The new year is here! And I am sure everyone has their new year’s resolutions.  The most common, eating better and losing weight.  With the holiday season (speaking for myself), there has been way too much sugar, treats, alcohol and just too much food in general.  

It has also been wonderful to spend quality time with family and loved ones, but too much wine, dessert and too little/no exercise (again, speaking for myself).  I am more than ready to eat better, exercise and stop wearing yoga pants all the time.We have a program to help you (and me) eat better, feel better, lose and maintain weight.  Specifically belly fat, because that is where we have all gained it. This program is called the Keto-Carb-Cycling Program (KCCP).

First off, caloric restriction is not going to work.  We have all reduced our calories, suffered from hunger, cravings and being a little moody. Unfortunately, you lose a small amount of weight, which is mainly water, and muscle.  Then binge and gain it all back. This program incorporates a keto diet, intermittent fasting with carbohydrate cycling.  The whole point is to increase and balance your metabolic hormones. While at the same time, keeping you satiated and not restricting calories long-term.

Individually, a Ketogenic Diet, Intermittent Fasting, and Carbohydrate Cycling are very popular and do help with weight loss. However, each has its pros and cons. After working with many patients over the last 14 years, we have found that by combining the three approaches together works best. It is more healthy to our systems and maintainable over time.  Finally, you can start losing weight and keep it off.   

What is a Ketogenic Diet?  

A keto-diet is reducing your total carbohydrate intake so that you go into ketosis.  Usually, our bodies run by glycolysis, which is the process of utilizing carbohydrates/glucose for fuel.  By reducing your carbohydrate intake below 30 grams daily, your body cannot run by glycolysis.  It must switch to burning ketone bodies for fuel, which is ketosis.  

When you are in ketosis, you are burning fat. So part of the KCCP is to put your body into fat-burning mode.  Although, it is not ideal to be in ketosis for an extended length of time.  Long-term ketosis is hard on the thyroid, can cause electrolytes/minerals deficiencies and drop neurohormones like serotonin. That is why we have combined intermittent fasting with carb-cycling to work together for weight loss, metabolism, and overall health.

What is Intermittent Fasting:  

Intermittent fasting (IF) is eating your meals in a 6 to an 8-hour window and fasting for 16 to 18 hours a day.  Commonly IF is eating meals between noon and 8 pm. A lot of people tell me they already do this eating style, but they can’t lose weight.  They skip breakfast and have lunch and dinner only.  Most of the time, this pattern turns into chronic caloric restriction, which is why we recommend adding in more carbs on a strategic basis.   

What is carb-cycling:  

Carbohydrate cycling is adding starchy carbohydrate to the diet.  The carb-cycling is done on a specific schedule and eaten only in the evening.  A starchy carb might be a sweet potato, beans or rice.  Having the carbohydrate at night will help keep neurohormones up such as serotonin and helps improve sleep quality.  It also fills up your glycogen stores in your muscle and liver.  Glycogen is stored glucose/sugar. By depleting the stored sugar by way of ketosis and then filling it up with carb-cycling helps balance metabolic hormones such as cortisol and insulin.  

But we have found that by combining a keto-diet, IF and carb-cycling helps:

• Increase metabolism
• Balances and manages cortisol and insulin
• Reduces sugar cravings
• Helps sleep
• Increases energy
• Helps brain fog
• Gets rid of belly fat
• Health benefits: reducing risk for heart disease, diabetes

But most importantly, you can do this lifestyle program for the rest of your life.  It is perfect for weight loss but also for maintaining the weight loss.

It does this in several ways.

• First by resetting the hypothalamus to a new set point.  The reason people cannot maintain their weight loss is that the hypothalamus is set at a higher weight than is healthy for them.  For example, I have several female patients that cannot maintain or get under 180 lbs.  Their ideal weight is 145 lbs, but they cannot budge the 180 lb mark.  That is because they are trying to eat less and exercise more.  Their set point is 180 lbs.  You can change the hypothalamus set point by incorporating the Keto Carb Cycling Program (KCCP).
• Balances and manages metabolic hormones such as thyroid, cortisol, and insulin.  If you want to lose weight your insulin and cortisol needs to be balanced.  Having higher levels of cortisol will cause more weight gain in the belly.
• The rotation pattern of the KCCP is conducive to real life.  You can go out with friends and actually eat.  You can cook or eat with the whole family.  I have many patients that make two separate meals every evening.  One for their diet and the other for their family.  There is normal food included and a reward meal. So you won’t look like the odd-person’ out at weddings or events.

If you are interested in downloading our Keto-Carb-Cycling-Program for free? Just go to our website: progressyourhealth.com and access our free Content Library.