Fitness tips from Fitness Professional Max Wettstein

One challenge I have in writing a new NSP fitness tip every week is the broad scope of audience that will be reading it. It’s safe to assume that the obvious common goal of our Sunshine Friends is to lose weight and become leaner, though some may not realize the significance of the latter goal. I often make the claim that “a healthy lifestyle is a LEAN-lifestyle” meaning that if one consistently applies healthy living practices, then it follows they will eventually become optimally lean and their ideal physique will naturally transform as part of an eventual natural homeostasis. Generally speaking I believe this simple & broad statement to be true almost across the board, for those who are clinically obese to those who just want to lose 10 pounds in order to look better in a swimsuit.

So in my opinion, an ideal ‘lean-body’ protocol is very similar to a ‘weight-loss’ protocol: It will always involve analyzing and strategically modifying the same fundamental lifestyle components such as sleep, nutrition, exercise, supplements, etc. However, the more overweight you are make no mistake, the more work you will have to put in, and the longer your physical transformation will take. More importantly, the more overweight you are the more your health is at risk, especially if you’ve ever been diagnosed as clinically obese. (For lack of a better definition, one measure of being obese is if you have a BMI greater than 32.)

Perhaps the two lifestyle components that cause the weight-loss protocol to vary the most are diet and exercise. For example an obese person simply cannot metabolize sugar very efficiently if at all, because they’ve become so ‘insulin-resistant’ if not already diabetic. Therefore they will have to cut way back on sugar and refined-carbohydrate intake until they have lost a significant amount of weight. A healthy person who simply wants to lose 10 (vanity) pounds and who can exercise consistently at the outset will still be able to eat sugar in moderation and properly metabolize it for energy and glycogen replenishment post-exercise throughout their weight-loss program.

The biggest difference in weight-loss protocol of all, between the ‘swimsuit-dieter’ and the clinically-obese person who must lose weight to save their health if not their life, is the exercise component: This always presents the biggest challenge for most Personal Trainers as it does for me. Bottom line, some exercise is better than no exercise: Do SOMETHING to get your body moving, even if only walking or aquacise at first. But the real lean-body mass improving, fat-burning, metabolism-boosting (EPOC) secret is HIGH-INTENSITY exercise (which is relative to your own fitness level of course): Exercising at a level relatively intense enough to enter into oxygen-debt and lactic-acid accumulation, AKA the ‘huff & puff zone’ where you get out of breath, is where the physiological magic happens. The high-intensity zone, even when only reached in intervals for short duration, is the secret shortcut to rapid physique transformation and not only losing fat, but truly improving your lean-body mass.

While exercise intensity level is solely based on your personal fitness condition (and most accurately verified by training with a heart rate monitor), the more fit one is, the more intensely they can safely exert them self, and therefore the greater their exercise value and the better their results. An obese person is absolutely NOT fit and therefore simply walking on flat ground may be over-exerting their self. However rather than feeling defeated or giving up, if they stick with it, their relative fitness level will improve QUICKLY. Soon they will be able to walk up hills, ride a bike, and so on. The more FIT you become, the more value you exercise sessions will have, allowing you to accomplish more for your fitness & weight-loss goals in a shorter amount of training time.

Next week’s tip: The real secret to exercising with intensity (once you’re safely fit enough) – Finding a sport you love!

Sincerely,
Max
www.MaxWettsteinFitness.com

 

Spot-Reduce Internal Belly-Fat!

So this week I promised you I would talk about where the entire weight-loss buzz is right now and has been for the past 2 years: Belly fat! For the record, generally speaking one cannot spot-reduce fat at any location in the body. But internal belly fat is a strange animal indeed, and might be the only exception to this rule.

Just to remind you subcutaneous adipose tissue, or fat stored under the skin, is the healthy way to store your body fat, even though it obscures muscle definition. Internal visceral belly-fat stored within the abdomen squishing our organs, AKA ‘central obesity’, is the dangerous way to store fat, because it is directly linked to many systemic inflammatory diseases to include most commonly type-2 adult onset diabetes & Fatty-Liver-Disease, among others. This is the type of fat storage that tends to go along with the ‘apple-shape’ type of physique, and it is the kind of fat that we need to be most concerned with for our health!

Most internal belly fat tends to store on an organ called the Omentum that drapes off the front of the stomach & attaches to the colon. The omentum has some definite physiological functions and benefits to include protection from peritoneal infection, but in overweight people, especially middle-aged folks, it tends to become the storage depot for fat. In fact, the omentum has both insulin-receptors & Cortisol (the stress hormone) receptors which help turbo-charge its fat storing capability! The Omentum also has a direct link to the liver via the portal vein to pump fat and inflammatory immune-response chemicals directly into the liver, contributing to liver inflammation and Fatty-Liver Disease. A fat-swollen omentum is also a causal factor to insulin resistance as it binds and clears insulin from the bloodstream causing the pancreas to secrete more for glucose transport to the muscles.

So there is a direct link between a high-stress lifestyle and internal belly-fat accumulation, and higher risk of insulin-resistance & eventually type-2 diabetes, Fatty-Liver Disease, high-blood pressure and even heart disease. Wow!...if that is not incentive to change your lifestyle & lose some weight, then I don’t know what is! Top ways for combating internal belly-fat storage:

1. Reduce your sugar & refined-carbohydrate consumption.
2. Get a good night of sleep…7 to 8 hours of quality sleep.
3. Use caffeine & other Sympathetic-Nervous system stimulants in strategic moderation.
4. Incorporate high-intensity exercise into your training plan to trigger Growth-Hormone, which promotes lean-body mass & directly targets belly-fat.
5. Find ways to lower your stress levels daily & learn to relax
6. Do a liver-cleanse, and consider taking liver-support herbs to improve liver function and prevent or combat Fatty-Liver Disease. NSP has excellent liver-detox kits & support herbs.
7. Adrenal-support herbs & DHEA, which helps to balance Cortisol, are available at NSP as well.
8. Relatively high but safe (water-soluble) doses of vitamin C have been linked to lowering Cortisol levels.

Try your best to address these 8 strategies, and YES, there is actually a chance you can spot-reduce your internal bell-fat!

Sincerely,
Max
www.MaxWettsteinFitness.com

Keeping a Training & Eating Journal

I should have suggested this tool earlier and hopefully many of you are already doing this, but keeping a ‘training & eating’ journal, or weight-loss journal, during any strategic, finite weight-loss program is an invaluable tool, especially initially. The most important reason being to raise awareness: Of exactly what it is you’re actually eating each day and what your work-outs are actually comprised of. Next, you’ll hold yourself more accountable, especially if you don’t have a training partner yet, or a Personal Trainer to fill this role. At some point each day you’ll have to ‘answer’ to your journal and believe it or not even an innate journal seems to keep us honest! Thirdly, logging relevant data into a journal such as type of workout, meals, snacks, sleep, supplements, your actual scale-weight and your state of health makes the entire weight-loss process much more engaging and way more fun. Additionally, recalling training details is no longer a difficult task when it is all documented in your journal. As busy as our lives can be, trying to remember Monday’s workout on Friday is nearly impossible!

To a certain degree, your physique-transformation is in fact a scientific experiment. It’s an analytical process of trial & error; figuring out over time what works vs. what doesn’t. Data is collected along the way, tracked, analyzed and adjusted until you get the end result you desire! A training journal makes this process possible – and simply more fun! Some days you will be too rushed to enter much detail, or may forget altogether. That is okay! It’s not meant to be stressful! You can catch up later or just miss a day – not a big deal.

Next week, thanks to our Sunshine Friend Marguerite’s request via our Facebook page, I will examine the mysterious Omentum and internal belly-fat storage. Stay tuned for this popular topic!

Sincerely,
Max
www.maxwettsteinfitness.com

‘Normal Weight Obesity’…Skinny-Fat!

Last week’s tip was relatively easy & pointed out some of the amazing supplements that NSP has to offer to make not only losing weight more convenient, but as healthy as possible. This week I thought I’d share some recent news in the obesity & weight-loss field. Some of you may already be aware of these recent studies. First & perhaps most newsworthy is the study released last week in the Journal of American Medical Association stating that women who ate a ‘normal’ diet had to participate in moderate-exercise for 60 minutes each day to prevent weight gain. Wow! Of course this is only one study by one entity, but what a big difference from what we were told 10, even 5 years ago! For achieving only health benefits, of course you don’t need to exercise this long, but if you’re trying to lose or even prevent weight gain as you age without constantly starving yourself, then consistent moderate-exercise is key. Even the American Society of Bariatric Physicians agrees that “physical activity is a key factor in weight maintenance.”

All this being said, public bulletins like this tend to scare sedentary-lifestyle folks & those who may already be obese because they seem so extreme. So remember PLEASE: Something is better than nothing! If you’re not fit or conditioned enough to exercise at a moderate level then start out low-intensity and just do what you can, even if only walking or aqua-cise in the pool. The key is to get your body moving doing any kind of activity!

Weight-loss aside, the key to health & longevity is being & staying active! Sedentary-lifestyle is a factor in more disease than being moderately overweight is. In fact the Mayo-Clinic has come up with a new term for people who have a normal (healthy) Body Mass Index yet are still fat: ‘Normal-Weight Obesity’ (NWO). I call these types of people “skinny-fat” because they’re thin, yet still have a relatively high body fat percentage or low lean-body mass. What typically causes this type of physique? Extreme dieting with complete lack of exercise & very little physical activity. I’m glad to see the Mayo Clinic officially recognizing this problem as well as the problem with using Body Mass Index charts alone to determine obesity.

Once again, we’re back to exercise! How did that happen?! Next week will examine other lifestyle factors & touch on more clinical news & updates! I will be your source!

Sincerely,
Max
www.maxwettsteinfitness.com

EASY things you can do right now!

...That’s correct; I said “EASY”, which is usually not my style when it comes to fat-loss. But I’ve spent the first 6 weeks telling you all that you need to work on the fundamentals of weight-loss & re-establish the healthy basics in your daily life, that short-term strategies don’t work, and that there are no quick-fixes. I’ve been basically ordering you to move your body and to step up the exercise!

So now I feel like you deserve a little reward for your efforts so far and want to give you some relatively easy tips this week! Just a few simple things you can do right now to promote fat-burning & metabolism boosting:

1. Triple you water intake.
2. Take 3 to 4 capsules of NSP’s Green Tea Extract each day and/or steep your own Green Tea. Not only does the ECGC in it burn fat, it’s also a major anti-oxidant!
3. Take Calcium supplement at night, which is proven improve lean-body mass & interfere with fat-absorption. You’ll also sleep better & ward off muscle cramps, spasms & restless-leg syndrome.
4.   Consider taking NSP’s MetaboMax weight loss formula, before lunch & before your workout, but not after 3 PM, to increase exercise performance, boost metabolism, suppress appetite & increase thermogenisis. There is a caffeine-free formula available.
5. Replace two of your snacks or meals with protein powder mixed with water. Try NSP’s SynerPro for a soy protein option, or Nutri-Burn for a whey protein option. Doing this tastes better than you think, has virtually no insulin impact, yet preserves your precious muscle tissue during lower-calorie dieting. Remember in order to keep your metabolism revved during dieting, you need to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals/snacks, but overall calories still count, as well as insulin-management. Replacing 1 or 2 meals with protein powder helps accomplish this.
6. For an almost one-stop-shop to get the best of NSP’s weight-loss supps in one convenient package, you can try ‘MetaboStart Plus’, available in a 2 week supply.
7. Eat breakfast.
8. Don’t eat within 2 hours of bed time, or if you do, make it slower-digesting protein, such as cottage cheese mixed with low-fat yogurt & some berries.

Remember, there are no magic pills or quick-fixes and supplements are nice to incorporate only ONCE you have your fundamental lifestyle basics in proper order. NSP makes quite an impressive line of weight-loss, lean-body mass promoting supplements, which can really help make losing weight a little bit easier and help break thru plateaus or barriers. They can give us back the confidence we need too!

Sincerely,
Max

Long Term Strategy

By my count we’re going on at least week #6 of our weight-loss program, which also happens to be a competition to some members in case you weren’t aware! If you’re still with us at this point that that tells me you’re serious about at least losing some significant FAT and maybe about even winning this contest. And if you’re just joining Sunshine Friends, well that is okay too! As we progress further along this journey my goal is that some of you eventually may no longer think of this is as a finite weight-loss contest, but rather will seamlessly transition into a new, healthier lifestyle. A leaner, fitter & healthier method of life! Though there are some differences between how you should diet & train for acute weight-loss as opposed to simply maintaining your final transformed, leaner physique, those differences are not monumental.

What I’m trying to say here is that the weight-loss/FAT-loss strategies & methods you’re currently applying should be sustainable & not extreme by any standard.

Extreme weight-loss tactics should only be administered & monitored by a Bariatric Physician for those medically diagnosed as severely obese. These extreme methods are not sustainable and are beyond the scope of this group! There are some who may be here for the other short-term weight-loss goals, such as a wedding or class-reunion. But to be sure, the spirit & mission of this Sunshine Friends contest & group is geared towards long-term, gradual yet sustainable FAT-loss that is intended on transforming your body over a 6 month period while simultaneously teaching you how to maintain.

So what then, is realistic, sustainable & most importantly, healthy weight-loss? Of course this depends to some degree on how much excess fat you begin with. But for a general guideline, let’s try for 1 to 2 pounds per week. In 6 months’ time that can really add up to a significant amount of fat loss! Almost 50 pounds! Of course your weight-loss rate will not be perfectly linear, but will fluctuate as you hit plateaus, or go on a vacation, fall ill, etc. Rapid weight-loss usually is followed by rebound weight gain also known as classic ‘yo-yo dieting’. This is what we want to avoid!

Here is a link to some healthy, ‘Max-tested-&-approved’ snack options to help you keep your sanity! http://www.maxwettsteinfitness.com/Training Plan/Healthy Snacks.htm

Sincerely,
Max

Muscle Drives Your Resting Metabolism

I’ve been talking about how we need to get the fundamental lifestyle basics established and working correctly before we can move on to more advanced strategies, supplements or any other shortcuts to weight-loss. This is because we are not only a long term weight-loss group, but we’re also a very holistic-health conscientious group who are interested in not just losing the FAT, but also keeping it off! In Fit-tip #3, I touched on how dieting alone without considering exercise is a quick road to slowing your metabolism & ultimately failure. Now I want to explain the absolutely DIRECT connection between the amount of your lean-body mass (or non-fat body mass) and your resting metabolism, also known as your basal metabolic rate or BMR.

To get to the point: Above all else your muscle mass directly drives your resting metabolism. Sure there are many other factors that determine your resting or basal metabolic rate, including genetics, age, gender etc. – but you do not have any control over most of these other factors so why should we waste our time discussing them? ! To some, especially perhaps women or those who just desire to be a smaller person, “muscle MASS”, is something that is often ignored or even perhaps carries a derogatory ring to it, as it implies more BODY- mass, which doesn’t exactly sound appealing in the short term when one is trying to shrink in size!!

But your body-composition needs to be analyzed, tracked & considered throughout your entire weight-loss journey to benchmark initial muscle & fat mass ratios and make sure you’re reducing fat while preserving your precious muscle as you lose weight! Remember, muscle actively burns calories at rest while fat tissue NEVER burns calories! Fat cells are simply storage lipids with no cell-mitochondria to produce energy! Fat lipids can only STORE energy. There is only one way to preserve & maintain muscle tissue during restricted-calorie dieting, when it can easily become catabolized as an energy source just like fat-mass: Thru exercise, specifically strength or resistance type exercise. Our muscle-mass already naturally atrophies with age, and during dieting the risk of depleting our very own muscle for energy becomes an even greater risk, and nothing will shut down your metabolism quicker than losing your muscle mass! Not to mention it is ore muscles that give us an aesthetically pleasing toned appearance.

Sincerely,
Max

Deep-Sleep.

Fundamental to a leaner body

Obviously all of us here on Sunshine Friends not only know the benefits of supplements and our big users of them, but we also trust & LOVE Nature’s Sunshine supplements. And don’t get me wrong – supplements can make a dramatic impact in weight-loss results for sure. In fact, I plan to specifically address some key supplement players down the road but first, we need to ensure we have the fundamental weight-loss basics optimized. In fact did you know that these basic weight-loss fundamentals are the same for optimal holistic-health in general?! A healthy lifestyle is also a lean-body lifestyle!

Today’s fundamental tip focuses on the sleep-component. This is above all else in my humble opinion the most important lifestyle factor for not only weight-loss but for optimal health period! If you’re not sleeping DEEP or long enough, every other area of your life will be negatively affected. When I say “deep” I’m not just talking soundly, I’m speaking about a specific phase of sleep. Generally speaking we have 3 phases of sleep that occur in repetitive cycles throughout the night and they are Deep, Light & R.E.M. (Rapid-Eye-Movement). Deep & REM phases are the most important, but our DEEP-sleep phase really has a significant role in weight-loss or as I like to say, improving our lean-body mass. Deep-sleep phase usually sets in typically about 45 mins after we first fall asleep and only lasts for about 20 mins before transitioning back into light-sleep, followed by REM. This cycle repeats over and over again, but with each cycle the deep-phase gets shorter and shorter, for a total of only about 45 minutes of deep-sleep in middle-aged adults.

 Deep-sleep phase is critical to weight-loss and improving lean-body mass because it is when we get our major Growth-Hormone secretion. Growth Hormone not only restores and repairs our soft-tissues and muscles, but is also a major fat-burning hormone! What’s more, inadequate deep-sleep phase has also been associated with higher levels of Ghrelin which is our primary circulating HUNGER hormone! So just remember this: If you’re not sleeping DEEP enough or long enough (which are both quantified specifically & relative to you and your age & lifestyle), not only will you tend to be deficient in Growth Hormone secretion, but you will likely be more hungry throughout the day! Be aware of your sleeping habits and establish discipline in your sleep-hygiene & bedtime routine. You may think you’re more productive by sleeping less than the rest of us, but really you’re shortening your life span so you pay in the end!

Sincerely,
Max

 

Don’t do it.

Don’t make losing weight – losing FAT - more difficult than it has to be. Food is yummy. It is satisfying & comforting. It brings us together with our family & friends. Preparing, serving & enjoying meals is nurturing and is good for the soul. Positive neurotransmitters such as dopamine are literally released just by thinking of our favorite foods. So it doesn’t make sense to completely cut out an entire food group, or deprive ourselves of some of the foods we love most. It doesn’t make sense to starve ourselves.

So do NOT attempt to lose weight – to lose FAT – through dieting alone. It won’t work, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure and it’s unhealthy! So what’s another major component in losing weight that we actually have a lot of control over? You guessed it. You know where I’m headed: EXERCISE!

The more time you can spend exercising the more compromise you will be able to allow within your diet. We all love food, so why not take some of the emphasis off dieting & make room for some moderate indulgence by increasing your time spent exercising or being more active? It’s a tradeoff for sure, and if you’re not willing to completely give up some of your favorite foods or pass on dinner engagements then you need to pay your dues & account for those calories via exercise. Remember also that a sedentary lifestyle by far imposes the most risk to one’s health, not necessarily being over weight! I cannot stress this point enough!

If you’re still not convinced of the significance of incorporating adequate exercise into your weight-loss plan then consider this: Exercise directly & immediately boosts your metabolism not only during exercise, but also following while your body is recovering. Restricting food & cutting calories (while necessary to some degree), eventually slows your resting metabolism. So if all you do is diet, then ultimately your weight-loss efforts are doomed for failure and your health is more at risk due to sedentary lifestyle.

So get up & get your body in motion doing hopefully some kind of physical activity you enjoy, but knowing sometimes you just have to pay your dues & get it done!

Sincerely,
Max
Greetings Sunshine Friends! Okay so our weight-loss (FAT-loss) contest is officially under way & believe me, there is no better source of motivation to lose some pounds than a public competition that even offers reward incentives. Two of the biggest factors in successfully losing weight you now have going for you: Motivation (via contest) and Accountability! These two key components trump almost all other dieting factors, so once you have them in place you are seriously off to a good start.

 

One thing you’ll notice that many of you might have noticed from previous dieting efforts is that during the first 2 weeks the weight starts coming off quickly! This is due to many reasons, certainly including the fact that starting out is when your motivation is strongest. But also due to the fact that physiologically your metabolism has not recognized that you’re on a long term lower calorie diet yet, so it hasn’t had a chance to slow down. And also because much of the initial weight lost is not just from fat, but actually glycogen (stored carbohydrates within your muscles) and water. Did you know that for every gram of glycogen that is stored in your body, three grams of water are required to store it?!

So take serious advantage of this initial rapid weight-loss and ride the wave as long as you can. Even if the weight you’re losing is only 50% fat, you’re still getting slimmer and lighter and attaining positive feelings & psychological benefits that will accumulate into the momentum you will need to carry you into weeks 3 and 4.

A few tips you can start doing RIGHT NOW to directly lose fat & promote a more thermogenic state in your body:

1. Triple your water intake. Stop drinking all soda AND JUICE, but if you must it better be ‘Diet’. Especially slam a full glass of water when you start feeling hungry – this will fill your stomach and dilute stomach acids. Sounds simple but it works! Soda, energy-drinks, and JUICE are loaded with sugar.
2. Drink 5 cups of Green Tea each day, OR, take 4 capsules of NSP’s Green-Tea extract. Green Teas is healthy in every way & contains only 40 mg of caffeine per cup & NSP’s capsules are actually caffeine-free!
3. Eat breakfast, and make it a high-protein/health-fat breakfast, for sustained energy and to kick-start your metabolism!
4. Exercise in some form at least 30 minutes each day or whatever amount you’re able to. THIS IS CRITICAL to healthy long-term weight loss & to preserve muscle & sustain your resting-metabolism!! Get a training partner from your group to hold you accountable to this and keep you company.

Okay, plenty more tips like this to come each week!

Keep me in the loop – and let’s DO THIS!

-Max

Getting Started

• Goal setting: Think big, but start small. Set reasonable goals. Be committed for the long run.
• Remind yourself that lasting weight loss requires a lifestyle change.
• Be accountable. This will help you stick to your plan and overcome temptations.