So as I promised, I would write a followup. In my last post, I highlighted the problematic misconceptions and habits of your typical Pottruck member. In this followup, I aim to highlight what changes that one can make to his or her life that might better aid his or her fitness and nutritional goals.
**
Note, I am writing this completely from a fat loss standpoint; for those of you with anabolic minds such as myself, don't bother reading this and I'm sure you probably know all of this stuff.
As review, I basically stated that manipulating one's metabolism is the best way to permanently stay lean. A person's metabolism is controlled by several components. There are uncontrollable factors such as genetics, age.
There also are (if you isolate these components as single variables ):
1. Body Mass
The heavier you are the more energy you require and burn compared to a lighter version of yourself)
2. Body Composition
The more MUSCLE you contain in ratio to your nonlean flesh, the more energy you require, resulting in a faster metabolism. If you through nutrition and fitness can maintain your muscles, you are bound to have a blazing fast metabolism. By no means do I have a muscle mass that is impressive by any body builder's standards; however, from my own experience, this metabolism boost is very noticeable in my daily life. I experience constant energy and alertness (even after repeat 4 hour sleeps), a hunger every 2-3 hours, the capacity to eat unhealthily without much consequence (because my metabolism burns it away fairly easily), and an ability to lose weight very rapidly (I really have to try to eat enough food to maintain weight). Currently, I estimate that I need to eat 2600-2700 calories a day to maintain my body weight (if I factor in the energy consumption due to exercise).
3. Eating habits
A good way to increase your metabolism is to eat protein and healthy fats [such as those from peanuts, legumes, almonds, vegetables, and grass fed beefs] as well as fibrous carbohydrates. These nutrients are harder to digest for your body and thus expend more energy to digest than with fast digesting carbohydrates [starches & simple sugars].
Eating more meals a day in smaller quantities helps you gain a metabolism boost due to 2 major reasons:
a. You are more likely to avoid a blood sugar spike which tells your parasympathetic nervous system to signal your cells to take up sugars into your cells to lower your blood sugar, essentially ceasing fat metabolism (which promotes the storage of body fat) and building up glycogen stores (which provides a energy buffer zone before fat burning starts again)
b. Your body is constantly digesting its food, which is an activity that burns calories (drinking water helps stimulate renal activity which also helps burn calories as well as helps keep your stomach full which sends neuronal/hormonal signals that you are full). c. Your body avoids going into starvation. When you body goes into starvation mode, it automatically lowers its metabolism and ceases fat metabolism in order to conserve resources.
In summary, you can generally group metabolism into 2 components
1. Basal Metabolism (determined by body mass/composition/genetics)
2. Metabolism due to Activity (Comprised of your daily activities such as working out, digesting etc)
(Naturally while cutting you will notice a decrease in metabolism simply due to decreased body weight, however this will not result in lower energy b/c although your total metabolism has fallen, your normalized metabolism (calories burned/mass) should actually go up if you are losing weight correctly).
In my last post I discussed the fallacies of eating salads w/o meat, eating very little amounts, doing long periods of cardio. These activities all serve to reduce your metabolism.
That being said, the ONLY way to permanently lose fat and become leaner is to raise your metabolism. Females and males alike are often horrified when I tell them they need to increase the muscles in their body to increase their metabolism in order to achieve permanent fat loss. They automatically think : 1. I will look too muscular and disgusting like Arnold 2. Female and males need different methods of working out to achieve their fitness goals. These reasonings while seemingly valid, are quite erroneous in science. I have a friend who was a personal trainer at NYSC (specifically at the one that Justin Timberlake and Alessandra Ambrosio are members of) and he's discussed fitness with Alessandra too. This man can verify everything I say here. I am not trying to offend anyone but here is the truth:
1. Hormonally, men and women are very different. Our contrasting hormonal landscapes prevent women from naturally acquiring very large muscles that men have. Unless women have a hormonal imbalance and somehow are taking in or producing male hormones, they cannot possibly get "butch" and remotely come close to developing a male musculature. To be honest, no matter how good my genetics and how hard anyone trains by natural means, is it possible to develop Arnold's musculature without taking anabolic steroids (Yes Arnold used steroids). It's simply not easy to gain muscle for anyone. When females tend to look bigger, its actually an illusion. They aren't muscular, its simply because they have fat that the muscle might be pushing outwards. Yes I've seen females who without steroids do have noticeable muscle; however, they work extremely hard and consume loads of protein and dedicate their lives to bodybuilding. Nothing but the most intense training and nutritional regimen can lead to that result for females.
2. Out side of the hormonal landscape, male and female muscle physiology is quite similar. In short, muscle is muscle. Muscle is stimulated by activity. The more muscle you have, the more you need to stimulate it for further growth. Low reps @ high intensity builds strong compact muscle, whereas higher reps (~15) results in enlargement of muscle cells, a term physiologists coin hypertrophy. Most females who do feel like they notice that 15 or more reps does not result in enlargement and hence are content to do high rep weight workouts. I've noticed that these people are also the same people who tend to do curls and tricep work with 5 lb dumbbells. Even for them, 5 lb dumbbells @ 20 reps will not really result in muscle stimulation. In short, I am saying that while its true that they will not experience muscle hypertrophy, they are not anywhere near fatiguing themselves with that weight and hence will also not experience any gains in strength OR muscle tone. In short, doing weights at that intensity is much more similar to doing cardio than actual weight lifting. You will not TONE up at all. When I say 15 or more reps resulting in hypertrophy, I mean 15 reps till failure (failure as in you cannot physically lift more than 15 reps). At this point of muscle failure you will experience hypertrophy at 15 reps. At a higher weight, 5 reps till failure will result in toning and strength gain. Females typically are reluctant to lift heavier weights because at high weights & low reps, it is much easier to reach failure than low weights & high reps.
Another very important contributor to a healthy metabolism is a post workout meal (and ideally a preworkout meal if you have time). This does not matter whether the exerciser is engaging in active cardio or weightlifting. The body needs to recharge and will risk protein catabolism (resulting in muscle loss & a lower metabolism) if you do not eat after a workout. During a workout your body generally derives energy huge amounts of highly liquid energy sources such as stored carbohydrates. When your body is depleted of nutrition from an intense workout, you need to replenish by eating fast absorbing nutrients such as simple carbs and protein. A 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein by mass is generally recommended for weightlifting. For cardio, I would say a 1:1 ratio will properly replenish yourself. Remember, without proper rest and recovery, your metabolism WILL fall.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
PreSpring Break Gym Flooding
It's been a while since my last post. For those of you who don't know I am in my off year before applying to medical school. I am volunteering and working in an infectious diseases lab in the school of medicine.
Now that that has been established, I will return to the topic at hand fitness:
In mid January and early February, an estimated 75% of the total population in Pottruck gym are accounted for by desperate students trying to improve their physique for Spring Break. The majority of these people are influenced by a host of environmental and social factors such as desire of the male population to use their putatively improved physique to impress rival males in a show of dominance as well as to attract members of the opposite sex. Females also show strong desires to tone their bodies before revealing them on warm beaches in lower latitudes. However, these Spring Break Junkies (SBJ's) increase the risk to injury and the efficacy of the workouts of the year-round gym goers (YRGG's). The most prevalent mechanism for the increased risk of injury results from a bottle neck effect; the increased load upon gym equipment saturates equipment to beyond capacity and forces YRGG's to work out at intensity rates that surpass their safety thresholds.
Arnold would tell these SBJ's to : GTFO of my gym. /end rage
However ineffective the training methods of these vain individuals, one cannot help but admire the tenacity of their efforts. A four year study (by me) reveals that the average waiting time for a cardio machine at peak hours (4 to 7 pm) drastically drops from the second week of January, a long 30 minutes, (typically the first week of classes) to the second week of February, a measly 10 minutes. By the end of Febrary, there is no longer a wait time for the cardio machines.
A retroactive study (by me) of book purchases also reveals that the sales of FAD diet books with general names such as the BADkins Diet and the Fail Beach Diet tend to skyrocket by %'s over 9000. Now the Atkins Diet stresses a low carb approach to consumption and nutritional intake. Although the reported incidence of rapid weightloss by the Atkins diet is indeed impressive, Dr. Atkins fails to show an extended study over time that measures the body compositions of his patients and test subjects. Studies by the New England Journal of Medicine have shown that generally within a year, most participants of Atkins recover around 80-100% of their lost weight. These studies seemingly give the opposite school of nutrition, the low-fat camp, reason to rejoice; however, the low-fat method of dieting also fails to yield long term results. Ironically, these two groups resent each other for hypocritical reasons. They both leave out an essential component of nutrition, either fat or carbs.
As long as caloric intake is in equilibrium with the human body's metabolic needs, there is no reason that eating carbs or fats-provided sufficient protein consumption is observed - should lead to massive weight gain. The Asian nationalities consume large amounts of rice and grain products, which are composed of mostly carbohydrates and they tend to occupy niches in the lower part of the world's body fat % distribution. Studies have shown that consumption of nuts, salmon, and other high fat foods (but also high protein) in a restricted calorie diet lead to accelerated weight loss. It is common knowledge among nutritional experts that dietary fat does not become absorbed into body fat.
The biggest problem of SBJ's lies in their misguided assumptions and premeditated opinions on how to achieve their physical goals. Many SBJ's tend to eat vegetarian salads and other seemingly healthy foods. The problem with foods with MOST vegetarian salads (not all) are that they are of little nutritional value outside of the fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They provide almost no calories for the body to use for metabolism and only stem hunger by taking up empty space in the stomach. Eventually, the body senses starvation and automatically chooses to conserve nutrition by reducing its metabolism level and burning fat and protein stores. As a result, the body will lose both muscle and fat mass over time. The overarching consequence is that the body's metabolism will fall until the body's caloric expenditure once again reaches an equilibrium with the body's now REDUCED level of caloric intake. Thus, a reduced calorie diet only leads to a temporary solution to weightloss and fat loss, not to mention a skinny fat physique is not only sickly and disgusting to look at, but also fails to impress anyone at the beach. No one can maintain this reduced level of caloric intake for long periods of time and eventually a dieter becomes forced to increase his or her caloric intake. Now, with a reduced metabolism and an increased caloric intake, the dieter soon finds his body weight and body fat sky rocketing.
However, nutritional mistakes are not the only mistakes that SBJ's tend to make. Time after time, SBJ's are observed to engage single sessions of cardiovascular activity that surpass an hour in length. This decision to do long periods of cardio cannot be more erroneous in judgment and etiology. I will not list further studies, but will rather discuss the mechanistic implications of extended cardio. It is common accepted that after about 30 minutes of cardio, the body starts using other sources of energy outside of its highly liquid carbohydrate assets such as fat stores (this includes less liquid glycogen stores, fat stores and protein stores). After about an hour of constant cardio, even protein stores are being used for energy. Cardio at long periods of time especially without pre and post workout nutrition can lead to minor but detrimental losses in muscle tissue over time. Muscle tissue requires the most metabolic activity out of all tissues so bodies with higher compositions in muscle also have higher rates of metabolism. Thus, extended cardio sessions may result in some fat burning and weightloss, but when used incorrectly (lack of pre/post workout nutrition) result in decreased metabolism over time.
When these two major problems are combined (which sadly is more true than not in most SBJ's), we have a one to two month window of rapid weight loss followed by a latent period 1 MO estimate) of weight stabilization and a rebound period of a few months where all weight and fat is regained back to the original stage.
I know numerous exercisers who actually exercise outside the spring break window. However, they too experience cyclical weight changes, except at a higher frequency. For you people who complain about cyclical weight changes without much noticeable improvement of physique over long periods of time, I will present to you a solution in my next entry.
Since I've presented NO practical information and instead just stated what the general population does incorrectly, I will leave with one practical tip. People who think they are trying to tone their muscles by doing 15+ reps of an exercise, you cannot be more wrong. Muscle tone is measured by force under tension : size ratio. For a lean compact muscle you stimulate your muscles by lifting LOW REPS (3-6 reps) at high intensity (as high weight as you can). 15+ reps of lifting generally leads to lactic acid buildup and microtearing of the muscles, resulting in HYPERTROPHY (hypertrophy is increase in muscle size).
Now that that has been established, I will return to the topic at hand fitness:
In mid January and early February, an estimated 75% of the total population in Pottruck gym are accounted for by desperate students trying to improve their physique for Spring Break. The majority of these people are influenced by a host of environmental and social factors such as desire of the male population to use their putatively improved physique to impress rival males in a show of dominance as well as to attract members of the opposite sex. Females also show strong desires to tone their bodies before revealing them on warm beaches in lower latitudes. However, these Spring Break Junkies (SBJ's) increase the risk to injury and the efficacy of the workouts of the year-round gym goers (YRGG's). The most prevalent mechanism for the increased risk of injury results from a bottle neck effect; the increased load upon gym equipment saturates equipment to beyond capacity and forces YRGG's to work out at intensity rates that surpass their safety thresholds.
Arnold would tell these SBJ's to : GTFO of my gym. /end rage
However ineffective the training methods of these vain individuals, one cannot help but admire the tenacity of their efforts. A four year study (by me) reveals that the average waiting time for a cardio machine at peak hours (4 to 7 pm) drastically drops from the second week of January, a long 30 minutes, (typically the first week of classes) to the second week of February, a measly 10 minutes. By the end of Febrary, there is no longer a wait time for the cardio machines.
A retroactive study (by me) of book purchases also reveals that the sales of FAD diet books with general names such as the BADkins Diet and the Fail Beach Diet tend to skyrocket by %'s over 9000. Now the Atkins Diet stresses a low carb approach to consumption and nutritional intake. Although the reported incidence of rapid weightloss by the Atkins diet is indeed impressive, Dr. Atkins fails to show an extended study over time that measures the body compositions of his patients and test subjects. Studies by the New England Journal of Medicine have shown that generally within a year, most participants of Atkins recover around 80-100% of their lost weight. These studies seemingly give the opposite school of nutrition, the low-fat camp, reason to rejoice; however, the low-fat method of dieting also fails to yield long term results. Ironically, these two groups resent each other for hypocritical reasons. They both leave out an essential component of nutrition, either fat or carbs.
As long as caloric intake is in equilibrium with the human body's metabolic needs, there is no reason that eating carbs or fats-provided sufficient protein consumption is observed - should lead to massive weight gain. The Asian nationalities consume large amounts of rice and grain products, which are composed of mostly carbohydrates and they tend to occupy niches in the lower part of the world's body fat % distribution. Studies have shown that consumption of nuts, salmon, and other high fat foods (but also high protein) in a restricted calorie diet lead to accelerated weight loss. It is common knowledge among nutritional experts that dietary fat does not become absorbed into body fat.
The biggest problem of SBJ's lies in their misguided assumptions and premeditated opinions on how to achieve their physical goals. Many SBJ's tend to eat vegetarian salads and other seemingly healthy foods. The problem with foods with MOST vegetarian salads (not all) are that they are of little nutritional value outside of the fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They provide almost no calories for the body to use for metabolism and only stem hunger by taking up empty space in the stomach. Eventually, the body senses starvation and automatically chooses to conserve nutrition by reducing its metabolism level and burning fat and protein stores. As a result, the body will lose both muscle and fat mass over time. The overarching consequence is that the body's metabolism will fall until the body's caloric expenditure once again reaches an equilibrium with the body's now REDUCED level of caloric intake. Thus, a reduced calorie diet only leads to a temporary solution to weightloss and fat loss, not to mention a skinny fat physique is not only sickly and disgusting to look at, but also fails to impress anyone at the beach. No one can maintain this reduced level of caloric intake for long periods of time and eventually a dieter becomes forced to increase his or her caloric intake. Now, with a reduced metabolism and an increased caloric intake, the dieter soon finds his body weight and body fat sky rocketing.
However, nutritional mistakes are not the only mistakes that SBJ's tend to make. Time after time, SBJ's are observed to engage single sessions of cardiovascular activity that surpass an hour in length. This decision to do long periods of cardio cannot be more erroneous in judgment and etiology. I will not list further studies, but will rather discuss the mechanistic implications of extended cardio. It is common accepted that after about 30 minutes of cardio, the body starts using other sources of energy outside of its highly liquid carbohydrate assets such as fat stores (this includes less liquid glycogen stores, fat stores and protein stores). After about an hour of constant cardio, even protein stores are being used for energy. Cardio at long periods of time especially without pre and post workout nutrition can lead to minor but detrimental losses in muscle tissue over time. Muscle tissue requires the most metabolic activity out of all tissues so bodies with higher compositions in muscle also have higher rates of metabolism. Thus, extended cardio sessions may result in some fat burning and weightloss, but when used incorrectly (lack of pre/post workout nutrition) result in decreased metabolism over time.
When these two major problems are combined (which sadly is more true than not in most SBJ's), we have a one to two month window of rapid weight loss followed by a latent period 1 MO estimate) of weight stabilization and a rebound period of a few months where all weight and fat is regained back to the original stage.
I know numerous exercisers who actually exercise outside the spring break window. However, they too experience cyclical weight changes, except at a higher frequency. For you people who complain about cyclical weight changes without much noticeable improvement of physique over long periods of time, I will present to you a solution in my next entry.
Since I've presented NO practical information and instead just stated what the general population does incorrectly, I will leave with one practical tip. People who think they are trying to tone their muscles by doing 15+ reps of an exercise, you cannot be more wrong. Muscle tone is measured by force under tension : size ratio. For a lean compact muscle you stimulate your muscles by lifting LOW REPS (3-6 reps) at high intensity (as high weight as you can). 15+ reps of lifting generally leads to lactic acid buildup and microtearing of the muscles, resulting in HYPERTROPHY (hypertrophy is increase in muscle size).