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

Tweet This Post