If you are working on burning body fat and increasing your energy, there are three key things to keep in mind.

These things are so important and so many people are trying like crazy and cannot figure out why dieting does not work. Until you ‘get’ this, weight loss and fat burning will be hit or miss.
Many people have been brainwashed into believe that “calories are calories” all the while trying unsuccessfully to lose weight. Not that simple really….

The first of these principles is to eat food your body recognizes.

By that I mean, eat REAL food. Our bodies have evolved in a relatively short time and the foods we are putting in them are often unrecognizable. Packaged, refined processed foods with chemicals and preservatives in them are foreign substances to the body. Yes, foreign substances.

What happens when you eat something that is processed and unnatural is that the body doesn’t recognize or is confused by something artificial. Unable to metabolize it into usable nutrients, it breaks it down as well as it can, causing a blood sugar response, the resulting insulin surge and viola!

All the calories you have just ingested get stored as fat.

The easy solution? Eat REAL food that your body recognizes. Eat unrefined, natural foods with one ingredient. And for excitement, combine a couple of one ingredient foods for snacks. Like fruit and nuts. Cheese and nuts. Eggs and veggies. Avocado and turkey slices. Get it?

Principle number two: Losing weight is less about calories and is ALL about controlling your blood sugar and insulin response.

Blood sugar spikes cause insulin to be released in the body. Insulin causes the body to immediately start storing everything consumed as fat. That includes anything with any kind of sugar–fructose, glucose, sucrose, etc. That also includes grain products such as corn, wheat, soy, oats and more. And that INCLUDES whole grain products.

Starchy products like potatoes and gluten free foods also stimulate insulin as well.

And, while it sounds healthy, fruit juice is actually just a natural form of sugar water. This is a refined product that basically contains fructose–a sugar–and water. This stuff hits your system fast and your blood sugar spikes quickly. Insulin follows, your body stores calories ingested as fat, blood sugar drops, and you are hungry again. Not good.

Fruit on the other hand, while it too, is full of fructose and too much of a good thing can be fattening, has lots of fiber in it, so the sugar in fruit is absorbed more slowly. Better.

Best–eat fruit with nuts, nut butter, cheese, or other form of protein and/or healthy fat to help it get absorbed more slowly into the body. Result is more stable blood sugar and no fat storing.
So the main trick here is pretty simple: control your blood sugar by avoiding the starchy and the sweet and you stay in the ‘fat burning’ zone.

Principle number three: The nutritional value of your food makes all the difference.

In other words, if you had to choose between something with little nutrition and few calories or a superfood packed with nutrition, antioxidants, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, but high calorie–which would you choose?

The correct answer and the best fat burning, healthy answer is the higher calorie, nutrient dense food. If it’s real, your body recognizes it and packed with tons of nutrition–go for it. Your body will metabolize this food, use it to build health and energy in your body, and rev up your energy and fat burning as a result.

Controlling your blood sugar has significant health benefits other than JUST fat burning too:

-Controlling blood sugar and insulin response actually is extremely healthy for the heart and blood vessels, dropping your risk of heart attacks and stroke immensely.
-Controlling blood sugar and keeping it at an lower even level will drastically reduce your risk of cancer and will prevent any cancer (whether it has been detected or not) from growing.
-Controlling blood sugar is very effective as an anti-aging tool and will keep you looking younger and prevent wrinkles and sagging skin as well.
-Controlling blood sugar also keeps your energy high with no peaks and valleys. You stay alert and vibrant.
-Controlling blood sugar also keeps triglycerides low and helps prevent deposits in the blood vessels.

I will go into these important principles in depth in upcoming articles, and you can read more about these KEY principles in The Fat Burning Kitchen. Check it out.

And start burning fat to get healthy and lean!