5 Factor Fitness. Chapter 8 . How. 5 Factor Fuel.

Slims and Tones.

Why five meals? Think of your body as a wood burning stove: you have to stoke the fire early in the morning to warm up the house and continually feed the fire throughout the day to keep it warm. When nighttime arrives and everyone is set to go to sleep, you let the fire naturally burn down until morning, when you start the whole process over again.

Your metabolism works the same way. Start the day strong with a good 5 Factor breakfast, then periodically stoke your metabolic furnace during the day to keep it burning fat. Toward darkness, your body naturally slows down, and so should your intake until morning.

In the 1970s, researchers at the University of Toronto studied the effects of meal frequency on blood sugar and insulin secretion.

They found that by eating many small frequent meals throughout the day, subjects were able to maintain stable blood sugar and insulin levels when compared to subjects who ate larger, less frequent meals. Referred to as “grazing” or “nibbling,” the practice of eating many small meals a day was also shown to decrease levels of bad cholesterol.

Later studies actually found grazing to help in the reduction of body fat. Eating boosts the body’s metabolism temporarily, which is called the thermal effect of food. The more meals a day, the more our metabolism surges.

With an increase in meal frequency also comes an increase in the control of the content and quantity of the food we eat. Today, unfortunately, most people starve themselves for periods of the day in which they often go five to twelve hours without eating anything. When they finally decide to eat, they have little control over what or how much they should eat—thus, their eating is driven mostly by hunger rather than foresight. Hunger is a very primitive drive that results from a physiological need to eat. When we eat frequent, smaller meals, we can decide what and how much to eat. This way, we are eating because we know it’s a good idea to eat now, not because we desperately must eat something immediately.

Another reason that frequent, smaller meals are ideal is that we modern day humans are physiologically identical to our caveman ancestors. As hunters and gatherers, they sometimes went for days without eating. Our species evolved the ability to shift into caloriesaving mode under such conditions, which allowed us to slow down our metabolisms and preserve our body’s energy stores. This meant limiting the amount of our own body fat stores that would be burned for energy, and also the additional food calories that came our way would be stored as body fat.

By eating frequently, we tell our bodies that we are living amid plenty and that we are in no danger of starving. This means that our body sidesteps the starvation/preservation cycle and our metabolisms are running “fast”; the wood burning stove has enough wood coming in to keep the fire stoked and burning hot!$ The 5 Factor’s Five Keys to Fat Loss.

The 5 Factor nutrition plan is based on science—hard, definitive, scientifically proven facts. Within this life changing and bodybettering program, there are five keys for losing fat and/or gaining lean muscle, and you will assume control over every single one of them with 5 Factor: 1. Metabolism: As you probably know, the faster your me tabolism, the more calories and fat you burn each day.

How often you eat meals and whether or how often you do strength training determine how fast your metabolism is. The 5 Factor gets yours revving with five meals a day, every day, and ten minutes of strength training five days a week. For an analogy, look at a windmill: steady, regu lar gusts of wind make it turn at a good clip, but sporadic wind slows it down.

2. Exercise: Get into and stay in the fat burning zone with cardio to nab that fat; meanwhile, strength train to build lean muscle and up your resting metabolic rate so you lit erally burn more fat throughout the day, including while you sleep. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition showed that even people following an extremely low calorie diet were able to increase their rest ing metabolic rate through the addition of strength train ing several times per week.

Bryner, RW, IH Ullrich, J Sauers, et al.; “Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate,” 1999 Apr; 18(2):115–21.

3. The right (kind and amount of ) calories, naturally: Rather than consuming foods that always leave you wanting more, you will eat good, healthy foods that fill you and provide the perfect level of calories per day for the weight you want to be (rather than drastically going under your caloric need, which many diets force you into and thus slow your metabolism down). The big bonus? You naturally will eat fewer calories per day than you presently consume, yet you won’t have to count a single one.

4. The glycemic index: The GI will be explained below. It sounds daunting, but all it does is measure how much a carbohydrate food impacts your blood sugar levels. High GI foods raise your blood sugar, which then spurs the release of insulin and makes you vulnerable to storing these foods as fat; even worse, your hunger will continue to rage. However, low GI, better foods keep your bloodsugar levels steady and you satisfied. Figuring out how to use the GI correctly can be the linchpin to losing weight.

5. Rest and recovery: To turn your body into an efficient fatburning machine, your muscles need proper recovery for continual output and lean muscle gains. Proper rest and nutrition secure those needs. Meanwhile, two dominant hormones are affected by rest: growth hormone (especially in males) assists in lean muscle repair and building and is most active when you get proper rest. However, if you don’t get proper rest, the “stress” hormone, cortisol, goes up and prompts greater fat storage.

It’s no accident that four out of these five keys are heavily influenced by how you eat. If you read and follow the 5 Factor food plan, these four keys will be taken care of and you will be well on your way to a leaner, fitter body. The best news is that it isn’t hard: just like you will always be able to find twenty five minutes a day to do the 5 Factor workout, you will always be able to eat this way.

If the word “meal” frightens you because you’re thinking, “How on earth can I prepare or consume five meals in one day?” think of it even more simply: you will eat the customary three meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and two healthy snacks (in the midmorning and the midafternoon). You’ll see especially dramatic changes in your body if you have been one of those people who skips breakfast or doesn’t snack between meals.

Asking you to eat the three standard meals of the day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) with a snack in between them for a total of five times per day is not too great a departure from your normal routine, so you will be able to do it. If, on the other hand, I asked you to eat six or more meals a day, you may have to deviate significantly from your normal schedule. More important, you would have to deviate considerably from the schedule followed by your colleagues, whether they are your co workers, fellow students, or family. We tend to take breaks at the same time as our colleagues.

The norm is to take a break for lunch, plus a shorter break at midmorning and at midafternoon. Eating five meals a day fits perfectly into this schedule. We eat meal one before work and meal five after work. Meals two, three, and four are perfectly in sync with our predetermined work breaks.

How do the five meals relate to your sleep schedule? Simply, eat as soon as possible after you rise in the morning, whenever that is; and try to have the fifth meal a few hours before bed, whenever that is. (Aim for seven to eight hours of sleep for proper recovery and metabolic function.) A nice perk of adopting this eating schedule is that you may well notice that your sleep improves. You will feel more energetic throughout the day and sleep more deeply at night. Also, if you have kids, they’ll learn excellent eating habits and will get the same sleep benefits that you will. Remember how famished you were when you came home from school? If schools allowed kids fifteen minutes at midmorning for a snack, then they’d make better food choices at lunch and arrive home feeling good and interested in eating something small and nourishing, rather than tipping over the fridge and devouring its contents, assuming they didn’t stop at a fast food joint for a burger and fries first.

The Five Criteria per Meal.

So, what should you eat? There are five simple criteria to follow when deciding on a meal.

1. Low fat, quality protein.

2. Low GI carbohydrate.

3. Fiber.

4. Healthy fat.

5. Sugar free beverage.

At every meal that you prepare, buy, or order, try to remember the five criteria of 5 Factor food. Here you’re being handed the crucial knowledge of what makes up a balanced, nutritional, and flavorful meal—it’s your road map. Whether your next meal is breakfast, a snack, or dinner, meeting these five criteria becomes easier and easier with practice. You will not have to sacrifice taste, quality, or certainly many varieties of foods. Yet you will gain a meal that will help you on your way to a lean, energetic body.

You will note that carbohydrates, protein, and fats represent three of the five criteria. These are also known as the three primary food groups, or macronutrients. Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of fuel; they include all starches, sugars, and fiber. Fat has many functions; these include hormone regulation, body heat regulation, and organ insulation and protection. Protein forms the building blocks of the body’s cells; it is the very fabric from which our skin, muscles, and red blood cells are made.

The U.S. government guidelines for macronutrient consumption are: 55 to 60 percent carbohydrate, 10 to 15 percent protein, and less than 30 percent fat. Popular diets such as The Zone (40/30/ 30) and Atkins advocate low levels of carbohydrate and much higher levels of protein and fat. Other diets, such as Pritikin (80/10/ 10) and Ornish (85/10/5), support very high intakes of carbohydrate with relatively minuscule levels of protein and fat. All have seen their days in the sun.

I recommend 55/30/15, and the suggested recipes roughly follow that design (and include the five criteria, of course); it essentially mimics the RDA for carbohydrate consumption but flips the protein and fat recommendations. However, now that you know the percentage breakdown, forget about it. Like I said at the top of the chapter, I don’t want this to be an eating plan where you’re weighing foods and counting grams, unless that’s something you enjoy doing. For most people, tabulating total calories and percentages is tedious at best. Instead, I urge that you learn to “eyeball” your meals to make sure the three macronutrients roughly conform to these guidelines.

1. Quality Protein.

The need to ingest protein with every meal is a key component of the 5 Factor approach, for four reasons. First, compared to carbohydrates and fats, protein is very difficult to store as fat. We usually assimilate it, making it part of our lean body tissue, or excrete it.

The second reason protein must be ingested with every meal is that it cannot be stored and used later, unlike fats and carbohydrates. As a result, you must keep ingesting protein throughout the day so as to keep your body from breaking down your muscle and organs to meet its protein needs.

The third reason to consume protein frequently throughout the day is its metabolism boosting effects. A great deal of recent research has shown that eating protein can actually kick start your body’s metabolism. Over the long haul, this can have a significant impact on your body composition, especially if you have been eating a lot of food: as you reduce your caloric intake and increase your exercise, consuming protein will help preserve your body’s lean tissue (muscles as well as organs).

The fourth and final benefit of regular protein consumption is its ability to satiate. Protein makes you feel full—as, unlike many simple carbohydrates, protein can curb your hunger. For instance, eating bread without cheese, meat, or nut butter is a lot less filling and satisfying.

When deciding what type of protein to eat, you must take into account the fact that not all proteins are created equal. There are two key factors that determine the quality of a protein. The first is bioavailability: this is a measure of how much of a certain protein is broken down, absorbed, and assimilated into our body tissue. The more bioavailable the protein is, the less it travels through our system, failing to be absorbed, only to be excreted. The highest quality protein is whey. (In case you didn’t know, whey is the murky translucent liquid that sits on top of yogurt; so the next time you open the carton, don’t throw that away: stir it into the rest of the yogurt.) After whey come (in order) whole egg, milk, egg white, animal protein (chicken, fish, beef ), soy, and vegetable protein.

The second factor determining the quality of the protein found in a given food is the degree to which it is complete. A complete protein contains all of the essential amino acids. Think of a protein as a train and the amino acids as the cars that make up the protein train.

Protein is exactly that, a chain of amino acids. There are twentyone amino acids. Most of the amino acids can be manufactured in the body. However, eight of them cannot. These eight must be ingested through food and are referred to as essential amino acids. If a protein has all eight essential amino acids, it is complete. For the most part, all animal sources of protein are complete. Vegetable sources of protein tend to be deficient in one or more amino acids.

For this reason, along with the greater bioavailability of animal proteins, it is simplest to go to animal derived protein sources such as chicken, fish, beef, seafood, eggs, and dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese).

A caveat when consuming animal sources of protein is that you must watch their fat content. While some fat in the diet can be healthy, animal fat is not. Animal fat tends to be saturated and, therefore, may contribute to clogging of the arteries. So try to eat “clean” protein at every meal, and you will reap the benefits. No, it doesn’t have to be ten egg whites or two chicken breasts like bodybuilders wolf down, but about a third to half of your meal should be made up of quality protein.

5 Factor Protein: Bacon and eggs, fried chicken, and sausage have a lot of protein, but they also have plenty of fat, most of it the artery clogging, saturated kind. However, there are numerous allprotein foods that can be had in a variety of ways. Try to always have one of the foods listed below at each of your five meals.

1. Chicken (white breast meat, skinless).

Grill, BBQ, stir fry, microwave.

2. Fish (canned/fillets/steaks/raw) • Tuna or salmon salad (w/fat free mayo).

Grill/bake fillets or tuna steak.

Raw—sashimi, tartar, ceviche.

3. Egg whites.

Omelette, scramble, hard boil.

4. Cottage cheese (nonfat).

Plain or with fresh berries.

5. Veggie meats.

Hot dogs, deli slices, ground beef, bacon, burgers, pep peroni.

6. Whey protein shakes (low sugar).

With cold water (not milk); add ice and fresh fruit 7. Red meat (lean varieties of ground beef; top round, flank steak).

Grill, BBQ, stir fry, microwave.

8. Turkey (white breast meat, skinless).

Grill, BBQ, stir fry, microwave.

9. Seafood.

Lobster, scallops, shrimp.

10. Game.

Bison, venison, ostrich.

2. Low gi carbohydrate.

When we consume too much carbohydrate, it suffers one of four fates: it is either used as an immediate energy source (such as a runner using Gatorade to increase glucose levels in the blood), stored as carbohydrate (in a form called glycogen), excreted (especially when it has a high fiber content), or converted to and stored as fat.

The glycemic index (GI) is a measure of your body’s bloodsugar response to eating carbohydrate foods and was originally developed for use by type 2 (formerly known as “adult onset”) diabetics. Foods such as white bread and table sugar (sucrose) are at the top of the index, meaning that they have a value of 100. Eating these foods causes a sharp increase in blood sugar. With a sharp increase in blood sugar comes a corresponding increase in the hormone insulin; the presence of insulin makes us prone to store food as body fat. A chronic high level of insulin, hyperinsulinemia, is associated with type 2 diabetes, most of America’s obesity, and even heart disease.* So our goal is to keep our insulin levels moderate by ingesting moderateto low GI foods.

Typically, foods that break down soon after you eat them get a high GI number, while those that take longer to digest get a low GI number. That’s why a low GI snack like cottage cheese and an apple will keep you from snacking again before dinner three hours later, while a couple of slices of white toast, or even worse, a bagel (which is also a calorie bomb), will soothe your hunger for only half that time or less. Going with low GI meals helps your belly feel full earlier and stay full much longer, resulting in less overeating and better food choices. Because it doesn’t cause blood sugar spikes, you also get a steady supply of energy. With two brothers who are type 1 diabetics, I can tell you that if they don’t have their regular small meals they get easily agitated, become irrational, and can’t focus on anything! This is also what happens to low carb dieters. Many of us are almost as strongly affected by the low blood sugar phenomenon and may exhibit similar behavior when we’ve gone too long without food.

Just as protein and fat bring the GI number down, sugar increases it, which means that you must reduce your sugar intake if you want to lose fat. Not only does sugar contain many unnecessary calories, it raises your insulin levels and satisfies you only for a very brief period. You can’t fool your body into treating 100 calories worth of lollipops the same way it handles 100 calories worth of an apple, just as you have always suspected.

Willett, W, J Manson, S Liu. “Glycemic index, glycemic load, and risk of type 2 diabetes.” Am J Clin Nutr 2002; 76:274S–80S.

While the glycemic index may appear complicated, principles that govern it are very simple. In particular, the following factors help keep the GI down and your blood sugar stable: Fiber: It prevents carbohydrates from being digested too rapidly (see fiber section on page 96).

Ripeness: Ripe fruits and veggies have more sugar content than unripe ones (one of my favorite dishes at Thai restau rants is a green, or unripe, mango salad with chicken breast).

Type of starch: Whenever you can, replace highly processed grains and cereals with minimally processed whole grain products. Protein enriched grains take half as long to con vert to sugar in your blood compared to regular grains.

(Lentils, wild rice, and quinoa are some of my favorite grains.) Fat and acid: The more fat or acid that a food contains, the more slowly carbs convert to sugar and are absorbed into the bloodstream. (It’s why grapefruit and cherries are two of the lowest GI fruits.) Firm, not soggy: Cook vegetables and a starch like sweet po tatoes to the point that it is just cooked—i.e., still a bit tough and chewy.

Here’s a sampling of high , moderate , and low GI foods (for more information, go to the GI database operated by the University of Sydney, Australia, at www.glycemicindex.com). Again, the lower the GI, the better the food is for you in terms of weight management.

Good GI Foods (Low to Moderate GI).

Steel cut oats.

Protein enriched cereal.

No flour bread.

Apple.

Cherries.

Vegetables (almost all).

Nonfat plain yogurt.

Cream of wheat.

Puffed rice cereal.

White bread.

Watermelon.

Dried fruits.

White potato.

Tofu frozen dessert.

The Forgotten Carbs: Fruits and Vegetables: With so many people eating on the run, ubiquitous high protein or high fat diets, and a preponderance of packaged foods, the mighty fruits and the valuable vegetable kingdom have been all but abandoned. This is a trend that I’d like to see you reverse—at least for yourself, if not for others.

Why? Well, for the normal reasons of good health—fruits and vegetables are chock full of essential minerals, vitamins, fiber, good carbohydrates, and phytochemicals. They also help lower your risk for certain cancers, stroke, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Also, fruits and vegetables will help you lose weight for several reasons. One, they’re accessible: easy to find and buy, and often easy to eat immediately. Two, they’re fibrous. Three, they’re lowglycemic. Four, they’re water based, so they take up a lot of room in your stomach and thus are filling, yet they are not calorie dense.

Five, making fruits and vegetables a part of your meals and snacks means that you’re automatically cutting out less nutritious foods: you don’t see too many people having a papaya with a candy bar as a snack or some grapes and a piece of cherry pie after dinner. That candy bar and cherry pie suddenly aren’t necessary when you get your taste buds to notice that there’s nothing better than fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables. Six, there are hundreds of varieties, so don’t confine yourself to apples or oranges, or broccoli and lettuce.

Constantly try new fruits and vegetables, and get into the habit of asking the produce person about what’s fresh. Aim to get one to two servings of each per day.

3. Fiber.

Fiber can actually help keep our blood sugar levels stable. By slowing down the digestion rate of a meal, fiber ensures a gradual and steady release of energy into our system. Fiber has also been shown to help us feel full. Feeling full, or satiety, is an extremely necessary state of being when pursuing physique perfection. When we eat meals that do not satiate us, we tend to snack on unfavorable foods.

The health benefits of fiber are well established. Research has shown us that fiber can reduce the risk of developing various conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, bowel disorders, and certain cancers. Furthermore, fiber consumption can lower your blood cholesterol levels.

Sources include oats (especially oat bran), barley, beans, lentils, peas, nuts, seeds, apples and other types of fruits, and vegetables.

Fiber Rich 5 Factor Foods: Currently, the recommendations for dietary fiber consumption are 20 to 35 grams per day; yet most Americans eat only half that amount. Here are some easy ways to get more fiber into your day: For breakfast cereal, choose only whole grain.

Eat whole fruits (skins intact, when possible) instead of drinking fruit juice.

Replace white or wheat breads with no flour breads (much tastier than low carb breads).

Undercook rice, pasta, and potatoes so the texture is chewy rather than soft.

Snack on raw vegetables (with skins intact, when possible— though you can still peel your carrots) instead of candy, chips, or crackers.

From time to time, substitute low fat legumes, like beans and lentils, for meat in chili and soups; or reduce the meat quantity in the recipe by two thirds and replace with legumes.

Overall, rely on getting fiber from food sources rather than supplementing with fiber powders and the like.

Fiber is essentially carbohydrates that cannot be digested, and it’s present in all plants that are eaten for food, including fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes; and it is absent in animal foods, such as dairy, meat, fish, chicken, etc. Dietary fiber is the part of the plant food source that your body cannot break down.

There are two kinds of dietary fiber: soluble and insoluble. Insoluble is popularly referred to as “roughage” and is not absorbed by the body, so it promotes good digestion and adds bulk to your stools; it’s found in whole grains, vegetables, wheat bran, nuts, and beans. Soluble fiber draws water into your bowels, helping to protect you against bad cholesterol, heart disease, and colon cancer.

Sources include oats (especially oat bran), barley, beans, lentils, peas, nuts, seeds, apples and other types of fruits, and vegetables.

Fiber Rich 5 Factor Foods: Currently, the recommendations for dietary fiber consumption are 20 to 35 grams per day; yet most Americans eat only half that amount. Here are some easy ways to get more fiber into your day: For breakfast cereal, choose only whole grain.

Eat whole fruits (skins intact, when possible) instead of drinking fruit juice.

Replace white or wheat breads with no flour breads (much tastier than low carb breads).

Undercook rice, pasta, and potatoes so the texture is chewy rather than soft.

Snack on raw vegetables (with skins intact, when possible— though you can still peel your carrots) instead of candy, chips, or crackers.

From time to time, substitute low fat legumes, like beans and lentils, for meat in chili and soups; or reduce the meat quantity in the recipe by two thirds and replace with legumes.

Overall, rely on getting fiber from food sources rather than supplementing with fiber powders and the like.

4. Go low in bad fat and moderate in good fat.

For decades, the belief that the more fat you ate, the more body fat you stockpiled was shared by many nutritionists. We became “fat obsessed,” and one trip down the supermarket aisle shows that we still are, with the preponderance of “fat free” and “low fat” items.

Yet we as a nation are fatter than ever because these products may be low in fat, but they often are extremely high in sugar (to make them taste better) and thus calories, usually more than the full fat versions that they are replacing.

Diets like Atkins and South Beach successfully challenged this formula and told you to eat fat—mostly because it helps you feel full. Yet many followers of the low carb, high fat regimen have gone the way of the successful low fat, higher carb dieters: weight loss in the short term (due mostly to fewer calories), then dissatisfaction with the diet coupled with diminishing returns leading to millions of dropouts.

As a result, going in the opposite direction and eating more fat than normal to lose weight doesn’t work, either. One, fats are twice as calorically dense as carbs or protein, so in general you want to limit your overall consumption. Two, fats are also downright dangerous, as excess fat consumption has been shown to increase degenerative diseases (heart and arthritis), cancer, vascular disease (kidney and liver failure as well as stroke), heart attack risk, and even acne.

In particular, recent research implicates certain fats in the development of certain diseases. Saturated fats and especially trans fats worsen your blood cholesterol levels and may pave the way to heart disease.

Saturated fats include mostly animal fats (such as meat, wholemilk dairy, butter, and egg yolks) as well as certain plant food (like coconuts, nuts, and palm oil); they raise both “good” HDL and “bad” LDL cholesterol (high density lipoproteins, or HDL, make it less likely that excess cholesterol in the blood is deposited in the coronary arteries, while low density lipoproteins, or LDL, carry cholesterol from the liver to the rest of the body and may deposit it on the walls of these arteries). Trans fatty acids (like margarine and French fries) are worse because they not only raise bad cholesterol but also lower good cholesterol. Avoid trans fats under all circumstances.

Some fats, meanwhile, can be good because they can actually improve blood cholesterol. These are unsaturated fats, including polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, that exist in plant sources like vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds. In addition, fats containing omega 3 fatty acids, like salmon and flaxseeds, are important; they make up nerve tissue, for example. Most American diets are woefully deficient in these fats, or even totally devoid of them. If you make sure to eat salmon, for instance, once a week (wild salmon is much lower in dangerous heavy metals than farmed salmon), that will usually be sufficient.

In general, the 5 Factor urges that you eat saturated fats sparingly and eat unsaturated fats in moderation for flavor and satiation. When eating meats, cheeses, and dairy, for instance, it is a good idea to go with low fat or nonfat choices.

The Fat War: One of Good vs. Evil: Saturated fats can lead to many health problems, so minimize the intake of them as much as possible. Meanwhile, use moderate amounts of unsaturated fats in your diet to help lower cholesterol and satisfy your appetite. Often, you can substitute the latter fats for the unhealthy varieties by using oliveor canola oil spray for sautéing rather than butter (certainly you should never use margarine, unless it’s the kind you find at natural food stores that is unsaturated and is often bolstered by omega 3 fatty acids—ask for it).

Good Fats. Eat in Moderations.

5. SUGAR FREE BEVERAGE.

Monounsaturated: avocado, canola oil, all or the majority of the fats in certain nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans, and peanuts), olive oil and olives, peanut butter and peanut oil, sesame seeds Polyunsaturated: corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, walnuts, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, mayonnaise, salad dressings, omega 3 fatty acids (albacore tuna, sardines, salmon, flaxseeds, etc.) Bad Fats.

Saturated (eat sparingly): whole milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream; high fat red meat; chocolate; coconuts; palm oil; poultry skin Trans (avoid at all costs): most margarines; vegetable shortening; “hydrogenated” anything, even partially hydrogenated vegetable oil; almost all commercially prepared baked goods, margarines, snack foods, processed foods, and commercially prepared foods, whether at the supermarket or in chain restaurants (like French fries) 5. Sugar Free Beverage.

You know you should drink water (the standard recommendation is eight 8 ounce glasses a day, and more as needed after exertion and in hot or dry weather), but did you also know that drinking water can help you lose fat? It may have no calories, but having water between meals helps keep your stomach full. We have built in sensors in our stomachs, so we get fuller sooner with liquid, which is also why soup is more filling than solid foods. So add a slice of lemon with some ice to your water for a pleasant variety once in a while.

There is some evidence, also, that when some people’s bodies are craving water, it is read by their brains as a signal for sweets.

Talk about crossed wires, right? If you seek that sweet thing in your mouth, choose sugar free drinks that use Splenda (the safest, besttasting sweetener) as the sweetener agent. Go with Hansen’s natural diet sodas, Snapple’s diet drinks, sugar free lemonades (Crystal Light), sugar free flavored waters, or ice teas. Of course, mineral and sparkling waters are always good. And skim milk is one of the perfect snacks. If you are lactose intolerant, you can go with a lactosefree skim milk. Occasionally, you can opt for the commercial diet soda, like Diet Sprite or Diet 7UP, both of which have no caffeine or artificial coloring.

What not to drink? Any liquid with sugar and/or lots of calories; any kind of juice is calorie loaded and to be avoided; all milks except for skim have too much fat, most of which is unhealthy fat; soy milk is often high in fat and full of sugar, so look out; rice milk is all carbohydrates and sugar laden; soda drinks are loaded with sugar and calories; sports drinks deliver calories you don’t need unless you’re a serious athlete; the multiple calorie bombs served at java houses in which coffee is almost a minor ingredient; equally high in calories are seemingly healthy but not juice shakes at certain places, which use sweeteners like sherbet (basically sugar) in most of their concoctions. Plus, because all the fiber has been sucked out as well as most of the vitamins and minerals, you lose the two most important parts of fruits with juice and only gain a ton of calories.

Staying away from such drinks will account for significant fat loss for some people who are used to having several hundred calories a day in liquid form alone.

Below is a list of standard drinks that many people consume on a weekly basis. If you consume only one of each at some point during the week, you would total 2,630 calories by week’s end; and by year’s end, you’d be at a staggering 136,760 calories.

Since 3,600 calories equal 1 pound of body fat, that equates to 38 pounds of extra fat. Scary, eh? That’s why I endorse the sugarfree beverage.

Gatorade, 16 ounces = 100 calories.

Wine, 5 ounces = 100 calories.

Orange juice, 8 ounces = 110 calories.

Rice milk, 8 ounces = 120 calories.

Beer, 12 ounces = 150 calories.

Coca Cola, 16 ounces = 200 calories.

Gin and tonic (2 ounces of gin) = 210 calories.

White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks, 16 ounces = 450 calories.

Caribbean Passion at Jamba Juice, 32 ounces = 590 calories.

Chocolate ice cream shake at Burger King, 16 ounces = 600 calories.

Your Cheat Day Sundays can be your “cheat day,” during which you can eat what you want. Still try to stick to the five meals, and you won’t overeat as much then, either. If anything, I’ve found that having a cheat day reinforces your discipline for eating well throughout the week.

It’s nice to know that you are not living in a food prison. But once you’ve had your fun, and maybe had too much cake or a massive steak, you may even realize that these forbidden foods weren’t as delicious and delirious making as you had once thought they were.

They may even repel you during the week.

Plus, eating poorly for only one day is much better than eating “semi poorly” every day, which describes many people’s diets. One day of bad foods mostly goes right through you, while it’s the accumulation of heavy, fatty, carb crazy meals, day after day, that puts the love on the handles and the pot in the belly, bags in the saddles, and you get the idea!$ Nutrition Q&A.

Question: Are there any breads that are low glycemic and that I can eat on this program?$ Harley: I’m happy to report that, yes, there are. A few years ago, the average supermarket or even specialty shop carried no such breads, but times are changing. Essentially, the breads that qualify under 5 Factor are those that do not have flour as an ingredient, as flour simply acts like sugar in your bloodstream and wreaks havoc if you’re trying to lose weight.

Breads such as Mestemacher and Ezekiel are made from whole kernel grains, such as rye, wheat, or pumpernickel, and are not broken down like the typical bread. Fortunately, they also taste pretty good, but I recommend that you don’t have more than one slice per meal, as I want you to get away from an overdependence on bread, such as always having to have a sandwich for lunch and toast with your breakfast.

Otherwise, try out brown rice cakes as a “transport mechanism” for your protein. Use them with slices of chicken or turkey breast, nonfat cheese, veggie meats, or egg whites. They’re airy and crunchy, so they fill your stomach and give you a pleasant texture, yet they do this without the calories and extra carbs (the average rice cake carries only 40 calories and 7.5 grams of carbs with it). Make sure there’s no sugar (1 gram or less), especially no high fructose corn syrup, and that they use brown rice (which is lower glycemic).

Another excellent transport are nonflour tortillas, rather than high GI flour or whole wheat. Wrap one around some egg whites and salsa, or have one with sliced chicken breast and shredded nonfat cheese.

Question: I noticed on some package labels the term “net carbs.” What does that mean, and is it a good thing?$ Harley: A by product of the low carb movement, net carbs supposedly represent the total number of carbohydrate grams in a food product minus the grams of those carbs that cause little to no elevation in your blood sugar level. Products that contain fiber, sugar alcohol (mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, lactitol, isomalt, maltitol, and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates [HSH]), polydextrose, and glycerin, for example, appear to minimally affect your blood sugar, so the “net” carbohydrate total is calculated to be less than the “gross.” With so much venom directed at carbs in general, many product makers are now fond of using the term “net carbs” often with a single digit, such as “Only 7 net carbs!” Critics, however, say carbs are carbs, and any carbs that are consumed when your blood sugar is elevated will be stored as fat regardless of their propensity to raise or not to raise blood sugar levels. Also, products that contain sugar alcohol commonly produce such unpleasantries as bloating and a laxative effect. (At press time, the FDA was investigating the entire low carb labeling trend, including the “net carbs” claim.) That being said, you will note that part of the purpose behind employing the glycemic index, as well as fiber, in the 5 Factor plan is blood sugar control. As a result, I guess I could slap the “low net carbs!” label on the recommended 5 Factor foods or recipes—and fortunately that’s without such awful tasting and unnatural ingredients as stuff like sugar alcohol and glycerin.

Question: Should I eat any special way before or after a workout?$ Harley: No, don’t make it too complicated for you. Stick to the five meals per day; just make sure that you wait to exercise until at least an hour after you’ve eaten.

For the most part, the energy you draw upon for a workout under one hour is from the food you’ve eaten six hours or more ago, not recently, so don’t chow down on a 300 calorie energy bar just before for a 300 calorie burn workout.

Question: Are there any ingredients that I should avoid?$ Harley: Most bad ingredients—such as saturated and trans fats like butter and partially or fully hydrogenated oils, as well as sugar—should be kept to a minimum in your diet, and now you probably can understand why. However, there is one incredibly common ingredient that you may not know too much about and it seems somewhat innocent, but you really should avoid like the plague: high fructose corn syrup.

It’s everywhere—in soft drinks, fruit beverages, cookies, jams, breads, ice cream, cakes, some crackers, spaghetti sauces, frozen pizzas, salad dressings, and on and on. Made from cornstarch, high fructose corn syrup didn’t even exist forty years ago, but more than 62 pounds of it was consumed per person in 2001 alone. It became popular to use by food manufacturers for three big reasons: one, it tastes sweeter than refined sugar, so they don’t have to use as much (i.e., it’s absurdly cheap and thus it saves them money); two, high fructose corn syrup is easier to blend into beverages and foods than refined sugar; and three, it’s cheaper to manufacture than refined sugar (again, saving them money).

But while it’s an economical no brainer for manufacturers to use the stuff, it’s a nutritional no brainer to avoid high fructose corn syrup. Metabolically, it doesn’t register in your body the same way that glucose does, but actually in a much more sinister way: it acts more like fat in terms of the hormones that are involved in potential weight gain. Fructose has also been shown to elevate levels of triglycerides and thus increase your risk for heart disease. This stuff never existed until very recently, and now it pervades the food supply, disturbingly, so be on your guard.

Question: Are there any supplements I should consider taking?$ Harley: I get this question a lot from my clients, usually in relation to their desire to lose fat more quickly. I tell them that any product that tells you that it will fulfill that wish is not good for you. Also, 90 percent of supplements don’t work and the few that do, the health risk is often too high. That means I advise against any kind of stimulant based product, whether it’s so called “energy booster” drinks or capsules.

It’s a matter of weight loss versus performance. If you can’t do it for the rest of your life, then don’t do it. Creatine, guarana, ephedrine? Nobody wants to take these products every day, which should tell you plenty. Having spent three years in a lab looking at ephedrine, I know it works, but I also know it can kill you: imagine redlining your car in first gear from L.A. to New York; it simply revs your body too high.

There are some standard supplements that I do recommend for everyone, and you can take them every day. The multivitamin/ mineral (stick to one containing no iron if you are a man or if you are a woman who is no longer menstruating) provides the essential vitamins and minerals that you may not get from your daily food intake. They’re a cheap insurance policy.

Meal replacements are not a necessity but are very convenient for those of you stuck at work, traveling, or are vegetarian or keeping kosher. They offer a tasty, quick, and simple way to get the right mix of protein, carbs, vitamins, and minerals you need without the hassle. They typically come in powdered packets; mix only with water, not juice or milk, to save the extra calories. Met Rx, Myoplex, and Eat Smart all make excellent meal replacements.

They are available in supplement/vitamin stores, some grocery stores, and on the Internet.

You can also go with the even more convenient RTD (ready todrink) product, which is essentially a premixed liquid meal replacement in a bottle or can. Aim for one with less than 5 grams of sugar and little to no fat. Otherwise, you can use a quality whey protein powder to mix with water; again, get one with low sugar. Put in a blender with ice, cold water, and some berries for a tasty, healthy snack or “dessert.” Whatever you choose for whey protein, you often don’t want to follow the serving size, as it tends to be too large. Instead, aim for 20 grams of protein for women and 30 grams for men. Also, look for fiber as an ingredient in these whey protein products.

Question: Should I be careful about my caffeine consumption?$ Harley: Ah, caffeine, the most rampant addiction in the world.

What with the ubiquitous Starbucks matching McDonald’s, franchise for franchise, and Red Bull becoming de rigueur among the fashionable nightclubbing set, our caffeine addicted nation shows no sign of slowing down. There’s no doubt that it can keep you going when you would otherwise be flagging, but for the vast majority of us, it’s something we use because, plain and simple, we’re just addicted to it. When we don’t have it, we get headaches; we feel drowsy; we get grouchy.

So I just say at least moderate your intake—such as a small cup of coffee in the morning after breakfast and maybe a cup of tea in the afternoon; that way, your level of addiction doesn’t spiral out of control.

Going beyond that, such as downing Diet Cokes like water and clutching your cappuccino to go cup like it’s a baby’s bottle, is not advisable for several reasons. One, ramping up from a slight addiction to a major addiction means that you “can’t get by without your fix” and start to rely on caffeine rather than your natural energy reserves. Plus, on days when don’t get it, you suffer withdrawal symptoms and mood altering. Two, everyone has different levels of tolerance for caffeine, but it certainly affects your body’s ability to recover, even if that means you can sleep but you may not sleep as deeply as you would without that after dinner espresso; also, if you have heart issues, caffeine should be kept to a minimum (again, these issues could be latent, so proceed with caution).

Three, be aware that certain caffeinated drinks can be a Trojan horse of calories, with such calorific ingredients like whole milk, cream, sugar, chocolate, caramel, etc.; don’t forget, the frappuccinos and mochaccinos taste so darn good because they’re just loaded with sugar, fat, and calories! Replace that giant grande with a shot of espresso and skip all those calories; the 35 milligrams of caffeine are probably what you’re after anyway.