Columbia Advanced Chiropractic, LLC

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How To Overcome Your ‘Set Point’ To Maximize Body Composition Change

How To Overcome Your ‘Set Point’ To Maximize Body Composition Change

Whenever we engage in any type of weight loss/body modification plan, we have to be realistic with our goals.  The trendy ‘lose 30 in 30’ programs rarely yield results that last because the programs are quite abusive to your body and not many people have the will to continue on such a tough voyage.

Before I go any further, I will touch on the difference between weight loss and body modification.  Weight loss is just that: losing weight.  You will lose fat and muscle weight.  This is not a good thing.  We want to be lean and muscular, not lean and soft.  Most all programs on the market can only address total weight loss and this is not what you want.  Body modification is achieved through losing fat weight while maintaining or gaining muscle percentage/weight.  This should be the goal of all diet programs but virtually none on the market can achieve this goal because they do not employ the proper system.  Dieting is not about cutting calories.  It’s about working with your body to get it leaner and stronger and using validated science to achieve this.  Going forward, I will only refer to dieting programs as body modification as this is really the goal of anyone who is trying to get leaner and healthier.

The key to any successful body modification program is sustainability.  In other words, can you continue this program into the future or will you eventually fall off the tracks and go back to your old ways?  In the overwhelming number of cases, people try a program for a while and then back off of it as it is too hard to maintain.  They end up where they were before they started.  This time, though, they tend to be more frustrated and their bodies are more resistant to future change.  We should not have to endure these failures. Continue Reading →

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Why The A1C (Glycated Hemoglobin) Test For Diabetics Does NOT Give Us The Whole Picture

Why The A1C (Glycated Hemoglobin) Test For Diabetics Does NOT Give Us The Whole Picture

Diabetics are familiar with the A1C test.  It is performed to assess roughly a 90 day period of sugar that is attached to your hemoglobin.  It is supposed to tell us if we are taking good care of ourselves.  The test is performed every 3 months because the average life of a red blood cell is 90 days.

Diabetics are told that the A1C is the ‘holy grail’ of knowing if you are in good health or not.  It’s the aim of most every diabetic to get that number lower!  I’ve been diabetic for over 35 years and it’s great to learn new things.  What have I learned?  I now know that the A1C, although a great test to determine the ‘average’ blood sugar reading over 3 months, does really nothing more than that.  It does NOT accurately tell us all we need to know about our diabetic health.

The A1C for a non-diabetic person is about 5.7%.  A ‘well-controlled’ diabetic will have an A1C at 6.5% or lower.  If someone’s A1C is 8.0% or higher, then they are generally in trouble!  Long-term high blood sugar levels lead to high levels of oxidative stress (free radical damage).  This damage is mostly what is responsible for killing diabetics.  Afterall, 65% of diabetics will die from heart disease/stroke and this damage is caused by, you guessed it, poor blood sugar control. Continue Reading →