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Winning the Fat Wars

It always amazes me when I hear an “over-fat” individual complaining about how difficult it is to lose the unwanted pounds while almost in the next instant s/he is stuffing as much health-demoting, energy-sapping food into his/her mouth all the while doing little or no exercise to burn it off. Too many times we give in to our lush desires to consume the wrong foods just because they seem to fill a void or are convenient for us to do so at the time. When are the vast majority of North Americans going to wake up and realize that every time they consume these fat-storing foods, they are quite literally digging their graves with their forks?

The theory of premature mortality is no vague threat. Most over-fat and obese people are likely to check out before their time. With a list of over 30 known diseases that can be directly linked to carrying excess body fat, it’s not surprising that those of us who fall into this category rarely reach the estimated life expectancy of 76.7 years of age. Any true lover of life will attest to the fact that 76.7 years is not nearly enough time as it is, so why wouldn’t you do everything within your power to extend not only the length of your life, but the quality as well? In my book Bio-Age, I call this “healthy longevity,” which refers to living as long as possible as young as possible.

The social cost of premature deaths due to excess body fat must not be overlooked. Not only have we lost people who could have made major contributions to society for many years to come, but people who were grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, moms and dads, brothers and sisters and friends to people who loved them and whom they loved, are all gone—thanks to excess body fat. Being over-fat does not automatically doom you to a life of illness and premature death but it certainly increases your risk of being one of the statistics.

You might be wondering by now why I often refer to excess body fat as being “overfat” instead of “overweight.” The reason is that we are part of a society consumed by our outward appearance along with the notion that “body-weight” is the determining factor of how well we do with that appearance. We are so consumed with our appearances that at this moment, one-third of women and one-quarter of men are either starting or finishing the latest fad diet. Too bad nobody told them that diets don’t work. In fact, statistics show that a measly five percent of dieters are successful at keeping the weight off after a two-year period. The real question the majority of dieters should be asking is “Where is the majority of the weight loss coming from?” The answer to this question also happens to be one of the strongest reasons we experience such vast health breakdown as we age.

By the time of retirement age, two-thirds of our population will have lost at least onethird of their muscle mass and gained the rest in body fat. It’s as if we transform from firm young Macintosh apples to soft, mushy ones. Muscle tissue is one of the most metabolically active tissues of which the human body is comprised. Muscle also happens to be the key metabolic engine of the human body—where body fat is transported so that it can become an energy source for the body. In a very real sense, the more muscle you have on your frame, the greater your body’s ability to burn calories without even moving. In science we refer to this as your basal metabolic rate (the rate at which your body utilizes calories at rest). The main reason we gain so much extra padding as we age is because we have lost such a significant portion of our body’s spark plugs (muscle). Body fat is not the only thing we lose as muscle is stripped away. Along with muscle we lose energy and bone mass as well. As you can well imagine, muscle is of utmost importance to any healthy longevity program and must be maintained at all costs. When we risk losing our muscle tissue by following fad diets (especially if they are low in protein), being inactive—or exercising the wrong way, and allowing stress to over run our lives, we cause a deficit in our healthy longevity account. But there’s only so long you can run on credit.

In order to save (health) for the future (longevity) you must start investing in your healthy longevity account today. Having said this, it is never too late to transform your life around so that you can finally experience the life you were meant to live. Getting rid of the life-stripping body fat is a good place to start. Here’s how:

Throw away your bathroom scales and realize once and for all that weight does not equal success on the healthy longevity program —especially if the majority of the weight loss is coming from metabolically active tissue—muscle. Have a body fat analysis done at a local fitness center to truly gauge your success. A man should be approximately 15 percent and a woman 24 percent.

Enhance your metabolism by increasing muscle mass. Instead of only focusing on cardio activity for weight loss, start performing weight-bearing exercises two or three times a week. This will give you a long-term insurance policy to effective fat loss.

Consume lean proteins (from wild game, lean cuts of beef, free-range chicken, cold-water fish, eggs, tofu and whey protein) at every meal to enhance thermogenesis (the rate of calorie burning).

Consume only low-glycemic (slow digesting) carbohydrates with every meal (from fibrous vegetables and fruits). The higher the glycemic value of a carbohydrate, the greater its chances of converting into extra body fat. For a complete list of foods and their respective glycemic value please visit www.fatwars.com.

Make sure not to avoid fat with your meals. Avoiding essential fats (from nuts, seeds, flax oil, hemp oil and fish fats) can increase the absorption rate of sugars, which in turn increases your fat-storing potential (by stimulating the fat-storing hormone insulin).

Never let more than three-and-a-half hours pass without eating a properly balanced meal of the three macronutrients (proteins, carbs and fats). Avoiding regular eating patterns can cause your body to go into a false starvation mode (through lowered blood sugar levels), ultimately creating a fat storing environment with your next meal.

And lastly, change your thoughts. Remember the last time you did something you felt awful about. Realize that all actions stem from feelings and all feelings stem from our thoughts. Most of those insatiable cravings for fat-storing foods are often related to your levels of negative thoughts, stress, anxiety, depression or just plain boredom.

Almost 70 percent of those polled report negative mood or depression as being the main trigger for food cravings. How many times have you found yourself reaching for a candy bar, ice cream or potato chips when you were feeling in the dumps?

I hope you are able to start applying some or all of these strategies immediately. There are so many people I come across at my lectures that are just raring to implement the new healthy longevity principles they have learned in order to transform their lives for the better. The problem is, many of them will wait for that perfect day to apply these principles. The perfect day rarely comes, almost always replaced with “I’ll start tomorrow.” Don’t place your health on hold for a tomorrow that may never come . . . make today that PERFECT DAY!

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