Lifting Club Gets Shredded Part III

Lifting Club Gets Shredded, Part III
Sup,

The weather-folk say that it will be awesome weather this weekend. Even though I have a thorough hatred of meteorologists, I am willing to take the risk and trust them. Some of you may know what is coming next… PROWLER FLU BITCHEZ!!! We will be busting out the Prowler for its first outside use in 2010. Yes, it’s a big freakin’ deal. We’ll also have some TRX’s, so it will be bananas. We will meet Sunday @ 1 outside the front steps of Borden and will go to the usual spot by the JV football field. Socks will be rocked. To get you excited, here’s a couple of good prowler videos that you may have already seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP7MirfSZf4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aB9yrTVwTU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWMEz8Iftsg

Anyway, I plan to wrap up this series on fat loss today talking about some lesser known techniques for fat loss and everything else.

A common myth that needs to be debunked: eating several meals a day does not increase your metabolism. There used to be (and still is) a paranoid fear that going several hours without a meal would cause muscle loss and fat gain. Yes, even I believed it. Shame on me. Regardless, there is a mounting pile of scientific evidence showing that our metabolisms don’t slow down even after days of fasting. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense. Cavemen didn’t have three square meals a day, so the body had to be able to function even when food was not available. Even more interesting was a study that showed that rats which fasted every few days lived longer over a control group.*

So what does this mean? Fasting every now and then can promote fat loss and a whole host of other “stuff.” A general fast consists of 16 hours of no eating (you are allowed to drink water, tea, or coffee and sleep counts for fasting) followed by 8 hours when you can eat. Break the fast with a large meal, but what you do after that is your choice. Most people have a total of 3 meals, while some may have one or two. On days when you train, increase the carbs and lower fat intake. On rest days, lower carbs and replace them with fats. Also, for some reason men are supposed to fast for 16 hours and women only 14 because for some reason women don’t usually respond to fasting as well although it may vary from each person.

Even though I’m not looking to lose fat, I still fast twice a week. If you eat and train for your goal, you can gain or lose weight. Yes, I sometimes get hungry, but it goes away. It’s important to note that I neither advocate nor oppose fasted training. The concept may sound odd, but there is evidence that supports both camps. I did some fasted training over winter and spring break and felt fine. Training fasted at school is less practically. Here’s what my day looks like when I am fasting and training in a non-fasted state:

8pm – stop eating
12pm (next day) – eat a large lunch
3:45pm – have half of my smoothie
4pm – get big in gym
5pm – finish second half of smoothie
6pm – large dinner with sweet potatoes and snacks in dorm later

On a day when I am not training, I drop the sweet potatoes and the smoothie. It looks like a normal day except for no breakfast. Of course, fasting alone may not help you lose weight if you’re still eating like crap.

So what are the practical applications of fasting? Some people fast every day, while others only once or twice a week. For anyone that is new to fasting, it is best to start slowly as there is a transition phase. After that, it may be best for you to follow your own instincts. Many people love the freedom of being able to sleep in while others claim to feel more alert and productive during fasts. Either way, the fat loss results and body transformations speak for themselves. A picture is worth a thousand words blah, blah, blah. Here are some transformations:

http://leangains.blogspot.com/search/label/Client%20results
http://leangains.blogspot.com/2007/12/wrapping-up-2007and-everything-that-was.html
p.s. the guy who writes the blog is one of the most jackedest dudes ever and his blog is worth perusing.

Well, if you’re still here, there’s a lot more to talk about. Next up is the crazy hormone leptin. Leptin regulates the metabolism. When you lose a significant amount fat, leptin levels go down, the metabolism slows, and hunger increases. Using the perspective of a caveman again, this makes sense. If there were a famine (not a 16 hour fast, but weeks where there’s a food shortage), the body needs to lower its calorie requirements and tell you to find some food. However, when you get fat leptin does not jack your metabolism way up to compensate because having some extra fat was a good thing for survival. What used to be a life saver for cavemen is now an impediment to all those boys and girls that aspire to get hawt abz.

The obvious question becomes how can one manipulate leptin levels during periods of fat loss? Well, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Fish oil and exercise have been shown to increase leptin levels, so chalk that up as another miracle byproduct of fish oil.

Another method is carb refeeds, which is when you have a few meals rich in carbs. This tricks the body into thinking that food is plentiful, which boosts leptin levels. Thus, as odd as it may sound, having a lot of carbs every now and then can facilitate long-term weight loss. However, refeeds are infrequent, but more frequent for lean individuals. For those who are “chunky,” which I’ll define for males as over 14% bf (or no abs), you can refeed once every two or three weeks. For leaner individuals (those with abs), a refeed every 7-10 days may help. What does a refeed look like? A refeed is an opportunity to stray from the caveman principles if you want to. Shoot to have about 2g of carbs per pound of bodyweight over the course of a few meals. For a 150 pound person, that would be roughly 300g of carbs ingested within a block of several hours. It is important to limit fat consumption during the refeed, so don’t hit up McDonalds and go crazy. Pasta, rice, and potatoes are examples of food sources that are high in carbs and low in fat. Again, refeeds are paradoxical, but can be effective if planned well.

Funny enough, intermittent fasting has been shown to have beneficial effects on leptin levels during fat loss. Okay, that wasn’t funny at all. Regardless, when following an intermittent fasting program leptin levels remain the same. What does this mean? You can shed fat, keep your metabolism normal, and not daydream about food all the time. Awesome.

Next up on the list of tricks is practicing slower and more mindful eating. It sounds a little corny, but there’s some science to suggest that mindful eating can promote weight loss. It takes roughly 20 minutes for the stomach to tell the brain it is full. If you stuff yourself with calorie-dense foods that are easy to chew (i.e. pasta, chips, candy, nuts in excess, etc.) then you will consume more calories in one sitting than if you ate foods that take longer to eat (i.e. vegetables, fruit in moderation, meat).

What are the practical applications of this knowledge? Avoid eating foods mindlessly. Don’t get distracted when you eat. When you eat, focus on your eating (yes, I repeated myself three times). For example, you might sit down in front of the television with a bag of chips and soon enough the bag is empty. Instead, focus on the food itself and how it tastes and smells. A technique that is dorky but worth using: eat with chopsticks. If, unlike me, you’re competent with chopsticks, use chopsticks in your off hand. If you can still eat at a rapid pace, I applaud you. Another tip: get deliberately smaller serving sizes to make you get up for more food. Both tricks are for the purpose of slowing down food consumption, providing your stomach enough time to signal your brain to stop eating.

Next topic: stress. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is catabolic, which means it causes muscle breakdown. Cortisol is helpful under certain circumstances, but not for the purpose of fat loss. There are a couple ways of lowering cortisol levels: eat a caveman diet, get high quality sleep, stop stressing out, and lower your training volume. If you eat a crappy diet that has you crashing every couple of hours, not only is it going to hurt your body, but it can mess up your cortisol levels. I’ve spent enough time talking about sleep, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to get sleep in darkness. I’ll touch on training volume more soon.

If you have very high cortisol levels (someone who would be described as high-strung), then intermittent fasting might not be for you. Someone like this would benefit from consistent meal times. While I’ll put meditation in this paragraph, it is helpful for anyone. I am not a meditation expert, but there are some good breathing exercises you can try:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwlCk9XTz_U
Another technique is 4 seconds in, hold it for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, repeat.

Next up is training during fat loss. As I said before, I believe that weight loss is mostly a product of proper diet. Training is still important for preserving muscle and strength. However, because you are expending more calories than you’re consuming, your body is under a lot of stress and excessive exercise can be detrimental. Too much exercise during a weight loss overstresses the central nervous system, which leads to burn out. This is not to say that exercise impedes weight loss, but in the extreme it can. What can we learn from this?

Cutting down your training volume prevents burn out. The good news is that you can preserve muscle mass and strength with 1/3-1/2 of your normal training volume. For example, if you normally deadlift 250 pounds for 6 sets of 3 reps, you can maintain your strength by using 250 pounds for 3 sets of 3 reps. It may mean leaving your ego at the door and you may feel as if you aren’t doing enough, but it’s for the best.

I also will not neglect the role of “cardio” and complexes in weight loss. I am not a fan of steady-state cardio for weight loss. Instead, high-intensity interval training has been shown to be more effective. However, HIIT sessions are very taxing on the CNS and brutally hard, so do them no more than twice a week. Anymore and your body will not be able to recover. A sample HIIT session on a bike looks like this:

4 minute warm-up
15 second sprint + 45 second rest x 8
4 minute cool-down

HIIT sessions elevate your metabolism for up to 48 hours after the workout through what is known as excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). If you’re interested in reading more about HIIT, check out this link:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=747976

If you are reading this far, please stop. Get a life. Go outside. Make some friends. Do anything else. In a change of styles, I’ll try to summarize my points from this entire series in a concise manner.

- Ditch grains and milk
- Eat more protein in the form of meat, eggs, and fish
- Eat more vegetables (and not just lettuce)
- Use olive oil and vinegar on your salads and not the poser salad dressings
- Have fruit and nuts in moderation
- Take supplements: fish oil, vitamin d, calcium/mag/zinc, and a probiotic
- Try intermittent fasting
- Use a planned refeed every now and then if fat loss is slowing
- Eat slower
- Lower your training volume
- Try HIIT
Yes, what I just spent three weeks writing could be summed up in a dozen bullet points. Yes, you probably want to hurt me right now. I’ll be finished soon, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll leave you with a before and after of a guy who has been going paleo for awhile and has made a ton of progress. His blog is also worth perusing:

http://freetheanimal.com/2009/09/interim-progress-update.html

Now, please leave. Go. Fly fly.

Hugs,
Palmer