The Low Carb Craze and Other Dieting Mistakes

Dear BMTers,

Low carb this and low carb that…that’s all you hear nowadays. Kinda reminds me of something that was the craze a few years ago…The Low or No Fat Craze…Can you remember where that got us? Still Fat!!!

Well my friends this Low Carb Craze is going to bring us to the same exact place…Yep…Still Fat! Listen, anyone who tries Low carb dieting will experience some Short Term success…but it’s only short term.

I know some of you are tired of hearing me repeat myself but any diet or exercise machine in and of itself will not work! A successful Fitness Program must incorporate 5 Strategies:

1. A Compelling Reason to Change
2. Proper Nutrition
3. Progressive Resistance Training
4. Moderate Aerobic Exercise
5. Consistency

If you’re missing any one of these strategies you will not experience the success that you crave.

Why the Low Carb diets without Progressive Resistance Training will not work in the long run.

We need to build lean muscle on our bodies. Why do we need to build lean muscle on our bodies? Building lean muscle will boost metabolism and that is what we want to achieve. You’ll even start burning more calories even while you rest.

Right now I’m going to let you in on one of the biggest secrets on burning fat ever revealed:

Lean Muscle Burns Fat!

And, the more lean muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. That is a statement that you can take to the bank! I guarantee it! Listen, all these people that go on these Fad diets are really losing water and lean muscle weight.

They Are Not Losing Any Fat Whatsoever!

How can they be if I just got finished telling you that in order for us to lose any fat,(and I did mean any fat!) you must have lean muscle tissue for the fat to go be burned up in?

Our bodies are smart; our fat just can’t go away it must be burned up in a muscle cell. And if you’re not doing any Progressive Weight Resistance Training, well then, you’re not building any new lean muscle tissue.

Which means, you guessed it…you won’t be burning fat any time soon!!!

Don’t you see? The people that go on these Fad (starvation) diets turn into “skinny fat” people. Sure they lose weight, but they lose the wrong kind of weight.

Since these people usually don’t perform any weight resistance training and are only probably taking diet pills, and doing hours of aerobic exercise, they are losing water (from the low calorie, low carb diet) and lean muscle (from doing to much aerobic exercise and not having the right amount and the proper ratios of food in their bodies).

So what is left?

FAT!!!

They have no muscle tone whatsoever!

What these people should be doing is learning how to lift weights and get stronger progressively! The only way to do that is…

Get A Little Stronger Each And Every Workout

If you’re not getting stronger each and every workout than you are doing something wrong! Then all you have to do is add: A Compelling Reason to Change, Proper Nutrition, Moderate Aerobic Exercise, and Consistency to be Successful

A great example of dieting the wrong way in my opinion is Anna Nicole Smith’s recent “weight loss”.

From a distance she looks great! But get closer and clear the smoke and you will find that she transformed herself into what I explained before a “skinny fat person”.

So let’s see what happened…

Most people think that to lose excess body fat, they must stop eating altogether. This is where they are totally wrong. Starvation…(what else would you call not eating?) triggers a metabolic response where, your metabolism will actually slow down and become more efficient in order to preserve body tissue in the case of a shortage of future nutrition.

This is precisely what we don’t want. Another way people think they’re “eating right” is having fruit & coffee for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a bowl of pasta for dinner. – Nope, that’s not the answer either. Some people don’t eat anything the whole day and “save themselves” for a big huge dinner! That’s not the answer either.

To find the answer, you have to think back to caveman days. Back then, there were no supermarkets or convenience stores to easily get whatever you want and whenever you want it.

The caveman didn’t know when his next meal was coming. He only ate when he made the big kill and would literally gorge and overstuff himself until he couldn’t move! Why? Because he knew that he might not eat again for days or even worse…weeks.

What this did was make our bodies very bad at processing our food. Since our bodies didn’t know when we were going to eat next, they were forced to revert into something known as…

“Survival Mode”

Whenever you eat, your digestive system converts most of your food…(especially large amounts of carbohydrates) to glucose (blood sugar). It’s a very complicated process but I’ll do my best to sum it up in a nutshell…

Anytime we eat while were in “survival mode,” because of the molasses-pace the metabolism is at, the body converts most of the glucose…in conjunction with the hormone insulin…to fat. This is why people who constantly starve themselves can gain weight while eating only once a day!

We’d like to speed up our metabolism, but unfortunately over thousands and thousands of years our bodies haven’t changed much from the days of the cave man. Every time we eat, our bodies are already automatically going to convert it to fat…even if it’s fat free! Where’s the justice???

So how do we change our body from fat storer to fat burner? We have to learn to use proper nutrition.

So the question is…what is proper nutrition? OK… in a nutshell, my idea of proper nutrition is 4 to 5 portion-controlled, balanced meals about every 3 hours throughout the day.

By eating this way throughout the day, you’ll effortlessly speed up your metabolism. Think of it this way. If you have a campfire burning and you don’t add wood to the fire, eventually the campfire will burn out.

But if you add a little wood every few hours, the campfire will continue to burn, and burn nice and hot! So you see, the human metabolism is like the fire…never or rarely feed it, and it will slow down. Feed it every few hours and it has no choice but to speed up.

What Is A Portion-Controlled Meal You Ask?

A portion-controlled meal is sensible portion of a lean protein, a sensible portion of a starchy carbohydrate, and a sensible portion of a fibrous carbohydrate.

Lean protein foods:

• - Skinless chicken breast
• - Skinless turkey breast
• - Tuna fish
• - Most fish in general
• - Egg whites
• - Protein powder
• - Starchy carbohydrates:
• - Sweet potato
• - Potato
• - Rice
• - Pasta
• - Oatmeal
• - Whole grain wheat bread
• - Fibrous Carbohydrates:
• - Corn
• - Broccoli
• - Cauliflower
• - Asparagus
• - Peppers

Here are a few examples of a portion-controlled meal:

• Chicken breast with corn & rice
• Lean steak with potato & broccoli
• Fish with rice & salad
• Chicken pita sandwich
• Egg white omelet with mushrooms & oatmeal or farina

A "typical" day of eating on Bare Minimum Training might be :

• 7:00am: egg white omelet and oatmeal
• 10:00am: yogurt with cottage cheese
• 1:00 pm: tuna pita sandwich
• 4:00 pm: mushroom turkey burger on a whole grain bun
• 7:00 pm: Salmon with rice
• 8 8-ounce glasses of spring water (throughout entire day)

So you see if Anna Nicole Smith does not start to implement Proper Nutrition and a sound fitness program like Bare Minimum Training…

She’s setting herself up for Failure…sure she has short term success but eventually she’ll gain all the weight back!!! I hope she doesn’t gain the weight back…but she must change her ways if there’s any hope for long term success.

>> Click here for Tom's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program

Take care,

Bill Belfert