This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Jayson Hunter I have his permission to share it with you

To have the perfect “Abs Diet” you need to need eat the proper foods. Eat the wrong foods or worse yet eat them at the absolute worst time and you could destroy the perfect healthy weight loss diet, the workout you just completed or behave like a turtle at your next workout.

If you want to perform at your best stock your cupboards with these powerfoods to perform at your best and slim down if you are a women or get ripped if you are a man. Here are the foods to include in your healthy eating plans.

1. Avocados: This is a healthy fat food that will help you keep your muscles and joints strong. If you follow a very low fat diet you are more prone to injury. If you are injured you can’t exercise and also tend to overeat. Not the ideal healthy weight loss diet you want to be following and it won’t lead to quick weight loss. Eat this healthy fat which by the way also helps lower cholesterol to keep your body strong.

2. Berries: Do you want to fight off disease and repair your body at a very fast rate? Then include berries into your healthy weight loss diet. The USDA recently placed berries as one of the top 20 foods richest in antioxidants. Antioxidants help protect muscles from free radical damage and inflammation, which are both believed to contribute to disease and a unhealthy body. Choose berries with a deep color for the highest potency of antioxidants in your healthy eating plans.

3. Low Fat Cottage Cheese: This powerfood packs 14gms of protein per half a cup. Protein not only helps repair your muscles, but it releases a hormone called leptin which helps control hunger. It also increases your metabolism because your body requires more calories to be used in the digestion of protein than it does other nutrients. Make sure you follow this healthy weight loss tip.

4. Salmon: New studies are showing that Omega 3 fatty acids might help lessen abdominal fat as well as block pre-fat cells from becoming permanent fat cells. Guess what is a great source of Omega 3 fat? Salmon of course. Eating a cold water fish 2 times a week such as salmon is great for helping you lose fat and obtain the perfect healthy weight loss diet..

5. Yogurt: Need a perfect late night snack? Have you thought about yogurt? Yogurt is a great immune system strengthening food, but more importantly for your healthy eating plans it is an ideal slow digesting protein food to provide you with nutrients all night long while you sleep. Your body does most of its recovery at night while you are a sleep. Although you don’t need a lot of calories at night you do need certain nutrients to help you with recovery. Yogurt is idea because of its casein based protein.

If you are serious about slimming down and creating that six-pack you have always wanted then incorporate these foods into your healthy weight loss diet to power up your diet and lose belly fat fast.

For more info on Jayson ’s program **click here**

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson I have his permission to share it with you.

What makes a diet stop working? What causes a man or a woman go on a diet, full of good intentions, only to discard the diet in a few weeks or months?

Is it discipline? Frustration? A lack of effectiveness? According to nutrition and fitness author Jon Benson, it comes down to one word: “Love.”

“Love is the key to staying on a diet, a workout plan… anything that requires a change of lifestyle. It may seem obvious, but unless you actually ‘love’ the diet you are on, there is little chance of you staying on it for very long,” says Benson. “All diets require a change in how you look at food, how you consume food, and even how you think about food. The problem is most diets make too many demands of the dieter right off the bat. They tell you not to eat certain foods, sometimes making that a permanent restriction, while allowing perhaps a day per week to ‘overeat’ your favorite foods.”

“This is a disaster waiting to happen… and there is a much more balanced, healthy and effective way to diet than this,” states Benson.

Ten years ago Benson was a somewhat typical American male: Overworked, over-stressed, and overweight. Benson’s weight put him officially into the “obese” category and brought with it all the associated disease states such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides (a type of blood fat) and of course massive amounts of “stress fat” around the belly and chest region.

When Benson decided enough was enough, he, like so many others who are truly ready to change their body and their life, went a bit overboard. “Oh sure, I ate the typical dry chicken, oatmeal with nothing on it, bland rice, and tried to never eat anything I actually enjoyed. Lucky for me I actually love chicken, but most of my diet was composed of what I call my “hate foods”, not my love foods — foods I truly enjoyed eating. But my thinking was just like that of the typical dieter: ‘If I eat (fill-in-the-blank favorite food) I’ll get fatter and never lose weight!’ How wrong I was… and after I started and stopped my diet at least ten times during a course of three years I finally got the message.”

Benson decided to use his nutritional knowledge and his background in body shaping to his advantage. “I started thinking, ‘Why not focus on progress rather than perfection?’ Again, this seems like common sense, but most dieters are focused on being perfect all the time. So I began applying some old body shaping tricks to my dietary plan. For example, I started cycling my calories. I would eat more on one day, less on another. This kept my metabolism guessing and never allowed my body to hit that dreaded ‘no more weight loss’ plateau.”

“Then I decided to push the envelope. I started experimenting with including my favorite foods — pizza, pasta, and even desserts, all in reasonable quantities — on my higher-calorie food days. At first it didn’t work out too well. But then I used what I now call my “Caveman Principle” which involves strategically eating protein at specific times with a bit less food volume (and this allowed me to stop counting calories too!) and then including my favorite foods on specific days and, most important, specific times. Timing in this case is everything.”

Benson says this timing includes both time of day as well as eating higher-calorie, higher-fat, higher-carbohydrate foods only after exercise. “Specific exercise, done for short periods of time, can set the body up to receive additional calories and carbohydrates more effectively without storing them as body fat. You just have to have to know when to do it. Do it right and it works like a charm.”

“The end result was a loss of over 70 pounds of fat, and I never gave up eating my favorite foods… not once, but at least three times a week.”

A study conducted at the University of Phoenix could shed some light on why this approach to dieting may work better than traditional “calorie-counting” and overly-restrictive foods plans. People given the option of eating more frequently versus three meals a day ended up eating smaller servings of both healthy foods and, on some days, “junk foods” yet still lost more weight than the three-meals-per-day group. The evidence pointed toward the elevation of the metabolic rate through frequent eating and the psychological ease of being less restrictive regarding foods consumed.

“I believe food should be enjoyed, and in my opinion life is way too short to worry about eating perfect all the time,” says Benson. “When I crafted this approach into what is now known as “The Every Other Day Diet”, it became an overnight smash, and for good reason… it gave people a chance to have a life while they are losing weight. Let’s face it: Anyone can diet for a day or two, and that’s basically what The Every Other Day Diet asks of its users. Of course you cannot go hog wild on your Feed Days (the higher-calories favorite food meals) but just knowing your favorite foods are always just around the corner keeps you on the weight loss track.”

“The end result is a diet that just about everyone can fall in love with. Loving your diet is the key to dietary success, as I said. And I do happen to love me some pizza! I just use that pizza now to actually help me lose weight rather than gain it, all while staying in good health.”

Today, Jon Benson’s online best-seller, The Every Other Day Diet, can be purchased along with nine additional dieters bonuses, including the first 30 days of private email diet coaching free of charge, for only $39.97, and the program is guaranteed for a full 60 days. If you are not satisfied in any way, the company, Jon Benson Fitness LLC, will refund your money without questions or hassles. Click to watch a presentation on Jon’s “Caveman Principle” of eating and why it works so well for hundreds of thousands of people for fast, sustainable, and enjoyable weight loss.

For more info on Jon’s program ** click here**

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Injuries are an unfortunate consequence of working out sometimes. If you do weight training then your injury risk increases and if you’ve been working out for many years I imagine you’ve been I injured at some time. If you haven’t then lucky you, if you have then you should expect to spend some time on the sports therapy couch.

Here’s my Top 5 Things Your Sports Injury Practitioner Should Be Doing

1. Do they do a full body screening examination? The first thing they should do after talking to you. Lots of injuries have nothing to do with the actual site of pain and can be referred from other ‘weak’ areas of the body.
2. Did they give you a full diagnosis? Don’t accept poor answers like “hamstring strain”, get more details, which muscle particularly? Grade of damage? Healing time? etc
3. Do they lay their hands on you? If your sports injury person only uses machines and doesn’t use manual therapy (actually using their hands to, manipulate, stretch, trigger point etc.) then they are not treating you properly.
4. Have they given you a rehabilitation program? Are they giving you exercises to make things better and strengthen the weak parts or are you just turning up, getting treated and then that’s it until next time…if this is the case quite frankly you are not being looked after properly.
5. Do they have an idea of how to help you return to sport? When you’ve been injured it is quite common to come back and reinjure yourself in a different but related area i.e. you have just recovered from a knee operation and then promptly go out and tear a hamstring or turn an ankle over.

It’s not really important what type of practitioner you see; it could be a physiotherapist, a sports therapist, a chiropractor or an osteopath. All these ‘medical’ people have different ways of treating the same problem, but they must be doing the 5 things I listed above or you should think very hard about changing who you see.

I’ve been treated by all of these different types of therapist and have experienced good and bad in all types, if you don’t already see someone and need to then do some research, it could end up saving you a fortune!

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Rob Poulos I have his permission to share it with you.

Ask ten people what type of exercise they should be doing to burn fat and fire up their metabolism and they’ll all probably tell you the same thing. They’ll tell you that you need to do 30-40 minutes of moderately-paced aerobic exercise on a treadmill, elliptical machine, stair climber, etc. for 3-5 times per week.

They’ll probably also tell you that more is better…4 times per week would be better than 3, and 5 times per week would be even better.

People will tell you this because that’s been and continues to be the mainstream recommendation for fat burning by many fitness professionals. Get in a certain target heart rate and stay at that heart rate for 30 minutes or so, several times per week. I am here to tell you there is a better way.

Sure, you’ll burn some calories while you’re running to nowhere on a treadmill, but you won’t make a complete physique transformation with this type of exercise alone.

In fact, this type of exercise can actually be counterproductive to burning fat. Here are just a couple of reasons:
Long duration, lower intensity aerobics calls upon your stored body fat for energy during the sessions. While this may sound good, this can actually cause your body to create more body fat in reserve after the workout is over to have ready for your next workout. Yikes!

What’s worse, this type of exercise when done frequently as typically suggested, trains your cardiovascular system to be efficient. Again, while this sounds good, your heart and lungs can actually reduce their capacity for work as they are getting more efficient at doing easy work (your long duration, low intensity aerobic workouts), which reduces their ability to handle stress.

This can lead to a host of other problems including higher change of heart attack. You are only working within your current aerobic capacity because you’re never challenging it to go beyond what it’s capable of. And anything that is easy will not yield results even close to what’s challenging for the body to accomplish.

Instead, you should be challenging the body to increase its capacity, so that it is stronger and able to deal with stress more easily. How is this done?

The fastest and most efficient way to rev up your metabolism, burn fat faster, and develop lifelong health and fitness is to add lean muscle to your body through resistance training – period. You want life changing results in the quickest possible time? Get stronger and build some muscle. When you add lean muscle to your body you’ll be literally turning your body into a fat burning machine!

Let’s say that you were eating the amount of calories that allow you to maintain your current bodyweight, but began to add lean muscle to your body through proper resistance training…you’ll need to use some of those calories you’re eating to feed the new muscle, creating a calorie deficit in your body.

In addition, when you stimulate your body with proper resistance training like I teach my students, the repair and growth process will call upon your stored body fat for energy. This calorie deficit combined with the repair and growth process will allow you to burn fat all day long, every day. You’ll even get these fat burning effects when you’re sitting around doing nothing at all.

Also, properly conducted resistance training actually increases your heart and lung’s capacity for work. By placing intense demands on your body, it is forced into being ready for anything you throw at it. This makes you more resistant to cardiovascular health problems that plague most people…even those that exercise with aerobics frequently.

And the beauty is I’ve discovered that you don’t have to spend much time working out to get the fat loss effects, and strength and muscle gains that will create this environment…you can actually get it done with 2 or 3 weekly workouts that last between 20 and 30 minutes, and even less time at an advanced level.

And it’s easy to make this type of exercise part of your life because of its efficiency…and it will help keep you lean and healthy for the rest of it…muscle is the stuff that fat burning furnaces are made of! That I can promise you.

For more info on Rob’s program **click here**

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Weight training exercises are essential in the development of specfic strength. The front squat is one of these and should be an important aspect of your programming

When performing the front squat you must learn to ‘rack’ the bar on the front of the shoulders and hold the bar in the ‘Olympic’ position.

This is a key technique, especially as it is a foundation exercise needed before to transition into the full Olympic lifts such as the clean.

The exercise starts by sitting down into your heels by pushing your hips back. Maintain a tight core by engaging your abs and keep your elbows high as you go down.

Now the depth to which you go will depend upon a number of factors that you may or may not be able to change (but that’s for further discussion at another point).

The important thing is that you do not go so deep that your ‘tail’ bone starts to rotate under you, the risks to your lower back are just too large to any benefits you could gain.

The picture to the left is the lowest I am willing to go before I start to compromise my spinal position.

Everyone is different and you need to keep with in the safe zone to be safe…some people will undoubtedly tell you that you are not squatting deep enough but until you address the causes of your lack of range the most prudent thing to do is be cautious…you’ll still get some great gains from doing it any way.

Especially as most people are trying to be fit for daily functioning not fit for weight lifting competitions.

It’s important in the bottom posistion of the front squat to keep your weight back into the heels and the elbows as high as you can.

You initiate the up movement by driving the hips forward keeping you weight into the heels and generating as much power from the glutes and hamstrings as possible.

The beauty of the front squat is that recent research suggests the loading on the hips and the thighs is similar as to that of the back squat. Also the lumber spine forces are also of fairly equal loads.

The major advantage the literature reports is the reduced knee compression forces in the front squat compared with the back squat.

This can be incredibly important in reducing the amount of wear and tear in the knee joint and is especially pertinent to the heavier people who’s knees are forced to bear increasingly larger loads.

Of course don’t forget the main reason for lifting this way is to learn one of the key components of the Olympic clean.

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Craig BallantyneI have his permission to share it with you.

If you are looking for a fat burning workout routine that gets you maximum results in minimum time, then you have come to the right place.

So many people are

– Eating well
– Exercising regularly
– but TICKED OFF they aren’t making progress.

That just means they haven’t found the right fat burning workout routine. Fortunately, I’ve spent over 16 years developing the best fat burning workout routine that you can do in the comfort of your own home.

First, let’s go over 3 common mistakes that are holding you back from burning fat.

1) Your perception of your nutrition "success" doesn’t match the reality of what, when, and how often you are eating. To learn the rules of fat loss, you need to read (scratch that, you need to
STUDY), Dr. Chris Mohr’s Fat Loss Nutrition Guidelines.

2) There is no variety in your training.

3) You need to up the intensity of your fat burning workout routine.

Let’s face it. Human beings like to stick to a routine. We don’t like change. We like our comfort zone – some more than others. But if there is no change in your workout from month to month, then your body will not change either.

That is why I insist on changing your workouts every 4 weeks as you do in the TT workouts.

You won’t succeed by doing the same thing over and over again. Would you get ahead at work by doing the same tasks you did as the first day on your job? No way. You have to take on more challenges.

With variety in your training, you will continue to apply "turbulence" to the muscle, and making your body use lots of energy (i.e. calories and fat) during the recovery period to repair the muscle and replenish the energy used. That will "jack up" your metabolism.

If your body is used to the training, the exercises, the sets, and the reps, it will give a "ho-hum" response and your metabolism will flat line. And that’s why you need to raise the intensity of the workout as well.

Slow, boring cardio doesn’t jack up the metabolism like intervals. And research has shown that 8 reps boost your post-workout metabolism more than 12 reps. So you have to safely add a little weight (try using 5% more weight with perfect form, of course), and decreasing the number of reps per set by 2. That’s a good place to start.

And if you’ve been doing a machine circuit, then stop, and give this sample free weight Turbulence Training workout a try.

Warm up with a bodyweight circuit. Do 8 reps per exercise, and go through the circuit twice.

Sample bodyweight circuit:

i) Bodyweight squat
ii) An easy pushup
iii) A bodyweight row if possible, if not, do stick-ups

Then do 20 minutes of total body strength training done in supersets.

ie.
1a) DB Squat
1b) DB Press

Do each exercise with a weight that allows only 8 reps. Do not rest between the squat and press. Rest 1 minute after the press. Repeat the superset 2 more times.

Next superset:

2a) Split Squat
2b) DB Row

Do each exercise with a weight that allows only 8 reps. Do not rest between the squat and press. Rest 1 minute after the press. Repeat the superset 2 more times.

Then you can move on to intervals:

Start with a 5 minute warm up.

Then do 6 intervals of 60 seconds at a "harder than normal cardio pace" with 60-90 seconds recovery (at the easiest pace possible).

Finish with a 5 minute cool down and then stretch tight muscles only.

That’s it. You are all done.

We don’t do slow cardio in the Turbulence Training fat burning workout routines. It does nothing for men or women who are short on time.

And of course, always train safe and don’t do anything you are not comfortable doing…but if you are fit and healthy, you can increase the intensity, change the variables, and burst through
your fat loss plateaus.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne,

Author, Turbulence Training – The Fastest Fat Burning Workout Routines

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Kardena Pauza I have her permission to share it with you.

A healthy diet is a vital component to any fat loss program. Fortunately, this superfood can be found at any grocery store or farmer’s market at a relatively inexpensive price. 

What’s more, this superfood supplies a majority of the Recommended Daily Allowance for vitamins and minerals to give you endless amounts of energy, it stabilizes your blood sugar and detoxifies your body, and it provides you with the essential amino acids your body needs to build strong, lean muscles.

So what is it?

None other than the leafy green vegetable.

I hope you aren’t disappointed it wasn’t something exotic like elixir berry juice.  But, the truth of the matter is, the leafy green vegetable is an underrated, nutrient dense, inexpensive, and readily available superfood.

It does, however, get a little more exciting in that this dark green vegetable has many substitutes, including spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, chard, parsley, cilantro, and many others.

In fact, if you go to a farmer’s market I’m sure you’ll find plenty to choose from.  And variety is important because each green offers a different composition of minerals and vitamins.

Most leafy greens have a mild flavour, but if you’re unsure about one, here’s a little tip you can use when doing your shopping.  When you find a green that you think you’d like to try, simply pinch off a small piece of it and give it a try.  If you like the taste, add it to the cart, if not, just hope no one was watching!

Alright, you’re home and ready to give the leafy greens a try, but you’re unsure how to eat them.  Well, here are some suggestions:

1.   Prepare a salad with a base of greens that you like, while adding in some of the new, unfamiliar greens. You’ll find that over time you’ll acquire a taste for the new darker greens and begin to really enjoy them.
2.   Add greens to your smoothies. I know it sounds odd, but trust me, you won’t taste a thing.  Just start out with a small amount of greens and slowly add more.
3.   Try making fresh fruit and veggie juice with greens in it. Personally, I like cilantro, parsley, and spinach in mine.
4.   Stir fries are a great way to add in veggies and greens.
5.   Also, try making soups with added greens.

So, those are just some of the ways in which you can add one of the best superfoods to your diet.  Try them out for two weeks and I guarantee that you will feel more alert and have more energy.

For more info on Kardena’s program **Click Here **

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This guest blog post was written by fitness and nutrition author Tom Venuto I have his permission to share it with you.

The Negative Calorie Diet Theory

The phrase, "negative calorie food", as highlighted in negative calorie diet programs and books, usually refers to foods that allegedly require more energy to digest than they contain. Since the process of digestion requires the use of calories for energy, sometimes the net amount of metabolizable energy available from a food is less than the gross number of calories contained in the food.

However, there is actually no such thing as a negative calorie food, if your definition of negative calorie food is that more calories are required to digest, aborb and assimilate the food than are contained in the food. In reality, the energy required to digest the food is only a small percentage of the total calories.

The Thermic Effect of Food, Explained

The energy used to digest food is known as the thermic effect of feeding. The thermic effect of each food varies based on the food type:

• Dietary fat has the lowest thermic effect of only about 3-5%
• Carbs have a thermic effect of about 15%
• Proteins have a thermic effect of about 30%.

You may notice that fruits and vegetables make up most negative calorie food lists, but protein foods have the highest thermic effect. A significant amount of calories are required to digest and process proteins. In a protein food like a chicken breast, if a serving contained 200 calories, 30% or 60 calories may be required for the process of digestion. Therefore, the available metabolizable calories remaining are approximately 140.

Lean Protein Foods Have the Highest Thermic Effect

Not only do lean proteins have the highest thermic effect, research has proven that proteins are the most satiating and they help suppress the appetite better than other foods. Unless you are a vegetarian, in which case you will need to get your protein from plant-based sources, it makes sense to include lean proteins with each meal on a diet program to burn fat:

• Poultry; chicken and turkey breast
• Lean red meat; top round, extra lean sirloin, game meats
• Fish; all varieties
• Eggs; egg whites and whole eggs in moderate quantities (approx 1 yolk a day)

In this context, there is a grain of truth to the theory of negative calorie foods, but only if you’re referring to the fact that some calories are burned in the digestive process, leaving a net calorie intake lower than the gross calories. There are NO foods that cost more calories to digest than the foods themselves contain.

Dietary Fiber and Non-Metabolizable Calories

Another possible interpretation of negative calorie foods is in the case of high fiber foods. Part of the caloric energy in fiber cannot be used by the human body and is passed through the digestive tract unabsorbed.

Certain foods such as low calorie fruits and especially fibrous and green vegetables, which are extremely low in calorie density, do not provide very many metabolizable calories and some of the calories are not absorbed. In that sense, like the thermic effect of food, you could say there is a "negative calorie" effect.

Celery as the Quintessential "Negative Calorie Food"

Many people search the web for a list of negative calorie foods. The most commonly included food is celery. Celery is extemely low in calories. Two large stalks of celery contain only 20 calories, with 1 gram of protein, 2 grams of carbs and no fat. Celery also contains 2 grams of dietary fiber known as cellulose.

Although some animals, such as ruminants (cows, etc), can digest cellulose, humans cannot. Since we can’t absorb the calories from this dietary fiber, this probably helps explain the origin of the myth that celery has negative calories. The truth of the matter is that celery doesn’t contain much of anything – it’s very low in nutrients and calories. However, that does NOT mean it takes more calories to digest the celery than the celery contains.

For nutritional bang for your buck, you’re actually better off choosing darker greens such as Romaine lettuce, spinach, collard greens, kale, arugula, swiss chard, mustard greens and turnip greens. Not that you shouldn’t eat celery. I find that by adding celery into some of my recipes, it adds crunch and gives a meal more bulk, so you feel fuller on less calories. Just don’t buy into the celery and negative calories for weight loss myth.

Conclusions and Recommendations

When you look at various foods from this perspective you can see that eating more lean protein foods and more fruits and vegetables which have a high fiber content, may be more conducive to a fat loss program. However, it is a myth that there are negative calorie foods which require more calories to digest than they contain.

My advice is not to get too caught up in the idea of negative calorie foods, but certainly do take advantage of foods that have a high thermic effect, which are low in calorie density, high in nutrient density, high in fiber and which help suppress your appetite, naturally (it sure beats popping pills!) Do this as one part of a balanced nutrition program that is in line with your goals, just like what I teach in my best-selling fat loss program explained on the Home Page .

Sincerely,

Tom Venuto

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This guest blog post is a transcription between fitness and nutrition authors Jayson Hunter and Jim Labadie. I have their permission to share it with you.

Jim: I got another question for you Jayson. With yogurt, it seems to me every time I go to the store I see yogurt and it’s mostly sugar and some protein. So, is there any, in terms of yogurt, is there anything you can do? I mean is it a good source of protein? Is it an okay source of protein?

Jayson: The basic form of yogurt is a good source of protein. When I say yogurt, I’m not talking about the Key Lime Whip, Yoplait type or the strawberry flavored. Yogurt would be just plain yogurt and you can get it in no added sugar and things like that. You can also do just the plain yogurt and if you don’t necessarily love the taste, mix a little protein powder in it or something like that to give it more of a chocolaty flavor or a natural strawberry flavor, but you’re getting more protein in that way as well. So, yeah I would probably try to avoid all the extravagant flavored yogurts and just stick to the basics or stick to the no added sugar type yogurts.

Jim: Is there any particular brand that you recommend, that you eat?

Jayson: I think the brand that I eat is, I think it’s Dannon. I’d have to go and look probably. But it’s the no added sugar type, and tastes great, and it has I believe Sucralose so there’s not the risk of cancer with the aspartame type theory. Which, actually I just read recently that they’re finding that that has been blown way out of portion actually and there’re studies coming out to prove that, so, yeah I think it’s with Sucralose and I think it’s by Dannon.

Jim: Okay, so basically let’s go no added sugar, right? What’s what we’re looking at?

Jayson: Yeah and it actually – I think it tastes better than regular plain yogurt.

Jim: Alright, that’s awesome because I’ll tell you what Jayson, that’s the kind of thing our listeners want to know. That would definitely be something for your Blog and by the way Jayson’s Blog is at GetRidOfMyGut.com. You can keep up with the great things Jayson discusses. And for those who don’t know, Jayson is a registered dietitian. He’s not just some guy who’s spouting off theories and the latest thing he read in a magazine. Jayson is one of the people that you’ll see in the magazines. So, anyway, tip number 3. I’ve got here, eat whole grain carbohydrates. So now, what is a whole grain carb? What’s a good carb? What’s a bad carb? When am I supposed to be eating some of these carbs?

Jayson: A whole grain carb would be carbohydrates that are considered a good source of fiber. So, you know, staying away from the – you’ve heard the thing of no white breads and things like that and white rice, and to a point there’s validity to why people say that. I don’t know that they always know why they are saying it, but the reason that they should try to limit those is because those are usually made with process carbohydrates and very little fiber content. So, those two right there are going to dramatically increase your insulin level, and obviously we want to keep our insulin low and our insulin response low, so fiber is going to help keep that insulin level low like I talked about with the vegetables.

You’re whole grain carbs are going to be anything that really says 100% whole grain. Some whole wheat, you have to look though because some will say wheat bread. Well, wheat bread is just white bread that hasn’t been bleached. So you need to look for the whole grain or the whole wheat wording in it to find out, and look at the fiber source. Most of them should have at least 2 grams of fiber per serving, if not 3 to be considered a good fiber source. So, that will help you get you your answer as well with that. So, brown rice is – you mentioned meat and potatoes eat the baked potato with the skin. Include that skin because that’s going to give you that fiber, that’s going to give you your vitamins and minerals that are going to help that insulin level. Don’t just eat the white of the potato.

Jim: Gotcha. Okay. So, trying to get back to one of the points you were talking about there, the bread. When I read a food label for whole wheat bread, what should – I’ve seen enriched flour or, I was taught when I was in school to always look for 100% whole wheat, you know is that the one main ingredient on whole wheat bread that we’re looking for? Or, how do we truly know that it’s whole grain as opposed –

Jayson: That’s, right, you do want to look within the first 5 ingredients for something that says whole grain, whole oat, as one of those ingredients. You want to avoid the enriched because that’s the processed portion. Then you also want to look at the fiber, because that’s also going to help – if it’s whole grain, whole wheat type product it will have fiber in it and it will be a decent source of fiber. If it has one gram or less of fiber in it it’s not going to be 100% whole grain.

Jim: Okay.

Jayson: To be whole grain usually means that they keep the skin or the husk of the kernels and different oats, the skin of those attached and that’s what’s giving it that fiber. To make the white breads and whatnot, they shuck all those outer skins off and just use the insides and that’s where you get just your white breads and you’re just plain wheat breads that haven’t been bleached.

Jim: Wow, that’s pretty cool. I never knew that.

Jayson: Learn something new every day.

Jim: Now you know, yeah. I’m sure glad I’m doing this interview. Alright, rapid weight loss diet tip number 4. Eat more healthy fats. Now, this is very confusing for people, I’m sure. Healthy fats, unhealthy fats, Trans fats, why is this going to be such a big deal when it comes to losing weight fast?

Jayson: Well, your healthy fats are actually what you see in the media and in your print advertisements is what’s usually called essential fatty acids, and what that means is that it’s fatty acids and fats that we cannot produce in the body on our own, so we have to get them through diet. And, why essential fatty acids are so important is, because there’s hundreds and hundreds of studies that are showing that it helps with brain function.

The government is doing studies with Alzheimer’s patients because of the role with brain function, it’s helping slow down that disease; help prevent certain diseases such as heart disease and cancer. The studies are actually now showing that it may actually increase your metabolism by as much as 400 calories a day and that’s the big one when it comes to just specific weight loss.

If you want to just throw out all the numerous health benefits of why essential fatty acids are good and just go off of the fact for weight loss and fat loss, it actually helps increase your metabolism and there’s also some studies showing that it may actually block what they tend to call pre-fat cells from turning into permanent fat cells. So, again, that’s another huge step in regards to weight loss and trying to prevent weight gain. And, essential fatty acids primarily are, what you’ll also hear or read, is Omega 3 fats.

You’ll see that fish is an excellent source of Omega 3 fats. Olive oil, people are promoting instead of using vegetable oil, use olive oil because of the essential fatty acids and the Omega 3s. Walnuts and Almonds are another good source and they’re actually a good protein source, they contain good fiber, and they contain healthy fat.

So, if you want a healthy snack, throw some almonds in a bag and take them with you to work, keep them at your desk. They’re a great snack to help you feel full; help boost that metabolism and it’s actually it’s a really good food for you in many ways. You know you’re getting your fiber, you’re getting your protein, you’re getting your healthy fat, you’re getting three of the five tips I’m giving you today just in one food, with that.

Jim: There you go guys. You have no excuse but to lose that gut of yours. So, Jayson we’re almost out of time. How to lose belly fat tip number 5. Eat frequent meals. Alright so we’ve got busy guys on the go that want to know how to get rid of that gut fast. I’m sure they’ve heard it before eat smaller meals throughout the day. They’re probably having a muffin and coffee for breakfast, having a big lunch, maybe not eating all afternoon, come home and eat a huge, huge dinner. How are these guys going to get 4-6 small meals a day?

Jayson: Well, you do have to do a little planning ahead, but if you use the previous four tips, you know, you could cut up some vegetables ahead of time on a Sunday and just put them in bags so that you have them available to put into your lunch or as a snack. Protein choices you’ve got the yogurt, you could hard boil the eggs, you could have some string cheese, mozzarella cheese, as a snack. Almonds, as we talked about.

You know those types of things and plan ahead to where you don’t have to think the morning of, “Alright what am I going to eat for my snack today? What am I going to do for lunch? And then I got that snack in the afternoon.” It’s all already in the fridge. If you do maybe an hour of planning on a Sunday or a Saturday, all you have to do is pack it. Put it in individual bags or Tupperware containers, throw it in your cooler or bring it with you and put it in the refrigerator at work, so that it’s available. That way, the less thinking you can take out of it, the better off you’re going to be.

Because it’s those times where you’re hungry and you have nothing in front of you that you end up going to the vending machine, or you end up not eating at all, which is actually really bad because, the reason you should be eating frequently throughout the day is it boosts your metabolism. Every time you eat your metabolism increases to digest that food. Your body uses calories to digest calories? So, you want to keep that metabolism revved up every day.

And just yesterday I’m working with a group of people at a local company here and one of the guys, he ate pretty healthy, he’s not severely overweight but he’s got a gut and it seems to be getting bigger. He was like, how do I lose my belly fat. And, he wasn’t eating frequently, so I said, “First, you need to start eating 4-6 times a day?” And that was the biggest shock to a lot of these guys; they were like “Really?” You know, because they are used to skipping breakfast, eating McDonalds for lunch and then going home and eating dinner.

So, the only change he’s really done is he’s eating 6 times a day and he’s lost like, I want to say 18 lbs or something like that since Thanksgiving. And that’s really the only change he’s done. We have not changed much else. It wasn’t like he was eating no protein and went to eating protein at every meal or he went to all non-starchy foods. He was, already doing some of that sprinkled in there already, but his biggest change was, he ate frequently. And the weight is coming off.

Jim: And for those of you who are listening to this, it’s January now that we’re recording this.

Jayson: It’s been like 6 weeks maybe, since we started with this.

Jim: And that’s rapid weight loss but it’s also permanent, safe, it helps metabolism, improves metabolism and that’s not a starvation diet where it’s going to cause massive problems down the road right?

Jayson: No, and he gets to eat. I mean, what guy doesn’t want to eat. You know, the worst thing about trying to lose weight is you think you have to starve yourself and that’s the exact opposite that you want to do if you’re going to lose weight. You need to feed yourself and you need to feed yourself consistently because then the weight will come off. If you restrict eating and that metabolism plummets cause your body has to survive. It goes into a survival mode at that point and it’s going to do everything possible to burn as little calories as possible because you don’t feed it frequently enough.

Jim: Absolutely. Alright Jayson, well we appreciate you being here very, very much. For all those guys out there looking to lose belly fat, get rid of their guts, get in shape, you’ve heard it here from Jayson. Again his Blog is GetRidOfMyGut.com, lots of great information there, got a great news letter, and he’s got a free e-book, 36 Potent Foods to Help You Lose Weight. It’s a very cool e-book and I definitely recommend you get on it and get that. That’s at GetRidOfMyGutDiet.com so be sure to check that out and Jayson, we will talk to you next time.

Jayson: Alright, thank you.

For more gut busting strategies check out how to lose weight fast and fast easy weight loss

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This guest blog post is a transcription between fitness and nutrition authors Jayson Hunter and Jim Labadie. I have their permission to share it with you.

Jim: Hey fellas! It’s Jim Labadie and I am interviewing Jayson Hunter of GetRidofMyGutDiet.com. He’s going to tell us all about how to get rid of your fat belly and how to get rid of your beer gut. He’s going to teach you fast healthy weight loss tips for rapid weight loss.

The difference between this program and others is that it’s a really amazing system that Jayson has that helps you lose weight very quickly, but also helps you keep it off. This isn’t that BS stuff that’s floating around out there, those nonsense diets. This is the real deal. So, any of you guys out there with the big ol’ beer gut and you want to get rid of it fast, Jayson is the man to talk to. So today we’re going to go over 5 simple steps that you can take to lose that weight fast. So, Jayson, thank you for being here.

Jayson: Well, thank you for having me.

Jim: Okay, so let’s get started. What’s tip number 1? How do they lose weight fast?

Jayson: Well, a real simple one is and we’ve all been taught it, from the time we were kids from our parents, is increase your vegetable intake, more specifically your non-starchy vegetable intake, which the difference between starchy vegetables and non-starchy vegetables comes down to really just two vegetables. Corn and peas are considered starchy vegetables and pretty much ever other vegetables are non-starchy, so it’s not to hard to choose a vegetable that’s non-starchy.

The main reason is, because you want to be able to eat something that is no caloricly dense but nutrient dense and non-starchy vegetables contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. They’re a great source of fiber which is very important for helping you feel fuller longer, not encouraging you to eat 30 minutes after you eat something. You’re going to be nice and full for a long time. And, it requires more calories to burn those vegetables up because there’s more substance to them. That fiber takes a little longer to digest, so the body has to work a little harder with that and you keep your insulin levels in check which is a big one for preventing those promotions of fat storage.

Jim: Okay, so my questions on that are real quick. Where does a potato fall? I mean, most guys in there who’ve got these big beer guts, they’re probably meat and potatoes guy. So, where does a potato fall?

Jayson: A potato actually falls more in line of a carbohydrate then a vegetable.

Jim: Okay.

Jayson: So it’s more of a starch. What you’re really looking for to eat is cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, green beans, are your most common ones that people are going to eat, and then of course you can get into more of your non-common string beans, artichoke hearts, and things that are probably more of people that are vegetable aficionados or maybe grow their own gardens or live in rural areas that are more likely to have a wide variety of vegetables at their disposal.

Jim: Got it. Okay, real quick. What is insulin you mentioned insulin there? Just for those who don’t know.

Jayson: Well, insulin shuttles blood — When you eat you get sugar in your blood and your body has to get that sugar out of the blood and either use it as energy or store it for use at a later time. Insulin actually does that. When you ingest food and you get these sugars into your blood, your insulin increases to go out and get those sugars, pull them out of your blood and either, like I said, burn them for energy or store them to be used at a later time. When all of your carbohydrate glycogen levels are full, well then the only other alternative is to be stored as fat. And so, insulin tends to promote fat storage because most peoples glycogen/carbohydrate levels are usually pretty full, so the alternative is fat storage.

Jim: Gotcha. Okay, so those of us looking to get rid of our big ol’ male beer guts, we’re looking to be very careful of insulin and its response.

Jayson: You want to keep that insulin response low, which is one of the main goals.

Jim: Alright, cool. So, just to let everybody know, Jayson has a killer free e-book you can get at GetRidOfMyGutDiet.com.Its 36 foods that you can read about, with all sorts of vegetables, and all sorts of great choices fast. So, check out GetRidOfMyGutDiet.com. Alright, Jayson number 2, protein at every meal. We hear so much about protein; again, the guys are probably meat and potatoes guys. Why is it so important – how do we maybe make the transformation to just eating fatty protein sources to types of proteins that they should be eating to help them lose that gut.

Jayson: Well, like you said, men are definitely meat and potatoes type of guys so it definitely should be easy to get protein into your diet consistently, but you also do want to control the types of protein you get in. A fried chicken breast, or 18 chicken wings from Hooters, probably isn’t going to be the best source. Yes, its protein, but you are also going to pack in a lot of extra calories that you really don’t need if you’re trying to lose your gut. So, one of the things you want to do is to look for those lean protein sources. Skinless chicken breasts, lean beef and steaks, fish grilled not fried. Eggs are another good source.

You know so many people are scared of eggs but it seems more and more of the research is showing that really eggs aren’t that bad for you. They’re not the main culprit of why people are fat and have high cholesterol. Dairy is also another good source. If you like cottage cheese or yogurts or things like that, you can get in your lean protein that way as well.

Learn more about Get Rid of My Gut Diet in part 2

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