Want to join the club? There are five basic principles, designed to amp up your metabolism and help you blast fat.
Each rule has been proven successful time and again by the many men and women who’ve already lost weight–and kept it off. Here are our five easy steps to weight loss, and the science behind each one.
Excerpt from The Belly Off! Diet by Jeff Csatari
RULE #1
Eating breakfast is like putting kindling on the fire of your metabolism. Resolve never to skip the morning meal again—and try to eat something within 90 minutes of waking up.
“Not eating breakfast may reduce your metabolic rate by up to 10 percent,” according to Leslie Bonci, a registered dietitian and director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Dieters often think they are doing themselves a favor by skipping breakfast. But that strategy can actually sabotage weight-loss efforts. When you don’t eat breakfast, you are effectively fasting for 15 to 20 hours, considering you haven’t eaten since dinner and you spent the night sleeping. If you don’t break that fast, your body won’t produce the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight. Your body slips into starvation mode, hoarding fat in fear of a famine that never comes.
Later in the day, when you are ravenous, you’ll simply open the fridge and stuff your face. Studies show that breakfast skippers tend to replace calories during the day with mindless snacking, and they’re often so hungry that they binge at lunch and dinner.
In a 2008 study, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University found that women who regularly ate a protein-rich, 600-calorie breakfast lost significantly more weight in 8 months than those who consumed only 300 calories and a quarter of the protein. Turns out, the big breakfast eaters, who lost 40 pounds, had an easier time sticking with the diet even though both groups of women were prescribed about the same number of total daily calories.
Protein at breakfast is clearly important. Another study published in 2008 in the British Journal of Nutrition found that eating extra protein for breakfast leads to feelings of fullness that can last throughout the day. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center and Purdue University, scored the feelings of fullness of nine men who were given normal amounts of protein and extra protein at breakfast, lunch, and dinner or spaced evenly throughout the day.
The men were tested while on a regular diet and then while eating a calorie-restricted diet. The results showed that the men on the calorie-restricted diet had their hunger satisfied longest when they ate extra protein at breakfast. “Our findings suggest that people trying to lose weight should eat more protein for breakfast to help them avoid overeating the rest of the day,” says study author Heather Leidy, MD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Here’s an example of a good high-protein breakfast: Have two scrambled eggs, one or two slices of Canadian bacon, and an 8-ounce glass of low-fat milk. Top that off with a midmorning snack of a cup of yogurt or whole-wheat toast with peanut butter. So eat your eggs, turkey bacon, and whole-wheat toast when you have the time.
When you’re rushed, slather some peanut butter on a banana, eat a protein bar, or roll a slice of deli turkey in a slice of Swiss cheese. Leave a bowl of fruit or bags of trail mix near your front door so you can grab them as you leave.
RULE #2
Study after study has shown that dieting alone rarely works, and weight loss is impossible to sustain without some exercise. What’s critical is that you fit in three or four Bodyweight Routines per week and two or three workouts of high-intensity interval training.
The combination of muscle-building moves and cardio-enhancing intervals has a powerful effect on belly fat. Skeletal muscle burns more calories than fat does, so it behooves you to add muscle mass. When it comes to cardio training, new research shows that intervals— short bursts of intense exertion interspersed with periods of slower activity—burn fat and improve fitness faster than long, moderate bouts of exercise.
And intervals trigger an afterburn effect similar to that of weight lifting, keeping your body churning through calories long after you’ve hit the showers. In a study by a researcher in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph in Canada, exercisers were asked to ride a stationary bike every other day for 2 weeks. They alternated between 10 sets of 4-minute bursts of riding at 90 percent effort and 2-minute slow-pedaling rest intervals. Researcher Jason Talanian found that the subjects experienced an increase in fat used during the intervals as well as an increase in a muscle enzyme that burns fat.
What’s more, after interval training, the amount of fat the subjects burned in an hour of even moderate pedaling also increased—by 36 percent! So intense intervals had the effect of turbocharging even easy-level exercise.
RULE #3
Eat three regular meals and one or two smart snacks every day to keep your metabolism stoked. A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that men who ate this frequently were half as likely to become overweight compared with men who ate just three or fewer times daily.
Spacing your calories throughout the day by eating something every 3 hours or so keeps blood sugar levels even and controls the release of insulin that can cause your body to store more calories as fat.
When you eat less frequently or skip meals, your metabolic furnace goes cold, triggering your body’s primal instinct to slow down, conserve energy, and store fat. By contrast, every time you eat, your metabolism speeds up to digest the food.
Your eating schedule might look like this:
6:30 A.M. BREAKFAST
10:00 A.M. SNACK
1:00 P.M. LUNCH
4:00 P.M. SNACK
6:30 P.M. DINNER
8:30 P.M. SNACK (OPTIONAL)
Whenever possible, prepare your own meals to reduce your need to visit fast-food spots. That way you have better control over ingredients, since fast food tends to be high in calories, carbohydrates, sodium, and fat.
RULE #4
It is crucial to eliminate or cut way back on cakes, cookies, candy, soda, fruit juice, white bread, pasta, potatoes, sugary breakfast cereals, and anything that has high-fructose corn syrup in it, such as jarred spaghetti sauce.
All these are fast-absorbing carbohydrates, the foods that spike blood sugar, instigate cravings, and help fat set up residence in the belly region.
Dozens of studies support the case that restricting carbohydrates forces your body to burn fat. If you’re not sure about a product, simply check the ingredient list: Skip those that contain sugar—often listed as sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, or cane syrup—and refined flour, which generally is any flour that doesn’t start with the word “whole” (as in whole wheat).
Recently, a study at the University of California at Davis offered evidence to explain how cutting down on carbs may trigger weight loss. Researchers there found that keeping carbs to less than 40 percent of your total daily calories actually deactivates a gene that produces triglycerides—the blood fats that collect as body fat.
Slow-burning complex carbohydrates are essential to good health. Replace the fast-burning carbs found in highly processed foods in your diet with vegetables and whole fruits, whole-grain bread, brown rice, and whole-wheat pasta. These high-volume foods are rich in fiber, “the best thing you can eat when you are trying to lose weight,” says Gay Riley, a registered dietitian in Dallas.
Fiber binds with other foods to help hustle calories out of the body, and because it slows your rate of digestion, it keeps you feeling full longer and reduces cravings for more food, especially sugary foods.
In addition to fiber, eat some protein and fat with every meal. Fat because it is satiating. It adds satisfying flavor to foods, and it makes you feel as if you ate something substantial. Protein because it is your strongest ally in the war against a big belly. Here are some reasons why:
- Protein makes you feel full quicker and takes about 2 hours longer than carbs to digest, so you won’t get hungry as soon.
- It takes more energy for your body to digest protein than it does for it to digest carbohydrates or fat. “Protein burns hotter than other food sources,” says Mark Hyman, MD, author of Ultrametabolism. So the more protein you eat, the more calories you’ll burn in the process of digestion.
-Protein accelerates muscle growth and speeds your recovery after vigorous exercise by helping to rebuild stressed muscle fibers.
RULE #5
If you are someone who enjoys a couple of beers or glasses of chardonnay every night, and maybe margaritas on the weekends, cutting out alcohol will give you an enormous head start on shedding pounds and belly fat.
Abstain for a month, and you’ll be convinced. Alcohol stops your body from burning fat, and depending upon what you drink (beer or cocktails made with sugary mixers), that beverage can be loaded with empty carbohydrates. Cutting alcohol of all types for just 4 weeks is the best way to start controlling your sugar intake.
It won’t be forever. Just 4 weeks. You can do it.