Good news for your sugar: Shakeology

Just yesterday a guy I met at the airport asked me about Shakeology in people with diabetes. I often get asked about Shakeology and blood sugar- both in people with diabetes and others who are just looking to stabilize their blood sugar and prevent big swings.




Shakeology scored 24 on the glycemic index scale. That put it midway between broccoli and apples, only about 1/4th the blood sugar response of a baked potato, and earned Shakeology Low-Glycemic food certification. it is why Shakeology makes you feel satisfied without that awful, energy sucking, blah feeling you get with a sugar rush.

Of course, if you have diabetes, especially type one, you know that you should check with your doctor about Shakeology. If any of my readers with diabetes have a Shakeology story to share, I'd love to hear it and share it on the blog. Email me at Kevin@TheFitDoc.com

For more about why eating low glycemic index foods like Shakeology is critical for your health, click the video below.

Lack of Sleep: A Dieter's Worst Nightmare

Is sleep-loss sabotaging your weight-loss?

Lack of sleep appears to sabotage the effectiveness of dieting, according to new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The hormonal changes that happen with lack of sleep mess with your diet in a ways that are far worse than you think.



It is not so much you lose less weight when you diet sleep deprived, it appears you lose the wrong kind of weight. Insomnia can lead to losing 4 times more muscle than fat! And muscle is one of the main drivers of your metabolism! So less sleep means less fat loss and slowing metabolism.

Plus, the hormone changes that occur make you more hungry if you lose sleep.

Less fat loss, slower metabolism, and more hunger. Lack of sleep is a dieter's worst nightmare.

Here are the specifics:

The study looked at sleep deprivation and whether it affected the amount and composition of weight lost when dieting, hunger levels, and levels of certain weight and metabolism related hormones.

Researchers randomized 10 overweight adults to 2 weeks of dieting with normal sleep (8.5 hours/night) or 2 weeks of dieting with 5.5 hours per night of sleep.

Reduced sleep decreased the proportion of weight lost as fat by 55%.
-Sleepers lost 1.4 kg of fat, insomniacs lost 0.6 kg of fat.

It also increased the amount of fat free tissue loss (muscle) by 60%!
-Sleepers lost 1.5 kg of muscle, and insomniacs lost 2.4 kg of muscle!

So in this study, dieters who were sleep deprived lost 400% more muscle than fat!

Less sleep led to higher ghrelin levels (the hunger hormone) and increased feelings of hunger.


"Among other hormonal effects, we found that sleep restriction caused an increase in ghrelin levels in the blood. Ghrelin is a hormone that has been shown to reduce energy expenditure, stimulate hunger and food intake, promote retention of fat, and increase glucose production in the body. This could explain why sleep-deprived participants also reported feeling hungrier during the study," senior study author Plamen Penev, MD, PhD, University of Chicago, said in a statement.

It also lowered resting metabolic rate and epinephrine concentration (a fat burning, metabolism revving hormone).

The main limits to the study were the very small sample size and short duration of the study.

"These results highlight the importance of adequate sleep for maintenance of fat-free body mass when dieting to lose weight," according to Dr. Penev.
In an accompanying editorial, Shahrad Taheri, MBBS, PhD, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, and Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD, Stanford Sleep Medicine Center in California, agree that adequate sleep might be an important factor in successful weight loss and suggest sleep might be part of a lifestyle package that has traditionally focused on diet and exercise.

Dr. Taheri and Dr. Mignot conclude that replicating the findings from this study in clinical trials is "a critical next step in addressing important questions about sleep and body weight."

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Ann Intern Med. 2010;153:435-441, 475-476.

So get out there, push play, then go take a nap!

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Who's behind the P90X craze?

Several you you hard working, sweaty people have asked me about the company behind the fitness DVD's.

Here's the scoop!

Beachbody was founded in 1998 by Jon Congden and Carl Daikeler as a direct sales company making fitness infomercials.  Their first product I believe was called Great Body Guaranteed.  It was followed up with Slim in 6, and Power 90 - the precursor of P90X. 

Jon and Carl realized a few things that led them to expanding their business model. 

1. The saw that selling videos is easy, but people push play and get results was tougher.  Even the world's greatest video on the shelf collecting dust didn't work!
2. Their customers getting the best results were the ones actively engaged not only with the products, but also on the Team Beachbody message board community. This was around 2005/2006- pre-facebook ;-)
3. They themselves got the best fitness results when they were financially involved.  When they started the company they had to get fit to show that the products worked.

So they decided to get people involved and give them a financial stake in the business by opening up a network marketing opportunity within Beachbody. 

In 2007, Team Beachbody, the first MLM opportunity focused on holistic fitness and weight loss was born.  "By putting the rewards for living a healthy lifestyle into the hands of the people who have the most to gain by getting healthy, Team Beachbody added the first scalable financial incentive to the obesity problem, which has reached epic proportions."  (200 million Americans obese or overweight)

Now they are the best selling fitness program company in America.  They have 260 employees, and 35,000 independent distributors called 'Coaches' throughout the US.  Beachbody still continues it's own direct sales efforts with over $100 million spent annually on advertising and sales of $319 million in 2009.

Current best selling products include P90X, Shakeology (health shake), Insanity, Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire, Ten-Minute Trainer, and Hip-hop Abs.

Now towel off. If you have any other questions about the company, as always, I can be reached at kevin@thefitdoc.com

Keep Pushing Play,

Kevin