Fitness Thread

@Crockett — you might be interested in the work by Jeff Volek and Stephen Phinney on low carb performance. They have literally “written the book” on performance and endurance for athletes.

Nice work on the weights. 12 reps at 245 is impressive.

The Art and Science of Low Carb (Volek & Phinney book)



 
Publication of the 1980 U.S. Dietary Guidelines and the increase in obesity.

1980-guidelines.jpg
 
American Diabetes Association Facebook page rocked by comments from low-carbers who know that standard low-fat dietary advice is a failure.

facebook.com/AmericanDiabetesAssociation/posts/10153140618374033

A few of the comments:

All these people with normal blood sugars here - they are all doing the same thing. They are eating healthy protein foods and veggies and eschewing the grains, the sweet foods - cookies, crackers, the sweet fruits. They are all doing the opposite of what you suggest. They applaud Dr. Bernstein for saving their and/or their childrens lives.

I was termed a Brittle Diabetic following ADA diet. Went on LCHF, and never see lows or at the highest maybe 150 sometimes. It gave me my life back.

Reading these posts, I feel compelled to assert that the people who have close to normal blood sugars did not achieve them by following the ADA guidelines of 45-60g of carbs per meal.

Just under 80, and I've been flatlined almost all day. No hypo's, no hyper's. Low carb diet. ADA.. You're doing it wrong and harming people who have diabetes! Carbohydrate restriction is the only way to normal, non-diabetic blood sugars and A1c's and a complication-free life!

Reversed my pre-diabetes with LCHF. This is my blood glucose with a typical LCHF meal. ;). Without LCHF, I would now be Type 2 and on medication not only for diabetes, but for hypertension and high cholesterol as well. LCHF reversed all of these conditions for me.

98 was this morning's fasting blood sugar. I eat a low carb healthy fat diet. Yesterday I had 16 carbs. If I were to eat the number of carbs recommended by the ADA, my blood sugar would be out of control.

Thanks to a low carb diet, no sugars, no grains, no processed foods, and eating healthy fats, my A1c went from 9.8 in August 2014 to 5.1 in August 2015.

I follow Dr Bernstein who recommends low carbohydrate eating, as we as diabetics are carb intolerant. Makes sense!! So my blood sugars stay even and in the 90's. I couldn't sustain those numbers following ADA guidelines.

My fasting glucose is 81 because I avoid "healthy" grains and sugar. I eat high fat everything and plenty of salt. I'm much healthier now than I have ever been my entire life. If I ate the way you say to eat I would be in a wheelchair and on insulin like many of my friends.
 
Cholesterol and Heart Disease

It appears that the decades-old dogma about cholesterol’s impact on heart disease is not as clear as once thought.

Article: Evacetrapib Fails to Reduce Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events

Despite lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL), known as "bad" cholesterol, while markedly increasing levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol, a large clinical trial to investigate the cholesterol drug evacetrapib was discontinued early after a preliminary analysis showed it did not reduce rates of major adverse cardiovascular events.

The favorable effects on cholesterol did not translate into any reduction in the study's primary endpoint: the amount of time until cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke, coronary artery bypass surgery or hospitalization for chest pain due to unstable angina, a restriction in the flow of blood through the heart's arteries.

“Here we've got an agent that more than doubles the levels of good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol and yet has no effect on clinical events,” said Stephen Nicholls, M.B.B.S, Ph.D., a professor at Australia's University of Adelaide, cardiologist at Royal Adelaide Hospital and the study's lead author. “We were disappointed and surprised by the results.”
 
Dionysus said:
My 15 year old son started back on the ketogenic (low carb) diet two weeks ago today. He's a big kid, about 6-1. The first week he lost 8 pounds, from 233 to 225. This morning he weighed in at 220, another 5 pounds in his second week.

13 pounds in two weeks.
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Gotta update this.

My son weighed in at 207 today — down 26 pounds since June 20. He feels so great too, tons of energy. Dad is happy for him.
 
LonghornCatholic said:
Wow, that is impressive. I'm struggling to loose a mere 5 lbs, and he lost 26?!?
Nice :hookem:
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We check his weight every Monday morning and enter it into a spreadsheet for tracking.

He weighed in at 202 this morning, down 31 lbs in nine weeks — 5 lbs just in this past week eating low carb. It’s really working well for him.

cam-weight.png
 
I'm riding in the Hotter't Hell race in Wichita Falls Saturday. I need some sort of endurance test every now and again for motivational purposes. As far as nutrition, I haven't been able to make the low carb thing work on days when I ride more than 15 miles. On the morning of the race, I'm taking in hash browns and a biscuit with my sausage and eggs a couple of hours before the race, then I'll eat bananas and oranges immediately before and during the race. When I leave out the starches, I feel depleted of energy after an hour or so of hard aerobic activity. My body doesn't like protein bars when I'm riding hard.
 
I had never clicked on the button "quackenbush" before and I'm glad I did. I seen this topic and had to contribute. I'm a national fitness competitor in Male Physique and I own a franchised fitness gym. So this is probably the one area that I am an expert in. I love hearing success stories. Great job guys.
 
35, do you mind sharing your thoughts and tips on weight-loss plateau? I've always been fit but in the last year I've put on 8 unwanted lbs. I can't shake it off as easily as I once could and am stuck at minus 5. I run dailey and eat next to nothing, so not sure what to do. I know it's unhealthy to keep depriving myself, so any help you can offer to help me shed these 3 lbs is appreciated.
 
Finished the Hotter'n'Hel 50 in Wichita Falls yestearday. I 'm 15 pounds lighter and trained better than I did in 2013, so I finished feeling great with energy to enjoy the festivities and go over to the Falls for some photos. I've changed my approach to pre-race nutrition. I used to eat light the day before and just light protein and carbs the morning of. I felt hungry and lack of available calories sapped my energy. You won't find "experts" to agree, but I like lots of food before lots of exertion. I ate pizza and barbecue the day before and on race morning I ate two sausage biscuits and some hash browns a couple of hours before the ride. During the race I ate fruit at three of the rest stops and drank powerade. I don't usually eat many carbs, excluding fruit and veggies, but on days when I'm doing four plus hours of aerobic exercise ... I eat like a bear. Lots of all kinds of calories. I no longer eschew fat calories. Now, I am going to have to eat less calories to get to a new performance level. Need to drop 30 more pounds.
 
Crockett said:
Finished the Hotter'n'Hel 50 in Wichita Falls yestearday. I 'm 15 pounds lighter and trained better than I did in 2013, so I finished feeling great with energy to enjoy the festivities and go over to the Falls for some photos.
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Excellent! Congrats on completing that.
 
Protein is our friend, carbs are our enemy - complex carbs less so. Complex carbs like bananas are good due to the rich potassium levels... but of course in moderation. The older we are, unless there is a high endurance activity involved, carbs just add on the lbs.
 
WorsterMan said:
Protein is our friend, carbs are our enemy - complex carbs less so. Complex carbs like bananas are good due to the rich potassium levels... but of course in moderation. The older we are, unless there is a high endurance activity involved, carbs just add on the lbs.
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True. And I would add: fat is our friend.

This sounds counterintuitive because of what we have always been told about fat (makes you fat, causes heart disease) but neither of those is true. Our national dietary guidelines have been a colossal failure because of this one error.
 
WorsterMan said:
Protein is our friend, carbs are our enemy - complex carbs less so. Complex carbs like bananas are good due to the rich potassium levels... but of course in moderation. The older we are, unless there is a high endurance activity involved, carbs just add on the lbs.
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I hate this idea so much. Not all carbs are created equally, that much is true, but carbs are not the enemy, you just have to use them.
 
If I may go a step further, Walking...? Use them as tools for specific purposes. Some are better than others and so forth. Your body uses carbs and needs carbs to a certain point at which time it converts to fat. Use up the carbs you need as fuel for output and you'll be fine. Don't deprive your body of carbs especially all at once. It'll shock your body and you will become lethargic, more than you may be now.

I would love to see a list of nutritionists that the group approves of that won't go by federal guidelines and actually help you live a better and longer life with sensible menu and diet suggestions. Diet being what you eat daily and not what some do two months before beach season or a reunion. Those diets suck and are part of the problem.
 
In my email I found my official time and thumbnail photos of me "racing" in Wichita Falls. My official time for 50 miles was 4:06:38, middle of the pack for men my age (45 out of 90). Not too bad for a 260 pound guy riding a hybrid.

Prepping was highly motivational. The pictures, should I choose to buy and display them, will prove highly motivational as well. Nothing like seeing myself in tight cycling gear to make losing weight a priority.
 
LonghornCatholic said:
I run dailey and eat next to nothing, so not sure what to do.
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Eating next to nothing is one of the problems. The body is very smart and tries to take care of you. So think of it like this: when you don't eat enough it sends a signal to your body to slow your metabolism down. Why? Because your body thinks you're going into starvation mode and it slows way down to preserve. What it does then is stores in areas that we don't want while losing muscle mass. It's actually muscle that helps speed your metabolism up. So when your metabolism speeds up it helps burn body fat.

In regard to Carbs. Let's keep it simple. There are good carbs and there are bad carbs. Rice, sweet potatoes, oat meal are just some of the good carbs. Now always keep this philosophy and trust the process and you'll be okay. "Protein builds muscle, Carbs retain the muscle." If you build and retain then you speed up your metabolism. You need to keep up your conditioning as well. Let's say your goal is to eat 2,000 calories a day without any cardio. I'd rather you eat 2,500 cals and then burn 500 cals on a cardio machine to net that 2,000. Because you just spared up more room to have more nutrients go through your body. The diet is the most important, but you have to have weights and the conditioning to take it to another level. Remember, the volume of food you eat that's health can look like double the volume of unhealthy food. Also keep track of your time between meals. If you start noticing that you're hungry after two hours when what's normal for you is 3 hours and your eating a normal size meal then you will know your metabolism is kicking in at a higher rate for you. I eat between 7 to 10 meals a day every 1 1/2 at around 4500 calories and i'm starving before that 1 1/2 hour gets here. I only weigh 190lbs and I'm normally between 5 to 10% body fat (depending if I'm in the off-season or not). But most people that ask me my weight usually think I'm around the 210 lb mark. There is a lot to it but this was an overall version. Just be consistent and disciplined knowing that the process will work over time. Make it a lifestyle and it just becomes normal for you.
 
There are different approaches that will work for different people. I have been eating a low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet (about 30g - 75g carbs per day) for three years and have never felt so good. Don’t know my body fat % but it is low. As soon as I started the higher fat approach I quickly lost 10 pounds of belly fat. That’s because dietary fat does not stimulate an insulin response.
I35 said:
There are good carbs and there are bad carbs. Rice, sweet potatoes, oat meal are just some of the good carbs.
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All carbohydrates (sugars, starches, grains) elevate glucose levels in the blood, which triggers insulin secretion. If you are very active this is not a problem because you are burning the glucose for energy. If you are not active, chronically high insulin levels will promote fat retention. Among other things that insulin does, it is the fat storage hormone.
I35 said:
I eat between 7 to 10 meals a day
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Since I changed my diet to LCHF I never eat more than twice a day, sometimes just one big meal. The greater satiety from higher fat foods keeps hunger to a minimum.

In my opinion, the thing to focus on with carbs is two-fold: (1) the quality of the carbohydrate content, i.e., carbs from a sweet potato with lots of fiber is better than quickly-digestible carbs from a sugary drink; and (2) the glycemic index (GI) of the food — meaning how much does it spike glucose levels. For example, white rice has a higher GI than brown rice. I like to pay attention to those factors with my limited carb intake.
 
I35 said:
Eating next to nothing is one of the problems. The body is very smart and tries to take care of you. So think of it like this: when you don't eat enough it sends a signal to your body to slow your metabolism down. Why? Because your body thinks you're going into starvation mode and it slows way down to preserve.
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Meant to quote this as well, it’s a great point.

One weight loss suggestion many people have been given is to “eat less and exercise more.” But what happens when you eat less? You’re hungry. What happens when you exercise? More hunger. So it’s unsustainable because you’re hungry all the time, your metabolism has slowed down, and you have no energy.
 
About 3 years ago I started my fitness journey and lost 50 lbs. I've kept it off for over a year now, but I'm feeling the urge to lose more. I never thought I would look the way that I do now, but now that I'm here I want to take it to the next level. I enjoy being very physically active, and I've definitely slacked off on my dieting. While I'm glad that my lifestyle affords me the ability to eat pretty freely and not gain weight, I'm ready to look more like an elite athlete.

I'm just planning on keeping track of my intakes through MFP, and altering my macros (I'm usually 50/25/25 of carbs/protein/fat, but I was planning on changing to 40/30/30). @I35 can you take a look at a typical day and tell me what you notice either good or bad? I'm so big on fruits and usually eat them to my heart's content, but I'm going to try and limit them to just the morning.

Breakfast (#s are calories, carbs, fat, protein, sodium, sugar)
Heb quick oats - Oatmeal, 0.5 cup 150 27 3 5 0 1
Strawberries - Raw, 0.5 cup, halves 24 6 0 1 1 4
Heb - Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, 1 cup 40 2 3 1 180 0
Central Market Heb - Whey Protein Powder - Natural Chocolate Flavor, 1.5 Heaping Scoop (24 g) 143 3 2 27 90 1
total: 357 38 8 34 271 6


Snack #1- nothing planned yet, any advice?

Lunch
HEB Central Market Organics - Baby Spinach, 113.33 g 27 4 0 3 93 1
Heb Natural - Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, 140 g 150 0 1 33 94 0
Avocados - Raw, 0.25 cup, cubes 60 3 5 1 3 0
Dannon - Light & Fit Toasted Coconut, 1 cup 80 9 0 12 45 7
Heb Organics Italian Salad Dressing - Salad Dressing, 1 tbsp 50 0 6 0 125 0
total: 367 16 12 49 360 8

Snack #2
Think Thin - 60g 1 Bar - Brownie Crunch, 1 bar (60g) 230 23 8 20 210 0
total: 230 23 8 20 210 0

Dinner
Salmon, 6 oz. 150 3 2 32 360 0
Rice, brown, medium-grain, cooked, 1 cup 218 46 2 5 2 0
Steamed Green Beans - Steamed Green Beans, 1.5 cup 66 15 1 5 6 0
total: 434 64 5 42 368 0


Totals 1,388 141 33 145 1,209 14
Your Daily Goal 1,447 180 40 91 2,300 52
Remaining 59 39 7 -54 1,091 38

That daily goal of 1,447 calories is set at my current BMR according to In Body testing. I'm definitely not scared to go above that since I work out at least 5 days a week and I'm a teacher so I'm on my feet all day. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Currently I'm just kind of eating as I please (within reason), but not tracking anything at all. I'd love to have some pointers!
 
Good article in today’s New York Times re bariatric surgery for weight loss.

Before You Spend $26,000 on Weight-Loss Surgery, Do This

How stupid is it that we have doctors cutting on healthy organs to solve a problem that is largely a function of diet. The American Diabetes Association will not tell you this because it is as corrupt as the FDA.

Excerpts from the article:

It is nonsensical that we’re expected to prescribe these techniques to our patients while the medical guidelines don’t include another better, safer and far cheaper method: a diet low in carbohydrates.

Once a fad diet, the safety and efficacy of the low-carb diet have now been verified in more than 40 clinical trials on thousands of subjects. Given that the government projects that one in three Americans (and one in two of those of Hispanic origin) will be given a diagnosis of diabetes by 2050, it’s time to give this diet a closer look.

When someone has diabetes, he can no longer produce sufficient insulin to process glucose (sugar) in the blood. To lower glucose levels, diabetics need to increase insulin, either by taking medication that increases their own endogenous production or by injecting insulin directly. A patient with diabetes can be on four or five different medications to control blood glucose, with an annual price tag of thousands of dollars.

Yet there’s another, more effective way to lower glucose levels: Eat less of it.
 
Tracking my 15 year old son’s progress, we weigh him every Monday.

He is down 41 lbs since June 20. From 233 to 192 in 13 weeks.

cam-weight.jpg
 
LonghornCatholic said:
Wow, that is very impressive. Tremendous discipline for a young lad. He'll have that the rest of his life, I'm sure.
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I’m really proud of him. He was getting heavy and eating a lot of junk, and just got tired of how he looked and felt. He basically just eats meat and a few low carb veggies, with the occasional rice or potatoes. His transformation has been pretty remarkable to see, and he feels great.
 
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