Truth About Fat Loss For Women With Lani Muelrath » Fasting

My summer shape plan. What's yours?

Lani — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:21:09 +0000

Work out for that Wonderwoman feeling

With 3 weeks out of the last 7 being on travel adventure of one form or another, my usual fitness routine has been a mix of eclectic alternatives.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.

Central to my fitness dream is to have an exercise and eating lifestyle that WORKS no matter what kind of wild and woolly adventure I'm on.

So that I can have heaps of fun, eat freely, without any of the ravages of OCD (that's obsessive compulsive dieting, in the event you don't know) from the old days.

Happy to say it all went splendidly this time as well. Starting with our Oaxaca trekking followed closely by scuba adventure in the Dutch Antilles, I returned right in the weight range per usual. Eating foods I enjoy, and staying active, yes.

But without the structured workouts.

Or fretting about every morsel on my plate.

I enjoy theses forays from the usual workout routine for many reasons.

1) It gives a great mental break

2) It gives the body a chance to regroup.

3) When I return, I'm refreshed and motivated to get back to that good feeling that comes from a workout well done.

You know, where the muscles have been worked to the max and you feel like Superwoman?

Sure, I was plenty active on our travels. Mostly walking, hiking, and schlepping scuba tanks. For now, I"ll keep up the walking and re-up on targeting muscle work and overall conditioning.

Targeted muscle work cinches in the muscles and gives you the girdle effect from nose to knees. I love the feeling.

My Summer Super-Shaper Plan

First, I swear on a stack of legwarmers (I hear they're back in) that I can get all the "workout" I need to stay in primo shape in under four hours a week.

Not including my walk time, which is more like an amble to the lake. That's just fun time. Daily.

Plus, I like to keep it simple. Like this:

Workout Plan:

2x/week: T-Tapp Total Workout variations

2x/week: Bar Method – for the dancer and leg woman in me – under an hour each, including extended stretching, which is one reason I like it so much PLUS I have made it a goal to specifically include more stretching so 2 mints in one.

2x/week: extra strength training – for upper body coupled with a splash of high intensity interval training

Dietary Plan:

Easy. Mountains of veggies and fruits with whole grains and breads, nuts and seeds, with room for red wine and chocolate to sweeten the deal.

Mini-fasts: intermittent mini-fasting (IMF) is less doable for me on the road; usually I can manage 1 day every couple of weeks or so. I miss the many joys of IMF and starting back in with my 2x -a -week schedule for now. Eat Stop Eat is my favorite and recommended approach to this.

Results of my exercise and dietary plan?

Been home with this plan in place for a week and did a quick meaure this morning. Notes: down a shave in hips and stomach and feeling tightened up again already.

What's YOUR summer shape-up plan?

Take a stand and tell about it in comments below!

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Diary of A Mini Fast

Lani Muelrath — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:56:36 +0000

What's this? My play by play through the day of a mini-fast a la Eat Stop Eat.

That means 24 hours max, dinner-to-dinner, a couple of times a week for me. I've been in this habit for the past 6 months, and have had numerous requests about how a day like this goes, which has prompted this blog entry PLUS the soon-to-follow "Mini-Fasts: A Six Month Report!"

I've found the IMF (intermittent mini-fasts as I call it) to be a very positive experience (more on that in the 6 month report).

Here is my post-by-post experience – with a few embellishments!

5:00 a.m. Awakened early this morning with the thud of an animal on the front porch (we thought it might be our long lost dog! but no….), turned out to be a cat (we don't have a cat) and back to bed for a few more zzz's

The rain had started early, and it was just so cozy to snuggle in for a little while longer. Up at 6:30.

6:30 a.m. fresh grind (gotta have fresh grind when it comes to me java!) and a quick read of the SF Chronicle, which just happened to be packed with fitness- related articles. Which inspired me to pop into my blog and post about GoodGuide.

8:06 a.m. computer check-in, blog posting and readying for walk in the early morning drizzle.

9:45 a.m. blog broadcast SENT, time to brave the rain and fog. Glass of water, empty stomach, great energy!

From there it was off to a morning walk, then back to a hot bath

10:56 a.m. back from foggy hike to lake, a little hungry but easy not to think about food – off to hot bath. Treating myself to green tea masque sent by friend Kitty, it warms your face as you apply!

12:00 Noon, back @ work writing; lots of work on computer today, readying Modules for Woman's Fitness BluePrint group coaching program as well as other documents. It's so foggy outside that it is a good day for indoor work!

1:00 p.m. light hunger, made some green /fennel tea and a quick T-T Twist stretch, ready to go! Writing and client coaching calls all afternoon. Need to organize office!

1:33 p.m. listening to audio of my teleclass interview with fasting expert Brad Pilon of Eat Stop Eat fame. The focus of this particular interview was the psychology of short fasts.

3:17 p.m.; readied rice cooker for dinner; finishing writing project; dinner a short 2 hours away! Chill the red! Did 10 "glamour squats" ( my name for "prisoner squats", sound so much more – well, glamorous!)

This afternoon, concurrent with my Twitter tweeting and Facebooking about the mini-fast experience today, I'm writing "Mini-Fasts: My Six Month Report". Yes, 6 month of mini-fasts under my belt! I see no reason not to continue.

I DO find, however, that this day I have been more conscious of hunger than ANY other day of fasting over the last 6 months. And I know exactly why – my attention has been upon reporting in about it all! Usually, I'm busy with projects, writing, coaching, and even doing a workout so I don't think about it all so much. THIS experience is different! In that way, today is not a typical fast day – the steps are the same but the process is different mentally.

4:15 p.m.: punched "cook" on the rice cooker for start, laced up and we're off to a pre-dinner stroll through the woods.

5:00: the grains are almost ready!

Put the veggies on to steam, poured glasses of GreenBridge Organic Zinfandel, and prepped small plates of edamame hummus with carrots and a side of pistachios.

Progressed to mixed greens of arugula and romaine with Italian dressing, then on to quinoa with broccoli and veggie sausage with my super sauce…

…and a chunk of dark chocolate for dessert!

The Mini Fast process sharpens the taste buds, dinner on these days is ultra-enjoyable!

How's your experience? Share if you like in "comments"!

It's The Calories, Honey! Two studies on weight loss

Lani Muelrath — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:08:08 +0000

Looking for the magic weight loss bullet? Tricks for "burning off" the fat?

Let's face it. When it comes right down to weight loss and fat loss, it's the calories that count.

Yet how many of us have spent years – decades even – in the quest for JUST the right trick or tweak?

Report from Two Weight Loss Studies

Two studies have been completed and reviewed within the past 2 years with similar findings.

I'll review the details of the most recent study, which you may have seen referred to in the news over the past week. Then, I'll jump back to the report of another study completed prior to.

The studies are a match in their findings: when it comes to dietary analysis of what works best for weight loss, it comes right down to one thing: dietary compliance that results in a negative energy balance (overall calorie reduction) is the deciding factor on fat loss.

It doesn't matter which diet, it's the reduction in calories that does it bottom line.

Study One: New England Journal of Medicine Report (2009)

[Ref: NEJM Vol 360:859-873 February 26, 2009 Number 9; Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates; Frank M. Sacks, M.D., et al]

Weight-Loss Intervention

Four groups were created for purposes of this study. Each group followed a different dietary prescription in terms of the ratio of fat, protein, and carbohydrate calories.

The nutrient goals for the four diet groups were varied in the following macronutrient breakdowns:

Group 1: 20% fat, 15% protein, and 65% carbohydrates (low-fat, average-protein);

Group 2: 20% fat, 25% protein, and 55% carbohydrates (low-fat, high-protein);

Group 3: 40% fat, 15% protein, and 45% carbohydrates (high-fat, average-protein); and

Group 4: 40% fat, 25% protein, and 35% carbohydrates (high-fat, high-protein).

Thus, two of the diets were low-fat and two were high-fat; two were average-protein and two were high-protein.

Other goals for all groups included: that

1) the diets should include 8% or less of saturated fat,

2) the diets should include at least 20 g of dietary fiber per day, and

3) the diets should include 150 mg or less of cholesterol per 1000 kcal.

In addition, carbohydrate-rich foods with a low glycemic index were recommended in each diet. Each participant's caloric prescription represented a deficit of 750 kcal per day from the level of calorie intake that would sustain their current body weight. This was calculated from the person's resting energy expenditure and activity level.

The goal for physical activity was 90 minutes of moderate exerciseper week. Participation in exercise was monitored by questionnaireand by the online self-monitoring tool.

Results

Average weight lost? For each group, an average of 13 lbs at six months. Not surprisingly after the six month point, diet compliance tended to waiver.

Conformity to cultural norms, scientific novelty, and media attention are nonbiologic reasons for the success of specific diets. We used a generic approach to developing each diet and the instructions for following it, in order to minimize such influences. No diet was considered to be a control diet, and the dietary counseling and the attention that we provided were the same for all diet groups throughout the study period. … results suggest that any type of diet, when taught for the purpose of weight loss with enthusiasm and persistence, can be effective. When non nutritional influences are minimized, as they were in our study, the specific macronutrient content is of minor importance, as was suggested many years ago.

Study Two: The "A-Z Diet Study", Intl. Journal of Obesity (2008)

Quite possibly, the reference to previous studies includes that which was reported just last year by the International Journal of Obesity.

[Ref Intl J. Obesity (2008) 32, 985–991; doi:10.1038/ijo.2008.8; published online 12 February 2008]

In that study, 181 overweight/obese women averaging in the mid-forties age group participated in a one year long randomized clinical trial referred to as the A TO Z study.

This study was designed to compare results from popular weight loss diets: the Atkins Diet, Zone Diet, and Ornish Diet. Subjects were tracked for diet compliance, or adherence. Results of the A-Z Diet Study?

Regardless of assigned diet groups, 12-month weight change was greater in the most adherent compared to the least adherent tertiles. These results suggest that strategies to increase adherence may deserve more emphasis than the specific macronutrient composition of the weight loss diet itself in supporting successful weight loss.

In other words, there was NO difference in overall weight loss between these four groups that was not also specifically correlated with diet adherence. Researchers concluded that it doesn't matter what diet you're on to lose weight, it's simply sticking to a reduced calorie load that does the trick. Whether it's a specific diet, Mini-Fasts, or any other strategy to influence energy balance.

Is A Calorie A Calorie?

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

There are some food choices and dietary guidelines that can make it easier to be compliant with a calorie reduction. It is common knowledge that highly processed carbohydrates, for example, can drive up our hunger due to insulin surges, which makes a calorie deficit more difficult to maintain.

We also know that food plans high in dietary fats can mean bodyfat gain as well as reluctance of the body to let go of fat stores.

In addition, cutting calories TOO severely week after week only rebounds in makeup eating and excess hunger. But you may well know that from experience, just like me!

Thus, it still makes sense to pay attention to the quality, variety, and availability of food when it comes to fat loss, weight loss, or optimizing body composition. Specialized, deeply restrictive diets with a gimmick or two are simply a way to trick us into a calorie deficit. I remember the grapefruit and egg diet. Sure, it worked. Because that was all you could eat, and who doesn't get sick of THAT after about a day and a half?! This kind of diet brings the compliance issue quickly to a head, am I right?

Just the same, overall, it's the calories – and not the magic of a specific dietary tactic, taboo, or secret – that count when it comes to weight loss, fat loss, and management. An let's not forget that health is another matter.

If you'd like to read the abstracts/more details of these studies, here are the links:

International Journal of Obesity

New England Journal of Medicine

Looking forward to your thoughts in "comments" below.

Mini-Fasts: My 4-Month Report

Lani Muelrath — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:54:23 +0000

It's been about 4 months since integrating the principles of Intermittent Mini Fasts (IMF) into my fitness plan (See "5 Reasons To Try Mini Fasts"). And with so many inquiries regarding "how's it going?" via emails, forum postings, and conversations, I thought it would be a worthwhile project for me to sit down and document my experiences and thoughts.

It will allow me to chronicle – in retrospect – the experience, the benefits (of which I have come to experience and believe there are many), and a few of the specific details about implementation and results. And I hope it is of benefit to other women who are exploring this avenue as a way to increase their health and fitness as well as improve their body composition.

How It All Came About

I've previously written about my discovery and investigation of Mini-Fasts, which you can find at my blog entry here:

"5 Reasons To Try Mini Fasts". A read of that article provides some background.

But there have been four months of water under the bridge since then! Let's take a look…

What My Mini-Fast Schedule Looks Like

I devoured not only the read but the audios that came with Brad Pilon's ebook, Eat Stop Eat. This spurred me to read even more, including investigation into professional journals regarding recent work regarding fasting. A review of the literature, as well as Brad's down-to-earth, body and mind friendly approach, inspired me to try the mini-fast schedule as Brad outlines in his book. This means 2, 24-hour fasts during the course of each week.

The beauty of this approach, among other things, is that:

1) You never have a day without eating. In other words, your 24 hour fast window can be from dinner to dinner (my choice), lunch to lunch, or any other similar profile. The idea is to create a 24 hour window so that you create the desired hormonal profile, among other things. In my experience, sometimes it was 24 hours, sometimes it was 21 or 22 – and in the beginning stages, I did work my way up to the longer time periods. I was entirely comfortable with this somewhat loose arrangement, having cleaned my OCD (obsessive compulsive dieting) skeletons out of the closet some 10 years ago. It was wonderful to be relaxed and have a fresh approach to the whole process.

2) There is not a laundry list of what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, what to eat when you break a fast, blahblahblah. Brad's text and attitude are wonderfully liberating in that regard, which is one of the reasons I so highly recomment his work.

I selected Mondays and Thursdays as my fast days. For the past four months, this schedule has worked beautifully for me. There have been several occasions when, due to an event or schedule conflict, I needed to shift this schedule out by a day or 2 in either direction. It has been completely doable and caused me no conflict or consternation in the process.

The Benefits I Am Experiencing

Though it can be difficult and almost impossible to isolate one variable from others (one of the boondoggles of human subject research!), these are the benefits and changes I have noticed since the beginning of the 4 months.

1) Though not overweight and maintaining a size close to my ideal following my 50 lb weight loss over 10 years ago, I found that I dropped about 1/2 inch in my waist and belly during this time, and it was easier than ever to maintain. Of course, there were other factors to consider, most noteably that at about the same time, I started lifting heavier weights as part of my fitness routine in an effort to grow my strength. Thus, my weight stayed about the same (within 2-3 lbs) but my bodyfat obviously diminished. This I could tell by visual check as well as decreased measurements in areas that are more prone to be deposit spots for bodyfat: waist and belly.

2) My fasting triglyceride count, though quite favorable prior to the 4 month timespan, dropped another 15 points.

3) My sleep patterns improved, meaning that I perceived more consistent better rest and deeper sleep.

4) Appetite in general showed moderation. This surprised me in that I had anticipated I might quite possibly become excessively hungry and have "make up eating" on non-fast days. This did not happen. I also noticed that my dinners on fasting days were fairly, consistently normal. I was not able to overeat nor was I compelled to do so.

5) Energy on fasting days is excellent, another surprise. Often, I will even do workouts on fast days and it is no different than "eating" days. As a matter of fact, in some ways it is better – and perhaps it is because my energy is not diverted to digestion – ?

6) Meals are even more enjoyable than before – dinners on fast days are extraordinarily delicious, a feature I fully enjoy.

7) Overall, I have detected an improvement in digestive patterns. Perhaps this is because the digestive system is given a good rest regularly?

As you can see, this is all experiential – with the exception of the triglyceride reading, which of course could have been a normal fluctuation.

Yet for me, the experience has been completely and totally positive. I intend to continue with the Intermittent Mini Fasting schedule, though may well consider switching it to one day a week as that is recommended in Eat Stop Eat for "maintenance" when considering weight/fat loss, and I may not want to lose any more. Yet the other benefits of this schedule are so enjoyable to me, I may find my way through that and just see how it goes!

Truthfully speaking?

From my experience, which includes apparent improved body composition profile (loss of bodyfat) without "dietary backlash" as reported above, I can't help but think that the "starvation metabolism" that we've been cautioned about in the fitness industry for years may be a myth worth debunking when it comes to intermittent mini fasts. The research literature that I have been investigating bears this out – the concern is only elevated with long term fasts, and by that I mean days and days, and weeks. The "metabolic slowdown" (in terms of muscle mass energy demand) occurs with loss of muscle mass, and muscle mass is protected by sufficient challenge to the muscles as well as sufficient nutrition. A few hours of no nutrition coming in a couple of times a week, when the overall drop in caloric intake is not drastic over the course of the week or month, apparently does not do the damage that we have been led to believe. I am currently reviewing the literature myself and will report in right here in the future.

I'd love to hear about YOUR experiences with IMF. Perhaps you've tried an approach other than that in Eat Stop Eat. Perhaps the fasting process itself is not for everyone. Yet in my experiences with clients who have opted to try this schedule, I have found their experiences brilliantly beneficial.

Note: To leave a comment, a simple, one time registration process – put in place to filter spam -will get you started; see the "Register" link in the upper right hand corner of the blog .

5 Reasons To Try Mini Fasts

Lani Muelrath — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:11:52 +0000

I NEVER thought I'd say this, but….I have become a big fan of the intermittent mini fast!

WHAAT, you say? Settle down! And I'll tell you all about it.

IMF is the NEW acronym I've invented for what I call intermittent mini fasts.

Here's how it came up, what I learned, and what I did about it.

Taking Another Look

First, some personal history. Years ago, I dabbled in fasting as a weight loss tool. Horribly unguided, white-knuckle fasting that would pretty much go on as long as I could tolerate it. Then I'd try to "break the fast slowly" as all the experts advised, but I would run fast lane into binges and overeating. Stuff-starve at its worst!

Interestingly enough, over the past couple of years, as I am an avid reader and researcher of what's going on in the health and fitness fields, the idea of fasting seemed to be resurfacing as a health and longevity tool.

Because of my prior experience, and all the work that I had done to heal my relationship with food, eating, and my body, I dismissed and ignored all of these references. And as someone who enjoys everything they eat (and won't eat anything I don't like, so there!) I was especially, shall we say, trepidacious!

However, references persisted, and I thought, OK Lani, let's take an objective look at see what this is all about. After all I am a new person, different from those years way back when. I've learned from experience, but I've also become able to look at things more objectively than ever before.

And I decided to take a new, objective look and see what truths I might uncover if I would allow myself to "unbudge" from my previously cemented position regarding intermittent fasting.

What Caught My Eye

As I began to let the material about fasting filter into my domain, I saw references that made me sit up and take attention.

Particularly these 5 potential benefits of intermittent mini-fasts:

reduce inflammation
increase insulin sensitivity
decrease stress hormones
increase human growth hormone production

And of course:

5. reduce body fat stores without sacrificing muscle.

What? I'd been thinking since forever that fasting eats into our muscle mass. That it decreases your metabolism, and does all kinds of other things to wonk up our efforts to be trim!

NEW Research Proves "Fitness Fasting Mythology" Wrong?!

There is lots a growing pile of documentation that refutes these common beliefs about fasting.

But let me show you an easy place to find out a little bit for yourself.

The simplest, most direct presentation of this information is by my friend Brad Pilon, who has written a book about intermittent fasting called Eat Stop Eat. Brad is a nutrition researcher and fasting specialist who did exhaustive, objective research on fairly recent studies done with intermittent fasting on a variety of subjects. It is all very well documented in his book, and it is an impressive collection.

Evidence To The Contrary

Here's what Brad found out.

First, many of the ill effects that we may associate with fasting occur after extended periods of fasting. Short-term fasts, as Brad details in his book, do NOT demonstrate negative effects and have been shown to improve many of the biomarkers as I have listed above. His documented research and "sciency" audio files available had me sit up and take notice!

Brad's "Fasting Files", as I call them, which are part of the Eat Stop Eat book, include all kinds of nuggets, such as this one: after several hours without caloric intake of any kind, there is a marked increase of fatty acids in the blood stream. If no food has been recently eaten to account for this, then where do the fatty acids come from? Possibly stores in the body?

The Benefits Are In The "Intermittent Mini"

In Eat Stop Eat, Brad promotes fasts of no longer than 24 hours. And only one or two times a week, depending on your goals. The beauty of this is you never go a day without eating! A common pattern is dinner to dinner, or lunch to lunch. So, if you ate dinner at 6 one day, your IMF would be until dinner at 6 the next day. And it is very flexible – you can work your way up!

I have found intermittent minis to deliver to me personally in many ways:

~ great energy on fast days
~ trimmer in my middle
~ PHENOMENAL returns for my clients who have been utilizing this technique themselves.
This mini-fast schedule has delivered in terms of gentle weight loss, good energy, improved relationship with food and eating, appetite moderation (quite possibly the increased insulin sensitivity), and detected decrease of inflammation in the system.

Now, you might be thinking – as I did – if you were to fast for the day up to dinner, that all you-know-what would break lose when it came time for dinner. C'mon, I know that's what you're thinking! Because I was certain of it.

But you know what? That didn't happen. And it hasn't happened for me during the several weeks that I have been enjoying the many benefits of the IMF. As I already, said, I never thought I'd say it, but….me likey!

AND a glance at the literature available in research journals shows promise….watch for details in future posts right here!

In the meantime, I'm curious about YOUR experiences with Eat Stop Eat, or other fasting experiences. Post your comments below and let's talk about it!