Poliquin Lifestyle

Tip 122: Live A Lean & Healthy Life: Tips To Conquer The “Obesogenic” Environment

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Live a lean and healthy life by conquering the “obesogenic” environment that has taken over in mainstream society. The obesogenic environment includes the following elements, none of which you have to go along with:

1) A physical environment in which people drive everywhere and rarely use “active” forms of transportation such as walking or bicycling.

Solution: If you need to go somewhere that’s less than 1.5 miles away, walk or bike. If you have a bike, try using it for all transportation that is less than 5 miles away.

2) A work and leisure environment that is almost completely sedentary, leading people to sit for extended periods for 8 to 12 hours a day.

Solution: Get an elevated desk so you can stand at work and take regular movement breaks. Get rid of your TV and plan active leisure time every single day.

3) Pervasive endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure that may increase body fat stores and has been shown to alter hormone function. For example, BPA in plastic, parabens in shampoo, conditioner, and personal care products, and phthalates in cleaning products and air fresheners have all been shown to raise estrogen levels.

Solution: Get rid of all commercial cleaning and personal care products in favor of natural and organic ones. Avoid plastics, receipts, and canned food unless you know it comes in a BPA-free can.

4) The rise of processed food in the diet and the misconception that high-carbohydrate diets are necessary for maintaining high energy levels.

Solution: Opt for whole, non-packaged foods such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit. If it comes in a package it’s probably processed and you shouldn’t eat it.

5) The misconception that aerobic exercise will help people lose weight, when in reality, it will only train the body to be more efficient and hold on to energy (fat) stores, while decreasing muscle mass.

Solution: Do strength training and high-intensity workouts like sprints if your goal is to lose weight.

Tip 121: Get A Training Partner To Improve Performance & Overcome Plateaus

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Get a training partner to increase your motivation during workouts so that you overcome plateaus. Research shows that when people exercise with a partner who is more advanced than they are, they will push themselves to lift more weight than if they trained alone. Working out with someone more advanced than you can also increase physical pain threshold.

For example, a recent study found that people who are in good shape and have confidence in their physical abilities, tend to get the best results by working out with someone who is moderately more advanced than they are. Novice trainees generally do better with a partner who is more closely matched in terms of skill and physical ability.

In addition, an interesting study tested the effect of having two female partners work together to complete a cycling test to exhaustion. Researchers compared those results to trial in which the women competed against each other or did the test alone.

Results showed that when the women worked cooperatively, they significantly increased work capacity and cycled much further than when the two women competed against each other. Most significant was that when working together, the women persisted for 102 percent longer than when cycling solo!

Consider the following tips in choosing a partner:
• Get better results by finding a training partner or workout group that works for your personality.

• If you like to compare yourselves to others, a competitive environment may be best. If you like teamwork, setting dual goals with a training partner may be ideal.

• Advanced trainees may do well in a threesome in which they can compete, and whoever is training best on any given day will likely raise the bar for the other two.

• Don’t get sidetracked with chit chat when training with others—be sure to count tempo and rest periods—it is not a social hour.

Reference
Irwin, B., et al. Aerobic Exercise is Promoted when Individual Performance Affects the Group: A Test of the Kohler Motivation Gain Effect. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2012. 44(2), 151-159.

Tip 120: Get in Shape Fast With Sprints

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Get in shape fast with sprints. Everyone wants a quick fix for health and body composition. The good news is that if you’re willing to work hard for it, sprint training can get you up to speed quickly. Research shows that by doing three all-out sprint workouts for two weeks, you can significantly improve your health, shift the body into fat burning mode, and trim your waistline.

For example, a study of out-of-shape overweight men with an average age of 32 showed that doing just six sprint workouts on a resisted bicycle allowed them to decrease waist circumference by 3 cm, improve insulin sensitivity, the rate of fat burning, and blood pressure. The workout consisted of 30-second cycle sprints, with 4.5 minutes of active recovery, repeated for six repetitions.

Other studies show similar benefits of high-intensity training for health and body composition. Additional benefits of sprints include better heart and vascular health, lung capacity, metabolism, insulin health, and brain function by doing sprints.

The key is that sprints are physically and mentally challenging. But the payoff is more than worth it. Wouldn’t you rather commit to working hard and pushing yourself for a few weeks and actually see results?

Although this article doesn’t speak directly to mental toughness and the challenges presented by sprint workouts, read The Myth of Discipline for some motivation

Reference

Whyte, L., et al.
Effect of Two Weeks of Sprint Interval Training on Health-Related Outcomes in Sedentary Overweight Obese Men. Metabolism. 2010. 59(10), 1421-1428.

Tip 119: Take Action To Avoid BPA, Parabens & Phthalates To Prevent Cancer

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Take action to avoid exposure to hormone-disrupting, cancer-causing compounds that will also make you fat. Everyday chemicals found in plastic, personal care products like soap and shampoo, paper receipts, and cleaning chemicals have been shown to alter hormone levels and cause cancer. We’ve actually known this for a while, but a new report from the conservative World Health Organization reminds us to avoid such chemicals at all costs.

Just published, the WHO suggests a ban on hormone-disruptors to protect humans and wildlife. WHO scientists are concerned about the increased cancer rates (especially sex organs and thyroid) and how these chemicals affect children’s brain function and behavior.

There’s also significant evidence that exposure to hormone disruptors is linked to female infertility, lower male sperm counts, disordered brain function, early-onset puberty in kids, and cardiovascular disease. Urinary BPA levels have also been positively linked to body fat percentage in youth and adults.

Tips to prevent exposure to hormone disruptors include the following:

• BPA is generally found in aluminum cans, recycled paper, receipt paper, plastic containers, and liquid drink cans. These companies have been reported to make BPA-free cans: Eden Beans, tuna from Wild Planet, Eco Fish, and Oregon’s Choice, Bionaturae tomatoes, Farmer’s Market pumpkin, and Natural Value tomatoes and tuna.

• Phthalates are fragrances that are found in air fresheners, perfume, body sprays, and cleaning chemicals. Any time you smell that slightly chemical odor from a conventional product, you are probably ingesting phthalates. Candles contain them as well.

• Parabens are found in personal care products. Look for the terms “methylparaben” or “propylparaben” in the labels. Opt for organic personal care products made by non-conventional companies—always check labels.

• Read more about BPA in the article What You MUST Know About BPA Exposure

• Read the WHO report HERE

Tip 118: Add These Three Seeds To Your Diet For Optimal Health & Body Composition

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Eat more seeds to improve body composition and health. Seeds such as sesame, cumin, and pumpkin, are a nutrient-packed addition to your diet. The key is to eat them raw because once they are heated they lose their nutritional punch and produce toxic substances.

At first, seeds may not seem as easy to incorporate into your diet as nuts. However, you can throw whole seeds on salad, add ground seeds to a protein shake, mashed seeds can make a nice condiment or butter, and soaked seeds can be added to most dishes. For example, you can make tahini out of sesame seeds or grind up flax seeds and put them in a workout shake.

Here are the benefits of three of the most nutritious seeds:

1) Chia seeds are high in protein, magnesium, vitamin c, and the antioxidants quercetin, kaempferol, and chlorogenic and caffeic acid—both of which are also found in coffee. Chia seeds can’t replace your fish oil because they don’t supply EPA or DHA fat, but they do contain alpha-linolenic acid, which is beneficial in balanced doses with the other omega-3s.

How to use them: Grind chia seeds up and throw them in a shake or add them to Greek yogurt.

2) Sesame seeds are high in fiber, zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B1. Best of all, sesame seeds have been shown to be very effective at helping to detoxify excess estrogen from the body. This is important for both men and women because diets high in foods containing a fiber called lignans, which sesame seeds contain, have been linked with less cancer risk. Sesame seeds have also been shown to lower blood pressure and protect the liver from oxidative damage.

How to use them: Grind them up into tahini and use as a condiment for extra flavor on vegetables or meats. Check out this Chicken Tahini Salad recipe from Jeannette Bessinger.

3) Cumin seeds are high in antioxidants, can aid digestion, and have been used by traditional medicine as a tonic for the body. Along with fenugreek seeds, cumin has been shown to improve blood sugar and insulin health, making both a good addition to the diet to prevent diabetes.

How to use them: Get whole seeds and grind them up and add them to a shake, make tea out of them, of sprinkle the ground meal on a salad. Here’s a delicious Flank Steak recipe from Jeannette that contains ground cumin.

Other wonderful seeds to add to your diet include pomegranate (high in antioxidants), flax (help detoxify estrogen), pumpkin (B6-rich and alkaline), and hemp (high in essential amino acids).

Tip 117: The Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet: Fat Loss & Less Risk of Stroke, Heart Attack & Diabetes

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Eat a Mediterranean Diet that is naturally high in protein, low in carbs, and provides healthy fats to achieve optimal health and stay lean. A widely reported study from the New England Journal of Medicine showed that people in Southern Europe who normally eat the Mediterranean diet significantly reduced their risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack when they ate extra olive oil or nuts daily.

The study divided healthy people over age 55 into three groups: A low-fat Mediterranean diet group, a regular Mediterranean diet group with at least 4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil daily, and a regular Mediterranean diet with 30 grams of extra nuts a day.

Results showed that heart attack, stroke, and mortality rates were much higher in the low-fat diet group. People in the two high-fat diet groups had much better health outcomes over the course of the study. The findings were so striking that the study was actually stopped early so that participants on the low-fat diet could switch to the more beneficial higher fat versions.

Previous research shows that a Mediterranean diet can improve insulin health, lower inflammatory markers, and lead to sustained weight loss because it allows people to opt for a dietary “lifestyle” that is flavorful and sustainable. It’s fairly simple and doesn’t restrict calories.

All this is good news since the typical Mediterranean diet is very similar to the “Paleo”-style diet that is popular among performance-minded people in the U.S.—lots of vegetables, fruit, lean meats, beans and nuts, while limiting baked goods, red meat, and sweetened beverages. The main difference is the typical Paleo diet has more organic red meat, no alcohol, and limits grains to a greater degree.

Tip 116: Recovering From An Injury? Dose With Fish Oil, Protein, Antioxidants

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When your body is repairing from an injury, your dietary and nutrient needs change. Two critical things you can do accelerate recovery are to take nutrients that will help decrease inflammation and get more protein to prevent muscle mass loss due to inactivity.

When we talk about decreasing the inflammatory response to injury, we mean helping the body to eliminate waste products that the body releases when tissue is damaged. Do this by taking extra fish oil, and antioxidants such as green tea and curcumin.

Studies show that all three of these supplements can decrease the acute inflammatory response to muscle and connective tissue damage, leading to faster healing. Topical curcumin cream has also been found to significantly accelerate healing. Rub it on the injured area daily to reduce pain and inflammation.

In addition, to prevent muscle atrophy due to immobilization, you need to eat extra protein and a regular dose of the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). Research shows that a high-protein intake helps build connective tissue and bone because the amino acids are the building blocks of this tissue.

Taking extra BCAAs has been shown to enhance the rate at which tissue is repaired, while reducing the muscle lost during recovery. A higher essential amino acid intake was also found to decrease the time it took for an injured muscle to recover its original strength prior to the injury.

To recover faster use the following strategies:

•   Take BCAAs between meals.
•   Shoot for getting at least 20 grams of essential amino acids at every meal.
•   Dose with fish oil, green tea, and curcumin.
•   Apply a topical curcumin on the injured area.
•   Drink extra water—at least 3 liters a day.

Tip 115: Beware: Increased Fiber Intake May Cause Zinc Deficiency

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Both fiber and zinc are essential for health and body composition. Be aware that studies show that people with higher dietary fiber intake have a much greater risk of zinc deficiency. This is because most dietary sources of fiber contain phytic acid, which significantly decreases the bioavailability of zinc. The solution is to supplement with zinc but also to modify fiber intake so that you get it from sources that do not overload the body with phytates.

Grains, both whole and processed (bread, breakfast cereal and the like) contain phytates, which block the absorption of many minerals, but especially zinc, calcium, manganese, and iron. You want to avoid all processed grains and limit your intake of whole grains, getting fiber from whole vegetable, fruit, nut, and seed sources. In addition, consider taking a fiber supplement because low fiber intake is another massive problem in the Western world. According to the American Dietetic Association, less than 5 percent of the U.S. population eats the minimum recommended 25 grams of fiber a day—a dose that is very low if you eat a lot of protein.
Why is fiber so important? Obviously, it aids gastrointestinal health and can help prevent cancer. In addition, people who eat more fiber tend to be leaner and simply increasing your fiber intake can help you lose because it can modulate insulin, blood sugar, and help you to eat less. It’s also critical for cardiovascular health and protects against oxidative stress.

Likewise, zinc is essential for hormone production (specifically testosterone, insulin sensitivity, and cancer prevention. A deficiency is disastrous, but commonly people go around with low zinc status and never know. Solve low zinc by doing a liquid zinc taste test and then supplementing accordingly to raise levels. Avoid taking zinc chronically without testing your levels because it can be toxic.

Tip 114: Don’t Cheat Your Training: Do Full-Range of Motion Exercises to Gain Strength

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Don’t cheat your training by restricting the movement patterns of your exercises. For example, make full squats in which you go all the way down below the point where the thigh is parallel to the ground a staple in your program. Once you’ve mastered the full-range squat, you may want to do training cycles with heavy half or quarter squats, but full-range training has too many benefits not to be used for all lifts.

Recent studies comparing full-range exercises and restricted motions show maximal strength gains are consistently greater with full-range training. For example, a study that compared partial biceps curl with full curls showed that the group that did the full-range curls gained 10 percent more strength. Likewise, muscle development tends to be slightly greater when full-range training is performed.

Take away a commitment to full-range training. Manipulate variables such as tempo, intensity, load, and type of contraction using a full range. For advanced trainees, specificity and partial-range lifts may allow you to overcome plateaus, but you must program them with strategic precision.

Tip 113: Why Egg Yolks Are Good For You: The Perfect Protein Source

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Eggs are the perfect source of protein. They score highest on four scientific scales for protein quality! Not only do they provide an abundance of easily digested amino acids, eggs are packed with vitamins and nutrients that improve brain health and aid in fat loss.

For example, choline, which is supplied in the egg yolk, is essential for brain function because it is needed for the body to make a critical neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. In addition, choline helps the liver to detoxify and avoid accumulating fat, which is essential for optimal liver function. Eggs also contain other nutrients such as the B vitamins, and two nutrients that may help prevent cancer: lutein and zeaxanthin.

Meanwhile, research shows there is no link between eating whole eggs and elevated cholesterol. In fact, if you eat as much as three eggs a day on a carbohydrate-restricted diet, you may decrease inflammation and improve cholesterol markers. That’s what happened to a group of men who had only 18 percent of their diet from carbs but ate fat liberally, including three eggs daily for 12 weeks. The men also lost 5 kg over the course of the study.

Take away the understanding that eggs are an excellent protein source that can be included in a low-carb, high-protein diet for optimal body composition and health. The key is to restrict carbohydrates, eat high-quality whole protein, and avoid processed or isolated fats.

Reference

Ratliff, J., et al. Eggs Modulate the Inflammatory Response To Carbohydrate Restricted Diets in Overweight Men. Nutrition and Metabolism. 2008. 5(6).

Tip 112: Want To Lose Fat?

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If you want to lose fat, you need a nutrition and exercise program that will produce the greatest calorie burn a day. The good news is it’s not hard, and by maximizing energy use, you can also enhance hormone levels that aid in fat loss.

First, you need to avoid a diet-only intervention because this will lead you to burn as much as 20 percent fewer calories a day. Diet-only programs lead to lean tissue and muscle loss, which causes your body to burn fewer calories each day. The combination of reducing your lean mass and decreasing the amount of food your body has to digest and process could lead you to burn 300 fewer calories, making your weight loss efforts useless.

Instead of a diet-only program, do resistance training and intervals and modify the proportion of protein, fat, and carbs you eat because this will lead to an increase in energy expenditure rather than a drop. For example, studies show that resistance training workouts can increase resting energy expenditure by an average of 150 calories a day and as much as 450, depending on the volume and intensity of the workout.

Likewise, the thermic effect, which is the amount of calories used to digest food, is normally about 10 percent of your total energy expenditure. However, by eating frequently you can increase your energy expenditure, while maintaining blood sugar at an even level. Finally, eating more protein and whole foods that contain a large dose of fiber can significantly increase energy burn. Protein requires the most energy to breakdown, followed by carbohydrates, with fat bringing up the rear.
The best fat loss plan is threefold:

•   Avoid diet-only programs.

•   Eat a high-protein, whole food, high-fiber diet.

•   Eat frequent meals—shoot for 5 to 6 meals every 3 hours to take advantage of the thermic effect of food.

Tip 111: Want A Healthy Heart? Avoid Long Distance Endurance Exercise

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Do resistance training and short interval workouts to improve heart health and cardiovascular function. Avoid long distance endurance exercise such as marathons, distance triathlons, and long distance bicycle races because they can lead to potentially harmful cardiovascular effects.

In a recent report from the Mayo Clinic, researchers found that vigorous aerobic exercise longer than 60 minutes elicits diminishing health returns. Adverse health events are more common in endurance competitors due to the dangerous side effects of training that include greater risk of atrial fibrillation, cardiac remodeling, stiffening of the atria and large arteries, and myocardial fibrosis, all of which significantly increase risk of heart attack.

If your goal is cardiovascular health and longevity, opt for resistance training that is programmed to achieve your goals:

•   For strength development, lift primarily heavy loads for fewer than 6 reps per set.

•   For body composition and fat loss, use a higher volume with short rest periods to elicit metabolic stress.

•   If you like aerobic exercise, opt for shorter distances (5Ks or sprint triathlons) rather than long distance competitions. Mix up steady-state training with weight workouts and intervals for best performance and health results.

Reference

O’Keefe, J., et al. Potential Adverse Cardiovascular Effects from Excessive Endurance Exercise. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 201. 87(6), 587-595.

Tip 110: Squat All The Way Down For Healthier, Leaner Legs

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Do full squats in which you go all the way down to build healthier, leaner legs. Don’t worry, squatting all the way down below the point where your upper leg is parallel to the floor won’t hurt your knees.

In fact, performing full, deep squats can improve balance between the muscles in your legs for stronger knees. Deep squats also require a large degree of flexibility, so regularly training them can help you increase range of motion.

The idea that full, deep squats are bad for the knees is one of those strange fitness myths that is completely unfounded in scientific research. Long-term studies suggest full squats have no negative effect on knee ligament stability, nor do they place the knee joint at risk of injury. As mentioned above, they can actually improve stability and heath. Plus, they reduce the stress on the lower back and train your abs.

Tips to start doing full-range squats include the following:

Avoid excessive forward lean. If you lack flexibility in the ankles or hips, you need to work on range of motion in these joints, but in the meantime, squat with your heels elevated on a slanted wedge or weight plates under your heels.

The knees which should track in a line close to the border of the first and second toe. If you have structural imbalances and are unable to do this, start with split squats and step-ups before doing two-legged (bilateral) squats.

Use proper hand and elbow placement when doing back squats by keeping the elbows below the bar. People often incorrectly lock their elbows back behind them, which can increase forward lean. Instead keep the elbows below the bar with the grip slightly wider than shoulder width.

To come out of the squat, drive with the legs and squeeze the glutes during the upward motion. Avoid tilting the pelvis at the top—just squeeze the glutes, but shift your pelvis forward because this will put stress on the lower back.

Keep your chest held high and look straight ahead. Do not look upward at the ceiling or excessively bull the neck because doing so interferes with the connection between the brain and your muscles (called neural drive).

Tip 109: Lose Fat & Perform Better With Coffee—Avoid Sugar & Carbs

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Avoid putting sugar in your coffee or eating a carb-filled meal with it if you want to lose weight or get a lift from the caffeine. Research shows that coffee, and the caffeine it contains, will increase the use of fat for fuel in the body and improve training performance. However, it’s all for naught if you drink coffee with sugar or eat carbs.

Although the overall effect of coffee on insulin health is increased sensitivity, combining high-carb foods that spike insulin with coffee is a bad idea. Likewise, eating foods that are turned into glucose (sugar) in the body will blunt the stimulatory effect of caffeine.

Scientists aren’t exactly sure what is going on when you eat carbs with coffee, but they have shown that when a high-carb meal of toast, jam a fruit drink, and a powerbar was eaten for breakfast with a large dose of caffeine, the stimulatory effect of the caffeine was reduced by almost 90 percent.

The key is to avoid high-carb foods completely, or at the very least when enjoying coffee. If you take caffeine, or want to get an energy boost from coffee before training, avoid adding sugar or eating carbs. And NEVER use caffeine or coffee post-workout because it increases adrenaline and blunts the elimination of cortisol, hampering your recovery.

Tip 108: Health Benefits of Interval Training: Fat Loss & Better Heart, Lung & Mental Health

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Interval training in which you alternate between very intense activity and active rest periods is well known for its fat burning effects. The benefits extend further than simply making you lean and cut.

Intervals also improve cardiovascular and lung health, lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol, and aid mental wellness. For example, studies show exercise at a high intensity helps manage depression and improves total brain volume for better cognition.

You can also save time by doing intervals because most workouts only require 20 to 25 minutes of total training time compared to the longer 30 to 45 minute recommendations that go with aerobic exercise.

To begin interval training, try the 30-20-10 model. Perform four 5-minute intervals in which you jog for 30 seconds, run at a moderate intensity for 20 seconds, sprint for 10 seconds, and then repeat.

Other proven interval programs include the following:

On a bike, try 8 seconds of all-out cycling followed by 12 seconds of active rest cycling, repeated 60 times for 20 minutes.

If you have a base level of conditioning and want to lose fat, try a demanding 1 to 1 interval-to-rest program with 30-second sprints and 30-second jogging recovery for four 4-minute intervals.

A less intense model is ten intervals of 30-second all-out sprints with 90-seonds active rest.

Tip 107: What You Need To Know About Cholesterol

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There is lots of confusion about cholesterol and health, both in terms of how it gets elevated and what high cholesterol means in light of other health markers. A recent study from Harvard found that you can have a lot of “good” HDL cholesterol with low “bad” LDL cholesterol and still be at high risk for heart disease.

Researchers found that you can be overweight, have elevated triglycerides, and generally poorer health but with “healthy” cholesterol levels. This is because these people tend to have large amounts of a small pro-inflammatory protein called Apo-lipoprotein C-III on the surface of the HDL cholesterol that increases their risk of heart disease.

Blood samples from more than 32,000 women and 18,000 men were analyzed, and it was found that those with apoC-III had more inflammation and were at more risk of developing heart disease.

Simply, this means that if you eat poorly (processed foods), don’t work out, have high stress, have elevated triglycerides, and have poor insulin health, but your doctor tell you that you have “good” cholesterol, you probably shouldn’t listen to them! Even if you only do one of the mentioned things that will compromise your overall health, you may be at greater risk of heart problems down the road.

The solution is to clean up your lifestyle:
•   Work out regularly
•   Figure out a way to manage stress
•   Improve your insulin health by eating more protein and fewer carbohydrates
•   Eliminate all trans fats and processed foods in favor of whole food and good fats.

Read more about cholesterol myths in the tip, Improve Your Cholesterol By Eating Eggs

Reference
Jensen, M., et al. Apo-lipoprotein C-III as a Potential Modulator of the Association Between HDL-Cholesterol and Incident Coronary Heart Disease.
Journal of the American Heart Association. 2012.

Tip 106: Get Lean By Substituting Green Vegetables for All Grains

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Get lean by substituting green vegetables for all grains in your diet. Green vegetables provide a number of body composition benefits that you don’t get from eating carbohydrate-filled vegetables. Try substituting raw and cooked greens for all grains for a month to improve body composition—use large raw leaves instead of bread, and cook or steam greens instead of eating boiled grains.

Greens and grains contain similar quantities of fiber, but greens provide more water to make you feel full, fewer calories, a greater array of vitamins and minerals, and they produce a more moderate blood sugar response than grains. Here are unique benefits of the most popular greens:

•   Broccoli is a super fat loss food because it contains compounds that aid in the removal of waste products after intense exercise and helps detoxify excess estrogen.

•   Swiss and rainbow chard are deliciously sweet when steamed, and they provides rare antioxidants that fight cancer.

•   Dandelion contains detoxifying compounds, aids in digestion, and supplementation with dandelion has been shown to enhance hormones linked to muscle building and fat burning.

•   Kale and spinach both are high in antioxidants that fight cancer and help with detoxification.

•   Brussel sprouts and bok choy are nutrient rich and help detoxify estrogen.

Tip 105: Opt For Quality When Choosing a Fish Oil Supplement

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Fish oil is one of the most highly contaminated supplements, making it EXTREMELY important that you invest in a quality fish oil. When a product becomes big business, whether it’s coffee, olive oil, or nutritional supplements, the quality gets watered down as producers try to cut cost corners for a bigger profit.

The problem is compounded with fish oil because it comes from a living source that is in contact with heavy metals and toxins like dioxins and PCBs. Plus, fish oil needs to be fresh and requires fairly high-tech distillation to produce a quality product, so lots of things can go wrong before it gets in your hands. For example, a recent report from a consumer testing lab showed that 31 percent of commercial fish oil supplements failed tests for contamination and freshness.

Of course, quality is important for all supplements: The two most common problem with vitamin supplements are that the vitamin quantities are wrong, or a fake product is being sold. For example, the bottle may say it’s magnesium in the capsule, but how do you know if it really is?

Obviously, we wouldn’t be writing this tip if we didn’t stand by the quality of Poliquin supplements. Please contact us via email or phone if you have any questions about the quality of the Poliquin brand.

Phone: Toll Free 855-398-7845 or 401-398-7845

Email: orders@charlespoliquin.com

Tip 104: Delay Aging By Doing Weight Training

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Perform a moderately heavy weight training program to improve your hormone levels and delay aging. Sure, you know you can get stronger, improve your physique, and build bone by lifting weights, but did you know that doing so can delay the negative effects of aging too?

A recent study showed that men with an average age of 50 who did an 8-week training program with loads above 70 percent of the maximal amount they could lift had a significant increase in growth hormone, testosterone, and much lower chronic inflammation. Although their levels didn’t equal that of a group of college men who also participated in the study, they came close.

The key to measurable results from training include the following:
•   Learn proper technique from a trainer who is experienced at working with your age range.

•   Lift with a load that is heavy so that you cannot lift the weight more than 8 to 10 times—people commonly self-select a weight that is too light to make a difference.

•   Change your training parameters after 2 to 3 months to ensure you keep making progress.

Tip 103: Eat Fiber-Rich Whole Foods to Lose Fat & Improve Health

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Eat fiber-rich whole foods at every meal to lose fat and improve your health. Just as you want to get a quality protein dose at every meal with at least 10 grams of essential amino acids, you need a threshold dose of fiber because this will produce a more moderate blood sugar response.

For example, a recent study showed that a fiber-rich whole food meal (a salmon burger on fiber-rich rye bread with salad) produced a 44 percent lower glucose and insulin response than a processed, low-fiber meal, even though glycemic load, calorie content, and macronutrient make-up were equal.

Tips to apply this include the following:

· Eat high fiber foods from whole sources like vegetables and fruit at every meal.

· Take an additional fiber supplement to increase fiber intake.

· Avoid all processed foods—ask yourself, does it come in a packaged and have more than a few ingredients? If so, choose something else.

· Eat low-glycemic, high-protein meals, and avoid high-glycemic carbohydrates.

Tip102: Sleep Better By Performing Meditation Daily

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Sleep better by performing mediation daily. Research shows that sleep can be improved by more than 10 percent by a regular mediation practice in young and old people alike.

Meditation causes favorable chemical and architectural changes in the brain. It can also regulate the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and thereby the cortisol and related adrenaline-like hormones, leading to better health and sleep.

Telling you how to do meditation is out of the scope of this tip. However, here is a brief description of practices that have proven beneficial:

•   Mindfulness mediation involves focusing on the breath and paying attention to the present moment while quieting your thoughts.

•   Mantra mediation can help you focus your attention on a repeated phrase that is coordinated with your breathing.

•   Loving kindness meditation involves a singular focus on feelings of love and compassion to all beings, and more locally on people/animals in your life.

Tip 101: Sitting Is a Death Trap: Make a Conscious Effort to Stand Every 30 Minutes

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The more you sit during a day, the more chance you have of an early death. You must make a conscious effort to stand up and move more often if you have a desk job.
Research shows that people who sit for more than 6 hours a day have much greater risk of kidney disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and premature death. The negative effect of sitting is greater for women than men, and you can’t make up for a desk job, or spending hours loafing on the couch with a workout—studies show it has almost no effect if you spend a large portion of your day sedentary.

What can you do?

•   Get an elevated or adjustable desk at work so that you can stand up for a portion of the day.

•   When you are sitting for work or other reasons, make a conscious effort to stand up and stretch every 30 minutes.

•   Interrupting long periods of sitting with 2-minute breaks of light- or moderate-intensity activity, such as walking, helps control glucose and insulin levels.

•   Get rid of your television: For every hour you sit in front a television, your life expectancy decreases by 22 minutes.

Tip 100: Try A Natural Treatment For Irritable Bowel Syndrome

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Try a natural treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) that includes getting adequate fiber, and taking a probiotic and glutamine. Research shows that this treatment approach will significantly reduce IBS, and additional treatments such as elimination diets, and taking peppermint oil and curcumin can also help.

The thing with IBS is that you need to create a healthy gut environment first and then focus on reducing inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. First, although it is out of the scope of this tip, you need to make sure you are not eating something that you are intolerant of. Gluten, wheat, dairy, and fructose are common culprits, that when eliminated, can solve IBS.

To the treatments: Glutamine is an amino acid that is the primary building block in the intestinal lining. Taking a large dose of 10 grams of glutamine a few times a day, will help to seal the gut lining, thereby decreasing inflammation.

Next, take a probiotic—those tiny live bacteria that live in the gastrointestinal tract—to improve detoxification and elimination through the gut. It sounds gross, but by infesting the gut with healthy bacteria, you can completely transform your gut and your health.

Did you know that overweight people have completely different kind of bacteria in their guts than healthy people? It’s true, and researchers have found the same good/bad bacteria split in diabetics and non-diabetics.

Fiber is also critical to heal the gut, and Americans are horrendously low in fiber intake—less than 5 percent get the American Dietetic Association recommended 25 g/day, a dose that is low by all functional medicine standards. Not only that, people are very uninformed about fiber—they typically overestimate their intake, or think that foods like crackers, cereal, and bread will fulfill their fiber needs—not true.

Note that these are processed foods that contain gluten, which is a common CAUSE of IBS, and anyway, getting only one source of fiber won’t fulfill your fiber needs. Rather, you need to take a supplemental fiber blend and eat fiber-rich vegetables to get adequate fiber for a health intestinal tract.

Once you’ve got a healthy gut, supplements that reduce inflammation in the gut can help you become symptom free. A recent review found that people with IBS who took 2 grams of the herb curcumin a day for 6 months had significantly fewer symptoms by the end of the study. Peppermint oil is another effective treatment: a review of studies of children with IBS found that a 200 mg dose of peppermint reduced abdominal pain and related issues by 58 percent.

Lastly, a blended magnesium supplement (not magnesium oxide) can help with IBS. It counters inflammation and has a relaxing effect on the gut. Shoot for 400 to 800 mg of magnesium a day.

References
Joo, E., et al. Enteral Supplement Enriched With Glutamine, Fiber, and Oligosaccharide Attenuates Experimental Colitis in Mice. Nutrition. 2013. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 99: Three Basic Weight Training Tips To Build Muscle & Lose Fat

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Build Muscle and lose body fat with basic weight training tips that will get you better results. There are many aspects of an effective lifting program for body composition, but if you shape your training around these three tips, you have a framework with which to begin.

First, it is critical that you always train both the agonist and antagonist muscle group. Simply, if you train your front, you must train your back. For example, when you do a chest exercise like the bench press, you need to also train a back exercise such as a row, pull-down, or chin-up. When you do a squat you need to also do a step-up; a bicep curl requires a triceps exercise.

Programs that emphasize only specific muscle groups, such as only the ones on the front of your body, will produce muscle imbalances. If you are doing a chest press, a bicep curl, and overhead press, but don’t train the antagonist muscle groups you put yourself at risk of injury, will have awkward coordination, and will eventually look weird.

Second, control the up and down phases of every exercise; don’t just let the weight fall with gravity. Every exercise has two phases: An eccentric phase in which the muscle lengthens and is typically the down phase, though not always (lateral pull-down, chin-up), and a concentric phase in which the muscle shortens and is usually the up phase.

You always want to perform the eccentric phase under control, and generally at a slow pace so that it takes 3 to 4 seconds to lower the weight. Don’t just drop the weight, or in the case of the squat, let your body drop into a squatting position. Rather, you need to lower yourself, or the weight slowly, counting the seconds. Then raise the weight quickly, taking one second.

Third, building muscle and losing fat requires you to produce a hormonal response to training. This means you want to elevate growth hormone (and men will elevate testosterone) in order to enhance the rebuilding of muscle tissue and the use of fat for fuel.

Do this by training compound exercises using large muscle groups. Compound exercises use more than one joint like the squat, step-up, or lunge, all of which use the hip and knee joints. Equally, the chest press, row, or overhead press all use the elbow and shoulder joints.

The muscles in the lower body are by far the largest, which means that if you are only lifting 2 or 3 times a week, you should include leg exercises in every session. More than that and you have more flexibility with your training program—the key is to pair your training for your goal.

With this framework, you should be able to develop an effective program for increasing your muscle mass and losing body fat. Remember, you need to change your workout program every 3 to 4 weeks to continually overload the body and elicit adaptations in the body. Lastly, building muscle and fat loss requires you to work hard—if you’re not getting results, increase your intensity and volume.

Tip 98: Lose Fat By Eliminating Gluten From Your Diet

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A groundbreaking new study confirms what we’ve thought for years: You can lose fat by eliminating gluten from your diet. Going gluten-free is not just for people with celiac disease and wheat intolerances, rather it may benefit EVERYONE.

The new study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry was performed on mice, which means that naysaying dietitians and wheat industry lobbyists will be certain to discount the value for humans. Check out the results for yourself.

Researchers fed two groups of mice a high-fat diet in order to induce fat gain, but one group was gluten-free and the other ate 4.5 percent gluten in their diet. Results showed that the gluten-free animals had lower body fat, less belly fat, less inflammation, and better insulin sensitivity and blood sugar tolerance.

This much better metabolic outcome came without changes in food intake or fat excretions. This means that the greater fat gain, insulin resistance, and inflammation experienced by the mice that ate gluten was due to how the gluten proteins disrupt hormone function in the body. That the gluten eating mice gained fat had nothing to do with calorie intake and everything to do with the fact that the gluten caused a severe inflammatory response.

Researchers suggest that the data is applicable to humans and it supports the beneficial effect of gluten-free diets for fat loss. Going gluten-free could be the solution to treat diabetes, obesity, and chronic disease.

If you decide to eliminate gluten from your diet, be sure to do so by eating whole foods (meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, seeds, eggs, organic yogurt) and avoid processed gluten-free products. Gluten-free baked goods like crackers, cookies, and some breads are filled with artificial ingredients, refined flour, sugar, and chemicals. Avoid these at all costs.

To read more about gluten, check out What You MUST Know About Gluten
Soares, F, et al. Gluten-Free Diet Reduces Adiposity, Inflammation, and Insulin Resistance Associated with the Induction of PPAR-Alpha and PPAR-Gamma Expression. Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 97: Got Foot, Ankle, or Lower Back Pain? Beware of High Heels

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Do you have foot, ankle or lower back pain? Do you have trouble keeping your torso upright during a squat exercise?

If you answer yes to any of these questions and regularly wear high heels, they may be the culprit. Research shows that wearing high heel shoes will alter motor patterns, coordination, and lead to severely decreased ankle mobility.

Researchers in Finland found that women who regularly wear high heels had decreased function of the Achilles tendon, altered activation of muscles in the calf and upper leg, and awkward movement patterns when walking. In more technical terms, wearing high heels led to poor neuromuscular function and decreased efficiency of the muscle-tendon unit.

What this means is that wearing high heels has the opposite effect of strength training on your muscles, connective tissue, and overall mobility: It causes dysfunction and poor muscle activation patterns.

A practical example of the effect is that a lot of women who wear high heels can’t squat properly due to lack of ankle flexibility. Because they have extremely poor range-of-motion in the ankle, they are unable to maintain the proper hip flexion angle and stay upright in a squat. A similar problem is seen with split squats in which high heel wearers can’t keep their ankles on the floor.

Another problem with heels is that they increase the natural arch in the lower back, causing lordosis that leads to low back pain and other functional problems. Finally, heels are associated with a risk of developing bunions in the feet.

Now that you understand the risk of wearing heels, if you do continue to wear them, do ankle mobility training so as to prevent dysfunctional adaptations. Get soft tissue work for the ankle and feet and use topical creams such as topical curcumin to treat inflammation in the feet and ankle. Finally, consider wearing platform shoes instead of high heels if your goal is to appear taller.

Reference
Cronin, N., et al. Long-term Use of High Heeled Shoes Alters the Neuromechanics of Human Walking. Journal of Applied Physiology. 2011. 112(6), 1054-1058.

Take A Large Dose of Vitamin C To Reduce Fatigue & Fight Stress

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Take a large dose of vitamin C to reduce fatigue and fight stress. A recent study performed on Korean office workers who experienced high levels of fatigue found that giving them a large dose of 10 grams of vitamin C significantly reduced feelings of exhaustion.

Vitamin C is so effective at treating tiredness because it decreases oxidative stress, which is thought to underlie fatigue. People with higher levels of oxidative stress in the form of reactive oxygen species and cytokines report being chronically tired at a much higher rate than people with low levels of oxidative stress.

It makes sense because oxidative stress causes cellular aging and death that damages DNA. The immune system gets blunted and you feel tired. Over time, fatigue sets in, and research suggests that oxidative stress will also lead to poor sleep and insomnia—it becomes a vicious cycle.

Vitamin C prevents this by eliminating oxidative stress markers so that you don’t feel as tired. Another possible benefit is that vitamin C has been found to lower cortisol in stressful situations, such as after exercise.

The Korean study used a large dose of 10 grams of vitamin C administered intravenously—a method that is particularly effective for elevating blood plasma levels for a therapeutic effect. Naturally, you probably aren’t going to go to the hassle of getting intravenous vitamin C treatments for fatigue (they are available, particularly at cancer treatment clinics), but you may benefit from taking a large dose in a buffered form, which allows it to be absorbed in the gut.

Problems with absorption in the gastrointestinal tract are one reason that scientists used an IV solution in the study—there was no way of simply finding out if the subjects had healthy guts that could absorb a buffered product.

For best results with vitamin C, use a large dose daily, but particularly during stressful times or when you feel fatigued. If you have gastrointestinal issues, make an effort to solve those as well. Try taking glutamine, which is known to heal intestinal walls, a probiotic to ensure you have healthy bacteria in your gut, and take a rotating fiber supplement. Also, read about gut health in the article HCL-The Most Important Supplement Ever http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/433/The_HCL_Acid_T )

Reference
Suh, S., et al. Intravenous Vitamin C Administration Reduces Fatigue in Office Workers. Nutrition Journal. 2012. 11(7).

Tip 94: Tips for Including Carbs in Your Diet for Body Composition and Health

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Carbohydrates are easily the most misunderstood of the three macronutrients—a dietary category that also includes protein and fat. Nutritionists and the general population alike have many misconceptions about how carbs are used in the body and whether they are necessary for optimal energy production—they’re not!

Despite the present day confusion about carbs, by looking at literature and research on carbs over the past century, there are a couple of noteworthy explanations of dietary carbs. For example, in 1963, scientists from Edinburgh wrote about weight gain in response to eating large amounts of carbs, beginning their paper, “every woman knows that carbohydrate is fattening: this is a piece of common knowledge, which few nutritionists would dispute.”

That pretty much sums it up! The paper recalls what we’ve known for years, but many seem to have forgotten that carbohydrates, particularly the most popular processed starch and grain-based carbs will make us fat.

More recently, Dr. Carlon Colker calls our attention to the misconception that we need to eat carbs to live, explaining that the body can make all the carbohydrates it needs in the form of glucose out of the fat and protein we eat. “Your body requires no orally ingested carbohydrates” he writes, adding that “this is a medical fact that countless professional and nonprofessionals continually ignore.”

In contrast, we must eat both protein and fat for optimal biological function—both provide essential nutrients that our bodies cannot produce. Fat is necessary for the production of hormones and for healthy cellular walls, and protein is critical to build muscle, and repair all tissues in the body. Glycogen, which the body uses as energy, can be made very efficiently from fat. You don’t need to eat carbs for the body to have a source of glycogen. Simply, carbohydrates for are not essential!

Still, there are a lot of reasons (excuses?) people have for thinking they must have carbs: “I will have a low mood and feel cranky,” or “I need to replenish glycogen from training,” or “I need carbs to achieve the optimal anabolic response and build muscle from training,” or the simple, but wrong, “I need energy!”

There is validity to some of these reasons—if you do very long, intense training and need to recover quickly in order to train a hard and intense the next day, you may need to replenish glycogen. And there are some people who feel they have the most upbeat mood and cognition when eating a large proportion of their diet from carbs—anything is possible!

The take away point is that you understand that carbohydrates, especially processed and grain-based carbs, are not essential. If you don’t feel awesome and have ideal body composition eating carbs, you might have better results from restricting them. Here are some suggestions for doing so:
•    Avoid all processed carbs, including cookies, muffins, bread, flour, crackers, and anything that is baked and/or has added sugar.

•    Do eat fiber-based carbohydrates, favoring vegetables and some fruit. Try to eat 2 to 3 cups of veggies every meal.

•    Eat every 2 to 3 hours, shooting for 5 to 6 meals a day. This will keep blood sugar even and help you manage insulin.

•    Eat a complete protein with each meal. Opt for pasture-raised meats, fish, nuts, seeds, and beans.

•    Drink only water, coffee, and tea. Avoid all juice, sugar beverages, and artificially sweetened beverages even if they are calorie free.

•    Plan your meals in advance and be prepared. Practice this ALL the time, even when traveling or going on vacation.

•    Research suggests that training with low muscle glycogen does not compromise performance—rather it can induce the body to burn fat rather than glycogen, making it a very effective method for fat loss.

References
Colker, Carlon. Low-Carb Myths. Flex. January 2013. 70-72.

Passmore, R., Swindells, Y. Observations on the Respiratory Quotients and Weight Gain of Man After Eating Large Quantities of Carbohydrate. British Journal of Nutrition. 1963. 27, 331-339.

Tip 93: Perform Weight Training To Prevent Muscle & Joint Pain from A Desk Job

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Perform weight training to prevent physical pain from doing a desk job. Back, neck, and wrist pain are very common complaints from people who work at a desk, and a cure often seems elusive to sufferers. No more! Research shows that weight training is extremely effective for getting rid of moderate-to-severe pain in the neck, shoulders, knees, and hips.

For example, a Danish study performed on young office workers who suffered regular pain in the upper body found significant reductions in sensations of pain from weight training. The study compared the effect of having workers do aerobic exercise or upper body weight lifting for 16 weeks.

Results showed that the workers who lifted the most weight and increased upper body strength decreased pain the most. For example, workers who lifted more than 20,000 kg total over the course of the study decreased their ratings of pain by 35 percent more than those who trained less often and lifted less than 10,000 kg total, Naturally, training more often (3 versus an average 1.5 times a week) resulted in more weight being lifted over the study and larger gains in strength.

In comparing the aerobic program with the weight training program, weight lifting was much better for decreasing pain. The reason for favoring weight lifting over repetitive aerobic-style exercise is clear when we realize that pain from repetitive motions and sitting for long periods causes continuous overload of the smallest muscle motor units. Repeating movements over and over again without added weight, as happens when you type, use a mouse, and perform “micro movements” during desk work causes negative adaptations to your muscular system.

In contrast, lifting weights applies a heavy load to the muscles, induces positive adaptations, and accelerates protein synthesis. Over time, training and building muscle will help reconstruct painful and abnormal muscle tissue. It also helps develop optimal motor patterns and coordination that can help prevent muscle and joint dysfunction.

Take away the following points to prevent pain and injury:

•    Perform a fairly large volume of weight training for the whole body. Include compound movements and isolation exercises that help to balance out the muscles and promote range of motion in the joints.

•    For example, for the upper body, compound exercises include shoulder presses, chest press, and rows. Isolation exercises include those for the neck, upper back, and shoulder girdle and will help treat specific pain in those areas.

•    Train at least four times a week for 40 minutes or longer. Increase weights progressively and use a training program that varies the load-repetition-set scheme every few weeks.

•    Be active everyday. Other studies show that vigorous activity performed regularly can improve mobility, blood flow in the body, and decrease sensations of pain.

Reference
Pedersen, M., et al. Effect of Specific Resistance Training on Musculoskeletal Pain Symptoms: Dose-Response Relationship. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2013. 27(1), 229-235.

Tip 92: Use Stevia as A Sweetener To Increase Insulin Sensitivity & Decrease Inflammation

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Increase insulin sensitivity and eliminate inflammation by using the herb stevia to sweeten foods and beverages. Stevia is a plant that is native to the Americas and it is naturally sweet but provides no calories. Not only is it an ideal alternative to sugar, stevia conveys the following health benefits:

•    It can modulate blood sugar and is being tested as a preventative supplement for diabetics.
•    It increases insulin sensitivity and decreases oxidative stress associated with large insulin spikes in response to eating carbs and sugar.
•    It is anti-microbial and acts as an antioxidant in the body, decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation.

For example, a recent study performed on diabetic rats showed that giving them a stevia supplement for a month significantly improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. The stevia had an antioxidant effect as well, reducing concentrations of MDA, an inflammatory biomarker that is used as an index of lipid peroxidation. Lower MDA paired with better insulin and glucose health could have implications for better body composition since they indicate a healthier metabolism, better nutrient use, and less fat accumulation.

So, how does stevia compare to sugar and non-caloric chemical sweeteners like aspartame? First, compared to man-made calorie-free sweeteners, stevia is a plant and truly is all natural. There’s no evidence it causes cancer or the abundance of other health problems that have been linked to aspartame and splenda.

Second, it does have a slightly different taste than pure sugar or chemical sweeteners, but many people like it. Others have reported, “getting used to it” over time, ultimately preferring stevia.

Finally, a 2010 study that compared caloric intake at dinner after participants ate lunch that included an equal amount of either stevia, aspartame, or sugar showed that the subjects ate the same amount of calories in all three conditions. They also reported the same levels of hunger, but the stevia group had much lower insulin and glucose levels compared to the sugar group. Glucose and insulin were also favorable in the stevia over aspartame group.

Some basic information to start using stevia includes the following:
•    Stevia comes in liquid and powder form.
•    Start using it by adding it to coffee, tea, or a post-workout whey protein shake.
•    You could also blend it with fiber in water for a tastier beverage.
•    Some protein powders, protein bars, and other natural foods are beginning to use stevia in place of sugar. For example, the Poliquin Primal Greens and Primal Reds antioxidant powders use stevia as the sweetener.
•    Try drinking something with stevia before eating for better insulin health and blood sugar management.

Reference
Shivanna, N., et al. Antioxidant Anti-Diabetic and Renal Protective Properties of Stevia Rebaudiana. Journal of Diabetes Complications. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 90: Weight Train To Decrease Breast Cancer Risk

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Weight training is one of the smartest things you can do to decrease your breast cancer risk. You probably know that being physically active and having low body fat are critical for breast cancer prevention, but did you know that lifting weights conveys protective effects against cancer that are much greater than just keeping you lean and off the couch?

First, weight training builds muscle and muscle is one of the best defenses against cancer, while also protecting against obesity, disease, and injuries. A recent 12-week study of young women found that in the women who gained the most muscle over the study, estrogen metabolism was improved considerably. A more favorable estrogen metabolism is extremely important because the cumulative lifetime exposure to estrogens that women experience significantly increases cancer risk.

Estrogen metabolism works like this: There are three pathways through which estrogen can be metabolized. The 16- hydroxyestrone pathway is a “toxic” route that is linked to cancer development, the 4-hydroxyestrone pathway is unfavorable for health, and the third route, the 2-hydroxyestone pathway, is more benign and preferable. This was the route favored by the women’s bodies who gained the most muscle.

A second recent study showed that young women who did an intense strength training program (3 sets of 10 reps of 7 compound exercises using a weight of 75 percent of the maximal load) for 8 weeks decreased the amount of estrogen and progesterone they produced. The effects of less circulating estrogen and progesterone include less breast cancer risk, better metabolism, and reduced premenstrual distress symptoms.

Researchers clarify that an intense training program will have a much more favorable effect on decreasing estrogen production by the ovaries. Higher intensity training also improves elimination of excess estrogens. Light aerobic exercise is not sufficient.

To achieve the necessary level of intensity and volume include the following elements in your training:
•    Train using the most “bang for your buck,” multi-joint lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench press, chin-ups, and overhead press.
•    Start with a muscle building, fat burning training cycle that includes at least 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps, with a weight that is 70 to 85 percent of the maximal amount you can lift.
•    Use short rest periods, varying between 10 and 90 seconds depending on the weight used—heavier loads may require the longer rest.
•    If you want to do conditioning or “cardio”, do high-intensity intervals for 20 minutes in which you go all out for 15 to 30 seconds and then rest for an equal interval.

Learn more about estrogen metabolism and how improving it can decrease your breast cancer risk in the article, Is Estrogen Dominance Making You Fat?

References
Timon, R., et al. Strength Training Effects on Urinary Steroid Profile Across the Menstrual Cycle in Healthy Women. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Campbell, K., et al. Effects of Aerobic Exercise Training on Estrogen Metabolism in Premenopausal Women. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. 2007. 16, 731-739.

Tip 89: Drink Coffee, Tea & Water for Health and Body Composition—Avoid All Other Beverages

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Get your liquids from coffee, tea, and water for optimal health and a lean body composition. Avoid all other beverages, including sugary drinks, fruit juice, sports drinks, diet drinks, and alcohol. Of those beverages that you want to avoid, not all are equally bad—the worst drinks contain high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and added sugar—but we like a radical approach at Poliquin and want to tell you how to achieve the BEST health and body at the same time.

Here are a few facts about sugary beverages that should convince you to never drink them again:

The Surgeon General is considering issuing a report against sugar and HFCS-filled drinks, such as soda, that is similar to a 1964 report on smoking that turned the tied in terms of public awareness about the dangers of smoking. Of course, in some circles drinking a coke is already as taboo as smoking...

A recent study found that for each extra soft drink consumed per day there was a 60 percent increased risk of being overweight in children.

Another study showed that for every 12 oz. sugar-sweetened beverage you drink a day, your risk of diabetes increases by 15 percent. Heart attack risk also goes up.

Obesity has become a national security issue! Twenty-seven percent of Americans are ineligible for military service due to being overweight.

Although not as bad as sugar or HFCS beverages, fruit juice drinking is also linked to fat gain and diabetes risk. Fruit juice provides a large amount of sugar in the form of fructose that is metabolized very quickly by the liver since juice doesn’t contain the fiber present in whole fruit. The liver sends that fructose straight to fat, and raises triglyceride levels.

When you drink beverages with fructose, whether from fruit or HFCS, inhibits the body’s ability to burn fat for fuel, shifting the body to favor carbohydrate oxidation and fat storage, making you fatter.

Drink smart with these strategies:
Avoid diet soda and anything with non-calorie chemical sweeteners because they increase your toxic load and may cause cancer.

Avoid alcohol because it is high in calories, is linked to poor insulin health, and also raises your toxic load since it must be metabolized by the liver before normal detoxification processes can carry on. Red wine might be one exception because it has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity, but if you are trying to lose fat, avoid it.

Coffee and tea provide numerous antioxidants and can be drunk in abundance (or at least to your liking) because they have been repeatedly been shown to support a lean body composition and health. Avoid putting honey, agave, brown rice syrup, sugar, and any other caloric or chemical sweetener in your coffee or tea.

Drink lots of water—shoot for 3 liters a day. If you’re not even close to this amount, start by getting a 1-liter stainless steel water bottle and try to empty it twice during the day. Make sure to drink your first liter before lunch. Work on your second liter over the afternoon. Finish your second liter before dinner and refill, continuing to drink until you head to bed. Increase the amount slowly until you get to 3 liters.

Tip 88: Take L-Carnitine and Omega-3s To Lose Weight & Improve Energy Levels

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Take L-carnitine with omega-3s to lose weight and improve your energy level. L-carnitine is a super amino acid that is responsible for transporting fats into the mitochondria where they are burned for energy.

Naturally, a nutrient whose primary function in the body is to get fat where it needs to go so that you don’t store it is of great interest if you want to be lean. Only recently has research shown that supplementing with L-carnitine can improve training motivation, performance, and enhance recovery as well.

A groundbreaking study from the University of Nottingham had experienced triathletes take 2 g of L-carnitine twice a day with 80 g of carbohydrates for 6 months in conjunction with a training program. Note the long time period and fairly large dose.

Results showed the athletes had a 55 percent reduction in muscle glycogen use when exercising at a moderate speed, indicating that the higher carnitine level in the muscle allowed their bodies to use their fat stores for fuel. The burning of fat for energy produced a 35 percent longer time to exhaustion on a high-intensity exercise trial. They also had much less buildup of lactate—lactate is a limiting waste product produced when you exercise hard, and it inhibits performance.

Body composition wasn’t tested in this study, but it’s logical to assume that being able to train harder and burn fat for energy will help you build muscle and lose fat. In addition, we know that giving rats a dose of 30 mg/kg of body weight of carnitine can decrease oxidative stress, delay the aging process, improve muscle function, and decrease body fat. Carnitine has a particularly favorable effect on getting rid of visceral abdominal fat in rats—yes, it gave them a lean belly!

For body composition results with L-carnitine the following things are necessary:

•    L-carnitine must “load” into the muscle over time. This happens when insulin is present, so you must take it with carbohydrates, with omega-3 fats, or with an insulogenic compound such as fenugreek. Omega-3 fats are preferred if body composition and motivation are the goal because they aid insulin signaling and energy use in the brain, helping you to stay focused.

•    The “loading” process requires a fairly large dose of carnitine—the triathlete studies used 4 grams daily, or if we take what we now from animal studies as a guide, 30 mg/kg/bw a day would be about 2,250 mg or 2.25 grams for a 75 kg person as a baseline dose.

•    Finally, the “loading” process takes a while. You’ll immediately experience less oxidative stress, but that’s not something you’re going to notice in your everyday life. After 3 weeks, carnitine improves androgen receptor function for muscle development, and a little longer and you should start feeling more alert, energized, and begin to perform better.

References
Wall, B., Stephens, F., Constantin-Teodosiu, D., Marmuthu, K., Macdonald, I., Greenhaff, P. Chronic Oral Ingestion of L-Carnitine and Carbohydrate Increases Muscle Carnitine Content and Alters Muscle Fuel Metabolism During Exercise in Humans. The Journal of Physiology. 2011. 589, 963-973.

Tip 87: Trim Your Waist by Increasing Your Exercise Intensity

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Trim your waistline and lose body fat by increasing your exercise intensity. Don’t make the mistake of exercising for longer if you want to burn body fat—doing more work at a slower pace won’t help reveal your abs. It will just bore you and tire you out! Instead, increase the intensity with which you exercise, but keep your workout short and you will be surprised how quickly you lean up.

The concept of intensity can be applied to weight training or “cardio” exercise. In the case of “cardio”, increasing your intensity means that you increase the speed with which you sprint, cycle, or run up the stairs. You want to move fast for short intervals, then rest and do it again, continually repeating your high-intensity bursts of activity for 20 to 25 minutes.

Technically, intensity in weight training refers to the amount of weight you lift. Increasing the intensity means you will lift with a heavier weight. Although, from a traditional perspective, a higher training intensity is associated with gaining strength and training the central nervous system, most recreational trainees will find that increasing intensity can also aid in fat loss.

Research provides the startling news that the vast majority of gym goers self-select a weight that is too light to elicit any body composition change, let alone build strength. You need to lift with a weight that is at LEAST 60 percent of the maximal amount that you could possibly lift for a given exercise in order to produce adaptations. This means that if the most you could leg press one time is 200 lbs, you need to use a weight of at least 120 lbs for 10 reps.

Therefore, one way to shock the body into shedding fat is to increase your weight training intensity by lifting heavier weights. A higher intensity will train the type II muscle fibers, and this has been found to boost metabolism for fat loss and building muscle.

Apply the concept of increased intensity by forgetting steady-state exercise in favor of all-out intervals. Or run stairs, hills, or increase the resistance (intensity) for short spurts if you are training on a bike. Try increasing your weights so that you are lifting a load that is heavy enough to produce failure by the end of each set.

Try the following protocols:
•    Ten sprints of 15 seconds each, increasing to 15 sprints of 30 seconds each as you adapt.
•    Try 20-second all-out sprints with 10 seconds rest in 4 sets of 4 intervals. Rest 3 minutes between sets.??
•    Cycling intervals that have been used to produce belly fat loss in a number of studies: Eight second sprints with 12 seconds rest for 60 sprints total—this is just 3 sprints a minute for 20 minutes.
•    Try hill or stair running in which you sprint up as fast as you possible and jog down. Try to repeat immediately. Do 8 to 16 reps.

References:
Ratamess, N., Faigenbaum, A., Hoffman, J., Kang, J. Self-selected Resistance Training Intensity in Healthy Women: The Influence of a Personal Trainer. 2008. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 22(1), 103-111.

Tip 86: Tips To Include Fat In Your Diet To Stay Lean & Improve Health

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Eat the RIGHT fats if you want to stay lean and achieve the best health. Eating specific dietary fats can make help your brain, heart, joints, and mood, but there are some pitfalls to fat eating that you must avoid.

Eat at least 30 percent of your calories from assorted fats including olive oil, coconut oil, fish oil, nuts, seeds, avocados, and animal fats.

First, the omega-3 fats that are provided by fish oil, flax oil, and are present in small quantities in organic animal fats should be your first choice. They are actually called essential fatty acids (EFAs) and you must eat them in order for the body to function.

The EFAs support body composition because they are incorporated into the outside lipid layer of cells. This improves insulin signaling to the cells, which allows for a better metabolism. Research suggests that a diet high in omega-3 and related healthy fats produces an even, but peppy metabolism, whereas a diet high in carbohydrates is very sluggish, leading to fat gain.

Second, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and avocados are made up of monounsaturated and include omega-6 fats. Eat these in reasonable portions because they are anti-inflammatory, preventing cellular damage.

The general population doesn’t seem to understand how bad inflammation is for health and body composition, but it is the underlying factor for illness, delayed recovery from injury, and obesity—did you know that fat tissue actually causes an inflammatory status in the body?

There’s much confusion about omega-6 fats—are they good or bad for you? As a whole group, omega-6 fats aren’t good or bad. One problem for health comes when you eat too many omega-6 fats and not enough omega-3 fats, resulting in a skewed ratio between the two that causes inflammation. Another problem is when you eat processed or isolated omega-6 fats (corn, soy, and canola oil) that are often from GMO crops. Therefore, eat an equal ratio of omega-3 to -6 fats and avoid the isolated vegetable oils.

Third, you MUST avoid hydrogenated, trans-fats that are man-made.

Fourth, eating reasonable portions of animal fats from eggs and lean, organic meats will provide the right saturated fats. Eating some saturated fat is benign and is used by the body to repair cells. The key is that you MUST also avoid ALL processed carbohydrates.

Processed carbs produce chaos in the body because they elevate blood sugar quickly and lead to a lot of insulin being released. Aside from making you feel sluggish, this raises triglyceride levels, producing oxidative stress. It’s very counterintuitive that processed carbs, many of which are “non-fat” and “low-fat,” cause cholesterol buildup, but the reason is that when the fat is removed from the products, they are digested very quickly and the carbs hit the blood sugar with a bang, producing inflammation and high cholesterol.

Finally, coconut oil, which is very high in medium chain fatty acids, have been shown to promote numerous aspects of health and can aid in fat loss. A recent study found that when Malayans ate 30 ml of coconut oil with each meal for a month they lost a small amount of body fat (about 1 pound) and significantly decreased waist circumference. Try cooking with coconut oil in place of those isolated vegetable oils that you need to avoid.

Reference
Liau, K., et al. An Open-Label Pilot Study to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Virgin Coconut Oil in Reducing Visceral Adiposity. ISRN Pharmacology. 2011. 949686.

Tip 85: Lose Fat with Portion Control: Five Tips To Eat The Right Amount

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Lose fat by modifying your energy intake to eat the right amounts of the right foods at the right time. The key to fat loss is to eat foods that provide the greatest nutrition but the least energy because doing so will fill you up and keep you satisfied longer.

For example, eating raw foods first in any meal is a great way to lower caloric intake, while getting a lot of nutrient-dense foods. Although you should still be eating at least one raw food every meal, winter is not prime time to do this since you are restricted to leafy greens, root veggies, and some fruits. No worries—there are a number of strategies to trick yourself into eating for fat loss and health.

Avoid packaged foods in favor of whole foods. The vast majority of the food you eat should coming from the perimeter of the grocery store in the form of whole vegetables and fruits (pad produce intake with frozen veggies and fruit during the winter), organic meat, wild fresh fish, nuts, and seeds.

If it comes in a package, you shouldn’t be eating it. That said, if you do choose to buy packaged food, read nutrition and serving information. You probably already know that many foods like cereal, ice cream, yogurt, bread, crackers, “single serving” beverages, and the like use nutritional labels with tiny portions that are much smaller than most people actually eat. Read the labels, get a grasp on servings by using a measuring cup, and teach your kids about serving size.

Eat protein for breakfast. Abundant research shows people eat fewer calories and have better cognitive function when they eat protein with slow digesting carbs for breakfast. Try a breakfast salad with hardboiled eggs, grilled fish, beef, organic turkey or chicken slices, or at least nuts, beans, and seeds.

Pay attention to the fact that you are eating—avoid TV completely. Research shows that when people eat in front of the TV, while on the computer, or while working they eat significantly more calories than if they ate at a table and were mindful about the act of eating. with

Try to chew your food more. This is one major benefit of eating raw foods because you have to chew more than when food is cooked, or literally “pre-digested.” Research shows that when people chewed each bite of food 40 times (yes, it’s a lot), they ate 12 percent fewer calories than when they chewed 15 times. Hormone response to eating was also better when food was chewed more, leading to people feeling satisfied sooner.

Eat on a red plate. This may seem silly, but a recent study published in the journal Appetite found that people ate fewer calories when food was served on a red plate rather than a blue or white one! The researchers think that people associate red with a warning to stop, and that it cues less consumption. Use red place mats, napkins, and dishware and see if it works for you!

References
Roe, L., et al. Salad and Satiety. The Effect of Timing of Salad Consumption on Energy Intake. Appetite. 2012. 58(1), 242-248.

Genshow, O., et al. The Color Red Reduces Snack Food and Soft Drink Intake. Appetite. 2012. 58(2), 416-422.

Lift Tip 84: With Free Weights To Get More Out of Your Training: Don’t Rely on Body Weight or ‘Suspension’ Training

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Lift with free weights to gain the most strength and mobility, while getting the best body composition benefits. Research suggests it doesn’t pay to rely on body weight training or ‘suspension’ training in which you lift your body against gravity.

The reason is that most body weight exercises are either too easy or too hard to produce any significant benefits for the average trainee. For example, you have to be very deconditioned to benefit from body weight squats because the load of your own body is not enough to elicit measurable strength or body composition benefits.

A recent study found that even in elderly people who had knee osteoarthritis, body weight squats were not sufficient to promote physical-functional benefits or decrease knee pain. Doing the squats on a vibration platform did produce strength gains because the vibration stimulus provides additional overload to the muscles that is appropriate for people with fairly serious dysfunction.

For the average healthy person, training with weights is more beneficial and practical than using a vibration platform. For well trained people, other body weight exercises such as chin-ups and push-ups will be too easy if weight isn’t added. On the other hand, the average overweight or sedentary person will find body weight exercises like chin-ups and push-ups to be too difficult to even perform one properly, making free weight training favorable to build up strength.

Similarly, although suspension training can overload the body in certain cases such as the inverted row for training the back, it shouldn’t be relied on as the sole training stimulus. Reserve body weight and suspension workouts for when you don’t have free weights handy, and rely on the traditional lifts for best results.

Reference
Simao, A., Avelar, N., et al. Functional Performance and Inflammatory Cytokines After Squat Exercises and Whole-Body Vibration in Elderly Individuals with Knee Osteoarthritis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. April 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 83: Take Glutamine To Prevent Food Cravings & Eat Better

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Take glutamine to prevent food cravings and calm annoying, obsessive thoughts about food. It’s especially effective for stopping the longing for sugar or simple carbohydrates like bread, cookies, or pastries. The trick is to mix 1 to 2 grams of powdered glutamine in water anytime you feel a craving. It’s also a good supplement to take before meals. Here’s how it works.

Glutamine is a super amino acid that is provided in whey protein, among other foods, and it has been shown to have a calming effect in the brain, while giving the immune system a boost. It is most useful if you are trying to lose fat or simply eat better because the brain can use glutamine as an alternative source of energy.

Glutamine also improves the messages sent by the chemical transmitters to and from the brain, allowing you to avoid obsessive thoughts about food. Glutamine has been used as a treatment for alcoholism and drug abuse because it calms compulsive feelings.

One area of confusion about glutamine is how it differs from glutamate and monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is that sodium flavoring often added to Asian food that you have probably been warned to avoid. Glutamate, also known as glutamic acid, is used in the brain as an energizing neurotransmitter, but it can also be turned into the calming transmitter known as GABA.

Glutamine differs from glutamate in that it has been formed from glutamate and ammonia, and has an extra nitrogen it can donate. The process by which the body makes glutamine internally helps eliminate excess ammonia.

MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid. The combination of the super sodium dose, the left over glutamic acid, and the overall processing appears to cause strange and dangerous effects from eating MSG, including electrolyte imbalances, high blood pressure, poor digestion.

Glutamine can’t be turned into MSG in the body and is considered safe and beneficial for health and body composition. It’s often used by body builders and strength athletes because of how it enhances the immune system and aids in energy use. In fact, glutamine pairs with the amino acids cysteine and glycine to make glutathione, which regulates the immune system and helps you avoid everything from a cold to cancer. Many times when you take a natural immune booster such as vitamin C, it fights off illness by enhanceing glutathione in the body.

Reference
Soeters, P., Grecu, I. Have We Enough Glutamine and How Does it Work? A Clinician’s View. Annals of Nutrient Metabolism. 2012. 60(1), 17-26.

Tip 82: Improve Body Composition By Understanding How Different Training Modes Shape Your Physique

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Improve your body composition however you desire by training in a way that shapes your physique accordingly. Basically, this means that if you want to lose fat, you need to generate as much physiological stress as possible so that your body uses a significant amount of energy and produces a dramatic buildup of lactic acid in the shortest period of time.

The effect will be a lot of calorie burning, elevated fat burning, possibly muscle building, and a higher metabolism. Do this by lifting weights and doing high-intensity interval exercise. It’s hard and physiologically stressful, but highly effective.

If you want to build muscle, you again want to apply a lot of “stress” to the muscle and overload it with tension, or weight. The continual loading will cause the muscle to adapt and grow bigger over time. This can also have the effect of elevating the metabolism and burning fat, which is the reason weight training designed to build muscle is ideal for improving body composition since it gets rid of your flabby fat and increases your solid, compact muscle.

Aerobic exercise such as running is ALL ABOUT training the body to be as efficient as possible. The classic aerobic exercise modes that are inappropriately recommended for weight loss train the body to use the least amount of oxygen and energy to perform the greatest amount of work.

Nothing about aerobic exercise is in line with the goals of fat loss or muscle building. Because the body adapts so quickly to repetitive aerobic exercise, doing it for fat loss is choosing the least effective means to reach the end goal. Sure, endurance running and cycling burn more calories than sitting at your desk, but wouldn’t you rather use the right method to reach your goal?

Aerobic exercise is also the wrong mode to train if you are over 40 and your goal is mobility and longevity since it causes muscle loss over time and decreases power. The degradation of muscle mass and loss of explosive power that already comes with aging is accelerated when older folks do aerobic exercise, putting them at greater risk of falling and fracture.

Again, you could argue that doing endurance running is better for an older person than sitting on the couch all day, but if you actually want to live long, healthy, and be active, weight training will help you reach those goals.

To review, if you want to lose fat, do weight training and intervals. If you want to build muscle, overload the muscle with tension by lifting weights. If you want to be efficient but weak, do aerobic exercise. If you want to live long and healthy, do weight training that includes both heavy and powerful exercises.

Tip 81: Get Optimal Carbohydrate Intake For Health & Body Composition

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Get strong and lean with optimal health by eating the right kinds of carbohydrates at the right times. The challenge is to identify which foods these are since there is lots of confusion about what people should really eat to live a long, healthy life.

Recent research shows that many carbohydrates are not benign and don’t protect against heart disease. In fact, the risk associated with total carbohydrate intake is similar to that of total saturated fat for having high cholesterol. In fact, eating high-glycemic carbs is associated with a greater risk of having a heart attack than eating a diet high in fat.

A recent review analyzed carbohydrates based on energy density (the amount of calories they provide), nutrient density, and their capacity to elevate insulin. Results showed that for health and body composition, you should really only be eating certain vegetables, some fruit, and legumes, with the rest of the carbs avoided or reserved only for post-workout refueling. The following are two strategies for including carbs in your diet:

1) Avoid grains. That means refined grains such as white pasta and bread, whole grain processed foods such as pasta, crackers, and bread, and whole grains. They are all high glycemic and although whole boiled grains are a better choice than processed carbohydrates, avoiding them has been shown to significantly improve blood sugar management and insulin sensitivity.

The authors of the review mentioned write that “’wholegrain’ was a positive but relatively weak discriminator between cereal foods in this model, there being generally small differences between white and whole brown rice, pasta, and bread.”

Cereal is also to be avoided. In fact, it’s so nutritionally poor and energy dense that the fact that it often contains a lot of added sugar doesn’t really make that much difference, write the researchers.

2) Eat fibrous fruits and vegetables, and avoid starchy ones. Green vegetables score very well as do dark colored fruits because they are all high in antioxidants, fiber, and very low glycemic in the case of veggies and fairly low in the case of fruit.

Kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, mushrooms, green beans, onions, asparagus, cucumber, spinach, peppers, zucchini, chard, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries should make up the bulk of your carbohydrate intake.

Although dairy scores well in terms of nutrient density and low in terms of energy density, avoid consuming it repeatedly throughout the day because it causes a very high insulin response. Milk intake has been linked to insulin resistance in kids and adults. The only time milk-based protein—preferably whey—can be beneficial is after exercising since the body is primed for replenishing energy stores and building tissue.

Reference
Shranel, B., Noakes, M. Discriminating Between Carbohydrate-Rich Foods: A Model Based on Nutrient Density and Glycemic Index. Nutrition and Dietetics. 2012. 69, 152-158.

Tip 80: Lose Fat By Improving Recovery From Exercise

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Lose fat faster by improving recovery from exercise. Research shows there are a number of ways to speed the physical recovery process and produce a better hormonal environment for fat loss and protein synthesis. The effect is not only better body composition results from training but more strength, less soreness, and better sports performance. You might find you sleep better too.

First, you need to aid the body to remove waste products produced by intense exercise, whether it is weight training, sprinting, or endurance exercise. Do this by getting antioxidants from food sources such as blueberries and tart cherries. Both these fruits have shown to accelerate recovery from very intense training because they help remove the waste products or “garbage” caused by muscle damage.

Next , you want to aid in the muscle repair process by taking amino acids and protein. Branched-chain amino acids—well known as BCAAs—will help improve tissue repair, as will a high-quality whey protein supplement taken immediately after training—try 20 grams of whey.

Eat your antioxidants like blueberries separately from the protein supplement because there’s evidence that the nutrients in blueberries can inhibit maximal protein synthesis.

Improve the clearance of the stress hormone cortisol by taking at least 2 grams of vitamin C right after your workout. Getting rid of cortisol is one of the most important things you can do to speed recovery because the chronic overactivation of the body’s stress system causes a number of negative effects including low blood pH, irregular muscular activation, and a tissue degrading state.

Additional tips to speed clearance of cortisol include the following:
•    Avoid sugar and high-glycemic carbs—the one exception is immediately post workout if you have done endurance training (at least an hour at a high intensity) or trained very hard and have depleted the muscle glycogen stores. Most recreational trainees have not done this during regular weight training.
•    Avoid caffeine after training because it will get in the way of cortisol clearance.
•    Take the supplement phosphatidyl serine—about 400 mg—to clear cortisol and improve brain function.
•    Take glutamine to aid in the removal of waste products and boost the immune system.

Tip 79: Prevent Water Retention & Bloat With Taurine & Magnesium—Sleep Better Too

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Prevent water retention and bloating by taking taurine and magnesium. Taurine is an amino acid that is excellent for helping people manage stress and anxiety, and it also helps with the transport of potassium and magnesium into muscle cells.

Nutritionist Jonny Bowden reminds us in his book The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth that the potassium/sodium balance in the body affects water retention. When you have too much sodium and not enough potassium, you retain water, which makes you feel bloated. All these nutrients influence each other in the body, and people commonly don’t get enough magnesium and taurine to maintain nutrient balance.

Magnesium is lacking because it is involved in so many biological functions, including muscle contractions, and surveys suggest dietary intake of magnesium has dropped from about 500 mg/day in 1900 to about 150 mg/day today due to soil depletion and dietary changes.

Taurine is only available from seafood, red meat, and eggs—but unless you eat these foods at every meal, you probably won’t get enough taurine. Plus, taurine is easily depleted with stress or intense exercise, so athletes and committed trainees need extra.

Try 1 gram of taurine 1 to 2 times a day, up to 6 grams. Get 500 mg of magnesium from a high-quality source such as magnesium glycinate, fumarate, ororate, or taurate.

Additional benefits of taking taurine include fat loss due to better insulin sensitivity and an improved ability to use fat for fuel by the body, better sleep, and less stress or anxiety. Magnesium also aids in insulin health and can calm the nervous system to help you sleep better.

Reference

Yatabe, Y., Miyakawa, S., et al. Effects of Taurine Administration on Exercise. Advances in Experimental Medicines and Biology. 2009. 643, 245-255.

Bowden, Jonny. The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth. Fair Winds Press. 2011.

Tip 78: Take Creatine While Strength Training To Alleviate Knee Pain & Arthritis

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Take creatine while strength training to cure knee pain and prevent arthritis. A recent study shows that creatine, one of the most popular supplements for improving performance among athletes and body builders, can benefit people of all ages and activity levels.

Researchers had older women with knee osteoarthritis do a 12-week weight training program for the lower body and take either creatine or a placebo. Creatine has to “load” into the muscles with a high dose for about a week and then it’s only necessary to take a small maintenance dose, so the women took 20 grams a day for a week and then 5 grams daily after that.

Results showed that at the end of the study, the group that took the creatine while training significantly increased muscle development in the quadriceps and gained more leg strength than the placebo group. The also improved physical function, quality of life, lost more body fat, and had less knee pain than the placebo group.

The creatine supplement probably helped produce better results because it allowed the women to train at a higher level of intensity and lift more weight than the placebo group. Creatine is also thought to affect the energy provision of bone and cartilage and have a stimulatory effect on bone-building cells.

Additional benefits you could get from taking creatine include the following:
1)    Better training results (more fat loss, greater strength gains, more muscle) from being able to exercise harder.
2)    Improved sports performance because creatine can increase energy stores and allow you to be more powerful, while delaying fatigue.
3)    Stronger bones and connective tissue, including tendons and ligaments.
4)    Less risk of arthritis and less joint pain.

Remember, to get benefits from creatine, you need to load it for a week with a daily 20-gram dose and can then switch to 5 grams a day. Try taking it in conjunction with training for 3 months and then discontinue for at least a week before starting over with a loading dose so that your body continues to adapt.

Reference
Neves, M., et al. Beneficial Effect of Creatine Supplementation in Knee Osteoarthritis. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2011. 43(8), 1538-1543.

Tip 77: Three Ways to Change Your Workouts To Get Stronger

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When was the last time you increased your weights in the gym? Or changed your training by doing new exercises? Or completely mixed up your repetition-set-weight scheme?

If you can’t identify a specific date to answer these questions, or if you find you’re not get the training results you desire, NOW is the time to make some changes. Three proven methods for developing strength and improving body composition are the following:

Do More Sets & Fewer Reps Per Set
A lot of people who don’t program their training, or who don’t work with a trainer will always do 10 or 15 reps for 2 or 3 sets. Make your body adapt quickly by changing your training: Do 5 to 8 sets with 5 to 8 reps. If your main goal is to get stronger, choose fewer reps per set and try a heavy weight. Start with 5 sets of 5 reps. If your main goal is body composition (fat loss and muscle building), choose a challenging weight and do 5 or 6 sets of 8 reps. Increase your sets as you adapt.

Doing more sets with fewer reps per set allows you to lift more total weight, and studies show these training schemes typically produce significantly greater strength and body composition benefits than if you do fewer sets but more reps per set. Plus, it’s a great way to avoid boredom.

Get Off The Machines & Lift Free Weights
Research shows that you get a better hormonal response to training when you lift with free weights instead of machines. A recent study showed that men who did squats with a barbell produced much more growth hormone and testosterone during the workout than those who did a machine squat. A better hormonal response will benefit both men and women to gain more strength and improve body composition.

Favor Lower Body or Compound Exercises Over Upper Body & Isolation Lifts
Research shows that for body composition especially, lower body and total body lifts are the way to go. If you never do any squats, lunges, or deadlifts, and just do chest and back exercises, you are missing out. You’ll get much better body composition results by adding compound exercises into your workouts because this will produce a better environment in the body for fat burning and muscle building.

If you never train the lower body, start doing a squat and a single-let exercise like a step-up or lunge in addition to your regular training. If you do train the whole body already, make sure compound lifts that use more than one joint make up the majority of your exercises: Squat, deadlift, overhead press, bent-over row, chin-ups or pull-ups, and chest press.

Reference
Black, A., et al. Hormonal Response to Free Eight and Machine Weight Resistance Exercise. Eighth International Conference on Strength Training. Norway: Oslo. 2012.

Tip 76: Protect Yourself From Your Cell Phone: Radiation Compromises Fertility & Brain Health

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Protect yourself from your cell phone:
•    Don’t carry it in your pocket, in your bra, or on your body
•    Put it in a purse or bag—or at the very least, don’t carry it next to vital organs
•    Get an earpiece so that you NEVER have to hold it to your head
•    Don’t sleep with it under your pillow or right near your bed
•    Consider turning it off at night

Research shows that cell phone radiation significantly affect the health of our cells. Two documented effects of this are compromised male fertility and poor brain health.

A number of studies show that exposure to cell phone radiation turns on genes that kill brain cells. Radiation appears to affect cells involved in chemical transmission more than multifunctional brain cells. In addition, studies done on brain cells in a test tube suggest radiation can cause tumor growth that could develop into cancer. Finally, using a cell phone for a long period of time can actually increase the temperature of brain tissue, leading to cell death and other problems.

The bad news doesn’t stop there. Radiation directly compromises male fertility. Last year, studies came out showing that exposing sperm cells to the highest permissible power output from a cell phone (2.0 W/kg/body weight) decreased fertility by 25 percent. It affected all measures of sperm health, including the life of a sperm cell and its mobility.

An observational study found that men who were trying to conceive and used their cells phones more than 2 hours a day had much poorer sperm quality than those who used their phones less than 2 hours daily. The researchers estimate that cell phone radiation has decreased human fertility by as much as 15 percent in couples of reproductive age.

Take action to decrease your exposure to cell phone radiation. Please protect your children by teaching them how to keep radiation away from their developing organs and brains. For more information, go to the Environmental Working Group’s website for tips and a list of how much radiation phones produce (http://ewg.org/cellphoneradiation/6-Safety-Tips )

References
Gutschi, T., et al. Impact of Cell Phone Use on Men’s Semen Parameters. Andrologia. 2011. Published Ahead of Print.

Zhao, T., et al. Exposure to Cell Phone Radiation Up-Regulates Apoptosis Genes in Primary Cultures of Neurons and Astrocytes. Neuroscience Letters. 2007. 412(1), 34-38.

Tip 75: Set Goals That Make You Excited: A Few Tips For Goal Fulfillment

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Now that we are well past New Years and all the pressures that come with resolutions, it is an ideal time to set a goal or two. Instead of setting the same goals as every other year, or committing to do something that seems very difficult and hard, spend some looking into your future.

Look at your past 12 months and imagine your next 12. Create a personal vision that gets you excited, inspired, and maybe even a little nervous. Ask yourself, “What does my life look like in January 2014? What does it look like in January 2018? 2023?”

Once you’ve spent time imagining your inspired life of the future, write down one or two things you need to do to get you there. Maybe write down three if you really like to brainstorm, but don’t do too much so that you become overwhelmed with the challenges and bogged down with tasks on a checklist.

Create a roadmap to take you to that meaningful vision of yourself. If this requires a behavior change, such as starting to work out, changing your diet, spending more time with your kids, or doing volunteer work, write down the obstacles or conflicting needs that get in the way of achieving these goals.

For instance, if your goal is to work out after work, but you anticipate and dread the pain of the workout all day, it’s very unlikely you will follow through and make it to the gym. Now it’s time to problem solve, and find a way to trade the anticipation of pain for motivation to achieve physical goals.

You’ve also got to find a place where you can realistically do this. A lot of gyms are too busy at peak times to get a decent workout, and if you don’t know exactly what to do when they hit the weight floor, it can be just too much to overcome.

Consider other gyms in your area. Try a small studio or get a personal trainer, or change your workout time and train at lunch or before work. Again, you’ll have to think ahead, visualize obstacles to fulfillment, and problem solve.

If you feel discouraged, go back to that original meaningful vision. Get away from the checklist, and get in tune with what makes you enthusiastic. Go after it with passion. Just think that if you go after something that makes you feel alive, you will be all that much more inspired when you actually achieve it!

Tip 74: Two Ways To Use Squats For Better Results In The Gym

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The squat is on of the best exercises for the general population because it works the whole body and provides a number of real-life benefits. Sure, squats are hard work, but they are WORTH the effort because they convey the following benefits:

•    Walk faster and move better
•    Run faster at short sprints and for longer distances
•    Jump higher
•    Have a stronger, leaner core
•    Have a stronger, healthier lower back
•    Prevent pain and injury in the knees, hips, and lower back
•    Greater bone mineral density and less chance of fracture

Not only are squats a superior exercise for strength and fitness, there are many misconceptions about the squat that can impede results. The main one—that you should not let the knees travel over the toes—is probably the most common. There’s no scientific evidence that having the knees travel over the toes will hurt the knees. In fact the greatest force on the knee is at the beginning of the squat, right after you bend your knee, not in the later stages of the squat when your knees have traveled forward.

Plus, did you know that the your knee travels forward over your toes every time you walk up and down the stairs? It’s true, and full squats are a great way to train the muscles around the hip and knee joint so that you can go up and down stairs with agility and without pain.

With all that in mind, the two squat variations for novice trainees are split squats and dumbbell squats.

Split squats are ideal for anyone new to squats. They are also the place to start if you have pain in the knees, hips, or lower back, or have imbalanced muscles. Split squats train the whole lower body musculature and can help increase hip and ankle range-of-motion so that you will be ready to try barbell squats.

Split squats are excellent because they build equal strength on both sides of the body, improving movement patterns, force and power output, and posture. The effect is the elimination of pain and less risk of injury.

Dumbbell squats are an excellent exercise for anyone who has basic structural balance. To do them, you hold the dumbbells at your sides during the squat. With dumbbell squats you don’t need the superior flexibility required for front squats or the technical knowledge of back squats.

Be sure to do full-range squats as low as you can go (please go below parallel), keep your chest up, and focus on technique at all times.

Check out the video, German Body Comp for the Ladies to see an example of dumbbell and split squats.

Tip 73: Take Vitamin D if You Take Prescription Medication: Asthma, Heart, Diabetes & Pain Meds Lower Vitamin D Status

5/25/2013 9:39:48 PM

Take vitamin D if you take prescription medication, especially asthma, heart, anti-diabetes, or pain medications. Research shows that people who take at least one medication have significantly lower vitamin D levels than those who take none.

Everyone should be keeping tabs on their vitamin D level because surveys suggest that as much as 75 percent of the general population is deficient in vitamin D, but that number is much higher in older people, and it’s practically a given in older folks who take medications.

For instance, a Danish study found that out of 1,300 people who used one or more medication, 48 percent were vitamin D deficient with a level below 20 ng/ml. People who were between age 55 and 65 and took at least one medication had a vitamin D level that was 1.7 ng/ml lower than those who took none. People over 65 who took medications had vitamin D that was 3.1 ng/ml lower than those who took none.

The greatest effect on vitamin D was in subjects who took calcium-channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, and anti-diabetic meds. Asthma medicine and proton pump inhibitors were also linked with lower vitamin D. The lowest vitamin D levels were found in people who took more than four medications, indicating a compounding effect.

Researchers think vitamin D is lower in medication users because of any of the three following options: 1) the mediation causes lower vitamin D, 2) chronic diseases that lead to medication use contribute to lower levels, or 3) a chronic disease may be a consequence of vitamin D deficiency.

In addition, we know that low vitamin D causes insulin resistance and inflammation in the body. Many of the medications have been shown to acutely alter insulin sensitivity and cause oxidative stress that leads to the build up of inflammation.

Take away a commitment to getting your vitamin D level checked and supplement accordingly. Know that the following things significantly increase your risk of being deficient:
•    Having dark skin. People with dark pigmentation do not make vitamin D to the same degree as those with light skin.
•    Wearing sunscreen and sunglasses in the sun can impede the body’s ability to make vitamin D.
•    Being older—over 55 years old.
•    Taking one or more prescription medication. Taking an NSAID like Ibuprofen or Tylenol may also lead to lower vitamin D.
•    If you are overweight, your are much more likely to be vitamin D deficient.

Reference
Sohl, E., et al. The Impact of Medication on Vitamin D Status in Older Individuals. European Journal of Endocrinology. 2012. 166, 477-485.

Tip 72: Don’t Work Out On An Empty Stomach: Tips For Pre-Workout Meals

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Eat a solid protein-based meal before working out to improve your metabolism and focus. A mixed meal of protein, low-glycemic carbs, and “smart” fats prior to exercise will allow you to burn more fat and get the best results.

“Quick energy” in the from of simple, fast-digesting carbohydrates are one of the worst things you can eat before exercise if you want to have great workout. They will cause high blood sugar and a spike of insulin into the blood, which can leave you feeling sluggish. The combination may also elevate cortisol needlessly, leaving you with a compromised hormonal environment for building muscle.

Research shows that instead, you should eat a slow-digesting meal about an hour before exercise that provides all the macronutrients (protein, carbs, healthy fat). For example, a recent study showed that athletes who ate a protein-based low-glycemic breakfast increased their metabolism for a longer period after a hard workout than a group who ate no breakfast. Fat burning was also higher.

Naturally, you need to individualize your pre-workout meal for your needs, but here are some tips that can help you get better results:

•    Eat a solid mixed meal leaving enough time to digest.
•    Use liquid protein, such as whey, post-workout because the body is primed to use the amino acids provided for tissue repair and recovery.
•    Avoid high-glycemic carbs like candy bars, most protein bars, bread, pasta, and the like.
•    Choose veggies and low-glycemic fruits such as berries. The goal is to keep blood sugar stable or slightly raise it.
•    Avoid eating a high-fat meal, but do get some omega-3 fats, even if you just take some fish oil. High saturated fat meals can lead to poor blood flow, whereas omega-3 fats have been shown to increase blood flow and insulin sensitivity.
•    Get your protein from fish or wild meat that has omega-3s, or take a few grams of fish oil to aid the body in getting nutrients into the cells to be burned to give you energy.
•    If you normally don’t eat anything before working out, start small and plan ahead. Prepare breakfast in advance (the night before) to ensure you have everything ready and can get out the door quickly. Start with just a few bites the first day and take it from there.

Reference
Chong, M., et al. Long Chain N-3 PUFA-Rich Meal Reduced Postprandial Measures of Arterial Stiffness. Clinical Nutrition. 2010.

Tip 71: Eat At Least Five Vegetables and Fruits A Day To Prevent Weight Gain

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Eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruits a day to prevent weight gain and improve wellbeing. There is robust evidence that people who eat the most servings of fruits and veggies a day gain the least weight over the long term. Risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and chronic inflammation are also significantly lower in people who eat more produce daily.

For example, a 2004 study of 74,000 middle-aged women found that those who ate the most fruits and vegetables a day gained the least weight over the 12-year study. The leanest women averaged 9 servings of produce total a day with 6 coming from vegetables and 3 from fruits. The women who gained the most weight over the 12 years averaged 2.6 servings of produce total with 1.5 coming from vegetables and 0.5 from fruit.

The most convincing evidence that fruits and veggies can keep you lean is in the fact that the women who were in that highest intake group of produce (eating 9 servings a day) actually had the highest total caloric intake daily! These women who gained the least weight, but ate the most produce, averaged slightly over 2,000 calories a day. The women who ate the least produce and gained the most weight averaged slightly under 1,500 a day. The women who fell in the middle, averaging 4 servings of produce a day, ate 1,715 calories.

It’s likely the higher fiber and antioxidants provided by the fruits and vegetables helped women maintain their weight. Eating fruits and vegetables is one of the easiest ways to maintain weight and support health:

•    Shoot for 9 servings a day with more than half coming from vegetables.

•    Favor green vegetables over yellow and orange (broccoli and leafy greens over carrots and sweet potatoes), but the key is to get as wide a variety as possible.

•    Don’t be afraid that a reasonable fruit intake will cause weight gain—no studies have shown this. In fact, a review article that assessed fruit intake in relation to body weight found that the highest fruit intake produced the most weight loss in 13 out of 15 studies. The remaining 2 studies showed no change in weight from eating at least 5 servings of fruit a day.

•    For fruit, your best bet is a variety with the following being considered “anti-obesity” fruits by scientists: pomegranate, berries, cherries, grapes, and kiwi. Apples, pears, and mangos are also high on the list of best fruits.

References
He, K., et al. Changes in Intake of Fruits and Vegetables in Relation to Risk of Obesity and Weight Gain Among Middle-Aged Women. International Journal of Obesity. 2004. 28, 1569-1675.

Alinia, S., et al. The Potential Association Between Fruit Intake and Body Weight. Obesity Review. 2009. 10(6), 639-647.

Tip 70: Post-Workout Nutrition Tips For Better Results

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After you workout is the magic time for optimal nutrition. Getting the right nutrients will speed recovery, make you less sore, and help you improve body composition. During the hour after exercise, the muscles are primed for building, and you support fat loss if you eat correctly. On the other hand, ignoring post-workout nutrition, or consuming the wrong things can negate your hard work.

The following points will tell you how to get better results with post-workout nutrition:

1)    By getting extra protein after training, you can increase muscle building by 3 to 5 times because the amino acids provided can stimulate protein synthesis (the mechanism that leads to muscle growth) for up to 24 hours. For fat loss purposes, this means that your metabolism will be higher during that time as well.

2)    Research suggests that you should take about 20 grams of liquid whey protein after training for recovery. Whey protein is far superior to other protein sources because it has the largest array of amino acids and is quickly digested. Repeatedly, whey has proven better for body composition and strength and power development than soy or casein. However, if you are allergic to whey, be sure to get at least 20 grams of some liquid protein source (pea or rice protein are options).

3)    If fat loss is your goal and you are not doing long, intense endurance training for at least 60 minutes, carbs are not needed post workout. Studies suggest that taking fish oil pre- and post-workout (about 4 grams total) in conjunction with protein can maximally support recovery.

4)    If fat loss is not your primary goal and you want to eat carbs, post-workout is the time to do it. Gorging on pizza, cookies, chips, and the like is a bad choice, but eating a small amount of carbs can be okay. A banana, sweet potato, dried fruit or similar whole food carbs are your best bet.

5)    If you are doing endurance training or a workout that has depleted your carbohydrate stores (remember, this happens with very intense, long duration training—not after running a 5 K), research suggests a ratio of 2:1 carbs to protein can enhance muscle building and speed recovery. This translates to 1.2 to 1.5 g/kg of simple carbs (e.g., dextrose, sucrose) with 0.3 to 0.5 g/kg of a quality protein.

6)    It’s EXTREMELY important that you choose quality protein powder for post-workout nutrition. Get one that doesn’t have added sugar, especially fructose, dyes, or chemicals. Poor quality whey protein with fructose and artificial flavoring is far more trouble than it’s worth!

7)    Make sure that your protein source has a large dose of the amino acid leucine along with the rest of the essential amino acids. Leucine is needed for optimal recovery, and older people over 40 WILL NOT experience as much of a metabolism boost post-workout if leucine isn’t present.

8)    Happily, whey protein contains a lot of leucine, and for older folks who can benefit from a little extra, you can take some branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) that contain at least 40 percent leucine. BCAAs come in capsule form and should be taken pre- and post-workout.

Reference
Churchward, T., Burd, N., et al. Nutritional Regulation of Muscle Protein Synthesis with Resistance Exercise: Strategies to Enhance Anabolism. Nutrition and Metabolism. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 69: Post-Workout Nutrition Tips For Better Results

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Tip 68: Do Holiday Sprint Training For Weight Management

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We all know it is really difficult to stay on track with our training over the holidays. Not everyone can leave for an hour or so to go the gym when the house is full of guests. Or what if you are the guest?

A simple solution is to do stair or hill running. Almost every home has a set of stairs. If you live in an apartment, then you definitely have a set of stairs. All you need to do is wake up a little before anyone else, or even just find some down time when the stairs will be the least utilized.

The reason hill or stair running is so effective for weight management is that it taxes the anaerobic energy system and burns a lot of energy in a very short period of time. It’s challenging but it’s quick—wouldn’t you rather go hard for 15 minutes than spend an hour jogging?

You can do this alone, or better yet, grab two people to do it with you.
The program is simple: If you only have one flight of stairs, as in a house, you will run up the stairs and then walk or jog down quickly.
Repeat for 30 seconds. Then let your partners go—if you don’t have partners, just take a 60 seconds of rest.
Once your partners have both done their stair sprints, it is your turn again. Keep this cycle going for 15 minutes. Pretty easy, eh?

If you are in a building with multiple flights, you won’t need to go up and down over and over—just go straight up 3 or 4 flights at once and then jog down.

To make it harder, try carrying a load up the stairs. Get gallon jugs of water and carry them, or try a phone book if you have one. Or there might be dumbbells around the house that you can use—carrying two 10 or 15 lb dumbbells will significantly increase your power output assuming you sprint all-out up the stairs. Carrying a heavy load can also dramatically increase energy expenditure.

Finally, if the weather is decent, you can do hill runs. Shoot for 30 seconds of sprinting uphill and then jog slowly down, resting 1 minute before repeating. Do 12 sprints, or break the 12 up into 3 sets of 4 and rest for 2 to 3 minutes between sets if you are new to conditioning.

Tip 67: Visualize Obstacles & Plan Ahead To Achieve Goals In The New Year

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Achieve goals and fulfill your New Year’s resolutions by planning ahead and visualizing obstacles. A common assumption is that we don’t reach our goals because we’re not motivated, but research suggests that more often people do not fully identify the steps needed to make change.

You need a roadmap to change your behavior so that when the going gets tough, all you have to do is follow the map. Otherwise, we are more likely to get derailed by counter-motivations. Counter-motivations are legitimate but conflicting needs that get in the way of goal achievement. For instance, if your goal is to work out after work, but you have family obligations, are tired after sitting down at a desk job for hours, or anticipate the pain of the workout all day long, it’s very unlikely you will follow through and make it to the gym.

One solution is to acknowledge the counter-motivation and identify a way to fulfill both that goal and the workout. For example, if fatigue or anticipation of pain are getting in the way of exercising after work, try training before work or at lunch. Morning training has been shown to boost energy throughout the day and it allows you to “get it out of the way” so you don’t have to worry about it all day (less cortisol with less anxiety too).

Another problem with goal fulfillment is that people base their predictions of what they will be able to accomplish on an ideal world in which there are no obstacles and no unseen demands to trip them up. This results in chronically overly optimistic predictions that can’t be reached.

The solution is to identify all possible obstacles to following through on your goal. Literally perform mental imagery in which you see yourself getting up an hour-and-a-half early to go to work out (or during lunch, or after work). But what happens when there’s a huge snowstorm and you have to shovel out in the morning? Or, if your child is sick and you can’t train after work? You need solutions to these stumbling blocks.

The same thing goes when you travel—if diet or working out are important to you, you have to identify when you will train and how you will eat properly on your trip IN ADVANCE. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in a new city with too many meetings and no place to train.

Or, if you are visiting family and know that you will be pressured to eat food that doesn’t fit with your diet, you must think ahead and identify a way to appease people who try to feed you. You also need a plan of what you WILL eat.

Think ahead. Make a plan. Visualize obstacles. Be creative in your solutions. This will create a roadmap so that this year you successfully achieve your New Year’s goals.

Reference:
Koehler, D., White, R., et al. Good Intentions, Optimistic Self-Predictions, and Missed Opportunities. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2011. 2(1), 90-96.

Richetin, J., Conner, M., et al. Not Doing is Not the Opposite of Doing: Implications for attitudinal Models of Behavioral Predication. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 2011. 37()1), 40-54.

Tip 66: Sleep Better By Eating More Protein During the Day & Low-Glycemic Carbs At Night

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Sleep better by eating more protein during the day and low-sugar carbs before bed. Research shows that sleep, wakefulness, and energy levels are regulated by a chemical transmitter pathway in the brain, and we can control those pathways with what we eat.

At the most basic level, eating carbohydrates activate the orexin pathway, which makes us feel sleepy. Scientists have even developed a sleep drug that directly targets the orexin pathway and is being prescribed as a sleep aid.

When we eat protein, the amino acids will block the orexin pathway, making us alert. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that eating a high-protein diet will cause trouble sleeping. Rather, a recent study of how different diets affect sleep showed that high-protein diets allowed people to sleep better and wake up much fewer times during the night than high-carb diets. Higher carbohydrate diets allowed them to go to sleep much faster after turning off the light, but they were more wakeful during their sleep.

Researchers suggest that eating a high-protein diet is ideal for achieving overall better sleep, but eating low-glycemic carbohydrates in the evening can help you go to sleep quickly. Higher sugar carbs, or those that are very quickly digested, may lead to a large increase in blood sugar, which is thought to have a negative affect on sleep quality. Avoid eating sweets and simple carbs—cookies, pastries, cake, ice cream, pie, bread—before bedtime.

A related method of improving sleep is to take the supplement inositol before bed. Inositol is a form of sugar that is found in citrus fruits and nuts, among other things. It contains negligible calories but appears to activate the orexin pathway to calm your brain and help you go to sleep. Inositol works in a similar way as the sleep medications used to target the orexin pathway.

Research suggests that inositol can reduce stress and help you sleep. You can get it in powder form and take it in water about 45 minutes before you want to go to bed to help you sleep. Start with a dose of 2 grams and you can increase to as much as 10 grams.

References
Lindseth, G., et al. Nutritional Effects on Sleep. Western Journal of Nursing Research. August 2011. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 65: Decrease Screen Time & Move More To Lose Belly Fat

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Replace the time you spend in front a screen with physical activity to lose belly fat. Research shows that leisure screen time in front of a computer, TV, or phone, is linked to a greater risk of death, disease, and more belly fat in adults and children.

The relationship between screen time and mortality risk increases dramatically when you spend more than 2 hours on leisure screen time a day, and the link is evident for all ages. Similarly, belly fat and total body fat percentage is associated with more time spent sedentary. Desk jobs, dependence on cars, and laziness all contribute.

The reason, of course, is that energy use and insulin sensitivity decrease when you don’t move for long periods. The bad news is this drop in metabolism happens dangerously quickly.

In as little as 20 minutes of sitting, calorie burning in the body slows and gene signaling drops, blunting physiological processes like tissue repair. Over longer periods, blood sugar is taken up into your cells at a slower rate, leading the body to store it as fat.

In one study, a group of young, recreational active students who decreased their daily steps to below 5,000 a day for 3 days had an immediate and dramatic drop in blood sugar uptake. This will lead to fat gain, a slower metabolism, greater risk of diabetes, and more inflammation. Down the road, the effect of sitting around compounds and increases disease risk and mortality.

Get more active by doing the following things:

•    Get rid of your TV and replace the time wasted on TV with more productive activities. If you can’t get rid of your TV, set a limit on dally screen time—one hour daily should be the maximum for everyone including kids.

•    Shoot for taking 10,000 steps a day. If you have an active job this won’t be a problem, but with a desk job, you will need to take regular brisk walks—even a few 5 to 10 minute walks will make a difference.

•    Limit leisure screen time in general. Set aside times when you don’t have your phone with you and avoid more than 30 minutes of leisure computer time daily.

•    Do not take your phone into the gym when you train.

•    Be active with your kids—habits that youth adopt during childhood often stick with them. Get your kids to move as much as possible by playing sports, doing martial arts, bike riding, helping with chores, or playing ball games.

Reference
Thyfault J., Booth, F., Lack of Regular Physical Exercise or too Much Inactivity. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care. July 2011. 14(4), 374-378.

Tip 64: Boost Brain Function All Day Long By Eating Protein & Omega-3 Fats

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Boost brain function all day long by eating protein and omega-3 fats—you’ll have a better body composition too! Research shows that meals rich in omega-3s and protein can improve cognitive ability, keeping you sharp all day long. The pair can also elevate metabolism, while helping you avoid preoccupation with dieting.

A common misconception is that carbohydrates and sugar are arousing and will make you energized—not true! It is protein, not glucose (what carbs are turned into in the body), that stimulates the brain cells that keep you alert and vigilant. Wakefulness, energy expenditure, and hunger are all dependent on a network of transmitters called orexins/hypocretins in the brain.

For example, if you eat carbs with a lot of sugars such as bread or candy, the orexin network gets blocked making you sedated and feel sleepy, while slowing energy use. In contrast, if you eat protein, the amino acids will stimulate the orexin network, arousing your brain, while increasing metabolism and energy use.

Amino acids also stop glucose from blocking the orexin network, so if you choose to eat carbs, you should always eat protein with them for better brain function and metabolic response. The only time of day that you might want to avoid protein is before bed since it is arousing, whereas carbs may help you sleep.

Typically, fat-rich meals can also suppress alertness. However, omega-3 fats improve the transmission of chemical signals to the brain. The omega-3 DHA is particularly effective at supporting focus and cognition. For example, a study of rats found that giving them DHA-rich meals improved their ability to negotiate a maze test, which is a way that brain function is measured in animal studies.

For a superior brain all day long, use the following meal tips:

•    Start your day with a high-protein breakfast that includes omega-3s.
•    Eat a nice dose of protein at every meal. Consider eating three snacks and three meals containing protein throughout the day.
•    If you feel sleepy, bored, or lack energy, eat a protein snack rather than carbs or coffee.
•    If you do choose to eat carbs, always pair them with protein. A bedtime snack is the one time it makes sense to eat carbs alone.
•    Try to get a large portion of your fat intake from omega-3 fats. Take fish oil to increase DHA intake. Completely avoid hydrogenated fats.

Reference
Kamani, M., Schoute, J., et al. Activation of Central Orexin/Hypocretin Neurons by Dietary Amino Acids. Neuron. 2011. 72, 616-629.

Agrawal, R., Gomez, F. Metabolic Syndrome in the Brain: Deficiency in Omega-3 Fatty Acid Exacerbates Dysfunctions in Insulin Receptor Signaling and Cognition. 2012. Publish Ahead of Print.

Tip 63: Two Ways To Lose Fat & Reveal Your Abs: Whole Body Training & Sprints

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Lose the fat and reveal your abs by doing whole body training and sprints. Instead of spending a lot of time on sit-ups and abdominal lifts, multi-joint training with a lot of sets is the best way to give you strong, cut abs. It will also start the fat removal process from your middle, and if you do sprints too, you’ll have a lean, chiseled midsection come spring.

A study from 2011 showed that 6 weeks of abdominal training produced no loss of body fat, despite participants spending 4 hours a week doing crunches, bicycles, and sit-ups. In comparison, we know that training with total body weightlifting exercises such as squats and deadlifts will build the abs. For instance, a group of Thai athletes who trained these lifts had much greater muscle development throughout the oblique abdominals than a control group.

In addition to multi-joint weight training exercises that build a more structurally balanced body and shrink your waist, do high-intensity sprints a few days a week. Trade in your 15-minute sit-up routine for 20 to 30 minutes of sprint training. Use these interval schemes to do so:

•    Use the 30-20-10 model in which you jog for 30 seconds, run at a moderate intensity for 20 seconds, and sprint for 10 seconds, and then repeat. Do four 5-minute intervals of the 30-20-10 model.
•    If you’re in good shape, try a 1 to 1 interval-to-rest program with four 4-minute intervals of 30 second sprints and 30 second recovery.
•    Do ten sprints of 15 seconds, increasing to fifteen sprint of 30 seconds. Base recovery off of heart rate—once it returns to 120 beats per minute, do the next sprint.
•    Do ten 30-second all-out sprints with 90 seconds rest.
•    Want more information on how these schemes work and who they are appropriate for? Read more in Tips to Get Fat Loss Results from Sprint Interval Training
•    Go back and read yesterday’s tip for info on how eliminating fructose from your diet can help you lose belly fat and reveal your abs.

Reference
Sitilertpisan, P., et al. Comparison of Lateral Abdominal Muscle Thickness Between Weightlifters and Matched Controls. Physical Therapy in Sport. 2011. 12(4), 171-174.

Tip 62: Eliminate Fructose from Your Diet To Lose Belly Fat

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Eliminate fructose from your diet to lose belly fat and increase the amount of calories you burn at rest. It’s the fructose that is added to foods and beverages that is especially concerning if you want a slim waist and better body composition.

This cheap sweetener is everywhere in processed foods—it even sneaks into foods you wouldn’t suspect like spaghetti sauce, bread, yogurt, regular soda, tonic water, and salad dressing. Fructose is also present in fruit but this form does not appear to affect the body in the same way as added fructose due to factors such as the fiber and antioxidants present in the fruit. Therefore, focus on eliminating the fructose that is added to foods—a side benefit of doing so is you’ll get rid of a lot of processed foods that you shouldn’t be eating as it is.

Studies show that eating fructose regularly significantly changes the way the body metabolizes energy. For instance, one study showed that after 10 weeks of eating added fructose daily, participants experienced a significant decrease in their daily energy expenditure, which is never a good thing because it will lead to fat gain.

In addition, the participants shifted from burning fat to burning much more carbohydrates, which is an unfavorable change for body composition. All subjects experienced a 38 percent decrease in fat burning after eating a meal, and people who had metabolic syndrome had an even greater drop of 47 percent.

This is not ideal because it results in fat accumulation in the liver and around the belly. Surveys of teenagers and adults who eat large amounts of fructose show that those with greater intake also tend to have more belly fat and a larger waist circumference.

Eliminating added fructose is so simple:
•    The best way to do it is to eat only whole foods and completely avoid processed foods.
•    You must make sure you never drink beverages containing fructose (soda, sports drinks, bottled tea, sweetened coffee drinks).
•    The following sweeteners are very high in fructose: Corn syrup, agave, fruit sugars.
•    If you choose to include some packaged foods in your diet, read all labels and choose those that use evaporated cane juice or sugar rather than fructose or corn syrup.
•    Don’t worry too much about fruit, however, it’s useful to know that bananas, apples, and pears are higher in fructose, and berries, nectarines, grapefruit, avocado, and tomatoes are lower.

Reference
Cox, C., Stanhope, K., et al. Consumption of Fructose-Sweetened Beverages for 10 Weeks Reduces Net Fat Oxidation and Energy Expenditure in Overweight/Obese Men and Women. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. 66, 201-208.

Tip 61: Two Great Reasons Women Should Not Be Afraid of Gaining Muscle

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Two great reasons women should not be afraid of gaining muscle are less body fat and lower breast cancer risk. In fact, no one should be afraid of gaining muscle because muscle is the best natural defense against obesity, disease, and immobility as we age.

For instance, a recent study shows that when women gained muscle and lost body fat over a 12-week exercise program they improved estrogen metabolism, lowering cancer risk. Estrogen metabolism works like this: There are three pathways through which estrogen can be metabolized. The 16- hydroxyestrone pathway is a “toxic” route that is linked to cancer development, the 4-hydroxyestrone pathway is unfavorable for health, and the third route, the 2-hydroxyestone pathway, is more benign and preferable.

A more favorable estrogen metabolism is extremely important because the cumulative lifetime exposure to estrogens that women experience significantly increase cancer risk in both genders. In women, we know that if their bodies favor the 2-hydroxyestone pathway over the 16, they will have lower cancer risk. The good news is that this study found that the women who gained the most muscle experienced a favorable shift in the ratio between the 2-hydroxyestone and 16-hydroxyestrone pathways.

The researchers were surprised to see the association between muscle mass and a shift to better estrogen metabolism because they expected that simply losing body fat would improve it. Previous studies have shown body fat percentage predicts which of the three pathways the body favors. For instance, in this study, at baseline the women with the least body fat had a higher ratio between the 2 and 16 pathways.

Take away the understanding that when you gain muscle, you almost always lose fat because you raise your metabolic rate. Not only will you be leaner, you will look leaner, because muscle retains its shape, whereas fat is flabby. Plus, by gaining muscle you’ll be so much healthier because your body will metabolize estrogen better. This lowers your breast cancer risk and improves your overall health. You’ll live longer too!

To read more on why women should not be afraid of gaining muscle, read the article, Want to Look More Feminine? Gain Muscle!

References
Campbell, K., et al. Effects of Aerobic Exercise Training on Estrogen Metabolism in Premenopausal Women. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. 2007. 16, 731-739.

Tip 60: Three Natural Ways To Prevent High Blood Pressure: Training, Magnesium & Omega-3s

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Prevent high blood pressure with natural interventions that are just as clinically effective as taking anti-hypertensive medication. High blood pressure is a problem because it changes the structure and function of the blood vessels, increasing your risk of disease. Three of the simplest, most effective ways of preventing elevated blood pressure are weight training, getting adequate magnesium, and supplementing with omega-3 fats.

Aerobic training is well known to lower blood pressure, and a recent Brazilian study shows weight training may be just as effective. In this study older women with hypertension did a training program that used a muscular endurance protocol with 90-second active rest periods in between sets. Participants walked rapidly around the weight room instead of standing around.

Results showed a significant decrease in diastolic and systolic blood pressure that was maintained for an hour after training, indicating a sustained decrease in blood pressure could be achieved.

Magnesium has also been shown to prevent high blood pressure. Did you know that the average daily intake of magnesium in the Western world has declined from about 500 mg/day in the 1900s to closer to 175 mg/day today?! Therefore, it’s reasonable that everyone should supplement with magnesium, and research shows that this nutrient is even more effective than medication at lowering blood pressure.

A review of studies testing the effect of taking magnesium on blood pressure found that systolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 3 to 4 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 2 to 3 mm Hg—both substantial decreases. The most notable drop in blood pressure came from taking a dose of 370 mg/day of magnesium citrate.

Omega-3 fats can also lower blood pressure. For example, a study of adults without high blood pressure found that supplementing with 700 mg of DHA and 480 mg of EPA omega-3 fats daily decreased systolic readings by almost 4 mm Hg and diastolic readings by 3.3 mm Hg. A second study found 12 months of taking 2 grams of omega-3s a day lowered systolic readings by 2.7 mm Hg and diastolic by 1.3 mm Hg in people with high blood pressure.

References

Cicero, A., et al. Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Supplementation and Blood Pressure Levels in Hypertriglyceridemic Patients with Untreated Normal High Blood Pressure and With or Without Metabolic Syndrome. Clinical Experimental Hypertension. 2010. 32(2), 137-144.

Kaas, L., Weekes, J., et al. Effect of Magnesium Supplementation on Blood Pressure: A Meta-analysis. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. 66(4), 411-418.

Tip 59: Cook With Coconut Oil For Better Health & Body Composition

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Cook with coconut oil for better health and body composition. Coconut oil is a delicious health-conveying oil that often gets a bad rap because it contains saturated fat. Don’t be afraid of it! It is a wonderful food!

Coconut oil is abundant in a medium chain fatty acid called lauric acid. Medium chain fatty acids are rapidly absorbed in the intestines and carried to the liver where they are rapidly used for energy. They do not enter the cholesterol cycle and are not deposited in fat depots, whereas long chain fatty acids do.

Research shows that eating coconut oil can actually improve cholesterol health and support fat loss. One recent study had overweight Malayans eat 30 ml of coconut oil taken in three doses a day with each meal for a month. They lost a small amount of body fat (about 1 pound) and significantly decreased waist circumference, whereas a control group had no changes in body composition.

A second study from 2009 showed similar results in Brazilian women, and they also improved their cholesterol ratio compared to a group that ate 30 ml of soybean oil a day. Researchers suggest even greater health and fat loss benefits would come from longer term supplementation.

Other benefits of coconut include its anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. There is also evidence that eating it will improve insulin and blood sugar management, aiding in maintaining energy levels and cognitive function.

To get more coconut oil into your diet, you can substitute for other oils like olive or canola when cooking. Be aware that it will provide a slightly sweet flavor, so it is not ideal for savory dishes. You can also bake with coconut oil, substituting it for butter or oil.

For a whole foods treat made with coconut oil, check out Jeannette Bessinger’s Berry Breakfast Truffle Recipe.

Reference
Liau, K., et al. An Open-Label Pilot Study to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Virgin Coconut Oil in Reducing Visceral Adiposity. ISRN Pharmacology. 2011. 949686.

Tip 58: Eat A High-Protein Diet To Preserve Muscle & Lose Fat: Tips To Make Protein Work For You

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Eat a high-protein diet to preserve muscle and lose fat. Research shows high-protein diets are extremely effective for fat loss, but there are a few common pitfalls to such diets that can compromise results and health. This tip will tell you how protein promotes optimal body composition and give you tips on how to make it work for you.

First, higher dietary protein helps you lose fat for the following reasons:

1)    Protein requires the body to use more energy to digest and get the amino acids where they need to go, which raises the amount of calories the body burns at rest.
2)    If protein makes up a smaller percentage of total energy, carb intake will be increased, which can lead to persistently high insulin that inhibits fat loss.
3)    A higher dietary protein intake will trigger muscle protein synthesis and keep the body from breaking down muscle to use amino acids for energy.
4)    Finally, favoring protein over carbohydrates will activate chemical transmitters in the brain that make you feel energetic rather than sleepy. Protein also suppresses hormones that make you feel hungry.

An example of this is a recent study that compared the effect of two diets on weight loss. Women ate 1,700 calories a day and men ate 1,900 calories a day with the following macronutrient breakdown: A high-protein diet (1.6 g/kg of body weight/day with a near equal ratio of macronutrients), or a low-protein diet (0.8 g/kg of body weight/day with roughly 15 percent protein, 55 percent carb, and 30 percent fat).

Results showed that after one year, the high-protein diet allowed both men and women to lose 10 percent of their body weight. Eating more protein allowed participants to lose about 15 percent more of the weight coming from body fat, effectively preserving lean muscle mass to a much greater degree.

To get similar body composition results on a high-protein diet, be sure to do the following things:
•    Eat a lot of fiber with every meal. A major concern scientists have with suggesting high-protein diets is that people will not eat enough fiber, which can lead to poorer health and inflammation. Shoot for at least 25 grams of fiber a day.

•    Achieve a protein “threshold” dose with each meal for best results. Researchers point to a protein dose of at least 1.5 g/kg of body weight a day to avoid the loss of lean tissue.

•    Eat antioxidant-rich produce with every meal. Eating protein without fruits and vegetables will lower the body’s blood antioxidant level and cause oxidative stress. Avoid this by eating veggies and fruit with your protein. Antioxidant-rich produce includes berries, cherries, kiwis, and leafy green vegetables.

Reference
Evans, E., Mohtahedi, M., et al. Effects of Protein Intake and Gender on Body Composition Changes. Nutrition and Metabolism. 2012. 9(55).

Tip 57: Do Weight Training Before Cardio For A Better Body Composition & More Strength

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Do weight training before aerobic cardio for a better body composition and more strength. Lifting weights and cardio are distinctly different modes of exercise that affect the body in different ways.

Research shows that you will lose more fat and get stronger and faster if you do weight training first, regardless of what your overall goal is. The reason is that weight training will require the body to preferentially burn fat for fuel.

For example, a recent study that tested the effect of weight training before moderate-intensity intervals and vice versa showed that the body burned more fat as measured by the respiratory exchange rate (RER) when weight training was done first. The RER is an indicator of the body’s use of fat for fuel—as the RER rises, the body uses more carbohydrates for its energy needs. As RER declines, the body burns more fat.

In addition, studies suggest prioritizing weight training will elevate metabolism more during the 24-hour recover period than if you do cardio first. This order will also promote muscle and strength development because the lower RER values indicate greater lactic acid buildup, which will promote protein synthesis.

Aside from promoting fat loss, doing resistance training first will help you get stronger f since you will be able to apply maximal effort and focus to training when you are fresh. Be aware that if you weight train correctly, cardio is unnecessary because you can achieve all of the same health and body composition benefits from sticking with anaerobic exercise.

For those of you who prefer to do both, get the best fat loss and training results with the following tips:

•    Do weight training and cardio on different days—try 4 days of weight training and 2 to 3 cardio sessions in the form of intervals (keep the interval workout short—you should be done in 20 to 25 minutes).

•    If you need to get all your training done in a few days a week, always lift first and then do your intervals—think of the intervals as a “finisher” in which you exhaust all your energy stores. ?

•    Avoid aerobic-style cardio unless you are training for an endurance event. Even then, best results will come from strength training before cardio because you’ll get faster and increase performance by training the body to burn fat before stored carbohydrates.

References
Alves, J., Saavedra, F., et al. Does Aerobic and Strength Exercise Sequence in the Same Session Affect the Oxygen Uptake During and Post-Exercise? Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. 26(7), 1872-1878.

Drummond, M., Vehrs, P., et al. Aerobic and Resistance Exercise Sequence Affects Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2005. 19(2), 332-337.

Tip 56: Eat Almonds For Better Body Composition & Health

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Eat almonds and other nuts daily for better body composition and health. Despite their high fat content, eating almonds can help you lose weight as long as you restrict carbohydrates. The reason is that almonds are packed with antioxidants and healthy fats that help modulate blood sugar and blunt hunger.

For example, a study that compared two 24-week diets showed that eating 84 grams of almonds a day (about half a cup) as part of a low-carb diet resulted in greater fat loss than a low-fat diet focused on eating complex carbohydrates. The “almond” diet was 39 percent fat, 32 percent carbs, and 29 percent protein. The low-fat diet was 18 percent fat, 53 percent carbs, and 29 percent protein and allowed participants to self-select carb intake.

Results showed that the “almond” group decreased fat mass by 30 percent compared to 20 percent body fat loss in the low-fat group. The “almond” group also shrank their waist circumference by 50 percent more than the low-fat group. Blood pressure decreased by 11 percent in the almond group, whereas the low-fat group had no change.

This is not the first study to show eating nuts daily can lead to weight loss. Another study found that participants who ate a moderate-fat diet that included nuts five times a week lost 2 times more weight than those who ate a similar low-fat diet that didn’t include nuts. In addition, supplementing a diet with nuts to the tune of eating an extra 500 calories a day has shown to produce less than two pounds of weight gain—not the predicted 8 pounds from calculating the excess calories provided by the nuts.

Almonds and walnuts are probably the healthiest nuts because they both provide a lot of fiber in addition to the healthy fats and nutrients. Eat them as well as Brazil nuts, pistachios, and pecans for lower risk of heart attack, less cancer, and lower risk of all-cause mortality.

Reference
Vadivel, V., Kunyanga, C., et al. Health Benefits of Nut Consumption with Special Reference to Body Weight Control. Nutrition. 2012. 28, 1089-1097.

Wien, M., et al. Almonds vs. Complex Carbohydrates in a Weight Reduction Program. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders, 2003, 27(11), 1365-1372.

Tip 55: Train With Free Weights Instead of Machine

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Train with free weight exercises instead of machines to get more out of your effort in the gym. Machines promote structural imbalances and can put you at risk of injury or joint pain. This is especially true if you have poor training technique. It’s a big problem because a lot of people who want to train but don’t know how to do so properly will rely on machines.

Instead, learn proper technique using free weight and cable machines. Even the commonly used Smith machine will compromise training gains because it leads to lower activation of the muscles. Another problem with machines is that they restrict range of motion. By training with a partial range of motion you will decrease joint flexibility and put yourself at risk of pain.

For example, a recent study found much lower use of the chest, shoulder, and biceps muscles with the Smith due to its unnatural path than with dumbbells. Having to control dumbbells in the chest press requires the pectoralis (chest muscle) and deltoid (shoulder muscle) to work harder.

Similarly, stabilizing a barbell on your back during a squat will allow you to gain strength through the full range of motion. The same thing goes for a cable machine split squat, a standing over head dumbbell press, or a barbell deadlift.

For best training results, use the following tips:
•    Do the majority of your training with free weight, multi-joint exercises.
•    Learn proper training technique by working with a trainer even for a short period of time. Another way to learn technique is to take a class that teaches you how to train such as the Poliquin PICP Level 1 and 2 courses.
•    Always choose free weight exercises over restrictive machine lifts.
•    Certain nonrestrictive machine exercises, namely hamstring curls, can be done in addition to full-range of motion free weight exercises for the muscle group in question.
•    In certain cases, such as rehabilitation or for advanced isolation training, machine exercises can be beneficial but they should never be relied on exclusively.

References
Ven Den Tilliaar, R., et al. The Sticking Region in Three Chest-Press Exercises with Increasing Degrees of Freedom. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. 26(11), 2962-2969.

Tip 54: Get Stronger By Focusing on Training Technique

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Gain functional strength by focusing on weight training technique. Improving your weight lifting technique will help you overcome strength or weight loss plateaus, and it can eliminate joint pain linked to faulty movement patterns.

We know from the training programs of elite weight lifters that if you perfect your lifting technique in the basic exercises such as squats and overhead presses, the improvements in strength will have carryover to the more challenging Olympic lifts. The same carryover extends to movements in sports or daily life—getting strong will help you move better, faster, and you’ll be less likely to experience chronic pain.

The best way to improve your training technique is to work with a trainer, but if you can’t do that, a few things to focus on include the following:

1) Always train with a tight, flat back. Never round the back. Also, always train with a the abdominals stabilized and the pelvis in neutral. Don’t let your stomach hang out—engaging the entire trunk allows you to train your abs while doing exercises like squats, deadlifts, and chin-ups.

2) Keep your chest up and your head in line with your body. Avoid leaning the chest forward when doing lower body exercises, and don’t stick your head out in front of you.

3) Ensure that your knees are tracking properly when doing the squat and step-up variations. If your knees are caving in and not tracking over your toes, you increase your injury risk and worsen structural imbalances.

4) Use a weight that is challenging but allows you to complete every repetition with identical form. If you are unable to maintain the correct pathway of the bar or dumbbell for every repetition, then you have reached technical failure. Stop the exercise and rest or use a lower weight.

5) Understand that training to “technical failure” can be very effective for gaining muscle and strength, however, you must understand what it means. Technical failure occurs when you can no longer lift the weight with proper technique. It is not when you are no longer capable of lifting the weight. By “cheating” or using incorrect form it’s often possible to get out another rep or two, but this puts dangerous stress on the tissues and must be avoided.

To learn more about technique and how to squat properly, read Ten Tips for A Better Back Squat

Tip 53: Eat the Right Fats For Optimal Body Composition: Tips to Rebalance Fat Intake

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Rebalancing your fat intake is one of the simplest things you can do to improve body composition and prevent disease. Your body thrives on certain kinds of fats, but other types like trans-fats and isolated vegetable fats cause problems.

Humans evolved eating a near equal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats, whereas today that ratio has become horribly skewed anywhere from 15:1 to 50:1. Throw trans-fats that are chemically altered into the mix and you have big health problems and obesity. The solution is to eliminate trans-fats and rebalance your overall fat intake be eating the kinds that help the body flourish. The following are tips on how to do this:

•    Eliminate all trans-fats—they can be identified as partially hydrogenated oils. Common ones are partially hydrogenated rapeseed, soybean, or cottonseed oil. They pop up in peanut butter, cereal, crackers, and other processed foods—especially baked goods like cookies.

•    Get more EPA- and DHA-rich omega-3 fats: They come from fish (and fish oil), wild meats, and organic beef and pork. Try to get 50 percent of your fat intake from this kind of fat. If you eat 60 grams of fat a day, that means 30 grams should come from these omega-3 fats.

•    Take fish oil to pad omega-3 intake. If you want to lose body fat, try taking 1 to 1.5 grams of fish oil per percentage point of body fat a day (if you have 25 percent body fat, you should take a minimum of 25 grams of fish oil) because the more body fat you have, the more likely you are getting an unbalanced fat intake.

•    Flaxseeds, walnuts, and almonds provide additional good fats and are protective against cancer. Rotate which ones you eat daily.

•    Use olive oil instead of other vegetable oils like corn, safflower, soybean, peanut, and sunflower. All the vegetable oils make up the omega-6 oils, and they vary greatly in their nutritional content. Avoid the vegetable oils mentioned because they are pro-inflammatory.

References

Mozaffarian, D., Aro, A., Willett, W. Health Effects of Trans-Fatty Acids: Experimental and Observational Evidence. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2009. 63(Suppl 2), 5-21.

Simpopoulos, A.P. The Importance of the Ratio of Omega-6/Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy. 2002. 56, 365-37

Tip 52: Choose Whole Foods Instead Of Processed Foods To Lose Weight

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Eat whole foods and eliminate processed foods from your diet to lose weight and feel better. The more your food is in a natural state as when it came from the tree, plant, animal, or fish, the more calories your body will burn digesting it.

For example, a recent study found that when participants ate a whole foods cheddar cheese sandwich they burned 50 percent more calories than when they ate a processed cheese sandwich. The processed sandwich, which was made from white bread and cheese product, resulted in the subjects experiencing a significant decrease in their metabolic rate to a degree that was LOWER than the average rate at which they burned calories—bad news!

Choosing whole foods is a simple strategy for increasing energy expenditure, and another study shoes it goes further than that. Researchers in Iceland found that a whole food meal from a fast-food chain produced a 44 percent lower glucose and insulin response than a processed food meal. This is beneficial because it means blood sugar is more modulated and the degree that the body is actively storing fat is minimized.

Take away the following points for a better body composition and health:

•    Whole foods provide much more fiber than processed foods, leading to a superior calorie burn after eating. The whole grain cheese sandwich provided about 65 percent more fiber, whereas the whole fast-food meal provided 250 percent more fiber!

•    The ingredients used for the whole food meals in both study did require some food refinement to produce, but not nearly as much as for the processed food ingredients. You’ll get an even greater calorie burn by eating truly whole foods like raw veggies, meat, fish, nuts, and seeds.

•    Another benefit of eating whole foods that wasn’t explored in this study is that you won’t be ingesting chemical additives that may affect everything from metabolism to brain function.

•    Protein requires many more calories to break down than carbohydrates. Fat burns even fewer calories than carbs. Eat more high-quality protein to lose fat and support tissue rebuilding.

Reference
Barr, S., Wright, J. Postprandial Energy Expenditure in Whole-Food and Processed-Food Meals: Implications for Daily Energy Expenditure. Food and Nutrition Research. July 2010. 2(54), 144-150.

Ramel, A., et al. Effects of Two Different Types of Fast Food on Postprandial Metabolism in Normal and Overweight Subjects. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 51: Drink Coffee to Improve Body Composition & Live Longer

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Coffee has recently been getting a good rap by doctors and scientists because a large daily intake can lower mortality risk and improve body composition. For instance, in an enormous 14-year study of over 400,000 people, those who drank 2 to 3 cups a day decreased mortality risk by 10 percent, whereas drinking 6 or more cups lowered risk of death by all causes by another 10 percent.

Coffee is good for you because it’s packed with antioxidants that attack cancer-causing free radicals and lower inflammation in the body. The caffeic and chlorogenic acid in coffee are highly protective against disease, and the caffeine can raise your metabolic rate so that you burn more calories.

In addition, coffee can shift the body to burn fat rather than carbohydrates for energy, which is beneficial for fat loss. It also modulates blood sugar and increases insulin sensitivity, whereas taking caffeine alone in pill form can have the opposite effect insulin sensitivity. This is not a problem unless you have insulin issues or are taking the caffeine with carbohydrates.

The effect of coffee on fat loss is just emerging as a topic of study and initial results are promising: A weight maintenance diet that included daily high-antioxidant coffee drinking produced a 1.1 kg fat loss compared to a control group that gained 1 kg of fat. A second study showed that drinking 500 ml of dark roast coffee daily produced 2.5 kg fat loss compared to a light roast beverage. The difference was likely due to distinct antioxidants based on degree of roasting.

Even more effective, green coffee extract, which can be added to brewed coffee or any beverage of choice, was found to produce an impressive 8 kg loss in body weight and a 4.4 percent decrease in body fat in overweight subjects. For best health and body composition results with coffee, get an organic blend and add 1000 mg of green coffee extract.

References
Vinson, J., Burnham, B., et al. Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Linear Dose, Crossover Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of a Green Coffee Bean Extract in Overweight Subjects. Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, and Obesity. 2012. 5, 21-27.

Onakpova, I., Terry, R., et al. The Use of Green Coffee Extract as a Weight Loss Supplement: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. Gastroenterology Research and Practice. 2011.

Kotyczky, C., Boettler, U., et al. Dark Roast Coffee is More Effective than Light Roast Coffee in Reducing Body Weight and Restoring Red Blood Cell Vitamin E and Glutathione Concentrations in Healthy Volunteers. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. 2011. 55 (10), 1582-1586.

Tip 50: Prevent Knee Pain By Strengthening the Hips With Squats & Step-ups

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Prevent knee pain by strengthening the hips with squats and step-ups. Knee pain has many sources, but common causes include muscle imbalances in the hip and thigh, arthritis, or a tight iliotibial band—a tendon that runs along the outside of your thigh. Research shows that doing variations of the squat and step-up can strengthen weak muscles and restore healthy knee function to prevent pain.

For example, one study of elderly people with arthritic-related knee pain showed that squat training resulted in less self-reported pain, better balance, and faster walking speed. Participants also had less evidence of chronic inflammation that is associated with arthritis.

Similarly, runners and cyclists who had knee pain and inflammation due to a tight iliotibial band, had less pain after doing training program for the hips. Strengthening the hip was more effective than increasing flexibility for improving knee function. Another study showed that single-leg squats and step-ups decreased knee pain caused by muscular imbalances in athletes.

There are many squat variations that can help you strengthen the lower body muscles for healthier knees. Use the following tips as part of a strengthening program:

•    Stationary split squats are a good place to start in order to gain strength in the hips and the VMO—a commonly weak muscle in people with knee pain.

•    Progressively more challenging step-ups (the Poliquin step-up, Petersen step-up, step-up and side step-up) will strengthen the VMO to prevent pain.

•    Split squats can also improve flexibility, helping you get ready to do full-range squats.

•    Bilateral full-range squats should be done once structural balance is restored.

•    Full squats can be followed by one-and-a quarter squats in which you go all the way down, come a quarter of the way up, go back down, and then come up.

References
Simao, A., Avelar, N., et al. Functional Performance and Inflammatory Cytokines After Squat Exercises and Whole-Body Vibration in Elderly Individuals with Knee Osteoarthritis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. April 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 49: Three Foods To Help You Stay Lean Through the Holidays

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Eat these three foods regularly so you stay lean through the holidays. Obviously, if you’re chowing down on high-carb sugary foods, these foods won’t save you from putting on pounds, but if you focus on eating lots of protein with healthy fats and indulge with discretion, these foods can give your metabolism a lift.

#1: Vinegar helps the body store carbohydrates as muscle glycogen to be used as energy during exercise rather than storing them as fat. Vinegar also improves pancreatic function and minimizes the amount of insulin the body releases in response to carbohydrates.

Start every meal with a green salad or steamed cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, and add balsamic or apple cider vinegar. By eating vinegar with your vegetables at the beginning of your meal, it will lower the insulin response to everything you eat, leading to a more moderate elevation in blood sugar. Also, by eating veggies first, you will likely eat less of other, more calorie-dense foods.

#2: Berries should be your go-to fruit to preserve body composition during the holidays. They are delicious, high in fiber, but best of all they are high in specific antioxidants that have been shown to prevent fat gain in studies of animals.

Research shows that when mice were fed a high-fat diet with berry antioxidants added they gained no fat and had more favorable cholesterol levels than a low-fat diet group that didn’t receive the berry antioxidants. Researchers view blue, purple, and red berries as a treatment for obesity.

In addition, berries blunt the insulin response from eating high -carbohydrate foods. Raspberries, in particular, contain a unique antioxidant called ellagitannins that have been shown to improve the brain’s sensitivity to leptin, making you feel less hungry.

Eat berries daily and use them for treats or a dessert. Skip desserts and high-carb sweets at holiday parties and enjoy berries when you get home.

#3: Kimchi is a fermented Korean cabbage that aids insulin sensitivity and produces fat loss. Like most fermented foods, kimchi also improves digestion and may decrease inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. Altogether, this means kimchi can help you avoid fat gain. One study found that people who ate kimchi daily lost 1.5 percent body fat—not a lot but they weren’t on a diet or exercising. The only thing subjects did differently was eat 100 grams of kimchi at every meal!

Kimchi is considered a condiment in Korea, so you just need a few bites with your meal to get the benefit.

Tip 48: Drink Green Tea To Minimize Effects of Alcohol—Prevent Belly Fat Gain

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Drink green tea to minimize the negative effects of alcohol on the body. Increasing your green tea intake is a useful trick over the holidays if you find yourself indulging in alcohol more often than you’d like.

Green tea is very high in antioxidants—predominantly a kind called epigallocatechins—that protect the liver from damage due to alcohol. Not only do these antioxidants counter oxidative stress that compromise liver function, they help speed detoxification of alcoholic compounds from the body. The short-term effect is no hangover and the long-term benefit is less visceral fat gain around the middle.

For example, a fascinating study using rats showed that after 4 weeks, those who were given a large dose of green tea extract with alcohol didn’t gain any belly fat and had almost no inflammation. In contrast, rats that were given caffeine with their alcohol or alcohol alone gained belly fat and had significant inflammation.

This study tested the effect of chronic alcohol use (daily for 4 weeks), but green tea can help with casual use as well, and it is protective against foods that can lead to fat gain too. For instance, a green tea supplement minimized belly fat gain from a high fructose diet because it neutralized inflammation, elevated metabolism, and improved insulin health.

For green tea to be protective, you need a large dose—at least five cups a day. If this is too much, get a green tea supplement, and take at least 500 mg before and after indulging to speed detoxification. If you do drink your green tea, be sure to choose organic tea with non-bleached tea bags.

Reference
Chen, K., Li, P., et al. Depression by a Green Tea Extract of Alcohol-Induced Oxidative Stress and Lipogenesis in Rat Liver. Bioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry. November 2011. 75(9), 1668-1676.

Tip 47: Increase Training Volume During The Holidays To Prevent Fat Gain

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Train hard with a high volume of repetitions during the holidays to prevent fat gain. This will burn a lot of energy, increase the amount of calories your body burns during recovery, and improve fat burning.

Other benefits of high volume training include the following:

Glycogen depletion—when you eat carbohydrates they are stored as glycogen in the muscle and can be used for fuel during exercise. However, if your glycogen stores are all full, carbs will be turned into fat. Depleting the stored glycogen means you get to replace it post-workout. Glycogen depleting workouts are ideal before holiday meals—just don’t overindulge!

Accomplish glycogen depletion by weight training with multi-joint lifts, moderately heavy weights using 8 to 10 reps, and lots of sets. Consider doubling your regular number of sets for a potent energy burning workout. For example, use a weight that you reach failure with by rep number 10, and try 6 to 10 sets per exercise. Decrease the weight if necessary as you progress through the sets. Shoot for doing more than 300 reps per workout.

Elevate growth hormone—training hard with a high volume will result in lactic acid buildup (yes, your muscles will burn, but just push through it). High levels of lactic acid lead to more growth hormone being released, which is the primary hormone you want to elevate for fat burning.

Using short rest periods will elevate growth hormone as will sprint interval training. Try circuit training in which you move quickly from exercise to exercise, limiting rest to 10 to 30 seconds. Or try interval training on a track or bike with 15 to 30 second sprints and an equal rest interval. Limit interval workouts to 20 to 25 minutes total.

Avoid doing steady-state aerobic training because it elevates cortisol and has no effect on glycogen depletion or growth hormone. If you want to get more exercise, go for a brisk walk.

For more body composition tips for the holidays, read Top Eight Lifestyle Tips to Lose Fat & Achieve Optimal Body Composition (http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Lifestyle/TipoftheDay/333/Top_Eight_Lifestyle_Tips_to_Lose_Fat_&_Achieve_Optimal_Body_Composition.aspx)

Tip 46: Prevent Soreness from Training: Omega-3s & Blueberries Speed Recovery

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Avoid muscle soreness and keep workout nutrition simple by focusing on foods and supplements that should be in your diet anyway—omega-3 fats and blueberries are two of those. Research shows that both can speed recovery from hard workouts and help you get better results.

One study found that taking 3 grams of omega-3 fish oil for 7 days resulted in 15 percent less soreness after an intense eccentric workout that produced muscle damage. The fish oil included 2 grams of EPA and 1 gram of DHA, both of which are well known to decrease inflammation because they are very high in antioxidants. In fact, researchers suggest that taking fish oil can be a natural anti-inflammatory substitute for painkilling drugs such as ibuprofen because they are just as effective and don’t have negative side effects.

Blueberries can also reduce post-workout soreness because the phytonutrients they provide can help speed the removal of waste products or “garbage” produced during hard workouts. Once the garbage is gone, the body is better able to repair tissue, giving you less soreness and greater training adaptations.

For best recovery and anti-inflammatory results from blueberries and fish oil, avoid eating them with milk because the proteins in milk inhibit the antioxidant activity in the body. This is important because whey protein is the third and final post-workout supplement you should take because of its superior muscle and tissue rebuilding abilities—take whey immediately after training for best results.

Then, eat your blueberries and take your fish oil later (or earlier) once the whey has digested. Whey digests quickly, so just leave at least an hour window between taking protein and eating antioxidant-rich foods like blueberries and fish oil.

References
McReay, Y., Barnes, M., et al. Effect of New Zealand Blueberry Consumption on Recovery from Eccentric Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.2012. 9(19).

Jouris, K., McDaniel, J., Weiss, E. The Effect of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation on the Inflammatory Response to Eccentric Strength Exercise. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2011. 10, 432-438.

Tip 45: Consider Eliminating Gluten For Better Body Composition—Be Sure To Avoid Processed Gluten-Free Foods

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Consider eliminating gluten from your diet for better health and body composition. There’s a wide spectrum of gluten sensitivities: On the one end there are people who are sensitive to it because gluten is a difficult protein to digest. On the other are people who are highly intolerant to gluten, and eating even a tiny bit by accident will cause damage to the gastrointestinal tract and produce chronic inflammation.

In fact, humans have never had adequate stomach enzymes to digest gluten properly, and there is about three times as much gluten in wheat today as there was 100 years ago due to genetic engineering. Aside from better digestion and less inflammation, eliminating gluten means you eliminate most high-glycemic grains that contain minimal fiber and rapidly raise blood sugar.

If you choose to eliminate gluten, the following are a few things to watch out for:

•    Avoid processed gluten-free foods in favor of whole foods that are naturally gluten free. Avoid eating gluten-free substitutes such as bread and crackers because these foods are processed, often nutritionally empty, and still high in blood sugar-elevating carbs.

•    Watch out for sneaky gluten that can get into foods at restaurants or even into foods labeled gluten-free.

•    Gluten-free regulations vary around the world, however, a general consensus is that a product can be labeled gluten free if it contains up to 20 mg of gluten per kg. For reference, a slice of white bread has about 3,515 mg of gluten, so 20 mg is a small amount. But, even that small amount can cause distress and inflammation for someone with diagnosed gluten intolerance or celiac disease. For this reason it’s best to avoid all processed foods even if they are labeled gluten free.

•    Plan you diet around high-quality protein from whole foods sources such as wild and grass-fed meats, beans, nuts, and seeds.

•    Eat a wide variety of vegetables (especially leafy greens) and fruit (especially berries).

•    Focus on getting adequate fiber. Supplement with a variety of high-quality gluten-free fiber blend if your fiber intake is low.

•    Avoid all wheat products: Wheat, rye, barley, kamut, chapatti flour, brewer’s yeast, farina, semolina, spelt, bulgur, couscous, malt, seitan, triticale, and graham flour.

References
O’Bryan, Tom. The Conundrum of Gluten Sensitivity: Why the Tests are Often Wrong. a

Tip 44: Do Sprint Intervals Instead of Slow Aerobic Cardio To Lose Fat

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Do sprint intervals instead of slow aerobic-style cardio to improve body composition. High-intensity interval training is far superior to slow cardio for fat loss and it can be done in less time than your typical boring aerobic program.

One of the original studies comparing steady-state and interval training from 1994 found that intervals allowed participants to lose 9 times more body fat than aerobic training. This study is so compelling because the interval program was done for 15 weeks whereas the aerobic program lasted 20 weeks. The energy cost of the aerobic program over the whole study period was 28,661 calories, whereas for intervals it was less than half, at 13,614 calories.

The reason that the intervals produced greater fat loss in less time is that they increased the amount of calories burned from fat during the recovery period. Researchers found that the interval group experienced changes in how their body’s used fat for fuel, resulting in fat loss.

More recent studies of interval training show that it causes a robust release of hormones that increase fat burning and muscle development. Achieve the best body composition results from sprint intervals with the following strategies:

•    Do the workout used in the 1994 study—10 sprints of 15 seconds each, increasing to 15 sprints of 30 seconds each as you adapt. These are near maximal sprints, but are not all-out—shoot for 80 to 90 percent of maximal.

•    Try 20-second all-out sprints with 10 seconds rest in 4 sets of 4 intervals. Rest 3 minutes between sets.

•    Try cycling intervals that have been used to produce belly fat loss in a number of studies: Eight second sprints with 12 seconds rest for 60 sprints total—this is just 3 sprints a minute for 20 minutes.

•    Try hill or stair running in which you sprint up as fast as you possible and jog down. Try to repeat immediately. Do 8 to 16 reps.

•    Perform weight training for the whole body in addition to sprints for optimal body composition. This will help you achieve structural balance, prevent injury, and build muscle for a faster metabolism.

References
Tremblay, A., Simoneau, J., et al. Impact of Exercise Intensity on Body Fatness and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism. Metabolism. 1994. 43(7), 814-818.

Heydari, M., Freud, J., et al. The Effect of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise on Body Composition of Overweight Young Males. Journal of Obesity. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 43: Practice A Martial Art To Lower Inflammation & Feel Less Stress

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Practice a martial art such as judo to lower inflammation in the body and feel less stress. Studies show that doing a mind-body practice can raise internal antioxidant levels in the body to counter physical and mental stress that accelerates aging and disease.

A recent study showed that people who practice judo (judokas) had a much lower inflammatory stress response to an intense exercise trial than sedentary subjects. All of the participants tested produced free radicals that cause inflammation in response to the exercise, but the judokas had much higher internal antioxidant levels that helped eliminate the free radicals than the sedentary group.

Researchers note that endurance athletes in strenuous sports such as kayaking, running, and cycling experience high levels of inflammatory stress from training, but they don’t have the superior protective antioxidant levels seen in the judokas. There’s something about the specific methods of judo training that uniquely separate it from high-intensity sports for offsetting chronic mental and physical stress.

Similar stress-reduction benefits have been observed from mind-body practices such as yoga, mediation, tai chi, tae kwon do, jiu jitsu, soo bahk do, and aikido.

For best results from a mind-body practice like judo, try the following suggestions:

•    Bring a sense of purpose to your practice. Take it seriously and do it regularly—at least three days a week.

•    Pay special attention to breathing and the connection between the mind and body when you practice.

•    Do marital arts in addition to a resistance training program for best results. Lifting moderately heavy loads provides overwhelming strength and tissue building benefits. It also promotes fat burning to keep you lean and sleek.

Reference
Abed, K., et al. Antioxidant Status and Oxidative Stress at Rest and in Response to Acute Exercise in Judokas and Sedentary Men. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. August 2011. 25(9), 2400-2409.

Tip 42: Get Adequate Vitamin D During Pregnancy For A Healthier Baby

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Make sure you get enough vitamin D during pregnancy for better maternal health and to ensure a healthier baby. Not only is vitamin D necessary for the growth of a fetus, it’s necessary for health throughout the lifespan.

In addition, vitamin D supports body composition in the mother and child. Research shows a vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy has been associated with greater maternal body fat, and higher body fat in a woman’s children at 4 and 6 years of age.

A recent study of 257 women who were given either 2,000 or 4,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for a month from 12 to 16 weeks of pregnancy. At baseline, their average vitamin D level was just above “deficient” status at 22 ng/ml. By the end of the study both groups increased their vitamin D to a healthy level (36.2 and 37.9 ng/ml in the 2,000 and 4,000 IU groups, respectively).

Results showed higher vitamin D improved the overall health of the mother and infant. There was less risk of infection and lower rates of pre-term labor and birth in women with higher vitamin D levels. There were no complications associated with taking vitamin D.

The following are a few more things you should know about vitamin D and health:

•    Vitamin D is produced in the body in response to full body sun exposure during the hours of 10 am and 2 pm. Vitamin D production is impeded if you wear sunscreen or sunglasses.

•    Vitamin D levels begin to fall in September in the Northern hemisphere and bottom out by May. Surveys show populations in all latitudes are chronically vitamin D deficient, and the effect is greater during the winter.

•    Darker skinned people produce vitamin D at lower levels and have a greater tendency to be deficient, making it more important for them to supplement. For instance, in the study mentioned above, at baseline, the African American women had an average vitamin D level of 18.5 ng/ml, the Hispanic women a level of 26 ng/ml, and the white women a notably higher level of 29.5 ng/ml. The African American women were “deficient” whereas the white women nearly reached 30 ng/ml that is considered “adequate.”

Reference
Wagner, C., et al. A Randomized Trial of Vitamin D Supplementation in Two Community Health Center Networks in South Carolina. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. November 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 41: Tips To Burn More Fat During Exercise: Three Things To Avoid

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Increase the amount of fat your body burns during exercise by avoiding foods that can lower your metabolic rate or make you feel sluggish. Eating fructose, dairy products, and high-glycemic carbs before training can produce poor performance and compromise your results.

What you eat pre-workout can influence the rate at which your body burns fat by as much as 66 percent. Burning fat rather than carbohydrates during weight training is best because it can lead to the best body composition. Doing so during endurance training can increase time to exhaustion by sparing carbs that are stored in the muscles to be burned at the end of a workout.

The following are things to avoid to burn more fat and get more out of your workout:

•    Avoid high-glycemic, simple carbohydrates in favor of slow-digesting carbs with protein before exercise. People commonly think they need fast-digesting carbs for quick energy like bread or “energy bars,” but these foods tend to cause a quick elevation in blood sugar, followed by a rapid drop that can leave you feeling lethargic. In addition, carbohydrates activate a chemical transmitter pathway in the brain that slows energy use and may make you sleepy.

•    Instead of simple carbs, eat only low-glycemic carbs with protein and healthy fat about an hour before training. Low-glycemic carbs will produce a slow, gradual increase in blood sugar to support energy levels and the use of fat for fuel. Basically, by eating this way, you’re telling your body what to burn and when to burn it to produce the most energy

•    Avoid fructose, particularly high-fructose corn syrup or natural sweeteners like agave before exercise. Watch out for sports drinks and other beverages. Eating fructose can lower your metabolic rate, and it inhibits fat burning during exercise, shifting your body to burn carbohydrates for energy. It also makes the cells resistant to insulin and increases lactate production, which will impede performance.

•    Avoid dairy and milk proteins before exercise because they will cause persistently high insulin levels. If your goal is fat loss, this is problematic. Avoid having yogurt or milk pre-workout in favor of one high-quality whey protein shake after exercise when a spike in insulin is okay because that is time that the body is primed to rebuild tissue.

Reference:
Gonzalez, J., Stevenson, E. New Perspectives on Nutritional Interventions to Augment Lipid Utilization during Exercise. British Journal of Nutrition. 2012. 107, 339-349.

Tip 40: Eat Protein For Breakfast To Decrease Cravings & Lose Fat

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Eat protein for breakfast to decrease cravings and lose fat. A protein-rich breakfast is vitally important if you’re trying to improve body composition, and it will set you up for superior brain function all day long.

A recent study found that when young students who routinely skipped breakfast ate a high protein breakfast of whey pancakes they ate 130 fewer calories at lunch and 300 fewer calories over the course of the day than a group that ate a normal carb-filled pancake breakfast. They also reported fewer cravings for carbohydrates, such as bread, chips, and sweets, and they were less hungry throughout the day.

The results also showed that cravings were almost non-existent in the group that ate protein for breakfast because they had a better hormonal profile that affects the chemical transmitters that send messages in the brain. By setting these transmitters up with protein-rich foods, the chemical transmitters dopamine and acetylcholine are elevated, which prevents obsessive thoughts and cravings. Protein-rich breakfasts are arousing and improve reaction time and motivation, whereas carb-rich breakfasts will favor an increase in the brain transmitter serotonin, leading to a sedative effect.

It’s the amino acids in protein that do this. For instance, an amino acid called glutamine is particularly effective at decreasing sugar cravings and calming compulsive feelings. It’s used to treat alcoholism and also regulates blood sugar, which leads to less desire for carbohydrates. Studies have shown that supplementing with amino acids such as glutamine and alanine can lead to weight loss, presumably because subjects were less hungry, had a better hormonal profile, and ate less.

Incorporate more protein into your breakfasts with the following tips:

•    Try the Poliquin Meat and Nuts Breakfast: Sliced grass-fed beef roast, salmon, turkey burgers, or eggs, paired with a handful of nuts. Leafy greens or low-glycemic fruits such as berries can be substituted for nuts if you are allergic.

•    Protein-rich meals such as pancakes made from whey protein and coconut flour can be found in The Primal Blueprint Cookbook.

•    Quinoa and black beans, or gluten-free oatmeal with vanilla whey or pea protein, pecans, and walnuts are favorites at the Poliquin Strength Institute.

•    Ease into protein-based breakfast with yogurt and berries or nuts. Try almond butter with apples or pears.

•    Avoid cereal, bread, and other processed grains for breakfast.

Reference
Fallaize, R., Wilson, L., et al. Variation in the Effects of Three Different Breakfast Meals on Subjective Satiety and Subsequent Intake of Energy at Lunch and Evening Meal. European Journal of Nutrition. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 39: Tips To Make Antioxidants Work For Your Health

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Do you wonder if antioxidants work? They do! However, you have to understand how they work if you want to be able to get the benefits for health, wellness, and body composition.

Your body has a natural antioxidant system that protects it from free radicals, which are produced in response to physical stress, drinking alcohol, taking medications, exposure to pollution and toxins, smoking, and eating animal protein, grain-based carbs, or foods with unhealthy fats. When functioning at a high level, your body makes an antioxidant inside the body called glutathione that allows for complete detoxification of these free radicals.

In order for glutathione to be produced in the body, many other nutrients and enzymes have to be present as well. These nutrients and enzymes are made up of what we casually call antioxidants. The antioxidants that are found in berries, olive oil, dark chocolate, green tea, and whey protein all provide different vitamins, minerals, and plant nutrients that help glutathione work it’s magic and protect you from cell damage due to free radicals.

With this science in mind, a group of researchers recently tested the effect of giving overweight men a whey protein supplement in conjunction with a weight training program. Whey protein provides the amino acid cysteine, which along with glycine and glutamine, make glutathione. It also provides vitamin C.

After 6 weeks, the men who took whey had a large increase in their blood antioxidant levels, and they lost more body fat than a group that didn’t take the whey protein. Higher vitamin C and glutathione from the whey supplement allowed for a more protective internal antioxidant system because these two nutrients stabilize each other.

Use the following tips to make antioxidants work for you:

•    Do eat whole foods that are naturally high in vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients such as green tea, olive oil, berries, and green vegetables.

•    Supplements that can enhance glutathione production and the antioxidant system include whey, glutamine, vitamin D, alpha lipoic acid, carnitine, curcumin, ginger, boswellia, and green tea extract.

•    Don’t pay attention to ORAC claims. ORAC claims are based on the antioxidant activity of a food or nutrient in a test tube and have no relation to how that food will enhance a human’s internal antioxidant system.

•    Don’t pay attention to labels on packaged foods that say they are high in antioxidants. First, you shouldn’t be eating packaged foods because they are often processed and contain unhealthy fats and chemicals, meaning any antioxidant benefit will probably be cancelled out by the other ingredients in the food. Second, those antioxidants are often of poor quality and are added to the food, and not naturally occurring. Avoid them.

Reference

Sheikholeslami Vatani, D., Golzar, F. Changes in Antioxidant Status and Cardiovascular Risk Factors of Overweight Young Men after Six Weeks Supplementation of Whey Protein Isolate and Resistance Training. Appetite. 2012. 59, 673-678.

Tip 38: Want Your Kids To Get Better Grades? Have Them Weight Train!

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Help your kids get better grades by having them start a weight training program. By starting your kids training young, you will give them tools to stay healthy, lean, and perform better at school. Research shows that cognitive function is enhanced by physical activity, but the benefit goes even further, leading to higher GPAs in students who are involved in a weight training program.

A new study found that university students who had an A-average GPA performed weight training the most, at an average of 3 to 4 times a week. Students with a B-average GPA weight trained an average of 3 times a week, whereas those with a GPA of C or below weight trained about 2 times a week.

Previous studies of the positive relationship between GPA and weight training show an even stronger benefit for children. Consider the benefits of getting your kids to train young:

•    They will learn proper technique and gain strength.

•    They will accumulate “training years” so that they can progress to more technically challenging exercises sooner.

•    They will be able to train on their own correctly once they reach adulthood and will have a powerful tool to maintain optimal body composition.

•    Training will support many functions in the body, including detoxification, blood sugar management, and bone building.

•    They will perform better at sports and have less risk of injury.

•    They will have better cognitive function and perform better at school.

Don’t you wish you’d started lifting as a kid?!

The key to starting your kids on a weight training program is to get them a trainer or coach who has experience training youth. There are group programs as well, but be sure the ratio of kids to coach is small so that kids get hands-on attention to learn technique and stay safe in the weight room. The goal of youth training, especially before puberty, should be on general preparation, in which kids learn basic lifts, build neuromuscular strength, gain coordination, and have fun.

Reference
Keating, X., et al. Strength Exercise Frequency, Body Mass Index, and Academic Performance Among University Students. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 37: Lose Fat By Weight Training With Short Rest, Fewer Reps & More Sets

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Lose fat by doing a weight training program that uses short rest periods, fewer reps, and more sets. Now is the time to start training the right way if you want to be lean and energized next summer—and you’ll be that much further ahead of everyone who sets fat loss goals at New Years!

To lose fat, your best defense is to increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR) so that you burn more calories every day. There’s a great study that shows how gaining muscle is the best way to increase your RMR. One group of women lifted weights that were heavy enough to build muscle and a second group used lighter weights that were intended to build endurance. The women that lifted the heavier weights lost nearly 12 lbs of body fat, gained about 6 lbs of muscle, and had dramatic increases in strength. The women who did the high rep/light weight program lost NO fat and gained NO muscle. They didn’t get stronger either! They completely wasted their time!

Short rest periods, fewer reps per set, but more sets are essential if your goal is fat loss. By using fewer reps you will be less bored, be able to exert more effort per rep, and get more benefit out of the work you do. By using short rest periods (in the 10 to 30 second range), you burn a massive amount of energy quickly and increase the release of fat burning hormones. Growth hormone (GH) is known to burn fat and build muscle, and it is released by the body in large quantities in response to physical stress.

Circuit training is a great way to apply these principles for fat loss because circuits are fun, intense, and get you in and out of the gym quickly. They burn more calories too: One study found that circuit training resulted in participants burning 15 percent more energy than a traditional training program that used 3-minte rest periods. Apply these fat loss strategies with the following tips:

•    Do circuit training in which you move as fast as possible between 3 exercises. Do 5 sets of 6 reps per lift with a heavy weight—you should be near failure when you complete the set so that you almost can’t lift another rep.

•    Don’t be afraid of increasing your sets—a study found that doing 12 sets of 3 reps with 25 seconds rest between sets produced much more GH than doing fewer sets or longer rest.
•    Another option is to try 6 sets of 6 reps with that same 25-second rest period. Use a pretty heavy weight so that you are seriously fatigued by the end. It will be hard, but you will lose more fat faster!

Reference
Paulo, C., Roschel, H., et al. Influence of Different Resistance Exercise Loading Schemes on Mechanical Power Output in work to rest Ratio—Equated and Nonequated Conditions. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. 26(5), 1308-1312.

Tip 36: Lose Fat and Prevent Diabetes by Lifting Weights Instead of Doing Aerobic Training

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Lift weights instead of doing aerobic-style cardio to lose fat and prevent diabetes. You will get stronger too!

Research shows that lifting weights is a superior training method to aerobic exercise for fat loss and health, especially when you use free weight exercises such as squats and overhead presses. For example, a study using Australian diabetics showed that doing weight training at least twice a week for 40 minutes a session decreased the risk of having insulin resistance by 52 percent and improved their blood sugar management by 25 percent. Training once a week decreased risk of insulin resistance by half as much as training twice a week.

Be aware that greater insulin sensitivity (the opposite of insulin resistance that happens when you have diabetes) will help you lose fat because it means the food you eat is being burned for energy and not as readily being stored as fat.

A lot of people think more is better when it comes to training for fat loss and improving health and the study mentioned showed they are mostly right. Four times a week is considered optimal for gaining strength and improving health. However, that does NOT mean you should do aerobic-style cardio in addition to weight training.

Another study showed that when people do both they gain much less strength and have poorer results than if they had only done weight training. A group of diabetics who solely did weight training for 6 months gained much more strength than a group that combined cardio and weight training.

The researchers think that the combined exercise “impedes strength development.” Plus, participants found it boring and they were likely more fatigued because they had to spend 90 minutes training each session, whereas the other group only lifted for 45 minutes. Got that? The group that only lifted weights saved time and got a lot stronger!
Use the following training tips to get better results and prevent diabetes:

• Lift weights 4 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour. Use free weights, and do at least 3 sets per exercise.

• Use a weight that you can lift 8 to 10 times before reaching failure.

• Avoid slow aerobic cardio work. If you want to do energy system work, choose

intervals in which you go all out for short bursts and then rest for a set period of time.
• Do intervals and weight training on separate days to prevent fatigue and boredom.

Reference
Larose, J., Sigal, R., et al. Comparison of Strength Development with Resistance Training and combined Exercise Training in Type 2 Diabetes. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. 2012. 22, e44-54.

Minges, K., et al. Associations of Strength Training with Impaired Glucose Metabolism. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 35: Use the BEST Workout Methods to Get Lean & Strong

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Use the BEST workout methods to get lean and strong. Don’t make the common error of doing the wrong mode of conditioning or training for your goals.

A recent review of training protocols shows how to avoid making programming errors that will keep you from getting results. Researchers analyzed studies that tested the effect of different workout methods on strength, muscle development, endurance performance, and body fat. Here’s what they found:

•    The best way to lose body fat is to lift weights and do high-intensity interval training.

•    High-intensity intervals are best for fat loss because they increase metabolic rate after exercise to a degree that corresponds to the intensity of the training. They also increase the activity of an enzyme that increases fat burning.

•    Steady-state aerobic training (running or cycling continuously for 30 minutes) produces a decrease in muscle mass and a drop in metabolic rate. This leads to the need to exercise for longer to burn the same amount of calories. Interval training does not lead to a decrease in muscle mass.

•    If you’re training for an endurance event, like a 5 or 10K race, weight training can improve your speed AND endurance. Performing weight training WON’T compromise endurance performance or result in significant muscle development, so you won’t gain weight—you’ll just get faster!

• If you’re training to play a sport such as basketball, soccer, football, softball, tennis, or anything that requires jumping and sprinting, avoid doing steady aerobic exercise. It will make you less powerful and weaker. Opt for weight training, and add intervals if you need conditioning. This even applies to sports like golf and bowling!

Reference
Wilson, J., Marin, P., et al. Concurrent Training: a Meta-Analysis Examining Interference of Aerobic and Resistance Exercises. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. 26(8), 2293-2307.

Tip 34: Eat More Raw Foods To Get & Stay Lean Over the Winter

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Eat more raw foods to get and stay lean over the winter. Strategically adding the most unique and delicious raw fruits and vegetables to salads and other recipes is an easy way to prevent winter weight gain and may even help you drop a few pounds for the new year.

The selection of fresh foods decreases over the winter, but that just means it’s all the more important for you to make an effort to include them in your diet at every meal. Here’s why:

•    By eating more raw foods, you will decrease your energy intake and can lose weight. A Harvard study found that mice that ate only raw foods for four days lost weight even though they ate more calories overall than mice that ate cooked food. Many of the compounds in cooked foods are broken down, resulting in less energy expenditure from digesting them.

•    The Harvard study also found that food labels on packaged foods are significantly underestimating calorie content of cooked and processed foods because the calculations are based on the calories provided by the raw ingredients. People who rely on these values are lowballing their energy intake, which can obviously lead to fat gain.

•    Eating raw foods will increase your intake of water-rich foods, which can produce significant fat loss. One study found that people who ate more raw produce that was water-rich lost more weight than a group that ate a reduced fat diet. Since they were eating more of their diet from fruits and vegetables, the “water-rich” group took in 113 fewer calories daily than the reduced fat group, but they ate 25 percent more food daily!

•    Get more raw foods over the winter by making creative salads with blends of greens (bok choy, kale, chard, arugula) and crunchy veggies like peppers, beets, radishes, green beans, snap peas, cucumbers, carrots and celery.

•    Add fruit to green salads or make fruit salads with pears, apples, and citrus. Throw in some frozen berries for variety and punch.

•    Substitute raw foods for grains: Replace bread with lettuce in sandwiches, use thinly sliced yellow and zucchini squash for pasta.

•    Start every meal with raw foods—research shows whatever food you take a bite of first is the food you will eat the most of. Eat a colorful raw salad before eating holiday meals or going to parties and you’ll be less likely to eat foods you’d rather avoid.

References
Carmody, R., Weintraub, G., et al. Energetic Consequences of Thermal and Nonthermal Food Processing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2011.108(48), 19199-19203.

Carmody, R., Wrangham, R. The Energetic Significance of Cooking. Journal of Human Evolution. 2009. 57, 379-391.

Tip 33: Use Magnesium to Prevent High Blood Pressure

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Use magnesium to prevent high blood pressure and you will also have a better cholesterol profile. Magnesium has an all-around relaxing effect on the body, calming the nervous system. It allows the blood vessels to relax, leading to a healthier, lower blood pressure.

A new scientific review shows that getting adequate magnesium can decrease blood pressure readings to a greater degree than taking a blood pressure lowering drug. For example, a clinical trial that tested the effect of antihypertensive and lipid lowering drugs considered a drop in systolic blood pressure of 2 mm Hg to be significant for reducing the risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

But magnesium, does an even better job than medication: Across all studies reviewed, systolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 3 to 4 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 2 to 3 mm Hg, both substantial decreases.

The most notable drop in blood pressure came from taking a dose of 370 mg/day of magnesium citrate. The authors of the study make a few important points that you should be aware of:

•    Getting adequate magnesium can decrease blood pressure readings to the same degree as eating a very low salt diet or performing an exercise program.

•    The average daily intake of magnesium in the Western world has declined from about 500 mg/day in the 1900s to closer to 175 mg/day.

•    Low magnesium contributes to a number of stress-related health problems, including high blood pressure, inability to sleep, and poor blood sugar management.

•    Get enough magnesium and practice other lifestyle behaviors such as avoiding alcohol, working out at least three times a week, eating fruits and vegetables daily, and staying lean to prevent high blood pressure.

•    The U.S. government recommends an intake of 320 mg/day for women and 420 mg/day for men, both of which are low compared to what most alternative medical specialists would consider an adequate dose—generally in the range of 500 mg/day of magnesium from a high-quality source such as magnesium glycinate, citrate, or taurate, among others.

References
Kaas, L., Weekes, J., et al. Effect of Magnesium Supplementation on Blood Pressure: A Meta-analysis. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. 66(4), 411-418.

Tip 32: Count the Tempo of Your Exercises When Weight Training To Get Stronger

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Counting the tempo of each exercise you do when weight training can help you get stronger and achieve better all-around results. Tempo is a term used to refer to the number of seconds you spend performing the up and down phases of a lift.

It’s a tool used by elite personal trainers, but it is just as beneficial for the general population as it is for athletes. If you’re not counting tempo, you’re not getting all that you could out of your time in the gym.

Tempo works like this: There are two phases to every exercise—an up and a down phase. There’s also the time (or lack thereof) in between each phase. When you count tempo, you program the seconds spent on both the up and down phase of the lift as well as the pause at the top and bottom, between the up and down phases.

The most basic use of tempo is to lift the weight in a controlled manner, never letting gravity do the work. Have you ever just let the weight fall during the down phase of an exercise, without controlling it? Stop doing that and start using a simple tempo prescription to get better results.

Here’s how it works:

•    If you are doing a squat, you would squat down in a controlled manner, taking 4 seconds to do so. You would not pause at the bottom, but come right back up in 1 second. Then you’d pause for 1 second at the top, in the original start position, and then lower the weight counting 4 seconds to do so.

•    This tempo would be written as 4011. The first number dictates the seconds it takes for the down motion; the second number is the pause before the up motion, which is the third number; and the fourth number is the pause before the down motion.

•    Simply, counting a basic 4011 tempo for every lift is the best place to start to improve body composition.

•    There are numerous benefits to counting tempo, including better training results in terms of strength, power, muscle building, and fat loss. Of course, you have to know how different tempos are used to train for each goal, which takes some learning and practice.

•    To learn more about tempo, consider getting the book German Body Comp ( http://us.cpoliquin.com/product_p/german%20body%20comp.htm )by Charles, or read the article, Ten Things You Should Know About Tempo Training

Reference
Scott, Christopher. The Effect of Time Under Tension and Weight Lifting Cadence on aerobic, Anaerobic, and Recovery Energy Expenditures. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2012. 37(2), 252-256.

Tip 31: Take Fish Oil To Improve Body Composition and Well-Being

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Take fish oil to improve body composition and overall well-being. The cool thing about fish oil, which includes the omega-3 fatty acids EPA, DHA, and ALA, is that it will make you healthier in a number of surprising ways!

A recent study, that compared taking 4 grams of EPA- and DHA-rich fish oil with the same dose of safflower oil, found that the fish oil produced significant fat loss and muscle building in healthy subjects after only 6 weeks. The participants weren’t even exercising—imagine the benefits if they were working out too!

Of interest, the participants in this study had a decrease in their levels of the stress hormone cortisol after taking the fish oil. Cortisol is released in response to stress, and when it is chronically elevated, it can lead to fat gain. It also causes muscle loss, producing a poorer body composition.

High cortisol is linked to higher mortality rates and may affect cognitive function. Getting adequate fish oil has implications for your body composition, brain, and overall well-being. Take away the following points about fish oil:

•    The EPA and DHA fish oils are especially effective at increasing the body’s use of fat for fuel. Pick a fish oil supplement with at least 500 mg of both DHA and EPA.

•    Better fat loss results have been shown with even higher doses than the 4 g a day used in this study. Consider substituting 6 to 10 grams of your normal dietary fat with fish oil if your goal is fat loss.

•    Fish oil has been shown to decrease acute inflammation from weight training as well as chronic inflammation caused by high cortisol.

•    Brain function is best when DHA fish oil makes up close to 20 percent of the fatty acids found in the brain. Fish oil is thought to prevent Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and improve overall cognition.

•    Fish oil supports heart health, and because it lowers cortisol, it can help you feel calmer and less stressed.

References
Noreen, E., Sass, M., Crowe, M., Pabon, V., Branauer, J., Averill, L. Effects of Supplemental Fish Oil on Resting Metabolic Rate, Body Composition, and Salivary Cortisol in Healthy Adults. 2010. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 7(31).

Smith, G., Atherton, P., Reeds, D., Mohammed, B., Rankin, D., Rennie, M., Mittendorfer, B. Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Increases the Rate of Muscle Protein Synthesis in Older Adults: a Randomized Controlled Trial. 2010. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 93(2), 402-412.

Tip 30: Avoid Dangerous BPA To Lose Fat & Improve Body Composition

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Avoid Bisphenol A (BPA), the ever-present but dangerous chemical, to lose fat and improve body composition. BPA mimics the hormone estrogen in the body and a notable new study found a direct association between urinary BPA levels and obesity risk in a large multi-ethnic population. This study shows BPA makes men, women, and children fat, and that it affects all races.

BPA is the chemical that is used to make plastic, line the inside of food cans, and it functions as an epoxy resin, coating everything from medical equipment to receipt paper. One study found that something as simple as eating a can of soup daily for five days raised BPA in the urine by 1,223 percent because the soup can was lined with BPA that leached into the soup.

The study found that in nearly 5,000 adult Americans, greater urinary BPA levels were associated with a much higher body fat percentage and greater risk of obesity. In every subgroup, such as gender, age, race, and education level, rates of obesity increased with more BPA exposure. For example, people who had more than 4.20 ng/ml BPA in their urine had at least a 34 percent chance of being obese compared to those with less than 1.10 ng/ml BPA who only had a 23 percent chance of being obese.

Among the 2838 children in the study, the same trend was evident, with a 10.3 percent risk of being obese in those with less than 1.10 ng/ml BPA in their urine compared to a 22.3 percent chance in those who had more than 4.20 ng/ml urinary BPA.

Researchers think that greater BPA exposure increases body fat because it alters insulin sensitivity, affects metabolism, causes inflammation, and decreases levels of a hormone called adiponectin that regulates fat burning. It’s also been linked to increased disease and cancer rates.

Be aware that your greatest risk of BPA exposure comes from food and beverages that are in BPA-containing packaging. The good news is that there are simple things you can do to avoid this packaging, including the following:

•    Avoid eating foods from aluminum cans unless you know they are BPA free. Eden Beans, tuna from Wild Planet, Eco Fish, and Oregon’s Choice, Bionaturae tomatoes, Natural Value tomatoes and tuna, and some Trader Joe’s brand products all use BPA-free cans.
•    Avoid plastic containers for food and water. Use glass and get a stainless steel water bottle.
•    Never microwave or heat plastic. Under high temperatures is when BPA is most easily transferred from plastic to food. Use glass containers.
•    Don’t take receipts unless necessary. Almost half of paper receipts contain BPA and there’s evidence that cashiers have very high BPA levels.

References
Trasande, L., et al. Association Between Urinary Bisphenol A Concentration and Obesity Prevalence in Children and Adolescents. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2012. 308(11), 1113-1120.

Shankar, A., Teppala, S., et al. Urinary BPA Levels and Measures of Obesity: Results from the NHANES 2003-2008. International Scholarly Research Network-Endocrinology. 2012. Article ID 965243.

Tip 29: Get Rid of Low Back Pain By Strengthening the Whole Body

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Use a total body weight training program to prevent low back pain. Research suggests that strengthening the entire body is more effective for treating low back pain than doing exercises that isolate the “core” musculature of the abdominals and lower back. In fact, “core” training can put you at risk for further pain and injury because it doesn’t train the body in an integrated fashion.

For example, a study of active men who complained of low back pain found that doing a 12-week full body weight training program resulted in much less pain and better mobility. The program used free weights and machine exercises for the entire body and improved quality of life in addition to building strength.

Once back pain has been eliminated, more “global” lifts that use the whole body at once, such as dead lifts, back extensions, chin-ups and squats, can be done. This will allow for you to further strengthen the neuromuscular connections between the brain and the muscles. Another benefit of appropriate weight training is less inflammation, which is a major contributor to pain and dysfunction in the lower back.

Take away the following points to get rid of low back pain:

•   Avoid isolated “core” training that often puts pressure on the spinal discs and can inadvertently cause injury and more pain.
•   Beginning trainees or those suffering from a lower back injury will need to perform rehabilitation and achieve structural balance before doing “global” lifts.
•   A supplement that can decrease pain and tingling in the lower back is Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA) with Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA). Doing weight training and taking 600 mg of ALA and 360 mg of GLA daily was more effective than just weight training for treating low back pain and sciatica in one study.

References
Ranieri, M., et al. The Use of ALA, GLA, and Rehabilitation in the Treatment of Back Pain: Effect on Health-Related Quality of Life. International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology. 2009. 22(3 Suppl), 45-50.

Jackson, J.K., et al. The Influence of Periodized Resistance training on Recreationally Active Males with Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2011. 25(1), 242-251.

Tip 28: Don’t Let Low Vitamin D Make You Gain Belly Fat This Winter

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Don’t let low vitamin D make you gain belly fat this winter. A quick informal survey of the Poliquin Performance staff shows that people still don’t understand how important vitamin D is for body composition.

Vitamin D is produced in the body in response to sunlight meaning that our levels drop a huge amount over the winter. But, vitamin D deficiency has become a problem during summer too because vitamin D metabolism is not simple. Research shows that having dark skin, wearing sunglasses or sunscreen, or being overweight will compromise your body’s ability to make vitamin D, leaving you deficient.

Simply maintaining your vitamin D level during the winter can keep you from gaining fat. A study of overweight Iranian women found that by raising their vitamin D levels by 100 percent to an “adequate” level of 30 ng/ml over 12 weeks allowed them to lose 2.7 kg of fat without doing any exercise. A placebo group lost no fat over the same period.

A second study measured body composition changes and power gains from doing weight training in conjunction to taking a vitamin D supplement or a placebo for 12 weeks. The vitamin D group shrank their waist lines and improved body composition by increasing muscle mass. They also developed significantly more muscular power than the placebo group. This is notable because more muscular power indicates that the fast type II muscle has grown and gotten stronger. Having more type II muscle will improve mobility and functional strength.

Take away the following points to avoid weight gain this winter:

• Vitamin D levels between 40 and 50 ng/ml are considered optimal by the Vitamin D Council. That is a higher range than was achieved in these studies.
• A general estimate is that taking 4,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for 12 weeks should raise vitamin D by 28 ng/ml. However, that was the dose used in the second study mentioned above and vitamin D levels increased by only 13 ng/ml—much less than predicted. It may be that compared to thinner individuals, vitamin D does not increase as quickly in overweight people because it is stored in body fat.
• Risk of vitamin D deficiency increases dramatically from September to May in the Western hemisphere. Get your levels tested every three months by your doctor.

References
Salehpour, A., et al. A 12-Week Double-Blind Randomized Clinical trial of Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Body Fat Mass in Healthy Overweight and Obese Women. Nutrition Journal. 2012. 11, 78.

Carrillo, A., et al. Impact of Vitamin D Supplementation During Resistance Training Intervention on Body Composition, Muscle Function, and Glucose Tolerance in Overweight and Obese Adults. Clinical Nutrition. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 27: Increase Flexibility by Doing Eccentric Exercises— More Effective Than Stretching

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Improve flexibility by doing eccentric exercises. Eccentric training has been shown to be much more effective at increasing lasting flexibility than stretching, and you gain strength and mobility at the same time.

An eccentric exercise occurs when your muscle lengthens. For most exercises, it happens when you lower the weight. Think of a biceps curl in which you “curl” the weight up towards your body—the upward motion shortens the muscle and the downward motion is the eccentric motion in which the muscle lengthens.

Doing biceps curls eccentrically should increase range of motion around the elbow joint and make the muscles of the arm more flexible. To do this you would raise the weight taking one second and then slowly lower the weight under control taking four to six seconds. More examples of eccentric exercises are provided below in the bulleted section.

According to a research review into the best way to improve flexibility, eccentric training was shown to be most effective because it will grow the individual muscle fibers, lengthening the muscle for the long term. Eccentric exercise was found to increase flexibility in the hamstrings and quadriceps of the thigh by as much as 25 percent more than static stretching—the typical way people try to increase flexibility. Smaller benefits have been seen in the upper body joints of the shoulders and elbows.

To perform an eccentric training program for better flexibility use the following tips:

•    First identify the joint where you want to improve flexibility and choose a corresponding exercise.
•    For the hip joint, squats are a good choice. Take four to six seconds to lower yourself and then come up to vertical in one second.
•    For the knee, hamstring curls and leg extensions will work. For example, do hamstring curls (lying face down on the machine) in which you contract your hamstrings on a one-second count brining the weight up, and then lowering the weight on a five-second count. One study showed this program increased range of motion at the knee by nearly 13 percent.

Reference
O’Sullivan, K., McAuliffe, S., et al. The Effects of Eccentric raining on Lower Limb Flexibility: A Review. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 26: Tips To Develop A Weight Training Program For Fat Loss & A Lean Body Composition

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Weight training is an excellent way to lose fat and get a lean body composition, but you have to know how to program your workouts to get results. Research into different training protocols using the squat exercise provides strategies for getting started.

A new study compared the effect of a full squat with a partial squat on work output, which is sports science terminology for energy expenditure or calorie burn. A full squat is when you go all the way down so that your hip joint is lower than your knee, whereas a partial squat is where you go down about two-thirds of the way to the point that your upper leg is parallel to the ground. Results of the study showed that when participants did full squats, they performed more work and burned more calories than with the partial squat.

A second finding was that energy expenditure was greater when a heavier weight was used but fewer repetitions were done. A component of the study was to compare the difference on calorie burn of doing 5 reps per set with a heavy weight (equal to 83 percent of the maximal amount that could be lifted one time) to doing 10 reps with a lighter weight (equal to 67 percent of the max amount).

You might think that more reps will be better for weight loss, but results show this is not the case: The full squat done for 5 reps allowed participants to burn 17 percent more energy than the 10 rep/light load full squat! Plus, the full squat done for 5 reps used 32 percent more energy than the partial squat done for the 5 reps with the 67 percent weight.

Take away the following strategies to develop a weight training program that will allow you to improve body composition:

•    Make full-range of motion exercises like the full squat a fundamental part of your program. Sometimes partial-range exercises can be done for a training cycle, but never at the exclusion of full-range exercises because this can lead to tight or imbalanced muscles.
•    Opt for full-range exercises that use more than one joint, such as the squat that uses the hip, knee, and ankle joints or the chest press that uses the elbow and shoulder joints, to burn the most calories and lose fat.
•    Use a heavier weight with fewer reps per set to do the most work and burn the most calories on each set. Yes, you will need to do twice as many sets for the best results, but researchers suggest this is the best way to program for optimal fat loss.

Reference
Drinkwater, E., Moore, N., et al. Effects of Changing from Full Range of Motion to Partial Range of Motion on Squat Kinetics. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. 26(4), 890-896.

Tip 25: Strategies to Decrease Breast Cancer Risk: Make it A Lifestyle

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Prevent breast cancer by living a lifestyle that keeps you lean, feeds your body with the healthiest foods, ensures you get key nutrients, and helps you avoid simple things that put you at risk. There is an abundance of research into what causes breast cancer, and the key take away from all this research, is that simple lifestyle habits can make a big difference when it comes to cancer.

The best prevention plan is a balanced plan. The following are some areas to focus on for a breast cancer prevention lifestyle:

•    Exercise and lift weights regularly. Reviews suggest that there is as much as an 80 percent reduction in breast cancer risk if you are physically active throughout your life. This means doing regular vigorous exercise AND being active during the day.

•    Exercise is especially important during the teen years and during menopause. These are the times when women have the greatest variation in hormones, particularly estrogen. High levels of estrogen are difficult for the body to metabolize safely and are linked to greater breast cancer risk.

•    Be smart about soy. The problem with soy is that a lot of the soy we eat in the Western world is genetically modified, highly processed, and acid washed. Avoid such products, which include soy milk, meat substitutes, and tofu. Opt for minimally processed soy that is fermented such as tempeh or miso. Use it as a condiment rather than a staple.

•    Avoid alcohol because it increases estrogen levels leading to greater breast cancer risk. If you choose to drink sometimes, choose red wine.

•    Eat organic, especially when it comes to meat and dairy. Non-organic animals are fed growth-promoting hormones that can mess with your hormones and raise cancer risk. If possible avoid pesticides from non-organic produce because these can also mimic estrogen when they enter the body.

•    Get enough vitamin D. Low vitamin D is a huge public health issue and it is linked over and over again with increased breast cancer risk. Get your levels tested and if you are below 40 ng/ml, take supplemental D.

•    Avoid BPA because it mimics estrogen in the body. It’s found in throwaway plastic, aluminum cans, plastic food containers, and receipts.

•    Eat nuts, especially walnuts. These appear to halt tumor growth and greater nut intake has been repeatedly linked to lower breast cancer risk in women.

Top Eight Lifestyle Tips to Lose Fat & Achieve Optimal Body Composition

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Lose fat fast with a “lifestyle” change that helps you maintain body composition results for the long run. This article will provide eight tips for changing your lifestyle so that you get lean and feel good…and are still lean and energized next summer when it’s time to hit the beach!

Tip #1: Build Muscle to Increase Your Resting Metabolic Rate
Your best defense against fat is to increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR) by building muscle. Your RMR makes up the bulk of the calories your burn every day. The magic of a workout program that builds muscle is not only that it elevates your RMR by increasing the amount of muscle you have, but it also increases the amount of calories you use during the 24-hour recovery period post-workout.
One study that provides an example of muscle building and RMR on fat is compared two 12-week weight training protocols done by women. One protocol used weights that were heavy enough to build muscle and the second used light weights and were intended to build endurance. The women that lifted the heavier weights lost nearly 12 lbs of body fat, gained about 6 lbs of muscle, and had dramatic increases in strength. The women who did the high rep/light weight program lost NO fat and gained NO muscle. They didn’t get stronger either!

Tip #2: Weight Train with Full-Range of Motion, Multi-Joint Exercises
Choose weight training exercises that use more than one joint to burn the most calories and lose fat. These are called multi-joint lifts, such as the squat that uses the hip, knee, and ankle joints, or the chest press and row that both use the elbow and shoulder joints. Multi-joint exercises use more muscles than single-joint ones like bicep or leg curls, which means they burn more energy. Similarly, full-range of motion lifts will use up more calories to perform than partial-range exercises.
For instance, a study that compared a full-squat (in which you go all the way down so that your hip joint is lower than your knee) to a partial-squat (in which you go about two-thirds of the way to the point that your upper leg is parallel to the ground) found that the full-squat burned more calories. Another smart reason to do full-range exercises is that restricting the motion of a joint can lead to tightness in that joint and imbalances in your muscles, causing pain and increasing injury risk.

Tip #3: Use Moderate to Heavy Weights with Fewer Repetitions
Lifting heavy but doing fewer reps with more sets is a key component for fat loss. Studies show that both experienced and beginning weight trainees rarely select weights that are heavy enough to help them lose fat and gain muscle when working out. For example, in one study of young athletic women, researchers found that the women chose to lift a load that was about 50 percent lower than the weight that they should be lifting if they wanted to improve body composition. Remember that example in the first tip that saw women who lifted light weights burned no fat?
The good news is that when you lift a little heavier, you get to do fewer repetitions per set, which will make your training much less boring. Wouldn’t you rather do sets with 7 or 8 reps than count to 15 or 20 every time?!

Tip #4: Weight Train with Short Rest, Fewer Reps & More Sets
Using short rest periods is essential because it will burn a massive amount of energy quickly and increase fat burning hormones. Growth hormone (GH) is known to burn fat and build muscle, and it is released by the body in greater quantities in response to physical stress.
Circuit training is ideal because it is fun, fast, and intense. It burns more calories too: One study found that circuit training resulted in participants burning 15 percent more energy than a traditional training program that used 3-mintes rest periods. The circuit program had participants move as fast as possible between 3 exercises and do 5 sets of 6 reps per lift. Note the effectiveness of lifting heavy, with fewer reps, and more sets—this study didn’t measure fat loss but it’s the type of program known for producing fast body composition results.

Tip #5: Do Sprint Interval Training for Cardio
Sprint interval training is far superior to aerobic-style cardio for fat loss and it can be done in less time than your typical boring aerobic program. A 1994 study had participants do either 20 weeks of aerobic training or 15 weeks of intervals (15 sprints for 30 seconds each) and the interval group lost 9 times more body fat than the aerobic group.
What is so interesting about this study is that the energy cost of the aerobic program over the whole study period was 28,661 calories, whereas for intervals it was less than half, at 13,614 calories. In significantly less time, the interval group lost much more weight due to the hormone response to training and that excess calorie burn during the recovery period mentioned in #1!

Tip #6: Eliminate Processed Foods
It’s impossible to out-train a bad diet and processed foods are the epitome of bad food. They lack nutrition, generally contain chemicals, dyes, and artificial additives, and the macronutrients have been modified or are denatured, which means they aren’t metabolized in the same way as if they were in the unprocessed state.
In fact, processed foods take much less energy to digest, meaning that by eating whole foods instead, you increase energy expenditure. Eliminate anything that comes in a package and choose whole foods in their most natural state.

Tip #7: Eat a High-Quality High-Protein Diet
Eating high-quality organic protein is essential when it comes to fat loss because you want to get the greatest amino acid intake per calorie since the amino acids are the building blocks of tissue and muscle. A classic example of how a high-protein diet is the cornerstone of a lean body composition lifestyle is a study that helped participants develop better dietary habits for fat loss. They were taught how to eat either a high-protein, low-fat, or Mediterranean diet.
The high-protein group lost more weight and maintained the weight loss for the next two years after the study ended, whereas the other diet groups did not. Greater protein intake allowed for less feelings of hunger and fewer cravings for high-carb foods that provide a lot of calories per gram.

Tip #8: Hydrate for Fat Loss: Avoid Sports Drinks, Alcohol & Coffee Post-Workout
Completely eliminate juice, soda, alcohol (the one exception may be red wine), and any “sports” drinks. Green tea and coffee are great beverages for fat loss because they increase metabolic rate and shift the body into fat burning mode. But, be sure to only use coffee pre-workout because it has been shown to elevate the stress hormone cortisol after exercise, which can delay recovery and compromise fat loss post-workout.
Hydration is essential for fat loss and a general suggestion for water intake is 0.6 to 0.7 oz. per pound of body weight, which calculates to 120 to 140 oz. for a 200 lb man, or 72 to 84 oz. for a 120 lb woman. If you are not even close to your water intake goal, start by increasing intake by 4 to 8 oz. a day until you reach your goal.

Tip 24: Lift a Little Heavier When Weight Training To Get Better Results

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Lift a little heavier, when weight training, to get better results. By lifting a little bit heavier, you will get stronger muscles, build bone, and improve your body composition. Plus, by adding weight to the bar, you will be focusing more on performance, which can give you some much needed workout inspiration!

Studies show that both experienced and beginning weight trainees rarely select weights that are heavy enough to produce adaptations when working out. For example, in one study of young athletic women researchers found that the women chose to lift a load that was only 40 percent of the total amount of weight they could lift for a given exercise.

Such a low weight is only beneficial for very de-conditioned older individuals. It won’t do young women or even older active women any good. You need to lift a weight that is at least 60 percent of the maximal amount in order to have much effect on endurance, and to build strength or burn fat; you need an even heavier percentage.

Plus, the study found that the women never increased their weights over a six-month training period. This means they weren’t getting stronger or building muscle. And they didn’t lose any fat either!

Even if the goal was maintenance, lifting heavier is a smart move because it will lead to more fat loss and it’s more fun. Plus, it helps make your training more “functional” in that you’ll be able to carry heavy stuff around. Why not train so that it’s easier to lift heavy suitcases into your trunk, pick up your son or daughter, or carry a heavy air conditioner up the stairs?

Some tips to help you start adding a little weight to the bar include the following:

•    If you are new to weight training, consider working with a personal trainer who is experienced in teaching about how to get results. This will allow you to learn proper form and help you understand how to vary the amount of weight you lift to achieve your goal.

•    Ask the trainer to explain the terms “periodization” and “progressive overload” to you. If they don’t know what these are, get another trainer because these provide the groundwork for an effective training program, regardless of the goal.

•    In general, a weight that is less than 65 percent of the maximal amount you can lift will only be effective at increasing your muscular endurance. It won’t burn fat, build muscle or help you get stronger. If you can do more than 12 reps of an exercise, the weight is below 65 percent of your max.

To burn fat, use weights between 65 and 85 percent of maximal. This is a wide range because the weight you use will vary based on the reps, sets, type of exercise, and rest time.

•    For fat loss, try circuit training with a weight that is a little over 65 percent, and use very limited rest periods.

Reference
Ratamess, N., Faigenbaum, A., Hoffman, J., Kang, J. Self-selected Resistance Training Intensity in Healthy Women: The Influence of a Personal Trainer. 2008. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 22(1), 103-111.

Tip 23: Eat Protein For Breakfast To Lose Fat and Keep It Off

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Eat protein for breakfast to lose fat and keep it off. Research shows that eating a high-protein breakfast can decrease feelings of hunger before lunch, increase satisfaction after eating, and lead to lower calorie intake at lunch and dinner.

For example a new study from the UK found that participants who had eggs for breakfast were less hungry and had a lower desire to eat at lunch than those who ate a high carbohydrate breakfast of cornflakes or a croissant with orange juice. The participants who had the egg breakfast ate as much as 300 calories less over the whole day than the cereal and croissant groups.

This study highlights the misconception that simple carbohydrate foods are ideal for breakfast because they provide a lot of “energy.” It is true that cornflakes and croissants provide energy in the sense that they give you a nice dose of quickly digested calories, but that doesn’t mean you will feel energized! Rather, these breakfasts will quickly raise blood sugar, producing high levels of insulin, which causes blood sugar to drop. This will leave you hungry and with less energy.

If you want to lose fat, eating protein for breakfast (and at every meal) is one of the smartest dietary habits you can adopt. Some tips to start doing so include the following:

•    Try having eggs, fish, beef, or pork for breakfast paired with berries. All of these protein sources have shown to decrease hunger and increase satisfaction in a wide range of subjects including youth, lean adults, and diabetics.

•    Rotate the meat you eat for breakfast and try pairing it with nuts or cooked leafy green vegetables.

•    If you need a more traditional breakfast, get organic pork, chicken, turkey, or beef sausages with low-glycemic whole grain bread. For example, bread cooked with fenugreek or guar gum will raise blood sugar more slowly than conventional bread.

•    Follow up a high-protein breakfast by getting a nice dose of protein at lunch, dinner, and at all snacks for best weight loss results.

•    Eating protein has been shown boost brain function by providing a steady flow of glucose to the brain—an effect that will keep your energy levels steady and can help you avoid cravings throughout the day.

Reference
Fallaize, R., Wilson, L., et al. Variation in the Effects of Three Different Breakfast Meals on Subjective Satiety and Subsequent Intake of Energy at Lunch and Evening Meal. European Journal of Nutrition. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 22: Lose Belly Fat By Eliminating Sneaky Trans-Fats from Your Diet

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Eliminate sneaky trans-fats from your diet to lose belly fat and decrease your risk of heart disease. If you aren’t already aware that trans-fats are used to make many conventional foods, you will probably be shocked to see how common they are. For example, you’ll find trans-fats listed in the ingredients of peanut butter, coffee “creamer,” soup, baked goods, crackers, and cereal!

Trans-fats are produced when unsaturated oils are partially hydrogenated, making them more solid. They are bad for a lot of reasons. First, they are fat that has been altered, so your body doesn’t process them like it does with “smart” fats such as fish oil or olive oil. Rather, trans-fats can make your cells more rigid and less permeable, changing them to be less sensitive to the hormone insulin. Insensitivity to insulin is what causes type 2 diabetes, and it leads to weight gain.

Second, trans-fats raise LDL cholesterol and increase the fats or triglycerides in your blood stream. This also leads to fat gain, especially around the belly, and causes inflammation. Plus, there are strong associations between trans-fat consumption and heart attack rates. The damage doesn’t stop there!

A recent study that assessed trans-fat consumption and behavior in healthy adults found that people who ate more trans-fats were more irritable and aggressive. The reason that trans-fats make you unhappy is because they can cross the blood brain barrier and cause inflammation in the brain. This leads to depression and more hostile behavior.

The following are some tips to help you avoid trans-fats from getting into your diet:

•    Trans-fats can be identified as partially hydrogenated oils. Common ones are partially hydrogenated rapeseed, soybean, or cottonseed oil. Avoid them!

•    For the best health, avoid all hydrogenated oils, whether they are fully or partially hydrogenated. Fully hydrogenated oils do not contain trans-fats, but they are still chemically altered and should be avoided.

•    If a package simply lists “hydrogenated oil” without expressly stating whether it is partially or fully hydrogenated, it my not be trans-fat free. The words “hydrogenated” and “partially hydrogenated” are used interchangeably. If a food label says, “fully hydrogenated oil,” then it will be trans-fat free but should still be avoided.

•    Unfortunately in the US, labeling laws are far too lax. If a food contains less than 0.5 g of trans-fats, it can say “trans-fat free” on the label, but you will still find partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients. A classic example is commercial peanut butter that contains a small amount of trans-fat to prevent separation. Avoid eating these foods by reading ALL nutrition labels.

•    Choose whole foods that aren’t processed, refined, or packaged and you will be on your way to avoiding dangerous ingredients like trans-fats.

References
Micha, R., Mozaffarian, D. Trans Fatty Acids: Effect on Cardiometabolic Health and Implications for Policy. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes, and Essential Fatty Acids. 2008. 79(3-5), 147-152.

Golomb, B., Evans, M., et al. Trans-Fat Consumption and Aggression. PLoS One. 201. 7(3), 32175

Tip 21: Lose Belly Fat and Get Lean Abs with Sprint Interval Training

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Trim your waste and get leaner abs by doing sprint interval training instead of wasting lots of time on sit-ups and abdominal work. For many people, the biggest obstacle to achieving chiseled abs is losing the fat the covers the abdominal muscles. Don’t worry—there is a solution!

A wealth of research shows that the most effective way to lost belly fat is to do sprint intervals, or what is often called high-intensity training. For example, a new study in the Journal of Obesity showed that an interval cycling program allowed young men to lose 17 percent of their belly fat and shrink their wastes accordingly. They lost almost 4 pounds of fat from the abdominal area and 5 pounds of total body fat. Compare these results to a 2010 study that showed abdominal training doesn’t produce any fat loss.

The difference between sprint interval programs and ab strengthening programs is that intervals train the large muscle groups of the lower body, leading to more energy being used. They also stress the anaerobic energy system that is used for short but intense bursts of exercise. This energy system tends to shift the body into a fat burning mode, whereas abdominal exercises are usually more aerobic in nature and don’t burn fat.

For the best looking abs include the following components in your workouts:

•    Do sprint intervals at a track. Try 20-second all-out sprints with 10 seconds rest in 4 sets of 4 intervals. Rest 3 minutes between sets.

•    Try the cycling intervals used in the Journal of Obesity study (8 second sprints with 12 seconds rest for 60 sprints total—this is just 3 sprints a minute for 20 minutes).

•    Try hill or stair running in which you sprint up as fast as you possible and jog down. Try to repeat immediately. Do 8 to 16 reps.

•    Do a total body strength-training program in which you use multi-joint exercises such as lunges, step-ups, chest press, pull-downs, and chin-ups. These exercises require you to contract all the muscles in your trunk if you do them right.

•    Restrict ab training to one exercise per strength training session—opt for reverse crunches or leg lowering if you have a strong lower back.

References
Heydari, M., Freud, J., et al. The Effect of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise on Body Composition of Overweight Young Males. Journal of Obesity. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Boutcher, Stephen. High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise and Fat Loss. Journal of Obesity. 2011. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 20: Get a Better Body By Doing More Sets When Lifting Weights: One Set is Not Enough

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Do three or more sets of each exercise when lifting weights to get the best body composition results. You will lose substantially more fat and gain more muscle, thereby raising your metabolism, if you do more sets.

Organizations that prescribe exercise for health often say that one set is enough when it comes to weight training. They probably say this because they just want people to do something. It’s true that one set is better than no sets, but if you want to change your body and get stronger, a few extra sets will make all the difference.

For example, a study from a few years ago compared the effect of training one set with three sets of three lower body exercises on strength and muscle gains. Fairly heavy weights were used, and after 11 weeks, the group that did three sets gained 50 percent more strength than the one set group. The three set group also gained significantly more muscle than the one set group.

Other studies support the value of doing more sets, or what is called volume, when it comes to weight lifting because the greater number of repetitions will target more fibers within the muscle. This is the most effective method of building muscle quickly, and rest assured that gaining muscle will help you lose fat, without getting bulky muscles. In fact, for every pound of muscle most novice trainees gain, they lose a pound of fat!

Reference
Ronnestad, B., Egeland, W., et al. Dissimilar Effects of One and Three Set Strength Training on Strength and Muscle Gains in Untrained Subjects. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2007. 21(1), 157-163.

Tip 19: Stand Up For Better Body Composition: Improve Your Posterior

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Are you sitting down? Stand up! In just 20 minutes of sitting, your blood sugar and insulin can get out of whack. A little longer and gene activity decreases, tissue rebuilding comes to a halt, and metabolism slows.

Just as bad, new research shows that when you sit for long periods of time, the weight your body puts on your fat cells actually makes them grow at a faster rate than if you were standing! The tensile pressure of your body makes fat on your bottom balloon.

Plus, when fat cells are under pressure, they produce more triglycerides, sending them into the blood stream. High blood triglyceride levels are what raise cholesterol and increase your risk of stroke or heart attack. Sitting for long periods may be more dangerous than eating saturated fat-filled foods!

The following are some strategies to help you spend less time sitting, even if you have a desk job:
•    Take a pause from desk work every 20 minutes and stand up. Do arm circles and move your legs—do knee grabs for instance.
•    Get up and walk as often as possible—certainly every hour. The longer the walk the better, but even getting water, coffee, or walking to speak to a colleague will improve blood flow.
•    Get an adjustable desk and stand during work—one study found that workers who stood all day burned hundreds more calories than when they sat for the same period of time.
•    Take a walk or work out at lunch. Always take the stairs.
•    Get rid of your TV—your brain will work better, you’ll sleep better, and you’ll sit less at home.

Reference
Levy, A., Enzer, S., et al. Large, but not Small Sustained Tensile Strains Stimulate Adipogenesis in Culture. Annals of Biomedical Engineering. 2012. 40(5), 1052-1060.

Tip 18: Eat Protein At Every Meal to Decrease Food Cravings

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Eat protein with every meal to decrease food cravings and achieve optimal body composition. There are at least three reasons that a high-protein diet can help you feel satisfied throughout the day and improve your physique.

First, there’s the direct effect of the energy required to break down the amino acids in protein on weight control. Called thermogenesis, body burns significantly more calories metabolizing protein than if you had eaten the same amount of fat or carbohydrates.

The second benefit of protein, is that you can decrease your appetite when you eat it, but these feelings of fullness and satisfaction don’t happen because your stomach is full. In fact, your brain’s response to eating is greatly influenced by whether you have eaten protein or carbohydrates.

By eating carbohydrates the opioid or pleasure-seeking messages in your become active, which can lead you to want to continue that pleasurable “food experience” and keep eating. With protein, those chemical messages aren’t active, which reduces that craving to eat more of that tasty food.

Finally, your body sends hormonal signals after you eat depending on the macronutrient content of food. For instance, ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates hunger and it is suppressed by protein, whereas leptin, a hormone that inhibits hunger and tells the body to burn fat, is elevated when you eat protein. It is rather telling that the word “leptin” is Greek for “thin”!

Strategies to increase your protein intake include the following:
•    Plan meals carefully so that you get high-quality protein at every meal and at snacks. Nuts, nut butters, eggs, deli slices of turkey or chicken, plain yogurt, salmon, quinoa, and beans are a few protein-filled suggestions.
•    Shoot for solid protein except if you drink a workout shake because solid protein has been shown to have a much more satiating effect.
•    If you do take liquid protein before or after exercise, whey has been shown to blunt hunger more than casein because it is faster digesting.

Reference
Fromentin, G., Darcel, N., et al. Peripheral and Central Mechanisms Involved in the Control of Food Intake by Dietary Amino Acids and Proteins. Nutrition Research Reviews. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 17: Prevent Knee Pain By Doing Single-Leg Training: Try Step-Ups & Split Squats

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Imbalances between the right and left side of the body, or between specific muscles within a limb, increase your risk of injury and joint dysfunction. For example, knee pain is often due to a weakness of one of the muscles of the quadriceps that make up the thigh. The most common weakness is of the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) that is the teardrop shaped muscle on the inside above the knee.

A Brazilian study showed that by doing single-leg training for 8 weeks, recreational athletes were able to increase the strength of the VMO and develop balance between the muscles of the quadriceps. Knee pain was eliminated, leg strength improved, and participants had more power and mobility in their lower body.

The research group stresses the importance of exercise progressions to get rid of knee pain and eliminate structural imbalances. If you don’t have strength training experience, or aren’t sure you understand the progressions, it’s recommended that you work with a skilled personal trainer. Suggestions for improving structural balance in the lower body include the following training progressions:

•    Start with a special step-up called a Petersen Step-up in which you stand on a low step on one foot and raise up or “step-up” onto your toes and then lower your heel down to neutral with a 4-second count. Repeat until you are able to do sets of 15.
•    Once you can do the step-up correctly and without pain, try a split-squat in which your are in a wide lunge position and you squat down taking 4 seconds to do so and then coming back up under control.
•    Eventually, you can progress to single-leg squats and regular step-ups. Once base levels of strength are established, regular bilateral squats and moving lunges can be performed to increase strength and mobility.
•    Single-limb training can also be used in the upper body to help get rid of shoulder or upper back pain. Simply eliminating muscle imbalances in the rotator cuff of the shoulder or within the trapezius muscle that runs from your upper back down to the middle of your back can improve function and prevent pain.

References
Baldon, R., Lobato, D., Carvalho, L., Wun, P., Santiago, P., Serrao, F. Effect of Functional Stabilization Training on Lower Limb Biomechanics in Women. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. June 2011. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 16: Avoid Fructose To Lose Belly Fat and Improve Your Metabolism

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Avoid eating fructose if you want to lose belly fat and improve your metabolism. Once thought to be a great sweetener for managing body weight because it is metabolized differently from conventional sugar, recent data shows that getting a lot of fructose in your diet leads to belly fat gain, bad cholesterol, and a reduced metabolic rate.

When you eat calories from fructose, especially liquid fructose, you will change the way your metabolism works. For example, a recent study had one group of volunteers eat a large amount of glucose (another sugar form) and a second group ate the same amount of fructose daily for ten weeks.

Results of the study found that the group that ate more fructose experienced a severe decrease in their resting metabolic rate, meaning they burned much fewer calories throughout the day. This led them to gain belly fat—the fat that resides on the trunk and poses a serious health risk. In addition, the fructose group experienced a change in how their bodies burned energy—instead of burning fat stores, they burned mostly carbohydrates, which is unfavorable if you want to lose weight.

Scientists aren’t entirely sure why fructose is so bad for the metabolism. Both fructose and glucose are simple sugars, but fructose is metabolized by the liver and glucose enters the bloodstream and can be used as energy in the body and brain. It’s thought that a small amount of fructose, such as the quantity you get from eating a piece of fruit can be easily processed by the liver and doesn’t slow metabolism. Larger doses, like the amount found in soda, overwhelm the liver and are quickly turned into belly fat.

Use the following strategies to limit your fructose intake:
•    Stay away from soda and all beverages that have fructose added to them—sports drinks are a common culprit.
•    Stay away from foods with high-fructose corn syrup added to them. This means almost all processed foods and most packed foods.
•    Watch out for agave nectar because it has one of the highest fructose contents of all sweeteners. For example, high-fructose corn syrup is 55 percent fructose and agave ranges from 75 to 97 percent fructose!
•    If you want to lose fat, avoid juice because it does not contain the fiber that is available in fruit. Whole fruits with fiber are metabolized differently and don’t pose a problem.
•    Opt for lower fructose fruits, such as most berries, nectarines, grapefruit, avocado, and tomatoes. Bananas, apples, and pears are on the high end of the fructose scale.

Reference

Cox, C., Stanhope, K., et al. Consumption of Fructose-Sweetened Beverages for 10 Weeks Reduces Net Fat Oxidation and Energy Expenditure in Overweight/Obese Men and Women. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. 66(2), 201-208.

Tip 15: Build Stronger Bones With A High-Protein Diet: Tips For the Best Results

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Build stronger bones by eating a high-protein diet and making sure you get enough of key nutrients. A common misconception about high-protein diets is that they compromise bone health—don’t believe it!

A large-scale analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found a small but significant benefit from greater protein intake on bone health in every category of the population, from children to elderly men and women. The reason is that bone building requires a large pool of amino acids in the body, and over 50 percent of bone is made of protein. Plus, the more high-quality protein you eat, the more muscle and lean mass you’ll have, which has been directly associated with bone health in many studies. Protein also increases the production of a hormone called IGF-1 that regulates bone building.

There is an instance in which a high-protein diet could put you at risk for weaker bones: High-protein diets can cause a lot of acid to be present in the body, which has to be neutralized through the release of bicarbonate ions from the bone matrix. This leads to a loss of sodium, calcium, and potassium. This loss of ions from the bone doesn’t necessarily cause bone loss, but if you don’t neutralize the acid with certain foods, or if you have an intake of calcium below 400 mg/day, it may.

The solution is to be sure you counter the acid produced by eating high-quality protein with certain foods that are more alkaline, so they neutralize the acid, helping you keep your bones strong and healthy. Some strategies to do this include the following:

•    Counter your protein acid load by eating lots of fruits and vegetables, especially dark green vegetables. Spinach, kale, zucchini, lettuce, leeks, broccoli, root vegetables, tomatoes, black currants, cherries, grapes, and kiwis are all fairly alkaline.
•    Eliminate processed grains and minimize whole grain intake because these are all more acid producing.
•    Avoid cheese (cheese is one of the most acid-producing foods), and limit dairy intake.
•    Drink mineral water or add lime to water to make it more alkaline and decrease your acid load.
•    Ensure you get adequate calcium, vitamin D, and magnesium because both are necessary for bone building and they enable calcium to be absorbed and used by the body. Most people get the necessary 400 mg of calcium from the diet, and it is not recommended that you get more than 800 mg/day because high calcium supplementation has been linked to heart attacks. Functional practitioners typically recommend 5,000 IUs of vitamin D and 500 mg of magnesium a day.

Reference
Darling, A., Millward, J., et al. Dietary Protein and Bone Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1009. 90, 1674-1692.

Tip 14: Practice Yoga To Build Strength, Power & Feel Less Stressed

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Practice yoga to build strength and power, and minimize stress. A recent study shows how hatha yoga training is enormously beneficial for health and well being in people who suffer from chronic pressure and stress.

Results showed that yoga training done by college students in India resulted in faster 50-yard dash and shuttle run speed by more than 20 percent. The students also scored better on sit-up and flexibility tests, and they jumped 22 percent farther on a power broad jump test. Overall, the strength gains were dramatic and the subjects reported feeling less stress even during challenging exam time.

Other studies have found that yoga practice can support brain function and hormone response, while increasing the secretion of melatonin. Melatonin can aid in restful sleep, and it is a powerful antioxidant that may convey therapeutic effects leading to greater feelings of happiness and tranquility. Yoga can also reduce chronic low back pain, improve balance and gait mechanics in the elderly, and decrease anterior pelvic tilt

For best results with yoga, try the following suggestions:

•    Practice at least three days a week, and always avoid positions that cause pain by using proper biomechanics.
•    Do yoga in addition to a resistance training program for best results. Lifting moderately heavy loads provides overwhelming strength and tissue building benefits. It also promotes fat burning to keep you lean and sleek.
•    If you can’t make it to local yoga classes, try getting a DVD that you can do at your house. If time is an issue, start with short yoga sessions of 15 minutes.

Reference
Gaurav, Vishaw. Effects of Hatha Yoga Training on the Health-Related Physical Fitness. International Journal of Sports science and Engineering. 2011. 5(3), 169-173.

Tip 13: Substitute Intervals for Aerobic Cardio To Improve Body Composition & Save Time

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Do high-intensity intervals instead of aerobic-style cardio to improve body composition and save time. Research shows that the best way to lose fat and build muscle so that you look lean and strong is to do sprint intervals—and you can complete a whole workout in less than 30 minutes!

For example, a 1994 study had participants do either 20 weeks of aerobic training or 15 weeks of intervals (15 sprints for 30 seconds each) and the interval group lost nine times more body fat than the aerobic group. What is so interesting about this study is that the energy cost of the aerobic program over the whole study period was 28,661 calories, whereas for intervals it was less than half, at 13,614 calories. In significantly less time, the interval group lost much more weight! How can this be?

Researchers explain that interval training is well known to favor the use of fat for fuel during exercise, whereas aerobic training tends to favor carbohydrate burning. In addition to burning fat instead of carbs, intervals cause the body to produce more fat-burning hormones such as growth hormone.

Your body also needs more oxygen to recover from intense interval training, meaning something called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is much higher for longer. A side effect of a higher EPOC is more calorie burning, meaning that your body will burn energy at a faster rate for at least 24 hours after intense exercise like intervals.

To start doing high-intensity intervals, try the following workouts:

•    Do a 20-minute cycling workout in which you sprint for 8 seconds and rest for 12. Work up to 60 reps—that’s how many can be done in 20 minutes if you stick to the 8/12 second protocol.
•    Try a sprint training workout in which you do 20 second all-out sprints with 20 seconds rest in 3 sets of 3 intervals. Rest 3 to 4 minutes between sets. Work up to 5 sets of 4 and try shortening the rest when that gets easy.
•    Try hill or stair running in which you sprint up as fast as possible and jog down—repeat immediately. Start with 4 to 6 runs and increase to as much as 16.

References
Tremblay, A., Simoneau, J., et al. Impact of Exercise Intensity on Body Fatness and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism. Metabolism. 1994. 43(7), 814-818.

Trapp, E., Chisholm, D., et al. The Effects of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise Training on Fat Loss and Fasting Insulin Levels of Young Women. International Journal of Obesity. 2008. 32(4), 684-691.

Tip 12: Want Healthier, Leaner Kids? Feed Them More Fruits, Veggies & Fiber

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Improve your children's health by increasing their fiber intake and feeding them more fruits and vegetables. Studies show that kids with lower fiber intake have a greater tendency to be overweight and they have much more belly fat than kids who get more fiber in their diet. Similarly, a higher fruit and veggie intake is linked to being lean in youth and to better overall health.

Fiber intake is terribly low in adults and kids throughout Europe and the U.S., but data show youth are especially susceptible to low fiber. For example, a new study found that adolescents ate less than half of the recommended amount of fiber—on average girls got less than 9 grams/day and boys less then 11 g/d. In both genders, lower fiber intake was strongly linked to greater visceral belly fat, which is the kind of fat that causes inflammation and greatly increases diabetes and heart disease risk. That proved true in this study—kids who ate less fiber much higher chronic inflammation that causes heart disease.

Naturally, what applies to kids applies to adults too, and a report in the Journal of Nutrition found that less than 3 percent of Americans reach the government recommendation of 25 g/d of fiber. Just like the evidence about kids and fiber, adults who had lower fiber intake had more belly and total fat as well as more inflammation than those who got more fiber.

Strategies to increase fiber intake include the following:

•    A simple way to boost fiber intake for yourself and your kids is to eat more fruits and vegetables—produce intake has been repeatedly linked to longevity and lower risk of stroke and heart attack.
•    Shoot for 3 to 4 servings of vegetables and 2 to 3 of fruits for kids. Adults should get 4 to 6 servings of vegetables and 3 to 5 of fruits.
•    Opt for dark green veggies, followed by orange (carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers) for best health—studies show youth get less than 8 percent of their vegetables from these colors, whereas they get more than half of their intake from fried potatoes.
•    Have kids (and you!) eat a wide variety of fruits—berries, grapes, cherries, nectarines, kiwis, oranges, apples, and oranges provide fiber and antioxidants.
•    Get grains only from whole grain sources—boiled or steamed quinoa, rice, and other options are the best choice. Avoid processed grains completely.

References

Parikh, S., Pollock, N., et al. Adolescent Fiber Consumption is Associated with Visceral Fat and Inflammatory markers. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2012. 97(8).

Clemens, R., Kranz, S., et al. Filling America’s Fiber Intake Gap: Summary of a Roundtable to Probe Realistic Solutions with a Focus on Grain-Based foods. Journal of Nutrition. May 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 11: Avoid Alcohol to Lose Belly Fat & Improve Health

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Avoid alcohol to get rid of belly fat and improve health. Opting for a drink is not going to kill you, and if you choose to drink, red wine is the best choice, but if you really want to lose belly fat, eliminating all forms of alcohol is a good start.

A large-scale European study of more than 250,000 people from 10 countries found that men are especially susceptible to gaining belly fat from alcohol. In men, even one beer a day led to greater fatness in the abdominal area, and as the average alcohol intake increased, men were significantly fatter.

Alcohol intake was also associated with lower testosterone in men, a hormone that when low, indicates poor health and greater risk of dangerous disease. In both men and women, alcohol intake other than red wine is linked to prostate and breast cancer risk because of how it alters hormone levels.

The good news is that for women, the evidence was more complicated—it appears that drinking a small amount of red wine is linked to having less belly fat. Women were much less likely than men to drink beer, but those who did, had the most belly fat and more total fat of all the women in the survey. For women, it appears to be most important to avoid beer and liquor, avoid processed foods and simple carbohydrates, and have healthy lifestyle habits to keep their wastes slimmer.

Take away the following points about alcohol intake and belly fat loss:

•    For quick fat loss, or if you have a lot of belly fat to lose, avoid all alcohol. Although, there benefits to red wine, if you want to lose fat fast, you want to make all your calories count, so it is better to avoid it.
•    If eliminating alcohol isn’t an option, choose red wine, but limit intake to one drink with meals a few days a week. As with any food, chronic intake is discouraged because the body becomes less sensitive to it and may become intolerant.
•    For best results from red wine, choose Sardinian or Spanish red wines because they are rich in antioxidants that improve blood sugar management in the body. Pinot Noir and Merlot are other good choices.

Reference
Bergmann, M., Schutze, M., et al. The Association of Lifetime Alcohol Use With Measures of Abdominal and General Adiposity in a Large-Scale European Cohort. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2011. 65, 1079-1087.

Tip 10: Be as Active as Possible To Lose Fat & Live Longer

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Achieve the best body composition and improve your overall health by being as active as possible throughout the day. A sedentary lifestyle, even if you do regular weight training or cardio, will compromise your metabolism, increase your risk of diabetes, and can shorten your life!

A massive study of over 222,000 Australians found that individuals who sat more during the day had the greatest risk of early death. This is because people who sit for long periods tend to have more body fat, more chronic inflammation, and poorer blood sugar management—all factors that cause ill health in the long-term. Plus, in as short as 20 minutes of sitting, calorie burning by the body slows and gene signaling drops, meaning that physiological processes like tissue rebuilding are blunted.

For example, a recent study tested the effect of decreasing daily activity for three days in a group of lean active college students. These subjects normally averaged an active 12,956 steps a day and researchers had them reduce their activity to 4,319 steps a day. The subjects’ blood sugar management and insulin sensitivity quickly plummeted by 30 percent.

Poor insulin health and blood sugar imbalances cause a slower metabolism and force the body to store fat. When insulin is high and the cells aren’t receptive to it, as happens when insulin sensitivity drops, inflammation is produced and tissue is damaged—bad news for health and body composition!

Avoid a sedentary lifestyle by doing the following things:

•    Shoot for taking 10,000 steps a day. If you have an active job this won’t be a problem, but with a desk job, you will need to take regular brisk walks—even a few 5 to 10 minute walks will make a difference.
•    Always take the stairs, park farther away in the parking lot, and break your work day up with relatively brief spurts of physical movement, whether it is walking, body weight exercises, stretching, or even fidgeting.
•    Consider getting an adjustable desk so you can stand—studies show people with jobs that require them to stand in one place burn many more calories than people who sit.
•    Avoid plopping down in front of the TV or computer for hours after work or on the weekends.
•    Be active with your kids—habits that youth adopt during childhood often stick with them. Get your kids to move as much as possible by playing sports, doing martial arts, bike riding, helping with chores, or playing ball games.

References
Mikus, C., Oberlin, D., Libla, J., Taylor, A., Booth, F., Thyfault, J. Lowering Physical Activity Impairs Glycemic Control in Healthy Volunteers. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. June 2011. Published Ahead of Print.

Thyfault J., Booth, F., Lack of Regular Physical Exercise or too Much Inactivity. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care. July 2011. 14(4), 374-378.

Tip 9: Prioritize Resistance Training Over Cardio to Lose Fat

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Prioritize resistance training over cardio if you want to lose fat. A common question is whether it’s best to lift weights before cardio or vice versa for best results. A lot of people have the misconception that cardio is best for fat loss, but this is not necessarily true. In fact, interval training does burn fat, but aerobic exercise has been proven to produce negligible fat loss. In comparison, resistance training, if done with adequate intensity and volume, will also burn fat fast.

A recent study shows the BEST fat loss results will come from doing resistance training first. Three exercise orders were used: resistance training followed by interval cycling, interval cycling followed by resistance training, or doing half the resistance workout before the cycling and half after. Participants burned the most fat when resistance training was done first. When the cycling was done first, they burned more carbohydrates, which means no fat is lost, and exercise capacity is shortened.

Aside from promoting fat loss, doing resistance training first will help you get stronger faster since you will be able to apply maximal effort and focus to training when you are fresh. For best fat loss and training results, try the following:

•    Do resistance training and intervals on different days—try four days of resistance training and three of intervals (keep the interval workout short—you should be done in 20 to 30 minutes).
•    If you need to get all your training done in a few days a week, always lift first and then do your intervals—think of the intervals as a “finisher” in which you exhaust all your energy stores.
•    Avoid aerobic-style cardio unless you are training for an endurance event. Even then, best results will come from strength training before cardio because you’ll get faster and increase time to exhaustion by training the body to burn fat before stored carbohydrates.

References
Alves, J., Saavedra, F., et al. Does Aerobic and Strength Exercise Sequence in the Same Session Affect the Oxygen Uptake During and Post-Exercise? Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. 26(7), 1872-1878.

Drummond, M., Vehrs, P., et al. Aerobic and Resistance Exercise Sequence Affects Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2005. 19(2), 332-337.

Tip 8: Drink Coffee Before Exercise, Not After, For Best Results

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Drink caffeinated coffee before you workout, not after, for best results. There’s an abundance of evidence showing coffee can increase fat burning during exercise, make you more motivated to work hard, and improve your workout capacity. However, if you drink it post-workout, you will delay recovery and elevate the stress hormone cortisol just when you need to clear it. Don’t make this mistake!

Exercising naturally elevates cortisol because you are overloading the body so that it has to adapt by getting stronger and building tissue. After exercise you want to do everything you can to help the body metabolize that cortisol so that you get rid of all the waste products that your body produces from working hard. If cortisol remains high, waste won’t be removed, tissue won’t be rebuilt as quickly, and you’ll feel more sore and fatigued for longer.

Caffeine has been shown to elevate cortisol, and at the least, its presence in the body will slow the metabolism of cortisol. To avoid this and get the best training results, use the following nutrition and fueling strategies:

•    Drink coffee pre-workout for better focus and work capacity. One study showed that when sleep-deprived trainees ingested caffeine pre-workout, they worked just as hard as well-rested subjects, whereas sleep-deprived folks who didn’t drink caffeine chose to lift lighter weights and performed less work.
•    Drinking caffeinated coffee pre-workout will improve fat loss by mobilizing fatty acids to be burned for fuel during exercise.
•    Clear excess caffeine and cortisol post-workout by taking at least 2 grams of vitamin C—this nutrient is well proven to help metabolize both.
•    After exercise, opt for green tea, a protein shake, or decaf organic coffee if you feel you must have coffee after training. Green tea contains numerous antioxidants that can accelerate recovery and it has not been found to elevate cortisol.

References:
Cook, C., Beaven, C., et al. Acute Caffeine Ingestion Increases Voluntarily Chosen Resistance Training Load Following Limited Sleep. International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Bailey, D., Williams, C., et al. Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Recovery of Muscle Function after Damaging Exercise: Effect of 6-Week Mixed Antioxidant Supplementation. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2011. 111, 925-936.

Tip 7: Start Meals With Veggies or Salad to Stay Lean and Get More Nutrients

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Start your meals by eating vegetables or salad and you will eat fewer calories overall, while getting a more nutritious meal. How many times have you or your kids copped out on eating veggies or salad because this dish was saved for last?

A recent study using college students found that whichever food the students ate first from their plate ended up being the food they ate the most of by that meal. So, the students who started with vegetables ended up eating more veggies overall, which translated into them eating less calories and fewer simple carbs like dinner roles or French fries. Similarly, the students who started with bread or French fries ate more carbs total, which meant they consumed significantly more calories by the end of the meal.

This strategy works because as long as you see and eat the same volume of food, you are likely to feel full and satisfied despite the lower intake in energy. Making it a habit to always eat fruits and vegetables first before taking a bite of cooked food can help you and your family stay lean, while increasing veggie servings.

Get your kids to do this by compromising with them—if they eat a serving of salad or veggies first, they can have a food of their choice as part of the meal, or later as a snack. Eventually, eating vegetables first will become a natural habit that will keep them healthier throughout their life.

Reference
Wansink, B., Tal, A., et al. First Foods Most: After 18-Hour Fast, People Drawn to Starches First and Vegetables Last. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2012. 172(12), 961-963.

Tip 6: Make Organic Foods Work for Your Health & Your Budget

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Choose organic foods selectively in order to improve your health and stick to your budget. Recent research shows how to best incorporate organic foods into your diet so that you eat more nutritious meals, while decreasing your exposure to growth hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides.

Opt for organic meat and dairy whenever possible because there’s abundant evidence that organic animal foods are more nutritious and so much safer than non-organic. Conventional animals are raised on genetically modified corn, chicken manure, byproducts of other animals, and hormonally active industrial chemicals. You don’t want any of those things going into your or your growing children’s bodies!

Organic meat and dairy have also been found to have higher levels of the healthy omega-3 fats, vitamins A and E, and cancer-fighting nutrients, such as CLA and glutathione. When it comes to produce, you have more room to mix and match organic and conventional foods. Nutritional content in produce is most influenced by soil quality, whether the food is native to the area it’s being grown in, and if it is in season. The priority is to choose produce that is local, ripe, and seasonal, and add organic to that list when possible.

A great tool is the guide (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/ ) provided by the Environmental Working Group that provides two produce lists: The foods that are lowest in pesticides and those that are most contaminated. The good news is that many of the highly contaminated foods are readily available in organic form in most grocery stores, while the cleanest fruits and vegetables tend to be more exotic, expensive foods.

The EWGs Clean 15 includes onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avocado, cabbage, sweet peas, asparagus, mangoes, eggplant, kiwi, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, watermelon, and mushrooms.

The EWGs Dirty Dozen Plus (they added two veggies to the new 2012 list!) includes apples, celery, sweet bell peppers, peaches, strawberries, nectarines, grapes, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, blueberries potatoes, kale, and green beans.

References
Lucan, Sean. That It’s Red? Or What it Was Fed/How it Was Bred? The Risk of Meat. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. 96(2), 446.

Daley, C., Abbott, A., et al. A Review of Fatty Acid Profiles and Antioxidant Content in Grass-Fed and Grain-fed Beef. Nutrition Journal. 2010. 9(10).

Palupi, E., Jayanegara, A., et al. Comparison of Nutritional Quality Between Conventional and Organic Dairy Products: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 2012. Published Ahead of Print.

Smith-Spangler, C., Brandeau, M., et al. Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives? Annals of Internal Medicine. 2012. 157, 348-366.

Tip 5: Eat Protein for Breakfast to Stay Alert Throughout the Day

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Eat high-quality protein for breakfast to stay alert throughout the day. Planning your meals around solid protein will also improve energy levels and increase metabolic rate, meaning you might drop a few pounds of fat too!

Research shows that the amino acids found in animal sources of protein will stimulate the cells that are responsible for keeping us alert and burning calories. On the other hand, glucose, which is what carbohydrates are turned into by the body after we eat them, blocks those same cells that keep us awake and energized. This is one reason why people often feel tired after eating foods that contain a lot of carbs.

Incorporate more protein into your breakfasts with the following tips:
•    Try the Poliquin Meat and Nuts Breakfast: Sliced grass-fed beef roast, salmon, turkey burgers, or eggs, paired with a handful of nuts. Leafy greens or low-glycemic fruits such as berries can be substituted for nuts if you are allergic.
•    Protein pancakes made from whey protein and coconut flour can be found in The Primal Blueprint Cookbook—it offers high-protein traditional breakfasts if your not ready for the meat and nuts breakfast.
•    Quinoa and black beans, or gluten-free oatmeal with vanilla whey or pea protein, pecans, and walnuts are favorites at the Poliquin Strength Institute.
•    Ease into protein-based breakfast with yogurt and berries or nuts. Try almond butter with apples or pears.
•    Avoid cereal, bread, and other processed grains for breakfast.
•    Feed your kids protein for breakfast too. A recent study found that students who ate a high-protein pancake breakfast reported they felt more full and satisfied for a longer period than student who skipped breakfast or ate traditional, carb-filled pancakes. They also freely chose to eat 130 fewer calories at lunch than the other two groups. Their hormonal profile indicated better appetite control and regulation of metabolism than the students who ate the regular pancakes as well.

Reference
Leidy, J., Reki, E. The Addition of a Protein-Rich Breakfast and its Effects on Acute Control and Food Intake in “Breakfast-Skipping” Adolescents. International Journal of Obesity. 2010. 34, 1125-1133.

Tip 4: Get Enough Sleep: Exhaustion Can Lead to 300-Calorie Increased Intake a Day

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Get enough sleep and you will prevent disease and have a better body composition. Studies show that adults who get less than 7 hours of sleep have a much greater risk of being obese than those who get at least 9 hours a night. Being tired affects kids too—a recent review found that 92 percent of the children with the shortest sleep time each night were overweight.

We don’t know exactly why lack of sleep is linked to obesity, but compelling evidence was revealed when researchers analyzed food intake in a normal weight population after a short sleep night of four hours versus a night of habitual sleep of nine hours. Women had a 15 percent increase in energy intake and men had a 9 percent increase when they were sleep deprived. Women increased fat consumption by 39 percent, whereas men ate 10 percent more fat.

Both men and women decreased their physical activity levels following short sleep, but they ate an average of 300 more calories than when they were rested! If this behavior continues over the long term, it will quickly lead to weight gain and obesity—an excess of 300 calories a day will result in gaining more than two pounds a month if sustained.

Strategies to help you and your family get more sleep include the following:
•    Research shows better body composition is more common in people with early-to-bed and early-to-rise sleep patterns. If possible, commit to a 9:30 pm to 6:00 am schedule, or something similar.
•    Start a grateful log in which you write down one thing you are grateful for before you go to bed. This can be very calming and helps you look at the world in a positive way before going to sleep.
•    Turn off all screens an hour before bedtime. Make sure your kids turn their phones off overnight—you do it too! If you use your phone for an alarm, set the phone to “alarm only.”
•    Try to stay on your sleep schedule on the weekend. Staying up late on the weekend will throw the whole schedule off and make it harder for you to go to sleep at your set bedtime on Sunday night.

Reference
St-Onge, M., Roberts, A., et al. Short Sleep Duration Increases Energy Intakes but Does not Change Energy Expenditure in Normal-Weight Individuals. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2011. 94, 410-416.

Tip 3: Get Adequate Vitamin D: Mom’s and Kids Need D for Health & Body Composition

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Make sure you are getting adequate vitamin D for optimal body composition and health! Our bodies naturally produce vitamin D in response to natural sun exposure, making the onset autumn prime time to pay attention to vitamin D levels.

A fascinating new study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition tested a large group of pregnant women in their 34th week for vitamin D status. Then, they tested their offspring for body fat percentage at 4 and 6 years of age. Results showed a relationship between mothers with low vitamin D during pregnancy and children with greater body fat at 4 and 6 years.

The research group is unclear why low maternal vitamin D leads to an accelerated fat gain during childhood, but it may be that low maternal vitamin D results in a programmed effect in the child’s genes that predisposes them to gain excess body fat. There appeared to be a threshold effect of vitamin D on body fat, such that mothers with vitamin D below 25 ng/ml had offspring with a much greater risk of being overweight than women with vitamin D above that level.

Take away the following points to help you and your children be lean and healthy:
•    Vitamin D levels between 40 and 50 ng/ml are considered optimal by the Vitamin D council.
•    Risk of vitamin D deficiency increases dramatically from September to May in the Western hemisphere. Get your levels tested every three months by your doctor.
•    This is not the first study to find low vitamin D affects body fat gain—the link has been identified for men and women of all ages.
•    People with darker skin are at greater risk of deficiency because the melanin in the skin affects the body’s ability to produce vitamin D.

Reference
Crozier, S., Harvey, N., et al. Maternal Vitamin D Status in Pregnancy is Associated with Adiposity in the Offspring. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. 96, 57-63

Tip 2: Train Your Whole Body to Get Better Abs

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Trim your waste and get leaner abs by training your whole body instead of spending lots of time on sit-ups and abdominal work. A new study from Southern Illinois University found that performing a six-week training program that only included abdominal exercises resulted in no loss of body fat. The only positive result from almost four hours a week of ab training was increased endurance in a sit-up test!

A better solution for an attractive midsection is to strengthen your abs and lose the fat that covers them. Do this by strength training three days a week with exercises that use the large muscles in your body. For example, include the following components in your training:

• Do lunges, step-ups, and squats to train the whole lower body, simultaneously targeting the ab and lower back muscles that make up your core.

• Try pull-downs, rows, overhead press, and chest press for the upper body—they’ll target the abs too if you do them right.

• Chin-ups, even assisted chin-ups, are excellent ab exercises because they require you to contract all the muscles in your trunk throughout the whole motion.

• Restrict ab training to one exercise a session—opt for reverse crunches or leg lowering if you have a strong lower back.

• Try interval training in which you run or cycle as hard as you can for 8 seconds and then rest for 12 seconds. Do this for a total of 15 to 20 minutes to lose fat so that you reveal your abs.

Reference
Vispute, S., Smith, J., LeChiminant, J., Hurley, K. The Effect of Abdominal Exercise on Abdominal Fat. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 28 July 2011. Published Ahead of Print.

Tip 1: Eat Whole Food Meals & Avoid Processed Foods For A Leaner Physique

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Choose whole foods over processed foods to be leaner and healthier. The more your food is in a natural state as when it came from the tree, plant, animal, or fish, the more calories your body will burn digesting it.

This is called the thermic effect of food, and it generally makes up about 10 percent of the calories you burn a day. However, a recent study from Pomona College comparing the calorie burn from different meals shows that the thermic effect is greatly influenced by the type of food you are eating.

This study compared the calories required to digest a processed cheese sandwich made with white bread to a real cheddar cheese sandwich made with whole grain bread. The participants who ate the whole food sandwich burned 50 percent more calories just by eating more nutritious foods!

The group that ate the processed cheese sandwich had their metabolic rate drop below their average metabolic rate, meaning something about the food processing produced less energy expenditure than if they’d eaten nothing!

Take away the following points for better health and a leaner physique:

•    The whole grain sandwich provided about 65 percent more fiber, which is why it produced a greater calorie burn. The fiber requires the body to do more work to break down the food and get the nutrients where they need to go.
•    The ingredients used for the whole food meal did require some food refinement to produce, but not nearly as much as for the processed food ingredients. You’ll get an even greater calorie burn by eating truly whole foods like raw veggies, meat, fish, nuts, and seeds.
•    Another benefit of eating whole foods that wasn’t explored in this study is that you won’t be ingesting chemical additives that may affect everything from metabolism to brain function.
•    Protein requires many more calories to break down than carbohydrates. Fat burns even fewer calories than carbs. Eat more high-quality protein to lose fat and support tissue rebuilding.

Reference
Barr, S., Wright, J. Postprandial Energy Expenditure in Whole-Food and Processed-Food Meals: Implications for Daily Energy Expenditure. Food and Nutrition Research. July 2010. 2(54), 144-150.

Tip 16: Focus on Five Behaviors per Day for Every Physique Goal You Want To Acheive

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Effecive goal setting goes beyond simply jotting down a wish list of how much you want lose and posting it on your refrigerator. You will have to put some work into it and understand that it is an ongoing process. To get started, here are five basic steps to achievable goals:

1. Determine the goal in a specific and measurable way

2. Ask, "What are you willing to do?"

3. Determine the behaviors that go with Step 2

4. Make a list of intermediate goals with deadlines

5. Keep a detailed training and dietary log

Tip 15: Do Not Use Body Care Products That Contain Parabens

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Toss out body care products that contain parabens, such as methyl-paraben, as it can lower testosterone in men and can cause breast cancer in both sexes. Parabens are preservatives found in cosmetic products, including lotions, shampoo and makeup, that prevent microbial and fungal contamination. There is plenty of recent evidence from numerous studies demonstrating that several types of parabens can induce estrogen-like responses.

How safe are your products? To check go to www.ewg.org

Tip 14: If you are a vegetarian, supplement your diet to compensate for many deficiencies.

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Protein is broken down into organic compounds called amino acids. There are 13 amino acids that are considered essential, in that they cannot be produced from other substances, including other amino acids, and 12 that are considered nonessential. A protein is considered complete when it has the appropriate quantities of amino acids for optimal absorption. Meat and fish are considered complete proteins; foods such as beans or rice are considered incomplete proteins because they are lacking in certain amino acids.

Leucine, isoleucine and valine are essential amino acids belonging to the branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) group. Vegetarians often make exceptional progress by supplementing their diet with BCAAs. Vegetarians also tend to be deficient in zinc, B6, B9 and B12 and to have low scores in carnitine, taurine and carnosine, which makes it hard to make androgens and recover from training loads. It is important that vegetarians take those supplements in order to offset their dietary lifestyles.

Tip 13: Do Not Carry Your Cell Phone on Your Hip

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Carrying your cell phone on your hip during work hours has been shown to lower androgen levels in men by as much as 31 percent. Carrying it on you during training is even worse, basically cutting down the anabolic response and weakening your nervous system.

Tip 12: Reduce the Effects of Aging with ALA

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As we age, the effects of our environment and diet put a lot of stress on our bodies. This results in decreased metabolic rate, high inflammation and increased oxidative stress. Supplementing with ALA will help reduce and reverse the effects of aging by increasing the antioxidant and energy levels in the body.

ALA is an antioxidant and its key function is energy production. Like all antioxidants, ALA protects the body’s cells against from damage. Using ALA has been shown to increase energy, lower blood pressure, increase metabolic rate and combat inflammation.

Tip 11: Increase Zinc Intake to Help Prevent Diabetes

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Zinc is found in every cell in the body and is important in the action and synthesis of the hormone insulin. When zinc levels are low, it directly affects insulin levels in the body, and if not corrected, the likelihood of diabetes and insulin resistance increases.

Although we want our zinc levels to be optimal, when supplementing with zinc, it is important to use a product that has other minerals and vitamins added to it. This allows better absorption of these essential minerals into the body’s tissues.

Tip 10: Choose Foods High in Antioxidants for Better Body Composition

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Eating a healthy diet and increasing the amount of antioxidants in your meals will help you achieve better body composition by decreasing inflammation in the body.

People with inflammation tend to hold more fat due to inflammatory mediators in the adipose (fat) tissue. By increasing antioxidant intake in your meals, you will lower inflammation in the body. Some key nutrients that will help the body fight inflammation are Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and carotenoids.

Tip 9: Avoid oats if you are gluten intolerant

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Typically, oats are supposed to be gluten free. However, lab analysis shows they are cross-contaminated with gluten by being transported in trucks that carry both wheat and oats to factories. Insist on gluten-free oats if you have that food sensitivity.

Gluten has been isolated as a risk factor in so many diseases that it’s almost impossible to count them all. At the time of writing this list, the functional medicine circle has isolated at least 55 diseases linked to it. Here is my top ten, plus one, list of reasons to eliminate gluten from your diet:

1. Gluten inflames the brain.
2. The glutamate content in gluten kills brain cells.
3. Gluten has been linked to autism.
4. Gluten is associated with osteoarthritis.
5. Gluten can induce depression.
6. Gluten will ramp down your thyroid.
7. Gluten aggravates menopausal symptoms.
8. Gluten is associated with accelerated aging.
9. Gluten exacerbates the symptoms of autoimmune diseases.
10. Gluten weakens tooth enamel and leads to cavities.
11. Gluten negatively affects body composition.

Tip 8: Eat a broad based diet to avoid food sensitivities

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According to Dr. Mark Schauss, the average American only eats about 8-12 different foods in their diets. Eating the same foods on a regular basis can cause you to develop food sensitivities. The most common offenders are wheat, corn, dairy and beef. To avoid this, it is important to keep rotating the types of foods you consume. For example, if you eat beef 5 of 7 days, your likelihood of developing a sensitivity to that food increases. Instead, rotate the meat you have during the meals with chicken, buffalo, fish etc.

Tip 7: Time your carbohydrate intake for optimal effect

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It is important to time your carb consumption to help better utilize fat metabolism and sleep.

At meals, eat low-glycemic foods first. This will decrease insulin concentrations and increase fat burning in the body. Translation: Eat protein first.

It is also better to consume carbs toward the end of the day to induce sleep. When eating carbs the neurotransmitter serotonin is released. Serotonin is linked to sleep onset, blood pressure regulation and mood control.

Tip 6: Try grilling some Halloumi cheese as a substitute for toast and pancakes

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Looking for a substitute for toast and pancakes that is packed with protein and almost zero carbs? Try grilling some Halloumi cheese; it doesn’t melt when you grill it. It will simply brown the way a pancake does. It’s made from goat’s or sheep’s milk, thereby lowering allergy potential.

Tip 5: Use your spice rack for health benefits

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Spices are great for making a flavoring meal, and they have been shown to provide many health benefits.

Spices such as cinnamon, cumin, garlic and turmeric are great natural remedies for common health issues.

Cinnamon: Helps lower blood sugar. It has also been known to assist with muscle and joint stiffness.

Cumin: Decreases symptoms associated with allergies.

Garlic: Helps reduce cholesterol levels.

Turmeric: Has great anti-inflammatory properties.

Tip 4: Simple Ways to Fight Stress

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Lower stress and improve energy with simple, daily escapes. Good or bad, there is stress everywhere. The body’s response to too much bad stress can be seen in low energy, sleep disturbances, depression and obesity, among others.

We have the ability to effectively manage these stresses each day. Here are a few suggestions to help clear your mind in stressful situations:

Exercise: Go for a bike ride, walk, jog, or strength train. Any type of physical activity for at least 20 minutes can have an immediate effect on your stress levels.

Meditate: Taking time to breathe and be in the moment can have many positive effects on your stress levels. Meditation allows you to be mindful and relax your body.

Laugh: Your face says it all. Emotions and stress are usually held in your face, meaning laughing and smiling will release the tension caused from stress.

Take a break: When you find you are most stressed, just step away. Allow your mind to focus on something else. When you get back, you will have a new perspective and be able to manage the stress more effectively.

Tip 3: Opt for natural hand sanitizers during flu season and stay healthy

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Your generic hand sanitizers may be hurting more than helping. Many of the ingredients found in anti-bacterial sanitizers can disrupt your hormone balance and actually compromise your immune system.

To avoid this, opt for buying a natural hand sanitizer that is safe for your body.
The Environmental Working Group provides information about products that are safe, natural alternatives. For example, they tell us that ethanol and ethyl/alcohol sanitizers are safe.

Visit EWG.org to find out if your products’ ingredients are on the watch list. Check out the “Skin Deep” tab on the lower right side of the homepage to find other safe alternatives to use.

Tip 1: Happiness is a journey, not a destination...

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For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one.

- Souza