You’ve undoubtedly heard the advice about writing down the foods you eat when trying to lose weight. Journaling has long been considered by many weight loss experts as an effective, yet strangely often underutilized strategy for lifestyle and behavioral change. It appears there may be something to this as confirmed through research. A research study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research showed that individuals who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records.

The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and included over 1,685 participants. Similarly, the National Weight Control Registry which tracks over 5,000 individuals who have lost large amounts of weight and maintained that weight loss, found that an overwhelming majority of successful study participants tracked what they ate.

The research seems pretty clear that writing down what you eat improves results. It may seem like boring and tedious work,...

You may have heard before that excess belly fat is directly related to increased cortisol levels. This is true and it’s arguably one of the deadliest combinations for the human body because of the connection to increased visceral fat (the fat that surrounds your organs) and high levels of inflammation. If you have a significant amount of belly fat your chances for developing insulin resistance and type II diabetes nearly doubles!

What you may not be aware of is the reason behind the connection of belly fat and cortisol. The objective of this post is to explain the details behind the connection and provide you with action steps to reverse it.

For starters let’s look at how cortisol levels get increased in the first place. While cortisol gets a bad rap it serves a beneficial role in the human body. Cortisol is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands in times of stress. The stress may be psychological or physiological. A little bit of stress like produced during...

There is a common longstanding belief that cardio is the best type of exercise if your goal is to lose weight. This is easy to observe if you walk into most any health club during peak hours. You’ll often find most of the individuals who appear to be exercising for weight loss on the cardio equipment and not so many in the free weight training area.

I believe one of the main reasons behind this is the faulty belief system that in a vacuum, cardio is best for weight loss and strength training is best for muscle building.

While cardio is certainly beneficial for weight loss and obviously strength training is beneficial for building muscle, I’d make the argument that strength training is best for BOTH muscle building and fat loss.

It’s been my experience over the past twenty plus years in the fitness training industry that the key component in a lean body transformation is unequivocally strength training.

Therefore, if you’re goal is fat loss, it should be at...

If you have symptoms such as regularly feeling tired and fatigued along with recurring allergy issues, suffering from anxiety, difficulties with concentrating, poor sleep patterns, and find it difficult to lose weight, you may be dealing from hidden adrenal fatigue also known as hypoadrenia.

This is part one in a three-part series that I’ll be doing on adrenal fatigue and how to correct it. First, we should develop a basic understanding of the adrenal glands and what they do. There are two adrenal glands located on top of the kidneys. These glands are involved several physiological functions including blood sugar regulation, central nervous system processes, cardiovascular function, hormone production, gastrointestinal function, and liver function to name a few.

The adrenal glands also play an important role in helping the body respond appropriately to stressors. They produce hormones in a complex symphony that is orchestrated with two other glands in the brain called the...

There is nothing quite as frustrating as a scale that just won’t seem to budge. You’re working out on a regular basis and watching what you eat but it’s simply not working. When fat loss stalls, most people will attempt to “fix it” by exercising more and eating less. This will result in only more frustration.

Let’s put an end to this madness once and for all! I am going to help you stop the confusion and frustration right now by sharing with you some real secrets of fat loss. I’ve listed below the top seven reasons I’ve found why you’re probably not losing fat.

1. You’re Eating Foods That Cause Inflammation

No I’m not talking about eating too much processed, refined, junk food. If you need me to tell you that then you’ve been living in a cave. But you may be surprised to learn that eating even “healthy” foods like whole grains can cause bloating and inflammation. Many women have digestive issues with...

The secret for women to obtain a healthier, firmer, and more toned looking body is no longer a secret. For years, women have traditionally relied on a belief that combining aerobic activity with a low calorie diet would be the most effective means for changing their shape.

Unfortunately, most have found out after painstaking effort that this practice doesn’t work very well. The fact is that low calorie diets only punish the body by compromising necessary nutrition and significantly lowering metabolism, thus making weight loss more difficult. The quick weight loss that occurs in low calorie diets often includes the quick loss of muscle tissue.

This is ineffective for several reasons. It is the lean muscle tissue that will keep your metabolism high through out the day. By sacrificing lean muscle you’ll make it difficult to lose body fat. Changing your shape always starts with increasing lean muscle. Remember you can’t tone fat only muscle! 

I have always been...

As you know, there are numerous fitness training options for Charleston area residents looking to lose those unwanted pounds and get in shape in the new year.

Charleston gyms, health clubs, and fitness training facilities in 2020 continue to offer up a wide variety of options for various workouts and exercise routines to meet individual preferences and needs.

Recently there has been significant growth in the smaller private studios in Charleston offering various types of boutique fitness training with specialized instruction for things like Yoga, Pilates, Barre, personal training, indoor cycling, and others.

The good news is this provides Lowcountry residents with lots of options according to their individual wants, needs, and budget. The question becomes which is the best workout or facility to go to for you?

That truly all depends on your individual preferences and needs. In all fairness, there is no one exercise modality that can provide optimal benefits across the board for all...