> Dana wrote: > First question, what is leptin and why whould I care? What is so > wonderful about Body for Life? >
All of these hormones control your appetite, your metabolism (energy levels and calorie burn), and your fat storage. The #1 enemy is blood sugar spikes. It causes fat storage, diabetes, acne, amongst a zillion other things. From what I read it's literally a killer. Anyway. You body uses the 'macronutrients' in food for energy. It's most efficient at burning carbs, then fat, then protein. Since most people want to burn fat, you want to create an environment in your body that a.) doesn't store fat, and b.) encourages it to burn your body fat for energy. That means your body has to think it's well fed OR doesn't need the fat. Many people that cut calories too much end up gaining fat (but not weight) because their body thinks they're starving so it stores fat but eats their muscle for energy. At the same time their metabolism drops into the gutter to save energy. Not a good recipe! By training your body to use fat for energy - by getting a proportionally large amount of it - you encourage it to burn your fat if there's an energy deficit. To keep your metabolism up, you try to eat small meals 6 times per day and you have a weekly chow down. This also controls your leptin and thus your appetite. If your meals contain fiber you'll stay full. To lose fat you drop down into a calorie deficit while using your muscles. Result: body that burns fat, builds or keeps muscle, keeps your metabolism up, and has few sugar spikes. My staples are: * Flax, fresh ground in a coffee grinder put into a shake (good fat, fiber, some carbs, some protein) * Green tea * Protein powders (whey, casein, soy) - Casein in the absolute key. It trickles protein into your system for up to 7 hours. 90% of my protein is casein. * 2% cottage cheese - lots of Casein! * almond milk * high protein cereals like Kashi * Costco Stagg Chili. Hey, it's really good and it's got great stuff in it AND it's high protein low carb * Meat * Pom juice (after w/o), pistachios, Almonds, walnuts, canned pumpkin, some fruit. As for supplements: * Fish oil! I take 3 kinds: krill oil, nature made, & flameout * BCAAs - I take a LOT of these, 20g/day * Superfood / Greens Plus * Benefiber * Creatine * Vitamins (optimen) YOU asked. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:274631 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
