Meet Allan Hoffman, 35 years old, starting weight 555 lbs, uses a wheelchair to get around, has a fractured vertebrae in his lower back and it’s fair to say he had a very difficult childhood. He’s struggled with his weight forever, battles depression and over the past 10 years his weight has gone from 305 to 555 lbs. Talk about having to overcome some challenges! His doctor said he should have gastric bypass surgery to lose the weight. Enter the exerspy and the dotFIT team.

It must have been fate because Allan reunited with a half-brother he never knew he had, who happens to be one of dotFIT’s team members.  Allan gets an exerspy, a few phone coaching sessions and starts using the dotFIT Me program to shed the weight. With his physical limitations, we had to start slow. Fast forward three months and he’s dropped 62 pounds. Here’s the strategy we used:

1. Identify WHY you want to lose so you stick to the process. Allan’s motivation was twofold – 1) meet his biological father face-to-face for the first time this summer and 2) see his 6 year old son graduate from high school. He keeps a picture of his son on his computer to keep him focused.
2. Set realistic and achievable goals. Allan’s ultimate goal is to weigh 210 lbs so we set him up to lose 2-3 pounds a week.
3. Give him visible targets to hit daily so he sees progress every day.  Using the dotFIT Me program an exerspy – his daily calorie burn target was approximately 4300 calories (remember, the heavier you are, the more you burn). His daily calorie intake goal was about 2800 calories. When he hits those targets, he loses weight. Period.
4. Log everything you eat. Becoming conscious of what goes in your mouth is the first step towards making better decisions and Allan was prone to mindlessly eat.
5. Increase physical activity. Do upper body exercises using cans for hand weights and leg lifts as he sits in his wheelchair. Work up to 5 minutes of physical activity per day. The exerspy tracks this so he knows whether he reaches this daily goal.
6. Eat more fiber-rich foods. Get 25 grams a day to start and track in using the online food log.

As you can see – a few simple adjustments repeated over time has produced AMAZING results. No diets. No drastic workouts or magic cleanses. Just practical changes anyone can do and a bit of encouragement and guidance along the way. To follow Allan’s story go to our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/fitnesshealth and check this blog for updates.

–Kat Barefield, MS, RD
Registered Dietitian for dotFIT

It’s possible.  Depending on what you categorize as supplements, they can be the difference between success and failure for many people. Just look at the success statistics of people using meal replacement bars and shakes to assist in weight loss compared to non-users, especially in long-term weight control.

Before we start down this road of dietary supplements and weight loss, let’s remember that supplements alone are NOT a weight loss program, whereas diet and exercise alone can be. But properly used and formulated supplements can accelerate progress and make the chore easier, giving users a greater chance of sticking with their chosen method of weight loss. And on that note, let’s look at dotFIT’s position on dietary supplements and weight loss. Click here to read more on dotFIT.com.

One common weight loss myth that drives us crazy here at dotFIT is the starvation mode myth.  It goes something like this: Eating a diet that is too low in calories will cause the body to go into starvation mode and not burn any calories.

People love this myth.  You know why? Because people, including me, love to eat. But here’s the fact of the matter: Severely cutting calories will cause your metabolism to adjust slightly, allowing your body to run on fewer calories, but it doesn’t prevent fat loss if you’re truly burning more calories than you’re consuming.

You’ll sometimes hear the trainers on the T.V. show The Biggest Loser alluding to this when they tell their contestants how important it is that they not eat fewer than 1200 calories a day. That’s a pretty low calorie diet, and the contestants are working out at least 5-6 hours every day. If they eat less than that they won’t “go into starvation mode,” but they won’t have the energy they need.  The same holds true for the average person trying to lose weight.

If you cut your calories too much, you become less energetic. As a result, you’re less active. That is, you do fewer daily activities, and then you burn fewer calories overall. Crash dieting with excessively low calorie intake leads to low energy levels, so you burn fewer calories all day and work out less intensely. This leads to increased hunger, which in turn increases the chances of rebound and binge eating behavior. In other words, you’re likely to move a lot less and eat more. The result? You hit a plateau which easily misinterpreted as the result of a “damaged” metabolism.

The point is not to lose weight too quickly by drastically reducing calories because that method is generally not sustainable. Mainly because it takes extreme and unrealistic changes in your diet to get results and when you drift back to your old eating habits, the weight returns.  The Biggest Loser is a reality show, but it’s not reality.  The contestants are closely monitored by a staff of medics, physicians and trainers. And if you could follow up with past contestants, you would find that most of them haven’t been able to maintain the weight loss they achieved on the show.

If you need to lose weight, eat less, move more and forget about starvation mode or slowing metabolism. Remember that a calorie out cancels a calorie in, no exceptions. Research shows that most people think they’re eating less than they actually are, so keep tabs on your calorie intake by using a food journal.

And if you really want to see how many calories you burn every day, along with your steps, minutes and type of physical activity, and how efficiently you sleep at night, check out exerspy at www.dotFIT.com/exerspy.  The research and development team at dotFIT that created exerspy and dotFIT Me is the same team that created the bodybugg® system featured on The Biggest Loser. By using exerspy and the dotFIT online program, you can see the calories you’re eating and burning, which takes the guesswork out of weight control. It’s not your metabolism that’s preventing you from losing weight – it’s NOT knowing your numbers. Take control, see your numbers and get results.

There definitely is evidence that adrenal stress and hypothyroidism affects some people’s ability to lose weight.  In fact, environmental conditions these days such as stress, food, infections, toxic load, etc. can alter energy metabolism and result in fatigue and difficulty losing weight. Poor functioning thyroid glands may make it more difficult to comply with appropriate calories because of a slowing metabolism, but it will not stop anyone from losing weight as long as you consume fewer calories than you burn. With that said, here are a few tips to help the process.

• Increase daily activities – standing or pacing instead of sitting, house chores, gardening, playing with kids, etc.
• Increase daily steps – wear a pedometer and gradually increase the number of steps per day.
• Increase workout time or intensity
• Vary exercise activities
• Decrease food intake approximately 100-200 calories/day and repeat this reduction if after two weeks there is no change in weight, body composition or circumference measurements
• Incorporate more fiber rich foods that help fill you up – whole grains, fruits and vegetables
• Track daily calories and portions

It’s important to seek medical advice is you suspect a thyroid condition because proper treatment restores thyroid hormone levels and metabolism. Bottom line – if you can’t eat much, move more and be very careful with what you do eat so you get the biggest bang for your buck. Foods rich in water and fiber will provide the most food with the fewest calories and incorporating activity throughout the day will help boost your calorie burn.

dotFIT Weight Loss Program Overview

Excess body fat and diets high in calories and fat can compromise liver function. This potentially leads to multiple obesity related conditions, such as insulin resistance, fatigue and reduced liver enzymes’ impact on fat burning. If your ability to burn fat decreases it can lead to lower energy levels and a vicious cycle of increased hunger and overeating. FatReleaser™ is scientifically developed to stop that cycle in its tracks! Delivering a natural blend of ingredients to speed up the removal of fat from the liver, support and maintain healthy liver function and combat the oxidative stress brought on by accumulating fat in the liver. In a groundbreaking study the key ingredient in FatReleaser decreased the body’s absorption of dietary fat by inhibiting gastrointestinal Lipase (the enzyme that prepares dietary fat for absorption). This led to a reduction in the absorption of overall calories and subjects lost up to 300% more weight than those taking a placebo, in only 12 weeks.

We all enjoy eating carbohydrates and we know they are also one of the bodys primary sources of fuel. Unfortunately for our waistlines, starchy foods such as breads, potatoes, pasta and rice quickly convert to glucose, which is a sugar that the body uses for everyday energy. If the excess glucose isnt used for energy through exercise or physical activity youll quickly start to pile on unwanted pounds and stubborn fat stores. Now you can take control with CarbKiller™. Each serving contains clinically tested Phase 2®, a proprietary standardized white kidney bean extract that works by blocking dietary starch from being absorbed. By working with the bodys natural enzymes, Phase 2 blocks the action of the alpha amylase enzyme, which is responsible for breaking down starches into sugars.

ThermoShock™ delivers a powerful assault on unwanted fat stores with a combination of maximum strength thermogenic agents and a patented, clinically proven complex of plant based polysaccharides and esterified fatty acids. This natural compound works through unique body fat regulation pathways, proving in a groundbreaking study to regulate body fat storage and activate 92% more weight loss. Even more impressive is that subjects using these ingredients also increased their lean muscle to fat ratio, preserving hard earned muscle and creating awe inspiring definition.