No story today, just a picture….

This may look like the line up for a bodybuilding supplement expo…

But it’s not.

Instead, it’s the sponsorship list for an upcoming scientific conference on sports nutrition.

I’m not commenting or passing judgment…because, quite frankly, where else is sponsorship money supposed to come from?

It’s more just something I want you to consider.

BP

But, I really wanted to write a post about diet books today, and I had a point that I REALLY wanted to share with you, but I simply did not have  enough time to write a nice wordy post…so I quickly jotted some notes down and realized that they had almost formed some sort of really poor  haiku.

…so smiled and had some fun with it.

I hope you like it.

The thing with Diet Books -

They all have to have a catch

This part is what sells.

Eat less and move more

The truth with no hook, no catch.

No secret science.

Hormones and Enzymes

Make for great diet book titles

but the truth remains -

Eat less and move more.

BP

Even now, I’m a pure non-fiction type of guy…(Unless we’re talking about the diet books I have to review for this blog, they’re almost all fiction )

So when I was in high school and found out I needed an extra English class to graduate, I took creative writing.

So you can blame my High School Creative writing Teacher for this post…

Scientific Research can best be described as measuring your shadow.

With some very simple tools (a measuring tape and a friend to do the measuring) you can get a very accurate measurement of the length of your shadow.

And this measurement will be correct, however it will only be correct within the confines of it’s context.

In other words, the measurement will be correct for that specific time, in that specific location…and only to you.

It won’t be correct 3 hours later, or on an angled surface. And it certainly won’t be the exact same length if it’s someone else’s shadow and that person happens to be a foot taller than you.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s all relative.

And this is exactly what scientific research is…relative.

When it comes to research done on people, it’s relative to the people in the study (their age, sex, race, training status, disease state, even mood state), relative to the measuring technique (these evolve and change all the time), relative to the specific time and place the measurements were taken (subjects in a weight loss study 30 years ago may have approached the study differently then the subjects in a study going on right now).

To take one piece of research and try to say that it’s “true” in all cases and all circumstances for all time will always be false.

The bottom line and the reason for this post – The findings of scientific research will always be relative.

This is why any new health blurb that starts with “research proves X” is almost always wrong in some situations. It’s just like saying “Your shadow is 5 feet long”.

Just something to remember the next time your skimming the fitness magazines while waiting in line at the grocery store checkout.

BP

I’m going to share a great concept with you: lose weight without dieting and without exercising. Just keep reading, because it will all make sense in a couple of minutes.

I tell people that by following Eat Stop Eat they can lose weight without dieting. Whenever I use Eat Stop Eat for fat loss, or maintaining my weight, I have never thought of it as dieting. Have you? I mean, you have no true restrictions, and I have never found anything quite as flexible or simple to follow; you just fast for 24 hours, strength train, and eat a variety of foods. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Just as you can lose weight without dieting by following Eat Stop Eat, I believe you can lose weight without exercising.

Now I will risk sounding like an infomercial that broadcasts at 3 in the morning for just a second to prove my point.

-How would you like to lose weight without exercising, and even have fun at the same time?

-How would you like to save time and money, but still lose weight and improve your health?

I love the fact that Brad emphasizes strength training while following Eat Stop Eat. After all, if you don’t strength train, you aren’t truly following Eat Stop Eat. However, Brad never said you have to join a gym to strength train.

Some people simply don’t like going to gyms. Others just don’t have the time and/or money to spend on a gym membership. Some gyms have a terrible atmosphere.

I’ll admit, even though I am a powerlifter, I occasionally get tired of going to the gym myself and desire a change of pace—or a new challenge. That is why in a few months after my next competition I am planning on taking a hiatus from the gym all together and taking a different path.

Where am I going with all of this and how can you lose weight without exercising?

Simple: do something you enjoy.

Instead of going to the gym and lifting weights, try something that is more motivating (unless, of course, you love going to the gym). Try doing bodyweight circuits. Increase the number of push-ups, dips, inverted rows, and pull-ups you can do. Learn how to do a perfect single leg squat. Build up your strength to perform a handstand push-up. Teach yourself how to walk several feet on your hands.

There are several other options as well: build your own sandbag, buy a pair of kettlebells, get some blast straps. Throw a jump rope into the mix to improve your conditioning and foot work. Find a hill and run sprints. The gym-less options are limitless!

All of those tools can be used at home.

Hell, you can even get outside and do a great muscle building, fat burning workout at the park. (Click here for a swing set workout video–http://thefatsolutions.com/blog/Bodyweight+Swing+Set+Workout/).

Exercising does not have to be another chore that you dread doing. So many people tell me they don’t go to the gym because they hate it. As a result, they think they are destined to be fat and unhealthy for the rest of their life.

That mindset will get you nowhere, except in an early grave.

The point is to find something you enjoy. Do something that gets you excited about training. If you are doing something you enjoy, then you aren’t exercising. You are having fun—getting strong and lean is just a pleasant side effect.

Think about it: when you were a kid, you would run around, climb trees, fall down, jump, get out of breath, and love every second of it. You weren’t concerned about how many calories you were burning and what percentage was from fat and/or carbohydrates. You were just having fun.

Get out of the “exercise is a chore” mindset: instead of making getting lean and strong a boring, dreadful chore, find a way to make it fun and challenging. There are no rules here: lifting weights at a gym is not the only way to be strong, lean, and healthy. Look back at the examples I gave you and see which ones peak your interest.

If you choose to participate in activities you enjoy, you will be losing weight and getting healthy without exercising. Combine that with Eat Stop Eat, and you will be losing weight without dieting or exercising. What more could you ask for?

Get the No Non-Sense Fat Loss Manual for free, and more fat loss training information from Nia Shanks at http://TheFatSolutions.com.

Nia

*****

Brad’s Comments: Thanks for the post Nia. And it fits very well with the Eat Stop Eat approach. The bottom line is this, exercise is pretty useless for weight loss, but it is an EXCELLENT tool develop strength, build muscle, conditioning and skills. What’s more, while exercise may not help you lose weight, it WILL help you look better and feel better as long as any exercise you choose to do is fun and enjoyable. And, don’t be afraid to mix it up – As Nia put it “The point is to find something you enjoy. Do something that gets you excited about training. If you are doing something you enjoy, then you aren’t exercising. You are having fun—getting strong and lean is just a pleasant side effect.”

So while exercise and some form of resistance training is an essential component of Eat Stop Eat, this doesn’t mean you have to be in the gym every single day, or even at all.

Sure I remember most of my lessons, but I’m not sure if I really
‘got’ them.

Take for instance…Pavlov’s Dogs.

I’m sure you’ve heard the story: Pavlov was the man behind some of the most famous scientific experiments.

Basically, he took a group of dogs and rang a bell every time they were fed.

In grade 9 science class, you were probably told that this was a perfect example of conditioning, and that would be the end of the science lesson.

And boy, would you have missed a VERY valuable nutrition lesson.

You see the dog’s salivated because they were hungry.

They had been conditioned to become hungry at the sound of the bell.

…even when there was no food present. No food smell, no food sound, and certainly no food taste.

Just a bell.

The bell alone caused a powerful expectation of food. And this expectation caused the dogs to drool.

THAT IS HOW POWERFUL THE EXPECTATION OF FOOD CAN BE.

It mimics hunger perfectly.

So the part that may have been left out of your grade nine science class was that the bell was eventually able to cause an extreme desire to eat…

This exact same conditioning happens to us almost everyday.

There are little things in our lives can cause us to A) THINK we are hungry and thus B) overeat.

So what are your bells?

It could be the smallest thing. A sight, a person, even a sound or a smell.

Repeated enough times, this small cue could be the cause of what you beleive to be hunger AND could be causing you to overeat.

So here’s the point of today’s email – On the days when you are fasting pay special attention to when you feel the need to eat. Try to identify the cue that caused this wanting…this is how fasting can help you eat better on the days when you do eat.

Once you know the cue, it will help you tell the difference between hunger and conditioning.

Just another example of the benefits of the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle.

BP

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

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

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

Protein Breakdown!

.

Scary words right? The word ‘breakdown’ seems to imply something bad.

So obviously anything that “Prevents Protein Breakdown!” must be good for us.

In fact, if something “Prevents Protein Breakdown!” it’s probably worth at LEAST $49.99 and is the KEY to building rock-hard-super-dense-shredded-muscle! (or at least so says the economy and logic at your local supplement shop)

But, what do we really know about protein breakdown?

Well for starters it is an extremely effective way to maintain functional, non-damaged proteins in your body.

Yep, protein catabolism plays a HUGE role in keeping your body healthy.

Also, it plays a big role in BUILDING your muscles and making you stronger.

Damaged or non-functional proteins in your muscles are identified and ‘tagged’ by your body to be broken down for recycling purposes. This process removes damaged proteins from your muscles and provides valuable amino-acids for anabolic or rebuilding purposes.

In fact, you could speculate that this is an essential first step in the muscle building process.

Protein breakdown also provides many of the amino acids used to build new proteins in other parts of your body. Important things like internal organs and the like.  It has been suggested that as much as 80% of the amino acids that come from protein breakdown in your body are re-utilized in protein building metabolism.

Lastly, but maybe most importantly protein breakdown (or more specifically protein turnover) accounts for up to 70% of your resting metabolic rate.

It is a normal, ongoing process of recycling and reusing the amino acids in your body, that contributes to keeping you healthy, functional and that burns a significant amount of your daily calories.

Not nearly as scary as some people would lead you to believe.

Some of the tissues in your body breakdown and turnover faster than others…so not all protein breakdown comes from your muscles. In fact…relative to the rest of your body very little protein breakdown actually occurs in your muscles.

During a 7 day fast, your liver will lose 40% of its nitrogen (a marker of protein breakdown) and your visceral organs (your G.I. system) loses anywhere from 20-28%. Your muscle, skin and skeleton only lose around 8%.

The bottom line is that protein breakdown is an essential part of your metabolism, it allows for repairing tissues and provides amino acids for building new healthy proteins. It powers your daily calorie expenditure and simply does not occur at an accelerated rate in your muscles (but it does play an important role in your ability to build muscle).

BP

www.EatStopEat.com

PS- Kinda makes you wonder about the education of the people who tell you fasting decreases your metabolic rate AND increases your protein breakdown!