I was having a fierce argument with a close friend earlier today about this idea.  

Her argument was to point out those overweight athletes who still compete highly competitively. She said it proved that it must be possible to be fat and fit. She also reckoned that being fat put something in reserve if you became ill. Interesting thing is that at one time there was debate amongst scientists about some very similar ideas. In fact some studies seemed to suggest that people who are a bit overweight often outlive many of those who are within an ideal weight range.

But don’t go and grab the ice cream from the freezer just yet.

See that early work on this got it quite wrong. And the reason is simple as pie. People who are ill or smoke tend to lose weight. Take any sample of the population and some people will be thin for these reasons. Ignore this in the statistics and the numbers will point to a very wrong conclusion: that fat is not so bad after all.

Adjust the numbers to take this factor into account and the picture is transformed. You actually increase your chances of an early death greatly if you are overweight. The more overweight you are the more you risk your health and life. In truth diabetes and cancer can be waiting just around the corner as your weight soars up.

But look on the positive side: what a great incentive to start losing some pounds right away…   

The line “Eating right helps you sleep, which helps you eat right, which helps you sleep” certainly seems to be right on the nose with this.

But if you dig deeper there can be a startling direct cause in the relationship. One that is vital for many of us to understand. You see lack of sleep can actually be the direct reason you are packing the pounds. If you don’t sleep it disrupts the chemical messages that tell you that you have eaten. So you just want to go on eating and eating.

Solution: get a good night’s sleep. Now that may be more easily said than done. On the other hand by making a few small adjustments to ensure that you sleep well (such as having a comfortable bed, going to bed at a regular time, and not exercising immediately before hand) may all be a whole lot easier than the hassle of dieting.

If you are overweight and have difficulty sleeping start to think about ways you can improve your sleep pattern. It really could be one vital and unexpected key in the war to shed weight.

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And the reason the stuff is so bad is interesting. You see the natural human diet contains very little of the sweetest of the sweet sugars. When it does occur it is in small amounts in foods that contain loads of really good micro nutrients: honey for example.

Problem is our body is not very good at metabolizing it. And the out-come is that it fools around with the signaling system that tells our mind how much we have eaten. So drink HFCS laden sweet drinks all day and you will never feel full – but you actually will be in danger of taking in loads of calories while you are totally unaware.

Now we find another problem. Move to diet drinks and you may actually put on weight as a direct result. A team at Purdue University has found that by using artificial sweeteners it is like you “announce”to your body that loads of calories are on their way “prepare your gastric juices!” Then when you don’t get them you are disappointed. The Purdue team concluded “Thus, people may eat more or expend less energy than they would otherwise”.

Now that is a big blow for dieters. And it is no good saying “let’s go back to non diet drinks”because who knows which of these does the most harm- we just know both do loads of harm.

Real problem is that we are eating all these things that are not natural. We underestimate how much our physiology has geared up to ensure we eat a balanced diet from natural sources. Then we eat all this stuff that our body has not evolved to digest and it does us untold harm. Punch line is if you want to lose weight then cut out all soft drinks and replace them with water!

That is all great stuff… but the problem with Tim is that I bet he has never been much over his ideal bodyweight in all his entire short life. And in any case he has reserves of willpower and determination possessed by only one in a million! His goal: he wants to replace a small and not unhealthy amount of fat with muscle – and in as short time as possible.

Basically Tim is nothing like a normal dieter. What he is preaching may be fine for a few people who are already a reasonable weight and want to tune things up a bit (I don’t like the ‘drug supplement’ bit) but is completely useless for the vast majority of us.

He proves it with his photos. They show he starts okay. Then, with a slightly deeper tan, shorts pulled up, a tighter pose and closer photo, we see him again exactly the same!!! The wonders of photography! I wonder if the before and after photos were actually taken on the same day!

In TMPD training we can tell you how to attain the willpower of a Tim Ferriss as well as how to avoid the need for willpower altogether when you diet.

My mind momentarily went into overload – “one most powerful thing”. Well I am supposed to know something about this so I avoided saying “eat less” or “exercise more” since we all know that and the problem is actually doing it!

Then it occurred to me. “Ever heard of Fructose or High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)?” I replied. “Soft drink is full of it. Sweet foods are loaded with it”

That has to be the answer! Cut it out. Just don’t eat or drink anything with HCFS in it. Search it out and avoid it like the plague. Get really obsessed with the labels and look for HFCS.

Well we talk much more about this on the weight reduction program we have developed. But the great thing is for many people, if they just took this step, it would be far more effective than most diets – not only would they end up with improved body shape – they would be far healthier too!

Find it difficult to do this? I discussed it with my colleague the Ericksonian Hypnosis expert Doug O’Brien. So now he is developing a cunning way to help make this easier for you: an “Anti Fructose Trance”! That just has to be a first.