carb (fruit) or Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 2 – Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 3 - Lean Protein (medium serving), Starchy carbs (medium serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables)

Meal 4 - Lean Protein (large serving), Starchy carbs (small serving), Fibrous carbs (vegetables), good fats

Observations:

• We will discuss what a large/medium/small serving is in the next section of this chapter.
• You can lose weight even on the Maintenance Menu if you decrease calories appropriately.

How to eat your food for maximum fat loss - part II

4. Eat the majority of your carbs in the first part of the day.

If you were eating large amounts of carbs in the second part of the day what would happen is that glycogen stores would be full after a day of eating so excess carbs are likely to be stored as fat instead of glycogen.

By doing this you are also promoting the use of fat as a fuel source in the second part of the day.

5. Don’t eat food that is not found in the approved food lists.

The foods in the lists of approved foods where carefully selected to make sure you are eating natural, low calorie dense and nutrient rich foods that aid you in your fat loss crusade and that there is enough variety so that you don’t get bored eating the same food over and over again.

If you choose empty calories & “junk foods” instead of the foods on the list you are severely compromising fat loss.

I know from experience that it’s hard to completely cut out fast-food and other “goodies” and that’s why you are allowed to have a cheat meal once in a while, let’s say 4 out of the 28 mini-meals you will be eating in a week can be cheat meals.

When having a cheat meal you can eat what ever you want, but in small quantities (Don’t eat a whole cake at a cheat meal!!).

The best way to use your cheat meals, if you decide to have cheat meals, is to make Sunday Cheat Day meaning that you can eat anything you want during Sunday meals, but again in small portions (if you pig out then you are throwing out the window all the effort put in dieting and exercise during the week).

Another thing that needs special attention is the way the food is cooked.

Always roast, broil, grill, sauté and stew your food.

Avoid food that is deep fried.

NEVER cover your food in butter and high-fat sauces, because you will be adding tones of extra calories to your food without even knowing. This highly overlooked fact often makes or breaks a successful fat loss diet. I know that food can be very dull without this but let me ask you this: Is giving up these a price too much to pay for building the body of your dreams? If the answer is YES I am sorry to say that you are not serious about losing fat. Remember: You eat to live not live to eat!

Approved list of condiments (use sparingly)

Fat Free Mayonnaise	Balsamic Vinegar
Low-Fat Salad Dressing	Salsa
Chili Powder	Mustard
Extracts

6. The only liquid you should be drinking is water!

A common mistake dieters make is that they fail to add the calories coming from the liquids they drink to their total calorie intake. Alcohol, diet soda, sports drinks and fruit juices all contain “empty calories” (calories without nutritional value) and should not be consumed.

That’s right no alcohol, no diet-soda, no sports drinks, no fruit juices, no nothing!!!

Water is the only calorie free liquid.

What you should know about water is that:

• Every physiological process in your body depends on water.
• Dehydration decreases endurance, strength and physical performance.
• Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normal.
• Water is especially important on moderate to high protein diets (the one used in this book). Processing protein produces much metabolic waste that the kidneys can’t remove completely without enough water.
• Drinking lots of water does not make you retain water. In fact the body only retains water when it does not receive enough water.

The best way to figure out the amount of water you should drink per day is by reporting it to your Total Energy Expenditure – you should drink between 1 ml and 1.5 ml per calorie consumed.

(Water intake in liters) = (total energy expenditure) X (1 or 1.5)

Anyway, do not drop water consumption below the recommended 8 to 10 glasses per day (that’s about 2 liters per day).

Water has to be consumed every 2 hours regardless if you are thirsty or not. During exercise sessions that involve heavy sweating you can drink a glass of water for every 30 minutes of exercise.

Another thing you need to know is that over consumption of water has a negative effect, so don’t exaggerate – stick to the guideline and you will be ok.

How to eat your food for maximum fat loss - part II

4. Eat the majority of your carbs in the first part of the day.

If you were eating large amounts of carbs in the second part of the day what would happen is that glycogen stores would be full after a day of eating so excess carbs are likely to be stored as fat instead of glycogen.

By doing this you are also promoting the use of fat as a fuel source in the second part of the day.

5. Don’t eat food that is not found in the approved food lists.

The foods in the lists of approved foods where carefully selected to make sure you are eating natural, low calorie dense and nutrient rich foods that aid you in your fat loss crusade and that there is enough variety so that you don’t get bored eating the same food over and over again.

If you choose empty calories & “junk foods” instead of the foods on the list you are severely compromising fat loss.

I know from experience that it’s hard to completely cut out fast-food and other “goodies” and that’s why you are allowed to have a cheat meal once in a while, let’s say 4 out of the 28 mini-meals you will be eating in a week can be cheat meals.

When having a cheat meal you can eat what ever you want, but in small quantities (Don’t eat a whole cake at a cheat meal!!).

The best way to use your cheat meals, if you decide to have cheat meals, is to make Sunday Cheat Day meaning that you can eat anything you want during Sunday meals, but again in small portions (if you pig out then you are throwing out the window all the effort put in dieting and exercise during the week).

Another thing that needs special attention is the way the food is cooked.

Always roast, broil, grill, sauté and stew your food.

Avoid food that is deep fried.

NEVER cover your food in butter and high-fat sauces, because you will be adding tones of extra calories to your food without even knowing. This highly overlooked fact often makes or breaks a successful fat loss diet. I know that food can be very dull without this but let me ask you this: Is giving up these a price too much to pay for building the body of your dreams? If the answer is YES I am sorry to say that you are not serious about losing fat. Remember: You eat to live not live to eat!

Approved list of condiments (use sparingly)

Fat Free Mayonnaise	Balsamic Vinegar
Low-Fat Salad Dressing	Salsa
Chili Powder	Mustard
Extracts

6. The only liquid you should be drinking is water!

A common mistake dieters make is that they fail to add the calories coming from the liquids they drink to their total calorie intake. Alcohol, diet soda, sports drinks and fruit juices all contain “empty calories” (calories without nutritional value) and should not be consumed.

That’s right no alcohol, no diet-soda, no sports drinks, no fruit juices, no nothing!!!

Water is the only calorie free liquid.

What you should know about water is that:

• Every physiological process in your body depends on water.
• Dehydration decreases endurance, strength and physical performance.
• Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normal.
• Water is especially important on moderate to high protein diets (the one used in this book). Processing protein produces much metabolic waste that the kidneys can’t remove completely without enough water.
• Drinking lots of water does not make you retain water. In fact the body only retains water when it does not receive enough water.

The best way to figure out the amount of water you should drink per day is by reporting it to your Total Energy Expenditure – you should drink between 1 ml and 1.5 ml per calorie consumed.

(Water intake in liters) = (total energy expenditure) X (1 or 1.5)

Anyway, do not drop water consumption below the recommended 8 to 10 glasses per day (that’s about 2 liters per day).

Water has to be consumed every 2 hours regardless if you are thirsty or not. During exercise sessions that involve heavy sweating you can drink a glass of water for every 30 minutes of exercise.

Another thing you need to know is that over consumption of water has a negative effect, so don’t exaggerate – stick to the guideline and you will be ok.

How to eat your food for maximum fat loss I

This section provides you with two menu templates - a menu template for use during dieting for fat loss and one for maintenance (every day use) – and explains the “rules” on which the menus are built.

The 6 “rules” on which the menu templates are built are the following:

1. Spread your total calories for the day over 4 meals.

By doing this compared to the traditional 3 meals a day or, the even worse, 2 meals a day you will be:

• Increasing your metabolism because of the thermal effect associated with digestion food.
• You will have more energy throughout the day.
  What happens when you eat a large, carbohydrate heavy meal is that there is a rapid increase in blood sugar levels. This causes a large insulin response. This massive release of insulin quickly removes sugar from the blood and blood sugar levels drop below normal levels (hypoglycemia). When you are in a state of hypoglycemia you have low energy levels and sugar cravings, which most people will try to satisfy by eating more simple carbs, restarting the cycle.
• Reduces fat storage through portion control.

2. Make your first meal the largest one and your last meal the smallest.

The theory behind this is that:

• The chance to store the calories eaten at breakfast as fat is very small because was in a state of starvation during the night and glycogen stores are depleted.
• Large dinners are very likely to be stored as fat because during the night your metabolism slows down and your glycogen stores are probably full from eating carbs during the day.

Your last meal for the day should be eaten 3-4 hours before bedtime. Always leave 3-4 hours between for proper digestion. Get at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night.

The best way to set your feeding times is:

• Between 7 AM and 8 AM – first meal
• Between 11 AM and 12 AM – second meal
• Between 3 PM and 4 PM – third meal
• Between 7 PM and 8 PM – fourth meal
• Between 10 PM and 12 PM go to sleep.

3. At every meal you should consume a lean protein, a starchy carb and a fibrous carb.

When you consume protein and carbs together, the protein slows down the digestion of carbs, resulting in a steady blood sugar and energy level.

Eating your starchy carbs combined with fibrous ones further slows down absorption of carbs, regulating even more blood sugar, insulin and energy level.

In order to get amino-acids into the muscle cells requires insulin. An optimum level of insulin will available because of the carb consumption.

Fats

Fats are the type of calories that dieters try to cut out of their diet because they are “fattening”.

If you take into account the fact that 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories and that 97% of the calories coming from fats are absorbed as opposed to 90% from carbs and 80% from protein you will realize that gram for gram fats are more fattening than other foods. To make matters worse fats don’t take up room in your stomach so they are easily overeaten.
The three types of fats are:

1. Saturated fats.

They are mostly animal fats and tend to stay solid at room temperature.
They should be avoided because they are harmful, leading to increased levels of cholesterol in the blood. Butter, cheese, chocolate, egg yolks, meat fat, dairy fat and palm and coconut oils all contain saturated fats.

If you are following the approved food lists strictly you should not worry about saturated fats.

2. Unsaturated fats.

Vegetable fats fit in this category.

Unsaturated fats are essential as they:

• reduce levels of blood cholesterols.
• Provide the body with essential fatty acids (EFA): omega 3’s and omega 6’s.
  Some of the benefits of EFA’s are:
  1. increased metabolic rate
  2. improved skin texture
  3. promote joint health
  EFA’s are required for:
  1. absorption of fat soluble vitamins
  2. growth promoting
  3. energy production

Needless to say, fats should be apart of your diet: 15 to 20% of your calories should come from unsaturated fat sources.

Approved list of fats

Source	Portion size	fats/portion
Avocado	1 oz or 28.35 g	5 g
Almonds (dry roasted)	1 tbsp or 6 pieces	5 g
Oil (olive & canola)	1 tbsp	5 g
Peanuts	1/3 oz or 10 pieces	5 g
Salad dressing (light)	2 tbsp	5 g
Walnuts	1 tbsp	5 g

3. Hydrogenation and trans fatty acids

Hydrogenation is a process used to prolong the shelf life of products. This process has the downside effect of making healthy unsaturated fats have the proprieties of saturated ones.

Trans fatty acids are chemically altered fats found in partial hydrogenated foods.

Some of the destructive effects of trans fatty acids are:

• Cholesterol level increase
• Hampered immune system functioning
• Increased sensitivity to insulin

Foods that contain trans fatty acids and should be avoided:

• Fried foods (fried chicken, French fries etc.)
• Bakery Products (cookies, Biscuits, doughnuts etc.)
• Refined Vegetable Oils
• Margarine

Carbohydrate (Carbs) Sources

Carbohydrates are derived from non-animal foods.

1 gram of carbohydrates equals 4 calories.

All carbs when digested are broken down into a simple form of sugar (blood glucose) that is used for energy particularly during high intensity activities.

For the body to function normally blood glucose levels must be between 70 mg/ 100 ml and 110 mg/ 100 ml.

When blood sugar concentrations exceed 110 mg/ 100 ml what happens is that an “storage” hormone is released (insulin) that takes the excess sugar out of the blood and stores it into muscle tissue or fat tissue.

Usually insulin stores excess carbohydrates in the muscles and liver as muscle and liver glycogen (glycogen basically is a storage tank for sugar). But, the capacity to store extra carbs as glycogen is limited and once the limit is reached excess carbs will be stored as body fat.

When levels get close to 70 mg / 100 ml the opposite happens; a “liberating” hormone (glucagon) is released which pulls sugar out of the muscle tissue and back into the blood.

If calorie and carb intake stays low for a period of time, glucagon will start to break down fat cells in order to use fatty acids as fuel (because glycogen stores are depleted).

What you should remember from all of this is that if you could keep blood sugar level stable and close to the bottom limit of normal blood glucose levels you would:

• Minimize insulin release thus minimizing the chance of carbs being stored as fat.
• Promote the break down and use of stored fat (this should be your goal when you are trying to lose fat).

The way to go about managing blood sugar and insulin levels is to choose complex carbs over simple carbs, to limit the amount of carbs eaten at a meal and to always eat carbs with protein. 40% to 55% of your calorie intake should come from carbohydrates.

Simple carbs are sugars known as monosaccharides. The term simple carb is usually used to describe refined sugars and white flour products. The natural simple carbs are fructose (found in fruit) and lactose (found in dairy products).

Complex carbs, also known as polysaccharides are nothing more than multiple chains of simple sugars linked together.

The advantage complex carbs have over simple ones are the speed at which they enter the blood stream as glucose and the amount of insulin that is released.

The speed at which complex carbs enter the blood as glucose is slow because the body must break the long chains of sugar, one by one, into smaller units of sugar before they can be turned into glucose; this translates in a steady flow of glucose into the blood, that cause a minimum insulin response.

Simple carbs, on the other hand, are digested with ease so glucose levels quickly build in the blood and massive amounts of insulin are released.

Even if simple carbs have this effect, it’s not necessary to remove them completely from your diet – you can still enjoy fresh fruits but in moderation if you want to maximize fat loss.

Approved list of simple carbs

Source	Portion size	Simple carbs/portion
Grapefruit	6.5 oz or 184 g	15 g
Raisins	2 tbsp or 18.5 g	15 g
Oranges	3.5 oz or 99 g	15 g
Apples	6 oz 170 g	15 g
Mellon	8 oz or 226 g	15 g
Strawberries	10 oz or 283 g	15 g

Now let’s get back to complex carbs.

There are 2 types of complex carbs: starchy carbs and fibrous carbs.

The difference is that starchy carbs are more calorie dense than fibrous ones – starches are completely absorbed and digested while fiber is indigestible so only a part of the caloric energy is absorbed.

Because fibrous carbs have low calorie density and at the same time “fill you up” so you don’t feel hungry they help you lose fat, so they should constitute the bulk of your carb intake.

Approved list of starchy carbs

Source	Portion size	Starchy carbs/portion
Baked potato	2 oz or 57 g	15 g
Sweet potato	2 oz or 57 g	15 g
Yam	2 oz or 57 g	15 g
Brown rice	2.5 oz or 70g	15 g
Pasta	3 oz or 85 g	15 g
Oatmeal	1 oz or 28 g	15 g
Beans	3 oz or 85 g	15 g
Corn	3.5 oz or 100 g	15 g
Whole wheat bread	2 pieces	15 g

Approved list of fibrous carbs

Source	Portion size	Fibrous carbs/portion
Asparagus	4 oz or 113 g	5 g
Broccoli	1/2 cup or 78 g	5 g
Carrots	1 cup	5 g
Cauliflower	2.5 cups	5 g
Celery	2/3 cup or 125 g	5 g
Cucumber	5.5 oz or 156 g	5 g
Green Beans	½ cup or 62.5 g	5 g
Green peppers	1.5 cups	5 g
Mushrooms	2.5 oz or 78 g	5 g
Onion	1/3 cup or 53 g	5 g
Peas	½ cup	5 g
Salad (lettuce, romaine)	3 cups or 156 g	5 g
Spinach	2/3 cup or 125 g	5 g
Tomato	½ cup or 90 g	5 g