Calories in vs Calories out = If you want to lose body fat it’s really very simple, you need to expend more energy than you take in or in other words, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Sounds easy right? Eat less food, yeah?
OK Well, it’s not really that simple and you need to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. Yes, you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose body fat but what you have to understand is that your body is the ultimate survival machine and unfortunately for us our software is a little bit outdated. You want your calorie deficit to be between 100 – 500 calories, 500 being the much more extreme end of the scale. Anything more than this and your body thinks that there is a famine and will actually store any excess energy as body fat as it is under the impression that there is little or known food around. From experience with clients I usually always find that people under-eat as opposed to overeating.
With this Knowledge in mind, I always promote eating three big meals a day instead of Grazing or snacking all day as a big meal will send your body the opposite signal and will promote Fat burning hormones and satiation. If you want to track your calories there is an App Called my fitness pal which will help you every step of the way. Once you have used this application for a number of weeks you will be able to calculate the guts of your diet off the top of your head and you will have a much greater understanding of the calories you are consuming on a daily basis.
Step 1 – Track your calories for an 8 week Period on my fitness pal
2. Assessing and Addressing your Micro-nutrient deficiencies= Being Deficient in micronutrients has a negative impact on your longevity, lifespan, mental health, and overall body composition. It’s just as Important as calories in versus calories out. So the question is can you consume crap processed food and still lose body fat? The answer is yes to an extent but only to a certain degree. If you do not get adequate macronutrient intake your body will again think that it is starving and will switch back to famine mode, slow down metabolism, and purposely hold onto body fat.
Step 2 – Address your Micro-nutrition deficiencies through supplementation, cold-pressed organic vegetable juices, Tonic herbs, and adaptogenic herbs
3. Balancing your hormonal profile = Hormones are the master Keys and fat gain in different areas of the body is associated with too much or too little of certain hormones. For example, men who have a lot of fat around the chest area (Man Boobs) Would be associated with high levels of estrogen whereas abdominal fat would be associated with high cortisol levels. Did you ever notice men always tend to gain abdominal fat after they have kids? This is because they suddenly get much less sleep than they used to and their stress hormone cortisol goes through the roof leading to fat gain in the abdominal area for both men and women. Hormones are affected and disrupted by many factors such as stress levels, sleep, sunlight, calorie consumption, consumption of healthy and saturated fats, Carbohydrate consumption, and Micro-nutrients levels.
So many things have a negative effect on or hormonal profiles but for everything bad, there is something positive you can do to address it – Such if life
To find out more about Biosignature markers and balancing your hormonal profile please refer to my recent article
Step 3 – Balance your hormones through the use of tonic herbs and detoxification while decreasing your exposure to harmful products.
4. Understand the difference between Low glycemic and high glycemic foods = A high Glycemic food spikes insulin levels and promotes insulin resistance making carbohydrates more likely to be stored as body fat. Cooking/Drying/Ripping and processing foods all affect their glycemic index. Imagine there is a fire in your belly and the glycemic index represents how quickly the food will be burnt up and the faster it is burnt up the more dramatic the rise in your blood sugar levels. Soft Drinks, Fried foods, Sweets, and white bread would all be very high on the glycemic index whereas avocados, Almond nuts, olives, chickpeas, beans, or meat would all be very low.
Step 4 – Gain a basic understanding of The glycemic Index
5. Lowering your Cortisol levels and Detoxification = Cortisol is a stress hormone and has been shown to increase weight gain. We can bring cortisol levels down by getting proper sleep, avoiding noise pollution, walking in nature, meditating, yoga, and practicing mindfulness. Detoxification can be achieved through dietary means or through bodily excretion like sweat or urine. There are many tonic herbs that promote detoxification through different pathways or for different vital organs. Activated charcoal can bind to heavy metals and eliminate them from the body or milk thistle extract can help cleanse and detoxify the liver. Many adaptogenic herbs will balance hormones and help keep cortisol levels in check. Organic beetroot juice can detoxify xenoestrogens from the body when combined with MSM powder.
Step 5 – Detoxify using Sauna, hot Yoga, or Epsom salts bath and write up a four-week nutritional detox plan including some of the following, Activated charcoal, Red Grapes, Berries. Raw cold Pressed Organic Beetroot Juice, MSM powder, Nettle Tea, Lemon water Garlic, Ginger and asparagus
