Huge Appetite

How to Deal With a Huge Appetite


Q: I have a huge appetite. It's not emotional or mental hunger. I've tried every gimmick out there (including the grapefruit diet!), but nothing has helped. If you have any insights into appetite control, please share them!

A: Stop trying to do something "magical," like eating only grapefruit — that stuff never works. It is possible that you aren't eating the right combination of foods for your metabolic type, which could leave you feeling less satiated. For example, if you are a fast oxidizer but you are eating fruit for breakfast and salad for lunch, you will be constantly starving. Try eating scrambled eggs and two pieces of nitrate-free turkey bacon for breakfast — you should feel a difference in your mornings.
Beyond that, here are a few tricks that will help you feel fuller:

Eat lower-calorie foods that are high in fiber to help fill you up. Fiber-rich foods are high in volume, so high-fiber foods can make you feel fuller longer without adding too many extra calories. Fill up on high-fiber foods such as whole-grain cereals, berries, and black beans and you can lose weight without feeling deprived and hungry.

Drink lots of water and include water-rich foods. When you feel as if you are starving, pound a quart of water and see if that helps kill the urge to eat. You can also eat foods that have a high water content, which will help you feel full — these include soup, fruit, and vegetables. For example, sometimes I use two bags of lettuce to make my salads. Or I have three veggie sides at dinner — steamed spaghetti squash, grilled eggplant, AND mashed cauliflower.

Get some sleep! While doctors have long known that many hormones are affected by sleep, it wasn't until fairly recently that appetite entered the picture. Research has shown that leptin and ghrelin, two hormones that regulate appetite, are both directly affected by how much sleep we get. Have you ever experienced a sleepless night followed by a day when, no matter what you ate, you never felt full or satisfied? That's because of leptin and ghrelin; together, these hormones work in a kind of "checks and balances" system to control feelings of hunger and fullness. Ghrelin stimulates appetite, while leptin sends a signal to the brain when you are full. When sleep is restricted, leptin levels go down and ghrelin levels go up. Lack of sleep can also trigger the release of cortisol, a nasty stress hormone that is responsible for storing abdominal fat. So it becomes apparent that anyway you look at it, lack of sleep can set the stage for overeating and weight gain.

Don't panic. You can and will lose weight. Even if you are eating more than your daily calorie allowance, you can still lose — it just might take a little longer. Exercise is key: Working out harder and more often will help burn the extra calories you might take in if you have a bad day. I know that when I indulge one day, I work out extra hard the next.



Don't Give In to Emotional Eating

The next time you are really hungry, or at least think you're really hungry, stop yourself from heading to the fridge and ask yourself the following questions: When was the last time I ate? Was it more than three to four hours ago? Is my stomach growling? Am I light-headed? If the answer to these questions is no, then you aren't hungry at all; you are engaging in emotional eating. Time to go for a walk or figure out some other nonfood activity!

Setback?

Overcoming a Setback


It happens — you miss a few workouts and you feel like you've fallen off the weight-loss wagon. It's tempting to mentally slap yourself around, right? (Or head for the fridge.) Before you start, I want to remind you of something: Being hard on yourself is the Old You.

The New You knows how to deal with setbacks and get back on the wagon. And after all, there are no mistakes, just learning experiences. Weight loss is a process — it takes time. You will encounter small failures — everyone does — but every pound you gain can be lost.

And if you miss a workout, it's not the end of the world! Get to the gym the next day and continue to focus on your short-term goals. Just because you made bad choices today doesn't mean you can't start over tomorrow. New day? New beginning. And don't you forget it!

Rescue Me

When life throws you curveballs, you can dodge them or let them hit you right between the eyes. Sometimes, though, you don't get a choice. For the moments when you can't avoid them, create a "Rescue Me" list. What kinds of healthy activities make you feel better? How about enjoying a bubble bath, taking a walk, or getting a massage? The next time you're staring down a crisis, reach for the "Rescue Me" list, not a bag of chips.

Belly Fat?

More Reasons to Whittle Your Middle
I think we can all agree that "muffin tops" — the fat hanging over the waist of a too tight pair of pants — and beer bellies aren't attractive. Still, when it comes to excess belly fat, the situation is more serious than how you look. Excess belly fat has been linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some cancers and stress.
When you have stress, your body releases certain "fight-or-flight" stress hormones that are produced in the adrenal glands: cortisol, norepinephrine and epinephrine. When you first get stressed, these hormones kick into gear. Norepinephrine tells your body to stop producing insulin so that you can have plenty of fast-acting blood glucose ready. Epinephrine will relax the muscles in your stomach and intestines and decrease blood flow to these organs. Once the stressor has passed, cortisol tells the body to stop producing these hormones and to go back to digesting regularly. It's normal for your cortisol levels to go up and down throughout the day, but when you are chronically stressed your cortisol level goes up — and stays there.
When your stress and cortisol levels are high, the body actually resists weight loss. Your body thinks times are hard and you might starve, so it hoards the fat you eat or have present on your body. Cortisol tends to take fat from healthier areas, like your butt and hips, and move it to your abdomen which has more cortisol receptors. Hello ab flab! In the process, it turns once–healthy peripheral fat into unhealthy visceral fat (the fat in your abdomen that surrounds your organs) that increases inflammation and insulin resistance in the body. This belly fat then leads to more cortisol because it has higher concentrations of an enzyme that converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol. The more belly fat you have, the more active cortisol will be converted by these enzymes — yet another vicious cycle created by visceral fat.
So what if you have belly fat? Lose weight by following the best nutrition and lifestyle strategies that support you in times of stress, like the ones in my program. When you limit your caffeine to 200 milligrams a day, avoid simple carbs, processed foods, and refined grains, and get plenty of high-quality protein, in addition to de-stressing yourself, you'll automatically help your body keep your stress hormones, especially cortisol, lower. It's a day by day choice you'll have to make, but the results will be worth. Think how good it will be when you are as healthy on the inside as you look on the outside.

Make Your Belly Fat Flat

Want to reduce your belly fat? Don't just drop and give me 20 crunches. Rather than doing strength training abdominal exercises, concentrate on your diet and doing cardio to reduce your overall body fat instead. Try to decrease your daily sodium intake — try to keep it to 1,500 mg or less — boost your water intake, and cut out all the greasy, fattening foods that helped build that bulge in the first place.

Toxins in Meat

Why To Avoid Dioxins and PCBs


Some metabolism-wrecking toxins, such as processed foods, hydrogenated fats, and high-fructose corn syrup, are easy to avoid because they're listed on food labels. But some — polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins, for example — aren't. These pollutants, by-products of manufacturing, found their way into our lakes and streams long ago, with the result that they've now entered our food supply through animal products.

Despite being outlawed for more than 30 years, PCBs have managed to stay in the food supply thanks to landfill leaks and other sources. They're often found in farm-raised salmon and many types of freshwater fish. A study found that women who regularly ate fish caught in Lake Ontario, which is known to have high levels of PCBs, had significantly more of the toxin in their breast milk than women who didn't eat fish from the lake. It's not just Lake Ontario, either — all across the United States, state health services periodically issue fish-consumption advisories because of PCBs. Long-term consumption of these chemicals may raise the risk of cancer and reproductive, immune system, and neurological problems.

Dioxins are a by-product of incineration and other industrial processes. Livestock absorb industrial pollution from incinerators, and dioxins build up in the animals' fatty tissues. So if you eat a high-fat diet, you are more likely to consume dioxins, which have been linked to cancer and developmental, endocrine, and immune system damage.

How can you avoid dioxins and PCBs? Always buy wild-caught salmon and pay attention to state fish-consumption advisories. Use the Natural Resources Defense Council's Sustainable Seafood Guide and the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Guide to find the safest types of seafood in your area. Always look for organic meats and dairy products, buy products with the lowest fat content possible, and remove visible fat and skin from meats. Start protecting yourself from these poisons now!

Thoughts

How To Improve Your Attitude


Do you have what it takes to reach your weight-loss goals? If you think it's all about diet and exercise, you're wrong.

It sounds crazy, I know. Exercise and a proper diet are crucial to all weight-loss and fitness programs. But to reach any long-term goal — especially one that requires a major lifestyle change — you need to improve your attitude too. You can have all the external support in the world, but if your self-esteem is in the toilet, you'll never have long-term success.

Having the right attitude is so important because thought is behavior. The power of the mind is total — the way you think about yourself manifests as your reality. We all know how easily negative thoughts can lead to lack of confidence, hopelessness, and depression. You've heard about self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Well, if you tell yourself that you'll always be fat or you'll never find happiness, chances are you'll end up fat and unhappy. Hey, it makes sense.

Okay then, let's turn that scenario around. Tell yourself that you can get fit and you will be happy. It's that simple. You can master your own fate with positive thinking!

Test Yourself

To see whether your thoughts are predominantly positive or negative, test yourself. It sounds extreme, but you only need to do it once: Carry a small notebook around for an entire day. Each time a thought about yourself pops into your head, write it down and assess whether it's positive or negative. At the end of the day, tally your positive and negative thoughts. Even if you already suspect you lean toward the negative, seeing those thoughts on paper might give you the kick you need! When you change your attitude, you'll change your life.

Plateau Prevention

Taking Your Workout to the Next Level


Ever hear the expression "Nothing changes if nothing changes"? If you do the same resistance routine the same way week after week, the day will come when your body will have adapted to that particular workload. In terms of weight loss, that's not a good thing. If your body isn't challenged beyond its comfort zone, you won't see continual results.

Mixing things up to prevent plateaus doesn't take much. Varying the number of reps and sets will constantly surprise the body, which is one way to make sure your workout continues to push you forward.

Apart from changing the number of sets and reps per exercise, you can also change the way you perform a rep. During a weight-lifting exercise, your muscles contract in three distinctly different ways:

When you lift the weight, your muscles contract positively, or concentrically.

At the midpoint of the exercise, when you stop moving the weight but you're still holding it, your muscles contract statically, or isometrically.

When you lower the weight, your muscles contract negatively, or eccentrically.

You can adjust the way you do your reps by shifting the emphasis among the three forms of muscle contraction, which provide you with three ways to do almost anything in the weight room — and endless ways to switch around your routine to keep it fresh and motivating.

Good for the Body, Good for the Mind

We all know that change is good — and that holds true for fitness too! After all, challenging your muscles will help you reach your fitness goals. Varying your routine is also good for your mind! Doing the same thing over and over can get stale and dampen enthusiasm. A change in focus — however slight — will keep you coming back for more.

Muscle Boosting Foods

Foods That Boost Muscle Growth


Whether you're a girl or a guy, if you're trying to get fit, you're in the testosterone-boosting business. (Unless you have polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, in which case your body produces too much testosterone.) Testosterone gives us energy, builds muscle, and heightens our libido. It also helps protect our bones and brains — all good stuff. Some foods can help increase this helpful hormone — here's how you can take advantage of them.

Add some garlic and onions to your meals. A study conducted with rats found that garlic coupled with a high-protein diet increased testosterone levels. Allicin, a phytochemical found in garlic and onions, may also inhibit cortisol, which can compete with testosterone and interfere with its normal function.

Get more niacin in your diet. Niacin, a B vitamin, has been shown to boost HDL cholesterol (the "good" kind), high levels of which have been associated with high levels of testosterone. Niacin is found in many foods, including dairy products, lean meats, poultry, fish, nuts, and eggs.

Choose healthy vegetable fats. Vegetable fat intake has been shown to increase dihydrotestosterone, a form of testosterone responsible for the growth of body hair. Just take it easy on the soybean, corn, safflower, and sunflower oils — instead get your vegetable fats from heart-healthy canola and olive oils.

Eat zinc-rich foods. These include oysters, Dungeness crab, beef, pork, dark-meat chicken and turkey, yogurt, cheddar cheese, cashews, almonds, baked beans, and chickpeas. One study found that restricting zinc in healthy young men led to a 75 percent reduction in their testosterone, while supplementing zinc-deficient older men doubled their testosterone.

Steer Clear of These Testosterone Reducers

Just as some foods can raise your testosterone level, others can bring it down. Studies have show that alcohol reduces testosterone levels in men, and one study revealed an increase in testosterone levels among alcoholics who became sober. Just one more reason to hold yourself to one drink a day, tops. Not getting enough fat or protein can also cause testosterone to take a hit — so make sure your diet is balanced.

Antibiotics

The Issue With Antibiotics


Americans are totally addicted to antibiotics. In our quest to kill anything around us that seems bothersome or threatening, we try to rid ourselves of every last germ with an arsenal of antibacterial products, we pump our livestock full of antibiotics — heck, we pump ourselves full of antibiotics.

Here's the deal: Not only is trying to eliminate most bacteria practically pointless but it can also be really counterproductive. Yes, there are lots of bad bacteria out there, and they can make us very sick. But there are also lots of good bacteria too. For example, beneficial bugs known as probiotics live in our stomachs and are integral to the healthy functioning of our immune and digestive systems. There's even some evidence that certain probiotics play a role in determining how many calories our bodies absorb from food and send to fat cells.

When you take antibiotics to wipe out the bad bacteria, you end up taking out probiotics, your best defense, at the same time. In addition, overuse of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance — that is, the drugs become less effective over time because the bad bugs figure out how to adapt so they can survive. The best steps we can take to keep our immune systems strong and to maintain a healthy microbial balance are to eat the kinds of foods that replenish and feed our beneficial bacteria (like organic low-fat yogurt) and to choose organic meat and dairy products from animals that have been raised without the use of antibiotics. We also need to lose the habit of taking antibiotics every time we so much as sniffle.

Vacation

How To Stay on Track During Vacation


Q: I've been really good about doing my workouts and eating right, but I'm about to go on vacation with my family. I want to have fun and not be too strict, but I don't want to fall off the wagon completely! What do you recommend?

A: Here's what I suggest — EXERCISE! Even if you overindulge a little, you'll stave off weight gain by exercising daily. Second, I would say that you should eat the foods you want, but in moderation. Have a bite of cheesecake, for example, but don't eat the whole slice. Be smart about your indulgences too — don't waste your calories. Instead of having a poolside margarita, say, opt for a white-wine spritzer or a light beer. Frozen margaritas have a whopping 700 calories. Think of your calories as an allowance: Save on calories where you can, and spend them on things that are really worth it, like pasta!

Summer Cardio

The great thing about summer vacation is that you can bring your cardio workout with you! Walking, jogging, and running can all be taken outdoors at your leisure. Just be sure to get your heart rate up. Swimming is another fun cardio activity that's usually easy to engage in during the summer — plus, it's kinder to your body than land-based exercise because your buoyancy in water helps you avoid the jarring impacts that can cause injuries. To mix things up and target different muscles, be sure to use a variety of strokes during your swim, including the breaststroke, the butterfly, and the backstroke. But hey, it's your vacation — don't forget to have fun!

Seven Percent

If you are overweight and over the age of thirty, there is a very good chance that you are insulin resistant.  Losing 7 percent of your body weight, and walking for 2.5 hours weekly, will cut your risk of developing adult onset diabetes by 58%. 

If you are a 200 pound female, 7% is only 14 pounds.  The message to me is clear.  Even losing small amounts of weight have a big impact on your health, and your pocketbook!  So take that as encouragement to eat right and be physically active.  It is worth the effort that you put into it.

Costs

Healthcare costs in this country have been a subject of great debate in recent times.  So I have a question.  How much of the American medical costs for chronic diseases is attributed to poor nutrition? 

The American Heart Association estimates that each year, more than $33 billion in medical costs (and $9 billion in lost productivity) resulting from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes are attributed to poor diet. 

Are we killing ourselves with a dinner fork?

Berries

Pick a Power Food This Weekend!


Not only are berries beautiful to look at, but their colors signify health-protecting qualities. They are rich in polyphenols, the same antioxidants that give wine and chocolate their healthy qualities. Of course, unlike chocolate and wine, berries are low in calories, and they contain no alcohol or caffeine. So you can enjoy them free of guilt and know you're doing something good for your body!

Berries are colorful because they contain anthocyanins — these are a type of polyphenol that might nudge our fat-burning genes in the right direction. A Japanese researcher found that anthocyanins stop individual fat cells from getting larger and encourage fat cells to release adiponectin, a hormone that helps to reduce inflammation, lower blood sugar, and reverse resistance to leptin and insulin. Another study found that anthocyanins can reduce blood glucose levels after starch-rich meals, preventing insulin spikes that could eventually lead to insulin resistance. Black raspberries have an extremely high concentration of anthocyanins and other antioxidants and can often be found growing wild, so look out for them!

Certain polyphenols found in raspberries and strawberries block the digestive enzyme activity of specific starches and fats, reducing your body's ability to absorb them. Combine this trait with the soluble fiber in berries, and you have a sweet treat that works hard to help you lose weight and keep your blood sugar low.

Berries are starting to come into season now (the season varies depending on the type of berry and where you live), so my advice is to head to your local farmers' market and buy an entire flat. Take the berries home and gently wash them and let them dry. Place them on a cookie sheet and freeze them, then transfer them to a freezer-safe bag. This way you can keep your berries, with their nutrients intact, for up to two years — and you can enjoy them year-round!

Vacation Days

Take Your Vacation Days!


Ah, vacation...that precious time away from the hectic pace of life and the stress of work. Have you taken a vacation lately? If not, why not?! With all the travel deals available these days, you can put together a pretty amazing trip on the cheap. And if you don't have a lot of extra cash right now, there's always the good old "staycation," in which you can just relax at home. If you're the type who feels guilty taking days off, let me tell you — taking your vacation time is important to your health!

Sadly, overtime has become the norm in the American workplace. While the overtime might get you a promotion, research shows it definitely doesn't help your peace of mind. Researchers have found higher rates of anxiety and depression in men and women who work overtime, compared with people who work 40 hours a week or less.

Even if you aren't working overtime, chances are you're working too much. It's estimated that one out of every three workers doesn't take his or her allocated vacation time. Your bosses may appreciate all that hard work (at least, they'd better!), but your heart certainly doesn't. One study suggested that an annual vacation was a lifesaver for middle-aged men at risk of coronary heart disease. At-risk men who got away once a year were 32 percent less likely to die from heart disease than were those who never took a vacation. Another study found that when compared with women who vacationed twice a year or more, women who seldom took vacations — once every six years — were eight times as likely to develop coronary heart disease. Don't make yourself a sitting duck for a heart attack. You earned that vacation — take it!

Behaviors

Exorcise Those Demons


What kind of emotional demons are lurking in your closet (or refrigerator)? Not sure? Well, it's time to find out, and to exorcise them once and for all. To succeed where you have failed, sometimes you have to take three steps back to take that first step forward. In terms of reaching your goal weight, "stepping back" means reviewing past and current self-defeating behaviors to identify where you got stuck, discouraged, or overwhelmed.

Here are several of the most common causes of overeating. I want you to list in your journal all the excuses that are familiar to you.

Emotion

Do you overeat as a coping mechanism, to numb suffering, allay fears, combat loneliness, and so on?

Reward

Do you indulge in eating to reward yourself when you've done a good job on something?

Seeking acceptance

Do you overeat because you're seeking social acceptance? Do you eat fattening foods at parties so as not to offend the host? If you're out with friends, do you feel the need to have a drink just to fit in?

Add to your list any other situations that have derailed your success.

What's the Point?

By doing this exercise, you can isolate specific problems and work on finding solutions for them. Find out (and conquer) what has locked you into self-defeating habits, and develop healthy, affirming behaviors instead. Whatever your downfalls might have been in the past, there is a way to deal with them in the present. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but if you hang in there with me, you will succeed!