Weight Loss Research Explained

In last weeks podcast I interviewed a weight loss researcher who is beginning to study body fat regulation. We discussed some of the theories that he and his colleagues would be trying to explore during their research.

This brought up many issues about the way weight loss research is done and if weight loss research itself can be of any real value to free living people.

Some of you seemed to find last weeks podcast a contradiction to what you’re used to hearing from me.

Although I didn’t agree with much of what Stephan had to say I wanted to give him a fair chance to explain his theories. After all I approached him for an interview, it wouldn’t be fair if I just fought with him on each point I disagreed with (and there were many).

This weeks podcast is an explanation of my views on how the process of studying weight loss is itself the confounding variable that renders most of the research virtually useless.

I will also discuss research bias and why you must take these kinds of research claims and theories with a grain of salt.

Finally the true weight loss experiment is you and the rest of us who are doing it for real on our own without being in an artificial research setting. In essence we are the only true weight loss research study worth paying attention to.

John

Body Fat Regulation, Can We Change it?

The regulation of body fat stores is a complex interplay of many hormones, chemical messengers and systems with your body. It’s also big business for the food and supplement industry. It is also a growing area of research as we try to get a better understanding of what exactly is going on.

In this podcast I interview Stephan Guyenet, his area of research is body fat regulation.

We discuss the possible mechanism for body fat regulation and why we are seeing the overweight and obesity issues that are becoming prevalent in todays society.

John

What Makes a Good Coach

You most likely have multiple ‘coaches’ in your life that you refer to for diet/fitness advice, lifestyle advice, financial advice, career advice, academic advice and relationship advice.

In some cases these could be friends and family who you trust, and in other cases they could be professionals that you follow/hire either online or in person.

In the new digital world there are many people promoting themselves as coaches who may not be the right person for you to listen to. But how do you know the real coaches from the pretenders?

In this podcast we discuss what makes up a good coach and how to tell if you’re getting legitimate direction and coaching or if you’re just being sold a story that does little more than separate you from your money while delivering limited results.

John

Your Definition of Healthy

The word “health” doesn’t mean anything until you give it a definition. Your definition has to suit you and fit into your lifestyle.

The diet, fitness and food industry try to sell their wares using ‘health’ as a claim. And if you don’t have your working definition in place you could end up wasting a lot of time money and effort working towards someone else’s definition of ‘health’.

Your workout and eating habits will only make sense once you’ve developed your own working definition of health.

In this podcast we come up with a workable definition of health that seems to simplify the whole process of exercise and diet that also incorporates genetic fitness and physical attraction and the AI and VI ratios.

John

Attention – Your Most Valuable Asset

The most important commodity in the new market isn’t information, it’s ATTENTION.

Governments, private organizations, companies, friends, family and everyone in between are all vying for your attention.

Your attention is the single most valuable thing you have and everybody wants it.

Companies with a product to sell will pay millions of dollars to get just a few seconds of your attention during a television commercial, or a magazine ad etc…

Politicians spend millions of dollars and travel the country coast to coast in order to get your attention to get your votes.

Children throw fits and cry for attention.

Friends and family will also compete for your attention.

It’s your most scare resource and the one of the most value to other people. Where you direct it will determine where your life goes.

In this podcast we’ll discuss how the new economy is the race to get and hold your attention and how you must control where you put your attention in order to line it up with your goals.

John

The Experiment of YOU

Working out and dieting might be two of the only true experiments anyone will ever be involved in. This is interesting because you are both the experimenter and the subject.

Most bodybuilders and fitness competitors have embraced the concept that their body is their ongoing experiment. They try new programs, chart their progress and make changes along the way. This isn’t much different from how a real clinical trial would be performed.

The only difference is that a real clinical trial ends within a few weeks or months. But your experiment with your body will last a lifetime so it’s in your best interest to become a good scientist with your own body.

In this podcast we’ll discuss the concept of you being your own experiment of one.

We’ll talk about the difference between a prospective vs retrospective research and why you should do more of the former.

We’ll also discuss the concept of jumping in and getting your experiment going.

In the spirit of this podcast I just did a mini experiment over the past 5 days and here are a few pics I took at the end of it. You can do whatever you want with your experiment. Just give something a try, track your progress, evaluate it, make adjustments and then get back to work.

Meside

JBrelaxed1

JBbackbw

John

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