August 2002. My last article went into great detail about why we are obese, and I promised you in that article that I would come back to you with an article that covers the truth about how to eat well and lose fat. Well, here it is! Hot off the press! Ready to knock your socks off, or better yet, your layers of fat!

Let me begin by saying that when I meet face-to-face with my local home clients, I always cover nutrition as a first order of business. Because I am not a registered dietician, I cannot create menus for people, but I can explain what works for others who have become "lean" and, in layman's terms, how proteins, fats and carbohydrates work with and against the body to burn fat. Then it becomes pretty clear to any reasonable individual what is required, and they are better prepared to make good choices. Let me say next that some people really struggle with implementing some of this and some folks take to it like a duck to water. The truth of the matter is, the more able you are to adopt healthier nutritional habits, the more quickly and more powerfully your body will change.

But we've heard that before! We're eating healthier and getting fatter. What gives? Let me ask you a basic question that people usually get right: Does a car's engine burn more fuel while it is idling at a stop light, or while it is traveling down the road at 30mph? Right! It burns more fuel as it travels down the road. The answer is intuitive. We know it's right, but we're sometimes not sure why. Let me follow that question with another: Does a car's engine burn more fuel while it's traveling at 30mph down a road, or while it is continuously accelerating to 40mph and decelerating back to 20mph down the same road? Right again! It burns more fuel while it accelerates and decelerates. The answer is, again intuitive to us, and again, sometimes we don't understand why.

Generally speaking, your body is like that car's engine. Every time the gas peddle is pushed down, the rate at which the car burns fuel rises. The car's "metabolism" increases. If the car's gas peddle is pushed down at a pretty steep level, the car speeds down the road and burns a lot of fuel. If, on the other hand the car's gas peddle is pressed down midway, it burns a moderate amount of fuel. And if the car, by continually modifying the pressure on the gas peddle is required to speed up and slow down, it burns even more fuel over time as it takes a great deal of effort to get up to cruising speed from a lesser speed.

Okay, Angela, we get your point. How does this apply to fat loss? The answer is amazingly simple. Your mouth is like the car's gas peddle. Every time you put food into it and swallow it, your body is forced to get up to cruising speed as it digests it. Are you with me so far?

Taking this one step further, like the car's fuel options, your body can ingest "regular" or "high-octane" fuel. One burns hotter than the other (causes "metabolism" to be higher). In much the same way, the food you ingest will either require a great deal of your body's energy to digest (increase your metabolism a great deal) or it will require very little of your body's energy to digest it (increase your metabolism very little).

For example, a simple carbohydrate (like simple table sugar) requires very little of your body for digestion and does very little to increase your metabolism. Complex carbohydrates on the other hand (like whole grains) require your body to burn about 10 calories for every 100 calories ingested. Fats (like vegetable oil) require about 5 calories for digestion for every 100 calories ingested, and proteins (like eggs) require 20 to 25 calories for every 100 calories! As you can see, from most to least thermic, we see that proteins require the most of us, then complex carbohydrates, fats, and simple carbohydrates. It's easy to understand now why a diet rich in whole foods -- lean proteins, whole grains, and fresh fruits and vegetables (fiber makes them complex) causes our bodies to burn at a higher rate, and why "fat-free" and "low-carb" in itself hasn't worked and won't work for us. It's the kind of fats, carbs and proteins we eat that matter, along with the frequency and serving sizes.

Going further now, just like the car that accelerates and decelerates down the road, if we supply our bodies with fuel to "rev" it back up as it begins to decelerate, our metabolism will increase again. I'm sure you've heard by now that many small meals are preferred to one-to-three larger meals in a day. This reason, along with the fact that your body can only absorb so many nutrients at a time may make more frequent fueling of your body a very powerful and healthy lifestyle technique to adopt.

Okay, Angela, it sounds good, but I just can't eat that much. Among the excuses I've heard for not being able to eat more vs less in a day include "I'm a busy executive with lots of meetings, I have to feed my family and can't be cooking different things all day long, I travel a lot and have to eat out with clients a great deal of the time, I work in a sterile or dirty environment, I don't have time to cook, I can only find the time to eat once a day now," etc. And while these sound good on the surface, you should know that every single client I have had who has decided to try this has had amazingly quick and powerful success with it. All that was required was that the individual stop finding reasons why they couldn't and begin prioritizing their health to find ways that they could. What's more important, eliminating a deadly risk factor like obesity or eating french fries? There are lots of quick and portable options these days. Cooking isn't necessarily required, but you have to be careful and read nutritional labels for content on packaged foods!

Among those clients who were successful at adopting small, frequent whole-food meals are emergency room nurses (sterile environment), an automobile insurance claims director (dirty environment), directors, executives and owners of companies (too busy), parents (have to cook for their children, too), etc. You get the picture. By the way, everyone resists -- and strongly at first. Then, when they realize that exercise alone isn't going to do it for them, they get on board if they truly prefer lean to fat. Once that happens the results they experience keep them on board. Those results include everything from feeling better and more energized to losing 1-3% body fat every month or so -- really! Several, believe it or not, have lost 10-20% of their body fat.

I always say, "find someone who exemplifies excellence in whatever you are trying to achieve and learn from them." That makes sense in creating your investment portfolio, in designing a significant career path, and in creating the body of your dreams. Don't take fat-loss advice from someone who is fat. Don't get health advice from someone who is not healthy and don't learn how to eat from someone else who is struggling with their weight. Learn from the pros. Fitness professionals and bodybuilders are the professionals in this field. They know exactly how to successfully lose fat and can teach us all a thing or two. Not one of them will tell you that it's remotely possible to get fit in 6 minutes a day. Not one of those beautiful, natural bodies will tell you that the secret was found in a bottle, and not one of them will ever say that you should only eat one kind of food. They clearly demonstrate that they know what they are talking about. They know that it takes the right combination, given variables such as goals, body type, lifestyle, preferences, family health history, etc, of strength training, aerobic exercise and nutrition. I am a 37-year-old female who lost over 19 pounds of fat and gained over 12 pounds of muscle in the last 2 years. I went from a growing size 6/8 to a healthy and happy size 2 by exercising and eating better. If you're interested, you can go to my web site for proof. My before and after photos are posted there for you to see, in the hopes that they will inspire you. I learned from and actually became one of the professionals. You might benefit as well.

There's more!! To read on, go to the article.