
Explore the 10 most commonly asked questions about weight, showing how food processing, cravings, belly fat, aging, insulin resistance, dieting, and stress interconnect to influence weight outcomes.
Explore how a slim person processes food, energy balance, and how hormones affect weight gain or loss, while introducing basal metabolic index and cellular energy factories, such as mitochondrion.
discover how mitochondria generate ATP, the body's energy currency, by converting fats and carbohydrates with cofactors like vitamin B, iron, and oxygen.
Explore how insulin from the pancreas carries glucose into cells via insulin receptors to store energy, and how glucagon mobilizes glycogen and fat during fasting.
Learn how carbohydrates are burned first and fats are stored, then used during fasting, with insulin driving carb storage and glucagon triggering fat burning.
See how steady energy intake and insulin storage fill liver, muscles, and fat, leading to gradual weight gain through cycles of carbs, hunger, and fat burning suppression.
Explore how insulin regulates fat storage and weight, how high glycemic foods and constant eating drive insulin resistance, and how this affects hunger and glucose in the blood.
Explore how gut bacteria influence cravings for sugar and fat, the role of candida infections, insulin and leptin resistance, and how inflammation and leaky gut affect food choices.
Explore how lipoprotein lipase and hormone-sensitive lipase regulate fat breakdown, how insulin promotes fat entry into cells while suppressing fat release, and how estrogen and testosterone influence fat with aging.
Discover how high insulin promotes insulin resistance, blocks fat burning, and drives inflammation, linking diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer's, and thyroid health.
Explore how glucagon drives fat burning during fasting, the role of insulin, and practical intermittent fasting patterns that boost growth hormone and insulin sensitivity while protecting metabolism.
Exercise in a fasting state maximizes fat burning by lowering insulin and triggering glucagon-driven fat use, especially near the end of a fast or between meals.
Apply small changes with big impact: eat three meals daily with no snacks, use supplements to boost insulin sensitivity, cut high glycemic index carbohydrates, and exercise in a fasting state.
Leptin signals the brain to slow metabolism during low intake, then rises after refeeding to boost metabolism via the thyroid; leptin resistance may cause fatigue, sluggish metabolism, and weight gain.
Explore how leptin resistance mimics insulin resistance, desensitizing the brain to leptin, triggering hunger and overeating, while lowering metabolic rate and reinforcing a starvation mindset.
Dieting lowers metabolic rate and nutrient intake, causing exhaustion, lethargy, and afternoon sleepiness. Identify how leptin resistance, insulin resistance, and thyroid interplay influence energy, mood, and weight.
Explore how insulin resistance and leptin feedback affect weight loss in real life, showing how strict low-calorie diets lower metabolism, trigger cravings, and often fail.
Explore how stress affects weight by triggering adrenaline and cortisol, which regulate hormone sensitive lipids and insulin, and promote insulin resistance that disrupts fat burning.
Learn how stress affects weight and stress eating, and use mindfulness and quiet time to reduce stress. Improve sleep by cutting blue light, boosting melatonin, and eight hours in bed.
Full description:
Maintaining normal weight becomes more difficult as we get older, even if we are eating the same foods as we did when we were young. Making healthy food choices are often difficult because our stress levels are higher and our lives busy. We are constantly exposed to foods that claim to be healthy, yet are not and we are unaware of what 'fat' foods we may unwittingly be eating, as well as habits and patterns we may have developed over time, that together ruin our chances to become slim, or stay slim.
This course explains exactly what happens on a cellular, hormonal and metabolic level, in easy to understand layman's terms, when we eat certain foods. It explains what hormones are released in all of us and how they can sabotage our attempts to lose weight. It also explains how the same hormones in one person may lead to more weight gain than they do in another person as well as some fundamental, resolvable challenges that cause us to crave certain foods.
Stress impacts very poorly on weight. This course explains why this happens in order to understand why it is not a luxury to take time off to de-stress but rather a health necessity and certainly a 'slimming' necessity.
'Getting the body you want' covers the 10 most commonly asked questions (and gives solutions) and explains the processes in the body. It gives detailed explanations so that when any diet is attempted, you will have a deep understanding of what is likely to work for you and your unique body. There is no 'one size fits all'. We have differing genes and abilities to metabolize food but the 10 solutions are all solutions that will benefit no matter what your unique genetic and hormonal mix may be. Each solution impacts positively on the hormones and metabolic processes in specific but overlapping ways, to lead you towards a healthy, slim and energetic body, without going hungry...ever! Health is a process, not a quick fix, and each of the solutions can be incorporated at your own pace to minimize the yoyo effect of dieting.
This increased understanding will, in turn, increase the sustainability of your weight loss.
What is offered on this course?
Over 50 lectures and 2.5 hours lecture time, including PDF's to download for easy reference when you are not online.
Information on how you gained the weight in the first place (and not just because you ate too much) and why it becomes more difficult to lose weight as you grow older
· No calorie controlled diet
· How to use food timing to manage your fat making hormones
· How to use intermittent fasting so you can fast without feeling hungry
· How to maximize exercise in just a few minutes a day.
· Know which foods to say yes to and which to say no, without feeling deprived.
Specifically:
· How a slim body processes food
· How an overweight body processes food
· Why you cannot lose the weight you have gained over time.
· How our hormones sabotage our attempts to lose weight
· How to control these hormones
· Why you get exhausted and irritable on a diet
· Why eating too little will make you fat
· How to make 'weight loss' food choices in the real world
· 10 specific, impactful actions to reverse your downward spiral
Who it the course for?
· Beginners or seasoned dieters
· People who like to understand 'why' so they can action 'what' for themselves.
Who will benefit?
· People who keep gaining, no matter what they do
· Stubborn middle fat
· People who feel tired and foggy when trying to lose weight
· People who get fat even though they eat only a tiny amount
· Busy people who cannot spend hours at gym
· Parents who want to make good grounding choices for their children
What are the requirements?
· No prior nutritional or physiological knowledge
· A supportive family
· A willingness to embrace some changes
· Curiosity about how the body works
Biography:
I trained initially as a podiatrist and then went on to do a Bachelor's Degree in psychology and communication. I live in South Africa and have a private podiatry practice specializing in diabetic and arthritic patients, but subsequent to that, I studied Exercise Science (SA), Health and Nutrition (UK) and Functional Medicine (USA). Functional medicine looks at the interplay between our genes, nutrition, lifestyle, exercise and stress and how that relates to health and chronic, non communicable conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis and ageing. My sub- studies include, pain management, detoxification, gut management, energy management, hormone and sexual health. I am concerned at the downward spiral in health care and believe strongly that much of our health status lies within our own power. Education is everything but most of us do not have the time to sift through the information to establish what will work for us in our own unique context. This course aims at changing that. I am committed to empowering people so they are informed and can make health choices that will impact positively on their life and vitality.
Curriculum;
Lecture 1: Introduction
Lecture 2: Disclaimer PDF
Lecture 3; Overview of the 10 commonly asked questions and why a deeper understanding will benefit you. Plus 10 questions PDF
Lecture 4: Question 1. How does a slim person process food? How do we use food to generate energy and how much energy do we need for our BMI.
Lecture 5: What is a Mitochondrion and why are they essential for health. What fuel does it need and where does the fuel come from?
Lecture 6; All about carbohydrates and where the body stores the excess plus the hormones the body needs to metabolize carbohydrates
Lecture 7: Insulin. What is it and why is it important. What is a normal response to insulin and what happens to fuel supply when we are sleeping?
Lecture 8: Fats and when they are burned.
Lecture 9: Question 2. Why do we get fat in the first place? What happens in our body that allows the process of gaining weight? And it's not just about eating more.
Lecture 10: Dangers of Fructose and where does it hide?
Lecture 11: Question 3: Why do people respond so differently to the same foods. What role do genes play and what genes predispose to weight issues?
Lecture 12: Summary so far. What is the number 1 change to make and what hormones are our 'fat' hormones?
Lecture 13: Fat making hormone no 1. Insulin and Insulin Resistance. How can one hormone make me fat?
Lecture 14: First Impactful change. How to start influencing insulin?
Lecture 15: Question 4. Why do I crave bread and sweets? How does my gut influence whether I crave sugar?
Lecture 16: What about Insulin and Leptin resistance? Why should that make me hungry and what nutrients are best to get rid of cravings?
Lecture 17: Impactful change no 2. Important supplements for weight loss, dosages and summary of changes so far.
Lecture 18: Question 5. Why do some people put fat on their bum and others on their belly? What enzymes regulate this?
Lecture 19: More about those enzymes and how they act and what role does insulin play on their action?
Lecture 20: Perspective summary
Lecture 21: 3rd Impactful change. Eliminating Carbohydrates. What can I eat and what must I avoid?
Lecture 22: Glycemic Index vs Glycemic load. PDF
Lecture 23: Carbohydrates to eat and carbohydrates to avoid. PDF
Lecture 24: Question 6. Do I need to be scared of my belly fat? What does having belly fat mean and what are the dangers?
Lecture 25: More dangers associated with Insulin Resistance and why does this increase my risk of developing Diabetes?
Lecture 26: Question 7. What can I do to reduce the impact of Insulin? Steps that I can do myself.
Lecture 27: Glucose Management. PDF
Lecture 28: Intermittent Fasting. Will this benefit me and how do I do this without going hungry?
Lecture 29: Intermittent Fasting. PDF
Lecture 30: When do I exercise to maximize the benefit?
Lecture 31: What exercises can I do that won't take ages?
Lecture 32: High Interval Training. PDF
Lecture 33: Tabata Training. PDF
Lecture 34: 4th and 5th impactful change: Small changes: Big Impact
Lecture 35: Question 8. Why am I struggling to lose weight even though I eat very little? What hormones influence this and can I minimize the impact?
Lecture 36: How does Leptin act in the body and what happens when it goes awry?
Lecture 37: Leptin Resistance. How does Leptin affect my metabolic rate? How does Leptin sabotage my weight loss?
Lecture 38: Question 9. Why am I so exhausted every time I go on a diet? What influences the cycle of dieting that drains energy? What is making my metabolism so slow?
Lecture 39: Practical reality example.
Lecture 40: Hunger and weight loss. Why never to go hungry. Complications of calorie restriction.
Lecture 41: What about protein? Is it important and how much is ideal? Impactful changes 6 and 7.
Lecture 42: Protein for breakfast. PDF
Lecture 43. Common Proteins. PDF
Lecture 44: Question 10. Will stress make me fatter? How does stress impact on belly fat? What roles do adrenalin and cortisol play in weight gain?
Lecture 45: How can I reduce my stress levels? What needs to change to get better sleep?
Lecture 46: Eat with Attention. PDF
Lecture 47: Stress Management. PDF
Lecture 48: Sleep aids. PDF
Lecture 49: Big picture perspective and getting started.
Lecture 50: Summary of 10 small changes that have a big impact.
Lecture 51: 10 Changes PDF
Lecture 52: List of PDF's
Lecture 53: Thanks and contact details for personal contact.
Bonus Lecture: 10 Readiness Strategies PDF