Top 5 Health Tips...EVER!

I want to share with you the top 5 health tips…EVER!  Yes that’s dramatic and a bold statement but stick with me. I'm actually going to share with you the top WORST tips of all time and thereby share with you the top 5 tips.  So what are the MOST important health tips you should focus on?  Let’s find out. 

Watch the video below:

1. Keep insulin normal
This is probably THE most important of all the 5 tips as it has so many downstream advantages and benefits such as preventing a whole host of metabolic dysfunctions such as type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, hypertension, obesity, heart disease, kidney disease, fatty liver disease, reducing cancer risk, skin conditions, etc. You name the condition, and most likely high insulin levels have a part to play in it.  Now you accomplish keeping insulin normal through a low carb or keto diet, eating fatty cuts of meat and consuming zero seed oils.  
    
Worst tips: 
    • Low fat
        ○ Most likely translates into higher carbs and therefore higher insulin levels. 
    • Low salt
    • Consuming a ton of water
        ○ Especially if you are consuming low salt as consuming a lot of water will throw off your electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride due to dilution and will cause all sorts of issues.
    • Only eat lean protein
        ○ Fattier cuts of meat are MUCH better and in fact, lean protein will stimulate the hormone insulin
    • Replace saturated fat with vegetable seed oils
        ○ To keep it really simple, saturated fat tells your fat cells to stop growing whereas seed oils increase fat cell size AND lead to insulin resistance which is the precursor to type 2 diabetes. 
    
2. Fasting
The massive health benefits to intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating are numerous.  Skipping a meal (or two) per day AND cutting out snacking will do wonders for improving your health as you will ultimately be decreasing insulin which is critical as I’ve already mentioned.  Now I recommend people start with 12-16 hours per day of fasting and overtime increase to 18-20 hours a few times per week or every day and then incorporating 24+ hour fasts once or twice per week.  Just work your way up to it. Build your “fasting muscle” so to speak. This will encourage your body to burn your own body fat for energy as you are not consuming food and your insulin hormone will be low therefore you won't be giving your body the signal to store fat.  
    
Worst tips:
    • Lose weight and get healthy
        ○ Now this sounds good and right however it doesn't take into account nutrient density of foods or the long term ramifications.  The focus is short term and myopic.  I’ll touch on this one again a bit later. 
    • Eat 6 small meals per day
        ○ Every time you eat, no matter the size of the meal, you trigger insulin (noticing a theme here?).  This is not what we want when we are trying to improve our health and lose body fat.
    • Eat breakfast everyday
    
3. Get healthy to lose weight
Focus your efforts and goals on getting healthy INSTEAD of losing weight and as a byproduct of getting healthier, you WILL lose weight.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about helping people lose weight and body fat, that's my specialty and what I help all my clients with, BUT when the focus is primarily weight loss and not getting healthy, your health will suffer.  Also by getting on a healthy diet, you get the nutrients your body needs (amino acids, essential fats, vitamins and minerals) and you change the fuel your body relies on for energy, going from burning carbs to burning fat.  You will lose weight (in a healthy way) AND your body will look better for it.  
    
Worst tips:
    • Every diet works as long as you lower your calories
        ○ A massive issue with this is, as you lower your calories, you slow your metabolism to that lower calorie intake and therefore stop weight loss, it’s a physiologic response that the body does.  Don't lower your calories intentionally, just fast, eat a low carb, high fat diet and let your body do it naturally as your body will tell you how much you need to eat.  Don’t fight your body, it will always win!
    
4. Exercise and sleep for proper stress reduction
There are a myriad of benefits from both of these with a major one being stress reduction.  When it comes to exercise though don't think of it for weight loss but for building muscle, strengthening your bones, improving your cardiovascular health and improving insulin sensitivity, i.e., how well your cells respond to insulin and therefore uptake glucose out of the bloodstream. 
    
Worst tips:
    • Exercise to lose weight
        ○ But wait didn't you just say to exercise!?  Yes but NOT to lose weight. Exercise for the myriad of other benefits (many I didn’t mention), but NOT for weight loss.  
    • Reduce your added sugars
        ○ Don't just reduce added sugars, eliminate them altogether.  Cause if you reduce added sugars to what is suggested, which is 6 tsp. per day, you are still going to stimulate insulin and therefore prevent fat burning. 
    • There are no bad foods
        ○ This is bad advice as there ARE bad foods that are junk and will wreck havoc on your metabolism and cause you to gain weight, not lose it.
    • Eat everything in moderation
        ○ If you eat everything in moderation, you'll never get your insulin low enough to get into ketosis and burn body fat. What you want to do is eat low carb, moderate protein and high fat, not everything in moderation like junk food, sugar, etc. 
    • No one diet is for everyone
        ○ Our bodies are very similar especially when it comes to hormones such as insulin. The diets that lower insulin MORE are going to have greater health benefits and on the flip side, any diet that chronically raises insulin is going to be detrimental to your long term health. 

5. Do healthy keto
To do this you want to focus on two things: 1) increase the QUALITY of the ingredients such as organic, grass-fed, pasture-raised, wild-caught, etc. and 2) you want to consume foods that are nutrient-dense such as animal foods particularly ruminant animals such as cow, bison, goat, sheep, venison, etc.  By doing these two things, this qualifies as healthy.

So there you have it. Hopefully these top 5 health tips were helpful.  Comment below with which ones you follow as well as share others you think merit attention.  I would love to hear your thoughts. 

If you want to learn how to get started on a lifestyle to lose body fat, reverse chronic disease and optimize your health, visit my website at http://www.TyronPiteau.com/newsletter and download my free guide on the “8 Strategies for Lasting Fat Loss and Optimal Health” and receive a free 20 minute online consultation.

If you think someone could benefit from this, please consider sharing it anywhere on social media as you may just help someone resolve their health issue or at a minimum, drastically improve it.
    
Happy fat loss 😃

Tyron