Cardiovascular Disease, or Heart Disease, is the number one cause of death not just in the US, but in the world.

And, despite spending more on medical treatment for this, per person, than any other country, the US has one of highest rates in the world, higher than most so-called developing countries that don’t have the same money to spend on medical treatment for it.

As of 2019, approximately 7,617 in 100,000 Americans had heart disease. And many more are on the path to it, with this number growing every year.

Compare that to the early 1900s when there was very little heart disease.

(This is actually a created problem, and we’ll get to that.)

But the saddest thing is that while it is, in most cases, preventable (even when we’ve already started on the path to it), the solutions provided only allow us to “manage it” or slow it to a degree. Not reverse or prevent it.

And they don’t even do that very well.

If we want to lower our risk of heart disease, then we need to know the exact factors that do cause it so we can prevent them.

And it starts inside our blood vessels, at a very thin mucous lining that runs all along the inside walls of these blood vessels, protecting them from harm.

In the last article in the Heart Health Series we covered how consuming cholesterol is not actually the cause of heart disease.

And how lowering cholesterol levels with drugs, to lower high blood pressure, actually increases the risk of heart disease among those 60 and above.

But while the idea that cholesterol intake causes heart disease may be a myth, heart disease itself is quite real.

In this article we’ll dive more into this, covering what high blood pressure is, why and how it occurs, and what’s actually behind it.

If you’re over 40 years old, you’ve probably noticed that weight loss can become harder.

When we’re younger, in our teens, 20’s and 30’s, we can often (not always) get away with a lot. We can eat more carbs without gaining weight, and keep up our energy and strength levels high.

But after 40, things change. And this is a factor related to changes in our hormones as we age.

If you’ve ever had a shock and felt the adrenaline surge in your body, then you’ve felt cortisol. It’s a wake-you-up, get-you-ready-for-action hormone.

It hits its lowest point around midnight, so you can go to sleep, and then peaks again about an hour after you’ve gotten up in the morning, getting you to wake up and get ready for the day.

It’s nick-named the “stress hormone” because it’s released in moments of stress. So in a dangerous situation, or if you get scared suddenly, you’ll feel it.

But… when we have too-high levels of cortisol for too long, it can make us feel stressed… even if we have no reason to be.

It’s these too-high levels that are bad. They can make us depressed, anxious, or angry for no reason, make us want to eat more (especially sugary foods), cause us to lose muscle, and throw off our other hormones.

And it makes Fat Loss nearly impossible.

Let’s see how this works.

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.