I stumbled on one of those videos that promise to share some BIG SECRET to fat loss... just to tease you with non-information for 15 minutes and then try to get you to give them your credit card number for the really good stuff.
This video is similar to all the others except for the fact that during the 'tease' part they ACTUALLY DO impart some interesting information!
The expert that shares is...
Isabel de los Rios
- Nutritionist C.H.E.K. certified
- Exercise Specialist (NSCA-CSCS)
- Speaker
- Author
I watched and took notes... then when they got to the credit card part I exited and exited again when the pop-up tried to entice me once more.
I have transcribed an excerpt of the presentation. (not the fluff from the beginning or the sales pitch at the end) Please look it over. I am thinking about how I might incorporate some of this info into my own meal planning. Much of it seems like good advice and I liked the simple explanations of the role of insulin and the function of the liver.
The presentation contains a strong opinion on processed foods and calls high fructose corn syrup a "harmful substance." I have found no supporting evidence for this statement beyond the fact that Americans consume way too much sugar (in any form). Here is a link to an article with what I believe is a more balanced view of High Fructose Corn Syrup...
The Truth about High Fructose Corn Syrup-Sweet Surprise or Health Demise? by By Becky Hand, Licensed & Registered Dietitian .
I like to really examine claims and make the wisest and most informed choices possible. So remember this is just one opinion. I don't think that making the changes that Isabel suggests would be harmful... but are they necessary? I welcome a discussion :)
Here it is...
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Beginning of quoted material
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"The Diet Solution" intro video
Sugar is your Enemy!!!
Sugar is your #1 enemy! But we are not actually talking about jelly donuts and candy canes here. Yes, those are bad for you but there are plenty of foods disguised as health foods that quickly change to sugar in your body. Guess what?
- Orange Juice
- Whole Wheat Bread
- 'Healthy' Cereals
- things designated as 'low fat' like muffin and salad dressings
- ... the list goes on and on.
These are the foods that are actually causing you to gain (or at least not lose) weight! Listen, I'm telling you the truth. When that stuff hits your system it turns to sugar! Tons of foods that are touted as healthy do the same thing. They are not healthy. They are actually the foods that are preventing you from losing fat. Let me explain what happens...
Blood Sugar-Insulin Roller-Coaster.
Blood Sugar is not something that only diabetics need to worry about. Anyone who is trying to burn stubborn fat off their body needs to regulate their blood sugar. Here's why...
If your blood sugar is high (over 100-120 zone) for a consistent period of time, your body has no choice but to release a hormone called insulin. Insulin signals your body to store fat and that's exactly what you don't want. But having high blood sugar for a consistent period of time is actually very dangerous for your body so insulin comes in to save the day. Unfortunately though this makes you to store lots of fat.
More bad news...
When insulin is released it actually takes your blood sugar from a high to an extreme low. Do you know what happens when your blood sugar is low? ... You're hungry... You have cravings... and you are extremely fatigued. Diet plans make you feel this way and that makes it near impossible to stay on your fat burning plan.
Now insulin is important and we do need a certain amount of it in our blood stream but many people are releasing way too much of it and that's why it is nearly impossible for them to lose any weight. The answer to this problem is knowing exactly which foods you can eat that will not cause this "Blood Sugar-Insulin Roller-Coaster."
Let me go into explaining how to recognize those foods right now...
Carbs
Many people associate carbs with sugar but what you need to know is that...
- Not all CARBS are created equal
and the ones you are eating thinking they are healthy may be doing you more harm than good. Look,
- Your body needs carbs to function properly
but there are certain carbs you absolutely do not need.
- Carbs that will NOT help you burn fat:
- Whole Wheat Bread
For example many people believe the whole wheat bread they are eating is good for them. Definitely not. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Whole wheat bread will create an increase in blood sugar and insulin just as much as much as most other breads.
- Whole Grain Pasta
This also happens with most pastas. Yes, even the whole wheat ones.
- So called "health" cereals
- Whole Grain Crackers
Almost all cereals, crackers… even the ones that have all kinds of healthy claims written all over the box. All of them will put you in that fat storing state.
- Carbs that WILL help you burn fat:
So which carbs should you eat? Well lucky for you and me there are a lot of them. If you are a fan of bread, as most people are, I have probably really upset you before with all that bad news about bread. But there is still a lot of breads you can have.
- Sprouted Grain Bread
There are breads made from sprouted grains
- Rice
- Spelt
or from grains like Rice and Spelt that all fit perfectly into your fat burning meal plan. And they taste good too. I am not into eating anything that tastes bad and I’m sure you’re not either. Speaking of good grains, how do you like rice?
- Millet
- Quinoa
Ever hear of Millet and Quinoa? They are absolutely delicious and although not a grain,
- Sweet Potatoes
how about a sweet potato with a little butter and cinnamon? Yes, you can have that and still burn tons of fat. Do you know what else qualifies as a good form of carbs?
- All Fruits and Vegetables
Pretty much any fruit and vegetable is free game. And I know there are some crazy diet plans out there that limit the amount of fruits and vegetable you can have. But that is just a complete lie. Any diet that tells you that you can’t have something like a fruit or a vegetable is some crazy crash diet and not realistic for the long term and that is not what we are trying to teach you here. The truth is the good fiber, vitamins, minerals and nutrients in most fruits and vegetables will actually help you burn fat faster.
Good Fats vs. Bad Fats
Here is another very confused topic: if you don’t know exactly what kinds of fats you should be eating, burning fat will be impossible. Yes, IMPOSSIBLE.
- It’s impossible to LOSE fat without eating fat I almost can’t believe that in this day and age people are still afraid to eat fat. But who can blame them? We have been told by just about every health guru that fat is what makes people fat. This is another huge misconception and a big lie.
- Fat does NOT make you Fat.
You want to know what the real truth is? The right kind of fat will actually burn a ridiculous amount of fat off your body, increasing your chances of fat loss success exponentially. Here’s why… When you give your body the right kind of fat, it actually increases the metabolic process to burn off your unwanted fat.
- Eat Good Fat = Burn Body Fat.
Eat Bad Fat = Store Body Fat.
Did you get that? Eat the right kind of fat and you will burn fat. Eat the wrong kind of fat and you will store fat.
- Fats that will cause you to GAIN Fat:
Here are the fats you should be avoiding like the plague because they are the ones that are causing you to gain weight and preventing you from losing the bad fat off your body:
- Hydrogenated Oils
- Canola Oil and Vegetable Oils
- Margarine ... and definitely those
- Substitute fake Butter products
Surprised again? Did you think that the processed, fake margarine you were putting on your toast each morning was actually the right thing to do? I don’t blame you! How could you not with all those commercials out there telling you it is actually the healthy alternative to butter? But have you read the ingredients lists on there? That’s not real food and your body does nothing good with the stuff but store it as bad fat.
- Fats you MUST eat to LOSE fat:
Let me let you in in all the delicious fats that you can have.
- Real Butter
- Whole Eggs
- Coconut Oil
- Olive Oil
- Avocados
- Raw Nuts
You think I am crazy now don’t you? This is usually the place where many people will ask me, “Isabel, aren’t we all supposed to avoid saturated fat for our health? Am I going to keel over from a heart attack by eating butter and coconut oil?” Definitely not! Another huge misconception and something most health professionals have all wrong. Statistics prove it. Remember, sugar is your enemy. All these natural, unprocessed fats that are not full of chemicals are not only your friend but what you absolutely need to burn that fat off your body.
Processed Foods.
Now, if we are going to consider sugar enemy number one, then Processed Foods would be enemy number two.
- Contain lots of sugar.
But, then again, most processed foods contain an incredible amount of sugar. Do you know what else they contain?
- Contains many harmful chemicals.
Tons of chemicals that make it almost impossible for your body to burn off fat. Let me explain this by giving you a brief anatomy lesson and I promise it won’t be hard.
- You want your liver to be working optimally.
It all comes down to how effectively your liver is working. Now your liver has many functions but the two we want to focus on here are:
- the Breakdown of Fats and
- the Filtering of harmful substances from the blood
If it is your liver’s job to break down fat, you want it working at full force, right? But when your poor little liver is too busy trying its hardest to filter out all the harmful substances that are coming in from all those processed foods it has no time or energy for fat breakdown. Just like if you had two big jobs each day and you spent your whole day working on just one. Do you think the other would get done? Probably not! The easiest solution to making sure that your liver has all the time it needs to breakdown fat is to stop feeding it harmful substances to work on.
- Avoid these processed foods and chemicals:
So what are some of these harmful substances? Things like:
- Artificial sweeteners
- High fructose corn syrup
- Hydrogenated oils
- Processed Soy Products
It is the foods that contain these chemicals that are the overwhelming your liver and you have to stop eating them. Even if think you may not be eating many of these chemicals, they are unfortunately in many foods we think are good for us. Do you know I found high fructose corn syrup in foods like so-called ‘healthy’ yogurt, whole wheat bread and cereals advertised as good for you? It’s right there on the ingredients list. So do yourself and your liver a favor. Give it a chance to get into fat-burning mode by greatly reducing or, dare I say, eliminating processed foods from your eating plan. This means saying good-bye to the packaged snacks, the microwaveable meals, diet health bars and definitely the soy products and say hello to foods you know do not require heavy processing.
Foods that contain only one ingredient like
- steak
- chicken
- fish
- eggs
- fruits and veggies,
- olive oil
- coconut oil
- butter
- rice
- sweet potatoes.
There are literally hundreds and hundreds of delicious meals that can be created with any combination of all these foods. I know because I have done it and I have been able to stay super lean over the past 10 years.
Calories
Now let’s get into a topic that is not exactly food but I know it’s probably on your mind: Calories. First and foremost I am going to be honest and tell you I absolutely hate the word calories. It just drives everyone crazy and I never again want to hear, “Isabel, how many calories should I be eating to lose weight?”
- You don’t need to count calories
- The Number of calories DOES NOT MATTER
It’s not the number of calories that matters. It is the quality of food you are eating and the metabolic enhancing effects on your body that matters. So most people are actually focused on the wrong thing. If you just eliminate the bad stuff. The garbage foods, processed foods and focus on eating the good stuff, the foods I mentioned earlier, you could drop the calculator and stop all this counting madness. But that answer is just not good enough for most people. I do admit you have to be SOMEWHAT REASONABLE about the AMOUNT YOU EAT but exactly what is reasonable for you and what is reasonable for me? Surprisingly enough, it is a lot more calories than you think.
- Most people are not eating ENOUGH calories
Once I figured out the portions of food that I needed to eat to lose weight were actually significantly bigger than the portions that I was eating before, it was like the best thing that ever happened. I didn’t have to be hungry anymore and I was still losing weight! How great is that?
- Starving yourself
Here I was previously starving myself with all the wrong foods only to find out if I ate all the right foods, I could eat a lot and I love to eat!
- Starving yourself = “starvation mode” = holding onto all of your BAD FAT
And actually starving myself was doing me more harm than good because my body was holding on to all of my bad fat in an effort to protect me. You might have heard this before but calorie restriction may lead your body into “starvation mode” and that’s when your body thinks you are dying of starvation and protects you by holding onto every last bit of fat and every last calorie you have in your body, I’m pretty sure most people in this day and age are not running the risk of starvation. What do you think? You probably want me to tell you approximately where to start just so you don’t go on an eating free-for-all. (apparently you have to buy "The Diet Solution" to get this information)
Where Most Diets Flunk
- It’s not specific to your own body
- Don’t tell you anything about your “Metabolic Type”
- Foods need to be SPECIFIC for you
- Portions need to be SPECIFIC for you
Everyone thinks I was born with a good metabolism. But that is not the case. I created a great metabolism for myself just by eating all the right foods.
- You must eat food you enjoy
- Calculations are too complicated
"The Diet Solution" intro video
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I agree with what she says about "starving yourself" because of my own experiences. But I don't think I will ever agree that "you don't need to count calories"... That is one of the keys to my success. I agree that 'good' calories can change the metabolic equation and allow you to eat more... but it is still possible to overeat healthy food and when I "max out" Phase 3, that is really what I am trying to do so I can see the upper limit of my metabolism :)
Well? What do you think? I would love to hear some reactions!
