During exercise, our muscles get fired up using sugar and soon switch to burning fat. Overnight, insulin clears sugar and fat into fat tissue and cells soon switch to burning fat until the next meal.

Why would people of normal weight ever get hungry? There’s enough energy stored in 10 pounds of fat to live without eating for 2 weeks. We get hungry because our body cells forget how to burn fat. 

Let us help you train your metabolism for good nutritional fitness.

To learn more about programs Herd Healthcare offers, our website is:
www.herdhealthcare.com

Energy Metabolism

Our metabolism can use sugar or fat for energy. Whatever’s in the blood flowing through our organs. When levels of sugar and fat are high, sugar is used and stored. When levels of sugar and fat are low, stored fat is mobilized and used.

During a meal, levels of sugar and fat rise and stimulate secretion of insulin from the pancreas. If there’s plenty of storage space in liver and muscle cells, levels fall quickly. At the same time, sugar is combined with fat and stored more slowly in subcutaneous fat tissue.

After a meal, levels of sugar rise to a peak in about 90 minutes and fall quickly. Levels of fat rise to a peak in 3 to 6 hours and fall slowly. Clearance of sugar combined with fat occurs more slowly in fat tissue and takes more insulin than sugar and fat cleared into liver and muscle.

Overnight, levels of sugar, fat and insulin fall to low values. Energy is supplied from stores in liver, muscle and fat. When amounts of energy consumed in food and drink use up all the storage space, levels stay high until new subcutaneous fat cells develop. Levels of insulin stay high as long as levels of sugar and fat stay high.

Early in life as organs are growing, energy is required to build muscles as well as other organs. Energy also is required to fuel metabolism and physical work. Along the way, fat cells develop to store excess calories.

With adult maturity, less energy is required for growth. At the same time, muscles continue to develop and get stronger in response to physical work. Peak energy requirements occur in early adult years in response to high intensity work requirements.

The daily sequence in time of food intake, metabolic requirements and physical work establishes a pattern. There is a period of burning sugar and storing fat followed by burning fat released from subcutaneous fat stores. Most people consume more food than they need during the day and release fat to burn during the night while they sleep. As long as energy consumed matches energy required, body weight and fat stores stay constant.

Overeating, more food consumed than can be used or excreted, eventually requires more fat storage than is readily available. Some people can continue to expand subcutaneous fat stores almost indefinitely. Many others divert fat to intraabdominal fat stores. Still others force fat into abnormal storage in muscle, liver, pancreas and heart.

Sugar Metabolism

Sugar is absorbed from food, transported into cells and converted into fuel for temperature control, chemical reactions and physical work. The process starts with the level of sugar in blood stimulating release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin turns off fat burning and promotes burning sugar for energy.

Sugar is an important source of energy for many organs and the storage capacity for sugar is small. Some is stored with water as glycogen and some is combined with fat molecules to form fat droplets. When the supply of sugar runs out, muscles, liver and other organs convert to using fat for energy.

As long as sugar levels in blood stay high and insulin levels stay high, fat does not get released from stores.

Sugar metabolism is the most direct path for energy quickly available. To maintain levels of sugar in the blood, the natural appetite is to eat something, especially something sweet. Consequently, more food often gets eaten than is really necessary for calories from all sources to supply energy.

Fat metabolism

Fat is absorbed from food and broken down into smaller molecules. Some molecules are burned directly as fuel. At the same time, insulin stimulates formation of fat molecules in muscle, liver and fat. Most is stored almost directly as larger molecules combined with sugar.

After a meal, when sugar is almost all used for energy or stored, insulin levels fall and fat is released from storage and burned for energy.

Fed and Fasted

When sugar and insulin levels are high, calories are stored in muscles, liver and fat. When sugar and insulin levels are low, sugar is released from storage in glycogen. When stored sugar is all used, stored fat is mobilized from muscle, liver and subcutaneous fat tissue.

Stored fat is only released when insulin levels are very low!

Most people in modern times carry body fat stores more than 20% (men) or 30% (women) proportion of total body weight. Also, food is available and eaten all day long. From early morning to late in the evening. Often 12 to 16 hours a day.

The 6 to 8 hours of sleep at night are barely enough to use and complete the storage of all the sugar that was consumed during the day. Pathways of cellular energy use become adapted to sugar metabolism and resistant to fat metabolism. The muscles, liver, heart and brain forget how to burn fat.

Hunger for something to eat drives appetite for more food. Even when there’s ample energy stored as fat for 2 or 3 months without eating anything.

Metabolic Training

Time-restricted meal planning stimulates the ability of cellular metabolism to release fat from storage and use it for energy. Normally, it takes 12 hours after a meal to lower the levels of sugar and insulin and convert to fat metabolism. Gradually extending the time between the last meal or snack in the evening to the first meal of the next day lengthens the time for fat metabolism to release fat from stores.

Exercise helps the process of converting to fat metabolism for energy. Exercise training not only uses sugar for energy, it adapts skeletal muscle to absorb sugar from blood.

Calorie restriction also lowers the excess of calories that must be stored in muscle, liver and fat.

Hunger and appetite gradually decrease as your metabolism becomes accustomed to using stored fat for energy. This is the point of all this effort to adapt to using fat metabolism. When your body becomes accustomed to using stored fat for energy, you no longer feel uncomfortable consuming fewer calories. Your body no longer resists mobilizing fat from subcutaneous storage.

Time-restricted Meal Plan

Take advantage of the normal overnight separation between meals while sleeping. Gradually extend 6 to 8 hours while sleeping to include a longer separation between your last meal or snack in the evening and the time you retire for the night.

Summary

Physical fitness and extended time without food improve nutritional fitness. Your cellular metabolism can learn to burn fat.

Our metabolism can use sugar or fat for energy. When levels of sugar and fat are high, sugar is used and stored. When levels of sugar and fat are low, stored fat is mobilized and used.

Sugar metabolism is the most direct path for energy quickly available. The natural appetite is to eat something, especially something sweet.

After a meal, when sugar is almost all used for energy or stored, insulin levels fall, fat is released from storage and burned for energy.

Exercise helps the process of converting to fat metabolism for energy.

Calorie restriction also lowers the excess of calories that must be stored in muscle, liver and fat.

Hunger and appetite gradually decrease as your metabolism becomes accustomed to using stored fat for energy.

Gradually extend 6 to 8 hours while sleeping to include a longer separation between your last meal or snack in the evening and the time you retire for the night.

The final objective is to extend time of separation to 16 hours.

Let us help you train your metabolism for good nutritional fitness.

We are pleased to share our blog articles with you, and we are always interested to hear from our readers. Our website address is: www.herdhealthcare.com

Low carbohydrate intake with low calorie count undoubtedly lowers body weight in the short term. Exchanged with high animal fat and protein, low carb intake decreases body weight but increases mortality rates in the long term.

Exchanging with plant based fat and protein, intentional low carb, low calorie intake still lowers body weight while reducing mortality. Polyunsaturated fatty acids produce the most consistent favorable effects.

To learn more about programs Herd Healthcare offers, our website is:
www.herdhealthcare.com

Effects Of Food On Cellular Metabolism

What we eat affects our health. We know that. Certainly, overeating more than we need causes overweight and obesity. For some people, even a little overweight is enough to cause type 2 diabetes.

The type of food also affects our health. How much energy we get from carbohydrate, how much from protein and how much from fat is about equally divided for most of us. Probably more carbohydrate and less protein than ideal, but we don’t give it much attention.

Unless we’re trying to lose weight. Then we tend to decrease carbohydrates and fats while maintaining or increasing intake of protein. We do it by decreasing food intake every meal, every day or by intermittently fasting. During the day or during the week.

Does it matter how? The answer is, “Yes, it matters.” Protein intake must be maintained to prevent loss of skeletal muscle during intentional loss of weight. We need about 0.7 grams per pound of ideal weight per day to build, maintain and repair skeletal muscle.

How much fat and how much carbohydrate is less well established. Both affect cellular metabolism. Carbohydrate appears in our food as sugar, starch and fiber. Fat exists in saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated forms. Proportions of carbohydrate and all types of fat affect levels of sugar and fat as well as levels of insulin in our blood.

Effects Of Dietary Fats And Carbohydrates On Metabolism

The ideal balance of fats and carbohydrates in our food is controversial. Most controversy arises in relation to intentional weight reduction. But first we need to know the best balance when body weight is unchanged.

Studies of the ideal balance have been made. Results have been reported from 102 clinical trials involving 4,660 subjects. In these trials, meals with various types and amounts of fat were substituted for carbohydrates. All subjects had diabetes or prediabetes but none were taking medications or injecting insulin for treatment. Subjects did not gain or lose weight during studies lasting 4 to 40 weeks.

Measurements were made of sugar and fat as well as levels of insulin in blood. Values were measured before and during 2-hour oral glucose tolerance tests. These tests were run before and after substituting carbohydrates with isocaloric amounts of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Measures also were made before and after substituting isocaloric amounts of PUFA for SFA.

As shown in the Table, there were no significant changes in fasting blood sugar values or levels of insulin.

Also, there were no significant changes in oral glucose tolerance tests when SFA was substituted for substantial portions of carbohydrates.

Replacing portions of carbohydrates with PUFA did increase insulin sensitivity. Oral intake of glucose caused less rise in blood glucose values and less increase in insulin levels. Also, replacing SFA with PUFA caused a similar improvement in glucose tolerance.

During the studies, replacing carbohydrates and SFA with PUFA caused the most reduction in HbA1c. That substitution also caused the greatest reduction of insulin resistance.

These results illustrate a benefit from substituting polyunsaturated fats from vegetable sources for animal fats or processed grains, starches and sugars.

Different Effects SFA And PUFA On Fat And Lean Tissue

Overeating excess calories from fat increases total body weight. Where the excess energy is stored affects response to insulin and severity of type 2 diabetes. Different metabolic responses to SFA and PUFA apparently are related to different sites of excess energy storage.

The sites of excess energy storage have been studied by investigators using magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects were 37 healthy young men and women with normal body weight.

They were studied before and after 7 weeks overeating excess calories. One group of 19 subjects were fed excess food baked with SFA. The other 18 subjects were fed excess food baked with PUFA. After 7 weeks all subjects gained an average of 3.5 lb in body weight. This was approximately a 2.5% increase in total body weight.

Both groups gained the same amount of weight. Both groups increased subcutaneous fat about 18%. However, as shown in the Figures energy storage between intraabdominal fat and lean tissue was distributed differently in the two groups.

Liver fat was increased 30% in the group fed excess SFA and unchanged in group fed excess PUFA. Visceral fat was increased 20% with SFA and 10% with PUFA.

Total body fat was increased 12% in the group fed excess SFA. It was increased less, about 10%, in the group fed excess PUFA. In contrast with excess SFA causing greater increase in total body fat, lean tissue was increased almost 2% in the group fed excess PUFA and less than 1% in the group fed excess SFA.

The differences were significant. Excess SFA had a greater effect increasing intraabdominal fat storage while excess PUFA had a greater effect increasing lean tissue.

Dietary Carbohydrate Intake And Mortality

Intentional low carbohydrate and low total energy intake below total requirements inevitably causes reduction in body weight. Partial offset of energy deficit by substantial increase in fat intake decreases appetite and makes it easier for many people to lose weight. Also, the substitution of energy from fats increases insulin sensitivity and decreases loss of lean body tissue. Increases in fat intake include both saturated and unsaturated types of fat.

The short term benefits have been demonstrated, promoted and commercially exploited. However, the long term effects of low carbohydrate and high saturated fat intake are less well known.

The long term consequences have been studied and analyzed. Effects on mortality apparently depend on whether energy from carbohydrate intake is replaced by plant-based or animal-based fat and protein.

A long term study of 15,428 adults in the US has been analyzed during 25 years. Participants reported the portion sizes and categories of food consumed during one month on 6 occasions approximately 4 years apart. During this study period of 25 years, there were 6,283 deaths.

The Figure shows the relationship between % energy from carbohydrates consumed and the average ages at death. The Figure also shows an estimate of age at which disability occurred before death. This estimate is based on the assumption that years of disability are approximately twice the years of health lost to premature death.

The optimum % calories from carbohydrates in food was approximately 50%.

From an average age of 50 years at recruitment, the highest average age at death was 82 years. Loss of life from premature death for those consuming the lowest % carbohydrates was approximately 4 years. That was about 13.3% of best possible years of life after age 50. Loss of good health was approximately 8 years or about 26.6%. The total of good health years lost after age 50 because of disability and premature death would be 40%.

Different types of fat have different effects on mortality. Dietary analyses from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study show relations to mortality.

The Nurses’ Health Study began in 1976 and is still recruiting new participants. The Health Professionals Follow-up Study began in 1986. Food intake was assessed when each participant enrolled and data were updated every 2 to 4 years. Results have been reported for 126,000 women and men during approximately 32 years from 1980 to 2012.

In each assessment, participants reported how often they had consumed a specified portion size of each specific food during the preceding year. Each assessment used reports of specific brands and types of fat as well as amounts and frequency of use. As a result, information was available to report amounts standardized in population quintiles for daily consumption of saturated fat, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat.

The Figure illustrates the % change in mortality observed when calories from carbohydrates were replaced with calories from each type of fat. As can be seen in the Figure, replacement of carbohydrates with saturated fats increased mortality and decreased years of life. Replacement of carbohydrates with unsaturated fats decreased mortality and increased years of life.

Polyunsaturated fats were most effective in increasing years of life.

Dietary Guidelines

Unsaturated fats eaten in place of saturated fats can reduce the development of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. However, they are still a concentrated source of calories. They must be eaten in place of saturated fat or carbohydrates. Not eaten as extra calories. Dressings and sauces with unsaturated fats are a high density source of additional calories.

Fats supply energy for metabolism and physical work. In addition to supplying energy, they help absorb fat-soluble vitamins needed for many metabolic processes.

When eaten in place of saturated fats, unsaturated fats can lower the levels of total cholesterol and lipoproteins that increase risk for cardiovascular disease.

Polyunsaturated fat supplies two essential fats that are required for normal cellular metabolism. Fats that can’t be made in the human body and must be obtained from food.

Polyunsaturated fats are found in a variety of foods, including:
•Fish (such as herring, mackerel, salmon, trout, and tuna)
•Mayonnaise and oil-based salad dressings
•Nuts (such as pine nuts and walnuts)
•Seeds (such as flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower seeds)
•Soft margarine (liquid, spray, and tub)
•Vegetable oils (such as corn, cottonseed, soybean, and sunflower oils)

General guidelines are to consume no more than 10 grams a day of saturated fats while consuming at least 20 grams of unsaturated fats. This should include at least 5 grams a week of polyunsaturated fats from fish, fish oil or flaxseed oil.

The Nutrition Facts Labels on food and beverage packages are required to show the amount in grams of total fat and saturated fat in one serving of the food. Food manufacturers are not required to list the amounts of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats on the Food Label. But you can calculate total unsaturated fats by subtracting the amount of saturated fat from the total fat.

Unsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature. Here’s how to use them in your meals and snacks.

Summary

Fats supply energy for metabolism and physical work. In addition to supplying energy, they help absorb fat-soluble vitamins needed for many metabolic processes.

Intake of polyunsaturated fat improves lean tissue formation, increases skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity and decreases insulin resistance.

Low carbohydrate intake with low calorie count undoubtedly lowers body weight in the short term. Exchanged with high animal fat and protein, low carb intake decreases body weight but increases mortality rates in the long term.

Exchanging with plant based fat and protein, intentional low carb, low calorie intake still lowers body weight while reducing mortality. Polyunsaturated fatty acids produce the most consistent favorable effects.

General guidelines are to consume no more than 10 grams a day of saturated fats while consuming at least 20 grams of unsaturated fats. This should include at least 5 grams a week of polyunsaturated fats from fish, fish oil or flaxseed oil.

Let us help you decrease excess calorie intake while increasing intake of unsaturated fats.

We are pleased to share our blog articles with you, and we are always interested to hear from our readers. Our website address is: www.herdhealthcare.com

Fat cells get empty when there’s not enough energy available in blood, muscles and liver. Building muscles takes all the sugar and fat from blood flowing through them. Saturated fat blocks and unsaturated fat increases insulin sensitivity.

Let us help you balance energy coming in against resting metabolic rate, insulin resistance and energy required to build and use active muscle.

To learn more about programs Herd Healthcare offers, our website is:
www.herdhealthcare.com

Body Recomposition

Usual body composition is about 25% fat (20% men and 30% women), 40% muscle (45% men and 35% women), 10% bone and 25% other organs. More muscle than fat.

Compositions of fat and muscle are different combinations of water, fat, protein and carbohydrate.

There’s much more energy stored in fat than skeletal muscle.

Energy released from 1 pound of fat when it is emptied is approximately 3,500 kcal. It takes essentially no energy to build and fill an empty cell.

Energy released from 1 pound of muscle when it is emptied is about 500 kcal. It takes about 4,500 kcal to build and fill muscle cells with fat and glycogen.

That’s the equivalent of about 2 pounds of carbohydrate and fat that is simply consumed by creating cells and filling stores of energy in 1 pound of muscle. Two pounds of energy substrate to create 1 pound of muscle.

Undesirable body recomposition is caused by intentional weight loss and unintentional weight regain. Weight loss by simply reducing calories, causes about the same reduction in fat and muscle. Careless resumption of excess calories causes return of fat, not muscle. The end result is increased body fat and decreased muscle mass. That’s often what happens when trying repeatedly to lose body weight.

Desired body recomposition is intentional fat loss and muscle gain. It’s the process of burning body fat while adding muscle and increasing strength.

The challenge arises trying to do both at the same time. In general terms, burning fat from fat stores requires a calorie deficit and building muscle requires a calorie surplus.

Successful body recomposition depends on increasing insulin sensitivity of skeletal muscle during daily exercise training. Increasing insulin sensitivity in muscle during exercise decreases sugar and fat in the blood leaving muscle. That creates a calorie deficit in blood circulating through the rest of the body.

Decreasing Body Fat

To lose body fat requires a calorie deficit between energy taken in and energy used for metabolism, physical work and building new muscle. That almost always requires decreasing calories consumed in food and drink. It almost always causes loss in body weight.

Most important is to lose weight by decreasing body fat and limiting loss of skeletal muscle. Best of all is to increase muscle mass while decreasing body fat.

Eat plenty of protein to supply enough in circulating blood to rebuild muscle as it’s used. There must be good kidney function to keep protein levels in a safe range. Laboratory tests for levels of urea nitrogen and creatinine in the blood ensure it’s safe to consume 50% of calories as protein.

Exercise to keep increasing insulin sensitivity of active muscle. Daily exercise of moderate intensity stimulates muscles to clear sugar and fat from the blood. Active muscles use more energy and store more than muscles never used. Moderate intensity exercise consumes about 500 kcal every hour. A minimum of moderate intensity for 150 minutes every week also maintains strength and prevents loss of muscle mass.

Include resistance strength training to build new muscle. Strength training increases insulin sensitivity of muscle that’s repairing itself and building its structure. That draws down levels of sugar and fat in the blood flowing through it and creates an energy deficit everywhere else. That’s the signal for lipolysis and release of fatty acids from fat tissue.

At least 2 strength training sessions lasting 30 minutes each should be included every week.

Calories required to build muscle are enormously more than calories required to maintain it. Muscle builds slowly, about 1 pound every 2 or 3 weeks. That requires about 2,000 kcal a week or about 300 kcal a day.

Include high intensity interval training to combine aerobic endurance exercise with resistance strength training. The energy requirements of moderate aerobic endurance exercise are about doubled when combined with high intensity interval training.

Impact Of Fats On Insulin Resistance

Increased sugar and fat inside muscle cells that are not being used blocks the transfer effects of insulin. The block, called insulin resistance, prevents the clearance of sugar and fat into skeletal muscles. This happens quickly, within 3 hours after a meal especially when resting skeletal muscle is already packed with stores of sugar and fat from previous meals.

Saturated fatty acids have the greatest effect on blocking insulin transfer of fat and sugar into skeletal muscle. More than sugar and much more than unsaturated fatty acids.

Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids actually restore and promote action of insulin to transfer sugar and fat into skeletal muscles.

Terms no longer permitted on Food Labels include Trans-fat and Partially Hydrogenated Fat. These terms describe types of fat which have even more harsh effects than Saturated Fat to increase insulin resistance.

Transfer of sugar and fat into liver cells is equally affected by fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids increase resistance to insulin transferring sugar and fat into the liver. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids actually increase transfer into liver.

A vicious cycle including the pancreas is formed. When persistent high levels cause sugar and fat build up in the pancreas, ability to secrete insulin is damaged. Decreased secretion of insulin further reduces transfer of sugar and fat into cells all over the body. Type 2 diabetes results and gets worse.

Sources Of Saturated And Unsaturated Fatty Acids

Saturated and unsaturated fats are found in many different foods. Saturated fats are densely packed with hydrogen and they’re solid at room temperature.

Saturated fats can be found in a variety of foods, including:
•Animal meat including beef, poultry, pork
•Certain plant oils such as palm kernel or coconut oil
•Dairy products including cheese, butter, and milk
•Processed meats including bologna, sausages, hot dogs, and bacon
•Pre-packaged snacks including crackers, chips, cookies, and pastries

Unsaturated fats in foods include: 
•Nuts
•Plant oils such as olive, canola, vegetable, or plant oil
•Certain fish like salmon, tuna, and anchovy,
•Olives
•Avocados

Suggestions for fat-healthy meals and snacks.
•Low-fat milk and dairy
•Lean meat instead of fatty cuts of meat
•Limit processed foods
•Fry in plant oil such as canola, corn, safflower or peanut oil (not olive oil)
•Grilling, baking, or steaming foods instead of frying
•Sauces, spreads and condiments containing unsaturated plant oils
•Choose healthful fats, such as sardines, avocados, olive oil, walnuts

General advice is to limit most saturated fats and increase amounts of unsaturated fats, such as plant oils, avocado, and fish.

Summary

Success reversing diabetes requires using more energy than is consumed in food and drink. The objective is to remove excess fat from skeletal muscle, liver and pancreas. Also, reduce % body fat to less than 25% (20% for men, 30% for women.)

Body recomposition is the desired result. Less % fat and more % lean skeletal muscle. That is achieved by increasing insulin sensitivity of skeletal muscle and decreasing insulin resistance of liver.

Success increasing insulin sensitivity of skeletal muscle depends on daily exercise training. Increasing insulin sensitivity in muscle during exercise decreases sugar and fat in the blood leaving muscle. That creates a calorie deficit in blood circulating through the rest of the body.

Success decreasing insulin resistance depends on reducing intake of saturated fat and increasing intake of unsaturated fat.

Let us help you with body recomposition by increasing exercise and adjusting composition of meals and snacks.

We are pleased to share our blog articles with you, and we are always interested to hear from our readers. Our website address is: www.herdhealthcare.com

To learn more about programs Herd Healthcare offers, our website is:
www.herdhealthcare.com

Deliberate Imagery

Imagery is the mental construct of experience. External and internal sensations, thoughts, feelings and emotions are combined with similar imagery stored in memory. They elicit responses before conscious awareness. Most mental constructs of experience form, combine with similar images and retire into memory without any conscious awareness.

When we speak of images we usually mean something we see elicited by external sensation or retrieved from memory. When referring to other senses, we usually specify touch, smell, sound, or taste images.

Even when speaking of imagery, we usually mean something created or imagined representing sight, sound, touch, smell or taste.

Imagery stored in our memory includes much, much more. It elicits entire experiences constructed of sensations, thoughts, actions, feelings and emotions. It even includes evaluations of the consequences of our responses.

Regular imagery includes mindless scanning. When the mind wanders to unrelated thoughts and feelings, the mind continues to scan the image without due attention to associated sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions and significance of details.

Deliberate imagery pays conscious attention to details of all associated sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions and their significance.

Deliberate Food Imagery

Our first impression is what meal or snack this is. Time of day and when we last ate calls up subliminal imagery and sets our expectations. What we see, smell and hear is immediately related to our memory and trims our expectations. If there’s a lot going on around us, that may all be subliminal. We may finish our meal or snack without any conscious appreciation of what we just ate.

Make a conscious assessment of what’s there in front of you. First of all, is it more or less than what you expected? Is it more than what you think you should eat?

Look at it carefully. Do you really see all its details? Look at it, then close your eyes. Can you still see it in your mind’s eye? If you’ve never done this before, you may not see anything with your eyes closed. Concentrate. Concentrate hard on details. That way you’ll learn to image in your mind’s eye what you see with your eyes open.

Estimate how much is there. The average breakfast in this country contains about 500 calories. The average lunch contains about 750 calories and the average supper about 1,000 calories. An average snack has about 150 calories.

The best way to learn what you’re eating is to look it up in a nutrition reference book or a smartphone mobile app. Also, you should look at the labels on food containers. They list serving sizes and nutrient content.

Almost anything you put in your mouth with a fork or spoon has 50 calories in it. Except non-starchy vegetables. Even a salad has dressing on it. A thin slice of deli meat contains about 50 calories but a 4 ounce piece of meat contains 300 calories. Cooked potatoes have 100 calories in 4 ounces. A handful of nuts has 200 calories. Everything soon adds up to more than 2,500 calories a day.

The details you can image in your mind’s eye are what your brain will store in memory. There’s lots of details beyond just what you see. Your imagery skill in shaping your subliminal memory and routine responses depends on deliberate food Imagery.

Now, here’s Deliberate Practice. This is how to practice the skill of food imagery.

Take a photo of the meal or snack.

Deliberately imagine eating the original food items.

Before you eat anything, deliberately create full imagery of the imagined experience. But don’t eat anything yet.

Next, cut up the food items and reduce them so the total has 1/3 less calories and then take another photo. As much as possible reduce carbohydrates and fats while keeping protein and fiber.

Then imagine eating the reduced food item but assign the same imagined experience with the full food item to that second imagery.

The first time or two that you do all this, go ahead and eat the original food item. Check how you feel after, compared with what you had imagined before eating it. Then look at the photo of the 1/3 reduced food item. Apply the imagery of the actual experience eating the full food item to the imagined experience of eating the reduced food item.

This all sounds complicated but it’s how you can practice assigning pleasurable features from one image to another.

Multisensory Human-Food Interaction

Intake of food is an essential part of life. Everything we’re made of and everything we do requires energy from food. The balance of energy intake and output creates hunger and appetite with responses eating that are terminated by feelings of fullness.

When there’s plenty of food, we don’t eat to survive. Hunger and appetite are no longer the main drivers. Instead, we eat by automatic routine. When to stop eating is determined by a decrease in pleasure while eating and an increase in feelings of fullness.

Mindless eating is what happens when we’re not paying attention. We eat until we’re full. What’s there in front of us is what we eat. If we’re not full, we go get some more.

Did you enjoy that meal? ”Guess so. Can’t eat any more.”

Mindful eating makes eating a pleasure. Deliberately review everything you sense, think, feel and experience. Make a deliberate effort to recall imagery from previous experiences consuming similar food.

Avoid distraction by conversation, TV or entertainment. During the first 20 minutes of your meal or snack, give pleasure of eating your full attention.

Consciously rate pleasure of eating minute by minute starting the scale low and increasing unit by unit for several minutes to a peak that begins to decrease minute by minute. That’s when to stop eating. Don’t keep eating just because it’s there. Don’t pause and wait for another course so you can start all over.

Above all, eat to enjoy it. Not to just get full.

Rate the intensity of sensory response by recalling the experience of eating a meal or snack an hour or two after you’ve eaten. Assess the intensity of imagery by the involuntary impulse to move your tongue, lick your lips and swallow saliva flowing into your mouth.

Between meals, consciously recall all associated sensations, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Concentrate enough to elicit general feelings of pleasure and specific responses making you lick your lips and swallow.

Deliberately review everything you sense, think, feel and experience transferring your full conscious attention back and forth among imagery of real and imagined experiences.

Repetition

Multisensory food imagery makes it possible to rehearse your skills even between meals and snacks. The brain stores imagery from mental rehearsal the same way it stores imagery from real time experience. Complete with all its sensations, thoughts, actions, feelings and emotion.

Do it over and over, real time and imagined, until you always do it right!

Practice improves any new skill. Feel good when you succeed and figure out why when you don’t. Eventually you’ll simply know what to eat and how to enjoy it.

You won’t even have to think much about it. You’ll eat right, even when you’re busy with something else. You’ll finish eating without having to figure out what’s enough.

Most important of all, your new health practice will be your automatic response. You won’t even be conscious of all the decisions you’re making. Subliminal imagery stored in your memory will dominate the original constructs that directed your previous health practices.

Summary

If your maximum waist circumference is more than 40% of your standing height, you’re eating too much!

Fixing that is more than just learning you have a problem. It’s even more than learning what to do about it.

Preventing and Reversing Diabetes requires deliberate effort gradually to adopt good health practices. Requires more than increasing knowledge. Those practices involve sensations, thoughts, feelings, actions and emotions.

Let us help you retrain your subliminal automatic responses. That will make you look good, perform well and feel great!

We are pleased to share our blog articles with you, and we are always interested to hear from our readers. Our website address is: www.herdhealthcare.com

The usual target for any weight control program is -10% Body Weight. However, the average weight reduction for everybody even in the most successful programs is about -5%.

That’s considered officially to be better than nothing because, -5% widely achieved, could decrease national costs for healthcare. But, for anyone personally, -5% is hardly good enough. The desired result is Diabetes Remission, Good Health and Long Life!

Call us or Contact us to achieve Remission of Diabetes with -10% to -20% reduction in Body Weight.

US News Best Diets 2019

Each year, an expert panel of physicians, dietitians, psychologists and research scientists rates Diets in several categories. They evaluate nutritional content, safety and potential to reduce diabetes and heart disease. The list for Best Diets 2019 rated 41 different Diet plans.

The report for 2019 lists Weight Watchers Diet as best for Weight Reduction. Published results in scientific journals report -2.6% weight loss compared to control/education groups. That was the Best Diet rating for Weight Reduction!

Most highly rated in all categories was the Mediterranean Diet. A clinical trial in 7447 Caucasian men reported insignificant changes in Weight after 5 years. Waist Circumference actually increased! About the best that can be said is that the Mediterranean Diet prevented increased Body Weight.

The panel assigned low rankings to Keto/Low Carb, Intermittent Fasting and Meal Replacement Diets.

All experts agree that weight reduction depends on reducing total calories in food and drink. Calories may come from any source as long as the daily total goes down. Safety depends on content of essential vitamins and minerals and exclusion of anything that hasn’t been approved by the FDA.

The best strategy is to find what works best for each individual! There doesn’t seem to be any way to predict what that will be.

Halfway Success Is Not Good Enough

Cigarette Smoking

The health risks of cigarette smoking are terrible. It causes chronic lung disease and lung cancer. It also increases deaths from heart disease, stroke and cancer in many organs. Cigarette smoking decreases life expectancy by more than 10 years. Stopping smoking before age 40 years greatly reduces risk of premature death.

Halfway Success for smoking reduction only benefits smokers who eventually quit entirely. Reducing from 20 cigarettes a day to 10 a day doesn’t decrease disability and premature death.

Alcohol Abuse

Treatment for chronic alcohol-related illness is one of the most expensive costs for health care in the U.S. Alcohol-related deaths decrease life expectancy by an average of 30 years. Alcohol abuse causes liver failure, liver cancer, dementia and heart disease.

Halfway Success that includes taking more than 1 or 2 drinks a day for men or 1 drink for women still increases risk of disability and premature death. The more severe the abuse, the harder it is to reduce drinking to moderate levels and keep it there. Abstinence is the only option for success by severely dependent users.

Long-Term Weight Reduction

Those most likely to succeed in long-term reduction are those who lose more than -10% body weight during the first 6 months using any weight-loss plan. The most successful are those who continue to reduce weight up to 12 months in a plan. Those who lose less than -10% gradually return to their original weight and many gain even more.

The Look AHEAD trial of weight management and exercise for patients with type 2 diabetes maintained an average loss of ∼4% of initial body weight through year 8. This amount of weight loss did not have any significant effect on cardiovascular complications or death rates. Only those who lost at least -10% sustained remission of diabetes.

Halfway Success is definitely not enough for treatment of cigarette smoking or alcohol abuse. Nor is it enough for remission of diabetes. Why should we be satisfied with -5% reduction in body weight? 

We can do better than that. We can Reverse Diabetes!

Strategies For Reducing Calories

Calorie Content Plan

An essential skill for managing diabetes is knowing what you are eating. When you read a menu or look at a plate of food you should know immediately the type of nutrient presented and how many calories it contains.

This skill is the vocabulary of practical nutrition in diabetes. Some people call it calorie “counting” and they hate it. It takes work at first. Eventually, you get to know what to eat and how much. Without even thinking about it.

Food Exchange Plan 

Much of what we eat is a lot like something else we eat. Groups of food such as green, leafy vegetables or fruit, food groups like pasta, or lean meat. In a Food Exchange Plan, serving sizes in each Exchange are defined along a point scale according to food group and calorie content.

The number of recommended servings are defined and the total amounts of food listed. Saves learning details of food composition and calories contained.

Half-Portion Plan

If you are Overweight or Obese and gaining weight, you’re eating twice too much. If you cut what you’re eating in half, you’ll lose weight.

On Monday, cut what’s on your plates in half and put half aside. On Tuesday, eat the half left over from Monday. On Wednesday, repeat what you did on Monday, cut the food on your plates in half. That’s Thursday’s food. Repeat on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, eat medium-sized meals and snacks.

Liquid Meal Replacement Plan

An accurate, convenient way to reduce the amount of food consumed is to pour it into a glass from a can or bottle and drink it from there. The nutrients contained in a liquid meal replacement container are listed on the label. You know what’s in your meal without having to weigh or measure the amounts you select to eat.

Most Liquid Meal Replacements contain 200 to 300 kcal. The usual plan followed is Meal Replacement at breakfast and lunch and an ordinary prepared meal at supper.

Intermittent Fasting

A popular pattern is eating only during specific short windows of time. Separated by longer periods of time without eating. Fasting for at least 16 hours promotes breakdown of body fat for metabolic fuel between meals. It also limits the total amount of food eaten during the week.

The effect on body weight depends on the total amount of food eaten. Not eating for long periods of time reduces the total calorie intake.

Fasting is not a safe plan to follow when injecting insulin or using other medications that decrease levels of blood sugar.

Ketogenic Diet Plan 

A Ketogenic Diet Plan is very low content of carbohydrates. Less than 50 grams a day of carbohydrates. That causes a metabolic shift to breakdown of body fat into ketones.

Seafood, cheese, fresh meat and poultry, eggs, olive oil, yogurt and cottage cheese are all sources of calories with low content of carbohydrates.

A Ketogenic Diet Plan markedly suppresses appetite. Food simply doesn’t taste very good. As a result, total food intake is suppressed.

Protein Supplement Plan

The natural metabolic response to decreased intake of food is reduced metabolic rate. Fewer calories in food results in decreased energy use. This defense mechanism partially protects skeletal muscle from breakdown to supply amino acids for energy when food intake is reduced.

The amount of protein recommended for normal nutrition is 20 to 30% of total calories. During intentional weight reduction, that proportion should be doubled. Protein can help weight reduction because it is the most satiating source of calories in food.

Whey protein is a by-product of cheese making. It is considered the best protein source of essential amino acids. Whey protein concentrate is the cheapest and most people prefer its taste. It is sold in powder form with a scoop that holds 24 to 30 grams. Mix it with breakfast cereal or make a shake in 6 or 8 ounces of water.

Comparisons with other sources of calories show that whey protein combined with strength training can cause weight loss while increasing lean muscle mass.

Getting Started

1. Keep a Notebook recording Daily Food Intake, Physical Activity, Body Weight, Fasting Blood Sugar and Diabetes Medication Used.
2. Look up values for calorie content of your meals and snacks. Open a food tracking app on the internet and look up content of calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat. Record those numbers in your Notebook.
3. Review daily values recorded in your Notebook to find sources of calories that you can do without.
4. Call or Contact us to start a Free Trial in Texas.

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