Lipovarin

Question
Thanks for the detailed info. I have one more question that you may or may not be able to answer. What do you recommend eating before and after going to the gym? On most days I go to the gym early in the morning right after I wake up. I usually eat a small bowl of low fat, high fiber cereal with non-fat milk or sometimes I'll have toast and peanut butter (but sometimes it doesn't feel like enough to get me going). I'm almost always hungry when I get home from the gym. I also noticed that when I work out later during the day, I have more energy and endurance and am able to push myself harder and last longer. Maybe it's because I'm more awake or I've consumed more calories by that time. How do I get that kind of energy in the morning?

Thanks again for your time!

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Followup To
Question -
Hi Leigh-Anne,

What do you know about Lipovarin (benefits, side effects)? Based on this link: http://www.liposlimsystems.com/prod82.aspx the product has "metabromine" which is claimed to give a feeling of "chocolate euphoria". Is this possible? I've tried researching reviews about this product but some seem "fake" and the ones that seem sincere have mixed results. It also has 200mg of caffeine in 3 tablets. I don't drink coffee or soda and I think my only source of caffeine is from chocolate. I am concerned with how much caffeine is a "healthy" amount to consume on a daily basis.

I know weight loss does not come in the form of a pill but I hope to find something that will give me more energy throughout my workouts and help curb my appetite without making me irritable or spaced out. I go to the gym for about an hour almost every day. I spend 1/2 hour on cardio and 1/2 hour on weights or abs. Early in the morning is usually the best time for me to go so I don't have as much energy as I would like to have a fully effective workout. I find it easy to gain muscle but extremely difficult to shed the fat. Also, there are many factors that affect my appetite. The week before and during my period I constantly crave sweets and food. I am also on birth control which is widely proven to increase appetite. I also tend to binge when I am stressed out, irritated or just plain unhappy (which is often). Lastly, I just have an overall weakness for food that tastes good. I can go for a few weeks eating healthy foods then I start craving fatty foods or chocolate and so I binge. No matter how hard I try it always happens. I know I am not overweight and my main concern is fat loss. I have acquired a "fat tire" around my waist and want to get rid of it and have it never come back!

Your knowledge and suggestions will be greatly appreciate.

Thanks for your time!
Answer -
Hello. Sorry it has taken so long for me to answer your question, but being a college student I am hard pressed for free time!

I'm sorry, but I cannot promote the use of ANY type of diet pill. Nothing is without potential risks and side effects... not even those prescription diet pills.

I can give you some suggestions on a couple of more safe natural products... Chromium picolinate claims to promote fat and carbohydrate metabolism, and also Coenzyme Q-10 can also help with metabolism and modest weight loss over time. You are not going to get results from anything if you don't eat healthy and add some exercise into your lifestyle. I am going to copy and paste an article that a doctor I work for wrote on a healthy eating style. I have followed this plan for almost the last 2 years and have managed to lose nearly 30lbs ( I actually ended up going vegan). You don't have to go to those extremes, but consider the science behind it and I'm sure that you will agree that it makes sense in how it works. Good luck... and please stay away from those diet pills... they are a waste of money!

Our bodies were essentially designed to eat vegetables and fruit and complex carbs.  If you look at our tooth structure and the length of our intestines, they were designed for vegetables/fruit/complex carbohydrates much more than they were designed for meat.  A low fat diet can prevent 15-20% of all cancers.  Notice, not all of them....so you have to die from something.

Remember, in the 50 years of the Framingham study that looked at risk factors form heart disease, none of the 6,000 subjects who had cholesterol less than 150 had a heart attack!

I try to explain the diet part by following 2 simple rules:
1.  Eliminate animal fat.  Because of this rule, it turns you into a "vegetarian".  Oh well.  There are some things to learn about this like making sure you still get essential amino acids.  Soy protein has all eight essetial amino acids.  Rice and beans have the major 3 amino acids (tryptophan, methionine, lysine).  If you eat breakfast cereal with a dab of nonfat yogurt, you get the essential amino acids.   In general "whole grains" plus legumes (any bean) will give you the essentials.  Your body only needs 14 grams of essential fats a day to survive and you can easily get this from vegetables.  I also take a B12 vitamin to ensure I get enough B12.  I use soy milk on my cereal (and sometimes drind 4 oz extra).

Remember 1 gram of fat is 9 calories. One gram of protein or carbs is 4 calories.  That is part of the reason you don't need to worry how much you eat in this lifestyle.  You eat when your hungry.  But as explained in rule number 2, you don't get hungry the same way you are now!

2.  Eliminate simple carbohydrates.  What does that mean?

First, eliminate simple sugars like cake, candy, cookies, pop (regular), juice, etc.  In other words if it tastes sweet, avoid it.  I follow this rule 98% of the time.  I will have a rare jelly bean or ice cream/cake at a birthday party, but in very limited quantities and never more than once a week.  This rule is very important to stop the carb cravings you talk about.

Second, eliminate processed grains.  These are things with white flour/white rice, etc.  When they process the grain, they take out the fiber and bran which slows the absorbption of the carbs.  Subsequently, just like with simple sugars, you raise you blood sugar level quickly.  This makes insulin rise, but it will frequently overshoot.  

This causes two problems:   1. It turns on your lipoprotein lipase and causes you to turn your sugar to fat. 2. It causes your sugar to go back down low and drive you to crave more carbs and thus the cycle begins all over again.  After two weeks of this low fat/no simple carb diet, those cravings will go away.  You still get hungry..in fact I "graze" a lot.  I eat pretty much all day, but follow the rules.  

What are complex carbs?  Whole grains....whole wheat, brown rice, corn, rye, etc.  If you buy bread make sure it is 100% whole grain.  Many "wheat" breads in the store still have white flour in it.  If ingredients say "enriched flour" it likely is white flour.

This is not hard to follow from the standpoint of hunger.  It is hard to follow from the standpoint that in our society, 80% of the foods (or more) that are presented to you in social situations are simple carbs and fat.

It takes discipline.  But I have come to think of those foods as poison since they make me feel lousy.

Benefits of this lifestyle:
1.  More energy
2.  Less anxiety/depression
3.  eliminates heart disease and type II diabetes
4.  lowers cancer risk (not eliminate)
5.  you will drift to your "ideal" body weight without focusing on losing weight.  It may take 6-12 months, but it will happen if you are strict on the rules.

Other components to the lifestyle besides what you eat:
1. exercise
2.  eliminate caffeine (I haven't completed this yet, but I am close)  This and all stimulants increase the activity of your nervous system and this has negative consequences for your heart.  Eliminating this also reduces anxiety.

3.  meditate/pray/relax your muscles.

Atkins had it 1/4 right.  By eliminating carbs, his diet eliminates simple carbs.  But you don't have to eliminate complex carbs...he's wrong there.  Also, fat itself in the diet is shown to cause damage to arteries and make you blood easier to clot regardless of cholesterol.  Remember Dr. Atkins had heart attack 2 years ago, but he said his diet didn't cause it!

Sorry for the long winded answer, but I think this is the key to obesity in  America.   We are loaded with simple carbs and fats and we wonder why we can't lose weight.   Remember, the average Chinese person is near ideal body weight.  The average American is obese.   The Average Chinese eats less than 15% fat diet.   The Average American gets 40-50% calories from fat.  The aveage Chinese eats 20% MORE calories per day than the average American, but they are not fat!  

Answer
If you are doing your workout in the morning I woud recommend eating a light meal. Morning is the best time to burn fat calories because you have't put anything in your body yet (no glucose, so instead of your body using glucose you have recently eaten for energy it goes into fat stores for your workout energy). However, if you have an intense workout schedule, you may not be able to wait until after your workout to eat. Therefore, a light meal that combines protein and carbohydrate would be ideal. The toast and peanut butter is a great idea. Perhaps grabbing a protein shake, or maybe granola bar, or even something as simple as a banana could do you some good.

Some people do feel that they have more energy and are able to endure more in the afternoons. Not only have you taken in more energy (food) by that point in the day, so your body has more fuel to keep it going, but your muscles are also more warmed up and stretched out, so they are not stiff and inflexible like they can sometimes be in the morning. You can aid yourself in your morning workouts by doing plenty of stretching exercises before jumping into an intense workout.

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