Is fasted cardio just a fad? Or is it superior for fat loss?

The fitness industry is constantly jumping from trend to trend. As coaches we need to develop core values based upon scientific principles and stick to them. When new stuff comes up, we need to think about it, see where it can fit in with our clients, apply it, and collect data to see whether it is working or not.

One of the current trends is training in a fasted state for weight loss. To reemphasize that last part, this tactic is used only for weight loss. Those of you looking to increase performance are best served not applying this approach. For those of you looking to drop a few pounds, let us look at what the science says.

What the Science Says About Fasted Cardio

A study performed in 2010 compared fasted training to fed training over a six-week period. Researchers looked at some key areas and compared the two groups. Training was always performed in the morning and consisted of two sixty-minute sessions and two ninety-minute sessions. 

"Both the fasted and the fed groups increased their glucose tolerance, but the fasted group increased it substantially more."

The fed group was given a breakfast of 675 calories, made up of 70% carbohydrate, 15% protein, and 15% fat. On top of that, they were given 1g of maltodextrin per kg of bodyweight about ninety minutes before training. The fasted group received this exact same cocktail in the midafternoon. The areas the researchers compared were glucose tolerance, GLUT4, muscle glycogen, metabolic enzymes, body composition, and exercise capacity. The results of the study were quite interesting.

Both the fasted and the fed groups increased their glucose tolerance, but the fasted group increased it substantially more. GLUT4 is a glucose transporter that allows glucose to enter muscle cells. The more of these we have, the more glucose gets taken up into the muscles, as opposed to being stored as fat. GLUT4 transporters increased by 28% in the fasted group and only 2-3% in the fed group.

Glycogen stores increased more in the fasted group when compared to the fed group, but there was no significant difference between intramuscular lipid stores.Increased intramuscular lipid stores are seen in obesity and can lead to insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction.¹ 

"Glycogen stores increased more in the fasted group when compared to the fed group, but there was no significant difference between intramuscular lipid stores."

The only differences in metabolic enzymes were seen in translocase/CD36 and carnitine palmitoyltransferase¹. These two enzymes play a role in our abilities to metabolize both fat and glucose. The fasted group saw an increase of approximately 30% and the fed group did not see an increase. All other metabolic enzymes tested remained the same.

As expected, the fed group had a greater increase in VO2max, but the fasted group showed a greater increase in fat oxidation. As I stated previously, fasted cardio is not a way to increase performance, but instead to lose weight. With less glucose present, it is no surprise that the fasted group showed greater fatty acid oxidation for energy.

The Practical Side of Fasted Cardio

There are other studies that show similar results as the one presented in this article. After reading that study and hearing that other studies back up these findings, you may be ready to jump right into a fasted cardio weight-loss routine - but it’s not for everyone.

"[K]ey areas to assess are sleep, vitamin D, stress levels, exercise routine, and diet. If all of these are squared away, then give fasted cardio a try."

I have messed around with the fasted cardio component with myself, as well as with clients, and I have experienced a mixed bag of results. For some it worked great, but for others it didn’t. This is something you may have to mess around with for a period to see if it helps. Before doing that, I encourage you to assess your lifestyle and improve upon areas that may be weak. Some key areas to assess are sleep, vitamin D, stress levels, exercise routine, and diet. If all of these are squared away, then give fasted cardio a try.

There are some key points to keep in mind if you do decide to try it:

• This study was performed in the morning, and I encourage you to do the same. Waiting until the afternoon or evening to work out while fasting all day may be too much of a stressor and could have the opposite of the desired effects. 
• I also encourage you not to make the fasted cardio something intense. Low-level aerobic activity between 70-80% of VO2max should suffice. Anything more intense may also become a stressor. 
• Make sure you take in carbohydrates with your first meal. I ran into this problem with quite a few clients. We use a paleo diet template, and I encourage my clients to get their carbs in the afternoon or evening. This created the habit of them having a large salad with meat and very little carbohydrates for lunch. This didn’t work well for coming off a fast. So, if this sounds like your current lunch make sure to add some fruit or sweet potatoes to it.

Those of you who have tinkered with fasted cardio I would like to hear from you. Let us know how you implemented it, for how long and how well it worked for you. Your experiences may be able to help someone else trying to lose a few extra pounds.

Don't Count Calories to Lose Weight: The Body Fat Set Point Theory

We have all been told that 3,500 calories equals a pound of fat. This idea is taught widely in schools and published in many nutrition textbooks. We know if we follow this rule, then we can lose a total of one pound per week by cutting approximately 500 calories per day. We take this as a fact and apply without ever questioning it.

 

The Research on Calories and Fat

But can anyone reading this article tell me where this research came from? I could not, so I took to PubMed. I searched for “3500 calories equals one pound of fat” and got a message telling me, “No items found.” I narrowed my search to “3500 calories and fat” and received six results, none of which were related to the research in determining this magic number.

 

 

So, why do we keep promoting unsuccessful weight loss ideals that are not even backed up by science? Most of us will use calorie counters found on the Internet to help us establish our daily caloric needs. The most popular equation is the Harris Benedict equation. This equation was established in 1918 after looking at extremely small control groups of 136 men, 103 women, and 94 newborn infants. This research is almost one hundred years old. 

 

Really? Science hasn’t made any new discoveries since then to alter this equation and help us fight the obesity epidemic?

 

The Body Fat Set Point Theory

Fortunately, there is good research out there to help us. But for some unknown reason it’s not as well known as the whole 3,500-calories-equals-a-pound-of-fat thing. What we need to look to instead is the body fat set point theory. This theory explains that we have a group of hormones that regulates appetite and body fat storage. These hormones communicate with one another and need to be in balance in order for us to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

 

 

"All of these hormones must be doing their jobs and working in sync in order for us to achieve an optimal weight."

The important hormones are leptin, insulin, glucagon, ghrelin, and adrenaline:

 

• Leptin was discovered in 1992 and has been found to control how much body fat we store, as well as when we are satiated. 
• Insulin is our main fat storage hormone. 
• Glucagon is the opposite of insulin. It stimulates the liver to release stored glycogen and works with adrenaline to free up our stored fats to use as energy. 
• Ghrelin tells us when we are hungry. 

 

All of these hormones must be doing their jobs and working in sync in order for us to achieve an optimal weight. Other important factors include other peptides and even certain brain regions. 

 

Leptin, Ghrelin, and Insulin

Leptin may just be the ringleader of this circus, though. Leptin is primarily secreted by our fat cells, and when levels are high, then our hunger is decreased. Ghrelin was discovered almost a decade after leptin and it controls our short-term hunger response. Ghrelin is released from the stomach lining, and when levels are high, we increase our hunger response. Both of these hormones are found to be in dysregulation during obesity.

 

LEARN MORE: Leptin: The Secret Key to Getting Shredded

 

 

Insulin has been a big focus of obesity research for quite some time. It is one reason why some people swear low-carbohydrate diets are the way to go. Insulin has a direct effect on leptin. As insulin levels rise, so do leptin levels. In fact, leptin receptors have been found on the beta cells of the pancreas, where insulin is produced. The problem is we can develop resistance to these hormones and this can cause a number of issues for us. 

 

RELATED: 60 Minutes of Exercise Can Improve Insulin Resistance 25%

 

Developing Resistance to the Hunger Hormones

When we develop resistance to these hunger-controlling hormones, it is like our body is making a phone call, but we’re not picking up on the other end. As a result, our body needs to yell louder. It does this by releasing more and more of the hormones in question. 

 

Let’s look at this scenario in terms of letpin. If we develop leptin resistance, it means more fat being stored and more food being eaten. Due to the relationship with insulin, if we have leptin resistance, then we have insulin resistance, too.

 

So, we get ourselves into this mess and then decide we need to get our weight in check. We count out our calories and subtract 500 calories per day, just as we have been taught. But in response to this low-calorie eating our body causes our leptin levels to fall. This, again, will increase our eating and fat storage. 

 

 "Due to the relationship with insulin, if we have leptin resistance, then we have insulin resistance, too."

On top of that, calorie counting does not take into effect how certain foods react with these hormones. We are told to approach everything in moderation, including our eating, but does this strategy work? Highly palatable foods have been shown to blunt both leptin and ghrelin. This is why it is easy to overeat foods such as ice cream and pizza. This can cause you to take in more calories than you even realize.

 

 

 

What We Can Do to Lose Weight

So what can we do to lose weight if low-calorie eating does not work? We can eat a diet high in nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, and quality protein, such as grass-fed meat, fish, and eggs. Making sure that protein makes up at least 30% of your daily calories can decrease caloric intake and may increase systemic leptin sensitivity. 

 

I recommend nine to twelve servings of fruits and vegetables per day. If you are attempting to lose weight, then limit your fruits to one to three servings per day. Vegetables are high in nutrients and low in calories. They are almost impossible to overeat. Just be careful how much added sugar, salt, and fat there is in your diet, as these increase the palatability of foods and can lead to overeating.

How Much Protein Should I Eat?

Why you need protein!

Protein is the ammunition you need for arming your guns. It’s built from amino acids stitched together into long chains, some of which your body can make naturally – known as ‘non-essential’ – and some of which it can’t. These are called ‘essential’ amino acids and you need to source them from food. When you chow down on a chicken breast your body breaks proteins down into their constituent amino acids, which it then uses to build everything from new muscle to organs and hair.

Are you getting enough?

In all likelihood, probably not. The current guidelines recommend you eat 0.8g of protein daily per kg of bodyweight, but that won’t get you Arnie arms. “Elite athletes eat around 2g per kg every day,” says Dr Karen Reid, a sports science nutritionist who’s worked with the Wales rugby team, and the founder of Performance Food. She recommends getting near that level for the first 12 weeks of a new workout programme. “That’s when you’re sore, when you’re breaking down muscle fibres and creating new structures.” And damage plus fuel equals growth. After 12 weeks, if your wallet requires it, you can scale back to between 1.2g and 1.6g per kilo.

But don’t eat too much

Upping your protein intake won’t automatically lead to muscle gain. If you’re not putting the work in at the gym then it’s wasted, and will either be burnt off as fuel or laid down as fat. That’s an expensive way to gain unwanted weight, and could be harmful in the long term. “Nitrogen from the amino acids has to be cleared,” says Reid. “That puts extra strain on your liver and kidneys, which have to filter it all out.” If you notice dark, concentrated urine, up your hydration and feast on bananas and spinach. They’re high in magnesium and potassium and help to reduce protein-associated kidney stones, according to research from the University of Granada.

 

Watch the clock

Timing your protein hits is vital to optimise your gains. Your body can’t process more than 30g of protein per serving, according to research from the University of Texas, so scoffing six steaks at dinner is a waste. “It’s not about having shedloads all at once,” say Reid. Instead, plan five or six small meals throughout the day, stagger your protein hits from morning to night.

Eat around your workout

The most important protein hit is the one after your gym session. “You want that immediate stimulus,” says Reid. “Within the 30-minute window post-workout you’re looking to optimise the repair and regeneration process.” That’s when you want rapidly-absorbed whey protein, either by chugging a shake or a pint of milk. Reid also recommends a skinny latte for a pre-gym boost: “You’ve got the caffeine kick, the protein in the milk and if you try a banana with it, a bit of carbohydrate.” Pairing your protein with carbs is good sense. After exercise your body produces the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which break down proteins, fats and sugars. When they’re coursing through you, you’re not building muscle. “When you get some recovery nutrition in it counters those stress hormones,” says Reid, switching your body back into repair mode and kick starting growth.

Protein for everyone

If you’re looking to pack on muscle then, obviously, you need protein to build it. But if you’re trying to lose weight then upping your intake is equally important. Your body only burns protein after it’s exhausted fat stores, so swapping carbs for meat ensures it’s your spare tyre that gets targeted for energy when you work out. What’s more, simply having muscle (which is, remember, built from protein) increases your calorie burn at rest. Plus there’s the handy fact that protein boosts satiety.

This post is from Macro Man's Main Blog!

10 Mistakes Women Make In The Gym

Here's what you need to know...

•  Too many women, because of poor exercise choices or practices, end up building a body that's "skinny fat," a condition where they appear thin in clothes, but actually have a higher body fat percentage than they did before they started exercising.

•  Women generally need to use heavier weights. Stop with the delicate little flower thing. Your muscles won't grow – won't get curvy – if you're pressing, squatting, or curling with weights that have roughly the same heft as your iPhone.

•  The one exception to working with heavy weights is the waist. The waist is comprised of muscles and muscles respond to heavy weights by getting bigger.

•  It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period. While gaining fat during this period is highly improbable, it's highly probable that you will build some muscle during this same timeframe, provided you give your body the protein (and calories) it requires.

For anyone knowledgeable about exercise, walking into a public gym is kind of like stumbling into a nudist camp – you quickly just want to slap on some horse blinders because there's so much that you don't want to see. In the case of the nudist camp, it's usually a lot of flabby, pasty-white guys that should never be naked, even when they're alone in a secluded cabin on a mountaintop. In the case of the gym, you want to restrict your view because people are often doing the lamest, silliest, most illogical exercises and practices imaginable and it hurts your sensibilities as a fitness expert.

Guys are probably the biggest tools in the gym because they're driven by ego instead of logic, but women make their own share of mistakes that are unique to their sex. Women are torn between what they read in Shape or on some insane aerobic queen's blog, their unqualified husband's or boyfriend's pontifications on diet and exercise, or society's conflicting and confounding expectations of what a woman should look like. It's no wonder women can't decide between lifting weights, becoming a Crossfit wind-up toy, doing aerobics until they're thin as a waif from Oliver Twist, or practicing so much yoga that their seven angry and overworked chakras pack up their things and go to Cabo for a weekend of volleyball, sun, and suds.

Too often women end up blending elements of all those practices and as often happens when you combine too many recipes, that dish won't cook. Women make little progress and often end up looking worse than when they began, sometimes developing a body that's "skinny fat," a cruel, paradoxical condition where they appear thin in clothes, but actually have a higher body fat percentage than they did before they started to exercise because they lost muscle instead of body fat.

I'm going to assume that one of the reasons women go to the gym is to look better, and looking better usually means becoming leaner and/or acquiring more curves. Bodies, at least the most aesthetically pleasing ones, are a combination of convex and concave curves instead of straight lines. You're a delectable and enticing mammal, not a tree. As such, you want to build muscle to build or accentuate convex curves. If you're already blessed with convex curves, you want to createconcave curves by losing fat. You accomplish either or both by smart weight lifting. Plenty of women have accepted this wonderful reality, but I still see stuff that makes me want to wear blinders. Here are some of the regrettable practices I see women making all the time.

1. Fear of Appearing Butch

You've heard this one before, but it doesn't look like it's sinking in. You need to evolve beyond using rubber-coated dumbbells that have a clump of iron the size of a baby's fist on either side. In other words, you need to use heavier weights. Stop with the delicate little flower thing. Your muscles won't grow – won't get curvy – if you're pressing, squatting, or curling with weights that have roughly the same heft as your iPhone. Say hello to the 20 and 30-pound dumbbells, aspire to the 40 and 50-pound ones. Use weights that allow you to do between 8 and 15 repetitions.

And don't play the age-old, "I don't want to get too big" card. Unless you're the one woman in a million that has such high Testosterone levels that female horses start to whinny nervously when you walk by, you're not going to suddenly sprout muscle from your ears and everywhere else. Neither will your muscles grow beyond your aesthetic ideal unless you start feeding them a lot more. Muscles don't grow out of thin air; you've got to supply them with protein and carbs. That's why men who lift weights eat barnyards of fowl, ranches of cattle, rivers of fish, barrels of protein powder, and vats of Cocoa Puffs. If you don't eat that way, you won't get "too big." (See mistake #9 for advice on when you should eat big.)

2. Fear of Making an Ugly Face

We just discussed using heavier weights, but we didn't discussintensity. When you're lifting weights, you shouldn't be able to maintain the same facial expression as when you're getting a mani-pedi. Too many women just don't get down and dirty. There's rarely even a grimace or a bit of semi-feminine grunting. Look, building muscle requires some discomfort; it requires some pain. You might be able to look all pretty and composed for the first few reps, even while using an appropriately heavy weight, but you're ultimately going to have to make an ugly she-wolverine face on the last few highly-productive "money" reps where you coerce muscle into growing. No ugly face, no curvy muscle. No ugly face, no increased strength. Tank your outdated views of femininity. Screw how it looks or what anyone thinks.

3. Absession

Absession is not a new scent from Calvin Klein. Rather, it's being obsessed with working the abs or the waistline in general. Here's a shocker: everyone has a six-pack; you just have to whittle away enough fat so that it shows. Granted, you may want to build the abdominals so they're more pronounced, but stop thinking that you need to dedicate half your workout or more to working abs. Three or four hard sets of 15 to 20 – using resistance or using more challenging angles as necessary – a few times a week is all you need. Spend the rest of the time building overall muscle and doing activities that burn fat in general.

4. Working the Abs Like a Powerlifter

I know mistake #1 said to use heavier weights, but ab work is the one exception. For some reason, a lot of women already use heavy weights when working the midsection. Oddly, they think that working the waist with heavy weights is somehow going to make it smaller. Maybe... if we all lived in the Bizarro world. The waist is comprised of muscles and muscles respond to heavy weights by getting bigger. If you want a waist that's as broad as a tree stump, then have at it. If, however, you want the mythical wasp waist, stop working your abs with heavy weights. As mentioned in the previous tip, stick with weight or resistance that allows you to do roughly 15 to 20 reps. Most importantly, don't use weights while working your "side muscles," otherwise known as the obliques. The surest way to build a blocky waist is to do side bends while hanging onto dumbbells. Instead, work your obliques by doing a few sets of side planks a couple of times a week.

5. Balancing on the BOSU

I'll grudgingly admit that the BOSU ball probably has some merit in developing balance. As such, it might be useful for Cirque du Soleil performers. It also makes for a lovely post-modernist style chair. Beyond those functions, I see little use for it.

Okay, I'm being overly snarky. Yes, the BOSU has some application for abdominal work or rehab work for people with hinky ankles and it can probably help with balance issues, but somewhere along the line, exercisers, most often women or their enabler-slash-trainers started using the BOSU as a weight-training accessory. They either put one foot on it to use with lunges or they put both feet on it while doing any number of traditional weight training exercises like dumbbell curls, lateral raises, overhead presses, or squats. Some morons have even taken this a step further by doing these same movements on a Swiss ball. (If you see someone doing the latter, feel free to hip check the ball and send them crashing to the ground.)

The thinking is that lifting weights on an unstable surface makes the muscles work harder to keep you from doing a face plant, but balancing isn't the type of muscular effort that builds muscle. And, in order to keep your balance, you have to use lighter weights than you would otherwise.

Lifting weights – even light ones – while standing on a BOSU will make your muscles fatigue much faster, forcing you to abort the set earlier than you normally would. You end up missing out on the "money reps," those reps at the end of a set where you activate the muscle fibers most responsible for growth. If all of that falls on deaf ears, consider that none of the major studies conducted on the BOSU have found it to build muscle any faster than doing the same exercises on solid ground.

6. Too Much Aerobics

I've got a question for you: Have you ever see a marathoner or even an accomplished jogger with a really good body? Probably not. They're either slightly emaciated, have a body with very few curves, or are plagued with the skinny-fat condition I talked about in the intro. They also have really ugly feet.

Without going into all the hormonal or evolutionary permutations, let's just accept the scientific fact that the body would generally, during caloric deficits, rather sacrifice muscle than fat, and what is excessive endurance exercise but an artificially induced caloric deficit? Regardless, women especially are saddled with the myth that the more aerobic exercise they do, the better they'll look.

Remember, you want muscle, and excessive aerobic exercise is death to muscle. There are far more effective ways to burn fat. Going for a brisk walk first thing in the morning is incredibly effective and it saves muscle. Similarly, brief bouts of high-intensity exercise in the form of sprinting or Tabata-style exercise-bicycling or weight training build muscle and burn fat simultaneously. In case you're not familiar with Tabata, it's a simple but brutal protocol where you do an activity as fast and hard as you can for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, and then do another exercise/rest cycle of 20 and 10 seconds. You do this for 4 minutes straight and then collapse into a spent but proud heap. You can do Tabata workouts with kettlebell swings, dumbbell squats, stationary bicycle sprints, or any number of other exercises.

7. Workout Monogamy

Mating for life, as swans, wolves, turtledoves, and Catholics are wont to do, has some biological advantages. Mating to your workout for life, however, has none. Too bad so many women ignore this fact. Whether it's from a lack of imagination or a misguided belief that "exercise is exercise" or that "there's only one way to lift a weight," some women keep doing the same routine year-in and year-out. They may have torn it out of a Shape or Cosmo that was lying in the doctor's office and since they've been healthy and haven't gone back to the doc's office and read some new magazines, they're still doing the same routine a year or two later.

That's unfortunate because the body adapts to workouts whether they be weight workouts or aerobic workouts. That's why there are so many fat aerobics instructors. They've done the same routine for years and their neurological system is so accustomed to it that it costs them little in calories or effort to complete the workout. You need to cycle your workouts every four to six weeks. Emphasize legs in one cycle, shoulders or arms the next. Get new routines from articles right here on T Nation.

8. Workout Promiscuity

The opposite of the workout monogamist is of course the workout slut. While much more common among males, there are plenty of women who can't stick with a workout for very long. They try out a workout a few days, see that it hasn't yet given them an NFL cheerleader body, and then try something else. One manifestation of this is "CrossFit Fever." These women, not entirely sure of what constitutes CrossFit training, do a bastardized version where they perform non-stop, often non-sensical, semi-aerobic, semi-anaerobic conditioning work for 1 to 2 hours for no apparent reason, save to exorcise or exercise some professional or personal demons.

In either case, their workouts are chaotic and ultimately produce rotten results. Find a logical, progressive workout that addresses your particular needs, builds muscle, burns fat, and makes you the queen of curves and give it 4 to 6 weeks to work. Then and only then should you change it up, even if it worked well (see step #7).

9. Fear of Food

Ready to have your dietary beliefs shaken, Jell-O like, to their core? Okay, here goes: It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. While gaining fat during this period is highly improbable, it's highly probable that you will build some muscle during this same timeframe, provided you give your body the protein (and calories) it requires.

It all has to do with insulin, the hormone that carries glucose and amino acids to muscle cells. Broadly speaking, insulin has two choices, it can either shuttle glucose and protein to storage in fatty tissue and the liver, or it can deliver those nutrients directly to muscle cells where they're used to fuel, repair, and grow muscle. The path it takes is determined by exercise – if you're lifting weights or just finished lifting weights, insulin will take the nutrients directly to muscle instead of storing it.

Muscle is particularly sensitive to insulin during this workout/post workout period, so if you want to build muscle/curves, it's imperative that you eat during what we call the "peri-workout" period, which is comprised of the period just before, during, and after a resistance workout. So temporarily forget your calorie fears. Temporarily forget your carb fears, too, because this is when you definitely need to provide your muscles with the material it needs to build those curves. In general, have a protein/carbohydrate drink about 45 minutes to an hour before a workout and a substantial amount of protein and carbohydrates after a workout. In an ideal world, you'd also sip a protein/carb drink during the workout, too, but at the very least, make sure you don't skimp on that post-workout meal.

10. Juicing

No, not juicing as in steroids. I'm talking about the plastic cups of pulverized, Osterized, barely palatable concoctions of kale, seaweed, wheat grass, and whatever other obscure vegetables or fruits the juicer is able to buy at a discount that so many women have permanently affixed to their hands when they walk into the gym.

I know it seems contrary, even heretical, to suggest you stop or limit your consumption of these drinks, but hear me out. Vegetables and fruits contain simple sugars and more complex, harder-to-digest carbs. No problem there. However, when you blend up fruits and vegetables, you're breaking down all those normally hard-to-digest carbs into infinitesimally small pieces. Drink that stuff down and you're virtually bypassing much of the digestive process. All those sugars are presented to your bloodstream like flowers to your momma on Mother's Day. They get absorbed super quick, and your pancreas releases a surge of insulin to counteract all that sugar. It's virtually the same effect you'd get from shot-gunning a 24-ounce 7-11 Slurpie.

Insulin shuttles off some of the sugar to muscle cells and the rest are stored (in the liver or as body fat), but then insulin levels dip below baseline and you get hungry again pretty fast. If you give in to that hunger, you're ingesting more calories than you might normally have and extra, unnecessary calories get stored as fat. What's more, if you do the juice thing often enough, you may actually develop some insulin resistance, which is the first step down the path to Type II diabetes.

There's one more thing to consider, too. You probably wouldn't be able to eat all the fruits and vegetables that are in a typical fruit or vegetable smoothie if they were sitting there on a plate. They'd take up too much room in your stomach and even all that Spandex in your Lululemon pants wouldn't be able to flatten out your belly. However, pulverize all those fruits and vegetables down into primordial ooze and they, and all the calories they contain, fit in your stomach just fine. Juicing allows you to eat more than you normally could, which is never really good if you're trying to keep tabs on your body fat levels. 

The Right Way to Lose Fat: What to Eat

Let’s set the record straight from the outset: the goal of any weight loss, pound-shedding, “trimming,” or whatever-you-label-it program is body FAT loss, not necessarily scale-weight loss. So, bubble-wrap your weight scale and put it in the basement or attic and focus on your body composition: the fat to muscle ratio.

I am not a Registered Dietician so I cannot offer you specific advice on what you should be consuming. I will, however, lay out bits and pieces of some of the most recent issues and arguments in the fat loss world, such as:

• Is it simply creating a calorie deficit, so your body is forced to tap into adipose fat?

• Is a calorie a calorie regardless if it comes from protein, carbohydrate, or fat?

• Regarding the last question, what is better: a high carb/low fat or a low carb/high protein diet?

• What about the glycemic content of carbs and blood sugar levels?

Calorie Deficit

There is no question that a reduction of calorie intake coupled with high-level energy expenditure results in weight loss (all other factors being equal). But what guarantees the weight loss to be fat only? Consider these facts:

• It is a long-standing fact that a pound of fat equals 3,500 calories.

• A pound of muscle renders around 600 calories.

• People with a higher percent of body fat will lose more fat and retain more muscle with a significant calorie deficit.

• People with a lower percent of body fat will lose more muscle and retain more fat with a significant calorie deficit.

Let’s do some maths. A 500 calorie deficit per day over one week could result in two outcomes: a loss of one pound of fat (3,500/3,500 calories = 1) or a loss of nearly six pounds of muscle (3,500/600 calories = 5.8).

Obviously, the loss of muscle is not desirable. This is why attention must be paid to the correct calorie deficit based on your existing percentage of fat and your activity level. If you possess a significant amount of body fat, you can probably get away with a larger deficit in the early stages. As you become leaner – or if you are relatively lean to begin with – the calorie deficit needs to be adjusted to preserve lean tissue. This also explains why it is so difficult to shed those elusive few pounds to get completely “ripped".

Calories from Proteins, Carbs, and Fats: Is There a Difference?

Regarding the first law of thermodynamics, a calorie is a calorie. That is, no matter what source it is from, one calorie is the energy required to increase the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. It can only be transformed.

Here’s a little bit of historical science behind the accepted caloric value of protein, carb, and fat in the diet. The past work of Rubner and Atwater is the standard used today. Using a bomb calorimeter to measure the heat of combustion of various proteins, carbs, and fats, they determined the energy density of dietary protein = 4.1 calories/gram, carbs = 4.1 calories/gram, and fat = 9.3 calories. Rounded off, it is 4 calories/gram of protein, 4 calories/grams of carbs, and 9 calories/gram of fat that we currently use (and why many panic when they see fat is more than double in potency).

Past thinking was to eat .7 to 1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight, load up on the carbs for energy, and minimize the fat. After all, 15 grams of fat has 135 calories and 15 grams of carbs has only 60, so to help shed the pounds, back off on the fat intake. But it’s not that simple. The type of protein, carb, and fat must be considered as well as how the body processes them.

High Carb/Low Fat or Low Carb/High Protein?

A review was conducted that evaluated studies comparing weight loss and energy expenditure in adults consuming high protein and/or low carbohydrate with low fat diets. I believe this is where all the support for low carb diets got its momentum.

The review analyzed nine studies where diets composed of high protein and/or low carbs resulted in a 5.5 pound greater weight loss after twelve weeks as compared to diets of high carbs and/or low fat. However, neither macronutrient-specific differences in the availability of food energy nor changes in energy output could explain these differences in weight loss.If a calorie is a calorie, then what other factors could account for the differences in weight loss between the two diets?

Low carb diets facilitate the loss of glycogen stores and associated water, which can be as great as 4.4 pounds.

Because the Rubner and Atwater factors used to calculate metabolizable energy are not exact, the standard macronutrient values are not perfect, and small errors can occur. The substitution of one macronutrient for another has been shown in some studies to be statistically significant regarding the effect on the expenditure half of the energy balance equation, especially in high-protein diets. Because the energy expenditure is minimal, however, it may account for less than one-third of the differences in the weight losses reported between high-protein or low-carb diets and high-carb or low-fat diets.

Carb Glycemic Level and Blood Sugar Stabilization

In general, high glycemic carbs create a large, temporary rise in blood sugar (glucose) because they are quickly digested. Low glycemic carbs take longer to digest, thus produce a smaller and slower rise. A rapid rise in blood sugar means:

•More insulin is released. A high insulin level promotes a quick storage of sugar in muscle and the liver. It also inhibits the hormone glucagon, which normally tells the body to burn stored fat. Obese people tend to be “sugar burners”– they mainly burn stored glycogen. Their forthcoming meals restore glycogen (especially if high glycemic) and the cycle keeps repeating. Thus, fat stores do not get touched and usually grow larger.

•Blood sugar levels then drop quickly, leaving you hungry sooner. Suddenly, the body needs more fuel. But because glucagon is still in short supply, the body does not tap into its fat supply for energy. The inevitable result? Hunger. You will eat again, needlessly, which can lead to increased fat gain over time.

Facts to consider:

 • Highly processed foods that contain refined sugars (cookies, crackers and corn syrup) usually have a higher glycemic level.

• Other factors affecting the glycemic level is whether the food is liquid or solid, raw or cooked, and the amount of fiber it contains.

• The more grams of carbohydrate consumed the higher the glycemic response because there is an increased glycemic load. So, one can over-consume even low glycemic foods.

• Most people usually eat foods in combination. The fat and protein also consumed at feedings can help lower the overall glycemic level.

• Not all simple sugars are high glycemic. Fruit, for instance, contains the simple sugar fructose. Fructose has a slow rate of digestion and absorption and thus a lower glycemic response.

Moderate and high glycemic foods are recommended during and after exercise. Consuming a high glycemic food within 45 minutes after exercise elevates plasma glucose concentrations and facilitates muscle glycogen replenishment. Post-exercise insulin secretion increases protein synthesis by increasing amino acid uptake in the muscles. Insulin also enhances blood flow into muscle, thus facilitating the removal of lactate and carbon dioxide.

Final Thoughts

Information abounds on all aspects of fat loss. Who and what can you believe? My advice would be to consult a registered dietician or a nutrition specialist for specific diet recommendations based on your fat loss goals. Even if your goal is to gain weight (muscle), there are certain dos and don’ts the dietician can address.

Join the 300 Swings a Day Kettlebell Challenge and Burn an Extra 947 Calories a Day

Kettlebells are magical little pieces of equipment. I keep my little kettlebell friend parked by the front door, and each time I bear into him I swing for a set of ten or fifteen. He used to sit in the attic, days on end, but was of little good use there, and amongst the less reputable company left by the previous homeowner - mostly roaches, a ball of tissue paper, and one “Grandma Snuggums” - so I brought him down, and here we are. He is 24kg.

There is little more that can be done to please the ego than a physique commanding of attention - a body of iron, lean and hard, a very athlete! There is a fetish with muscle striations, to be sure, but understandably so, as what else can be used so effectively for getting us that most enviable of all things - another man’s envy. I do not deny it. I do not say it is wrong. I only offer insights on how to acquire it - in a sane, reasonable, and minimalist manner - like by doing 300 swings a day.

But people say, “300 swings a day! Golly, good gracious, gee whiz, that’s way too much!” Yes, I don’t deny it, and certainly, for an invalid, it is. But I am not in the business of servicing invalids, and work mainly with persons removed from decrepitude. I thought by venturing the reasonable number of 300 swings a day this would have been very plain.

But all of this is scarcely relevant. I would not advise this protocol for those on the final chapter of animated life, less I sought to hurry them along. I ventured it for people healthy, robust, and to use a term surging in popularity, “anti-fragile.” As well, if you cannot work up to 300 swings a day in a safe, sane, and reasonable manner, and without causing yourself harm, then I bring into question your efficiency as a life form to begin with, and hold some doubt as to the strength of your link in the evolutionary chain. In other words, if you think 300 swings will cause you to perish, perhaps it is better if you do.

I joke, but only somewhat. Be reasonable, of course, and work your volume up judiciously. Challenge yourself, but remain successful - that is what I want you to do.

The Benefits of 300 Swings a Day

The benefits, it must be obvious, are many in number. From a movement perspective you will develop the hinge, an essential, but often-neglected pattern, and, in turn, learn to use your hips to produce and reduce force, a necessary, but often-neglected skill. The swing also strengthens your back, lubricates your joints, and boosts your explosiveness, to name a few other benefits of everyday interest.

In addition, the fat stores on your belly, butt, and other such areas where they are most unbecoming will begin to disperse, little by little, day by day, and sure enough. (As to the importance of proper nutrition for success on this protocol? Well, this is so obvious it shouldn’t require any mention at all, really. Just eat clean for thirty days, whatever that means to you.)

You will also notice, around the second week or so, your kettle booty beginning to blossom. This covetous fruit sprouts only in regions where it showers swings in plenty enough volume. Under such fertile conditions the ass inflates with the ego, bubbles outward, beefs up, and bloats; its curvature is lifted, highlighted, and exaggerated. One quickly becomes a walking, bouncing spectacle, and cannot help but relish in all the freshly fetched attention, and make every conceivable effort to put on a show, that is, by dropping your purse and using the misfortune to bend over and knock the car door shut. This is wholly devoid of graces, of course, but effective.

Points of Contention

There were two points of contention when I first ventured the idea, and we have already dealt swiftly with the first one - of those people who thought maybe 300 swings a day might be a little too much. 300 swings is too much?! These people, you must understand, give them a pilsner and they’ll call it too bitter!

The second area of contention is found amongst those who say 300 swings a day might be a little too little. Critics, as we know, are never consistent - they commit errors in all directions. To quote a Facebook detractor: “Short term gains would be awesome but after the motor engram is established?” Oh well yes, of course, the motor engram, hadn’t occurred to me! I concede in indignity, and return the flabby idea to the mush of my intellectually limp and flaccid brain. (But you know what, really, this motor engram dude, well he just needs to relax.)

Truth is, if you add 300 swings a day, you’re going to get a little leaner, you’re going to move (probably a lot) better, and you’re going to develop some power and a more delicious derriere. Maybe not indefinitely, no, how could you - but at least for thirty days you will, and for probably quite some time after that.

So I invite you come and take the challenge with thousands others and me. Be safe, and work at your own pace. Build up the volume gradually - men with a 24kg, women with a 16kg. The steps to do so are simple enough, and all are welcome to join.