The 7 Principles of Fat Burning

If you’ve had a tough time getting ripped—or just losing some fat—you know there’s more to it than just calories in and calories out. A lot of skinny people can inhale huge amounts of food without gaining weight, while many fat folks simply look at a doughnut and put on five pounds of blubber. Eric Berg, D.C., clears up many of the mysteries in his new book, The 7 Principles of Fat Burning.

Berg claims that losing weight is all about optimizing the six fat-burning hormones—growth hormone, insulinlike growth factor, glucagon, adrenaline, thyroid hormones and testosterone—all of which can be compromised by insulin spikes:

“Without having a good understanding of hormones, it might appear that all calories are the same, and if you eat less, you will, of course, weigh less. People who tell you this have not grasped the basic physiology of hormone interaction resulting from food…. Even though fats have the densest calories, they are neutral when it comes to making fat. Sugar and refined carbohydrates, on the other hand, are huge triggers for fat-making hormones despite having fewer calories than fats. And although protein has calories, consuming the right amount of protein will trigger fat-burning hormones. The ‘right amount’ is based on your body type.”

Berg identifies four body types—adrenal, ovary, thyroid and liver. Each has a specific bellyfat look. For example, liver is a protruding belly, as you’d see on heavy beer drinker. Each type has specific dietary requirements for dropping fat fast, and he provides a chapter for each, followed by eating and exercise suggestions later in the book.

What Berg is actually recommending with his eating and exercise strategies is that you shift the goal from “losing weight” to “attaining health.” Being overweight is more a symptom of an unhealthy body. He verifies that over and over, with lots of solid solutions to correct the problems, no matter how overweight you are.

Some of the other points Berg covers include how incorrect exercise prevents fat burning, the exercise-longer-to-lose-weight myth, how your body can burn 95 percent of its fat at night and the 10 fat-burning triggers and blockers, in addition to many recipes and eating tips for each body type.

Whether you are a bodybuilder or an average Joe looking to lose fat, this book has a lot of answers. While the simple message is to delete simple sugars from your diet, Berg takes it much further, with a clear and precise plan for making you a leaner man—or woman.