The Three Biggest Mistakes People Make Trying to Lose Weight, Increase Energy, and Get Fit—And What to Do Instead

This is the first of a three article health series outlining how people are missing the mark on creating healthy fit bodies and how to get on track to sustain ideal weight, high energy and a strong fit body.

The mistakes are:

1. Burning exclusively sugar (or refined grain carbohydates) for fuel
2. Losing muscle with aging
3. Setting unrealistic goals

The three remedies are:

1. Burn fat for fuel for at least half of the time
2. Build muscle for stamina, joint stability and strength
3. Set small behavioral goals that are easy to achieve and support the larger goal.

The body uses either fat or glucose for fuel.

For the past 30 years we have been told to cut fat from our diets. Consequently, sugar and sweetener has been added to low fat foods to make them taste better. This is taking a terrible toll on our health and makes weight loss very difficult. When we regularly consume sugar or refined carbohydrates (that act like sugar in the bloodstream) three meals a day—or worse, adding an additional snack—our blood sugar and insulin levels are on a roller coaster all day long. This means our energy bounces up and down throughout the day and worse, the frequent presence of insulin in the blood stream makes it impossible for us to burn fat for fuel. Insulin is a fat storage hormone. It causes us to instantly store the fat instead of using it for fuel.

What happens when you burn fat? You will feel a sustained energy and mental focus. Your appetite is reduced. Your cravings for carbs will drop.

To optimize our health and weight we must re-teach our bodies to burn fat. This is possible through diet alone by severely restricting carbs and eating 75% of daily consumption in fat. This approach is very challenging to maintain.

There are products available that supplement ketones (fat molecules) and safely assist the body to shift into ketosis. (fat burning)

Intermittent fasting (only eating over a reduced number of hours everyday) will also help the body reduce carb cravings and shift into fat burning. This is especially powerful when combined with a “fat” coffee (blending butter and coconut oil into morning coffee).