Motivation and Accountability

One thing you must understand about accountability is that, when you get on the right training or dietary program, there's really no need for the babysitting because the program itself should be practical enough that works naturally/spontaneously for you.  Assuming you get your priority straight and commit to real lifestlye changes, the right dietary and training program should work in harmony with your body physiology.

Every cell in our body wants to achieve homeostatis at all time.  When given the right stimulant, (fat loss, muscle growth, or improving overall health) you should get results pretty quickly and painlessly.  This means no cardio 10 hrs a week, strength training 2 hrs a session, frequent hunger pangs, or massive dollars spent on supplements/drugs.

For those who aren't fortunate enough to work with me or am not following a proper, scientific-based program for your fitness goals, you need to know the 80/20 principle.  This means, as long as you do the right things 80% of the time, the 20% of your mistakes/non-compliance won't hurt your overall success.  As long as you're consistent with your training and dieting most of the time, giving yourself a break from time to time is not going to kill you.

Don't get discourage just because you fall off your diet with a cookie or some ice cream.  Mathematically, the caloric deficit you sucessfully generate over a week time on your diet will never be offset by a cheat meal or a bag of doritos.  Just get back on it when you've fixed your craving.

This applies to training as well. Obviously if you're feeling low energy, lazy, or have some social/work obligations on a day you're scheduled to train, just relax, go do some stretching or walking when you find the time.  A single workout session is not going to make or break your ultimate result. 

What will break you is your mentality.  Most people stopped a good routine because of the guilt they inflict upon themselves due to a minor fall off their program.  Especially the OCD ones who has to get everything perfect and when it doesn't go accordingly, they blame themselves to have some kind of behavioral-will power issue which typically leads to completely giving up on their program.   For these people, some flexibility will go a long way.

Here are few things you can do for accountability for yourself and from others.

1. Let everyone know you're making a dietary change for better health and/or physque, especially those who shop/serve/cook your food and influence your food intake the most.  They don't have to be completely on board but at least explain why you're doing what you're doing and if needed, explain to them how it works for you. 

2.  Don't let your diet interfere with your social life (too much) but also understand that sometimes we do a lot of unnecessary eating that should be eliminated or adjusted like boredom and holidays-social events. 

3. Just because it's lunch time doesn't mean you're suppose to eat.  Your hormone ghrelin plays a role in meal patterns.  Stabalize your hormone ghrelin to a smaller feeding window over the entire day. This will help cut meal frequnecy and can give you a  better chance at reducing total daily calorie intake for fat loss.

Practice Intermittent Fasting. 

Be accountable for hunger, not meal patterns.   When you do get hungry, it's time to eat big.  What you know about gorging due to meal skipping is a myth.   When you eat a big meal, it just sit in your stomach longer and can take up to 6-7hours to digest (esp. protein).  Cavemen use to eat (proper meals) only once, if lucky twice a day and they eat  most of their daily intake in one setting.  This is still true for many hunter/gatherers today around the world.   Trust me, their muscle didn't fall off due to not having 20 grams of protein every 3 hours like most bodybuilding literatures will tell you.   The calories you take in over the entire day matters more than how big a single meal is.

About motivation, seeing your own health improve, weight drop, fitting in tighter clothes, and getting sexier everyday should be enough motivation to keep you going.  You don't need a trainer calling you 3x a week just to make sure you're still doing their program.

Again, bringing others into the picture helps.  If you let your family/friends/coworkers know what you're doing (losing fat), they will be less likely to tempt you with fattening food.  They'll pay more attention to your physical change and compliment you when things go right. 

This following article addresses what it takes to be good at something. (dieting, training, and making money)  click to view.

Talent is about practice. Talent takes effort. Talent requires a good coach. 

"But these answers only raise more questions. What, for instance, allows someone to practice for so long? Why are some people so much better at deliberate practice? If talent is about hard work, then what factors influence how hard we can work?"

 Consistency + Passion = Results!

Consistency means making plans to do something, prioritize your goals, and be resourceful with what you got (time/money/genetics/attitude). 

To me, passion means getting disturbed enough, desperate enough, painful enough to want to make a change for the better.  "Throw your heart out and go after it"...  (heard that from somewhere, I know, cheesy).  The first thing I do when I talk to potential clients is to find out how bad they want what they're looking for.  If they're not hungry enough (not literally), they will never get anything out of my programs.

Tony Robbins is going to set you straight.   This video bring up a good point about eliminating distrations that may hold you back from making positive lifestlye changes. 

What We Do The Things We Do and How Can We Do It Better.

"It's not that you don't have the resources, you just have to learn how to be more resrouceful with what you got."

For dieters, the best and most resourceful thing you can do is not get hungry in the first place because this will be your number one distraction.  If you have excess body fat on your body, find ways to upregulate your fat burning potentials (metabolism) and use that as fuel instead of food ingestion.  Manage your insulin/sugar level, drink your coffee, reduce snacking, focus on life projects and you will keep hunger at bay.

Here's something more inspirational...

Those who turned Paleo that made a difference

and the rest of them... 1 

Those who made Intermittent Fasting as a lifestlye.

and the rest of them... 1, 2

Then there's those who simply went Low Carbs

and thousands of others... 1

and a few of my champions

Check out my other Champions

Read my published articles on Examiner.com on weight loss and sports nutrition.

Learn more about my Programs

Find out how HIT Center Austin Can help you reach your fitness goals today!

Understand what is food addiction and how to eliminate it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/food-addiction-could-it-e_b_764863.html

How to Break Bad Habits

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-break-bad-habits/

For the Trainnees
Seriously... Get Your Fucking Head Right  I'll just quote/sum it up here...

"the biggest battle you're going to fight will be against yourself, inside your head.  "When you hit the gym, you should be focused on the larger picture- hitting your goals, whatever they may be, and making everyone weep with fear when you stomp around the gym like a miniature Godzilla, not quibbling internally over nonsense that will have little to no bearing on achieving your goals."

"If you're a hooligan, you eschew bullshit and all of its unpleasant trappings, and you grab life by its throat and fuck it into submission."

Your mind controls your body, and if you constantly proclaim to it that you're awesome, it will have no choice but to physically realize that thought...  You can actually make yourself stronger, bigger, and leaner through the use of positive thought, and by the same token, if you constantly obsess over being fat and weak, your body will alter itself to match your perception of reality. Like Henry Ford said, "If you believe you can or if you believe you can't... you're right."(Lipton 112)"

"(Spiegel) Similarly, studies have shown that the placebo effect is so strong that 32% of severely depressed people show marked improvements with a sugar pill, compared to only 50% who actually receive medication for their illness. (Lipton 110) In most clinical trials, "fake" drugs prove just as effective as the real ones, simply because the people being tested believe in their power."

At 99, Marathon Man runs on

Here some music I know you'd like for your workouts

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

update 4-1-2011

how to pump up your mind before pumping your body. This is a good intro to the power of self hypnosis, listen to the podcast or bookmark it for later.

http://www.bodybuildingsecrets.com/articles/bodybuilding_secrets_podcast_1_pete_siegel.php

Body-Mind Connection

"Exert with Purpose"

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update: 5-15-2011

Inspirational Body Transformation

http://mylowcarbjourney.com/2011/02/things-i-dont-have-to-say-anymore/

http://mylowcarbjourney.com/2011/05/things-i-get-to-say/

"things I get to say now.

I feel so much better.

I am not out of breath.

I can wear clothes from the normal person’s section.

I RAN A FREAKIN HALF MARATHON!
I can do pullups and pushups.
I can jump on the trampoline with my kids.
I look good next to my gorgeous wife.
I am helping a lot of other people get healthy.
My blood pressure is normal.
I have no asthma symptoms.
I AM GOING TO LIVE FOR A LONG TIME.

What things do you get to say now or hope to be able to say in the near future?"

Refeeding Leptin, Cheat Meals , & Protein Sparing Fat Loss Diet

First of all, this post is for a very select few of my dieters who are in the low bodyfat% range looking to get leaner (while training) and those that are truly eating a low carbohydrate diet for fat loss and health.  If you're not in this category, the information below is too advance for you. (unless you really want to learn something about the hormone leptin/metaoblism and fat loss stalling issues.)

In the bodybuilding community, we don't call it "cheat days".  we call it "refeeds" and it literally means just that.

This is where it came from... 

For any caloric deficit diet to work, we have to restrict some foods. The more, the quicker the fat loss.

The less miserable/hunger inducing the diet is, the better.  As long as it provide all the essential nutrients the body needs for optimal hormonal functions, enough fuel to support activity & recovery, the rest should be eliminated to create the greatest caloric deficit possible for leaning out.

1. First thing we cut is carbs because it's not essential to the human body.  Period. Unless you're training and only on training days, you may increase it.

2. Second is all the non-essential fats from plants/industrialized products.  If you eat plenty fatty fish 4-5 servings a week, that's enough on the EFA.  If not from fish sources or grassfed meat (which i suspect most of you don't get it cuz heb/walmart is just right around the corner), taking 10g of fish oil (3g of epa/dha)/day is sufficient to meet the requirement while keeping all other protein products lean. 

3g (1g of epa/dha) on non-dieting days for the rest of your life if you continue to live in america and don't eat fish.

3. Third is getting the minimal protein to support lean muscle mass, this is no mystery.  For general weight loss, 1 g/lb of LMM is plenty.  If you get hungry, this is the variable you want to play with more or less to ensure you don't take in more calories than needed from sugar sources.  This means female @ around 80-100g, men 120-160g depending on your body comp. and training/resting days.  The more unnecessary carbs you take in the less protein you need, gram to gram.  Carbs will spare protein metabolism. 

My general recommendation is just to eat a pound of meat a day and if fat loss is too slow (esp. for females and sedentary ppl), drop down to .7lbs a day.  If fat loss is too rapid and you're afraid to lose lean mass (performance suffers), or hunger is an issue, eat up to 1.5lbs of meat a day.

The three rules above for dieting down body fat fast is basically a "Protein Sparing Fat Loss Diet".  For those who are obese, diabetic, or not completely sedentary, ketogenic diet might be more useful (and less miserable) and it's basically a low to moderate protein, high fat, low to zero carbs regime (cyclical).

Lyle McDonald from body recomposition wrote about PSFLD in his book.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/the-rapid-fat-loss-handbook

Leptin

Both chronic low carbing and low calorie diets lower your hormone leptin.  The fatter you are the less this concerns you.  Assuming you're not metabolically defected or anything (leptin/insulin resistant).

Leptin is a lipo-stat regulator (one of many) produced from your fat cells that signals hunger when it's running low. It's registered by your hypothamus through the blood/brain barrier.  Leptin helps keep some body fat on you and make sure you get hungry when you chronically drop body fat or increasing activity (basically, when you're chronically at a negative energy balance).

When you're going under 12% BF (for men) or 17% for women or lowered food intake for weeks, your leptin can drop drastically.  This is the body's defense mechanism to make sure you don't starve to death and induce hunger to ensure you eat more and save your body fat. 

When people give in the hunger, they typically eat more calories than the total deficit they originally created (overall during the leptin drop) due to body's need to over-compensate in case this periodic starvation occurs again. 

This is why some misinformed dieters would drop calories drastically for days, fit into their dress for photoshoots, then put all the weight back in the next few days, sometimes more than their original/pre-dieting weight.

Sidenote: I'm also not talking about "starvation mode" like most trainers refers to when you don't snack more than 5x a day or when ppl going on a 24-36hr fast.  That's not starvation. That's fasting and it's perfectly natural.  Periodic fasting is part of our human evolutionary past and we are perfectly adpated to deal with these semi-starvation/intermittent fasting conditions.

Anyways, typically after a contest or simply a mental break down from hardcore dieting, ppl can bounce back and eat 6,000kcal/day easy for weeks.

One of the main side effects of chronically lowered leptin production on most fad/crash diets is unsatisfiable hunger.  The greater the deficit, the more you will feel it.  Unless you have some insane lean genes, on a really good stim (caffeine/ephedrine), or just really, really, really mentally determined to lose body fat, your low leptin level will break you down eventually.

So to trick and raise your leptin back to normal level (reboot metabolism and reduce hunger) without offsetting the overall deficits you've generated for fat loss, you can refeed your body with carbs for a day/meal to replenish what you may lack from the diet.  Simply eat at energy balance/maintenance amount of calories on training days is sufficient and there's no need to binge.

Also, make sure you cut fat down on this day. Fat doesn't play an immediate role in leptin restoration so keep it low even if you're doing low carbs/paleo.

For anyone who's actually keeping carbs under 20-40g a day and possibly eating 600-1,000 kcal deficit overall, a refeed of +200g/carbs once (maybe twice) a week is a good start, then tweak it from there depending on, fitness/energy level, hunger, and fat loss stalls.

Read this to understand what are some safe carbs for refeeds.

A bonus of refeed later in the day is that it increases seratonin which help you get a good night sleep.  This is why I always eat my starchy carbs and fruits before bed. 

Sidenote: If you think about it, 200g on carbs is basically how most Americans are eating now.  200g = 800kcal.  On a 2000kcal/day intake for maintenance (for a female, higher for men and training), that's about 40% of carbs... USDA actually encourage us to eat up to 60%!!   They literally want us to refeed our fat cells daily!    Now you know why USDA's guideline does not work  for general health or weight loss.

So to keep your refeeds simpler, just eat like a Standard American Diet and you're set. 

Learn more about Cyclical Ketosis for ketogenic dieting while training.

Martin Berkhan from Leangains.com suggest that overfeeding with carbs may offset the leptin drop but only temporarily.  As soon as you get back to dieting again, leptin is lowered. He preach the idea of more frequent refeeds (post workout, perhaps 3x/wk) while still very high in carbs is not as high as once-a-week (ketogentic type) refeeds. On his refeed days/training days, fat is kept low while protein and carbs is still pretty high.  On rest days, carbs is low while protein is high and fat should be moderate to low depending on perference/deadlines.

When Cheat Meals Gone Bad

The reason people implement cheat meal after a workout is because the incoming nutrients and energy supply the muscle where it's most depleted/needed.   Also, it helps with long term adherance to dieting. 

On the other hand, cheats are completely useless for the overweight folks on the physiological level. Overweight Dieters simply don't defend starvation (or slowed metabolism) as strongly as those who are lean.  They still have plenty of "fuel" (body fat) to go around for replenishing the muscle.  Overweight dieters tend to lose less lean muscle mass when they start cutting calories or non at all if they eat enough protein and train with resistance.

What also makes a cheat meals seriously counter-productive is the fact that 80% of the time, dieting trainees over-estimate their energy expenditure from exercise, thinking just because they lost 6lb from their 2 hours bootcamp workout, they believe they burned 3 lb of fat (which is equivalent to10,500kcal) or something stupid like that.  So they felt safe eating a 800kcal sandwich followed by a 800kcal milk shake or hit the buffet and put down 3,000kcals in a single meal, even though they probably only burn around 600kcal (if lucky).

Cheat meals are completely different from refeeds.   A cheat meal can be anything, (size/macronutrient-ratio) unlike refeed where its focus is getting enough carbs and calories to normalize leptin sensitivity and production.  Fat people generally produce plenty leptin.

A cheat meal is mentally rewarding from hardcore dieting but serve very little physiological purpose unless it's after a workout  at a sensible portion with the right macronutrient.

Refeeds... what it is and what it's not.

1. Refeeds are appropriate for bodybuilding and athletes eating low carbs/calories before  a contest/leaning out phase 1-2x a week. (cycling)

2.  Serve to reboot leptin (overall sympathetic nervous system output) to normalize metabolism and hunger.  The fatter you are, the less you need it.  Men above 12-14% bf, female above 20% don't need to do this.  Know your bf%.

3. Portion and frequency of refeeds depend on how long and hard you've been dieting.   200-250g of carbs once a week on LC or ketosis diets for leaning out or 100-150g 2-3x/week post workout for strength training. 

If you get plenty carbs post workout and you're not eating less than 100g of carbs on non-training days. you don't need refeeds.

4. Ketosis/Low Carbs is generally not great for endurance athletes (esp. during training season) but if you're chunky and only train recreationally, you can be on ketosis (assuming at a negative energy balance) and not worry so much about refeeds or performance drop as long as you get a nice portion of carbs post workout.  

5. Cheat Meals are  great for the overweight population eating low carbs/calories long-term for psychological reasons but if you're super committed to lose fat or just super obese/diseased, you don't need cheats. 

Seeing your weight loss  and improved blood tests periodically should be mentally rewarding enough and the fuel that's still around your body will "refeed" you.  No major leptin problem there. 

6. If you're not on VLC, ketogenic diet, or a protein-sparing fat loss diet, refeeds are unnecessary. (pointed out in #3)

7. Don't let either cheat meals or refeeds to become a binge.  Eat just enough to do what it's suppose to do... fix cravings, curve hunger, reset metabolism, deal with social events & fuel workouts.

To read all there is to learn about bodyweight regulation, stubborn fat, and the hormone leptin, read lyle's articles here.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/index.php?s=leptin


Read my published articles on Examiner.com on weight loss and sports nutrition.
Learn more about my Programs
Check out my Champions
Find out how HIT Center Austin Can help you reach your fitness goals today!

Marathon Running & Dieting

 The time-to-completion for your half marathon is going to drastically reduce at a body weight 10-15lbs lighter than you are now (assuming you're chunky and can afford to lose some fat).

Just go run with a 15 lbs vast for a couple miles, see how you feel, drop it, then run again, then you'll know exactly what I mean.

BODY WEIGHT TO LEG-POWER RATIO IS CRITICAL FOR ENDURANCE RUNNING.

If you've been training for a couple years at around the same weight, 3 more months of training til contest time is not going to help you that much.

Your priority should be losing body fat within the next 2 months period with a rapid fat loss program.  Reduce training volume to prevent hunger pangs (being in a deficit that is) but keep intensity high so you don't risk losing  muscle mass and keep protein intake high as well.

Once you shed the fat, you'll have plenty time to retrained the little lost in mitochondria/capillary from dieting.

  

   To sum up...  You should work your training around your diet when you're trying to lose body fat.  That's your priority right now because it's the most beneficial variable you can play with.

Like I said, if you've been training for a while, 2 month of detraining or reduced volume is not going to make a big difference.  As long as you perform some resistance training, you'll preserve the muscle.  You'll get your endurance back when you start eating at maintenance again.


While volume may stay the same or reduce slightly, up the intensity by running faster, longer, further, while reduce training frequency to optimize post-workout recovery.  Try sprinting 2x a week. 10sets per session. 30-40yards each.  that'd sufficient enough to keep your muscle on a diet.

Artificial Sweeteners equal Fat Loss, Rat vs. Clinical Studies

A friend of mine was skeptic about using artificial sweeteners (non-nutritive sweeteners) as a replacement for her usual table sugar for coffee, cakes, or what not.  She did some digging and send me this link.

The Newest Dangerous Sweetener to Hit Your Food Shelves... http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/08/neotame-receives-fda-approval-but-is-not-widely-used-yet.aspx

Since I've read enough articles like this in the past, just by looking at the title, I knew it was another scare tactic to encourage "real sugar" consumption by the "alternative/detox" industry and does more harm for ppl's weight loss effort than good.  

The articles referenced in this article are all "reports", "cohort", and rat studies" in regards to aspartame that has very litttle applicability to the way we consume them today.  (on top of that, every link I tried to open wants me to subscribe to his newsletter and buy his crap)

Using zero calorie artificial sweeteners to reduce sugar intake is crucial to dieter's success and adherence in a calorie reduction diet (and I'll explain why in a min).

The relevancy of these rats studies simply doesn't apply to us.   The dosage on rats were proportionally far greater in comparison to average human consumption and feeding them far more frequently then a person would. on top of that, rodent physiology is very different from ours.

Every single cells in our body are always cleansing, detoxing, reaching homeostasis. When we're exposed to small and infrequent toxic agents, it will be either oxidated or pass through.  that is assuming these sweeteners are toxic in the first place... they're not, and i'll get to that.

from leagains.com

"Aspartame was found to cause brain cancer in rodents, but no human trial has ever shown a link to cancer, or any other serious disease, for that matter. This has been examined extensively; for example, see this study with almost half a million subjects -http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/15/9/1654?ijkey=ac6c97b1ce31ada1c45888d3101fd0b9d5901fe7

And here's another one -http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/18/1/40

the consenus is that aspartame is very safe for human consumption.

Also, I should note that the rodent studies used such extreme dosages that it would be impossible for any human to ingest that amount save from walking around with an IV-drip of pure aspartame 24/7."

Breakfast... Worst Meal of The Day. Intro to Intermittent Fasting and Meal Frequency

"Doesn't breakfast set your body metabolism for the day?"

Your metabolism gets a 10% boost from food intake, that means if you eat a 800kcal meal, about 80kcal of that goes digesting the food (more or less, protein and fiber cost more). It's called the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), or thermogenesis.

What you have left is 720kcal.  Compare eating breakfast with skipping breakfast (0 kcal intake), you will get a net gain of 720 kcal with breakfast eating in this scenario.

Food metabolism is different from body-fat metabolism. 1

Carbs in the morning (or anytime) affects your blood sugar.  Our body has many metabolic pathways to regulate sugar/glucose (without food) just fine, Even during exercise. (LIPASE/GLUCOGON). 

In fact, Fatty acid metabolism is highly up-regulated, but muscle catabolism doesn’t occur in short-term fasting for up to 24 hours.

This means if you enjoy burning body fat, skip breakfast and lunch, your metabolism actually INCREASES!

One of the main hormones that stops fat metabolism (and increase fat storage) is insulin (there are plenty more but I won't go there).

When you have insulin in your system, nutrients flows into your fat cells, not out (that's its job).  So in the context of losing body fat, you would want to encourage low insulin level "most time" of the day.

My Favorite Things to Say & General Tips

I don't know where I get these from or how I came up with it but I use it a lot these days.  they are mostly directed at my weight loss clients.

1. Ketone is your super food. 

2. The Lipid Hypothesis is Dead.
3. You lift too light & you lift too often.


4. Coffee is the best cardio.

5. Stop putting crap in your mouth.  You'll never burn calories faster than the food you ingested.

6. No, you're not 10% yet (bodyfat).

7. The reason brown rice is better than white rice for your waistline is because brown rice taste like cardboard which ensure that you won't take more than 2 bites before you throw up everything else... portion control!

8. Enjoy your salt and diet coke.

9. You fail because you got hungry. 
You got hungry because you're not using body fat to fuel you.
You're not burning body fat because you're not reading up on how to turn on fat burning hormones. 
If you read more, maybe then you won't get so hungry.

10. Fat doesn't turn into muscle when you exercise.  Foods turn into fat even if you do.

11. Eat REAL food and drink water, how hard is that? (Paleo)

12. Supplements are not drugs.  Not supplementing in an imperfect world is not natural.  If you want to live naturally in America, you need to supplement!

13. Carbs is not essential, so are crunches and set-ups for getting a six-packs.


14. You lost water, not fat. It'll come back.

Does fiber count as Carbs? What are safe carbs and when to eat them

Will high fiber plant foods help you burn more body fat??

My friend has embarked on a low carbs, low kcal diet for fat loss.  He found an article online that suggest that we should subtract the fiber content from the total carbs content since some fibers can't be digested, therefore does not release calories.... or the hypothesis that it takes the body more energy to digest them, therefore, eating fiber burns more calories. 

here's the article.
http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/1999/11/01/1700/do-i-subtract-fiber-from-carbohydrates/

The notion that fiber doesn't count as carbs is false.  Almost anything edible we put in our mouth that comes out the other end looking different releases some kinda energy/calories for the body.

Here's my reply to him (with more elaboration)...

high fiber food is great for hunger and sugar/insulin control.  I'd mentioned that any vegetables (other than the starchy ones like corn/beans/carrots/potatoes) shouldn't be counted as carbs on your diet. 

However, it still gives you energy. it's not true that diabetics or the obese should just forget about calories from veggies/high fiber food.  (the best scenario for them is to eat a hypocaloric diet high in fat, moderate protein, and low to zero carbs diet.) 

The reason I recommend you eat veggies at your liberty because i know how inconvenient a complete zero or very low carbs diet can be (in terms of meal texture/variety preparation) and it's probably hard to eat too much of veggies to offset the kcal deficit of the diet overall.  (Unless you're a 5 foot , 120 lb, overweight female who only needs around 700-800kcal a day to meet your essential needs, then eating too much veggie may offset your low kcal/fat loss diet.)

Training while Dieting

First of all, this is not for everyone. It's about context so I'm just gonna address to whom these tips apply.

For:

1. Those going on a diet and I mean a real diet where you actually count calories or read food lables and eliminate at least 500kcal/day or more than your maintenance intake.  expect more than 1lb of fat loss a week.

2. Those who are lean but wants to be leaner (BF%: 10-men, 15-women or lower) but afraid to lose muscle on a strict diet.

3. Anyone who wants to preserve or build muscle but not gain fat mass. (bulking?)

4. Anyone who wants to build muscle/strength but wants to avoid working up an appetite from high volume workload.

5. Those seeking physique and already got their diet handled.

Not For:

1. Athletes looking to improve performance (especially endurance or team sports).

2. Those who enjoy training 5x a week and 2hr/session or addicted to cardio.

3. New trainees w/o supervision or spotters.

4. Those who like trendy routines and silly balancing equipments.

5. People who are not dieting hard enough.

Magnesium Deficiency & Diabetes

A friend of mine asked me why I recommend magnesium supplementation on my diet.  (she's training for a half marathon in March and the diet would benefit her greatly if she could drop 10-15 lbs prior.)

I looked back from my previous research (and some extra) to give her a good explanation.  To my surprise, I discovered that it may be one of the variables that causes Type I Diabetes!  This is the gist of what i wrote her....

1)  A typical multi-vit contains around 100mg of magnesium which is largely under what our body needs (300-400mg) if we don't the rest from our diet.
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/magnesium-000313.htm
http://www.algaecal.com/magnesium/magnesium-rich-foods.html

2) Exercise: Since you're very active (long distance cardio 3x a week around 20miles in total volume), your serum magnesium are lost DRASTICALLY.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3453693?dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3558215?dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3600291?dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9794089?dopt=Abstract

Even when you're eating a well balance modern diet (not being on my program), you're already magnesium deficient due to our agricultural farming methods and food processing.
http://drumlib.com/dp/000014.htm

"For example, white bread contains about 40% less magnesium than whole wheat bread.  In addition, since World War II, the amount of magnesium in our food has steadily declined due to use of fertilizers that only replenish nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium."

Post Workout Meals and When is appropriate. Whey Protein Shakes

4 Reasons Why You Should NOT Have a Post Workout Shake

1. You don't need any shakes if you're 10lb fatter than your ideal body weight and your focus is on fat loss (while maintaining lean mass). 

Chew your foods later when you're ready to sit down and eat.

2. If you had dinner (w/ protein from meat sources) and you workout the following morning, you don't need an immediate post workout shake, either. If you're planning on eating later that day (assuming a balance meal with protein/meat), skip the shake. 

Chew your foods later when you're ready to sit down and eat.

3. If you had breakfast (w/ protein) and you workout in the afternoon, you don't need an immediate post workout shake, either (assuming you are having a balance meal with some protein/meat later that day). Your body isn't going into "catabolic mode". 

Chew your foods later when you're ready to sit down and eat.

4. If you have carbs post workout, it doesn't really matter what their GI (glycemic index) are. Just eat something. What will really slow down carbs absorption is if you eat tons of fiber and fat in that meal and that's only if you really care about recovery. If you train doubles or 6x a week (some athletes), you may want to minimize the fat/fiber in your post workout meal. 

If you're not an athlete, chew your foods later when you're ready to sit down and eat.

Summary: Your targeted Pro/Carbs/Fat intake over the whole day is more important than what you eat pre/post workout. Endurance athletes may benefit fast acting/liquid carbs during training but that's about it. If you're only training for general health and fat loss (most people), just eat something. Anything, with calories. and remember.

Chew your foods.

Summary
Amino acids stay in your blood stream/muscle cells avaliable for anabolic growth longer than you think.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/what-are-good-sources-of-protein-speed-of-digestion-part-2.html

You only need 0.8g of pro/1 lb of LEAN MUSCLE MASS a day (and that's generous if you're obese trying to lose weight).  1 g/1 lb if you're dieting or training a lot. 1.5-2g/lbs if you're relatively lean but trying to get contest/photoshoot ready and is having hunger issues when doing low calorie dieting.

If you think you're fat, don't worry about PWO meals. You will eat sometime during the day and that will take care of your muscle. When it comes to fat loss, drinking down calories does nothing for satiety.

Focus on increasing daily activities (aside from formal exercise) and reduce caloric intake (by controlling hunger and upregulate fat metabolism).  Reduce carbs/some fat most of the time in order to create an energy deficit for fat loss.  Reduce interval/circuit/bootcamp type training so you don't get hungry and overeat your diet (focus on walking or resistance training instead, lift heavy or walk far). 

Your own bodyfat and some EAA's are the best PWO ingredients for most (chunky) people reading this.

PWO shakes are not that important unless you're a performance athlete or having trouble putting on mass (hardgainers), or just simply hates cooking.  pic to the right... this is when you actually need a protein shake between meals and around workout.

For beginner and weight loss trainees, you should be thinking more about how to squat heavy and correctly rather than which brand of brotein shakes to buy.

Ephedrine / Caffeine: Evidence and Application

I'm tire of convincing my clients the benefit of ephedrine with caffeine for fat loss so I'm writing this to never have the same conversation again.

for those who don't need to read the science behind the benefit of EC stack, go straight to the end of this post under "speed up your fat loss" for application.

"I've been watching the supplement industry try to reinvent/replace EC (ephedrine/caffeine)  for probably a decade now nothing they've dug out of their collective asses has ever come close to being remotely effective" - Lyle McDonald on 1,3 Dimethylamamine

Doctors are amazingly ignorant about anything that is not approved by the FDA. So, unless you read the medical research, it's almost impossible to separate the facts from the spin, hype, and political BS."  http://drumlib.com/

Objective Scientific Studies

Below are the positive effects of EC ingestion for increase metabolism, fat utilization, hunger reduction & lean muscle mass preservation wbile dieting.  Click on the treatment to view the studies.


Boost Fat Metabolism
Contribution of beta 3-adrenoceptor activation to ephedrine-induced thermogenesis in

Ephedrine produced significant increases in energy expenditure (thermogenesis) with 2.5mg. 
Double blind  study on 103 overweight patients Comparison of an ephedrine/caffeine combination and dexfenfluramine in the treatment of obesity. A double-blind multi-centre trial in general practice 103 of 20-80% overweight patients lost 15-20lbs while reduced their blood pressure.

Keep Muscle Mass while dieting.

Thermogenic, metabolic, and cardiovascular responses to ephedrine and caffeine in man.

During dietary energy restriction E+C promotes fat loss and preserves fat-free mass.

EC is safe and effective in long-term treatment  in improving and maintaining weight loss.  No clinically relevant withdrawal symptoms have been observed.  The acute and chronic effects of ephedrine/caffeine mixtures on energy expenditure and glucose metabolism in humans.  24-week open follow-up trial with reduced obese patients all receiving an ephedrine/caffeine combination (20 mg/200 mg) three times a day.

Enhanced thermogenic responsiveness during chronic ephedrine treatment in EC stack does not require cycling, it's positive affect on metabolism actually increases with chronic dosage.
For More info here

Hopefully you read the studies.  If you can tolerate the constant hunger while on a diet for fat loss, you don't need it.  If you're happy dieting for 8 month just to drop 10-15lb with conventional-moderation methods, you don't need it. If you enjoy spending more than 800$ a year on suboptimal supplies of supplements/stims from GNC just to shed a few pounds of fat, you don't need it. If you're fine with losing muscle while trying to lose weight, you don't need it. 

Speed up Your Fat Loss

If you don't have your diet dialed in, EC stack won't help you much.  Only use EC stack if you're already doing relatively low carbs (under 100g) and actually eating a hypocaloric diet. 

You will find ephedrine in most pharm stores around town, cvs, walmart, walgreen.  lab tested ephedrine is 20mg, which is ephedrine HCI 25mg found in most drug stores.

Popular brands containing ephedrine HCI are "primatene", "bronkaid" 2, and other store brands ephedrine containing products. ask the pharmacist for it .

If you have pre-existing heart problems and high blood pressure, you can't use it.

Start off with half dose, 12.5mg/100mg-eph HCI/caffeine on the first day. Work up to full dose the second day 25mg/200mg. Then 2 doses the third, and 3 doses the following day.  3dose/day is max.
They should be 4 hours apart and I recommend giving yourself a 6hr window from your last dose til your bed time. trust me, sleep is way more important than thermalgenesis when it comes to fat loss.
So for example, if you wake up at 8am, drink your coffee or take your caffeine pill (200mg) and your ephedrine HCI (25mg).  then again at noon, and again at 4pm.  Assuming you go to bed at 10pm.
I had no problem using during workout.  Actually burn a few more calories doing cardio but that's only advantageous if you're having a hard time with your last bit of stubborn fat areas.
If you have any more problems regarding how to implement EC stack, read this.
ttp://drumlib.com/

Read my published articles on Examiner.com on weight loss and sports nutrition.
Learn more about my Programs
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Find out how HIT Center Austin Can help you reach your fitness goals today!h

Homeopathy Vs. Scientific Research - Placebo

 

Can we (and should we) Apply Scientific  Principles to Find the Efficacy of "Homeopathic" Practices? 

Two weeks ago I was playing pickup soccer at the Buda Sportsplex with YMCA folks.  I had a little run-in with a fella and I suspect my leg was kicked (or perhaps planted my foot wrong while changing direction) and injured my right calf.

I didn't think much of it at first but as the game went on, it got worse.  Shortly after, I volunteered to play goalie so I can rest and stretch a bit but finally gave into the pain.  When I got home, I felt better and didn't bother icing it (or using the R.I.C.E procedure).

After cruising with my girl around the neighborhood, enjoying Christmas light decors, I came home to a swollen calf the size of a melon!  Those who know me or seen me in shorts know that I have grapefruit/3rd stage tumor looking calves @ 18inches circumference).   When I got home and did my webMD, I called up an old friend studies PT.   I was informed that it was a 2nd degree strain and could take 2-3weeks to fully recover.  It was about 19.5 inches around that night.

http://www.nativeremedies.com/ailment/natural-treatments-for-muscle-strains.html

Long story short, I found tons of articles on muscle strains and ways to relieve the pain, inflammation, and blood clot and found a herbal substance call "Arnica".   Since I wasn't going to spent my last 2 paycheck to see a sports doctor, I'm willing to give homeopathy a try.   Arnica is known for its legendary muscle and joint soothing qualities and is used clinically for post-surgery/injury recovery and pain relieve. 

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/arnica-000222.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/arnica
http://www.arnica.com/ 

Before I went out and spent $25 on a bottle, I wanted to know if it really does the trick, so I googled "arnica side effects", "arnica remedy", and "arnica research".

What I end up finding is that in 2003, a research journal published in the Journal of The Royal Society of Medicine suggest that in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial (which is pretty much the most unbiased, scientific rigorous testing protocol there is to find how significant the treatment [arnica] affects the outcome [healing] with all other possible variables being constant.)  suggest that the  "healing power" was actually in fact, a "Placebo Effect" and not so much the biochemical property of the substance.    See the study and the Summary.   Also discussed here.

"Why does arnica have such a reputation for healing?   

'Professor Ernst's answer is "positive selection bias". Some patients recover quickly from surgery, and if they have been taking arnica, they tell their friends that the remedy helped. If they recover well without arnica, or they took it but recovered slowly, they are much less likely to tell everyone their experiences and "the myth becomes reinforced".

This made me question the whole homeopathic industry, are there any truth or justifiable evidence to hundred or thousands of ancient/alternative medicine anymore?  if so, how do we quantify the treatment or the results? Should we even question them in the first place if it had worked for so long?'