Help, I'm getting fat. I'm not supossed to be a heavyweight.

I'm in the middle of doing a cleanse from East West. My Dr. suggested it. Loads of celebrities do it before a big shoot/movie/event. It's nothing like the master cleanse or anything like that, it's a legit way of eating combined with certain kinds of supplements. I'd been struggling with injuries since September, and in that time gained fat, and lost muscle. After all that, I needed something to jump start my system.

In the cleanse you work with a consultant once a weak to help you with shopping lists, recipes, weekly meal plans, and you accountability. I'm on week 3 and I've lost 13 lbs, feel awesome, and look much healthier. It's done pretty much exactly what I wanted it to do, get me back into a healthy living groove.

Only downside is, it's not cheap, it's like $450 for the month of consultations, supply of bars, cleanse and protein.

A couple of people have pointed out that losing weight is simply a matter of expending more energy than you eat. For the sake of those on this forum trying to lose weight, I would like to point out that while this statement is pretty undeniably true from a simple thermodynamics perspective, the human body is a complex system, and therefore the implementation is not nearly as simple.

For example, increased physical activity leads to increased hunger. The body wants you to replace those calories that you just burned off, to get back to "normal". Unfortunately, an overweight person has a damaged metabolism, and "normal" is fat. So, an overweight person will frequently exercise and then quickly eat back all of the expended energy, due to ravenous hunger. If you know any fat people that you see in the gym working out every day and not getting any less fat, you know what I am talking about.

This is where the "all calories are created equal" idea starts to break down. Your body's hormonal response is not the same for all foods. Low carbohydrate diets, for example, have been shown in many studies to be spontaneously calorie limiting. That is, people who eat a high fat, moderate/high protein, low carbohydrate diet simply eat less. They do so automatically with no calorie counting whatsoever. This has to do again with hormonal signalling. Fat and protein cause a greater release of PYY, which is a satiety hormone, during digestion. That may be one reason. Improved leptin signalling is probably also a key component (Leptin is secreted by fat cells and tells your hypothalamus how much energy your body should be storing or burning. The hypothalamus of fat people is resistant to leptin, so while the body is awash in it, the brain does not know to stop eating.).

Additionally, all carbohydrates are not metabolized the same. Glucose digestion causes the suppression of the hunger hormone ghrelin, while fructose metabolism does not. And, probably more importantly, glucose can be directly absorbed into your muscles to replenish glycogen, but fructose must be processed by the liver. It cannot be utilized by any other cells in the body (actually I think sperm cells use it, but that's pretty irrelevant here). Excess fructose increases triglycerides and damages leptin signalling in the long term. Keep in mind that table sugar (sucrose) is 50% fructose.

So, if a person wants to lose weight efficiently, a diet high in healthy fats (that's saturated and monounsaturated fats, not polyunsaturated fats from vegetable and seed oils which cause systemic inflammation and weight gain), protein from animal sources (preferably grass fed or wild caught, because the grain-fed contain high Omega-6 PUFA), and vegetables, but free from sugar and refined carbohydrate is a good idea. If weight loss is the priority it can stop there. If on the other hand we are concerned with optimal athletic performance, a post-workout meal from a starchy food, such as a yam or sweet potato, will serve to replenish muscle glycogen. Starch is essentially glucose, so we do not have to concern ourselves with the pitfalls of fructose metabolism.

If, on the other hand, you already have a healthy metabolism, and can eat anything that gets put in front of you, without gaining any weight, enjoy it. Some of these foods though, may be slowly damaging your body internally, causing chronic low-level systemic inflammation, and ultimately leading to heart disease later in life. Maybe not. There is a lot of genetic variability when it comes to that stuff. Hopefully that is helpful to somebody. Educating myself about the human body, and basing my dietary choices on that has been a life-changer for me.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned cutting out beer yet.

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Originally Posted by David Stager

I'm surprised no one has mentioned cutting out beer yet.

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Are you fucking crazy!

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Originally Posted by Shawn Arnold

Are you fucking crazy!

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Haha, a year ago I would have said the same thing, but I've quit drinking entirely since last May, and my quality of life has definitely improved (granted I was a heavy solitary drinker before, so I really had nowhere to go but up). There are definitely situations when a cold beer would be perfect, but 97% of the time I don't miss it.

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Originally Posted by David Stager

Haha, a year ago I would have said the same thing, but I've quit drinking entirely since last May, and my quality of life has definitely improved (granted I was a heavy solitary drinker before, so I really had nowhere to go but up). There are definitely situations when a cold beer would be perfect, but 97% of the time I don't miss it.

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thats awesome bro! I of course was being sarcastic, I haven't drank in over a year because of the same reason. Keep it Up!

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Originally Posted by Shawn Arnold

thats awesome bro! I of course was being sarcastic, I haven't drank in over a year because of the same reason. Keep it Up!

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Thanks dude, right back atcha.

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Originally Posted by David Stager

I'm surprised no one has mentioned cutting out beer yet.

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And cutting out all soft drinks/soda too. They are worth less. Diet soda is bad too. Not good for your digestion.
Drink things that are natural, not processed. Remember an apple a day does keep the doctor away and
helps digest your food.

Here is the diet I follow to lose weight.

Eat chicken, baked, broiled or grilled. Fish cooked the same way. Some red meat broiled or grilled. Nothing fried.
Eggs boiled.

No flour products of any kind. Never eat fried potatoes or french fries.
Baked potato or sweet potato.

Salad but no head lettuce. Romain lettuce as in a Cesar salad.
No salad dressing other than maybe a little olive oil and vinegar.

Eat an apple for digestion. Or don't eat one and see the difference.

Take some multi vitamins. Take calcium and magnesium tablets.

Experiment with your body. If you lose weight and feel better while
eating certain foods and or lose weight you'll know you're doing well.

Don't eat after six o'clock. Don't eat much at night at all. When I train
I eat two meals in the morning and then at lunch. How can you train
on a full stomach.

Eat breakfast early, have a heathy snack before lunch and then eat lunch.
I always lose weight on this diet.

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Originally Posted by Tom Van

I had so much success that I have turned into a total nerd about this stuff and read several of the books out there. I would recommend "The Paleo Solution" by Robb Wolf first. The original "The Paleo Diet" by Cordain has some issues with it, because he did not have the freedom to write it the way that he wanted at the time, and he has since modified some of his recommendations. He does have a new book "The Paleo Answer" that is good for when you get done with "The Paleo Solution".

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Thank you for the reading suggestion. I bought the Paleo Solution on Wed. and have almost finished it, it is an interesting read. Once again thank you for your help.

all about commitment and what you are willing to eat and cut out. sounds like you are eating fast food all the time. check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRQxIcbIT3A