The Nysteia Formula is the practical application of Nysteia’s philosophy, and Nysteia’s philosophy is to achieve physical and mental wellbeing by making some simple yet significant changes to your life-style. Central to this is dealing with obesity and achieving your Biological Optimum Weight (BOW), a new concept developed by Nysteia.
The Nysteia Formula is a quick start guide that will tell you how to arrive at your BOW. It allows you to get started here and now – you can read about the science and all the other wonderful stuff on offer from Nysteia later on.
When it comes to how food causes obesity there are three things to consider: the AMOUNT of food you eat which is important, the TYPE of food you eat which is very important and finally WHEN you eat it which is absolutely critical. The Nysteia Formula tackles all three factors.
It's important to understand that the Nysteia Formula it is not a diet – but it does require you to do things differently in order to bring about change. In the words of Albert Einstein – the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. If you don’t want to change, the Nysteia Formula is not for you. If you do want to change then the Nysteia Formula is all you need.
The secret is in its simplicity. There are three elements:
1. Intermittent fasting
Let’s start with Intermittent fasting (IF) – it’s exactly what it says – fasting for a certain period of the day, every day.
Obesity is a metabolic disease and a crucial element in its cause is an over-production of insulin. IF will shut down your insulin production and allow your body to use its stored fat as energy. That’s exactly what it has evolved to do. Fat burning is automatically switched off by insulin and because insulin is produced the minute you take in some calories the answer is to fast. You’re not forcing it to do anything abnormal or dangerous.
Most people stop eating in the evening (rather than late at night) so when you get up in the morning you’ve already been fasting for 10–12 hours. What you need to do is extend this fasting period for a total of 18 hours. At which point you can eat all of the beautiful food that exists within Mediterranean type cuisine discussed below.
It’s important that you leave yourself enough time to get in your required food for the day. For most men this is about 10460 kilojoules (2500 Calories) and for most women about 8368 kilojoules (2000 Calories). You do not need to calorie restrict and in fact it’s very important that you don’t. A feeding window of 6 hours appears to be optimal for most people. Note: we refer to kilojoule (kJ) and the calorie – more precisely, the kilocalorie (kcal or Cal).
During this fasting period, it is inevitable that you will feel hungry and this can be relieved with unlimited amounts of water, black coffee and green tea. After about a week of doing this regime any hunger feelings diminish dramatically as your body adapts. So just stick with it – whatever you do don’t give up after a couple of days. Remember – if you want to be different you need to make some changes.
As an added bonus, you will notice almost straight away that your brain is a lot sharper and you have a lot more energy – just two of the many benefits of intermittent fasting .
2. Cardiovascular exercise
Now let’s talk about cardiovascular exercise. This is any exercise that raises your heart rate. If you are overweight or already suffering from obesity then it’s only natural that you will find any form of exercise a challenge, even walking. But the good news is that even a brisk walk initially will raise your heart rate. As time goes on you will steadily lose weight and your exercise limit increases so you can walk faster and faster and then you will break into a jog and then into a run. So the answer is to start gently and to build up over time. The important thing is to push yourself a little bit further each and every day so that after half an hour you can feel your pulse increase, you are sweating and you are out of breath – that’s how you know you’ve done some good! If walking and running aren’t for you it’s important that you find something that is, such as cycling, swimming or going to the gym. Ideally it should be done first thing in the morning whilst you are still fasting – don’t worry, your body has plenty of reserves and that’s exactly what you want it to use. But it’s important that you do it every day for at least 30 minutes – no more excuses!
3. Mediterranean type cuisine
Finally, there’s the type of food that you are allowed and with that the amount. We’ve called it Mediterranean type cuisine – "type" because this encompasses many other types of cuisine such as Japanese which is equally healthy. The typical foods eaten by the Mediterranean people include whole vegetables and fruit, fresh meat and fish, and saturated fats. Nothing processed. All of these in moderation are healthy but it’s important that you watch carefully your carbohydrate intake. An absolute must is to avoid sugar and all foods with added sugar. As fruit contains fructose, which like glucose is a sugar, it is important to limit its intake. It also includes refined carbohydrates in particular whole grains in the form of flour and rice. This is because carbohydrates stimulate insulin production which promotes fat storage so that’s why they need to be restricted.
The good news is that the fat and protein elements in the Mediterranean type cuisines when take in moderation are perfectly healthy and do not need to be restricted. You can find a whole bunch of recipes on the Nysteia website that you can cook and these will contain all the good things and avoid all the bad things. There’s also a comprehensive list of foods that are ok and ones that you need to avoid.
What about the amount of food? Well it’s important that you don’t calorie-restrict because it’s neither necessary nor desirable. Which means you don’t eat less than the usual daily requirement which for the average male is 10460 kilojoules (2500 Calories) and for the average female 8368 kilojoules (2000 Calories). You certainly don’t want to eat more than this and another really good thing about a 6-hour feeding window is that for most people it’s just the right amount of time to get in your necessary calories for the day, as long as you stick to the Mediterranean type cuisine. So, you don’t actually need to calorie count – a huge bonus for all of us.
Start today!
Start the Nysteia Formula today and do it every day – you can anticipate losing an average of 1 Kilogram (2¼ Pounds) of weight a week, until you reach your BOW. There are clinical studies to support this claim that you can review in our evidence section. The rate of weight loss will vary between individuals.
When you have reached your BOW you can shift your focus from weight loss to weight maintenance. It's important to note that unlike the traditional "eat less, move more" approach (proven to be ineffective long-term), you will be able to keep the weight off.
Tomorrow start looking through the rest of the website to learn about the science, the recipes, the evidence and so much more.
It's important to note that if you go back to your old bad habits… you can expect to regain weight and will continue down the path of increased risk for a host of serious health issues.
Make a commitment to start today!