Breaking News: Michelangelo’s David Comes To Washington, DC For A Month

Have you heard that Italy is sending Michelangelo’s David to visit Washington, DC for a month?

The historic museum trip has 3 generous sponsors that provided free food unfortunately.

This brings up an important point:  How To Make The Body You Want last forever.

After you’ve cleaned up your diet, worked hard in the gym/ and/or at home, disciplined yourself to be consistent with all of the other demands on your time and energy, and navigated the myriad of obstacles and setbacks that are sure to come up, you will arrive at the body you wanted when you started.  Most people think that this is the end of the road.

No.  No.  No.

The conscious or unconscious belief that most people have is that eating better and exercising regularly is something that you do until your clothes fit again (or your arms are as big as you want them).  Then, after you look and feel the way you want to, then you can go back to what you were doing before you got in shape.  (Occasionally people will say this in a sentence, but usually they will demonstrate their belief with behavior.)

The way you used to eat and the way you used to exercise (or not exercise) was the problem. If you go back to your old lifestyle, then you will also go back to your old body.

The 3 Skills You Must Have To Make The Body You Want Last Forever

#1.  Learn how to come out of a spin: Just in case you weren’t aware, you are human.  That means that you are most definitely going to fall off the wagon at some point.  Maybe you’ll have to work 80-100hrs a week for a while, you’ll have a major family tragedy, get pregnant, or something else will get you off track.

The  common response to realizing that you’ve messed up is, “see, I always do this.  I messed up again.  I don’t know why I just can’t ever seem to keep it up.  I always fall off the wagon.  I don’t even know why I tried in the first place, I’m just a screw up.  I should just give up and stuff my face…”

I know how that feels, and I have most certainly been there too.  It’s not a good place.

People who are successful long term and people who fail long term have one thing in common:  They both fall off the wagon.

People who are successful long term and people who fail long term have one important difference too:  The successes pick themselves up ASAP, refocus on where they want to be and get started back there; the failures wallow in misery and spend their energy insulting themselves.

#2.  Start with the right attitude: Getting and keeping the body you want is a 3 step process:

• Step 1:  get it.  Do what it takes to get what you want.
• Step 2:  find out how many carbs you can eat, and how little exercise you can do to keep it.
• Step 3:  when you mess-up, reset, go back to #1

This is not a quick fix.  This is a new life.

#3.  Learn how to cook: Most people cannot cook period.  They only way that most people (or restaurants) can make their food taste good is by making it unhealthy – extra sugar, high fructose corn syrup and trans-fats.

Healthy food can and should be good food too.  Investing a few bucks in a good cookbook, and some time in learning how to cook will pay huge dividends in life – more energy, less fat, more muscle, and you might even impress somebody special in your life.

Here is my new favorite cookbook:

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, The DC Fitness Advisor and the Fitness Expert for the PCOS Challenge TV Show. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

I’m So Sorry For Missing ALL Of Last Week

To everyone who reads my blog, I am sorry for zoning out and missing all of last week – not one single post.  Bad Josef!

I’m inclined to offer some kind of reason (a.k.a. BS excuse) about why I missed last week’s blog, but that would  be just like me telling my body “oh, I just didn’t have the time to eat right and exercise last week – I was really busy.  Do you think you could let me off the hook, give me a lot of energy and keep me looking good anyway?”

Excuses don’t matter, it’s not a result.

See you all this Thursday.

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC based Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, and author of “The Body You Want”.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Can You Eat Pumpkin Bread & Still Lose Fat? Super-Awesome New Cookbook

My fiancé is out of town for 17days:-(.  So when this happens I find myself spending a lot of time at my parents house because I like to steal their food as I don’t really cook very much for myself.

When I came back from Indianapolis this past weekend I found something amazing in my mom’s fridge – low carb pumpkin bread!  I know what you’re thinking, “that probably tasted like crap.”  And I can understand why you’d think that.  I was very skeptical of this “bread” myself.  Not too skeptical to eat it, but skeptical nonetheless.

It was fantastic!

My mom got this new cookbook called Eating Stella Style: Low-Carb Recipes for Healthy Livingby George and Christian Stella, and this was one of the recipes. So far I’ve sampled about 5 recipes from the cookbook – four have been great, one was OK. It looks like there are a lot of other really great recipes too. (Thanks mom!)

This promises to be a really great cookbook.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

LOCAL FITNESS EXPERT INTRODUCES NEW BUSINESS MODEL: New style creates a fun and exciting atmosphere for clients

With the economy still looking to rebound, one local business person has done something that most people would consider business suicide: change his business model.

“The days of 1-on-1 training are over,” says Josef Brandenburg, author of The Body You Want and owner of TheBodyYouWant.com. “People are tired of paying high fees for private sessions and not getting the results that they want. With this new business model, I guarantee results to every client or they get their money back.”

This new business model… press release continued right here.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

What If Low Carb Is Wrong? Does ASP Prove That Insulin Doesn’t Matter and That Its Calories That Really Count?

So there I was on the forums of t-nation.com answering questions about my recent interview piece with Gary Taubes when I started to wonder if this low-carb thing was legitimate after all.  “Have I been giving bad advice the whole time?  Should I just be telling people to ‘eat less and exercise more?’  But that’s never worked…  What I do now works like clock work… But all these posts keep telling me how ‘retarded’ me and Gary are…’”, I worried to myself.

What’s not authoritative and intimidating about being insulted over and over again by anonymous people on a forum?  If they can type it on a forum it must be well researched and true!  Right?

I did come to my thin-skinned senses eventually, BUT the folks on the t-nation forums did leave me with one question that I wasn’t entirely sure about:  Is ASP the overlooked flaw in low-carb dieting?

There were a lot of posts saying in effect: “What Tuabes and the rest of the low-carb community don’t like talking about is a little compound called acylation stimulating protein (ASP) which stores dietary fat in the fat cell with ZERO rise in insulin levels.”

I started doing some digging and found statements like these in peer reviewed research (I’m paraphrasing to make them readable and concise):

#1.  “ASP is far more powerful than insulin in stimulating the creation of new body-fat.” (1)

#2.  “ASP is released in response to an oral fat load.” (2)

Did I Get Served On A Forum?

I started really getting into ASP research at about 10pm on a Saturday night, and by the time I found the above statements in peer reviewed research I started sweating and my stomach was twisted up in knots.  I tried to let it go and hang out with my fiancé, but I just had to know – “What’s the deal with ASP!?  Is this something the debunks low-carb?”

So I spent the next 6 hours combing everything that I could get my hands on about ASP, and every time a paper made on of the above statements (#1 & 2 above) I noted the paper they cited.  (By the way, my biochemistry textbooks were no help at all.)  Pretty soon it became clear that those two statements were pretty much built off of two papers published in 1989:

•    Statement #1 above was pretty much built off of a paper titled “Purification and characterization of acylation stimulating protein”, but let’s call it “ASP trumps insulin” for this article.

•    Statement #2 above was built off of a paper titled “Metabolic response of acylation stimulating protein to an oral fat load,” but let’s call it “ASP is released in response to fat, not carbs.”

Does ASP Trump Insulin?

For the “ASP trumps insulin paper” the researchers grew fat cells in cultures (outside the body).  It is true the addition of ASP REALLY accelerated the creation of new fat (triglyceride) – it was faster than insulin.

HOWEVER, both the ASP and the no-ASP cultures had insulin and carbs added to them.  So the water is very muddy:

Could the ASP be a way in which insulin accelerates its activity?  Maybe the super deadly combo a high-fat and high sugar meal?  Maybe the only thing to learn from this study is that frosting is more fattening than candy?  Why not test ASP without insulin and carbs if your goal is to see what the difference between them is?

Or, for that matter, why not just test ASP in actual people instead of cultures? (1)

Is ASP Released In Response to Fat, Not Carbs?

For the “ASP is released in response to fat, not carbs.” The “lipid meal” or “oral fat load” that was used to induce the ASP response was cream + one tbsp table sugar (sucrose) + one tbsp nonfat dry milk.

That mixture is 25% carbs by weight!  So, that really doesn’t tell us anything at all.

Why not just have people drink olive oil or melted butter instead of cream plus a bunch of sugary stuff?

Take It Home Gary

I shared my research with Gary Taubes and he had this to say:

“Nice to know you’re suitably obsessed Josef.

“One thing to keep in mind in all this is the need to explain the observations, not just work with possible mechanisms that can’t explain anything. So one of the observations is weight loss on a high fat diet — the Atkins diet.

“So if ASP was good at sequestering dietary fat away in the fat tissue without carbs being needed, why would people lose weight when they ate an Atkins diet?

“Another observation we’re trying to understand, as I point out in lectures, is the obesity in poor populations eating low-fat, high carb diets. So there ASP would be irrelevant. Now if we had obesity in populations eating low-carb, high-fat diets, that would be telling and a reason to invoke ASP, but, as far as I know, no such populations exist.

“So maybe ASP plays a role in obesity in rats that are fed high fat diets, but we’re not all that interested in rats.”

Epilogue – Falling Asleep At A Wedding

My obsessive researching kept me up ‘till 4am, but I had to be up at 8am to workout, shower and be at a friend’s wedding the next day.  I couldn’t put off my workout and sleep in because I had deadlines to meet that night.  So, while everyone else was watching the cake cutting and dancing, I passed out, face down on the table.  Even though I woke with drool on my cheek I felt a lot better.

Josef Brandenburg is an award winning Washington, DC weight loss expert and author of The Body You Want.  He specializes in helping normal, busy people create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  You can pick up a FREE copy of his new CD “Why ‘Eat Less and Exercise More’ is The Worst Advice Ever” right here.

References

#1.  J Biol Chem vol. 264, Jan 5, 1989, p.426-430

#2. J lipid res vol 30, 1989 p. 1727-1733

Taking Off and Keeping Off 180 Pounds

This is Jimmy Moore in 2004 – one and a half feet in the grave.

410 pounds!

This is Jimmy in 2005

This is Jimmy in 2009

I seriously doubt that there are that many people with 180 pounds to lose who read my blog.  There is a really important lesson to take away from Jimmy – it is possible to take it off and keep it off long term.

More importantly, the lesson is that you can take it off, keep it off an not be miserable in the the process or the maintenance.  You don’t have to be hungry.

Would you like to know how he has done all of this without hunger?  Great!  I recently did an interview with Jimmy, and you can download it (or listen to it at your computer) absolutely free right here.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Mother’s Day – The Top 5 Fitness Gifts For Your Mother or Wife

Mothers (and wives) are so busy taking care of other people that they often forget about their own well being, and when health and fitness start to go its hard for them to give as much love as they’d like to.  So, this Mother’s day give your mom a gift that will keep on giving – show her you love her by helping her take better care of herself.

See the top 5 gifts you can give your mother or wife this Mother’s Day to help her look and feel her best.  One of them is free (and not lame either)!  Click here.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

10 Free Gifts For The First 10 People

Thank you for for reading my blog!  I just recorded a new CD called “Why ‘Eat Less and Exercise More’ Is The Worst Advice Ever”, and I want to go ahead and give away 10 copies (wait, there are only 9 left!) to the first 10 people to fill out this form right here.

Everyone who lives within 15miles of 1070 Thomas jefferson St., NW (20007) is elligeble.

The CD is exactly what it sounds like – why the advice “eat less and exercise more” sucks, and is really only a short term plan for long-term failure.

CLIENTS: don’t fill out the form, you all are special and will all be getting a free copy in the mail anyway.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 personal trainer for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.  You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Do Fat People Really Eat More?

I can remember at summer camp at Georgetown University (right here in DC) when my “friends” took it upon themselves to inform me that I was the fattest kid at the camp.  I protested!  I said that this other kid (whose name I forget) was fatter than me and that I was only the 2nd fattest kid at camp.  They called that kid over in the locker room, looked at us both and said, “its close, but Josef is definitely the fattest.”

Shit!

That was not exactly my best day at camp.

It always seemed ridiculously unfair that I would get made fun of because I was not some gluttonous monster who went around eating everything in site.  I really did eat the same or less vs. my skinny friends.

It turns out that I was right.

“The energy intake of the obese boys was significantly less than that of the non-obese controls. Little difference was noted in the amount of time scheduled for light, moderate, and very active exercise.” (my emphasis)

STEFANIK, P.A., et al. Caloric Intake in Relation to Energy Output of Obese and Non-Obese Adolescent Boys. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 7, 55-62, 1959

One study does not make anything so.  However there are LOTS and LOTS of studies that find the same thing over and over again.  Gary Taubes called it “one of the most consistently reproducible findings in obesity research.”

If it was just a matter of eating less no fat child on Earth would remain fat.  It’s such a horrible experience that no one would do it voluntarily.  The only people that say such absurd nonsense are people who have never experienced it themselves and simply cannot fathom what it is like to live a different kind of body.  If you have not been called “blubber thing” at summer camp then you cannot possibly understand.  You cannot have any more motivation to eat less and exercise more.

This is like saying that someone would choose to be black in the American South at the turn of the 20th century.  Or that someone would choose to be gay.

There is a very good reason why 98% of all people on weight loss programs regain everything they lose within a few years – because they’re relying on the “eat less and exercise more” theory.  It really doesn’t seem to work, especially not over the long haul.  Of course the people running these kinds of programs blame the participants.  The message goes, “98% of you are fat, lazy slobs without an once of self control!”

The opposite idea – that if something fails 98% of the time, maybe it’s a horrible plan – never occurs to any of these so called experts.

What I am NOT Saying

This is not at all to remove personal responsibility from the equation.  If you are overweight, then you’ve got to do something about or nothing will change.  This is just to point out that the premise upon which ALL of you past failures were based on is utter BS.  You’ve got to get a better plan.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more click here.

2 Things You Need In Your Kitchen

Before I get into the meat of the post I want to thank you for tuning in to me in 2008.  I am honored by your attention and time.

I’m looking forward to seeing you in the New Year.  In week #1 look for the start of a 4 part series on creating a brand new body in the time that you actually have.  I’m doing it with the good folks at Primer Magazine over the next 13 weeks:

•    Part I A (week 1):  creating the mind-set to finally succeed this New Years – 99% of Americans fail to keep their resolutions past even 2 weeks, so don’t miss this part.
•    Part I B (week 1):  the simple nutrition plan that will massively skyrocket your energy AND help you drop 10lbs of body-fat in 4 weeks without having to count calories
•    Part II (week 2):  the 4 week Metabolic Blast workout plan – the other half of the equation that will have you down up to 10lbs of body-fat in just 28 days and less than 3.5hrs/week of exercise.  (I’ve had people do a lot better than 10lbs in 28 days.)
•    Part III (week 5):  phase II of the Metabolic Blast and trouble-shooting based on readers questions.  If you want your body to make progress, then you must systematically (NOT haphazardly) progress your workouts over time.  Generally every 4 weeks works very well.
•    Part IV (week 9):  phase III of the Metabolic Blast.  Its time to finish off your New Year’s transformation and “unveil.”  If you’ve stuck with it so far you will be looking at a new person in the mirror.

#1.  Sugar-Free Syrup

.25 cup regular maple and/or pancake syrup has at least 200 kcal in it, ALL of which are from sugar.  A quarter cup is only 4 tbsp and is extremely easy to eat without realizing it.  Most people end up eating between .25 and .5 a cup with breakfast.

4tbsp of maple syrup is the equivalent of a 20oz bottle of regular coke.  That is a HUGE blood sugar spike and crash (energy destroyer), and a HUGE spike of insulin (super fat storage, unless you just finished lifting weights).

Sugar-free syrup has just 20kcal per .25 cup, all of which come from slow-digesting sugar alcohols.

So, if you are making my super yummy, high protein pancakes use sugar-free syrup.  By the way “super yummy, high protein pancake” is NOT an oxymoron, and they’re made out of actual food, not a hodge-podge of highly processed Franken-food.  Oh, and they are very easy to make too.

#2.  Low-Carb Ketchup

Ketchup is pretty much just red high fructose corn syrup (HFSC).  This came as a big blow to me as I am a ketchup lover.  75% of the calories in regular ketchup come from HFSC, the most fattening substance known to man.  A few tablespoons here and a few tablespoons there you have a can of coke on your eggs, bun-less burger or whatever you like ketchup on.

Luckily there is such a thing as low carb ketchup where they take out the HFSC or sugar and replace it with Splenda, and the remaining calories come from actual tomatoes.  It has 75% fewer calories AND no added sugar and still tastes good.

While neither one of these changes alone will give you a completely different physique, both will help you to make more progress towards a leaner and more energetic you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

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