Ten Steps to a better leaner YOU!!!

Ten Steps to a better leaner YOU!!!

10. Take Measurements

You'll never reach your destination if you don't know your starting point. A great place to begin is calculating your bodyfat percentage.

This will allow you to set accurate goals and measure progress. The most accurate (and available) method of measuring body fat percent is the skin-fold method.

This is a simple process that only requires a scale, a bodyfat caliper, and an equation. If you don't have body fat calipers, then take girth measurements—waist, hips, chest, arms, etc. Don't just rely on the scale. The more information you have on your body, the better you will be able to see and analyze your progress.

9. Eat 5-6 Meals Each Day

You've probably heard this countless times before but it just can't be stressed enough. Eating 5-6 meals containing protein, carbohydrate, and healthy fat each day is key, regardless of your training goals.

To begin, if you are looking to drop some body fat, then eating more often allows you to better manage your insulin levels for increased fat burning. Controlling insulin levels when dieting is critical as insulin is the body's most potent blocker of lipolysis (i.e. liberation of stored fat to be used as energy).

Another added benefit of controlling insulin levels is consistent energy levels; your blood sugar won't rise and crash throughout the day. Purposefully spreading the traditional "three square meals" into 5-6 smaller meals will allow you to increase your fat-burning ability while at the same time providing your body with nutrients required to build muscle.

8. Train With Weights 3-4 Times A Week


Lifting weights is an essential part of developing a lean physique. Not only will weight training boost you metabolic rate for extended periods of time, it will help you build muscle (which will allow you to burn more calories just sitting around!).

Let's say you love lifting weights. You might ask, "Why just 3-4 times a week? Professional bodybuilders lift 5-6 days a week double sessions!"

When you are dieting, you are in a calorie-deficient state. This will put your body in a compromised position where you will have limited recovery capabilities. 3-4 sessions of intense training sessions are perfect for most people to stimulate their muscles and metabolism without beating themselves into the ground (or worse a state of overtraining).

7. Don't Overdue The Cardio

A lot of people go cardio crazy when trying to lose body fat. The days of getting on the bike or treadmill for 40-60 minutes 5-6 times per week are done! If burning body fat and building muscle is your goal, shorter, more-intense interval-based cardio sessions are the way to go.

Cardiovascular activity performed in a high intensity interval fashion (high intensity is a term relative to your personal fitness level) has been shown to burn more calories than the old school 40-minute cardio sessions.

This means you'll burn more fat, in less time. If you have been doing longer cardio, don't quickly jump into this higher-intensity cardio.

Give your body time to adjust over several weeks by slowly replacing the interval sessions for the longer sessions. Most people find that 3-4 interval sessions give them better results than 6+ traditional longer cardio sessions.

6. Plan Your Meals The Night Before

This one has made all the difference in my personal fitness journey. Not only does it make eating multiple meals per day easier, but it changes your focus during the day from creating a nutrition plan to executing one.

You have enough going on during the day that you don't need to be worrying about where your next meal will come from and how you can make it fit perfectly into your plan. Eliminate the added stress, plan the night before, and just follow your roadmap during the day.

5. Drink Green Tea

Ever since the FDA put the clamps down on Ephedra, supplement companies have been searching for a replacement. The winner is ... Green Tea extract. While it is not as effective as Ephedra, it is the best thing most companies have to work with.

The compound within green tea that contains the metabolic enhancing effects is a polyphenol called EGCG. To make a long story short, scientific studies have shown EGCG to produce a thermogenic effect (increased rate at which calories are burned as heat) in the body.

Another interesting feature that makes green tea more attractive to dieters comes from a 2004 study published in Life Science. Researchers found that green tea was a potent inhibitor of fatty acid synthase (FAS).

As you may be able to deduce by the name, this is an enzyme in your body responsible for synthesizing fatty acids. The last thing you want your body to do when you are trying to lose fat is to synthesize fat.

You don't have to supplement with green tea extract either, you can get the same result by simply drinking a pot of green tea each day (3-5 cups). In addition, green tea is a great substitute and much better for you than diet soft drinks.

But remember green tea is naturally caffeinated which is perfect (Mother Nature knows best right?) as the combination of EGCG and caffiene is best for eliciting fat loss.

4. Get Rid Of Bad Friends And Bad Food

Don't let your environment sabotage your weight-loss efforts. If you are trying to eat healthy foods you can not have the freezer stocked with Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and the cupboards full of BBQ potato chips.

As it gets to be later at night you know you'll be tempted. Don't set yourself up for temptation and failure; create an environment where you can't fail! It can be simple, if the food isn't in your house, then you won't eat it. So, throw out the junk, high sugar, over-processed high-fat foods!

The same goes for your friends. If you are constantly being scoffed at and joked about because you choose to have a grilled salmon salad instead of buffalo wings, or because you asked the waiter to bring you steamed broccoli instead of french fries – get new friends! Find people that are supportive of your fitness goals and the behaviors that they require.

3. Drink Lots Of Water

Water is essential to life and a healthy body. Dehydration will wreak havoc on you and your fitness goals. If you are dehydrated your body cannot function at its optimal level. For example, your muscles will lose strength, you won't burn fat as quickly, and you'll feel tired and fatigued.

A 2003 study entitled 'Water-Induced Thermogenesis' was published by the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. It was stated that drinking 2 Liters of water spread throughout the day burned up to 100 extra calories (the equivalent of running a mile).

2. Take Time Off To Rest And Recover

Fat loss training and dieting is mentally draining. That is why you need to take extra care of yourself. Extra stretching and foam rolling, epson salt baths, going to bed an hour early, and/or taking a magnesium supplement prior to bed are all simple ways that you can help accelerate your recovery (and progress).

One of my favorite sayings is: "Physiology trumps diet." This means that if your body chemistry and physiology is off, you won't be able to maximize your fat loss. Trying to lose weight is no excuse for being unhealthy and it will in fact hinder your progress. Rest, recover, and you'll lose more weight.

1. Apply The Previous Nine Rules

It is important that you realize that the statement "Knowledge is Power" is false! Applied knowledge with passion and consistent persistence is power! The chances are you know everything that you have to do to achieve your best body but you're not applying your knowledge. Stop...take the time to focus and execute the steps above with a well structured game plan and achieve all your goals.

Burn the Belly Fat and keep your tummy FLAT!

Here are some proven steps to help keep your body fat on the retreat.

1 EAT HEALTHY FATS

When trying to drop fat, it may seem appropriate to reduce dietary fat. At 9 calories per gram, fats are a denser caloric investment than carbs or protein. But fats are, in fact, good for you, and consuming enough of the good fats will help you lose fat, build muscle, and recover faster from your workouts. Healthy fats also have numerous health benefits, including being good for your heart and cardio-battered joints.

Polyunsaturated fats, such as those from fish and nuts, and the monounsaturated kind, such as those from peanut butter, olive oil, egg yolks, and fish oil are the ideal choice (especially omega-3s).

2 ADD A HIGH-CARB DAY

When dieting down, most people turn to low-carb diets. (We can see you nodding your head in affirmation.) But what most seem to forget is that carbs are your body’s preferred fuel source and adding a high-carb day now and then can really rejuvenate the metabolism and get that engine revving again.

A low-carb diet long term can actually end up having adverse effects as leptin – the satiety hormone -- levels fall faster when on a low-carb diet and this in turn ends up slowing down metabolism and actually making you feel more hungry.

Try to plan your high-carb days around your more intense sessions, such as leg day, and take down those higher-carb meals pre- and post-workout. Adding 1-2 high-carb days will essentially mean you are carb cycling and will help you avoid any plateaus that may be on the horizon.

3 EAT PROTEIN PLENTY OF PROTEIN

This is a no-brainer, right? At only 4 calories per gram, protein is an ideal choice for keeping your calorie count in check. It also keeps you fuller longer and rebuilds and preserves muscle. Research has also found that a high-protein diet increases fat loss because it increases metabolic rate and decreases hunger.

You should consume a range of .8 to 1.5 grams per lean body pound of weight.

4. HYDRATION IS CRUCIAL

You can try to will yourself into eating less at each meal, or you can put some proven science to work for you at the dinner table. A 2010 study found that participants who drank a full glass of water before dining typically consumed 75-90 fewer calories from that meal. It’s not complicated – the extra water made them feel fuller.

Drinking more water will also ensure your metabolism is running smoothly and will ensure that you stay hydrated. Additionally, consuming more water keeps your body shedding more water. Some athletes find that they retain less water when they begin consuming more. Aim for half your body-weight in ounces per day. So a 200-pound individual should strive for 100 ounces.

5. CHOICE OF EXERCISE

I find that mixing HIIT workouts with resistance exercise are the most beneficial and effective methods for dropping unwanted body fat. The resistance exercise builds lean body mass. The more muscle the higher the metabolism runs. and the HIIT training stokes the metabolism up to 48 hours after the training session. So make sure you hit the gym 2-4 times a week and perform some HIIT exercises 2-3 times a week as well.

How To Stop Overeating

Not All Calories Have the Identical Effect

The dogmatic belief that "a calorie is a calorie" has done much to contribute to the ever-worsening health of the Western world. It's one of the first things dieticians learn in school, and it's completely false.

Calories are not created equal, and as just mentioned, the source of the calories makes all the difference in the world. Groundbreaking research by Dr. Robert Lustig shows that calories from fructose are of particular concern.

According to Dr. Lustig, fructose is "isocaloric but not isometabolic." What this means is that identical calorie counts from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or fructose and fat, will cause entirely different metabolic effects.

However, Dr. Guyenet counters that although this is true at high levels, most of the human studies have found little difference in the effects of sugar versus starch at more normal levels of consumption, as long as excess calories are not consumed.

The reason for the difference in metabolic effects is largely because different nutrients provoke different hormonal responses, and those hormonal responses determine how much fat your body will accumulate and hold on to.

This is why the idea that you can lose weight by counting calories simply doesn't work. After fructose, other sugars and grains are among the most excessively consumed foods that promotes weight gain and chronic disease.

Another dogmatic belief that simply isn't true is the idea that obesity is the end result of eating too much and exercising too little; i.e. consuming more calories than you're expending.

Here, research by the likes of Dr. Richard Johnson clearly demonstrates that this too is a complete fallacy. Like Dr. Lustig, Dr. Johnson places most of the blame on excessive fructose consumption, and his book The Fat Switch shatters the myth that obesity is the result of eating too many calories and not exercising enough.

Here again Dr. Guyenet disagrees. He believes that developing obesity is impossible without consuming more calories than are expended. If the energy content of your body is increasing, that means ‘energy in’ has to be increasing, and/or ‘energy out’ has to be decreasing. It’s just that many things influence how much is coming in vs. out, for example what type of food you eat.

Although this may be technically correct the wild card here that is frequently overlooked is your body’s ability to burn fat as its primary fuel. Due to insulin and leptin resistance, most people have impaired enzymes to burn fat which lends credence to Dr. Lustig’s and Johnson’s assertions.

The Science of Obesity
While the first law of thermodynamics does apply to humans, in order to actually gain a significant amount of weight, Dr. Johnson’s research shows that you have to do two things:

Block your sensation of fullness, and
Impair your body's ability to burn fat by downregulating the enzymes responsible for metabolizing fat.
What this means is that in order for you to become severely overweight you must first become leptin resistant. Leptin is a hormone that helps you regulate your appetite. When your leptin levels rise, it signals your body that you’re full, so you’ll stop eating. Refined sugar (in particular fructose) is exceptionally effective at causing leptin resistance in animals, and it’s also very effective at blocking the burning of fat...

Guyenet also disagrees with this concept. He believes the most effective way to cause leptin resistance in rodents is a refined high-fat diet. Please note that these are not the healthy fats I advocate like coconut oil, avocados, butter and olive oil, but highly processed and refined industrialized soy, corn and canola oils.

He also discusses the impact of leptin sensitivity loss in the featured lecture. He notes that once your brain has lost its sensitivity to leptin, it will perceive the situation as normal, and will therefore defend that fat mass.

Another interesting tidbit is that if you’re insulin resistant and obese, it doesn’t take much fructose to activate the processes that will keep you fat. Some of Dr. Johnson’s most recent research shows that the more high-fructose corn syrup you eat, the more you absorb and the more you metabolize it. Thus, eating fruits may be more of an issue if you are insulin resistant, whereas fruit intake is likely safer or even beneficial if you are lean and healthy. This helps explain the paradox of how some very fit people can eat a lot of fruit—which is rich in natural fructose—without gaining any weight.

Toxic Foods and Bad Habits Hamper Proper Metabolic Function
Over the past 60 years or so, a confluence of dramatically altered foods combined with reduced physical exertion and increased exposure to toxic chemicals have created what amounts to a perfect storm. The extensive use of sugar—primarily in the form of high fructose corn syrup, which is added to virtually all processed foods—is at the heart of it all. But one also cannot underestimate the impact of chemistry, and the creation of truly addictive foods.

If you think about it, it’s quite revealing that, in contrast to third-world countries, the poorest people in the US have the highest obesity rates. This seeming contradiction is, I believe, a clear indication that the problem stems from the diet itself. Something in the cheapest and most readily available foods is creating metabolic havoc, and indeed that’s what studies are finding.

Research into the addictive nature of processed foods reveals that food companies have perfected the art of creating addictive foods4 through the masterful use of salt, fat, sugar, and a wide variety of proprietary flavorings—most of which are far from natural. As a general rule, "food" equals "live nutrients." Nutrients, in turn, feed your cells, optimize your health, and sustain life. Obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and heart attacks are all diseases associated with a processed food diet – a CLEAR indication that it does not provide the appropriate nutrition for your body.

How to Regain Your Lean Body
So if you are carrying more body fat than your ideal, what's the answer? I believe there are two primary dietary recommendations that, if widely implemented, could help you regain your lean body and reverse our current obesity trend. This kind of diet will naturally shift your body from burning sugar to burning fat as its primary fuel, which will automatically help you shed excess weight, and counteract disease processes associated with a processed, high-sugar diet:

• Avoid, sugar, refined fructose, grains, and processed foods
• Eat a healthful diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs with:
• Large amounts of vegetables
• Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein (think organically raised, pastured animals). As a general guideline, I recommend limiting your protein to about one gram of protein per kilogram of lean body mass, or one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body weight. (If your body fat mass is 20 percent, your lean mass is 80 percent of your total body weight)
• As much high-quality healthful fat as you want (saturated and monounsaturated). For optimal health, most people need upwards of 50-85 percentof their daily calories in the form of fat
• While this may sound excessive, consider that, in terms of volume, the largest portion of your plate would be vegetables, since they contain so few calories. Fat, on the other hand, tends to be very high in calories. For example, just one tablespoon of coconut oil is about 130 calories—all of it from healthful fat. Good sources of fat include coconut and coconut oil, avocados, butter, nuts, and animal fats. Also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.

The Case for Intermittent Fasting

Another strategy that works really well in combination with this kind of diet is intermittent fasting. In fact, intermittent fasting, or “scheduled eating,” is one of the most powerful interventions I know of to shed excess weight, as it effectively jump starts your body to burn fat instead of sugar as its primary fuel. There are many different variations of intermittent fasting, but my personal recommendation is to fast every day until you reach your ideal body fat.

You do this by scheduling your eating into a narrow window of time each day. For example, you could restrict your eating to the hours of 11am and 7pm. Essentially, you’re just skipping breakfast and making lunch your first meal of the day instead. This equates to a daily fasting of 16 hours—twice the minimum required to deplete your glycogen stores and start shifting into fat burning mode.

By increasing insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial energy efficiency, fasting helps slow down disease processes typically associated with insulin resistance—which includes metabolic syndrome. Fasting also benefits your body by reducing oxidative stress, and inducing a cellular stress response (similar to that induced by exercise) in which your cells up-regulate the expression of genes that increase their capacity to cope with stress and resist damage.

Intermittent fasting also has the near-magical side effect of eliminating sugar and junk food cravings. While most people will successfully switch over to burning fat after several weeks of intermittent fasting, it may take up to several months for those that are seriously insulin/leptin resistant. Their body needs to learn how to turn on the fat-burning enzymes that allow it to effectively use fat as its primary fuel. So don’t get discouraged. Just keep at it. Once you’ve become fat adapted and are of a normal weight, without high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol, you really only need to do scheduled eating occasionally. As long as you maintain your ideal body weight, you can go back to eating three meals a day if you want to.

Quit 'Dieting' and Start Living Healthily
If you want to shed excess weight and protect your health, my most urgent recommendation is to replace processed foods with homemade meals, made from whole, ideally organic, ingredients. Remember to replace the grain carbs with vegetables, small amounts of high quality protein, and plenty of healthful fats

Source: Dr. Joseph Mercola


Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

Understanding Calories

One of the most commonly held diet myths is “To lose one pound of fat you need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories”. This is wrong at every level. First of all, one pound does not equal 3,500 calories. You will see this formula in government literature, in just about every diet book, in private health booklets and all over the internet. The next time you see it, or hear it, ask where it comes from. You will not get an answer.

The first part of the calorie formula is the assertion that one pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. You will struggle to find anyone who can demonstrate the precise calculation behind this, so I’ll offer this as a suggestion:

1. One pound equals 454 grams (decimal places aside, this is a fact);
2. Fat has nine calories per gram (this is the universally accepted conversion, but it is an estimate and significantly rounded down from even the original estimate);
3. Human fat tissue is approximately 87% lipid (this is a widely accepted conversion, but it is also an estimate).

Putting these together, we can derive the sum that 454 grams of body fat tissue has approximately the calorific energy of 395 grams of pure fat (454 grams x 87%), that is 3,555 calories (395 grams x 9).

3,555 is close enough to 3,500 you may think, until you see the absurdity of how precisely the formula is applied.

According to those who believe this formula, this difference of 55 calories (in this case from the calculation being approximate) would make five to six pounds difference a year. The National Obesity Forum web site states “one less (sic) 50 calorie plain biscuit per day could help you lose 5lbs (2.3kg) in a year – and one extra biscuit means you could gain that in a year!” No it won’t. I can’t even get an estimate of the formula to closer than 55 calories ‘out’. Even if the 3,555 were correct (and it isn’t), this would mean we all need a 55 calorie biscuit, no fewer, every day or we will be five pounds lighter in a year anyway. Every person who didn’t have that biscuit every day should have lost 141 pounds over the past 25 years.

With little effort I can find evidence in obesity journals that fat has anywhere between 8.7 and 9.5 calories per gram. The same (1911) obesity journal that says that human fat tissue can be 87% lipid also says that it may be 72% lipid.

Taking the extremes of these, we can establish a range whereby one pound of fat could contain anywhere between 2,843 and 3,752 calories. Given that it is currently held that one pound is 3,500 calories we could (according to this formula) inadvertently gain 80 pounds every year at the low end of the calculation and lose almost 30 pounds in the same year if one pound is 3,752 calories. Don’t worry about any of this – because the formula doesn’t hold at any other level either.


Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

Understanding Your Calories

Fact: It not about counting Calories it's understanding what those calories really are and how your digestive system reacts to them!

To Optimize Your Health, Pay Attention to the SOURCE of Your Calories

In order to curb the current obesity epidemic, we do not need more accurate reporting of calories; we need to start focusing on eating the right kind of calories. I firmly believe that the primary keys for successful weight management and optimal health are:

1. Severely restricting carbohydrates (sugars, fructose, and grains) in your diet
2. Increasing healthy fat consumption
3. Unlimited consumption of non starchy vegetables. Because they are so low calorie, the majority of the food on your plate will be vegetables
4. Limit the use of protein to less than one gram per pound of lean body mass weight, not total body weight. In order to know this you must know your body fat percentage.

Healthful fat can be rich in calories, but these calories will not affect your body in the same way as calories from non-vegetable carbs. As explained by Dr. Robert Lustig, fructose in particular is "isocaloric but not isometabolic." This means you can have the same amount of calories from fructose or glucose, fructose and protein, or fructose and fat, but the metabolic effect will be entirely different despite the identical calorie count. Eating dietary fat isn’t what’s making you pack on the pounds. It’s the sugar/fructose and grains that are adding the padding.

So please, don’t fall for the low-fat myth, as this too is a factor in the rise in chronic health problems such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Your brain, heart and cardiovascular system need healthy fat for optimal functioning. In fact, emerging evidence suggests most people need at least half of their daily calories from healthy fat, and possibly as high as 70 percent. Add to that a small to medium amount of high-quality protein and plenty of vegetables. You actually need very few carbs besides vegetables; so you see, the federal guidelines are about as lopsided as they could be... pushing you toward obesity and poor health, if you follow them.

Hunger Can Be Used as a Guide to Determine How Much Fat You Need

Many do not realize this, but frequent hunger may be a major clue that you're not eating correctly and are using carbs as your primary fuel. Not only is it an indication that you're consuming the wrong types of food, but it's also a sign that you're likely consuming them in lopsided ratios for your individual biochemistry, and the timing of your eating may benefit from adjustment. Fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on carbs and feel ravenous, thinking you "can't do without the carbs," remember this is a sign that you haven't replaced them with sufficient amounts of fat. So go ahead and add a bit more. You do want to make sure you're adding the correct types of fat though. And vegetable oils like canola and corn oil, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends is NOT on the healthy list… Sources of healthy fats include:

1. Olives and olive oil
2. Coconuts and coconut oil
3. Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
4. Raw nuts, such as almonds or pecans
5. Organic pastured egg yolks
6. Avocados
7. Grass-fed meats
8. Palm oil
9. Unheated organic nut oils

Another healthful fat you want to be mindful of is animal-based omega-3. Deficiency in this essential fat can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year.


Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

A Silent Epidemic - Yeast Candida

The vast majority of Americans suffer from a Candida fungal (yeast) infection. But the problem is that the symptoms are so wide-ranging that most people aren’t even aware that they have it. Unknowingly, you could be carrying around this silent invader, which could be causing many of the health issues you might be experiencing. And while finding out that you have a candida fungal infection may not sound like a big deal, it’s not a diagnosis that you should take lightly.

In fact, studies have linked this seemingly innocent health issue to many serious health issues, including cancer. Candida fungal infections are much more than what many consider as a yeast infection, commonly regarded as a “woman’s issue”.

Fact: Men are carriers of yeast candida as well and reinfect their partners through sexual intercourse.

So much so that doctors are starting to call this a “Silent Epidemic.”

Now, I know what you are thinking…
“What are the symptoms of a Candida (yeast) infection?”.

Candida fungal infection actually causes so many symptoms, it will make your head spin! One thing that really surprises people about Candida is how many lives it affects (even without the cancer link). It does this by robbing us of our energy and joy of life.

In fact, many aches and pains you regularly suffer from are caused by Candida, and will disappear when you cleanse yourself of this invasive fungus. The estimation is that 80% of the population suffers from a Candida (yeast) fungus infection. That is a staggering 200 MILLION people in the United States. We have treated many folks over the years who have overcome debilitating depression and fatigue by cleansing them of the Candida that had grown out of control inside of them. The sad things is that you may be one of so many people affected by this, and don’t even know it.

The first step is to be able to recognize the symptoms of a Systemic Candida (Yeast) Fungal infection. I know when you read the following you may be skeptical and say ‘oh, but these symptoms can be caused by many different things’. And yes, you would be right. A quick search on medical website or wiki for will show over 100 different symptoms that can be expressed in someone with candida. They will not have all the symptoms, as the symptoms change dramatically depending on where the fungal colony has settled in the body. For example, expression of depression and psychological symptoms are generally related to the fungus being located in the brain. The initial stages of a Candida infection will very often involve the gut, mouth and urinary tract.

Most common symptoms that indicate a Candida infection are:

• Sore throat
• Bloating
• Gas
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Earache

Another common symptom reported by many sufferers is discoloration of the skin and uneven skin tone.

However, once the infection has reached the bloodstream, it can travel all around the body to other vital systems. These include the brain, the reproductive system, the nervous system, and more.

As the infection becomes more widespread the symptoms become more varied and include:

• Sugar and alcohol cravings, as well as cravings for carbohydrate rich foods (such as bread, pasta, rice, etc.)
• Migraines
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Skin Tags
• Foggy thinking
• Itching
• Acne
• Hyperactivity
• Sinus inflammation
• Irritability
• Dizziness
• Low sex drive
• Earache
• Skin infections (such as athlete’s foot)
• Chronic pain
• Muscle weakness
• Eczema
• Psoriasis
• Rosacea
• Many forms of Arthritis
• Gout
• Metabolic Syndrome
• Leaky Bowel Syndrome
• IBS
• Crohn's disease
• High Blood pressure
• ADD, ADHD
• Alzheimer's Disease
• Parkinson's Disease
• Obesity
• Obesity related diseases

The medical profession is now much more aware of the problems Candida causes.

Doctors will urge you to take action quickly if you have a Candida infection to prevent serious complications, because it has the potential to harm the delicate systems of your body and create long-term damage. So now you know exactly what is at stake if Candida is allowed to run free in your body.

Thankfully, the solution is simple. But the key is to avoid delay, as some of the damage caused by Candida can be permanent. See, the fungus can sit dormant in your body for years, waiting to flare up again, and it almost always does eventually!

The best solution is to eliminate sugar and starchy carbohydrates from you diet completely and load your body with probiotics. The key to controlling Candida is keeping the healthy bacteria in control of your digestive system. It is crucial that you have no less than an 80/20 ratio of good bacteria to bad. Avoiding sugars and processed foods is a good start but you must consume the healthy bacteria in order to get back in balance. Natural Yogurt (with no sugar) and fermented foods are an excellent choice to help rebuild your 80/20 Ratio of good bacteria to bad. If you are experiencing Candida overgrowth and suffering from one or more of the symptoms I mentioned above I highly suggest a probiotic like ImmuniPro.

If you would like more information on ImmuniPro please contact me here on Facebook and I will be happy to give you even more information. Texas Metabolics specializes in helping others attain the health and ideal body fat%. If you are suffering from Candida you will find it next to impossible to loose weight.

We offer custom nutrition programs to help reduce the Candida Yeast in your body and help you regain your health.


Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

Why Sugar is Toxic to the Body and in particular the BRAIN

Shipwrecked sailors who ate and drank nothing but sugar and rum for nine days surely went through some of this trauma; the tales they had to tell created a big public relations problem for the sugar pushers. This incident occurred when a vessel carrying a cargo of sugar was shipwrecked in 1793.The five surviving sailors were finally rescued after being marooned for nine days. They were in a wasted condition due to starvation, having consumed nothing but sugar and rum. The eminent French physiologist F. Magendie was inspired by that incident to conduct a series of experiments with animals, the results of which he published in 1816. In the experiments, he fed dogs a diet of sugar or olive oil and water. All the dogs wasted and died.

The shipwrecked sailors and the French physiologist's experimental dogs proved the same point. As a steady diet, sugar is worse than nothing. Plain water can keep you alive for quite some time. Sugar and water can kill you. Humans [and animals] are "unable to subsist on a diet of sugar". The dead dogs in Professor Magendie's laboratory alerted the sugar industry to the hazards of free scientific inquiry. From that day to this, the sugar industry has invested millions of dollars in behind-the-scenes, subsidized science. The best scientific names that money could buy have been hired, in the hope that they could one day come up with something at least pseudoscientific in the way of glad tidings about sugar.

It has been proved, however, that (1) sugar is a major factor in dental decay; (2) sugar in a person's diet does cause overweight; (3) removal of sugar from diets has cured symptoms of crippling, worldwide diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart illnesses. Sir Frederick Banting, the codiscoverer of insulin, noticed in 1929 in Panama that, among sugar plantation owners who ate large amounts of their refined stuff, diabetes was common. Among native cane-cutters, who only got to chew the raw cane, he saw no diabetes. However, the story of the public relations attempts on the part of the sugar manufacturers began in Britain in 1808 when the Committee of West India reported to the House of Commons that a prize of twenty-five guineas had been offered to anyone who could come up with the most "satisfactory" experiments to prove that unrefined sugar was good for feeding and fattening oxen, cows, hogs and sheep.

Food for animals is often seasonal, always expensive. Sugar, by then, was dirt cheap. People weren't eating it fast enough. Naturally, the attempt to feed livestock with sugar and molasses in England in 1808 was a disaster. When the Committee on West India made its fourth report to the House of Commons, one Member of Parliament, John Curwin, reported that he had tried to feed sugar and molasses to calves without success. He suggested that perhaps someone should try again by sneaking sugar and molasses into skimmed milk. Had anything come of that, you can be sure the West Indian sugar merchants would have spread the news around the world. After this singular lack of success in pushing sugar in cow pastures, the West Indian sugar merchants gave up.

With undaunted zeal for increasing the market demand for the most important agricultural product of the West Indies, the Committee of West India was reduced to a tactic that has served the sugar pushers for almost 200 years: irrelevant and transparently silly testimonials from faraway, inaccessible people with some kind of "scientific" credentials. While preparing his epochal volume, A History of Nutrition, published in 1957, Professor E. V. McCollum (Johns Hopkins university), sometimes called America's foremost nutritionist and certainly a pioneer in the field, reviewed approximately 200,000 published scientific papers, recording experiments with food, their properties, their utilization and their effects on animals and men. The material covered the period from the mid-18th century to 1940. From this great repository of scientific inquiry, McCollum selected those experiments which he regarded as significant "to relate the story of progress in discovering human error in this segment of science [of nutrition]".

Professor McCollum failed to record a single controlled scientific experiment with sugar between 1816 and 1940. unhappily, we must remind ourselves that scientists today, and always, accomplish little without a sponsor. The protocols of modern science have compounded the costs of scientific inquiry. We have no right to be surprised when we read the introduction to McCollum's A History of Nutrition and find that "The author and publishers are indebted to The Nutrition Foundation, Inc., for a grant provided to meet a portion of the cost of publication of this book". What, you might ask, is The Nutrition Foundation, Inc.? The author and the publishers don't tell you. It happens to be a front organization for the leading sugar-pushing conglomerates in the food business, including the American Sugar Refining Company, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Curtis Candy Co., General Foods, General Mills, Nestlé Co., Pet Milk Co. and Sunshine Biscuits-about 45 such companies in all. Perhaps the most significant thing about McCollum's 1957 history was what he left out: a monumental earlier work described by an eminent Harvard professor as "one of those epochal pieces of research which makes every other investigator desirous of kicking himself because he never thought of doing the same thing".

In the 1930s, a research dentist from Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Weston A. Price, traveled all over the world-from the lands of the Eskimos to the South Sea Islands, from Africa to New Zealand. His Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects, which is illustrated with hundreds of photographs, was first published in 1939. Dr. Price took the whole world as his laboratory. His devastating conclusion, recorded in horrifying detail in area after area, was simple. People who live under so-called backward primitive conditions had excellent teeth and wonderful general health. They ate natural, unrefined food from their own locale. As soon as refined, sugared foods were imported as a result of contact with "civilization," physical degeneration began in a way that was definitely observable within a single generation. Any credibility the sugar pushers have is based on our ignorance of works like that of Dr. Price.

Sugar manufacturers keep trying, hoping and contributing generous research grants to colleges and universities; but the research laboratories never come up with anything solid the manufacturers can use. Invariably, the research results are bad news. "Let us go to the ignorant savage, consider his way of eating and be wise," Harvard professor Ernest Hooten said in Apes, Men, and Morons. "Let us cease pretending that toothbrushes and toothpaste are any more important than shoe brushes and shoe polish. It is store food that has given us store teeth." When the researchers bite the hands that feed them, and the news gets out, it's embarrassing all around. In 1958, Time magazine reported that a Harvard biochemist and his assistants had worked with myriads of mice for more than ten years, bankrolled by the Sugar Research Foundation, Inc. to the tune of $57,000, to find out how sugar causes dental cavities and how to prevent this. It took them ten years to discover that there was no way to prevent sugar causing dental decay. When the researchers reported their findings in the Dental Association Journal, their source of money dried up. The Sugar Research Foundation withdrew its support. The more that the scientists disappointed them, the more the sugar pushers had to rely on the ad men.


Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

How Leptin Resistance Causes Obesity

In order for you to significantly gain weight, you must first become leptin resistant. Leptin is a hormone that helps you regulate your appetite. When your leptin levels rise, it signals your body that you’re full, so you’ll stop eating.

However, as you become increasingly resistant to the effects of leptin, you end up eating more. Many people who are overweight also have an impairment in their body’s ability to oxidize fat, which leads to a low-energy state.

What drives this basic process? Why do you become leptin resistant in the first place?

Refined sugar (in particular fructose) is exceptionally effective at causing leptin resistance in animals, and it’s very effective at blocking the burning of fat. When you give fructose to animals, they lose their ability to control their appetite, they eat more, and they exercise less.

Research also reveals that fructose has effects independent of this mechanism to induce this metabolic syndrome. Whereas fructose increases weight through the standard mechanism of stimulating more food intake and blocking the burning of fat, even when you control caloric intake, fructose can affect body composition.

This is because when you eat fructose, you actually generate more fat in your liver for the same amount of energy intake, compared to other types of sugar... For example, if you calorically restrict an animal but give it a high-fructose diet or a high-sugar diet, it will still produce fatty liver and will still become insulin resistant.

• It stimulates weight gain through its effects on your appetite and by blocking the burning of fat.
• It also changes your body composition to increase body fat even when you are on a caloric restriction.

The goal in maintaining a healthy body weight or to drop body fat is to limit your intake of fructose as much as possible and never exceed 15 grams of fructose in a 24 hour period.

It is important to understand that sugar and in particular fructose is addictive, in fact it effects the brain the exact same way as cocaine or heroine does.

Unfortunately the food industry has created the greatest epidemic of obesity and obesity related disease in the history of the world with a simple little product called, "SUGAR".

It is up to us to control our own cravings and avoid the addictive grasp of sugar. The FDA will never restrict it, there is far too much money being made from sugar and the diseases it creates.


Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

Magnesium

Magnesium is just one mineral offering numerous health benefits. But the average person likely couldn’t name two, let alone tell you which foods are good sources of the important nutrient. From reducing your risk of stroke to helping fight Type 2 diabetes, magnesium is something we should all know about and be sure we are getting enough. 

1. Lower Stroke Risk

An overview of seven previously published studies recently found that for every additional 100 milligrams of magnesium consumed every day, there was a stroke risk reduction of 9 percent. In all, the research followed about 250,000 from across the globe for 11.5 years. About three percent suffered a stroke during the study period.

2. Lowered Risk of Diabetes

Researchers with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also found a link between magnesium intake and diabetes risk. According to the study, those people who consumed the most magnesium reduced their risk of type 2 diabetes by 47 percent when compared with the lowest-consuming among the study group. In addition, magnesium is known to regulate blood sugar and combat insulin resistance.

3. Heart Health

Magnesium aids in transporting calcium and potassium across cell membranes. These nutrients help promote normal heart rhythm and muscle contraction, according to NaturalNews.

4. Decreased Cancer Risk

For every additional 100 milligrams of magnesium added to your daily diet, you could reduce your risk of developing colorectal cancer by 13 percent, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Magnesium delivers additional benefits too—largely due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is blamed for such things as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and even Alzheimer’s.

Some magnesium deficiency symptoms include:

• Tremors
• Nausea
• Respiratory issues
• High blood pressure
• Confusion
• Potassium and calcium deficiency
• Poor heart health
• Type 2 diabetes.

These are general symptoms, however, so it’s important to note that one or two of these doesn’t prove without doubt that you are deficient.

Food Sources of Magnesium

You can reap the benefits of dietary magnesium and combat deficiency and disease with several natural food sources:

• Dark, leafy greens
• Fish
• Beans and lentils
• Nuts and seeds
• Avocados
• Brown rice
• Quinoa

Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics

Nuts and Seeds the key to a Healthier Life

So many of us were brought up believing that saturated fats are unhealthy and could cause heart disease and other health problems. Now that actually is the furthest from the truth. We should in fact be consuming saturated fats rich in Omega 3.

One great way to assure yourself of getting ample amounts of healthy fats would be eating raw nuts and seeds, daily.

A large-scale, 30-year long study found that people who regularly ate one ounce of nuts at least seven times per week were 20 percent less likely to die for any reason, compared to those who avoided nuts in their diet.

Eating nuts at least five times a week corresponded to a 29 percent reduction in mortality risk due to heart disease; a 24 percent reduction for respiratory disease; and an 11 percent reduction for cancer.

In order for your body to adapt to burning fat instead of sugar, replace non-vegetable carbohydrates in your diet with high-quality healthful fats. Raw nuts are one source of such fats.

My favorite nuts are macadamia and pecans, as they provide the highest amount of healthy fat while being on the lower end in terms of protein, mirroring what may be close to an ideal ratio of nutrients.

There are so many benefits from eating these healthy fats.

• Reduction of inflammation
• Reduction of bad cholesterol
• Lower Triglycerides
• Help maintain healthy blood pressure levels
• Reduces the risk of Dementia and Alzheimer's

A short list of Nuts and the benefits they offer.

1. Raw macadamia nuts: A powerhouse of a nut, containing a wide variety of critical nutrients including high amounts of vitamin B1, magnesium, manganese, and healthful monounsaturated fat, just to name a few.
2. Pecans: Pecans contain more than 19 vitamins and minerals, and research has shown they may help lower LDL cholesterol and promote healthy arteries. One of my favorite treats is candied pecans in a salad at a restaurant. I know they have sugar, but a few grams or less a day is not going to cause a major problem provided you’re eating a healthy whole food diet, opposed to processed foods (which are loaded with hidden fructose).
3. Walnuts: Walnuts are good sources of plant-based omega-3 fats, natural phytosterols, and antioxidants that are so powerful at free-radical scavenging that researchers have called them "remarkable.”10 Plus, walnuts may help reduce not only the risk of prostate cancer, but breast cancer as well. They’ve also been shown to reverse brain aging in rats and boost heart health in people with diabetes.
4. Almonds: One of the healthiest aspects of almonds appears to be their skins, as they are rich in antioxidants including phenols, flavonoids, and phenolic acids, which are typically associated with vegetables and fruits. A study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry11 even revealed that a one-ounce serving of almonds has a similar amount of total polyphenols as a cup of steamed broccoli or green tea. Be careful not to overeat almonds though as they are high in protein, nearly one gram per almond.
5. Brazil Nuts: Brazil nuts are an excellent source of organic selenium, a powerful antioxidant-boosting mineral that may be beneficial for the prevention of cancer.

Mark Harris, PhD
Exercise Physiologist/Nutritionist
TexasMetabolics@gmail.com
Texas Metabolics