Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2014! If you are like most Americans, the beginning of a new year marks the beginning of a new diet. Similar to the illustrations used in the Chinese and Zodiac calendars, I imagine drawings of figures that look like Michelangelo’s statue of David or other well proportioned bodies illustrating the month of January for the American calendar. With the goal of re-sculpting out-of-shape bodies back into amazing figures hidden beneath layers of bad habits, New Year resolutions are made.
Unfortunately, when resolutions to get in shape are only based on the simple formula of weight loss, success is usually fleeting. Within a few months, most people lose motivation and return to old habits, not realizing that what they really needed was a different, more sophisticated formula for losing weight.
The simple formula for weight loss is based on the premise that when more calories are burned than ingested, weight is lost. While this seems to make sense, the human body is such a highly complex, incredibly intelligent organism that it often overrides this formula.
There are many factors that skew this simple formula of weight loss. For example, the body changes the rate at which it burns fuel depending upon the amount of fuel provided. When fuel is abundantly available, it can burn fuel very easily, much as a drunken sailor might spend his money. Changing or reducing the amount of fuel provided affects the way the body burns the fuel, which is a major factor in any weight loss formula.
The two major circumstances that influence how fuel is burned relate to food supply and the amount of exercise. When the body assumes that food is in short supply due to skipping meals, the body burns fuel sparingly and weight is not lost – at least not at the rate we may be hoping for! When we exercise vigorously over an extended period of time, the body may also burn fuel sparingly or in a more highly tuned fashion of burning.
In either of these circumstances, it may be difficult to achieve our weight loss goals and lose excess body fat. Therefore, any time we are trying to lose weight, we should not skip meals or exercise to extremes.
The amount and quality of sleep we are able to obtain is another consideration when trying to lose weight. When you sleep less than five hours a night, your cortisol levels will not allow you to burn fat for fuel. Instead, you will burn muscle instead of fat because you are in the “fight or flight” adrenal mode.
Yet another barrier to losing weight in today’s world stems from the body’s inherent wisdom to protect us and our organs. To understand how to work with this kind of protection, we need an understanding of why we have fat on the body in the first place.
The first role of fat is the storage of energy. There is 2.25 times more energy stored per unit in fat than in a carbohydrate or a protein. Healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, and fats from healthy meats and vegetables are good for your body. On the other hand, trans-fats are not good for your body, no matter what their source. Trans-fats are both unusable and unhealthy even if they are derived from good oils that were overheated to their smoke point.
The second major purpose of fat on the body is to store toxins and protect us from their damaging effects to our organs and other structures. A third purpose of fat is that it serves as an insulator that protects us from heat, cold, and shorting-out nerves in our brain and other parts of our nervous system. A fourth and very important purpose of fat is that it helps us look shapely and attractive to one another.
To successfully eliminate excess body fats, you will first have to detoxify these fats. The body will not burn toxic fat because this would release poisons into your system. To eliminate toxins from fat, we have found through experience that the most effective program to do this safely is the Standard Process Cleanse program.
This program utilizes special supplements and fibers to absorb the toxic elements that are released from the fats. This is extremely important. Other programs that do not incorporate the proper ingredients and protocol to detoxify the body safely and effectively may actually harm the body. This is a very unfortunate situation for anyone, especially when the goal of detoxification is to improve one’s health.
To date, we have seen our patients lose many hundreds of pounds utilizing this program. In fact, we have one patient who has already lost over 400 pounds! Another patient reached her weight loss goals when utilizing the Standard Process Cleanse program after having trained for months for a marathon and not losing any weight. There are many variables in utilizing any health care program so there are no guarantees of the same results for everyone, but this has been highly successful for many people.
Starting Jan. 8, we are sponsoring several workshops to explain our weight loss systems. We will also introduce our new Five-Minute Free Weight Workout. Five minutes may give you up to five hours of burn time – what a deal that is!
We hope that this information along with attending our in-office workshops will help you achieve great success in all of your New Year resolutions. When you learn to work with the wisdom of the body, success is sure to follow. And besides, Michelangelo would be proud of you!
Dr. William H. Karl, D.C. is a Brimhall Certified Wellness Doctor with over 30 years experience helping people experience optimal health! Join him Wed., Jan. 8, at 7pm for a FREE workshop, “Why You Can’t Lose Weight!” Join Dr. Jacob H. Karl, D.C., Jan. 21, for “Pressure Point Therapy/Stress Reduction” at 7pm & “Essential Daily Exercises” at 8pm. All are FREE but you must register! Limited seating. Call: 734-425-8220. Visit www.karlwellnesscenter.com
