November 2019

Four Reasons You Shouldn’t Cut Out Carbs

If you’re on a low-carb diet, you’ll try to keep your carbohydrate intake at around 100 grams per day. If you’re doing Keto, you’ll strive to keep your carbs down under 60 grams. But I recently read an article about a “new” diet that’s taking carb restriction even farther. It’s the zero carb diet. To follow it you’d have to keep your total grams of carbs for the day in the single digits! This gives me flashbacks to the days of fat free everything – and we all know how well that turned out. So, while I’ve already written about why I’m not a fan of Keto, low-carb or really any fad diet, hearing about the zero carb diet prompted me to revisit the issue.

Here are four research backed, medically-proven reasons why you should not restrict your carbohydrate intake.

1 – When you cut out carbs, you’re cutting out important nutrients too. To stick to a an ultra low-carb diet you’d have to cut out huge categories of foods like many vegetables and fruits. But these food sources contain dozens of vital nutrients, vitamins and minerals that you just cannot get from a supplement.

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Tips for a Healthier Thanksgiving Dinner

The Weekly Burn /

I feel like the Thanksgiving holiday has become synonymous with over-eating. If you think I’m wrong consider this. The average Thanksgiving dinner complete with all the fixings is about 3000 calories. So, if you’re average that means you’re consuming more calories at that ONE meal than you should in about a day and a half. In just one meal. And, that’s not even considering the follow up meals of leftovers that happen later that day and the next. But, I’m here to tell you that it does not have to be that way. Here are some tips to help you have a healthier Thanksgiving dinner.

Don’t starve yourself leading up to the big meal. While you might think this is a good strategy, it’s actually more likely to backfire on you. Going into a meal where there is an abundance of food when you’re ravenously hungry is never a good idea. Chances are you’ll go way overboard and eat more than you should. Instead, have a healthy breakfast (and lunch if necessary) as you normally would.

Go for the white meat. Although many prefer the taste of dark meat,

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Maintain Don’t Gain Holiday Challenge

The Weekly Burn /

Synergy PFT

MAINTAIN DON’T GAIN HOLIDAY CHALLENGE

12/2 – 12/31 – 30 Day Challenge

50 People NEEDED!!!

The holiday season is typically a time of over-indulgence during which many many people gain weight. Participating in the Maintain Don’t Gain Holiday Challenge is a way to make this year different. The goal of this challenge is to maintain your current weight or lose weight during this holiday season.

Here’s how it works:

Add $20 to the pot to get in to the challenge.
Your first weigh-in must take place during the week of 11/25 using the Synergy digital scale. This weight is to be recorded on your personal fitness profile sheet.
Final weigh-in must take place during the week of 12/30 using Synergy digital scale. This weight is also recorded on your personal fitness profile sheet. Optional weekly weigh-ins on Thursdays & Fridays 12/5 or 12/6, 12/12 or 12/13, 12/19 or 12/20, 12/26 or 12/27
Each participant adds their name to the spreadsheet on white board and uses this to track their daily points.

50% of the money collected will be awarded to the participant with the most points on day 15 and the other 50% will be awarded to the participant with the most points on day 30.

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The Best Way to Battle Holiday Stress

The Weekly Burn /

Have you ever heard the Christmas carol that calls the holiday season ” the most wonderful time of the year?” Although I love the holidays and the festivities that go along with them, the reality is there’s also a TON of stress around this season.

A survey from the American Psychological Association showed that 22% of Americans describe themselves as being under an “extreme level” of stress in general. The holidays can easily bring that to a whole other level. The other thing that can contribute to feelings of stress, anxiety and depression this time of year is the fact that winter days are shorter and we’re getting less exposure to sunlight.

There are lots of ways to cope with the stresses of the season, but the one health practitioners recommend most – besides avoiding your in-laws – is exercise. The reason is that in addition to improving your physical fitness, exercise has been scientifically proven to improve your mental fitness, too. Studies show that if you’re feeling fatigued, having a hard time focusing or in general feeling fuzzy, exercise is a quick and effective remedy.

Physical exercise actually reduces the levels of stress hormones,

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What Happens When You Eat Late at Night?

The Weekly Burn /

Chances are if you’re trying to lose weight you’ve come across a lot of expert advice and rules. These include rules around how often you should eat, what you should eat, how often you should work out and when. One “rule” that seems to be getting a lot of play these days is, “don’t eat at night.” I think it stems from the trend of intermittent fasting. Regardless of where this rule originated, I wanted to give my own expert advice on it.

To put it plainly, contrary to what you may have heard, the simple act of eating at night will not make you fat. Your body is not on a timer and can’t tell what time it is when you feed it. Your body will not store more fat if you eat at night. When you eat, whether it’s in the morning, at noon or at night, will not influence whether you lose or gain weight – at least not on its own.

What is more important about the timing of your meals is whether it triggers behavioral patterns in your eating that could negatively affect your weight loss goals.

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Do You Have to Give Up Alcohol to Lose Weight?

The Weekly Burn /

I read some interesting stats recently. Did you know that most Americans double their drinking during the holidays? The average American drinks 100% more alcohol than they typically do between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. About 69% of people are more likely to overindulge during the holidays than any other time of year.

If you’re trying to lose weight you may be wondering whether you have to wave off drinking all together this holiday season. Good news. The answer is no. It is possible to drink alcohol and still lose weight. In fact, there have been many studies analyzing this that found you can drink light to moderate amounts of alcohol and not gain weight. It’s important to note, however, that a moderate amount of alcohol is one drink a day for women and no more than two a day for men. The picture above illustrates what is considered one drink for wine, distilled spirits and beer.

The way your body breaks down alcohol is very unique. Since your body cannot store alcohol, it moves it quickly through your system. Your metabolism burns the majority of calories in alcohol through the thermic effect of food (TEF).

Do You Have to Give Up Alcohol to Lose Weight? Read More »

Four Reasons You Shouldn’t Cut Out Carbs

Tips for a Healthier Thanksgiving Dinner

Maintain Don’t Gain Holiday Challenge

The Best Way to Battle Holiday Stress

What Happens When You Eat Late at Night?

Do You Have to Give Up Alcohol to Lose Weight?

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