In our ever fattening society, many of you are wondering why it’s so easy to gain fat.  It’s not that you try.  You certainly don’t want to be fat.  Yet year over year the midsection expands and you look, feel and are fatter and fatter.

While gaining fat is not inevitable, you need to understand what’s causing it before you can combat it.  So let’s identify the fat culprits:

• You’ve heard this one before but it’s important so we need to cover it again.  As we age the body loses muscle.  That is, of course, unless we combat that natural process.  The loss of muscle can be a half pound of muscle a year or .5% to 1.0% loss a year.  By the time we hit 50 or so, that rate increases.  The muscle loss is associated with declining hormone levels (HGH, IGF-1 and testosterone).
• We are less active than when we were young.  At least most of us are.  When younger we were moving more whether it was running from class to class or participating in some athletic sport.  Then we become adults and often get desk jobs where we sit all day long (except to get lunch or a snack).
• We eat too much sugar.  Did you know that the average number of calories has increased for Americans over the last 25 – 30 years?  Most all of that is in the form of carbohydrates.  Many of us think that fat is making us fatter as we age.  And certainly eating fat with carbs is a recipe for disaster (the carb consumption shuts down any fat burning so the fat eaten with carbs goes immediately to fat storage).  But our bigger enemy is over processed carbs we eat in the form of breads, white rice, potatoes, cookies, cereal and more.
• If you are a woman, you’ll have peri menopause followed by menopause to deal with once you hit your late 30′s (or older for some women).  Menopause in particular shifts women into an estrogen dominant situation and the excess estrogen can make us store fat.

Beyond these factors there are others that may make getting fat very easy.  Many of or meat and dairy products are loaded with hormones.  Our produce is often laced with pesticides which can break down into estrogen like substances.

This is all bad news but the truth is that getting fat (or staying fat) is not inevitable.  the remedy is actually simple.  Not easy but simple.  First we need to take charge of our body.  We need to schedule regular exercise sessions and we need to incorporate strength training as the core of that exercise to build muscle.  Resistance training will grow muscle AND cause us to burn far more calories than simple cardio.

Next we need to alter our eating.  Stop eating junk and properly nourish our bodies with right sized meals and amazing changes will occur.  We need to eliminate most of the over processed grain based and starchy carbs we’ve been eating.  Focus on steamed veggies, fresh veggies and low glycemic index fruits and just about any food with added sugar.  This alone will have you switch your body from fat storing to fat burning.

Moreover, we need to buy ourfruits and leafy greens organic.  This cuts out the pesticides.  We buy our dairy organic and we select meats and eggs from animals that have free range grazing, with no hormones or antibiotics added.  We become healthier and we support farmers doing the right thing.

If you would like more help, let me know and I’ll recommend a specific workout plan and eating program to help you take back your body and live the life you dream of!