INTENTIONS Their is a saying that "the wise man sharpens his ax." What this means is that working diligently is not enough to reach your goals. Often times what is needed is a little bit of wisdom to bring fruition to our hard work. My intention here is to offer some of these tools to those interested in loosing stubborn belly fat. I know the disappointment in working long hours at the gym or going on grueling diets yet without enjoying the fruit of my labor. The thing that was missing for me, and perhaps for you as well if you are reading this, is wisdom. That is, to understand how the body works and how to work with rather than against it. Each body is different and requires different rules to nurture the body into the shape we want. PROBLEMS There are some things that make weight loss difficult. These include hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Age as well as being in a state of caloric restriction also slows down the body's metabolism. The body has its own biological set point at where it wants to be and this needs to be lowered naturally if we want to see progress in fat loss. It is unnatural for the body to both move beyond its set point and to carry out "anti-survival" behaviors like loosing weight. FACTORS WE CAN CONTROL At this point there are a couple of factors that can be controlled so that we can work with our body and its natural laws. These include the body's set point, insulin secretion, and insulin resistance. SET POINT For weight loss we want to lower the set point. With a caloric restrictive diet this is the goal. The factors that get in the way of this and "destroy" the set point is insulin secretion and insulin resistance. The organ that we are looking at here is the pancreas. INSULIN The insulin hormone is the number one hormone to be managed in weight loss. It is triggered by carbohydrates, it destroys protein (muscle wasting), and turns off the body's ability to burn fat. It is from miss managed insulin that we get hyper and hypoglycemia. The symptoms include brain fog, high fasting insulin, belly fat, digestive issues, tiredness after meals, pigment elevation in the folds of the skin, and hunger between meals. INSULIN RESISTANCE Our bodies were largely designed to run off of fat as its energy source. It has only been in the past 100 years that refined sugar has really assaulted our diets with its cheapness and availability. With such high amounts of refined sugar, carbohydrates, and the frequency of snacking throughout the day insulin levels remain high and spike multiple times throughout the day. In times the receptors for insulin cease to respond as efficiently to insulin secretion. Consequently more and more insulin is needed to be secreted for the same affect. This leads to high levels of insulin in the blood. The consequence is a continual craving for refined sugar and carbohydrates. The cycle continues and only decreases fat usage throughout the body and increases fatigue. INSULIN TREATMENT Insulin management is started with the elimination of refined sugars and most carbohydrates from the diet. We also want an increase in quality fats (organic coconut oil, olive oil). Ironically, these fats actually stimulates the body's ability to burn it's fat storages. Intermittent fasting is an excellent tool for managing insulin. This consists of eating within a 6 or 8 hour window than to fast for the remaining hours. Eating from 11am to 5pm and eliminating any midnight snacks is an excellent example. Also, it is important to limit meals to 2-3 a day. INSULIN RESISTANCE TREATMENT There are some good tools for improving insulin resistance. These are largely dietary and include adding the following foods to your diet: apple cider vinegar (2 tablespoons a day), fermented foods (yogurt and sauerkraut), high potassium foods, more high quality fat, more vegetables, Vitamin B1 (nutrition yeast is a very bio available source), more fiber (it buffers insulin). Other tools include getting more sleep (8-9 hours a day), exercising, and lowering cortisol (stress). SUMMARY OF TOOLS
Goal: Decrease body's set point, decrease insulin secretion, repair insulin resistance.
Tools (decrease body's set point): Decrease insulin secretion. This increases the body's ability to use lipids as energy. A ketogenic diet will also be helpful here unless your doctor says otherwise.
Tools (decrease insulin): Restrict carbohydrate intake. Increase intake of whole organic foods as well as organic oils. These means lots of veges.
Tools (repair insulin resistance): Intermittent fasting and adding listed foods to diet from above.
I hope you have found these tools to be helpful. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via the website.
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