OK, the exercise is simple. Anything that raises your metabolic rate at least three times a week. This could be no more that a nice slow walk a kilometer out and a kilometer back. Three or more times a week. I think you can handle that. That's the easy part.
Next, you BEGIN to modify your eating habits. Start cutting back on carbohydrates and increase your consumption of protein. This is important and so misunderstood! Fat is usually bound with protein and, in the insane desire to get thin and lose body fat, some idjut decided that you should avoid fat. Not eating fat will make you lose fat. This is stupid. The opposite is true - unless you get into starvation mode. THEN your metabolism mode will slow, the body will attempt to conserve energy and you will feel like crap all of the time. Just like you do on the current fad diets.
Unless you are incredibly active, carbohydrates (sugars you know) metabolize very quickly and produce lots of energy. If this energy is not utilized, the body has the recourse of storing the resultant products as fat. AND if you have restricted fat in your diet and the body feels that it needs to store fat because you are in a starvation condition, that is just what it will do!!!!
So the ideal prescription to lower your metabolic rate and gain fat is to restrict fat and increase your carbohydrate intake. Cute, huh? That's just what the "experts" are telling you to do. Odd, these very same experts will gladly accept your money to give you such a diet, too.
Now don't get me wrong, deprive yourself of enough calories and you will lose weight. However over 50% of it will be lean tissue and while numerically your fat content is decreasing, so your muscle content and your body fat percentage remains about the same. THAT SUCKS! And this is the big business diet scam and how it works.
Back to diet.... Decrease your carbohydrate intake. Set a decreasing target. How about a hundred grams per day for the next week. 75 the next week and 30 the third week... Hold at thirty until you have achieved the body fat percentage that you want to achieve.
For a lady under thirty 19% is a good target. How do you know your body fat percentage? Well, this can be done a couple of ways but the simplest is to get an inexpensive set of skin fold calipers - along with a chart and instructions and use them. Keep weekly records. At this point, body weight is simply not a factor in anything. FAT is the target here. Most health food stores sell them.
This diet sounds simple but as you get lower and lower on your daily allotment of carbs, you will get cravings like you won't believe. To compensate for that, the rules are that, on weekends, you can eat anything you want. In fact, you are encouraged to eat carbohydrates. Pig out. Have a ball. We aren't counting calories and we're not saying that you can't eat. All that we're saying is, Monday through Friday, you must restrict your carbohydrate intake. Eat all you want. Just not carbs.
This is the initial diet phase and, in conjunction with your walking, will make significant changes in your metabolism. Remember this, you can live without a single carbohydrate. Without fat, you die. What does that tell you?
So far I've dealt with the first two factors of exercise and diet. Now we come to the third dietary factor.
I'm going to suggest that you begin a fasting program. Fasting is simple. you don't eat and you drink only those things which require NO digestion and contain no chemical toxins. A tea, coffee or even an herbal infusion with almost no sugar or the smallest dab of honey... and that's pushing it.
Evolution is a conservative thing. There is a survival reason for all that has been developed. While useless things have appeared, they rarely continue for long and that which is useful is refined to higher levels of efficiency.
Man evolved as an omnivorous scavenger / hunter. His normal routine could be described a feast and famine. Normal scavenging would yield a few nuts and berries and the carcasses of a larger hunter's kill would provide large supplies of high calorie fats and protein. As an early hunter, man was not the best but he did refine his skills to a point where he could adequately provide for himself.
In daily life, then as now, man is exposed to various poisons and toxins. A major source of toxins are the food that we eat. Man eats fairly high on the food chain and this has the disadvantage of exposing him to the accumulated and concentrated toxins that exist at these higher levels.
For instance, certain seaweeds concentrate mercury from the environment in their cells. Small fish eat the seaweeds, ingesting the mercury. A larger fish that eats these small fish develops a much higher concentration of mercury in its system than the small fish which has a higher concentration than the original seaweed, which has a higher concentration than the sea water. Man, ingesting such a fish -tuna by name- CAN be exposed to unhealthy levels of mercury, causing illness.
This concentration effect has always existed and man's system and organs of elimination have evolved to store and purge the toxins with minimal effect on health. However, this cycle (due to natures conservation of energy) became dependent on the feast and famine cycle. The primary organs of elimination can only function to a certain level. When man eats, the process of digestion occupies the organs of elimination during the nutrition cycle. Toxins that overload the capacity of the elimination system during the nutrition phase are stored in the body. The liver is a common storage point as are fatty tissues and between the joints.
In the feast and famine cycle, when man is not in the process of active digestion, the organs of elimination then begin purging the accumulated toxins from their storage locations and expel them via the normal methodology.
As man (ok, ok, woman too) became more sophisticated in food gathering and production, the ratio between feast and famine altered in favor of feast. While this is a very comfortable life style, the implication is that the organs of elimination do not have the opportunity to enter purge phase.
The effect of this is that there is a growing accumulation of toxins in the body that will finally exceed the safe storage capacity and begin to have detrimental effects of the metabolism. This is a cumulative effect and impairs the bodies functioning by impact on various systems in a detrimental manner. The symptoms of accumulated toxins are always evident as an ailment that would not normally be associated with auto toxicity. Too often treatment for such ailments is addressed at the symptoms and loads the body with other elements that need to be purged, stimulating and ever decreasing spiral to disease or death.
Fasting offers the body a chance to go into the purge cycle. It is not a magic cure for every ailment that afflicts mankind. However, by purging accumulated toxins, it is possible to normalize the body and restore some of the natural resiliency that the body possessed before being loaded down with various stored poisons.
Since fasting stimulates the release of toxins into the bodies system, it is possible to over do it. The initial phases of fasting will be uncomfortable and produce a lot of strange symptoms. This is to be expected and these symptoms will abate almost immediately on breaking the fast and, as the body is purged, will eventually not return on subsequent fasts.
To get started, a conservative approach is recommended. First choose a day that is appropriate. When I was working a day shift, I would have a normal breakfast on Friday morning, skip lunch and supper and break the fast on Saturday morning. A simple 24 hour fast. The ideal length to start with.
It takes about 18 hours for the process of digestion to stop. From that point on, the body will be entering a purge cycle. It is important to drink a lot of water as the kidneys are a prime source of elimination.
Be prepared to be cranky, achey, and light-headed. It's only 24 hours. You can do it! Your body is not used to this and you are releasing all sorts of nasty things into the blood stream that are circulating throughout the body and into the brain. Just let the body do it's job. I chose the times I did so that in the latter stages of the fast, I would be asleep and awaken, knowing that I could eat.
For three weeks, on the same day each week, you do a 24 hour fast. On the fourth or fifth week, you do a 36 hour fast. This will be a challenge for you, but the 24's have gotten you sort of prepared for it. You then drop back and do three more weeks of 24 hour fasts. Then you do a 48 hour fast. This will be interesting, but realize that, by now, you have already fasted 180 hours. You can handle it. You now drop back and do three more 24 hour fasts. If you feel ready for it go for a 72. Just how brave are you? The 72 is new territory. Go for it.
At this point you are not only getting into a heavy purge, you will experience some of the really interesting mental effects. I would start this one on a Thursday evening around 7 pm so that I could break it on Sunday and the same time and be prepared for work Monday morning. Also the Saturday and Sunday were the interesting days that I could experience at home without impacting my work performance.
I've done five days. After the third day there was absolutely no desire for food. When I finally decided that it was time to break the fast, I almost had to force myself to eat. I had felt so good those last two days, that I almost did not want it to end. Now, understand that I had been working up to such a fast and was ready for it. That's not a good place to start. All I can say is it beats drugs and is good for you. When you are ready for it, there is no downside.
You CAN improve your condition dramatically. Give it a shot. You have nothing to lose - except a few calories - and everything to gain. It can't hurt you and it might help you.
There. That's my speech on fasting. As the age of 52, in 1964. my mother was told she was going to die. She stopped going to the doctor and went to a health food store and bought a pile of books. She tried the Bragg system of fasting. She attended the funeral of the doctor who told her she was going to die. She's still active and healthy.
Ok, now here is a more technical explanation on the diet I mentioned...
Here is a summary of the "Anabolic" diet. This is NOT a diet for health. You will need to take vitamin supplements while on it, but it does rip the fat off of you. As you probably know, the more fat you have, the quicker initial losses. I went from 18% body fat to under 12% body fat in less than 7 weeks using it. That's almost 1% of total body fat lost in one week. You could lose at an even higher rate.
The anabolic diet consists of two cycles each week. Mon thru Fri, it is high fat and high protein with low (no more than 30gms of carbohydrate. Sat and Sun, you limit protein and carbohydrate load.
Calorie Percentages
Carbs Fat Protein
--------------- ----- -------
5-8 (30gms max) 55-60 30-35 Weekdays
45-60 30-40 10-15 Weekends
This alternation is designed to manipulate the body's hormones in a manner to minimize fat accumulation, promote fat burning and muscle growth. This is just about opposite of today's conventional thought, but there is a sound theory behind it and, empirically, it works! The hell with convention. Give me something that works!
I have noticed a decrease in body fat and an increase in lean muscle. I seem to have more energy and an increased feeling of well being. So far, it seems worth pursuing.
During the week carbs are limited. The weekend carb load causes insulin levels to rise. The body loads the muscles with glycogen and amino acids are driven into the cell producing an anabolic effect.
Monday and Tuesday workout will be a free fatty acids and glycogen burn. Wed thru Fri, glycogen will be limited and the body will burn fat for energy.
This is the basis of the Anabolic Diet as published by Optimum Training Systems in California.
The first week is, to be kind, a bitch. You will feel bad. The second week is easier and the third
week you will feel normal. Unless you have specific health problems that would make such a diet
unwise, you might want to try it. Give it a couple of months and evaluate the results. Make a
decision from there.
This diet is also recommended for diabetics so it is not as radical as it sounds. Please note - the diet NOT fasting has been use by diabetics! I suggested a decreasing carb rate to ease into it. If you feel brave and dedicated, go for it. By the way, a slice of bread is 12gms of carbohydrate. A spoon of sugar is 4 grams. Staying around thirty takes discipline.
On this diet, you can eat as much as you want. You just can't eat WHAT you want!!!!