Zen My Fitness – Linking Muscle and Mind

We get caught up in all the many CRAZY things that go on in Hollywood.

So in the next couple of articles I thought I’d shed some light on the Celebrity Diets that ”don’t work“, “do work” and “one diet I’ll choose to try out” to see what happens.

In a previous post I discussed how celebrity fad diets can be unhealthy and maybe even dangerous but these ones are just silly.

All diets used for rapid weight loss are usually nutriently unbalanced,  they can not be used over any lengthy period.

Diets have a very low success rate, so essentially they don’t work.  Most times your original weight returns shortly after you stop dieting.

Maintaining a healthy weight over a life time is only sustainable by using a nutritional strategy rather than a fad diet!

An example of  a nutritional strategy is using   intermittent fasting for the long term.

The Zero Fat Diet - (the evil fats)

SALT is the latest spy action movie where CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is wasting the bad guys and maybe some of the good guys too!

But Angelina needed to get into shape for this role.

Her issue was not to lose weight but actually put it on. A reverse situation for most of us.

Angelina had to do the following;

• Ate five small meals a day
• No junk food
• Alcohol only on weekends
• Started with a diet of 70% carbs and 30% protein
• Avoided cardio, to put on muscle without losing weight
• During pre-filming she would do strength and fight training for 2 hours a day
• On set, the training changed  to 4 workouts a week, during lunch breaks and weekends and she altered her diet to 60% carbs and 40% protein.

That sounds all well and good and it seemed to work as in the movie she looks hot.

Focusing on strength training and not doing cardio was good idea too put some lean body mass on the actor.

But the diet was 70% carbs and 30% protein and 0% fat?

A myth that is still perpetuated today, is to leave fat out of a diet that helps you get leaner and healthier or “fat makes you fat” … all wrong!

Dietary fat is very slow burning in the body so when you replace the fat with faster burning carbs you feel less energetic, risk burning muscle tissue,  your metabolism and hormones become affected because your energy levels (blood sugar) are spiking and dropping.

Dietary fats supply some of the best and stable sources of energy.

A certain amount of dietary fat is vital to your health and optimal body composition which includes gaining lean muscle.

In fact, a small amount of saturated fat is essential for anabolic hormone production. That’s why lean meats are such a good food source for health.

Approximately 15-20% of your calories should come from fats.

Leaving fats outs is a big mistake! So if you want to feel good all day long, you need to make sure you are getting enough fats and the right types.

Lemon Detox Diet – (I’d prefer a  Frozen Lemon Margarita?)

Beyonce and Tania Zaetta seem to like this detox diet! I don’t know why,  you wonder who advises these superstars?

It supposedly cleans the body of toxins by consuming up to 10 drinks a day consisting of lemon, tree syrup, cayenne pepper, salt, herbal tea and water.

And there is no eating food for a week, so starve yourself and I will guarantee your metabolism will slow down and so does losing body fat.

You will lose weight cause there is no food going in and the loss is only short term.

If you want to exercise on this diet forget it since there is no fuel for the muscles.

Fasting over a long period and you will lose muscle as the body needs to get energy from somewhere.

Imagine the cravings and when you eat normally again you  probably add more weight on as you eat to make up for loss time due to starving.

The Baby Food Diet. - (No not kidding this is for real)

US celebrity trainer Tracey Anderson came up with this one and how she conned  Reese Witherspoon to follow this I don’t know!

The idea is that it involves eating 14 serves of baby food a day and then having a healthy normal dinner.

If you look at the baby food ingredients they are low amounts of iron, zinc and calcium leaving you possibly deficient in these over time also fibre intake is not adequate.

I can’t imagine looking forward to eating baby food at any time let alone over a long dieting period.

Give this diet a huge miss.

Cabbage Soup Diet – (you could run a gas turbine on this diet)

Involves eating cabbage based vegetable soup over seven days.

This diet is limiting your nutrients in calcium, iron, zinc and Vitamin B.

Remember you lose weight because of eating less calories not because of a particular soup.

Over 7 days it’s obviously unsustainable and should not be used in the long term although Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has tried it but she probably added in garlic for her friend Angel.

I guarantee you will get sick of  eating the soup after a few days.

Of all these diets I would not want to use any.

They lead to affecting your health varying from fatigue, constipation, breakdown of muscles and worst of all .. can make you gain weight.

The best idea for long term healthy weight is eating the right balance of macronutrients like;

• Proteins which helps build or maintain muscle whilst shedding fat and helps suppress your appetite. The lean muscle will help burn more calories.
• Carbohydrates is an easy fuel source for your body during intense activities you want your body to use this and not dip into your protein reserves for energy.
• Fat (the essential fatty acid type) help produce testosterone and other anabolic hormones for growth. Great stable source of fuel for steady state activities.

The best nutritional strategies that I have found that do work for the long term is intermittent fasting, carb cycling and following a paleolithic diet.

The bottom line is if your goal is to lose body fat make sure you have a calorie deficit by eating a balance of high nutrient density foods which will provide you optimum health over a life time.