Building a Strong Lean Body If You’re Tired and Overweight

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Want to build a strong lean body but you’re tired and overweight?

Life changes take planning and persistence. The good news? Body composition may be 75% diet and only 25% exercise. Let’s eat heartily with fewer carbs.

Tired and Overweight – The Plan for a Strong Lean Body

1. Reduce Carb Calories
2. Fix Insulin Reisistance
3. Balance Estrogen Dominance
4. Improve fat-burning metabolism with correct exercise movements
5. Check Thyroid and Adrenal Hormones

Reduce Carbs to Lose Weight

A high-carb diet is the most common cause of weight gain. Reducing carbs is the fastest and most permanent way to build a leaner body.

Pasta, bread, rice, beans, juice, potatoes, dessert, candy, sodas, chips and cookies have more carbohydrate calories than we can use for today’s energy. We store those extra calories as fat. That’s how we survive during famine and crisis.

Human diets were historically low in carb calories

• Humans didn’t eat grains, sugars or high fructose corn syrup or sodas
• We were hunters and gatherers until early farming 13,000 years ago.
• As meat from hunting became more scarce, calories from starch became more common.
• Paleo/Primal diet advocates say humans were born to be “fat burners” but have become “sugar burners”.
• Eating excess short-term carb calories raises our weight, triglycerides and glucose.

Become a fat burner

Become a “fat burner” by eating vegetables, proteins and healthy fats, nuts, eggs, with only small portions of starchy foods.

Weight will improve as the body burns fat for fuel. As a clinician since 1985 I have seen this many times in Consults.

My DVD “The Diet For Human Beings” explains this.

Where does body fat come from?

This article and Primal Diet – Modern Health Podcast explains!

Fix Insulin Resistance 

• If you have eaten high carb for a long time and now have pre-diabetes, high triglycerides (over 125) and belly weight gain, you are Insulin Resistant. This is called Metabolic Syndrome.
• Doctors sometimes prescribe Metformin for this but seldom give all the other advice needed
• This article on Insulin-Resistant weight gain will help you!
• Base the diet on proteins, cooked vegetables and healthy fats (butter, ghee, coconut oil, avocado oil). Add small servings of potato or yam. Avoid grains and sugars! The protein and fats satisfy hunger and slow digestion without exotic GLP medication.

Balance Estrogen Dominance and Low Progesterone

If you’re tired and overweight, you probably have more Estrogen than Progesterone. 

Estrogen Dominance can begin in our 20’s or 30’s and last a lifetime. Low Progesterone affects fat metabolism, insulin and blood sugar, and therefore weight and energy.

Control excess estrogen

• Estrogen is a growth hormone and maintains fat tissue. (Think pregnancy!)  Cows are fed growth hormone for this reason. Eat grass-fed, pasture-raised meats and poultry.
• Buy organic body care products to reduce chemicals that cause estrogen disruption. The Environmental Working Group can help you.
• Eliminate pesticides from food and home. The worst food offenders are “The Dirty Dozen“. Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides inhibit proper estrogen detox/recycling.
• Avoid soy. It’s a potent endocrine disruptor.
• Take good antioxidant and liver support like these in my online store
• Run a Female Hormone Profile with a Salivary Hormone Test. I run this test with all my Clients. 
• Avoid birth control hormones and estrogen medications where possible. Bioidentical Progesterone is usually fine.

Increase Progesterone

There are many herbs that increase Progesterone levels naturally. Chaste Tree (Vitex) is one. Systemic Formulas FPMS can be used to build Progesterone and improve the balance of Estrogen to Progesterone once you bring Estrogen under control. DO NOT take FPMS if taking birth control pills or other hormone therapy.

The goal is having a strong burst of Progesterone during the second half of your menstrual cycle if you have one. If post-menopause, to keep Estrogen and Progesterone in a balanced ratio.

Salivary Hormone Tests

Saliva tests for FREE Estrogens and FREE Progesterone rather than Total or Bound Hormones found in blood testing. The vast majority of tests I have run show the need for Progesterone. 

Non-Prescription Progesterone

I use simple, non-prescription Bioidentical Progesterone. One type vaginal and one for the gums. Mucosal hormones are more fully absorbed than Progesterone pills or creams. 

Exercise to Burn Fat

1). Super Slow Training or Isometric Exercises work well if you’re new to exercise. Ben Greenfield describes these on our 2014 podcast and on his website. Or, enjoy my podcast with Mark Sisson on this topic. These are not hard workouts and will begin to get you in shape.

2). Increase metabolism with light aerobic motion before eating. Yoga, gentle calisthenics, walking the dog, and lifting light weights will get your blood flowing and the fat burning. You haven’t eaten yet, so the body burns fat to give you the energy. HINT: swing your arms fully when walking. 

3). When stronger, begin lifting weights, power-walking or Water-Robics for greater aerobic power.

4) HIIT is high-intensity interval training – short bursts of intense effort. Anaerobic builds muscle which burns fat. Warm up first! 

Check your Thyroid

• The Thyroid plays a key role in metabolism. Ask your doctor to run FREE T4 and FREE T3  and Hashimoto’s Antibody labs.
• This article has more.

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