Mini-fast with exercise program by Mark McCarty

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Tuesday, August 09, 2011 1:20 pm Email this article
Here is the exercise and diet protocol that is described in the study of the "mini-fast with exercise" described previously here.

I cannot verify if this works or not, but wanted to post it for those who would like to try it.

Thank you to David W. Pearce-Smith for sending me this article. The NutriGuard Leanness Program

The NutriGuard Leanness Program : 3 Steps to Leanness

The Nutriguard Leanness Program (NLP) is a safe and novel lifestyle strategy that promotes rapid fat loss by integrating optimal exercise training with proper food choices and “hepatothermic” nutritional supplementation.

The intent of Nutriguard Leanness Program is to maximize your body’s utilization of stored fat, in the context of a low-fat diet.

If you burn more fat each day than you ingest from your diet, you will go into “negative fat balance” until your body reaches a new leaner equilibrium.

(Contrary to popular belief, very little ingested carbohydrate is converted to fat in the body; thus, most of the fat in your body derives directly from diet. However, excessive intakes of the wrong types of carbohydrate can block weight loss by inhibiting fat burning.)

Hobbs: I agree. To me, this is the biggest myth in obesity research, that is that carbohydrates are converted into fat. They are NOT. See the interview with carbohydrate researcher JP Flatt here.

A key goal of Nutriguard Leanness Program is to maximize your body’s utilization of stored fat during and for at least several hours following aerobic exercise.

This is achieved by nesting each exercise session within a 12-14 hour “mini-fast”, as described below.

Although this may sound difficult, your appetite will be well controlled in the hours following exercise if you have exercised and supplemented properly.

An additional key strategy for promoting selective fat burning is to minimize your daily insulin secretion - within the context of a low-fat diet.

This is achieved by choosing lower-glycemic-index carbohydrate foods, and by aiding efficient insulin function in skeletal muscle with regular exercise and a low-fat diet.

Thus, the Nutriguard Leanness Program recommends food choices that are low in both glycemic index and fat content.

In marked contrast to many programs that purport to achieve rapid weight loss, you will be getting a high proportion of your daily calories from whole carbohydrate-rich foods, high in fiber and nutritional value.

In addition to reducing your body fat level, this program will help to correct the “fat poisoning” that underlies “insulin resistance syndrome”, a common metabolic problem that greatly increases risk for vascular diseases and certain common cancers.

 

Step #1 : Exercise and Fasting

1. Aerobic Exercise during a “Mini-Fast”

• Pick the time of day that is convenient and most congenial for you to exercise: in the morning, mid-day, or evening.
• If you choose to exercise in the morning, you should skip breakfast - no meals or snacks in the morning until lunch.
• If you choose to exercise in mid-day, you should skip lunch - no meals or snacks between breakfast and dinner.
• (Some call this the “Ramadan option”, since during the month of Ramadan, Moslems fast between sun-up and sun-down.)
• If you choose to exercise in the evening, you should eat a very early dinner - by five, or as soon as you can get home from work.
• You should avoid any meals or snacks in the evening after your dinner.
• Your exercise should be done at least 2 hours after dinner, when your insulin levels have returned to a fasting level.
• After exercise, don’t eat or snack for the remainder of the evening.
• An alterative evening exercise approach - for those who want to maximize their rate of fat loss - is to skip dinner or nighttime snacking altogether.
• That way, your “mini-fast” will stretch from lunchtime to breakfast the next morning.
• You can drink plenty of non-caloric fluids during your mini-fasts; this will keep you hydrated for successful exercise, while also aiding hunger control.
• You will be surprised by how well you feel during these mini-fasts.
• When you exercise in line with this strategy, along with hepatothermic supplementation as described below, you will be in vigorous fat-burning metabolism for about 12 hours per day.
• This accelerated fat metabolism will enable you to feel energetic and hunger-free during your mini-fasts.
• Think of it this way: you aren’t starving yourself - by burning stored fat, you are finally “eating” food calories that you ingested weeks or months ago.
• You can be flexible in your choice of time for exercise.
• For example, if you prefer to exercise in the evening during weekdays, but would prefer to go out to dinner and evening entertainment on the weekend, you can switch your weekend exercise to mid-day.
• Or if you ordinarily exercise at noon, but one day you wish to attend a luncheon, you can use the morning exercise option that day.
• For your exercise, do a moderate intensity workout (50-60% VO2max), preferably one in which you support your own weight (i.e. brisk walking, jog-walking, stair-climbing, elliptical gliders); if knee problems make this difficult, use a stationary bike.
• If you are exercising at the right moderate intensity, you should be able to carry on a normal conversation at the same time; high intensity exercise burns primarily stored carbohydrate rather than fat.
• Interspersing brief episodes of high-intensity work into your regimen - interval training - may improve your longterm results by enhancing the capacity of your muscles to burn fat.
• After you’ve had a chance to improve your muscle tone and cardiovascular fitness, gradually increase the length of your exercise to at least 40 minutes per session.
• However, if you are very out of shape, it is prudent to start with a short duration that is comfortable for you, and then gradually increase it as your body adapts to exercise.
• Don’t overdo it and injure or severely exhaust yourself - the point is to establish a regimen that you can maintain on a regular basis.
• Try to work out at least five times weekly.
• (Once you reach your target weight, you may be able to reduce your exercise frequency a bit, but don’t exercise less than three times a week.)
• On your non-exercise days, eat whenever you desire - but try to follow the food guidelines outlined below.
• Prolonged moderate-intensity exercise suppresses insulin, boosts glucagon, mobilizes fat, and thus is ideal for fat burning; increased capacity for fat burning will persist for several hours after exercise if you don’t raise insulin by ingesting carbohydrate during this time.
• If you wish, you are permitted to eat a small amount of a lean, carbohydrate-free flesh food (i.e. skinless chicken breast, broiled fish) during the mini-fast; this will not impair fat burning, may aid appetite control, and will promote retention of lean mass.

 

Step #2 : Food

2. Proper Food Choices: Low Fat/Low Glycemic Index

• Food choices in Nutriguard Leanness Program are intended to keep daily insulin secretion relatively low and support glucagon production (aiding fat burning), while minimizing fat intake.
• Avoid fatty foods - fat should be no more than 15% of daily calories.
• No fatty meats, dairy products, or egg yolks.
• Minimize the use of oils in cooking, scan the labels of convenience foods for fat content, and be very sparing in your consumption of avocados and olives.
• In conjunction with exercise, fat avoidance will improve muscle insulin sensitivity and cause a compensatory decrease in daily insulin secretion that will make stored fat more metabolically available.
• A moderate daily intake of nuts or nut butters (no more than one ounce daily) is permissible, in light of evidence that these foods are markedly protective for vascular health.
• (Avoid nut butters that have added hydrogenated oils.)
• A very-low-fat diet, especially if accompanied by regular exercise, tends to decrease your daily insulin production by improving your body’s sensitivity to insulin - and of course also puts less new fat in your fat cells.
• The starchy foods in your regular diet should have a relatively low glycemic index (that is, they should increase blood sugar gradually and moderately, to avoid excessive insulin secretion or - in diabetics - hyperglycemia.)
• Pasta, rice (preferably brown, long-grain and parboiled), beans, corn (whole corn or popcorn), bulgur wheat, barley, “old-fashioned” or steel-cut (not instant) oatmeal, and whole fruit are recommendable.
• Avoid wheat flour products (excepting pasta, sourdough and sprouted-grain “flourless” breads), baked or mashed potatoes (boiled are better), and sugar-loaded soft drinks (diet sodas are fine).
• Beans - particularly home-cooked beans - have an especially low glycemic index and are great for weight control.
• Eat beans frequently.
• Eat foods in a physically intact natural form when feasible - the glycemic index of whole-kernel grains is lower than that of flours.
• “Flourless” breads made from sprouted grains (e.g. “Ezekiel”) or intact grain kernels are far preferable to other breads.
• A table of glycemic indices - such as you can find in the popular book The Glucose Revolution - can help you choose appropriate starchy foods.
• Vegetables, vegetable juices, and whole fruit are strongly recommended - they are great for your long-term health as well as for weight control.
• Try to eat at least one large salad every day.
• Whole fruit is the best dessert or snack.
• These foods are rich in potassium - crucial for the health of your vasculature and bones - as well as protective phytonutrients.
• With respect to protein intake, certain strategies in this regard can help you to minimize your insulin secretion and/or better control appetite; see “Protein Options for Leanness”.
• Both protein-rich diets and moderate-protein vegan diets can work well with Nutriguard Leanness Program.
• Note that Nutriguard Leanness Program is completely compatible with the dietary recommendations of vegan or quasi-vegan health advocates such as Drs. Dean Ornish and John McDougall.
• Vinegar can lower the glycemic index of a meal.
• Use vinegar as a salad dressing.
• You can also make a tasty “vinegar cocktail” by mixing a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with about 2/3 cup of water, and adding a packet of artificial sweetener; take this just prior to or with your meal.
• Alcoholic beverages, in moderation (1 or 2 drinks daily), are permissible, and indeed may benefit your health if you can drink responsibly.
• However, alcohol ingestion rapidly brings fat burning to a temporary halt, so never ingest alcohol during your mini-fasts.
• Remarkably, studies show that women who drink moderately but regularly are less likely to gain weight than are non-drinkers.
• (Sorry guys - this doesn’t work for you!)
• Eat enough to satisfy your hunger - no calorie counting! Make sure that you eat enough carbohydrate so that you have adequate fuel for your subsequent aerobic exercise.
• But use your common sense and your self-restraint - gluttony will sabotage any weight-loss program!

 

Step #3 : Supplementation

3. Hepatothermic Supplementation—(Section Left Out on Purpose)

Hobbs: I left this section out on purpose because it promotes specific products.

Hobbs: If you wish to read about them, the paper is posted here.

You don’t need to do everything right all the time!

If you can manage to exercise right, eat right, and supplement right the majority of the time, you can expect good results.

Fat Loss vs.Weight Loss: Note that in the first few weeks of Nutriguard Leanness Program, lean mass can increase while body fat decreases.

That means that body fat can decrease faster than body weight, so that your initial rate of weight loss may not be too impressive.

After a month or more of Nutriguard Leanness Program, lean mass begins to decline as well, and weight loss tends to catch up with fat loss.

So don’t obsess about your scale weight when beginning Nutriguard Leanness Program.

To evaluate your progress on Nutriguard Leanness Program, it is best to have your body composition assessed periodically (by a personal trainer or physician) so that you can quantify your fat loss.

A caution to diabetics: When using Nutriguard Leanness Program, monitor your blood sugar control as instructed by your doctor, and modify your medication usage as needed, with your doctor’s assistance.

If injectible insulin or sulfonylurea drugs are active during a mini-fast and exercise, a hypoglycemic reaction could result - so work out a proper medication schedule with your doctor.

Physician supervision is mandatory for diabetics!

That’s all there is to it! No drugs or stimulants, no prolonged starvation, no calorie counting, no avoidance of health-promoting carb-rich foods.

Nothing but fat-burning exercise, health-protective food choices, and safe, natural supplements.

Remember: The NutriGuard Leanness Program is a healthful, sustainable lifestyle - not a quick-fix gimmick

A Final Word: Let’s face facts - most people won’t be able to remain lean and insulin sensitive throughout life unless they are willing to make an abiding commitment to exercise; faddish diets and “magic” pills just won’t be enough.

If you are willing to make such a commitment, why not exercise under circumstances that will optimize your capacity to burn stored fat?

And, once you’ve gone to all that trouble, why would you want to eat fatty foods that put fat right back into your body? At its core, Nutriguard Leanness Program is just enlightened common sense!

Acknowledgements: Nutriguard Leanness Program has been devised by Mark McCarty, Science Director of NutriGuard, with crucial insights contributed by two of his oldest and most esteemed friends, physical trainer Johnny Gustin and Austrian physician Dr. Babak Bahadori.

Dr. Bahadori has developed a “7 Step Program” that is very similar in its essentials to Nutriguard Leanness Program, which has become an extremely popular and successful weight loss strategy in Austria and other parts of Central Europe.

Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Fasting, Intermittent