I ranted a little about diet approach, leptin and the set-point theory on bodybuilding.com. Figured it could make for a decent post here. I added some extras in the form of a short review on the effects of intermittent fasting on leptin.
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Short background on leptin and set-pointLeptin is a master-hormone with downstream effects on other hormones related to metabolism (T3/T4, neuropeptide-Y, epinephrine, among many others).
In the short term leptin is regulated by under-and overfeeding. More to the point, anything that causes fat mobilization from adipose tissues will drop leptin; this is basically unavoidable.
In the long-term, leptin is regulated by total amount of fat mass. A drop in leptin affects the other hormones negatively and vice versa. Low leptin equals an increase in hunger and metabolic rate, much like high leptin equals a decrease in hunger and increase in metabolic rate.
Generally speaking, lean people have low levels of leptin while obese […]

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Martin Berkhan)

Hey there, it’s Darrin Walton from http://www.FitWarriors.com and I have a couple interesting stories to tell you… well I will tell one and Certified Nutrition Specialist Mike Geary will tell you one.

I may not have said anything about this but the similarities were so close its funny.

First I will let Mike tell you about his experience and at the end I will tell you mine. Enjoy and think about what is in your cart at the store… you will see what I mean.

Here’s Mike Geary’s story.
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I was at the grocery store today picking up some ingredients for a black bean & brown rice with seasoned venison strips dish I was planning to make, when an interesting thing happened…

I had gone straight to the grocery store after training a couple clients at the gym. Well, as I was grabbing some frozen veggies, a friendly lady (who must have seen that I was a fitness coach from my shirt), asked me my advice on a couple frozen prepared box meals she was picking out (by the way, those prepared frozen meals are usually highly processed crap loaded with sodium and other chemicals).

Now I will say that this woman was VERY overweight, and she mentioned that she has “tried everything” to get rid of all of the excess body fat and always failed.

Keep in mind I hear about 50 people a day tell me they’ve “tried everything” to get in shape. The problem that they don’t realize is that they’re trying all of the wrong things…they’re trying all of the gimmicks and fads that are out there instead of just adopting a TRUE healthy active lifestyle.

Back to the woman in the store…

So we started chatting about her struggles with getting in shape, and I began scanning her grocery cart. If I can remember, these were some of the contents she thought were healthy:

*Slim fast shakes (far from healthy…they’re actually loaded with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and a bunch of other chemicals)

*Fat Free Rice Cakes (ok…despite so many people believing these pieces of crap are healthy…they really are nothing but pure refined starch with zero fiber, which basically breaks down immediately into sugar in your body, spiking insulin and promoting fat storage…doesn’t sound so good anymore, huh)

*Protein bars “Scientifically Slim Body Engineered” or some BS statement like that (I took a gander at the ingredient list of these so called “healthy” protein bars and sure enough… hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and enough sugar alcohols to give you diarrhea for a week!)

*Canned fruit in syrup (I guess she could do worse here…but still, why not just eat fresh whole fruit which still contains the skins, fiber, active enzymes, etc, instead of resorting to processed, canned fruit that’s been cooked and loaded with syrup)

*Reduced Sugar Dessert Cakes (ok, so these are loaded with artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, preservatives, and a chemical ingredient list about 15 lines long)

Do you see what’s going on here? This is the same scenario that I see all the time.

Most people are fooled by what the FRONT OF THE BOX says, leading them to believe what they are buying is healthy. On all of these items, the FRONT of the packages had all kinds of great sounding things like “fat free”, “reduced sugar”, “high protein”, “low cholesterol”, “low carb”, etc.

However, the TRUTH is on the BACK OF THE BOX! Ah yes, the ingredient list and nutrition info is where the real truth is. However, I’ve realized that most of the general public doesn’t know how to fully understand the ingredient list and nutrition info, so they rely on the advertising claims on the front of the package to guide them.

BIG MISTAKE!

If you notice, this woman thought she was doing great with her grocery shopping and buying all kinds of healthy stuff for her and her family.

In reality, EVERYTHING she was buying was highly processed and full of chemicals and industrially refined ingredients. No wonder “nothing has worked” for her to get in shape and lose the body fat… she actually hasn’t been doing anything right. She’s been mislead by all of the confusing marketing, labeling and conflicting nutrition info in the mass media.

Have fun and choose wisely on your next grocery store trip!

Stay lean,

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist

See what I mean? You CAN NOT go by what the ads or the front of the box says flip it over and read what you are putting in your body.

So anyway here is my story:

My son is going on a school outing up snow shoeing at our local ski resort Bogus Basin and had this wild idea he needed a foot long sub for yeah you guessed it $5 (that jingle going off in your head? … Yeah that is the power of mass advertising)

As we are in there building his sub a group of people come in and you could tell they had just come from working out at the big corporate gym down the road. They were talking about how good a workout they had just completed and how hungry they were now and really needed to replenish their bodies.

I nearly busted out laughing when one woman says to the other “ I worked really hard so I am going to have the foot long chicken special, chips a pop and two cookies.”

Now grant it you can eat healthy in these places, think of Jared… but you absolutely can not over eat and you still have to skip the specialty sub’s that are loaded with sugars and chemicals that is not to mention the cookies. Her meal was in the nationhood of double what she realistically burned at the gym. So unless they were there just for the social aspect it was a wasted trip for sure.

Unfortunately this sort of thing is happens way to often and it leaves people frustrated that they are not losing the body fat so they quite going to the gym thinking … oh its just my genetics. Well … I say no way José to that because all you need is a bit of guidance and accountability and I am great at telling people what to do…ha haaa.

But seriously now.

If you want to discover the TRUTH about what it really takes to eat a truly healthy diet that maximizes your metabolism, brings your hormonal balance back to normal, reduces cravings, and strips off body fat faster than you’d believe is possible… it’s all found in my Warrior Fit Body Solution program at http://fitwarriors.com/wfbs/membership.html

Here’s what some of my students are saying about their experiences with this program:

http://www.boisefitnessbootcamp.com/success-stories/

Those are just a few examples. Come by a experience it for yourself!

Live lean, strong and happy,

-Darrin Walton
http://www.fitwarriors.com