Are You TOO Unhealthy to Lose Fat?

In short, the answer is “yes” for the majority of people that walk in these doors.

The body has a process, or an order of priorities when it comes to FAT loss; not weight loss, those are two different things.

The majority of people that set out to lose weight will gently start with the combination of eating less food and going to the gym a few times a week, they will see that this helps with a few pounds but it doesn’t get them the look that they are after.

It’s when they hit this point that they tend to come see us, explaining that they are living a much healthier lifestyle, eating less and working out more, but the body is not wanting to get rid of the body fat

At this point, I will typically do a little bit more digging to find out what is their definition of “healthy” and how long they have been doing this. These two questions can generally let me to have a good idea of where we need to start and maybe what is causing them to hold the weight.

When I dig into their history, one of the number one things that I’m looking for is DIET history; in my opinion, this is one of the most important and most underused indicators on the ability the person has for fat loss.Build-up of Toxins

If the person has been eating unhealthy for a long period of time (processed food, trans fats, sugars, etc.), not only will you notice weight gain, but generally you will also see this person has an inflamed puffy look to them. Generally, this is a cause of a buildup of toxins which lead to inflammation in the body.

After a period of time, you can build up so much toxins in the body that the body is no longer concerned with getting rid of body fat, but combating the side effects of the toxicity.

Besides unwanted fat, side-effects of inflammation and toxicity can range from:

• Bloating
• Gas
• Constipation or Diarrhea (which is worse, I don’t know)
• Canker Sores
• Difficulty Concentrating
• Excess Weight
• Difficulty Losing Weight
• Fatigue
• Fluid Retention
• Food Cravings
• Headaches
• Heartburn
• Joint Pain
• Muscle Aches
• Sinus Congestion
• Skin Rashes
• Sleep Problems

Think about this for a second, so at this point in time your body is so sick that it’s actually more beneficial for it to leave body fat on you than it is to take it off… that’s just f-ed up.

Because people have lived that way for so long, they don’t know there is another way to feel; they don’t know it’s NOT okay to feel pregnant after eating food, they don’t know that skin rashes are not common, they don’t know what it’s like to live without joint pain and bowl issues. (ewwww)

So then they decide to lose weight, and as stated above, they would gently start with diet and exercise, but what they notice is that their body is not dropping body fat and the reason is that the body is now focused on getting rid of the toxins that have been built up over the course of time first and depending on how long a person has been  eating “unhealthy” can determine how long it will take for the body to essentially cleanse itself out.

When they reach this point, where they are not losing weight and feel like crap, that they make one of two choices. Number one is that they will just say fuck it and go back to eating the way they used to, or number two they will jump on a detox.

The Detox

Detoxing and cleanses have been around for a long time, this is really nothing new in the fitness industry. Although, it is becoming more popular by a number of supplement companies that promote “cleanses” and detoxifications.

The general process of the detox is to essentially get rid of the toxins that are making you feel sick by abstaining from certain types of foods or consuming a “cleanser” that flushes all the toxins out the body.

Some of these are legit, and others are complete crap.

I have read and heard of some crazy detoxes, especially as of the last several years, that have the person doing some of the nuttiest things. I’ve read of people having to consume a combination of hot water lemon and jalapeño juice (not even kidding), people having to buy copious amounts of supplements, special cleansers that they can’t make themselves, or just completely abstain from food in general.

Obviously, some of those examples are pretty asinine detoxes, but there are some very good ones out there.

The FR Detox

For the past five months I have been training for a powerlifting meet. This is a completely different training style from body-recomping. This requires me to put on some weight (not all muscle, but not all fat either) and thus to do that my diet did change.

I won’t lie, even being a trainer, I was eating foods that probably fell into some of the above categories, some processed and high in sugar; somedays my calories are in the excess of 4000 cal a day. Though I admit, a good bulk of it was healthy eating but THAT many calories of clean healthy food is challenging for me so I know I have accumulated my fair share of toxins.

After my powerlifting meet, I’m going to need to diet myself back down, getting ready for another photo shoot; doing this process once before I understand beneficial benefits of pressing the reset button on my body.

With the help of Janell Monson, a diagnostic nutritionist, a detox was developed with three things that were a priority.

1. NO supplements

Too many detoxes that I’ve seen require the person to buy a significant amount of pills shakes and powders, that was something that we want to make sure was not a requirement…. seriously, don’t you think those foods have toxins in them as well for the preservatives (made you think didn’t I).

2. Health-focused 

Even though we’re dedicated a bit more towards body-recomping here at our place, you don’t realize that you have to be healthy first before you can get very lean.

With that said, we wanted to make sure that you not only press the reset button to allow fat loss to become easier but also see if any ailments that you may have are nutrition related. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve personally seen people have some of these crazy diseases all of a sudden go away when they started eating better.

No-brainer right?

3. What to do afterwards

This one always blows my mind whenever I read about a cleanse or detox that it does not tell you what to do after it’s over. That was especially important to her to make sure that after you’re done that you still continue to know how to lead a healthy lifestyle. We did not want this to be just a one-time fix, we wanted it to be something that is easily transferable to your everyday life

This is something I’m doing…

Knowing that it is about time for me to start getting leaner again, and get ready for a photo shoot, you can very well bet I’m going to be doing this detox right here. Not only am I looking forward to feeling better, but looking forward to just pressing a reset button on my body and making getting leaner the priority.

From my personal experience and anecdotal evidence from clients I’ve worked with, we see that whenever you take a person and initially put them through detox (the timeframes can vary) you see the fat loss process is a lot easier on them and it seems to happen a bit faster.

We will be hosting a 21 Day Rowlett Transformation Center Detox this coming April 26, 2014 at 10 AM. If this is something you want to do please CLICK HERE.  If you’re reading this after the date but still have questions, feel free to send me a personal email (Travis@Rowletttransformationcenter.com), I’ll be more than happy to answer anything that is on your mind.

In Health and Awesomeness,