Agave nectar

But is agave really safe to use?

Here are the claimed health benefits of Agave and my thoughts about them:

• Agave nectar is natural and organic.  Not!  Agave syrup is filtered and hydrolyzed into a complex form of fructose.  It is a highly processed form of sugar.  Depending on the processing, agave nectar can contain between 55 to 90% fructose, the rest is glucose.
• Agave syrup has a low glycemic index.  This is true in some cases because agave nectar contains so much fructose and fructose has a low glycemic index.  But this doesn’t mean that agave syrup is healthy, fructose contributes to increased food intake and weight gain.
• Agave nectar is low calorie.  Not!  It contains 16 calories/teaspoon, about the same as white sugar.

Here are some other dangers of fructose:

• Fructose malabsorption: digestive disorder of the small intestine.  People with fructose malabsorption don’t digest fructose well, leading to general ill health, poor skin and hair, anaemia (deficiency of red blood cells), osteoporosis, fatigue, …
• Decreased glucose tolerance, which can lead to type 2 diabetes.
• Increased levels of uric acid, which can lead to heart diseases.
• Processed fructose has been stripped from all minerals, vitamins and enzymes.  To assimilate itself, it robs your body from these nutrients, which can lead to loss of zinc, iron, magnesium and calcium.

Conclusion: agave nectar is a scam –> avoid it at all costs!

A better, more healthy sweetener: Blackstrap Molasses

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Here’s how it works:

• Only a small percentage of your alcohol intake turns into fat.
• The liver converts a major portion of the alcohol in acetate, which enters your blood.
• Your body uses the acetate as a source of energy instead of fat.

The second problem with alcohol is that it is a strong appetizer and increases your calorie intake.

Alcohol also raises levels of the hormone called cortisol (“stress hormone”), which increases the breakdown of testosterone.  People who drink a lot have smaller muscles because of this.  Muscles have a positive effect on weight loss because they burn a lot of calories and keep your metabolism up (more about this here: Build Muscle to Burn Fat).

Now, you can ask yourself the question why some heavy drinkers don’t get fat.  Simple: most alcoholics skip meals and replace food with alcoholic drinks.

What about the positive effects of alcohol on your cardiovascular health?  I wouldn’t recommend daily drinking… Despite of the positive effects, alcohol has many negative effects that outweigh the advantages.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a drink now and then, just don’t make it a habit!

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Until recently it was thought that ghrelin kicked into action in case of an empty stomach, but this theory seems to be obsolete.  The new study shows that ghrelin only increases while eating fat food.  Our brains then get the signal to store these fats.

Not all fats trigger ghrelin production though.  Like you now, there are good fats and there are bad fats.  ghrelin production is only triggered by saturated fats (the bad ones, think butter, ground beef, chocolate, fats in fast food, …).  Unsaturated fats (Omega 3, think fish oil, linseed oil, butternuts, …) have no impact on ghrelin levels.

So, a good tip for fat loss: go easy on saturated fats…

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When arriving on the site he weighed 187 lbs and wanted to lose weight so he could compete in the 165-lb weight class.  He lost 22 lbs (about 10kg)  in 20 hours by severely dehydrating himself (80% of you is water).

To achieve this, he combined:

• Temperature treatments (very hot baths) to lose water through the skin.
• Using diuretics (dandelion root and caffeine) to lose water through urination

After the weigh-in, he gained 28 lbs (about 12kg) by rapid hydration so  he would be in optimal condition to compete.

Needless to say this is not healthy and in fact very dangerous (some athletes die doing this).  These techniques don’t make you lose fat, only water and are only useful for competition sports.  Don’t try this at home!

Read more on Tim Ferris’ blog here.

Here’s a video of a Sanshou competition:

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Tofis are people who appear thin, but have lots of internal fat.  Too much internal fat (aka visceral fat) is hazardous to your health because it is situated around the organs.  Tofis look healthy, but are not…

What are the causes?

• Not enough exercise.  Although they appear slim, most tofis have little or no exercise.
• Bad eating habits. They say that some people can eat all they want without getting fat.  Well, it may appear this way, but now we know this is not always the case.  It’s not always over-eating though, even people who are underweight can have lots of internal fat.  The key is to change your diet: eat healthy and regularly.
• Doing crash diets.
• Genes.  Not a lot you can do about this…

Tofis need to worry about their health, because the hidden fat around the organs is of a dangerous kind.  Situated around the heart, the muscles, the liver, …, this kind of fat is more dangerous than fat that is under the skin and can lead to diabetes, heart problems and cancer.

This also means that BMI is not a good method of measuring fat in relation to health.  The important thing to know is where the fat is situated.  Sumo wrestlers, who have a lot of external fat, are generally healthy people with low cholesterol, low insulin resistance and a low level of fatty acids.  That is because although they have a lot of fat under their skin, they hardly have any internal fat.  That is because, besides eating up to 5000 calories/day,  they have a lot of exercise.

Once again it comes down to 2 basic things: a healthy diet and lots of exercise…

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why wait?

I unfortunately made the same mistakes with my goals when one day I said I was going to write up a new diet next week. My partner said why not do it now and I had absolutely no reply. Then as I thought about it, it begin to make more and more sense.

Everybody has a dose of procrastination in various sorts of degrees, but there are some people that have it in such a large dose that it actually becomes a serious problem and an obstacle for success.

"Procrastination has nothing to do with laziness"

The causes of procrastination:

• Anxiety (solution: deal with the issues that cause anxiety, seek professional help if you can’t find these issues yourself)
• Low sense of self-worth (solution: deal with the underlying motives of your low self-worth, try going into therapy)
• Some tasks are so small that your worry-radar fails to see them (solution: get organized, write down tasks, use a system like David Allen’s Getting Things Done)
• Some tasks are so big that they cause anxiety (solution: break up the big task in smaller tasks.  Again, have a look at David Allen’s "Getting Things Done").  Make sure you set realistic goals for yourself.
• Procrastination can also be a result of a lack of self control (solution: pick up the habit of meditation to improve your self control).
• Perfectionism: if you are a perfectionist, you might postpone a task because you make it bigger and more time-consuming than it actually is (solution: don’t be a perfectionist, learn to make a distinction between important tasks that need perfection and less important tasks)
• In some cases, an illness like depression or ADHD can be the cause of procrastination (solution: if you suspect this is the case, seek professional help)

I often made the mistake of waiting until other issues in my life were sorted out until I realized life will always have its issues and there is no perfect time to get started. What’s important is how you work around these issues and getting started right away is a good first step.

Overcoming procrastination is an important step on your way to success, here’s a summary of the solutions again:

• Deal with anxiety, low self-worth or other psychological issues you might have.  Speed up the process by using tools like NLP and other forms of counseling.
• Systemize your goal setting
• Read David Allen’s book Getting Things Done
• Break up larger tasks into smaller ones.
• Meditate to improve your self control.
• Don’t be a perfectionist.

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It makes me really upset when I see personal trainers, health experts and the like promoting some exercise machine or speciality diet to get people to lose weight. To me they are traitors to there profession and should have a good long look at themselves.

These products are not purely marketing hype and  many of them will actually assist you to lose weight. But the issue remains that these products are targeted at the wrong people and appeal to the wrong wants of the consumer. I am sure you have seen those "quick weight loss diet without exercise" or "exercise machines that works so well you don’t need to diet".

This kind of marketing ensures that no real improvements will be kept long term. Many of these products will lead to positive short term results but all of them fail to address the underlying issue that caused the weight gain in the first place. It is similar to replacing the wood in a house but never exterminating the termites. Short term you have fixed the problem but unless the underlying issue is addressed you will be back at the beginning sooner rather than later.

So if you are looking at using one of these products to lose weight fast, be sure to compliment it with a long term plan that addresses the weight issue to begin with. So if you eat too much junk because of a busy lifestyle ensure that you have adequately planned to create healthy meals during and after the use of a weight loss product. If you do not get enough exercise make sure you join a sporting team or a gym before you begin your weight loss.

Really, here’s the only and best way to lose weight:

• Eat healthy, fresh and natural food at least 3 times a day.
• Exercise at least 3 times a week.
• Have enough sleep (minimum 7 or 8 hours)

If you make no fundamental changes to your lifestyle, after you lose the weight guess where you will be in the next 6 to 12 months? That’s right you will be back where you started or possibly even worse because your body may have adapted to your smaller calorie intake.

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