While insulin is in the bloodstream, almost no fat burning can take place.

But something can happen here when our diet is quite high in sugar over a long period of time, keeping our Insulin levels high for longer each day.

The cells build up a resistance to the Insulin. Meaning, when Insulin comes knocking, trying to give the sugar to the cell so it can make energy, the cell says “no” and closes its doors.

In this article we dive into how body fat is created in our body, and how we get rid of it, so you understand what we're doing on this protocol and why.

About 90% of what most of us consider to be body fat is actually made by and from sugar.

But probably not how you think.

And it has a lot more to do with how it affects your hormones (messenger chemicals that tell your body how to use the food you put into it).

Because it’s your hormones that will determine what will ultimately happen with this sugar and whether or not it will be used to make new body fat.

First, let’s break down what actually happens when we consume carbs and what hormones come into play here.

The first and hardest part of any diet is overcoming the cravings we have for sugar and junk food when we lower our calories.

We have to come off these foods if we want to lose weight, but that doesn't mean it's a lot of fun.

But that's fine. The Fat Loss Protocol is designed to get us through these cravings as quickly and painlessly as possible. But only if we follow it exactly.

Remember, if we have excess body fat to lose, then our body doesn't actually need extra food. It says it does… but it's lying.

Every pound of fat on our body contains about 3,500 calories — more than a 250 pound man needs for energy on an average day.

So, along with the natural foods we will be eating, plus PerfectAmino, our body has more than enough food to live on. Much more. It's just stored as body fat (AKA "old food").

If we want to lose this "old food," then we need to force our body to eat it instead of new food. That's the real trick. Because it doesn't want to eat it. It wants to keep it.

So let's see what we need to do to get the best results on this program.

The hardest part of any diet, whether for fat loss, muscle gain or health, is getting over our cravings for sugar and junk food.

There's no question there.

The only real question is how? It can be so hard!

I understand. And in case you feel alone in this struggle — you're not.

It's the hardest part of any diet or lifestyle change, and where most people fall off.

But to know how to fix this we need to know exactly what's causing it.

And one thing I can tell you is not causing it... is you having a "weak will."

That's not it at all.

There are very exact things causing these cravings, and they can turn them on hard.

In today's article I cover exactly what is causing them (all the reasons), why they can be so hard to get over, and exactly how to address them to make the transition as smooth as possible (which is exactly what the Fat Loss Protocol is designed to do).

I think you'll like it.

Welcome to the Guide to Sustainable Fat Loss & 30-Day Challenge!

If you’ve ever had trouble losing excess body fat, or keeping it off afterwards, this guide and challenge are for you.

This isn’t some quick fix to help you lose body fat fast only to gain it all back again, or some miracle product that helps you lose body fat but also harms you in some other way.

No, this is a very exact protocol that addresses the reasons you gained the excess body fat in the first place, why it’s so hard to lose it, and why it’s so easy to gain it back again once you have lost it.

It also addresses physical form, building up the muscle that helps to shape our body.

Even more, once you’ve lost the excess body fat on this challenge, you will be in a position to easily keep it off, because you will know exactly what caused it in the first place.

You've probably heard of calorie counting. It's something you're told you must do on any diet to lose body fat. 

And this is true.

But there's much more to it than that.

Because if you only did calorie restriction, and addressed nothing else, you'd most likely fail at the diet, or, if you made it through, you'd almost certainly gain it all right back again. 

So, while we'll start this article with calorie counting, make sure you read all the way through, because it's just the tip of the iceberg. 

Let's begin.

If we want a fit, lean, healthy body that lasts into our later years, then we need to not only put in the work and eat right, but we need to be able to spot any pitfalls in our path and handle them before they become a problem.

I'm talking about illness, physical issues, organ troubles, cardiovascular issues, etc.

Many things can exist and are quite visible or easy to spot. But only because they've become big enough to spot. However, there was a point before they became big enough to be visible when they were harder to spot... but much easier to address.

Health troubles can exist without us knowing, leading to troubles we can see later on, if only because they've gotten worse.

They can even impact our ability to build muscle, recover, or lose body fat, without us ever knowing they were there, existing.

But if these things are still too small to see right now, then how do we know? And how can we catch them before they become a problem?

That’s where Heart Rate Variability comes in.

Heart Rate Variability, or HRV, is a literal measuring stick of our current health and how well our body is able to adapt and recover. And it’s something we can use to monitor ourselves.

Whether we're into extreme sports and maximum physical performance, or trying to achieve optimal health for a long life, learning what HRV is, and how to use it, puts our health and performance in our hands.

This helps us spot trouble when it’s still a ways away, so we can handle it before it gets out of hand.

There is something that will directly improve our ability to recover, our performance, our overall energy levels and metabolism, and which is key to overall health more than almost anything else (though we'd never think it was).

This is something that very specifically controls or improves or decreases our body's overall ability to repair itself, recover, and function correctly.

It directly affects our longevity, our ability to gain lean muscle, our cardiovascular health, our ability to keep weight off more easily, our energy levels and mood, and which allows us to keep improving over time.

And it's also something that directly affects and increases or decreases our overall health.

It's called VO2 Max. V is for Volume, O2 is for Oxygen, and Max is for Maximum.

VO2 Max is literally the maximum amount of oxygen our cells can use to produce energy at any given time. It's how much horsepower our body has.

A person who is unwell in one way or another has a low ability to produce energy. A well person has good energy ability. And an athlete has high energy production capability.

Conversely, a person who has a low ability to produce energy will become unwell over time, and a person with high energy production will remain well, barring emergency situations.

From a performance view, VO2 max is literally the maximum amount (volume) of oxygen that your cells can utilize to produce energy during intense exercise before you burn out.

Our cells only have so many energy-making "engines" (mitochondria). So even if we increase oxygen to the cells, if there are not enough mitochondria to use that oxygen, we don't increase energy.

If we can increase the number of these engines, our body's horsepower, then we increase our VO2 Max, and how much energy we can produce.

Raising this allows us to raise overall performance, energy, endurance, recovery ability, and overall health. And leads to greater longevity.

Let's dive in.

This is the first issue in a series on Extreme Athletes, those who push themselves to the max to achieve their goals and, possibly, greatness.

But, while the information in this series applies very strictly to extreme athletes, it applies just as much to anyone else trying to achieve peak performance for themselves in fitness and athletics, while staying healthy overall.

Also, while we will cover points individual to specific sports, most of the information is applicable to all sports and performance, energy, and recovery as a whole.

In this first article we’ll start with one of the key, over-riding aspects to maximize not only the ability and performance of an elite athlete, but of anyone.

Because, when you put your body through as much stress and pressure as an athlete does, every one of your organs, muscles, nerves, bones, hormones, etc., all play a part.

And, while any weak links will bring down the rest, improving any weak spots in health will help increase the energy production and performance of the overall.

In this article we cover how PerfectAmino has a near zero caloric impact on our body, and this is important.

When we work out and take 20 or 30 grams of whey or pea protein, or collagen powder, we think our bodies are getting 20-30 grams of protein or collagen.

But that's not true.

This is because protein and collagen aren't used by our bodies in the forms they arrive in.

Instead, they're broken down into their building blocks — the amino acids.

Amino acids are what our body actually needs, and are the only things of value in protein from our body's point of view.

But the ratio of amino acids present in different proteins determines how much actual useable protein we get from them and how much calories.

And this has a larger impact on our fitness goals than most people think.

How does PerfectAmino actually work? And what is it really doing in our bodies?

PerfectAmino is the perfect protein source. But there is a point there. It’s the perfect protein source. It isn’t protein in itself, but amino acids, the building blocks of protein.

When these amino acids are bonded together into chains, that’s when it becomes a protein.

That’s what any protein molecule you eat is — hundreds or thousands of different amino acids all bonded together into a long chain.

But PerfectAmino is different than other protein sources you’ve had. Very different.

There is a lot of debate today about how much protein is too much.

And this includes what causes protein toxicity, something that overloads our kidneys and liver, affecting our overall health, and which can be more severe with those who already have issues with their kidneys, liver and insulin levels.

It’s basically consuming more protein than our body can use at the time.

But that’s a very general description, and doesn’t help us to determine how much is too much, or even tell us how this happens.

Saying: “You’re eating too much protein,” is both too general, but also incorrect.

Too much of which type of protein? Because different proteins, consumed in large amounts, cause different effects.

To understand protein toxicity, what causes it, and ensure we aren’t consuming too much protein, we need to take a step backwards.

Because with anything that doesn’t seem to have a direct answer, there is some missing piece of information.

And in this case it’s a big one: there is no such thing as protein toxicity.

You see, our body doesn’t use the protein we eat.

It uses the building blocks that make up the protein, the amino acids.

And unless we look at these, we don’t actually know what protein toxicity is or what causes it, and we don’t know how much protein is too much.

Because what we’re talking about when we say Protein Toxicity is actually Amino Acid Toxicity.

It doesn’t come from eating too much protein, it comes from eating too much of the wrong kinds of proteins that contain too many of the wrong amino acids.

And that can cause real issues.

Let’s dive in.