From Fat to Fit

"I am not a physician, dietitian, or nutritionist. I am a housewife who figured it out. Broke the system."

Susan Powter's anecdotal explanations of the myths and truths of diet and exercise comes from her own personal experiences as a "260-pound housewife, feeling desperately out of control, afraid, trying every diet out there, and failing." She had tried all the fad diet programs only to gain all the weight back and then some. Eventually she "gave up" on the diet industry and did it herself, discovering the following facts:

* Reduced-calorie diets send the body into starvation mode, which slows metabolism and increases fat storage. Starvation also makes you crave high calorie foods

* The weight you lose on a calorie deficient diet is lean muscle mass and water. Which 98 percent of us gain back as fat. Leaving the body fatter and weaker. The only way to rebuild muscle mass is through exercise.

Eating Right

"Food doesn't make you fat," writes Powter, "fat makes you fat." At nine calories per gram, fat is the most calorically dense food you can eat. Do not skip meals and eat as much as you want as long as it's 30 percent calories from fat or less, she advises. Become a fat detective and learn how to read labels and figure the percentage of calories from fat per serving.

To figure percent of calories from fat, take the number of grams of fat per serving, multiply by 9 (9 calories per gram of fat) and divide by the total calories per serving. Do the math, and you may discover many of your favorite "reduced" foods calculate much higher than 30 percent.

Powter recommends a diet based on whole grains, legumes, and vegetables, followed by a reduced amount of processed grains, starches, and fruit. Occasional lean proteins like fish, poultry breast, and egg whites are OK.

Breathing Right

Susan lays down the facts:
* we don't get enough oxygen despite that fact we have 75 trillion cells to feed.
* we never think about improving our breathing.
* we don't use or give credit to a life-giving force.

Breathing and moving burns fat. She shows you how to breathe deeply from the abdomen and advises to stop and take a good breath at least 100 times a day.

Moving Right

Powter knows the hardest part of starting to exercise is facing your fitness level, or lack there of. Anyone can build their fitness level, it just requires modification. Your local gym tailors to the upper 10 percent fitness level of the population-leaving unfit people feeling humiliated in their efforts to keep up.

Powter has dedicated herself to teaching women of ALL fitness levels how to begin to increase their cardio-endurance, upper and lower body strength, burn fat, and change their lives forever. Her book contains a complete resistance workout for muscle tone and endurance, with modifications for people who have never exercised before in their lives. She recommends 30 minutes five to six days a week within 46 percent of your maximum heart rate to allow you to work at a lower level of intensity for a longer duration.