The Women's Health Big Book of 15-Minute Workouts: A Leaner, Sexier, Healthier You--In 15 Minutes a Day! (6 page)

Take off 1 day a week:
That’s it! Now you’ll have tons of time to do everything else you love!

Sample Week on the 15-Minute Exercise Plan

MONDAY:
Fit-Into-Your-Skinny-Jeans Workout

TUESDAY:
Brisk walk
(optional light cardio, specialty workout, or rest)

WEDNESDAY:
Age Eraser Workout

THURSDAY:
Yoga stretches in the evening
(optional light cardio, specialty workout, or rest)

FRIDAY:
Tighter Tush Workout

SATURDAY:
Elliptical HIIT Workout

SUNDAY:
Use all the time you saved for something completely indulgent!

Chapter 3:

The Superfast Weight-Loss System

EATING HEALTHY DOESN’T HAVE TO COMPLICATE YOUR LIFE. IN THIS CHAPTER, YOU’LL FIND QUICK AND SIMPLE DIET ADVICE THAT WORKS FAST.

Ever tried to measure every morsel that went into your mouth as you tried to finally shed those stubborn saddlebags, only to see your cup size shrink while your thighs stayed just as wide? Then you know that the true ticket to a hot body isn’t just lowering the numbers on the scale, but rather improving your body composition—building shapely, lean, metabolism-revving muscle while shedding unwanted fat. That’s why we developed the Superfast Weight-Loss System, a simple and easy plan that is grounded in lean, healthy protein—which your body uses to form muscle—as well as special fat-burning foods to complement the superfast exercise plan and fast-forward your weight loss.

Trim Carbs, Pump Protein, Drop Pounds

The Superfast Weight-Loss System is based on groundbreaking research from a team of diet and exercise scientists at the University of Connecticut. They found that by tweaking your diet to match your workouts, you can maintain shapely lean muscle mass while shedding fat fast. In fact, in one of their studies of overweight men and women, those who followed a reduced-carb diet like the one presented here and lifted weights three times a week shed 22 pounds, nearly 2 pounds a week. Here’s the best part: Nearly all of it (97 percent) came from fat.

For a more powerful impact, we’ve pumped up the protein, as well. Study after study shows that for building and maintaining lean muscle while burning off flab, you can’t beat the power of protein. In a study published in
Nutrition and Metabolism
, dieters who increased their protein intake to 30 percent of their diet ate nearly 450 fewer calories a day and lost about 11 pounds during the 12-week study. What’s more, high-protein diets seem to let you keep on losing weight longer than their high carbohydrate counterparts. When London researchers compared the effects of a high-protein versus a high-carb diet on 48 overweight men and women who had lost weight on a liquid diet, they found that the high-protein eaters kept shedding pounds, losing another 5 pounds during a 12-week follow-up, compared with the high-carb eaters, who actually gained weight.

The superfast exercise and diet plan is quite simply the fastest, most efficient way to lose weight. In a study of 48 women, University of Illinois researchers found that those who combined a resistance-training plan with a high-protein diet lost 22 pounds (and only 1 pound of muscle) during the 11-week study whereas a group eating the same number of calories in a high-carb diet lost only 15 pounds and 2 pounds of muscle. And those Connecticut researchers also reported that those eating fewer carbs didn’t just lose more weight, they also enjoyed significant reductions in total cholesterol and triglycerides. Their levels of insulin plummeted 32 percent and C-reactive protein—a marker of inflammation—fell 21 percent. They got healthier—inside and out.

Just as the superfast workouts were designed to be done in 15 minutes, so too is the Superfast Weight-Loss System. And by that, we don’t just mean nearly instant results, but also that it takes no extra time and barely any effort to follow. You’ll find a special section on 15-minute recipes and a 15-minute kitchen makeover, as well as a list of 15 top fat-burning foods. Consider this your 4-week fast lane to the body of your dreams.

Everything You Need to Know to Start Eating Healthier and Losing Pounds

With the Superfast Weight-Loss System, you eat more, not less, but what you eat will trigger your body to burn fat stores. At the same time you’ll pump up your protein and savor a fair share of delicious natural fats, which research shows helps people better control blood sugar, hunger, and cravings. The end result: You’ll lose weight faster than you ever have before, kibosh your cravings, and never feel deprived!

What to Eat

This plan is incredibly simple. Eat any combination of the foods from three categories: high-quality proteins, low-starch vegetables, and natural fats. (
See chart
.) Snack on nuts and seeds or low-calorie fruits. Eat until you feel satisfied—who has time to count calories?—and you’ll automatically lose fat. Fast workouts, fast weight loss, fast results. That’s what this book is all about: speed.

The Guidelines

Put high-quality protein on your plate at every single meal. Protein helps you incinerate pounds on nearly every weight-loss front. For one, just eating it burns energy! About 25 percent of the protein calories in your food are burned off in digestion, absorption, and chemical changes in your body, so protein has less of a caloric impact than most foods. And as we’ve learned, it’s also nature’s appetite suppressant because it takes longer to digest. Protein also preserves your hard-earned, metabolism revving muscle tissue while you’re losing fat. A recent study in
Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise
found that a weight-loss diet with 35 percent of its calories from protein preserved muscle mass in athletes, while a diet with just 15 percent protein led to an average loss of 3½ pounds of muscle in just 2 weeks.

It’s particularly important to start the day with a protein-packed meal. A Purdue University study found that eating lean protein (such as Canadian bacon, egg whites, or low-fat yogurt) at breakfast keeps you satisfied longer than it would if you consumed it at other times of the day. “Try to get at least 1 ounce (30 grams) of protein at breakfast,” recommends Joan Salge Blake, RD, a clinical associate professor of nutrition at Boston University. Remember, eating protein stimulates muscle growth. In fact, every time you eat at least 10 to 15 grams of protein, you trigger a burst of protein synthesis, which means your body is repairingand building muscle (it also means a greater calorie burn because of all of this metabolic activity). And when you eat at least 30 grams, that period of synthesis lasts about 3 hours—and that means even more muscle growth all day long.

Embrace a little fat.
You’ll recall what happened when we all tried to trim every ounce of fat from our diets? We all got fatter. We now know that dietary fat plays a critical role in calorie control and fat metabolism. Oleic acid, an unsaturated fat found in olive oil, nuts, and avocados, helps quash hunger, according to a study in the journal
Cell Metabolism
. During digestion, it’s converted into a compound that indirectly triggers hunger-curbing signals to your brain. (Bonus benefit: Oleic acid has been shown to lower bad cholesterol without affecting the good HDL.) Omega-3 fatty acids found in naturally fatty foods like salmon and other cold-water fish and avocados also helps reduce body fat, lower triglycerides, and raise healthy HDL cholesterol. Just keep portions in check by eating fat in balance with the other elements of the superfast weight-loss system. As long as pounds are peeling off your frame, your fat intake is fine.

THE 15 BEST FAT-BURNING FOODS

These are foods that start winnowing your waistline the moment they leave your fork and enter your mouth. They build muscle, promoting fat burning, or simply use energy (i.e., burn calories) just to digest them! Stock up today.

Almonds and other nuts (with skins intact)

Build muscle, reduce cravings

Dairy products (fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt, cheese)

Build strong bones, fire up weight loss

Eggs

Build muscle, burn fat

Turkey and other lean meats

Build muscle, strengthen immune system

Berries

Improve satiety, prevent cravings

Enova oil (soy and canola oil)

Promotes fullness, not easily stored as fat

Peanut butter

Boosts testosterone (a good thing even in women), builds muscle, burns fat

Fatty fish (such as salmon, tuna, mackerel)

Trigger fullness, fire up fat burning

Grapefruit

Lowers insulin, regulates blood sugar and metabolism; be sure to eat the fleshy white membranes

Green tea

Fires up fat burning

Chili peppers

Spikes metabolism

Spinach and green vegetables

Fight free radicals and improve recovery for better muscle building

Whole grains (quinoa, brown rice, whole grain cereal)

Small doses prevent body from storing fat

Beans and legumes

Build muscle, help burn fat, regulate digestion

Whey

Builds muscle, burns fat

Set limits on starch.
Since 1980, our food intake has grown by up to 500 calories a day, nearly 80 percent of which can be attributed to carbohydrates; in that time, the prevalence of obesity has increased by 80 percent. The lesson: Cap your consumption of the most carbohydrate-dense foods, such as breads, pasta, rice, beans, candy, baked goods, and potatoes. Think of starch as sugar in disguise. (One of my favorite descriptions of spaghetti: Sugar on a string.) In fact, starch is nothing more than neatly packaged bundles of glucose, the basic building block of sugar, stuck together by chemical bonds. These bonds start to dissolve the moment they make contact with the saliva in your mouth, immediately freeing the glucose to surge into your bloodstream. As a result, starch has an even greater impact on blood sugar than sucrose. It also encourages your body to store fat. When you do eat starch, have it in the form of whole grains or a small sweet potato, which at least contain some fiber to slow the down the surge. Or even better, try quinoa, a protein-packed grain with more fiber and fewer carbs than most. Limit yourself to two servings of starch a day. Here’s a tip for those special occasions at your favorite Italian restaurant when you must have spaghetti and meatballs: doggie-bag one-half to three-quarters of your pasta entrée before you dig in. The portion the chef piles on your plate is likely three or more actual servings’ worth.

Pile on the produce.
These filling, good-for-you foods are your ticket to sticking with it. And they cannot be overdone. When researchers at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in New York City surveyed more than 2,000 low-carb dieters, they discovered that, on average, those who were most successful downed at least four servings of low-starch vegetables every day. That’s likely because these foods are brimming with filling fiber and water that leave you full and satisfied on very few calories. Keep your fruit intake a bit more in check. While low-calorie fruits like berries and melons are encouraged in the superfast diet, bananas and other commonly consumed fruits like pineapple, oranges, grapes, and pears are high in sugar and/or starchy carbs.

Snack on nuts, seeds, and/or low-calorie fruits.
Add nuts to your daily diet, but don’t shovel fistfuls mindlessly—a serving of nuts should total 1 ounce, which is about 35 peanuts, 24 almonds, or 18 cashews. Limit yourself to two servings a day. A serving of low-calorie fruit is ½ cup. You can also help yourself to a protein shake when midafternoon hunger hits (or any time of day!).