big belly

[Mighty Mouse II]

big belly

Hi Everybody. I am a nuitrition nut and followed the medical and nuitritional journals for years. As some of you know, I follow Dr. Perricone's diet and he explains the "belly fat" in his book as well. You are right that sugar and carbs do tend to go to the middle. The reason is that carbohydrates are processed by our bodies as storage (adipose cells) to be used by the body during periods when the body has no other food source. Protein (meats, fish, poultry, certain beans, and nuts) cannot be stored in the body and are used up first. However, Dr. Perricone purports that if you eat protein before consuming carbohydrates, a good portion of it attaches to the protein and passes through the body without storing. So one solution is to eat some protein while you are drinking your wine. Also, try to stay away from starchy carbs.

Also, walking is purported to be one of the best exercises for carbohydrate-induced fat, particularly if it is alcohol. As mentioned by someone else here, carbohydrate-induced fat is generally caused because of it's high glycemic index, which therefore causes insulin spiking in your body, shocking your body into the storage mode because spiking insulin occurs naturally during exercise so it is a clue to the body to start storing. In addition, the "drug" aspect of alcohol slows down your metabolism. While heavily exerted exercise actually helps to abate insulin-spiking, in the case of alcohol consumption, it is a further shock effect that CAN (not always) slow the metabolism down even further and generate further storage processing in the body. Whereas walking is a "gentle nudge" that helps to counteract the slowing down effects of the alcohol.

Genetics can play a key part in your body shape, something I regret to say is readily apparent in the women in our family. Age also has an impact. For most women, around the age of 40 their metabolism slows down naturally (even if not drinking) and they begin to struggle with weight issues. I just turned 50, my family is proned to middle fat, but I have been very successful with the protein first and the walking.

Please keep in mind that I am not a Doctor, nor a nuitritionist, and can't really tell others for certain that it will work for them. I just have studied this stuff for years and have met with success using these methods, which are considered healthy techniques by most experts. Hope it helps.

MM

[wwbarb]

big belly

Lisa, if you are paying for one-on-one training and he is bringing others into your trainiing session, you are not getting what you paid for. I would question him on this. If you are paying for individualized attention, you should be getting it. Otherwise, your trainer shoudl be making arrangements for additional sessions or give you some kind of explanation, not bs.

I too store fat around my belly and always have. I would probably have to have body fat in the low teens before it was gone. It's the most noticable place when I lost my weight but it never disappears totally.

Interesting articles Lt! Really is going to make me take a good hard look at alcohol. I have never heard or thought about the fact that my liver couldn't burn fat because it was too busy taking care of the booze, but, boy, does that make sense!

Mighty Mouse, interesting theory - glad it's working for you.

I worked out yesterday - weights at the gym and stationary bike for 50 minutes. Today is going to be tough - busy day - may be a day off. Got up in the middle of the night and I need to go back to sleep. Then I have to get to work on several things that are due today. Sounds like a cop out, doesn't it.

Barb

[MonaCat]

big belly

MM, Great Post, and I am going walking today as a result of it. I'll try the protein thing before the carbs too. Sorry to hear you had trouble sleeping last night Barb. I hate it when that happens.
MM, whcih beans are good to eat, that can not be stored?

[Guest]

big belly

beans, beans, they're good for your heart...:H :H OK, I'm over my goofiness for a sec!
This is all great info. Off to the gym! I should have posted this under the commitment section, but I did a "Coffee time Commitment" today to not drink and to hit the gym!

BTW Lisa, shin hurts if I do the exercises for it...otherwise it's OK. Thank you for asking. Dr. appt. Friday and I'm praying he will let me run a bit again. Thing with shin splings: if they get the slightest bit aggravated, you have to let the symptoms calm down completely before doing any more impact sports, and have to reintroduce VERY SLOWLY. The connective tissues within your muscles and between muscle and tibia begins to tear, pull away, and inflame. It friggin hurts!!
Think I'm going to walk this 5K race Sat. I can't just stand there and watch!

[Mighty Mouse II]

big belly

Hi Everybody. Gee, Monacat, I am really sorry that I did not see your question before this time. According to Dr. Perricone the following are the best beans and grains:
Barley (whole, for soups)
Beans (including black, chickpeas, kidney, lentil, lima, navy, pinto, and soy -- all great sources of fiber and protein)
Oatmeal (old-fashioned, course ground)

Taken from "The Perricone Prescription" by Nicholas Perricone, MD, p. 182

I have also posted a terrific bean salad from his book under recipe corner

Hope it helps,
MM

[Newyear]

big belly

Hi just checking some of this info I guess I missed earlier. Becca - shin splints are so painful. I remember having them in high school but I didn't know what it was. I would sit in class and just hold and put pressure on my shins - I will never forget what it felt like. Walking the 5 K is a good alternative. I know mine got better and I never had it again - even when I started running more after college. So there is hope. Just have to let it heal I suppose. Aptly named tho eh? feels just like a shin splint!

MM - thanks for that info. I carry most of my body fat around the middle too. Some is genetic like you said- no one in my family has big hips or legs....but we can be quite round in the middle - a nice santa clause look
I'm not sure I understand all you wrote about insulin. Are you saying that vigorus exercise can be counter productive to using up fat and increasing metabolism? Cause I want to do whatever I need to to increase my metabolism.

Thanks All ..and Barb I have thought about that trainer issue more and both you and Mona have convinced me I need a new one. Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to the gym today and I'm going to ask for a new trainer.

:l Lisa

[Mighty Mouse II]

big belly

Metabolism

Hi Everybody. Lisa had asked a question about insulin and slowing down of the metabolism. Lisa, I'm sorry I missed this and am just now finding it. You should ask your training about this, as he would be able to describe it much better than I. When I was working with a trainer several years back, he would actually switch my diet around to keep my metabolism at a maximum. And when I was doing the Body Maker (a weight loss and sculpting program), they would actually assign foods targeted to maximize metabolism based on your body type. So, trainers are usually well educated in nuitrition geared towards metabolic systems. So, you should definitely ask. But I will try to explain it the way it has always been described to me.

The human species at inception was a hunter and gatherer. So, like other wild animals, it would have good times of the year when food was plenty and bad times of the year where it was practically starving. Accoding to scientists, that is why we have adipose cells (fat cells), so that we can have internal food to nourish us when there is not food readily available. However, when our body goes into "starvation" mode, the metabolism slows way down, as by natural design, the body has no idea how long it will have to live off of the adipose cells -- another words, it uses the fat up very slowly. In common terms, we say that our metabolism has slowed down. That is why so many times when people start dieting and exercising after long periods of inercia, they don't lose weight right away. It is also why it is important to eat a healthy meal while exercising, so that your metabolism doesn's shut down. The problem is that often we don't even recognize a healthy meal and this is where insulin spikes can exacerbate the problem. Below is an excerpt from the book "The Perricone Prescription" that helps to understand how insulin spikes (which also causes inflammation in the body) can also stymy a person's weight loss efforts:

QUOTE:

"I asked Megan what she had for breakfast, and she proudly described a breakfast eaten daily by millions of men and women. She faithfully followed what she considered a heatlfull, low-fat diet and started each day with:
A large glass of orange juice
A bowl of cereal (raisin bran or cornflakes) topped with sliced bananas
skim milk
low-fat bran muffin
pat of no cholesterol margarine
cup of coffee

Here is what this 'healthy' breakfast is doing to Megan. As she drinks the juice, she is causing a burst of inflammation in her body, as the juice floods her bloodstream with sugar. This causes a sharp spike in her insulin levels, resulting in a rapid acceleration of the aging process, increasing the risk of heart disease, every form of cancer, memory loss, and mental deterioration. To add to the problems, the sugar flood is causing the collagen in her skin to cross-link, laying the foundation for the birth of wrinkles, sagging, and loss of tone. The coffee increases her insulin level further and also stimulates cortisol, the stress hormone, which causes the abdomen to store fat and is also toxic to brain cells.

And the juice is just the beginning. Now Megan turns to the cereal, banana, and muffin, all of which rapidly convert to sugar in her bloodstream and dangerously raise insulin levels. The cereal and bananas are equivalent to eating as much sugar as you would find in a Snickers candy bar. But the Snickers bar is less inflammatory, because it contains fat. Fat retards the absorption of sugar, thus slowing down the production of insulin. Since there is no fat in the skim milk or muffin, there is nothing to decelerate the carbs from rapidly converting to sugar, causing an insulin spike. This typical low-fat breakfast will store body fat more quickly than eating the candy bar! It is also grossly deficient in the protein necessary for total body repair. The absence of good fats can cause diverse problems, such as mental depression, heart disease, and dry skin.

After you have eaten such a meal, your 'feel good' brain chemical serotonin will drop dramatically so that you will not only be fat, wrinkled, and fatiqued, you will also be in a bad mood."

"The Perricone Prescription", by Nicholas Perricone, MD @ p.33-34.

So, I think that the bottom line is that the insulin spikes rapidly convert our carbs to sugar and too much of it in our body at one time causes the collection of fat cells, along with other body degeneration.

Dr. Perricone is very well respected amongst the medical community. I have been on his diet for three years, and it changed my attitude, my looks, and my weight. This weekend my husband agreed to start on the Perricone diet, as he said (honestly), "I'm tired of people thinking you are my daughter".

Of course, you will have to evaluate this information along with other sources that you are collecting and make a decision for yourself. If, however, this makes sense to you, I would suggest you look at some glycemic index charts (easily searched on the browser). Dr. Perricone recommends staying away from anything above 50 on the glycemic index. Also, I should mention that he is not recommending candy bars. Later in the book he explains that healthy choices are always better.

Hope this helps,

MM

[Newyear]

big belly

Thanks MM-

That is a bit scary. Esp the part about looking older- which is becoming more of a concern to me now that I'm comfortably in my 40s!
I'm going to Barnes and Noble and see if I can find one of his books.
So you are still doing this now?
Good thing I don't like orange juice, or cereal... kinda like the coffee though.

Thanks again - you have so much info!!
Lisa

[Guest]

big belly

Just thought I'd post under the big belly thing...
I haven't been focusing on exercise as much, as I have been focusing on feeling sorry for myself and quitting drinking. WELL, I'm feeling much better! Went to the gym today. Did the elliptical for 3 miles, then lightly so lightly jogged 1/2 mile on the treadmill. That was after I did some push ups, Mack's sit ups (crunches, really, and the oblique ones too), and my stretches for the old shin splints.
GUESS WHAT?? I've lost 2 more pounds this wk! I'm finally under 130. I started at 143#, scale said 128 this morning. WHOO HOOOOOOOOOOOo!!!!!!!

To all of you continuing your fitness goals, awesome job! Sorry I've been away. Had a freak out. I'll get back into it!!
Thanks.

[Mighty Mouse II]

big belly

Becca, Congratulations!!!!!

MM

[Newyear]

big belly

Becca! - fantastic!!! That's inspiring. I've missed the last 4 days but I'm headed to the gym right this minute to meet the trainer. I really prefer working out in the morning. I'm ready to go to bed right now. I was up at 4am and at work by 6am this morning and I'm wiped out. Worked yesterday all day getting ready for a meeting today.

ok ok...thanks becca and I'm so happy for you- and even more proud of your af days - great job!
I started at 143 and now I'm at 137. I need to move that scale a few notches this week. Working out every day until Sat. I want to be 2lbs lighter. 135 here I come!!

bye-
lisa

[Guest]

big belly

Lisa,
I can't believe we started at the exact same weight!! weird....
You can do it! So glad the scale is moving!:l

[blondie]

big belly

MM - Perricone info...

Hi MM
I have been very interested in reading about this diet that you follow. Since going AF 40 days ago, I noticed the wrinkles on my face are much more noticeable! :upset: Yikes! There's no sub-cutaneous beer/wine sloshing about to pad the skin out! Anyway, I had a quick look online at this Dr's books and wondered if you could help with a couple of queries?!

Is it beneficial to just follow his eating recommendations or do the cosmecuticals play an important part?
As I don't need to lose any weight, which book would be most suitable re plumping out my skin?!!!
(Unfortunately, these books are not easily accessible where I live and going to a bookstore to leaf through them to decide is a tad difficult!)

Thanks for posting re this and appreciate any pointers you can give!
Best wishes
Blondie

[Rusty]

big belly

Hi Mona Cat:

Yes, I do know how many calories are in a bottle of white wine...because I am a HUGE white wine drinker. There are 175 calories in a 7-once glass of wine. I get exactly 4 glasses of wine out of every bottle....so I would say my best guesstimate would be 700 calories. A quick tip I picked up from two fitness magazines...if you're going to drink later in the day....then during the day, mix unsweetened cranberry juice, lemon juice, and sparkling water (club soda)...because it helps your liver process the calories fasterand they are less likely to be stored as fat. It really does work and it's a refreshing drink.