It's all about chocolate

Chocolate’s amazing stuff!

It’s been around in one form or another since 1900BC, but only evolved into the delightful melt in your mouth treat we’ve known and loved for 200 years by the British. It was then perfected by the Swiss, Dutch and French.

Chocolate is almost a complete food. 100gm of average chocolate contains 8% protein, over 25% fat, and equal amounts of sugar and carbohydrates. It’s one of the few foods you can chew, lick, spread, pour, and occasionally wear (and it tastes great hot or cold).

Chocolate moves from the category of food to that of friend because, lets face it, it comes to the rescue when we’re feeling down, lonely and flat out tired.

Aged to perfection

Last week I wrote about how low Iron levels reduce a womans ability to lose body fat. Iron carries Oxygen and low Iron means low available Oxygen in the muscle & blood. Sweating also reduces Iron levels so exercise where you sweat while you have low Iron is a double whammy to your body shaping goals.

Sweating is great for body fat loss when your Iron levels are high.

A womans Iron levels fluctuate consistently from puberty to menopause as part of her inner circle of health. The phases of your cycle when your available Oxygen for fat loss is at its highest are the optimal times to sweat because there will still be Oxygen in your muscles for prolonged exercise.

Iron

What I’m about to write will sound strange & in opposition to most fitness thought.

If you’re a woman with low Iron levels sweating makes it harder to lose weight.

The reason is that Iron & Copper transport Oxygen through the body. A woman's Iron levels vary dramatically through her cycle. Blood stored to support fertility after ovulation means that available Iron levels in the blood reduce. Blood Iron levels are then reinforced by taking Iron from muscles.

When muscles are depleted of Oxygen because your body needs it in the blood, the muscle fatigues faster. In other words you get tired faster. Shortness of breath, heavy & weak muscles are signs that your Iron levels are low. Your body’s sending you a clear message- don’t try as hard. When women wave these signs off & continue to train or work to a point where they sweat they compound the effect of low Iron because sweating reduces Iron levels as well.

Why am I on about Iron when this article is about losing weight?

Eating for health

Last week you read the beginning of this article on the hazards of dramatic diets.

It’s your store of body fat that the “dramatic diet” industry makes a fortune from.

Back in the old days (when everyone was thinner) famine didn’t happen overnight.  A gradual decline in food availability let your body adjust to allow fat stored to be released for food replacement. Everyones’ body has a base nutritional point that maintains activity & body processes over a 24 hour period including rest. If we were going through a famine our nutrition intake reduces & our body registers a decline in our base nutrition point. Our body then reduces its’ function to save energy. It actually slows down to protect itself, and as a result stores as much fat as it can because it feels like it’s starving.