1. Intermittent Fasting – Cycling
Intermittent Fasting
Before we get into the “cycling” component, let’s first explore what IF is and how it works.
Intermittent Fasting is when you fast for a designated period of time and eat during a restricted feeding window. For instance, most protocols call for 12-16 hours of fasting followed by 8-12 hours of a feeding period.
IF gives your internal organs a much needed rest which indirectly increases your metabolism. Think of your internal organs like a cell phone. When your cell phone is charged up 100%, it runs fast and effectively. When your phone is on red with low battery life, the entire system slows down.
Another benefit of IF is that your body is more likely to burn excess calories for energy rather than store it for fat.
We’ve found incredible success with clients over the years through utilizing various IF techniques to manipulate our clients metabolism and get them to burn more fat that than normal. We include the following when fasting:
- Water
- BLACK Coffee or tea
- Depending on the client, we also allow 2 scoops of collagen.
- Post workout protein shake if you workout in the morning.
We recommend using mouthwash to rinse whenever you get hungry to help suppress your appetite.
IF – Cycling
We are constantly discovering better ways to get more weight loss out of our clients. For instance, in our 6 week – Drop 20 lb program, we have our clients rotate the days they fast and have found it to be even more effective than IF alone – 92% of our patients who do that program lose 20 lbs or more in just 6 weeks…without starving or spending hundreds on supplements.
2. Slow State Cardio
Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik
Aerobic activity was all the rage in the 80s and early 90s as research showed how you actually burn more fat during steady – slow state cardio. However over the past 15 – 20 years, the Tabata study changed the direction of the industry at large as Dr Tabata discovered a more efficient way to burn fat (we’ll get into this later in this doc). As it goes, the pendulum swung so far into the HIIT direction that it overshadowed the benefits of slow state cardio.
A good program should have a mix of both HIIT and slow state cardio to maximize your weight loss/fat loss. Think of slow state cardio has maintaining an uncomfortable pace where your heart rate is elevated that you are able to sustain over an extended period of time. If a sprint would be considered 90%+ intensity, think of slow state activity as like 60%.
Slow state cardio can be performed on anything from a brisk walk to a step class to any piece of cardio machine.
3. MetCon Style Workouts
Metabolism Boosting Workout
MetCon is short for Metabolic Conditioning which is a high intensity style workout where you utilize multi-joint movement patterns and work to rest ratios that keep your heart rate elevated to 75%-90% of your max heart rate.
Work to rest ratios should be at least a 2:1 ratio of work to rest i.e 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off.
Over the past 17 years, I’ve found 35 minutes to be the sweet spot to train at a high intensity without overtraining. What makes MetCon style workouts so effective is that the high intensity causes an increase in your excess post oxygen consumption or EPOC which essentially is the recovery process from your workouts where your body recruits calories, blood flow and oxygen to heal which in turn increases your metabolism, digestion and elimination.
4. Stress Reduction
Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik
We are living in a technologically advanced world that the human brain has not yet evolved to. Our animal – instincts of fight or flight, anxiety and tribal tendencies that once kept our ancestors alive now cause us unnecessary stress that is leading to a slew of health issues, not the least of which is weight and fat gain.
A big part of Stress Reduction is recovering from both physical and mental + emotional strain yet so many of us ignore any type of recovery as its far easier for us to constantly go all the time as a way of distracting us from our pain then numb our pain through alcohol, drugs, social media scrolling and tv/streaming.
I often compare internal stress to forcing a beach ball underwater. You can get the beach ball under water but it takes a lot of energy and force to keep it down, so much so that at some point you can’t keep pressing it down and it has nowhere to go but pop up into the air.
You can mask and avoid your physical & internal stress for a period of time, but at some point it will pop back up often times with greater force than before.
Physical recovery can include stuff like stretching, foam rolling, massage, heat & cold therapy and Red Light Therapy…a major side effect of our spot reduction treatments at D-Fine that our patients love is that they get to come in and relax during the 30 minute fat loss treatment, most fall asleep!
Internal recovery can include stuff like journaling, talk therapy, voice dialogue and shadow work. At D-Fine, our 6 and 12 week weight loss programs include mindset training to help reduce internal stress by quieting the negative internal voices of the inner critic, the Saboteur, among others.
5. Accountability
Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
There’s a tendency for people to take on big goals like losing 20 lbs on their own then get overwhelmed (which is completely normal / to be expected) then shame themselves as if there’s something wrong with them…there’s NOTHING wrong with you!
Its just that weight loss is way deeper and more complex than just exercising and eating clean. Not to mention the sheer amount of information out there is so vast that its likely you are hearing conflicting ideas of how to lose weight constantly…Not to mention, most weight loss programs don’t ever address the mental/emotional side of things which as we talked about in #4, is absolutely crucial to long term weight loss success.
You can’t and shouldn’t go about it alone.
There are three ways to be held accountable:
- Find a friend who you can rely on to keep you in check and follow a proven plan.
- Hire a coach or a company who assigns a coach to be there to answer your questions and checkin on you.
- Invest a dollar amount in a program that will serve as a catalyst to follow a program that has been proven to help people with similar goals.
A side note here, I often turn down very wealthy people who come to me for coaching. NOT all but some, don’t mind spending money on coaching as they’re just looking to check a box so they superficially feel like they’re doing what they should do yet since money is not an issue, they don’t take it seriously enough to follow the plan.
I tend to find the best ways from people who make sacrifices to pay for their program (which is actually most of our patients) because the investment is more meaningful to them therefore they are more likely to do what is required to hit their goal.
6. Carb Rotating
Carb Cycling
CARBS ARE NOT BAD! The problem is not carbs.
The problem is twofold:
- Processed foods are designed to provide instant comfort and live in the gut beyond the typical digestion period. This causes us to constantly seek out processed carbs which is easier now than ever as processed carbs are the most readily available. The longer an individual relies on carbs for comfort, there’s a greater likelihood of long term gut damage and excess weight gain.
- Rather than cycle carbs, people yo-yo carbs by going back and forth between cutting all carbs out to eating whatever they want..which results in a shockingly scary net gain of body fat.
We utilize plant based days in a way that gives you the feeling of eating while providing the necessary micronutrients and while reducing your overall calorie consumption. From there, depending on weight loss goal, we rotate in days where you eat more traditional type carbs so that your body gets what it needs and nothing more so that you get to your goal weight faster.
7. Red Light Therapy
Red Light Therapy at Dfine Mind and Body Wellness
Unlike ultrasound, radiofrequency, laser light, and freezing, LED-based therapies do not cause cellular damage. In fact, LED light has been shown to promote a natural response within cells based on the wavelength of the light energy used and the type of cell it reaches.
Our concentrated red light therapy breaks up the fat molecules under the skin so that your lymphatic system can excrete the fat through the digestive process or be used as energy. This results in a body fat reduction of inches from your target areas, slimming and reshaping body lines while tightening and toning loose skin.
Our system has patented pads with reflective coating that trap the red light compared to standing/laying red light beds where red light bounces all over the place.
Our Red Light Therapy provides a proven and safe shortcut to rapid fat loss. Imagine you wanted to go from Connecticut to Florida. There are many ways to get there but most likely you would either drive or fly. Driving would take you 24+ hours whereas you could land within 2.5 hours from flying. Our light therapy is the equivalent of flying as you’ll get to your destination faster.
We’ve found that when combining Red Light Therapy with our weight loss programs, our patients see tighter skin, experience less inflammation and aches & pain and a healthier waistline.
The Most Important Part..
All of these things work! We see weight loss transformations from all types of people who oftentimes have struggled their entire life with weight. However nothing works unless you put in the work.
As the cliche goes, if nothing changes, nothing changes. I highly encourage you to take action today on at least one element from this list.
If you are interested in any of our weight loss or stubborn fat loss programs, the next step is go go to www.Dfinewellness.com/trial to book an intro session that includes a 30 minute RLT treatment, Vibration Therapy, Our Day of Treatment Diet For Best Results and a 30 minute Coaching session to discuss the best strategies for your body – your goals. Its only $79 and if you don’t lose any inches after your RLT treatment, you will not pay!
What do you have to lose?
