by Dr David Minkoff February 04, 2024 6 min read
Now we’re into Week Four of the 30-Day Fat Loss Challenge and we need to pull back for a moment and see where we're at.
For some, if there was significant insulin resistance to overcome, we may still be getting over the last of our cravings.
For others, we’re past that, but our hormones are still re-balancing.
In either of these cases we’re losing body fat the whole way, but we have more to go and we should continue.
But depending on how much body fat we had to lose at the start of this, some of us may have already achieved our goals... or at least, fat loss has slowed and hunger has returned.
And we need to know what to do when we hit this point, whether now, or a few weeks from now.
Because carrying on with the same macros after this point will cause us trouble.
by Dr David Minkoff February 01, 2024 6 min read
We covered cortisol, a hormone which, among other things, acts to break down our muscle, breaking down the proteins in it into amino acids, which are then converted to energy sources such as sugar.
At the same time, it holds onto body fat and acts to raise body fat levels, while also preventing protein synthesis for new muscle growth.
As the more muscle we have, the more fat burning takes place, anything which would prevent muscle creation hinders fat loss.
Even more, cortisol acts to lower key muscle building and fat loss hormones: testosterone (in men and women), Growth Hormone, and IGF.
And that can stop fat loss cold.
So let’s cover what those are and how to maximize their production and use within the body for best results.
by Dr David Minkoff January 30, 2024 8 min read
In both women and men, estrogen exists and is necessary.
But when estrogen levels rise too high, it can unbalance other hormones and start a downward spiral that can be hard to get out of.
This causes excess body fat to be created, which can be hard to remove, and lowers key muscle-building hormones as well — testosterone and growth hormone.
And it lowers thyroid, which regulates our metabolism.
Our metabolism has to do with how much or how fast energy sources such as fat and sugar are used as fuel for our body vs being stored as body fat, and how much energy we have.
Excess estrogen also lowers levels of progesterone in women and men, which is a calming, fat-burning, testosterone-building hormone.
All of this leads to excess body fat that is harder to get rid of, decreased muscle mass, something called Gynecomastia, an enlargement of breast tissue in men and boys, worsened mood, higher stress levels, slower recoveries, and lower energy.
So let’s see what’s actually happening here, what causes this, and what we can do to reverse it.
by Dr David Minkoff January 29, 2024 4 min read
We know our bodies do most of their repair while we sleep. But did you know they do most of their fat-burning while we sleep as well?
That’s right. And if our sleep is interrupted often, it can lead to not only less fat-burning taking place, but more fat-creation.
During the first few hours of sleep our bodies release something called human growth hormone, and it’s responsible for a host of things including cellular repair, muscle growth, and healing.
It’s your repair/anti-aging hormone. It spurs muscle growth when you’ve done a workout, instructs healing for an injury, and ensures your bones and ligaments stay strong.
And when growth hormone is released, another hormone is released with it: IGF.
IGF stands for Insulin-Like Growth Factor. This is a hormone that works with growth hormone and helps to manage it, but is also very important for Fat Loss.
You could almost call it the anti-fat hormone.
by Dr David Minkoff January 25, 2024 5 min read
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.
by Dr David Minkoff January 23, 2024 7 min read
The ability to fully digest and absorb protein determines our body's ability to not only burn fat, but to keep it off afterwards.
It also affects our energy levels, hormones, inflammatory response, ability to build lean muscle, and overall health.
Even more, when protein digestion goes, along with it goes the ability to protect ourselves from harmful microorganisms.
Everything hinges on protein digestion.
So, understanding exactly how digestion works, and how to keep or get it working, is very important.
by Dr. David Minkoff January 21, 2024 10 min read
Welcome to Week Two of the 30-Day Fat Loss Challenge!
The hardest part of any diet, whether for weight 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's so hard!
I understand. And in case you feel alone in this struggle — you're not.
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."
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.
I think you'll like it.
by Dr. David Minkoff January 18, 2024 5 min read
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.
by Dr. David Minkoff January 16, 2024 6 min read
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.
by Dr. David Minkoff January 13, 2024 6 min read
Welcome to the 30-Day Fat Loss Challenge!
By now you should have done your shopping, know what you’ll be making for meals (mostly), stocked up on minimally your PerfectAmino, Omega 3 and Digestive Enzymes, and be ready to go!
In this launch article we cover a few key things to think with when starting: How to address cravings that will come up, some important reminders and information, what metrics to use to measure progress and generally how to run the challenge.
Make sure to read this article fully before getting started!
by Dr. David Minkoff January 08, 2024 5 min read
You may or may not have lifted weights before, but on this protocol you will be lifting 5 days per week.
This is key as it helps you build muscle that both tones your body, but also speeds fat-burning, cellular restructuring, and hormone rebalancing. And the more muscle you have by the end of this challenge, the easier it will be to keep excess body fat off.
As this protocol is very specific, there will only be weight lifting — no running or other forms of cardio. If you would like to take a walk, that’s fine. But adding in other forms of cardio will hamper your progress and may cause you trouble. And it’s only 30 days.
Your workouts will be very simple. So even if you know more that you could do, for this challenge just stick to the below. The protocol and amount of food you will be consuming was determined thinking with this level of activity, not more.
by Dr. David Minkoff January 08, 2024 8 min read
Now we’re going to dive into the exact foods, supplements and protocols you’ll be following during the challenge.
On this protocol we’ll only be consuming whole foods — no packaged, processed foods or processed sugars, not because of how many calories they have, but because of what they do to our hormones, making it harder to lose fat and keep it off.
There will be no protein bars, protein powders, or collagen powders. These will only get in our way on this protocol.
We need real foods and they need to be organic. We need real fruits, real vegetables and real meats — organic and grass-fed.
You will also be consuming more protein than you are used to and most likely will not be up to that at the very beginning. This is because the amounts of processed sugar and foods, and lack of enough protein that most people have had for decades, have lowered most people’s ability to fully digest proteins.
by Dr. David Minkoff
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