The blood vessels of obese children have stiffness normally seen in much older adults with cardiovascular disease, Dr. Kevin Harris today told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010, co-hosted by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The clock is ticking and the shape of the 13 year-old-heart is changing – for the worse.
“We were surprised to find that these obese children already have stiff blood vessels,” says Dr. Harris from B.C. Children’s Hospital. “Aortic stiffness is an early indicator of cardiovascular disease in obese children.” He says it is as if the aging process has been accelerated in their aorta.
The aorta is the largest artery in the human body. It carries and distributes oxygen-rich blood to all the other arteries and normally acts as a buffer to the pumping action of the heart. Increased stiffness of the aorta is typically associated with aging and is a strong predictor of future cardiac events and mortality in adults.
“The normal aorta has elastic qualities that buffer the flow of blood. When that elasticity is lost, aortic stiffness results – a sign of developing cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Harris told the meeting. “Aortic stiffness is associated with cardiovascular events and early death.”
The mean age of the children in Dr. Harris’s study was 13 years.
Sleep disturbances increase the risk of work disability and may slow the return to work process. This is especially true in cases where work disability is due to mental disorders or musculoskeletal diseases. These results come from a recent study conducted by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in collaboration with the universities of Turku and London.
The research is being conducted as part of two major research projects on social capital in the workplace (Kunta10) and on well-being in the hospital workplace. The follow-up study is part of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on The Future of Work and Well-being (WORK) and the Responding to Public Health Challenges Research Programme (SALVE).
Sleep disturbances include difficulties initiating sleep, intermittent and non-restorative sleep, and waking up too early. The occurrence of these disturbances was studied in 56,732 public sector employees in Finland. During the three-year follow-up, 7 per cent of them were incapacitated for work. Data on work disability and sickness absences lasting 90 days or longer, disability pensions and deaths were obtained from national registers. The associations of sleep disturbances with returning to work were studied in employees who were on long-term sickness leave or retired on disability pension.
Just over one-fifth or 22 per cent of the employees studied reported sleep disturbances on at least five nights a week. A further 26 per cent reported sleep disturbances on 2
Hypothyroidism is a dangerous condition that should be taken seriously.It can have a major impact on every aspect of your life; however, controlling your diet can help you curtail the effects of the condition.This article will inform you on what hypothyroidism is, how it affects the body, and ways to help control its affects through diet.
What Hypothyroidism Is
Hypothyroidism is due to an abnormally low production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland which is controlled by the pituitary gland.The low levels of thyroid hormone are known to affect cellular processes and metabolism and growth and development.The thyroid creates its hormones from the amounts of iodine in food and released when triggered by the pituitary gland.Hypothyroidism is rather common and is often caused by medication, low iodine levels, a malfunctioning thyroid or pituitary gland, radiation, or associated with another disease such as Lymphocytic thyroiditis and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
Effects of Hypothyroidism
Individuals with hypothyroidism can have devastating effects on the human body and as the disease furthers without treatment the signs and symptoms worsen.Hypothyroidism can affect just about every part of the human body; here are a few examples: can cause thinning and change the texture of your hair, dehydrate your skin, puffy eyes and face, cause constipation, inability to tolerate colder temperatures, fatigue and sleepiness, depression, leg swelling and all around aches and pain, increased cholesterol levels, and weight gain due to a slow metabolism.Know that if the condition is not properly treated coma and death can result.
Although hypothyroidism can be treated, areas that will more difficult to regain control of would include weight gain.Medication can control the effects of hypothyroidism rather quickly but there will still be the issues of the weight that was gained while the condition was out of control.It’s imperative that weight gain is controlled to better the condition; diet and exercise can help.
Hypothyroidism and Diet
Your diet directly affects hyperthyroidism and therefore must be addressed and controlled.As with just about any medical condition there are foods that help and hinder. Now, you will still need to exercise with dealing with hypothyroidism.Remember, exercise increases your metabolism, helps you lose weight, makes you feel healthier, lessens stress levels, and makes your body function better.
To better control hypothyroidism via diet, increase foods that have high doses of tyrosine such as lima beans, pumpkin and sesame seeds, fish and lean meat, poultry, bananas, lentils, avocados, low-fat milk and yogurt, spinach and carrots.Each of these foods will help increase your thyroid production and will help your thyroid function better.Now, these may not be your favorite foods, but you can get them past your lips to better the quality of your life.
Now, if there is a ying than there is a yang; thus, to control your hypothyroidism you will have to avoid some foods as well – even if they are your favorites.Remember, the goal is to control hypothyroidism and to better your quality of life.Avoid tofu, soy beans, strawberries, radishes, peaches, broccoli and cauliflower, turnips, peanuts, and everyone’s beloved carbohydrates which will increase insulin levels and lead your body to resist weight loss.
As few other tips for dealing with hypothyroidism and diet:avoid stimulants like coffee, soda, and alcohol and control your salt intake.Additionally, try eating several small meals throughout the day instead of three heavy meals.Add fiber to you diet if you are not getting enough and lessen its intake if you are getting too much.Fiber can be tricky when dealing with hypothyroidism; too much fiber, prevents nutrition from being absorbed and too little leaves waste and water weight gain in your body.Keep a healthy balance.Exercise and add some weight training to your workout to help boost your metabolism.Focus on being healthy, exercising, and especially keeping your daily eating habit in check and your body will keep your thyroid in check.
Raw food is gaining popularity with many individuals rightfully seeking better ways to increase health through food, while promoting greater harmony and sustainability among all people and the Earth.While this is a noble goal, one I aspire to participate in, this article points out some common misconceptions of raw food nutrition to assist in expanding your thinking and allow for more objectivity.
Raw foods are alive; however, many health educators and most nutritionist claim this is so because of the bioactive enzymes.While there is some truth to that statement, it is at best only half-truth.Raw foods not only contain bioactive enzymes but also bacteria.Most people are unaware of the fact that enzymes do not reproduce, breath, or eat. Therefore, enzymes are not alive!This is an important misconception.Raw foods are alive mainly because of the activity of bacteria.
Enzymes essentially are protein structures that act as keys to unlock nutrients by disassembling food into smaller particles for digestion to take place by trillions of bacteria.Imagine placing your car key in the ignition and the engine turns on.Just because the engine is now “alive” doesn’t mean the key is alive. Processing food by heat, freezing, dehydration and chemicals changes the shape and structure of enzymes.The enzymes are no longer able to fit properly into the ignition situated on cell membranes.Therefore the enzymes are not able to perform their digestive task of disassembling food molecules into the microscopic particles that feed the bacteria in our gut; bacteria that perform the final stages of actual digestion.Because of this fewer nutrients are available for absorption primarily in the small intestine.Living foods such as sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt, kimchee, and miso, are “alive” because they are loaded with bacteria.And ironically we are a bacteria-phobic culture!
If you eat your unwashed vegetation you will be eating more “aliveness” because of the micro-organisms, not because of the enzymes.If you choose to consume raw fish, meat, dairy or eggs then you are taking in millions of bacteria to aid in the efficient digestive process. Just a little food for thought, according to bio-energy nutritional expert and author, Mark Mincolla, PhD he says “in every teaspoon of saliva there are at least 10,000,000 bacteria and 99.99% are necessary to enhance digestion.”Read more…
“How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” That’s right up there with “How do I get six pack abs” as one of the most frequently asked fitness questions of all time. The problem is, when you ask it, you get all kinds of conflicting answers – even from experts who are supposed to know these things. So what’s the deal? Is it really possible to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously?
Short answer: Yes it’s possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
Long answer: It’s difficult and it’s complicated. Allow me to explain….
First we have the issue of whether you really lose fat and gain muscle at the “same time.”
Well, yes, if your definition of the “same time” is say, a month or 12 weeks. But in that case, you’re probably not gaining muscle at the “same time” literally speaking, as in, right now this very moment you are reading this, or 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for months in a row.
The best explanation for what’s really happening is that you alternate between periods of caloric surplus (anabolism) and caloric deficit (catabolism) and the net result is a gain in muscle and a loss in body fat.
You see, if you stay in a calorie surplus, it’s the body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go up together. And if you stay in a calorie deficit, it’s your body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go down together.
There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that it is usually very difficult to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time – the mechanisms are mostly antagonistic to one another. When big increases in muscle and big decreases in fat are seen at the same time, it’s almost always the result of “unusual conditions” – I call them X factors.
The 4 X-Factors
The first X-factor is “training age” . Ever hear of “newbie gains?” The less trained your body is and the further you are from your genetic potential, the easier it is to gain muscle. The reverse is also true – an advanced bodybuilder with 20 years experience would be thrilled just to gain a few pounds of solid dry muscle in a year!
The second x factor is muscle memory. It’s easier to regain muscle you’ve lost than it is to gain new muscle in the first place (ergo, the fat out of shape semi retired bodybuilder who starts training again and blows up and gets ripped “overnight”).
The third X factor is genetics (or somatotype). Ever heard of the “genetic freak?” That’s the dude who sprouts muscle like weeds even when he’s on the “50-50 diet” (50% McDonald’s and 50% pizza)… and he never gets fat. (That dude chose the right parents!)
The fourth X factor is drugs. It would stun (or sadden) you if you knew how many people take performance and physique-enhancing drugs. I’m not just talking about pro bodybuilders, I’m talking about “Joe six pack” in the gym – not to mention those fitness models you idolize in the magazines. How did some of them get large muscle gains with concurrent fat loss? Chemicals.
I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll place a wager on this any day: I’ll bet that in 99% of the cases of large muscle gains with concurrent large fat losses, one or more of these x factors were present.
That’s not all! There are actually 5 more X factors related to your body composition and diet status (the X2 factors). I talk about those in my new program that’s going to be released on September 28th. More on that later.
So you’re not a beginner, you don’t take roids, you’re not a genetic freak and you have no muscle memory to take advantage of. Are you S.O.L? Well, I do want you to be realistic about your goals, but…
There IS a way for the average person to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
The Secret: You have to change your “temporal perspective!”
Traditionally nutritionists and fitness pros have only looked at calorie balance in terms of 24 hour periods. At midnight, you could tally up the calories like a shopkeeper closing out his register, and if the balance were positive, you’d say you were in a surplus for the day. If the balance were negative, you’d say you were in a deficit for the day.
But it’s entirely possible that you might pass through periods of “within-day” surplus where you were in a highly anabolic state (for example, you eat the biggest, highest carb meal of the day after your workout), and you were in a deficit the rest of the day.
Furthermore, exercise changes everything. certain types of training will alter your hormones and physiological response to how you handle calories and nutrients.
If you did intense weight training, and you timed your nutrient intake just right, isn’t it possible that you could gain a small amount of muscle during those anabolic hours, while losing fat the rest of the day? Granted it might only be grams or ounces – but what if you kept that up for a week? A month? Three months?
As you pan out and look at the bigger picture, what if most days of the week you were in a deficit for the entire day, and on some days of the week you were in a surplus? If so, then isn’t it possible that over the course of the week, you’d have a small net gain of muscle and loss of body fat as a result of the caloric fluctuation?
These within-day and within-week phases are what I refer to in my new book as nutritional microcycles and mesocycles. If you also had a primary goal with a longer term focus of several months, say 12 weeks or 16 weeks, that would be a nutritional macrocycle.
What I’ve just described is nutritional periodization. Some people call it cyclical dieting. It’s where you manipulate your calories (primarily by fluctuating carbohydrate intake, hence “carb cycling”) in order to intentionally zig zag your way through periods of surplus and deficit.
The end result: muscle gain and fat loss during the same time period!
I know that someone out there is having a hissy fit because I’ve only talked about calories: deficits and surpluses. Rightfully so. Calories matter but there’s more to it than calories – most importantly, hormones and “nutrient partitioning.”
If you’re in a calorie deficit you are going to pull energy from your body. The question is: From WHERE? If your hormones are out of whack because you’re eating crap and you’re living an unhealthy lifestyle, you could lose more muscle than fat in a deficit and gain almost pure fat, not muscle, in a surplus!
But WHAT IF you could manipulate within day energy balance, use nutritional periodization AND control your hormones with food and lifestyle strategies?
NOW we are seeing how concurrent muscle gain and fat loss are starting to look possible!
Make no mistake – concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is a difficult goal to achieve. It’s the “Holy Grail of Fitness Goals.” The good news: difficult does not mean impossible. Or as George Santayana said, “The difficult is that which can be done immediately, the impossible, that which takes a little longer.”
If you’d like to learn more about losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time, I just recorded a fantastic introduction to the subject in a one hour interview and you can have it for free as a gift because I want to get the word out about my newest ebook, The Holy Grail Body Transformation System.
In my new book, you’ll hear all the details about nutritional periodization, cyclical dieting, hormonal manipulation, within day energy balance, nutrient partitioning, AND the all the X factors, including the 5 “X2-Factors” – which are the keys to gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time.
You’ll also get my new “TNB” training system, which was originally published as a workout in Men’s Fitness magazine. Then I expanded it into a total program that has never been seen before except in my member’s only inner circle.
My new free report that you can download now in MP3 and PDF (transcript) is available for a limited time this week over at my new Holy Grail website. It’s a great introduction to the program and you’ll pick up some great tips just from this free report alone.
Download your Free “Holy Grail Body Transformation Revealed” report at:
I’m often asked to pick my favorite “to do’s” when it comes to slimming the waistline. So here they are:
1. Cut Calories
Cutting calories is the key to maintaining a trim midsection. The only way to see a solid set of abs is in the absence of body fat. To achieve this goal a person must reduce calories. However, what I find is people go whole hog and drop caloric intake too much and too fast. When reducing calories make sure it is not too drastic. This slows your metabolism and allows you to store more stubborn fat. When you reduce calories and increase energy output the body will be forced to burn fat all over, not just in one area. I’m not saying to starve, simply drop the junk food and reduce calories by 10 to 15percent. That may mean cutting out the donuts.
2. Eat at Least Five to Six Small Meals Per Day
Small meals eaten frequently help to keep your metabolism high, allowing you to burn fat, even while you sleep. This approach is in vogue with many fitness authorities. The main reason is stoking the furnace within your body. The more you practice eating small meals more often, the more you will find body fat leaving your body. For more information on this check out “Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle” mentioned at the end of this manual.
3. Reduce Carbohydrate Intake at Night
Since the majority of carbs consumed are complex (slow release), tapering them off toward the end of the day will minimize the possibility of carb-to-fat turnover. This is a proven fact eat, carbs at night and you will gain body fat. Think about it, if you eat late are you ever hungry in the morning? No! Blood sugar levels are still above average. So what happens? You do not eat a good breakfast …and poof you eat like a hog at lunch so you’re not hungry again until late at night….and the cycle continues over and over.
4. Eat a Healthy Serving of Fiber with Meals
Fiber helps with the digestion of protein, carbs and fat. It is the key to burning the sugar from carbs making muscles leaner. Adding fiber to your diet is one of the best things you can do. Also, anything containing fiber is usually going to be low in calories (i.e. vegetables). Get as much of this stuff as you possibly can. Fiber is necessary for a balanced nutritional plan.Read more…
Increase metabolism with super-sets for extra fat burning and blasting. Doing super-sets will increase the rate at which you can burn calories by as much as 13 %. Super-sets are a series of exercises done back to back, or one after the other with no rest period in between. If done properly this exercise sequence can keep your body burning calories up to 16 hours later.
Do Squat Jumps over a 12 inch step with a T Push Up.
Do them each for 30 seconds one after the other then rest 1 minute and repeat 3-4 units
In this article I will give you a simple and easy to follow methods on how to accelerate fat burning.
Drink Lots of Water
You have probably heard it a million times that drinking water is very important. Water has multitudes of benefits and it also increases the muscle build up in the body and your overall appearance.
Water Increases your strength and performance in the gym
Study has shown that dehydration, even the slightest amount of it can cause a decrease in your strength and physical performance greatly. Actually a 3% drop in your body’s water content will lead to a 15-20% decrease in the muscle contractions. When undergoing intense training sessions, it is very important that your strength and energy levels are very high.
Water Helps in Injury Prevention
When you train hard in the gym over a long period using whatever equipment available, stress can be put on your joints and connecting tissues. Water helps fight and alleviate this by lubricating the joints for easy movement and for the formation of a protective layer around them.
Water Increases Fat Burning Metabolism
The liver has one of the roles of metabolizing fat in the body. The liver also helps the kidney flush out toxic substances through urine. When you decrease your water intake, this causes the liver and kidney to work extra hard to clear this out and it can be of course a strain to them. A decrease in water will cause a decrease in fat burning.
Super Setting Workouts
Using super sets in a workout is beneficial in accelerating fat burning. If you are ready for change then super-sets will do it for you alongside with plenty of water.
The cookbooks of life have been created to entertain you, not
necessarily nourish you. Because we have drifted so far away from
nature’s laws we have no reference point for what foods support or
detract from our health. 30-minute meals replace sound human nutrition
for quick fixes, but they create a deficit to our nutritional bank
account. A quick “bam” of cayenne only adds entertainment value, while
the nutrition is burned in the hell and heat of cooking. Gourmet chefs
prepare food for pleasure and entertainment; human nutrition and
physiology are not on their menu.
The first course in this meal is the basic concepts of honest nutrition
that I established to lift me up out of the dis-eases of modern living.
Now in my home, raw food is on the menu and I use it as a main course to
absolute health and healing.
When you hear diet you might think of only food and beverage. But that
is only one component of diet. Diet is everything you put in your eyes,
ears, nose, mouth, on your skin and hair (because your skin absorbs up
to 80% of what you put on your skin), and in any other orifice. Diet is
everything you take into your mind and body. It can come exogenously
(from outside of yourself) or endogenously (from within, as in your
thoughts or chemical byproducts from metabolism such as carbon dioxide).
Your life-diet is everything you have consumed in mind and body over
your entire lifetime. What you see, hear, listen to, smell, breath, and
eat will either nourish you mal-nourish you (take vitality away).
Life doesn’t stand still. It is either moving towards health and
vitality or towards death and disease. And you are the doctor writing a
prescription for life or death with every thought, word or action.
Nutrition is the quality of life. Therefore, nutrition is directly
related to the quality of raw materials that you feed your soul, mind
and body.
Regarding food stuff, the following components make up the whole
nutrients to nourish our whole self:
• Sun light
• Moon light
• Air
• Water
• Soil that contain micro-organisms, bacteria, parasites, molds,
yeasts and fungi
• Macro-nutrients of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates
• Micro-nutrients of vitamins, minerals, and phyto-nutrients
(pigments or colors of foods)
• Farmers’ attitudes
These are the fundamental nutrients that make up the fundamental
elements of life. When consumed, these nutrients then become the
efficient byproduct of the metabolic process required to extract,
synthesize, and deliver energy with the least amount of effort and waste
byproducts. Efficiency is one of nature’s basic laws. Think of a
really hot fire with really dry hard wood and sufficient air
circulation. Very little ash or soot remains because of the heat and
quality of the wood. Burn green, wet and sappy wood and you get lots of
smoke and wood tars that fill the air and leave a very sticky resin that
hardens when cooled. Food stuff will do a similar thing in your body,
relative to the quality of the food and efficiency of your digestive
system. To achieve health you have to stoke the fire with foods that
nourish.
So why would we want to nourish our cells? Might seem like a dumb
question and maybe a better question would be why would we want to mal-
nourish our cells? According to Dr. Bill Timmins’ definition of disease,
the first stage of bodily disorder (disease) is the deviation from
homeostasis or inner balance due to a deficiency and an excess
(toxicity). The natural yearning of all organisms is to return to the
state of relative inner balance-The Garden of Eden. The organism begins
to experience discomfort as a messenger to the owner, you. If you
ignore this discomfort, and the organism’s true needs are not met, then
it progresses to the next stage where changes are now harming the DNA.
This progresses until the tension turns to pain, and you begin to feel
real symptoms and enter into stage four deviations from honest health,
homeostasis. This built-up tension into pain and disease is diagnosable
and it arises into our consciousness.
When in stage four, we can no longer deny the yearning of the organism.
We can no longer hide our discomforts and we seek palliative services
to reduce or eliminate the symptoms or we self-medicate or sugar-coat
the pain with the sweet things in life. If you don’t do anything about
it you are heading to stage five, death! Cells are dying faster than
your body can reproduce healthy, vital cells. Organs are weakened,
systems begin to fail and your spirit prepares to leave the body. This
can go on for many years as people become among the walking dead,
living outside of the body until the stress of life is over. Just look
at the type of food you consume, how you are eating and how well you
rationalize your addictions. That will let you know the amount of
suffering you try to silence. Your body cannot lie.
Diet and disease are married just as nutrition and health are married.
Both are a lifestyle choice. How you live determines disease or
health. The foods you eat, how that food is prepared and how you eat
them can assist or hinder this healthy healing process of returning to
inner homeostasis. Raw foods provide all the nutrients and elements of
life required for you to thrive. They adhere to nature’s laws and are
unadulterated; that is cooked, dehydrated, frozen, irradiated, combined
with chemicals, or genetically modified in any way. All processed
foods, organic or not, are manufactured by man’s laws. Man’s laws are
filled with controversy and greed; greed for money, power, fame, and
lust. Nature’s laws have no controversy, her love is unconditional.
When you start to add heat to your food you enter into a scientific lab
where new molecules are formed. The scientific community at large
agrees that when you cook food, you begin to lose nutrients or create a
deficiency of the whole. Additionally, you create numerous chemically
toxic byproducts such as:
• Acrylamides from cooked and baked starches
• Heterocyclic amines from cooked proteins
• Lipid peroxides from cooked fats,
• Advanced glycation end-products (AGE’s) formed from the
metabolic combustion of raw natural and/or cooked sugars and starch
• Trans fatty acids
Cooking foods disrupts and alters the size, shape and chemistry of the
molecules. When you consume cooked foods, white bloods cells flood the
digestive track in an attempt to neutralize the toxic soup.
Furthermore, the water content in raw food is 100% usable, while cooking
reduces this to 8% so you crave and need water all the time. You also
need that water to help dilute the toxic effects of cooking. On a raw
food diet rich in usable water and raw fats, the body requires minimal
to no additional water.
At the very least, cooked food creates an imbalance by creating a
deficiency and toxicity. This is literally disease by definition. That
is why you are always looking for more food and constantly needing
something to fulfill the yearning of the organism to return back to the
state of inner-balance. Cravings can become unbearable as we fill our
outer and inner-life with empty possessions and ‘comfort food’ to give
us the impression we are fulfilled, content or satisfied. This is an
illusion. Is our world, culture or home life in harmony? Is it
reasonable to consider that your outer-world reflects your inner-world?
Nature only seeks balance, interconnectedness, and harmony. When you
consume food according to nature, you move towards balance and harmony.
When you eat foods according to man, you eat separateness and greed.
When I consume cooked food it is usually with the intent to slow down my
detoxification/healing process because I am creating more energy than I
am able to handle (think of it as running down a steep hill too quickly,
you become afraid of falling and put on a natural braking response).
Thus, the cooked food will utilize some of that energy and allow me to
manage my healing. Excess energy is excess energy; the body doesn’t
judge it as good or bad energy. That is the meaning behind the Chinese
saying “extreme joy produces sorrow.” Excess energy needs to move
freely through the organism. This is why riots often take place in a
city after a sports team wins the championship. They need release for
the “joy” that seeks expression. Take a look at what these sports fans
put down their mouths during a game, cooked and processed foods and
beverages. Celebrating victory and life can be harmonious if we begin
to live accordingly.
To summarize:
• Diet is everything you take or put into your mind/body.
• Not all diets are nourishing
• Disease is really a disorder of imbalance in which your body is
deficient and toxic or something in your life is missing and something
in your life must go
• Health and healing is living to experience inner balance and
express unconditional love
• Life doesn’t stand still
• Raw food leads you towards wholeness and aliveness
• Cooked and processed food leads you towards death and disease
• You are the doctor and with your free will choose how you want
to experience life and express love
• How you choose to live and love directly affects everyone around
you and indirectly affects all of life
In part two, I will expand on raw vs. cooked food and discuss a Vegan
vs. Carnivore approach to food. To whet your appetite, consider that
much of the Vegan/Vegetarian community base their lifestyle on spiritual
and religious philosophies, while the Carnivore/Omnivore community
relies on anthropological and evolutionary philosophies.
Until I write again, keep your body tuned up and your soul tuned in.
ScienceDaily (May 26, 2010) — Exercise can buffer the effects of stress-induced cell aging, according to new research from UCSF that revealed actual benefits of physical activity at the cellular level.
The scientists learned that vigorous physical activity as brief as 42 minutes over a 3-day period, similar to federally recommended levels, can protect individuals from the effects of stress by reducing its impact on telomere length. Telomeres (pronounced TEEL-oh-meres) are tiny pieces of DNA that promote genetic stability and act as protective sheaths by keeping chromosomes from unraveling, much like plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces.
A growing body of research suggests that short telomeres are linked to a range of health problems, including coronary heart disease and diabetes, as well as early death. Source.
“How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” That’s right up there
with “How do I get six pack abs” as one of the most frequently asked fitness
questions of all time. The problem is, when you ask it, you get all kinds of
conflicting answers - even from experts who are supposed to know these things.
So what’s the deal? Is it really possible to lose fat and build muscle
simultaneously?
Short answer: Yes, you can gain muscle and lose fat at the “same time.”
Long answer: It’s difficult and it’s complicated. Allow me to explain…
First we have the issue of whether you really lose fat and gain muscle at the
“same time.”
Well, yes, if your definition of the “same time” is say, a month or 12 weeks.
But in that case, you’re probably not gaining muscle at the “same time”
literally speaking, as in, right now this very moment you are reading this, or 7
days a week, 24 hours a day for months in a row.
The best explanation for what’s really happening is that you alternate between
periods of caloric surplus (anabolism) and caloric deficit (catabolism) and the
net result is a gain in muscle and a loss in body fat.
You see, if you stay in a calorie surplus, it’s the body’s natural tendency for
body fat and lean body mass to go up together. And if you stay in a calorie
deficit, it’s your body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go
down together.
There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that it is very difficult to
gain muscle and lose fat at the same time - the mechanisms are mostly
antagonistic to one another. When it does happen, it’s almost always the result
of “unusual conditions” - I call them X factors.
The 4 X-Factors
The first X-factor is “training age” . Ever hear of “newbie gains?” The less
trained your body is and the further you are from your genetic potential, the
easier it is to gain muscle. The reverse is also true - an advanced bodybuilder
with 20 years experience would be thrilled just to gain a few pounds of solid
dry muscle in a year!
The second x factor is muscle memory. It’s easier to regain muscle you’ve lost
than it is to gain new muscle in the first place (ergo, the fat out of shape
semi retired bodybuilder who starts training again and blows up and gets ripped
“overnight”).
The third X factor is genetics (or somatotype). Ever heard of the “genetic
freak?” That’s the dude who sprouts muscle like weeds even when he’s on the
“50-50 diet” (50% McDonald’s and 50% pizza)” and he never gets fat. (That dude
chose the right parents!)
The fourth X factor is drugs. It would stun (or sadden) you if you knew how many
people take performance and physique-enhancing drugs. I’m not just talking about
pro bodybuilders, I’m talking about “Joe six pack” in the gym - not to mention
those fitness models you idolize in the magazines. How did they get large muscle
gains with concurrent fat loss? Chemicals.
I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll place a wager on this any day: I’ll bet that in
99% of the cases of large muscle gains with concurrent large fat losses, one or
more of these x factors were present.
That’s not all! There are actually 5 more X factors related to your body
composition and diet status (the X2 factors). But I’ll have to talk about those
later.
So you’re not a beginner, you don’t take roids, you’re not a genetic freak and
you have no muscle memory to take advantage of. Are you S.O.L? Well, I do want
you to be realistic about your goals, but…
There IS a way for the average person to gain muscle and lose fat at the same
time.
The Secret: You have to change your “temporal perspective!”
Traditionally nutritionists and fitness pros have only looked at calorie balance
in terms of 24 hour periods. At midnight, you could tally up the calories like a
shopkeeper closing out his register, and if the balance were positive, you’d say
you were in a surplus for the day. If the balance were negative, you’d say you
were in a deficit for the day.
But it’s entirely possible that you might pass through periods of “within-day”
surplus where you were in a highly anabolic state (for example, you eat the
biggest, highest carb meal of the day after your workout), and you were in a
deficit the rest of the day.
If you did intense weight training, and you timed your nutrient intake
appropriately, Isn’t it possible that you could gain a small amount of muscle
during those anabolic hours, while losing fat the rest of the day? Granted it
might only be grams or ounces - but what if you kept that up for a week? A
month? Three months?
As you pan out and look at the bigger picture, what if most days of the week you
were in a deficit for the entire day, and on some days you were in a surplus? If
so, then isn’t it possible that over the course of the week, you’d have a small
net gain of muscle and loss of body fat a a result of the caloric fluctuation?
These within-day and within-week phases are called microcycles and mesocycles.
If you also had a primary goal with a longer term focus of several months, say
12 weeks or 16 weeks, that would be a macrocycle.
What I’ve just described is nutritional periodization. Some people call it
cyclical dieting. it’s where you manipulate your calories (primarily by
fluctuating carbohydrate intake, hence (”carb cyclin”) in order to intentionally
zig zag your way through periods of surplus and deficit and create specific
hormonal responses.
The end result: muscle gain and fat loss during the same time period!
I know that someone out there is having a hissy fit because I’ve only talked
about calories: deficits and surpluses. Rightfully so. Calories matter but
there’s more to it than calories - most importantly, hormones and “utrient
partitioning.”
If you’re in a calorie deficit you are going to pull energy from your body.The
question is: From WHERE? If your hormones are out of whack and you’re eating
crap, you could lose more muscle than fat in a deficit and gain almost pure fat,
not muscle, in a surplus!
But WHAT IF you could manipulate within day energy balance, use nutritional
periodization AND control your hormones with food and lifestyle strategies?
AHA! NOW you can see how concurrent muscle gain and fat loss are starting to
look possible!
Make no mistake - concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is a difficult goal to
achieve. The good news: difficult does not mean impossible. Or as George
Santayana said, “The difficult is that which can be done immediately, the
impossible, that which takes a little longer.”
You can learn more about gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time in Tom
Venuto’s new e-book called, “The Holy Grail Body Transformation System.”
You’ll learn all about nutritional periodization, cyclical dieting, hormonal
manipulation, within day energy balance, nutrient partitioning, AND the all the
X factors, including the 5 “2-Factors” - which are the keys to gaining muscle
and losing fat at the same time.
You’ll also get Tom’s new “TNB” training system, as seen in Men’s Fitness
magazine (the complete, expanded version that Men’s Fitness didn’t have room to
print).
At the moment, The Holy Grail ebook is not for sale separately and there are
only two ways you can get it.
From now until Midnight (PST), May 13th, 2010, you can get a copy of the Holy
Grail Body Transformation program ebook for FREE when you purchase the Burn The
Fat, Feed The Muscle e-book from this web page: www.BurnTheFat.com
After May 13th, 2010 at midnight PST The Holy Grail will be taken off the market
for a period of time while Tom is collecting case studies and getting feedback
from users, to include in the final edition - which WILL be released for sale
separately later this year.
David Grisaffi majored in physical education and is a certified high
performance exercise kinesiologist with the prestigious CHEK institute.
David holds a total of 6 certifications, he is a high school wrestling
and baseball coach as well as an independent trainer and strength coach,
known especially for his work with professional boxers and golfers.
David is the author of Firm And Flatten Your Abs an online best seller
which teaches you how to lose body fat and develop ’six pack abs’ while
improving strength, function and athletic power at the same time. You
can contact David or learn more about his programs at
http://www.FlattenYourAbs.net
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