Let’s get the facts straight here, not only is fruit no good for fat loss (I won’t bore you with the details as I have already written extensively on fruit and fat loss), nor is it “essential” for health and longevity, especially in already overweight individuals who need to do everything they can to improve blood lipid profiles, lower blood pressure etc.  The foods, or to be more precise macronutrients, that are truly essential are protein (remember the derivation of protein comes from the Greek word “of primary importance”) and ‘essential’ fats.  Forget about having a six pack or looking toned and lean, without either of these macronutrients we will die a very premature death.  No one ever died from not eating fruit so long as the rest of the diet was rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, all of which can be derived from eating a wide variety of vegetables. Now before Mr Del Monte and Mr Jaffa put a hit out on me I will qualify much of what I have just written here by stating that I am by no means anti-fruit and that one or two pieces of fruit a day are definitely good for us.  If someone is happy with their body fat levels then by all means eat some fruit on a daily basis, in moderation.  Take note of the “in moderation” please – far, far too often I see food diaries that have fruit as half of the days calorie intake with the poor misguided (19 times out 20 female) client all confused as to why she can’t lose any fat, has blood sugar fluctuations, and mood swings.

Now that I have thoroughly depressed those fruit lovers amongst you, I will slightly switch tack to the main topic of today’s discussion.  The perils of fructose, better known as fruit sugar, and high fructose corn syrup in particular.  The latter is basically a cheap way to add sweetness, and I believe “body”, although I wait to be corrected on this point, to an alarming variety of foods.  We are not just talking about your regular processed fare here, but also breads, supposedly healthy baby foods…the list seems to be pretty endless.  A recent study, the full details of which are below, was brought to my attention by Canadian personal trainer Mike Demeter, a man who is both a continuous font of relevant and interesting knowledge and who clearly gives of his time to help the wider fitness community in a manner that speak volumes for a generous and positive character.  You can find Mike at www.MikeDemeter.com (I haven’t added this as a hyperlink as his site appears to be buggy today so just copy and paste the rul into your browser if you want to see more about Mike).

The take home lesson of all that is below is that you should monitor your fructose intake generally, and if you are ill or in a high risk group for certain cancers then fructose in definite moderation and a total avoidance of all high fructose corn syrups!

Cancer cells feed on fructose, study finds Research shows the refined sugar helps cancer cells proliferate

WASHINGTON — Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

“These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation,” Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

“They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth.”

Americans take in large amounts of fructose, mainly in high fructose corn syrup, a mix of fructose and glucose that is used in soft drinks, bread and a range of other foods.

Politicians, regulators, health experts and the industry have debated whether high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients have been helping make Americans fatter and less healthy.

Too much sugar of any kind not only adds pounds, but is also a key culprit in diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

Several states, including New York and California, have weighed a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods have strongly, and successfully, opposed efforts to tax soda.

The industry has also argued that sugar is sugar.

Heaney said his team found otherwise. They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose.

Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate. “Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different,” Heaney’s team wrote.

“I think this paper has a lot of public health implications. Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets,” Heaney said in a statement.

Now the team hopes to develop a drug that might stop tumor cells from making use of fructose.

COACH MIKE NOTE: “Or simply avoid eating a high fructose diet . .sheeesh . .a drug to block fructose . .what next . .morons”

U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, researchers reported in 2004 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Related posts:

1. Blueberries to Beat Belly Fat
2. Soy by Charles Poliquin
3. Twenty Foods to Increase Longevity

The “rules” of Ramadan as I understand them, and if I have got anything wrong please will someone correct me, are that for a calendar month (the ninth in the Islamic calendar, the dates of which vary and are governed by a visible crescent in the astronomical new moon) a total fast (no food, no drink, no sex) must be adhered to from sunrise until sunset.  For anyone seeking to improve their health, fitness and physical appearance this is something of a metabolic disaster and as much damage limitation as possible needs to be put into action – nutrition during Ramadan being typically a low blood sugar induced gorgefest.  This is especially true as Ramadan seems to occur most often in the summer months when daylight is close to it’s peak.  In many Islamic countries I believe that daytime life moves at a slower pace during Ramadan (in Dubai for example) and then picks up at night when people are eating, being sociable and generally feel more energetic as they have some food and drink inside their stomachs.  This isn’t something that happens in the West however, and the thought of trying to maintain a functioning, healthy daytime lifestyle in London, during the month of August, without even water to subsist on must be a true test of religious observance that I for one can only marvel at.

The best photo I could find for exercising during Ramadan...(if I find better I'll replace!)

My own rules for maintaining fitness, muscle tone, and minimizing a metabolic shutdown over Ramadan are as follows-

Nutrition, Supplementation & Exercise Rules For Ramadan:
1)    Don’t use Ramadan as an excuse to not exercise.  It is crucially important that you do some gym work over Ramadan as without it, and in the absence of a regular eating pattern, your metabolism will go on strike quicker than a British Airways cabin crew.
2)    The best time to hit the gym during Ramadan is either early in the morning (after your first meal of the day) or after sunset  (after your first meal post fasting).
3)    Ensure that both your Ramadan “breakfasts” (by breakfast I literally mean the two meals following a fast, one following sleep or opening the fast, the other following the day’s fasting) contain easily digested protein and, depending upon body composition goals, some complex carbs and essential fats.  If you are due to follow one of these meals with a hard workout something like a whey shake with essential fats, an apple and a handful of nuts would be great.  I personally would wolf down 6 eggs, some coffee, and then go bang the weights – but not everyone could digest that and then train hard.
4)    Unless you are feeling on top of the world I wouldn’t go seeking new personal bests in the gym during Ramadan.  My advice would be to switch up your routine from the norm, so that you don’t feel down in any way about a noticeable decrease in physical performance, and try to make the workouts as fun and varied as possible.
5)    Workout duration during Ramadan should be kept very tight.  Get in and out of the gym in under one hour and preferably aim for 45 minutes of hard work.  If you normally take much longer don’t worry, you can still get an awful lot done in 45 minutes and for those of you who are looking to gain muscle Ramadan is more about anti-atrophy workouts than super mega blasting hypertrophy!
6)    During the time that you are allowed to drink you should be thinking “hydration, hydration, hydration!”.  In past periods of Ramadan I have seen hardcore Muslim bodybuilders at Muscleworks Gym in Bethnal Green almost pass out as they tried to push themselves without drinking water.  A good goal for a 200lb man should be to try to down 3litres of water between sunset and sunrise.
7)    Some people get into a little panic before Ramadan thinking that they will lose all their hard earned gains as it is impossible to benefit from good nutrition, supplementation and exercise during Ramadan.  This isn’t so, and with a bit of organization and thought there is no reason to take a big step backwards.  4-5 meals over a 24 hour period are very possible, and this alone should be enough for maintenance, and maybe for the very lucky ones, even some small improvements.  For example (and I may be slightly off in daylight times here so please forgive me), one could eat a large pre Ramadan fast meal at 5.45am, then break the Ramadan fast at 7.30pm, eat again at 9.30pm, and finally have a supper at 11.30pm.   It isn’t ideal, but it does show you that your physique doesn’t have to come crashing down.  If minimising fat accumulation (or fat loss for the super ambitious) is your goal the  mainstay of my macronutrients would be from protein and “good fats” (think unprocessed, natural fats and you won’t go far wrong).
8)    There are also a few supplements that would definitely help ease the metabolic challenges of Ramadan.  My top ten Ramadan supplement picks would be:
Acetyl L Carnitine (3gms upon awakening)
Essential Amino Acids (snack on these as much as possible during the hours of darkness)
Greens Powder (add several tablespoons to a large bottle of water and sip constantly)
Casein Protein Powder (for supper)
Whey Protein Powder
Multi Vit / Mineral
Magnesium (at night to aid sleep)
Omega 3s
A good digestive enzyme complex
Phosphatidylserine (at night before sleep to reduce any extra cortisol production caused by daytime fasting / and to aid sleep)

In summary, the discipline of Ramadan need not prevent proper nutrition, supplementation and exercise.  Yes, it will be challenging and require both discipline and moderation, but that is obviously what part of the whole process is about.

Related posts:

1. Tips to lose fat and get lean(10): Educate yourself about nutrition
2. Eating before bedtime for fat loss and muscle building
3. Swine Flu and your Immune System: 5 Tips to Stay Healthy

If you really want to learn about soy products then I suggest you buy “The Whole Soy Story” By Kaayla Daniel (New Trends Publishing).  It’s pretty depressing reading, but nevertheless highly informative and enlightening.
A more light hearted look at soy can be found below.  I have taken the liberty to copy and past a recent Charles Poliquin blog, and would recommend all of you who are on Facebook to join his group (as well as our our London Personal Trainers one!) in order to keep up to date with the latest findings in our constantly evolving world of health, fitness, fat loss, and BioSignature Modulation.

From Charles Poliquin:

HCFC: I am not very clear on quantities, how much should meat and nuts should I eat?
Charles Poliquin: For a start, a side of beef plus 3 kilos of pistachios.
HCFC: Really?

Charles Poliquin: Just kidding. For the meat, there is a formula developed by a Japanese fan of mine, Kamenashi. It goes like this:  You take your bodyweight in kilos, you divide by atomic mass of the most common earth element of your place of birth, you multiply by the numeric value of your date of birth, condensed by using standard numerology, you divide by the square root of the age in days of when your first molar tooth appeared.  Just kidding again; write this down: Any nutritionist that gives you an exact number in grams for a food is either a closet food Nazi or a twirp, or a combination of both.
Listen, you have to retrain yourself to make the distinction between your mouth and a vacuum. I never give quantities in food programs. Just go by appetite.
HCFC: But my previous nutritionist told me it is crucial to count calories…

Charles Poliquin: Did the advice work?
HCFC: No, not really…that is why I am here…I guess

Charles Poliquin: Was she fat?
HCFC: Yes…very fat!
Charles Poliquin: Where her hips much wider than her shoulders?
HCFC: INDEED!

If your nutritionist looks anything like this, you know what you need to do...

Charles Poliquin: Classic case of you are what you eat, she goes by the food pyramid, she is shaped like one!
HCFC: You are ruthless!
Charles Poliquin: Actually, just observant!

HCFC: What should I drink at breakfast?
Charles Poliquin: Any type of organic coffee or tea, and/or water.
HCFC: Can I drink soy milk?

HCFC: Soy milk is healthy for you!

Charles Poliquin: Get off your granola fed high horse. Check the ingredient list on your soy milk and you can be sure you will find a lot of sugar. It will have all sort of names ranging from evaporated, cane sugar, barley malt, rice sugar, fructose, corn syrup.

No matter the manufacturers call it, it is sugar. The most likely reason that you feel “energetic” after drinking your soy milk is that you are getting an sugar buzz.
The second reason being that the soy estrogens are stimulating your thyroid. For most individuals, this induces a mildly hyperactive thyroid with very short-term energy gain. The down side is that over the long run your thyroid crashes, sinking into hypothyroidism. That translates into poor energy levels, brain fog, loss of brain function etc.. Put it this way, the short term benefits are not worth the long term negative effects.

HCFC: But is says on the bottle that it is organic.
Charles Poliquin: So is elk manure.  Listen up. All it means is that it will less pesticide residues that genetically modified soy. Whether it is organic and harvested by Tibetan monks, or grown GMO, all modern soy products are jam packed with anti-nutrients such as phytates, and toxins which are now linked to host of ailments ranging from brain shrinkage to thyroid dysfunction. In men, it lowers testosterone and sperm count to a point where they are 317% more likely to go shopping than to have sex.

HCFC: You are kidding again aren’t you.
Charles Poliquin: No, 76% of statistics are made up on the spot.  Yes, I am kidding about the shopping thing, but not for the ailments brought on by soy. Regarding sperm count, Dr. Chavarro and colleagues studied 100 men who were members of couples having trouble getting pregnant. Semen analyses showed that the men with the highest levels of soy food intake­­ approximately a half serving per day – had 41 million sperm per milliliter fewer than men who did not consume any soy. The researchers used a questionnaire listing 15 soy­based foods to determine soy consumption over the preceding three months.

HCFC: What about soy protein bars?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy protein?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy burgers?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy chips?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy lollypops?
Chalres Poliquin: Enough. If you were a male, I would have already roundhouse kicked you to the temple with steel toe capped construction boots.

Go read this article: http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=35
And will see you tomorrow.

HCFC: I’m soy sorry

Related posts:

1. Blood Protein & Colostrum
2. The Best Supplements for Insulin & Carbohydrate Control
3. Exercise may help Alzheimer’s

The Benefits of Eating Grass-Fed / Wild Meat:

1) Grass-Fed meat have far higher levels of omega-3 fats (the GOOD fats we all need not just for health but also to actually encourage lipolysis – that’s fat burning in plain English) as opposed to the less than optimal omega-6 fats more commonly found in grain-fed animals.

2) Grass-fed meat, and of course my own personal favourite of wild meat (impala, ostrich, springbok, and dare I write cuddly kangaroo?!) are not pumped full of steroids and growth hormones in order to beef up (pardon the cheap pun) profits.

3) Grass-fed animals would only very rarely, if ever, be fed antibiotics.  Would you credit that antibiotics are given to grain fed cattle, because of the digestive problems brought on by the consumption of corn and soy, rather than their normal food of grass and clover.  Think abou this for a second – cows have a third stomach (the rumen) that is designed specifically to digest grass, and yet this is bypassed in modern farming in order to get heavier cows and more meat to the consumer in the supermarket.

4) Contains healthy omega-3 fats.  Studies clearly show animals reared on grass have higher levels of omega-3 and a lower amount of omega-6.  Most people consume way too much Omega-6 causing inflammation and inflammation-related illnesses.

5) Grass-fed meat is far leaner than corn fed meat.  Just go ahead and cook some grass-fed bison and redular British beef and see and taste the difference.  If nothing else will convert you it is this.

6) Because Charles Poliquin says so!  OK, I write this tongue firmly implanted in my cheek – Charles is my single best source of knowledge when it comes to optimising human performance but nor do I agree with every pronouncement that emanates from his lips so Poliquin groupies beware.  I don’t even mind cardio in what I perceive as the right circumstances!  However, when it comes to wild meat and its benefits I have to give credit where credit is due and praise Poliquin as being the first person to really espouse its qualities to me.  I returned from my first ever BioSignature Modulation course in Phoenix, Arizona in 2007 and promptly bought a tonne of venison, and blow me down if I couldn’t “feel” the difference right away!  It took me a little too long to get my act together and organise the constant flow of wild meat that I now enjoy today, and I wish I’d pushed a bit harder and done this earlier.

7) Referring to my last point – when I eat wild meat I genuinely feel more energised and ready to attack the world with everything I have got!  We all remember the stories of red-blooded Vikings chewing one hunks of game before raiding the vulnerable shores of Anglo Saxon England, and I can sort of see why now…Wild meat help to raise dopamine and acetylcholine levels, and these are the two key neurotransmitters responsible for mental drive and focus.  A fantastic breakfast (and one that I wrote about in an old blog bost on buffalo meat) is buffalo and brazil nutes.  Whenever I have this, alongside my regular green tea and assorted mountain of nutritional supplements, I always feel fantastic and am perfectly set for a busy and hyper productive day.

Would Lentils and Brown Rice Have Fuelled Such Fury?!

Where To Buy Wild Meat / Grass-Fed Meat

Over the last few years it appears that options for buying grass-fed meat have massively increased as the public becomes ever more aware of just how much better a nutritional option it is over your standard grain-fed supermarket fare.  I have tried a few online suppliers, but the best of the bunch for myself is www.Osgrow.com.  They have a very wide selection, are reasonably priced, and deliver vacuum sealed frozen meat from as far afield as Africa and America right to your doorstep.  I buy about 100 (smallish) steaks at a time from about half a dozen different animals and this keeps me happy for about 10 weeks.  When I grow bored with my current skinny physique, get the bodybuilding bug again and decide to add some muscle to my frame then I’ll most likely double my supply.  Yes, wild meat really is THAT good.

Please note that if any of you have had any interesting experiences with wild meat please do share in the comments section below.

Related posts:

1. The dangers of arachadonic acid and benefits of Omega 3s
3. Another vital reason to supplement with Omega 3s

Sleep is a vastly undervalued health (and fat loss / muscle building) essential, and I know from personal experience that sticking to a healthy diet is incredibly challenging when my sleeping patterns are disrupted.  The craving for “bad foods” (sugars, processed foods) rises exponentially with how little sleep I may have had.  So if you are looking to optimise your body and your well being, follow Kat’s advice here and aim to transform your health through better sleep.

11 Simple Ways To Transform Your Health Through Better Sleep
By Kat Eden of BodyIncredible.com

There’s nothing better than that feeling of waking up completely and utterly refreshed, is there? You know what I’m talking about. Those days when you wake up feeling so good that you almost explode out of bed, bursting full of excitement for the day ahead.

Of course it’s a shame that this last happened was on summer break in your college days, but hey – that’s the way it goes, isn’t it? These days sleep is mainly a ‘must-do’ in your busy schedule, and if you could find some way of eliminating it altogether that’d be just perfect. Of course you do love sleeping, but it’s just so darn time-consuming. And really – is it that important that you should have to prioritise it above everything else in your life? Surely not, not when you function extremely well on just 5 or 6 hours. So well, in fact, that you’re actually quite proud of it.

Short answer? Yes. Yes, it is absolutely so important that you should prioritise it above everything else, and here’s a few reasons why.

* A lack of sleep is now known to be one of the Western world’s foremost reasons for increasing obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
* It’s physiologically impossible for you to ‘get away with’ a lack of sleep. The truth is that what you in fact have is a very massive and very demanding sleep debt. And the interest is mounting.

Isn’t it funny how you can start to make just a little more time for something when you truly believe and understand how important it is?

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some more detailed reasons for a good night’s sleep. I guarantee you’ll soon realize that great sleep can not only transform your weight and your health, it just might save your life.

Sleep - pick the right time and place!

1. Studies have shown (http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/09/20/sleep.deprivation/) that staying up all night long (being awake for 17 or more hours) can leave you with a reaction response comparable to that of an intoxicated person with a blood alcohol reading of greater than 0.5. This makes you a definite danger to yourself and to others. Of course this lack of physical and mental control does not simply ‘happen’ at minus 8 hours. For every hour you stay awake you decrease your ability to focus and perform throughout the coming days.

2. Insufficient sleep results in an incomplete hormonal cycle (http://www.lighttherapy.com.au/circadian_rhythms.php). This means your body cannot produce daytime hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline when it needs them first thing. As a result, you depend on stimulants to keep you going, and set yourself up for another poor night’s sleep. You can’t escape the always tired but always wired cycle you’ve set up for yourself.

3. A classic symptom of this ‘tired but wired’ cycle is not feeling hungry in the morning, or feeling nauseous when you do eat breakfast. Never imagine that this is a convenient way to save on time and calories – the food that you eat first thing stimulates your metabolism and aids in detoxification. (http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=270) Without a good breaky to line your belly you set yourself up for low energy and poor eating patterns the rest of the day.

4. A poor sleep cycle causes your body to create patterns that will enable you to handle the ongoing sleep of your go-go-go lifestyle. One of these patterns is an excessive release of stress hormones (http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2068517) such as cortisol – particularly in the evening. Stress hormones allow you to keep going, but they’re also the ones that keep you up at night, and what’s more -  they signal your body to store fat. And that’s regardless of how you’re eating or exercising.

5. Physical patterns such as the release of stress hormones are just one part of the equation. The other thing you need to consider is the compensation patterns that you yourself end up creating. An extra coffee here, a few pieces of candy there. The decision to have that mid-afternoon muffin after all. When you’re tired your defences are down and it’s easy to think that these little things don’t count. But they could be the one thing stopping you from losing weight and improving your health.
6. Speaking of sugar, those mid-afternoon cravings are not just in your head. When you don’t have enough sleep your brain continually sends out urgent messages for quick energy. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041206204702.htm) This is a survival instinct – it’s all about keeping you as alert and focused as possible. Willpower alone can’t override these cravings. Not when you’re fighting your own physiology. This just makes it all the harder to stick to your healthy eating goals, and the sugar slump doesn’t do you any favors either. The really scary part is that these daily indulgences can mean the hormone insulin is constantly elevated and you’re setting yourself up for possible diabetes.

7. In fact, it’s not just the mid-afternoon cravings that’ll get you when you’re tired. The truth is that you’ll find yourself eating far more on a daily basis, and that you’ll tend to do it all day long. Breakfast aside, no doubt. You’ll also tend to make poorer choices – more processed foods, more sugary sodas, more starchy carbohydrates or fried foods. And it’s pretty tough to escape this cycle when your eyes are stinging and your motivation is at an all-time low. Leading sleep researchers T.S. Wiley and Bent Formby, Ph.D, in their book ‘Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, And Survival’ show a close connection between a lack of sleep and the increasing existance of obesity in our society.

8. One of the most unfair symptoms of a sleep debt is that inability to wind down come evening time. Of course it shouldn’t really be much of a surprise – not when you’ve spent the better part of t he day jacked up on caffeine and sugar. And even if you haven’t, your nervous system is in overdrive (http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm) which keeps you buzzing all night long but leaves you groggy and useless in the morning. There’s only one way out of this mess, and it’s not more coffee.

9. Back ache, neck ache, tummy ache, headache … when you’re tired it sometimes just seems as though everything hurts. I’ve heard it said that physical repair takes place while you’re sleeping, and it happens in the first half of the night – around 10pm-2am. If you skip those vital first few hours and hit the sack post-midnight with the alarm set for 6 or 7am, your body simply cannot rejuvenate your muscle cells, or indeed any of your cells. This leaves you physically weaker and with constant ailments.

10. Of course you could try going to bed on time and getting up super-early if you still can’t afford yourself a full 8 hours, but the other half of the afore-mentioned concept is that psychological repair takes place approximately between 2am and 6am, and is directly linked to your mental focus, your moods, and your ability to maintain a positive mindset. Imagine the effects of a lack of sleep over time – small wonder so many people find themselves heading down the dark road of depression or anxiety.

11. It’s pretty hard to climb off the wheel of life when you barely have the energy to get through the day. Missing out on sleep could be costing you a lot more than you realize if it means you’re stuck in the rut of your day to day life and simply can’t even begin to contemplate what it would take to make some changes. Whether it’s testing the waters for a new career or a promotion, ending or beginning a relationship, or even just trying out that hobby you’ve been shelving for so long, chances are it’s not going to happen when you’re frazzled and burnt out.

Final Thoughts On How To Transform Your Health Through Better Sleep

Missing even half an hour of sleep every night adds up to an impressive sleep debt of 182.5 hours per year. There’s no short-cut to paying of this debt, nor can you outrun it’s constant and grueling effects on your health. Next time you tell yourself that you can get by, stop and consider just how big your sleep debt is right now. And consider that the nights are dark for a reason, that your body sends you physical and emotional responses to tiredness for a reason. Maybe it’s time to listen to those message and see just what you’re missing out on.

The good news is that increasing your sleep by as little as half an hour, or even 15 minutes, every night can immediately and drastically improve the way you feel and function. For most of us it’s not possible to drop everything and implement drastic change, but the benefits of sleep don’t have to be a case of ‘all or nothing’. Why not treat yourself to an extra half hour shut eye tonight and start to soak up the health rewards right away?

Kat Eden is a Personal Trainer and BioSignature Practitioner in Melbourne, Australia. Visit her blog www.bodyincredible.com for the latest in nutrition, the science of hormones and body fat, and motivational tips to drive you to your goals faster. You can also download a free sample chapter of Kat’s new book, ‘Secrets of Lasting Weight Loss Revealed’

Related posts:

1. GABA – GH precursor or just a sleep aid?
2. 101 Tips to lose fat and get lean (3): sleep properly
3. Lemon Water for health

Women’s Fitness ran a recent feature article with an in depth interview with myself on how BioSignature Modulation works. They have pretty much got everything spot on and I highly recommend you have a quick read. Just ignore the bit where I am quoted as saying that an acceptable body fat % for females is up to 30%. This was politically correct journalistic license at it’s very best. There is only one way to describe someone with 30% body fat, and it starts with “corp” and ends in “ulent”. If you think you are approaching that and are struggling with how to defeat the problem then as good a place as any to start is to google “BioSignature Modulation” to find someone close to you. And if you want any advice on who may be good locally then just drop me a line and I’ll be only too glad to help. There are some truly marvelous BioSignature specialists out there, but sometimes we all need a bit of steering to sort the wheat from the chaff. I hope that you enjoy the article below -

Bio Signature Womens Fitness

Related posts:

1. Biosignature Modulation- What Your Body Fat Says About You
2. Male Boobs, Estrogen & BioSignature Modulation
3. Lose the Love Handles! Insulin Management and BioSignature Modulation

Rather than bang on about how great we are as personal trainers and how we achieve consistently outperform the industry norms by a huge margin, today I’ll let the results do the talking, after all results are the only thing that really counts. Take a look at the photos below of what Ultimate Performance’s top London personal trainer Rich Phillipps did with just 7 weeks of advisory work using BioSignature Modulation and a few twists and tricks that are unique to our own fat loss methodologies. Eight inches oof the waist and a 12% drop in body fat in just eight short weeks are nothing short of spectacular!

How Much Will Your Body Change In Eight Weeks Time?

Related posts:

1. Fast Female Fat Loss!
2. Biosignature Modulation- What Your Body Fat Says About You
3. 101 Tips to lose fat and get lean: Be accountable for your fat loss

Well aside from the fact that the new Poliquin gym is packed full of brilliant Atlantis gear (we have about 7 pieces at out London Liverpool St gym but this gives me more ideas for the next London personal training gym on my horizon!) and that I have already got to try out some great new Poliquin supplements that were like rocket fuel for yesterday’s two workouts (yep, 2 workouts plus jet lag and I sailed by – not something I can normally do at all), this trip has, despite it’s brevity, reaffirmed my love of all things to do with wild meat! As I sit at my desk writing this I am tucking into my second breakfast (first is always a protein shake upon awakening) of buffalo meat. I had the exact same thing yesterday morning and I swear it gave me a boost all day long.

The stats for buffalo meat are impressive – I am currently munching on 2 five ounce (142gms) steaks that give me a whopping 64gms of protein, no carbs of course, and only 10gms of fat. Yet the macronutrient numbers are only half the story. Because this is wild, grass fed Canadian buffalo the fat content is very high in health promoting omega 3s, and there are no hormones or antibiotics in the meat as is sadly the standard with our one British supermarket red meat. And again due to the nature of the meat (more muscle, less fat) it has a very rich gamey flavour that makes regular beef seem tasteless in comparison.

The good news for us Brits is that I was told recently that Waitrose stocks buffalo in selected stores. It is probably quite expensive, but in this life, and ESPECIALLY to do with your health, I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for and budget options are a false economy.

Related posts:

1. The Benefits of and How to Source Wild Meat
2. Carbohydrate Cycling, Anabolic Diet & Personal Training Clients
3. Proper Nutrition, Supplementation & Exercise During Ramadan

Here is the original piece on BioSignature Modualtion:

Men’s Fitness readers are a canny bunch. You know that it’s impossible to spot reduce those love handles. Every expert you have ever read has told you that spot reduction is impossible and that fat is lost from all over the body and never from one localised place. Only a dummy who buys those “electro stimulation for lean abs” kits on the Shopping Channel would ever think otherwise.

Yet stop and think for a minute. Never automatically buy into anything a so-called expert tells you, let’s use a bit of logical reasoning. Some of you will want to drop fat from the belly, other from the love handles. And no doubt there are some of you with the dreaded man boobs – you guys have got bigger problems than ugly fat deposits, squatting to pee and needing cuddles after sex to name but two. Now if all fat is the same and you can’t selectively “burn it off”, then why on earth does it sit its lardy self at different speeds, in different quantities, on different parts of our bodies? If all fat is equal then it would be laid down in a nice even layer everywhere on everybody.

Which raises the subject of the second aspect of fat distribution that I’d like you stop and ponder awhile on. When you see Betty, sorry I mean Benny, sashaying across the football pitch with his training bra firmly holding his mighty “pecs” in place, what do you automatically think to yourself? If it’s “this poor chap has localised body fat distribution patterns consistent with female hormone issues, most notably the aromatisation of testosterone into estrogen” and /or “Benny is turning into a bird” then full marks and go to the top of the class. It shouldn’t then take a genius to figure out that if we address Benny’s hormonal issues then his man boobs should thankfully become a thing of the past. And if we can apply this theory to one area of local fat distribution, then we can also apply it to all the other areas too. And hey presto, spot reduction is therefore possible.

Nature versus Nurture – we are slaves to both

Any disproportionate distribution of body fat is caused by a combination of your own genetics and unique biochemistry interacting with your environment. In other words, nature and nurture combining. This is because different genotypes mean differing hormonal reactions and this in turn means a different distribution of body fat. The lesson here should be obvious – he who controls hormones controls body composition.

BioSignature Modulation – you can control your hormones

The credit for formulating the system that has allowed us to dissect fat distribution patterns, their hormonal causes, and the ways to then modulate the hormonal profile so as to optimise body fat composition (spot reduce in other words) goes to Charles Poliquin. This hormonal optimisation system, known as BioSignature Modulation, is, in the hands of a skilled practitioner with experience of fine tuning body composition, the single most effective way to get in shape because everything is tailored to the individual’s unique biochemistry. Modulating endogenous hormonal levels takes skill and all aspects of an individual’s physical and mental influences need to be scrutinised – gym and diet are important yes, but the chain being only as strong as its weakest link cliché holds very true also. An optimal hormonal profile is only achieved via a balanced approach that covers every permutation of the correct and highly individual-specific protocols for exercise, nutrition, supplementation with herbal and other related products, sleep, digestion, relaxation, and any other lifestyle factor that can impact upon physical, emotional, and mental energies.

Lessons to be Learned

Always question what you are told and think through the logic in everything that is “supposed” to happen to your body. Look to the real reasons as to why your body behaves differently from that of your friends, and remember that the optimal hormonal profile for both muscle building and spot reduction is within your control.

About the Author:

Glenn Parker is a personal trainer and BioSignature coach with Nick Mitchell’s London based Ultimate Performance Team (www.UPFitness.co.uk)

Related posts:

1. Biosignature Modulation – personal training advice at its best!
2. The secrets of a healthy gut
3. Male Boobs, Estrogen & BioSignature Modulation

One aspect of dealing with stress that is often overlooked is proper eating – get your nutrition right and you can mitigate stress and function better, get it wrong and all the negative hormonal cascades that are caused by stress can be significantly magnified. This makes sense and is hardly cutting edge stuff, but I feel that it is something that we need to keep reminding ourselves of as it is our natural instinct to reach for the cookie jar under times of stress and take solace in comfort eating. I know that I myself am hugely guilty of dealing with stress by eating, and whereas some of you may cope with bad news and difficult times by turning to cakes and pastries, I find that when I am overworked (100hrs plus a week rather than my customary 80hrs!) I get lazy with my good nutritional habits and have Domino’s on speed dial. This has happened more than a few times in the last few weeks due to the opening of our new London personal training gym and although I can get away with it due to a certain level of leaness it is certainly not something I would recommend if you value either vanity or clear headed thinking. Nothing will make me lazier, less productive, and consequently more stressed than going crazy in one evening on 2 large pizzas, 2 servings of waffles, and 3 serving of double chocolate chip cookies! Yep, it would seem that my very guilty secret is out of the bag.

Nick's invoice from Domino's leaves him reeling!

So with my own occasional terrible eating in mind I decided that it was high time to remind myself of the crucial role that smart nutrition has in mitigating stress and enhancing our ability to work hard, work long, and work under pressure. There are some basic rules that we must all follow, plus a few tricks that will ramp up your overall stress coping mechanisms:

1) Control blood sugar with small, frequent meals

2) Eat protein, eat good fat, avoid simple Satan sugars and junk such as sweets, pastries, and yes waffles, pizza and cookies!

3) Stay hydrated

4) Use “smart supplements” such as phosphatidylserine, adaptogenic herbs such as Rhodiola Rosea and Holy Basil, and always take your extra omega 3s.

There is a full in-depth article on this subject (How to Beat Stress with Nutrition & Supplementation) at our main London personal training website where I go into detail as to exactly how you need to eat in order to deal with the stress of modern living.

I am now off to our Liverpool Street personal training gym to do some anti pizza weight training and sled pulling!

Related posts:

1. The secrets of a healthy gut
2. Tips to lose fat and get lean(10): Educate yourself about nutrition
3. More on Fish Oil