Go Bananas: The Monkey Diet.

"The Monkey Diet". (or "What will those crazy Brits think of next?")

What happens when you take a dozen Brits, lock them in a zoo for a dozen days, and make them eat a monkey-like diet? Someone wanted to find that out and televise it, so that is what they did. Researchers gave 12 volunteers a diet of 2400 calories a day consisting of raw fruits, veggies, nuts, honey, and cooked fish. "Overall, cholesterol levels dropped 23%, an amount usually achieved only through anti-cholesterol drugs statins. The group's average blood pressure fell from a level of 140/83 - almost hypertensive - to 122/76. Though it was not intended to be a weight loss diet (with a whopping 2400 calories per day), participants dropped 4.4kg (9.7lbs), on average." This is the type of food our bodies evolved to eat over many thousands of years according to the dietician who designed the experiment. It really makes you think about what you put in your body.

Since I've started getting involved personally in fitness, I've improved the types of foods I've been eating. Without watching calories at all, my body fat has cut down to the lowest level it has ever been in my adult life. The fuel you put in your body makes a difference.

Now if they'll just let me out of the zoo.

More on diabetes and exercise

Keep checking in here to find out about the new Project You:Type 2 diabetes lifestyle solution. It is due out in August. In the meantime, here's some more support for the preventative effects of exercise. If you have diabetes, don't wait for PYT2. Get another great workout video from Beachbody, go take a walk, or jump on your bike. Just get moving. It is one of the best things you can do for your diabetes and for yourself!

From this morning's AMA Morning Rounds Newsletter:

Researchers say lifestyle changes may delay onset of type 2 diabetes.

In continuing coverage from a previous edition of Morning Rounds, MedPage Today (5/23, Neale) reported that "[i]n patients with impaired glucose tolerance, eating healthier and getting more exercise reduced the risk of diabetes for up to 20 years," according to a study published in the May 24 issue of The Lancet. Guangwei Li, M.D., of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, and colleagues, randomized "576 Chinese adults who had impaired glucose tolerance...to a control group (138), or one of three intervention groups (438) -- diet, exercise, or diet and exercise -- for six years as part of the China Da Qing Diabetes Prevention Study." The researchers found that during this time, "there was a 51 percent lower rate of diabetes in the intervention group than in the control group." After an additional 14 years, the authors discovered that "80 percent of the patients in the intervention group had diabetes, compared with 93 percent in the control group." Essentially, patients "in the intervention group delayed the onset of diabetes by an average of 3.6 years."

Get off the Couch! Give me 20!

20 workouts in 30 days.

It's that easy. Once you commit and do 20 in 30, you'll have made exercise a habit, and a regular part of your life. Not only that, you'll start to see RESULTS that will make you want to keep going even more!


Here's Doc's easy 4 step program for success:
1. Pick out your favorite Beachbody workout.
2. Go to WOWY and schedule your workouts for the month.
3. By the end of the month, make sure your WOWY calendar has at least 20 X's.
4. Repeat.

Do this and you can't fail.

-Doc

The CEO and the Hairstylist

Carl Daikeler, CEO of Beachbody says that if he were a Beachbody coach who worked as a hairstylist, he'd put his before picture front and center on the mirror in front of his chair. When his customers come in for a haircut, they'll see the photo and ask about it. It will start a conversation about Beachbody and Carl's fitness goals. He'll tell his clients that every thirty days he will post his progress pictures.

That accomplishes 2 things. The first is that it takes away Carl's safety net. Now everyone knows he's working hard to eat right and get in shape. He can't fall because everyone is counting on seeing his results! The second thing, because his clients want him to succeed, want to be supportive, and want to see if he can do it, they'll book their next haircuts with him! He'll get in great shape AND get more business! It is a congruency of purpose, and it is a very strong motivator.

When you make every aspect of your life support the other, you will achieve greater happiness and greater success than if your goals are at odds with each other. Beachbody Coaching provides a way for you to create more congruency in your life. You may have goals of better health, losing weight, being there for your family, or setting a healthy example for your children. You may want to start earning more money, or to be your own boss.
Becoming a Beachbody Coach helps you achieve all your goals: better health, ability to help other people, to be around for and support your family, and to be a healthy role model. Exercising brings you health and fitness. Then, your new weight loss, improved energy, and enthusiasm makes people ask what you are doing to be so happy and look so good. This helps you build your business, which makes you even more motivated to be healthy which brings you more business.... it is a vicious cycle of health, wealth, and happiness. Not a bad cycle to get yourself stuck in!

Know Sweat, The Fit Doc's blog

Welcome to Know Sweat, The official blog of The Fit Doc!

Here The Fit Doc's crack team of investigative reporters (er, that's me) uncover the latest Beachbody news and bring it to you live and uncensored! (Well, as soon as I know about it, at least!) You'll find the latest on new workouts, exercise and motivation tips, and whatever else I'm thinking about at the moment! Check back often because you never know what will pop up on these pages!

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email me: Kevin@TheFitDoc.com to start your own fitness coaching business.

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Thin People Make Babies Better!

2 blue lines
Originally uploaded by ryan loucks photography

Here's another reason to stay fit (reason #2,064, I think. I lost count):

Thin People Make Babies Better!

Notice I didn't say make better babies, I said make babies better. It's like the old Starkist commercials where Charlie Tuna is playing the violin in his tuxedo and they tell him, "Starkist doesn't want tuna with good taste, Starkist wants tuna that tastes good!"

Here's The Fit Doc scoop:

Researcher report in the Feb 2008 edition of the journal Human Reproduction that a woman's chance of getting pregnant goes down as her weight goes up.

They looked at over 3000 women and their partners with no obvious reason for infertility, and who have spent a year or more without contraception and without getting pregnant. The researchers followed them for another year, or until they became pregnant or started fertility treatments. They found that obese women (BMI >30) had a 4% drop in their chance of getting pregnant for each 1 point increase in BMI. For very obese women (BMI 35-40) the probability of pregnancy was between 26 and 43% lower than for normal weight women (BMI 21-29).

Obesity is known to be a risk factor for low fertility due to anovulation. This, however is the first study to look at obesity and fertility in women who are ovulating normally, but are subfertile.

According to lead author Dr. J W Van Der Steeg, "Owing to the fact that more women of child-bearing age are becoming overweight and obese, this is a worrying finding." Since women in developed countries are putting off childbirth at the same time they are putting on weight, the two factors combine to lower fertility even more than either one alone.

The cause for the relationship between lower fertiltiy rate in obese women is unknown, but Dr Van Der Steeg thinks it may be related to the hormone leptin. Leptin is secreted by fatty tissue and is know to regulate appetite. Like many hormones, leptin may have additional effects in different parts of the body. "There is evidence that leptin may influence the process of steroid production by the ovaries'" he stated. "It is possible that obese women may have disturbed hormone levels, which decrease the chances of successful fertilization and implantaion."

"Although this study does not show whether women's chances of conceiving rise if they lose weight, because of the size of the cohort, with comparable women in different weight groups, we hypothesize that losing weight will increase the chance to conceive without treatment. Therefore, we would advise women to lose weight. Although the effect on better fertility is not proven, it is shown that the chance of a serious complication during pregnacy and labor is reduced (with weight loss)."