tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80235930389395325112024-03-14T04:28:28.334-07:00 Gain Six Pack Abs FastImprove your health doing different types of exercise, the way of eating (nutrition), start with fitness and get shape of your life.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-45034219886501579382012-04-06T11:19:00.000-07:002015-04-09T02:36:39.126-07:00Hanging knee raises<div style="color: #666666;">
These are identical to the <a href="http://health-fitness-exercises.blogspot.com/2015/03/hanging-leg-raises.html">hanging leg raises</a>, except that your knees are fully bent, and you bring your knees all the way up to your chest while curling the pelvis up. This modification from the hanging leg raise basically reduces the amount of weight that you’re lifting making the exercise easier. If you cannot yet properly perform a hanging leg raise, this is the best exercise to progress towards that goal. Both hanging leg raises and<b> hanging knee raises</b> can also be done from training rings slung over a power rack or pull-up bar, which makes them even more effective and easier on your shoulders.</div>
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Lying leg thrusts<br />
This is a two part exercise – a “halfway down” leg raise followed by a hip thrust. Start by lying on your back with your head and shoulders raised off of the floor, your hands (palms down) on the mat by your hips, and your legs at a 90° angle from the floor. Slowly lower your legs only half way to the floor to an angle of approximately 45° from the floor. Do not go all the way to the floor with the legs as this promotes an arched back and can put a lot of stress on the lumbar spine. From the 45° position, raise your legs back up to the 90° position. Once the legs are back at the 90° position (no further), thrust your hips off the floor. Decline board leg thrusts to do <b>hanging knee raises</b> as well.</div>
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This is essentially the same movement as the lying leg thrusts, however, by slightly changing the angle a little closer to vertical, it makes the movement a little more challenging. Just use one of the lower angle settings on the decline board, as that will be sufficient enough to make this exercise more challenging. Again, as with the lying leg thrusts, only lower your legs approximately half way down, before reversing the legs up to a 90° angle at the hips, and finishing with the upward hip thrust. Remember to keep your back from arching during this exercise as well. If you don’t have access to a decline board, simply substitute extra sets of lying leg thrusts in place of the decline board leg thrusts into the training program.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-57936208529519190332012-04-01T00:54:00.000-07:002015-03-08T05:17:31.630-07:00Recommended Exercises<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There are literally hundreds of different exercises you can do for ab training, and people are always looking for new ab exercises with the thought that you always need to have a new exercise to get continued results. This is not true. You can pretty much keep using the same core of effective exercises, and change the training variables over time to keep progressing. For instance, you can change the order of exercises, the amount of resistance, the volume of work (sets and reps), the rest periods, the rep speed, or even try a different angle of a certain exercise for variety.<br />
Once you’ve become proficient at all of the exercises in this manual, you’ll eventually reach a point where you’re probably not going to add any more muscle to your abs (just like you would reach your peak level with any other muscle group), and as long as you’ve reduced your body fat to a sufficient level, you should be able to visibly see a nice ripped six-pack. That’s when things get even easier, because now that you’ve developed a nice set of abs, all you have to do is maintain them, and maintaining them is easier than building them up in the first place. Once you’ve reached that point, you can reduce your ab training to once a week just to maintain them. At that point, the only thing that will matter in terms of how your abs look will be whether you maintain a low body fat percentage or not.<br />
I should also note that in order to maintain balanced muscular development in the “core”, you must also devote sufficient training to the lower back muscles as well as the abdominals and hip flexors. You will get plenty of lower back training to balance out the ab training if you follow the exercises presented in section 9, which is full of lower back strengthening exercises such as deadlifts, swings, and snatches.<br />
Listed below are the ab exercises I recommend avoiding because they are either ineffectual or potentially harmful to the back due to excessive psoas recruitment and/or encouraging an arched back:<br />
The Bad Exercises (avoid these)<br />
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Lying straight-legged leg raises (first 45° off of floor, one leg at a time or both)<br />
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Hanging leg raises with an arched back<br />
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Sit-ups with feet supported<br />
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Straight legged sit-ups<br />
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Any machine-based ab exercise<br />
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Any machine-based twisting exercise<br />
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Torso twists (they provide no resistance, nor burn many calories)<br />
Now that we’ve listed the exercises I recommend avoiding, provided below are the exercises that should be focused on in order to best develop the abs and hip flexors, as they provide the most resistance and encourage proper body positioning:<br />
The Good Exercises (focus on these)<br />
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Hanging leg raises (with hunched back)<br />
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Hanging knee raises (with hunched back)<br />
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Lying leg thrusts (hip thrusts)<br />
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Decline bench leg thrusts (hip thrusts)<br />
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Reverse crunches (crunching hips off floor)<br />
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Ab bicycles (alternating knees to elbows)<br />
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Ab scissors<br />
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Stability ball crunches (weighted for progression)<br />
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Bench crunches<br />
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Alternating (oblique) crunches<br />
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Weighted cable rope crunches (with hunched back)<br />
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Ab wheel</div>
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Stability ball hip flexion (knee tucks)<br />
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Abdominal vacuums (transversus abdominis development)<br />
A Couple Surprisingly Killer Abs & Core Exercises<br />
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Front squats (mostly a leg drill, but requires extreme ab stabilization and strength)<br />
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Renegade dumbbell rows (combines incredible upper body work with amazing oblique and core stability work)<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-85588341994344011832012-03-30T10:42:00.002-07:002015-03-08T05:19:32.569-07:00Resistance, Frequency, and Duration of Ab Training<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the reasons that many people who spend a half an hour during each workout doing hundreds of crunches fail to ever develop six pack abs is that after a certain point, regular old crunches just don’t provide much resistance to develop your abs. In addition, all of the time wasted doing crunches or other minimally resistive ab exercises (i.e. working a very small muscle group) could have been better utilized by working larger muscle groups which burn more calories.<br />
By focusing the majority of your time in the gym on bigger compound movements like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and upper body multi-joint presses and pulls, your body is forced to work harder and burn more calories during and after the workout. Don’t get me wrong, crunches can have their place in a routine, especially for beginners, and advanced versions of crunches can even be challenging enough for well-trained athletes.<br />
So how long should your ab training take? Well, the good news is that you don’t have to spend a half hour or more every day training abs. You can complete an intense ab training session in about 5-10 minutes during your workouts, either at the end or in the beginning of your workout, or on a separate day. I recommend doing your ab training at the end of your workouts to assure that you don’t pre-exhaust the abs when you might need their stabilization to protect your back during some of the bigger compound exercises that might make up your workout.<br />
Based on this concept, it is important for the safety of your back not to fatigue your abs before doing heavy spine loading exercises like squats or deadlifts. The problem with saving your ab training for last in your workout is that once you get to that point, you’re frequently too fatigued and end up not training abs, or you just work them half hearted. If your workout for the day is mostly comprised of upper body exercises, you can probably get away with doing your ab training first, since you most likely won’t need as much stabilization as when doing full body or lower body routines. Another strategy is to save your ab training for a separate day, perhaps combined with a cardio-only day.<br />
Another common misconception with ab training is that many people think they must do it every day in order to obtain ripped abs. In reality, you really should train abs like you would any other muscle group. I recommend inserting a tough 5-10 minute ab routine into your workouts 2-3 times per week. That will be more than sufficient to help you fully develop your abs, without over-training them. Remember, your muscles need enough rest to properly develop. In fact, training your abs more than 2-3 times/week may lead to over-training and bring your progress to a halt.</div>
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As I noted earlier, in order to fully develop the abs to their potential, you need to train them with exercises that actually provide significant resistance. While I stated that crunches can be a great ab exercise for beginners, once you’ve got some ab training under your belt, you’ll need to start looking to more resistive exercises to make progress in ab development.<br />
Exercises in which you’re curling the lower body up, particularly from a hanging position, provide the most resistance and are much more challenging than curling up the upper body. This is simply due to the fact that your legs are much heavier objects to move than your upper body. Based on this principle, the core of your ab training workouts will consist of exercises that are initiated with your lower body. In any given workout, once you’ve fatigued the abs with challenging exercises initiated with the lower body, then you can finish off with the easier exercises that are initiated with your upper body.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-125161135480355082012-03-28T12:09:00.000-07:002015-03-08T05:22:04.686-07:00Proper Body Positioning for Abdominal Training<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The hip flexor muscles such as the psoas, along with the abdominals, both act to pull your trunk towards your legs. However, the psoas can operate in a much greater range of motion than the abs. The psoas are activated to the highest degree when your feet are supported and/or your legs are extended straight. Also, the psoas take over the majority of the work when your upper body comes off the floor by more than approximately 30° in crunching or sit-up movements.<br />
It has become fashionable in recent years for trainers to recommend that people try to “isolate” their abs and minimize any hip flexor activity. Although these professionals have good intentions with this recommendation, I don’t believe it’s a good idea to try to eliminate any kind of hip flexor activity. A balanced approach will be much better. The recommendation to minimize hip flexor activity during ab training stems from the thought that excessive psoas activation during attempts at ab training creates compressive forces on the discs of the lumbar spine. The psoas attach to the lower spinal vertebrae. When the psoas are activated to a high degree, they pull on the lower spine, creating compressive forces on the discs. If your abs are very strong, the abs will keep the back from arching and prevent damage from occurring. However, even those with strong abs may not be able to keep the back from arching once the abs have fatigued. Once the back arches during heavy psoas activity, the vertebrae around the psoas attachment can grind together, potentially resulting in disc degeneration over time.<br />
Now with all of that said, I believe that a balanced approach is best, and that you must focus on building both strong hip flexors and strong abdominals. Strong hip flexors are necessary to improve on movements such as sprinting or any other movements involving hip flexion.</div>
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As long as you perform the exercises in this manual with the correct body positioning, you will develop very strong abdominals to protect your back, and you will also develop sufficient hip flexor strength. I do believe that there are certain exercises which are both ineffective and can potentially put undue stress on the lower back. Some of these exercises that I recommend you avoid are straight legged sit-ups, sit-ups with the feet supported, hanging leg raises with an arched back, floor leg raises with straight legs and an arched back, and machine crunches.<br />
Proper body positioning is essential to maximal development of the abs while protecting your back from injury. One of the most important aspects to understand in order to best develop the abs, is to maintain a proper posterior pelvic tilt during ab training. To explain this concept, think of yourself lying on the floor while arching your back. In this position, the top of your pelvis is tilted forward, otherwise known as an anterior pelvic tilt. Now if you rotate the top of your pelvis down towards the floor such that you have removed the arch in your back, you are now in a posterior pelvic tilt. This is the optimal position in which to train your abs when doing floor exercises (although it may not be appropriate for an individual with lower back disc disease).<br />
Now consider an ab exercise in a hanging position, such as the hanging leg raise or hanging knee up. Most people complete these exercises with a slightly arched back position utilizing mostly the hip flexors with minor assistance from the abs to complete this movement. In order to complete a hanging leg or knee raise in a safer and more effective way for developing both the abdominals and the hip flexors, you must have your back in a rounded position as you literally curl your pelvis up closer to your upper body. This aspect makes these exercises much more challenging and puts a much higher demand on your abs. Most people cannot complete a properly performed hanging leg raise until they have adequately strengthened their abdominals and are in very good physical condition.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-60584936051971063502012-03-01T20:23:00.000-08:002015-03-08T05:23:14.077-07:00Abdominal Musculature Breakdown and Functions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The abdominals are composed of the rectus abdominis and the lateral abdominal muscles known as the transversus abdominis, and the internal and external obliques. The rectus abdominis runs from your sternum to your pelvis and essentially helps pull your rib cage and your pelvis closer together. The transversus abdominis acts as a natural weight belt essentially holding your insides in, and stabilizing your trunk. The internal and external obliques work to rotate the torso and stabilize the abdomen. The rectus abdominis is the actual visible “six pack” that you see in someone with well-developed abs and a low body fat percentage. However, the lateral abdominal muscles are also very important to develop due to their role in supporting the spine and maintaining a healthy lower back. In addition, developing the transversus abdominis helps pull your stomach area inward giving you the appearance of a smaller waist. Whenever you suck your stomach in (like a guy at the beach trying to hide his gut), you are using the transversus abdominis to perform that movement.</div>
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The action of the rectus abdominis can be initiated by crunching the upper body up or by crunching the lower body up. A popular myth is that people think that the upper abs and lower abs can be worked separately. The fact is that you cannot isolate the upper or lower<br />
abs. The rectus abdominus is one muscle group and the entire length of the muscle group is activated whether you’re pulling the upper body up or pulling the lower body up. With that said, it should be noted that it is beneficial for you to work the abs from a variety of different angles to ensure maximum muscle fiber development throughout the entire abdominal region.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-17934085236788696962012-03-01T20:22:00.000-08:002015-03-08T05:25:37.715-07:00RELATIVE LEANNESS OR BODY FAT %<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When people ask me how to go about getting six-pack abs, they usually start talking about all of the crunches and other exercises they spend hours every week performing without seeing any tangible results. My first response is that they most likely already have a reasonably developed set of abdominals if they’ve been training for some time. Their abs are just covered by excess body fat. That is really what people are inadvertently asking me when they ask what they need to do to get visible abs; what they really need to focus on is reducing their body fat.<br />
Granted, a certain level of muscular development of the abs is necessary to have a ripped “six pack” appearance, but ultimately your body fat % is what’s most important. Generally, men need to get below 10-11% body fat to really start to see the abs (they really pop out at 7-8%), and women need to get below 16-19% body fat to really bring out their abs. However, everyone will differ depending on his or her body fat distribution. Based on individual body fat distribution, some people may need to get even leaner than these percentages to be able to see their abs.<br />
Men tend to accumulate more body fat in the abdominal area, whereas women tend to accumulate more body fat in the hips and thighs. If you want to figure out how much body fat you need to lose to get down to these levels or lower, you’ll need to have your body fat percentage measured. There are many methods available to do this, but the methods that will be most accessible to the majority of people are the skinfold caliper method, the bioelectrical impedance method, or estimates using girth measurements of various body part circumferences. If you’re a member at a gym, you can most likely have a trainer at the gym perform either the skinfold caliper method or the bioelectrical impedance method. Some of the calculations and tables for the girth measurement method can be found on-line or your trainer at your gym may be able to complete the calculations if they have the tables available.<br />
While this manual will provide all of the information you need to know about developing your abdominals to the greatest extent possible given your genetics, the majority of this manual is going to focus on proven strategies and tips that will help you reduce your bodyfat to such levels that your abdominals are clearly visible.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-26905663202103812072012-02-29T10:05:00.000-08:002015-03-08T05:27:06.406-07:00INTRO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Working as a personal trainer/fitness counselor and reading volumes of fitness publications over the years, I’ve noticed that the majority of fitness related questions that I see and hear most frequently revolve around the abdominals. As the centerpiece of the human physique, the aesthetically pleasing abdominals have become the obsession of most people that are concerned about their physical appearance. However, with modern day culture giving us more opportunities to do less physical work and eat more highly processed super-sized meals with increasing convenience, it has become progressively more difficult and frustrating for the majority of people to obtain anything even closely resembling a six-pack.<br />
To make things worse, we are bombarded by so many “magic pills”, ab gadgets, and diets claiming to give you a ripped set of abs that the average consumer can’t make heads or tails over what works and what doesn’t. Just look at all of the conflicting popular diets on the market today. One claims that a low carb diet is the only way to lose weight, another says low fat is the best, and yet another claims that a vegetarian diet is the only way to go. And as for all of the ab gadgets that unscrupulous marketers are trying to say are the secret to a six pack; well, most of them are flat out worthless junk!<br />
The fact is that most people are looking for that quick fix for which they are not going to have to change anything else in their lives; yet remarkably, that quick fix is going to give them six pack abs overnight. Well, the bad news is that no such thing exists on the market today. The good news is that a tight ripped set of abs is definitely attainable to most people (regardless of genetics) if you follow some sound training advice and follow a healthy diet that promotes body fat loss. I have even seen people who have turned some pretty large beer guts into six packs with some hard work and discipline. It just takes time.<br />
The good news is that healthy eating can actually be enjoyable and doesn’t have to feel restrictive. It just takes a little knowledge on choosing the right foods, eating at the right times, and eating the right quantities and proportions. You will actually feel more energized and more productive each and every day by following a balanced diet as I will present 4<br />
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within this book. In addition, your training program doesn’t have to feel like a chore. It should be fun and challenge you to improve over time.<br />
I have written this all-encompassing guide to bringing out your hidden set of six-pack abs to once and for all clear up all of the confusion and give every reader a step-by-step guide to follow and a clear understanding of the truth about six-pack abs.<br />
Besides the head turning appeal of a great set of abs, a well developed midsection has many other benefits such as supporting a healthy back and improving athletic performance. Body fat reduction has many benefits as well, such as reducing the risk of heart disease, type II diabetes, and many types of cancer. Since the likely reason you picked up this manual has to do with concern over physical appearance, I’ll spare you the talk about all of the other health benefits of body fat reduction and abdominal development. All of the health benefits could encompass another entire book.<br />
Before getting into the all the details of this manual, I will say that the most important aspect of life regarding the benefits of fitness, where good health, physical appearance, and the ability to perform physical tasks all come together, is in “quality of life”. That’s what fitness is really all about. Bear in mind, the reason so few people have a nice set of abs is that it doesn’t happen overnight and it’s not easy to stay lean in today’s culture.<br />
However, with some dietary discipline and an effective training program, it actually becomes quite easy to attain those coveted six-pack abs. So read on, and I guarantee that if you implement the strategic tips I’m going to give you about body fat reduction and abdominal development, you’ll be on your way to showing off a ripped set of abs!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-12742646007953014682012-02-27T01:40:00.000-08:002015-03-08T05:28:49.417-07:00Equipment or no equipment:<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One more thing to straighten out before we get started… You don’t need lots of equipment to do most of the exercises in this manual. You will get the best results if you have access to a gym or have a fairly well equipped home gym so that you have as much variety as possible available to you. However, you DON’T need any machines!<br />
I’d recommend at the very least, you have access to a stability ball (can get them at any sporting goods store for $20-$30 or at the amazon link I’ll give below) and a set of dumbbells. These two things alone will allow you to do almost every single exercise presented in the manual. Don’t worry if there are a couple exercises throughout the 2<br />
<br />
manual that you can’t do due to lack of a certain piece of equipment… there are dozens of alternatives for everything.<br />
In addition, keep in mind that almost every single barbell exercise presented can be substituted with dumbbells instead, in case dumbbells are all you have available.<br />
If you would rather workout at home instead of joining a gym, I’d recommend you make a small investment in 2 pieces of equipment below. All total, you can get these for only a couple hundred dollars and they will last you for life, so it’s a worthy investment.<br />
1.<br />
a stability ball<br />
2.<br />
a set of adjustable powerblock dumbbells</div>
<div style="color: #666666;">
In addition to everything I’ve mentioned above, make sure you also pay close attention to the nutrition section of this manual. The nutrition section of this book is vitally important to your success. Let me state this loud and clear… if all you focus on is your training, and your diet is full of junk, you WILL NOT see results! You need to apply BOTH the training strategies as well as the nutrition strategies if you want to make this work. The beautiful thing is that once you get this stuff down pat, it actually is quite easy to get as lean as you want and get those abs to show nicely! 3<br />
<br />
Alright, time to get started, and get you on your way to your own set of six pack abs! <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-11325931651516565622012-02-27T01:37:00.000-08:002015-03-08T05:32:08.650-07:00Man or Woman, Young or Old<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div>
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It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, old or young… The CONCEPTS I teach in this manual work for anyone and everyone if you apply them. You simply need to adjust things to your level and capabilities. I’ll give example routines for all exercise levels from beginner to advanced, and from zero equipment all the way to fully gym equipped.<br />
<br />
As a preface for female readers, I’d like to make sure you understand right now that although many of the exercises, training routines, and discussion within this manual may come off in a masculine tone sometimes, it is all equally as effective for body fat reduction and muscle toning for women as it is for men.<br />
Regardless of gender, the best exercises are the best exercises – period! For example, although the barbell deadlift with all of those huge weights on the bar may look intimidating to some beginner male and female trainees, the movement is one of the most functional result producing, body changing movements you will ever learn, regardless of how much weight you can handle currently.<br />
Also, please keep in mind that the abs-specific exercises in this manual are NOT the most important aspect of this program. In reality, the full body workout programs in section 9 of this book are vastly more important to your overall success than just the abs exercises.<br />
In addition, the dietary strategies within this manual work equally well for both genders, as long as total caloric intake is adjusted appropriately. The example meal ideas and portion sizes are just that… examples! You obviously need to adjust portion sizes to your own body weight, age, activity level, etc.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-50214960280008973442012-02-03T12:05:00.000-08:002015-03-08T05:35:12.441-07:00Guideline 3: Drink Smoothies Regularly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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With schedules the way they are today, it’s no wonder that your<br />
definition of a kitchen gadget is the one with a team logo that can<br />
open bottles. You need to make one exception for the kitchen<br />
gadget that won’t fit on a key chain: the blender. I don’t care how<br />
many speeds it has or how it looks, and I couldn’t tell you the difference<br />
between a mince and a frappe. All I care about is how<br />
much stuff I can put in it and how good the stuff tastes when it<br />
comes out. (One thing I do recommend: Get a blender with at least<br />
400 watts, which will give it the power to handle chopping ice and<br />
shredding fruit and to outlast any Jimmy Buffett fans who might<br />
drop by unexpectedly.)<br />
When you consider that changing your body takes time, motivation,<br />
and knowledge, consider your blender to be one of your<br />
most powerful tools in this plan. Smoothies made with a mixture<br />
of the Abs Diet Powerfoods can act as meal substitutions and as<br />
potent snacks, and they work for a few reasons.<br />
They require little time.<br />
Adding berries, flavored whey powder, or peanut butter<br />
will make them taste like dessert, which will satisfy your<br />
sweet cravings.<br />
Their thickness takes up a lot of space in your stomach.<br />
I don’t cook much. When I want a quick, healthy meal, I dump<br />
milk, low-fat vanilla yogurt, ice, uncooked instant oatmeal, peanut<br />
butter, and a couple of teaspoons of chocolate whey powder into my<br />
blender and press a button. You can mix and match ingredients, depending<br />
on your tastes (see the recipes in chapter 9), but use the<br />
milk, yogurt, whey powder, and ice as the base. Here’s the evidence<br />
showing these blended power drinks will help you control your<br />
weight.<br />
98 T H E A B S D I E T<br />
T H E A B S D I E T N U T R I T I O N P L A N 99<br />
Researchers at Purdue University found that people<br />
stayed fuller longer when they drank thick drinks than<br />
when they drank thin ones—even when calories, temperatures,<br />
and amounts were equal.<br />
A Penn State study found that men who drink yogurt<br />
shakes that had been blended until they doubled in<br />
volume ate 96 fewer calories a day than men who drank<br />
shakes of normal thickness.<br />
In a study presented at the North American Association<br />
of the Study of Obesity, researchers found that regularly<br />
drinking meal replacements increased a man’s chance of<br />
losing weight and keeping it off for longer than a year.<br />
A University of Tennessee study found that men who<br />
added three servings of yogurt a day to their diets lost<br />
61 percent more body fat and 81 percent more stomach<br />
fat over 12 weeks than men who didn’t eat yogurt.<br />
Wow! Researchers speculated that the calcium helps<br />
the body burn fat and limit the amount of new fat your<br />
body can make.<br />
How it works: Drink an 8-ounce smoothie for breakfast, as a<br />
meal substitute, or as a snack before or after your workout.<br />
Guideline 4: Stop Counting<br />
Though calorie burning is paramount to losing fat, calorie<br />
counting will make you lose focus and motivation. By eating these<br />
12 Abs Diet Powerfoods and their many relatives, the foods themselves<br />
will, in a way, count your calories for you. They’ll keep you<br />
healthy and feeling full and satisfied. Plus, the most energy-efficient<br />
foods are almost like doormen at a nightclub: They’re not<br />
going to let any of the riffraff in without your approval.<br />
Of course, that doesn’t give you license to speed down the<br />
road of monstrous portions. Most of us claim that we watch<br />
what we eat, but most of us don’t have a clue. A U.S. Department<br />
of Agriculture study asked men what they ate, then<br />
checked it against reality. The truth: Men ages 25 to 50 were<br />
eating twice the grains, fats, and sweets that they estimated. If<br />
you eat six well-balanced meals, your body will regulate portions<br />
through things like fiber, protein, and the sheer volume of the<br />
smoothies. That said, it’s always wise—especially in the beginning<br />
of the plan, when you’re most vulnerable and adjusting to<br />
a new way of eating—to focus on portion control by limiting the<br />
servings of some foods, especially the ones with fat (like peanut<br />
butter) and carbohydrates (like rice or bread). A good rule: Stick<br />
to one to two servings per food group, and keep the total contents<br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-14269152741218356932012-02-03T12:03:00.001-08:002015-03-08T05:42:00.045-07:00Guideline 2: Make These 12 Abs Diet Powerfoods the Staples of Your Diet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #666666;">
The Abs Diet will teach you to focus on (not restrict yourself to) a<br />
handful of food types—the Abs Diet Power 12—to fulfill your core<br />
nutritional needs. These foods are all good for you. They’re so good,<br />
in fact, that they’ll just about single-handedly exchange your fat<br />
for muscle (provided you’ve kept your receipt). Just as important,<br />
I’ve designed the Power 12 to include literally thousands of food<br />
combinations. There are hundreds of dairy products, fruits and<br />
vegetables, lean meats, and other choices to satisfy your tastes. Incorporating<br />
these Powerfoods into your six meals a day will satiate<br />
your tastes and cravings and keep you from feasting on the dangerous<br />
fat promoters in your diet.<br />
You’ll read more about these Powerfoods in chapter 8. For now,<br />
I just want you to remember:<br />
Almonds and other nuts<br />
Beans and legumes<br />
Spinach and other green vegetables<br />
Dairy (fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese)<br />
Instant oatmeal (unsweetened, unflavored)<br />
Eggs<br />
Turkey and other lean meats<br />
Peanut butter<br />
Olive oil<br />
Whole-grain breads and cereals<br />
Extra-protein (whey) powder<br />
Raspberries and other berries<br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-13714445178672666752012-01-29T17:16:00.000-08:002015-03-08T05:43:39.916-07:00Guideline 1: Eat Six Meals a Day<div style="color: #666666;">
We’re so used to hearing people talk about eating less food that<br />
it’s become weight-loss doctrine. But as you remember from the<br />
physiology of metabolism, you have to eat more often to change<br />
your body composition. The new philosophy I want you to keep<br />
in mind is “energy balance.”<br />
Researchers at Georgia State University developed a technique<br />
to measure hourly energy balance—that is, how many<br />
94 T H E A B S D I E T<br />
calories you’re burning versus how many calories you’re taking<br />
in. The researchers found that if you keep your hourly surplus<br />
or deficit within 300 to 500 calories at all times, you will best be<br />
able to change your body composition by losing fat and adding<br />
lean muscle mass. Those subjects with the largest energy imbalances<br />
(those who were over 500 calories in either ingestion<br />
or expenditure) were the fattest, while those with the most balanced<br />
energy levels were the leanest. So if you eat only your<br />
three squares a day, you’re creating terrific imbalances in your<br />
energy levels. Between meals, you’re burning many more calories<br />
than you’re taking in. At mealtimes, you’re taking in many<br />
more than you’re burning. Research shows that this kind of<br />
eating plan is great—if your dream is to be the next John<br />
T H E A B S D I E T N U T R I T I O N P L A N 95<br />
OBESITY RISKS<br />
Almost as important as what you eat is when you eat. Researchers at the University<br />
of Massachusetts analyzed the eating habits of 500 men and women<br />
and found connections between the way people eat and the risk of becoming<br />
overweight.<br />
HABIT<br />
CHANGES YOUR RISK<br />
OF OBESITY BY<br />
Eating at least one midday snack –39 percent<br />
Eating dinner as your biggest meal of the day +6 percent<br />
Waiting more than 3 hours afterwaking up<br />
to eat breakfast<br />
+43 percent<br />
Eating more than a third of yourmeals<br />
in restaurants<br />
+69 percent<br />
Going to bed hungry<br />
(3 or more hours after your last meal or snack)<br />
+101 percent<br />
Eating breakfast away from home +137 percent<br />
Not eating breakfast +450 percent<br />
Candy. But if you want to look slimmer, feel fitter, and—not coincidentally—<br />
live longer, then you need to eat more often. In the<br />
same study, subjects who added three snacks a day to three regular<br />
meals balanced out their energy better, lost fat, and increased<br />
lean body mass (as well as increased their power and<br />
endurance).<br />
In a similar study, researchers in Japan found that boxers who<br />
ate the same amount of calories a day from either two or six meals<br />
both lost an average of 11 pounds in 2 weeks. But the guys who<br />
ate six meals a day lost 3 pounds more fat and 3 pounds less<br />
muscle than the ones who ate only two meals.<br />
There’s science to support the fact that more meals work, but<br />
the plain-speak reason it works is because it does something that<br />
many diets don’t do: It keeps you full and satiated, which will reduce<br />
the likelihood of a diet-destroying binge.<br />
How it works: For scheduling purposes, alternate your larger<br />
meals with smaller snacks. Eat two of your snacks roughly 2<br />
hours before lunch and dinner, and one snack roughly 2 hours<br />
after dinner.<br />
Sample time schedule:<br />
8 A.M.: breakfast<br />
11 A.M.: snack<br />
1 P.M.: lunch<br />
4 P.M.: snack<br />
6 P.M.: dinner<br />
8 P.M.: snack<br />
For a complete 7-day meal plan, check out page 104. It’s not<br />
something you need to stick to religiously, just a suggestion for<br />
how you can make the Abs Diet work for you. It also shows<br />
how to incorporate the recipes you’ll find in chapter 9 into your<br />
everyday life.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-63889439220552433512012-01-29T17:15:00.001-08:002015-03-08T05:45:02.542-07:00THE ABS DIET NUTRITION PLAN<div style="color: #666666;">
IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, I GAVE AN<br />
overview of some cool science—<br />
how your body reacts to different<br />
foods, why some fats are good and<br />
others are evil, and how some<br />
foods such as dairy products have a secret ingredient<br />
that helps your body burn fat. Science can be fun, but by<br />
this point in the book, you’ve probably got one burning<br />
question in your mind:<br />
Hey, when can we eat?<br />
So let’s get right to it, because eating more of the right<br />
foods more often is the basis of the Abs Diet. Remember:<br />
MORE FOOD MORE MUSCLE LESS FLAB<br />
<br />
That’s why the Abs Diet isn’t a diet you’ll feel you “have to”<br />
stick to. It’s one you’ll want to stick to.<br />
See, I’ve talked to lots of men who’ve tried diets, and many of<br />
them describe trying to stick to a strict diet plan as sort of like<br />
standing waist-deep in the ocean and being pummeled by one<br />
wave after another. Those waves come in the form of doughnuts<br />
the boss brought in, the office vending machine you’re stuck with<br />
when the boss makes you work late, and the happy hour to celebrate<br />
the firing of the boss who gave you all those doughnuts and<br />
late vending machine nights. When you’re staring at a wave<br />
that’s clearly bigger than you, you have three choices. You could<br />
run back to shore or try to jump over it, but those options will<br />
leave you with a suit full of sand. But if you dive through the<br />
wave head-on, you’ll emerge unscathed. Same with a diet. You<br />
can try to run away by avoiding restaurants, parties, weddings,<br />
or anyplace that’s likely to tempt you with nachos grande. You<br />
can also try to take the high road, but ordering a salad and water<br />
after a softball game hardly feels right. If you want a diet to<br />
work—if you want to emerge on the other side of this plan with<br />
a new body—your only choice is to have the flexibility and<br />
freedom to keep yourself from getting hungry and the knowledge<br />
that you can eat well no matter what.<br />
You’re about to dive into the Abs Diet.<br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-72379647768124480572012-01-26T16:02:00.001-08:002015-03-08T05:46:08.943-07:00FIVE WAYS TO ADD MORE FIBER<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To your eggs: A third of a cup of chopped onion and a clove of garlic will add</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">1 gram of fiber to a couple of scrambled eggs.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To your sandwich: Hate whole wheat? Go with rye. Like wheat, it has 2 grams</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of fiber per slice. That’s more than twice the amount of fiber in white.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To your dinner: Have a sweet potato. It has 2 grams more fiber than a typical</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Idaho potato.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To your cereal: Half a cup of raspberries adds 4 grams of fiber.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To your snack: Eat trail mix. Half a cup of Raisin Bran, 1 ounce of mixed nuts,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and five dried apricot halves give you almost 7 grams of fiber.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">has risen 15 percent in the past 10 years.) Like today’s low-carb</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">craze, the low-fat craze originally appears to work because it creates</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a restrictive eating program that eliminates certain foods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and, hence, a certain number of calories. If you suddenly have to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cut out countless steaks, baked goods, slabs of butter, nuts, dairy</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">products, and desserts, presto, you lose weight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But, as with carbohydrates, our bodies crave fat. Fatty foods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(beef, fish, and dairy products, for instance) are usually high in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">muscle-building proteins and supply critical vitamins and minerals</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(the vitamin E in nuts and oils, the calcium in cheese and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">yogurt). So you can go on a low-fat diet for only so long before you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">wind up facedown in a pint of Chunky Monkey. That’s the way</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Mother Nature planned it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">What she didn’t plan for, however, was the craftiness of food</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">marketers. Knowing that low-fat dieters are secretly pining for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the old days when a nice slice of cake and a scoop of ice cream</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">ended every celebratory meal, grocery manufacturers go into the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">laboratory and come out with hundreds of new low-fat foods. And</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that leads to what should go down in history as The Great Snack-</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Well’s Debacle.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Nabisco conceives SnackWell’s as the ultimate answer to the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">low-fat diet craze. SnackWell’s, which you can still find on grocery</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">shelves today, are fat-free and low-fat cookies that somehow carry</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">nearly all the flavor of full-fat cookies. The secret is that Nabisco</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">loads up the cookies with extra sugar (except in the sugar-free varieties),</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">so consumers can indulge their sweet tooth without ever</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">missing the fat. How this development plays out in the mind of the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">average consumer is simple to predict:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“All I have to do to lose weight is to cut out fat.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“Yo! These cookies have no fat. Let’s buy two packages!”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“Honey, did you eat that second package of cookies for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">breakfast? I wanted it!”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">S H O C K E R : H OW L OW- C A R B D I E TS M A K E YO U FA T 91</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The magic bullet doesn’t work, in part because we need to eat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fats and in part because we’ve been fooled into thinking that we</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">can eat whatever we want, in whatever quantity we want, as long</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">as we aren’t eating fat. So we scarf down sugar calories by the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">spoonful—and we all get just a little bit fatter in the process.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Okay, hop out of the time machine—trip’s over. It’s a decade</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">later and, instead of a low-fat craze, America is caught up in the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">throes of a low-carb craze. And the same scenario is playing out</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">all over again. Every grocery store and corner deli is filled with</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">products—particularly “meal replacement” bars—that are marketed</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with bywords like low-carb or carb smart.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Suddenly, it’s not hard to eat low-carb anymore. Today—and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">increasingly more so tomorrow—we can fill our shopping carts</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with all the foods we cut out for the past couple of years. Food</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">marketers are altering the makeups of their products, packing</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">them with soy protein and fiber and sugar alcohols—all ingredients</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that lower the “net carb” impact of the food. Now, I’m all for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">more protein and fiber. Sugar alcohol, on the other hand, is nothing</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">but empty calories that, in elevated quantities, cause gastric distress</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and flatulence—but hey, whatever turns you on.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">What I am against is the notion that marketers are peddling—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that we can eat whatever and whenever we want, as long as we’re</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">not eating carbs. It is exactly the same trap we fell into 10 years</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">ago: a restrictive diet that offers short-term success, turned into</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a food craze that guarantees even greater health risks and higher</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">obesity rates.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">And that’s a time travel destination no one wants to arrive at.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-78821105477807927852012-01-26T16:01:00.001-08:002015-03-08T05:47:16.063-07:00Low-Carb Dilemma #2: Follow the Money<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">REMEMBER WHAT I said about why the low-carb diet appears to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">work? Because it cuts out a majority of foods that people love to eat,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and because it makes eating on the run difficult. Those two factors</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">conspire to restrict calories, and fewer calories mean less weight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Now, here’s an easy question: How do food manufacturers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">make money? By selling you food. So what happens when 60 million</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Americans decide they’re going to stop buying all the candy</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">bars, loaves of bread, boxes of pasta, and jars of sugary spreads</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that manufacturers have obligingly loaded with carbohydrates</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">over the past half century?</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Food manufacturers are going to have to come up with something</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">else to sell. Something they can tout as low-carb, to appeal</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to Atkins-oriented dieters, but something that’s familiar, easy to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">find, and even easier to consume. And so begins the next phase in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the American obesity epidemic.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">In February 2004, the New York Times reported on the growing</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">trend toward low-carb marketing among restaurants and grocery</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">stores. Retailers are being counseled by their business</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">advisors to open up “low-carb” aisles; restaurants are vying for the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">coveted “Atkins approved” label to hang in their windows. And in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the past 5 years, an estimated 728 new food products claiming to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">be low in carbohydrates have hit the shelves. Today, you can</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">snack on low-carb candy, low-carb cake, and low-carb brownies,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">washing it all down with a couple bottles of low-carb beer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To get a sneak preview of where all this is going, let’s hop back</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">into that time travel machine. This time, we’re not going to the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">storied Middle Ages or the dawn of man . . . we’re just going back</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">about 10 years or so, to the beginnings of the last diet craze that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">swept the nation: the low-fat craze.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">It’s the early 1990s. The low-carb craze hasn’t yet begun to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">blossom. (For better or worse, neither has Britney Spears.) But</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">S H O C K E R : H OW L OW- C A R B D I E TS M A K E YO U FA T 89</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">another mantra has begun to take hold in American society: EAT</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">LESS FAT.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">This directive comes not from a book-peddling diet doc but from</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the U.S. government, in the form of a revised food pyramid designed</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">by the Food and Drug Administration. Fat has been fingered as the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">root of all dietary evils: Simply put, fatty foods translate into fatty</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">people. Diet experts race to defend this idea, which on the face of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">it sounds pretty logical: Dietary fat is more easily transformed into</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">body fat, whereas carbohydrates are preferentially burned off for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">energy. Hence, swap your fat calories for carb calories, and voilà,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you’ve entered into the magical weight loss zone.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Quickly, food manufacturers move to capitalize on these exciting</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">developments. As sales of fat-free milk rise, packages of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free cheeses, spreads, yogurts, ice</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">creams, cakes, and cookies begin to fill the supermarket shelves.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Some taste okay. Some taste like sugar-crusted cardboard. But</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">what the hell—no fat, no foul. Carbo-loading becomes a byword of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">amateur athletes all across the country.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">However, this whole low-fat theory comes with one big but.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(Actually, it comes with millions of big butts, as the obesity rate</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-46515635262090956962012-01-21T15:33:00.001-08:002015-03-08T05:49:40.643-07:00The Origins of a Sweet Tooth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">TO UNDERSTAND WHY carbohydrates are important, we have to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">take another fantasy trip, this time back to the dawn of man. On</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the savannahs of Africa, the high plains of Europe, the wetlands</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of Asia, and the woodlands and jungles of the Americas, primitive</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">man learned how to feed himself from nature’s banquet table. He</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">learned how to fish and hunt, and later, how to domesticate animals</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and grow grain. But since he first stood upright, man has</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">also had a craving for sweets.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">As with all things, there’s a reason why we crave sweets. The</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">sweetest things on earth, back in those days before Cherry Garcia,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">were fruits: wild berries, pears, citrus fruits, and the like. Not coincidentally,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fruits are also packed with nutrients: vitamins to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fend off disease, minerals to assist with cell function, and fiber to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">regulate hunger, control blood pressure, and help ease digestion.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Without our sweet tooth, we would have been happy to eat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">nothing but wooly mammoth and buffalo meat—the original</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Atkins program. But nature saw to it that we craved the foods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that would make us healthy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Fast forward to today, when the sweetest things don’t look</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">anything like tangerines. Whereas our sweet tooth was once nature’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">way of protecting us from disease, now it’s the food industry’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">way of tricking us into it. To satisfy our cravings, we turn</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to cookies and cakes and chocolates instead of apples and pears</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and blackberries. That’s one of the main reasons Americans today</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">are so fat. And it’s one of the main reasons why, in the short-term,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">low-carb diets work.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">By limiting carbohydrate intake, diets like Atkins create bydefault</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight loss. If you restrict yourself to just one class of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">foods—low-carb foods, in this instance—you’re bound to lose</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight. That’s because the stuff you’re used to munching on, from</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the doughnut you nosh in the car on the way to work to the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">S H O C K E R : H OW L OW- C A R B D I E TS M A K E YO U FA T 85</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Snickers bar you snag from the vending machine before your drive</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">home, are now voided from your diet. You’re eating less food, so</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you’re taking in fewer calories, so you lose weight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The other sneaky advantage of an Atkins diet is that it focuses</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">on foods that are difficult to prepare and consume. It’s easy to pop</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a bagel or a grapefruit into your briefcase; shove some steak and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">eggs in there instead, and things get a little messy. So low-carb</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">diets restrict calories in two ways: by limiting food options, and by</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">limiting the ease with which we can consume food.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But there are two major reasons why, in the long-term, lowcarb</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">diets won’t work: Mother Nature and the almighty dollar.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Low-Carb Dilemma #1:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Take That out of Your Mouth!</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">SOMEONE WITH A SOUND understanding of nutrition and a sadistic</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">streak could have a field day torturing low-carb enthusiasts.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Here’s an evil trick: Take two pieces of soft, fresh, whole-grain</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">bread. Slather one side with 2 tablespoons of all-natural peanut</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">butter. Now take 1⁄2 cup of blackberries, mash them lightly with a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fork, and (this is where it gets really nasty) spread the mashed</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">berries onto the other piece of bread. Put the two sides together</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and you’ve created the world’s healthiest PB&J sandwich: 5</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">grams of fiber (about as much as the average American gets in a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">single day), 25 percent of your daily intake of vitamin C, 13 grams</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of protein, and (sacre bleu!) a verboten 30 grams of carbohydrate.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(Oh, by the way, it tastes incredible.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Float this concoction in front of a low-carb enthusiast and you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">might as well be serving broiled rat viscera. (Come to think of it,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">they’d probably prefer the rat viscera. No carbs.) The sandwich is</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">achingly sweet, soft, and chewy, a delicious comfort food that, at</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the same time, is a cholesterol-busting nuclear missile. The fiber</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">86 T H E A B S D I E T</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">protects you from heart disease as well as from stroke and colon</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cancer. The vitamin C boosts your immune system. And the highquality</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(meaning high in fiber) carbs give you long-burning energy</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and food for your brain. Yet phase one of the Atkins diet bans</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">every single ingredient in this simple sandwich.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Every single one.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">In fact, the Atkins diet focuses on something called net carbs</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that Atkins claims are the carbohydrates that actually impact</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">blood sugar. A rough formula for figuring out net carbs is to subtract</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the number of fiber grams from the total number of carb</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">grams. (The reasoning being that fiber doesn’t impact blood sugar,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">spike insulin, or contribute to fat storage.) By that calculation,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">this sandwich has about 33 net carbs. Phase one of the Atkins diet</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">limits you to 20 net carbs per day. Eat this one super-good-for-you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">food, and you’ll have to fast for the next day and a half to keep</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your Atkins diet in effect.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Maybe it’s just me, but I think this whole low-carb plan is</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">simply crackers. (Oh, sorry—not allowed to eat those.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">See, carbs are not our enemies. As I explained earlier, we crave</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">carbs because we need them to protect us against a host of ailments.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The low-carb craze works temporarily not because it limits</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">carbs but because it limits food intake. And if I came out with some</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">crazy diet plan that said you could only eat foods that are high in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fat or low in protein or bigger than a breadbox or start with the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">letter P, believe me—you’d lose weight. For a little while, at least,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">until you couldn’t look at pudding, parsnips, and poultry ever again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">You’d lose weight because, by restricting your food intake, I’ve</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">restricted your calorie intake. And the fact is, when you take in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight; when you take in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">more calories than you burn, you gain weight. That’s true regardless</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of where those calories come from. The Abs Diet works</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">both by cutting the number of calories you take in through a sen-</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">S H O C K E R : H OW L OW- C A R B D I E TS M A K E YO U FA T 87</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">sible-but-satiating eating plan and by increasing the number of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">calories you burn away by improving your metabolic function.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Fewer calories coming in here, a few more burned off there, and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">presto—weight loss. No magic, no deprivation, and no pointing</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fingers at the evils of carbohydrates.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The confusion about carbs comes from the fact that in today’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">society, we’re surrounded by high-carbohydrate foods that have</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">had all their positive attributes stripped from them. Commercial</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">bread baking has followed the same path as Michael Jackson—the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">whiter it gets, the less wholesome it becomes. The refined flours</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and sugars and sugar substitutes that you find in everything from</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cookies to ice cream to mass-produced ketchup and peanut butter</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">give us all the calories and none of the nutritional benefits of their</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">original ancestors: whole grains and fruits. The lack of fiber in, say,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a plain bagel causes the calories in the bagel to be digested quickly,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">flooding our bloodstreams with glucose, triggering spikes in the digestive</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">hormone insulin—which then turns the blood sugar into</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fat cells and leaves us hungry once again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain bread products have a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">very different effect on the body: They’re digested slowly, giving</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">us long-burning energy. Insulin levels stay steady while fiber</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">scours our bodies for cholesterol and other harmful substances,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and the vitamins and minerals inherent in those foods help protect</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">us from a host of ills.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The longer we try to go without carbs, the more our bodies</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">crave them. Eventually, you have to fall off a carb-restricting diet:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Your body is programmed to make you seek out carbs, just the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">way it’s programmed to blink when something hurtles toward</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your eye. It’s one of our natural defense mechanisms, and what</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Mother Nature wants, she will eventually get.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Then again, what corporate America wants, it too will get.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Which presents us with part two of why the low-carb craze is a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">disaster waiting to happen.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-41750769417713028712012-01-21T15:32:00.001-08:002012-01-21T15:32:45.085-08:00SHOCKER: HOW LOW-CARB DIETS MAKE YOU FAT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">THROUGHOUT THIS BOOK, I’VE HIT</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you with scientific evidence,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">persuaded you with</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">real-life testimonials, and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">referenced study after study</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to show how the Abs Diet works and why it makes sense</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for anyone who wants to manage his weight and live a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">healthful, active, disease-free life. But just for a moment,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I want to step away from all the hard science and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">take you on a bit of a fantasy adventure. Come this</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">way—I promise you’ll find it revealing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">First, I want you to imagine that you’ve taken a time machine</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">back to the Middle Ages. You find yourself at the door of an alchemist’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">laboratory, where magic elixirs and potions fill the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">shelves and the echoes of mantras and spells fill the air. You’ve</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">traveled long and hard, through terrifying dark woods and vast,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">arid deserts to seek out a Holy Grail of sorts: a concoction that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">legend says will make you lose weight, magically.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The sorcerer appears, and he holds up before you two vials.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The first, he says, contains an elixir that will protect you from</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">most of the diseases known to man. Its ingredients hold properties</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that will change your cholesterol profile and protect you from</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">heart disease; help scour your body for toxins and protect you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">from the onslaught of cancer and the side effects of aging; energize</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your body and your brain, making your thinking clearer and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">helping to immunize you from Alzheimer’s; and, over the course</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of your long life, control your weight and keep obesity and diabetes</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">at bay.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The second vial will do none of that. It will, in all likelihood,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">raise your cholesterol profile and increase your risk for cancer,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">stroke, and heart disease, as well as other ailments. But, if you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">take it, it may help you lose weight dramatically—though only for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a short period of time. And there’s one more drawback: If you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">choose the second vial, you can never sip from the first.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Which do you choose?</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">In the past 5 years, about 60 million Americans chose vial</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">number two.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Now, scrape the dust from the label on that vial and guess</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">what it says? LOW-CARBOHYDRATE DIET.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The first vial, on the other hand, brims with all sorts of things:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fruits and vegetables, whole-grain breads and cereals, beans and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">nuts—the sorts of thing that nature intended us to eat but diet</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">plans like Atkins’s do not. And over the long term, if Americans</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">keep choosing vial number two, I think we’re going to pay—heavily.</span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-2239982645637224432012-01-15T12:43:00.000-08:002012-01-15T12:43:05.547-08:00A SIX-PACK IN 6 WEEKS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">IF YOU FLIP THROUGH THIS BOOK, YOU’LL</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">meet some of the men and women</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">who went on the Abs Diet—and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">succeeded.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Patrick Austin dropped 30</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">pounds, half of it in just the first 2 weeks. Now he can’t</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">wait to take off his shirt at the beach.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">John Betson turned a flabby 36-inch waist into a solid</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">32-incher and saw his abs for the first time in years.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">And Jessica Guff stopped skipping meals—and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">started wearing skimpier tops.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">For Bill Stanton, the turnaround was an eye-opener:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“I’d been lifting weights all my life, but just by</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">changing my diet, my body got leaner and stronger</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">than ever. Guys at the gym even accuse me of being on steroids!”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Everyone’s body is different, and everybody who tries this plan</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">will have a different starting point. But based on the scientific research</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I’ve outlined, you can expect an average loss of up to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">20 pounds of fat on the 6-week plan and, for men, a gain of 4 to 6</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">pounds of muscle (about half that amount for women). For the average</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">man, that’s enough of a transformation to have your abs show.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">One of the bigger challenges, however, is monitoring your progress</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">on the plan. Here’s a look at the four major measurements you can</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">use to see just how effectively the Abs Diet will work for you.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Weight. It’s the most straightforward. The heavier you are, the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">more at risk you are for disease and the less fit you are. It’s a good</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">measuring stick to gauge how well you’re progressing on your diet,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">but it’s incomplete in that it doesn’t take into account the amount</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of muscle you’re going to develop over the course of a plan. Muscle</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weighs about 20 percent more than fat so even a dramatic fat loss</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">may not translate into a dramatic drop in body weight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">76 T H E A B S D I E T</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">ABS DIET SUCCESS STORY</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“I CUT MY BODY FAT IN HALF!”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Name: James Schellman</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Age: 26</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Height: 5'8"</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Starting weight: 164</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Six weeks later: 156</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">A former professional athlete and an active guy who snowboards 60 days a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">year, James Schellman didn’t feel like he needed to lose that much weight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But then a series of nagging injuries started hampering his active lifestyle,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and he packed on an extra 10 pounds of belly flab. Schellman could have</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">blamed the weight gain and injuries on getting older, but that wasn’t his</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">style. “I didn’t want to slow down,” he says, “but I knew I needed a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">change.” So he went on the Abs Diet to improve his condition and increase</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Body mass index (BMI). The BMI is a formula that takes</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">into consideration your height and your weight, and gives you an</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">indication of whether you’re overweight, obese, or in good shape.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To calculate your BMI, multiply your weight in pounds by 703,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and divide the number by your height in inches squared. For example,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">let’s say you are 6 feet tall (that’s 72 inches) and weigh 200</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">pounds. So first we multiply your weight by 703.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">200 703 140,600</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Next, we calculate your height in inches squared, meaning we</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">multiply the number by itself.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">72 72 5,184</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Now we divide the first number by the second.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">140,600 5,184 27.1</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">That’s not terrible. A BMI between 25 and 30 indicates you’re</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">overweight. Over 30 signifies obesity.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">This measurement, too, has flaws. It doesn’t take into account</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">A S I X - P A C K I N 6 W E E K S 77</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">his muscle tone. Besides, Schellman says, “I figured I need to look good for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">my wife.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">During the plan, Schellman lost 8 pounds. But the most significant transformation:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">He cut his body fat from 18 to 11 percent.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Schellman has always enjoyed eating healthfully, but adjusting to the Abs Diet</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">paid off. “Before the plan, I ate about four meals a day and counted calories.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">And with this one, I ate six times a day and let calories go by the wayside,” he</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">says. By basing meals around the delicious Powerfoods, “I didn’t have to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">worry about the calories I was taking in.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Schellman, who is used to spending a lot of time in the gym, credits the Abs</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Diet Workout and its emphasis on lower-body exercises for making him</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">stronger and leaner and helping him burn off that burgeoning belly. “I have</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">seen stomach fat decrease. I can clearly see some of the muscles [in my abdomen],”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">he says. “The plan has been a huge success—I’ve seen an increase</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">in my overall body strength, an increase in my motivation, an increase in my</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">self-esteem, and an increase in my well-being.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">muscle mass, and it also leaves out another important factor—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight distribution, that is, where most of the fat on your body resides.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But BMI can give you a pretty good idea of how serious your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight problem is.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Waist-to-hip ratio. Researchers have begun using waist size</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and its relationship to hip size as a more definitive way to determine</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your health risk. This is considered more important than</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">BMI because of that visceral fat I talked about earlier—the fat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that pushes your waist out in front of you. Because abdominal fat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">is the most dangerous fat, a lower waist-to-hip ratio means fewer</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">health risks. To figure out your waist-to-hip ratio, measure your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">waist at your belly button and your hips at the widest point</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(around your butt). Divide your waist by your hips. For example,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">if your hips measure 40 inches and your waist at belly button</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">level measures 38 inches, your waist-to-hip ratio is 0.95.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">38 40 0.95</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">That’s not bad, but it’s not ideal. You want a waist-to-hip ratio</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of 0.92 or lower. If you were to lose just 2 inches off your waist—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">something you can do in just 2 weeks with the Abs Diet—you’d</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">find yourself in the fit range.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">36 40 0.90</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Body fat percentage. Though this is the most difficult for the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">average man to measure because it requires a bit of technology,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">it’s the most useful in terms of gauging how well your diet plan is</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">working. That’s because it takes into consideration not just weight</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">but how much of your weight is fat. Many gyms offer body fat measurements</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">through such methods as body fat scales or calipers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that measure the folds of fat at several points on your body. See</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your local gym for what options they offer. Or try an at-home body</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fat calculator. I like the Taylor Body Fat Analyzer and Scale 5553</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for its price (about $50), convenience, and accuracy. If you want a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">simple low-tech test (and this isn’t as accurate as what the elec-</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">78 T H E A B S D I E T</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">tronic versions will give you), try this simple exercise: Sit in a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">chair with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Using</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your thumb and index finger, gently pinch the skin on top of your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">right thigh. Measure the thickness of the pinched skin with a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">ruler. If it’s 3⁄4 inch or less, you have about 14 percent body fat—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">ideal for a guy, quite fit for a woman. It it’s 1 inch, you’re probably</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">closer to 18 percent fat, which is a tad high for a man but desirable</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for a woman. If you pinch more than an inch, you could be at</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">increased risk for diabetes and heart disease.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">This last measurement can be the most significant because it’ll</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">really help give you a sense of how well you’re sticking to a plan.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">As you see your body fat percentage decrease, you’ll see an increase</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">in the amount of visible muscle. Experts say that in order</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for your abs to show, your body fat needs to be between 8 and 12</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">percent. For the average slightly overweight man, that means cutting</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">body fat by about half.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Before you start the plan, it’s important to record some of these</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">measurements so that you’ll know how far you’re progressing.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Take one baseline measurement, and then remeasure as needed</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for motivation. I’d recommend measuring every 2 weeks. That’ll</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">be enough time to see significant differences to propel you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">through the next 2 weeks. (Measure body fat percentage only at</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the beginning and end of the plan, unless you have easy access to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a measurement system.) Any sooner than that, and you’re focusing</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">too much on numbers rather than process.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">As with any diet plan, it’s also important to develop some kind</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of quantitative goal—your ideal weight, waist size, or percentage</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of body fat. This chart will help you figure out where you are and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">where you need to go.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I don’t mean to hit you with more numbers than a fantasy</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">baseball nerd. In fact, it might be easiest to simply focus on one</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">number—six—so that the others will fall into place. When you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">start to see those six abdominal muscles, it’ll mean that everything</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">else has decreased—your weight, your BMI, your waistto-</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">hip ratio, and your body fat percentage. This 6-week plan</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">will get you there. Here’s what you can expect from going on</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the diet.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">1–2A significant weight loss as</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your body adjusts to a new</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">approach to eating. Some may see losses</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">up to 12 pounds in the first 2 weeks (especially</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">if you’re walking, or otherwise active,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">each day), but 5–8 pounds will be average.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">PATRICK AUSTIN LOST 15 POUNDS</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">IN JUST THE FIRST COUPLE OF</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">WEEKS ON THE ABS DIET.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“I haven’t gone shirtless on</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the beach in years,” he says.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“This year, I’m going to be</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">shirtless.” Read more about</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Patrick’s success on page 100.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">3–4By integrating a modest amount</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of strength training into your routine,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you’ll start to feel your body change because</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your metabolism is working hard. You’ll</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">notice an additional drop in weight (most likely</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">averaging another 5–8 pounds), but you’ll also</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">notice significant changes in your shape.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">BRIAN ARCHIQUETTE DROPPED</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">25 POUNDS IN 6 WEEKS. “I definitely</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">have more energy and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a more positive outlook on</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">life,” he says. Read more</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">about Brian’s success on page</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">160.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">5–6After 2 weeks of exercise, your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">body is primed to make a significant</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">push to drop more fat while also gaining</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">muscle mass. You’ll notice that your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">upper body is more toned and that your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">waist and other fatty parts of your body are</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">smaller. Depending on your starting point,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">this is where you’ll begin to see abs.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">JOHN BETSON DECREASED HIS</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">BODY FAT FROM 23 PERCENT</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">TO 16 PERCENT. “You can see</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">more muscle,” he exclaims.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">“You can see my abs.” Read</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">more about John’s success on</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">page 140.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">A S I X - P A C K I N 6 W E E K S 81</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">What you’ll find so remarkable about this program is how</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">simple it is to follow, how often you’ll eat—each meal and each</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">snack is an easy, muscle-building, fat-burning treat—and how unlike</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">any other “diet” the Abs Diet is. Very simply, the Abs Diet is</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a plan that will ask you to:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> Eat three meals and three snacks each day, with each</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of your meals or snacks including several of the wideranging</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Powerfoods discussed in an upcoming chapter.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> Keep an eye out for a handful of diet busters that you’ll</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">learn to easily spot and cut down on—not eliminate.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> Perform a simple, 20-minute workout three times a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">week to turbocharge your fat loss and muscle growth.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The Abs Diet is so simple that unlike most diets, we don’t</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">break it into phases, and we didn’t design a complex “maintenance”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">program (just a few simple words of wisdom that you’ll</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">find on page 261). The weight loss and muscle gains are yours to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">keep for life, and so is the eating plan. We guarantee you won’t be</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">waiting for your “diet” to end. You’ll enjoy this program so much—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and be so wowed by the results—that you’ll effortlessly follow this</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">plan for life.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Other people have done it—other people who were in worse</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">physical condition than you. When they talk about why it worked,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">they talk of the plan’s simplicity and its ability to keep hunger in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">check. The Abs Diet is going to change your shape, your health,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your life.</span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-29686384129862582842012-01-14T07:12:00.001-08:002012-01-14T07:12:39.638-08:00WHAT THE HECK ARE . . . CANCER CELLS?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Cancer is the one scourge that can strike any of us at any time in life. It can hit</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">in the places we think about and care about on a daily basis—the skin, the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">lungs, the brain—or in obscure places we don’t even understand, like the pancreas,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the kidneys, or the lymphatic system.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Simply put, cancer develops when cells in one part of the body begin to grow</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">out of control. As children, our cells are constantly dividing, creating the new</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cells that help us grow. Once we reach adulthood, that cell growth stops, for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the most part. Once we reach our genetically programmed height and weight,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cells in most parts of the body divide only to replace worn-out or dying cells</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">or to repair injuries. (That’s why there’s no mid-thirties growth spurt, much as</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">we may wish for it.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But cancer cells act like kids—they keep growing, dividing, and multiplying,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">outliving our normal cells and interfering with the various functions of the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">body. The most common type of cancer among men is prostate cancer (the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">prostate is the gland located behind the scrotum that produces most of our</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">seminal fluid). The most common type of cancer among women is breast</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cancer. Both result in about a quarter million new cases every year.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">We don’t fully understand what causes cancer, but we do know some of the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">risk factors: Obesity, low-fiber diets, smoking, heavy alcohol use, overexposure</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to the sun, and exposure to radiation and other toxins are among the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">biggest dangers. Additionally, there’s a strong link between heredity and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cancer; if one or more close relatives has suffered a bout of the disease,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you’re at increased risk for cancer in general and for that specific form of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cancer in particular.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I’d like to tell you that the Abs Diet is a magic bullet against cancer, but I can’t;</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">while dietary changes and exercise can dramatically decrease your risk for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">heart disease, stroke, and especially diabetes, cancer remains a bit more elusive.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Still, by adopting the principles of the Abs Diet, you’ll automatically decrease</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your risk for many forms of cancer, because you’ll decrease your weight</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and increase your fiber intake. In the meantime, you can also follow these additional</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">tips to slash your risk even more.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Toss in the tomatoes. Tomatoes are one of the best sources of lycopene, a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">nutrient that has been shown to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells. In</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fact, researchers say that two to four servings of tomatoes a week can cut your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">prostate cancer risk by 34 percent. (Even better news: Lycopene isn’t diminished</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">by cooking, so pasta sauce and pizza will strike a blow against the disease</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">as well.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">H O W T H E A B S D I E T W O R K S 73</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Color your plate. A 14-year study found that men whose diets were highest</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">in fruits and vegetables had a 70 percent lower risk of digestive-tract cancers.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Order the Chilean red. Chilean cabernet sauvignon is 38 percent higher than</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">French wine in flavonols—compounds called antioxidants that help deter</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cancer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Try the cheese platter. A large-scale study of 120,000 women found that premenopausal</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">women who consumed a lot of dairy products, especially low-fat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and fat-free ones, ran a lower risk of breast cancer. Pay attention, men: You</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">can get breast cancer, too. And Harvard researchers have found that men with</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">diets high in calcium were up to 50 percent less likely to develop some forms</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of colon cancer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Squeeze a carrot. One 8-ounce glass of Odwalla Carrot Juice—pure pressed</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">carrot juice—gives you 700 percent of your daily recommendation for betacarotene</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(and only 70 calories). Beta-carotene has been linked in several</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">studies to a lower risk of cancer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Bite the broccoli. It contains a compound called indole-3-carbinol, which has</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">been shown to fight various forms of cancer. Don’t like broccoli? Try daikon,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">an Asian radish that looks like a big white carrot. It’s a distant cousin.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Serve the salmon. Or any other fish high in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">can help mollify your cancer risk.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Order drinks with a twist. According to University of Arizona research,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">lemon zest and orange zest contain d-limonene, an antioxidant that can reduce</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your risk of skin cancer by up to 30 percent if you consume quantities as</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">small as 1 tablespoon per week.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Go green. In a recent Rutgers University study, mice given green tea had 51</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">percent fewer incidences of skin cancer than control mice. Green tea is another</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">great source of cancer-fighting antioxidants.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Get a D. Foods high in vitamin D, like low-fat milk, help detoxify cancercausing</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">chemicals released during the digestion of high-fat foods, according</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to a study at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Be Popeye. Japanese researchers found that neoxanthin, a compound in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">spinach, was successful at preventing the growth of prostate cancer cells.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Show yourself the whey. Whey protein is a great source of cysteine, a major</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">building block of the prostate cancer–fighting agent glutathione.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Eat the whole grain. Whole-grain carbohydrates are a great source of fiber.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">European researchers found that men with the highest daily intakes of fiber</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">also had a 40 percent lower risk of developing colon cancer.</span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-45486609900973210462012-01-14T07:11:00.001-08:002012-01-14T07:11:59.169-08:00Calcium: The Future of Fat Fighting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">YOU’VE SEEN MORE than enough milk moustaches to know that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">calcium strengthens your bones, but did you know that calcium</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">can also firm up your gut? Researchers at Harvard Medical School</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">showed that those who ate three servings of dairy a day—which</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">in conjunction with other foods provides about 1,200 milligrams</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of calcium (about the daily recommendation)—were 60 percent</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">less likely to be overweight. In studies at the University of Tennessee,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">researchers put subjects on diets that were 500 calories a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">day less than what they were used to eating. Yup, the subjects lost</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight—about 1 pound of fat a week. But when researchers put</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">another set of subjects on the same diet but added dairy to their</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">meals, their fat loss doubled, to 2 pounds a week. Same calorie intake,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">double the fat loss.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Calcium seems to limit the amount of new fat your body can</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">make, according to the University of Tennessee research team. In</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">another study conducted at the same lab, men who added three</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">servings of yogurt a day to their diets lost 61 percent more body</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fat and 81 percent more stomach fat over 12 weeks than men who</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">70 T H E A B S D I E T</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">didn’t eat yogurt. A study in Hawaii found that teens with the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">highest calcium intakes were thinner and leaner than those getting</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">less calcium.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Some researchers speculate that dairy calcium helps fight</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fat because it increases the thermic effect of eating—in other</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">words, you burn more calories digesting calcium-rich foods than</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you would if you ate something with equal calories but no calcium.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">That’s one reason why calcium supplements, though good</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for bone-building and other bodily functions, don’t have the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">same effect as dairy—fewer calories to digest, so fewer calories</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to burn.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">And calcium has its benefits beyond stronger bones and leaner</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">bodies. After analyzing data from 47,000 men involved in the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Health Professional’s Follow-Up Study, Harvard researchers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">found that men whose diets included 700 to 800 milligrams of the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">mineral a day were up to 50 percent less likely to develop some</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">forms of colon cancer than men whose diets contained less than</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">500 milligrams. For best effect, shoot for about 1,200 milligrams</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(mg) of calcium per day.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The Abs Diet recommended calcium-rich foods are:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (314 mg)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 1 cup large-curd cottage cheese (126 mg)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 8 ounces low-fat yogurt (415 mg)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 8 ounces low-fat milk (264 mg)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 1 ounce (1-inch cube) Swiss cheese (224 mg)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 1 ounce (1 slice) Cheddar cheese (204 mg)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 1 ounce mozzarella cheese (143 mg)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"> 1 scoop (28 g) whey powder protein (110 mg)</span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-53561053412293708902012-01-08T10:08:00.001-08:002012-01-08T10:08:18.139-08:00INSULIN: THE TWO-FACED HORMONE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The hormone insulin is like your pack-rat grandmother: It likes to store stuff.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The only problem is that it’s also as schizophrenic as old Uncle Judd. Sometimes</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">it makes your muscles grow; sometimes it makes your fat cells grow.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Different foods create different insulin responses. Foods that have</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">high–glycemic index rankings (including white bread, most cereals, grapes,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and bananas) dump a lot of sugar into your bloodstream soon after eating,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">causing insulin levels to spike. In this case, insulin works quickly to turn that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">blood sugar into fat.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Some foods, though, cause a different reaction. Dairy products—milk, yogurt,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">ice cream—create dramatic insulin surges without the corresponding</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">effect on blood sugar. You also get this insulin response from some foods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that are virtually carbohydrate-free, such as beef and fish, which have hardly</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">any effect on blood sugar. When blood sugar remains relatively constant, it</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">allows insulin to use the nutrients in your blood to build and repair cells, including</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">muscle tissue.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">That’s why the Abs Diet centers around high-fiber, nutrient-dense foods that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">are also the ones thought to be most useful for weight control. Most are moderate</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to high protein, some are high in dairy calcium, and those that are carbbased</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">emphasize fiber and other important nutrients.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(By the way, if all this talk about blood sugar and insulin reminds</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you of a certain health problem—diabetes—then you were</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">obviously paying attention in health class. Continuing to flood</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your bloodstream with high levels of sugar, followed by high levels</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of insulin, eventually trains your body to become less efficient at</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">processing these blood sugars. That’s called insulin resistance,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">which is another term for diabetes. It is a terrible, terrible disease—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and it is also highly preventable. In a Harvard study, men</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">who ate foods with the lowest GIs, like whole-wheat bread, were</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">37 percent less likely to develop diabetes than those who ate high-</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">GI foods, such as white rice. For more information on battling diabetes,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">see our Health Bulletin on page 50.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">It’s hard to generalize about which carbs are high on the GI</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">list and which are low, because glycemic index is simply a measure</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of time—that is, how long it takes 50 grams of the food’s carbohydrates</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to turn into blood sugar, regardless of serving size. It’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a measure, for instance, of the carb-to-sugar conversion time for a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">whole apple or watermelon, but it doesn’t tell you how much carb</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">is in one serving of the food. Nobody eats a whole watermelon,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">anyway.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">That’s why the latest advancement in food science is to look at</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a meal’s glycemic load (GL). The GL considers both the GI of a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">food and the amount of carbs in one serving of that food. It helps</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you gauge the glycemic effect, or the projected elevation of blood</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">glucose, that food will cause.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The higher a food’s GL, the more it will cause your blood</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">sugar to spike, and the less control you’ll have over your energy</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">levels and your appetite. But considering the GL is only one aspect</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of creating a balanced diet. “It’s better to have a high-GL</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">diet than one full of saturated fat,” says Jennie Brand-Miller,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Ph.D., professor of human nutrition at the University of Sydney</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and author of the International Table of Glycemic Index and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Glycemic Load. “Aiming for the lowest GL possible is not a good</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">H O W T H E A B S D I E T W O R K S 69</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">move because that means you’ll be eating too little carbohydrate</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and too much fat—probably saturated fat.” Instead, to maintain</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you’re body’s best glycemic response, center your meals around</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">foods with GLs of 19 or less and shoot for a GL of less than 120</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for the whole day.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Sound confusing? It doesn’t need to be. The Abs Diet Powerfoods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and the Abs Diet recipes all have low to moderate glycemic</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">loads. All you have to do is follow the plan. And on those occasions</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">when you are stuck and need to choose between two or more foods,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">refer to the chart on page 276.</span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-10623360362548539802012-01-05T13:19:00.001-08:002012-01-05T13:19:40.597-08:00Carbohydrates: A Bad Rap<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">WITH THE BEATINGS that carbohydrates have taken over the past</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">few years, it’s a wonder that bread isn’t protected by the Endangered</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Species Act. Everywhere I look, I see people eating burgers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">without buns, ordering spaghetti and meatballs—hold the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">spaghetti—or bragging about their all-bacon-all-the-time diet.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">While it’s clear that protein and fat have tremendous nutritional</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">benefits, it’s unfair—and unhealthy—to kick carbohydrates off the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">dietary island.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">With more and more evidence showing that a high-carbohydrate</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">diet helps promote fat storage (unless you run marathons), it’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">becoming more accepted that low-carbohydrate diets work in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">helping people control weight. A 2002 study in the journal</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Metabolism confirmed that very stance. Researchers at the University</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of Connecticut found that subjects who ate only 46</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">grams of carbohydrates a day—about 8 percent of calories—lost</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">7 pounds of fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle in 6 weeks. And</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">they did it while downing a satisfying 2,337 calories a day. But</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you can make a major mistake by eliminating carbohydrates entirely.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Many carbohydrates—like fruits, vegetables, whole grains,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and beans—help protect you against cancer and other diseases,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and some carbs contain nutrients like fiber, which helps you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">lose and control weight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Traditionally, the confusion about carbohydrates has centered</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">around finding ways to classify them and figuring out which ones</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">66 T H E A B S D I E T</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">are better for your body. It used to be that we thought of carbohydrates</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">only by their molecular structure—either simple or</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">complex. Simple indicates a carb with one or two sugar molecules—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">things like sucrose (table sugar), fructose (in fruit), and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">lactose (in dairy products). Complex carbohydrates are ones that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">include more than two sugar molecules—like pasta, rice, bread,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and potatoes. The flaw is that you can’t generalize and say a carbohydrate</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">is good or bad for you based simply on its molecular</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">structure. For example, an apple contains nutrients and helps</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">keep you lean; sugar does not. Both are simple carbs, but they’re</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">hardly comparable in nutritional value.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Instead, the way to decide what carbohydrates are best for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you stems from how your body reacts to the carbohydrates chemically.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">One of the tools that nutritionists use today is the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">glycemic index (GI). The GI assigns numbers to foods that indicate</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">how quickly a food turns into glucose. High-GI foods—ones</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that are quickly digested and turned to glucose—are generally</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">less nutritionally sound than low-GI choices.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Another term for glucose is blood sugar. The presence of sugar</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">in your blood causes your body to produce the hormone insulin.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Insulin’s job is to move the sugar you’re not using for energy out</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of your bloodstream and store it in your body. Here’s where the GI</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">comes into effect: Foods with a high GI (like pasta, bread, white</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">rice, and Snickers bars) are digested quickly, flooding your bloodstream</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with sugar. Insulin rushes in and says, “Whoa, what do I</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">do with all of this?” Whatever glucose isn’t immediately burned</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for energy quickly starts getting stored as fat. What’s worse is</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that if you eat a carb with a high GI in combination with fat—</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">bread with butter, for example—none of the fat you eat can be</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">burned for energy either, because your bloodstream is so flooded</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with sugar. Insulin does such a good job of turning this new</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">blood sugar into fat, in fact, that soon your blood sugar begins</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">H O W T H E A B S D I E T W O R K S 67</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to drop, and you know what that means: You’re hungry again.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">If you eat a meal with a low GI (like a balanced dinner of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">chicken, high-fiber vegetables, and brown rice), the food is digested</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">more slowly. Your blood sugar rises only incrementally, and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that slow digestion means that glucose is available as energy for</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">hours and hours. That means you have hours and hours to burn</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">off the blood sugar. Insulin doesn’t need to rush in and turn the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">sugar into fat; it can use the sugar slowly for other construction</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">projects, like building and repairing muscle. Moreover, because</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your blood sugar levels stay even, you don’t turn ravenously</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">hungry just a few hours after eating. You build more muscle, you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">store less fat, you have more energy, and you keep your appetite</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">under control.</span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-57191632507312865822012-01-03T20:58:00.001-08:002012-01-03T20:58:55.742-08:00“THE ABS DIET HELPED ME CHEAT DEATH!”<span style="color: #666666;">Name: Dan Shea</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Age: 40</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Height: 5'7"</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Starting weight: 226</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Six weeks later: 207</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Dan Shea had seen what happens to a man who doesn’t take charge of his</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight and his health, and he didn’t want it to happen to him. His own dad—a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">once-fit airborne ranger who used to be in incredible shape—was now, at age</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">70, on the verge of losing a foot to diabetes. Shea wanted to plot a different</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">course: “I want to be skiing when I’m 70,” he says.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But at 40 years old, 5 feet 7 inches, and 226 pounds, Shea knew he had to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">make a change—a 60-pound change. He had a 13-year-old daughter he</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">wanted to watch grow up, and at the rate he was going, he was a heart attack</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">waiting to happen. So he started the Abs Diet and immediately took to it. He</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">realized he wasn’t eating enough breakfast and also realized the importance</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">found in most animal products, and those food products are important</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for the Abs Diet for other reasons (the calcium in dairy</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">products, the protein in meat). But I do want you to consume the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">low-fat and leaner versions of meat and dairy products. You want</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the nutritional benefit from one part of the food without high</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">amounts of saturated fat.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">AVOID</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Fatty cuts of red meat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Whole-milk dairy products</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Polyunsaturated fats: GOOD. There are two types of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">polyunsaturated fats: omega-3’s and omega-6’s. You’ve probably</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">H O W T H E A B S D I E T W O R K S 63</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of eating often—making sure he had a midmorning snack consisting of a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">couple of the Powerfoods. “Even though I wasn’t hungry, I ate it,” he says. “It</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">was like fighting years of dietary knowledge to have that midmorning snack. I</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">wasn’t hungry yet, but if I hadn’t eaten, I’d have been starving at lunch.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But his biggest affection is for the Abs Diet smoothies that he makes with lowfat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">yogurt, low-fat milk, some fruit, and a scoop of protein powder. “Best damn</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">thing on the planet, like going to Dairy Queen,” Shea says. “For fun, I’d layer it</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with a couple of tablespoons of fat-free, sugar-free whipped topping. My life is</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">all about smoothies now. It’s my snack of choice—really my meal of choice. If I</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">could have a blender in my office, I’d have them three times a day.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Shea lost 19 pounds on the plan and now has made the Abs Diet his regular</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">eating and nutritional plan as he strives for his goal of 165 pounds. “I look</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">great, or so my wife tells me. My pants are much looser, and I need a new belt.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I tuck in my shirts now. I walk taller somehow, stand taller. My confidence level</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">has been boosted. In fact, I had an interview for a position for which I was way</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">underqualified, yet I was short-listed and came quite close to getting it, based</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">largely on my strength of presence,” Shea says. “I’ve lost in my gut and butt,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">but mainly my man breasts are now less Dolly Parton and more Gwyneth Paltrow.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I know this is a great plan, and I know I’m going to reach my goal. I mean,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I’m in it for the long haul, and this is a plan that is easy to do for the long term.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">heard of omega-3 fatty acids. They’re the fats found in fish, and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a diet high in omega-3’s has been shown to help protect the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">heart from cardiovascular disease. That’s plenty enough reason</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to include seafood in your diet. But new evidence suggests that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">this type of fat can actually help you control your weight. In one</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">study, subjects who took in 6 grams a day of fish oil supplements</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">burned more fat during the course of a day than those who went</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">without. Researchers suspect that a diet high in omega-3’s actually</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">alters the body’s metabolism and spurs it to burn fat more</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">efficiently.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Now, you can take fish oil supplements if you want, but you’ll</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">miss the muscle-building protein benefits of real fish. The fish</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with the highest levels of omega-3’s are the fish you probably</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">enjoy the most already—salmon and tuna, to name two. (To see</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">where your favorite fish falls in the omega-3 sweepstakes, see the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">chart on the opposite page.) In addition to being packed with</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">heart-healthy, fat-burning omega-3’s, fish is also a great source</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of lean, muscle-building protein.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">There’s another amazing, secret Powerfood that bodybuilders</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">know about but you may have never even heard of: flaxseed. Flax</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">is a seldom-used grain that’s loaded with omega-3’s as well as cholesterol-</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">busting fiber. You’ll find flaxseeds and flaxseed oil in most</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">health food stores. Grab it! I keep ground flaxseed in the fridge,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and I toss it on breakfast cereals, into smoothies, and on top of ice</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cream. It’s got a mild nutty flavor you’ll like. It crushes cholesterol</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with its omega-3’s, it adds artery-scouring fiber to your diet, and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">it might just be your best weapon against fat.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Omega-6 fatty acids also help lower bad cholesterol and raise</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">good cholesterol. They’re found in vegetable oils, meat, eggs, and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">dairy products. They’re so common to so many foods, in fact, that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">only those of you currently shipwrecked on deserted islands living</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">off flotsam and jetsam need worry about not getting enough in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your diet.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-40833313903962959832012-01-03T14:04:00.001-08:002012-01-03T14:04:20.867-08:00HOW TO CHOOSE A MULTIVITAMIN<span style="color: #666666;">Multivitamins are good insurance for the day you don’t get the daily maximum</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">amount of nutrients. Look for one with a concentration of chromium and vitamins</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">B6 and B12. Chromium improves your body’s ability to convert amino acids</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">into muscle. A University of Maryland study found that men who exercised regularly</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and took 200 micrograms of chromium a day added more muscle and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">lost significantly more body fat than lifters not taking the supplement. Also,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">since hard workouts deplete your B vitamins, it’s good to find vitamins with high</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">doses, like Solaray Men’s Golden Multi-Vita-Min, which has megadoses of vitamins</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">B6 and B12, plus your entire daily allowance of endurance-boosting zinc.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Take control of your trans fat intake. Check the ingredient labels</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">on all the packaged foods you buy, and if you see PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">OIL on the label, consider finding an alternative. Even</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">foods that seem bad for you can have healthy versions: McCains</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">shoestring french fries, Ruffles Natural reduced-fat chips, Wheatables</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">reduced-fat crackers, and Dove dark chocolate bars are just</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a few of the “bad for you” snacks that are actually free of trans</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fats. And remember—the higher up on the ingredients list PARTIALLY</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">HYDROGENATED OIL is, the worse the food is for you. You might</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">not be able to avoid trans fats entirely, but you can choose foods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with a minimal amount of the stuff.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The other way to avoid trans fats is to avoid ordering fried</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">foods. Because trans fats spoil less easily than natural fats and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">are easier to ship and store, almost all fried commercial foods are</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">now fried in trans fats rather than natural oils. Fish and chips,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">tortillas, fried chicken—all of it is packed with belly-building</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">trans fats. Order food baked or broiled whenever possible. And</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">avoid fast-food joints, where nearly every food option is loaded</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with trans fats; drive-through restaurants ought to come complete</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with drive-through cardiology clinics.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">For more on trans fats—where they come from, how they act</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">inside your body, and how to fight back, see the Special Report on</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">page 127. In the meantime:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">AVOID</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Margarine</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Fried foods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Commercially manufactured baked goods</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Any food with PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OIL on its list of ingredients</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Saturated fat: BAD. Saturated fats are naturally occurring</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fats found in meat and dairy products. The problem with saturated</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fats is that when they enter your body, they tend to do the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">H O W T H E A B S D I E T W O R K S 61</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">same thing they did when they were in a pig’s or cow’s body:</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Rather than be burned for energy, they’re more likely to be stored</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">as fat in your flanks, in your ribs, even—ugh—in your loin. In fact,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">they seem to have more of a “storage effect” than other fats. A new</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">study from Johns Hopkins University suggests that the amount</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of saturated fat in your diet may be directly proportional to the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">amount of fat surrounding your abdominal muscles. Researchers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">analyzed the diets of 84 people and performed an MRI on each of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">them to measure fat. Those whose diets included the highest rates</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of saturated fat also had the most abdominal fat. Saturated fats</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">also raise cholesterol levels, so they increase your risk for heart</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">disease and some types of cancer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">I don’t want you to eliminate saturated fats entirely; they’re</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8023593038939532511.post-18967138796478256432012-01-03T08:43:00.001-08:002012-01-03T08:43:43.968-08:00Fat: Underrated, Understand?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">WHEN YOU THINK of fat, you probably think of foods that have a lot</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of fat—or people who do. After a few years with some extra</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">pounds, the only thing you know about fat is that you’re tired of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">it and want to get rid of it forever. But it’s probably one of your</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">body’s most misunderstood dietary nutrients, stemming from a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">widely held but misguided belief that fat should take much of the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">blame for our obesity epidemic.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">In the 1980s, the U.S. government released nutritional guidelines</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that essentially said we should base our diets on potatoes,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">rice, cereal, and pasta and minimize the foods with a lot of fat and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">protein. That gave way to the idea that fat makes you fat. And</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that gave way to a new breed of diets that said if you limit the fat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">in what you eat, you’ll limit the fat that exercises squatter’s rights</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">on your gut. But that line of thinking didn’t hold out when researchers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">tried to find links between low-fat diets and obesity. In</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">H O W T H E A B S D I E T W O R K S 57</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">1998, for example, two prominent obesity researchers estimated</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that if you took only 10 percent of your calories from fat, you’d lose</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">16 grams of fat a day—a loss of 50 pounds in a year. But when a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Harvard epidemiologist, Walter Willett, tried to find evidence that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">this occurred, he couldn’t find any link between people who lost</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight and the fact that they were on a low-fat diet. In fact, in</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">some studies lasting a year or more, groups of people showed</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">weight gains on low-fat diets. Willett speculated that there was a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">mechanism responsible for this: When the body is on a low-fat diet</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">for a long period, it stops losing weight.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Part of the reason our bodies rebel against low-fat diets is that</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">we need fat. For instance, fat plays a vital role in the delivery of vitamins</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">A, D, E, and K, nutrients stored in fatty tissue and the liver</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">until your body needs them. Fat also helps produce testosterone,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">which helps trigger muscle growth. And fat, like protein, helps</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">keep you satisfied and controls your appetite. In fact, if we’ve</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">learned anything about weight loss over the past several years, it’s</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that reducing your fat intake doesn’t necessarily do a darn thing</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to decrease your body fat. One small study, for instance, compared</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">a high-carbohydrate diet and a high-fat diet. The researchers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">found that the group with the high-fat diet experienced less muscle</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">loss than the other group. The researchers theorized that muscle</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">protein was being spared by the higher-fat diet because fatty acids,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">more so than carbs, were being harnessed and used for energy.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The truth is that reasonable amounts of fat can actually help</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">you lose weight. In a study from the International Journal of Obesity,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Harvard Medical School put 101 overweight people on either a</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">low-fat diet (fat was 20 percent of the total calories) or a moderatefat</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">diet (35 percent of calories) and followed them for 18 months.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Both groups lost weight at first, but after a year and a half, the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">moderate-fat group had lost an average of 9 pounds per person,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">whereas the low-fat dieters had gained 6 pounds. The results sug-</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">58 T H E A B S D I E T</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">gest that a healthy amount of fat is a factor in keeping your weight</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">under control.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Here’s a primer on the fats in your life.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Trans fat: BAD. You won’t find trans fatty acids listed on most</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">food labels, even though there are more than 40,000 packaged</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">foods that contain this type of fat. You won’t find it listed because</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">it’s so bad for you that food manufacturers have fought for years</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to keep it off ingredient labels. In 2003, the U.S. Food and Drug</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Administration finally adopted regulations requiring manufacturers</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to include trans fat content on their packaging, but the regulations</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">will be phased in over the next few years. For now, you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">have to be a smart food consumer to spot where the danger lies.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Trans fats were invented by grocery manufacturers in the</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">1950s as a way of appealing to our natural cravings for fatty foods.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">But there’s nothing natural about trans fats—they’re cholesterolraising,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">heart-weakening, diabetes-causing, belly-building chemicals</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">that, for the most part, didn’t even exist until the middle of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the last century, and some studies have linked them to an estimated</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">30,000 premature deaths in this country every year. In one</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Harvard study, researchers found that getting just 3 percent of</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your daily calories from trans fats increased your risk of heart disease</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">by 50 percent. Three percent of your daily calories equals</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">about 7 grams of trans fats—that’s roughly the amount in a single</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">order of fries. Americans eat an average of between 3 and 10</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">grams of trans fats every day.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">To understand what trans fats are, picture a bottle of vegetable</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">oil and a stick of margarine. At room temperature, the vegetable</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">oil is a liquid, the margarine a solid. Now, if you baked cookies</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">using vegetable oil, they’d be pretty greasy. And who would want</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">to buy a cookie swimming in oil? So to create cookies—and cakes,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">nachos, chips, pies, muffins, doughnuts, waffles, and many, many</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">other foods we consume daily—manufacturers heat the oil to very</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">high temperatures and infuse it with hydrogen. That hydrogen</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">H O W T H E A B S D I E T W O R K S 59</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">bonds with the oil to create an entirely new form of fat—trans</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">fat—that stays solid at room temperature. Vegetable oil becomes</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">margarine. And now foods that might normally be healthy—but</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">maybe not as tasty—become fat bombs.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Since these trans fats don’t exist in nature, your body has a hell</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">of a time processing them. Once consumed, trans fats are free to</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">cause all sorts of mischief inside you. They raise the number of LDL</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(bad) cholesterol particles in your bloodstream and lower your HDL</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(good) cholesterol. They also raise blood levels of other lipoproteins;</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">the more lipoprotein you have in your bloodstream, the greater</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">your risk of heart disease. Increased consumption of trans fats has</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">also been linked to increased risk of diabetes and cancer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Yet trans fats are added to a shocking number of foods. They</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">appear on food labels as PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OIL—usually vegetable</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">or palm oil. Go look in your pantry and freezer right now,</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">and you won’t believe how many foods include them. Crackers.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">Popcorn. Cookies. Fish sticks. Cheese spreads. Candy bars. Frozen</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">waffles. Stuffing. Even foods you might assume are healthy—like</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">bran muffins, cereals, and nondairy creamers—are often loaded</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">with trans fats. And because they hide in foods that look like</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">they’re low in fat, such as Wheat Thins, these fats are making you</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">unhealthy without your even knowing it.</span><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04296457217529861701noreply@blogger.com0