Cheating On Your Meals

Hello All,

Sorry this is such a long one but it is written through popular request. Hopefully it will answer your questions.

Nearly every client I have ever had goes through a stage when they cannot believe how much they are eating and still losing weight. Testimonials contain very clichéd statements such as ‘Wow, I am literally eating myself thin!’ Success breeds success and most clients enrol for a second six weeks. However, due to either an inability to deal with a heavy Monday scale weight, or simply wanting to lose weight even more quickly, towards the end of the second programme people begin to question the efficacy of a day off at the weekend. The purpose of this newsletter is to explain to you precisely why a good Cheat Day can really help you achieve your weight loss goals with no deprivation. A good newsletter for you then!

People are often very surprised when they see me eat certain foods. Their eyebrows rise when they see me eat bacon, they are shocked when they see me use butter and they nearly fall to the floor when they see me enjoy a piece of chocolate cake. The look on their faces is almost as if they are waiting for me to tell them the good news..."Chocolate cake has been found to contain antioxidants and is good for your health." Or "Chocolate cake has now been shown to prevent heart disease and actually lower blood pressure."

Sorry. None of these statements are even remotely true. But wait, there is good news. I do think there is a two-fold benefit to eating chocolate cake (or any not so healthy food of your choice) every once in a while.

The first is the mental component to never telling yourself there is anything you CAN'T have. Tell a child they can't do something and what happens? They want to do it even more. As adults we are exactly the same, and the instant you tell yourself there is a food you CAN'T have, you begin to crave and want that food even more.

With that being said, there are some foods I will absolutely never go near. Not because I tell myself I can't, rather, I don’t want to because I know how horrible they are and how damaging their contents are for my body. A perfect example of this is any fast food. I've seen way too many documentaries, have read more than enough research and know exactly what goes into a Fast Food Burger. Those kinds of toxic chemicals will never cross my lips (or at least I will do everything possible to make sure it doesn't happen).

However, every once in a while I do enjoy a good pudding, a home baked lasagne, or a cheesy, gooey casserole that might not be 100% Altered Images friendly.

Do I indulge in these foods all the time? Of course not. The greater percentage of all of my meals and foods are in the healthy category, but I do know from personal experience that never restricting myself, or ‘depriving’ myself, has really helped me establish my way of eating as a way of life and not some crash diet.

Here's more good news and the second reason this approach may help you achieve your own health and weight goals. There are now several studies showing the physical benefits to eating some less than healthy foods each week. Yes, it may actually be a good thing for your metabolism. I have heard several credible authors and health professionals talk about this concept before and there is credible scientific research to back this up. In fact, so convinced am I, that it forms an integral part of the Altered Images Programme and is a principle that I have adopted for life. The results of this metabolism boosting strategy speak for themselves.

I'm always a bit sceptical (ok, a lot sceptical) when people tell me "Oh yeah, you can eat ice-cream and pizza and still lose weight". Huh? Lose weight how? By then never eating ever again?

However, research clearly explains otherwise. The principles are based on the concept of a well planned out, metabolic enhancing, higher caloric intake day. NOT a meal plan consisting of unhealthy foods all day every day (It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize that just won't work in the long term). So what does the latest research say?

The Most Important Hormone You Never Heard Of In Your Fat Loss Efforts

It's name is Leptin (derived from the Greek word leptos, meaning ‘thin’), and it's without a doubt the most important hormone you probably never heard of. You see, leptin was only first discovered just over 10 years ago, and as far as weight loss is concerned, that's extremely recent.

Leptin's function? To communicate your nutritional status to your body and brain.

Leptin levels are mediated by two things. One is your level of body fat. All else being equal, people with higher levels of body fat will have higher leptin levels than those with lower levels of body fat and vice versa. If you've got more fat on your body, you've got more leptin. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just remember that. Because leptin is secreted by fat cells, it makes sense that under normal conditions there is a direct correlation between leptin levels and the amount of fat you are carrying.

Unfortunately, when you're attempting to lose fat and begin to restrict calories, conditions are anything but "normal" and the body responds accordingly by lowering leptin levels. An ‘emergency’ type response by your body that is not good. This is because the second mediator of blood leptin levels is your calorie intake. Lower your calorie intake and leptin will fall, independent of body fat. Calorie restriction is a direct cause for leptin plummeting to low levels and you will soon find out, a situation we want to avoid. Yes, you can be overweight and still suffer from low leptin levels - just go on a diet.

So what happens when leptin levels fall and why does it matter?

Again, under normal conditions leptin levels are normal and the brain gets the signal loud and clear that nutrition intake is adequate. Metabolism is high and the internal environment of the body is one very conducive to fat burning. Normal leptin levels in the body indicate normal and higher metabolism function, a situation we do want.

Until you start dieting. Go on a diet and leptin levels quickly plummet (by 50% or more after only one week), sending a signal to the body that you're semi-starved and not consuming enough calories. This puts the breaks on metabolism and creates a hormonal environment extremely conducive to fat storage. Thyroid hormones (hormones extremely important to metabolism) respond by taking a dive and the abdominal fat-storing stress hormone cortisol skyrockets measurably. Your body will think you're starving and hold on to fat for dear life. HELLO belly fat.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the appetite stimulating hormones ghrelin, neuropeptide-Y, and anandamide all hop on board to make your life even more miserable. You don't have to remember any of those names, just remember that when leptin drops, you get seriously hungry.

Despite having a pretty good reason for its reaction, it's pretty ironic that our bodies are primed for fat loss at every other time except when we are trying to burn fat. Wouldn't it be great if we could maintain high leptin levels and a body primed for fat burning while dieting? It would seemingly solve all of our problems. But in order to do this, we'd have to somehow keep leptin levels high as we attempt to lose those extra pounds.

(Keep reading as I will tell you exactly what will NOT work to maintain high levels of leptin and exactly what will work.)

HOW ABOUT ‘SUPPLEMENTING’ WITH LEPTIN?

A couple of problems here: First, leptin is a protein based hormone, which means that it cannot be taken orally (otherwise, it would simply be digested). So that rules out a leptin pill. This leaves the method of supplemental leptin administration to injection. And leptin injections DO indeed work, reversing the metabolic adaptations to dieting and ‘starvation’ even while continuing to restrict calories.

In 1996, Ahima et al used leptin injections to reverse starvation-induced neuroendrocrine adaptations in mice. "Well, that's nice and all, but I'm human." Point taken; research with rodents doesn't always correlate to similar findings in humans, however...

In 1999, Heymsfield et al performed a double-blind placebo controlled study analyzing weight loss over a 24-week period in 73 obese humans. Subjects either injected daily with leptin or a placebo (i.e. bogus alternative). At the end of the 24-week period, the leptin group lost significantly more weight than the placebo and a higher percentage of fat vs. muscle. In 2002, Rosenbaum et al. administered low-dose leptin to subjects (male and female) who had dieted to a 10% decrease in body weight. During the diet period, thyroid hormone levels, 24-hr energy expenditure, and other metabolic markers substantially decreased. The result of the leptin replacement therapy?...All of these endocrine changes were reversed...Thyroid output and daily calorie burn increased back to pre-diet levels.

In 2003, Fogteloo et al showed that leptin injections "tended to reduce the decline of energy expenditure associated with energy restriction, whereas the tendency of energy intake to increase back to baseline levels in placebo-treated subjects was largely prevented in subjects treated with leptin."

Yes, that's a mouthful. Let me put in simple terms: not only did the leptin group experience less of a decline in metabolism, but they were also less hungry, allowing them to more easily stick to the prescribed diet.

In 2004, Welt et al reported that leptin given to a group of women with thyroid disorder immediately raised circulating concentrations of the thyroid hormones T3 and T4. In 2005, Rosenbaum and company were at it again, again showing that energy expenditure and circulating concentrations of T3 and T4 all returned to pre-weight-loss levels with regular leptin injections.

So, as theorised, keeping leptin levels high during a diet does indeed solve our dilemma by avoiding the negative metabolic (and perhaps behavioural) adaptations that calorie restriction perpetuates.

The problem?

Daily leptin injections are far too expensive, costing thousands and thousands of pounds per week. So, we can pretty much forget about supplemental leptin as a solution (which is probably moot anyway considering that not too many people are going to voluntarily plunge a needle into their skin daily).

A REAL Solution

Now that we know that leptin injections aren't going to save us, let's talk about the possibility of manipulating your body's natural leptin production. And I've got good news - this can indeed be done, and without involving needles or thousands of pounds. In fact, we'll swap the injections and mounds of cash for two things I can guarantee you're absolutely going to love: more calories and more carbohydrates.

We know that leptin levels decrease by about 50% after only one week of dieting, but fortunately, it doesn't take nearly that long for leptin to bump back up with a substantial increase in caloric intake. In fact, research has shown that it only takes about 12-24 hours.

So, the answer to the fat loss catch-22? Strategic high-calorie, high-carb CHEATING.

By strategically cheating with high calorie foods (and yes, even stuff like pizza, ice cream, chicken wings, cookies, burgers, chips, etc), you can give leptin and metabolism a major boost mid-diet which sets you up for plenty of subsequent fat loss when you resume your reduced calorie eating regimen.

This means greater net fat loss week after week, and ultimately, a much more realistic, maintainable way to bring you to the body you truly want and deserve.

This is a good point to remind you that foods like fast food burgers and chips, and cookies and treats containing toxic chemicals like hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup have no place in anyone's meal plans, no matter what. We've got many other great cheat foods to choose from but keep reading and we'll talk about that in a second.

So what's so special about carbs? Well, leptin, carbohydrate and insulin have been shown to have very strong ties. Calories alone don't get the job done, as research shows that overfeeding on protein and fat has little effect on leptin.

In order to get a strong leptin response from overfeeding, there needs to be plenty of carbs in the mix. In fact, the relationship is SO strong that research conducted by Boden et al at the Temple University School of Medicine shows that leptin levels will not fall even in response to all-out fasting so long as insulin and blood sugar are maintained via IV drip!

Because of this carbohydrate/insulin-leptin relationship, it makes sense that foods combining both carbs and fat (like pizza, burgers, cookies, ice cream, etc) work best for reversing the negative adaptations caused by dieting because of the BIG-TIME insulin response they produce.

Ok, so now look through fresh eyes at your mum’s lasagne, or the phenomenal carb laden dinner served at the next party you attend. And don't skip the birthday or wedding cake at your next event. All of these just seem like better options to me than fast food burgers and cookies. Go for the high quality stuff and stay away from flat out ‘junk’ foods.

THIS is why strategic cheating with your favourite foods is so powerful. THIS is why you truly can use your favourite foods to lose fat faster than you ever could with restrictive dieting. THIS is freedom.

Essentially, Altered Images has been advocating this approach for years on the basis of real world results. Now the research is backing it up. It's everything ‘typical’ dieting isn't.

With regular dieting, come week two, you're stuffed…or you wish you were!

With strategic cheating, you can literally use ANY food you want to ensure that you never go a single day without a body primed for fat loss.

So next time you are considering foregoing your day off please do not give it another thought.

To cheat or not to cheat? I think the choice is clear.

In Health and Happiness

Adrian Lowther