This week, Debbie talks to another resident of Washington state, who lives just down the road in Kirkland, Mike Mutzel. Mike is a nutritionist and author of the book “The Belly Fat Effect.” He has also got a 3 part video series about burning fat on his site at http://mikemutzel.com/.

They talk about the goal of turning your body into a fat burning machine, and Mike points out that while exercise is important, burning fat is largely a matter of diet. About 80% of the way your body deals with fat and the way it is able to burn it, comes from the way you eat.

What this means is that however much exercise you do, it will be difficult for you to burn fat effectively unless you change the way you eat. This might mean making several changes.

For one thing, don’t be afraid of whole food fats. So you don’t need to avoid good fats, like in avocado and coconut oil for example.  It will also mean eating seasonally, so you’re constantly getting foods that are available during the current time of year. It can also mean that you make an effort to keep switching up your diet, so that you keep your body guessing. By making these kinds of changes, you keep your metabolism “on its toes” and it learns to work with different kinds of fuels.

Debbie and Mike talk about possible further podcasts for kid’s nutrition and just to go further into the topic of fat and diet. You can get more information about Mike at http://mikemutzel.com/about-mike.