CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER BANANA CAKE

INGREDIENTS 1 cup = 225 ml

For the cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup cocoa

⅓ cup peanut butter, slightly melted

½ cup honey

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup mashed bananas

½ cup olive oil

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Banana slices

For the peanut butter drizzle

3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter+ 1 tbs honey

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a large pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the slightly melted peanut butter, honey, mashed bananas, olive oil, and eggs. After mixing, stir in cocoa, baking powder & soda, salt, and vanilla. Stir in flour last.

Pour into pan and top with thinly sliced banana pieces. Bake for roughly 55 minutes.

Once the cake has cooled slightly, top with peanut butter. Melt in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds, then stir. It should become creamy and slightly runny.

Drizzle over cake. Serve!

Can diet foods make me fat ? Part II.

Superfoods have become part of our everyday vocabulary with chia seeds and spirulina as common in supermarkets as digestive biscuits.

However, despite a loyal following from health bloggers and A-listers alike, not all these healthy eating rituals are as 'super' for us as they might have you believe.

Although, in the right doses, there's no doubt that some of these foods can contribute to a healthier lifestyle, if eaten in excess they could actually hinder your diet and prevent you from losing weight.

From sugar loaded green juices to the seeds that cause poor indigestion, we reveal the not-so-super superfoods.

The TRUTH behind 10 health food fads

 (and what you really should be doing to lose weight)

1. Raw doesn’t necessarily mean good for weight loss

While being a far better alternative when it comes to sweet treats, things like cashew butter, dates and avocados contain plenty of calories. 

For example, if you are trying to slim down, you might think a raw chocolate brownie is a healthy alternative to your normal chocolaty treat. 

But it is not likely to have many fewer calories than a normal brownie - they both contain around 180 calories for a small brownie. 

So despite a heightened nutritional value - a raw brownie is full of healthy fats for example- scoffing down four raw brownies because you are under the illusion they are lower calorie will likely put asunder any weight loss.

2. Spiralising can cause snacking

Spiralising is very popular, and rightly so – and obviously a great way to include more veg in your diet. But some people use it to produce super-low calorie meals with no added protein, which may leave you hungry and reaching for unplanned snacks later in the day.

3. Beware the juice! 

Although juices are a great way of incorporating more fruit and vegetables into your diet– many contain plenty of sugar.  

By all means drink them, but in a smart way. They are a great way to refuel after a work out, but chugging back three a day which contain things like cashew nuts and banana could spell disaster on the weight-loss front.

Vegetables are far lower in sugar than fruit so try to ensure your juice is at least half veggie. 

Smoothies and juices are great in moderation for helping towards your 5-a-day – just ensure the recipe you’re following uses the edible pulp of fruits and vegetables so that you retain the fibre and watch out for added high-calorie ingredients.

4. Watch out for too many good fats 

Healthy fats are all the rage at the moment – and rightly so. 

They are essential for everything from proper cell function, to a speedy metabolism and even good hair, skin and nails.

However, if all the clean-eating gurus have you believing you can eat an avocado a day, you should rethink. Chia seeds, avocado, nuts etc contain a lot of calories. An average avocado weighing 200g contains more than 300 calories. 

That is fine as the main component of a meal, or if you are adding a quarter of one to your chicken salad - but when you start adding an entire 'smashed avo' to your eggs on toast as a cheeky treat nearly everyday, it could end up a skinny jeans disaster.

5. Gluten-free doesn't mean calorie free  

The craze for gluten-free foods has been on the rise, however it could have a negative impact on your weight loss.

Many people think that just because something is gluten free, it is good for us. This is not strictly true. Eating a gluten-free diet may be very important for some people but it doesn't mean that you should ignore the ingredients.

Check the list of ingredients as your food may still have a high sugar content.

6. Coconut water's hidden sugar

Coconut water has become Britain’s fastest-growing soft drink. It’s made by extracting the fluid inside unripe green coconuts. 

The drink is said to be high in potassium and magnesium. These minerals are depleted after exercise, so coconut water is often sold as a post-workout drink.

However, While coconut water is relatively low in calories (around 20kcal per 100ml), most of these come from naturally occurring sugar. One 330ml serving contains three teaspoons of sugar, half your recommended daily allowance.

Also, a 2012 study concluded there was little difference between water, coconut water and sports drinks in promoting rehydration after exercise.

7. Chia seed surprise

Chia seeds - another celebrity favourite - can cause gut problems.

Although high in protein and omega-3, they swell up to a gelatinous mass in the stomach.

While this may help curb the appetite, they are also high in phytates - antioxidant compounds that have the potential to inhibit the absorption of certain mineral, so should only be eaten in small amounts.

8. Sushi isn't always the light option 

Celebrities haven't been shy about their love of sushi and are often photographed at smart Japanese restaurants. 

Although some sushi can be good for you a lot of it can contain high amounts of carbohydrates with very little protein, which can leave you hungry and craving more food.

The type of rice used in the maki (rolls) and nigiri (little blocks with fish on the top) is white short grain rice, which can spike blood sugar levels. It is also very salty. Avoid tempura which is fried in vegetable oil and don't have too much super-salty soy sauce.

To have a healthier sushi, stick to sashimi - the raw fish served without rice - and go for brown rice when it's an option. 

9. Tofu trickery

Tofu is an excellent diet staple. It is packed with calcium, protein and iron and contains just 94 calories per half cup making it a great alternative for fattier meats.

However, tofu's absorbent texture means it takes on the flavour of the sauces you cook it with. If you choose to fry it the little spongy squares soak plenty of the calorific oil that they immediately negate the low-calorie content. So be aware of exactly what you are eating - and if you are at home, you are best to bake it in the oven in a little (non-oily)  marinade, rather than frying it. 

10. Popcorn can be fattening

Popcorn can be a great afternoon pick-me-up as it helps to fill you up and the steady-release glucose energy will keep you going until your next meal.

Plain is the healthiest option but can be a little bland, try a sprinkle of paprika for a savoury hit or cinnamon for a sweet treat. Keep the caramel-coated stuff for an occasional treat.

One important suggestion:

Don’t eat while you’re distracted. Research has found eating while reading, watching TV or looking at a computer not only means you eat more at that meal but you’re also more likely to snack later as your brain hasn’t logged what you’ve eaten.

Think Smart

Eat and Lose Weight

Meet Preston: A Gym Bag For Busy Professional Men

If you wear a suit, or dress shirt to work, you know that keeping your clothes wrinkle free when you hit the gym can be a pain.

Jared Boschan just launched an ingenious product that separates a gym bag into two separate bags so your gym clothes never mix with your work clothes.  He calls it Preston.  And it looks super slick.

Below is an interview with Jared about Preston, how he came up with the idea of creating it, along with other details that make for an inspiring entrepreneurial story and product that may help you make an extra trip, or two to the gym, or basketball court.

What is the Preston?

 

Preston is the bag that keeps your clothing pressed.  Two separate bags – a duffel and garment bag – are connected with magnets, creating the appearance of one handsome bag. It can be used at the gym to keep work attire wrinkle-free and separated from gym clothes to avoid odor. It’s also a great bag for business trips and wedding weekends because it’s hands free, replacing the alternative option many folks use, which is to roll a carry-on in one hand and hold a garment in the other.

How did you come up with the idea for this product?

I hit the gym every morning on my way to the office. Sometimes I play basketball after work. This means I’m constantly transporting my work attire throughout the city. Before Preston, I had a few methods for doing this but they were inefficient. Sometimes I would fold my work attire and place it in the gym bag causing wrinkles and odor. Other times I would get dressed for work, head to the gym, get undressed and put on my gym clothes, work out, get dressed for work again and then head to the office. If you’re counting, that involvesgetting dressed for work twice in one day. Once is more than enough for most people. My last option was to pack a gym bag and a garment bag but that would leave me with no free hands and too much to carry. As I looked around the locker room, I could tell that I wasn’t alone. I became fixated on solving this problem and the idea for Preston was born. I’m confident we’ve created a bag that will make your commute better and I’m excited to share it.

It sounds like it took more than a few prototypes to get the product right.  What happened?

I’m a real estate asset manager. I’m very comfortable analyzing and forecasting financial statements but design, fashion and production were completely new to me. Having a vision in your head and actually building it are two different things. That said, I embraced the challenge. I would have a prototype made, test it, iterate and repeat. I traveled New York City’s garment district talking with professionals about various fabrics and hardware and I also had peers test the bag rigorously. Every time I put Preston in somebody else’s hands, I would learn something new about it and make improvements. I must have spent a month just looking for the perfect shoulder padding! When you find yourself desperately in need of the perfect shoulder padding, you quickly realize that there is no Google searching your way to an answer. It needs to grip but not stick. It needs to be soft but not delicate. It’s a minor detail but people really respond to it. It took six iterations but I got the bag I set out to make.

How does the bag work exactly?

You can take an outfit right from your closet and load it into Preston’s garment bag. Preston was designed to work with your hangers to speed up the loading process. Once you’ve got, let’s just say, your suit loaded into the garment bag, you simply drape it over the duffel bag. The magnets will pull it right into place. Sling Preston over the shoulder and you’re ready to conquer the day.

Can you put sweaty clothes from the gym in the bag without ruining it?

Absolutely. I created this bag to improve my own personal gym experience so no detail was spared. Most importantly, you will never find yourself “commingling” sweaty clothes with clean ones. Ever. Sweaty go in the duffel and clean go in the garment bag. The two distinct bags attach magnetically. They then appear to be one bag and are carried as one bag (hands free). This allows you to always keep your clean attire fresh and pressed. As for the duffel, it’s lined with lightweight water resistant ripstop nylon. Great for stinky clothes and easy to wipe clean.

How big is it?  Does it come in different colors?

Think typical “weekender” bag size but for those who appreciate the details, 11’’/9.5’’/20’’. My goal is to initially launch one version of the bag that becomes synonymous with the brand. Expanding the line into different colors is something I look forward to and is fairly easy to do.

Where can you buy it?                                                             

www.impressedbagco.com

How much does it cost?

$350. Most men either own a nice bag or need a nice bag. For those who still need one, we want Preston to be it so we kept our price incredibly competitive but refused to sacrifice quality. Our bags are manufactured in New York City and we source leather direct from Italy. We figure that if you’re serious about keeping your clothing wrinkle free, you’ve got somewhere important to be. You will never feel underdressed with Preston.

Are there any other bags on the market that are similar?

We have a provisional patent because we’ve created something original. Preston takes two bags and seamlessly turns them into one easy to carry bag with the use of magnets. This is a new solution.

Anything else you would like to add?

We spend a lot on gym memberships and travel. It’s worth investing in a bag that will make these experiences more pleasant. Preston is built to last. It’s incredibly durable. It might even outlast some current gym fads. It’s a good investment.

I am really impressed! You..

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SmartBodyChange: Active Recovery Workout Ideas

SmartBodyChange: Active Recovery Workout Ideas: Recovery traditionally implies taking periods of time off from exercise, while activity is just the opposite. Fitness misinformation h...

NATURALLY SWEET DARK CHOCOLATE COCONUT TRUFFLES

INGREDIENTS

2½ cups flaked coconut, unsweetened

¼ cup + 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

¼ cup honey

½ teaspoon vanilla

a pinch of sea salt

4 ounces dark chocolate for topping

INSTRUCTIONS

Pulse the coconut in a food processor until sticky crumbs form. Set aside about ¼ cup of the mixture.

Mix the coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and sea salt. Stir in the coconut from step one. Form the mixture into small balls by squeezing until a ball forms. The mixture will be crumbly, so it doesn't work to put the mixture in your hands and roll it. You have to squeeze it. There will be a little bit of excess oil - that's okay.

Once you have the balls rolled, refrigerate for 1 hour or so until they are firm. At this point, if you want, you should be able to take them out and re-roll them to get the shape just right since they'll be firm and malleable.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the coconut and shake or stir constantly for a few minutes until the coconut is lightly browned and fragrant.

Melt the chocolate for a minute or so in the microwave. Stir it until it's smooth. Dip each coconut ball in the chocolate and remove with a fork, letting excess chocolate drip off. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and top with the toasted coconut from step three. Freeze or refrigerate to set the chocolate. I like these best in the fridge because they are soft enough to eat anytime!

Eat and Lose Weight

Banana and Date Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients:

120 g dates, cut into small pieces

1 banana
½  C coconut

½  C unsweetened cocoa powder 

¾  C skimmed milk

½  C + 2 Tbsp honey 

3 eggs 

Method

In a food processor blend the banana, eggs, honey, cocoa powder and coconut. 
Add the dates, milk and bake at 180ºC for 25-28 minutes. 

Top 7 Overtraining Symptoms

Some of us are not only training more, but harder than ever. Extreme modes of exercise such as HIIT and Crossfit are gaining in popularity with some people training five, six, or even seven days a week.

But how much is too much?

Although there is no magical formula to determine when you’ve reached that point.

What is Overtraining?

Common in many types fitness activities, overtraining happens when you perform more training—both in and out of the gym—than your body can recover from.  A shorter or less severe variation of overtraining is referred to as overreaching, which is easily recovered from in just a few days, while more severe overtraining can take weeks, or months of recovery.

Some of the factors that lead to acute overtraining include a sudden increase in exercise frequency, intensity or duration of training sessions, as well as not allowing your body adequate recovery. Genetics, as well as the length of time you have been training, known as training age, also play a huge factor in your ability to resist overtraining.

Because no one trains exactly the same way, you should watch out for varying symptoms of overtraining. For instance, power athletes may experience different symptoms than endurance athletes, who might experience something different from weekend warriors.

 Common Overtraining Symptoms

There are a number of overtraining symptoms that include tiredness, tightness, decrease in performance, increase in injuries, restlessness, elevated blood pressure, decreased strength, decreased endurance, decreased max heart rate, allergic reactions, a change in menstrual patterns, plus many more. 

As some are easier to spot than others, here are the top 7 signs you’re overtraining.

Overtraining Symptom #1: Lack of Motivation

Lost all drive and motivation to train, or really perform any physical activity? Your body is telling you that you need to rest and recover because you are doing too much.

We all have days when we don’t feel like training, heck. But if you go days, or even weeks, without wanting anything to do with the gym, it’s time to listen to your body and take a rest.

Overtraining Symptom #2: You Feel Especially Sore Following a Big Workout

Highly dependent on nutrition, if you’re eating enough while training hard but still feel intense soreness after your workouts, there is a chance overtraining has set in. Different than the usual soreness from training, it will linger for a few extra days and might be a little more painful.

As most newbies often do too much too fast, overtraining is common in beginners Remember the first time you trained your arms and you couldn’t wash your hair for a week? Or how about the first time you did legs and dreaded walking up stairs for a week?

Overtraining Symptom #3: You Stop Seeing Results

Believe it or not, working out too much can actually cause you to lose muscle and gain fat! If it was as simple as energy balance (burning more than you consume) then the more you train the better. The problem is that hormones play a large role in the equation.

Overtraining causes your body to produce inadequate amounts of testosterone (bad for the ladies too) while producing higher levels of cortisol. The problem for both men and women is that your body increases both insulin resistance and fat deposition. We are training to get strong and lean, right?

Overtraining Symptom #4: You Become Restless and Lose Focus

Typically found in strength or power athletes or those who train with high intensity intervals, what happens is your sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive,  restlessness, and inability to focus.

This restlessness makes it even harder to recover as I can’t stress enough how important sleep is for recovery and consistent gains.

Overtraining Symptom #5: You Feel Sluggish All Day

Another effect of overtraining the sympathetic nervous system, this often happens with endurance athletes. Again, the result of decreased testosterone and increased cortisol levels, in some cases causes debilitating fatigue that feels like you’ve come down with a cold.

Overtraining Symptom #6: Chronic Soreness in Your Joints, Bones and Limbs

Post workout soreness in the form of DOMS (delayed onset muscle fatigue) is normal, but if you experience intense and prolonged soreness, you may have done too much. Basically, if it feels like you got run over by a bus, you should cut back on your volume or intensity.

Overtraining Symptom #7: You’re Sick More Often

Very often caused by a combination of things such as lack of sleep, poor diet, not enough activity and mental stress, if you think you are on point with all of these things and still find yourself getting ill, it may be due to overtraining.

It’s really easy to ignore those early morning sniffles or a cough here and there, but make sure you listen to your body. Those little hints could be telling you that something is wrong with your immune system from your increased training volume.

How To Avoid Overtraining

Once overtraining sets in it may take days, weeks, or even months, to recover completely, since your nervous system has short-circuited. If this is the case, you may have to take an unplanned break from exercising in order to fully recover. So, to avoid this scenario, make sure to train smart and allow your body adequate time to recover.

1. Sleep

Sleep is cheap, effective, and so simple a caveman could do it. And it’s something where most people really miss the ball. If you want to double your results and decrease your risk of overtraining, you might want to hit the hay an hour or two earlier. Sleep is so important because it helps repair your body.

2. Nutrition

Your diet plays a huge role in recovery. Without the proper nutrients, you’re shooting yourself in the foot before the race even begins. You wouldn’t get in your car to drive to work without any gas, or with the wrong fuel, would you? Your body needs quality fuel and empty calories won’t cut it.

To prevent overtraining, you should have an adequate intake of protein, fats, and carbs, which is why many restrictive and fad diets don’t work

3. Stress

One thing rarely taken into account is your body’s stress level. You need to consider both training as well as outside stressors. If everything else is on point, and you are still not achieving results from your program, you might want to give some thought to whether stress is the culprit.

4. Training

Just as training too frequently causes problems, smart training volume prevents them. A good rule of thumb is to train only enough to elicit a training response. Don’t train to the point where it takes 2 weeks to recover from one session.

Rest between heavy lifting sessions as much as possible and avoid training heavy with full body lifts one or two days in a row. Also, you may consider changing up the intensity week to week: train hard and heavy one week, then, the following week, take it back a notch. To maximize results and minimize injury, be sure to progress your workouts slowly, instead of making large jumps in training volume, or intensity. This helps your body to adapt to new stresses.

Depending on your goals and training experience, I also recommend a deload week where you significantly decrease training volume every 4-12 weeks.

5. Recovery

Just as I mentioned above, taking at least one or two days in between training sessions helps you recover much faster, but this doesn’t mean you have to stay out of the gym all together.

There are a few activities to try on rest days that will keep you active and help prevent overtraining and injuries. Spending some extra time on a foam roller and doing some proper stretching is never a bad idea. Especially if you work at a desk, you can never spend too much time with the roller.

Non-impact activities like yoga and swimming can also aid in recovery as long as you don’t overdo it. These activities can be considered “active rest” to help rejuvenate your body and flush out toxins. With yoga, focus on the breathing and restful aspects and feel like a million bucks after class.

Now that you’re equipped to spot the most common signs of overtraining, go train hard and train with purpose!

Train Smart

Weight Loss Plateau: Tips on How to Break It!

You are making awesome changes in your body when suddenly your progress grinds to a screeching halt.

No matter what you do, nothing is working. Maybe it’s been a week, or two, or even a few months, but your weight is not budging.

Why can’t you lose any more weight? What are some solutions to break through your stubborn weight loss plateau?

This article will delve into the dynamics of a weight loss plateau and offer you solutions to overcome it.

Weight Loss Plateau Vs. Fat Loss Plateau

A weight loss plateau is a period of time during which your body weight remains at the same level. So if your weight doesn’t change for 2 weeks, does that mean your results have stalled?

Absolutely not!

The word “weight loss” does not differentiate between changes in fat, muscle, and water.

When you get on the scale and the reading goes down 1lb, the hope is that 1lb represents pure fat – not muscle, or water.

If you are weighing yourself every day, or multiple times per day, you probably notice your weight can fluctuate substantially by 3-5lb. Most of this weight fluctuation is due to changes in water retention.

The unpredictability of water retention is one reason to weigh yourself only once per week with Monday Morning Weigh, unless you find weigh ins every morning keeps you more accountable. Weighing yourself multiple times per day, or at different times each day is the fastest way to kill your confidence and mess with your head.

A weight loss plateau and more specifically a fat loss plateau should be defined as no change in body weight for 3 weeks. The first week may be because of water retention, along with the second week, but the third week indicates that maybe your body is not changing as you have hoped despite your best efforts.

Weight Loss Plateau Facts To Keep In Mind

Before delving into some solutions to help you break your weight loss plateau, here are some important facts that you should know:

1) Weight Loss Plateaus are VERY common

If you do not experience a weight loss plateau as you approach your ideal body weight, consider yourself very, very lucky.

Weight loss plateaus are to be expected as you are losing weight.

Our bodies are resistant to change. A large chunk of people who reach their ideal weight have experienced as many as 2-3 plateaus lasting several weeks. Remember that if changing our bodies was easy, then everyone would be walking around with a six-pack.

you become.

2) Losing Weight Becomes Harder The Closer You Get To Your Ideal Weight

Not only does the pace of weight loss slow down, but your body will work harder to hold on to your fat stores the leaner you become. We are left with a sobering fact – the ability to lose more fat decreases and it becomes even harder to do so. The most common plateaus I see for guys is first around 20-22% body fat, then around 12% body fat (for those guys looking to break into single digits).

3 Steps To Break Your Weight Loss Plateau

Now that you understand the difference between weight loss plateaus and fat loss plateaus along with the basic dynamics of weight loss, here are some tips to follow to help break through the toughest plateau.

Weight Loss Plateau Step #1: Re-evaluate Your Calorie Intake

As you lose weight, not only does it become harder to lose, but your metabolism decreases. Now don’t go searching for those “how to boost your metabolism” articles – your metabolism is supposed to decrease as you lose weight.

For example - if you continue the same workout regimen at 200lb as you did when you weighed 230lb, your metabolism will be roughly 15% lower at 200lb vs. 230lb.

Why you ask?

You have less body mass, which means your body does not require as much energy to support a smaller frame.

That’s why every 10-15lb you lose (if you have a lot of weight to lose), you can reevaluate your calorie intake to ensure you are eating less calories than you are burning. 

For more, check out How many calories should you eat to lose weight?

Weight Loss Plateau Step #2: Control the “Calorie Creep”

The calorie creep can come from mindless eating, eating out at restaurants that serve huge portions, or simply condiments like dressings, spreads, and sauces. Maybe you don’t realize that small 100 calorie bag of “healthy” chips is really 400 calories because there are 4 servings in each bag. Alcohol also goes on the calorie creep list.

The best place to start is to track your food intake if you are not already doing so. There are many great reasons to keep a food journal, so tracking your nutrition intake (even for a few days) is possibly the smartest and most important step you take to improve your nutrition.

Weight Loss Plateau Step #3: Progress Your Body, Don’t Confuse it

While nutrition is likely the culprit for the stall in your weight, making sure you are progressing the intensity of your workouts can only help improve your results.

There is a lot of hype about “muscle confusion” because of a certain exercise program that has sold over 20 million copies through infomercials. In the extreme case, choosing a different workout every time you hit the gym is not confusing your body as much as you think, but it’s definitely curtailing your results. If you want to maintain the results you have, changing things up is awesome, but not if you want to maximize your results in a muscle building, or fat loss program.

Continuity in your exercise program is more important than switching things up all the time. Without continuity, you will not be able to track improvements and make the workouts harder, which is the goal. In my Programs, even though I switch up the workouts every couple of weeks, I keep several of the exercises and the structure of the workouts the same so that you can track changes in your strength and fitness levels.

What happens if you still can’t break your weight loss plateau?

The chances are very likely if you follow the preceding 3 steps, you will be able to break your plateau. Again, 90% of the time it’s a matter of not balancing calorie intake with calorie burn. But for those in the 10% category, here are some issues/solutions to consider:

1) Starvation Mode – The opposite of the calorie creep is not eating enough calories to help sustain your body. While your metabolism will not drop if you skip a meal, or even a few, it will drop with chronic calorie deprivation. If you are a 180lb guy eating less than 1,000 calories per day for let’s say 3 weeks, you can bet your bank account your metabolism will take a nose dive. Some studies have shown metabolism can drop by as much as 40-50%. There are a host of other negative issues with extreme starvation diets (lack of proper nutrients being one of them). 

If you are chronically in starvation mode, it’s advisable to up your calorie intake.

2) Calorie Cycling – If you are in starvation mode, or have just been dieting for more than a month, or two, your metabolism can and will likely slow down above and beyond the range if you were eating more calories. There is no scientific evidence supporting calorie cycling as a superior way to lose fat, but I must mention it given the large number of respected experts who support it. Furthermore, science is not exactly ahead of the curve. Alternating low calorie with high calorie days MAY prevent this starvation response from occurring (i.e. 3 days low, 1 day high).

3) Hormones – There is a vocal contingent of nutrition experts who describe a stall in fat loss not as a calorie in/out issue, but as a “defect in fat metabolism”. The total amount of calories burned and how those calories are burned (fat loss vs. muscle loss) can be affected by hormonal imbalances. 

What’s the solution? 

Unfortunately, a simple answer is not possible, other than to seek medical assistance and test your hormone levels such as adrenal, testosterone etc.

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Eat and Lose Weight