The Cut The Crap Diet from a city caveman

ATHLETIC TO PATHETIC & BACK - The Michael Jarosky Story

​I never blamed the marketers at McDonald’s for my love handles, and I was never going to sue Pizza Hut because of my man boobs.  Somewhere through the years, I went from body type athletic to pathetic.  Coming up to my 35th birthday, I was unhealthy because I chose an indulgent lifestyle of bad food, way too many drinks, and very poor workouts…that needed to stop, immediately.

​My waistline, my belly, and my photo said it all…it was time for me to make a change. My choices in Australia’s market economy were endless – diet pills from the chemist, some new kind of ab squasher contraption, liposuction, or the next fad diet. What works?  So, I finally called bullshit to it all.  I mean, if 60% of us are obese, aren’t we moving in the wrong direction with our health and fitness? So rather than choosing some futuristic cure that is the next best thing which was better than last year’s next best thing, I took a look into the past – the Caveman past.

I said goodbye to foods loaded with so many chemicals and full of fat…I ignored the futuristic workout trends promising Brad Pitt’s abs and Paris Hilton’s waistline.  I used common sense and a Caveman mentality of “basic and simple” to develop a lifestyle plan around fresh, healthy, tasty eating along with structured, and efficient workouts to get control of:

…my health
…my fitness, and
…most importantly, my life.

I never wanted perfection; I just wanted to look good in jeans and a t-shirt and to feel comfortable on the beach.  So, I entered a 40 day Change Phase with Annie Clark, a Sydney fitness professional and psychologist, to re-learn what is healthy, what is a good workout, and what I needed to do to get my life back on track.  And those 40 days provided me with the tools and knowledge to not just put a band-aid on an unhealthy lifestyle wound. It allowed me to completely reverse my abusive lifestyle so that I can enjoy the next 40 days, and the next 40 years, of a healthier, active lifestyle.  It took me 40 days…but I finally found the life of control that I was seeking.

40 Days as a City Caveman is the book that can change your life.  It is my personal fat-to-fit story…and it can be yours too.

Your Cut the Crap Diet is ready to go.  Two quick things:

1. Pardon my language in the book, eh?  I’m a writer…but I’m not really a writer.  All I know is how to say it like it is.  There’s no editor for this book, so whatever landed on the page…stayed on the page.  Please think of me as ‘Coach’.  NOT that jerk of a Coach who hated life and took it out on the team…rather Coach who was passionate and swore in order to get a serious message across because he cared about the team.  I’m the Coach that cares about all of us finding a healthy (and happy) lifestyle.  

2. It’s free…so pass this email on.  A real and honest approach sparked your interest, so pass it on to others who might feel the same way.  Obesity in Australia is rising every year, and maybe this little book can kick start a thousand…or even 10s of thousands of people into making a healthy lifestyle change.  So all I’m asking is the favour that you pass this email on to a few more folks in your network.   

Your friends can get the book from:  http://www.citycavemanfitness.com/#!diet/cxfi

Enough of my bullsh#t.  This is about you and your journey.  Good luck – I mean it.

Click here to download from Cut the Cr-p Diet from Dropbox.com (yes, it’s completely safe) https://www.dropbox.com/s/qmuwy74k6qb74el/Cut%20the%20Cr%40p%20Diet.pdf

Good health.  Mike Jarosky

@michaeljarosky

citycaveman@hotmail.com

http://www.citycavemanfitness.com

Note from me (Josh), if anyone has any difficulty navigating technology to acquire a copy of the diet, then email me and I'll email you a .pdf of the Cut The Crap Diet.  

 

Why smart guys who know how to work out can still struggle to get in shape

by Nate Green

Call it the “Non-Beginner Problem”: You can go to the gym and eat healthy…and still not have the physique you want. Let’s fix that right now.

If you’ve worked out for a couple of years and still have more fat to lose or muscle to gain, you’re likely missing one crucial thing that’s keeping you from building your best-looking, best-performing body.

 

In this post we’ll tell you what that one thing is — and share our strategies for overcoming it.

 

It Started With a Facebook Message

“I work out a lot, but I still have this layer of fat around my stomach. Can you look at some of my photos? Based on my body type and experience, what do you think I should do?”

That was the last paragraph in a Facebook message I got a few days ago, sent by a guy I met at a fitness seminar. Now, being asked to look at physique photos and give workout or nutrition advice may seem weird, but it actually happens a lot.

These kinds of requests generally come from guys who have some workout experience but are facing one or two uncomfortable things:

1. They’re not being consistent with their training and nutrition and are having a hard time staying on track.

2. They’re not getting the kind of fat loss or muscle growth they think they should be getting based on what they know about working out and eating healthy.

As I scanned through this guy’s photos, I realized he looked like a lot of guys that join a gym: Not really skinny, not really fat. Just somewhere in between. Nobody would call him out of shape. But you wouldn’t call him in shape, either.

I could tell he worked out occasionally — I found a photo of him shirtless on the beach with his fiancé, and he looked healthy — but he also had some belly fat and skinny arms. He didn’t have much “noticeable muscle”, which, he told me, made him a little embarrassed.
I went back to my inbox and read his message again from the beginning.

“I’ve tried a few different workout programs from places like T-Nation and Bodybuilding.com,” he wrote. “At one point I was counting my macros and experimenting with Paleo. And then I tried intermittent fasting for a bit.”
 

He admitted that when things got busy, it was hard for him to be consistent. He frequently got off track with his nutrition and skipped workouts.

Like a lot of guys, he’d be consistent for a few weeks and feel awesome. But then he’d miss a few workouts, eat crap food, and feel a little depressed because of it.

He told me he was frustrated.

He felt like he should have a better body to show for his knowledge and hard work. He felt like he was missing something important, but just didn’t know what it was.

And he thought that maybe I had the solution for him, one thing that could turn everything around and help him get his sh*t together.

Normally, I’d roll my eyes at the thought of having some kind of magic bullet, one thing I could tell him that would change everything.

But as it turns out, I knew exactly what he needed.

The “Missing Link” To Building Your Best Body

The one thing most non-beginners are missing isn’t a different workout program, a better nutrition strategy, or a new supplement.

What most guys are missing is being accountable — to someone or something — for their workouts and nutrition.

“Accountability is the acknowledgment of responsibility for your actions with the obligation to report, explain, and be responsible for the resulting consequences.”

In other words, accountability keeps you consistent because you have to report back what you’re doing — or not doing — in the gym and in the kitchen to someone else.

In fact, accountability is more important than personal motivation for this simple reason: Not one person always feels motivated to go to the gym or eat healthy.
 
But if we have someone who’s checking up on us to see how things are going, we’ll likely get our sh*t together so we a) won’t disappoint them or b) won’t feel lazy.

If we’re accountable, we’ll actually do the workouts and eat the food we need to look and feel great. And we do it over and over again, even when the going gets tough.

That’s why you can know exactly what to do. And you can even do it — work out hard, eat good food, get 8 hours of sleep — for short bursts. But you can still end up without the body you want.

If you can’t be consistent, you can’t make progress.
 
And that’s why accountability – not the perfect training or nutrition program – is the thing that turns everything around for our clients. Heck, maybe it can turn things around for you.

So how do you get accountability?

Let’s get back to the 2 strategies I shared with this guy who asked for my help.

 

First, commit yourself to something.

If you feel like you’ve bounced back and forth between hardcore training and half-assing it, it’s time to commit yourself to something.

Forget trying a new diet or training program every other week. No one makes progress that way. Instead, lock yourself in to something that will force you to change your habits — while having fun.

One of the easiest ways is to set up a contest with friends. (Who can go the longest without missing a single workout? Who can cook the most meals at home instead of eating out?)

Think about it: What do you think you can you accomplish with just one month of consistent workouts and healthy eating? How about six months?

How about one year?

The Bottom Line

The only way to kick-start your progress is to commit to something, whether it’s a contest with friends or something bigger and more comprehensive.

 

Next, get some help from at least one other person.

Let me tell you a quick personal story.

There was a time, a few months ago, when I started skipping one or two workouts per week. Why? Because I was too “busy.” (Yep, even I use that excuse sometimes.)

The workouts didn’t matter much in the context of one week — it’s not like I was losing muscle or gaining fat every time I skipped one — but after a month, I’d missed 7 total workouts, nearly half of my gym time. Not good.

And it was showing in the mirror. I looked a little smaller and weaker than I would have liked. Plus I just felt crappy and a little guilty.

I knew I had an accountability problem. No one was checking to see if I was doing my workouts. And because of that, I was slacking.

So the next day I called a personal trainer friend and asked if he had any openings. Even though I know how to work out and eat healthy, I asked if he would write my workouts and train me at his gym a couple times per week.

I made myself accountable to him.

Of course I could still skip my workouts if I wanted. But that would involve actually calling and canceling an appointment with him, something I’d be embarrassed to do.

And here’s the best part: ever since I became accountable to my friend, I haven’t missed a single workout. And I feel incredible.

My new gym where I go to meet my friend and have him train me a few times per week.

What can you learn from this?

If you’re struggling to get in shape — or if you have the tendency to get too busy with other stuff and slack on your workouts — the best thing you can do is hire someone to keep you accountable.
 
It could be a coach you pay money to or a friend who will meet you at the gym, no matter what.

The Bottom Line

It’s a lot easier to stay consistent with your workouts and eating when you’ve got a coach checking up on you, and a group of like-minded guys who have your back.

 

Do 2 Things: Commit and Become Accountable To Someone

In the end, the message I wanted to communicate to the guy who Facebooked me is this:

“Yeah, it’s completely possible that you can go to the gym and eat healthy and still not have the physique you want.”
 
“But there’s a simple fix, and it has nothing to do with a new workout or diet plan. All you have to do is commit to something and make yourself accountable to at least one other person.”
 
Of course, if you’re reading this and have some workout and nutrition experience but still don’t have the kind of body you want, I encourage you do something — anything — as soon as possible to stay consistent with your training and nutrition.

Because before you know it, an extra 5 pounds of fat could quickly become 10 or 20 pounds. The muscle you’ve worked hard to build can wither away.

But the worst part? You’d have to start all over with the knowledge that you didn’t live up to your potential.

Don’t let that happen.

Research Review: Is cardio better than weights for fat loss?

by Helen Kollias | March 15th, 2013

Contrary to recent headlines, aerobic exercise alone is not a recipe for faster fat loss.  Instead, a combination of resistance training and aerobics will lead to the most impressive, and longest lasting improvements in body composition.

Introduction

Back in December, PN’s Dr. John Berardi posted a link on his Facebook page to an article on Science Daily, with the headline:

“Aerobic Exercise Trumps Resistance Training for Weight and Fat Loss”

This post led to much controversy and outraged discussion. Why?

Where to begin?

First, Science Daily’s headline misrepresents the study’s results. The study doesn’t actually conclude that aerobic exercise is better than resistance training for weight or fat loss.

Huh?  Then what’s up with that headline?

Well, first – as usual – the media oversimplified things; to the point of not even being accurate.  And yes, that’s why most media headlines are not very trustworthy.

Second, the study used terrible training programs. Both the aerobic training program and the resistance-training program were less than optimal. Way less than optimal.

Of course, it’s pretty difficult to draw reliable conclusions about the relative effectiveness of exercise programs that are ineffective in the first place!

Third, this study included no nutritional intervention.

Why is this a problem? Here’s an explanation from JB himself: “Why exercise STILL doesn’t work.”

Finally, researchers in this study didn’t seem too concerned about the difference between fat loss and lean mass loss. They lumped it all together as “weight loss”, as though there really wasn’t a difference between a pound of muscle and a pound of fat.

 

Muscle mass matters. A lot.

Do you like walking up stairs on your own or would you rather take one of those home stair lifts? Have you seen one of these things?  First you have to wait for the lift to ever-so-slowly make its way down the stairs. Then you get in it and slowly go up the stairs.  I tried it once with my pet turtle Herb. Herb jumped off half way up. He didn’t have the patience and decided to walk up the stairs.

On a more serious note: For a while, I researched treatments for muscular dystrophy, a disease that causes severe muscle loss. Do that kind of research for a day or two, or talk to people with muscular dystrophy, and you’ll quickly recognize the vital importance of maintaining muscle, even if your goal is to lose weight.  My biggest peeve in the weight loss industry is that weight loss is the measurement for success. For example, here are some other ways to lose weight:

1. Amputation.
2. Osteoporosis.
3. Stomach flu (though intestinal parasites will do in a pinch).
4. Coma.
5. Chemotherapy.
6. Shaving all your hair off.
7. Lobotomy.

Thanks, but I’ll pass on all of those.

Muscle helps you walk up and down stairs and pick up a soup can. And, of course, keeping you moving is muscle’s most important function.

But muscle can also help you lose fat and stay lean.

 

Muscle metabolism

Increased basal metabolism is probably the most obvious advantage of having more muscle. Actually, to be more exact, the more muscle you carry, the higher your resting energy expenditure (REE).

Since REE is the biggest part of your total energy use in a given day, it can change how many calories you burn [1] .

Have you ever wondered why muscle uses energy when you’re doing absolutely nothing? Seems like a waste.

Well, muscle is always up to something. It’s constantly being broken down and re-constructed, or synthesized. In fact, all tissues, to one degree or another, are constantly being remade.  It takes about seven days to completely regenerate your skin, and seven years to replace every cell in your skeleton [2].

What makes muscle special is that you can make more of it – a lot more. In other words, unlike bone and skin cells, muscle generation is, to some extent, within your control. Whereas after puberty, you can’t make a lot more of other tissue. Except fat.

Schematic of muscle synthesis and breakdown. Muscle synthesis requires amino acids and energy.

Muscle: by the numbers

Your body uses energy to break down and remake muscle. How much energy? That depends on how much muscle you have.
If you really want to know how much energy muscle uses, take a look at the calculations below.  (In case you have deep-seated math phobia, here is the lowdown: Each kilogram of muscle uses at least 10 kcal per day [3]).  Okay with that? Then skip to the next section. Fellow math nerds can read on for the more detailed explanation.

 

Warning: Math ahead! Proceed at your own risk.

 

The amount of energy being used can be calculated if you know a few things:

1. How much protein is synthesized by muscle in a given hour (this is called fractional synthetic rate, or FSR).
2. How much muscle somebody has.

The average fractional synthetic rate (FSR) of muscle protein is about 0.075%/hour [3,4]. Now, the average young, healthy man is about 35 to 50 kg (77 lb to 110 lb) of muscle. (Note, we are referring only to muscle, not lean body mass.) [3,4].



Voila! An average healthy male with 35-50 kg of muscle makes about 630 g to 900g of protein per day.

(For comparison, a frail elderly woman has about 13 kg of muscle. We will leave the calculations to you, but obviously, she will be making less protein.)

To determine what this means in terms of energy use, we need to do a little more math.
Four moles of ATP (energy cells use) are required for each mole of amino acids used to make protein. One mole of ATP releases 20 kcal of energy.

So, using the average molecular weight for amino acids of about 110 g/mole, we can calculate the amount of kcal used per day to make protein [3, 5,6].

Energy used per day by 50 kg of muscle:



Clear as mud?

Well, to repeat, it boils down to an extra 13 kcal/kg of muscle.

Robert Wolfe, one of the biggest researchers in the muscle synthesis field, rounds this number down to about 10 kcal/kg per day [3].

 

Don’t confuse Robert Wolfe, the protein turnover researcher, with Robb Wolf, the Paleo guy. 

 

Despite the similarity in names and the fact that both Wolves promote the eating of meat, they are actually different people.

 

How much does this matter?

Either way, you might be thinking: Big deal. Muscle doesn’t seem to give a significant metabolic advantage. Right?

Well, not exactly.

First, the 10 kg to 13 kg figure is likely an underestimation [3].

Second, remember that a frail elderly woman has a muscle mass of 13 kg compared to 50 kg for a healthy, young male.

That works out to 37 kg of muscle difference.  Which means that Granny is using lots less energy than our hypothetical young man.  Instead, she is likely to be gaining fat. Possibly lots of it. And she wonders why it is accumulating so much faster than when she was younger (and more active…and…um…slightly more muscular).  Meanwhile, if she had more muscle mass, she would be using more energy just by sitting in her rocker!

Okay, realistically, Granny isn’t going to put on 37 kg (81.5 lb) of pure muscle this year – or ever.  But she could put on some muscle, or at the very least she could slow down how much muscle she loses each year. And by doing that, she will decrease the fat she gains.
In terms of what’s possible, if a little optimistic – a five kg (11lb) weight gain in muscle works out to 250 kcal per day, or 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) of fat lost per year – and over 12 kg (25 lb) in 5 years.  Just from resting muscle. This doesn’t include extra calories used for exercise or walking to your car or rocking in that chair or whatever else you do.

The moral of the story? Throw away your scale (or at least hide it for awhile.)

Generally, you don’t need to convince men to gain muscle, but women tend to be more concerned about getting “too big.”

Here’s why women should gain muscle.

 

Lose weight the easier way

Here’s a familiar scenario. In January, Jane and Bob agree to lose weight – together. Jane watches what she eats, counts every calorie, and spends hours on the treadmill every day. After a month, she’s down by a pound.

Meanwhile, Bob decides to drink less soda and manages to cut down to one can a week from his usual four. He gets to the gym when he can – maybe three times a week – but half the time, he ends up cutting his workout short. One month of this, and he is ten pounds lighter!

What the heck? Why does this happen? (I can hear women around the world gnashing their teeth from here.)

There are many physiological reasons, but the difference in their muscle mass is one of the biggies.

Let’s compare two women. Jane and Mary both have the same amount of fat, but Mary has an extra 7 kg (15 lb) of muscle.

If, for one year, Jane did exactly what Mary did to maintain her weight– snowboarding, sleeping, swearing in six languages, whatever – Jane would actually gain 8.5 kg (18.7 lb) of fat, increasing her body fat percentage to 35.8%. Just because of the differences in their resting muscle mass.

The other thing you might notice is that since Mary has more muscle and weighs more overall, despite having the same amount of fat, she actually has a lower percentage of body fat.

Weight versus size

Since muscle is more dense than fat, 1 kg of muscle will take less space than 1 kg of fat. Muscle is 1.06 kg per liter of space and fat density is 0.9196 kg per liter of space.

If you gained 10kg of muscle at the same time you lost 10kg of fat, you would be smaller. About 1.4 liters smaller. On the scale you would weigh the same. But your pants would be looser.

Let’s say you and your friend decide to start two different weight loss programs at the same time. After 6 months, you’ve lost 10 kg by working out and eating right, while your friend has lost 11 kg by lying in bed drinking coffee and smoking.

Your 10kg scale weight loss might equal a 10 kg muscle gain with a 20 kg fat loss. If so, you’d be 12.3 liters smaller.

On the scale, it would look like your friend who lost 11 kg (9 kg of muscle and 2 kg of fat) was doing better, but in fact, she’d only be 10.7 liters smaller, making her 1.6 liters (3.8 pints) bigger than you. Ha!

Meanwhile, going forward, who will maintain her new weight more effectively? It sure won’t be your friend.

Of course, this is an oversimplification, because muscle and fat are not the only things at play. But the message is the same – losing weight is very different from losing fat.

Size matters. Five pounds of fat takes up more space than 5 pounds of muscle.

 

Research question

This week I review the paper that JB mentioned in his Facebook post.

Willis LH, Slentz CA, Bateman LA, Shields AT, Piner LW, Bales CW, Houmard JA, Kraus WE. Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults. J Appl Physiol. 2012 Dec;113(12):1831-7.

 

Methods

When it comes to making sense of studies like the one under review, it is really important to take note of the methods. What exactly was done?

 

The problem of measuring resistance training

Before I get into the particulars of this study, you need to understand that studies about resistance training are notoriously difficult to do.

Why? Well, they’re more involved than aerobics studies, potentially more dangerous, and it’s nearly impossible to measure subjects’ efforts in resistance training. In fact, the only thing that sucks more than resistance training studies is a bad workout!

It’s easy to get annoyed when you read about what is typically done in resistance studies. Really: Subjects did three sets of 10 reps, three times a week, for months! Same exercise, same order, same rest, with maybe an increase in weight. That’s not how anybody really trains! Can’t they come up with anything better?

Not only that, but most resistance training studies use machines to minimize the need for supervision and teaching the exercise.  Remember, most subjects are untrained people who in many cases are overweight and have never exercised. Researchers generally don’t have the money to pre-train people before the study starts, and people don’t want to commit to a longer study.

Even if the researchers did take the time to teach subjects to move properly with free weights, they would then need someone to supervise and spot them. One-on-one spotting could take up to 80 hours a week with only 20 exercisers.

Put it all together and you can see why using machines becomes a more attractive alternative, even though machines are not as effective.

Aerobic exercise, on the other hand, isn’t that hard to teach and doesn’t need a lot of supervision. Jump on a bike, run, or step – you’ve been able to do that since kindergarten.
Lastly, the big unknown with resistance training is how hard the volunteer is trying. What is really the heaviest this person could lift? It’s really tough to measure.

Aerobic training doesn’t present this problem because you can use gas analysis and blood sampling to tell if someone has hit their peak oxygen utilization capacity (VO_2peak).

Meanwhile, effort can be tracked with some combination of a heart rate monitor and the onboard monitoring equipment. With downloadable software and weekly checks, researchers can see exactly how much exercise subjects do and the intensity – to the tenth of a calorie.

That’s why it’s tough to make a scientific comparison of aerobics and resistance training.
Now, on to what the researchers did in this study.

 

Study volunteers

On the positive side, this study included a lot of participants (196) and it went on for months — eight months, to be exact.

Something pretty unique about this study is the age range of the volunteers, who ranged from 18 to 70 years old. That’s 52 years between the youngest and the oldest!

While I think it’s a good thing to have a varied group, this may be taking things a little too far, since it is tough to generalize about any particular age group based on these results.

After all, it seems fair to assume that Granny and 20-year-old jock Joey are going to respond very differently to an exercise regime.  Too bad there was no meta-analysis to see whether and how that was true.

Exercise training

After the volunteers signed up for the study there was a 4-month control period to get rid of less motivated recruits before the researchers put the volunteers into one of three groups.

 

Group 1: Resistance training (66 volunteers)

 

• Exercised 3 days a week
• 8 exercises with machines that targeted major muscle groups*
• 3 sets per exercise
• 8 to 12 repetitions per set
• 180 minutes of exercise per week
• Once a volunteer could lift a weight for 12 reps for all three sets the weight increased by 5 lb.

*Note: they didn’t mention it in this article, but in another article based on the same study there were two different resistance training workouts depending where the volunteers were working out. Mostly they used Cybex machines, but at one location they switched to free weights for upper body exercises. No mention about the exact exercises.

 

Group 2: Aerobic training (73 volunteers)

 

• Exercised 3 days per week
• Jogged about 12 miles per week (19.3 km)
• 65-80% of VO­_2peak (moderate intensity)**
• About 130 minutes of exercise week
• Treadmill, elliptical and stationary bikes were used for the aerobic training.

**65% of VO­_2peak at the beginning of the study would be moderate intensity but as the volunteers exercised over the 8-month period they would be working at a higher percent VO_2peak to keep them challenged.

 

Group 3: Aerobic and resistance training (57 volunteers)

 

• Aerobic training (12 mile/week at 65-80% VO_2peak)
• Resistance training (8 exercises, 3X8-12, 3 times/ week)
• Over 5 hours per week of exercise.

 

Results

Group 2, the aerobic training group, lost the most weight  – an average of 1.76 kg (3.88lb). The combination group (aerobic + resistance) lost an average of 1.63 kg. (See Figure 2).
The resistance training group actually gained 0.83 kg.

Figure 2: Total weight change, including fat and lean body mass. Data from Willis LH et 2012.

Now, if you stopped reading here, you’d come away with the misguided idea that if you want to fit into your skinny jeans or see your toes, aerobic training is the way to go.

Not so fast.

As you probably figured out from the earlier discussion, losing weight is not necessarily a good thing. You can lose weight in a whole lot of ways and most of them aren’t good for you nor do they translate into fat loss.

When people talk of weight loss they usually think of fat loss, but one is not the same as the other.

So. How did these groups compare when you look at the kind of weight they lost?  Here’s where things get tricky. And this is why you should be very suspicious of your bathroom scale. The aerobic group lost lean mass (0.10kg). Not good.  Meanwhile, subjects in the combination group and resistance training groups gained lean mass, 0.81 and 1.09, respectively (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Changes in lean body mass and fat mass. Data from Willis LH et 2012.

Next time you step on the scale and freak out — “I gained weight! But I was sooooo good last week!” — take a deep breath. If you really were good, maybe you picked up adamantium skeleton along the way. No? Well, maybe you gained a bit of water… or some lean muscle mass. Not a bad thing.

You want to lose fat. Not just weight. 

And in this study, the aerobic training group lost 1.66 kg of fat, not quite as much as the combination group, where participants lost 2.44kg of fat. Group 1 (resistance training alone) lost the least amount of fat 0.26 kg (Figure 3).

In other words, combination training led to the greatest improvements in body composition.

 

The rest of the story: drop outs and exercise time

Buried in the study is one of the most important and interesting findings. Resistance training decreased dropout rates (see Figure 4).

Nearly, 35% of volunteers in the aerobic training group dropped out.
Of those, 44% said it was because they had no time.

Okay… maybe so. But look at the combination group, with a dropout rate of only 23%. They were in the gym twice as long as the aerobic exercisers — 314 minutes/week vs. 134 minutes/week.

Both groups who did resistance training showed lower dropout rates. Which is pretty important if the goal is long-term lifestyle change.

Figure 4: Dropout rates from each group after 8 months. Data from Willis LH et 2012.

 

Actual time spent exercising

Another relevant but unexplored question is how much exercise each group actually performed.

Through a process of self-experimentation, I estimated that each set of resistance exercises would take no more than 84 seconds, with 24 total sets per workout. Since the researchers included the total exercise times per week, I was also able to estimate the rest between exercises.

If you take a look at Figures 5 and 6, they show total exercise time (including rests between sets during weight training) and total exercise time minus rest. And lo and behold: Fat loss in this study is more closely related to actual exercise time than it is to exercise type.

Figure 5: Total exercise time for each group. Data from Willis LH et 2012.

Figure 6: Correlation between fat loss and total exercise time for each group. Data from Willis LH et 2012.

 

VO_2peak – Cardiovascular fitness

Resistance exercise alone increased cardiovascular fitness (VO_2peak). It doesn’t improve cardio fitness as much as aerobic training or combination training, but does improve it.  Keep in mind that the resistance training in this study was not designed in any way to stress the cardiovascular system. Even so, there was a nearly 5% improvement in cardiovascular fitness (increase of 1.26 mL/kg/min in VO_2peak). Not bad, considering that VO_2peak is thought to improve somewhere between 5-15% with targeted training. (This varies a bit depending on how fit you are to start.)

Too bad the researchers didn’t measure the strength of the aerobic group to see if they experienced similar crossover training effects.

 

Conclusion

A quick glance at this study might lead you to Science Daily’s conclusion: “Aerobic Exercise Trumps Resistance Training for Weight and Fat Loss.”

Usually Science Daily is pretty good at summing up the essence of studies, but they really missed the boat this time.

Aerobic exercise did lead to more weight loss – a grand total of 1.76 kg (3.88lb) after 8 months, of which 0.1 kg (0.22 lb) came from muscle.

But:

• The combination aerobic/ resistance training group lost the most fat while gaining muscle.

• They had lower dropout rates compared to the aerobic group, and improved cardiovascular performance.

• This group also spent the most time working out, just over 5 hours a week.

From this study, I’d conclude that a combination of aerobic and resistance training and working out 5 hours a week was the best for fat loss and cardiovascular fitness.

Note also, that while this study compares aerobic training and resistance training as if they are completely distinct entities, that isn’t, in fact, the case. The real fat-loss magic results from resistance training that is also aerobically demanding (metabolic resistance training).  Below is a partial list of references that Dr. Berardi posted on his Facebook page.

Bottom line

Your bathroom scale lies to you.  (Or at the very least you are talking two completely different languages).

When you weigh yourself on the bathroom scale it gives you a number that is your weight. Weight is not fat mass. Your scale says weight and you think fat.

When you lose weight you’re very happy, because you think you’ve lost fat!  When you gain weight you’re very unhappy, because you think you’ve gained fat!

If you lose or gain weight it could be a lot of things, like water, carbohydrate, last night’s dinner and/or fat.  So, when it comes to recognizing fat loss, you need to look at how your clothes fit, at how you feel, and at the scale over weeks – not just one day.

And, of course, if you want to lose weight and fat, a combination of resistance exercise and cardio is likely best.

However, you might not need a full 5 hours a week to get started in the right direction.  See this article for a more minimalistic approach to getting in shape.

 

References

Click here to view the information sources referenced in this article.

 

Learn more

To learn more about making important improvements to your own nutrition and exercise program – or, if you’re a fitness professional, to help your clients do the same – check out the following 5-day video courses.

They’re probably better than 90% of the seminars we’ve ever attended on the subjects of exercise and nutrition (and probably better than a few we’ve given ourselves, too).

The best part? They’re totally free  To check out the free courses, just click one of the links below.

• Exercise and Nutrition Course for Women
• Exercise and Nutrition Course for Men

Celebrating Achievement - Sue & Danielle

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I am one of the luckiest PTs in the world.  I seem to consistently attract some of the best clients in the world.  When I interview a new prospective client, I look for glint in their eye.  Something that tells me they've got a good attitude, a goal, a solid work ethic, will follow my advice and work hard.  They get results, look amazing, get comments from other members and PTs and make me feel great about coming to work every day.

Sue and Danielle are perfect examples.  Sue has been training with me for years and more recently got her daughter Danielle onboard and both work harder than most people in the gym combined.  Sue will either focus on an upcoming event or dress she wants to look amazing in, and Danielle doesn't want to be outshone by her superstar mother twice her age and so gives it her all.

If you want to be inspired and maybe pick up some ideas on some great functional exercises, check out this 6 minute video celebrating their hard work and general awesomeness.

Go ladies!

Your Brain On Nature

Interview with Dr. Alan Logan

by Krista Scott-Dixon (Precision Nutrition), April 18th, 2012.

I’m hooked up to a computer with headphones like an auditory umbilical cord, staring in to the pixelated void of an LCD monitor. I’m hunched like Quasimodo over a keyboard, moving nothing but my fingertips, in a cognitive space of left-brain verbal-mathematical processing. At this moment, I’m a floating hunk of thinky frontal cortex tethered by a white earphone umbilicus and some finger tendons.

My office is dark — the one window faces a brick wall, and I’ve replaced my warm incandescent bulbs with energy-conscious fluorescents, which carry all the luminous ambiance of a late-night bus terminal bathroom.

I’m speaking to naturopath Dr. Alan Logan, the author of the forthcoming book Your Brain On Nature, about how crucial the natural environment is for human health.

The irony isn’t lost on me. Or Dr. Logan.

“Even if you have a television screen that shows a nature scene, you won’t get the same physical effect as viewing the real outdoors,” he explains. So my Mac screen saver with the sunset isn’t going to cut it?

“Not really,” he says. “It’s barely better than a blank wall.”

He describes an experiment: three groups of people with a normally windowless office were given a choice of doing mentally demanding tasks while looking at three things:

• a blank wall;
• a plasma TV with an outdoor scene; and
• a glass window that showed the same outdoor scene.

Experimental twist! The plasma TV screen was designed to look exactly like a window, complete with drapes.

Researchers followed the workers for 16 weeks, measuring their physical, mental and emotional state. Result: A glass window was the most restorative view. When participants gazed out the window, they calmed down.

But the plasma TV scored no better than the blank wall. So much for “realistic picture quality”.

The researchers in this TV study worried about “environmental generational amnesia” that could result from younger people spending their days staring at screens instead of playing outdoors, and they described the deep human “biophilia”, or love of nature, that “is a fundamental, genetically based human need and propensity to affiliate with ‘life and lifelike processes.’”

“Ironically,” says Dr. Logan, “it’s science that’s leading the charge on behalf of nature.”

Images from the plasma TV experiment

Our ancient selves

But why is nature so important to us? Well, most importantly, we’re 21st century people living in ancient bodies.

“Let’s contextualize this in ancestral health,” explains Dr. Logan. “We’ve come from hunter-gatherers.

“My entire message in the book involves thinking about where we’ve come from. The genus Homo has been around for 2 million years. For 2 million years, our genus learned how to sustain itself in nature. We learned how to seek out environments in our best interest, within nature. Where is water? Where are fruits and berries?

“It seems plausible that we’d be drawn to certain locations and niches that sustain human health. That applies to our nutritional intake, our physical activity, and where we conducted that physical activity. We had to walk or run to sustain ourselves. The reward was survival.”

Our bodies, brains, and feelings are all wired for natural cycles, sights, sounds, and spaces.

Fear and loathing

And this wiring runs deep, down into the core of our brain. Natural environments activate the anterior cingulate and the insula, two parts of the brain associated with emotional stability and wellbeing, as well as awareness of self and a “bridge” between sensation and thinking. On the other hand, modern urban environments activate the primal fear circuits.

“What finally pushed me to write about this subject in 2010,” recalls Dr. Logan, “was functional MRI research [a "live action" brain scan that can show which parts of the brain are active during a given task] showing that brain firing really diverged depending on what people were seeing, even if these images were coming at them rapid-fire before they had time to contemplate.”

Scenes of vegetation and nature were processed as soothing and pleasant; scenes of urban imagery — “the purely built environment”, says Dr. Logan — were processed as potentially stressful.

It doesn’t stop there, he argues. “We also learned through our evolution that nature can kill, maim, sting, and bite us.” Even infants naturally fear creepy crawlies, even though they’ve never seen a spider or snake. Something in our brain knows what is scary or potentially harmful, and activates the defense mechanisms.

 

The knowledge-society challenge

Dr. Logan’s followed the research in this area for many years — one of his earlier books is The Brain Diet: The Connection Between Nutrition, Mental Health, and Intelligence.

“I think this basic stress response has tremendous relevance for knowledge workers,” argues Dr. Logan. We’re surrounded by sensory cues and stresses that require our brains to constantly function on high alert.

“We live in a distracted world. The challenge for knowledge workers is to stay on point and avoid all the distractions that surround us — whether it’s an email that we decided to open — then it takes us 24 minutes to get back on task again — or whether it’s distractors on a screen, or driving in traffic, whatever. This is the age of distraction.

“We’re swimming in a sea of fast-moving information. It takes a tremendous toll on the brain, having to go through your day having to filter out distractions. The idea of ‘multitasking’ is nonsense. It’s not supported by the fMRI studies. Multitasking creates stress.

“The fallout from that is an incredible cognitive fatigue. We’re expending a tremendous amount of effort and energy having to inhibit our natural responses.”

If you’ve struggled to find “willpower” to exercise or stay on a nutrition plan, this won’t come as a surprise.

You know the mental exhaustion of having to constantly inhibit your natural urges in a modern world whose routines, cues, and structures practically frog-march us into sloth and gluttony. By the evening of a stressy day at work, or by the second week of a dreary early-morning gym routine that involves forcing yourself to tread monotonously on a mill, you’re ready to quit.

It makes perfect sense, proposes Dr. Logan. “Trying to do things while also inhibiting natural responses, or filtering out competing stimuli, is like driving with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake.

“I’m not anti-technology,” he claims, “but we really need to think as a society how omnipresent our screen is. And stress is a massive contributor to eating so-called comfort foods. We don’t reach for broccoli and kale when we’re under stress.”

 

The nature cure

There’s a term in Japanese — shirin-yoku — that translates as “bathing in the forest air”. Spending time in natural surroundings, such as a forest, influences a wide range of stress markers and physiology. Stress hormones and heart rate go down, immune systems and mood improve. Researchers from one study concluded that “shirin-yoku can effectively relax both people’s body and spirit.”

Dr. Logan concurs. “No matter what the stress, nature can undo it.”

Not surprisingly for a region whose traditional architecture seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor spaces, scientists in Japan are leading the research charge. But North Americans are picking it up. The science is accumulating like fat fluffy snowflakes.

For instance, researchers at Carlton University in Ottawa, a city gripped in winter’s clutches for six months out of a year, compared walking outdoors through green spaces with walking through weatherproof underground tunnels. While walkers underground were spared the season’s whims, walkers outside felt — and performed — better in terms of their mood and thinking.

“People do say they feel better in nature,” says Dr. Logan. “These studies just confirm what we already knew.”

Shirin-yoku study participants

 

Your exercise, on nature

Sometimes, it’s just hard to get into the mood to exercise. And sometimes, even once we get going, we’re not really feeling the mojo. Dr. Logan understands.

“Motivation is undoubtedly the biggest stumbling block to exercise, whether you’re trying to build or maintain lean body mass, or trying to lose fat. It’s the negative aspect that is the stumbling block. You notice pain. You notice fatigue. You get into the mindset of these barriers to exercise.”

But in contrast, he says, “green exercise” — i.e. exercise outdoors, in natural spaces, creates and maintains motivation. ”It elevates your mood and you’re effectively ‘out of your head’.”

Not only that, exercise in natural surroundings can improve performance. One early study compared novice runners on a wooded running path versus a plain open track. Runners were simply asked to run at any pace they chose. Runners in the woods ran faster.

“In the wooded environment, the runners felt better. They felt they were ‘outside of themselves’. They didn’t have the perceptions of fatigue and pain. They weren’t thinking about their side stitch. Sure enough, the runners in the woods ran better. Their finish times were much faster than the runners on the open track.”

When re-tested for runners on a treadmill, the results were the same. “People just run faster outdoors.”

 

How to go au naturel

It doesn’t take much to reap the benefits of “your brain on nature”, says Dr. Logan. “Stepping out of your normal situation for as little as 20 minutes in nature dramatically elevates your mental outlook, and lowers your perceptions of stress. That alone is enough to improve your cognition and focus, and increase your creativity.

“Time spent in nature allows a break from inhibition. The very act of being in nature, in green space, is cognitively restorative, simply because you aren’t applying the brakes any more.”

Here are some tips from Dr. Logan about how to improve your nutrition, exercise, and overall wellness by putting your brain on a nature diet.

• Get outside, whenever and wherever you can. Even small doses of nature help. Heck, even sitting next to a plant is an improvement.
• Stay present. Nature time is now-time. “Rumination about the past leads to depression, while rumination about the future leads to anxiety,” says Dr. Logan. “Being present is a gift that nature gives us.”
• Stay aware. “This is really all about mindfulness,” says Dr. Logan. “Mindfulness is the bridge between everything, whether it’s exercise benefits, better cognition, healthy eating. Staying in the here and now is the essence of mindfulness. Nature facilitates mindfulness.”
• Find your natural environment wherever possible. “It was a bit funny that researchers for the shirin-yoku studies literally had to take a high-speed train to get to the rural environments they used,” chuckles Dr. Logan. “But nevertheless, most of us can still access green space. Most of our better cities still have green space. New York has Central Park; Vancouver has Stanley Park. Find your green space.”
• Get involved and advocate for green spaces. “This research that’s emerging should indicate to all of us that we should be taking this extremely seriously,” says Dr. Logan. “It’s not a hippie message at all. As our cities expand, we need to preserve and hold on to these natural spaces. It’s a very important message for urban dwellers — maybe even more important for them, because they’re swimming in this sea of information and stimulation.” Whether it’s planting a small garden or getting active in your community in favour of bike paths and parks, see what you can do to pitch in around you and create green space.
• Pass it on. “Younger generations will not be aware of what once was. If you don’t know, you can’t appreciate the depths of it. You’ll never have a handle on what the benefits of nature could be. That’s a very dangerous place to go.” So take your kids outside with you. Go hiking, camping, and on other outdoor adventures as a family. Leave the Nintendo and laptop at home.
• Go for the real thing instead of shortcuts. ”Virtual nature is nice but it really doesn’t work very well,” says Dr. Logan. “It’s the same as the 1950s or ’60s idea of exercise or a full meal in a pill.” So get outside — really get outside. And see if you can finagle a window in your office.
• Don’t wait for the “perfect time” or the “perfect place”. Be brave about the weather — remember, as the farmers say, “There’s no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” Outside is just a door or two away.
• Whatever you can do, do it. A 5-min walk at lunch. A bike ride to work. A hike on the weekend. Surfing. Playing catch in the park. A swim in the lake. A winter cross-country ski trip. Sitting in the backyard under a tree. Whatever you can do, just get outside. Your ancient brain and body will thank you.

 

Further reading

Logan, Alan.Your Brain on Nature: The Science of Nature’s Influence on Your Health, Happiness and Vitality.

Your Brain on Nature interview at DavidSuzuki.org

In Our Nature at TheDailyBeast.com

Kahn, Peter, et al. The human relation with nature and technological nature. Current Directions in Psychological Science 18 no.1 (February 2009): 37-42.

Shin WS,, et al. Forest experience and psychological health benefits: the state of the art and future prospect in Korea. Environ Health Prev Med. 2010 Jan;15(1):38-47. Epub 2009 Oct 21.

Tsunetsugu, Yuko, et al. Trends in research related to “Shinrin-yoku” (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing) in Japan. Environ Health Prev Med. 2010 January; 15(1): 27–37.

Have you ever wondered why you need to sleep?

Adequate sleep

Apr 19, 2012 8:42 AM

Sleep is as crucial for optimal health just as exercise and nutrition are. Quality of sleep can have an impact on your mental alertness, emotional state and your energy levels.

Sleep is an anabolic state, the mind and the body’s opportunity to grow, repair and rebuild. To do this important optimal health task, we need to temporarily pull back from the outside world and activity.

Health benefits of adequate sleep

Healthy Heart Function: In a 2010 study, those who slept fewer than 6 hours per night had higher levels of an inflammatory marker called C reactive protein, which has been linked to heart disease.

• Protection against cancers: Researchers have found that women who work night shift have higher levels of breast cancer.
• Weight Management: A good nights sleep reduces the hormone grehlin which tells you to eat and increases leptin which reduces appetite. A University of Chicago study found that adequate sleep had no effect on their groups total weight loss but the well rested group lost 56% of their weight as body fat and the sleep deprived lost more muscle mass.
• Enhanced mental and physical performance.
  
  During sleep our brains electrical activity slows. We go from daydream alpha waves, to theta, right down to slow delta waves which take us to the deepest and most restorative stages of sleep. Have you ever seen your cat or dogs eyes moving rapidly and twitching in their sleep? 20 – 25% of our sleep time is spent in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. During this time vivid dreaming occurs which is considered to have psychological health benefits.
  
  We all operate on a circadian cycles (circadian = biological cycles recurring at approximately 24 hour intervals). This internal ‘clock’ is built in but can be adjusted by environmental factors. The most important of these environmental factors is daylight. Our master internal clock is located in a group of cells in the hypothalamus in the brain. When light hits the eye, these cells send a message to another gland in the brain called the pineal gland. This shuts down production of our sleep hormone, melatonin. When light levels are low, melatonin production is increased and we become drowsy.
  
  This natural cycle can become interrupted if you are under stress or depressed, have irregular sleep patterns, do shift work or travel to different time zones.
  
  Tips for optimal sleep
• Have the same sleep time every night – preferably after 9pm when Melatonin production starts and before midnight.
• B group vitamins, Calcium and Magnesium and Tryptophan from protein are important nutrients to help with healthy sleep. Some foods have small amounts of melatonin including bananas, cherries, grapes, rice, olive oil, wine and beer.
• 30 minutes before bedtime sit in a semi darkened room – no lights, screens etc and listen to some relaxing music or do a relaxation exercise.
• Remove unnecessary artificial light from your bedroom including alarm clock lights and computer and TV screens and keep your room cool.
• Avoid stimulants including tea and coffee from mid afternoon. Caffeine blocks the action of adenosine, which contributes to sleepiness. Avoid vigorous exercise later in the day.

• If you have trouble getting to sleep, are under stress or have a racing mind try this exercise:

1. Lie on your back in bed. Breathe deeply into your abdomen so that your belly button rises and falls as you inhale and exhale. Do this for 2-3 minutes then:
2. Inhale, and as you exhale, in your mind repeat the word ‘relax’ and relax every muscle in your feet
3. Inhale again and as you exhale repeat the word ‘relax’ and relax every muscle in your calves
4. Continue this exercise relaxing every body part until you reach your head or until you are asleep.
5. Repeat this exercise every night before sleep or if you wake up during the night. It will help your body to switch from ‘fight or flight’ mode to a ‘rest and digest’ state. This exercise is adapted from a book by Herbert Benson called ‘The Relaxation Response'.

References

Sleep and Circadium Rhythm Disorders http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/circadium-rhythm-disorders-cause. 2010 December, I(3):e62

University of Chicago Medical Centre (2010, October 4). Sleep loss limits fat loss. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 11, 2012 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101004211637.htm

Benson Herbert. The Relaxation Response. Harper Collins. 1975. ISBN 978 -0688029555
Monsees GM, Kraft P, Hankinson SE, Hunter DJ, Schernhammer ES. Circadium genes and breast cancer susceptibility in rotating shift workers. Int J Cancer. 2012 Apr 2.

Mazzotti DR; Guindalini C; Pellegrino R; Barrueco KF; Santos-Silva R; Bittencourt LRA; Tufik S Effects of the adenosine deaminase polymorphism and caffeine intake on sleep parameters in a large population sample. SLEEP 2011;34(3):399-402.

Schiza SE, Mermigkis C, Panagiotis P, Bouloukaki I, Kallergis E, Tzanakis N, Tzortazki E, Vlachaki E, Siafakas WM. c - reactive protein evolution in obstructive sleep apnoea patients under CPAP therapy. Eur J Clin Invest 2010 Nov;40(11): 968-75

Sharad Taheri, Ling Lin, Diane Austin, Terry Young, Emmanuel Mignot. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced Leptin, elevated Grehlin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med. 2004 December, I(3):e62