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| photo: bodybuilding.com |
Take longer stretches in between meals. Instead of eating several small meals per day and feeling hungry all day long, eat two to three larger satisfying meals and take at least six hour breaks in between each meal. This helps optimize the two most important hormones for fat loss: insulin and leptin.
When you take longer stretches between meals, you get a snack on stored bodyfat several times per day. Three hours after you eat, blood sugar levels will start going down, and you will will release energy from stored bodyfat to keep levels steady. Eating less often will also improve digestion as you will have more enzymes built up at each meal for optimal utilization of nutrients.
You will find that you're not as hungry with larger meals eaten less frequently. With frequent small meals, you're never satisfied and your entire day revolves around when you will get your next fix. You should not feel stuffed after any meal, but you should feel content and not even think about another meal for several hours.
No.2 Eat slower and chew better
Take your time at each meal and chew each bite throughly. This will feel tedious at first. Yet over time, you will find you enjoy each meal much more and will not need to eat anywhere near as much to feel content. In additon, you can finally say goodbye to gut issues such as bloating, gas, and many other unpleasant side effects of not only eating the wrong foods, but eating way to fast.
You will never achieve your fat loss or fitness goals with poor gut health so take it seriously.
No.3 Intermittent fasting
Practice intermittent fasting 1-2 times per week. With intermittent fasting you engage in a water fast for the first eight hours of each day. You can consume black coffee, tea, amino acids, BCAA etc but avoid taking in meals or snacks. Intermittent fasting will improve both leptin and insulin sensitivity as well as ramp up growth hormone levels. Growth hormone is a powerful fat burner and is correlated with longevity as well.
No.4 Move your ass
Engage in intense exercise. If you have been overweight for a long time, you need a shock to the system. Just eating less and walking around the block is not going to cut it. Make sure you have clearance form your physician to practice intense exercise and work up to interval training.
Interval training is a form of intense conditioning in which you engage in short bursts of all out efforts followed by bursts of moderate intensity for several intervals. For example, sprint all out for 50 yards and then walk back to the starting point. Repeat for 8-10 intervals 2-3 times per week. This is powerful stuff for fat loss and crushing anxiety as well! I always feel better after several all out hill sprints and it is my favorite form of interval training.
Another example of interval training is thirty seconds of an all out effort on an elliptical machine, followed by sixty seconds of moderate intensity for 10-15 rounds.
Kettlebell swing for several round of 15-20 reps with one minute rest between rounds also works very well.
No.5 Crush estrogen dominance
Estrogen dominance is on the rise in both men and women which is all too obvious. More and more overweight men store bodyfat like overweight women which is frightening to say the least!
Having too much estrogen will make it impossible to lose stubborn bodyfat and will also make you feel terrible so you’re less likely to engage in intense exercise and practice a healthy lifestyle.
Men need to improve the ratio of testosterone to estrogen and women need to improve the ratio of progesterone to estrogen. Moreover, both men and women need more of the healthy estrogen estriol and less of the pro-carcinogenic estrogen estrone.
If you have high levels of estrogen (if you're overweight, you most certainly do) then cut out alcohol completely. Alcohol consumption converts testosterone into estrogen and ruins insulin sensitivity. Beer in particular is loaded with hops which is highly estrogenic. Yes this explains why many beer drinkers have "bitch tits" and look six months pregnant.
A healthy diet focused on a balance of good fats, low glycemic carbohydrates, and high quality protein will go along way to improve hormone balance and fat loss.
