"Fad" Diets Exposed

I am posting another video from Dr. Layne Norton or BioLayne.  In this video he explains how silly some of the "fad" diets out there really are.  He explains the paleo diet and how caveman were never really trying to get "jacked" or "shredded" but survive.  He goes in depth by looking at studies and the science behind some of the extremism's of the fitness industry.  This will really give you an open-minded view on some of the hottest topics in the fitness world today.  Please check out this video it is one of my favorites!
*Research over "gurus"! I think that should be Biolayne's motto if he has one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=34mViApQiyE

"Clean" Eating Vs. If It Fits Your Macros

Let me introduce you to Dr. Layne Norton, PhD Nutritional Sciences from University of Illinois, who is a natural bodybuilder and a firm believer of eating your macronutrients. (Carbohydrates, fat, and protein)  In a video log from his website he discusses popular 'guru' theories and debunks them with real science.  One of the “FADS” that has been floating around the web is this idea of "clean" eating.  In this video Dr. Norton discusses "clean" eating and his approach "If it fits Your Macros".  I really encourage anyone who is interested in getting results from all their hard work in and outside of the gym to watch this video.  Knowledge is power in almost any trade of life, especially so in the fitness world.  He has tons of great videos that are free to watch on his website.  If your into the real science of how things work and not popular 'guru' theories you will love his website.  

Warning: you might be shocked to learn some of the things taught to you were total BS!   

link: Dr. Layne Norton video on "clean" eating

Eat 5-6 Meals a Day for Results!

Everyone who is looking to lose weight gets approached with a million different diets.  Either they are suggested to them or they find them on the Internet.  A lot of these diets are "FAD" diets that are designed to lose weight quickly.  The problem with these diets is you lose weight the wrong way.  These diets do usually work because what they do is limit your calorie intake in some way.  Either lo-carb by decreasing your calories from carbohydrates, or from paleo diet, eliminating calories from grains. Because after all if you want to lose weight you need to limit your calories intake and increase your calorie outtake.  Which is true to the most basic sense.  There are other equations that you have to worry about if you want to maintain your weight loss.  The biggest variable is you Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR).  This is the biggest key to keeping weight lost.  "FAD" diets will typically destroy your RMR, which will then make it that much harder to keep the weight off.  The way to lose weight while keeping your RMR high is to lose it SLOWLY.  Ah!! I said it SLOWLY.  No one wants to lose weight slowly, in fact people would take a magic pill and lose weight in an hour if it existed.  That is why "FAD" diets are soooooo popular because they work quickly.  The only problem is if you want to keep the weight off and remain healthy for your life you have to do it slowly.  By doing it slowly you will not completely crash your RMR and you will maintain the calories you burn at rest.  So now that I got you convinced to lose weight slowly....which has been a key message from good health enthusiast (not gurus) for years.  I am going to discuss to importance of eating 5-6 meals a day.

Eating 5-6 meals a day keeps your RMR at a high level thorough the day.  When your body digests food its core temperature goes up because it needs to work to utilize the food for energy.  When you eat only 1-2 times a day, which is the average for an American, you don't raise your core temperature and you lower you RMR.  So if you want to burn the most calories while sitting on your butt, eat every three hours.  PLEASE don't try FAD diets.  Although they may have worked in the pass or you have heard of these great results from friends, see how they are doing now and if they have kept the weight off.  Usually the answer is NO.  

This is your insulin which goes up after you eat and your glucagon which goes down when you havent ate for a long time.  Fed and Fasted states.  This is similar to when you eat your RMR goes up and when you dont eat it goes down.

Artificial Sweetners a Mystery, better than sugar.

I found an article that concisely highlights the debate over artificail sweetners. Which ones are OK and which are risky to long term health.  The one conclusion is that while all of the research is inconclusive that the artificial swettners are deemed to be "safe" by the FDA and that all scientists agree that they are better than sugar when it comes to leading a healthy life.

Also, Aspartame is two amino acids with a methanol group.  It is not some dangerous "chemical" people make it out to be.  According to my medical nutrition textbook you would have to drink 25 2 liter diet soda's to experience side effects!!!!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/which-sweetener-should-you-choose/

ABS ABS ABS

That is the number one thing I hear from clients when they come to me.  "I want to get rid of the fat in my middle section."  To address this question I first have to address a couple different myths about FAT.  First myth is that you need to burn fat first to gain the muscle* Fat and muscle are two separate components to the human body.  If you lose all your fat you will look like a stick.  Just by losing fat by doing cardio for 60 minutes a day will gain you ZERO muscle.  You don't need to lose the fat first to start putting on muscle.  It's actually quite the opposite.  You need to gain muscle to help speed up your metabolism to lose the fat.  Losing just fat alone will actually slow down your metabolism and you will end up gaining back the fat, which is what you worked so hard to lose in the first place.  So please if you are trying to lose weight don't just do cardio to burn the fat first that couldn't be more wrong.  Second myth is that you can transform your fat into muscle.  This isn’t transformers.  That would be really nice if you could do that, but it is not true.  Gaining muscle comes from increasing your muscle cells not by transforming fat.

Back to ABS ABS ABS.  Your body doesn't simply take fat away from the area where there is the most fat.  It takes away fat throughout your entire body.  So in order to get those dream ABS and lose the middle section it is going to take A LOT of hard work.  This hard work consist of years of dieting with healthy high nutrient dense foods, and lots of exercise both lifting and cardio.  It is going to take time to get your total body fat percentage down in order to start seeing abs.  Ideally a male will see ABS around 8-12 percent body fat or lower, and a female from 12-18 percent or lower.  So next time you want to know how you get ABS and a "trainer" makes you do a thousand silly abdominal exercises PLEASE stop!  This is a waste of time.  Unless your body fat percentage is low you are not going to see anything.  You might even have the strongest abs on the planet, but if you eat like crap it doesn't matter how many sit-ups you do a day.  TO RECAP: the best way to get ABS is to eat healthy, lift weights, do high-intensity cardio (sprints) and low-intensity cardio (walking) and if you want to throw some ab exercises after your workout it won’t hurt.  All of the above will lower your total body fat percentage.  Make sure to measure you body fat percentage and see if it is decreasing every month by half to 1 percent.  This is a slow process so be patients and the only real way to see results is by HARD WORK.  

"The Paleo Way" (Menu from School Project)

Reference: "Everyday Paleo" by Sarah Fragoso Victory Belt Publishing Las Vegas

6,400 calories crazy right?

Before you read this post you must read http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/eat-to-burn-fat-and-calorie-loading-to-torch-body-fat.html article by Cory Gregory.  I found this article very interesting for a couple different reasons.  First off I have hard of calorie splurging before, but this one was different because of the foods Cory listed compared to foods I have seen from other sources.  Usually the high calorie day would consist of whatever you could get your hands on such as, high sugary snacks and "cheat meals".  Ok so heres the difference, in Cory's whopping 6,400 calorie day he was eating only eggs, cashews, beef, and cheese! That is it.  Albeit that comes out to being over 24 whole eggs in one single day!  Now this caught my eye because I have read books talking bout its not so much the calories you eat, but what you eat.  The article goes into talking about hormonal responses from food.  As we all know the more sugar and carbohydrates we eat the more we build up a insulin insensitivity, which can cause a rise in blood glucose levels.
Ok so what the hell am I saying???? Basically I am going to personally give something similar to this high calorie day from clean foods a try.  Clean I mean low sugar and carbohydrates.  I think Cory might be on to something.  He also talks about low-fat days as well, maybe to balance out all the fat from the calorie day?  I am going to post what I ate and how I felt from my personal experience with this later.  Until then folks :)