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A few months ago, I wrote an article on Why Americans are Getting so Fat and mentioned that one of the major factors was due to the increasing high calories, larger portions, and fat quantity of the foods served in restaurants. American restaurants have been more focused on creating foods that taste good rather than being healthy.

Restaurants have even tried to combat the negative press and image associated with high fat diets by coming up with healthier alternatives. But are these alternatives really all that healthy?

Many of these “healthy alternatives” still contain an extremely large amount of calories and high quanities of fat and sugar. Keep in mind that the average person should only consume 2,500 calories per day. When it comes down to it sheer caloric impact is the primary cause of obesity. It makes sense. Excess calories are converted to fat, plain and simple.

So you go to your local Ruby Tuesdays and decide to eat healthy. You pick the Turkey Portobello burger rather than your typical Cheeseburger. Turkey burgers are healthy right? Guess Again… This turkey burger alone packs a whopping 1,145 calories and that’s not including the side of fries!

You would be better off ordering a Big Mac from McDonald’s which only packs 540 calories or even the Whopper from Burger King which is a high 760 calories.

The Turkey Bella from Ruby Tuesdays portobello contains 1,145 calories, 71 grams of fat, and a total of 56 grams of carbs. A much healthier alternative would be the 9-oz sirloin steak with a side of vegetables which would make a total of 256 calories.

McDonalds recently came out with their “ALL WHITEMEAT” Chicken Selects which appear healthier than your traditional Chicken McNuggets, however with the five piece alone they are 830 calories with 55 grams of fat (4.5 trans fat) and 48 grams of carbs. Add an order of regular fries and a soda and your looking at a 1,710 calorie meal!

The five piece Chicken Selects contains just about the same calorie content as the 20 piece Chicken McNuggets. An order of 6 piece Chicken Mcnuggets will save you 530 calories.

The Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie packs a whopping 900 calories. In fact it contains more sugar than 2 pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. There is also 10 grams of fat which some may consider quite low, but also 183 grams of carbs of which 166 grams are sugar.

Looking at the menu at Jamba Juice it is clear that 80 percent of their drinks contain 100 grams of sugar or more. That’s equal to 3 cans of regular cola. I’d avoid this chain and go find yourself a protein shake.

The Macaroni Grill’s “Double Macaroni and Cheese” may seem like a mild alternative, however it packs 1,210 calories with 62 grams of fat and 3,450 mg of sodium. A much better alternative would be their 390 calorie grilled chicken with a side of vegetables.

This simple sandwich packs 1,490 calories, 85 grams of fat, 96 grams of carbs, and 4510 mg of sodium. A typical sandwich should only contain 500 calories max and that includes bread, cheese, and mayonaise. There are many alternatives at Subway which are under 500 calories or less.

Carl’s Jr. has their Six Dollar Burger which is suppose to represent a typical burger that you would get at a Bar & Grill for $6.00, it also represents 1,520 calories with 111 grams of fat. Wow!!! Where do they pack all that fat?!? I guess in the bread. The low carb version of this six dollar burger in a box without the bun, but still with all the other fixings is only 490 calories. My only question is how in the hell do they pack 1,030 calories in the bun?

We saw how the Macaroni Grill was able to pack 1210 calories and 62 grams of fat into their Macaroni & Cheese. So how does their Spaghetti & Meatballs measure up?

They do not disappoint. Their Spaghetti & Meatballs contain a total of 2,430 calories with 128 grams of fat and 207 grams of carbohydrates. This one simple dish can satisfy your calorie requirements for an entire day. This means that you could essentially live off of eating this dish once a day and nothing more. Just kidding.

The Awesome Blossom from Chilli’s. Can you possibly get any worse than this? These fried onions are like sponges for absorbing the cannola oil that they are cooked in. That with the tangy chipotle sauce and you have an artery busting combination. This one starter contains 2,710 calories with 203 grams of fat and 194 grams of carbs. If this is your appetizer than I would hate to see your main course!

Yes, it does get worse! Outback Steakhouse has their Aussie Cheese Fries which are covered in ground beef, chili, and cheese. They are 2,900 calories with 182 grams of fat and a total of 240 carbs.  This is about as bad as it gets…  they must have made this high calorie on purpose.  How could this possibly be an accident?

Both the media and supplement companies have recently been hyping up and spending millions of dollars on promoting dieting and weightloss. Americans are fixated with having the perfect body.

Cosmetic surgery is the latest fad and plastic surgery shows like Dr. 90210 and Nip Tuck are now some of the hottest shows on television. However even with all this pressure to have the perfect body Americans are still having an increasingly difficult time keeping the weight off. But why?

FAD DIETS

Most Americans have taken part in some sort of fad diet with the hopes of shedding those unwanted pounds of fat in the quickest amount of time. A fad diet is basically a weight loss program that promises breathtaking results. The most famous fad diet is the Atkins Diet.

Despite what you may hear about these fad diets, the truth of the matter is that these diets are not very healthy for your body, and they do not provide the dieter with long-term success.

However one of the main reasons these fad diets are so popular are because some of them actually do work, but its only for a short time. How can these crazy fad diets work for the short-term, but fail in providing the dieter with long-term success?

Easy. When most dieters begin implementing these “rules” that many fad diets have (such as food separation techniques, eliminating an important macro-nutrients such as carbohydrates), or sticking solely to a liquid-based diet regimen, these dieters are ultimately eating fewer calories than they normally would. The dieter also gives up his or her favorite foods and begins to become more aware of the foods they eat which usually means a reduction in overall calories - leading to quick weightloss. However within time their body adjusts to this new diet and they may gain this weight back.

ADKINS

The Atkins diet works but only for a little while. By eating only meat your body is depleted of glucose. Glucose is the body’s main source of energy. So when the body can’t use glucose for energy, it uses fat instead. Sounds great right? However when fat is broken down due to a lack of glucose and excess of ketones appear in the body. This causes ketosis which increases the amount of Beta receptors in your fat tissue. These Beta Receptors make the fat harder to burn and encourage your body to save more fat for energy. In turn your body ends up burning muscle for energy which lowers your overall metabolism and the amount of calories your body burns on a given day. This leads to a crash in energy, lethargy, depression, and weight gain. This is a vicious cycle that occurs with the Atkins diet and usually leads to the dieter quitting the diet after they gain all the weight they initially lost back. It is not worth it! The Atkins diet is crap!

This diet also was NOT invented by Dr. Adkins, it was invented in London by Dr. William Harvey in 1862 long before Dr. Atkins was even born. Dr. Atkins was just the first to market and profit off this diet. Dr. Harvey actually knew at the time that this diet would only lead to short-term success and even noted this in his research. Dr. Atkins was well aware of this but saw an opportunity to make a good profit.

This diet was also found to be unhealthy long term. Eating only meat leads to high cholesterol and a greater occurence of heart attacks, strokes, and even cancer.

OTHER CRASH DIETS

There are other fad diets out there that say that you need to eat zero fat to lose weight. Well eating fat is essential for fat loss, so this whole diet concept is wrong as well. By eating no faty your body is left out of the EFA (Essential Fatty Acids) that are essential for fatloss. Again the dieter gets frustrated because there is no fat loss and soon returns to the old, unhealthy lifestyle of consuming tons of unhealthy and artery clogging fats.

Diets that tell the dieter to consume no meat are bogus too. Protein is the building block of tissue in your body. Without it, you cannot build or maintain muscle, which will cause a metabolism drop, and futile results. By not eating protein, you are starving yourself from amino acids that are needed and your body will be unhealthy. You will loose muscle and look flabby, and that will frustrate you.

Try to avoid all Fad Diets. Foods are made for us to eat and we need a balanced diet to survive, and complete our fitness goals. By trusting the next fad diet you are giving yourself a false hope and soon you will crash down.

Failure is the most common thing I see when I talk to people on the diet. As soon as they start they loose a lot of weight which is mostly water and muscle. After a few weeks the body is fighting back and they feel and look unhealthy. Fad diets are a part of the confusion that is on our nation. And with this confusion, we will stay fat.

SEDENTARTY LIFESTYLES

Let’s face it, it’s much easier to eat delivered pizza while watching comedy central than to go to the gym and get on a treadmill and run. I have seen some people who don’t even want to get up off the couch to get soda despite the fact they are thirsting like they just ran a mile in the Sahara.

Just think of pizza, pizza is one of everyone’s favorite foods and not only is it loaded with sugars and trans fats but it’s also delivered so that makes it even easier to be lazy. Most people would rather pay an extra five dollars for a tip than put their shoes on and make that long drive 1/2 a mile around the corner to pick up the pizza themselves.

Many people really think they are too busy for things such as working out.

It only takes 30-45 minutes to exercise. Whether that form of exercise is a light stroll in the neighborhood, a jog in the park, a run on the treadmill, or a weight-training session at the gym, it simply does not matter as long as you do something.

Exercise and a sound nutrition program are vital to achieving your dream physique. Now put down that TV remote, and get moving!

FAST FOOD

You are what you eat. We have all heard this phrase millions of times, but somehow, Americans faced with weight issues do not acknowledge this little phrase. If Americans only knew just how fast food was prepared, and just how many calories and fat it contains, they would be totally surprised.

A burger and fries from your favorite fast food joint will cost you between 600-950 calories! What about those awful trans fats? First, let’s define what a trans fat is. It is an unsaturated fatty acid molecule that contains a trans double bond between carb atoms.

Fast food is loaded with trans fat! Diets that contain high amounts of trans fat have been linked to coronary heart disease and even atherosclerosis. Trans fat is not only found in those favorite fried foods at the local fast food joint, but also in baked goods, fried goods, snack foods, and other foods which have been processed.

Why do many Americans eat fast food and food items with trans fat? Simple. Americans live busy lives, and will chow down on fast food and conveniently packaged goods just because of the fact that these food choices are quick and easy.

A much better option instead of gorging on these unhealthy food choices would be to simply prepare your own meals. This way you would know exactly what you are eating.

POOR EATING HABITS

One of the most obvious examples of these poor eating habits is the collapse of structured mealtimes and snacks. Why is this so common? Americans live busy lives. In many homes, families don’t even share dinner together at the table, and snacking is common without any limits.

You also have those people who skip breakfast for whatever reason.

Many people operate in either one extreme or the other - either they are following a program perfectly, or they are simply going wild with their poor eating habits.

They pile down the calories at lunch to compensate for not eating breakfast. Guess what? The more food the body has to digest at one time, the more food it stores as fat. There is only so much the body can digest and process in one sitting. Eating much smaller meals more periodically throughout the course of the day increases the body’s thermal effect, which ultimately results in an increase in metabolism!

Another poor eating habit among Americans is eating too fast. Those who eat fast tend to consume more food because they do not give their brain an opportunity to signal to the body that it is satisfied. Chewing often and more slowly can easily avoid this poor habit.

Another big problem is some Americans looking to get rid of extra weight try too hard to constantly eat a healthy diet. They simply try too hard. Eating healthy is great, don’t get me wrong, but eating too healthy can be a bad habit for those looking to shed a few pounds. Don’t try too hard, and follow a nutrition regimen that you’re comfortable with and can easily adjust their lifestyle to fit.

ACCEPTANCE

Many people just accept the extra weight and tell themselves that they are just like the rest of the people in the United States and that being over weight is alright. Being unhealthy and obese is not cool, sexy or admirable and even if you can never look exactly like a fitness model that is no excuse to not try to get into shape.

People always revert to the saying “It’s what’s inside that counts” well guess what, the things that are going on inside most Americans like high cholesterol and high blood pressure are not good.

Some people may have pair shapes and think it isn’t worth working out because you can’t change the bone structure you were given which you may hate so why bother. There are certain body parts you can workout to accentuate the good parts about your body and narrow the parts you may not like.

If you have a pair shape then work harder on your shoulders it’s certainly better then accepting the things you don’t like about your body. Listen to yourself when it comes to what your life should be like.

No one is holding a gun to your head telling you where to live and where to work. The boundaries that are the highest are the ones you make for yourself.

In Conclusion

As a whole Americans are noticably more obese now than they were 20 years ago. It is widely known that obesity in America is a growing problem. This situation has opened the doors for marketing companies to profit off of fad diets, worthless supplements, and misleading books and articles on how to “easily” lose weight fast and keep it off. These marketing campaigns create the biggest obstacle in resolving this issue: misinformation.

It’s extremely critical for celebrities to stay in killer shape and to always look their best. There is fierce competition for movie roles, magazine covers, and product promotions. Being out of shape could easily cause these celebrities to lose a multi-million dollar contract and greatly effect their career and public image. They are permanently under the spotlight, followed by the media, and watched by the public. So it is absolutely crutial for them to be obsessed with their body image and to say in killer shape.

Celebrities always seem to have the ability to rapidly lose weight. Whether it’s losing weight from having a baby, preparing for a red carpet event or getting ready for their latest movie role, they can lose weight faster than anyone. They have to, it’s their job.

We can get some great ideas from these celebrities and follow the same type of programs. Most people feel that these type of goals are unattainable for the average person due to the fact that celebrities have access to resources that most people cannot afford. Personal trainers, nutritionists, free products endorsements, sponsorships, cosmetic surgeons, and of course an unlimited supply of money.

However, there are three main components that determine the success of these celebrities diet and exercise programs: knowledge, discipline, and experimentation. These three components have very little to do with money.

Knowledge - understanding which diet and exercise programs work and what you will need to do to reach your goals.
Discipline - being able to follow through with your program and not deviate from it.
Experimentation - if one exercise program or diet does not work, trying another until you find one that does work.

Most celebrities are successful with their diet and exercise programs because they have hired people to provide them with the knowledge, but this knowlege can also be obtained by reading books. They have a high level of discipline which anyone can force themselves to have with a little work. They are willing to adjust their program if they find that one does not work well for them.  But anyone can do that as well.

Three actresses named Jessica have all recently been able to rapidly lose weight and keep it off.

These three Jessicas have each found that completely different diets and different excercise programs worked well for each of them. This should be expected. Everyone is different so a diet and exercise program that works well for one person might work completely differently for someone else.

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba has been able to stay in killer shape through high discipline with proper diet and exercise programs, not genetics. Jessica Alba has been struggling with her weight her entire life, in fact most of her family is overweight. Her family ate nothing but junk food growing up so she started cooking healthy food for herself in her early teens. Most people assume that Jessica Alba is one of the most genetically gifted women in the world. She isn’t. However she was able to defy her genetics with healthy food and great workouts.

So what is her secret?

She eats a balanced diet low fat diet and shies away from eating carbs or sugar. She alternates between four sets of high intensity cardio for 10-15 minutes with four 10 minute sets of high intensity lifting or crunches.

Healthy Foods: Lean proteins, low glycemic carbs, veggies, and little or no sugar.
Great Workouts: Squats, lunges, full body movements, short and intense cardio.

Regarding her diet Jessica Alba says the following,

“Everyone in my family is heavily overweight. I wanted to be healthier, so I started cooking for myself when I was 12 years old. When I eat breakfast, I’ll have an egg-white omelette and fruit, or cottage cheese and a peach. For lunch, I’ll have a salad. Dinner is usually vegetables and chicken or fish. During the day I’ll have some dried fruit, or I’ll have a chocolate or strawberry frozen yogurt. I don’t really eat desserts or bread.”

Regarding her workout routine, Jessica Alba says,

“I try to work out every day for 45 minutes to an hour. I start out on the treadmills or elliptical machine for 10 to 15 minutes to get my heart rate up to 180 beats per minute. Then I do 50 lunges and crunches. Next I get back on the machine for another 10 minutes. Then I work on shoulders, biceps and triceps. I do that nonstop for four sets. When I work out, I have energy and feel good about myself.”

Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson never really had a problem with her weight growing up, but as a result she developed an affinity for junk food. She likes to eats garbage. Fried chicken, Taco Bell, Ice Cream, and Chocolate Cake are foods that high on her list of favorites. Jessica Simpson does not have the same level of discipline with her diet that Jessica Alba has always had. Simpson she does have better genetics.

As Simpson got older she put on around 10-15 lbs of extra weight. This did not seem to bother her much or interfere with her music career. However, when her music career transitioned over to acting this became a completely different story.

When Simpson was offered the role of Daisy Duke for the Dukes of Hazard movie she needed to rapidly lose 20 lbs to look good for this role. She initially tried the Atkins diet and failed. She lacked the discipline to stick to any diet for very long and frequently cheater her diet. Her father hired personal trainer, Mike Alexander, who not only guided her workouts, but sat with her through every meal.

So what is her secret?

Simpson did a diet similar to the Zone Diet which involved plenty of grilled chicken and fish and steak, with salad, vegetables, and small servings of complex carbs such as brown rice and sweet potatos. Mike Alexander called this diet the 5 Factor Diet which calls for five meals a day, with five elements per meal (protein, good fat, healthy carbs, fiber, and a sugar-free beverage).

Every day Simpson did one hour of strength training and 45-60 minutes of cardio. The main exercises were lunges (3×20) and squats (the “butt builders”). What is astonishing is how light the weights were (7 1/2 pound dumbbells). Squats have to be one of the biggest metabolism-boosting exercises around.

Healthy Foods: grilled chicken, seared fish, sweet potato, brown rice, broccoli and asparagus, sugar free drinks.
Great Workouts: full range of weight lifting, primarily squats and lunges. Between 45-60 minutes of cardio a day.

Regarding her diet Jessica Simpson says the following,

“Immediately when I found out that I had the part, I thought it would be best to be able to have something to work towards or else I’ll stick to my fried food and taco bell. To have something, a goal, is awesome; so I ate my last piece of chocolate cake when I found out and ever since then I’ve tried to cut sugar out of my diet except fruit. For the most part, I eat healthy and work out for two hours everyday. ”

“Atkins really messed me up mentally. I was so starved for carbs, I binged on them. I now eat my favorite foods which are bread, cookie dough ice cream and Italian meals but I eat them in moderation, along with lots of salad.
I really try to stay away from sugars as much as I can, which is hard.”

Jessica Biel

Jessica Biel has take a completely different approach with her diet and exercise plan from both Alba and Simpson. She has tried many different fad diets in the past. From “no sugar, flour, no dairy” to “Atkins” to “South Beach” to “no salt — some rice cakes and brown rice”, but has now found the trick that works for her: eating sensibly for six days a week and having a cheat day on the seventh.

Biel also found that when she increased the frequency of her eating and decreasing the portions that she was able to easily lose 10 pounds and 10 percent body fat within a few weeks. So she started eating half a wrap for a meal, half a protein bar two hours later, and the eating the rest of her wrap two hours after that and the rest of the protein bar two hours later.

To follow Jessica Biel’s diet you need to eat three small healthy meals and three healthy snacks daily for six days and then you can cheat and eat anything you want on the seventh. These six small meals a day will keep your metabolism up and cause you to burn more calories. The cheat day will keep your metabolism used to burning higher fat foods, for some people this causes them to burn more fat and calories the on the six non-cheat days.

So what is her secret?

The diet mentioned above and circuit training workouts. This circuit training on nautilis equipment mainly focused on big movements such as pushing, pulling, squatting, and deadlifting. She also likes to do some sort of explosive finisher such as sprinting, stair jumps, or kettlebell swings after her initial workout.

Healthy Foods: Egg whites, oatmeal, grapefruit juice, lean chicken, fish, whole wheat pasta, vegetables, almonds.

Great Workouts: 45 minutes workouts of nautilis circuit training with short breaks between sets followed by sprinting, stair jumps, or kettlebell swings.

Regarding her workouts Jessica Biel says the following,

“It all boils down to one thing: Intensity. The more intense workout will always burn the most fat.

We’ve entered a new era. In the past people did relatively low intensity workouts, and made up for it with long hours in the gym and unbelievably perfect diets. Now we’re in a new world of powerful, smart, time efficient workouts.

Your workouts should be short, hard, and full body. If you’re spending two hours in the gym, ask yourself why. If it’s for fun then cool. If it’s because your workout is low intensity and it takes two hours to feel like you did something, you need to kick it up a notch. What if you needed to be in and out in 45 minutes?”

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Today I received a call from Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center, a clinic in the Palm Beach area of Florida, asking me if was interested in their human growth hormone, hormone therapy (steroid), or other prescription medication therapies. This company basically offers elective growth hormone, hormone balancing, and medication therapy program for people who want to look or perform better (athletically, physically, & sexually).

These programs are elective. People do not take these medications to relieve any sickness or ailments, they take them to look better, to perform better, to lose weight and to have more energy. To me these medications are almost like cosmetic surgery in a bottle.

The patients in these programs are given blood tests to measure their hormone, IGF-1, and insulin levels and then are provided with different programs to optimize their hormone levels to reach their goals.

Women are provided with medications which balance their Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone levels. Men are provided with injectable steroids, anti-estrogens, and Post-Cycle Therapy medication to take after their steroid cycles. The whole purpose of these regiemes are to use prescription meds to improve a person appearance and physical condition rather than to actual treat something wrong.

With these programs you never actually see the doctor face-to-face, they mail you a form and you take it to your local LabCorb Blood Testing Center and they will run series of blood tests to measure your hormone, insulin, and other levels. Once this doctor in Florida receives these results he gives you a phone call and then sets up a hormone, prescription drug program designed to help you lose weight, gain muscle, and have more energy. They send you the medication either by UPS or FedEx.  So everything between you and this doctor is handled over the telephone.

These programs exist due to an FDA loophole which allows doctors to see patients and prescribe medications remotely through the use of blood tests and physical exams administered by blood labs in the patients local area.

Two years ago there were tons of different companies in Florida which offered these programs. The majority of these clinics would use the Signature Compounding Pharmacy until the FDA cracked down on the illegal use of steroids and shut down many of these testosterone and hormone therapy centers. The FDA arrested many of these doctors who freely prescribed bodybuilder amounts of steroids to thousands of patients across the nation.

The bust came after some of these clinics decided to ignore New York state law which requires the doctors to see all patients receiving scheduled medication face-to-face. They sent patients in New York steroids and human growth hormones regardless and figured since they were in Florida that would not need to follow New York state laws. This worked for a few years, but they eventually busted by the FDA and two dozen doctors ended up going to prison.

Many celebrities were receiving steroids and human growth hormone from these clinics. R&B music star Mary J. Blige, along with rap artists 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean, and award-winning author and producer Tyler Perry were some of the celebrities that purchased steroids and growth hormone.

Anna Nicole Smith was receiving Human Growth Hormone and other drugs to lose weight from Signature Compounding.   These drugs were actually what enabled her to lose weight and not that worthless Trim Spa crap.  The Canadian wrestler who committed suicide, Chris Benoit, was receiving up to 4000 mg of Testosterone a month which is more than enough to boost his testosterone levels to five times the top end of the recommended testosterone range of 827. A number of police officers, prison guards, and firemen were also receiving steroids from Signature Compounding. Steroid use is very high among law enforcement professionals.

In 2005 alone the sales of steroids and growth hormones at Signature Compounding grew from $550,000 a year to over $21 million.

Somehow Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center was able to stay under the radar and avoid being shut down by the FDA.

For men they offer many different steroid programs with cycles of injectable testosterone cypionate, Testosterone Ethanate, Testosterone Propionate, Nandrolone Decanoate among other types of steroids to build lean muscle mass. They generally send out one or two 10 ml bottles of testosterone (200 mg/ml) to each patient for 10 week cycles which involve injecting between 200-400 mg of testosterone each week (usually split into bi-weekly injections). These cycles cost $199.00 for the testosterone and an additional $199.00 for the anti-estrogen pills that need to be taken during the cycle, and the clomid pills and HCG injections taken for a clean up cycle to restore your natural testosterone levels after the cycle. You can expect to gain around 15-25 lbs of lean muscle mass from one of these 10 week programs.

For women they offer estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone therapy which involves the use of pills to raise or lower estrogen levels, pills to balance progesterone, and a testosterone patch for women with a low testosterone levels. These programs are $199.00 for a 12 week program and you can expect to lose 10-15 lbs, drop 2-4 dress sizes or 5-8% bodyfat during the course of the 12 weeks.

They also have oral steroids such as anavar which can be taken by both men and women to rapidly burn fat, lose water weight, and lean out. They is also injectable stanazonol which can also rapidly burn fat off your body, however it’s very damaging for men prone to male pattern baldness to take stanazonol because it will promote additional hairloss due to it’s DHT boosting factor.

They have 16 week Somatropin Human Growth programs where people can take daily injections of HGH for overall wellness, anti-aging, and longevity. These programs are expensive and run around $499.00 for a 16 week program.

They also sell erectile dysfunction medications such as viagra and cialis for men who wish to perform better sexually.

To get started all you need to do is go to their site and fill out the medical history form and fax it to them. They will email you a PDF document which you can print and bring to your local LabCorp Blood Testing Center to have the necessary bloodwork done and a brief physical exam. Once the doctor receives your blood work he will setup a program specifically for you to optimize your hormone and HGH levels. He will provide you with prescriptions for this medication which you can use to order the medications from their site. They will send out all medications from their compounding pharmacy using a second day UPS delivery service.

I have not tried the Palm Beach Rejuvenation program, but I did try the Medxlife program and the Signature Compounding program before they got busted two years ago and had amazing results. I know guys who have tried the Palm Beach Rejuvenation program and were able to put on around 20 lbs of lean muscle and drop their bodyfat around 5%. They were able to get results that they would not have been able to achieve without the use of steroids.

Spot reduction is simply the idea that if you work a specific muscle group you will decrease the amount of fat in that area. The most common example of this is how people focus on abdominal exercises in an effort to lose weight in their stomach area.

In theory, there is no such thing as spot reduction. You will never attain a flat stomach just by performing abdominal exercises. The reason for this is simple: a muscle does not own the fat that surrounds it. However, I have trouble accepting this and still want to prove that spot reduction is not a myth.

Sit-ups, for example, will definitely strengthen your abdominal muscles, but sit-ups alone will not get rid of the layer of fat that is covering the muscles. You can have the strongest ab muscles in the world, but you will never see them if they are covered by a layer of fat. So how can you remove this layer of fat?

Some people try to lose weight in their problem areas by either doing longer cardio exercises (such as an hour on a treadmill or an eliptical machine) or by doing shorter intense exercises (such as sprinting or Guerilla Cardio). Usually when they combine this with a proper diet and supplementation they find that this is effective for burning calories which in turn burns fat across their entire body. However, the majority of people will find that they lose fat everywhere except for their stubborn problem areas which are made up of localized pockets of fat.

However, regardless of how much dieting or exercise you do, you may find that you will never get rid of the fat in these stubborn areas.

You may notice that you sometimes lose fat in some areas more quickly than in others; this is simply due to a genetic selective pattern rather than a particular type of exercise. It is a well known fact that men tend to hold stubborn pockets of localized fat in their abdominal region, whereas women tend to hold stubborn localized fat in their gluteal region.

What causes Stubborn Localized Fat?

Stubborn fat is a slow-metabolized adipose (fat) tissue. To burn fat, a natural hormonal process has to take place. When a fat-burning process is activated, the adrenal hormones (adrenaline and noradrenaline) bind to special receptors in the fat tissues. There are two major groups of receptors in the fat tissues, alpha and beta. The beta-receptors are the more active ones, which respond to the adrenal hormones. Fat burning occurs when the adrenal hormones activate the beta-receptors in the fat cells. If these receptors are not activated, no fat will burn off.

Stubborn fat has a lower ratio of beta-receptors to alpha-receptors. As a result, it’s metabolized slowly and does not respond to the adrenal hormones. To make matters worse, stubborn fat has more estrogen receptors in the tissues. Estrogen (the female hormone), once bound to the receptors, causes even more fat gain.

Thus stubborn fat presents three major problems:

(1) It doesn’t have a high enough ratio of beta-receptors to alpha-receptors, so doesn’t respond to adrenal fat-burning stimulation.

(2) It has more estrogen receptors, which accelerates fat gain.

(3) On top of all this, stubborn fat doesn’t have a healthy blood circulation. These slowly metabolized fat tissues have fewer blood vessels than a normal fat tissue, and consequently this fat is slower to metabolize, and therefore more stubborn or difficult to remove.

So How Can You Attack These Stubborn Pockets of Fat?

Estrogen Reduction

There are prescription drugs and research chemicals out there which can effectively reduce your estrogen levels. If the fat distribution is due to estrogenic fat storage in the breast area for men (gynecomastia) or in the hips, buttocks, or thighs for women then lowering the estrogen levels in your body may be effective for lowering the bodyfat in these regions to a limited degree.

Arimidex (Anastrozole) is an estrogen reducing (anti-aromitase) drug can be taken in doses of 0.25 to 0.50 mg/mL a day for 6-8 weeks. Usually you will see results within this time if the fat is due to an excess of estrogen. Be careful to not reduce the estrogen too much which will cause joint pain and knee and elbow stiffness, due to drying out your joints. If this happens then reduce the dosage and it should go away within 3 days due to the long half-life of this drug.

Estrogen reduction can help reduce, but it will seldom totally eliminate the fat from these areas.

Transdermal Topical Fat Burners

Several companies out there make transdermal fat burning creams that are supposed to be able to burn localized fat by applying them to your problem areas. These companies claim that these transdermal gel that penetrates deep into the skin and dissolves your stubborn body fat on contact. However these fat burning creams have never been proven to be effective and based on my own personal experience they are not effective.

Anafit makes Yohimburn ES which is an alcohol free, aloe vera based Yohimbe gel that can be applied to any part of your body including your face. This stuff appeared to work slightly, but I found that this Yohimburne actually had a diuretic effect rather than a fat burning effect and it was only removing the water from the localized area and not the actual fat. As soon as you stop using this cream, the subcutaneous water will return to the area.

Avant Labs makes Lipoderm Ultra which contains Yohimbine, Caffeine, Lecithin, Sesamin,
Octopamine HCl, Synephrine, ALCAR, Ascorbyl Palmitate, and a high level of Benzyl and Isopropyl Alcohol. This cream appears to work slightly, but again it’s just due to a diuretic effect of reducing localized water rather than fat burning. Since this solution contains a high level of alcohol it will damage and dry out your skin after a few days. At least the Yohimburn despite being ineffective did not damage my skin.

NutraSport made Cutting Gel which has no active ingredients that could possibly result in localized fat loss, yet they spent millions in marketing and sold this at GNC to millions of people for years. Including me, who bought three bottles of this stuff for $90 each with zero results.

These transdermal fat burning creams reduce the amount of localized water and do NOT burn localized fat. They have very limited results and seem to be a waste of money. I tried over a dozen transdermal products over the course of a year and did not have good results. The problem is that I do not think these creams are capable of effectively penetrating the skin and reaching the adipose tissue.

Mesotherapy

Mesotherapy (also known as lipoderm or lipodisolve) is a non-surgical, 50 year old technique from France that involves injecting a fat burning solution of natural extracts, homeopathic agents, pharmaceuticals and vitamins into localized fat deposits. The active ingredient in this solution is phosphatidylcholine, which is present in all living tissues. When injected in fat and cellulite, however, the fat cells become inflamed and disrupted, and their contents (fat) gets carried away and disposed of by the body.

However, mesotherapy treatments in larger areas may require hundreds of small injections and several treatments spread several weeks apart. Mesotherapy can also cause swelling and bruising to occur in the treated areas.

Many plastic surgeons or dermatologists perform these procedures for around $300-400 a visit and usually 4-6 visits are required to treat an area, so to treat an entire area it might cost you as much as $2,400 which is not cheap.

You can purchase mesotherapy kits to do it yourself from Mesoone.com for around $65 a session or $299 for five sessions. This site offers top quality mesotherapy equipment and solutions with fast shipping and a 30 day money back guarantee. I would definitely recommend them.

The main disadvantage of Mesotherapy besides the swelling and bruising is that it removes the fat from cells rather than removing the cells themselves like liposuction. Thus it is possible for the fat to return to the area in several months later if you don’t keep up with your diet and exercise program.

Mesotherapy seems to be more effective with small fat deposits in areas like under the chin, but it is not nearly as effective in larger areas such as the stomach or hips. The bruising and swelling is rather severe when mesotherapy is applied to larger areas. Larger areas require liposuction.

Liposuction

I found the most effective solution for spot reduction to be liposuction. I tried all of the methods above to remove the stubborn fat from my stomach areas with little success. The anti-estrogen medications, transdermal creams, and mesotherapy only worked to a limited degree. I still was not satisfied with the results so I eventually broke down and paid a top plastic surgeon $6000 to have liposuction done on my abdominal area. I am finally pleased with the results.

The good news is that liposuction is permanent because the procedure actually removes the fat cells rather than break them down. I may gain fat in other areas in the future, but the area that I had liposuction in will remain toned.

It was well worth the money and I am pleased with the results. This turned out to be the only effective way to do spot reduction.

What is your New Years Resolution?

Many people had New Years Resolutions this year and some of the popular categories were Getting in Shape, Quitting Smoking or Making/Saving Money.

People generally start out the new year with big plans and major goals, however the majority of these people never accomplish these goals and in the end going back to their old ways. This can be clearly seen with the large influx of people that appear at all gyms in early January and then the crowd slowly disappates back to normal by the end of January. It’s often sad that so many people cannot even stick to their goals for an entire month.

So why do so many people fail at upholding their New Years Resolution?

(1) Unrealistic Expectations - often times it’s better to aim too low than to aim too high. If you set the bar too high your doomed from the start. Trying to accomplishing your goals will interfere with your normal life and you won’t be able to pull it off. Make sure that you set realistic goals.

Instead of a sweeping declaration like “I will lose 30 pounds by March and finally fit into that size 4 dress,” target a goal that’s more attainable, like losing 10 or 15 pounds by April.

You can also take baby steps and plan to lose 10-15 pounds by April and then another 10-15 pounds by July. This will make it easier to reach your goals.

(2) Too Many Goals - don’t overload yourself with too many goals, it’s hard enough to follow through on one ambitious New Year’s resolution, two or three will be harder, four or five is getting a little ridiculous.

Choose the most pressing issue at hand which is bothering you the most and focus on that goal.

Focusing on one goal is much easier and has a much higher success rate than trying to focus on several simultaneously.

(3) Not writing down your goals - many people make the mistake of not writing down their goals. By doing this they are unable to clearly define their goals or the steps required to achieve them. They also need to mark their progress to help them reach their goals within the necessary timeframe.

GETTING IN SHAPE

Here are some easy ways to help you reach your New Years goal of getting into shape:

(1) Replace calories obtained from drinks with water.

The average non-diet soda contains 120 calories (mainly from 8 teaspoons of sugar with no nutritional value), so if you drink 6 sodas a day that’s 720 calories that you are drinking.

It’s true that diet soda contains 0 calories however it also contains substances that mimic sugar in taste and function, so they can still spike your blood sugar levels and cause your body to pack on fat.

Avoid the following drinks:

Soda - 120 calories
Light Beer - 100 calories
Cocoa - 135 calories
Tonic Water - 140 calories
Beer - 150 calories
Champagne - 200 calories
Lemon aid - 395 calories

Replace them with the following drinks:

Water - 0 calories
Coffee - 0 calories (without sugar and cream)
Herbal Tea - 2 calories
Sobe Lean - 10 calories
Diet Snapple - 15 calories
Vegetable Juice - 40 calories
Grapefruit Juice - 90 calories

(2) Try to eat 2 protein bars a day between meals. They have to be the right protein bars as some protein bars are such as powerbars are way too high in sugars and simple carbs.

Look for the protein bars with low sugar (5 grams or less), low fat (5 grams or less), and as close to 50-50 protein-complex carb balance as possible (typically around 30 g of each). Some good options are Pure Protein, Met-RX Protein Plus, EAS Carb Sense, and Myoplex.

Eating these two protein bars a day will add more meals to your diet which will speed up your metabolism and cause you to store less fat. They will also cause you to reduce the size of your regular meals and make better food choices in your regular diet.

(3) Have a casein protein shake as a night time meal an hour before bedtime and avoid carbs and other junk foods at night.

Most of the foods that you consume at night, especially simple carbs and sugars are still being broken down after you go to sleep for the night. Your body is no longer using these quick sources of energy therefore they end up being stored as fat.

It’s much better to consume a slow digesting casein protein at night that takes 7-12 hours to digest over the entire course of the night.

(4) Avoid drinking alcohol except on special occassions.

Drinking alcohol too much has a far more damaging effect than you can predict simply by looking at the number of alcohol calories in a drink.

Not only does drinking alcohol reduce the number of fat calories you burn, alcohol can increase your appetite, raise your estrogen (male and female) and lower your testosterone levels for up to 24 hours after you finish drinking. Your metabolism is working to handle the alcohol rather than process and burn regular calories that you have consumed.

(5) Replace bad calorie foods with good calorie foods.

You can often achieve close to the same taste with a lower fat and lower calorie alternative. Below are lower calorie substitues for several higher calorie, higher fat ingredients.

Ingredient - Substitute

* 1 oz Baking Chocolate - 3 Tbsp. cocoa

* 1 Egg - 2 egg whites

* Butter/Shortening - Replace 1/2 fat with a fruit puree, banana or prune

* Cream Cheese - Reduced fat cream cheese

* Fudge Sauce - Walden Farms Calorie Free Chocolate syrup

* Whipping Cream - Equal portions of half-&-half and evaporated skimmed milk (not for whipping)

* Light Cream - Equal portion of 1% milk and evaporated skim milk

* Mayo - Reduced fat mayonnaise or reduced fat sour cream (for salads and dressings)

* Nuts, Coconut - Reduce amount called for & toast nuts to enhance flavor

* Oil (in baking) - Equal amount of applesauce or, 1/2 oil & 1/2 applesauce

* Shortening - Replace up to 3/4 of shortening with apple butter or fruit puree.

* Sour Cream - Low fat sour cream low far yogurt.

* Whipped Cream - Chilled evaporated milk, whipped.

(6) Run for 12-15 minutes in the morning on an empty stomach immediately after waking up.

The best cardio routines are shorter intense workouts such as sprinting. Too much cardio burns muscles. Ignore the calorie meters on treadmills and elipticals, the majority of calories burned from working out happen the hour after the workout and not during the actual workout itself!

Also studies show that doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach burns three times more fat than doing the same exercise later in the afternoon.

(7) Lift weights in the gym for 45 minutes for 3-4 days a week.

With the proper lifting routine you only need to lift for each muscle group once a week to allow for recovery. You also do not need to do more that 3-4 exercises for larger muscles groups and 2-3 for the smaller muscles. You can to 3-4 sets for 5-6 different exercises, with 90 second breaks in between within a 45 minute period.

Many people feel that when it comes to lifting the more weight they lift the stronger they get and the longer they lift for the bigger they get. But this is not true. You don’t want to over train and sometimes less is more!

You can achieve the same goals with a 45 minute lifting regieme than you can with a 90 minute regieme, with only half the work. HAHAHA! It’s true!

(8) Get a doctor to do a complete hormone profile.

Most people have trouble losing weight because they don’t know how to do a proper diet and exercise routine, however some find out that there is either a surplus or a shortage of a particular hormone.

This may include high cortisol levels (stress hormone), low testosterone levels, high estrogen levels, low IGF-1 levels, high blood sugar, etc.

These conditions can be corrected with prescription medications and may totally help you to reach your fitness goals. Go to your doctor and request that he run a full blood panel and a hormone profile.

QUIT SMOKING

I smoked cigarettes for five years. I quit back in November of 1998 and I have not smoked a single cigarette since then. I was up to a pack a day at the time that I quit. So how did I quit?

(1) I gradually switched down from a higher nicotine/tar cigarette to a lower alternative. Baby steps.

I originally smoked Marlboro Reds containing 16 mg of tar, 1.2 mg of nicotine, and 15 mg of CO. I switched to Marlboro Lights for a few weeks which contained 10 mg tar, 0.8 mg nicotine, and 12 mg of CO. After 6 weeks of smoking Marlboro lights I switched to Merit Lights which contained 8 mg tar, 0.6 mg nicotine, and 10 mg of CO and then a few weeks later I switched to Merit Ultra Lights which contained only 4 mg tar, 0.3 mg nicotine, and 6 mg of CO.

This gradual reduction made it much easier to quit smoking. It’s much easier to quit smoking Merit Ultra Lights containing 4 mg tar, 0.3 mg nicotine, and 6 mg of CO than it is to quit from Marlboro Reds containing 16 mg of tar, 1.2 mg of nicotine, and 15 mg of CO.

(2) Nicotine Gum

I used nicotine gum to reduce the overall number of cigarettes that I would smoke in a day. Instead of smoking 20 cigarettes a day, I would smoke 12 and chew on small pieces of nicotine gum to make up for the other 8 times that I would typically smoke cigarettes.

(3) Paipo

The Japanese make a menthol and eucalyptus inhaler called, Paipo, that is extremely helpful with quitting smoking. I would inhale on one of these instead of smoking. This helps you to relax and it helps with the mental difficulties of quitting associated with being addicted to putting things in your mouth or moving your hand to and from your mouth.

MAKING/SAVING MONEY

(1) Start a coin account.

Save all your change in a jar. When the jar gets full bring it to the bank and open an account specifically for saving your coin money. Bring the empty jar home and return to the bank for a deposit everytime the jar fills up.

I started a coin account around 3 years ago and today I have $2,800 in my account just from the change that I have saved. Small amounts of change definitely do add up over time!

(2) Pay yourself $150-500 a paycheck.

If you have trouble saving money because you spend it all and live paycheck to paycheck. Try paying yourself immediately after receiving your paychecks.

Have a separate savings account and put a pre-defined amount of money in this account each time you have been paid. This account will grow over time.

$150 a paycheck on a bi-weekly, 26 paycheck a year scale = $3,900 a year.
$500 a paycheck on a bi-weekly, 26 paycheck a year scale = $13,000 a year.

(3) Put all your credit card balances on a zero apr credit card.

Some people pay as high as 20% APR on their credit card balances. This is $200 for every thousand borrowed. If you have $15,000 on a credit card you are paying $3,000 a year in interest alone.

Switch is balance to a credit card that offers 0% APR for 12 months and you will be borrowing this money for free. Same as cash!

(4) Reduce your utility bills such as cell phone, cable television, or internet access. New companies offer better deals every month, check to see if you are paying more than the going promotional rate. Chances are that you are paying too much.

My cable bill was $125 a month and they are offering the same service for $89 a month for new customers. One phone call lasting 10 minutes saved me $36 a month or $432 a year!

The energy-efficient, compact fluorescent light bulb above uses 80 percent less electricity, lasts 12 times longer, and produces 450 pounds fewere greenhouse gases and saves consumers as much as $30 over the life of each bulb than the traditional light bulb and the prices of these bulbs are now only 2-3 times that of a regular bulb.

IN CONCLUSION

The most important thing is following through with your goals. Write your goals down and track your progress as you attempt to achieve your goals. If you hit a mild set-back then write about ways that you can overcome this set back to still reach your goal in your predefined timeframe.

Happy New Year and Good Luck with achieving your Goals!

Have you ever wondered if some of the things you do on a daily basis could be responsible for making you fat? 

The ten things below are sure-fire ways to gaining weight (not quality lean mass, but fat) and will most likely make you fat.   Some of these things you may already know but some of them may totally take you by surprise!

(1)  Going to Sleep immediately after you eat will make you fat.

Did you know that Sumo wrestlers purposely sleep for a few hours after eating really large  meals to rapidly gain fat during their training programs?

Your body doesn’t require as many calories during sleep as it does when you are awake.  Calories that are eaten right before sleep have a FAR greater chance of being stored as fat as calories that are consumed earlier in the day. In fact, it’s almost a certainty.  

This goes for afternoon naps and also applies to late-night eating.   So if you want to avoid this, then don’t eat 2 hours before bedtime and do something physical such as walking or cleaning between your last meal and bedtime.  Also you want to eat slow digesting lean proteins at night rather than fast digesting carbs or simple sugars which are more easily stored as fat. 

Casein protein powder (shakes) takes between 7-12 hours to digest and is the only food that you should consume at bedtime.  These proteins are designed to digest slowly at an even pace through out the entire time you are sleeping.

If you eat and then immediately sleep on a regular basis, you will gain fat.

(2) Skipping meals or not eating for long periods of time will make you fat.

Doesn’t skipping meals (most notably breakfast) save a lot of calories during the day?

Sure, eating less during a given day does decrease your caloric intake, but it also slows your metabolism.  Skipping meals leads to hunger, which usually causes a person to eat larger amounts and make poor food choices when they do eventually get around to eating.

With a metabolism that’s been slowed by not eating (particularly true of skipping breakfast), consuming a few larger meals rather than lots of smaller meals you’re going to store a lot more of that food as fat.  It won’t matter if you’re eating a hamburger and fries or if you’re eating brown rice and a grilled chicken breast.  Your metabolism will be sluggish and your body will want to store what you’re eating rather than use it.   Look at the animal kingdom, a horse eats constantly and stays lean and muscular, while a bear eats on rare occassions and needs to store fat to make up for the long periods of time when they are not eating.

Eat as soon after you wake up as possible (never more than an hour) to kick-start your metabolism for the day. Even if it’s just a small something you grab on the go, do it. It will get your metabolism going and ensure the food you eat later doesn’t get preferentially stored as fat.   Also try to eat at least 6 small meals a day.

(3) Drinking soft drinks (even diet drinks) with fatty foods will make you fat.

A sugary soft drink will result in a high insulin response. Insulin is a storage hormone - it helps the body store carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

There is also evidence to suggest that the artifical sweeteners commonly found in diet drinks can cause an insulin reaction in the body. It’s a simple reaction to the sweetness, not carbs as there are no carbs in diet drinks. The body simply associates the taste of sweetness with the presence of carbs and assumes that carbs are present, increasing insulin levels in response.

What do you get when you have fatty foods in the presence of increased insulin levels? Simple. You get fat.

(4) Constant snacking on energy foods will make you gain fat.

I’m all for frequent eating to boost the metabolism and snacking on healthy foods is definitely not a bad thing. That’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about giving your body a constant supply of food energy.

Imagine giving your body a constant supply of energy, it will not have a reason to dip into stored bodyfat for energy. Just like you will never dip into the battery on your laptop computer if you leave it plugged in. The body is no different.

A constant supply of outside energy means it won’t have to use its own stored energy supplies. The result is that you will put on fat because the body doesn’t need to burn any of it for energy.

(5) Stress without physical exertion will make you fat.

The jury is NOT out on evolution. The human body evolved to deal with stress in certain ways. Before we became “civilized,” stress was all about fight-or-flight. Stress was that you were about to be eaten by a lion so you’d better run!

In response, the body needed a mechanism for quick energy to be available and a system to help deal with shock and injury. It was all about survival.

The result? In stressful conditions, the body secretes cortisol - a hormone that immediately starts breaking down muscle tissue for fast energy (it also acts as an anti-inflammatory in case of injury; cortisone is a relative of cortisol).

These days, we very rarely have to worry about being eaten by pretty much anything.  However, the basic responses of the body can’t distinguish between that stress and the stress of, say, your boss taking away your treasured red stapler that you love so much and moving your desk to the basement.

In the past, stress would be immediately followed by physical exertion. You’d run as fast as you could from the lion or you’d fight off what was attacking you. Now, there is rarely physical exertion following stress so the cortisol is not dissipated.  So it continues to break down muscle and promote fat storage.

This is why constant stress without regular exercise will make you fat.

(6) Toxic substances in your food will make you fat.

Your body’s reaction to a toxic substance is simple: protection. There are two primary ways the body does this. First, it tries to flush the toxins out. If that fails, it will try to lock the toxins away.

Think about it this way - what do nuclear power plants do with radioactive waste? They seal it in concrete and bury it. This is essentially the same thing your body does with toxins that you ingest. If it can’t get rid of them, it seals them up in fat cells and locks them away.

Have you ever experienced headaches or other general ill feelings when you’ve gone on a diet? This is typical and is a result of previously stored toxins being released into the body again as you burn or release fat. You are, in essence, unsealing the toxins and flushing them out. This is one of the primary reasons it’s critical to drink plenty of water when you’re losing fat.

Minimize foods that contain toxins such as preservatives, pesticides (wash your fruit and vegetables thoroughly), antibiotics, and heavy metals (such as the mercury increasingly found in some species of fish). Your body will protect itself by holding onto fat to lock the toxins away.

(7) Losing muscle mass will make you fat.

The engine of your metabolism is your muscle mass. This is where the majority of calories are burned in the body. If you go on a diet and you lose a lot of muscle, it is pretty much a guarantee you’ll gain the weight back (and often more!) and make it harder to lose fat again.

If you don’t protect your muscle mass, the more you diet, the fatter you’ll get.

(8) Overconsumption of fructose will make you fat.

Even though fructose is a sugar found in fruit and fruit juice, please, please, PLEASE don’t take this point to mean that simply eating fruit is going to make you fat. It’s not. Here’s what I mean:

Your body stores carbohydrates in the form of glycogen in the muscles and in the liver. When your body needs energy, it breaks the glycogen down into sugar (glucose) for use in various bodily processes.

When your glycogen stores are full, extra carbohydrates will have a tendency to be stored as fat unless burned by activity. Fructose is more efficently converted into fat (more specifically, it’s converted into the chemical backbone of triglycerides, which are fat molecules) than are other carbohydrates such as glucose. This makes it that much easier for excess fructose to be converted into fat.

 While high fructose corn syrup is by far the main culprit when it comes to fructose and fat gain, even the fructose found in fruits and fruit juices can have this effect. Because fructose has “nicer” associations with it (being a fruit sugar) than other sugars such as sucrose (table sugar), a person may think they can drink all the juice they want and not run into the same trouble as if they drank the same amount of a sugary drink containing sucrose.

Fruit juices are essentially a concentrated source of fruit sugar and calories - as much as 150 calories or more per glass! Certainly, juice has more nutritional qualities to it than a soft drink but it is nevertheless important to realize that juice actually has a lot of calories and that the sugar it contains can easily be converted into fat.

What to do about it? Eating your fruit and drinking your fruit juice earlier in the day will greatly minimize any chance of spillover into fat stores. Also, take steps to minimize consumption of high fructose corn syrup, which is found in foods and drinks such as soft drinks and fruit beverages, cookies, gum, jams, jellies and baked goods. As always, read the labels!

(9) Drinking alcohol frequently will make you fat.

Alcohol can make you fat in so many ways. Alcohol inhibits both the fat-burning enzymes and the muscle-building hormones in your body for many hours after consumption. Alcohol is normally consumed later in the day/evening, a time when your body has the least need for the extra calories. Alcohol is preferentially stored as fat and is very efficiently converted into fat in the body. Alcohol contains a lot of calories (7 calories per gram) with very little, if any, redeeming nutritional value. Alcohol is not an intelligence-enhancing substance and can lead you to make poor late-night food choices, again, a time when your body needs the extra calories the least. Alcohol is a depressant that will eventually make you tired. Remember what Sumo wrestlers do to gain fat quickly? Take in a lot of calories then go directly to sleep.

All these points are not to say a moderate amount of alcohol consumption is bad for you. The key truly is moderation.

When you look at these points all together, imagine how quickly you’ll gain fat if you drink a lot of alcohol late at night, eat fast food then go directly to sleep. There are few better ways to gain fat this quickly.

(10) Not drinking enough water will make you fat. 

Not drinking enough water can slow down your metabolism and encourage your body to hold onto it’s bodyfat rather than use it for energy.

Dehydration can contribute to an inefficient metabolism, by affecting body temperature. When you are dehydrated, your body temperature drops slightly, and causes your body to store fat as a way to help raise or maintain the temperature. Make sure you drink enough liquids, preferably at least 8 glasses of water per day, to avoid this metabolic slowdown.

Conclusion:

Keeping an eye on the above factors can help you keep your weight under control. Add exercise into the mix and that extra fat will be a thing of the past!