Why am I gaining weight while working out? Follow @CoachFabs

Nothing taps your panic button quite like gaining weight, especially when you're on a weight loss program. Unfortunately, it's an inevitable fact of life. Luckily, you've got me here to tell you that, as long as you're following a solid program, results will come. It's a physiological certainty (unless you have an underlying issue, like hypothyroidism).

Let's look at five of the most common weight loss problems:

I'm following the program perfectly. Why isn't it working?! 

Cortisol is a word you should become familiar with, as it's a key factor here. Cortisol is actually a performance-enhancing stress hormone that serves an important function in survival situations. Unfortunately, when we force too much daily stress on our bodies, we shift into a state of chronic cortisol release. This can cause us to store excess fat as a survival instinct. While it sounds pretty dire, it's generally only a serious problem in those with poor lifestyle habits. 

The beginning of a diet and/or exercise program, however, is a survival situation. In a very simplistic sense, your body releases cortisol, which, in turn, causes excess water retention to help you rebuild broken down muscle tissue. While this is cortisol functioning properly, it does lead to a period of water weight gain as you adjust to a new program. It's nothing to worry about. By following a solid plan, your body will adapt by repairing this muscle tissue. This results in an increase in your metabolism and leads to weight loss if that's your goal. 

The trick is that there is no hard line on how long this adaptation takes. It's based on your individual parameters. Just rest easy in the fact that it will happen, unless you force it not to.

I'm barely eating.

Severe undereating causes cortisol release, as it's the definition of a bodily emergency.  A short period of strategic undereating with proper hydration will help your body dispense of unneeded food (most of us chronically overeat) and regulate bodily functions. Go too long, however, and chronic cortisol release is the result. 

I've been doing hard workouts for weeks. 

On the performance theme, you need to continually improve, which is why workouts get harder as you move through any of Beachbody's programs. It's also why we add resistance (via added weight or gravity, as is the case with jumping) to workouts. If you're doing the same workouts at the same intensity constantly, you are not forcing adaptations that lead to changes in your metabolism. This is called a plateau. 

A plateau, technically, isn't gaining weight—it's remaining the same—but a proper diet and exercise program should continually force improvements (in the form of adaptations). Otherwise, your metabolism won't continue to increase, which is the goal of most weight loss programs.

My friend and I are doing the exact same thing and he/she's losing. 

Back to adaptation. We all react differently. The only absolute is that our bodies will change over time with a healthy program. A fitness rule called the Specificity of Adaptation states that it takes the body between 3 and 12 weeks to adapt to new stimuli, which is a very broad range. This is why it's vital that you stick to your program and not change it repeatedly based on your daily results! 

I lost weight for a while but now it's stopped. 

You eat less to lose weight. Things are going great, but suddenly you plateau—or start gaining. Odds are, your metabolism has slowed down in order to deal with the decreased calories. You're starving your now fit body, so it's doing what it needs to do to survive. The answer to this problem is pretty simple: eat more. 

Why am I not loosing weight? My Nutrition is ON POINT !!!!! Follow @CoachFabs

 

How many times do we hear or even tell ourselves that we are doing everything we need to be doing, we workout consistently and our nutrition is on point but we do not see results, WHAT IS GOING ON !!!!!!!

I must be predisposed to be fat, that is just how it is, I can't do this ......

Let's look at it a little bit closer.

Injuries. Many times we may have an injury or condition that is preventing us form pushing as hard as we need to in order to obtain the results we desire. This does not mean all is lost, if you have an injury or condition preventing you from pushing hard, make sure you are very diligent with your nutrition and that you stay active through out the day.

Food Portion. It is a common occurrence that when people are trying to lose fat they assume they need to starve their body. They are either not eating enough or eating the wrong types of calories at the wrong times. Your body needs nutrients, vitamins, minerals to function properly, it is only when we are providing our body all it needs that it will let go of those fat stores.

Effort. People often think that working out a couple of times a week is more than enough to get the results they want. Our bodies need consistent physical activity to perform properly, try to workout at least 25 minutes a day.

Emotional Problems. I often refer to this problem, we see it all the time on television shows where the trainers are trying to help individuals lose huge amounts of weight. Some people seek the comfort of food to protect or mask bigger problems, unless they are able to work through those problems they will not be able to make a permanent change.

Remember that Immediate changes are temporary, Permanent changes take time. Do not beat yourself up because you went of your plan for a meal or a day. This does not mean you should indulge on things that are bad for your body, just recognize it will take some time to establish permanent patterns in your life to replace the old unhealthy habits.

The Glycemic index Diet (GI) Follow @CoachFabs

Glycemic index diet is a general term for weight-loss diets that are based on your blood sugar level. Many popular commercial diets, diet books and diet websites revolve around the glycemic index, including Nutrisystem, the Zone diet and Sugar Busters.

The glycemic index measures carbohydrates. The index is a list of how blood sugar levels rise after you eat a small portion of a carbohydrate food.

Originally, the index was developed as a tool to help diabetics manage blood sugar control. In theory, if it works to help control blood sugar in diabetic people, then it should work for weight control.
Blood Sugar Imbalance

Some food is thought to disrupt this natural balance by creating large spikes in your blood sugar level. When your blood sugar and insulin levels stay high, or cycle up and down rapidly, your body has trouble responding and over time this could contribute to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is associated with a host of health problems, including:

• Type 2 diabetes
• Obesity
• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Heart disease
• What Is The Glycemic Index?

All carbohydrates increase blood sugar levels, but the effect varies widely. For example, a glass of orange juice will cause a much quicker rise in blood sugar than a bowl of oatmeal, which takes longer because of the type of carbohydrate and amount of fiber.

The response is affected by many factors, including the quantity of food, the amount and type of carbohydrate, the cooking method, degree of processing, and more.

On the glycemic index scale, each food is assigned an index number from 1-100, with 100 as the reference score for pure glucose. Typically, foods are rated high (greater than 70), moderate (56-69), or low (less than 55).

Most, but not all, foods on the lower end of the GI scale tend to be healthier, nutrient-rich, less processed, and higher in fiber -- such as whole fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans. Foods high in fiber can be very filling, especially when paired with protein.

One major concern with the glycemic index is that it ranks foods in isolation. But in reality, how your body absorbs and handles carbs depends on many factors, including how much you eat; how the food is ripened, processed or prepared; the time of day it's eaten; other foods you eat it with; and health conditions you may have, such as diabetes. 

So the glycemic index may not give an accurate picture of how one particular food affects your blood sugar. Glycemic load is a related concept that scores a food product based on both carb content and portion size. But the larger the portion size, the greater the calories consumed whether the glycemic index is high or low.

Beachbody, the creators of programs like P90x and Insanity have a great product called Shakeology, which ranks in the LOW Glycemic Index.

CLICK HERE to learn more about Shakeology

How Food Affects your Insulin Levels and Fat Loss Follow @CoachFabs

It is impossible to have high levels of insulin in your system while burning fat at the same time. If you eat a meal that has too high of a Glycemic Index, your blood sugar will spike, causing a large release in insulin. During this period of time your body cannot use fat for fuel. It doesn't matter if you are operating under a calorie deficit and even if you workout like crazy.


The “Glycemic Index” ranks carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. The rating used to go from 0 to 100…sugar being the highest GI carbohydrate. Now it goes from 0 to over 100…anything with a rating over 55 is consider a high GI. Carbs with a high GI raise blood glucose levels, which raise the release of Insulin. It is best to avoid high GI carbs when you are trying to burn body fat.

How to prevent insulin Spikes

Glycemic Load: measures how much carbohydrates in a food affect your blood sugar level, that is because carbohydrates have the hihest impact on blood sugar. The more challenging a food is to break down, the slower it digests and the more stable your blood sugar will be. Foods made with refined carbs, such as white pasta, are digested quickly and have a higher GL that causes blood sugar to rise rapidly, but foods made with complex carbs, such as whole-wheat pasta, have a lower GL that has a much smaller affect on blood sugar.

Portion Size: A large meal means more sugar entering the bloodstream at one time. Eating smaller portions beefed up by low GL snacks, such as nuts, keeps your blood sugar even throughout the day.

Food Combinations: What you eat with your carbohydrates matters, too. Protein and fat slow the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, which helps prevent insulin spikes.

That all might sound pretty complex, but the bottom line is simple: The less processed your food and the more work your body has to do to digest it, the better it is for your blood sugar.

A lot of people think that as long as you burn more calories than what you ingested, you would lose weight. This is true to a point…you should lose weight under a calorie deficit. The problem is that if you eat a high G.I. carb, you may shut down the body’s ability to burn fat for several hours. Even if you do wind up losing weight, you aren’t following the quickest nor healthiest route to your goal.

How do I get my Nutrition? Follow @CoachFabs

 A lot of people often ask me How I get my daily nutrition figured out. So I decided to create a short blog explaining why I believe on this product. Why I recommend it to everyone, and believe that everyone would benefit from using it.

When we look at our bodies they are amazing machines, and you have so many systems that help your body to stay on top shape and performing it's proper functions.



Look at your body and the systems it has:

Circulatory System Integumentary System   Skeletal System Reproductive System Digestive System Urinary System	Respiratory System Endocrine System Lymphatic System Muscular System Nervous System Immune System.

On the last few years we have been hearing a lot about GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) these are organisms that have been modified to allow them to withstand pesticides or deceases that other wise would have made it more costly to grow these products.

We are constantly over farming our lands, depleting them of all nutrients, did you know an apple 10 years ago had a lot more nutrients that they do today? So we have become a nation of over fed and under-nourished individuals. It takes a lot more food to be able to provide our body with the essential nutrients it requires to function properly.

Shakeology is my Daily Dose of Dense Nutrition.

On the image below you can see what Shakeology does for you. It has over 70 ingredients which are all Natural and Non GMO. There is nothing chemical in it, so your body doesn't have to work extra hard trying to figure out what to do with something it was never intended to be fed to the body.

I can for only $4 a day nurture my body, feed it with the Vitamins, Minerals, Nutrients it needs on a daily basis to work properly. Shakeology supports your body so it can use it's natural ability to heal itself.

CLICK HERE to Learn more about Shakeology