[GI Jane]

Keep it up! 4 days is better than no days. Make the time, make the effort and you will be rewarded.

[dzalar]

I'm on day 4 of sticking to my eating plan. Now I need to get back on an exercise routine and supplements. I hope others are having success in their weight loss goals!

[dzalar]

Well, after 10 days of total chaos and no exercise, I realized that all the time I thought nothing was happening because the scale wasn't moving, actually many things WERE happening. I felt better!!! Had to go out of town and had some crazy days with family and work trials, which led to ignoring my plan. Add the holiday weekend and pecan pie in and I'm more than ready to get back on track!! I've also missed the interaction and advice of this column.

Back to getting 100 lbs off!!

[joel]

That level of cardio is not something you or anyone else can do forever. It's simply to get the weight off.

If we take a long term view of weight loss, the one constant for most people is gaining the weight back over a 2 year period. There are a number of reasons why this is so. Dean and I have a book coming out to explain all of the hormonal reactions involved, but the basic idea is simply HOW you get the weight off will determine if you can keep it off.

Going this route - eating a bit more and exercising more to get the weight off prevents a compensation down the line from the hormones that control food intake. Let's look at a pyramid of things you can do that will have an impact

- Cutting out processed carbs like liquid sugars (including juices) makes a nice difference over the long haul

- eating mostly whole foods will have a huge impact. I say "mostly whole" because nobody can eat whole foods all the time. But make no mistake, the heart of the problem is simply processed food. If we were all stuck on an island and could only eat whole foods in the form of nuts, fruits, roots, and lean meats from grass fed animals or seafood, no one would have a weight problem. It's only when we get into manufactured foods that we introduce a weight problem and a craving problem. These foods induce cravings.

- Using exercise to get your weight off will give you a big advantage over cutting calories.

That's the basic formula. Couple of minor things are take some minerals at bedtime and you may try some milk thistle to give the liver a bit of a lift.

[dzalar]

tnino - thanks for your encouragement. I'm heading to the gym at noon today for 30 and later for another 30. Getting that hour in is my priority this week.

Thanks for being a cheerleader!!

[tnino45]

dzalar keep up the good work. remember the winner of the race isn't the one who runs the fastest, but the one who keeps on running. i applaud ypu.

[dzalar]

I'm sticking with this and I still haven't gotten to that 1 hr of cardio a day. The only positive is that it wouldn't be forever because 1 - 1 1/2 hr a day simply isn't realistic for me if it's forever. If this will switch the hormones and still allow me to eat like a human at that 1900'ish daily calorie, this is what I have to do.

I'm going to push for that extra 30 - 45 min this week and hope to see the scales move. I feel like I'm on the edge of success and need to close my eyes and just jump!!

Your input is a big part of keeping me motivated. The science and chemistry of this fat I've battled my whole life is sinking in. I just wish it was a little easier!

Thanks! And on to a new day!

[joel]

Don't fret too much. A 5lb swing in either direction is normal on any given day simply based on water weight alone.

There are 2 ways to do this. One is through strict dieting. Unfortunately, drastic dieting produces drastic changes in the hormones that control long term eating behavior so this is not optimal.

The second way is to establish a pattern of eating you can live with and let exercise get the weight off. This is preferable.

The thing you have to remember is that you need minimum of an hour day, ideally, an hour and 1/2 per day to really be effective. I wish there were some way to sugar coat this but there isn't.

Remember - hormones are everything! Fat cells act as storage compartments for the hormones cortisol, leptin and adiponektin. When you have too much bodyfat, what happens is your fat cells actively secrete excess amounts of these hormones into your bloodstream, the net effect being large amounts of excess bodyfat hormonally create a hormonal environment that wires the body to gain weight and make fat loss harder.

The way to combat a hormonal disadvantage is to give yourself as many hormonal advantages as possible. Exercise is a huge hormonal advantage. The benefits are far too many to list, but that hour to hour and 1/2 per day, gives you a hormonal advantage, where cutting calories only puts you at a hormonal disadvantage. The other way you give yourself a hormonal advantage is by eating more fats like extra virgin olive oil, EPA oil, avocado, artichoke and eating or cutting out entirely processed starchy/bready/liquid carbohydrates. Another way to give yourself hormonal advantage is through meal patterning. I can't get into that here but VEEP will automate all that for you.

Let me finish by saying that what you want is to make a 1 TIME INVESTMENT. You don't want to keep doing this. So it's going to ask more of you initially, but giving more up front negates the hormone rebound 1 year later.

[dzalar]

I'm trying very hard to keep this field tilted, but I'm hoping all of these changes take some time??? I have not blown my diet, kept up the supplements, but only was able to walk 35 min over the weekend. And I'm up 3 lbs from the 4 lb loss.

I've only been following your plan for about 4 days, so tell me that I'm being too impatient, PLEASE. I can't believe that I'm not losing weight after such horrible over-eating the past 2 years and now keeping my diet on track.

I'm cursed! If I'm going to gain 3 lbs I could at least have eaten cheesecake! LOL *Monday morning blues*

[joel]

What we have been doing with you is using foods to alter your hormone profile. All of this stuff is built into the VEEP system, which is what is going to make the thing so darn cool.

In your case

- the olive oil speeds up brown fat burning
- the whey isolate improves serotonin and insulin function
- the green beans increase digestive energy expenditure
- the extra calories increase your bodies heat production and calorie burn

All of these things combined help to tilt the playing field in your favor.

[dzalar]

I'm really pleased and have been using raw green beans for snacking. I'll bump up the supplements and expect great things over the weekend when I can definitely get the full hour of cardio in too.

It's such a relief not to worry about the strict/low calorie count!

And the whey isolate is a real surprise. I always thought that stuff was for body builders, but this is 140 cals, 4 g carb and 28 g protein. What a no-brainer for upping my protein without the carbs!!

I'll be really confident if everything is still working on Monday - thank you so much for your advice!!

[joel]

Congrats! I would bump your calories up another 100 to at least 1900.

One of the great myths about weight loss is the idea that if you eat 200 more calories than your daily allowance you gain weight.

The truth is that our metabolism is somewhat elastic. It tends to burn the extra calories off through heating you up. We all know this is true of young people. The trick when you are a bit older is to let the extra 100 calories come from things that make your body work, and to make the extra 100-200 calories a separate meal. Try some roughage (RAW, thick fibrous veggies) with a bit of dense protein.

The dose is fine on the L-carnitine. Higher doses are better. You need at least 2 grams to get it to work. I take about 4 grams per day. The extra coq10 is fine as well. Both of these things work to improve fat metabolism.

[dzalar]

Ok.. coincidence or olive oil?

I lost 4 lbs. Yesterday I took 500mg L-Carnitine, 200 mg (bought this instead of 50 mg by mistake) coQ10 and 1/4 t olive oil before doing 30 min on treadmill at +10 incline. I sweat but didn't feel overheated. Then I took another 500 mg L-Carnitine + 8 oz shake of Whey Isolate 28. I also took 2400 mg Omega 3-6-9 (fish, flax, borage) during the day. I kept calories at about 1800. Then did a 45 min yoga class.

Should I worry about the 200 mg coQ10 instead of the 50 you recommended? I'm still a little hesitant about 2g L-Carnitine (I took 1g total) is there any harm in that dosage? I'm excited about making progress!!! Thanks!!

[Dean Tornabene]

absolutely! it will greatly enhance your fat loss while helping you maintain and build muscle mass!

[dzalar]

I forgot to mention this, the VEEP mentioned supplementing my diet with Whey Isolate.

What do you think of that? I did purchase some and after reading the nutritional label am thinking that this may help balance the protein/carb ration of my diet while still getting adequate calories. Should I use this?