EDDIE ABBEW FAT LOSS ULTIMATE GUIDE BEFORE AFTER HOW TO LOSE FAT AND BE HEALTHY THE REAL WAY @EDDIEABBEW TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 ABOUT ME 4 INTRODUCTION 6 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FAT LOSS 6 SECTION ONE: WHAT IS FAT? 8 UNDERSTAND FAT 8 WHY IS FAT LOSS SO IMPORTANT? 8 HOW MUCH WEIGHT SHOULD I LOSE PER WEEK? 9 AN IMPROVED LIFESTYLE 9 WILLPOWER 9 10 SECTION TWO: WHAT IS FOOD? THE PURPOSE OF FOOD 10 CALORIES IN VS CALORIES OUT IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY 11 REAL FOOD AND MARKETING 12 HOW DO WE LOSE FAT? 12 SECTION THREE: ACHIEVING FAT LOSS 13 GUT HEALTH AND FAT LOSS 13 WHY IS THE LIVER IMPORTANT? 14 FAT ADAPTATION / METABOLIC FLEXIBILITY 14 KETOSIS 15 CRAVINGS 15 PLATEAU 15 SKINNY FAT 15 SECTION FOUR: COMMON JUNK 16 WHY IS VS IT IMPORTANT FOR ME TO REST? SUGAR SALT 21 16 WHAT ABOUT SUPPLEMENTS? TEA 21 17 DESSERT 17 ALCOHOL 17 @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 18 SECTION FIVE: THE DIET THE WAY FORWARD 18 SO, WHAT SHOULD WE EAT? 18 THE DIET 19 FOOD OPTIONS 20 STRUCTURING YOUR MEALS 21 SAMPLE MEAL PLAN 22 SECTION SIX: SUPPLEMENTS 23 SECTION SEVEN: TRAINING 24 HOW IMPORTANT IS TRAINING 24 BUILDING MUSCLE IS NOT A TEXTBOOK SPORT 24 ABS 24 WORKOUT SCHEDULE 24 REST & RECOVERY 25 SECTION EIGHT: CONCLUSION 26 KEY THINGS TO REMEMBER 26 LISTEN TO THIS 27 FINAL WORDS 28 ONLINE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM @EDDIEABBEW 29 ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 2 ABOUT ME My name is Eddie Abbew. I have been a bodybuilder for 45 years. The intentions of these eBooks are to educate and debunk many of the dietary myths and lies being perpetuated in the fitness and bodybuilding industry. I was the British number one bodybuilder for several years and represented the UK successfully. I was also one of the only few men from the UK to have competed at the Open Mr. Olympia competition in 2007. After retiring from bodybuilding competitions in 2010, I opened my own gym, Olympian Gym in Hemel Hempstead, and mainly prepped athletes for competitions, under the banner #TeamSavage. You can get more information on Team Savage on various social media platforms, especially Facebook. We were very successful. Prior to bodybuilding, I was a trained staff nurse, specialising in psychiatry, in charge of wards, working for the NHS. This was where my passion for nutrition and lifestyle changes truly began. In fact, the first personal training course I did was funded by the NHS in 1986. My knowledge comes from scientific, client, and personal experiences over the forty-five years of bodybuilding. If you believe something different, and/or what you are currently doing is working for you, bravo! Please let others try something different. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 3 Introduction This is about re-education. I know the ultimate goal is fat loss but, to successfully do that requires a lifestyle change. This is an investigation to discover what foods work best for you. To do that experimenting with different foods is imperative. A mindset change is needed to achieve this goal. Your unwanted fat accumulation is not a result of your gluttony or laziness. This is a hormonal problem. Hormones like, insulin, cortisol, adrenaline, and thyroxine, are all involved somehow in accumulation of unwanted body fat. We know and believe we can help you. THIS IS ABOUT INSULIN CONTROL! Insulin is a storage hormone. It is responsible for storing your energy. This is a journey of self-discovery with regards to health, longevity, and avoidance of the doctor’s prescription pad in the long-term. The saying has always been, “I want to lose weight and be healthy.” But the truth is, you need to be healthy first for your body to healthily let go of the energy (fat), you have inadvertently asked it to store. This eBook is designed to uncover the truths about fat loss, separating fact from fiction. I wrote it in response to the unhealthy information being spread in the fitness industry from who I call the “Dumb Brigade”. There is too much misinformation and blatant untruths about fat loss. Many people are struggling to achieve their desired goals because of those lies. The biggest mislead: ‘To lose fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit. Your output must exceed your input.’ But that is not the whole story. We are going to try to explain. Please have an open mind because this will contradict all the mainstream information about fat loss. It is not the amount of food you eat, but what your body does with the food. Seeing young people in their 20s and 30s continually approach me with digestive and metabolic issues because of the junk food they have been advised to eat by the “Dumb Brigade”, was too much for me as a gym owner, and parent to ignore. This is my way of making these young people healthy again. When you only count calories and macros, you are ignoring the reason why you gained the body fat in the first place. YOU ARE EATING THE WRONG FOOD! @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 4 I have always thought The National Health Service should be renamed to The National Treatment Service. As a nurse we were taught the allopathic medicine. It was always about tablet, injection, or surgery, and never discovering the root cause of the problem. The US have the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Rings any bells. Is it possible that the pharmaceutical and food companies are in cahoots to deceive us? Mind boggles! Since we started posting my rants on TikTok in November 2022, we have received an extraordinary amount of positive feedback from people of all ages and walks of life. The general theme is that they have been implementing our suggestions and noticing major improvements in various aspects of their lives. Some of these improvements include: Improved energy levels Acne reduction Psoriasis clearance Reduction in cravings Less bloating Reduction in digestive disorders Improvements in mood Fat loss Better sleep Less joint pain FOOD IS FUEL Every animal instinctively knows what it must eat. It is a built-in survival need. There is also usually some movement in obtaining the food. Hunting, climbing a tree, digging. Notice there is no extensive running, spinning, or HIIT classes involved here. Imagine running 10 miles to catch your prey. Humans, we became “so clever” at this that we found ways of producing our own food. No need to wait for nature to dictate to us. We breed our own animals, farm our own fish, and grow our own crops. Now all we do, is break the laws of nature. We are bypassing the very vital, instinctive, built in ability to find and eat the right foods. Whole, natural foods. In the West, we have also become sedentary. One could say things were not that bad until we discovered the sweet taste of sugar. Sugar is a drug. An addictive drug that has really fucked us up! We all love that shit! Now, we have completely relinquished the responsibility of our food matters to company’s who are only interested in enriching themselves. We all used to cook for ourselves daily. They take the natural foods, remove all the nutrients, (wholeness) and process the fuck out of it. They use chemicals, additives, and preservatives with the knowledge that the more addicted we get to these foods, the more we will buy and the richer they will become. We are now at a juncture where highly processed food is so rife that one is thought of as, “weird” if you eat only natural foods. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 5 6 MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FAT LOSS 1. “Eating fat makes you fat” This is complete nonsense. Your body doesn't turn fat into fat. What it does, is take glucose and converts it into fat. This is a built-in defence. That is how your body protects you for when food is scarce. So, next time someone tells you that eating fat will make you fat, tell them, Eddie said: “to shut the fuck up!” 2. “Cholesterol in eggs will increase your bad cholesterol” If the cholesterol in eggs increases your bad cholesterol, I think Eddie wouldn’t be with us. Right now, he eats between 10-16 eggs a day. He has done so for decades. Please don’t believe the myth about cholesterol in eggs. In fact, the cholesterol in eggs have been proven to reduce your bad cholesterol. The other fact to remember also, is that most of the cholesterol in your body is made by your liver. Cholesterol is a very important substance to your body. The liver makes almost three times the amount of cholesterol we consume. Cholesterol was never the enemy. It is part of your body’s healing process. The less cholesterol you eat, the more your body makes. The more you eat, the less it makes. Cholesterol is involved in making hormones, even your brain is part cholesterol. 3. “You can turn fat into muscle” Fat is fat. Muscle is muscle. They are two completely different tissues. You can use fat as an energy source to build muscle, but fat can never convert to muscle. What we do is help you use your stored energy (fat) to build muscle. When you are carrying body fat, especially liver fat, you are at a disadvantage with muscle building and fat burning. This is because your liver is involved in every metabolic action in the body, including fat loss and muscle building. If it isn’t functioning optimally, you are unable to reach your goals. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 6 4. “Try this fad diet” Fad diets such as Slimming World, Weight Watchers, Juice Plus, are designed to temporarily aid ‘weight loss’, rather than fat loss. The objective is to lose body fat, not muscle or water. Fad diets sometimes suggests dangerous dietary protocols that can result in health issues. For instance, a client who developed acne on their scalp due to lack of nutrients from drinking meal replacement shakes supplied by a ‘fad diet’ company. The secret to fat loss is a change in lifestyle. You need to stop whatever you did to cause the fat to accumulate. 5. “Low fat, fat free, sugar free, plant-based “ For decades, we have been brainwashed subliminally into believing the nonsense perpetuated by the food industry. Words like, plant-based, low fat, fat free, reduced fat, super food, sugar free and many others are all just marketing terms. They are coined to sell you products that contain toxins like artificial sweeteners that can adversely affect your gut health and your liver function. If you understand that losing body fat has less to do with calories in, calories out, and more to do with the type of food you consume, you are on the right track. I use the phrase ‘Dumb Brigade’ to describe the fools who advise people in the fitness industry to count calories and eat the type of foods that I just mentioned. 6. “Just do loads of cardio” If you eat the correct foods to fuel your body, you will not need to do copious amounts of cardio to burn body fat. Imagine you have a leak in your house. The first thing you do is to turn off the water supply. It is the same as when you have unwanted body fat. There is something you have done to store that energy (gain body fat). Find out what it is and stop it. It is that simple. It is just that people in the fitness/weight loss industry like to complicate things, usually for profit. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 7 SECTION ONE: WHAT IS FAT? Understand fat Humans are hunter gatherers. We hunt in the spring and summer and parts of autumn. Late autumn is when the fruits ripe. We are supposed to eat the ‘sugar’ to trigger our bodies into storing fat for winter when food is supposed to be scarce. This basically means that whenever we eat sugary foods, we are instructing our bodies to store fat for a rainy day. Our bodies have not changed. It is our behaviour that has changed. There is no scarcity of food. There are three types of fat that we should be concerned with: Subcutaneous – Fat on your thighs, arms, etc. Visceral – Fat around your vital organs. Liver – Fat around your liver. Out of the three above, liver fat is the most dangerous. This is because the liver is involved in all metabolic, and chemical actions in the body. The liver has over five hundred different functions. When there is too much fat around the liver it does not serve us well. The saying, “Feed the gut, protect the liver”, is vital in understanding the importance of protecting your liver. When your liver is not working in your favour you will not have good health. Why is fat loss so important? Being ‘curvy’ has been normalised in this society. We understand that. But, without appearing to be ‘fat shaming’, we take the view that if you are carrying unnecessary/unwanted body fat, you have metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, to be precise. As much as many do not want to hear that, it is a scientific fact, especially if you carry the fat around your mid-section. ‘Fat shaming’ is not something we condone; we are only stating the medical implications. Obesity is part of the metabolic syndrome. Other symptoms include: High blood pressure High cholesterol Type 2 diabetes Hyperinsulinemia Insulin resistance Peripheral neuropathy NAFLD Carrying too much body fat is not only unhealthy now, but it also increases your risk of illhealth in your later years. If we believe the scientific data suggesting that 90% of disease is metabolically related, what we consume daily, it is safe to say that almost all disease could be eradicated with dietary changes. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 8 Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine stated, thousands of years ago, “All disease begins in the gut” Hippocrates, 460-370 B.C If we bear the above in mind, there is no reason why one in two of us born after 1960 will get cancer in our lifetimes, or why colorectal cancer is almost at epidemic proportions in the western world. The most criminal thing, we believe, is the fact that we are given very little and sometimes the wrong information about food. Most of the foods we consume daily are the ones causing the illnesses that affect us. Our goal, is to help as many people as possible, realise that it is possible to live disease, and pain free now and in the future. How much weight should I lose per week? With regards to weekly weight loss, it is impossible to determine how much weight an individual should lose per week. This is because: 1. We are all individuals 2. When you lose fat off your liver, it may not register on the scales even though that fat loss is sometimes healthier than losing subcutaneous fat. 3. The mainstream fat loss amount is just guessing work. 4. Hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, etc can affect the amount you lose a week. Feed your body correctly. Give it the right type and amount of nutrients and it will let go of the stored fat. An improved lifestyle With regards to fat loss, there are quick fixes but, these are temporary. You will lose weight rather than fat. There is a difference. That means that as soon as you start eating ‘normally’ again, you pile on even more weight. That is because you have not addressed the reason why you have stored the fat in the first place. To attain your desired results, it is imperative to be realistic. Our way of eating will ensure that you have the right mindset, less brain fog, and general positivity. Willpower Food provides us with energy and nutrients. If you eat the wrong foods, your body will ask you for more of it, especially sugar and processed foods. It is all about insulin. Also, most ultra-processed foods contain compounds that are designed to be addictive. If you eat correctly, you will not have any cravings, you will not lack discipline, and you will have the willpower to continue doing so. This must be experienced to be believed. Remember, the type of food you eat dictates the quantity. The body is a very wellconstructed machine. Food is either stored to be accessed immediately or stored as fat. Every time you eat, it has a choice on what to do with the energy from the food. It can either save it for you to access immediately or, save it for you as body fat for a rainy day. The foods that trigger a quick insulin response are the ones that are stored as fat. That is how it is designed. The decision it makes as to what to do with the energy depends on the hormonal instructions attached to the food. Every food has instructions. The food tells your body what to do with it. Our bodies can interpret these instructions. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 9 SECTION TWO: WHAT IS FOOD? The purpose of food Food provides us with energy and nutrients. These are called micro and macro nutrients. Macronutrients: These are the fats, protein, and carbohydrates. We all know about these. Fat is your body’s actual preferred energy source. This is why it will take carbohydrates and turn them into fat. Fat is also the body’s most effective energy source. They play important roles in regulating hormones and aiding absorption of micronutrients and many more. The energy from the calories in fat is twice that of carbohydrates and protein. Protein is the building blocks of muscle. When you eat an animal protein, your liver, stomach, and intestines break it down into amino acids. The protein is then rebuilt into muscle. Basically, we use animal muscle to build our own muscle. Carbohydrates: do we really need as much as what we have been advised to consume? Carbs are broken down into glucose and are also used as energy. The truth is that we eat too many carbohydrates in the world, in the form of sugar. This is the main reason why we have an obesity epidemic in most western countries. Micronutrients: These are the vitamins and minerals. For the macronutrients to be effectively absorbed, we need the right type of micronutrients. For instance, for protein to be absorbed affectively, we need potassium, and some of the ‘B’ vitamins. Zinc, and vitamin C are also vital for muscle growth, and fat loss. The problem with most western diets is that we ignore the importance of micronutrients. In fact, most of what we eat is ladened with sugar, Omega 6 oils, preservatives, and chemicals that only weaken our immune systems. They also cause inflammatory diseases and create bad bacteria in your gut. The sugar, chemicals, and toxins in most of the highly processed foods are something that your liver must also deal with. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 10 Calories in vs calories out is not the whole story If you have bought into the calorie deficit idea and it is working for you, this eBook isn’t for you. We believe in something different that has served us well for years. Please stay on your side of the fence and let others learn something different. We are continually being told that to lose body fat it does not matter where the calories are coming from. All that matters is how much we eat and move. This is the reason why some of us try to incorporate ‘junk’ food into our fat loss regimen. Five hundred calories of ice cream will affect your system completely differently to five hundred calories from chicken breast. If your goal is fat loss, when you consume calories from real, natural, whole foods, and reduce your carbohydrate intake, there are no insulin spikes. Your gut bacteria are also accustomed to those foods. ‘Junk’ foods like ice cream will spike your insulin, which in turn switches off energy expenditure, the reason why you are constantly tired, hungry, and craving sugar. If it was just about calories, you could eat a tub of ice cream and go for a run. If you’re burning the same number of calories or more, you should not gain any excess body fat. Do you see the point I’m trying to make? The laws of thermodynamics are true. It does not consider the hormonal effects and responses of foods. The truth of the matter is when you eat whole foods, nutrient dense foods, you will find that you will be eating a lot more calories and not gaining body fat. Most highly processed foods are just empty calories. ≠ 500 kcals @EDDIEABBEW 500 kcals ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 11 Real food and marketing Rule number one of fat loss: EAT REAL FOOD! If there is any misunderstanding about real food, lets clear it up once and for all. Real food is food that grew in the ground (soil), or from an animal that ate the food that grew in the ground. If we bear that in mind most of what we buy in our supermarkets are not foods. One thing you need to understand is that there are marketing strategies that subliminally influence our decision making when it comes to food. Real food does not need a label because we know what it is. It already has a name. If you cannot pronounce the name of the ingredients on your food packaging, don’t eat it. Chances are they are not good for you. Learn the marketing terms that are used to influence our decision making: Low fat Low Calories Low Salt Sugar free Reduced sugar Reduced fat Plant-based Low sugar How do we lose fat? To lose fat, you need to control one hormone – INSULIN It is always important to remember that you have stored energy (body fat). The key to unlocking that energy is a control of this hormone. Insulin is a storage hormone. Every time you eat, your body must decide whether to store the energy for you to use immediately or for you to use when food is scarce. Insulin does the storing. Insulin itself is vital for many functions in the body. The problem is when your insulin receptors are not functioning adequately, i.e., insulin resistant, insulin is unable to do the work it is supposed to. There is too much insulin in your body. Food gets broken down to glucose in your body. As soon as the glucose enters your blood, your hypothalamus triggers your pancreas through the Vagus nerve to release insulin to store the glucose as energy. Foods that trigger a very quick response from your hypothalamus and your pancreas are the foods that are stored as energy (fat) to use later. These are mainly highly processed, sugary and carbohydrate foods. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 12 SECTION THREE: ACHIEVING FAT LOSS Gut health and fat loss There has been so much about the gut health recently, and rightly so. We have underestimated the importance of gut health for too long! Do you remember the saying, “My gut instinct…” That is true. Everything begins in the gut. Just like Hippocrates said, "Your gut is like a war-torn city with trillions of bacteria, viruses, critters, and all sorts, that are supposed to provide you with what you need to survive and live healthily." Your job is to feed the gut correctly. We have over two kilograms of microscopic organisms in our guts. They depend on us for survival, and we depend on them. We need our gut bacteria to be balanced. What to remember about your gut bacteria is that the bad bacteria are attracted to sugar, glucose. The good bacteria thrive on fibre. Fibre from real foods. The idea is to ensure that 85% of the bacterium in your gut is good. That is how you create a healthy ecosystem. That means you have a strong immune system. Anything that interferes with that balance is unwanted. When there is an imbalance that is when your immune system is low, and you are prone to disease. Most of what is wrong with us can be attributed to bad gut health. An unhealthy gut can lead to: Digestive conditions like: Bloating Constipation Diarrhoea Acid reflux Diverticulitis Crohn’s disease Ulcerative Colitis Skin conditions like: Acne Eczema Psoriasis Rosacea Mental Health conditions like: Depression Anxiety Panic attacks Paranoia @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 13 Why is the liver important? “Feed the gut, protect the liver.” The liver weighs about 3.5 pounds. It sits about the right side of your body. It is responsible for five hundred functions throughout the body. It is involved in hormone making, all metabolic, and chemical actions, and is the organ that detoxifies chemicals and toxins (i.e., foreign bodies.) If your gut is not right, your liver is not right either. The truth is that when you are carrying body fat around your mid-section, chances are that you have fat around your liver which can thwart some of its functions. In my nursing days I only had alcoholic patients with fatty liver disease. Nowadays, children as young as eight are being presented with NAFLD. Liver cirrhosis has also become common with young people. Processed foods often contain chemicals and toxins that only your liver can deal with. Believe it or not, sugar is also a drug that your liver must detoxify. Eating highly processed foods and sugar, places unnecessary strain on your liver. ‘If the liver ain’t happy, you ain’t happy either’ Fat adaptation/metabolic flexibility How many times have you heard this: ‘Your body’s preferred energy source is carbohydrates.’ The truth is carbohydrates are the fastest accessed energy source. The body’s preferred energy source is fat, the reason why it converts carbohydrates into fat. In fact, humans, or animals in general store our energy as fats. Plants store their energy as carbohydrates. The factors that can influence the speed at which you reach metabolic flexibility include: Age Amount of body fat Meal frequency, snacking (how many times you eat in a day) Yo-yo dieting Fad diets Takeaways/fast foods ‘Sweet tooth’ Humans have trained themselves for years to get our main energy sources from carbohydrates. When you are fat adapted/metabolically flexible, your body can efficiently access energy from all the three macronutrients. It takes between 4-12 weeks to reach this stage, hence, the 12-week programme. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 14 Ketosis Never to be confused with ketoacidosis, which is a serious condition that results from diabetics running out of insulin. Ketones are produced by the liver by breaking down fats. KETOSIS basically means FAT BURNING. When you are in ketosis your body is effectively using fats as energy. Most of us are used to obtaining our energy primarily from carbohydrates. Cravings When you are craving sugar, chances are that you have too much insulin in your body. That state demands simple carbohydrates from you. It is sometimes difficult to control yourself. The more you eat, the more your body asks for. There are two hormones in your body called Leptin, and Ghrelin. Leptin tells you; you are satiated. Ghrelin tells you; you are hungry. When you are overweight and insulin resistant, chances are that you are also Leptin resistant. Your body is unable to tell you that you are full, so you will keep eating those ‘empty’ calories. Empty because there are no nutrients in processed foods. Most contain just sugar, and chemicals. All the fibre and goodness have been stripped for shelf-life longevity. When you eat correctly your insulin remains stable and you will have no cravings. It works like magic, you will see. Plateau With this lifestyle, you are teaching your body to use energy that you have stored inadvertently. Reaching plateaus is something that does not often happen. You have enough energy stored. It may be that you need to reduce your meal frequency to further reduce your insulin. Try cutting your meals to two meals a day, eaten within eight hours with a sixteen hour fast. Where the only thing you ingest is water in between the meals. Our clients usually say, “I have lost inches off of my waist but nothing on the scales.” The response is always, “You are thinking about these scales, but we are thinking about your health. You cannot control where your body chooses to lose the fat off first.” Skinny fat The term “skinny fat” has been used to describe individuals who appear skinny outside but carry fat around their stomach area. It is often harder to detect how unhealthy they are. Society seems to judge us by sizes. If you are skinny, you are fine. The truth is, there are some individuals who may seem ‘skinny’ on the outside yet carry fat around their livers. ‘Liver fat’ means your liver is not functioning optimally. Remember, the liver is responsible for over 500 functions. If it is not functioning correctly, you have ill health. You need to make some lifestyle changes. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 15 SECTION FOUR: COMMON JUNK Sugar Sugar is the devil! The problem with counting calories is that it does not take into consideration the type of foods that are being consumed. For instance, a protein bar, even though this is a non-food, it is routinely used by people trying to lose fat. This is because the calories are relatively low in those bars. The truth of the matter is, even though the calories might be low, the excessive sugar and some of the artificial sweeteners in the bars will trigger a quick response from your insulin. This could lead to insulin spikes. The result of an insulin spike is that there is too much insulin in your system. Energy expenditure is therefore turned off, which makes you constantly tired. The biggest public health misinformation was when we were advised that we could get 10% of our daily calories from sugar. This has led to unnecessary amount of sugar consumption causing diseases such as, type 2 diabetes, hypo/hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hyperinsulinemia, NAFLD, obesity, and many other illnesses. Salt Salt was never the enemy, sugar always was. We are salt beings. Please do not believe the mainstream warning about salt. We need salt. Sodium is important for many functions in our bodies, so make sure there is adequate salt on every meal. We sweat salt, we cry salt, and we urinate salt. It is only smart to make sure our salt intake is on point. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 16 Tea The tradition in some countries is to have cups of tea all the time, usually with milk, and sugar. This just unnecessarily spikes your insulin. Something you do not want if your aim is to lose body fat. These spikes can lead to some form of metabolic syndrome. For example, a client felt tired every morning after their breakfast of four eggs and one avocado. We eventually determined that the culprit was the two sugars she had with her tea every morning. She stopped the tea and no longer experienced tiredness. You can drink green tea with one of your meals if you want to, but remember we are trying to give your gut a break. That means we need a fast between meals. The only thing that should pass your lips in between meals is water. Dessert This is another way of spiking your insulin. Eddie was born in Africa. The only time he heard of dessert was when he came to the United Kingdom. “I have had a nice meal, so I am going to ingest some sugar to celebrate.” How does that make sense to anyone? If your goal is fat loss, the last thing you should touch for a while is dessert. Dessert is not your friend. Most desserts are unnecessary sugars that can lead to diseases. Once you achieve your goal, you may be able to introduce some into your dietary regimen. Dessert is a ‘want’, it is not a need. Alcohol Alcohol is mainly fermented fructose. It clogs up your liver, the liver is the only organ that can process fructose. If you are carrying unwanted body fat, chances are that you also have liver fat. This is what we say to our fat loss clients, “Drinking alcohol is like punching your liver.” We need our liver to be working optimally to lose fat. The fat loss process is reliant on the liver, basically. Alcohol is the only drug you must justify not using. Social pressure ensures that we sometimes feel embarrassed when refusing to consume alcohol with friends or family. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 17 SECTION FIVE: THE DIET The most important thing to remember is that we are trying to lose fat. Weight loss is not necessarily fat loss. You can lose weight by losing water and muscle, tissue. That is not the healthy way. Teach your body how to use the energy (fat) you have inadvertently accumulated. This is what we intend to teach you to do. What is also of paramount importance is that exercise only accounts for about 15% of what you are trying to achieve. I shouldn’t be telling you this, because I am a gym owner, but facts are facts! If you bear all the above in mind, your diet is important when trying to lose body fat. You must employ the right real foods to aid fat loss. You can exercise all you want, if your diet is not right you will not achieve your long-term goals. The way forward This is about a change in lifestyle first before weight or fat loss. You cannot eat the same way you were eating before and expect different results. It doesn’t work like that. If you want a permanent/healthy fat loss you must change some of what you did to gain the fat in the first place. These are a few pointers that I give to my fat loss clients: 1. Just don’t buy the junk food in the first place! 2. If you can’t see it, you are less likely to want it. Basically, avoid temptation. 3. Cook your own food. Make sure you spend time with your food whilst cooking it. 4. Make sure your food is cooked by a human being, not a corporation. 5. Food is fuel and nutrients first; enjoyment should be secondary. 6. There is no such thing as eating because you are bored. IF you eat the right foods, you will understand why this is nonsense. So, what SHOULD we eat? The glycaemic index is a table that tells you where every food compares to glucose, which is 100. The higher the food is, compared to glucose, the worse it is, if your goal is fat loss. For instance, a white bagel is 103 (depending on which studies you use), and asparagus is 15. Bearing in mind what you have read so far, we need to eat foods that prompt a slow release of insulin. These are called low glycaemic foods, even though the glycaemic index is not our focus in this book. The truth is most processed foods are high glycaemic because the fibre has been stripped. All our food must be processed to get to us. It is the level of processing that we concern ourselves with. When you buy an egg in a box the packaging will say: Ingredients – Egg This is because an egg is a single ingredient food. Even though it must be processed to get to us, it is still a single ingredient food. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 18 When you buy processed foods, they are free to combine as many ingredients as possible. They often use chemicals, additives, preservatives, and toxins that we know are not good for our health. My rule is if you cannot trust them to process your single ingredient food, how are you going to trust them with their multiple ingredient food where they are free to add or include whatever they want, including pesticides. Three ingredients or less if there is no sugar or artificial sweeteners. The aim is to help you select foods that will keep your insulin levels low throughout the day. We will give you sample meal plans. The diet Again, we are trying to control INSULIN. Unwanted fat accumulation is a problem with storage. You have inadvertently made your body store energy (fat), and chances are that there is too much insulin in your system. The plan is to reduce and control your insulin and teach your body how to access this energy. No need to fear, we can all lose unwanted body fat if we are given the right tools in the right environment. Let us look at this as a journey of self-discovery. We will help you discover the foods that work for you. Ideally, the fewer meals you eat, the better. Every time you eat your body must release insulin to help store the energy from the food. In other words, when you are not eating, you are not releasing insulin. It is that simple. We always start our meal plans with the three meals a day approach. Breakfast, lunch, and supper. This is what we suggest at the beginning of the programme. Ideally, it is best not to have a breakfast. Eat your first meal mid-morning or afternoon. It is all about autophagy, and intermittent fasting. The benefits of which will be discussed in another eBook. Fasting is probably the most 'healing' thing you could do but again, this is for a future ebook. We need foods that are satiating enough to sustain you whilst at the same time keeping your insulin levels low. Please bear in mind that we are not asking you to eat like this for the rest of your life. This is a process of ‘repair’ that takes between 4-12 weeks. Patience is therefore imperative. 4-12 Weeks @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 19 Food options Fat Choices – These are in order of importance: Avocado Olives Nuts Healthy Oils (Extra Virgin Olive, Coconut, Avocado, Ghee, Lard) Cheese – Make sure it is just cheese and does not contain ingredients like maltodextrin, etc. Butter Humous Falafel Protein Choice – These are in order of importance: Eggs (48% of an egg can translate into human tissue) Non-lean meats (Beef, Lamb, Pork, etc.) Poultry (Chicken thighs with skin) Fish 48% of an egg can translate into human tissue. This means apart from breast milk, egg is the best protein source. 30-32% of chicken, fish, and meat can translate into human tissue. As you can see, we have not included any man-made chemical concoction proteins like whey, casein, beef, plant-based, or pea. This is because we believe in using real food. Real food is: food that grew in the ground or came from an animal that ate the food that grew in the ground. There is a commonly accepted idea about how much protein you should eat in a day, but I have my own belief about protein that is based on years and years of researching and experimenting. The amount of protein that we can absorb is limitless, especially if you're training and putting demands on your body. If you're trying to build muscle, don't believe the noise about only being able to absorb a certain amount of protein. In saying that, almost every company in the food industry has decided to add the word ‘PROTEIN’ to every product just for monetary gain. I eat between 50 and 70 grams of protein per meal. I now eat four meals a day, six when I was a competitive bodybuilder. I have been doing that for 40 years without any harm. So, put your calculators away for now. Carbohydrate choices – Generally if your goal is fat loss, it is imperative to minimise all carbohydrate intake for the 12 weeks. The plan is to get our energy from mainly fats and protein. But, there are certain carbohydrate sources that we might incorporate. These are: Cruciferous vegetables (Non-starchy) Cruciferous vegetables (Starchy) Sweet potato Wild or black rice Jumbo/steel cut oats Potato @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 20 Remember, sugar really is the devil, and all carbohydrates are glucose molecules put together differently, namely: Monosaccharides (Glucose) Disaccharides (Fructose) Polysaccharides (Starches) They will all spike your insulin eventually. There is not much difference between a piece of cake, and white rice. Even though we have been told that rice is a polysaccharide, the truth is that as soon as it enters your mouth, the enzyme, amylase in your saliva immediately breaks the starch down to glucose. This means they all have the same effect on the body as sugar, spike your insulin. We do not actually need as much carbohydrates as we are told. I stopped eating carbohydrates a year ago. In fact, I only eat three plants. Avocado, olives, and pistachios. I have never felt better. In fact, my whole family started doing the same thing. Your gut controls your brain so control what you put into your body. I am not saying never eat carbohydrates again; I am saying that if you're trying to lose body fat, reduce the amount you consume. The objective is to get you to become fat adapted. Once you are fat adapted, you can slowly introduce some of the carbohydrates back into your diet. Right now, we are ‘repairing’ you. The only carbohydrates that will be incorporated into your diet are cruciferous vegetables. When you eventually introduce carbohydrates, they will be sweet potato, wild rice, steel cut oats, yams. As you can see, these are all whole, natural, single ingredient foods. Your carbohydrates will be replaced by healthy fats, and protein. Please do not worry, you will have more energy than you have ever had because you will be eating enough food to ensure that. Structuring your meals There are a few symptoms to bear in mind when structuring your meal plan. We have mentioned these symptoms and what could be their causes. You should never have any of these symptoms whilst on this journey. If you do it is imperative that you contact us to help you figure out what it is. Bloating – Your gut is ‘unhappy’. Constipation – The food is stuck somewhere in your bowels. Diarrhoea – Something is making the food move too fast through your bowels. Acid Reflux – Some food is stuck and fermenting inside. Hunger & Tiredness – Something is spiking your insulin (it could be some hot drinks or even chewing gum). Cravings – Mostly too much insulin. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 21 Your meals will be structured as follows: High/moderate protein High fats Low/zero carbs No sugar Minimal processed foods Remember that our focus is not just on the macronutrients. We need adequate micronutrients and fibre to help digest and support the absorption of the macronutrients. Basically, do not slack on your vegetables. As you can see, we have not included fruits, or honey for now. The only fruit we suggest at this beginning stage are berries. Blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. If you are trying to lose body fat, chances are that you have fat around your liver. Fruits are high in fructose, a sugar that is only dealt with by your liver. We want to give your liver a break. Do not forget, ‘five a day’ means five vegetables a day, not necessarily fruit. We are not asking you to give up fruit forever. All we are saying is that it is not time for fruit, yet. Remember, insulin resistance can be caused in two ways. Through your blood sugar and insulin response, and when you clog up your liver with too much fructose. We will start with the conventional three meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Ideally, you want to eat two meals a day with a few hours fast, but we are also aware that might be a little extreme for many to start with. Fasting is something we will discuss in another eBook. The goal is to make you healthy. As your gut and your liver get healthier. You will also see an improvement in your: Mood Skin conditions Eyesight Cognitive function Sleep Mindset Memory Less puffiness around the face Less joint pain Welcome to your new lifestyle. Sample meal plan We are all different. We are all genetically different. We also have different goals. We are not all trying to lose the same amount of body fat. Please try and bear that in mind when constructing your meal plans. You might not get it right the first week. It’s all about experimenting and finding out what works for you. Breakfast - Eggs, 2 fat choices Lunch - Protein, 2 fat choices & cruciferous vegetables Dinner - Like meal two or the same as meal one @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 22 SECTION SIX: SUPPLEMENTS When it comes to supplements, I personally believe that if you're getting the right nutrients from the right foods, you would not need to take a lot of these supplements. The reason why most people need supplements is because we eat nutrient free, processed foods all the time. Junk food to be precise. If you are vitamin deficient, it is because you're eating foods like a bagel and cereals which are non-foods. When I say non-food, I mean that your body doesn't get any nutrients from them. The nutrients that these foods are apparently fortified with are synthetic and often not absorbed properly. Keep their consumption to a minimum if you can. If you eat right, you will not need supplements. In fact, when I was competing, I was eating all the carbs, and sometimes I ate some junk food like a Snickers bar after training because I didn't know any better. Now I know why my gut didn't feel right! I would catch every cold and flu that was going around because my immune system was low. If you eat the right foods, such as eggs, which contain all the necessary vitamins, you will not need as many supplements. The reason why you need supplements is because you are eating poor quality foods. Most of my clients see a difference in their overall well-being when they start eating proper foods. Mental health problems like anxiety are caused usually by your gut not being happy. The gut controls the mind and your mood, and as soon as you realise that you'll see why so many of my clients say they feel so much better after changing their diet. Inflammation in your brain can also be caused by eating the wrong foods. Eating poorly will make you feel bad, and the more poor-quality food you eat, the worse you will feel. Trust me. “Eat shit and you will eventually become the shit” @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 23 SECTION SEVEN: TRAINING How important is training? Exercise is good for mental health. Having some muscle makes it easier to lose fat. Movement is also important for many reasons. The saying, “use it or lose it” applies to muscle also. I should not be saying this as a gym owner, but the truth is, that exercise accounts for less than 15% when you’re trying to drop unwanted body fat. We are brainwashed into thinking that if we are carrying unwanted body fat, we are lazy. This means that many take out gym memberships with the aim of losing fat and being healthy whilst, it is their lifestyles they need to alter. They have been given the wrong information. Remember, exercise alone is like mopping the floor without stopping the leak. Building muscle is not a textbook sport I had a friend in the 80s who was the laziest person in the gym, yet he had the biggest legs. All he did was leg extensions. Genetics has a lot to play with this even when you're exercising. In short, don't overdo it. We advise our clients to exercise just twice a week for fat loss. One day for upper body and one day for lower body. Nothing complicated. It is a good fitness starting point. So go down to the gym and start enjoying training. Employ the service of a trainer if needs be. Abs There is no exercise in the world that will give you abs. The phrase, "abs are made in the kitchen," is true. The reason why you can't see your abs is because there is too much fat covering them. To get rid of the fat, eat properly and get rid of the body fat. Everyone has abs (the rectus abdominis) but you just have to make sure you lose the fat around it. If you hear someone say, "get abs in two days" or "do this exercise," that's a marketing ploy. They're just trying to sell you something. Abs are not made in the gym at all. No matter how hard you train, you will never see your abs if you don't eat properly to get rid of the body fat that's covering your rectus abdominus. That's it. Workout schedule Regarding exercise for fat loss, there's no need to go crazy. Just simply train every body part once a week. Most of my clients who are trying to lose weight do one workout for upper body and one workout for lower body per week. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 24 Upper body – chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps Lower body – quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves Have your trainer or whoever is helping you follow this simple routine with you. As a gym owner, I'm telling you this because we put so much emphasis on exercise, but it has very little to do with fat loss. Exercise is good for the endorphins and other things, but when it comes to actual fat loss, it's not the most important factor. It is your diet. Rest & Recovery Muscle is built in the recovery. Muscle is not built in the gym. In fact, when you train you tear the muscle. Micro tears are formed across the muscle. When you feed your body the correct nutrients, it repairs the torn muscle and improves on it. That is basically it. These are both the micro and macro nutrients. I recommend you get about 7-8 hours of sleep per night. If you eat correctly, you will not feel tired during the day and you will sleep properly through the night. In fact, one of the first things my clients say to me is; 'Oh my gosh, I sleep so much better.' It's because you're eating correctly. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 25 SECTION EIGHT: CONCLUSION Key things to remember 1) The best way to lose fat is to listen to all the mainstream information and do the opposite. 2) Fat has never been the enemy, sugar is. 3) Exercise is not the most important part of losing fat, it's what you eat. 4) You need to control one hormone, insulin. Once you control insulin, you're laughing. 5) But remember, if you're trying to lose fat, you should never be hungry, tired, bloated, constipated, have diarrhoea or indigestion. If you have any of those symptoms, there is always a reason. Investigate. 6) If you slip up and go off plan, don’t worry. Don’t write the day off. Draw a line and get back on plan. 7) “I can eat whatever I want”, but I choose not to. That gives YOU the power. Nobody is telling you that certain foods are ‘sins’ that need to be punished. 8) Remember how eating real food makes you feel because when you eat the right foods, your energy levels are a lot higher. There is more energy in calories from whole foods than there is in junk, overly processed foods. 9) If you weigh yourself and there is no movement on the scales, don’t worry, if you’ve stuck to the plan. Remember that losing visceral or liver fat might not show on the scales, but you might find you’ve gone down a notch in your waist size. Look for the non-scale changes. 10) It is not your fault for carrying that amount of body fat, it’s from years of being given the wrong information and being subliminally manipulated. 11) If you’re constantly craving on your diet plan, it’s not going to work. You need to be eating enough and the right foods to avoid cravings. 12) You didn’t gain all that weight overnight and you’re not going to lose it that way either. Be patient. 13) You don’t lose weight to be healthy, you must be healthy to lose weight. 14) There is very little chance of your body converting the low glycaemic foods into body fat. The energy from those foods will be stored as Adenosine Tri-phosphate (ATP), the energy source from your mitochondria. If your goal is to lose weight and keep it off, you need to re-educate your mind, your taste buds, and your habits i.e., work on your relationship with food. Easier said than done but it’s still possible. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 26 Listen to this After the first lockdown, we had to close our business and went through some tough times. I sat at home and decided to do an experiment. I ate McDonald's every day and a packet of biscuits to see what would happen to me and how I felt mentally because of what I was eating. The results were immense. I felt terrible, my mood was down, I felt depressed and was very low. Then I changed my diet. Right now, I get up in the morning and eat lots of eggs mixed with homemade mayonnaise that my wife and daughter who run Pro Prep Meals, makes. All my meals consist mainly of fats and protein. Everything I eat are single ingredient foods. I eat avocados, I eat a lot of olives, I eat nuts, I eat chicken, I eat fish, I love salmon and I eat a lot of red meats. That's what I eat every single day. On Sundays, we go out for a meal and might have a little bit of carbs but overall, I feel so good. I am nearly sixty years old, and I feel better than I did when I was in my 20s. My energy levels are through the roof. All the people that know me in the gym are amazed and say, ‘I want to feel how you feel’. For nearly a year now, I have taken all my carbs out of my diet, and I feel so much better. Even my ability to think has improved. I have so much energy that sometimes I think, ‘What do I do with it?’ I train with guys in their 20s and 30s but I'm kicking their arses. They may be stronger than me obviously because I'm not bodybuilding anymore, but in terms of intensity, I am on top of it. Sometimes, I deliberately go out to show them up because I want to show them that you can feel different, feel better, healthier and have more energy by changing what you eat. One of my friends, who is a trainer, said to me, "You're so lucky because people come to you when they want to make proper changes." This is because they know that I will not tolerate any excuses. If someone sits in front of me and says to me, "I'm too lazy, I can't do it," I tell them to leave. I trust in what I do, and I know that I can help people. I am truly changing people’s lives, and as a result, they feel better. I am extremely passionate about what I do because it works. I believe it is my responsibility to help as many young people as possible. The industry is full of liars who are conning people for money. People are being harmed; I believe. As a nurse and someone in this industry, I know it is my responsibility to speak out because no one else is doing so. @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 27 Final words When you're carrying extra body fat, you may think, "Oh my God, the idea of eating all of this to feel better sounds boring." But the thing is, when you eat properly, you will feel so good that you will not have that negative mindset. Trust me on that because your gut controls your mind. The mood enhancer, serotonin is mainly produced in your gut. That means when your gut is happy, you are happy. You will have all the motivation you need. Some of my clients often take “time off” from their dietary regimen but the sentiment is always, “I can’t wait to get back to eating properly again”. This is because they know how good they feel when they eat correctly. When you feel so good, you will not want to let that feeling go. I have given you the “sauce” on how to lose fat. It’s now in your hands to finish the job. Good luck. - Eddie Abbew @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 28 ONLINE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM I have received tons of comments, messages, calls, emails, whatever, from people saying I changed their lives. These people listen to what I advise, follow the steps, and see the results for themselves. I am planning on doing an online fat loss transformation program where I coach you for 12 weeks. There, I will ensure you lose fat and get healthy the right way. Guaranteed. Personalised meals plans, complete video course, regular private Q&As, messaging support, accountability and more! I have prepped and trained thousands of clients before in the past and they all have had life changing results. I don't see why you couldn't be the next. I will only work with a select number of people per month so if you are interested, please sign up to the waiting list advertised around my social media once available. Make sure you sign up to my free newsletter & follow me on my social medias below: @eddieabbew @eddie_abbew @abbewtube @eddie.abbew @EDDIEABBEW ULTIMATE FAT LOSS GUIDE 29