The 7 barriers that are stopping you from losing weight!

Are you one of the frustrated millions that are doing everything right according to the books your read, magazines and health gurus but still the fat won’t leave you alone?

So you live a healthy lifestyle, you exercise 3 times or more a week either at the gym or an exercise class such as a Bootcamp. You eat healthily, eating protein and vegetables and small amounts of low G.I carbohydrates you let yourself go a little at the weekend with some processed foods and alcohol, BUT still the fat stays!

There does not seem to be any reason for it. FAT should be melting off you. Below I have 7 reasons that it may not be shifting. It’s important to get the lifestyle basics right as getting these wrong can ruin your weight loss efforts, leaving you de-motivated and depressed.

So here we go, the 7 basics that you need to get right on top of your exercise and diet.

STRESS No. 1

Stress can be a massive barrier when it comes to weight loss. I do know people who lose weight when they are stressed. These people usually lose their appetite. This often leads then to putting more eight on than before the stress started due to the shutting down of their metabolism.

Other people use food to comfort them in their stressful situation. People tend to comfort themselves with high calorie foods often high in sugar foods that turn quickly to FAT. This type of food increase the stress on your system and in the long term leaves you more tired and even less motivated!

On a deeper level continued stress plays havoc with you hormones. This in turn plays havoc with your blood sugar making it harder to lose weight and increasing your risk of getting ill.

Lack of sleep

How much sleep do you get? Are you getting 8 hours or are you getting more like 5 or 6?

Ask yourself why you are getting so few hours of sleep. Is it because your life is so full of things that you work right up to the moment you go to bed or are you watching TV when you should have switch the box off and gone to bed. ‘Just until the next adverts, just till the end of this one, I’ll be ok tomorrow I’m used to it’….. What do you say to yourself?

Whether you’re busy or watching TV sleep is a very important to your health. It ties back in with stress and hormone disruption and therefore blood sugar level and your immune system.

Sleep is also important for other reasons as both physical and metal repair happens at this time. Between 10pm and 2am is when your body concentrates on physical repair of the body. After 2am the body focuses on mental repair. A lack of sleep means that you are missing out on parts of the repair system of your body.

Whether you’re watching TV or busy working, not getting enough sleep places STRESS on your body, which disrupts hormone balance, blood sugar levels and immune function. The impact of this will have to wait for another newsletter or blog as you can write whole books on the subject.

Just remember, when you’re tired you are more likely to reach for sugary snack as a pick you up!

Emotions

Do you comfort eat?

Emotions have a big part to play in weight loss and weight gain! Arguing with a loved one, bad day at work, your friend have lost weight again while you struggle or are you pissed off with yourself for failing at your diet again and pigging out!

When you’re depressed, run down or unmotivated do you comfort eat?

Comfort eating does makes you feel better but for how long, 5 mins? Not only do you have the bad day going around in your head you now have the added extra of the guilt of having the comfort food and failing on your diet again! You are also likely to suffer sugar blues on top of feeling bad as 20 to 60 minutes later your blood sugar level drops leaving you with feelings of hunger, irritability and depression. It must be time for another sugary treat!

Low Self Esteem

The way you feel about yourself has a massive impact on the way you act and what you say to yourself. Do you have more respect for others then you do for yourself, care more about other people’s health than your own?

You would never say the things you say to yourself to other people. So why do you think it is ok for you to speak to yourself in that way?

The more you say these things to yourself the more they become true as you will find ways to prove it to yourself! This will lead you to making the wrong choices regarding your food, exercise and lifestyle.

Boredom

I bet you have noticed that when you are busy and focused on the job in hand, you never think about or feel the need to eat! BUT, when you are lazing around and bored you feel hungry and the need to pick, the chocolate or biscuit tin calling your name!

Just like with emotional eating your boredom only subsides for the amount of time it takes to eat the treat, as soon as you have finished your back to thinking about the nibbles again. Often when you start this type of nibbling you don’t stop until there is nothing left, when the whole packet has been consumed!

Social events

Social engagements are one of my client’s favourite excuses for not sticking to a diet plan. Many see it as the ultimate get out!

Not so my friends!

Treating yourself at every opportunity is never going to be conducive to your health and weight loss. I’m not saying that you should never treat yourself but if you a regular social eater then be selective.

• Is it your birthday?
• Is it Christmas?
• A special calibration to mark a promotion or an achievement?

If the answer is no then why are you acting like a glutton? Everybody should have a cheat day but I know people who go out to dinner 3 – 4 times a week and go out for lunch 3 – 4 times a week.

Again I’m not saying don’t go, I’m saying pick your meals more carefully with an eye on your waist and your health. I normally ask restaurants to change things on my plate and very rarely have any problem; I find that 9 times out of 10 they are very accommodating.

The 7^th Barrier

There is only one barrier left to cover today and it’s the hardest one so I hope that you are sitting comfortably. It’s the hardest thing to admit as we tend to hide behind other barriers as excuses but really they all come down to one thing……… YOU!

All the barriers above lead to one thing, the wrong food choices. You are the one making the choices, so the only barrier is YOU!

You can lose weight, improve your health get fit have boundless energy as you have the choice of what to eat and whether to exercise.

Sometimes there are underlying health problems that can get in the way of weight loss. problems that do not allow easy weight loss, but these are for another day!

Committed to your success,

Don’t let YOU get in YOUR way

Keith and Amy

54 second video of our weight loss boot camp in Berko

The other Wednesday day I got my little camera out so that I could give you a real short snap shot of how well these ladies are doing at Bootcamp.

This session was awesome they all worked so hard and were so focused I’m sure some of them lost a pound or two just in this workout!!!!

I know that some of the moves are a little extreme but if you look closely you’ll find that everyone is working to their own ability.

Our boot campers build their exercise complexity carefully over time. We always offer options for people who are new to exercise or have injuries as you will find on the Bootcamp website, just check out the testimonials and then come meet the people!

Enjoy 52 seconds of other people doing the hard work!

Fast Tube by Casper

This stuff work and works fast so come and try out the Bootcamp. Click here to find out how you could have 2 weeks of training for £1 with us!

Click Below;

Boot camp Berkhamsted

Starving in Africa or Obesity, Heart Attack and Diabetes?

I’ve just been having lunch with Clare, steak and salad with olives and avocado, Mmmmm are you jealous?

It was awesome but I’m not writing to give you a case of the green eyed monsters, I want to make you think about your eating habits?

Clare had too much food on her plate for her to finish so she asked if I wanted any.

“No I’m just fine,” I replied.

“Keith, there are children staving in Africa,” she replied in an almost monotone voice.

“And your dying to have a heart attack or diabetes,” I replied.

Clare blinked slowly and then a light went on inside…. “You have got to turn that into a blog!” she said!

So here we are….

There are children staving in Africa and other countries for the want of a good meal but there are also hundreds of thousands if people in developed countries dying from diseases of over eating every day.

In the Boot camp, Personal Training sessions and the Personal Nutrition course food is a major subject day in and day out. Not only do we discuss what we should and should not eat but also our psychological and behavioural attitudes to food.

There are many things that come up time and time again such as depression and comfort eating, the feeling of loving or looking after your loved ones or demonstrating your love for them through food treats, but the biggest one is the inability to leave food on your plate due to a few simple words that have been said to you as children time and time again.

You have to finish your dinner, there are children staving in Africa!!!!

If there was a way of measuring the health effects of a few simple words I’m willing to bet that this sentence is one of the most deadly!

Think about it!

Committed to your success

Keith, Clare and the Team

P.s 3 body fat scales sold already!!!

To Find out more and get yours click here

Tanita Body Fat Scales at a MASSIVE discount for only our Clients and friends

A Very Limited Special Offer For YOU!

We have acquired 11 sets of Tanita body fat scales.   “What’s this and why would I care? I hear you think…..!”

These are the type of scales that we and large national gym’s use in their business to do their health assessments and to track weight loss and body fat progress. If you’re into your weight loss or health and fitness they are a very important tool to keep you focused on your fat loss goal.

Track progress, write your own diet plans

We use them to track progress, write diet plans and gain critical health information about our client health status and weight loss progress.

Understand your body Fat %

These scales will enable you to track your weight, (yes i know Keith, i don’t know if you’ve noticed but any scales will do that!), they will measure the % of your body that’s fat and the % that’s muscle. This is far more important than knowing how much you weigh as lean tissue weight’s 3 times as much as fat! If your training hard this will enable you to track the changes in body composition. This is very important as some people do not lose weight when training but they do change shape and change body composition.

You can also get fat % readings for individual parts of your body such as your right leg, left arms or torso.

Discover the amount of fat stored around you organs and therefore your health risk!

Visceral fat is the fat that is stored around your organs and therefore directly relates to your health. If you score highly here you know you need to take some action to improve your health!

Would you like to know how many calories you should consume a day? These scales will give you an estimate helping you to formulate a diet plan to suit your needs!

Bone and Water %

These scales will also give you bone %’s and hydration % give you the tools you need to make the right health decisions.

They are quick and easy to use… they need to be, you try retesting all the boot-campers on the last Sunday of each month! They have got to work fast.

Do not worry if you are not technically minded as they have a comprehensive instruction manual and I use them every day! For me to use something electrical it’s needs to be idiot proof, you just ask Clare what I’m like with technology!

When I brought these scale I paid £179.99 and if you buy them from John Lewis, Tanita, this is what you would pay. We have pick up 11 sets for Only £125.

Do you want a £55 discount?

Even if you wait for the January sales you’ll not get them at £55 off the RRP.

So who’s in?

• Would your weight loss be easier if you had a professional tool to help you?
• Is it time you used a professional tool to help you set your goals realistically?
• Would you achieve your goals if you were able to track and measure your success properly and understand what happening inside your body?
• Who wants a major discount that normally only comes if you have buying power of a large organisation?

If you would like one of the 11 sets then click the link below and you’ll be able to pop in a pick them up or we will hand deliver them if you are local to us!

Tanita scales for awesome weight loss results for £125.00

BUY NOW

If you would like to pay in instalments please contact Absolute Training on 07971 809 761 thanks

It’s not just about hard work. It’s about doing and achieving things!

I hope that you are all getting lean and mean for the summer.

If you have not started getting into shape don’t leave it any later. The magazines with the headlines flat stomach in 2 week or a 6 pack in 6 days is lying to you…!

I have started my own summer regime, Monday was drop sets, Tuesday 10 rounds of hard boxing and today metabolic circuit training! If it wasn’t for the stiff and sore muscles I’d feeling fighting fit!!!

Our boot camps are about more than just weight loss and fitness this weekend was a big weekend for 12 of our campers!

On the Friday the 25^th a group of excited and slightly anxious Absolute Bootcamp Berkhamsted Bootcampers embarked on a 5 hour journey to North Wales.

For some of it was going to be an event of a lifetime, other a celebration of how far they have come in less than a year!

Joining last September some have gone from sedentary to mountain conqueror in just 9 short months!

We took 15 including me up and brought 15 back. I can’t say for sure that they are the same 15 people as many when through some changes as they conquered fatigue and fears.

We all arrived at the hotel at the bottom of mount Snowdon on Friday evening after a long 5 hour drive. Obviously there were only 2 things on people’s minds…

1)      A good meal

2)      Hitting the bar!

Some of us hit the bar harder than others but a good time was had by all.

By 2.30 most were in bed getting the necessary shut eye for the climb ahead… others (Amy) where still up trying to sober up a little before bed!

Here she is the following morning not looking ready to go????

I think she may have been still drunk as it was not long before she looked like this!

The alarm went off all too soon at 7 for a 7.30 breakfast, then we splint into 2 groups, a fast and a slower group.

The fast group had an extra job to do.

Drop the cars off on the other side of Snowdon and then get back and catch up the other group who would have about an hour head start.

I led the faster group and we quickly got our kit together and got off to the drop point. My dad (Tony in this photo) led the slower group who then signed out the hotel and started their climb up the mountain.

I don’t know if you like driving, but if you do I can recommend the Snowdon area, but make sure that you have someone who knows where they are going or a good satnav!

I thought we were trouble…. As I heard my co-pilot come out with the quote of the weekend…. She (Susan) was doing the map reading…

“I think we’re in trouble. There does not seem to be a wiggle for the wiggle that we are on!!!!…..

Possibly not what you want to hear when you are throwing your car through the lanes of Snowdonia we 3 other cars following you rely on you to not get lost!

All was good though the map just needed turning round so that all the wiggles matched up.

We quickly got back from the dropping off of the car and started our assent. The pace was brisk and I have to give congratulation to Angie White, Neil Williams, Susan Beddal and Gale Jackson as they kept the pace and stormed the mountain!

We caught the up with the other team at about 12.30.

It was then a hard climb to the top as we were climbing in 25+ degree heat without a cooling wind.

We regrouped before the top….

Amy had to regroup mentally as well as physically, hangover in full swing in 25 degree heat!!!!

The top was gained in 4 hours so we had celebratory nibbles, water and a photo. After we all used the new toilets and congratulating ourselves for getting there regardless of painful bits and medical conditions it was time to start back down.

We started in good sprit’s knowing lunch was going to be an hour or less away and that we were on our way home….  The happy campers soon learned that down is a lot harder than up. For those of you who have never climbed a mountain, the down part is harder for 2 reasons. 1) The strain on the leg muscle and knee joints is far greater and 2) uneven ground covered in lose pebbles becomes treacherous.

Although people knees and leg were getting tired after lunch everyone battled on. Strong breeze was cooling us and our bellies were full again. Amy’s hang over was subsiding and she was starting to look positively perky!

We got to the car park on the other side of Snowdon about 8 hours after the first group had left the hotel.

Time for a finishers photo a good congratulatory slap on the back!

Well done to everyone one who climbed, I really enjoyed myself. We’ll choose a different mountain next year for some more climbing and photo taking.

I have heard mention and interest for doing the 3 peaks challenge I’ll be asking those of you interested soon. But for the time being it’s time to look forward to the summer BBQ in July and then the next activity weekend in September.

Hope to see you all there,

Keith

P.S – You see Absolute Bootcamp Berkhamsted is not just about the exercise and the weight loss, we are also about the experience and friendship that can only be gained through experiencing things together.

Are toxins keeping you fat and tired?

I hope that you have enjoyed the weather over the last couple of days. BBQ’s are a good way of esting plenty of fresh vegetable and meat, just look out for the puddings and the acohol consumption…. I don’t know about you but when the Barbe comes out I go straight into holiday mode!

Anyway, detoxinifcation, how toxins are making you fat and sluggish and which vegetable you need to by organic!

I think that we all know that it’s a good idea to buy organic varieties of fruit and vegetables but we are often unsure as to why. You can read articlse in the paper stating that organic varieties have a higher vitamin and mineral content and then read the following day that they don’t!

For me it’s not just about the nutrient density, it’s also about the toxic load. Before we get onto this let’s just stick with the nutrient density. You are always going to find discrepancies between which is better, the organic variety or the factory farmed. This is due to 2 reasons;

1)      It depends on who’s doing the study or who is paying for it and what they have got to lose by the study not finding in their favour

2)      Soil quality, let me explain with a little back groud information.

Back in 1936 a group of doctors introduced document 264. This document was a warning to the senate that the mineral content of the soil was eroding and that the vitamin and mineral content of our produce was at risk and would not be ble to support the health of the nation. Since this time nothing has been done to correct the problem and it has become a global problem!

It’s going to take time for the soil to recover it’s nutrient density therefore it’s going to take some time before we see supermarket organic produce that is consistantly higher in nutritional density than facory farmed produce.

Elmer Heinrich in his book, the root of all disease states that we need 10 servings of vegetable just too equal 1 serving of vegetable from 50 years ago.

Back to Toxins!

It’s better to buy organic as they do NOT have the toxic load that factory farmed produce has. A toxin is a substance that causes harm to the body. The immune system, liver and kidneys work hard to break down and excrete these toxins but they often become over loaded due to our level of exposure.

When you consider the exposure from our environment, factories, cars, air fresheners and then we add in perfumes, deodorant, cosmetics and shower gel and then on top of this our food we could over time overload our systems ability to cope and to detoxify us.

Just for a moment think of the pressure on your detoxification systems if you do this every day for 30 years, 40 years even 50 years and then add in that most people don’t get good quality exercise or sunlight in, don’t drink enough water, have poor quality sleep and consume processed food and don’t eat to their metabolic type. It’s not a surprise that our systems could be compromised and that we may suffer some symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, stomach problems, regualar head aches or lifestyle diseases, cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes etc.

Weight loss in itself is a process of detoxification. Many toxins are fat soluble, if the body can’t process them it stores them in fat cells to be delt with later, therefore increasing your weight. Many people never give their body enough of e rest from toxins to enable the body to retreve the toxins from the fat cells and process them. They therefore get fatter and fatter on the toxins they consume.

To assist your liver and to help your weight loss or health you should follow the advice of the Environmental working group;

12 Foods you should only buy Organic!

Buy these organic only

1)      Peach

2)      Apple

3)      Bell Pepper

4)      Celery

5)      Nectarine

6)      Strawberries

7)      Cherries

8)       Kale

9)      Lettuce

10)   Grapes

11)   Carrot

12)   Pear

Ok even if not organic

1)      Onion

2)      Avocado

3)      Sweet Corn

4)      Pineapple

5)      Mango

6)      Asparagus

7)      Sweet Peas

8)      Kiwi

9)      Cabbage

10)   Aubergine

11)   Papaya

12)   Watermelon

13)   Broccoli

14)   Tomato

15)   Sweet potato

Healthy weight loss, lifestyle disease prevention all require you to give you body a break from time to time, and let it detoxify itself and recharge.

Here is quite a simple detoxification programme for you to follow;

• For 5 days keep all sugar, grain, grain based products, dairy and processed foods out of your diet
• Eat organic fruit, vegetable and meat
• Drink at least 2 litres of water throughout each day
• Introduce some super foods such as  Spirulina, cocoa, macca powder and aloe vera

You can fine these and other products at the follow website;

www.creative-nature.co.uk

www.aggressivehealth.co.uk

To find out more about foods, detoxificcation and weight loss come to the nutrition course, the £1 bootcamp trial or £9.95 for 3 personal training session trial

Committed to your success

Keith, Clare and the Team

Does One Size Fit All

Below I’m going to discuss one size fits all approach to weigh loss and health. I have a basic strategy which will help you to discover what foods are helping you and which are hindering as well as 7 top tips for weight loss and health success…

Hey, I hope that you day is going awesome,

One of the questions I get asked and emailed time and time again is;

What should I have to eat?

Now I know that this sounds like a really easy question to answer and I’m going to give you some guidelines at the end but I need to explain that it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Did you know that the failure rate for diets is about 80%?

Yep it’s a big failure rate and means that you need to ask WHY this happens?

You may have noticed with your friends, family or colleagues that one diet that works really well for someone makes someone else feel awful and actually gain weight.

Have you also noticed that when people participate in one size fits all guidelines their ailments do not improve in fact, they often get worse!

What do I mean by ailments? Headaches, muscle aches, digestive issues such as reflux, bloating, cramping, pains and IBS.

Again the word WHY springs to mind… They are on a diet, surely that means they are getting healthier!

The problem is that many diets are not healthy…. I know what you’re thinking…… “Thanks Keith, that’s great. I have come to your blog and all you have told me is what I knew already!”

Yep I know, it obvious that just eating cabbage or just drinking milk/soup or doing shakes is not healthy or cutting your calories down to 1000 per day and yes that is commonsense, but let’s look at the problem in a little more detail.

Hippocrates was an early observer of the importance of food to your health he equated food to medicine. Some foods can be toxic to your body, slowly poisoning you even though you may not be aware this happening, we call this a chronic degenerative pathways and is the reason why ‘one man’s food can be another man’s poison’ or for us one persons diet can be another persons poison!

Steak for instance makes some people feel really good and others feel really tired. I, myself start the day with a piece of steak as it will but me in a great mood and make me feel full of energy for the day, but I can’t give this guideline to someone else as their body might not like it! They could go the opposite way, tired and grumpy…..

One needs to eat to ones type!

I am, what’s known as a parasympathetic fast oxidiser….. Mmmmm sound complicated right, but this just describes how my metabolism is functioning at the moment. In reality it means basing my diet around carbohydrates would be a very BAD idea and difficult for me to stick to. I used to be a carbohydrate monster being a Personal Trainer and a competing Sportsman, it’s what I was told I had to eat for energy. (How wrong could they have been!) I was grumpy and tired almost all the time and never felt properly well and energised and I was in my early 20’s!

Once I started eating to my METABOLIC TYPE (MBT) or eating genetically correct foods for me I felt awesome having increased, sustained energy, maintaining a lower body fat percentage and all the little aches and pains that I was suffering from in my gut cleared up.

Eating to your MBT is possibly the single most important thing you could do to gain and maintain a healthy weight and overcome health issues at the same time.

Click here to find out your metabolic type and how to implement it into your life

Here are 7 top tips to get you started in the right direction.

1. Experiment with your food and listen to what your body is telling you about it. Have a day where you eat Carbs at each meal, a day where you eat lean protein at each meal and a day where you eat a high fat content at each meal. 2 hours after each meal ask yourself, how do I feel? Full/hungry, tired/energised, grumpy/happy etc. You’ll soon find out which foods make you feel the best and therefore what to eat at each meal to get the best results for you. This is far from your metabolic type but is a place to start before you come on the nutrition course with us.
2. Base your diet around real whole foods. Meat, fish, vegetables, nuts and a small amount of fruit.
3. Avoid processed foods, grains and COW’s dairy for at least 7 days. Add cows dairy back in on its own and see how you feel and then try adding in SMALL amounts of grain and see how you feel.
4. Sip water throughout the day. Although this will not directly help you to lose weight it will help your detoxification systems which will help your weight loss. It has also been shown to reduce the symptoms of back pain, arthritic pain and digestive issues.
5. Get some fresh air and sunshine everyday
6. Exercise at least 3 x per week at a high intensity
7. Come on the nutrition course and learn a little bit about how food works in the body so that you are in control of hunger, cravings and your weight loss rather than them being in control of you.

Committed to your success

Keith, Clare and the Team

Achieving your goals, health, fitness, financial and weight loss

Have you noticed how some people have all the luck? They seem to effortlessly get everything they want!

I know it seem like they are just lucky but usually this is just not the case, they not lucky.

I can guarantee they have a different mindset to you. It’s all about what you tell yourself. Whatever your inner monologue is saying is what will happen. There is plenty of science and physiology that back this up.

There is an area of the brain called the central reticular activating system that stops you being overwhelmed by information. It helps you to focus on what’s important at any one time. If you keep negative thoughts/words in your mind body and soul you will get negative results as this system will help you to focus on the negative.

It’s a fact in life, bad things happen but it’s how you cope with it. You have a choice whenever something happens. You can either get stressed which will cause more worries and everything to seem worse or you can take it on the chin and think how you can overcome this and put a positive twist on it.

I have a question for you, what is your main goal for health and fitness?

The answer you have given to this question could tell me a lot about your mentality and your long term success rate.

If your answer was “I don’t want to be fat anymore and I am fed up of being tired”

This type of answer will not help you achieve your goal as you are keeping “being fat and tired” very much alive and in the front of your mind. Without you even realising it you are focusing on being fat and tired. We want you guys to move towards your goals not to move away from your current state.

So let ask the question again and reframe the answer, ‘What is your main goal for health and fitness?’

“I would like to have more energy and to feel sexy and comfortable in myself”

With this answer you are moving towards your goal and this is now what you are focusing on.

You now will have the start of a very powerful tool that will help you achieve your goals in life and to keep long term success.

I’m not saying that changing your whole mind set is easy, it is something that could be very emotional but with our 100% support and your awareness of it you can achieve it.

You need to really focus and concentrate on what YOU want, what will make you happy. Remember the unconscious mind needs to know what you are aiming for and you get what you concentrate on.

This is similar to a person walking through a field and always taking a particular route. After a number of times through the field, a path will begin to form. As the path forms, the person’s pace will become faster since he knows where to go and consequently the grass is worn down under one’s steps, eventually becoming a well trodden track. In the same manner, by having clients focus on what they want, a neuron path for the desired state and its associated behaviour will begin to form.

Each step is a step closer, so today I want you to focus on what you want and if a negative thought or feeling may cross your mind I want you to consciously reframe it into a positive though or sentence. Doing this consciously will then help the unconscious mind to build that pathway.

Each morning think of three positive things you would like to achieve today for example:

I would like to attend Bootcamp/personal training session today

I would like to go the whole day eating the best possible foods

I would like to spend quality time with my family

There are three positive actions that will improve my day.

Each night before you go to sleep I would like you to think about the day and only focus on the positive things that happened in your day.

Remember there is ALWAYS a positive!

Amy

Trust a scientist? Not as far as I can throw him, and I have strained ligaments in my back at the moment!

This is a true, on Monday at 5am, yes 5am! Lifted a weight at a funny angle, quite a heavy one I might add and I have strained the ligaments in the middle of my back. For those of you in the know, my thoracic spine!

So I’m not superman, which up till this point I was thoroughly convinced that I was, but according to clients I’m still a Disney character! Mmmmm…..

Enough about me! On to the lipid hypothesis and scientists!

This post is article 3 in my cholesterol series. Today we are going to look at fat and it’s role in health and heart disease. If you have not already you may wish to read articles 1 and 2 first so that you don’t miss out anything.

Article 1 – The-truth-about-cholesterol-part1

Article 2 – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Ready?

Let us then look at the lipid hypothesis

What is a hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a theory, suggestion or supposition. It is what somebody thinks should happen and it is then either up to them or others to prove whether this theory is right or wrong. This is how a scientific experiment is started. The scientist starts with a theory and then does a test to see if his theory is correct.

If he/she was correct then the theory becomes a fact, if they weren’t then it is a disprove theory and the result’s become the fact.

Or so you would think, but not in the case of cholesterol and the lipid hypothesis. This is the theory that can’t die no matter how many time’s it is disproved!

What is the lipid Hypothesis?

This is the theory that Saturated (animal) Fat intake is directly linked to blood cholesterol levels, this in turn causes arthrosclerosis (build up of plaque in the arteries), resulting in a heart attack or coronary heart disease (CHD).

This theory sound’s great, right and accurate, but remember it’s a theory until proven to be fact.

And this is where it falls apart…..

We can start by looking at the archaeological record and evidence gathered from surviving hunter gathers. Here we find that animal products, fats have been consumed in far higher quantities as we evolved for the last 3 million years than are consumed now. In fact an average 80% of our daily calories used to come from animal fats.

Dr Weston A Price studied the health and diets of un-modernised tribes back in the 1920 making very detailed findings of diet, health, disease, bone structure and longevity and found time and time again that tribes had a high fat, high protein diet but very low levels of illness and almost no incidences of premature heart disease or stroke. (1/2)

We look slightly deeper at this research in these 2 books on the Personal Nutrition Course

We can trace the origins of the Lipid Hypothesis theory back to 1953 and a study performed by Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota. Ancel Keys constructed a graph that compared death rates from heart disease with total fat intake in from 6 countries and plotted a correlation between the 2 factors. What he did NOT do was publish the data from all 22 countries that was available to him.

Why not I hear you ask….. Because if you used all the data, it does not show a correlation between high fat intake and coronary heart disease!

Population comparison studies are often fatally flawed.

Calories from fat tend to be more expensive, so the countries that eat more fat also eat more sugar, smoke, drive cars and have DVD players and satellite television. If you look at the studies you could plot the incidences of heart attack against number of TV’s owned and you’ll see that in countries where a high % of the population own TV’s they also have high incidences of heart disease.

Does that mean that having a TV is a risk factor for heart disease?

I have to be honest and say that personally I think the haunted fish tank (TV) is a risk factor of heart disease due to lifestyle decisions it makes us make! But just owning one is not and does not cause heart disease.

So In summary, population comparison studies are great for highlighting RISK FACTORS, but do not prove a hypothesis. They are even less usable when 17 out of 22 (77% of the available data), is left out.

But let’s not stop with one study, let us take a look at some others.

Experts assure us that the lipid hypothesis is backed by scientific proof, but there is very little evidence to support a connection between fat, cholesterol and health problems such as heart disease and stroke.

Before we hit the studies consider this for a moment;

Before the 1920’s heart disease was rare, so rare that when the electrocardiograph was invented the inventor (Paul Dudley White) was told to concentrate on something more profitable.

By the mid 1950’s heart disease had become one of the leading causes of deaths particularly in America.

Today, up to 40% of all deaths are from heart disease. If it was caused by animal/saturated fat you would expect to see a similar rise in the amount consumed, but we don’t. We see a drop of about 20 – 25%, but an increase in the use of refined vegetable oils of about 400% and an increase of sugar and processed foods of about 60%.

Are you ready for some studies?

Framingham Heart Study

This is often quoted as being the study that proves the lipid hypothesis. It is a long range study which started in 1948 and involved 6,000 people who all lived in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. The participants of this study were split into 2 groups, those that consumed little saturated fat and cholesterol and those that consumed large amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. The 2 groups were compared at 5 year intervals over 40 years!

After 40 years the director of the study stated;

“In Framingham, Massachusetts, the more saturated fat one eats, the more cholesterol one eats, the more calories one eats, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol….. We found that the people that ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the LEAST and were the most physically active “

What the Framingham study did show was that people who weighed more had abnormally high blood cholesterol levels and were at slightly more risk for future heart problems. The study also showed that there was an inverse correlation between weight gain and cholesterol levels and the amount of fat and cholesterol intake.

This means people who ate more fat and cholesterol were thinner and had lower cholesterol levels than those that ate less saturated fat and ate less cholesterol!

Multi-year British Heart Study

This study involved several thousand British males who were split into equal half’s. The first half were asked to reduce their saturated fat and cholesterol consumption, to stop smoking and increase their consumption of vegetable oils and margarine. After 1 year those on the lower fat and cholesterol diet had 100% more deaths even though the high fat dieters continued to smoke! The publishers of the study ignored the studies finding and published the following;

“The implication for a public health policy in the UK is that a preventive programme such as we evaluated in this trial is PROBABLY effective…..”

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that ignoring the results in favour of a politically correct answer is particularly scientific and I sure as hell don’t see the word probably as being a good word to base a nation’s health policy on.

But let’s move on and have a look at another trial, MRFIT.

The Multiple Risk Intervention Trial (MRFIT)

Ok, this one was sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood institute (USA), and compared mortality rates and eating habits of over 12,000 men.  Again we have 2 groups those that reduced their intake of saturated fats, cholesterol and smoking and those that didn’t. This study did show a marginal decrease in Heart disease in those that reduced fat cholesterol and stopped smoking, BUT and it is a big BUT their overall mortality rate (Death rate), was a lot higher.

They died from cancer, brain tumours, suicide and violent death (We’ll talk a different day as to why they died of these things on a low cholesterol diet). So the reduction in fats did not mean that they lived longer healthier more full filling lives they just died of something else.

At this point I’d like to tell you about a diet Guru that you may have heard of, Nathan Pritkin of the Pritkin diet.

Nathan Pritkin was a well know advocate of the low fat diet. His diet also focused on whole natural foods eliminating sugar and processed foods and included a strict intensive exercise regime. This diet had a great success rate for lowering blood pressure , cholesterol levels and losing weight, but…

Have you noticed that there always seem to be a but?

BUT,

People had problems staying on it due to low energy, difficulty in concentration, depression, weight gain and mineral deficiencies.

Using this diet Pritkin did manage to save himself from heart disease but it could not help him recover from leukemia. Sadly, he died in the prime of his life of suicide when he realised that his diet was not working.

You may call me old fashioned but I don’t really want to die of heart disease, cancer or depression leading to suicide.

Let’s move on and look at some other population studies;

Population 1 – Yemen/Israel

Jews living in Yemen with diets consisting solely of fats from animal origin V.s Yemenite Jews living in Israel eat margarine and vegetable fats. (4)

This study revealed little heart disease or diabetes in the animal fats group but high levels of both disease in the vegetable oil and margarine group. It was also noted that this group also consumed a high level of sugar.

Population 2 – India

North V.s South India. The population in northern India consume on average 17 times more animal fat but their incidences of coronary heart disease is 7 times lower than that of southern Indians. (4)

Population 3 – Africa

The Masai of Africa mainly eat and drink milk, blood and beef which is all high in fat but they are free from heart disease and have low cholesterol levels. (4)

Population 4 – Eskimo

Eskimo’s when on their native diet of animal fats from Fish and marine animals are free from disease. (4)

Population 5 – Chinese

In a study of 65 Chinese counties it was found that those that consumed large amounts of whole milk had half the rate of heart disease as areas that consumed less animal product. (4)

Population 6 – Mediterranean

We are often told to follow the Mediterranean diet as there is a lower incidence of heart disease. For some reason we think that just adding olive oil to everything is the key ingredient….?

70% of the calories that are consumed are from saturated fat sources coming from goat’s cheese, lamb and sausage. The population of Crete is a great example as they are known for their good health and longevity and their native diet is primarily made from the above ingredients. (4)

Population 7 – Puerto Ricans

Matines. I. Et al (1975) looked at the correlation between cancer and high fat intake. It was found that Puerto Ricans consumed large amounts of animal fat but have very low incidences of colon and breast cancer. (4)

Population 8 – Japanese

The Japanese have the longest life span of any population in the world. This is largely attributed to a low fat diet. The Japanese eat little dairy, but their diet is not low fat! It possible that the Japanese consume more cholesterol than we do in the UK or the Americans! This is due to the amounts of shellfish and fish broth they consume on a daily basis. The diet also contain moderate amounts of egg, beef, pork, chicken, seafood and organ meats. What the Japanese do NOT do is consume a lot of vegetable oil, white flour or processed foods. Since WWII the life span of the Japanese has increase in line with the increase of the amount of animal fat and protein in their diet. (4)

Population 9 – France

The French diet is loaded with saturated fat in the form of butter, eggs, cheese, cream, liver and meats. In Gascony Goose and duck liver for a staple part of the diet. In this region 80 out of 100,000 middle aged men get heart disease. Across France it about 145 in every 100,000 in middle aged men and in America 315 out of every 100,000 middle aged men get heart disease.

Although the French are not suffering from Heart disease they do have a high incidence of degenerative diseases from the large amount of sugar, white flour and the time saving processed foods. (4)

Just to finish I would like to look at the 3 longest living populations in the developed world. First place goes to the Japanese, second to the Swiss and third place is a tie between Austria and Greece. All of the countries have moderate to high saturated fat intakes.

We could go on to look at animal studies but I have to ask you if you were a rabbit would you not keel over and die if you were force fed meats and cholesterol that you body has no idea how to digest because you are designed to process grass and dandelion leaves? I think your own common sense can put that one together without any pushing from me!

Lol

Committed to your health and success

Keith

Cholesterol Part 2 – The Good, The Bad and the UGLY!

I’m sorry to break some bad news to you today, you may want to sit down first.

Ready?

There is no good and bad cholesterol!

There I said it… Did the world end… No…. ok, great let’s get on with it then.

The substances that we call good and bad cholesterol are not in fact cholesterol they are a substance called lipoproteins. There are several types of lipoprotein, Chylomicron, VLDL, IDL, LDL, Lp(A) and HDL.
These are all protein based carrier molecules. Neither fats nor cholesterol dissolve in water, (not water soluble). This means that they need to be carried by molecules that are.

The most important lipoprotein molecules for us to concentrate on are LDL, HDL and Lp(a).
You may have thought that LDL (low density lipoprotein), is BAD cholesterol and HDL (High density Lipoprotein), is GOOD cholesterol, but by now you know that they are not cholesterol.
These protein molecules carry cholesterol from the liver to the body’s tissues and from the tissues back to the liver. LDL carries cholesterol out and HDL carries unused cholesterol back where it is used in bile to break down fat in your digestion process.

So where does Lp(a) come into it….? Ok, this is where you move ahead of many doctors and where you start to learn the Good Stuff!

Lp(a) is another form of LDL. It does have a little difference though, it has 2 types of protein on the outside of it, which allow the body to recognise it and then for it to attach to specific areas to do its job.

Now there are many ways in which your cholesterol level can be given to you. Your doctor may measure your cholesterol level and give you;

1. Your HDL score
2. Your LDL score
3. Total cholesterol level
4. Ratio of HDL to LDL

The problem is that none of these mention your Lp(a) level, which is a shame as it may be the only one that is any use in the assessment of your heart health and the risk of you getting heart disease.

Right, we need to get on with looking at cholesterol itself rather than hanging around with these proteins.

Due to something called the Lipid Hypothesis, which I’ll ramble on more about tomorrow, we tend to feel that cholesterol is a form of fat or is ‘made’ from fat. I’m going to burst this bubble as well, cholesterol is not made from fat and fat is not used to make cholesterol. Cholesterol is a waxy molecule made from a form acetyl-CoA…

What? Not fat?

Nop, no fat in cholesterol it is a waxy molecule steroid metabolite and only comes in one form there are no types, there is no good and bad, it only has one molecular shape which is used to do all the jobs that we mentioned in the previous post.

To make cholesterol your body starts with the substance acetyl-CoA and then 13 chemical changes later it becomes cholesterol!

Hey presto! No fat at all….

Well not quite Hey Presto, there are other chemical and enzymes involved, but not fat in this process.

In summary

• You don’t have a cholesterol level you have a lipoprotein level

• Lipoproteins carry cholesterol from the liver to the tissue and then from the tissue to the liver

• Lp(a) is a form of lipoprotein which is not talked about, but does have an association to heart disease and many doctors seem to have no idea.

• There is no fat in cholesterol, they are not the same thing and are not similar molecules

Complicated? A little but we’ll separate it all out as we go!

Next time…. Dumb Mistake thinking you could trust scientists to be scientific! The Lipid Hypothesis

Committed to your success

Keith

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