More Power to You: The Big Fat Revelation
A Healthy Living Editorial by Drake Burr, CFT
The Big FAT Revelation: How to drop pounds of body fat without dieting or exercising excessively. Sounds extreme, right? It’s really not. What my message boils down to is how to master bodily hormones, namely the hormone insulin, through the foods that you eat.
Our current belief on how we gain weight is the idea that we eat too many calories. Not only is this incorrect, it’s also absolutely pointless and does not hold ground. When it comes to decreasing body fat, you want to focus on the types of calories you’re eating, not how many you’re eating. Different calories have different effects on the body and the calories that specifically come from carbohydrates tell your body to eat more and store fat.
To reduce your percentage of body fat without dieting or exercising, you must lower the fat-storing hormone “insulin” in your body. To do this, eat less than 50 grams of carbohydrate (especially from gluten sources) per day and consume plenty amounts of healthy fat coming from nuts, seeds, olives, avocados, butter, and naturally-fed animal fat.
So, let’s bust some more myths…
MYTH: High fat diets are dangerous.
TRUTH: High fat diets done right can be the answer to just about any problem that’s health related.
Today’s modern belief when it comes to a healthy diet is that carbohydrates (starch and sugar) are a staple for good health, and dietary fat makes you fat and unhealthy. When you take a look at the history of what the human race consumed for thousands of years, you’ll find that we consumed very little carbohydrates, if any, and got the majority of our calories from saturated animal fats. We as a nation have had this strongly held belief (that carbs are necessary and fats are unhealthy) since the beginning of the 1960s and, ironically, chronic disease started to increase at the same time.
TAKE AWAY: To regain your health, practice a high-fat (avoid trans fats though), low-carbohydrate diet with no more than 50 grams of non-glutinous carbs per day.
MYTH: Modern whole grains are heart-healthy and should be consumed daily.
TRUTH: Modern whole grains raise your blood sugar levels higher than a candy bar. The wheat our ancestors consumed had only 14 chromosomes while modern wheat has roughly 42 chromosomes. We have genetically modified the wheat strain to a point that it secretes more insulin (the fat storing hormone) into the blood stream than the wheat our ancestors consumed, and research suggests that the increase in chronic disease rates has kept pace with the increased consumption of modern wheat. We also made the assumption to switch from eating fats to carbohydrates and we now have an almost threefold increase in type 2 diabetes since 1980.
TAKE AWAY: Eating heart-healthy whole grains is not a healthy option, it’s actually the complete opposite. The higher the glycemic score of a particular food, the more insulin produced, the more fat gets stored.
MYTH: Dietary sugar is required for optimal health.
TRUTH: The human dietary requirement for carbohydrates (starch and sugar) is virtually zero.
Most medical physicians, personal trainers, and nutritionists/dietitians will make the statement that your body must have sugar in order to survive and function. This is only fact when an individual is dependent on sugar as a primary fuel source. Not only can fat be used as a primary fuel source, it’s actually the preferred fuel source for the body.
TAKE AWAY: Your body is either conditioned to using sugar or fat as it’s primary source of energy. Sugar burns very fast and requires more sugar frequently, whereas fat keeps your body feeling fuller for longer periods.
MYTH: Counting calories is a must.
TRUTH: Counting calories almost never works and will never last.
Counting calories has been proven throughout time to be unsuccessful for optimal health, one reason being is because it’s an annoying chore to have to do on top everything else we have going on in our lives. As mentioned earlier, it’s not how many calories that make one fat, it’s which calories tell your body to burn or store fat. Replace unhealthy calories with calories from a healthy fat source, i.e. coconut oil, grass-fed beef, and avocados.
TAKE AWAY: Counting calories does nothing but waste your precious time. Instead, practice feeding your body foods it was born to consume that are high in healthy fats and low in carbohydrates.
MYTH: Exercising more works.
TRUTH: More exercise does not speed up, but rather inhibits your progress.
A fundamental misconception most people have about exercise is that the body doesn’t need much time to recover from workouts. If you’re not giving your body enough time to recover, you can become overtrained and your progress (building more muscle to burn fat, strength gains, etc.) comes to a halt. You also cause wear and tear on your body that will eventually reduce the quality of your life. Like counting calories, working out more often will just waste your time.
TAKE AWAY: Weight training as little as one day a week for 30 “high-intense” minutes, at most, is far better for your health, your body, and your time than four, three, or even two days per week. To reduce the amount of time spent in the gym while also reaping great results, perform one workout a week with an all-out intense effort for as little as five but no longer than 30 minutes a week.
Implementing what you just read will drastically increase the quality of your life in almost every circumstance directed at bettering your health. Within the first few days, you’ll feel yourself getting back to optimal health. I practice this lifestyle personally and still recognize amazing health benefits. It’s also helped a friend of mine lose as much as 20 pounds of fat in just 4 weeks and lower cholesterol from 650, down to normal.
Drake Burr is a private health and wellness coach certified through the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), and is a professional fitness model. He provides complimentary videos on training and nutrition, and writes a daily blog on various health-related topics, such as prevention and treatment of chronic ailments and symptoms using holistic nutrition. More info: TrainingByDrake.com.