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The skinny on fats

Yes, fats are something that you definitely need to be conscious about when deciding which types of foods to eat, but some fats, when eaten in moderation, are actually very healthy for your body. 

Before we get into the good fats, let’s start with the bad.  If fats can be so bad, then why do food companies and restaurants add them to their food?  It’s just like buttering your corn-on-the-cob; it makes it taste better, and the food feels better on the roof of your mouth.  That, in itself, sells the food.  Because of this, you really need to be conscious of the choices you make when deciding what to eat.

Fats really can be broken up into three categories.  Category one is the dangerous fats that you should avoid at all costs.  Category two is the fats that you should avoid eating a lot of, but when eaten in moderation, can actually be beneficial to your body.  Category three is the fats that have been shown to prevent diseases such as heart disease: the “healthy” fats.¹

To start with the fats you should run away from brings us to trans fats, the fats that are also referred to as hydrogenated fats or partially hydrogenated fats.

Fats are made up of fatty acids, and when a fat goes through the hydrogenation process, an unnatural form of fat results, trans-fatty acid.  Hydrogenation means that hydrogen atoms are added to fats to make them solid at room temperature.  Basically, they’re less likely to spoil this way, and their expiration date is a lot longer than if they didn’t go through the hydrogenation process.

The problem with trans-fatty acid is that it raises your “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and lowers your “good” cholesterol (HDL) even more than saturated fat does!  This means your arteries can clog easier, and as a result, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and even cancer can result. 

In order to do your best at avoiding these dangerous fats, you need to steer clear of foods such as cookies, pastries, cakes, many cereals, many processed foods, etc.  Also, limiting your use of butters, margarines, mayonnaise, and salad dressings will also help in eliminating these fats from your eating habits.

Don’t just depend on food labels to tell you whether or not the food you’re eating contains trans fat.  The FDA doesn’t require an amount of trans fat under 0.5g to be shown.¹  Basically, 0.4g of trans fat appears as 0g on the food label.  Let’s say you eat two cookies that show 0g trans fat per cookie, but actually contain 0.4g trans fat per cookie; that means you just ate close to 1g of the “bad stuff”!  Your safest bet is to look at the ingredients instead.  If you can find hydrogenated fats, partially hydrogenated fats, or shortening on the ingredients label of a food, steer clear of it.

The next group of fats is the ones that are harmful to the body when eaten in excess, but when eaten in moderation, they can actually help the body out.  These fats are considered the saturated fats and polyunsaturated, omega-6 fats.  Both, when eaten excessively, can result in clotting of the arteries, which leads to inflammation of the arteries and increased risk for cardiovascular disease, arthritis, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.¹  

Even though saturated fat and omega-6 fat can be harmful when too much of either is eaten, they’re also beneficial to you if you control what you eat.  By consuming no more than 10% of your calories from saturated fat (based on a 2000-calorie diet, no more than 20 grams per day)², you can protect yourself against dangerous microorganisms, protect your cell membranes, protect your liver from toxins, help prevent breast cancer, provide your body with a good source of energy, help prevent colon cancer, and aid your exercise efforts in losing body fat.^1,3  The truth is, there’s no need to look for sources of saturated fat because you already get enough in the food you eat.  You really just need to limit the types of foods that contain saturated fat.  Foods such as most fast-food choices, whole-milk, fried foods, bacon, hot dogs, cold cuts, red meats, palm and coconut oil, and processed foods are high in saturated fat.  In fact, if you’re a guy, it’s extra important that you limit your red meat intake because it’s been shown that men who eat a lot of red meat increase their chances of prostate cancer by two to three times compared to men who don’t eat a lot of red meat!¹ 

With omega-6 fats, the problem is that many of the foods you eat are loaded with it, and you already know what happens when you eat too much of it.  However, by eating omega-6 foods in moderation, you can benefit from healthy cell membranes, healthy skin, and efficient hormones; they also contain fat-soluble vitamins that are essential to your body.⁴ 

Some good sources of omega-6 fatty acids are leafy vegetables, seeds, pecans, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, grains, and soybean oil.^1,2

The next category of fats, the “healthy” fats consist of monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated, omega-3 fatty acids.  These fats are great for the health of your heart, skin, hair, brain, nerves, growth of the body, and possibly the functioning of the immune system.  Some good sources of monounsaturated fats are extra-virgin or virgin olive oil, natural and organic peanut butter, avocados, olives, and macadamia nuts, as well as walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts that are plain/raw (i.e. not roasted, salted, etc.).¹ 

Omega-3 fats are a special kind of fat because we actually don’t get a lot of it.  There really needs to be a balance between our consumption of omega-6 and omega-3 fats, but in reality, we eat way too much omega-6 fats and not enough of omega-3 fats.  With this type of imbalance, the risk for diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease is thought to increase.³  It’s recommended that you consume no less than 3% and no more than 7% of your calories from omega-6 and omega-3 fats combined.²  This means that we have to do a better job at eating less foods with omega-6 and more foods with omega-3.

Among some of the benefits of omega-3 fats are that it helps decrease the inflammation of arteries, reverse the signs of aging of the brain, it helps with preventing ADHD, reducing the risk of stroke, it helps with reducing blood pressure, and just like omega-6 fat, they also contain fat-soluble vitamins that are essential to your body.¹

Some good sources of omega-3 fats are breast milk, wild salmon, herring, tuna, lake trout, walnuts, flaxseed, and wheat germ.²

When trying to figure out how to find that balance between omega-6 fats and omega-3 fats, the best approach to take is to try and shoot for a 5g of omega-6 to 1g of omega-3 ratio.  Eating more fish and less meat will help with hitting this ratio, and in fact, by eating 2-3 fish meals per week (10 ounces total), it has been shown that these individuals suffer a stroke half the amount of times as non-fish eaters.  So eat more fish, as well as a little bit of vegetable oil, to find that balance between the two fats.² 

So where can you start with limiting the amount of fat you eat each day?  Our biggest sources of added fats are oil, shortening, mayonnaise, butter, margarine, salad dressing, cream cheese, heavy cream, and sour cream.  If you can just take the simple step of limiting these unhealthy fats, you’ll make some great strides in improving the healthiness of your eating.  Also it may come as a surprise, but the recommended serving size for meat is about 3 ounces, and the average small, fast-food hamburger meets that requirement.  The average steak served at a restaurant tends to be a whopping 12-16 ounces, and on top of that, a 4-ounce hamburger from a fast-food restaurant has about 23 grams of protein and 20 grams of fat.  That means that since every gram of protein, as well as carbs, equals 4 calories and every gram of fat equals 9 calories, you’re getting more than half of your calories from fat by eating that hamburger!² 

It’s recommended that you consume less than 30% of your calories from fat, and for weight loss, it should really be closer to 20%.⁵  Another way to look at it is based on a 2000-calorie diet, you should try and eat no more than 65 grams of fat per day.²

“So what are some steps to help reduce the amount of fat I eat, Dan?”  Very good question.

According to the American Council on Exercise, a good start is to replace whole milk with skim milk, bacon with low-fat turkey bacon, fried chicken with baked, skinless chicken, butter with jam, cookies with vanilla wafers, chocolate with jelly beans, and swiss cheese with mozzarella cheese.

Some other steps you can take to reduce the amount of fat you eat are to choose grilling, roasting, and baking over frying; trim visible fat and skin from meat and poultry; make rice and potato recipes without the fat (i.e., butter) it calls for; add a little water or fat-free, sugar-free yogurt to salad dressing bottles; use only half of the meat a recipe calls for, and replace the space left by the non-used meat with vegetables; let broth refrigerate, and then scrap off the solidified fat before using it in a recipe; choose mustard or ketchup over mayonnaise; choose bean burritos over beef tacos; eat turkey subs instead of cheeseburgers; choose English muffins and jelly over bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits; choose veggie pizza over pepperoni pizza; and if necessary, pick fast-food salads using only a quarter of the dressing, chili, or a plain baked potato instead of a hamburger or a fried fish or chicken sandwich.²   

Fat has so many healthy benefits to it.  It’s your main source of stored energy from excess calories eaten because since it doesn’t hold onto water, it’s able to pack tighter and be more concentrated compared to glycogen and the water it holds.  It also provides protective padding to your vital organs and joints, it provides insulation under your skin, it keeps your hair and skin healthy, it keeps you feeling full for a longer period of time by slowing digestion, controlling your blood sugar, and stimulating satiety hormones⁵, etc.  Unfortunately, there are also many negatives to fat, and as seen in the fast-food hamburger example I just talked about, many fats are hidden in our foods.  Some fats, such as the fat on chicken breast, are able to be seen and taken off, but since most fats are unseen, it leaves us eating a lot of fat that we didn’t know we were eating.  Because of this, there’s no need to go out to try and find more foods that contain fat; you get plenty of it already.  What you really need to do is start looking at the ingredients labels of the foods you’re already eating and get rid of the ones that have those dangerous fat ingredients in them.  You don’t need to go on a low-fat diet, which actually isn’t very effective at weight loss because of all the added sugar and extra calories in low-fat foods, but if you can start making better choices with the sources of fats you eat, not only will you be healthier, but you’ll also take bigger steps toward achieving your weight loss goals. 

References:

¹ Colbert, D. (2007). The seven pillars of health. (1^st ed). Lake Mary, FL.: Siloam.
² Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2003). Nutrition concepts and controversies, (9^th ed). Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
³ Lee, R. (2007). The millionaire workout, (1^st ed). New Canaan, CT.: Okenzie Publishing.
⁴ American Council on Exercise (2003). ACE personal trainer manual: The ultimate resource for fitness professionals, (3^rd ed). San Diego, Ca.: American Council on Exercise.
⁵ The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), 2001.

I need your help!  I'm in the process of publishing my first book, and I want to hear from you.  If you were to buy a health and fitness book, what would you want in it?  What areas of health and fitness would you want it to talk about?  How many pages would you want the book to be?  Any feedback you could give in the comments section would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, and have a great day!

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Another weight loss video game to keep you accountable

First the Wii, now Nintendo DS.  Ubisoft, a Montreal-based video game developer has announced a new game (My Weight Loss Coach) for Nintendo DS that will allow users to chart their weight loss progress.  The idea is that a user can set goals for themselves, plug the goals into video-based charts, and keep themselves accountable to hitting their goals.  They can also set different challenges for the day, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and check off whether or not they were successful with completing the challenges.  One thing that I'm not to keen on is the fact that it doesn't show if you regress.  It sounds like the "game" is designed to only be positive, and because of this, it only charts when you lose weight, not when you gain weight.  My feeling is part of an accountability factor should be charting weight gain too.  That way, you can review what you've done over the past week or two and decide on areas that you need to improve on in order to get back on track with losing weight.  That's true accountability to me.   

If you remember my blog about pedometers and how great of an accountability tool they are, well guess what?  The game comes with a pedometer that you can plug your steps for the day into.

Another nifty concept with this game is that it can compare your walking progress to real-world adventures such as climbing Mt. Everest or walking the entire Great Wall of China!  The only draw back is since it's made by a Canadian company, everything is converted into kilometers, but who knows, maybe the version for U.S. users will be converted into miles?

The single user can also plug in all the food they've eaten for the day, and the game spits back information to help the user determine if they're where they need to be, as far as healthy eating. 

I'm not really seeing how this is much of a "video game", but it sounds like another great variation of an accountability tool for those that need that extra motivation and help with staying on track toward their fitness goals. 

Need some more proof?

I don't normally do this...well, in fact, I've never done this, but recently I received a comment from someone claiming that my thoughts about how low-carb eating isn't the way to go are "irresponsible" and I "have no idea what I'm [you are] talking about".

Well, I still stand by the idea that low-carb eating should be avoided.  It can be dangerous, and it's not the best way to lose fat.  As I've said before, you should start your day out with eating a higher amount of carbs and slowly reduce the number of carbs you eat, as the day goes on, to the point where the amount of carbs you eat at dinner is less than at breakfast.  Through all this, though, you should still eat 55-65% of your calories as carbs, just as the FDA recommends.

Anyway, how ironic is it that I wake up today, and the first thing I see in the news is a study done that backs up what I've been saying about the importance of breakfast with weight loss, how low-carb dieting isn't as effective in the long run, the importance of protein for fat loss, and how most weight-loss studies (except for the ones shown to me by the reader who thinks I'm "irresponsible", of course) have shown that very low-carb diets are an ineffective method for losing weight. 

I guess all those scientists and dietitians are "irresponsible" too.

This whole scenario just goes to show how brainwashed some people have become because of fad diets like Atkins. 

Instead of explaining again why low-carb eating IS NOT the way to go for weight loss, I'll let these two articles and their RESEARCH and SOURCES do the talking for me.

Article 1

Article 2

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Protein isn’t just for the muscle heads

Sure, protein is good for those wanting to put on muscle, but it’s also great for those wanting to burn off fat.  Choosing the right sources of protein is a great way to stay energized while still keeping your portion sizes down to stimulate weight loss.

Why is protein such a good choice for weight loss?  Well, as I said a little bit ago, protein has the highest thermic effect out of all other nutrients.⁴  Your body has to work the hardest to digest protein, so if you have the option of incorporating foods into your eating plan that require the most energy to digest, why not choose protein?

Also, just like fiber, protein has been shown to stimulate a feeling of fullness for a longer period of time.  As a result, you won’t be as likely to eat that extra hotdog or reach for another handful of potato chips.  Going along with suppressing the appetite, proteins typically break down into amino acid chains, so there isn’t that influx of glucose that spikes your blood sugar like certain carbohydrates do.  Without that spike, you don’t risk the resulting drop in blood sugar and urge to reach for unhealthy sugary and starchy foods.  Another factor in maintaining a steady blood sugar is that the amino acids of proteins also make up critical hormones such as insulin and glucagon.  These two hormones are responsible for regulating your blood sugar level; insulin takes glucose out of the blood, glucagon brings glucose back into the blood.¹  Again, a blood sugar level that’s steadily at a healthy level aids in maintaining a healthy body fat percentage.    

Proteins are also the main building block for our body’s tissues.  They provide structural support for tissues, provide the materials necessary to stimulate growth of body tissues, and repair damages done to the tissue.  As you’ve already read, when we exercise, mini tears occur inside our muscles.  If we don’t let these tears heal, serious damage, such as a hefty muscle tear, can result.  The main way to aid in the recovery of mini tears is to give your body at least 48 hours rest in between days that you work a specific muscle.  For example, if you lift heavy weight with a bench press on Monday, you should wait until Wednesday before performing exercises for your chest.

I picture this as a tear in a shirt.  Just like with lifting weights, let’s say you get a tear in one of your favorite shirts.  (After lifting, it’s normal to get microscopic tears in your muscles.)  If you don’t sew the tear in the shirt, you might walk around the corner and catch the tear on a nail sticking out of the door; this results in a bigger tear.  If you don’t give your muscles the 48 hours they need to repair themselves, you could risk developing a catastrophe like the nail and the shirt.

So back to protein.  Protein also is the tool that repairs these microscopic tears in your muscles, and if you remember, your muscles are what boost your metabolism and burn the most calories, so if you keep your muscles healthy, they’ll be more efficient at burning excess calories off and helping you drop the fat.

Another important job of protein is that it makes up antibodies.¹ 

“How does this help me with weight loss?”

Good question.  Well, which person do you think will lose body fat faster?  Someone who skips workouts because they’re sick in bed or someone who’s consistently healthy and able to routinely exercise?  You decide.

As you can see, there are many benefits protein has to help you lose body fat; these are just some of the “more important ones”.  (As if all of proteins responsibilities aren’t important.)

Now just because protein is important to weight loss doesn’t mean that your eating should consist of strictly protein.  Remember, a balanced eating plan is the best eating plan.  In fact, too much protein can mess up the pH level of your blood, something that is extremely dangerous.  Too much protein can also be detrimental to your heart, kidneys, and bones.¹  And to be honest, your body can only use a certain amount of protein, and anything past this level is excreted through your urine.  Plus, high-protein diets don’t cause your muscles to grow.²

There are two types of proteins (amino acids) that our body needs.  One type is called nonessential; our body produces these amino acids.  The other type is called essential; our body must get these amino acids from the food we eat or the supplements we take.  Sometimes our body isn’t able to produce a nonessential amino acid, and as a result, it becomes conditionally essential, and we must get it, again, from food or supplements. 

As far as which is better, getting protein through natural sources is always better than through synthetic forms with supplementation.  There’s still a lot to be learned about protein supplements, and the reality is, if you eat right, you’ll be able to get all the protein you need.¹  

One nice benefit, though, of eating protein bars and drinking protein shakes is that they’re a convenient way to control how many calories you’re putting in your body at once, but like I said, since you have the option, try and go for the natural forms in plants and meats. 

If you’re wondering how much protein to get, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) calls for 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, or 12-20% of your caloric intake.^2,3   

“OK Dan, so what are some good sources of lean protein?”  Glad you asked. 

Nonfat or low-fat cottage cheese
Boneless, skinless chicken breast
Broccoli
Dried peas
Almonds
Tuna (packed in water)
Nonfat, no sugar added or low-fat, no sugar added yogurt
Eggs
1% low-fat or skim milk
Lean ground beef (90/10 or better)
Fish such as salmon, trout, or herring
Nonfat or low-fat cheese
Brown rice
Dried beans
Plain peanuts
Roast beef

These are just some of the options you can choose for good sources of lean protein.  The trick is if you’re going to try and eat all plant sources of protein, it’s best to combine protein sources from grains, seeds/nuts, legumes (beans, peas, etc.), and vegetables.  This way, what one source is lacking, the other source makes up for.  If you’re going to get your protein from animal or many soy bean sources, you’ll be able to get all the essential amino acids your body needs.¹

Even though protein is sometimes considered a body builder’s nutrient, protein is an essential part to a healthy fat loss program too.  By including lean sources of protein in your diet, you’ll give your body another great tool to help it reach the healthy, fit level that you want.

References:

¹ Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2003). Nutrition concepts and controversies, (9^th ed). Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
²The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), 2001.
³ American Council on Exercise (2003). ACE personal trainer manual: The ultimate resource for fitness professionals, (3^rd ed). San Diego, Ca.: American Council on Exercise.
⁴ Lee, R. (2007). The millionaire workout, (1^st ed). New Canaan, CT.: Okenzie Publishing.

I need your help!  I'm in the process of publishing my first book, and I want to hear from you.  If you were to buy a health and fitness book, what would you want in it?  What areas of health and fitness would you want it to talk about?  How many pages would you want the book to be?  Any feedback you could give in the comments section would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, and have a great day!

The end to the carbohydrate myth

Since we know that low-carb diets don't work and aren't safe, then why are there so many of these types of diets out there?  I'm still in shock of the number of trainers I run into who believe low-carb eating is necessary for weight loss.  True, you'll lose weight, but not the right type of weight.  I'd like to see follow-up studies to those done on low-carb eating.  It's funny that people refer to the results of these studies as justification that low-carb eating helps you lose weight. 

Sure it does! 

Nobody denies that! 

It's just that the weight loss isn't long-term. 

Low-carb eating causes water loss and muscle loss, not fat loss.  So as a person starts to return to normal eating habits, the weight comes right back on.  In fact, research has found that those who've lost 66 lbs. and kept it off for 5 years ate more carbs, not less. (Participants ate an average of 1,306 calories for women and 1,685 calories for men).²  Ask any low-carb dieter if they've been able to keep their weight off for a year, let alone 5 years. 

I bet there aren't many.

Low-carb diet systems do make a good point, though.  Through my years of training, I've found that many exercisers do eat too many unhealthy carbs.  If you remember, the recommended intake for carbs should be 55-65% of your total calories.¹  I've found that a lot of people eat a lot more than this recommended intake.  Think about it; here's a typical day for a lot of people. 

You wake up and eat cereal and a bagel for breakfast (mostly carbs).  You eat a sandwich with chips and an apple for lunch (again, mostly carbs).  You come home and eat lasagna and bread (carbs again).  You can see that by eating this way, more than 55-65% of your calories would be carbs.  Because of such high intakes, your protein intake isn't where it should be, and as you know, protein is a "must-have" for weight loss.  (Be sure to check out ColumbusSports.com, this Saturday, as I am set to publish on article on the importance of protein for weight loss.)  So it's not that people should eat low-carb diets, it's that they should just control the balance in their eating habits for the day. 

What is definitely true is that people need to choose a lot lower-glycemic carbs.  You know, the type of carbs that minimize storage of excess fat.  Foods like a lot of the candies, chips, and the "whites" don't fall under this low-glycemic category.  So what are some good low-glycemic to low, intermediate-glycemic chooses?

Broccoli
Cherries
Peaches
Low-fat or skim milk
Whole-wheat spaghetti
Pumpernickel bread
Whole-wheat bread (this isn't low-glycemic, but it's better than refined, white bread)
Brown rice
Mushrooms
Peas
Carrots
Strawberries
Apples
Bananas
Oatmeal
All-Bran cereal
Sweet potatoes
Peanuts
Peas
Tomato soup

These are just some; surprisingly, there are many more.  Just search "low-glycemic foods" on the Internet, and you'll be sure to find lists of them.  You may be surprised at what you thought was low-glycemic isn't.  For example, peanut M&Ms are low-glycemic, but does that mean they're a good choice for regular snacking?  Of course not!  They're essentially useless calories because they don't have the important nutrients that other foods higher on the glycemic index have (i.e., whole-wheat bread); plus, they're full of those nasty simple sugars.  The general rule of thumb, though, stick with low-glycemic. 

So remember, instead of eating low-carb, eat a balanced diet having the right percentage of carbs, with the majority of those carbs being low on the glycemic index.  That's where the real long-term fat loss starts from.

References:

¹ Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2003). Nutrition concepts and controversies, (9^th ed). Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
² Shick, S., Wing, R., Klem, M., McGuire, M., Hill, J., Seagle, H. (1998). Persons successful at long-term weight loss and maintenance continue to consume a low-energy, low-fat diet. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 98(4), 408-413.

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For the love of the game

I recently had the pleasure of working with about 100 kids, from grades 1-6, at a summer camp.  My job was to find a way to get them to do a morning "wakeup" workout; talk about a challenge.  As many of you know, it's not the easiest task to try and get kids to function at 7:30 in the morning during their summer vacation, let alone get them to exercise.  Needless to say, I was kind of nervous. 

"What if they just stand there and look at me?  What if this totally bombs?" were some of the thoughts that were running through my head.  As 7:15 rolled around, a handful of kids started to trickle into the gymnasium.  Slowly, more and more kids started to wakeup and drag themselves into the gymnasium until about 7:40 when I was surrounded by tired kids looking at me like, "Exercise!  I just want to go back to bed mister."

What was I to do? 

The night before, when I was planning this whole shindig out, I decided that the best approach to take to the challenge of getting sleepy kids to exercise was to come up with a series of games.  I came up with games where the kids would partner up, and then one person would start moving around, and the other person would have to keep up and mirror the movements his/her partner was doing. 

I also had the partners form a square around them and play tag with each other.  The idea was that if you stepped out of the square, that was a point.  If you got tagged, that was another point.  When one person got to 5 points, the game was over, and they started again.

My final idea was to design a bunch of relay races.  You can throw anything into a relay race, it doesn't matter how hard it is.  I had relay races with the kids doing pushups, bear crawls, frog hops, 1-legged hops, all kinds of different exercises!

So with my game plan is place, I stood there looking at all these semi comatose kids with exercising at 7:30 [7:40] in the morning being the last thing on their mind. 

We started off with the mirror game.  Success!  The kids woke up!  It actually turned out to be hilarious.  There were kids flailing themselves around with their partner struggling to keep up with their crazy movements. 

We moved onto the partner game of tag.  Another success!  Not only were the kids awake, but now they were laughing and smiling, and on top of that, they were starting to breath heavier!

The moment of truth rolled around; it was time to test out my relay games.  I had the kids split up into different teams according to what cabin group they were in.  With the anticipation building, the kids were actually fired up to start the relay race.  I even had kids get down into a sprinter's stance!  

"Go!" I yelled, and the kids took off.  A funny thing happened.  After the first relay race was over, even though they had to do pushups and squats, they were yelling to do it again.  These 100+ kids were actually completely into the exercises I had secretly disguised as games!

When it was all said and done, the kids ran off to breakfast with smiles on their bright red, sweaty faces, and it just reiterated to me that you don't have to make exercise a flavorless task filled with doing a set of 12 repetitions, followed by a 30-second rest break, followed again by a set of 12 repetitions.  Describing it like that, it's no wonder that most people don't like exercise. 

Taking this example of the kids, I have even used this type of program design with my adult clients, and guess what?  I still have had the same results!  Everybody loves games.  I even had one client ask me if we could do more game-like workouts.

My point is, if you're struggling with keeping yourself motivated to work out, grab a friend and come up with some games the two or three or four or more of you can compete against each other with.  Everybody loves a little competition, even kids as you can see, so by throwing a little competition into the workout mix, you'll make life more interesting and healthier.  If you're having trouble getting your kids to be active, take a lesson from the campers and come up with some workout games for your rug rats to enjoy.  The good thing is, you don't even need a gym to be creative.  All you need is your own body weight and the great outdoors. 

Creativity is a wonderful thing.  The more creative you can be with exercise, the less boring it'll be, and the more likely you'll enjoy doing it!

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A calorie is not just a calorie

“Don’t worry, a calorie is calorie.  It doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you stay within your calorie limit.”  Sadly, this is a trap that many people fall into.  Even a lot of fitness professionals still believe this concept, I used to be one of them, but the idea that a calorie is a calorie is simply untrue.  Eating 200 calories of ice cream versus 200 calories of vegetables isn’t even close to the same when it comes to eating healthy.

First off, if you remember talking about the glycemic index, you remember that the speed of the breakdown of a carbohydrate effects how fast your blood sugar is raised and how much insulin is released.  The faster the blood sugar spike, the faster the resulting blood sugar crash and feeling of hunger.  The more often you feel hungry, the more likely you’ll consume excess calories.  So from this aspect alone, a low-glycemic, carbohydrate calorie is a lot more beneficial for decreased weight gain compared to a high-glycemic, carbohydrate calorie.

Another reason all calories aren’t the same has to do with the amount of fiber in the food.  A high-fiber calorie promotes a faster feeling of fullness compared to a calorie that has little fiber.  This means that you’ll nave some help in controlling your appetite and fighting off those unhealthy cravings.  Fiber also reduces the speed at which foods are broken down, so as a result, your blood sugar won’t rise as fast and the amount of insulin released at one time will be reduced.  All of this is good for weight control, as well as preventing or controlling diabetes. 

As if these reasons weren’t enough for getting fiber in your diet, fiber has also been shown to lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease, and possibly reduce the risk of stroke, along with many other benefits.  The recommendations for fiber are 25 grams per day per 2000-calorie diet,¹ and although you can get fiber supplements, it’s always better to get your fiber in the natural form from plants because your body handles natural nutrients better than synthetic nutrients.

One final piece of information to consider when deciding which foods to eat is TEF or the thermic effect of food.  The thermic effect of food is how many calories your body burns in order to digest the food you eat.  The great news is, as you workout, the thermic effect of food goes up.  Basically, as your metabolism goes up, so does the TEF; your body burns off more calories digesting food when you maintain a lifestyle of working out.²  

Another influencer of how high the thermic effect of food is is whether or not you’re eating regular meals.  It has been shown that those who don’t eat every 2 to 3 hours have a decreased TEF. ^3,4  Just another reason why only eating 2 to 3 times per day isn’t going to cut it; 5 meals/snacks a day is essential if you want to have the greatest potential for fat loss.

Back when I was an athlete in college, the rumor going around the cafeteria was that you actually spend more calories digesting celery than you get from eating it.  Unfortunately, there’s nothing out there that really proves this about celery, but hopefully this theory helps explain the concept of the thermic effect of food.

The reason the TEF is so important is because fats, carbohydrates, and protein all have different TEFs!  The body only burns off a few calories when it is digesting fat; in fact, the TEF of fat is only about 3%.⁵  This means that for every 100 calories of fat that you consume, 3 calories are used by your body to digest the fat to either store it as body fat, use it as energy for something else, use it for padding in the joints, etc. 

When digesting carbohydrates, the TEF is 7%,⁵ so for every 100 calories of carbohydrates digested, 7 calories are burned off digesting it.  Keep in mind, these numbers may be lower for someone who doesn’t exercise, and while it may not be too much of a difference, it’s still a difference.

Now here’s the kicker when it comes to concluding that a calorie isn’t just a calorie.  The TEF of protein is a whopping 25-30%!⁵  This means that for every 100 calories of protein you consume, your body burns off approximately 25-30 calories just to digest the protein!  So when you’re talking about fat loss, you have to make sure that you’re getting your protein because as you can see, all calories are not the same.

A 300-calorie hotdog, with ketchup, has a ratio of about 50% fat, 40% carbs, and 10% protein.  This means that you would burn off about 22 calories digesting the hotdog, but take something like a 300-calorie piece of chicken where the ratios are closer to 20% fat, 0% carbs, and 80% protein.  Now you’re burning off about 74 calories in order to digest the chicken!  That’s a difference of 52 more calories burned off by choosing a piece of roasted chicken over a hotdog.  Imagine burning off 52 more calories each day just by making better food choices.  That’s 364 more calories burned off in a week and 18,928 more calories burned off in a year!  That means by choosing to make healthy choices with eating, not by choosing NOT to eat, you could burn off that many more calories in a year and have the potential to lose a little over 5 more pounds of fat per year just by choosing to eat healthier foods!  You’re not even changing the amount of calories you eat, and because the TEF is higher with increased meal frequency, you’re eating every 2 to 3 hours and still burning off more fat!  How cool is that?!

If you’ve made a commitment to yourself that you want to lose some excess body fat, it only makes sense that you make conscious choices with the foods you eat because as you now know, all calories are not the same.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that when talking about calorie burn, on top of the benefits you get from exercising, you get more “bang for your buck” when eating protein.  Besides having the highest thermic effect, protein also has many other benefits that will make your weight loss efforts even more productive.  That brings us to the topic for next week, the importance of protein for fat/weight loss.

References:

¹ Sizer, F., & Whitney, E. (2003). Nutrition concepts and controversies, (9^th ed). Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
² Denzer, C., & Young, J. (2003). The effect of resistance exercise on the thermic effect of food. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 13(3), 396-402.
³ Farshchi, H., Taylor, M., Macdonald, I. (2005). Beneficial metabolic effects of regular meal frequency on dietary thermogenesis, insulin sensitivity, and fasting lipid profiles in healthy obese women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 81(1), 16-24.
⁴ Farshchi, H., Taylor, M., Macdonald, I. (2004). Decreased thermic effect of food after an irregular compared with a regular meal pattern in healthy lean women. International Journal of Obesity, 28(5), 653-660.
⁵ Lee, R. (2007). The millionaire workout, (1^st ed). New Canaan, CT.: Okenzie Publishing.

I need your help!  I'm in the process of publishing my first book, and I want to hear from you.  If you were to buy a health and fitness book, what would you want in it?  What areas of health and fitness would you want it to talk about?  How many pages would you want the book to be?  Any feedback you could give in the comments section would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, and have a great day!

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One secret to improve your exercise results

Show of hands.  How many of you sit in a chair and push weight out in front of you each day?  Nobody?  I didn't think so, so why would you train your body that way?  Why would you walk into a gym, plop down onto the chest press machine, and start pushing out repetitions?  The truth is you shouldn't.

A little know secret among those who are most successful at getting weight loss results is that doing exercises while seated on a machine isn't the most effective way to drop the fat.  

Right now, I want you to stand up where you are.  Just stand where you are for 10 seconds.  OK, now stand on one foot for 10 seconds?  Which is harder?  Obviously, standing on one foot is a little harder than standing on two feet.  Now let me ask you this?

What do you think burns off more calories?  Standing on one foot, or standing on two feet?  Sure, it may not be a lot more, but standing on one foot definitely makes your muscles work more in order to keep you from falling over, and because of this, you burn more calories standing on one foot.

Now take this concept and apply it to weight machines.  What is one thing that the majority of weight machines have in common?  In order to use them, you sit down on them.  Like I said earlier, if your daily tasks don't require you to sit in a chair and push weight out in front of you, then why would you train your body that way?  The fact is weight machines create a lazy core.  When you sit on a machine, you tend to slouch and relax the core.  You also become lazy with your exercise movements because most machines have a predetermined/fixed path that you move the weight through; all you have to do is actually move the weight.  You don't have to worry about balancing the weight as you're moving it, maintaining proper form as you're moving it, or using the right technique.  All of these equate to lazy muscles, a lazy nervous system, and less calorie burn.  A lazy nervous system and muscles, especially the core, means that the risk for injury is increased. 

But isn't the reason you use weight machines because you're scared you'll get injured with using free weights and body weight?  True, the risk for injury may be a little higher with the use of free weights and body weight, but in all my years of personal training, I've seen as many gym members get hurt using weight machines as I have free weights.

By getting away from weight machines and onto your feet, you require a lot more of the little stabilizers muscles to be activated throughout your body when you perform an exercise with free weights and body weight; this means greater calorie burn, and increased calorie burn means faster fat loss.

When I train my clients, if I have the availability of weight machines, I'll typically start them out on machines for the first couple of weeks.  This allows the body to become more accustom to working out, but after those first few weeks, it's on to free weights and body weight.

My philosophy is that you train the body for how it performs in life.  Your body requires a lot of balance, stability, and rotation, so you should train your body that way.  You don't look like a robot when you're unloading groceries from the car or playing with the kids in the back yard.  You're bending, you're squatting, you're twisting, you're jumping; you're doing all kinds of things that require your body to function in more ways than just sitting down and moving forward and backward.

So my advice, spend a few weeks on weight machines to become accustom to lifting, but after that, move into free weight and body weight exercises.  They're a lot more effective, and you'll see a lot better results with these type of movements.  If you're not sure how to do these type of movements, either ask for some help from a fitness professional or you can check out some videos I've created that don't require any machines or dumbbells.    

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Setting your kids up for a fit lifestyle

Lately, I've been having people come up to me asking about different ways to help kids stay fit and avoid unhealthy weight gain.  I feel one of the most important areas that today's youth lacks is what a lot of people say.  Their level of activity isn't where it should be.  I also feel that the eating habits of our youth has gotten worse.  Kids follow in the footsteps of their parents, and as parents start to eat bigger portion sizes and less nutritional food, so do their kids.  With the family lifestyle continuing to get progressively busier and busier as time goes on, no longer do families sit down to well-balanced meals at the dinner table.  Many pick up some fast food on the way to school events or microwave pre-packaged meals. 

Nutrition is definitely a huge part to why our youth is becoming increasingly unhealthier, but just as big of an issue is the lack of physical activity.  No longer do you consistently see kids riding their bikes outside or playing basketball in the driveway.  Instead, they're riding virtual dirt bikes or being a virtual Kobe Bryant on the living room TV. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day for kids, and with the cutting back on recess time and PE class, many kids don't get that much in one week.  I also feel that the safety of our kids is another contributing factor to the activity of kids.  Back when I was a kid, it was no problem to ride my bike down our country road to play at the neighbors', but with the increasing number of child abductions in the news, it's no wonder we don't see kids playing out in the neighborhoods as much.

Times have definitely changed, but that doesn't mean that our youth's health has to change with it.  Kids are resourceful, and if limits are imposed on video game use, they're creative enough to come up with other fun things to do.  Without video games to entertain them, the only other option is for them to entertain themselves by being active with their friends.  If you're worried about your kids playing around the neighborhood, why not give them different toys to play with in the back yard with friends?  Instead of buying them the football video game, buy them a football.  Instead of buying them an action video game, encourage them to set out on an exploration in the back yard.  Todays kids may not be as engaged with these type of activities, but if these are their only options, they'll be just like we were in our youth.  We didn't have all the nifty technology that they have today, and guess what?  We still had just as much fun.  Kids are creative; encourage them to use their creativity with physical activity instead of inactivity.  Get them outside playing tag or "cops and robbers" on their bikes.  The more we can make a shift back to what it was like during our youth, the better off we'll set our kids up for healthier lifestyles later on in life.

So here's my suggestions:

1. Decrease the amount of processed foods like potato chips, french fries, and sweets.
2. Decrease pop/soft drink and fruit juice intake (drinks that are loaded with junk like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup).
3. Increase water intake.  (If your kids love fruit juice, try sweetening some water with something like Crystal Light.)
4. Decrease video game use and increase physical activity (at least 60 minutes per day).
5. Decrease the number of trips to fast food restaurants and increase cooked/baked dinners around the kitchen table.
6. Read about having your kids start an exercise program.

Remember, the number of fat cells your body has is determined during your adolescent years, so teaching your kids healthy lifestyle choices during their early years is absolutely vital for setting them up for a healthy life in the future.

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How to stay fit with a busy lifestyle

The excuse of “time”, it has to be one of the most popular excuses I’ve heard for not wanting to exercise.  Yes, I said it.  It’s an excuse, not a reason.  Most people can make the time to exercise if they really want to.  People make time to eat dinner and watch their favorite TV show, so when I hear that a person doesn’t have time, I know that they first need to get their mindset right before they ever are going to achieve the fitness goal they want.

That being said, I don’t want to come across as a non-sympathetic, in your face, task master.  I realize that for some, your lives really are hectic to the point that trying to fit in some personal time for exercising can be a big chore; kudos to you for realizing the importance of exercise and trying to plan it into your schedule.  Your problem is you’re probably wondering how to be most efficient with your exercise time.  You have time to work out 3 days per week for 45 minutes to an hour, or maybe even only 30 minutes.  So what do you do in that amount of time?  Should you focus on cardio?  What about resistance training?  Some have heard that doing cardio on an elliptical is the best thing for burning fat.  Some have heard that lifting weights makes you bigger.  I’m even starting to confuse myself right now!  For those of you that find yourself wanting to know how to be most efficient with your time, consider today to be the onramp onto the highway to Fat Loss City. 

The old school of thought is that cardio training is the most effective for fat loss.  I was even just talking about cardio being one of the components to a good weight loss program.  Before I go any further, though, I want to clear up any confusion.  Cardio does have its place and time for a weight loss program, but the majority of steady-state cardio (i.e. walking or jogging) should be done for beginner exercisers.  Cardio does burn off the most calories for the amount of time you put into it, but the problem is, once you’re done jogging or walking, the calorie burn stops.

When you’re talking about being most efficient with your time, the fact that the calorie burn stops when you stop doing cardio means that it definitely isn’t the best thing to do for fat loss.  In fact, this realization is slowly starting to spread among the fitness professional community.  There are still plenty of fit pros out there that stress the importance of cardio, but the truth is, that school of thought is “old-school” thinking.

Before I get ahead of myself, I want to address training with weights.  I have come in contact with many exercisers who feel that lifting weights will cause you to put on a lot of muscle.  The truth is there’s so much that goes into a program for muscle building that unless you are purposely trying to put on muscle, you don’t have to worry about “bulking up” with lifting for fat loss.

OK, so back to cardio training.  As I said, cardio is great for burning off the most calories during a workout, but in accomplishing the most significant amount of fat loss, cardio has been found to be the least effective.  It has to do with a concept called EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.  When we finish working out, our bodies still have the ability to continue burning off calories as a result of the workout we just finished.  Our body’s metabolism is so much higher while working out, and when we stop working out, it’ll start to return back to its pre-exercise state.  While it’s returning, it still can be burning off excess calories.  Just like with running up a flight of stairs, once we’re up the stairs, our body is still breathing heavily trying to breathe oxygen in.  It may take a few minutes for us to return to a pre-stairs breathing rate, and while we’re returning to it, our lungs continue to breathe in more oxygen until they slowly return to the rate of oxygen consumption that existed before running up the stairs.  Similar to running up a flight of stairs, our metabolism continues to burn off excess calories until it returns back to its normal calorie burn. 

Studies have found that when you stop doing cardio, our excess calorie burn stops within minutes.  When we stop doing high-intensity training, excess calorie burn can continue for up to 38 hours!¹

There are two forms of high-intensity training; there’s high-intensity anaerobic training that can be done in the form of cardio with intense intervals, and there’s resistance training that’s structured in a circuit.  Realize, even though these two are consider high-intensity, there’s still a progression that needs to occur before working out at this level of training.  That’s why steady-state cardio training (walking, jogging, etc.) is good for beginners.  It allows their bodies to build a base for intense exercise down the road.  However, for individuals who’ve been exercising for some time, high-intensity training is a must.

A study was done that compared anaerobic interval training to steady-state aerobic training.  The interval training groups exercised 20 minutes, 3 times per week for 15 weeks.  The steady-state group did 40-minute cardio sessions, 3 times per week for 15 weeks.  After completing the 15 weeks, as well as sticking to the same diet plan, the steady-state group actually gained weight while the interval group lost 5.5 lbs. of fat and increased a little bit of muscle!  On top of that, the interval group improved their aerobic capacity (endurance) more than the steady-state cardio group!²

Another study paired aerobic training (steady-state cardio) vs. resistance training.  While keeping both groups on the same diet, they had the aerobic group exercise 4 hours per week.  The resistance training group completed 2-4 sets of 8-15 repetitions for 10 exercises, 3 times per week.  Ready for this?  Both groups increased their aerobic capacity (endurance) equally, and the resistance training group lost considerably more fat and no muscle!  Plus, the resistance training group increased their metabolism while the cardio group decreased theirs.³  If you remember, that’s because cardio training actually burns off some muscle with fat.  Decreased muscle equals decreased metabolism.  Need the proof?  Look at the high caliber marathoners compared to sprinters; a lot of the reason they’re so skinny is because of the fact that aerobic exercise burns off muscle.

So when it comes to a time crunch, structuring a 30 to 45-minute program that combines circuit resistance training with high-intensity, cardio interval training is a lot more effective at burning off fat compared to turning red in the face during a 60-minute, steady-state cardio workout on a treadmill.  As always, no matter what you do, remember proper portion sizes and meal frequency is essential for the most successful workout plan. 

References: 

¹ Schuenke, M., Mikat, R., & McBride, J. (2002). Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption: implications for body mass management. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 86(5), 411-417.

² Trapp, E., Chisholm, D., Freund, J., & Boutcher, S. (2008). The effects of high-intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women. International Journal of Obesity, 32(1), 684-691.

³ Bryner, R., Ullrich, I., Sauers, J., Donley, D., Hornsby, G., Kolar, M., & Yeater, R. (1999). Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 18(2), 115-121.

I need your help!  I'm in the process of publishing my first book, and I want to hear from you.  If you were to buy a health and fitness book, what would you want in it?  What areas of health and fitness would you want it to talk about?  How many pages would you want the book to be?  Any feedback you could give in the comments section would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, and have a great day!

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