I’ve been a certified personal trainer and licensed massage therapist in New York City for 20 years now. I’ve had a blog for almost 5 years. I was also vegetarian/vegan for about 18 years, starting as a teen. I then went paleo/primal for a decade. I was gluten free for that decade.
I believed a lot of diet narratives, the ideas/stories sound good on the surface. Then I learned science. Now I have no labels, no lies and have given up many of these ideas in favor of more fun and moderation, a word many people are not familiar with and/or are afraid of.
I had serious health issues growing up, but I’ve cleared them up. I started eating gluten and have strengthened my own digestion and metabolism. I could share similar stories of people, just like you, who I have helped improve their health, lose weight or have some other impressive health/lifestyle transformation.
However, these stories are not that important because I am not you. Instead of sharing success stories, I am offering you some valuable tips that you can apply and get good results.
In this report and on my blog, I cover the many reasons people fail in weight loss on my blog and podcast; I teach these reasons so you can avoid the traps. If you follow the links to learn more, you just should be able to get fantastic results: improve your health, energy levels and sex drive, sleep better and reduce your risk for disease … and lose some body fat.
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This morning I went skateboarding alongside the Hudson River here in New York City. Today is Thanksgiving and I was quickly reminded of the reason I decided to write this report: New Year's Day is coming up. People often get more fitness-focused during this time. I saw many people – more than usual – who were out jogging.
My first impression was ‘Wow, so many people are taking advantage of the time off to exercise – that’s great!’ However, when I gave it deeper thought, I remembered. Yeah, sorry guys, but it’s not going to work out for most of you.
Instead of telling you who I am and why you should believe me (what every other blog does), I’m just going to share some information that will be new for many people, and give you a few tips to apply to not end up like the majority who struggle with diet, fitness and weight loss. I’m not just an internet guy; I do this for a living in the real world. I really want you to improve your health and lose weight (if that’s your goal).
Come the New Year, typically a lot more people will be out jogging, joining gyms and starting a diet. They get really excited. They have good intentions. They tell all their friends. They may hire a personal trainer.
They may even buy appropriate workout gear.
All this. Yet sadly, most will fail to achieve their goals.
Everyone’s An Expert
Right now, statistically half of everyone you know is on a diet. The other half already tried one or two. Have you dieted before? Please don't do it again. It will be worse this time and you'll end up heavier than you are now. A good number of dieters will make themselves crazy along the way from rules that are too rigid or too restrictive in foods. The vast majority of people who attempt to lose weight will eventually ‘fall off the wagon’ and end up heavier. It's a sad story really, and one that plays out all too often.
For some unfortunate reasons, most people think they are an expert on the topic. Everyone has an opinion about the best diet. You'll notice that many people are very confident about what they know. Unfortunately, many of them are dead wrong.
Fact: many people are totally confused.
Most people are not seeing the big picture. It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees, because we live in a world where we want simple answers to complex problems. There is an overwhelming amount of conflicting and confusing nutrition information and diet ideas that are being twisted by the media on a daily basis.
In this report, I'll share simple ideas you can apply to get positive health results. And of course, I’ll reveal the top 3 foods that fight fat!
Your Game Plan: What you give is what you get. The more time you invest in learning, the more you’ll get out of this health and fitness thing.
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. Socrates
I teach my clients that in order to be successful in health, weight loss or performance you need three things: Food, Exercise, Sleep. This report focuses on the basic facts concerning these three aspects of life that you'll need to improve your health, fitness and lose fat if that is your goal. Of course human health and well-being extends deep into other areas, and I broach these topics and some politics on my blog. For now, these three basic things are simple, and they work.
Restricting calories will help you lose weight, but it can also cause a lot of mental and physical stress. If you really need to lose weight, first make sure you are sleeping enough. Then make sure you are eating enough. Then make sure you are doing proper exercise. You can restrict calories just a tiny bit and get good results. You can also increase protein in your meals and this helps to eat less overall.
Stay far away from any '6 pack abs' type of program, or any weight loss diet that makes fantastic promises. Most popular diets are way too low in calories and are not healthy. Sure, you can lose weight, but you'll lose water and maybe muscle and you will eventually regain more weight because the calories were too low.
Let’s take a quick look at the main reasons many people fail in health and weight loss:
There are plenty of other reasons, you can read my other writings or search for my Paleo Movement Magazine interview for more.
If you don’t get enough quality sleep, you’ll probably have a hard time losing weight. No matter your goal, sleep is your foundation for reduced stress, improved energy and a strong metabolism. This is one lifestyle habit many people ignore, at their peril.
A big mistake is trying too hard - working out and dieting too hard and not prioritizing sleep. Your body recovers from the previous day during sleep. Your brain refreshes itself. It's probably a good idea to get to bed around 10 PM, sleep in a dark room and get uninterrupted sleep.
How do you get uninterrupted sleep? It takes practice, and prioritizing the things that allow it. Of course, this is highly individualized, as we all have different lifestyles and schedules, but it seems to be a good standard for health. If you don’t sleep well or long enough, your body simply can't recover from the repeated stressors most of us face daily.
Don't focus on trying to do more, or run so hard that you feel faint after. Instead, hire a personal trainer or coach. Take classes from qualified professionals. Read a book. Join the ETF Facebook group (link below in the 'Old Habits Die Hard' section) to chat with other people seeking balance. You do not need to beat yourself up at the gym to get healthy. It's popular, but it simply isn't necessary and yes, there are consequences, you just don't see or hear about them often.
So, what are the top three foods for fat loss?
Sorry to inform you, but there are NO superfoods. There is no such thing as diet magic. There are foods though, and they work wonders if you understand a few basic concepts.
Three Top Foods for Fat Loss: Protein, fat, carbs. In the right amount for you, depending on your energy needs.
Sorry, not very sexy. If you think in short, sound bite, oversimplified ideas, like the typical 'health tips' or ‘3 weird tips to kill belly fat’ you see in the media, you will end up confused, stressed, unhealthy and possibly overweight. Those popular ideas are false, misleading and one of the reasons why most people fail.
The basic idea is that every meal should have a fat, protein and carb.
Make sure you're getting at least 100 grams of protein per day. Excellent sources are animal foods: beef, seafood, eggs, dairy. If you prefer plant foods, seek out the high-protein kinds. Really, as long as protein requirements are met, eat whatever kind you want.
Many people avoid fat and protein because they have been led to believe that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad, or that eating fat makes you fat. In mistakenly avoiding those foods, they also avoid good protein sources.
Even though human beings evolved over 2 million years to get here today on a diet consisting largely of animal fats and proteins, and the low-fat diet myth has consistently failed Americans for the last 30 years, popular culture still buys into the ‘red meat and cholesterol are bad for you’ myth. This is what some experts call insanity – continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results.
Unfortunately, this urban legend has caused more harm than health. ‘I don’t eat red meat’ or ‘I only eat egg whites’ is very popular, yet very unhealthy, illogical and not based in nature or any real science. Fat and protein are absolutely required for real health and permanent fat loss. The secret is in the quality of these foods, which makes all the difference between wellness and illness.
Americans are constantly told that eating foods rich in cholesterol can elevate risk of atherosclerosis and heart attacks. However, research studies consistently show that dietary cholesterol does not correlate well with blood cholesterol.
In addition, many studies have found no relationship between the level of cholesterol in the blood and the incidence of atherosclerosis. In fact, there is more conclusive evidence supporting the opposite. In other words, eating foods rich in cholesterol does not increase blood cholesterol or cardiac risk.
Many healthy cultures around the world have diets with saturated fats in the form of butter, eggs, cheese, cream, liver, meats and pates. The scientific evidence, when honestly evaluated, does not support the claim that 'artery-clogging' saturated fats and cholesterol from food cause heart disease.
One of the biggest misconceptions today in the diet and fitness world is the belief that carbs and sugar are uniquely fattening, toxic or addictive. This is not true, and if you want to lose fat and stop yo-yo dieting, you need to realize some important things about carbs and yes, even the 'evil' sugar.
Carbs give us the energy we need to function normally. They support energy levels and help us cope with all kinds of stress by modulating and reducing the hormonal stress response. How much total food and carbs each person needs is individualized, but the fear of carbs/sugar seems to be universal and a very common misconception.
Severely restricting carbs is not sustainable for most people. Our bodies need and want a balanced intake of macronutrients. Carb and sugar restriction sets you up for bingeing on...you guessed it, carbs and sugar.
There is evidence that the binge/restrict, guilt/atonement cycle is both psychologically and physically damaging. Carbs, including sugars in various forms, are important to include in a balanced diet.
Another common belief, perpetuated by the media, is the idea that sugar is addictive. As a result, many people operate under the assumption that they 'can't' have sugar, or they will lose control and binge.
Because that's their mindset, when they inevitably do have some sugar, they have essentially given themselves permission to go hog wild, because after all, they're an 'addict' and can't help themselves.
Strict avoidance can result in blood sugar swings, which results in feelings of craving or 'starving' for sugar.
Stress (from many sources – actual addiction to a drug or alcohol, hectic lifestyle, mental or emotional anguish, anything) exacerbates this, because the stress hormones are out of control, and sugar can help ameliorate that, so more cravings ensue when sugars are restricted.
All of this triggers a binge/restrict cycle. In addition, when an appealing thing is demonized to the point that sugar typically is these days, it causes a reaction in the human psyche to secretly covet it, and so the subconscious desire to have it can be very strong.
But sugar as a substance is not physically addictive, does not result in the same physical effects or damage as heroin, crack, meth or any other drug, and it should not be demonized. It's the demonization, the unnecessary restriction, the binge/restrict cycles and disordered thinking about sugar that are the problem. Heal the mind, and then the body can follow, maintaining a balanced relationship with any food.
It's easy to overdo it when eating carbs and sugar, because they are usually delicious. However, the only danger there is in simply eating calories in excess of your energy needs.
There is no inherent quality of carbs or sugar that make them more fattening than other macronutrients. In fact, easily-digested carbs can be a valuable tool for people who are in metabolic recovery or who have a compromised digestion.
Simple solution: pay attention. You can track your diet online for a few weeks to see how you’re doing. It's not necessary to always track, once you get a good idea of your normal intake. You don’t have to track if you don’t want to, but it's a useful tool to get a real picture of how much you're eating. Estimating or guessing about food intake is notoriously inaccurate. Check out fitday.com or cronometer.com for tracking tools. There are other free websites that offer this, as well.
Some people are already predisposed to OCD and can get neurotic with tracking their diet. So no, not everyone needs to track calories. For example, I do it only 3 or 4 times per year. You may need more or less, or not at all.
Eat food you enjoy, food you tolerate well and in the right amounts. Be present and patient when eating. Enjoy your meal. Don’t throw food down your pie hole or eat on the go.
It’s simple, really. You need the right amount to achieve your specific goal. Not everyone wants to or needs to lose weight.
Regardless of your goal, your meals are best served up with a balanced ratio of proteins, fats, carbs. The actual balance is up to you, but don’t sweat it too much.
Many people get caught up in tracking their diet and micromanaging their macronutrients, so that their pursuit becomes a drag and tedious or, worse yet, a source of anxiety.
Don't restrict around holiday time in order to look good for the party. You'll end up bingeing and regretting it later. Instead, focus on moderation throughout the entire holiday time and enjoy the time with your friends and family and of course, enjoy the food.
If you have a hard time being around good food or parties because you binge, you most likely have an eating disorder (Binge Eating Disorder). Eating disorders require therapy/counseling and you can get great support if you seek it out.
So, let it go. Relax. Don’t be too attached to rules and instead focus on quality of life factors.
You’ll have to figure out what diet works best for you. You don’t need to be a scientist or go back to school for this stuff. Keep it simple. It only takes a little trial and error and you certainly don’t need to get extreme with your diet. Please, don’t take this stuff so seriously that you become unhealthy or stressed in your pursuit for the opposite.
Pay attention to what makes you feel good. The top 3 Foods are first based on your preference. Find foods you enjoy and don’t create a hard list of good/bad foods.
Eat for your energy needs. Busy, active, athletic people need more food.
You want to be active enough that you need to eat a lot of good food. The right amount of food is individualized, but generally, the more active you are, the more food you need. Start with eating three times a day. Get the top 3 foods for fat loss in each meal/snack: protein, fat, carbs.
Don’t sweat this too hard. Do your best and enjoy the journey.
It’s a better idea to focus on being healthy, rather than looking better. When you focus on being healthy, you’ll do the right things, like sleep better, cook simple meals at home and exercise consistently. Instead of focusing on weight loss, focus instead on developing strength, fitness and habits that you can manage for a lifetime.
Look, it’s easy to lose weight for some. It’s very difficult for others. That’s just how it is. One of the best ideas I can share from my twenty years' experience is forget about ‘top three superfoods’ or 'top 3 foods to avoid'. Instead, change your focus, your attitude. If you focus and work on lifestyle improvements and stress reduction, health improves and weight comes off easier and more sustainably.
Perfection - it doesn't exist, so get over it. All those magazines you see with lean bodies and six packs, first of all, most of them are photoshopped.
Secondly, models and competitors work all year round to look that way for a short period of time. This is not you, so don't try to be someone you are not. They are far from perfect, and many of them have disordered eating habits and thought patterns anyway. There is no perfect, love yourself as you are now and if you want to make some changes, do it intelligently and with moderation.
You know a lot of people are obese or overweight, but did you know that the leaner, ‘health conscious’ population (people who join gyms/health clubs, go on diets) have a whole host of problems you may not have heard about?
They can get obsessive with diets, avoid particular foods when they don’t need to, and can easily get too restrictive or too low in calories. This leads to health (mental/physical) problems for many ‘health conscious’ people, including fitness celebrities we see in the media. Know your health. Know your goals. Respect your limits.
It’s up to you, but I don’t encourage daily weighing if you get emotional from your scale.
If you use a scale, try getting a weekly average and don’t focus on it much. Focus instead on how you feel. Are you recovering from your exercise and getting better? How do your clothes fit? Circumference measurements are probably a better way to track your progress than a scale.
Sorry to tell you, but these practices are pretty much a waste of time and money. Yes, I know some people do it and feel great, and even lose weight. But there's no magic here. Why do people do it? How do they get 'results'? It’s really a diet and they lose weight from cutting calories. Losing weight makes everyone feel great, right?
Our culture tells them they should feel good about losing weight, but this is disordered thinking. More often than not, people with a history of dieting, detoxes and cleanses are also eating-disordered. It simply is unnecessary and the ‘reasons’ given to do these things are typically bogus.
I've done them all, from liver cleanse to colonic irrigation, so I speak from experience. Seriously, most people really don’t need to do these things.
You’re supposed to have plateaus and not constantly be losing weight. When you encounter these, sit back and relax. Don’t try to force these things. The closer you get to your goal weight, the harder it gets to lose weight. Your body is slowing down as you get closer. This is a natural, normal occurrence and not something to freak out about.
The human body is not made to be constantly dieting. Take a break every 2 or 3 weeks and enjoy. If you are on a training program and reach a plateau, take a moment to focus on skill development or another area of your fitness/lifestyle.
If you are a beginner with trying to improve health and achieve weight loss, it should be easy for you to get great results. The more weight you lose, the harder it gets. So enjoy the early days and please do the right thing. It’s tempting to jump right in and go hard. Don’t do it. Invest some time in learning new ideas and make some simple lifestyle changes. Your exercise is important, but if you take a moderate approach and have a long-term vision, you’ll get great results.
An idea you are unfamiliar with or are overlooking in your journey may later show up as a ‘hidden’ issue. Under-eating and unnecessary restriction are among these issues. If you’re too strict, you’ll end up bingeing, then you’ll go into a tailspin of self-shame and restart the process, ending up in a binge/restrict cycle. This is not fun or productive, and can in fact be quite damaging.
For some of you, there are lifestyle habits that must change. You will need support, so go out and find it. There are plenty of good groups available and lots of online support groups.
Yes, this recommendation is generally correct for overweight people who overeat and don’t exercise. There is a lot of nuance lost in this simple message, however. This presents several challenges. 'Eat less, move more' is a bit oversimplified and can lead to troubles for most who embark on this journey. My suggestion is first track your diet to see how much you are eating. Then make small adjustments and be patient.
You can reduce calories by reducing the amount of food you eat, but don’t try too hard, please. Diets are often too low in calories and you’ll feel great doing it at first, but then later, it gets ugly, because humans are not meant to function long-term on restricted calories.
So you can reduce calories a bit if you need to lose weight. You can also increase the protein you are eating, this will help you eat a little less overall. You can also increase the amount of calories you burn by exercise.
If you can do both, plus get great sleep and study to learn the reasons behind these practices, you’ll have great chances for long-term success.
Be aware, many clients I work with have a history of going too far on both ends. They reduced calories too much, and sometimes, tried too hard with exercise.
So, if you have weight to lose, start with making small changes. I know you want fast results like your buddy/coworker got, but trust me, if he achieved them with extreme calorie restriction or over-exercising, he will likely be heavier in six months. You can do the right thing and avoid that.
The things we know that work are small changes, moderation and balance. It really does work. Unfortunately, most do not know what it means or how to apply it. Also, it doesn’t sell well. Most people want immediate results.
When people say this, I have found they are trying to get out of a conversation.
i.e. “oh yeah everything in moderation, yada yada.” It’s used like ‘balance’ in that people will use these words, but they are not clearly defined and people have their own definitions. Dieting can make some people crazy, and cling to their restrictive or extreme mindset.
Moderation actually works. You don’t have to diet too hard. You don’t have to train too hard. You don't have to punish yourself to get results. I know it sounds less exciting, but moderation and balance work, when you know what these terms mean.
You need patience and intelligence - two things that are NOT promoted in the diet culture.
This is a cool phenomenon: Someone gives up a lousy diet, makes lots of lifestyle changes and starts eating better. They feel better, look better, lose some weight and they will attribute that to their diet.
It is not the diet, however. It is the combination of everything they did. This is called the Healthy User Effect.
For paleo/primal, when you start eating more protein, you will get satiated sooner. It is far more enjoyable and yes, healthy. At the end of the week though, you’re eating fewer calories because of this. You also started eating more fruits & vegetables.
If you start eating a lot of protein, you’ll get sated sooner, meaning you’ll be overeating less. This leads to a reduction in calories, which is the main reason many paleo/primal people lose weight. They may claim it's not the calories, but make no mistake, it is the calories in combination with everything else they did to improve health and reduce stress.
A similar affect is found in the beginning with vegan or vegetarian lifestyles, the specifics are slightly different but the initial result is the same.
If you need to lose weight though, you can make a small reduction in calories, maybe 100-200 calories per day to start, without adopting any 'brand-name' diets or restrictive lifestyles.
People tend to freak out about juice and soda. However, it’s the total calories that matter most for weight gain or loss. Soda and juice are very tasty and easy to over-consume. Even in small amounts, liquid calories can add up quickly. Being aware of the calories consumed with these beverages is more important than avoiding them.
I personally drink a lot of fresh orange juice. It can restrain the stress response, balances blood sugar and is anti-inflammatory. Mostly though, I drink it because I love it.
Drink when you're thirsty. It's that simple. I used to give specific recommendations, but I really don’t think it's helpful. If you sweat a lot, you’ll need more water. But I think most people overemphasize hydration and under-emphasize other, more important principles.
Some experts estimate that 70-90% of all human diseases are stress-related. What I teach my clients is that there are multiple stressors we encounter every day. Our bodies response to stress is called the ‘stress response’. So stress is something that we encounter that challenges us, and our response.
All living organisms encounter stress every day in order to live and grow.
The problem with this is we now have newer forms of stress, greater amounts of it and little understanding of it and how to deal with it. Most people, fitness and medical professionals included, don’t know how much is enough or how to dissolve it when there's too much.
Since we encounter stressors every day, the real question is this – how are you understanding, dealing with and dissolving them on a daily basis?
In a nutshell, chronic stress, from any stressors, triggers our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) which leads to excessive stress hormone (cortisol and adrenaline) production and eventually adrenal gland (which produces stress hormones) burnout. When the adrenal glands are chronically stimulated, they eventually need to borrow from other hormones to keep up with the production of cortisol. The body is now in energetic debt and starts borrowing from repair and recovery hormones, and then eventually sex hormones.
Do you know anybody who wakes up tired, is tired throughout the day, can’t fall asleep, doesn’t sleep well, craves sugar and caffeine for energy, work production suffers, starts losing motivation for life, has decreased sex drive, can't get an erection or has menstrual cycle irregularities, is cranky and irritable and gaining weight for no apparent reason???
Chronic stress and adrenal burnout typically start by overworking, under-sleeping, under-eating (especially fats and proteins), and over-exercising (especially too much cardio). Additional factors include too much mental/emotional stress either from self or others, not crea