Over the past couple of days I have read countless blogs of fellow members struggling with what’s going on with their bodies. I first want to address the idea of NS being a diet. Second, I will describe the basic physiology of the body. Third, I’ll explain the relationship between fat and muscle. Lastly, I will put all facets together and put my spin on how to loose weight.

With so many of us trying to better our lives, we’ve turned to NS to help us. For whatever reason(s) you have, some are medical, personal, but most of have at least one emotional reason for doing or at least, try NS. We’ve all done some form of a diet or even gone as far as taking a pill or undergoing surgery. NS is a prepackaged program. The keyword is PROGRAM, not diet. In the minds of most, a diet is a quick fix effort to loose unwanted fat in a short period of time. Many of us get caught up in this mindset after a week or two of reading of other members loosing lots of weight in a short period of time, why don’t I lose weight that fast. In those first 10-15 days of being on NS, you flood your system with water and the body’s response to the excess water is to release any water the body is retaining. Remember, I gallon of water is over 8 pounds. If your body releases a half gallon of retained water, you just lost 4 pounds! By keeping a steady supply of water in your system (64oz’s per day), the body has been trained NOT to retain excess water.

There are a couple of things people lose site of after the initial “glow” of the program fades and you come down from the high of something new and exciting. The biggest change most people struggle with is frequency. NS prescribes 5 meals per day. Some meals are bigger than others, but most of the meals hover around 250 cals per serving. The reason for the frequency is simple. The body requires a steady stream of well balanced calories from food stuffs to maintain level blood sugar levels, energy levels and to keep your metabolism running high. Think about how many times a day newborn eats. Many times. Drinking all that water can be a daunting task for some of us, but it’s critical in the metabolism of body fat. The water fills the pathways for macronutrients to flow through and allows the body to uptake the slurry of macronutrients and water. An increased ingestion frequency stimulates the body out of the starvation made and you physically ask your body to start making changes to improve lean body mass, level blood glucose levels and to use fatty acids (fat stores in the body) to be used for fuel. By eating 1-3 times per day the body is summoned to a starvation mode. When in a starvation mode, the body will only use the minimal amount of calories to perform daily functions and store the rest as fat. You can create new fat cell in the body, but you can never decrease the amount of fat storage cells, you can only decrease the size of the cells.

This process takes some time to initially start, but once it does, the plan gets easier to follow. NS will help you lose weight, but there are other factors and lessons most people tend to overlook. The first is preparation and having foresight. So many of us only see the here and now with little thought going into the process of the end goal. Once you get past the first couple of weeks, weight loss tapers off of you feel jilted. The body had responded to what you asked of it, made the necessary changes to the stimulus and has modified itself to conform to the new “program.” Preparation for the mental and emotional letdown when this occurs will help you cope with the plateaus and struggles we all face. You will plateau, gain a pound or two and get frustrated. Where the successful continue to succeed is how they handle the stress of learning the new behavior NS shows us. When we get stressed we whine, complain, eat, get pissy, road rage or do something out of character to help fight the stress. Preparation and an understanding of what’s happening can help ease the stress and aggravation of the learning a new lifestyle. Think about that, Lifestyle change. If you had a friend that was going to have an operation and their doctor told them they had to make some changes or they were going to die, don’t you think they would struggle with some of those changes they were asked to make from living that way they’re whole life?

The body uses a blend of three different types of fuels every second of everyday, fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Fat is essential to hormone regulation, fuel for activities and a host of countless metabolic functions. The type of fat is more important that the quantity of fat ingested. In order to for the body to release fat and convert it into fatty acids for the body to use, it must be getting the signal form you to use the fat stores in the body. You send the signal to your body by not eliminating it from your diet. Lower fat diets are good, but many eliminate too much and cause the shift of fat and cards ratio more to the carb side. By creating a shortage of fat in your diet, the body starts to retain more fat in the cells and will breakdown lean muscle tissue for fuel. Fat has the highest caloric output of about 9 calories per gram. That’s over twice the amount per gram of carbs of protein at about 4 cals per gram. In order to convert fat to useable energy, the body needs water to make this metabolic process happen smoothly. If the “river” is dry, the body has a hard time converting fat into fatty acids for the body to use. In order for the body to use fat as fuel, it also requires the presence of oxygen. This is where the term aerobic comes from (with oxygen). To stimulate the body to use body fat for fuel, three factors must be in place. A- you must be hydrated, B- your body must be properly fed, and C- the intensity level of the workout should be between 60-74% of your heart rate max (max = 220-age). There are more precise calculations to figure your max, but this a good starting point. Even if all three factors are in place, you still burn a ratio of blended fuels to perform the activity. The blend consists of fat and carbs (glycogen in the body). The ratio varies from person to person. For most activities you burn the fat/carb blend, unless you’re in a starvation mode. When in a starvation mode, your body switches to protein (amino acids), which is a “dirty fuel” for the body to use. While starving, the body blocks the release of fat and breaks down lean muscle for the activity, which in turn defeats the purpose of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Protein can be used for the bodies energy need in a pinch, but the main role of protein is to be used for repairs and growth of all cells in your body. The body will break down proteins into their amino acid peptides then recombine the AA to form the necessary protein for the particular type of repair.

The carbs are used for energy and short term energy storage. The carbs help promote energy for short bursts of high intensity workouts or activities. This is call anaerobic (without oxygen). Weight lifting and high intensity running are good examples of this. Carbs are the body’s bread and butter for energy needs. It prefers to run on carbs and carbs are stored in the body as glycogen. The bigger the glycogen storage tanks are the more “clean” energy the body can store for rapid on demand use. By the glycogen tanks being increased in size, the body’s ability to metabolize fat improves as well.

To increase the size of the glycogen tanks, you need to send the message to body. The way you do this is by lifting weights. By lifting weights or putting some stress on the body, the body responds by increasing the amount of glycogen to be stored, increasing the size of the muscle fibers and improving bone density. There are even more benefits than what I’ve described, but those are the big three.

A pound of muscle and a body of fat weigh the same. The volume is where they differ. A pound of fat takes up twice the space than a pound of muscle. The fat is nothing more than the stored form of energy. Fat has a very low density, where as muscle has a much higher density, can be used for fuel, perform metabolic activities that require calorie expenditure, looks good and provides countless benefits to our daily lives.

NS provides us with a template of how to eat via the food it sends on a monthly basis. Combined healthy food choices, exercise and the knowledge of how to put it all together helps people succeed. It behooves you to educate yourself on how your particular body responds to all three elements to be successful at weight loss. To break it down as simple as simple could be, NS color coats their packaging, gives you meal plan, a DVD on working out, a online community for support and counselors to help answer questions and debunk any myths about losing weight.

Remember that this journey will test you on all fronts. Mental, emotional and physical tests can only be passed by you. I wish I could be there for all of your to answer any questions and workout with you, but I can’t. This is the part of the program where you have to ask questions and try things you may have never done before. Sometimes when things get hard we want to quit. Quitting will only delay your results and put your mindset back to where it once was, miserable.

It’s not easy, but if it was it wouldn’t be worth doing in the first place.

Roc