Have you ever been in the following situation? You feel like you’re giving 110% in the gym, you’re doing cardio, and you’re eating clean…but you’re still a bit soft in the middle. What gives? Well, what many people don’t know about getting shredded is it is really nothing more than a slow accumulation of doing a bunch of little things right. If you do only some of them right, you probably won’t get there. At its core, all effective weight loss methods do two–and only two–things: 1) They limit the amount of food you eat. 2) They increase the amount of calories you burn. In this article, I want to share with you 7 tips on how to better accomplish #2. Do HIIT Cardio Long, low-intensity cardio sessions tend to negatively impact muscle growth and burn relatively few calories, thus rendering them ineffective in helping with fat loss. Studies such as those conducted by Laval University, East Tennessee State University, Baylor College of Medicine, and Florida State University have shown that shorter, high-intensity sessions, however, not only cause less muscle breakdown than low-intensity, steady-state cardio, but they burn more calories and stimulate more fat loss. Therefore, I recommend doing HIIT for all cardio, and keeping your sessions between 20 – 30 minutes long. Here’s how it works: You start your workout with 2 – 3 minutes of low-intensity warm-up. You then go all-out, as fast as possible, for 1 minute. You then slow it down to a low-intensity recovery period for about 1 minute. You repeat this cycle of all-out and recovery for 20 – 30 minutes. You take the last 2 – 3 minutes to cool down at a low intensity. You can apply the HIIT style to any type of cardio that you would normally do. You can head outside and walk and sprint, or you can hop on the elliptical trainer or recumbent bike to get it done. Lift Heavy Weights Research shows that training with heavy weight (weights that allow for 5 – 8 reps) increases your metabolic rate over the following two days, burning up to as many as 600 more calories than training with light weights (12+ reps). Research also shows that training with weights in that range maximizes testosterone and GH production, which further accelerates fat loss and preserves muscle, too. Avoid Consecutive Days of Rest Doing no exercise for two days in a row can slow your metabolic rate down. Instead of training for 5 or 6 days straight and then taking two days of complete rest, train 3 or 4 days and then take a day off, followed by another 3 – 4 days of training. Split Up Your Weight Training and Cardio Instead of lifting for an hour or so followed by a half hour of cardio, split them up. Lift in the mornings and do your cardio after work, or vice versa. Not only will this rev up your metabolic rate twice per day, keeping it constantly elevated, it can help preserve muscle. Researchers from RMIT University worked with well-trained athletes in 2009 and found that “combining resistance exercise and cardio in the same session may disrupt genes for anabolism.” In laymen’s terms, they found that combining endurance and resistance training sends “mixed signals” to the muscles. Cardio before the resistance training suppressed anabolic hormones such as IGF-1 and MGF, and cardio after resistance training increased muscle tissue breakdown. Separate to the study are two other factors to consider. Cardio before weightlifting saps your energy and makes it much harder to train heavy, and cardio after weightlifting further postpones your post-workout nutrition, which further accelerates catabolism. Eat Spicy Foods Spices such as red pepper and cayenne can actually increase your metabolic rate. They also go great with chicken and other lean meats, and veggies too, which makes them perfect for making cutting a bit more enjoyable. Don’t Drink Your Calories Liquid calories are a disaster when you’re cutting. They’re way too easy to consume when you don’t even have an appetite, they don’t fill you up when you do, and most are full of sugar, which keeps your insulin spiked (which in turn leads to more fat storage). Instead of drinking juice, sodas, sugary teas or coffee drinks, etc., stick to water, plain tea (or sweeten it with a natural sweetener like stevia or Truvia), black coffee, or other no-calorie beverages. Don’t Eat Carbs at Night There’s no scientific evidence that eating carbs at night or before bed will lead to gaining fat, but it canhinder fat loss. How? The insulin created by the body to process and absorb carbs eaten stops the use of fat as an energy source. Your body naturally burns the most fat while sleeping, and so going to sleep with elevated insulin levels interferes with fat loss. Related to this is the fact that studies have indicated that the production and processing of insulin interferes with the production and processing of growth hormone, which has powerful fat-burning properties. Your body naturally produces the vast majority of its growth hormone while sleeping, so again, if your body is flushed with insulin when you go to sleep, your growth hormone production will suffer, which in turn robs you of its fat-burning and muscle-building benefits. So, as a general rule, when you’re cutting, don’t eat any carbs within 4 – 5 hours of bedtime. You should only consume lean proteins after dinner. I follow this rule when bulking too, not because I’m worried about fat burning (you don’t burn fat when bulking), but because I don’t want to stunt my growth hormone production. Summary If you’re planning on losing weight or are currently struggling with it, try incorporating each of the tips above. As long as your diet is in the right place, your body won’t be able to do anything but melt away the fat!
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Whey Protein: Benefits, Risks, & Top Picks
Whey protein has gone through a number of phases over the years – from being used only by bodybuilders to now being used by athletes and casual exercisers at all levels.
This article will get to the core of what science says about whey protein powders. You will learn whether or not you should you use whey protein, the differences between the various types of whey protein, and how to make a smart purchase if you decide to use it.
What is Whey Protein?
Whey protein is a liquid byproduct of cheese production that is sold as a dietary supplement in protein powders and shakes. Whey protein used to be discarded by cheese manufacturers as a waste product.
Whey protein is also a “complete protein” that is fast and easy to digest. Whenever we eat a protein source, our body uses the 20 amino acids (which are the individual components of “protein”) to repair our bones, muscles, organs and virtually every body part and tissue in the human body. When a source of protein has all 9 essential amino acids, which are amino acids your body needs to get from food, that food is said to be a complete protein. Foods like meats, dairy, eggs and rare vegetable proteins such as quinoa are complete proteins. On the other hand, most vegetables, rice and starches are not complete proteins because they are missing one or more of the essential amino acids.
Not only do foods have different amino acid profiles, but the rate at which the protein is absorbed by your body can vary. Of the different measures of protein absorption, one of the most popular is Biological Value (BV). Whey protein just so happens to have the highest score possible with a Biological Value of 100. This means that whey protein contains all the amino acids needed to make a complete protein and is very easily digested by your body.
Whey Protein Benefits
While no supplement can replace a diet of whole, natural, unprocessed foods, whey protein can be useful for people with a very busy, on-the-go lifestyle as a supplement to their normal diet.
The benefits of a high-quality whey protein supplement range from purely aesthetic to health preserving. Here’s a small list of 10 benefits that have been associated with whey protein supplementation:
Specific amino acids are used by your body for specific reasons. For instance, whey protein is high in Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s), which are 3 of the 9 essential amino acids that are of special importance for muscle repair and preservation. In both exercise and in recovery of exercise, your body will break down a small amount of amino acids for fuel (1-5%) and the specific amino acids your body uses are the BCAA’s. Although this is a small percentage overall, your body will break down muscle in order to get those BCAA’s. By providing the body with a high amount of BCAA’s, your body preserves your muscle, while the specific amino acid leucine actually stimulates protein synthesis.
This means is that leucine sends a signal to your body to increase its storage of amino acids and the way your body primarily does this is by adding muscle.
So if you’re trying to put on muscle, having enough BCAA’s is essential to both help preserve the muscle, while also helping to stimulate additional muscle growth. If you’re in a hypo-caloric state (if you’re trying to lose weight and are cutting calories), preserving muscle becomes even more important and ensuring that you have enough BCAA’s helps to keep your body from losing muscle, while simultaneously helping you to lose fat.
Another huge benefit of whey protein is that studies have indicated that glutathione production increases. Although you may have heard of Vitamin C or Vitamin E as being anti-oxidants, what your body mainly uses as an anti-oxidant to scavenge free radicals is glutathione, making it one of the most important substances in your body. Glutathione is made from three main amino acids; cysteine, glutamic acid and glycine. The rate-limiting amino acid (what limits production of glutathione) is usually the amino acid cysteine, and although the exact mechanism with whey protein intake is not known, it is theorized that the relatively high amount of cysteine in whey is what increases glutathione production.
If you look at the list of benefits from up above (assistance with cancer, HIV, decreased recovery time, etc), most of those benefits are usually attributed to the increase in glutathione production.
Whey Protein Risks?
Generally, most of the complications associated with whey protein intake have to do with digestive issues, such as gas, bloating, headaches, cramps and fatigue. None of these are generally considered life-threatening, more so than annoying complications.
Most of the literature has shown that if you’re experiencing any of have these symptoms, they are most likely due to either the lactose (found more in Whey Protein Concentrate) or sweeteners used more so than the whey protein itself. With that said, there are different methods of whey production, such as ion-exchanged that can influence how well your body can utilize the protein, leading to improper digestion of the whey itself.
The biggest fear often expressed about whey protein intake is that too much protein is “bad for the kidneys.” Research though has shown this is not true at all in healthy individuals. For those with known kidney disease, high protein diets can exacerbate pre-existing conditions. Healthy individuals, without any underlying or unknown kidney disease have nothing to worry about with higher intakes of protein.
What does occur with higher protein intakes is your body adapts to the increase in protein by increasing glomerular filtration rates (which means more fluid passes by your kidneys and there’s an increase in urine production)
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