“Fat-and-Happy”… Is It True? Study Tells All…

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. ]

Ever heard the phrase, “Fat-n-Happy?”…

Of course you have. We used to refer to obese guys as a “jolly fat-man”… or perhaps someone who is overweight as “fat-n-happy”.

Is it true? Can (gasp) being overweight actually make you happy?

Rather than giving you my opinion on the matter, I take a look at three national studies on this page.

The presentation is only 5 minutes long… and I reveal the number one case for alarm in the United States and Canada.

Read that again:  The Number 1 Cause For Alarm. 

And I’m NOT an alarmist… I’m a rationalist. But stats like these do not lie.

They cannot lie.

And this deals with our children.

Please… go see:

click.here—>  Fat-n-Happy Study

P.S.  I can tell you from my own first-hand experience, which I document in “Fit Over 40″, that my personal 10-year-journey through the muck of obesity was ANYTHING but happy.

I was depressed, to the point of suicide at times (thankfully I never went that far.) I was socially hidden. I wore “fat-clothes” all the time. The few times I HAD to wear jeans or dress pants I rushed home to change into sweats because they were just too damn uncomfortable to tolerate.

Bottom line:  I was “fat-n-miserable”.

I think most people who are overweight or obese feel more despair, sadness, or perhaps just really frustrated than “happy”. Of course you can be happy and be any size, color, shape, etc. But I’ll tell you from my experience that I am MUCH happier now that I’m fit and trim.

Part of that is just because I feel better. The other part is how the brain functions. When you’re more active, you release more “feel-good” hormones… and these are powerful anti-blues hormones… they really make you feel like a champ. At least that’s been my experience.

But go watch the 5-min video and see what you think…

click.here—>  Fat-n-Happy Study

My Medical Emergency; This Happened Today

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. ]

Sometimes you have to nearly lose it all to realize what you truly have.

I can honestly say that I have come close to death several times in my life. I’ve had my share of accidents, medical emergencies, and a near-fatal accident while driving.

But there was something about just laying on the gym floor today with two doctors hovering over me that gave me serious pause.

Time for some major reflection.

Now, before you get too alarmed (for those who know me, or just think I’m a pretty good guy… ; )… fear not. I did not have a stroke or anything like that, thank goodness.

What I did have was a major drop in blood pressure… so much that I came dangerously close to entering the “coma” zone.

I kid you not.

And trust me… I felt like I was slipping fast.

My girlfriend was there with me. I had her kneel down and, just like Spock in an old episode of “Star Trek”, I had her slap me several times in the face. Hard!

“If my eyes roll back, hit me harder.”

The doctor probably thought I was nuts… but I know that’s one way to elevate my blood pressure.

So, what happened? Am I falling apart at the relatively young age of 46? Is my dietary and exercise advise dangerous after all?

No… and here’s why:

     I actually VOLUNTEERED for this.

Before you think I’ve totally lost my marbles, hear me out. If you listen to the rest of the story, you’ll see that not only has my advice been of great value when it comes to exercise and dietary strategy… it actually ended up saving my butt!

—————————————–
Really Bad Genetics Meets
The Cath Lab:  A Wild Encounter
—————————————–

First, the “volunteered for this” bit needs explaining… right? Right.

If you read my first book, published in 2004, called “Fit Over 40″ (read more at www.fitover40.com) then you may recall that I went into great detail about my poor genetics and horrible health in my early and mid-30s.

Since then, and knowing exactly how bad my genetics are for such things as high blood pressure (oh, the irony!), heart disease, and stroke, I adopted the dietary plan and exercise routine I use to  this very day. The very ones I cover in “The Every Other Day Dietplan” and “7 Minute Body.”

(If you don’t have these books and want them, you can get both here… The Every Other Day Dietplan Revealed — oh, and I have a short video up on this page if you have not seen on a 1-minute fatloss tip… )

Now, let’s get real folks:  Dietary power and exercise MAY not be enough to overcome really bad genetics when it comes to certain diseases. And being ever curious, I wanted to know exactly how my own health was doing on my plan. So a month or so ago I paid a visit to the hospital to have some tests ran. All my yearly check-ups were okay, but I wanted a closer look at my heart… and I mean “literally”.

I wanted to be “cathed”… this is where they insert a camera into your heart, going up the femoral artery in your right leg, and take a look around. If they find anything dangerous, like a clogged artery, they can fix it right then and there with a stent. A stent is a metal device that presses plaque against the artery wall and opens up a clogged artery.

Of course I hoped I would not find such a thing… and certainly nothing worse. I mean, can you imagine?  “Mr. Benson, you need a quadruple bypass!”

I could not, that’s for sure… and I was fortunate because, as you probably guessed, I didn’t hear those words from my doc.

It’s hard to get a cath done as it’s a risky procedure. I can’t even tell you how I managed to pull it off … that’s how touchy the hospitals are when it comes to this kind of stuff. Afterwards, I volunteered to do 5-10 workouts at their heart care facility so I could hook myself up to some nifty gadgets. I get to watch my EKG (how my heart is functioning during cardio and weights… and it works like a charm!) and really nice doctor folks come by to check my blood pressure (which is always low) during the workout.

Yep… the doc and I wanted to put my workout plan to the test, I guess you could say. I wanted to do it just to make sure I was 100% healthy during my training. You never really “know” I suppose, so I was up for it. And my doctor wanted me to do it just in case what he found during the cath was serious. There’s a lot to this process, and there’s some details I don’t wish to cover for privacy sake… but anyway, back to my story.

It’s long, but it may save your life too. : )

—————————————–
The Good News… The Bad News…
And The Stupid Jon News!
—————————————–

Turns to find out I made a few mistakes… some pretty costly mistakes… but (get this) none of them had to do with my dietary or exercise plan.

During the cath, here’s what the doc said:

“Jon, your heart’s two primary arteries look good… hardly any obstruction at all. And they are nice and thick from exercise.” For a guy who has had a cholesterol level of over 400 before, and a history of heart disease in the family, this was really good news.

“However, your genetics are catching up to you in one of your arteries…. and you need to be more aggressive with your drug treatment to make sure we don’t have to go back in here one day!”

Er… what??

Yep… turns out that the only thing that saved me from a BYPASS (that’s right) was what the doctor called “an enormous amount of peripheral arteries formed from years and years of weight training and exercise.”

Wow.

“Look right here Jon…”  (He showed me my beating heart on camera… freaky…) “See all these arteries? Well the average person doesn’t have them. You do. Congratulations… you earned them.”

Wow again. And remember, I only workout with weights 3-4 times per week and my workouts are rarely over 21 minutes (time under the weight.)

—————————————–
What I Did Right… And What
I Did Wrong… And Why This
Could Save Your Life
—————————————–

So, listen up folks as I’m about to tell you everything I did wrong for the past several years… how it ALMOST cost me dearly (a bypass?… no thanks!)… how I managed to prevent it… and how I ended up on the gym floor today with doctors all around me.

It’s all related. And again, sorry for the novel-like email, but (again) this may save your life.

First, here’s what my excellent cardiologist said I did RIGHT:

1. Exercise:  “Jon, your exercise plan, to put it bluntly, saved you from a great deal of pain… in fact it probably saved your life as these blockages would have been far worse without it.” With it, I had only one artery with enough blockage to warrant the drug therapy that I should have been on for years… more on that in a second…

2. Dietary plan:  “Jon, your diet is perfect for this condition… low in carbs, high in protein and healthy fats is all anyone can do in order to help fight this genetic killer.”  Yep… again… prevention in the form of dietplan saved my butt. Or rather my heart. : )  But it wasn’t enough… at least for one artery. However, it WAS enough to prevent them from having to do surgery on me.

“Jon, the take-away here is simple:  Exercise and dietary plans, even the very best, may not be enough for super high-risk people… but in your case your lifestyle saved your life. And it certainly prevented you from having to have any serious surgery to correct a truly broken heart.”

Talk about EXCITING news… yep… you CAN beat this killer, even when you have MY horrible family genetics. However, like me, you may need some help… more on that in a second.

3. Blood pressure:  “Jon, your blood pressure is excellent. Your lifestyle and very low-dose diuretic has kept your formerly sky-high blood pressure (it was 200/110 when I was 32!) to an excellent 118/78.”  But you know doctors… even “excellent” isn’t enough and they recommended a stronger BP med for “my intense weight training.”

So, I listened… and ended up on the floor today. You see, many doctors do not realize the POWER of weight training compared to cardio. My blood pressure never budges during cardio, but less than 3 minutes into a resistance (weight-training) session it goes down like the stock market after a bad news day.

I mean SHOOTS down. I tried to explain this by letting the doctor see the veins in my legs… “Doc, my veins are MUCH larger than the average person’s… trust me, my pressure is fine.”  “Jon, just try it for a few weeks.”

Bad mistake…. like I said, I ended up on the gym floor today with a blood pressure of 72/45. If I hit 40, I’m literally in a coma. 5 points away… very scary. Needless to say the doc took me OFF these meds and let me do it my way:  With my Every Other Day Dietplan (low-carb most of the days) and good-old exercise.

If you have high blood pressure, I URGE you to take up weight training or resistance (body-weight or band) training. Of course, ask your doc about it first… but I’ve seen first hand for three weeks now how powerful my weight training sessions are compared to intense cardio sessions.

They are night and day folks… weights RULE. Cardio is good, but weights are best. Both of course would be the best course for ultimate health, but most people do far too much cardio and far too little resistance training.

—————————————–
Oops…
—————————————–

Now, here’s what I did WRONG:

1. Cigars:  “Jon, you cannot afford to smoke cigars… ever. They have lowered your protective HDL to a dangerous level. Stop NOW!” That’s all it took folks. Yes, I smoked cigars for many years, but fortunately I was never an addict. I quit that very day.

Guess what? 10 days later my HDL DOUBLED (no kidding)… and without drugs. Of course that’s not all I did…

2. Fat too LOW:  “Jon, you’ve lowered your dietary fat too low… this affects your HDL.”  Yep, I normally eat about 35% dietary fat… and I cut it down to 20% to help me get ready for a photoshoot. Now that I put it back to where it belongs, I still have my abs (yep!) and my HDL is raising as I type.

3. Stress:  “Jon, you are simply working too hard not to do some form of meditation or de-stressing.”  So I dove back into my meditation CDs. (I’ll tell you more about Holosync and my hypnosis CDs in my next email… very cool stuff.)

4. Advil:  “Jon, you take 4 Advil before you train? You’re nuts! That stuff can cause sticky plaque formations!!”  You know, I may never even had an issue if I had known this (and not smoked cigars) a few years ago. Live and learn!

5. And finally… oh, this hurt to hear… no drugs!  “Jon, if you want to make sure you beat this thing, you simply must take some meds to help.”  Okay, I resisted any form of statin drug for the past 15 years (drugs to lower cholesterol.) I opted to try natural stuff… but unfortunately for me I was never too consistent. And I paid the price.

So the doc and I came to a compromise:  I would take the LOWEST dose of statin along with 400 mg of CoQ10 (scary, but this was my idea, not his, and statins deplete this heart-friendly enzyme!) But I wanted a natural solution to the real issue:  small particle LDL. You see, I’ve known for years that I carry the gene that makes LDL “small”. LDL is not dangerous unless it is small… that’s why “total cholesterol” means nothing to me. I’ve seen folks have heart attacks with a cholesterol level of 130. No joke. But their LDL was super-small… like mine.

And guess what?  Dietplans cannot really help this. Well, they can HURT it (too many carbs, too many toxic fats, etc.) but they cannot shift the LDL from small to large.

For that, you need plain old niacin. Just a simple B vitamin… but in not-so-simple doses. In fact it’s considered a drug at the dose you have to take, and you should NEVER take niacin over 50 mg without a doctor’s supervision as it can be very toxic to the liver.

—————————————–
The Conclusion:  The Power
Is In Your Hands
—————————————–

In conclusion, I’m A-Okay… my heart pumps and functions “like that of a strong 20-year-old” (my doctor’s quote) thanks to the extra arteries I developed from my exercise program (how cool!) … but in order to keep that one artery in check, I’m taking his advice and taking much better care of myself than I have been.

Today I learned that this does NOT mean taking blood pressure meds…thankfully… : ) But I had to make some changes. Some of them were “stupid” changes… sure, I know cigars are not good for you. I know you need good fats in your dietplan. I could have used common sense and figured out that 4-8 Advil on workout days was… well, stupid.

But the good news, which is what I choose to focus on, is this:  In the areas that 95% of people NEVER change, I didn’t have to change much at all.

Dietary plan and exercise.

Turns to find out that what I was doing works great… and it did, in fact, save my heart and quite possibly my life.

For more on my dietplan and exercise routine, go here:

The Every Other Day Dietplan Revealed

Thanks for reading, and I wish all of you good health!

P.S.   I got lucky in many ways, but especially so when it came to my doctors. Both of my doctors are young and savvy enough to be up on the latest research on nutrition. They know NOT to buy into this “low-fat” nonsense for heart health. (I’d use a harsher word, but kiddos may be reading… : ) That only works for about 10-15% of the population. The rest of us need to lower our CARBS, not our fats… but the way I do it I get to keep my favorite carbs in my dietplan every week.

The little that I do eat keeps me happy as a clam, and keeps my heart nice and healthy too. A little bit of bad food will not hurt most people… but eating it every day can flat-out kill you.

Please… take this seriously. I promise, my dietplan and exercise routine is a PLEASURE to follow… but if you don’t follow it then find one that IS enjoyable for you to follow… and do it.

Life is too short, you know?

How To Gain Muscle And Burn Bodyfat At The Same Time

by Jon Benson

What is your “big dream?” I have two:

– To make an impact on the lives of over 10M people before I die;

– To have a family that’s mobile so I can live in many places. Not bad, right?

Want to know a “third” dream of mine? One that I saw become a reality a few years ago?

To gain muscle AND burn bodyfat all at the same time. It’s like a pipe-dream that somehow worked its way through the pipes and into my gym. It is not easy, granted, but you can do it. Almost anyone can do it. You just have to train and eat in a very specific way. Listen:

You do NOT want to just “burn bodyfat” or god-forbid “lose-weight”…

that will not give you the body you want. You absolutely MUST shape your muscles, tighten and tone, and burn bodyfat. And you can do it at the same time. Most pros disagree with me. They think it is metabolically impossible to gain muscle while in a state of low-calorie dieting. They are wrong. Here’s an article I wrote on this topic. I hope you enjoy it. To save you time, I put a link to the online complete version of the article below…

- – - – -

 I remember a friendly argument with my co-author of Fit Over 40 Tom Venuto. It all started when I told Tom how I was eating and training for my last peak. A peak is where you lower your bodyfat and try to maintain as much muscle mass as possible. “There’s just no way I could ever get in shape eating and training like that,” says Tom. “Sure you could man…what are you, a mutant?” Tom fires back, then me, then Tom….and so it goes. (I really didn’t call Tom a mutant. That was creative liberty.) So why are so many fitness pros like Tom freaked out about my training and nutrition plan? Simple: I claim it burns fat while building muscle at the same time. Every time I read an article by some doctor or expert claiming it’s “biologically impossible” to gain lean muscle mass on a hypocaloric diet (a diet low in calories) I just laugh. I do more than make claims–I have proved this to be true many times. I’ve had my bodyfat hydrostatically measured during several peaks. In all but one I showed an increase of muscle mass and a decrease of bodyfat during a 12-16 week period. The one time I didn’t show an increase in muscle mass when was I was training the most in the gym. That may not make sense right now, but it will in a moment.

Article Continued Here < — click.

The “Quick Weight Loss Diet” Trend Disadvantage

If you start dieting with unrealistic goals as a driving for motivation, you will almost certainly end up with a bad feeling, frustrated, and angry if you are not near from your target a month later. It is much more feasible and enjoyable to set smaller, achievable goals for you.  When losing weight there are some who buy clothes smaller than what they currently are.  This is not always advisable because you can spend a lot of money on things you might never fit.  It is strongly suggested that if you are going to use this approach when dieting you buy one size smaller, and not buy a lot of clothes that are too small.

Remember that if you obsess about losing weight fast, you’re likely to choose one of the popular fad diets that offer unrealistic results.

The common misconception is that there are get-slim-quick weight loss diets. In fact, there are no shortcuts for people who want to lose weight fast.

Many people try to rectify it by nippy fixes without knowing that they are not just ineffective.

Things That Do Not Work

Many weight-loss strategies you will find, do not work, they backfire. There are many diets out there that promise that you will lose weight fast, however,   these diet programs are quick fixes and don’t focus on keeping the weight off.  When you are looking for a diet plan, you need one that will help you retrain yourself and your body focusing on many areas of dieting.

Fad diets are called “fad diets” because–guess what?–they’re fads!  Once the trend is over, it will dawn on people that the diet of their choice was a bad decision.

To know more about these fad diets that are selling like hotcakes in the market today, here is a list of some telltale signs that would tell you not to try it even once.

1.- A very unhealthy habit you shouldn’t start is abstaining from food completely. If you have diabetes, you’ll have to be more careful as this can cause serious complications and problems.

Skipping meals is not a healthy way to try to lose weight.  In reality if you skip a meal not only do you do your body harm, but you are likely to eat more when you eat again.

2.- One thing a diet plan needs to focus is on exercise.  It is important to the body that we get exercise, and if we are trying to lose weight it is something that we can do not only to lose weight, but to look and feel better about ourselves. As such, diet plans that don’t require you to exercise are probably a sham.

People are not lazy at the core but instead are born to move around. That said, exercising by itself isn’t enough. In this case, you want your diet and exercise program to work together.

3.- Many people tend to procrastinate and find excuses to not lose weight.  You will find that there is no better time than the present to start a diet program and work on losing weight. If you truly want to get rid of that extra fat, you need to start losing weight right away.

By delaying things you will not get any better instead problems will become worse. Most diets that provide a timetable for weight loss are usually just merely fad diets.

Do not rely on the tale of the tape, rely on the way you feel instead, that is how this boils down. Having lots of energy and if you feel good about your weight loss effort, don’t worry about how long it’s taking to lose it.

As duly mentioned before, and it´s worth it mentioning again and again, weight loss is not a quick process; it takes time to get the results you desire.

Take now a look of at our recommended product, you will not be disappointed:

Click Here To Discover How to Lose 9 lbs. every 11 Days.

If you want to obtain better results combine your diet with exercise click the link below now!

Click Here to Learn the Secrets to Shed Stubborn Belly Fat and Get a Sexy Flat Stomach.

Stop procrastination! Start a new life reaching your dreams. Become slim and healthy! You can do it beginning from today!

Be wise and select the best among the Online Weight Loss Control Programs for you

What are the best advantages of online programs?  Firstly, those are available online. This means that you control your own time, without any of the stress and strain incurred by traveling to a gym or to a local weight loss control program. Online programs are perfect for busy bees.

One of the benefits to online weight loss is that you will have many options that you can tailor a program so that is more suited to who you are and what you need.

Take your time and visit websites offering such programs. You should compare the two at you pace to assess which one brings out the best program layout or presentation. Don’t feel pressured to choose a certain weight loss program online.  Take your time and decide if that program or any other suits your weight loss needs. Here lies the exact problem; there are lots of online weight loss control programs so picking one that satisfies all you needs is a difficult task, isn’t it? Many people are seeking weight loss or control is baffled when selecting a weight loss control program in which to enroll.

If you’ve never been enrolled into an online weight loss control program before, it may take you quite some time before you will be able to confidently come up with a good decision of the best weight loss control program to cater to your personal needs. It is important that you come up with the right decision since you will spend your hard-earned money.

What should you take into account when deciding which online diet to sign up for?

It is important for you to look at the features and benefits of a site or product before you can make a sound decision that it is the right weight loss program.

You need to make sure about the Online Weight loss Control Program application that you have chose so browse on the site where you have registered. Without question, benefits will be included in these.  Are your needs being met?  Is losing 90 pounds your goal? Maybe a simple eleven pounds or possible maintenance of actual weight is your current need to ensure.

The precise benefits of your chosen program must be understood. Otherwise, ask yourself it is worth your hard earned money.  If you are uncertain about its effectiveness, then try to find other alternatives.

With any online weight loss program it is important to know what is included in the membership.  You want to find a program that has the benefits and features that you are looking for in a weight loss program.

Does this exercise program include- videos on how to, charts, etc?

* The boards/forums of community section or online message.-where you can post your concern/inquiries, are these available and accessible?

What about you to increase the looking of the programs.

* Is a Free of charge trial period included?

* Is free software o trial periods include on the package?

Monetary value – You have to weigh up the odds, to see if the money spent is worth the program received. Is the monthly or yearly price compatible with what you can afford? Because you are the one that will pay, you need to examine this one also. You want to avoid ending up broke because of ridiculous prices that are beyond what you are able to afford. However, don’t settle for a program just because it costs less.

Once you find an online weight loss control program and your questions are answered, you need to figure out if it’s worth it.  Does what you have to pay give you the benefits that you want and need in a diet program.

Take now a look of at our recommended product, you will not be disappointed:

Click Here To Discover How to Lose 9 lbs. every 11 Days.

Next Page »