After the past year of staying at home with limited access to exercise equipment and ample access to wine and take out, a new pandemic known as “The COVID 19 lbs” has broken loose.
Supporting Weight Loss:
Regulating weight loss from a gene expression level addresses potential causes unrelated to diet and exercise. These factors are as follows:
- Sleep and Stress: High cortisol, a stress hormone, releases glucose and contributes to weight gain and increased appetite. Lack of quality sleep increases this stress hormone. Ashwagandha and Relora lower cortisol and reduced belly fat in research.
- Hormones: As people age and hormones go down, inflammation goes up. Chronic inflammation promotes weight gain, and negatively influences sleep, stress, and metabolic pathways. Supporting reduced activity in inflammatory pathways with both Omega 3s, Curcumin, and reduced carbohydrates have shown to be beneficial in successful weight loss. In addition, supporting activation of the energy pathway known as AMPK with Green Tea Extract helps to activate fat stores as fuel.
Diet: Notice how this word is diet and not dieting. A long term a healthy lifestyle plan establishes habits that are the key to maintaining ideal body fat and health that will last a lifetime.
- Pay Attention to Fats and Oils: Omega 3s are anti-inflammatory fats that are found in high amounts in fish. Omega 6s are inflammatory fats and found in high levels in meat, egg yolks, and vegetable and seed oils. Omega 9s are neutral, meaning they do not create or lower inflammation, found in many nuts, olive oil, and avocado.
- Eat Moderate, Lean Proteins: Due to inflammatory fat, it is recommended to consume lean proteins like poultry. Fish are the exception; they should be small, wild and fatty as their fat is beneficial to the body.
- Keep Carbs Colorful: Sugars are digested quickly and the excess is converted to fat. While somewhat more slowly digested, starches still convert to high levels of sugar in the body. The vegetables (particularly green) and berries are lower in carbohydrate while higher in fiber and antioxidants. These are the best.
Exercise: Try to incorporate 30 minutes of additional exercise early in the day. This will activate using fat for energy, then your diet and supplements will maintain this the rest of the day. Whether it is walking or performing high intensity exercise, small changes can make a huge difference. This is the strategy that will create a flat stomach.
