Stop Counting Calories, Make Calories Count

       Ever since I ‘converted’ to the Paleo lifestyle I have received an astronomical amount of questions about it, which is fine and I enjoy answering them; however, the questions I do not appreciate are the ones where people are asking me what they should do to lose weight or drop a quick 10lbs for beach season. Now, I understand that weight-loss is most people’s main motivation for a dietary change, and even though the Paleo diet WILL aid in weight-loss I am always reluctant to give the summer season pound shedders advice, and here is why:

       

 - As someone who was overweight and even obese for a certain time I can sympathize with people who want to lose that excess body fat, I truly can.  However, my motivation for making a change this drastic in my life was much less superficial than I just want to be ‘skinny’.  I saw my eating habits, I saw my exercise (or lack of exercise), I saw my weight and my blood test results and I was appalled with myself.  Yes, I wasn’t happy with how my body looked, but I was far more dissatisfied with how I was treating it.  Sugar, complex carbs, soda, GMOs, MSGs, gluten, and artificial/chemical shit storms everywhere.  I made the change to a Paleo lifestyle to not just look good naked (which is awesome btw) but also to save my life (and subsequently your life as well).  I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that I was breaking and beating up my vehicle, I was not giving it what it needs and I was treating it horribly, I realized that my body is the vehicle I use to go through this craziness we call life.  I made a conscious choice to fuel and treat my body the way it was supposed to be treated because I realized that I am not a suboptimal person but I found myself becoming that way and it frightened me.  Due to this ‘self frightening’ if you will, I chose to look at myself objectively; I am smart, athletic and driven, so why am I treating myself like I am anything but that? I wanted to be optimized, in not only my physical appearance but in my mind, body and soul.

 - The Paleo diet isn’t a fad diet, nor is it a way to lose the quick pounds (even though you’ll lose excess fat fast).  It is a diet that recognized the entire BS surrounding us nowadays when it comes to nutrition.  It uses logic and science to not only prove its philosophies but also expose the fake ones.         

       

-Low-calorie/0-calorie, Sugar free, No Fat, Diet soda, and the countless other products shoved in the faces of aspiring weight-losers does nothing but confuse and distort most consumers views of what is and what is not healthy (I mean you should see the looks I get when I tell people I am on a high-fat, high-protein diet). These misleading ‘diet trends’ serve not the consumer but the corporations who make these products, the pharmaceutical companies who make the drugs to combat the illness brought about by these foods, and even the government who subsidize the grain and corn industries (that’s why the standard food pyramid is a JOKE).  These are businesses out to make $$$$$$$. They are not looking out for your health, they are looking out for their own interests, as well as the interests of their shareholders.

            

- Here it is plain and simple, CALORITIC RESTRICTION WILL HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT (see laws of thermodynamics).  If you eat fewer calories than you use you’ll lose weight, it really is that simple. If you eat 1600-1800 calories of Pop-tarts you will in fact lose weight, however, do you think you will be healthy? Do you think your body will appreciate crappy food? What about your blood sugar? Hormones? Body fat? Body composition? Along with the lack of nutritional value many low-calorie/high carb diets just happens to have a huge host of problems to go along with them, things like: eating disorders, hunger, obsessive behavior, neurotic label reading and a plethora of other serious problems.

            

- The issue of people looking to ONLY lose weight is a serious issue in my opinion.  It has caused a mass of health problems and misinformation because more people are focused on counting calories rather than counting chemicals; to many people are worried about counting calories rather than MAKING CALORIES COUNT.  That crazy coffee I am always talking about: you know, the coffee with grass-fed butter and coconut oil? Well, that great, healthy, fat burning cup of epic has roughly 200-250 calories in it.  Those calories are the last thing on my mind, what I am thinking about is nutrition, the nutrients, and the benefits that are in that warm cup of healthy fat.

              

- I am a person who has tried their best to do their research.  I take very few things at face value, I do my research I teach myself, I critically analyze and I draw conclusions.  The Paleo diet not only was backed by its logic but the science as well.  It is not a weight-loss diet but rather a lifestyle change.  It was not there to help us be thin or look sexy; those are just added benefits to a healthy, clean lifestyle.  The Paleo diet is a way to treat diseases like diabetes, Crohn’s disease, cholesterol, autoimmunity disorders, leaky guy, high triglycerides, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, high or low blood sugar and almost any health problem you can imagine.  It is for people who want to lead healthy, active and optimized lifestyles not for someone looking to lose a quick 10lbs for the beach.

             

- This is something I can promise the person who is overweight and struggling with calorie counting or food intake restrictions (even you weight watchers or food plan diet people); YOU WILL LOSE MORE WEIGHT, BE FAR HEALTHIER, BE HAPPIER AND STRONGER IF YOU SIMPLY EAT REAL, NUTRIENT DENSE FOOD.  Real food will make excess weight fall off your body.  Real food helps regulate insulin, cortisol, cholesterol, and blood pressure and literally everything that biologically occurs in these chemical sacks we call bodies.  Real food will help to level out the proper amount of hormones in our blood as well as help our body recover faster and heal itself.  Restricting calories not only has a huge amount of negative mental side effects but biological ones as well.  It can lead to hormone imbalances and deficiencies, greater insulin resistance, weakness and fatigue, lack of energy, mental fog, hunger, increase in cortisol, increase in inflammation etc.

Here are some simple tips to losing weight healthily, properly and intelligently:

1.  Don’t count calories; make calories count. Not all calories are created equal.  Let’s just think about the simple comparison of a 100-calorie Oreo packet vs a 130 calorie tbsp of Coconut Oil.  Which do you think is healthier and has more nutrients?

2.  Don’t eat until you’re full; eat until you’re satisfied. You know people say it takes 20min for your body to tell you you’re not hungry anymore? That’s a lie.  Eat a plate of dense nutrients both micro and macro and trust me, you’ll feel satisfied right away.

3.  Drink more water! And only drink water! Not even coconut water! You will get your sugar from food

4.  Exercise Early It seems that the best weight-loss results stem from early morning workouts, due to our bodies natural biological processes of fat burning in sleep and in the morning (to much science to explain now)

5.  Get PLENTY of sleep.  Sleep is a major component of good health. It contributes to digestion, healing, recovery, mental health, and pretty much every biological process you can imagine and is a huge component to health and weight-loss.

Intermittent Fasting

As someone who has to pay close attention to their weight in order to fully prepare for their sport, I am always looking for different ways to maintain my weight while building muscle (or even a safe/healthy way to cut weight).  Now, lets look into intermittent fasting.  

            - Biologically and evolutionarily our bodies were not designed to eat 3 or 6 meals daily; but rather our bodies are designed to go for a surprisingly long time without caloritic consumption due to the obvious struggles of having to find and or kill our food.  There are plenty of studies to support this (which is not surprising), but what is surprising are the biological activities our bodies go through due to this intermittent fasting.  In men, intermittent fasting resulted in a 2,000% increase in Human Growth Hormone (HGH) secretion, which helped build muscle while also losing body fat.  This is because once our bodies sense we do not have food for energy it begins to use stored fat cells for energy, which in turn helps lose tricky body fat, and also helps detoxify your body. Now, lets take a look at what fasting is and how it works.

Here are the two biggest benefits of intermittent fasting:

·       Alternate-day fasting encourages fat oxidation as well as providing clean energy from fat as opposed to sugar.

·       Alternate-day fasting helps lower body weight, LDL, and triglyceride levels.

Intermittent fasting is not a diet, but rather a dieting pattern. Simply: it’s making a conscious decision to skip certain meals.

By fasting and then 'feasting' on purpose, intermittent fasting means eating your calories during a specific window of the day, and choosing not to eat food during the rest. To take it to an evolutionary standpoint, a caveman wouldn't wake up and look in his fridge; he would get up drink some water and start the hunt.

Now, there are a few different ways to take advantage of intermittent fasting:

• Regularly eat during a specific time period.  For example, only eating from noon-8 PM, essentially skipping breakfast.  Some people only eat in a 6-hour window, or even a 4-hour window.  
• Skip two meals one day, taking a full 24-hours off from eating.  For example, eating on a normal schedule (finishing dinner at 8PM) and then not eating again until 8PM the following day.

What I like to do is drink water and coffee in the morning of my fast and not eat until about 1-2 in the afternoon.  I drink water for the obvious reasons but I drink my coffee for several reasons:

• Coffee is a powerful antioxidant
• I use either coconut oil or grass-fed butter instead of cream and sugar

·       Coffee can improve exercise performance

·       Long-term coffee consumption is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The more coffee you drink, the lower the risk

·       People who drink six or more cups of coffee per day are 50% less likely to develop diabetes.

·       In a study on 47,911 Americans, there was a correlation between coffee drinking and a lower risk of prostate cancer. Men who consumed the most coffee (six or more cups daily) had a 20% lower risk of developing any form of prostate cancer.

(See sources for more information)

Using fat in your coffee is good whether you're fasting or not but it is especially helpful when you are.  Our bodies, particularly our brain, run on water and fat.  With you consuming water and fat you help keep your cognitive function high while your body is using stored fat cells to give your body energy.

Now, you might be thinking: “okay, so by skipping a meal, I just eat less than normally overall, and thus I will lose weight, right?”  

Well, that’s partly true.  

            - Yes, by cutting out an entire meal, you are able to eat MORE food during your other meals and still consume a caloric deficit (which is an important for losing weight).  However, as we already know, not all calories are created equal, the timing of meals can also influence how your body reacts.  

            - With intermittent fasting, your body operates differently when “feasting” compared to when “fasting”: When you eat a meal, your body spends a few hours processing that food (burning/using what it can from what you just consumed).   Because it has all of this readily available, easy to burn energy in its blood stream (due to the food you ate), your body will choose to use that as energy rather than the fat you have stored.  This is especially true if you just consumed carbs or sugar as your body prefers to burn sugar as energy before any other source.

            - During the “fasted state,” your body doesn’t have a recently consumed meal to use as energy, so it is more likely to pull from the fat stored in your body, rather than the glucose in your blood stream. Resulting in loss of now ‘unneeded’ body fat. The same even goes for working out in a “fasted” state.  Without a ready supply of glucose to pull from (which has been depleted over the course of your fasted state, and hasn’t yet been replenished with a pre-workout meal), your body is forced to adapt and pull from the only source of energy available to it: the fat stored in your cells.

           

So, why does this work?  

            - Our bodies react to energy consumption (eating food) with insulin production.  Essentially, the more sensitive your body is to insulin, the more likely you’ll be to use the food you consume efficiently, which can help lead to weight loss and muscle building.

Along with that, your body is most sensitive to insulin after fasting.

            - Your glycogen (a starch stored in your muscles and liver that your body can burn as fuel when necessary) is depleted during sleep, and will be depleted even further during training, which can further increases insulin sensitivity. This means that a meal immediately following your workout will be stored most efficiently: mostly as glycogen for muscle stores, burned as energy immediately to help with the recovery process, with minimal amounts stored as fat.

Now lets compare this to a regular day (no intermittent fasting).  

            -With insulin sensitivity at normal levels, the carbs and foods consumed will see full glycogen stores, and see enough glucose in the blood stream, and therefore be more likely to get stored as fat. 

 - Not only that, but growth hormone is increased during fasted states (both during sleep and after a period of fasting).  Combine this increase in HGH and the decrease in insulin production, and you’re essentially priming your body for muscle growth and fat loss with intermittent fasting.  In other words, intermittent fasting can help teach your body to use the food it consumes more efficiently.  For many different physiological reasons, fasting can help promote weight loss and muscle building when done properly.  

My average fast day:

6-8AM

-Tall glass of water (occasionally putting a pinch of pink Himalayan salt in my water bottle)

-Coffee with coconut oil or grass-fed butter only

1-2PM

-Protein and greens for lunch. Maybe some eggs and kale

5-7PM

-If I swing my kettlebell I eat a small meal or no food at all or I consume a krill oil (I personally do this to simulate the failed hunt/kill)

-If I train I eat (to simulate a successful kill/hunt)

7-8PM

-Protein or greens for dinner

            Now, I do not suggest doing this if you are not comfortable with this dietary pattern.  The key is to do it intelligently in order for your bodily functions to react properly.  If at all you feel light headed, drowsy or sick EAT! Listen to your body. No one knows it as well as you; some people will react differently to fasting and or working out and fasting.

The best advice that I can give is to PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR BODY IS TELLING YOU.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/imc-sfr033111.php

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026049512002569

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/bulletproof-fasting/

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/coffee-5-reasons-you-can-perform-better-10-ways-to-live-longer/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21586702

All Hail Kale

Now, I know I write a lot about fat and delicious meats so I figured I should stop ignoring my favorite green because I feel like I have favored my grass-fed beef too much… Dark leafy greens (and greens in general) are some of the most important foods to add to ones diet for not only weight loss but for a stronger mind and body.

- A new craze is around the clean eating world and that is the great… KALE and particularly the kale shake, you know, the green-epic-power shake?!  People like to go up, down, left, right, or in all directions when it comes to kale.  They put it in salads, make shakes, and even try to put it on unhealthy crap to make themselves feel better.  Whatever.  Kale is the shit; and here is why:

- For a green, kale is unusually high in fiber. This helps create the bulk you need to fill you up and to keep you full and fueled for a good amount of time. Kale is also an excellent source of nutrients, particularly vitamin A, K, and calcium. With a combination of vitamins and minerals kale is without a doubt one of the most important foods for healthy well-balanced diet and a strong, alert, optimized body.

My average Kale Shake

·      2-3 leafs of Kale

·      1-3 cups of water

·      Splash of Coconut water and Apple Cider Vinegar

·      1 cup of Spinach

·      1-2 pieces of fruit

·      Handful of hemp seeds

·      2 stalks of celery

·      Half to a whole cucumber

·      Couple pinches of Cinnamon (speeds us metabolism and definitely helps the taste)

·      Couple pinches of Pink Himalayan Salt

·      Tbsp. Coconut Oil or MCT oil (increases bioavailibilty and gives you MCTs)

·      Occasionally I will throw in a clove of garlic (to help kill some gut bacteria). But the lauric acid in coconut oil does that as well and aids in gut health, so use to your liking.

Health Benefits of Kale

Though greens in general are nutritious foods, kale stands a stalk above the rest. Not only is it one of your best sources of beta-carotene, which happens to be one of the antioxidants believed by many nutritionists to be a major factor in the battle against cancer, and heart disease (also found in grass-fed beef cough cough), it also provides other important nutrients. 

One cup of chopped kale contains

·      9% of the daily value of calcium

·      206% of vitamin A

·      134% of vitamin C

·      684% of vitamin K

·      Excellent source of minerals like copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.

With this high density of nutrients, here is how and why kale is effective:

·      Can help lower cholesterol levels.
The fiber in kale binds bile acids and helps lower blood cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of heart disease.

·      Kale is a detox food.
It’s filled with fiber and sulfur, which are great for detoxifying your body and keeping your liver healthy and strong.

·      Low in calories
A cup of chopped kale has only 33 calories. Great for weight loss and you won’t be depriving your body of vital nutrients!

·      Great at fighting many cancers
Kale is rich in organosulfur compounds which are known to fight cancer.

·      Supports a healthy immune system.
Kale is full of sulforaphane which helps rejuvenate the immune system.

·      Eye Health Benefits. 
Kale is abundant in two carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, which act like sunglass filters preventing damage to the eyes from excessive exposure to ultraviolet light.

·      Supports normal blood clotting, antioxidant activity, and bone health. 
Thanks to high amounts of Vitamin K

·      Great for helping digestion.
It’s very high in fiber.

Kale’s health benefits not only rest with its dense nutrients but its strong anti-oxidative traits as well.

- Carotenoids and flavonoids are the specific types of antioxidants associated with many of the anti-cancer health benefits of kale. Kale is also rich in the lutein and zeaxanthin, which helps to promote eye-health; these carotenoids help keep UV rays from damaging the eyes and causing cataracts.

 - Beyond antioxidants, the fiber content of kale binds bile acids (bile acids promote processing of dietary fat) and helps lower cholesterol levels and reduces the risk of heart disease (most beneficial when kale is cooked instead of raw).

- Kale is an incredible source of well-absorbed calcium, which is one of the many factors that help prevent osteoporosis ( pasteurized milk is nothing compared to kale). It also provides good amounts of vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B6, manganese, and potassium.

- The manganese in kale helps your body's own antioxidant defense system, superoxide dismutase, protecting you from damaging free radicals. Its folate and B6 work together to keep homocysteine levels down, which may help prevent heart disease, dementia and osteoporosis bone fractures. Ok, Ok that was definitely the most “sciencey” sentence I have written. I must admit I do feel semi-intelligent.  

This is something important if you are eating a lot of kale or spinach:

It is quite wise to supplement with calcium if you eat a good amount of kale or spinach. But why?  Kale has all of that calcium already in it! Why would I need to take more calcium? Well, here is why…

·      Kale contains something called Oxalic acid (see terms for more info)

·      Oxalic acid binds vital minerals in the gut, long-term consumption of foods high in oxalic acid can lead to nutrient deficiencies. (But it is still good for you.)

·      When calcium supplements are taken with foods high in oxalic acid, the oxalic acid actually precipitates in the gut and in turn drastically reduces the levels of oxalate absorbed by the body.

·      When calcium is supplemented some cases show as much as a 97% decrease in oxalate levels. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, kale is GREAT for you but I know people who have developed kidney stones due to not taking my advice on supplementing with calcium; I like to use tums or an antacid (it’s like my version of candy).

  

TERMS:

Carotenoids are organic pigments that are found in the chloroplasts and chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthetic organisms, including some bacteria and some fungi. Carotenoids can be produced from fats and other basic organic metabolic building blocks by all these organisms. Carotenoids generally cannot be manufactured by species in the animal kingdom so animals obtain carotenoids in their diets.

Oxalic acid is an organic compound; it is a colorless crystalline solid that dissolves in water to give colorless solutions. It is classified as a dicarboxylic acid. Oxalic acid is a reducing and its conjugate , known as oxalate is a chelating agent for metal cations. Typically, oxalic acid occurs as the dihydrate . Oral consumption of oxalic acid in excess or prolonged skin contact can be dangerous. Oxalic acid has been linked to gout and sensitive skin and even severe irritation of the vagina (wtf?!)

Homocysteine is a non-protein α-amino acid. It is a homologue of the amino acid cysteine, differing by an additional methylene bridge. It is biosynthesized from methionine by the removal of its terminal methyl group. Homocysteine can be recycled into methionine or converted into cysteine with the aid of B-vitamins. Detection of high levels of homocysteine has been linked to cardiovascular disease.

Superoxide dismutases are enzymes that catalyze the dismutation of superoxide into oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. Thus, they are an important antioxidant defense in nearly all cells exposed to oxygen.

I am not a doctor or a scientist.  This is all researched based. You can look all of this info and terms up on wikipedia or from medical journals and studies