This is interesting to note because in the next few years the conclusions have become more and more definitive. It is usually like this. For example with Gluten right now there is a lot of discussion saying that there is no definitive “clinical” proof.

Which is correct, there isn’t. Right now. But there IS a pile of rather overwhelming evidence that people feel better, often a LOT better when they remove gluten from their diets.

However, there are powerful voices out there that amplify this lack of  “clinical” proof. For example, Weight Watchers has recently published an article saying that Gluten is basically a fad. This leads to confusion in the marketplace. Others in the weight loss space, like PEERtrainer, argue strongly that removing gluten is something you need to test, and that removing gluten can even help you fight belly fat.

We bring this up because going back to the issue of sleep and weight loss, now in 2012 there is now “evidence” that lack of sleep has been found to be directly linked to weight gain.

The quick point to make here is that where there is smoke there is fire. If you think you might have an issue with gluten, are you going to wait a few more years for complete “proof” or do you think it might make sense to at least test it yourself?

For emotional eaters, night eaters and stress eaters, this is something to become aware of. Often we think of the times that we lose control of our eating in terms off added calories.

But it is much worse than that. Often we are stressed, and this stress can literally make it impossible to lose weight- even if you don’t binge or eat in an out of control way!!

Nutritionist Jason Boehm explains:

“On a more practical level, stress makes you head straight for the Krispy Kremes or whatever your favorite comfort food might be. After all, you’re not exactly gravitating to quinoa and Brussels sprouts after your boss lets you have it for not meeting third-quarter quota.

Your adrenals respond to stress by secreting cortisol. This hormone gets a bad rap, but cortisol can actually be beneficial in certain situations. For instance, if you’re working out, cortisol helps redistribute fat from your fat cells to your muscle cells, which need that energy to work (that’s one reason cortisol increases during exercise).

But responding to chronic stress by continually secreting cortisol eventually wears your adrenals out. Adrenal burnout manifests as sleeping poorly, insulin resistance, decreased thyroid function, and lowered nutrient status. All of these symptoms contribute to weight loss resistance.”  Source: How To Overcome Weight Loss Resistance

Women’s health expert Marcelle Pick adds:

“For some, rebalancing your body may be as easy as ending a troubling relationship! I had one patient whose weight loss resistance was rooted in stress. Her husband was cheating on her and embezzling money from her. Dumping him helped her to lose 40 pounds without doing anything else! So take the time to explore what’s working and not working in your life, because these things truly do influence your make changes and sustain healthy habits.”

Stress and emotions are a complex thing, but bringing an awareness to the need to reduce stress in your life can help you attack this gordian knot!

Birth Control Pills and Weight Loss Resistance:

Nutritionist JJ Virgin says that “Birth control pills (BCPs) can create weight loss resistance by knocking your body’s hormones out of whack. BCPs contain chemical estrogens and progestogens. High-progestogen BCPs especially can increase adrenaline secretion.” Source: Get Off The Pill and Overcome Weight Loss Resistance

Dr. Oz will never say any of this, because Weight Watchers is a major sponsor of his show. But the idea that you need to understand is that you have to move beyond the simple strategies that we all know. Because clearly, it is not getting us the results we want.

If you want a different result, you have to do different things!!

Portion control is great, group support is great, but as those of you who struggle with emotional eating, night eating and binges- you know that conventional diets at a minimum haven’t provided a cure.

The path to building high levels of emotional strength is a long one. Very doable with the right strategies, but it takes time and focus.

In the short term, one thing that we have seen help in the eating department is the implementation of some big shifts in your diet. The first big change is a pretty significant increase in the amounts of plants and vegetables in your diet.

Most people don’t get enough plants and vegetables in their diet, and as a result develop a “micronutrient deficiency.” This helps to feed food cravings, because your body wants these nutrients, and gives you signals.

Most people who struggle with cravings and out of control behavior misinterpret these signals and eat the wrong foods.

Usually these foods are high in sugar and carbs, which helps to further deepen the cycle of bad decision/bad feeling.

This is where something like the PEERtrainer Cleanse can play a helpful role for emotional eaters. Dr Oz has some great advice, but as we all know the key to doing anything is follow-through.

The PEERtrainer Cleanse implements some sound strategies of increasing your vegetables, and giving you a way of avoiding the foods which deepend the bad decision/bad feeling cycle.

Most importantly, the PEERtrainer Cleanse features a program which guides you step by step, and is connected to their well known support system.

The support system on PEERtrainer is key to making their cleanse work. It has been identified by US News and World Report, and also recommended by Dr Oz himself.

From a structural perspective, this program is designed to help emotional eaters, because it has you remove the foods that deepen the bad decision/bad feeling cycle. The shakes and meal plan then give you a way to replace these foods.

Anytime you remove these foods (wheat, dairy, corn etc) you are going to bring your cravings in control.

There is no guarantee that it will work for you- that is up to you. But if you remove the foods they tell you to, and increase your vegetables, you will probably experience some good benefits.

The bottom line here is that when you embrace advanced nutritional strategies beyond simple portion control, your will gain more control. You’ll experience fewer cravings, a reduction and inflammation and likely a pretty good reduction in weight, especially if you bring your overall stress levels down.

For those of you who do their program, please leave a comment below. Let us know if it helps with your emotional eating.

Finding a way to exercise at night is hugely important. Additionally, people who struggle with emotional eating also report high levels of belly fat. Belly fat is dangerous, and is associated with a wide variety of health risk, including sudden cardiac death.

This is NO JOKE.

Here are the specific exercises you need to do to burn belly fat. The key point here is that you need to become active, consume less sugar and eat more green vegetables.

Exercise And Belly Fat

“Studies suggest that to lose belly fat, exercise is absolutely necessary, and diet alone is not sufficient. This may seem intimidating, but to begin losing belly fat you do not need to run five miles a day. Even a slow start is beneficial, and reductions in belly fat happen in a dose-dependant manner, meaning that the more you exercise the more belly fat will be lost.

There is a minimum amount necessary, which research suggests is 10 METs of aerobic exercise a week. METs are a way to measure exercise using the same principle as the way we measure our resting metabolic rate. Because everyone is different, and has different metabolisms, burning 100 calories takes different amounts of time for different people and is not a useful measurement. METs helps give a scale applicable to everyone.

METs (metabolic equivalent of a task) measure not the calories burned by an activity, but the overall intensity. The more intense an exercise, the more METs are accumulated. One MET is roughly equivalent to sitting for one hour–in other words, if you did nothing at all, all day, you would burn exactly 24 METs, meeting your resting metabolic rate. Activities which require more effort, even slightly, accrue METs faster, reflecting the increased amount of energy required to perform these tasks. Here is a brief chart of activities with MET equivalents (per hour):

Sitting Quietly: 1 MET
Walking: 2-3 METs
Leisure Biking: 4 METs
Biking, light-moderate: 7-8 METs
Biking, vigorous: 10 METs
Swimming, light-moderate: 6 METs
Jogging (4 mph): 6 METs
Running (6 mph): 10 METs
Running (8 mph): 12 METs
Sprinting (12 mph): 19 METs

As the relative intensity of the exercise increases, MET hours also go up. If you could run at 12 mph for an hour, you would burn the metabolic equivalent of 19 hours at rest (19 METs)! Of course, this is probably not possible, but you still get significant benefit from jogging at 4 mph–two hours of jogging at this rate will net you 12 METs, two above the minimum requirement weekly for belly fat reduction!

To be useful for belly fat reduction, the exercise needs to be aerobic–it should make you breathe hard, but not so hard you can’t speak in short sentences. Most light aerobic activities are worth around 6 METs, plus or minus one, meaning you need a minimum of an hour and a half to two hours of this activity each week. If you feel like you don’t have the time to exercise two hours a week, find it! If you still really can’t, then up the intensity. Running at 6 mph is worth 10 METs, as is vigorous biking. If you can sustain these speeds for a half an hour, then you only need two half hour sessions a week!

If time is really an issue, then you can burst train. There are many ways to burst train, but the general idea connecting them is that you should go all out for 45-60 seconds, recover, go all out again, recover again, etc. One minute may not seem long enough to make a difference, and alone it is not, but consider this: one minute of sprinting is worth 19 MET minutes. If you burst train with sprints and lightly jog during the recovery minutes, then you will accumulate a total of about 2.6 METs (1.6 METs from sprinting, 1 MET from jogging). Four fifteen minute sessions a week is all that is necessary–sprinting is not. Any exercise you can only do for about a minute is of sufficient intensity to be worth around 20 METs

The more you exercise aerobically, or the more intensely, the faster the belly fat will be shed. Significant losses only begin at 10 METs per week–much higher amounts can be burned by increased exercise. It is also important to note that even though resistance training has not been directly tied to reducing belly fat, it is an extremely important part a general fitness routine, and will help raise your overall metabolic rate which will help you reduce belly fat.”

Source

Obviously when someone like Oz makes a statement like this, people listen. Of course the kicker here is that you have to get the ketones in supplement form. He explains:

“Raspberry ketone is the primary aroma compound of red raspberries. This compound regulates adiponectin, a protein used by the body to regulate metabolism. Raspberry ketone causes the fat within your cells to get broken up more effectively, helping your body burn fat faster. The recommended dose is 100mg per day. To get the same benefit from the whole fruit, you’d have to consume 90 pounds of raspberries.”

A recent study in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism showed that most natural weight loss supplements do a lousy job helping people burn fat.

While it may be true that these ketones help you burn fat, if you have a high level of sugar in your diet, there is absolutely no way that these will help you burn fat. Period.

You have to realize that most of us are emotional eaters- and as such we justify, justify, justify. So the average person will rush online, buy a bottle of these ketones and go to town with their eating. And then wonder why the miracle drug did not work.

You really are better off eating raspberries themselves. Here is a rundown of why raspberries are so good.

First, they are very high in fiber. People don’t get enough fiber in their diet according to every measure imaginable. One cup of raspberries have 8 grams of dietary fiber. Additionally, raspberries have an array of micronutrients which are highly associated with better health. According to PEERtrainer, raspberries contain the following:

Anthocyanins

Anthocyanins are the flavonoids responsible for the red color of raspberries and blue color of blueberries and they are powerful anti-inflammatory agents. Red raspberries contain about 80mg anthocyanins per cup, and if you can find them, black raspberries have 725mg anthocyanins per cup. That’s over double the anthocyanins blueberries have!

Catechins

Catechins are the phenols found famously in green tea, but raspberries have some too. One cup of raspberries has a little over 1mg of catechins.

Quercetin

Quercetin is a flavonoid found in onions, garlic, and also raspberries. Quercetin has anti-inflammatory effects and is also a potent anti-carcinogen, helping to prevent cancer. Raspberries have 15mg quercetin per cup.

Raspberry Ketones

Raspberry ketones are the simple phenols which give raspberries their aroma, but they have a powerful effect on your body’s ability to burn fat! Raspberry ketones “turn on” lipolysis, the process through which our body burns fat for energy, and the result is that more fat is burned as energy and less is stored. The ketone content of a cup of raspberries is 100-400mcg.

Ellagic Acid

Ellagic acid is a phenol found in berries and certain nuts which has antioxidant and anti cancer effects. Raspberries contain 4mg ellagic acid per cup.

The main reason for this is that Dr. Oz simply has a ton of credibility. People have been talking about many of the ideas presented in his cleanse for years now, and Dr. Oz’s role is to come along after a new idea has circulated for a while and then put his stamp of approval on it.

One of the most interesting aspects of Dr. Oz’s cleanse is what he does not say. Take corn for example. Many people in the health community are now questioning whether popcorn is good for a diet. It used to be common knowledge that this food was low in calories, could fill you up.

People now realize, thanks to people like Dr. Mercola, that corn is one of the most genetically modified foods out there. People estimate that 95% of corn is now genetically modified. People also realize that corn is high on the glycemic load and can generate allergic responses in people, in a low grade kind of way.

What does this have to do with Emotional Eating and Dr. Oz’s Cleanse?

Everything.

Because foods like corn are not on his cleanse. Nor is bread, dairy, soy etc.

Dr. Oz knows all the cutting edge research. He has been reading what Mercola has been saying about GMO’s for years. But it is not his role to be out there on the cutting edge.

So just realize that when it comes to Dr. Oz, you need to have a little faith in him, and know that there is a lot being left unsaid.

It is meant to be that way. If he was at the leading edge, he would not be getting big TV and media deals. They would be afraid of him.

So he is almost more powerful playing the careful role that he is.

He contrasts this approach with the cleanse and detox programs pushed by celebrities that deprive you of nutrients and often have you drinking lots of water and juice. What Dr. Oz outlines follows closely on the success of The Clean Program and PEERtrainer’s Fresh Start Cleanse, which have focused on adding nutrition instead of removing calories.

Even Nutrisystem has gotten in the act by creating something called the Success Program which adds a daily protein drink to the mix. Protein is a key part of each one of these Cleanse approaches because it plays a key role in removing toxins from the body.

How Dr. Oz’s Cleanse Works

In Dr. Oz’s two day cleanse he has people start the day by making a bowl of Quinoa mixed with ginger and nutmeg for breakfast. Dr. Oz states that “quinoa contains all the essential amino acids, making it a complete protein.”

He then states correctly that traditional versions of cleanses do not include protein, which can result in muscle loss. Your body needs the amino acids to perform the detoxification processes, and if your body cannot get it from your diet, it will start to “mine” them from your muscle tissue.

How Dr. Oz’s Cleanse Is Different

Not only can cleanses that do not include protein cause muscle loss, they can also make you feel bad. Many people who go on The Master Cleanse for example report feeling bad, sick and nauseous. This is because the body is not consuming enough protein to remove the toxins. So not only do the toxins build up, which makes you feel sick, your body is attacking its own muscles.

Lunch Recipe For Dr. Oz’s Cleanse

For lunch Dr. Oz suggests drinking a fruit smoothie, which will taste great and also provide nutrients which have been shown to clean the cells and help support the liver. The fruit smoothie recipe includes blueberries and banana, and also includes ground flaxseeds or ground chia seeds. These seeds contain fiber, which helps to support elimination. They also contain protein and Omega-3 fatty acids which your body needs to function optimally.

Dinner Recipe For Dr. Oz’s Cleanse

For dinner. Dr. Oz suggests making a vegetable soup. The recipe he gives includes red onions, chopped celery, chopped fennel, chopped garlic cloves, sliced shitake mushrooms, chopped cabbage, chopped parsley, fresh oregano. You take all these ingredients and cook them in 2 cups of water for an hour.

This soup is packed with a broad array of nutrients. Not only will this soup fill you up, but it literally will help to detoxify your body. If you do this often enough it can reduce your risk of cancer! According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, eating mushrooms on a regular basis “is associated with decreased risk of breast, stomach, and colorectal cancers.” He goes on to say that “White, cremini, Portobello, oyster, shiitake, maitake, and reishi mushrooms all have anti-cancer properties – some are anti-inflammatory, stimulate the immune system, prevent DNA damage, slow cancer cell growth, cause programmed cancer cell death, and inhibit angiogenesis.”

Dr. Oz suggests that one include fermented sauerkraut, which contain probiotics that help the gastrointestinal tract. He also suggests that after dinner one eat some apple slices to increase the fiber. For those of you struggling with emotional eating, this cleanse strategy can really help you deal with night eating and mindless snacking after dinner.

Will Dr. Oz’s Cleanse Work?

Starting the day off with Quinoa (or any other clean protein like wild salmon) has been shown to help fight hunger. The fruit smoothie will give you a little glucose which your body needs some of. And the extremely nutrient dense soup for dinner will help you feel very full. This helps you in two ways. First, your body gets the nutrients it needs, which over time will help you stop emotional eating.

Secondly, this soup will fill you up without adding calories or fat. If you find your self dealing with emotions or some sort of trigger where you would normally eat, just eat another serving of this soup. This way, you’ll turn something that is normally negative into a positive.

Of course over time you need to train yourself to respond to your emotions without using food. But first things first. Eating a hearty vegetable soup at night, even when you are not “on a cleanse” is a good strategy. You can also experiment by adding a little avocado or grass-fed beef to your dinner.

One very interesting thing to note about Dr. Oz’s cleanse program is that it does not include any dairy, eggs, wheat, soy or corn. He does not make this clear, but this is very good advice.

Related Emotional Eating Diet Article: The 8 Steps To Stopping Emotional Eating Forever

As a result, what people think is the right way to burn fat is actually the most effective marketing term. For example, people think that cardio is the best way to burn fat, when in fact the key to rapid weight loss is actually controlling your insulin levels.

In simple terms, when your blood sugar levels rise, so do your insulin levels. That’s the big thing to keep in mind. So step one of our 4 step rapid weight loss action plan is to reduce the amount of sugar in your bloodstream. You do this by consuming less actual sugar as well as fewer starchy carbs.

This first step is commonly referred to as a “low-carb diet” and often done alone. We find that for most people, especially those who struggle with emotional eating or night eating, this strategy alone is not adequate. In order to make a low carb diet work, you need to focus on these 4 steps and more.

The second step to rapid weight loss is to increase your fiber intake to at least 30 grams per day. This helps to detoxify the body and helps things move through your system. Fiber helps to fill you up, helps to repair your gut and is generally excellent for overall health.

A study in Nutrition Reviews showed that 14 grams of fiber a day helped people lose four pounds of weight in four months, even when they made no other dietary modifications. Other studies have shown that 30 grams of fiber or more is helpful to overall health.

Fiber helps you burn fat by suppressing ghrelin, delaying stomach emptying, and buffering dietary sugar to balance insulin levels. The issue with fiber, however, is that most people struggle to get enough per day. A general rule of thumb here is to have a cup of black beans per day and a cup of peas. Those two foods are very high in fiber. They also contain beneficial micronutrients, which are essential for health. Numerous studies have linked micronutrient intake to reduction in disease. The inverse has also been shown.

The third step to rapid weight loss is to learn the basics of a cleanse done right. If you think of something like The Master Cleanse you are barking up the wrong tree. You need to focus on eliminating dairy and wheat in particular, which helps to further reduce insulin levels.

This third step is the “secret sauce” to this rapid weight loss plan. Most people do not balk at the suggestion that they reduce sugar and carbs, and increase fiber. However, many of those same people will question the suggestion that they give up bread and dairy.

We will leave the science of why you should remove these foods for another post. For the time being just trust us- if you want to lose weight quickly, you are going to want to go cold turkey on those foods for a couple weeks.

The fourth step to rapid weight loss is a dramatic increase in vegetables. Green vegetables in particular help to clean out the cells. As long as you are consuming adequate protein in your diet, you will be able to clean out your fat cells, making them more available for fat burning.

Green vegetables contain high levels of important nutrients, which most people don’t get enough of. They are help reduce your hunger. It is thought that when the body has the nutrients it needs, this helps to reduce food cravings. This is very important because if you are getting good at reducing or controlling your insulin you will be burning fat. The last thing you want to do is start overeating, which will force you to start the process again.

The combination of portion control, reducing carbs and increasing your green vegetables is a proven one.

There is a ton more to losing weight, on top of the emotional issues surrounding weight loss. But these four steps will really help you burn fat quickly and get on the path to rapid weight loss.

When you understand what emotions you are feeling, why you do and what your usual decision making process it, you are then in a place to begin working on developing new habits and patterns. It is very empowering.  One thing that we would ask is to leave a comment at the bottom of the guide with your feedback and comments.

Thank you! Here is the link.