The ketogenic diet is taking the diet industry by storm because of how wildly effective it is at torching unwanted body fat fast… no arguing that fact…. Going Keto Works.

BUT, you’ve probably also heard that in order for it to work, you have to eat close to ZERO carbs every day… and for most, that’s a deal breaker.

For me, that’s why Keto sucks – not because it doesn’t work (it does), but because I’m not willing to do the trade off.

The educational presentation at the link below reveals the good, the bad, and the truth about Keto diets and it’s simply mind blowing!

I’m not going to try and sell you a Keto Diet like the marketers that are behind the information you’ve been exposed to…

I’m simply going to give you the facts so that you make an educated decision on whether Keto could be right for you.

==> The Truth About The Ketogenic Diet

In last letter to my subscribers I talked about my issue with health and nutrition advocates.

That they often blatantly ignore the hypothesis of multiple possible causes.

Today’s nutrition looks at all of the suggested causes, and does its best to pick the ‘most likely cause’… mostly by siding with personal biases and picking and choosing which research it wants to believe.

It picks what either A) fits today’s rhetoric the best or B) picks the controversial answer that will get the most clicks / air-time / magazine reads.

In today’s nutrition we get attached to one dogmatic explanation… and this is basically the definition of superstition.

In my last email on this topic email I made the mistake of using weight loss as an example…

People are emotionally and dogmatically attached to their views on weigh loss, so naturally suggesting that their could be more than one cause for obesity sent some people into a tizzy…

Which is exactly my issue with the whole concept…

We emotionally choose the option we like best.

This never works well.

To explain multiple possible causes WITHOUT using weight loss as an example, we can look to exhaustion.

Everyone experiences exhaustion at some point in their lives.

But it’s not always for the same reason.

For some it is work stress, others it’s a thyroid problem, still others it’s exposure to carbon dioxide.

There are probably dozens of possible causes for exhaustion.

Therefore there are multiple solutions.

For some it’s a good night’s rest. For others, sleep could actually make the problem worse.

Multiple possible causes, multiple possible solutions.

Weight gain and weight loss are similar… Multiple possible causes working through both unique and similar pathways to cause a common outcome.

Save yourself from the anxiety of trying to find the ONE ANSWER, be open to the idea of multiple possible causes.

Then you will be free to experiment, then pick and choose what works for you and what fits best for you with much less stress and anxiety.

What is optimal for you may not be optimal for me and vice versa.

I am not a perfectionist, and I don’t think you have to be one in order to be ‘healthy’.

Sure, to get ridiculously low levels of body fat and extreme levels of muscularity, you have to be very dedicated, but once you step away from the ledge of extremes you’ll find that you can get a way with looking pretty good and feeling pretty good on a relatively small amount of work, and certainly a lot less stress.

I fast twice a week for roughly 24 hours. Sometimes it’s twenty, but rarely is it ever over twenty-four. This, combined with somewhat responsible eating ( I didn’t get a donut this morning, but I am eating a bowl of frosted mini-wheats) keeps my body fat somewhere between 10 and 12%. Not fitness model 8% or extremely low 6%, but a pretty good 10 to 12%. It’s pretty good, and I’m OK with that.

I work out with weights roughly twice per week. This amount of training is not going to win me any bodybuilding contests, but it’s enough to keep the base I built over the last twenty years. I could workout more, and sometimes I do, but right now, 2 workouts per week means a lot of extra time to spend with my family. and I’m more than OK with this too.

I’m also pretty good at staying healthy. Yesterday news came out that suggested that consuming processed meat is linked to cancer. Eating 50 grams of processed meat per day can slightly increase your risk of Bowel Cancer. Well, for two 24 hour periods per week I don’t eat any meat at all. So no stress. Sugar is apparently bad for you too.. again for two 24 hour periods per week I don’t eat any sugar at all… so I’m not too worried about that one either.

Could I do more for my health? Green smoothies every day, no alcohol, only raw organic local produce? sure. But I’m OK with where I am.

Bottom line – there are lots of experts who can help you with the extremes. So if extreme is what you want, there are lots of options. I’m a master of ‘good enough’. If looking good and being healthy is important to you, but not at the expense of consuming your life, than I have some pretty simple, time tested advice.

1. Fast once or twice a week – it doesn’t have to be 24 hours, it could be 16, or 20, must make sure you’re taking a break from eating occasionally.

2. Stress less. Do your best to only stress about the things that are actually worth stressing about.

3. Lift. As little as twice a week can do wonders. Three to four times per week is great, just be careful as you’ll start to see diminishing returns after a while.

4. Move. Do something that makes you breath a little harder each and every day. I like climbing, but do something that you find fun.

5. Eat. PLEASE EAT. But eat responsibly. You don’t have to be a saint with your food, but you can’t eat like every day is thanksgiving either.

6. Sleep – Get a good nights sleep. If you’re doing the first five things properly, this should be a little bit easier.

It’s a bit of an art-science to discover your own ‘pretty good’ and your own ‘good enough’. A beautiful blend of combining what you know you should do with what you actually want to do. It’s worth knowing and worth experimenting with… life shouldn’t always be about extremes.

Your friend,

Brad

To explain the theory of fat availability we have to start with a little
bit of basic physiology. Specifically, we have to look at how our body
fat actually works.

The main purpose of our body fat is to serve as an ‘energy reservoir’
for our bodies. In times of caloric excess (overeating) our body fat
expands to store energy by one of two processes:

They expand to store energy in the form of triglycerides, to be used later as energy to supply our metabolic demands when calories from food are limited (caloric restriction or dieting). In other words, our body fat has the unique ability to rapidly expand or contract depending on nutritional status (Calorie Surplus or Calorie Deficit).

Free fatty acids (FFAs for short) are what is released from adipose tissue when we need energy. This is happening throughout the day even if you’re not dieting, but it’s elevated when we are fasting, exercising or in a caloric deficit (dieting). This is a very good thing since most of us who are dieting and exercising are doing so because we want to decrease the size of our body fat!

When the fat is released from your body fat stores it can end up in a few different places.

1. It can go to the liver and gets stored there
2. It gets burned for fuel by other organs (heart, liver, kidneys etc).
3. It simply gets recycled back into your body fat cells to be re-stored.

The reality is that all three of these processes are happening on a daily basis. The difference is the % of fat that is being recycled back into fat tissue vs the amount that is being burned by other organs.

The movement of fat in and out of your fat cells is an extremely important process that needs to be tightly regulated. The FFAs that are not burned as fuel must quickly be taken up by the liver or recycled and stored back in your fat tissue. If there is an overabundance of fats that are not either burned or stored they can cause an inflammatory response, which chronically can lead to a whole host of health issues and chronic diseases [Sun K J clin invest 2011]. This is how excess fat and an inability to effectively burn the fat contributes to things like diabetes and heart disease.

If this extra fat remains circulating for too long it can also cause ‘ectopic’ fat storage, which is basically fat being stored in places it shouldn’t be stored (like your heart and liver). This can also lead to severe health consequences in the long-term.

It is extremely important that the body regulates the amount of fat that is entering your blood stream because having a high amount of fat circulating in your blood is linked to diseases. You can’t simply have every single one of your fat cells empty out all at once into your blood- the results would be catastrophic!

Each of your fat cells is able to release fats into your blood stream at a predetermined rate, and the ‘rate’ at which an adipocyte can do this is relatively fixed. It can increase to match the needs created by dieting and exercise, but even during exercise, higher energy needs simply cannot be met by fat (which is why we rely primarily on carbohydrate during high intensity exercise).

The amount of energy your fat can provide when you are dieting is dependent on how much body fat you have. The more body fat you have, the larger the calorie deficit you are able to ‘fill’ with the energy stored in your fat.

The word ‘fill’ is actually a good way of describing what your body fat does when you’re dieting. When you diet you create a calorie deficit – essentially a gap between the amount of calories you eat, and the amount of calories you’re burning on a daily basis. In an ideal world, this gap is filled by the energy that is stored in your body fat.

As you lose body fat the amount of fat that can be released also decreases. This means most people do dieting wrong, and specifically they do it backwards. In other words, the more fat you have, the lower and longer you can go in a caloric deficit without experiencing any ill effects. But, towards the end of a diet, when body fat levels can be extremely low, the deficit needs to be shorter and smaller.

When you are carrying excess body fat you can eat less for longer because your body has plenty of fat to burn as a fuel to ‘fill in’ your calorie deficit. This is the time for rapid fat loss. One way to imagine it is like having a full ‘tank’ of reserve energy. As your body fat levels decrease you can no longer handle as large a deficit for as long a period of time. This makes sense that the less fat you have to lose, the slower it comes off.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the deficit the calories MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

Oddly enough, it seems as though some obese people have an unbelievable amount of fat available as a fuel, but a lower ability to burn that fat, whereas as they get leaner, they have less and less fat available as a fuel, but a greater and greater ability to burn the fat they do have. So at extreme levels of leanness it is the fat availability that limits a persons ability to lose fat.

When a large calorie deficit is maintained while there is limited body fat available that metabolic disturbances such as altered Testosterone, Thyroid and Cortisol levels begin to take place and negatively affect both your muscle mass, and overall muscle strength [Nindl B.C. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2007; Freidl K.E. J Appl Physiol 2000].

This is the theory of fat availability – As body fat levels decrease so does your ability to handle a large calorie deficit. Most people forget about the Theory of fat Availability when they design a diet, so they decrease the amount of calories a person consumes as they get leaner. This leads to a whole host of problems, including feeling sluggish, depressed, moody, loss of muscle mass, water retention, metabolic alterations and a generally feeling of ‘not wanting to diet or exercise anymore’. [Freidl K.E. J Apple Physiol, 1994; Keys, A. Biology of Human Starvation, 1950; Keys, A. Science Washington, 1946; Taylor H.L. Science, 1950]

• There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.

• The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.

• The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.

• Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

Some diet gurus may tell you that not eating enough food or fasting will cause you to store more amount of fat. They may even tell you that, for reducing weight, you should keep eating. To be more specific, they will tell you that to eat their exclusive food which is meant for reducing weight.

These confusing messages may lead several to compulsive habits of eating. These professional experts base their arguments completely on the “starvation mode” theory. At the time of starvation mode, body evidently slows their metabolism production at times when few calories get ingested.

Moreover, researches have even shown that the individuals may actually eat just few calories for the extended time period without any change in the level of metabolism and no declining in the muscle mass till the routine of resistance training gets maintained.

Important amounts of weight may be lost on the low-calorie diet devoid of losing the muscle mass or destructing the level of metabolism if resistance exercise gets included in the plan of weight loss.

In the recent study which is published in Journal of Obesity, the researchers have examined effects by 94 women of weight loss of about 25-pound. These women followed the strict diet of 800 calories each day diets for about 5 months. The portion of women even followed the workout program resistance training, other portion followed the program of aerobic training, and the final portion does not perform any exercise.

The researchers also found that women who followed the workout program of resistance training maintained Fat Free Mass when they were on this diet. It means that although they lost about 25 pounds they were still able to protect the muscle mass. Hence all 25 pounds which these women lost was completely fat!

They even found that group of women who followed workout program of resistance training preserved the metabolic rate. On the other hand, both women who performed the aerobic training and who does not perform any exercise at the time of course of 800-calorie diet truly lost their muscle mass.

Not just women but even men can save and build the muscle mass by following the low calorie diet and irregular fasting rule. It’s however difficult to acknowledge this idea as we have heard of the advice such as “Eat big to get big” and even considered bulk eating as the ideal strategy for muscle building, but truth is a quite different.

Eating the massive amount of protein and calories will, quite likely, result in enhancing the muscle mass when you attain the age of 18 till 25. Then, bulking may simply lead to gaining of needless pounds of fat instead than make you by put on the muscle.

So, as you become older, the role of calories gets change as process drive of muscle growth decreases and the 2 other things become priority such as calorie adequacy and proper workouts. Calorie adequacy is quantity of protein and calories which is sufficient to support the muscle growth and not by making you increase the body fat. It is quite different for people, depending on their age, training program, of training, level of the body fat and it takes trial and error to search the right number.

“Eating enough” for your muscle growth may be done easily with the intermittent fasting. So, you may incorporate 2 or 2 fast for 24 hour in week in the fitness plan and can work out on the non-fasting days. Moreover, vaguely increase your intake of protein above the amount of calories that you require to eat for the purpose of body maintenance. The high convenient method to take care of this is to take few supplements of protein based. At this specific point, it even seems to be doable to create muscle while you are trying to shed some pounds through the irregular fasting.

Bottom line – where intermittent fasting and dieting combines with the resistance training may help you to lose pounds devoid of losing the muscle mass or reducing the metabolism. However, short-term fasting does not hinder the long-term process such as muscle building, particularly if you get adequate quantity of calories and proteins which are sufficient to feed the muscle growth and supply the energy for the workout sessions.

The human body is developed in such a way to endure scarcity of food and stress. Our ancestors had to face scarcity of food as they were dependent on their hunting ability to get food.  They had natural food and which contained most of protein or fat. For them fasting was a part of their life.

Fasting allows the body to go into the tissue breakdown mode, so that the older and damaged cells of the body are replaced with new stronger cells. In this modern day people try different methods to reduce weight and get into shape.

The problem is that when you lose weight your muscles lose its shape and body becomes unattractive. Though there are many supplements available for reduction of weight they do not provide muscle development and those supplements which are there for muscle development do not provide weight loss. So if you want to achieve both weight reduction and muscle building you have to opt for GH Releasing Peptides and Intermittent Fasting which are most effective in developing a well shaped body.

What Are GH Releasing Peptides?

GHRP-2 is a synthetic derivative of ghrelin, the newly-discovered gut peptide. This peptide binds to the growth hormone (GH) secretion controlling receptor. Ghrelin has two major effects, stimulating GH secretion and controlling the food intake. Basically there are two different types of GH Releasing Peptides the GRF or Growth Releasing Factor and Growth Hormone Releasing Peptides or GHRP-2.

Scientists developed the synthetic GHRP which can produce the best result when it comes to weight reduction and muscle building. They provided all the required results without causing any side effect. GH Releasing Peptides work by stimulating the secretion of growth hormones. Growth hormone in turn regulates burning of fat and helps to build muscle and slows down the bad effects of stress on our body.

A Powerful Combination

Studies have shown that intermittent fasting for 12-24 hours with high intensity exercises boost the human growth hormone production.

• Our body responds in a different way when it is subjected to nutrient restriction and carbohydrate scarcity.
• The anabolic processes in the body shuts down and breaking down process or catabolic activities take over.

When you re-introduce the carbohydrate at the right time, the fat burning activities of the body continues and when you have the GH Releasing Peptides as supplements they will provide the raw material for promoting muscle growth and repair.

The combination of GH Releasing Peptides and intermittent fasting has a powerful influence on fat metabolism and muscle preservation, so that you get the body you dreamt of.

Just a quick post to let you know that I now have a game plan for explaining disinhibition theory.

Disinhibition theory will be one of the central topics for this year’s Uncensored Podcasts.

The podcasts are part of the Adonis / Venus Immersion package.

WARNING: This package is expensive. But also very worth it.

Now, you are not obliged or obligated to get immersion if you want to learn about disinhibition theory. I’m pretty sure that we will eventually publish a book on it sometime in the next year or two…so it’s not as if you’ll NEVER get the info.

But, if you want to follow along the podcasts as we sort out Disinhbition theory in real time and apply it not only to muscle building and fat loss but also to aging, supplements, the controversies in health and fitness research and to the entire Adonis Venus Philosophy then this is a great choice for you.

Here’s quick rundown of the theory:

The premise of our theory is incredibly simple – The ‘natural’ state for your body is growth, with checks and balances acting as breaks to prevent this growth.

As an analogy, it’s like having a car with the accelerator permanently stuck to the floor, and you regulate the speed of the car with by pushing down or letting up on the brake. Only in your body’s case there are dozens if not hundreds of brakes.

This is very different form the current accepted theory that the body simply stops growing and needs to be prodded or stimulated to grow further.

With our disinhibition theory you don’t need to ‘force’ growth, growth is the default setting.

What you need to do is examine the ‘brakes’ that are in place preventing growth if growth is what you desire*.

(*remember, these ‘brakes’ are EXTREMELY important – uncontrolled growth is not something we would ever, ever want.)

The brakes are both intrinsic and extrinsic – Meaning they can be from your own body (like the myostatin gene preventing muscle growth) or external (not working out would be a muscle growth brake so would various nutrient deficiencies).

The great thing about this theory is that it explains the lack of consistent results or guidelines we see with things like how much protein or calories we need to build muscle.

Under the diinhibition theory – a deficiency (too little) can be a break, but once that break is removed and you get enough/adequate amounts of protein or calories then adding more (a surplus) would do nothing to spur more muscle growth.

Once the brake is off it’s off…it can’t be ‘more off’

Another major aspect of this whole theory is denouncing the
idea of a genetic limit.

Limit… such a horrible word.

With disinihibition theory we like to think that the goal is a genetic Ideal. (much better word)

And just as Adonis and Venus are based around hitting an ideal, disinibition theory is exactly HOW we do this…my removing inhibitors…not by trying to ‘Stimulate’ our way to more muscle and less fat.

I really think this approach is going to make getting your ideal body a whole lot easier…

It’s all in immersion. Plus you get Lifetime Access to all Adonis Venus branded books and workouts…meaning everything new we come up with…you get it.

So do me a favor – if you’re interested take a couple minutes click the link below and let Brad Howard explain how the whole thing works.

The program’s are different for men and women, so…

Men click here → Men’s Immersion

Women click here →  Women’s Immersion

PS- If you’ve already purchased any Adonis or Venus products make sure you let the people over at Adonis Venus know and they’ll credit that amount against your purchase of Immersion (they’re good like that).

If you still think that dieting can cause you to lose muscle mass, then the following link is just for you.

Rusty Moore, the author of Visual Impact for Men and Women, posted an interesting post about “Starvation Mode” on his popular
blog “Fitness Black Book“. Be sure to read this post because it contains some paid recordings inside.

Also, you will know, why it is very difficult to go into starvation mode until you get down to 5% body fat (10% for women). And
why most people never need to worry about starvation mode.

Enjoy – http://fitnessblackbook.com/main/starvation-mode-why-you-probably-never-need-to-worry-about-it/

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about getting a copy of How Much Protein, now is the time!

I’ve just released the New and Expanded version of How Much Protein.

With over 50 extra references, and over 150% larger, this expanded version covers some exciting new information – including the role that satellite cells and genetics play in your ability to build muscle AND the difference between Juvenile and Work Induce muscle growth.

I also cover the amount of protein you need to eat to build muscle, as well as the rare exceptions to this rule!

If you want a great reference that gives you clear guidelines on how much protein you need to eat, and a thorough explanation of
the science that explains these recommendations then this is the book for you!

To Get your copy of the New Expanded version please go here:

NEW!! ==> TruthAboutProtein.com

I hope you like it!!

PS- As always, if you already have a copy of ‘How Much Protein’ then please email me and I will take care of you.

To tell the truth, I like body weight exercises…They’re just, well, they’re just fun.

If I were going to pick one person to design me a personal body weight workout it would be Adam Steer.

And if I were going to recommend one person to you, it would also
be Adam Steer.

Big words considering that I’m really selective when recommending people to you.

(The idea of putting my reputation in the hands of someone else’s workout just plain scares me)

But Adam is different so I am going to make an exception.

If you are looking for a body weight style workout then you are going to want to check out this program.

The entire program is body weight-only and can be completed in about the same amount of space you’d need to lie down in, which makes it incredibly cool, especially if you are in the need of a break from hitting the weights and hitting the gym.

Plus each workout is only about 20 minutes long…which is also incredibly cool.

Coolest of all, it doesn’t just include complex ‘Mission Impossible’ style moves.

Bottom line: This workout is worth checking out. (Summer is for training anytime and anywhere…)

There’s no catch and no credit card. Just really amazing and creative ideas about what it takes to sculpt a shredded, functional ‘commando-type’ physique that looks great on the beach but is also
serious “go muscle”–not just “show muscle”.

In other words think ‘cirque de soleil’ strength instead of ‘Mr Stud in the gym strength’

Download your complimentary workout gift at:

http://www.tacfitcommando.com

This offer will only be available for a couple days, so if you want to get your hands on this information for free, visit the site right now.

PS – You may want to visit their site just to watch the cool video…or to laugh at the picture of the dude in the tank top and gold chain..