I just realized after writing that last post that we have pretty much debunked the idea that a pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day.

Realistically, if we include the metabolic cost of keeping the muscle alive, AND the cost of moving that extra weight around, we see that a pound of muscle really helps you burn an optimistic 5 extra calories per day.

Now the point of this post isn’t to downplay the importance of resistance training or even building muscle. As there is an entirely different way to look at this phenomena.

While adding 10 pounds of muscle only increases your daily calorie burning by about 50 Calories (again, just an estimate) it will do wonders for the way your body looks. So there is still a benefit to adding muscle.

And while I like the idea of adding muscle, I think the difference becomes really significant when we start talking about LOSING muscle.

As we age we become less active. This isn’t unavoidable, but seems to be a relatively excepted fact.

If we are less active and using our muscles less, they will shrink (use it or lose it applies to just about everything within your body, from intelligence to muscle mass)

If you had 155 pounds of LBM while you were in your thirties, but have 130 pounds of LBM in your sixties, that missing 25 pounds can create quite the difference.

Just by HAVING less muscle you would be using 125 less calories per day, not to mention the fact that you are less active (the reason you lost the muscle in the first place).

So bottom line – Weight training and building/maintaining muscle are NOT the metabolism boosting miracle they have been made out to be, but they are still a VITAL part of your weight loss plan.

Eat less and maybe eat less often. Lift more and move more often. This is a pretty effective recipe for weight loss success.

BP

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Depending on the time of day, who measures, my mood, and who’s asking I will tell you that my height is anywhere between 5′10 and 5′11

Truthfully, I think 5′10″ is almost bang-on correct…but who doesn’t want to be a little taller.

Good things happen to the tall people.

Better jobs, Better at sports, girls tend to like taller guys (personal observation, plus its the only way I can rationalize Jeff Goldbloom ability to get acting roles), and guys tend to like tall girls (America’s Next Top Model)

I’m stereotyping of course…but you get the idea

And to rub it in even more, taller people get to eat more without gaining fat.

BREAKING NEWS! ==> The absolute best way to boost your metabolism is to grow 4 inches!

Your metabolic rate is tied very closely to your lean body  mass. Forget the “boost your metabolism wth food” stories – it is the activity of your internal organs and muscles that largely dictate how many calories you burn in a day.

AND, your lean body mass is most closely related to your height.

From the experiments I did back when I had an Exercise Physiology lab at my disposal I found that for guys roughly around 6 feet in height, for every inch gained or lost, lean body mass changed by approximately 7 pounds.

So for roughly the same body type a 6′1″ guy will have about 7 more pounds of lean body mass than a 6′0″ guy.

And this fact plays a big role in how much you can eat!

OK, example time…

Let’s start with a 175 pound man with 12% body fat..thus having around 154 pounds of Lean body mass.

Using the Katch and McArdle formula for estimating resting metabolic rate [370 X (21.6 X LBM)] we can get a rough estimate of this persons resting metabolic rate.

When we plug these numbers into the above formula we get a resting metabolic rate of 1,882 Calories in a 24 hour period.

Add in an activity factor of 1.2 for daily activity (moving around) and we can estimate that a 175 pound man would need about 2,258 Calories to maintain his current weight at his current activity level.

Now, take that same man, same body type and make him 6′2″ and use my equation of an extra 6.6 pounds of lean body mass per inch and you get a 205 pound man with 12% body fat and 180 pounds Lean Body Mass.

Using the same formula we find that this new 6′2″ man has a resting metabolic rate of 2,141.2 Calories and using the same activity factor would need about 2,570 Calories to maintain his current weight at his current activity level.

Bottom line, just by being tall, the 6′2″ man gets to eat an extra 310 Calories per day.

And this example was for a modest 4 inches.

If anything this should certainly make a 5′2″ women feel a little better about her 5′10″ friend who can ‘eat what ever she wants and still stay thin’

It’s not fair, but the simple truth is, your height does play a role in how much you can, or can’t eat and still stay lean.

(just another reason to hate your tall friends)

BP

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

I am now successfully 10 days in to being a father of two.

It is VERY different from being a father of one..that’s for sure.

These last 9 days have been incredible.

Very little sleep. Only 1 workout session (a very quick shoulders and squats workout), and almost 6,000 calories per day!

Yep, 6,000.

According to the USDA food database and the nutrition charts of Starbucks, Second Cup and Subway I’ve been eating almost 6,000 calories a day and almost 60% of these calories were from refined carbs.

Not good – even by my liberal eating standards.

The result wasn’t pretty either.

Ever since I started fasting Eat Stop Eat style I’ve maintained a weight right around my goal of 175 pounds (down from 190-200)

I’m typically between 172 and 177 depending on the day (fasted weight).

Two days before my son was born I weighed in at exactly 175.

Sunday at 2 PM I weighed in at 181 pounds.

Even worse…I felt..fat. Not even fat. I felt squishy.

On Sunday I started my first fast in 10 days at exactly 2 PM.

By 11 PM I weighted 179 pounds.

By 6 AM this morning I was 177 pounds.

At 1:33 (just before finishing my fast) I was 175.7 pounds.

So what gives?  Is Eat Stop Eat style fasting some sort of miracle fat loss cure?

Not in the slightest.

Fasting is really effective for weight loss, but it’s no miracle.

The truth is almost all of the weight I gained was water weight, most likely due to the higher than normal refined sugar intake, the lack of sleep, and the overall over-eating.

The rest of the weight was simply the weight of the food in my system.

If you eat 1 pound of ANYTHING you have added 1 pound of mass to your body (bread, butter, bricks, or lego blocks..it doesn’t matter..1 pound consumed is 1 pound added)…so if you do what I did and spend 8 days in the fed state..eating food at a much faster rate then you can get rid of it, you are bound to add some ‘matter’ weight.

The last little bit..yep, that was probably fat (there is no such thing as a free lunch…)

The other part of this truth is two fold:

1) We really have NO IDEA how many calories we are eating. I did my best to track my calorie intake and averaged around 6,000 Calorie a day. Realistically according to research this probably means I ate ANYWHERE between 4,200 and 7,800 Calories!

Judging by my weight gain, I’m guessing it was MUCH closer to 4,000 then it was 6,000.

2) We also really have NO IDEA how much we weigh. Our weights fluctuate from day to day..it is much more accurate to give a weight range then it is to give a precise weight. This is why it’s important not to freak out if you mysteriously gain 1 or 2 pounds…

These two facts make estimating and trying to rationalize weight gain an almost ludicrous idea.

You can measure and record as much as you like, but there will be  time when it simply won’t make sense. This isn’t because your bad at math. It’s because every number you are working off of is an estimate!

So the point of this rather long post is simple -

There’s more to your weight then fat and muscle, so if you see 2-3 pounds changes, don’t freak out.

AND, even though there is no such thing as a free lunch,(overeating  will almost always lead to some sort of weight gain), at least we can rest a little easier knowing that ALL of the weight isn’t pure fat.

That being said, if your goal is long lasting weight loss success and you catch yourself in a bad eating downward spiral, don’t try to rationalize your eating to yourself, simply realize what is going on and try your best to “right ship” as soon as possible.

BP

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

It’s been a whirlwind of activity in my life lately.

(Brier meeting her little brother Ro Wilder Pilon)

My wife delivered our second child (baby boy) on Saturday…so life has been busy (but busy is good).

And this leads me to the point of this post.

We’re all busy, and when life gets busy, there is nothing worse than wasted time.

And when it comes to weight loss success, exercise may actually be a WASTE of your time.

Crazy right?

And I know it’s super popular right now to pick on ‘long slow boring cardio’ but that’s not the point of this email -   I’m talking about most forms of exercise!

A recent research trial examined the relationship between exercise and our populations weight gain, and came to the startling conclusion that:

“There is no evidence that a marked reduction in physical activity  has been a contributor to this epidemic in the United States,”

“over the last couple of decades virtually all of our weight gain can be explained by an increase in energy intake.”

I know this sounds really counter intuitive, but consider the following:

Once you get passed a certain point, it may be that the effects  of exercise have been largely exaggerated.

Example:

A friend of mine just competed a marathon.

Now, she wasn’t running for weight loss (she’s a full blown competitive runner), but if she were, she would probably find the following information down-right depressing:

She weighs 120 pounds. She ran 42.5 Kilometers (it took 3.5 hours).

Using these numbers we know that she burned roughly 2300 Calories.

Since a pound of fat contains roughly 3,500 available calories in the form of fat, and assuming she was burning 100% fat (which is virtually impossible) Then that marathon run for 3.5 hours burned less than 2/3 of a pound of body fat!

Running for 3.5 hours straight, covering 42.5 kilometers (over 26 miles) and not even a pound of fat lost.

This is not including the gels and sports drinks she probably consumed during the race!

With the right amount of in-race calories, you could actually finish an entire marathon without putting a dent in your body fat at all!

And this doesn’t just apply to marathons. If you spread those 26 miles over a week, and ran almost 4 miles EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK,  you still would not have burned off even one pound of body fat.

Bottom line – for the vast majority of us, it’s not that we are exercising to little, it’s that we are simply eating more than we need to.

Now, please do me a favor and read that last line again.

I am certainly NOT saying that exercise doesn’t work, or that it doesn’t burn calories.

I am simply saying that for most of us, diet is the answer.

If you’re life is already busy, then for all intents and purposes, it is easier to eat less than it is to add in two and a half MORE hours of walking EVERYDAY. If you are already weight training 4 days a week, it may not make sense to add in 2 more days of training.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing high intensity training, intervals, hill sprints..fancy shmancy bodyweight circuits you name it, it’s a waste of your time (for weight loss) if you are eating more than you need to!

(Of course if you are already eating in a calorie deficit these things will help, just not as much as we’ve been told – or more correctly, sold).

Eat for weight loss. Exercise to build or maintain muscle mass. Stay active by doing activities you enjoy doing. If you have a sport, then train to be better at the sport but don’t expect them to create stunning transformations in the way your body looks – not without the proper diet.

There are a lot of benefits that come from exercise, (especially when that exercise builds muscle and is extremely time efficient) however the key to weight loss success will always be your diet.

If you are looking for weight loss success then as always I recommend Eat Stop Eat as an easy and effective way to lose weight, but any diet will do as long as it is easy, creates a caloric deficit and fits your lifestyle.

I hope this helps free up some of your time!

BP

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

How do I get rid of muscle?

It’s an odd question I know, and one I have tackled before, but it seems people are still confused about what makes them gain and lose muscle.

We all know that people who are bedridden and on a low calorie diet lose muscle.

When I first starting writing Eat Stop Eat, and was running the idea past several dietitians for input, they all brought up stories of muscle loss in their patients who were bedridden and on a low calorie diet.

And since I am constantly saying that simple caloric restriction does NOT cause you to lose muscle if you are working out, then that leaves being ‘bedridden’ (or ‘disuse’ as they say in research) as the cause of muscle loss.

And this is exactly what research suggests as well.

Ever break your arm and have to wear a cast, or know someone who did?

Do you remember how skinny that arm was when the cast finally came off?

The arm in the cast got the EXACT same nutrition as the arm that wasn’t in the cast. The only change was in the amount that the muscles were used.

In fact, ‘casting’ is so effective at causing muscle loss that it has been used in research to study something called ‘disuse atrophy’ or muscle loss from lack of use.

In a study conducted at the University of Nottingham, 22 male and female studies had casts put on their right leg for two weeks. Their diets didn’t change, yet after only two weeks the cross sectional area of their quadriceps (the big muscles in your thigh) decreased by 10%.

NO CHANGE IN DIET…but the muscle still decreases in size by 10%.

And the decrease was across ALL muscle fiber types. From slow twitch to fast twitch, they all decreased in diameter when they were not being used.

In other words – Your muscles are not ’storage units’ like fat cells, they are contractile units.

So while your fat cells respond to what (or more correctly- how much) you eat by storing or releasing energy in the form of fat. Muscle responds to stress and challenge.

Your muscles will always try to match the challenge that is placed on them.

No challenge = no increase in muscle size.

No challenge for a long enough time = decreases in muscle size.

This is why as long as you are working out, and meeting some sort of caloric minimum (studies have gone as low as 80 grams of protein and 800 Kcals a day for several weeks), you won’t lose muscle.

However, if you don’t use the muscle, then it really doesn’t matter what you are eating, the muscle is going to shrink.

Bottom Line – Forget those people who push multiple meals and protein at every meal as the secret to ‘not losing muscle’ the best way to prevent yourself from losing muscle is to exercise that muscle.

Or, if you are trying to lose muscle (not something I suggest) simple stop using it.

BP

Twitter This

Usuario: Password:

Here is an interesting comment that was left on this blog:

Brad, I believe that your diet, or better yet lifestyle type way of eating will really change peoples lives and even mine for the better. I fully understand the concepts that you present but one thing I do not understand – You say that besides our 1 to 2 days of fasting that you want us to eat “NORMAL”. The problem is that most people do not understand what “NORMAL” is. Heck I don’t even know what NORMAL eating is. WHAT IS NORMAL EATING?

Great point… so here we go.

Eating “normal” is eating responsibly (for people who are trying to lose weight).

There is NO ‘normal’ or ‘perfect’ way to eat for weight loss.

This is the great fallacy behind most diet books.

The fact is calorie restriction (or more correctly a calorie deficit compared to the current amount of calories you are eating) causes weight loss.

ANY diet book or diet style that claims they have the secret ANSWER or that their way is the ‘only way that works’ are INSTANTLY proven wrong by the millions of people who have successfully lost weight by using alternative methods.

For instance, if I were to say that the Eat Stop Eat style of fasting is the ONLY way to lose weight I should INSTANTLY lose all credibility (Since it is entirely possible to lose weight without following the Eat Stop Eat style of fasting)

The point I am trying to make is that there is NO such thing as an all encompassing way to define eating “normal”. This is why I don’t ever attempt to define what is “normal eating” or what a ‘normal diet’ is.

What is a normal diet to someone who lives in Cairo Egypt would be very “not normal” to some one who lives in Pittsburgh.

Normal is defined by your ancestry, your geography how you were raised and your personal preferences AND your goals…you simply cannot define it.

Eating responsibly is much easier to define.

Simply put, eating responsibly is eating the AMOUNT of food necessary to reach your goal.

Eating responsibly is also a mindset. It is realizing that on many occasions you are going to want to eat more food than you need to.

If your goal is to lose weight then eating responsibly means recognizing when you are eating too much and either A) making the decision to stop eating or B) accepting the fact that at that time you are going to eat more and you will deal with the results later.

There is no free pass to weight loss.

And, despite what some people say, you simply cannot eat as much as you want and still lose weight as long as you take supplement X or follow diet Y or exercise routine Z.

Even getting the fat cut right off your body in a surgical procedure still does not constitute permanent weight loss. (Yes you can eat enough food to put that weight right back on! …the remaining fat cells can still expand and fill up with fat if you continue to wolf back massive amounts of calories after the surgery)

So the bottom line is that there is no such thing as “eating normal”, there is only “eating normally for YOU”.

If the amount of food you normally eat is the amount of food it takes to maintain your current weight at your current activity level (so assuming that you are not currently gaining or losing weight), then adding in one or two fasts without changing anything else, will cause you to lose weight. End of story.

So ONE method (but certainly not THE ONLY method) to lose weight is to eat normally (for you) and then add in one or two Eat Stop Eat fasts per week.

I hope this helps clarify a pretty ‘murky’ topic.

BP

Twitter This

Usuario: Password: