If you want to drop fat and improve your health you can’t afford not to take supplements…..Here’s 10 very good reasons to take  supplements.

  Supplements Included in the Daily Healthy Essentials Bundles:

DigestForce  2.0

It’s not so much what foods you eat, or supplements you take it’s what your body will digest and assimilate. As we age the  production of HCL (hydrochloric acid) declines which is an important gastric secretion which promotes important enzymes, hormones and bacterial growth of the gut.

Read more about HCL  and the HCL test here

Uber Mag

Magnesium helps with over 300 biochemical processes within the body. Magnesium improves insulin  sensitivity, memory and sleep, amongst many many other things!

Why is Uber Mag a superior magnesium supplement? 

Multi Intense Iron Free

Multi Intense is a potent yet gentle vitamin and mineral formula that features high quality ingredients designed for optimal absorption and bioavailability. Rapid disintegration allows quick release  of the micronutrients.  High potency, multi-vitamin/mineral supplement formulated to support all body systems. Unlike other formulas, multi intense contains highly absorbable, bioavailable nutrients resulting in greater efficiency and cost savings.

D3

Vitamin D3 may just be the most beneficial supplement you take ever. Below are 13 vitamin D benefits from Charles Poliquins article Vitamin D3…Best Supplement…Ever! 

1.  Low levels of vitamin D contribute to osteopenia and fractures.

2.  Vitamin D is essential in Fetal brain development and maternal health: Med Hypotheses. 2010 Jan;74(1):71-5. Epub    2009 Aug 18.

3.  Psoriasis: “Hyperproliferative skin disorders such as psoriasis might be responsive to treatment with vitamin D by

reducing the severity and area of psoriatic lesions.”

4.  Cancer: “Vitamin D either directly or indirectly controls more than 200 genes, including genes responsible for the

regulation of cellular proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis.”

5.  Blood sugar regulation and insulin resistance: “Vitamin D deficiency increased insulin resistance, decreased insulin production,

and was associated with the metabolic syndrome.”

6.  Depression and other neurological concerns: “Several studies suggest an association between hypovitaminosis D and basic and executive cognitive functions, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.”

7.  Multiple Sclerosis: “High circulating levels of vitamin D are associated with a lower risk of multiple sclerosis.”

8.  Immune function: Low levels of Vitamin D can prevent our bodies from performing their natural immune response.

9.  Cold, flu, and respiratory tract infection: by ensuring good vitamin D levels we can shorten the duration of symptoms

10.  Symptoms associated with autoimmune conditions: Vitamin D deficiency affects the immune system’s capacity to self-regulate and can therefore lead to tissue damage via overproduction of potentially pathogenic cytokines.

11.  Hypertension and congestive heart failure: “In a study of patients with hypertension who were exposed to ultraviolet B radiation three times a week for 3 months, 25-OH D levels increased by approximately 180% and blood pressure became normal.”

12.  Muscle mass and strength: “Vitamin D deficiency causes muscle weakness.”

13.  Weight Loss: “For every increase of 1 ng/mL in level of 25-OH D3, subjects ended up losing almost 0.2 kg more on their calorie-restricted diet.”

EPA 720 BLEND 

Fish oils have been shown to have benefits to just about every disease known to man. Here’s 16 reasons to start taking fish oils from Charles Poliquins article Why Fish Oils are the Most Important Supplement

1. Has positive effects on any disease known to man.  According to the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, fish oils have been shown to have medical applications in the treatment of extremely wide variety of ailments including stroke, weight loss, asthma, cancer, lung diseases, hay fever and even chronic fatigue syndrome.
 2. Cell membrane health. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), insure that cell membranes remain healthy. This means that the membranes are flexible and contain larger numbers of insulin receptors that are more receptive and responsive to circulating insulin. This results in decreased fat storage in the adipocytes (fat cells).

 3. Fish oils turn on the lipolytic genes. That means that the genes responsible for burning fat are activated, which means there is an increased utilization of fat stores from the adipocytes.

4. Fish oils turn off the lipogenic genes. That means that the fat storage genes are turned off.

 5. Fish oils reduces blood pressure.

6. Reduced inflammation from physical training.

 7. Pain management. When people improve their omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, they report a noticeable improvement in pain.

 8. Increased focus in training. EPA regulates blood supply to the brain which is essential in maintaining focus in weight training sessions.

 9. Fish oils increase serotonin levels, decreasing incidence of depression, anxiety, panic attack and reduce carbohydrate cravings.

 10. Fish oils will improve your cardiovascular risk profile. Fish Oils will lower VLDL, triglycerides, homocysteine, fibrinogen and increase HDL levels. Combining fish oils with plant sterols will improve lipid levels even more than either alone.

 12. Fish oils are a great stress fighter. For the same amount of stress, one will produce fewer stress hormones if consuming fish oils on a regular basis.

 13. Fish oils turn on the carnitine enzymes. These are the enzymes responsible for the burning of body fat.

14. Fish oils mitigate insulin response. This means that your blood sugar won’t rise as quickly and sugar is less likely to go to your fat cells.

15. Fish oils reduce arterial stiffness and increase vasodilation. This benefit, which is good for both heart health and athletic

performance, has been shown to take effect in 4 hours or less.

16. Very easy compliance. Taking fish oil on a regular basis is something very easy for people to do. Nearly all obese people are

depressed, so for them to take fish oil, because it raises serotonin, could be their first essential step towards a lean healthy body.

Recommended Reading

Fish oils and PCBs: The cost of cutting corners

You can order the very best fish oils through our website to be delivered straight to your door.

Take fish oil to lower cardiovascular disease and decrease oxidative stress

Finally fish oil is anabolic

Get your daily health essentials bundle next time you’re in the gym or order through our website to be delivered straight to your door. 

Another week into 2012, I hope you are all making progress towards your goals and setting yourself up for a great year ahead.

Free seminar or health, hormones and fat loss…

The date for the seminar is now Saturday 25th February at 9.30am. The seminar will feature an hour long talk  about some of the most important issues I encounter when helping people lose fat and regain their health.

I will also be giving a talk the week before (Sat 18th Feb), but this is for members undertaking the 8 week challenge only.

Topics will include:

• Why counting calories leads to misery and failure
• The most effective way to approach fat loss and better health
• How to better manage insulin – the fat storage hormone
• How eating gluten makes you fat and stupid (no joke on this one)
• The problems of excess estrogen, where you pick it up from and how to better manage it
• 5 tips you can take away with you on the day to improve health and lose fat

It wil be limited to 40 people, so when I have the registration sheet organised I will let you all know. Please feel free to bring along friends and family, just be sure to register both yourself and them with us.
Diet

Bit of a rant on diet and nutrition this week. Please take a second to digest this one small fact:

Diet is 80% of your results.

So if you train hard for four hours a week (which represents a whole of 2% of your week), are you making the most of the other 98% of your week to promote fat loss?

Follow a Paleo style diet and use a diet diary. It’s that simple.

The more your diet consists of good quality meat, fish and green vegetables the quicker you will lose fat.

You can make excuses or get results. Which do you prefer?

I think Jack Lalanne put it best over 50 years ago…

Successes this week…

Christine – 3 weeks in, 3 1/2 bodyfat gone!
Peter -  1 week in and 1% bodyfat gone and 1kg lean mass gained
Helen – 7kg down in 10 weeks

Massive well done to you all.

Inspirational quote…

Thanks to Vanessa for this one:

“Up to the age of 30, you have the body you were born with. After 30, you have the body you deserve”
- Sharon Stone.

Inspirational photos…

It has been a great week for inspirational photos being sent between my network of coaches online and around the world.  I wanted to share three of the best this week…(click on each to see a full size version)

I’ve had a few concerns this week about women and weight lifting. This next picture dispels that myth.  To achieve the physique of the girl in the top picture, should you so wish it, you need to train like a bodybuilder and have ample access to illegal male hormones.

To achieve the physique of the girl in the lower picture, you have only have to do two things: 1 – train hard, 2 – eat well.

And finally, proof that age is just a number and not an excuse.

An 82 year old grandmother sets a new PB with a deadlift of 69kg.

I’m looking forward to another great week ahead with you all.

Brian.

Creating the ‘METABOLIC SWITCH’!

Your body is use to synthesizing carbs for energy as this is our bodies preferred energy source,  however when we consume excess carbohydrates  we never tap into our fat stores and end up creating more fat and ultimately potential, severe health problems.

Why?

Firstly you need to understand insulin, insulin sensitivity, insulin resistance and the role of insulin in body composition and health problems like type II diabetes.

Insulin

Insulin is a very important hormone that can dictate your energy levels, how much fat and lean muscle mass you have. It is a complicated but very important hormone that needs to be understood and managed to achieve your Ultimate Physique & health goals.

When we eat carbohydrates they are converted into glucose for energy which rises in the blood stream, insulin is then secreted from the pancreas to process the blood glucose. In a healthy body the insulin binds with receptors on the cell, when a cell has insulin attached to it acts like a messenger to allow glucose into the cell to be used for energy.

Our goal is to make our muscle, fat & liver cells more receptive to insulins messengers and not ignore insulins messengers and become what is known as insulin resistant.

Insulin resistance  ccurs when  cells become resistant to insulin’s message, in an effort to be heard the pancreas will secrete more and more insulin. Excess insulin will create havoc  on your body composition and health leading to type II diabetes amongst other serious issues..Consuming a diet high in carbs and in particular processed, high sugar type carbs is a recipe for insulin resistance which means excess fat gain particularly in the mid section and ultimately severe health conditions like type II diabetes.

The more insulin sensitive your cells are the more effective your cells will be at using energy aka fat – instead of  insulin sending a message to fat cells to increase fat storage and decrease fat burning. Understanding Insulin

Depending on your goals and current Biosignature assessment will dictate the nutrition plan you go on for the 8 wk challenge, assuming your goal is to drop body fat you will be keeping carbs sufficiently low for the first 14 days on the ‘no carb mission’. By doing this your body switches to a fat metabolism; this is called the ‘Metabolic Switch’. Switching from a carbohydrate metabolism  to a fat metabolism has some real advantages for anyone looking to transform their body due to increased Lipolysis (breakdown of fat), decreased Lipogenesis (accumulation of body fat) and increased insulin sensitivity.

Now I’m not going to tell you adopting to this new nutrition regime is going to be easy, as with anything new there is an adaption period. While the metabolic switch is occurring you may feel sluggish, get through the initial 7 -14 days and you will have more energy than ever, mental focus, improved ability to tolerate stress, clearer skin and improved sleep quality and quantity.

Please do not confuse this short period for the whole plan; your energy will be back up in no time, and for most people better than ever.

What’s important to understand is that carbs are not the enemy if we consume the correct carbs at the correct times in the correct amount – A zero carb policy for the majority of people is a misguided approach.

post weights session is when your body is most insulin sensitive and will benefit from their consumption. Doing so will spike your insulin levels  which will shuttle amino acids into the muscle tissue and help recover and replenish your depleted muscle glycogen stores.

Our muscles are like tanks for glycogen, they fill up and empty again when we workout. Unfortunately when we eat too many carbs these tanks become over full, some glycogen is then stored in the liver and any excess is converted to triglycerides and stored as fat. This is where traditional high-carb diets can let you down?.

So why fill them at all?

Muscle glycogen means better performance in the gym. We load up on it and fill our tanks. By the end of our low-carb period we have once again emptied the tanks and we repeat the cycle over again. Sounds simple in theory and can be once you understand how to manipulate this powerful hormone to work for you and not against you – you’ll learn all about insulin and other powerful hormones in the 8 wk challenge

If you’re struggling to get rid of the spare tyre around your waist and want to become a ‘fat-burner’ and not a ‘fat storer’ register for the Ultimate Physique Enhancement 8 Week Challenge TODAY!

Your spare tyre will be glad you did……

Always one of the hardest trainers you’ll see at Function Well, Benny Howe has trained the house down since he first set foot in here back in June. Originally Benny came to me to help him with a shoulder issue that had been giving him grief for quite a while. Unfortunately fixing the issue required a lot of tedious rehab with lots of boring exercises and stretching but being the type of guy Benny is, he didn’t shy away from it at all. Everything that I asked Benny to do he did to a tee and before we knew it the shoulder was almost 100%. In the short time since then Benny has been so consistent with his training, nutrition and supplementation he’s dropped from 12.5% to a very ripped 8% body fat and added a whopping 5kg of lean muscle, and if you ever watch him train you’ll see why! The guy sure knows how to push himself through the pain barrier to get that extra ten percent out of his training and the results are clearly showing. Asking Benny what the keys to his success in the gym are, the answer is simple: “Train very hard, eat very well, and listen to the guys who know what they are doing”. Benny owns the excellent and very friendly Symposium Cafe just around the corner on Commercial Road. Benny is a big fan of the Paleo style of nutrition that we recommend here at Function Well and down at Symposium you’ll find a wide range of very healthy, high protein paleo style meals. Make sure you pop in and say Hi!   Selected by Performance Coach Dan Tewson

]]> http://www.functionwell.com.au/client-of-the-month-january-ben-howe/feed/ 0 http://www.functionwell.com.au/calories-in-vs-calories-out-is-this-a-good-fat-loss-model/ http://www.functionwell.com.au/calories-in-vs-calories-out-is-this-a-good-fat-loss-model/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:20:34 +0000 admin http://www.functionwell.com.au/?p=5349 Here’s an intro to the type  of info you can expect to learn in the 8 wk challenge………..

Calories In Vs Calories Out?

How often do you hear “if you want to lose weight it’s very simple, eat less move more”. Unfortunately the world we live in today it is not that simple in a lot of cases, often addressing our hormones through nutrition and lifestyle  practices is often overlooked for the calories in vs calories out model, or some radical fat loss method.

We now live in an era of unavoidable daily toxin exposure, our bodies have natural mechanisms to cleanse & detoxify but our rapidly changing world has out paced these mechanisms. As a result we have varying degrees of toxic burden leading to a variety of inflammatory symptoms, common diseases, fat gain and the struggle to oxidize excess fat. Yes even if you eat healthy and exercise toxins are unavoidable, of course a healthy diet and exercise will help to decrease the amount of toxins coming in and increase the amount of toxins leaving the body…. But the point is every day, every hour, even every minute you can encourage your body to store fat, or utilize it for energy by the way you train, eat and what supplements you take to manipulate your hormones.

Fat loss and health improvement in todays world particularly for females can be a chemistry project to get the body back in balance and restore health. For the majority of people it is more complicated  and challenging than eat less, move more!

Let’s look at the calories in vs calories out model. With this model, to approach the full picture we must bring training methods into the equation as well …as you’ll learn in the ‘Optimal Training Methods for Physique Enhancement’ manual when looking at improving body composition the goal with training needs to be to select methods that are going to produce the greatest RMR (resting metabolic rate) & EPOC (exercise post oxygen consumption) response. No workout will burn more calories than your RMR. A lot of calorie in vs calorie out models don’t take into consideration the type of training that is conducted, often promoting aerobic type activity that has a minimal effect on RMR & EPOC, rather than recommending weight training which has the greatest effect on EPOC & RMR and overall fat loss… not to mention a better looking physique.

Let’s say you went for a 30min jog and burnt 400 calories, then after your run you had 2 cups of pasta which is about 420 calories, automatically you haven’t created a calorie deficit?. Does this mean the run was a waste of time, of course not, but what needs to be taken into consideration is optimal training methods that focuses on EPOC & RMR and understanding that not all calories are created equal, we must understand where these calories come from, how they affect us hormonally and how the body matabolizes them.

From a training perspective I’m not a fan of the calories in vs calories out model but also from a nutrition intake stand point it makes no sense to count calories. Remember what’s important is where you get those calories from and how your body metabolizes those calories and what affect those calories are going to have on your body hormonally.

Let’s say for example I had a chocolate muffin that was 230 calories and a I had 2 large handfuls of almonds both are 230 calories, but the almonds contains protein, healthy monounsaturated fat, calcium, magnesium  other minerals and fibre. The muffin contains empty calories in terms of nutritional value, high in sugar which generates a big insulin response and ultimately fat storage. Our mind set and focus needs to get away from the calories in vs calories out model and start looking at how foods affect us hormonally.

I could have 2 people both training the same, weigh the same, are both the same age – All factors are the same including having them both on a 2000 calorie a day diet, however what is different is the 2000 calories that those foods are derived from. Meaning one is on a high protein, low carb diet while the other is on a high carb, low protein diet…What I’ll get is at the end of the experiment is 2 totally different body composition results, even though they both consumed 2000 calories per day.

Calorie counting is by no means time effective and will not always produce the best result. If you are going to count calories you must use an equation that takes into consideration your RMR and have a solid understanding of nutrition to know that the calories you are getting in are from the right sources not thinking  you can eat what ever you like as long as it doesn’t go over your ‘x’ amount of calories total per day.

Finally the last point is the thermic effect of food TEF, 

To learn more on how to eat  register for the Ultimate Physique Enhancement 8 Week Challenge TODAY!

Luke - My first official Australian victim of death circuits...

If you want to give your start to 2012 a real bang, try using death circuits.

They are TOUGH, BRUTALLY TOUGH if done right – Not only will you get awesome results but in terms of time management these circuits will give you a big ‘bang for your buck’!

Give these two routines a go:

All exercises performed with a 4-0-1-0 routine, 8-10 reps.

Rest 10sec-30 seconds between exercises, 2 mins between rounds*.

*You may be tempted to rush the rest between rounds, if you do you’ll find you will drop the resistance used or rush your tempo, so make the most of the 2 minute break!

Have one warm-up round, then into 4 working rounds.

Death Circuit 1:

A1: DB Squats

A2: BB Bent over row

A3: Leg Press

A4: DB Shoulder press

A5: DB Split squats

Death Circuit 2:

A1: Wide grip chins

A2: Dips

A3: Seated Row

A4: Step-ups (12 reps each leg 2-0-1-0 tempo)

A5: Single Arm DB row

Give them a go and I promise you’ll get a great start to your health and fitness goals for 2012.

Brian.

Tabata method is named after a Japanese researcher who discovered a unique way to increase both aerobic and anaerobic pathways at the same time. It’s great for athletes and the average punter pushed for time who wants to drop fat.
This training method is incredibly difficult but very simple in terms of method – be warned once you’ve completed the Tabata method you’ll vow never to do it again. But of course you will, you will because it’s so bloody effective!

How does it work?

The Tabata method can be used with both weight training and traditional cardio methods, making it versatile as well as incredibly effective.

Tabata using a strength exercise is as simple as this:

1. Take a big taxing lift like a front squat

2. For twenty seconds complete as many reps as possible as if your life depended on it.

3. Rest for 10 seconds at the top (no racking the bar, getting a drink, wiping the sweat off your face etc. NO CHEATING, it’s 10 seconds not 12 seconds rest)

4. Complete 8 cycles total

Four minutes and you’re done!. One final thing make sure you have a bucket handy for the vomit.

Tabata using a cardio piece of equipment

1. Find your tabata weapon of choice, my favourite is the rower.

2. I like to use the analogy you’re on a bridge and a train is coming and you’ve got 20 sec  to get to the end of the bridge otherwise the train will run you over. Meaning dig friggin deep and row with 110% effort/ everything you’ve got for 20 sec.

3. Rest for 10 seconds

4. Complete 8 cycles

As per the weights tabata method have a bucket ready.

Exercise Selection.

There are many strength exercises you can use for the Tabata method but it’s important the right ones are used to get the required response. You want to select exercises that recruit big muscle groups as these are going to be the most demanding and will be able to last the four minutes as long as you’re mentally tough enough to last. If you were to choose an exercise like D.B shoulder press the shoulders would fatigue quickly and the last few cycles you would get minimum reps out. When using strength exercises for tabata my personal favourites are the front squat and torsonator thruster, these are generally the only 2 I use.

It may only be four minutes of work but trust me you’ll be breathing a lot harder and longer than 4 minutes after the workout. It takes time to learn how to train at the intensity required to to get results from this type of training. As I always say “when the intensity is high the duration has to be less”, the tabata method is a great example of this rule. Now of course I’m not saying you’ll get amazing results only training 4 minutes, but you will get results if you do it at the right intensity. So when you’ve got “no time to train” a tabata session would be the solution. What I like to do and my fellow coaches here at FW like to do for our fat loss clients and anyone in general that is time poor and has limited time to train per week is use the tabata method as a finisher to a strength session.

Strength Exercises

Front Squat

Torsonator Thruster

Tabata Finishers 

Burpees

Rower

Plyo Lunges

Prowler

By Darren Bain

1.Sugar

Sugar is consumed in excessive amounts by the majority of the population leading to insulin resistance and ultimately Metabolic Syndrome X – Which is the precursor to diabetes and heart disease.

The common recommendations when it comes to sugar consumption is consume foods that have a higher fiber and protein content, generally these foods have a lower G.I.

The G.I or glycemic index is a measurement of how quickly a carbohydrate is converted into glucose and taken up in the blood stream.

Why Is It Beneficial To Have Low G.I Foods.

Low G.I foods have slower uptake into the blood stream compared to high G.I foods. High G.I foods enter the blood stream faster due to the fact they are converted into glucose faster. Over time this continual rise in glucose can lead to all sorts of problems, including weight gain. What goes up must come down, this sudden drop in insulin can lead to low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) which stimulates the appetite and craving for more sugar. Over time this insulin roller coaster wreaks havoc on your body composition and health.

A worthwhile read on the effects of Sugar is ‘Suicide by Sugar’: A Startling Look at Our #1 National Addiction (Square One Publishers, 2009). The author, Nancy Appleton,

Below are 10 reasons to eat less sugar

1. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses and return them to fasting levels slower in oral contraceptive users.

 2. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.

 3. Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E in the blood.

 4. Sugar can impair the structure of DNA.

 5. Sugar can make tendons more brittle.

 6. Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men.

 7. Sugar can lead to prostate cancer.

 8. Sugar can contribute to mild memory loss.

 9. Sugar can cause brain decay in pre-diabetic and diabetic women.

 10. Sugar can cause endometrial cancer.

 10 Tips To Decrease Your Sugar Consumption  

One of the greatest effects on our health these days is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which is in just about everything we eat out of a packet, jar, tin. The first step to achieve improved health and body composition is eliminate this nasty stuff out of your diet.

Click here to get the low down on HFCS.  

The 3 main sources of sugars are fructose, glucose and sucrose – they all should be minimized for improved health and weight management. 

A lot of people will opt for fructose beleiving it is a better option, but is it really?

Fructose

If you think fructose is the answer to your sugar problems think again.

Fructose is referred to as a simple sugar, which means when eaten it is absorbed slowly in the intestine.

When looking at dropping the fat a lot of people lean towards fructose consumption over other sugar sources e.g. glucose. The problem with fructose is it can only be processed in the liver in two ways: used for energy by liver cells or get stored as glycogen in the liver.

How is this a problem?

If your diet consists of too much fructose there is only one destination for it – your liver. What this means is more than likely your liver glycogen or fuel tanks are full so the fructose needs to go somewhere. The body will convert the fructose into fat to be stored on other parts of the body and well hello lover handles!

The difference with fructose and glucose is glucose can be used in other body tissues, namely your muscles.

 Fructose Foods To Avoid in Descending Order(1)

- High fructose corn syrup. This bad boy is in everything and is a nasty one. Check the labels of all your foods you’ll be surprised how much of it you are consuming.

- Table Sugar, 50:50 combination of glucose and fructose

- Brown Sugar

- Maple Sugar

- Cane Sugar

- Molases

- Concentrated fruit juice

- Honey

- Fruits

- Vegetables

Avoid the top 7 of this list at all costs.

 Fructose containing foods are generally added to make your foods taste better, which generally leads to over consumption. Fructose foods tend to fail to make you feel satisfied after consumption and again leads to eating more than is necessary. This is due to inadequate stimulation of 2 satiety hormones leptin and ghrelin.(2)

Even though fruit can contain fructose it’s consumption is important due to the anti oxidant, vitamin, mineral and fiber content. Generally 2 pieces a day is recommended.

The key is to chose fruits that are lowest in fructose and consume the higher fructose fruits in the morning because this is when your liver glycogen levels are lowest. This means your liver will use the fructose for energy and what’s not used can be stored in the liver and not be converted to fat.

 Fructose Summary

When we ingest fructose, it’s quickly absorbed and shuttled off to the liver and stored as liver glycogen and will be slowly broken down as needed by the blood.

The issue is that once the liver is full of glycogen (liver only holds about 100 grams) it will convert any incoming fructose to triglycerides which is not ideal for body composition and health. Not only that but we want our muscles to be receiving the carbs to replenish muscle glycogen not our liver having priority.

Fruit is important to include in our diet due to the vitamin and mineral content, but if you’re struggling to drop body fat if everything else in your diet seems to be good or if you’re struggling to drop that last little bit of body fat it may be the fructose. Start with looking at your food labels then look at your excess fruit consumption

2. Gluten 

 Removing gluten from your diet is recommended for improved body composition, digestion and health.

3. Alcohol

 Put simply you can’t drink grog and expect to drop body fat. Alcohol is essentially a carbohydrate when looking at it’s chemical structure, and the way it is metabolised in the body is actually worse than carbs.

The alcohol labeling regulations that allow beer to be labeled ‘zero or low carb’ are poor and not necessarily accurate.

Let me explain. Generally when a carb is consumed it is converted to glucose to be used by the cells of the body for energy, function, muscle & liver glycogen replenishment (glycogen is stored glucose for energy at a later use). Muscles generally take preference for glucose and the liver only requires a minimal amount to complete it’s functions. The problem with alcohol is that it must be processed through the liver, when it is processed through the liver it has to work 4 times as hard to use it (3) promoting fat storage, increased bad cholesterol (LDL’s), insulin resistance and interrupts your blood sugar so you crave carbohydrates – Drinking combined with eating chips and the like is a double whammy for fat gain

Not only will excess alcohol consumption make you store more fat, it will increase your chances of liver failure, cancer and half the serious issues associated with diabetes .

 References

1. The evils of fructose. Author Cassandra Forsythe, Phd(c), CSCS, CISSN website:www.tnation.com

2. Teff KL, Elliott SS, Tschop M, Kieffer TJ, Rader D, Heiman M, Townsend RR, Keim NL, D’Alessio D, Havel PJ (2004) Dietary fructoose reduces circulating insulin and leptin, attenuates postprandial suppression of ghrelin, and increases triglycerides in women.J Clin Endocrinol Metab 89:2963-2972

3. FFm Fitness Fads Debunked pg 3 ‘Can you Booze and Still Lose’?