The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet: The 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula That Resets Your Metabolism To Lose Up to 5 Pounds a Week (9 page)

BOOK: The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet: The 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula That Resets Your Metabolism To Lose Up to 5 Pounds a Week
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The intimate link between mitochondrial and thyroid function is clear and can be seen in the changes that occur at the mitochondrial level with aging, exposure to cold, and feeding—three events also well known to greatly affect thyroid function.
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,
2
,
3
Considering the thyroid’s
importance,
it’s sad to see that these days almost everyone has a thyroid condition. The thyroid is very sensitive to external chemicals like chlorine, lead, and mercury; to gluten and gut problems; and to low levels of important minerals like iodine and selenium. Thyroid toxins are prominent in our food supply and environment, so perhaps constant exposure to them has negatively impacted many people’s thyroid glands.

Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) is more common in women than men and its prevalence increases with age (10 percent of adults over age 65 have it). According to a 2000 study, 1 percent to 2 percent of the US population has it.
4
Personally, I think those numbers are way too low. From what I’ve seen in my 2 decades of helping people get healthy and fit, I’d say 30 percent (or more) of the population has hypothyroidism.

For
instance, you can have subclinical hypothyroidism, meaning that a blood test would not detect any issue. However, monitoring your basal body temperature each morning for a week would tell you a much different story. Basically, a consistently lower-than-normal body temperature indicates that your thyroid is sluggish. If that’s the case, you’ll probably feel sluggish as well. In fact, how warm or cold you feel is an indicator of your body’s metabolic function.

Symptoms of low thyroid include fatigue; sluggishness; fat gain; dry/brittle hair, skin, and nails; decreased motivation; forgetfulness; and cold hands and feet—just to name a few. The trouble with treating low thyroid is that many possible links in the chain can be broken, starting from the pituitary gland in your brain all the way down to the nucleus in each of your cells. Thus, it’s not as simple as just taking more thyroid hormone.

For instance, you could have a pituitary defect (thank you, cortisol), which would impair the initial signal sent from your brain to produce more thyroid hormone. Or, if your liver is too toxic, it won’t be able to convert inactive thyroid hormone, T4, into the active form, T3. Or there could be a problem with thyroid-binding globulin, which carries thyroid hormone around your body. There are many possible reasons for low thyroid symptoms, and that’s why just ingesting more thyroid hormone may not always be the solution.

IS YOUR THYROID WORKING AGAINST YOU?

Here are a few more ways your thyroid impacts your ability to lose fat.


Low thyroid function can arise from prolonged starvation. Thus, not eating, or restricting your calories for several days (or more), can hurt your thyroid and thus your ability to lose weight. This is why having a healthy feast day once a week can help you to lose weight.


Low thyroid function affects important neurotransmitters in the brain (namely serotonin), resulting in sugar and fat cravings and overeating. Both contribute to weight gain.


Low thyroid function decreases the production of growth hormone, a potent fat-burning hormone that is excreted especially during exercise and fasting states.

Cortisol, insulin, and toxicity (just to name a few) have a big impact on the complicated chain of events involving the thyroid, and that’s why we aim to keep them in check in this program. As a result, you can feel good that you’re doing your thyroid a much-needed favor and not creating an environment that taxes it further.

THE GUT, IMMUNE SYSTEM, LIVER, AND FAT CONNECTION

As weird as it sounds, health (and thus fat loss) begins in the digestive tract, which includes the gut. In
Chapter 1
, we saw some eye-opening examples of how the modern gut, disrupted by environmental toxins, sugar, and antibiotics, has become a breeding ground for disease and fat gain.

Recall that an unhealthy gut is usually characterized by dysbiosis, or the imbalance of good to bad bacteria, which (in addition to allergenic foods like gluten) can promote the development of intestinal permeability (or “leaky gut”).

A
2012 Brazilian study showed that intestinal permeability is a contributing factor to obesity.
5
The researchers in this study showed how two classes of foods—fructose and fat—play an important role in intestinal permeability and ensuing weight gain.

Fructose, they said, is thought to damage the liver directly by increasing blood levels of lipopolysaccharides (LPS), causing fatty liver, inflammation, and hepatic insulin resistance. All lead to weight gain and more serious health consequences.

Before we look at how to clean up your gut, let’s look at how dysbiosis and leaky gut impact your ability to lose weight.

THYROID
DYSFUNCTION:
Approximately 20 percent of the hormone produced by the thyroid needs to be metabolized by gut bacteria to become active (the T3 form). However, dysbiosis decreases the amount converted, which then negatively affects your metabolic rate.

INCREASED INFLAMMATION:
Leaky gut allows the entry of undigested food proteins and LPS into the blood, triggering systemic inflammation. As a refresher, inflammation primarily causes fat gain by triggering the stress response, which increases cortisol and initiates the cascade of consequences we discussed earlier.

ESTROGEN OVERLOAD:
Dysbiosis can increase estrogen levels in the body by upregulating an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase, which severs an important connection in the liver responsible for removing estrogen from the body.

NEW FAT CELLS:
LPS toxins from the gut have been shown to stimulate the creation of new fat cells, which then hold on to more toxins and fat.
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Think of your gut as the fortified walls around a castle. When the castle owner wants to allow people into the castle, he opens the large wooden door and those individuals may enter. Otherwise, enemies and dangers are kept at length by the impenetrable walls surrounding the castle.

Our bodies are built to function in the same way. However, years of dietary abuse, environmental toxins, and chronic stress have crumbled our gut walls. Now, instead of only the best nutrients being allowed to enter our bodies, we are invaded by unwanted food proteins and toxins that want to take over the castle. Most of us are walking around with compromised guts, and we’re not even aware of it.

When anything (a nutrient, toxin, etc.) is absorbed
out
of your gut, it is sent to your liver for processing. It’s very similar to what happens when you travel to a new country and must go through customs before stepping foot outside the airport. Your liver is your customs agent. However, while the nutrient or toxin is en route to the liver, if the immune cells around your gut lining perceive it as a threat of any kind, your body can start to mount an immune response and produce antibodies against that particular “invader.” These antibodies are your body’s defense troops.

But
with constant exposure to the larger protein molecules that have been able to sneak past your compromised gut lining (thanks, leaky gut), your immune system starts to become hyperactive, almost like a paranoid mob boss looking over his shoulder every 2 seconds for the cops. A hyperactive immune system is not desirable since, in its confusion and increased sensitivity, it can start to confuse your own body tissue with foreign proteins. This is one way in which autoimmune disease, like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, develops. If your thyroid is compromised, you’ll have a tough time losing weight. So let’s keep your gut clean and keep those toxins at bay.

One of the best ways to accomplish these goals is to get rid of allergenic, inflammatory foods so that you give your gut and immune system time to settle down. That’s just one reason why gluten and dairy are not part of the All-Day Fat-Burning Diet.

Remember, these hyperactive immune and inflammatory responses begin with what gets past your gut lining and the “customs agent” in your liver. The liver serves more than 500 functions in your body. One is detoxification—filtering and eliminating heavy metals, chemicals, toxins, excess hormones, cholesterol, bile, and anything else that will not serve your body. Detoxification is not a 10-day quick-fix process, but rather something that your body goes through 24/7, 365 days a year—forever! It’s that important. It’s as important as taking the trash out. (If you didn’t, I’m sure you can imagine the nasty consequences of a few weeks, months, or even years of trash buildup in your house.)

Based on all the external reasons for fat gain discussed in Chapter 1, I think it’s safe to say that we are all toxic. Pure and simple. More than ever before, we are exposed to hundreds of thousands of chemicals new to the planet and to the human species. Your goal is to reduce your exposure and keep your body as clean as possible, from the inside out. Otherwise, it breaks down and stores fat.

I’ve already covered how toxins from both internal and external sources have been shown to not just ruin our health but actually cause us to gain and hold on to weight. The good news is that by simply following the dietary and exercise recommendations in this program,
you’ll
be doing your gut and liver a huge service. And you will feel and look better as a result.

Tina’s Story

“I have stage 3 adrenal fatigue issues and have been on hydrocortisone, progesterone, testosterone, and Nature-Throid (for hypothyroidism) for months. I gave birth to the last of my 11 children more than 4 years ago. The last 2 years I have lost a good deal of weight, but over the past 6 months, I’ve been under lots of stress and have started gaining again.

“After just 7 days on the All-Day Fat-Burning Diet, the numbers were awesome! The length and timing (every other day) of the workouts makes them
so
doable. And the recipes . . . I feel that I have become a gourmet chef. Okay, maybe that is stretching it, but all the recipes are wonderful! Most days I’m not even hungry enough to eat three full meals, and I have so much energy that I forget to take my second dose of vitamins!

“After just a little more than a month, I’ve lost 4 inches from my waist and 2 inches from my hips. Thank you, Yuri!”

THE LEPTIN AND FAT CONNECTION

Leptin is one of your most important fat-loss friends because it’s the main hormone that tells your brain when you’re full. If leptin doesn’t work properly, your brain doesn’t get that message and you continue eating beyond your body’s energy needs.

Leptin is made by adipose tissue (aka fat) and secreted into the blood, where it travels to the hypothalamus in your brain. Leptin tells the hypothalamus that you have enough fat, so you can eat less or stop eating. Generally, the more fat you have, the more leptin you make, and the less food you’ll eat. Conversely, the less fat you have, the less leptin you have, and the hungrier you’ll be. So, for weight loss, the more leptin, the better. Supposedly. But it isn’t that simple.

After all, you would think that heavier people would somehow magically stop eating or start losing weight once their leptin levels were high enough. Unfortunately, as with insulin, you can become leptin resistant when too much leptin is bombarding your hypothalamus. Leptin resistance also occurs as a result of increased inflammation, which can alter leptin receptors in the hypothalamus. Fructose consumption is another culprit that severs the communication between leptin and the brain.
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So, you can have a lot of fat making a lot of leptin, but your brain might not be getting the message. Thus, it still thinks you need more food, and so there’s no off switch. Regardless of how much you eat, your brain might think you’re starving, because as far as it’s concerned, there’s not enough leptin. So it makes you even hungrier. It’s a vicious cycle. Leptin also responds to short-term energy imbalance: A severe caloric deficit will result in reduced leptin secretion. This is your body’s way of getting you to eat when you need energy. Likewise, temporary overfeeding boosts leptin, reducing hunger.

If you look at wild animals, they eat when they’re hungry and stop when they’re full. Obesity is extremely rare in the wild when animals
eat
their native diets. But normally, wild animals eat varying amounts of food, sometimes gorging, sometimes fasting. They never count calories, and yet these animals seem to be experts at maintaining excellent body composition. Obviously, something we humans are doing (or eating) isn’t working.

Much of our knowledge of leptin comes from the study of two types of lab mice—the ob/ob mouse, deficient in genes responsible for leptin production, and the db/db mouse, deficient in the leptin receptor gene. The former responds to leptin but produces none, while the latter produces plenty but responds to none. An ob/ob mouse suffers from an uncontrolled appetite. It is literally always hungry and massively obese, because the normal satiety-signaling hormone—leptin—is absent from its body. However, when you inject an obese ob/ob mouse with leptin, it loses weight and its health markers normalize. Its appetite dwindles to normal, and its energy balance is restored.

BOOK: The All-Day Fat-Burning Diet: The 5-Day Food-Cycling Formula That Resets Your Metabolism To Lose Up to 5 Pounds a Week
6.62Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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