Can The Sun Really Help You Lose More Weight?
Warning!!!
Slathering on your sunblock may be making you sick, unhealthy, and fat… how?
First, take a gander at the label of any sunblock lotion. Most of those chemicals are almost unpronounceable, much less readable. Think they just might, maybe, be absorbing into your skin? You betcha they are. What do you think toxic chemicals floating around in your body might do to you? Your guess is as good as mine… but none of them are any good.
But this is not exactly what this article is about (although reducing chemical ingestion is certainly an important topic). This article is about how sunblocks are making you sick because they block almost all of the beneficial effects of the sun's rays. Sunblocks, and most car, office, and house windows, block almost all of the suns UVB rays.
There are literally thousands of bodily processes that are turned on and activated by vitamin D3. In fact, vitamin D3 is not really a vitamin, it is a steroid hormone precursor that your body needs to perform optimally. Guess where we are supposed to get most of that vitamin D3 from? You guessed it, the sun's healthy rays.
"Wait a second Harry, I thought we were supposed to protect ourselves from the harmful rays of the sun?" you try and correct me.
Listen, I too was misinformed until only just recently. While I knew that putting chemical-laden sunblock on your body couldn't possibly be deemed good for you, I had no idea that doing so could actually hurt us in more insidious ways.
A nutrient obtained from sunlight is being shown to PREVENT skin cancer, when it is commonly believed that sunlight CAUSES skin cancer. There's not going to be enough room here to discuss all of the important things you need to know about Vitamin D3, so I'll just cover the highlights, and direct you to a more comprehensive resource later - it is a must read.
Ok, back to how the sun can help you to lose more weight. How is this possible? First, the National Institutes of Health reports the following:
*Obesity:
Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with obesity. Vitamin D has recently been shown to lower leptin secretion. Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells and is involved in weight regulation. It is thought that this hormone signals the brain when fat cells are "full," but exactly how the hormone controls weight is not entirely clear.
Additionally, obesity by itself probably further worsens vitamin D deficiency due to the decreased bioavailability of vitamin D(3) from skin and dietary sources, because of its being deposited in body fat.
*Syndrome X:
Vitamin D deficiency has been clearly linked with Syndrome X. Syndrome X refers specifically to a group of health problems that can include insulin resistance (the inability to properly deal with dietary carbohydrates and sugars), abnormal blood fats (such as elevated cholesterol and triglycerides), overweight, and high blood pressure.
*Diabetes:
Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with insulin deficiency and insulin resistance. In fact, last year it was shown that vitamin D deficiency is likely to be a major factor for the development of type one diabetes in children. (Type 2 Diabetes typically results in obesity)
*Heart Disease:
Insulin resistance is also one of the major factors not only leading to some cancers, but also to the number one killer in the US, heart disease. Northern countries have higher levels of heart disease and more heart attacks occur in the winter months. Is this a coincidence… or cause and effect? Are you willing to take a chance.
*Here's a really important one for athletes and those looking to get into better shape. Latest research shows that proper sun exposure increases athletic performance. One of the ways it does this is by increasing the number of type II (fast-twitch) muscle cell fibers. INCREASING TYPE II MUSCLE CELL FIBERS IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT for tons of different reasons. One of the most obvious ones is this — the more type II muscle cell fibers you have, the greater you ability to increase your lean muscle mass. Type I cells have very little ability to increase in size or diameter. This is the body's "endurance" fiber. However, the type II muscle cell fiber can increase in size multiple times from it's original size. This has many, many positive implications for helping you lose more weight, get in better shape, look better, prevent decrepitude, prevent frailty, I mean, the list goes on and on.
So What Should You Do To Get Enough Vitamin D? Therein lies the tricky part. If you took a line from the norther part of California and drew it across the Nation over to Boston, and you live North of this line, you might be Vitamin D Deficient. The UVB energy is not sufficient above this line from November to February to give you adequate vitamin D from the sun. In far Northern latitudes, this reduced intensity lasts for 6 months. Latitudes below a line between Los Angeles and Columbia, SC allow for cutaneous (through the skin) production of vitamin D throughout the year. HOWEVER… even if you live in the southern latitudes, you still may not be getting enough sun to produce adequate vitamin D.
Some of the latest literature shows that you need to expose yourself to approximately 15-20 minutes of uninterrupted direct sunlight to at least 40% of uncovered skin on your body… every day. When you first start to feel and see a little pink on your skin, you've had enough.
But if you live in the southern latitudes, and it's sunny all the time, you're still likely not getting adequate vitamin D from the sun. Just stepping outside from your house to your car, then again from your car to your office, will NOT give you adequate sun exposure. Even if your office has direct sunlight pouring in (same thing with your car windshield) you will not get the UVB rays you need because glass blocks UVB radiation but still lets in the harmful UVA - bad combo.
Now, don't go thinking that you'll just go out and get some vitamin D3 or cod liver oil (the most concentrated food source) and start popping pills like there's no tomorrow. Vitamin D3 is stored in your fat cells and as such, can become toxic if taken in too high quantities. How much is too much? It's hard to tell as it depends on a multitude of variables. Age, skin pigmentation, health status, conversion hormones.
So it's very hard to make a blanket statement on how much you have to take to get the desired positive effects. You're best bet is always to use natural sunlight. There are some tanning beds that produce UVB light, you'll have to ask around. They usually don't produce UVB light, you'll have to ask. If it's really loud when operating it likely does not produce UVB rays.
After sun exposure you should not wash the skin where the sun exposure took place for up to 48 hours. I know… sounds extreme. But in fact, vitamin D3 is triggered by the suns exposure to your skin and the cholesterol that lies just underneath your skin, close to the surface. And it takes some time for this initial substance (a kind of pre-vitamin D3) to travel from your skin to your liver where it can be further converted in the active form your body needs. So just wash your "pits" after a good sunbath, and don't use soap on those parts you exposed.
Next, get the entire list of 20 Blueprints I created that allowed me to dramatically transform my body and win the 1998 Body For Life contest. Imagine finally getting the body you've always wanted! Only available at Harry's Blog