Read 31 times since Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I have previously talked in other articles about self experimentation to get the most out of your training and nutrition. Now I will expand on that and talk you through a simple experiment that could help you lose about 10lbs in a month. This is a challenge I extended to my Glasgow personal training clients with good results.
The experiment will establish the effect of removing refined flour from your diet for 4 weeks. Refined flour, and therefore everything that contains it, is one of the main things that contributes to weight gain. Its glycemic index (GI), a measure of how quickly a food elevates your blood sugar level, is around 100 which is the same as table sugar. This is bad because this sudden rise in blood sugar forces the body to secrete large amounts of insulin. Insulin is a storage hormone and returns blood sugar to its preferred level by taking the blood sugar out of the blood and storing it as fat.
Flour is present in all kinds of bread, pasta, buns, pastries, cakes and so on. While wholemeal flour is seen as healthier than heavily processed white flour because it has more fibre and a lower GI it is only marginally better. This means brown bread isn't much better than white, they will both make you fat. Please don't think that switching from lots of white bread to lots of brown will make much of a difference because it won't, no matter what you have heard. Flour based foods are also bad because you can consume a large quantity of them in a short space of time. This only makes matters worse because more flour means more blood sugar and more insulin so more fat. High levels of insulin also prevents the release of stored fat as energy so no matter what exercise you do your body will actively be fighting against you to keep your fat stores.
To take part in the Glasgow weight loss experiment all you need to do is weight yourself, best done first thing in the morning after visiting the bathroom, then adjust your diet to remove all flour based foods. You can keep eating fruits, vegetables (but no potatoes, they are as bad as table sugar and flour!), lentils, beans etc so you won't be short of carbohydrates and you can eat more protein as this will help fill you up. Then weigh yourself every week, at the same time on the same day, under the same conditions for 4 weeks, to see how progress. Don't be surprised if you lose 10lbs or more! Iain Smith (MPhil/CSCS) owns Standout Gym, an independent warehouse gym in Glasgow, focusing on weight loss. He offers small group training as an affordable alternative to Glasgow personal training. Iain is a former international decathlete with 17 years coaching experience. www.standoutgym.com.
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