The Know How by Don Lemmon
We felt we must explain this particular version of dieting in more detail because it is quite different any of the other you have seen. It is called The Know How and was created by Don Lemmon.
People have gotten the idea that you must recieve all your energy and glycogen and glucose supplied from carbohydrates for the body to survive. This isnt true as the body turns everything you eat eventually into a sugar and ultimately an alochol. What people really don't understand is that it's a misconception that you need to eliminate carbs to burn fat. Most low carbohydrate ketogenic diets are classified as hazardous by most physicians, but when used under control, ketosis is a great fat-loss tool.
Glucose enters the body, whether from carbs, proteins or fats, and insulin is secreted by the pancreas to utilize it, or store it. If you eat too much or the food didnt digest properly, glucose cannot be stored as glycogen as there is only so much room for it to be stored and it is then made into triglycerides (and stored as bodyfat). This is with any food. When eventually it is needed for energy, stored glycogen is then converted back into glucose and used up directly by a cell or transported through the bloodstream to other cells for further conversion and use. But gylcogen, again, is of limited supply. It only lasts you about 20 to 30 minutes during intense exercise. After that, the body burns fat as it's energy source. But soon after that, depending on your diet, the body next begins burning muscle as a fuel. This is why your workouts need to be shorter. You must stay away from losing muscle during exerise. A loss of muscle shuts everything else down and to save it, the body funnels it into the fat cells. Making you fat.
But when fat makes up a good bulk of your diet, you won't have to use all your glycogen or glucose thats available for energy anymore. Most of your energy will come from the breakdown of free fatty acids out of the diet or from the fat stored on your body which your insides now believe they can let go of. The body will not store fat if it recieves fat. When fat is eaten, the enzymes that break it down are greedy guys. They go after body fat in a sense too. This leaves fatty acids free floating and ready for energy use therefore sparing glycogen.
Basically, a diet higher in fat while still allowing carbohydrates yet keeping specific foods separate from one another to ensure digestion, activates the lipolytic (fat burning) enzymes in your body and decreases the activity of the lipogenic (fat producing) enzymes. Mixing foods incorrectly or eating too much at a time is what leads to increased storage of body fat and a decrease in the amount of stored fat that can be burned.
When you're burning fat as a primary fuel instead of using glycogen or breaking down precious protein, you'll get to savor every last nutrient to its fullest extent and become much healthier too. THIS IS HOW WE WERE CREATED TO FUNCTION. And THIS IS the way the body works. Despite what you have been told, you need all of your carbs, fats and proteins daily in order to recieve ALL of the essential amino and fatty acids, vitamins and minerals my friend. Just not all in the same basket.
Another important by-product of this diet (keeping fats and proteins together and carbohydrates at separate meals) is that fat is a protector of protein. When you're utilizing carbs as your main source of energy, the body will take muscle protein to form it into glucose (gluconeogenesis) for energy once carbs are exhausted. This is why you must alternate your meals with this Know How. Carbohydrate meal followed THEN by a protein and fat meal. This is also why anabolic activity (muscle growth) can or cannot take place. You'll be sitting there, burning fat and growing all the while, OR maybe not if you don't do as Don Lemmon tells you.
Many people suspect that they'll experience a loss of energy on this diet because the body isn't getting as much glucose from carbs anymore but, this just isn't true. It gets its glucose from the fats. There's no lack of energy. The greatest thing about this diet is that you can FINALLY eat whatever you want. You can eat lots of fat and protein and carbs or whatever you heart desires. I went absolutely nuts. I had pizza, fast food, and all kinds of wonderful stuff like that. It's all about learning what could and could not be eaten together. There is minor preparation with this thing too. Takes no extra time at all.
Is this a long term diet? Yes. You continue your original way of eating, just keeping some foods at separate meals. No biggie. It's NOT combining. It's separation. I endorse it because I use it and it works, but I don't work for the company. I am busy enough as an attorney. This diet was so just revolutionary to me, and for those I recommended it to, I decided to share it. It made that much of a difference. Will you be hungrier? At first. Will your strength decrease? NOPE. Will you lose muscle? Only if you eat too little. You can eat more here. Will I feel bloated? The first few days, yes. Then everything MAGICAL happens.
If you want more facts, there are a lot more intricate details of the diet that you simply have to read for yourself. In fact without the manual you could be left in the dark about a lot of important info that will guarantee your success on this diet. Society has us brainwashed into thinking the simplest of things are ok and they are not. If you try it on you own I simply can not guarantee you will see the results that you should. The program is based upon simple scientific fact, contains sample starter diets, plans for physique contests or the like, and more on how to increase body weight by 10% and still decrease bodyfat in under 6 weeks. This system is for everyone though. The deviations lie in your goals. But you all eat. The difference in a ten pound weight gain or loss and a hundred pounds is simply time. Not diet. The diet is the same. Don lays out what to eat, how much, and when to stop. Due to amount of information Lemmon put in his book I can only summarize it here.
The Know How is still very different. It will help you lose fat, and trick the metabolism into anabolic growth like the others promise yet it is a modified version of NOTHING. It is something stumbled upon, not stolen as many diets that were once mainstream and are now touted in the bodybuilding industry are. It is a bit similar to everything but then again not really. It contains a little of everything that works and none of what was contained in the others that caused them to fail. He also explains how to train to reach your goals effectively.
This diet claims to help you lose all the fat you want without losing any muscle and you only have to train 3 times for a total of about 2 hours per week. Increasing aerobics isnt the solution. It doesnt matter how popular the machines fro riding and rowing are. Increasing aerobics causes just as much muscle loss as calorie restriction. Have faith. It works. It doesnt matter if you understand why. Do exactly as he says, and it ends up working every time.
Can we cheat? The reason some diets advocate eating more or anything you like or extra carbs on weekends is because this is absolutely necessary due to the loss of muscle tissue and glycogen you suffered during the weekdays. Glycogen supercompensation will NOT ALWAYS cause a "cellular kinetic expansion" that is claimed to be just like steroids and growth hormone when you "load up" on weekends. In fact, how many of you have tried this only to get fat again? Or then have heard the author excuse himself by saying it's alright to gain a little fat this way cause it increases your hormonal production or makes it easier to lose later? LATER? Oh Lord! What about NOW? Listen, with The Know How, there is no cycling, no goofy schedules, no yo-yoing, no mumbo jumbo to convince you it's unique. The Know How just WORKS.
What kind of fat does he suggest you eat? Almost all fat -- saturated or not, essential or not -- will work in the Know How Diet. Energy-wise, it doesn't matter. You could use MCTs, for that matter, but they're are not as much fun as an additional serving of oily fish, walnuts or avocado. You can get fats from all over: fish, beef, whole eggs, flax, olive or safflower oil, bacon, sausage, pork, and cheese. Protein foods usually contain fats in them. It's nature. Even peanut butter contains protein and fat combined. Basically you want to consume enough fat but remember NO ADDED CARBS at those meals. That means no bread, cereal, fruit, pasta, milk, sugar, the list goes on and on. That means your carb meal selections are endless too! Every single day you get to eat real food just as long as you are careful not to over consume. The secret to this is in the book. It's not calorie reduction either. There is no depletion. No dieting down. No suffering. Just continued progress. Continued progress by saving your muscle. Because protein has less usable energy than fat, the body will always use the fat which accompanies it and refuse to strip down stored muscle to scavenge energy-producing amino acids. Glutamine will be saved, then so will the branched-chain amino acids, and even alanine. That is if you'll eat the stuff.
This is what grabbed my attention:
"I have been on this diet for about 4 weeks so far and the results are quite impressive. When I started I was 200 lbs and 12% bodyfat. After just FOUR weeks I went to 204 lbs and 6% bodyfat. I couldn't believe it. I actually gained weight and lost fat at the same time! That's all I needed to know to believe that Don Lemmon's Know How is by far the very most effective diet I was ever on.
- Mark Baldwin, exercise physiologist, Chicago"
If you have patience and not too much fat to lose, you will probably get close to your goal with the traditional diet. But you'll never be your best and you'll always feel it too. Admit it. Who do you know who's on a low fat diet that is really satisfied? They say they are. But it's out of defense. No fat, poor hormones. No muscle growth for men and difficult menstrual cycles for women. It's your choice.
Some people have asked me: "If the Know How Diet is so superior to the traditional diet, why haven't I heard of it?" Well, now, you, like thousands before you, just did.
It seems the better diet plan has come, and it is truly illuminating.
