Welcome successful weight loss seekers.
The Key To Successful Long Term Weight Loss.
Ian Newton Nutritional Naturopath & Consulting Hypnotist
I’m sure you really want to know the key to successful long term weight loss. Not just suffering to reach a weight goal and then putting the weight back on and some more and feeling even more miserable.. but real sustainable non stressful ideal weight.
I’m sure you have had enough of the trendy diets, crazy gadgets and stupid supplements, not to mention sweating like a pig in the gym or at some boot-camp in a park or beach led by people wearing camouflage pants and yelling at you.
Firstly lets explore what doesn’t work. So you can put all of these things aside for good.
- Counting calories. Just for a moment forget everything you have heard about having to count your calories, or calorie restricting to lose weight.
So not counting calories is great news. Firstly you can’t even do it with any accuracy. Calorie guides are just guides at best. Imagine an apple, how many sizes and types with different fructose levels, an apple is usually cited as 70 calories, but could be anywhere from 50-90.
It is estimated by lab scientists that you can only guess within a margin of error of 300 calories per day.
By the way, did you know a calorie is the amount of energy required to increase a set volume of water one degree at sea level. Wow that’s easy to see how you can lose weight…Not!
The second thing about calories is that they are meaningless in many respects. If you consume 100 calories of almonds compared to 100 from Coco Cola.
The almonds are a ready to use energy source packed full of nutrients, and the coke is just a load of sugar, which will spike your blood glucose levels, leading to a big surge of insulin which pulls down the glucose and converts your Coke to fat in the liver and plants it on your hips. This is called de novo lipogenesis
So I’m sure you are beginning to see that the whole calorie story is complicated and un-necessary for weight loss.
But I’m sure someone will say what about the laws of thermodynamics, which talk about energy (calories) in and energy (calories) out. The short answer the law applies in a sealed unit like an engine, but not a human body and certainly not for losing weight.
- Next… exercise is a lousy way to lose weight. Already I hear, but…but…but…It’s really simple you cannot out exercise your mouth and a bad diet!
To be clear, there are a 100 good reasons to exercise, including improved mental health and immune health, but exercising for weight loss is a poor reason, because it doesn’t work. Personally I love to exercise, but my weight is controlled by other means.
I see gyms adverting 700 calorie loss workouts. OK that might be true but if you have worked out to lose just 70 calories, which is replaced with one café latte, you will know how hard it is.
The only person who can physically do a 700 calorie workout, is already very fit and strong and probably doesn’t need to lose weight.
The vast majority of people would just injure themselves in the attempt, and not be able to return to the gym.
The only people who will tell you that you can exercise your way to weight loss are those who sell their services. I’ve even heard a trainer tell her client that she couldn’t take fish oil capsules because they will make her fat!
- Exercise gadgets & cons
fall into the same category as exercise, but are even worse, because exercise is good for you, but these gadgets are just a scam.
These include weight loss teas, homoeopathic drops to stop your appetite.(in my student days I studied homoeopathy and no such remedies exist, caffeine infused underpants.
Yes they are for real, ab machines etc. the thing all these have in common is that when you buy them they will come with the advice to eat a 1000 calorie per day diet!
- Protein shakes and bars.
Ok now I am really going against the grain. If you think about it the only people telling you need these are gym owners, health food shops or your neighbour who has a multi level vitamin business.
The only people who would benefit would be serious body builders doing frequent heavy workouts and even then it is questionable as to the benefits.
We will get all the protein we need from moderate portions of meat, fish, eggs and dairy plus beans of various kinds, although you have to be more vigilant if beans are your major source.
Excess protein via the process of Gluconeogenesis converts protein to glucose and then to fat. Therefore your protein shakes and bars could potentially make you fat!
Or bodies are designed to convert all macro nutrients such as carbo-hydrates and excess protein to fat to store for lean times. The problem is we no longer have lean times.
Most of what you hear about needing lots of protein is just Bro-Science, that is from someone with no nutritional training or who wants to sell you something. There are so many myths around diet and exercise and most of them are false. Everything in this article is based on solid science.
The average person requires ½ a gram of protein per kilo of body mass. You will need specialised equipment to determine your lean body mass.
- Weight Loss Supplements.
In my years of training in the fields of nutritional medicine and herbal medicine, there was never one reference to any magical ability to cause weight loss.
There are herbs and nutrients which can improve your liver function and digestion. Some can improve your available energy, and a few which support blood sugar metabolism, but no weight loss miracles.
I feel sorry for hopeful customers who are drawn into the marketing hype in the pharmacies, health food shops and on line.
I’m sorry but the supplements heavily promote will not cause you to lose weight. Often they come with the advice that a low calorie diet needs to be maintained.
Just as with the gadgets, if you starve yourself you will lose weight for awhile.
At least in Australia by law the ingredients on the bottle have to be included, but in some countries such as the USA you could be getting anything. Supplement imported from India or China carry a high risk of contaminants such as heavy metals.
Supplements are a valuable addition to a healthy diet, to ensure you are getting the necessary micro-nutrients which may be missing due to over farming.
- Fad diets and crash dieting.
If you go on a crash diet then your body quickly decides it is under attack and slows down it’s metabolism to protect itself.
There are endless fad diets as there is an insatiable appetite for something new. Especially from the media and book sellers.
I know you may be desperate to lose weight but…these short cuts don’t work. And all they do is cause rebound weight gain and cause you more disappointment and stress.
Plus it causes massive confusion for people who are uncertain as to what to do.
- Having your cake and eating it too.
Marketing experts advise those offering weight loss to tell clients that you can eat what you like and still lose weight, or lose weight fast etc. I’m sorry but that’s just not true and I’m guessing you have already found that out the hard way.
We all wish that we could eat what we like and be slim, but that’s impossible because many of the foods we eat are just so bad for us, literally designed to make us into machines who crave the salty, sweet, or fatty tastes which turn us into soft versions of ourselves.
Not to mention creating diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
8.Traditional dietary advice.
Many dieticians are firmly locked into the dietary of the 1970” and 1980’s. It’s as if time stood still and we had reached the pinnacle of our understanding of human nutrition. Nothing could be further from the truth.
They are firmly locked into the old thinking of counting calories and low fat diets.
This is evident in both Australia where doctors have been tried for telling clients that they should be on a low carb diet.
In Australia an orthopaedic surgeon was found guilty of inappropriately curing type two diabetes, after putting his diabetic patients on a low carb diet in order to prevent them from having limbs amputated.
2 points. One this was insane, and two he was curing their diabetes. But he was reported to the medical authorities by dieticians and was told he had no place to be giving dietary advice.
- Low fat diets. This style of diet surfaced in the late 1960’s as a battle ensured between An American Ancel Keys who supported low fat and the English John Yudkin who supported low carb.
Yudkin was discredited, it wasn’t until the early nineties that his research was shown to be correct.
The aggressive style of Keys won out, he famously bullied all who opposed his views. Plus at the time Harvard researchers were paid $50,000 to falsify data to show a low fat diet was the best choice.
As a result the western world played part to the biggest failed experiment in history, by demonising fat and claiming sugar to be innocent, millions have suffered obesity, diabetes, cancer and death.
The real tragedy is that apart from Sweden and Chile, the main stream message in the western world is to keep to a low fat diet, despite the obvious harm and no clear evidence to support it. On the other side there are dozens of major studies showing that its refined carbo-hydrated which are doing all the harm.
Most of the giant weight loss companies are firmly locked into the low fat model.
Simply it is too hard for them to change, their whole system plus supermarket low fat products keep them propping up a failed idea. Even the biggest which is weight watchers has only a 2 year 2% success rate.
How to lose weight successfully and keep it off for the long term.
In order to succeed and thrive while achieving your ideal weight there is a hierarchy of importance.
Your Mind—Your Food—Your hormones—Your movement.
Your Mind-Winning the weight loss mental battle.
If you doubt if your mind is the key to weight loss, then consider this.
Who decides when you eat?
Who decides what you eat?
Who decided how much you eat?
Who decided whether you are active or not?
Who makes excuses for your behaviour?
Who decides to stick to a healthy diet or not?
The answer is pretty obvious, but it is not as straight forward as it seems. What complicates the actions of your mind and your decision making, is a huge industrial machine plus your conditioning.
There are billions of dollars spent each year designed to manipulate your palate and desires for food.
The colours of takeaway chains, usually, red, orange or yellow are known to trigger hunger.
The carefully placed advertising implying that somehow you will be more fun, or your life will be better, or family occasions will be enhanced if only you eat their junk food.
You have been manipulated all your life from the ice cream signs at the corner store, to the chocolates at the supermarket checkouts, to big junk food providers pretending to be good citizens by supporting charitable causes. This is just super cheap advertising.
McDonalds in hospitals, Subway held up as being healthy, when it is nothing of the sort. Coca cola being the real thing and KFC convincing us that we will communicate better over a bucket of chicken.
And these are just the tip of the iceberg, Doritos and mountain dew have become the default food of gamers and IT experts. Wow that is no way to treat your brain.
Coco pops have been promoted in adds as good for children by ex children’s TV presenters.
And I can tell you that iron man competitors never could race on Nutra Grain breakfast cereal.
Another major influence is your culture and your family traditions. It is common to celebrate all kinds of events with food, and lots of it.
Some cultures love big feasts, so you become conditioned to associate good times with food.
Celebrations with food & sad times with food. So it’s little surprise that as an adult you use food to manage your feelings.
Boredom, loneliness, sadness, anger, frustration shame etc, can all be softened with food, especially sweet or salty carbo-hydrates. The effect of carbo-hydrates converting to glucose reduces the amount of stress hormone in your system.
This lowering of cortisol makes us feel good, the effect is close to hereon or cocaine, because all of these substances affect your brain’s reward centre.
However as your glucose levels drop your stresses simply return, sometimes worse than before because now you feel bad about overeating.
Victory in the mental battle is on 3 fronts.
- Food addictions and cravings.
Sugar is a powerful drug and you need specific conscious and unconscious strategies to let go of these strong connections to food.
In this respect food is no different to cigarettes , alcohol or drugs. The best way is using the Rapid Therapeutic Change method which includes fast hypnosis and Emotional Freedom Technique.
The goal is to change your relationship with food and allow you to enjoy it in the right amounts at the right time.
- Dietary and Change resistance.
This area covers your history of past diets challenges and your beliefs about change, which may have come from your experiences or those of friends and families.
E.g. if you have spent a lot of time around people who had hearty appetites and struggled with their with, lunging from diet to diet.
- Self image.
Our perception of ourselves can be twisted by our beliefs, expectations and the opinions of others. To master this we use proven strategies to come to terms with who we are right now.
To love ourselves as we are, yet be able to work towards a new image for ourselves. This is so important, because without this acceptance of who and what we are right now, we will struggle to see a different future and take the action required to achieve it.
If you do not take control and win the mental weight loss game then you will be doomed to trying and failing at each new diet that the media and publishers thrust in your faces with the goal of increasing without caring whether or not you succeed.
Your Food
I would like to avoid the word diet, but I can’t. you see a diet is neither good nor bad, it is just a word to describe the food and drinks you consume.
However there, healthy diets unhealthy diets, easy diets, hard diets, bad diets and crazy diets.
I think of this diet as just the way I choose to eat to maintain my ideal weight, to minimise any body pain, to increase my brain function and to allow me to age as well as possible.
I don’t think of this diet as lifestyle, I want my eating to be a side issue, not something that dictates my life and everything I do revolves around it.
The eating plan.
The plan can be stated simply, but needs some calcification to understand it.
I want to point out here that this diet is not my creation but that which is agreed on my a multitude of forward thinking, open minded researchers and clinicians world wide who have taken the time to read the proper studies.
No sugar, no grains, no processed seed oils and no junk fats and no processed. Plus no potato only a small amount of fruit.
What is left is most vegetables, some fruits, nuts, meats, fish, dairy, and eggs, beans, and treats like dark chocolate, plus healthy fats..
Please note at this stage if you are a vegetarian or vegan then there will be some obvious exclusions.
The main thing you understand is what a sugar is. A sugar is a carbo-hydrate, and all carbo-hydrates rapidly convert to glucose in your blood stream.
Sugar & Grains and white potatoes are all the same!
All forms of sugar, including all grains, bread, pastries, cakes, biscuits, donuts, milk chocolate, sweets, ice cream, soft drink and any other sweet treats all rapidly become glucose.
A pasta meal can become glucose faster than pure sugar, because sugar is 50% fructose, which is processed slower in your liver.
A sweet dish, or drink will cause a glucose spike. This means that your glucose raises rapidly and under the influence of insulin is quickly reduced and used as energy or stored as fat.
A meal of pasta or lots of bread or potato in any form pushes your glucose levels up and causes an increased load which takes longer to bring down, but again is stored as fat.
Grains include wheat, rye, rice, and don’t forget the so called superfood of Quinoa. The least reactive is white rice and buckwheat.
One goal of this diet is to restrict glucose which reduces insulin, minimises fat accumulation, lowers inflammation and helps you maintain a more stable energy.
The current scientific understanding is that to promote anti-aging then our goal is to minimise insulin.
The other major benefit is that you can control , prevent, or eliminate type diabetes altogether, because it is a s disease of the diet, and can be prevented with diet. It is ridiculous to be prescribed diabetic medication while consuming high levels of carbo-hydrate.
The government health bodies will freely tell us not to consume too much sugar in drinks or food, but still promote grains as healthy. The end result in your blood is exactly the same.
Governments will be slow to change because taking on the grain and sugar industry is a fight they don’t want to get into to.
Plus it means they have to admit they were wrong all these years which leaves them open for litigation
Of course vegetables are carbo-hydrates, but they are densely packed with nutrients and fibre, so we can eat as much as we want.
The best are. All green leafy vegetables, and cruciferous types such as cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage.
Plus mushrooms, asparagus and sweet potato.
A second group is tomato, eggplant and capsicum, which all contain lectins which can aggravate arthritis in about 25% of sufferers.
Fruit.
All your life you have been told that fruit is good for you. The fact is that some fruit each day is OK.
Historically humans would eat plenty of fruit in the short available season. The fruit would cause significant weight gain, which would carry them across the cold winter months or super hot dry summers. The bottom line is that fruit makes you fat.
When you consume fruit the fructose (fruit sugar) is broken down in the liver and is transformed to fat just as other sugars are. In addition fructose creates leptin resistance.
Leptin is the hormone which tells you when you have had enough to eat.
The best fruits are the least sweet, such as berries and apples. Having some daily as a whole fruit or in a smoothie with some greens is OK.
Binging in mango season is a problem, tucking into a bag of grapes is no better. and the very worse is fruit juice, which is a huge load of fruit sugar.
Green fruit as papaya and mango as used in Vietnamese salads is fine.
Good and bad oils.
Vegetable (seed) oils are highly processed foods which are destructive to the lining of your arteries.
In addition they are consumed on average about 5 times as much as we require creating imbalance in the walls of your cells and especially in your brain cells.
Experts in this field admit that consuming these oils in the amounts we do is worse than smoking!
The oils are used for cooking, either at home or in all deep fried foods, plus commercial cakes, biscuits, pastries and muffins as well as pizza bases.
The effect of the oils are worse when super heated such as in commercial cooking and even in your frying pan.
Safe oils include olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil and macadamia oil. Plus butter and ghee are best for cooking. Fish oil is perfect but usually consumed within the fish or as a supplement. Avocado’s and nuts such as walnut, almond and macadamia are perfect fats in moderate amounts.
Olive oil is best used in low heat cooking or in salad or vegetable dressing, in fact it is so good for us that consuming it straight is worthwhile, just add a little salt and pepper and it tastes pretty good.
Butter is a short chain fatty acid, which means it is a small molecule which is easily available as an energy source.
Coconut is a medium chain and is also an excellent available energy source.
Fish oil and olive oil are long chain which get locked up in your fat cells but are used in maintaining your cellular health.
The vegetable oils, mostly just make you fat and sick
Fat and weight loss.
The dieticians cry for decades has been to eat a low fat diet. They were wrong, but it doesn’t mean that you can eat as much good fat as you want.
The absolute worse combination is high carb and high fat. i.e most junk food. You will draw your energy from the carbs and convert the excess as fat, plus you will deposit the fat.
The perfect is a low carb diet focussing on vegetables and a little fruit plus fat in the form of olive oil, avocado’s, nuts, butter, eggs and moderate amount of animal fats.
Remember if all the energy you need can be gained from X amount of health fat, then 2X or more will cause the excess to be retained as fat.
The good news is that using fat as an energy source requires only small amounts of fat per day, plus you will never be hungry.
Hunger is caused by having a high carb diet be converted to glucose and then converted to fat via insulin leaving you feeling empty in spite of plenty of energy in your system.
The least amount of insulin you need to create, means less hunger, less weight gain, less inflammation, less pain, and a better functioning Brain.
Beans.
Kidney, chick peas, broad beans, black, pinto beans, etc. These are a reasonable protein, although large serves are required, and they can be a problem for anyone who reacts to the protein(lectins)
Legumes.
Peas, beans and lentils. Lentils are 50% and a good source of nutrition.
I know it sounds counter intuitive but eating good fat and a small amount of cars plus moderate protein is the recipe for losing weight. And I have seen it work with every client I have advised to eat this way.
The trick is being able to stick to this eating plan.
- Decide what is most important to you.
- Have a pantry and fridge without junk food and treats
- Use the mental strategies mentioned above.
If you have a packet of biscuits in the pantry, and it contains 20 biscuits, then you have at least 20 decisions to make, and it will be hard. If you don’t buy them you have only one decision to make and that is easy.
Your Hormones.
A simple way to view weight loss, is as a hormonal issue.
Insulin. Monitors your blood glucose and converts carbs to fat, therefore the less insulin the better, which means low carb.
Leptin is the hormone which tells you when to stop eating. But leptin is affected by excess fructose, so go easy on the fruit. Some people take leptin as a supplement because it is marketed as appetite suppressant, but it doesn’t work.
Ghrelin is the hormone which creates a feeling of hunger. High carb diets cause excess Ghrelin, therefore low carb is best.
Cortisol is a major stress hormone, when you are chronically stressed cortisol displaces DHEAs and Testosterone. Some people stop eating when stressed, but most people eat more to comfort themselves, as part of their conditioning. Stress management as a part of managing your mind is critical to help you lose weight.
Thyroid. An under active thyroid will cause weight gain, you need to be medically accessed and treated with the correct hormones as prescribed by a doctor who is conversant with full testing and prescribing bio-identical hormones.
Cholesterol. You may not think of this a hormone, but the process is in this order.
Cholesterol makes pregnenolone, which makes DHEAS, Testosterone and Oestrogen.
Cholesterol along with Omega fats from fish are the main ingredients which keep the membranes of your cells healthy.
Cholesterol is so important that if you don’t have enough then your body will make it.
There is a whole industry dedicated to keeping cholesterol at bay, curiously lower cholesterol causes more overall deaths than high cholesterol. The studies are clear, that it’s not the big bad player it is made out to be, and as usual the truth is complicated.
Sleep. Obviously sleep is not a hormone, but good sleep ensures good hormone health. Typically poor sleep equals weight gain. Dark cool bedroom, no screens for 2 hours before bed and a routine for bedtime and getting up are important plus hypnosis to get over any problems.
PS alcohol causes poor sleep.
If all or some of these hormones are out of balance then you will struggle to lose weight.
Your movement.
Earlier I stated that exercise doesn’t cause weight loss, getting sweaty is not burning calories it’s just because you are hot.
But regular movement is vital for health and well being, so move it!
The number one very best exercise for you is…the one that you will do! Most people start programs which are doomed to fail because they don’t really enjoy them.
It doesn’t have to be gym full of sweaty people in skimpy clothes, it could be dancing, waking, hiking, tennis, table tennis, it really doesn’t matter as long as you will enjoy it, you will find time for it.
You can cycle for fun it doesn’t have to be in a power group with matching lycra, unless you like it.
Find someone to exercise with, this helps with commitment. Just don’t have a muffin with your coffee afterwards, because you cannot out exercise your mouth.
Plus find ways in your day to move. Walking further to work, taking the stairs, or getting a dog to force the issue.
Try to find one or more activities that work your upper body, lower body and requires some core strength.
If you want to build strong cardio-vascular health then the good news is you don’t have to go crazy. The best way is zone 2 exercise.
180-your age. e.g if your 40 years old then your zone 2 activity is 180-40 = 140 max heart rate. If you are quite fit add 5 =145
If you are very unfit -5= 135
It takes a few months to get the full benefits of zone 2, but it is the most efficient way to burn fat and get super.
It seems too slow at times but in the long run you will be fitter. Over time you get fitter and can go faster at the same heart rate. This process is gentle on your cardiovascular system and your joints.
Conclusion.
If we discuss maths or physics then it is easy to speak in absolute certainties. But in the science of nutritional bio-chemistry, there are many grey areas. Plus it is an area of science where, big business, and politics often gets in the way of sound information.
When you start this program in part you are an experiment of just one, because no one else on the planet is exactly like you in every respect.
Movement, and sleep are universally important.
Everyone needs there hormones to be balanced, but your levels are unique to you.
The diet is designed as the best possible starting framework, but it may need adjust if you have an auto-immune condition, have chronic pain and inflammation, get stuck in your weight loss or if you are a vegetarian or a vegan.
I lay no claim to best practice vegan eating, so hopefully if this is your choice you will have deeply explored the options to ensure you are covered nutritionally.
You don’t have to eat things you don’t like, and certainly don’t eat things which you react to.
But do try new things like vegetables you hated as a child, just discover new ways to prepare them, and yes they can all be made tasty.
Don’t forget your greatest allay or enemy in weight loss is your mind and it is in this department that I would advise you place the most focus, win the mental battle and all the rest is easy.
Here is a list of just a few names of leading researchers and clinicians in the field of longevity, weight loss, brain health and weight loss, who all make very similar recommendations to those in my program.
You can search for them online, and you can see some eye opening presentations on you-tube.
Ivor Cummings…Cholesterol conundrum.
Dr Daniel Amen…Brain and emotional health
Gary Taubes…Why we get fat.
Nina Tersholz…The big fat lie.
Vinnie Tortorich…No Sugar No Grains.
Dr Perlmutter…The grain Brain & Brain Maker
Dr William Davis…Wheat Belly
Dr Gary Fettke…The Origins Of dietary Guidelines.
Ivor Cummings & Dr J Gerber…Eat rich live long
Dr Jason Fung…The diabetes code
Dr David Ludwig…Always Hungry
Dr S Gundry…The plant paradox
Marika Sboros…The lore of nutrition
Geffery Gerber…Insulin resistance.
These are just a few of many, but if you watch or read their work you will quickly see that you have been sold a big fat lie, and it is now time for you to take your health in your hands.
Do not wait for the powers that be to make the changes for you, they have their hands tied behind their back with industry and political lobbying in addition to their own blind adherence to the past ways.
No other branch of science has stood still since the 1980’s like nutrition, just imagine we were still using the same technology as we did then.
My role in all of this is to guide you to a better way of eating and living, by proving the latest dietary information and importantly to help you to win the mental battle to allow you to lose weight and live as long a life as possible in the best possible health.
Your in health & happiness
Ian Newton
To get started just call me on 1300 203 422, I see clients in person on the Sunshine Coast or via Skype from anywhere in Australia or around the world.
For more information go to http://roadmaptovibranthealth.com