So between the weather and trying to soothe our wounded son I was again restricted to indoor exercise with my trusty old Swiss Ball and some workout DVD’s. As per usual, I still managed to maintain my daily calorie intake around the 1,500 calories per day, however, my weight loss this week was only 0.4 kg (0.9 lbs) – still a good loss for the week, but a little disappointing.

Hopefully next week the weather will be kind to me and my young son will stay out of trouble with his “broken wing”.

It’s the stuff that weight(fat) loss dreams are made of — shedding kilos while tucked up in bed and waking up the next day refreshed and ready for the day ahead.

The new Hibernation Diet claims we can all do all that, by following some simple rules and enjoying a few spoonfuls of honey before bed!

The diet, created by British pharmacist Mike McInnes and his son Stuart, a nutrition expert, promises to help us sleep and lose weight (fat) at the same time by taking advantage of our biological makeup and working with it, rather than against it.

“The Hibernation Diet is about recruiting your own natural recovery system for weight control,” Mike says. “You don’t have to fight your body every step of the way to get a healthy weight. You need to learn how to make it work for you.”

The key is to kick-start our body’s recovery mechanism at night – speeding up our fat burning metabolism, easing stress hormones and helping us get a better night’s sleep. Which is where honey comes in.

But are you a candidate for the Hibernation Diet? Ask yourself these questions …

Do you wake up regularly during the night?
Do you experience night sweats?
Do you experience acid reflux during the night?
Do you get up to go to the bathroom during the night?
Do you feel nauseous in the early morning?
Do you wake up exhausted?
Do you have a dry throat in the morning?
Do you get night cramps?
Do you feel weak in the early morning?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, it could mean you haven’t fuelled up your liver for the night ahead. Instead of burning fat and repairing muscles, your body has produced a tidal wave of stress hormones while you’ve slept.

How does the Hibernation Diet work?
The diet’s creators say there are three keys to burning more fat while we sleep:

Honey
Honey has long been prized for its therapeutic properties. The Hibernation Diet creators claim the fructose and glucose in honey provides a fuelling mechanism for the body at night – keeping blood sugar levels balanced and letting your recovery hormones get on with burning fat stores.

They disagree with the idea that you shouldn’t eat late at night, insisting that a spoonful or two of honey will actually help you lose weight.

“We’re not going to give you carte blanche to stuff yourself with takeaways every night,” Mike says. “We’re talking here about nutrition – giving your body the right fuel to work with.”

How much honey should you eat? The Hibernation Diet recommends taking a generous spoonful or two of honey at night — either as a warm drink, a smoothie or straight from the jar.

Healthy eating
The Hibernation Diet isn’t just about honey. Mike and Stuart also advocate a healthy, balanced diet void of highly refined, processed foods – that means no white bread, pizza, burgers, chips, beer and sugar. They suggest eating foods that provide the nutrients our body needs, without excess additives.

Resistance Training
The Hibernation Diet also recommends two to three sessions of resistance training per week. You don’t need to go to the gym to do these – use light hand weights or packs of sugar, rice or dried beans. Some Swiss Ball or Exercise Ball DVDs have resistance exercises included.

Being restricted to indoor exercise, I dragged out my trusty old Swiss Ball, some light dumbbells and one of my Swiss Ball workout DVD’s. I didn’t have any trouble maintaining or restricting my daily calorie intake to around 1,500 calories so I was still able to achieve a weight (fat) loss of 0.6 kg (1.3 lbs).

I seem to recall reading somewhere previously that up to 70% of weight loss comes from dietary intake and around 30% from exercise routines. This seems to make sense as it is a lot easier to NOT eat say 300 calories than it is to subsequently burn those calories off later through exercise.

Anaerobic on the other hand, burns sugar as the main source of fuel. Despite common myths, exercise doesn’t have to be drastic in any way to provide massive benefits. Even if you choose light exercise, you will still burn fat.

Light exercise will clear out lactic acid, which is a waste of the body, and stimulate your cells to regenerate. To be sure that you are burning fat rather than sugar, it’s very important to make sure that you are doing several things as you exercise.

The most important thing you can do as you exercise is breathe deep. You should always breathe in deep into your stomach through your nose, hold it for a few seconds and then exhale hard through your mouth.

Second, you should make sure that you exercise at a comfortable level. You should exercise at a level of 7 out of 10, and still be able to carry on a normal conversation while you exercise. You should do this for 45 minutes or so each day, then you’ll begin to notice just how much your energy will explode.

rebounding is one of the best forms of aerobic exercise there isEven if you don’t think you have the time to exercise, rest assured that there is always time. If you have to, use the time that you would normally spend sleeping. With exercising, you’ll actually need less sleep than before.

You can also use the time of your lunch break to exercise as well. The increase in productivity will have you more on the ball, and you can save your time through the dramatic increase in your overall productivity.

Cellularise, or rebounding, is one of the best forms of aerobic exercise there is. If you have access to a rebounder, you shouldn’t hesitate to use it. Use any break you have at work to engage in some type of movement and deep breathing.

Any type of exercise you do will strongly benefit your heart. It will make it a stronger and larger organ. Deep breathing will help your lungs become stronger and larger as well. There is research now that links exercise to helping benefit and almost prevent each and every type of disease or ailment.

Movement of the joints will promote proper blood flow and create energy, as sitting down all day will rob your body of much needed energy. If you sit down all day, it’s very important that you promote blood flow, circulation, energy, brain flow, and the strength of your heart. With just a little bit of your time devoted to exercise, you’ll find yourself healthier than you have ever been in the past.

1) Don’t diet to extremes. Reducing calories by 15-20% a day will almost exclusively burn fat while larger cuts in calories will burn a combo of muscle tissue and fat. Muscle drives the metabolism – calorie burning. If you’re currently eating 3000 calories, reduce to 2400-2550, but do so according to smart guidelines like those laid out in The Living Health Weight Loss Audio.

2) Graze all day. Professional athletes and models eat all day long yet keep their total calories under control. The grazing method, 5-6 small meals, elevates the metabolism. Each time you eat, the metabolism increases, and over a 6-10 week period, that increase can parlay into another 2-3 pounds of fat loss.

3) Increase Protein. Carbs, protein and fat – are equal in their efficiency to be stored as body fat, but protein exerts a greater metabolic boosting effect than carbs or dietary fat. When calories drop, protein saves muscle which helps keep the metabolism elevated. Aim for 1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight daily.

4) Play with Carbs. Carbs help retain metabolic boosting muscle yet they can stimulate fat storage. Following a modified low carb diet – staggering your carbohydrate intake is one of the most effective ways to jump start your
metabolism and to burn stubborn fat fast (as outlined in Maximize Your Metabolism and the Living Health Audio Program.)

5) Go Backward. One reason fat loss comes to a halt; the body downgrades its metabolism to meet its dwindling intake of calories. The solution: dramatically increase your calorie intake once every 2-3 weeks. The one day splurge “re-sets” the metabolism by restoring thyroid levels, the calorie burning hormone that declines with dieting.

6) Skip the Late Night Carbs. Carbs eaten before bedtime are more likely to be stored as body fat so focus on lean proteins and fiber based vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and salad fixings. The lone exception: if you train late at night and your goal is to build muscle mass, you’ll need the carbs to replenish glycogen and support growth.

7) Go Fish. When calories are controlled, the inclusion of omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon, trout and sardines may promote speedier fat loss. One study revealed dieters who ate fish on a daily basis lost more weight than those who ate fish just once a week (Am Journ Clin Nutr 70:817-825, 1999)

8) Go Spicy. Red peppers, the spicy ingredient in Mexican and Indian dishes contains Capsaicin which can increase the metabolic rate by effecting the Sympathetic Branch of the Nervous system. Spiking your chicken dishes with red might be a small benefit or you can gulp 5 to 10 encapsulated grams of Capsaicin from your local health food store. (Journal of Nutrition 116:1272-1278, 1986.)

9) Don’t Be Cardio Crazy! Radically reducing calories slows the metabolism short circuiting fat loss. Same is true with radical caloric expenditure. You know: 2 cardio sessions a day. Excess cardio slows the metabolism, promotes a loss in muscle and even can lower testosterone levels. For real results, stick to 4-6 sessions a week, 30 – 45 minutes at a clip and maintain a high level of intensity.

10) Separate Cardio From Weight Training. What happens when you do cardio first and follow it up with weight training? You don’t build as much muscle density. How about cardio after training? You risk overtraining and the negative hormonal milieu that can stifle the metabolic rate. The best scenario; hit the cardio in the morning – on an empty stomach – get in a few meals and return to the gym later in the day to build muscle density.

1. Garlic -  Loads of minerals, enzymes and amino acids; Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D.  Only 41 KCAL per 100 grams. Helps reactivate Your metabolism while keeping the cholesterol to rock bottom levels.
2. Banana – Sugars with little fats. Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Vitamins: A, C, Tannin and Serotonin. Only 66 Kcal per 100 grams. A great appetite suppressant snack.
3. Onion – Rich source of Vitamins A, C, E, and of B group vitamins. Also includes Potassium, Calcium, Sodium; helps diuretic activity and a great cellulite fighter. Helps to keep blood sugars stables.
4. Med grass – Not used much in today’s foods, but a great friend of weight loss. Helps curb fat intake desires.
5. Strawberry – Low Sugars, Minerals and Vitamin C rich. Only 27 KCAL per 100 grams.
6. Corn Flakes – Cereals, Legumes mixed though. Helps your metabolism and only 14 KCAL per 100 grams.
7. Kiwi – Potassium rich and Calcium, Iron, Zinc too. Great source of Vitamin C, lots of fibre, and very helpful in stimulating diuretic functions.
8. Salad – Rich of fibers and very poor in calories (only 14 KCAL per 100 grams); diuretic functions and appetite suppressant, thanks to large volumes / low KCAL ratio. Lot of minerals too.
9. Lemon – Lowest sugar content for the same fruit family (only 2.3%), rich in Vitamins and only 11 KCAL per 100 grams. Helps blood circulation and fights cellulitis.
10. Apple – Vitamin C and E, Potassium, Magnesium, rich inn Tannin, great high cholesterol fighter.
11. Nuts -  Rich in Fats, Proteins, Sugars and Vitamins. Helps Fat Burning thanks to good Calcium and Magnesium contents.
12. Wheat – Only 319 KCAL per 100 grams and very rich in Proteins, Amynoacids, Iron, Calcium, Potassium and Magnesium. but also good content of Vitamins B. Helps diuretic functions and fights emotional eating.
13. Chicken – White meat, low fat content, limits intake of fats, sodium and cholesterol.
14. Rucola Salad -  Great content of Vitamin A and C, and great Metabolism booster. Only 16 KCAL per 100 grams.
15. Soy -  Rich in Proteins and Folic Acid. Fights Weight gaining and helps re-balancing metabolism.
16. Tea – contains fat burning caffeine, minerals and B group vitamins. Stimulates metabolism and has a zero calories.
17. Eggs – Hyperproteic food. Lots of minerals and enzymes, helps grow non-fat mass which is crucial to increasing  fat burning.
18. Wine – Contains antioxidantd substances that help protect the heart and fight aging.
19. Pumpkin – Rich in B, C, E vitamins, minerals and only 18 KCAL per 100 grams. Helps diuretic functions.