Bodyclay Sculpting with Lance King

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Metabolic Cooking Review - Does It Work?

Free Recipes: http://goo.gl/sFLkO

By John Davenport

Eating healthy and nutritious food is the key to weight loss. Yet, in our modern society, this has become a challenge as we're constantly surrounded by bad food and it's often cheap and plentiful.

Metabolic Cooking is a plan which is claimed to be able to help you make better eating decisions and to get you to burn fat faster than before.

It was designed by Dave Ruel and Karine Losier, a couple in real life and now partners in this new program. Dave Ruel is a bodybuilder who started offering nutrition advice for men who wanted to gain muscle mass and lose body fat. He became a successful author in that field and later decided to write a nutrition plan which is dedicated to fat loss. This is how the Metabolic Cooking was originated.

Karine Losier assisted Ruel is his writing. Losier holds a Masters in Psychology and is instrumental in making the program right for women (bearing in mind that Ruel's former clients were mostly men).

Metabolic Cooking has two main parts:

A nutrition manual which provides general advice and guidelines on how to maintain a healthy diet which promotes a high metabolism and rapid fat burning.
Recipe collections - This is the main part of Metabolic Cooking and it makes the entire program very easy to use. There are over 160 recipes in this program and they range from breakfast, through meat and fish, to side dishes and vegetarian meals. In addition, you can also find healthy desserts in the plan.

The recipes are the core of the program. It's quite clear that a lot of thought has been put into them to make them as simple as possible. In a recent interview with Dave Ruel, he told me about how simplicity was one of the main things that he thought of when creating the recipes.

Each recipe comes with detailed directions and the calorie and nutrient contents. Each recipe is also graded by its composition in carbs, fats, protein, and vegetables. The nutrition guide teaches how much of each nutrient you need to eat each day. This makes it easy to pick and choose different recipes, quickly see how you can combine them into meals for the entire day to make sure you're giving your body everything it needs.

The reason why Metabolic Cooking may help you lose weight is that having these recipes makes it easier to maintain a healthy eating routine. In addition, it's quite clear that the ingredients have been carefully chosen with an emphasis on healthier oils, fat sources, sweeteners, and protein sources.

There are also a lot of spices involved in the cooking which, as Ruel explained in my interview with him, can give you a metabolism boost to help you burn off calories and fat faster than before.

Overall, this is a program which makes cooking very simple and once and for all dispels the myth that healthy food can't be also tasty. If you're trying to burn off body fat, Metabolic Cooking can be useful.

As this is a nutrition plan, you should make sure to exercise regularly to get even faster results. Don't expect that these recipes will magically burn off body fat without any effort on your part. What they can do is make the entire process easier.

To see a sample recipe from this program and learn more about it visit Metabolic Cooking Review

For my interview with the author visit Dave Ruel Interview
John Davenport lost over 30 pounds in his twenties after being overweight most of his life. He now runs a weight loss forum and publishes a diet and fitness newsletter.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Davenport

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6096976

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

What Exactly Is Metabolic Cooking?

Recipes at: http://goo.gl/sFLkO

By Jim S Lovasz

Is Metabolic cooking, with its claims to be a means to help you "burn fat quickly" and "stay slim," in fact, just another weight loss gimmick? If that is what you think the following will shed some light on the matter and might be beneficial to you.

The concept of metabolic cooking is largely based on a couple of somewhat obscure but well-known properties of the human metabolism and food. One of the ideas relates to the body's tendency toward adaptation. It is an indisputable fact that organisms have an incredible ability to adapt. Maybe not so well-known though, is that when it comes to adaptation we humans oft time adapt in a rather negative fashion.

Let me illustrate with an example. It has been duly noted by researchers that many obese people eat most of their food within a relatively short time each day. This unusual eating pattern motivated some of these researchers to conduct an experiment with rats. Alas, poor rats.

They forced the rats into unusual patterns of fasting and eating to investigate the effects of what they dubbed a "stuff and starve feeding program." One group of rats was allowed after their fast to eat at any time they pleased. The other group was provided more than they could possibly consume, but limited to two hours in which to eat it each day.

Lo and behold after weeks of this nonsense (well, at least from the rat's perspective) the body weight of the restricted feed time rats increased dramatically more than the rats which could eat at will.

What is really interesting though is that the restricted feeding time rats were then allowed for several weeks to eat at will all day long. They persisted in altered, obviously unhealthy eating habits to which they had adapted.

After these researchers dissected the poor rodents they discovered that "the increased body fat is associated with increased hexose monophosphate shunt enzyme activity in liver and adipose tissue homogenates." Huh? Which means to say, the rats became obese.

They deduced from these experiments that a process of metabolic adaptation likely makes it very difficult for obese people to break free from their unusual eating habits. This essentially keeps them from adopting a pattern of eating smaller portions throughout the day, which is recommended for weight loss.

Another, but more widely-known form of this type of adaptation is experienced by millions of would be weight losers following strict diets. There is typically a swift reaction by the body initially wherein pounds fall away, sometimes rapidly. Alas, in many if not most dieter's experience this is not an apparently sustainable solution.

It is often sad that these individuals with sufficient motivation and discipline to adhere to a strict diet do not understand what is happening. This is the point where the vast majority just give up.

The body adapts to this diet and the metabolism slows down. Thus further weight loss is stymied. Metabolic cooking offers a means to avoid this by varying the types of food eaten daily to a degree that the body cannot adapt.

Another well-known but not widely known attribute of food lies at the heart of metabolic cooking. Foods all have what is termed a thermogenic factor. This simply means that different foods take more body energy to digest. The more body energy used to digest food the more calories burned in the process.

Unfortunately, many people attempting to lose weight are totally oblivious to the thermogenic property many spices have. Spices are known to have the ability to speed up your metabolism. This is especially true of hot spices such as Cayenne pepper, which has thermogenic properties that cause an increase in metabolism evidenced by an increase in body heat. That is why really hot foods make you sweat.

Other spices, which have demonstrable benefits in stepping up your metabolism include, but are not limited to cinnamon, mustard, turmeric and ginger.

A third major factor within metabolic cooking aimed at avoiding the not so good effects of metabolic adaptation is to consume the right nutrients at the right time. The oft suggested plan of eating every few hours, but not a full meal deal, has definite metabolic advantages. As well, what to eat at what time of the day plays a significant role in burning calories.

For example, if you skip a meal before some relatively strenuous exercise your body will favor seeking to break down muscle for the needed energy. In need of energy in the absence of nutrients the body tends to break down muscle in favor of stored fat because it is easier. So, you will be burning significantly less stored fat than if you had have eaten and especially, included some carbohydrates.

On the other hand if you load up on carbohydrates then take a nap your body will convert them to fat for storage. Hence, we should load up on carbs first thing in the morning, especially before a physically active day. That way we won't be burning muscle but rather fat. On the same note carbs should be avoided later in the day.

In summary:

Metabolic cooking is more an adapted style of cuisine than a dietary program, and is built upon 3 principles:

• Avoiding the pitfalls of metabolic adaptation and its fattening consequences largely by eating a wide variety of foods.
• Making good use of the well-known thermogenic properties of different types of foods to help your body burn more fat and "spice" up your life.
• Taking advantage of the current vast resources of knowledge on human metabolism to determine the best times of day to eat the various macro-nutrients essential to our health.

The concept of metabolic cooking evolved out of the "extreme fitness" trend prevalent today. It has its roots in the muscle-building arena where those in competition search for that "technical edge" in their training.

Nevertheless, it is also a very effective method of weight loss and enhancing overall fitness.

In a world where truths about nutrition have been twisted by commercialism gone awry, Jim, our expert writer, has a passion the truth be known. If you would like to read more of his articles they can be found here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_S_Lovasz

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6949811

Three Quick Steps to Winning a Body Transformation Contest

By Marc David

Do you ever wonder how some people seem to win body transformation contests? You might even start to notice the same people come close to winning several of them year after year. To the layman, a body transformation contest appears to be only about the person who lost the most weight or built the most muscle. If this is what you think about body transformation contests, you are incorrect. Let me explain...

After watching several transformation contests occur in several internet forums, I've found many similarities between the winners of these competitions. There's something about the methods they use that is constant in all the winners. It's not the person who had the most visual transformation.

Here's a quick run down of the top three observations I've seen with people who continually win body transformation contests.

Body Transformation Tip #1:

Winners use the online journal (blog, forum, etc) provided by the sponsor every single day. Regardless of the requirements to blog or post about their journey, the winners of these contests get connected with the community FAST. The very first day, they blog, post or use the journal to document their situation.

Use the provided journal method every single day of the contest
Connect with the community quickly (be supportive, friendly, display a lot of positive thinking)
Become visible from Day 1
Write posts of 400 or more words
Tell a story

Body Transformation Tip #2:

Post your photos Day 1 and include as many measurements as required. If you aren't an expert at taking photos, get a friend to take them for you. Every contestant who's won, looks like they had a real camera. The ones who lost most of the time but I thought made great transformations on paper took photos with a cell phone in the mirror. There's no excuse. If you use a cell phone camera, get somebody to take one of you in 3 stances.

Face forward
Side view
Back to the camera

You'll cover all the angles in the most professional manner possible. You can use an online free photo editing tool to manipulate the pictures to crop them down, remove red eye and enhance them to look as good as possible.

The sponsor of the contest wants to use photos for their website to show their book, program or method worked. The BETTER the pictures provided, the easier it is for the judges not to get hung up on low quality photos. You don't need a high end camera to do this, you simply need to invest 10 minutes Day 1 and at the end of the contest.

Body Transformation Tip #3:

Write in a positive, story telling manner. The more variables to your story, the better. If you are the guy or girl who goes to the gym and has for years.. without much effort and burning fat and building muscle isn't a big deal.. good luck to you. If you are the person who has a story to tell about 5 kids, a working mom to boot or a dad who came back from the brink of destruction against all odds.. you're a shoe in.

People like a good story. A body transformation contest is about a person, who's TRANSFORMED themselves in more ways than a scale. Remember, if it were just computers judging people, the person with the best body composition change would win every single time. You'd bulk up.. get fat. Join the contest and diet down like a fool and beat everybody. Except..

A computer can't feel.

Judges can and if you've got a strong story to tell, the chances of you winning are high.

Every single person who has won, has a heart felt (true or not) story. Find your angle and use that to your advantage.

Winning a body transformation contest is much more than simply providing the best results a photo. It's about becoming a leader, connecting quickly and constantly to the community and documenting every angle of your story. Do this one, and you can join hundreds of contests and increase your chances of winning.

Secret Body Transformation Tip #4:

Be consistent. As stupid as this sounds, upwards of 55% of people will drop out. Remember the old saying, "80% of success is just showing up?" Pretty much rings true here as well. Even if you have no story to tell, just post every single day even if it's the lamest post, you're visibility will increase above the rest as many people just can't be consistent. The winners of those contests are unbelievably consistent with their visibility.

Marc David is a bodybuilder, writer, and author of the e-book "The NoBull Bodybuilding Program: Transform Your Body In 30 Days. The NoBull Program is oriented towards fitness minded men and women who want weight loss and to gain muscle.
To learn more about the NoBull Bodybuilding Program, visit NoBullBodybuilding at:
http://www.NoBullBodybuilding.com