The Spring Chicken Club Weight Loss Diet

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Eat Less Net Carbs

If you want to burn fat, you need to control insulin and the best way to do that is eat fewer net carbs.

The carbohydrates that you want to avoid are starches, and sugars – basically, any carb that has calories.

Fiber and some sugar alcohols are technically carbs, but they have no calories so that’s where the “net” carbs comes in.

Eat Less Often

After you eat, your insulin spikes and during the spike, your body doesn’t burn fat.

Eating carbohydrates like bread, pasta, potatoes and sugar will raise your insulin by 140% and that spike will last for about 2 hours.

Eating protein will raise your insulin levels by 40% and will return to fasting levels in about 5 hours.

If you spend most of your time at the fasting insulin level, you will burn more fat.

If you eat once a day you will spend 20 hours of that day burning fat.

I know most of you probably want to eat more than once a day.

What I recommend is that you chose a daily eating window of 8 hours or less.

What I do is eat nothing until after 2:00 pm, then I eat low carb and I’m always done eating by 10:00pm.

This time window works great for me, but you can chose whatever window you want.

If you do all your eating during your 8 hour window you will spend at least 12 hours of the day burning fat.

Eat Less Calories

One pound of body fat is equal to 3500 calories.

If you’re eating less carbs and less often, your insulin levels will allow you to access your body’s fat stores for energy.

But if you burn 2000 calories a day, and you consume 2500, weight loss won’t occur.

If you eat 1500 calories and burn 2000… you will lose weight.

You will also find that when you eat high fat, it is easier keep your calories low and stay full.

Have Less Stress

Stress in all it’s manifestations – including inflammation and digestive problems – causes your body to release cortisol which tells your body to store fat instead of burning it.

So if you manage your stress and you will not only feel better, but you will burn more fat.

Eat More Fat

70 to 80% of your calories should come from good healthy fat.

Foods like avocados, olive oil and coconut oil and yes even things like butter and a little bacon now and then.

Fat has almost no effect on blood sugar and insulin.

Burning fat to fuel does not cause the inflammation caused by burning carbs and protein.

Less inflammation mean less cortisol so you won’t be storing as much fat. It also means that your muscles and joints will feel a lot better.

Eat More Fiber

When you eat more fiber – especially as part of a high fat diet – it will keep you feeling full and satisfied.

It will also feed the good bacteria in you guts and make your tummy feel better. This reduces digestive stress (see Have Less Stress above).

Consider adding psyllium to sauces and chia seeds to cookies and don’t forget to eat a salad.

Eat More Nutrition

If you get into eating more veggies – especially the leafy green ones like kale and spinach – you will get a nutrient dense fiber rich that will keep your body going.

Nuts and seeds are not only full of healthy fats they have electrolytes – magnesium and potassium.

And meat and fish (wild & organic is better) has Omega fatty acids and B vitamins.

If you eat a wide variety that includes whole foods, you will not only have more fun eating but you should get more nutrition.

Get More Exercise

The benefits of exercise are many and tremendously misunderstood.

In terms of weight loss, you might think that exercise is great because it burns calories and I am sure that you have seen stuff like the “best fat burning exercises,” but that really is not how it works.

If 180 pound person walks a mile, they only burn about 100 calories more than sitting on the couch.

That means if you want to burn a pound of fat, you would have to walk 35 miles.

Exercise benefits weight loss by building muscles.

One of my favorite sayings is “you lose weight in the kitchen – you build muscle in the gym.”

Exercise builds new muscle and strengthens the muscle you already have. It also improves you circulation and it’s great for your heart and lungs.

If you have more muscle mass, it boosts you metabolism and gives you more energy and that means that you burn more calories all the time – even when you’re sitting on the couch.

Exercise is also the best way I know to reduce stress (see Have Less Stress above).

And if that is not enough for you to want to take a nice walk or do some yoga or lift some weights here’s a few other things exercise can do for you:

It gets your heart rate up
Reduces blood pressure
Increases movement in your lymphatic system
Removes toxins
Boosts your immune system

Exercise Warning for Spring Chickens:

Start slowly and warm up and stretch before you do something too intense.

I can tell you this from personal experience.

I read about super high intensity workouts cause you body to release nitrous oxide aka laughing gas.

So I though I would go right out and do some sprints. On my second sprint I pulled a groin. I can tell you that hurts.

Hopes of the Spring Chicken Club

It is our hope here at the Chicken Club, that you can join us in making mid-life and after the best part your life.

I am 54 years old, I have done the diet that I outlined in this post for over 2 years now so I know it works.

I lost 50 pounds, and I have not been bored with food or hungry during that whole time.

And there are additional benefits, my cholesterol is much lower, I have no inflammation in my joints, I no longer need medications for high blood pressure or gout.

Try it! You will be glad you did.

For lots of recipes and more information about the Low Carb Lifestyle visit our sister site CastleintheMountains.com

The Spring Chicken Club Weight Loss Diet