• A short term fix: In an attempt to lose weight quickly we often drastically cut our calorie intake or restrict certain food groups. This normally only works for so long before we grow tired of a restrictive diet and subsequently abandon all efforts. Instead of setting a goal to lose weight in time for bikini season, it’s more beneficial long term to adopt a different lifestyle that involves a permanent commitment to healthy eating and exercise. Most importantly it must be a plan that’s easy to stick to!

• No support system: Too many people try to lose weight without a support system. Research shows that people who have the support of family and friends to keep them on track, are more successful at losing weight and keeping it off.

• Hormone imbalance: Hormones play an active role in weight loss. A hormone imbalance can cause dramatic weight gain and make it virtually impossible to lose weight. It was discovered about 10 years ago that most people who are chronically overweight are also leptin resistant. Leptin is a naturally occurring hormone in the body that controls hunger, cravings and how the body uses energy. When the brain is responding normally to leptin, it signals us to stop eating when we’ve had enough food to eat. However, in about 85% of the population that are overweight, the brain actually becomes resistant to its signals.

• A Dysfunctional Metabolism: Contrary to what you might think, many overweight people don’t take in any more calories than people of average weight. They also exercise and still continue to gain weight. These types of people suffer from a slow or dysfunctional metabolism. Some people suffer from hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid does not produce enough thyroid hormone, making it very hard to increase metabolism without medication. A simple thyroid test and proper treatment is essential to diagnose this problem. Supplementing your diet and exercise regime with Ignite Maxx™ will boost metabolism to help you burn up to 600 calories a day!

• Stress: Another precursor to slow or difficult weight loss is stress. The body’s response to chronic stress affects metabolism, blood sugar, hormonal function and appetite. Not surprisingly this can cause the body to hold on to its fat stores, increase hunger and cravings, as well as impair the body’s ability to burn calories.

Thermogenesis is the process of heat production in organisms. All foods are thermogenic if we consider how the body must use energy to digest them. However, not all foods are created equal where thermogenesis is concerned. The best thermogenic foods require more energy to digest them than what they provide, thus they increase metabolism and cause the body to burn more calories. Brilliant, who knew you could burn calories while you eat!

Here’s a break down of the top thermogenic foods that can help turn your body into a fat burning machine:

1. Turkey: With a protein content as high as 94%, turkey is an excellent protein source. Adding more protein rich meals to your diet can potentially boost your metabolism by 30%. Carbohydrate heavy meals will only boost metabolism by a mere 4%.  So pass on the French fries and load up on a lean protein source instead!

2. Hot Peppers: Proven effective in raising the metabolism, hot peppers such as cayenne and chili contain capsaicinoids that when either enjoyed in spicy foods or in supplement form, can help to burn fat. Ignite Maxx™ is CHI’s latest, all-natural dietary supplement that contains red pepper extract, to help you burn up to 600 calories per day and up to 12 times more calories during exercise!

3. Cabbage: Cabbage is not only an effective thermogenic food but studies show that when eaten regularly, cabbage can also reduce a person’s chances of developing colon cancer. Both cabbage and brussel sprouts  are shown to improve metabolic function in people who eat them regularly.

4. Green Tea: Studies show the green tea inhibits the action of amylase, a primary digestive enzyme of carbohydrates, to help move food through the digestive system, raising the metabolism and burning more calories.

5. Fish: Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids found in salmon, mackerel, tuna and other fatty fish, can increase the metabolic rate, rid the body of excess fluids and increase energy levels. A study in Australia determined that a group eating salmon and tuna lost 22% more weight than a group who did not.

Turmeric is used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine and has numerous beneficial properties. Curcumin is the constituent within turmeric believed to have the majority of the anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have shown curcumin’s anti-inflammatory effects  to be comparable to drugs like hydrocortisone and ibuprofen, without the side effects.

Ginger contains gingerols, a compound with very potent anti-inflammatory properties . Many of my patients who consume this anti-inflammatory tea and eat ginger regularly experience a lessening of their pain levels from musculoskeletal and arthritic conditions. Inflammation can reside in many tissues in the body, not just joints and muscles. Ginger is also on my  list of superfoods.

Next is green tea, you guessed it-superfood. In the August 2006 edition of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, they found that green tea is a healthier choice than almost any beverage, including pure water, because tea not only rehydrates as well as water, but provides a rich supply of polyhenols protective against heart disease.

Cloves give this tea a nice spicy taste. Cloves contain Eugenol, which is the primary component of clove’s volatile oils, and is anti-inflammatory. Cloves also contain flavonoids , which further contribute to the anti-inflammatory (and antioxidant) properties of this tea. There you have it, three superfoods and one super spice in one drink… what’s not to love?

I like to make a big batch and drink it over several days.

P.S. It’s great iced in the summer.

Dr. Ron’s Anti-Inflammatory Spiced Green Tea

2 whole turmeric roots, peeled and cut in 1/4 inch slices

4 inches whole ginger root, peeled and cut in 1/2 inch slices (or just get one of the biggest and freshest whole roots available and use the whole thing)

6 whole cloves

10-12 green tea bags or similar amount of whole leaf tea

Juice of 2 lemons

To make the tea, boil about a gallon of water in a big pot. Once it’s boiling add the cloves, ginger and turmeric and immediately reduce to a simmer. Cover and continue simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Put the green tea bags in for the final two minutes to steep. Strain and add lemon to taste.

You can also add stevia or raw agave nectar as natural sugar substitutes if you like it sweetened. Feel free to play with the green tea recommendations (i.e. use different whole leaf green teas with a tea ball infuser, caffeinated vs. non-caffeinated etc.)

Enjoy!

P.S. I really like this Royal Matcha Green Tea

Reference: www.wholefoods.com

Let’s talk about leptin and insulin…

The ensuing results that occur when attending to and normalizing the function of these two hormones can be accurately described as losing weight naturally. Leptin and insulin are two master hormones when it comes to controlling weight and body composition. When they’re allowed to work, weight management is a self-regulating system. In a recent study, very overweight mice actually doubled their amount of physical activity when the hormone leptin – which regulates appetite and energy expenditure (fat burning)- was switched on in their brain. In fact, when leptin signaling was ‘turned on’ in the brain, the study quotes, “remarkably, blood glucose levels are entirely normalized.”

Totally normalizing blood sugar? Doubling the amount of exercise one is capable of? It’s time the public was let in on this.

Diet induced, type 2 diabetes has risen in this country to levels never seen before.

It’s even infiltrated the future of the nation-our youth.

Insulin resistance…leptin resistance…. what to do? Who’s the chicken? Who’s the egg?

If the culprit of this ever growing obesity and overweight problem was a popularity contest, insulin resistance would win by a mile.

But some research is pointing to the fact that leptin resistance may be an underlying precursor to insulin resistance. We need to rethink weight loss in lieu of these observations. Of note, leptin can also be found in skeletal muscle. The increased risk of diabetes that comes with obesity ay be caused in part by increased lipid deposits in that skeletal muscle as well as the liver, creating insulin resistance. Here is a wonderful illustration showing the reversal of insulin resistance by leptin.

A new study In the  June 2009 issue of the medical journal Cell Metabolism,  shows the astounding possibilities of what can happen once leptin resistance is restored. Raise your hand if your overweight but just don’t have the energy to exercise. OK, more than a few hands went up. Now…read carefully…

In this recent study, obese lab mice with severe type 2 diabetes had their blood glucose levels restored to normal and experienced a doubling in physical activity when sensitivity to the hormone leptin was restored to a portion of their brain called the hypothalamus. So, if this was an absolute truth, then what this research is saying is this- if you can restore your body’s sensitivity to leptin, it may not only increase your ability to engage in activity that helps you lose weight (exercise), but it may also have profound effects on another very important metabolic hormone-insulin.

So again, if this study turns out to be an absolute truth, then restoring leptin’s sensitivity in the brain may  help people who are chronically overweight or obese lead more active lives by enabling them to exercise more. In my experience, it’s far too common that people are stuck in the vicious cycle of not having enough energy to exercise, which diffuses weight loss efforts and leads to ill health.

Leptin and insulin are intimately dependent upon one another, and your metabolism is dependant upon them. Lack of exercise, increased exposure to chronic stress and a diet void of  nutrient dense foods, are what creates these non-responsive states of insulin and leptin resistance.

Embarking on a path to help normalize and resensitize your body to these two powerful hormones is just plain healthy.  You experience a whole different set of outcomes from your efforts when you have your hormones working for you, rather then against you-not only for weight loss but for your entire aging process.

If so, you’re like most health enthusiasts who have found that their intuition about foods can cure has a solid scientific foundation.

Let’s take the issue of weight gain. You could probably make a list right now of 40+ foods to eat if you wanted to gain 5 pounds in the next week. Your list would probably contain junk food, processed food, fatty meats, fats, lots of roasted nuts – some of them candied, empty calorie alcoholic drinks. The chances are good that you wouldn’t have a lot of vegetables on that list with the exception of French fries, potatoes and corn.

Let’s take the issue of weight loss. You could probably make a list right now of 40+ foods to eat if you wanted to lose 10 pounds in the next few weeks. On that list you would most likely have good high quality proteins, whole grains packed with fiber, fruits (although not too many), especially blueberries, strawberries, pomegranates, cherries, vegetables, raw milk or dairy products, and healthy fats (like avocados, extra virgin coconut oil, flax seeds, extra virgin olive oil, raw almonds and walnuts for snacks).  Instinctively, we know to eat certain foods to gain weight and certain foods to lose weight.

The foods most important in weight loss are the carbohydrates. We’ve learned that one carb is not always equal to the next. Some carbs can foster weight gain while others foster weight loss. The determining factor is the glycemic index, which measures how much sugar is released from the carb food into the blood after eating. Foods with a high glycemic index, 70 to over 100 on the scale of 0 to 100, are foods that cause you to gain weight. Foods with a low glycemic index, rated 0-55 on the glycemic index scale, are foods that burn fat. I’ll talk about this a lot here in the future.

Ask anyone well-versed in human biochemistry how to lose rolls of belly fat and you’ll hear one primary answer: shift the body’s biochemical and metabolic pathways to burn fat and you’ll lose weight every single time!

You don’t have to know a lot about biochemistry to understand that there are metabolic pathways that burn fat and metabolic pathways that store fat.

If you take certain actions, you can shift your body’s metabolic pathways to burn fat. Likewise, if you take certain actions, you can shift your body’s metabolic pathways to store fat. For example, if you begin exercising, you shift your pathways to burn fat. If you eat foods high in sugar, your pancreas will release a large burst of insulin that will shift your body to the pathways that store fat.

One of the newest phytochemicals that helps the body shift to fat-burning metabolic pathways is the isoquinoline alkaloid berberine HCl. Berberine HCl, found exclusively in LeptiPro.™ And LeptiPro.™ is currently only available as part of The CleanseToThin™ Weight Loss System.

It shifts the body’s metabolic pathways to burn fat by:
• Down regulating the production of fat-building enzymes. (The less fat building enzymes you have, the greater  possibility for losing stomach fat.)
• Down regulating the process of fat building in the body. (This process is called lipogenesis and when it is down regulated, it’s essentially shut down. It’s as if the train track that leads to fat-building is simply out of service.)
• Enhancing glucose metabolism
• Improving glucose tolerance
• Up regulating energy expenditure called thermogenesis in fat cells. This means that it will step up fat burning.

Using CleanseToThin™ with LeptiPro™ could be the most intelligent way to lose stomach fat.