I eat a very good diet, run 2k every day, and I still am overweight…

Why Can’t I Lose Weight – What am I doing wrong?

As far as weight loss is concerned, there are three types of foods:

1. Foods that make you gain weight.
2. Foods that help you lose weight.
3. Foods that PREVENT you from losing weight.

When I am coaching a dieter, the thing that I first focus on is the page in their health profile that tells me what they commonly eat on a daily basis. This starts to paint the picture of what the dieter will need to do to be successful.

In most cases the obese dieter isn’t really eating all that badly.

Usually there are two problems with this person’s diet.

1. They aren’t eating enough protein.
2. They’re eating too many foods that PREVENT them from losing weight.

How do I fix that and get this weight off?

First I assure them that it is unnatural for our bodies to lose weight! It’s not a willpower issue. We need to create a state of imbalance in our bodies so that we can shed the weight.

For the scientific information behind what I’m going to explain – please refer to our video here:

Basically our bodies always use sugar as fuel first. So we need to restrict our sugar intake. This is where the types of foods come in. Fruits, whole grains, and yogurt for example, all end up as the sugar-fuel in our bodies.

These are some of the key foods our doctors encourage us to eat in order to lose weight —these foods actually PREVENT us from losing weight!

Now, don’t panic! Restricting these foods is short term, and only for the duration of the diet – not FOREVER! Do you think it’s safer for your health to be obese, or to give up foods like fruit for a short period of time to solve the obesity problem?

Eliminating these foods from our diet empties out our sugar stores, and forces our bodies to break down muscle and fat for energy.

What is Ketosis?

When your body is primarily burning fat for fuel this process is called ketosis. When your carbohydrate intake is greatly reduced, your body turns to stored fat, prompting your liver to make compounds called ketones that supply many of your tissues with energy, including your brain.

Ketosis simply means that you have switched from burning sugar to burning fat. Ketosis is perfectly safe for everyone except Type I diabetics. (We do have a modified protocol for Type I diabetics.)

Benefits of Ketosis

• Greatly reduced appetite and hunger
• Preserves lean muscle mass
• Reduced insulin levels
• Using body fat for fuel
• Increased energy
• Increased mental clarity
• Reduced inflammation

An Imbalanced Diet to Burn Fat

Why does Ideal Protein takes an imbalanced diet approach to weight loss?

Typical “low calorie diets” (Hypocaloric in the above graphic.) comes in many variations, but all have one thing in common, reduce your overall caloric intake to cause you to lose weight.

While this does result in weight loss, there are some serious issues with these types of diets.

• They do not reduce carbohydrates enough to get you in ketosis.
• They do not provide adequate protein to support your muscle.
• They also do not provide enough micronutrients, which may cause vitamin or mineral deficiency.

These diets allow your body to break down essential muscle tissue to fuel itself. You lose equal amounts of fat and muscle, which creates a slower metabolism, leaving you worse off than you were before you began.

I explain the whole process in this video here:

I Want to Lose Weight Not Muscle

On the Ideal Protein diet, you are provided the optimal intake of highly absorbable protein to protect your muscle and instead burn fat. The right amount of protein is measured based on how much muscle you have. Your coach should do body composition analysis on you to establish your protein requirement. (If your coach doesn’t do this, see if there is another clinic in your area that does!!!)

On a daily basis you eat an Ideal Protein breakfast, lunch and snack. In addition, you also eat 5-8oz of lean protein such as chicken, beef, fish or pork for dinner, along with four cups of vegetables.

With your muscle effectively unavailable your body is forced to burn fat as it’s primary source of fuel.

I exercise EVERY DAY and I still can’t lose weight

In my office I have a replica of 5lbs of fat. Here is the sign that sits next to the big blob of fat.

I didn’t have the time (or good enough knees) to exercise enough to lose the amount of fat necessary for me to get healthy. It was disheartening. I made the choice to fix my food problem with food, and I lost 72lbs in 20 weeks on Ideal Protein.