As long as you are eating the right kinds of fat, “eating fat does not make you fat.” Certified Nutrition Specialist Mike Geary states this emphatically in his The Truth About Six Pack Abs program. One of the things that Mike does really well in this program is explain how to eat to stay lean and the reasons why his approach works. Knowing what kinds of fats to eat is just one part of the formula and it’s the part we are going to focus on here.

For a variety of reasons, you are afraid of fat. You’ve been taught to think and feel this way. You’ve been taught that eating fat will give you high cholesterol and heart disease. You’ve been taught that eating fat will make your body fat.

It’s logical. It makes sense. Why shouldn’t you think this way? If you put fat in your body then you’re going to get fat, right?

The truth is your body actually needs fat. In fact, approximately 20 – 40% of your total caloric intake should come from healthy fats. That’s why it occurs naturally in almost everything we eat.

Healthy Fat? What’s That?

You’ve probably heard different “experts” talking about polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, saturated, and trans fats and which ones to eat and which ones to avoid. Unfortunately, the advice you get varies from one expert to the next and it’s all too much to remember. It makes trying to shop for healthy food extremely difficult and confusing.

Fortunately, you don’t really need to worry about that. The answer to which fats are healthy and which fats are not is really quite simple. It’s actually not even so much a matter of what kinds of fat as it is the history of the fat.

Confused? Let me explain.

Generally speaking, any fat that occurs naturally and is consumed in is original and natural state is a healthy fat. On the other hand, fats that have been through any sort of processing (meaning humans have messed with it) are generally unhealthy.

It’s a pretty clear and simple rule and it makes food selection much simpler. To say it even more simply:

Natural Fat = Good; Processed Fat = Bad

Now that you’ve got the rule down, let’s look at some examples. Everything you eat should come from either a plant or an animal, so we’ll look at examples from those two categories.

Animal Fats – The Good And The Bad

For the most part, if you’re eating something from an animal then it is probably either meat or some form of dairy product, so let’s focus our attention there.

Unless you hunt and fish for all your meat, the meat you consume was raised in one of two ways:

1. Fed by humans with some combination of synthetic and natural food sources
2. In a natural environment on completely natural food sources

Can you guess which one is healthier for you? The correct answer is of course number two.

In many mass production farms that raise animals for consumption, the animals are not fed their natural diet. Instead, they are given antibiotics, hormones, and other things that are intended to make the farms production more efficient and cost effective. Unfortunately, these things have a trickle down effect on you.

Your other option is to eat meats that come from animals that were raised in their natural environment and allowed to eat their natural diet. It is more expensive and less efficient to raise animals this way, but the end result is much better for you.

The same thing goes for dairy products, they either come from animals on a natural diet or from animals on a synthetic diet. Again, the natural diet produces the healthiest food for you. On top of that, most dairy products go through a few processes that make them less healthy for you (i.e. pasteurization, homogenization). Milk fat is actually quite good for you if you can find milk that hasn’t been processed.

Plant Fats – The Good And The Bad

Just like animal based food products, you have two options when it comes to plant based food products:

1. Chemically altered and/or heavily processed
2. Naturally occurring with little to no processing

As before, number two is the better choice.

When it comes to plant based foods, most of the fat is in nuts and oils. These fats can actually be quite good for you if they are not heavily processed.

What you want to look for here is the words “organic” or “natural.” For example, when you buy your peanut butter, look for a bottle that says it is organic. You should be able to notice a difference in the ingredients list of the organic peanut butter versus the regular peanut butter.

In fact, the ingredients list can be a good guide for you when selecting plant based foods. If the ingredients list contains things that you don’t immediately recognize as coming from a farm or garden, then it’s probably not the best choice for you.

Some Sources Of Good Fats

Here are a few examples of foods that will give your body the healthy fats it needs:

• Nuts
• Seeds
• Avocados
• Organic Peanut Butter
• Fish

Remember that 20 – 40% of your calories should come from good fats. This list is just an example. There are many other good sources of healthy fat. Just stick to the rule I mentioned above and you should be fine.

For a more in depth explanation of how processing food alters fat and why processed foods are bad for you, check out The Truth About Six Pack Abs. This guide will give you everything you need to get a healthy, lean body and a great set of six pack abs.

The Truth About Six Pack Abs comes in various formats. For a quick explanation of your options, check out my post titled The Truth About Six Pack Abs Package.

Filed under: Diet | 3 Comments »

By show of hands, how many of you have had success with a fad diet? I’m not talking about losing a few pounds and then gaining back twice as much when you go off the diet. I’m talking about real, sustained, healthy weight loss. So, answer honestly and let’s see those hands.

Why aren’t you raising your hand? I thought fad diets were so popular because they work so well. Shouldn’t we all be raising our hands right now?

Okay, so you get the point. I’m not a big fan of fad diets. I don’t like them because they don’t work. These diets are surrounded by lots of hype and plenty of testimonials, but the reality is that they don’t produce sustainable and healthy weight loss. More often than not, in the long run a fad diet will leave you the same or worse off than before you started the diet.

So, why don’t these diets work? I’ll give you the long answer in a minute, but Certified Nutrition Specialist Mike Geary summed it up perfectly in his book The Truth About Six Pack Abs. Simply put…

The problem with most fad diets is that they typically limit consumption of a certain macronutrient (protein, carbs, or fat) or food group, and therefore tend to fight against what your body needs to function most efficiently.

So what’s wrong with limiting certain foods in your diet? You’ve been taught that fats and carbs are bad for you. You’ve been taught that they are the secret evil ingredients that make you fat, and if you can just make yourself completely avoid them then your excess fat will magically melt away never to return again.

Well, the truth is quite the opposite. Your body needs fat and your body needs carbohydrates. If you do not get enough of them, certain bodily processes (the ones that naturally fight fat storage and promote fat burning) start to shut down. Since most popular diets focus on limiting or completely avoiding fats and carbs, lets look at some of the negative impacts of reducing fats and carbs in your diet.

Negative Impacts Of Limiting Carbs In Your Diet

• Loss of lean muscle
• A lower Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
• Reduced muscle glycogen levels
• Less energy
• Muscles start to look flat or deflated
• Reduced ability to recover quickly from workouts

Negative Impacts Of Limiting Fat In Your Diet

• Hormonal imbalances
• Increased hunger and cravings
• Your body craves carbohydrates to compensate for reduction in fat
• Reduced performance of fat burning metabolic processes
• Reduced ability to perform numerous essential bodily processes and functions

Okay, so now you’re confused. On the one hand, you have been told not to eat fats and carbs. On the other hand, I’m telling you that bad things will happen if you don’t eat fats and carbs. So, which is it?

As with many things in life, the answer is moderation. More specifically, moderation and knowledge. You shouldn’t eat too many fats and carbs, and you shouldn’t avoid them completely. On top of that, it is also essential to eat the right kinds of fats and carbs.

Learning how to eat properly can be difficult, but it is an essential part of living a happy and healthy life. If you want to lose your excess body fat the right way and keep it off forever, I suggest learning about and understanding the roles that fats, carbs and the other main components of your diet play in storing or burning body fat.

One of the best guides I have found on eating the right way to burn fat is The Truth About Six Pack Abs. It explains things very well and helped me understand how you can lose weight without avoiding any food groups or classes of macronutrients. Give it a read and you’ll be glad you did.

Filed under: Diet | 3 Comments »

Have you heard about the Shake Weight For Men and Shake Weight For Women? It has been featured on several TV shows and in several fitness magazines lately. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a dumbbell that you shake. As you shake the dumbbell, the weights on either end slide up and down about an inch or so.

I’ll admit it, you’ll look goofy shaking the weight back and forth (check out these videos to see what I mean: for men, for women), but if it works then who cares what it looks like. Supposedly, these things are supposed to be 7 times more effective than a regular dumbbell. They say that 6 minutes with the Shake Weight is like 42 minutes with a regular dumbbell.

As soon as I saw the Shake Weight, my thoughts immediately turned to P90X. Dumbbells are a major part of P90X, so I naturally thought about using the Shake Weight for the P90X workouts. Now that would be an intense workout. If you had one Shake Weight, you could use it for a lot of the P90X exercises, but if you had two of them you could really go crazy.

I just recently heard about the Shake Weight, so I don’t own one yet; but I plan on getting one soon. Once I get mine and try it out, I’ll write up a full review. If you don’t want to wait for my review, go ahead and get your own and try it out with me. There are two versions, Shake Weight For Men and Shake Weight For Women. If you get one (or already have one) leave a comment and let me know what you think of it.

Filed under: Ab Product Reviews | No Comments »