So what are the 3 most important things for athletic development (not the only things, but the most foundational for sure)? Honestly, that is a lot simpler than we make it out to be. There are a lot of theories out there, most of which do not work. My favorite, is that you need to get bigger or build muscle. That is almost always WRONG. The very first, and most important thing is to development good relative strength. Relative strength is your strength compared to your body weight. For example, lets say that you are a football player. Would you rather get hit by the guy that weighs 300 pounds and squats 400 pounds or the linebacker that weighs 190 pounds and squats 600 pounds. Most would say the smaller guy. It is really easy to forget the force=mass X acceleration, not just F=M, that is until you hit something that is moving really fast. For instance, a 140 gram baseball moving at 100 mph hour can shatter bones and cause severe trauma. Getting bigger will slow you down unless you manage to maintain or improve your relative strength. When I was playing high school football we did a lot of Bigger-Faster-Stronger programs. I got bigger and stronger but not faster. Actually I was the strongest guy in my school, and one of the slowest. I ran a wimpy 5.6 forty at my worst (225 pounds). Post grad school, I ran a 4.7 at 215 pounds and was about 20% stronger.
The next thing is strength balance, particularly between the posterior (back) and anterior (front) chain. Most people are front side strong and back side weak. Balance is important for several reasons: most forward propulsion is a result of posterior muscle force, the nervous system will limit front side strength in the presence of backside weakness, balance reduces injury risk. Generally speaking, the posterior chain should be at least 60% as strong as the anterior chain. Honestly, I prefer more like a minimum of 80%. Actually, most anterior strength needs to be eccentric for better change of direction. Granted, eccentric and reactive strengths are important all around.
Lastly…confidence. I have seen some very athletic people that make poor athletes because of two things: not enough confidence and thinking too much (which typically come together). The first thing is to realize both of these things. The second is to learn to “turn off your brain” and just react. That takes practice, and in some cases, a lot of “stop thinking!” from the coach. The next thing is to practice each specific athletic movement or skill so much that they become completely natural. That takes about 5000 hours of practicing a skill correctly before it becomes instinctive. Note that I said “correctly”. Remember that practice makes permanent, not perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect permanent. So it is important to slow a motion down and practice it correctly, then speed it up to full speed over time. In other words, don’t practice a one step change of direction at full speed unless you can do it at 90% full speed first. For complex motions, a clean a jerk for instance, each part of the motion must be trained separately, then put together, then sped up one part at a time.
I was recently watching TV while visiting a friend (I actually do not have regular TV anymore, which is very time liberating. Though I am not sure I can stand it through Football Season), and saw one of those High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is the same as sugar commercials. I have to admit that I was a bit unsure of how to feel about it. Part of me was saying “are you kidding me! that stuff is horrible!” and the other part was thinking “well, sugar not much better, really”. So here is the low down and I will let you decide for yourself.
First, a little biochemistry, seriously, just a little. Basically, there are two routes for sugar(s) to be processed. The type of sugar will determine the preferred route (glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, etc…). One route is the blood. All sugar being processed via this route is taken up by the muscles and brain to be either used or stored as energy (stored version known as glycogen). This route will increase acute insulin response, and if insulin resistance is high that will force the sugar to be stored as fat, rather than go into the muscle (basically because the muscle is unresponsive to the insulin). The alternative route is through the liver. All sugar taken through the liver is first processed for liver glycogen, then the remainder is turned into glycerin and released into the blood where it scavenges for free form fatty acids to form triglycerides, which a re then stored as body fat. Sugars processed by the liver cause a minimal rise in acute insulin, are the most likely to be stored as body fat, contribute the most to fatty liver disease, and have the largest long term effects on insulin resistance and risk of type 2 diabetes. Okay, liver bad, blood good, got it.
So, what goes where? 80% of glucose is processed via the blood, while 20% is processed via the liver. 80% of fructose goes to the liver, while 20% to the blood. Alcohol (yes, it is a sugar also, but now in the form of alcohol, which has to be turned back into sugar) processes identical to fructose, so it should be no shocker that they cause the same health problems.
So how does HFCS differ from table sugar. Table sugar is exactly 50/50 glucose/fructose while HFCS is 45/55 glucose/fructose. Honey is 25/75 glucose/fructose and agave nectar is 5/95 glucose fructose (hence its very low Glycemic Index, it all goes to the liver!). So does that mean that table sugar is better than honey? Basically…yes. Isn’t fruit all fructose? Mostly. But fresh, raw fruit normally has quite a bit of fiber and antioxidants which offset the negative effects of fructose. However, as it sits after being picked or if it is cooked, it dramatically looses nutrient and antioxidant content. So buy it fresh and eat it quickly or even better buy it fresh frozen.
There are a few other differences between HFCS and sugar. The most notable, however, is that table sugar will cause nausea if you eat a lot of it, whereas HFCS will not. For example, the original recipes for old school sodas had 10 teaspoons of sugar per 8 oz serving. That was enough for one soda to cause you to regurgitate. Soda companies battle this problem by “cutting” the drink with phosphoric acid which offsets the urge to vomit as it has a stomach “settling” effect. Today’s sodas use HFCS rather than table sugar but the acid is retained to maintain the old flavor. Many of our older patients actually recall getting sick from eating too much candy, but no one has had that problem for at least 20 years because of the universal change to HFCS. So to the food companies benefit, and your loss, you can eat all you want now and never get sick. In addition, the effects of the increased fructose consumption over years (and sugar overall) lead to high insulin levels and problems with maintaining blood sugar levels. This causes crashes and a desire to eat more sugar, which creates a vicious downward spiral toward obesity and diabetes.
So the take home message? Stay away from sugar unless it comes in edible container also known as a fruit or vegetable. But if you absolutely have to have sugar sweetened substance, table sugar is slightly better than HFCS and honey and agave nectar are worse.
Are you doing everything that you need to stay healthy? As more and more information emerges about the health benefits of Vitamin D, it is slowly working its way up to being one of the, if not the most important thing that you can do for your health. Some experts suggest that it already deserves that title. That may or may not be the case, only time and lots more research will tell.
So what is Vitamin D anyways? Technically, its not a vitamin at all. It is actually steriod like pre-hormone made from cholesterol (as are all hormones). Some of it comes from diet, typically fatty meats like cod liver. Most of it is made when UVB light hits the skin. In young healthy skin, 20 minutes with your shirt off on a Beach will get you about 20,000 IU’s of Vitamin D. It is called vitamin D because it was named that when discovered that dogs with rickets were cured by something in Cod Liver oil. A, B, and C were already taken so it was named D. The exact compound, at the time was not known however, and it wasn’t until many years later (recently, actually) that it was discovered that it was actually a pre-hormone, or prohormone as they are sometimes called. Beyond this, most of the benefits of Vitamin D are still emerging.
There is quite a bit that we do know however. Have you ever wondered why the fall and winter are “cold and flu season”? Vitamin D is strongly associated with your immune system function, as it is a very important prohormone that helps to regulate it. Research suggests that a single high dose of vitamin D (around 20,000 IU’s, or one summer day in the sun) at the first sign of sickness greatly reduces your risk of getting a full blown cold or flu. Though, it is very important that such a high dose not be taken daily, as vitamin D toxicity can occur after a period of repetitive high doses. This is not an issue when acquired from sunlight as your body has a mechanism to prevent over production. However, as our skin ages and we get less and less time outdoors, our bodies make less vitamin D from sunlight. A much safer way is to take a regular moderate dose to ensure that your levels no get low enough to inhibit your immune function. For this, regular monitoring to get your levels appropriately adjusted is important.
In addition to vitamin D’s effects on your immediate health, it also has many benefits to your long term health. Low vitamin D is associated with an increase in risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, asthma, hypertension, several central nervous system disorders and all cause mortality. Though we do not know why it affects all of these things yet, we do know that every cell in your body has a receptor for vitamin D. Only a handful of substances can make that claim. That is generally an indication that it is very important for regulating cell function. We do know that it benefits blood sugar control and insulin management, as well as thyroid function. We also know that it is anabolic (tissue growth) and has benefits to the nervous system and mental health, and that it is highly anti-inflammatory. Its anti-inflammatory properties are not completely understood, but it may have something to do with how it promotes healthy tissue growth and repair. We know that it has neurotransmitter properties that improve inter- and intramuscular coordination and reaction time. The overall improved neural responses stretch to the cognitive arena as well, as it improves mental clarity, memory, focus and mental reaction time. It even improves lung function and asthma. We also know that it controls the expression of more than 200 genes and the proteins they produce. This has a significant effect on new cell formation and programmed cell death. Beyond that, our knowledge of its mechanisms of action is limited. Its health benefits are certainly not in question though. It is vital for a health!
Have you wondered why it is easier to get in shape during the summer? As it turns out, Vitamin D’s benefits to your fitness are also strong. Through Vitamin D’s benefits to insulin management, muscle growth, thyroid function and the nervous system, it has pronounced benefits to your fitness. This means that it is easier to put on muscle and lean down when your vitamin D is in normal ranges. It helps you sleep better which also improves workout recovery. It improves mood and energy which will help energize your workouts and motivation. It even increases strength and power directly without any of this.
So the question is not whether you need to be taking it, but are you taking enough? There is quite a bit of argument concerning optimal blood levels. 20 years ago, as long as you were above 20 ng/ml, you were fine. Today, data shows that your risk of depression sky rockets if your levels drop below 30. Conservative estimates of optimal ranges are 40-80 ng/ml. Nearly every patient that we see is below this range when they come in for the first time. There is sufficient data for less conservative scientists to recommend that optimal ranges are between 60-100 ng/ml. It is likely that as more and more data comes out to support this higher range, optimal ranges will be adjusted upward over the next 5-10 years. Toxicity does not occur until levels over 110 ng/ml which requires well over 10,000 IU’s per day for the average person. It is important to test your vitamin D levels regularly to make sure that your levels are in the ideal range, as they fluctuate greatly throughout the year.
A recent article in the paper by Dr. Oz has been raising some concern about pollutants in the food that we eat and supplements that we take. The primary focus of the article was PCBs in fish oils. This is really not a new concern, but it is certainly a concern that most people are unaware of and need to be informed of. PCBs in fish oils have been an issue since before fish oils were even popular to take. I remember hearing the first presentation on this problem nearly a decade ago. The pollution of PCBs in anything that you eat is a cause for alarm. The real question is not whether to take the omega 3 supplement. As Dr. Oz stated, “They are just too important.” The question is how do you get them without the PCBs. There is quite a bit of controversy on this subject, I will attempt to make this more clear.
Many suggest that you should avoid fish and stick with plant sources. However, no plant source will provide adequate amounts of DHA or EPA. Both of these fats are vital for health, particularly for the heart and brain. Roughly 50% of the brain is made of fat. The type of fat is preferably DHA, a type of Omega-3. This can be consumed from plant sources, but they are primarily ALA which your body will convert into DHA. Unfortunately, the ratio is very poor. It is about 9% for EPA and 3% for DHA. Both are good for you , but again, DHA is the primary target. You need about 900 mg of DHA/EPA combined. So you would have to consume a bout 100 grams of Flaxseed oil per day to get enough EPA/DHA. It has been suggested that you eat what fish eat to get theirs, algae. First of all, yum yum. Grass is an equivalent source of omega 3, which is why all grazers (that actually are fed grass) are equivalent sources of omega 3′s. But you are not going to eat grass, well you might, but probably not. In addition, most fish eat crustaceans or other fish, including salmon which is considered a primary source of omega 3′s. The reality is that if you where going to the original source (green grasses and algae), you would have to eat that as your primary food source to get enough (and then some). It is far more efficient to eat animal sources, which have already done the converting for you. So plant sources are a good source for omega 3′s, but an inefficient source of DHA and EPA, the specific omega 3′s that your brain and heart need.
So what about the animal sources? Well, in reality, anything that eats large amounts of grass or algae, or eats another animal that does so, will be a good source of omega 3′s. The closest animal to the original source is usually the best to eat. For instance, nearly every grass fed grazers are equivalent sources for you omega 3′s. Bison has almost identical fatty acid profile as tuna for instance. The best grazer in North America, that I am aware of, is elk, which has a profile almost identical to sardines. In addition, the closer the animal is to the plant source, the less toxins that it will contain. Swordfish, which eats large amounts of smaller fish, has enough mercury in one steak to make you test positive for mercury poisoning. Sardines, a primary food source of most larger fish, eats algae and has only trace amounts of toxins (including PCB’c and mercury). In addition, fresh water and farm raised fish, have the most toxins and the least omega 3′s. Farm raised fish, have very little omega 3 content due to the feed used. This is often neglected in the recommendation of fish (general) as an omega 3 source. In addition, certain low grade fish oils use farm raised fish, which again, have little to no omega 3′s and the highest levels of toxins (particularly PCB’s). The short version of this message if to eat large grass gazing animals and small (wild) fish for your best omega 3 sources.
What about supplements? I recommend that you use only pharmaceutical grade fish oils and that you know the source. My favorite is krill oil, which is what salmon eat. It is about 3 times more bioavailable than fish oil (you can take a 3rd of the dose), has more antioxidants and no toxins. Krill is also the largest biomass in the world. Sardine oil is also a great source. It is very high in DHA and EPA and again is toxin free. There are only two over the counter fish oils that I recommend: Carleson’s or Nordic Naturals. Both are great and hold up to the standards year after year in independent testing. That being said, they are about three times less efficient for getting your DHA and EPA (even in their EPA formulas) so you will need to take three times as much.
There are really a lot of ways to put on muscle, or I should say a lot of different kinds of muscle growth. The first problem is knowing what type of muscle growth is best suited for your particular goal. For today’s post we will focus on the 2 major types. The first type is the most commonly thought of, and the easiest to achieve. It is called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Its a big word that describes , making your muscular gas tank bigger. Essentially think of each muscle as several engines with each their own gas tank. There are several ways to improve the performance: bigger engines (larger contractile unit or sarcomere), bigger gas tank (larger sarcoplasm for storage of more metabolites), more engines (sarcomeric hyperplasia), more gas tanks (sarcoplasmic hyperplasia), and improving the efficiency of each engine (the nervous system).
So again, our first one here is that larger gas tank type. This is typically accomplished via a higher rep scheme (10 or more reps) such as that performed by body builders. This type of hypertrophy will result in mild strength increases, substantial improvements in local muscular endurance, larger muscles and increases in weight with little to no increase in relative strength (strength to weight ratio). This muscle is less dense, and commonly referred to as “show muscle” because of the lack of increase in relative strength. There are certainly benefits to this type of hypertrophy from a fatigue perspective. In addition, the type of work done to cause sarcoplasmic hypertrophy will increase lactic acid tolerance and yield large post workout increases in growth hormone which will greatly aid in weight loss (fat loss). On the downside, this type of muscle does not increase relative strength. In addition, it is low density (not as hard feeling as sarcomeric hypertrophy) and is also easier to loose. The is because it is primarily fluid storage, which is lost when training does not require it anymore (or when you stop training).
The second type of hypertrophy that I will address to day is sarcomeric hypertrophy (bigger engine). This type of hypertrophy will add density, little improvements in endurance, large strength increases, large increases in relative strength and less overall mass increases than sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Its major disadvantages are that the low rep training done to encourage this hypertrophy, do not improve endurance, body composition, or result in the same size increases. However, the strength increases will be substantial, and are great for further driving sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. In addition, the muscle is ydenser and harder. Plus, its two greatest advantages are that it atrophies very slowly (I went 8 months without any significant strength work on my legs due to a ruptured achilles, and only lost 15 pounds on my squat with no change in body weight. In 3 weeks I was back where I left off and striving toward new gains again). this is actually the best type is muscle for any power athlete, as it results in the largest increase in relative strength and therefor results in the most improvement in power, speed, and agility.
Combined, these two types of hypertrophy will yield the largest increase in strength, work capacity, size, and fat loss. I don’t care what any magazine tries to sell you, the best strive for both. If you want to be the biggest, strongest, baddest due on your corner of the world, you will need to combine typical body building high rep schemes, with the heavy, low rep schemes of power lifters. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, but personally I like a pendulum scheme. Essentially, you do body building schemes for 3-4 weeks, then power lifting schemes for 3-4 weeks, and back and forth, etc…. So for those body builders out there that haven’t lifted anything below 10 reps in a while, try 4 weeks of 10 sets of 3 on squats, deadlifts, bench and chin-ups. Then go back to your typical schemes for a month.
Several studies report a link between CRP and frequency of both dental visits, as well as flossing. CRP is strongly associated with your risk for cardiovascular disease but previous studies have not established a solid link between dental hygiene and your risk of heart disease. In a recent study involving Scottish men and women over an 8 year period, the link was confirmed. The study was a health survey performed between 1995 and 2003 involving over 11869 participants. People who brushed their teeth less than once per day were 70% more likely to have a CVD event and 300% more likely for that event to be fatal than those that brushed twice per day. Wow! Continuing, those that only brushed their teeth once per day, were twice as likely to have a CVD event and twice as likely for that event to be fatal as those that brushed twice per day! Meaning most of us that think we are doing okay by brushing once per day are still twice as likely to die from a heart attack as someone that brushes twice a day.
Researchers also found a correlation with toothbrushing frequency and other risk factors, as people who brushed the least were the likeliest to be obese, smokers, the least active and have the lowest income. But the results were consistent even after adjusting for all other risk factors. So, it appears that those with the healthiest teeth are the likeliest to be healthy. This is confirmed by several other studies that examined tooth health and all cause mortality (death by any cause). Several authors have suggested that this suggests that people who are the healthiest are the likeliest to have healthy teeth. Previous studies analyzing the association between gum disease, flossing and CRP suggest that the most likely culprit is actually the bad bacteria in your mouth, which causes systemic inflammation (indicated by elevated CRP). Combined with the study on brushing frequency, it suggests that those with the healthiest mouth hygiene are likely to be the healthiest. With clear associations between diet and tooth health, it would also suggest that excessive sugar consumption would play a role in this equation. Not forgetting that the bad bacteria in your mouth actually feed on sugar—something we all have “known” since grade school.
Research in this area has exploded in recent years, producing a barrage of interesting studies. The greatest and latest seems to be about Green Tea consumption. With the plethora of research on the many health benefits of at least 1 cup of green tea per day, including weight loss and prevention of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, researchers decided to see what else it may help. As it turns out, the “active ingredients” in green tea are also antimicrobial (kill bad bacteria and viruses) and antifungal, and even go as far as preventing the surviving bacteria from attaching to your teeth. Green tea consumption may help prevent all forms of periodontal disease including cancer of the mouth.
So in short, brush your teeth at least twice per day. Floss every day. Visit your dentist twice per year. Eat a low sugar diet. Drink your green tea and you will have healthy teeth be less likely to die from all disease, particularly heart disease, which is the number 1 cause of death in the US.
First things first, always keep in mind that with nearly everything on this particular topic, someone is trying to sell you something (and yes, that does include me). There is a pretty large argument amongst the community in relation to the best type of activity to loose fat. This is primarily in concern to cardio, or forms of cardio like interval training. One protocol in particular gets thrown around quite a bit, the tabata protocol. So whats the truth, who’s right, who’s wrong. Well the truth is usually in the middle of the two extremes. Interesting, the definition of truth…My favorite definition, and one that explains it quite well, is that truth is full disclosure of reality. Which means that the extremes are not the truth, normally. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that people that don’t fully disclose reality are actively lying. They just probably don’t realize that they are only partially correct. So, right, lets get to it…
The Truth: Both extremes are right about some of the information they give. The first rule that you have to remember about training is the law of accommodation. That means that if you any one thing long enough, you will cease to get better from it. This means that a variety of activities will actually best help you get to your goal. But again keep in mind the law of specificity, which means that the best way to get better at something is to do that one thing a lot, and not mix it with things that would cause a different adaptation. These two things are a constant balancing act. So the best answer, while keeping it simple (which it is not), is that you work on one thing on one day, and a different thing a different day. There are somethings that will complement each other and those can be worked on the same day. But again, everyone likes to create these really simple plans to sell you. But simple, only works for a little while. For example, interval training is awesome, but it is only awesome by itself for 6 weeks. Then…accommodation. Now there are different ways to do interval training that will help you stretch that out, but still you will eventually plateau. Why? Well, that’s just how your body works. It gets better until it gets numb. So the trick is never letting it get numb.
But Jeremy, the Tabata protocol….Yeah, it is great. 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, short sweet (or should I say Sweat), and very effective at aiding in fat loss and improving VO2max…for about 6 weeks. Then what? Sure you burn A LOT more fat in the 72 hour recovery phase than you do from the meager 6-24 hour recovery phase from a long run. But the reality is that the plateau for things that cause “aggressive adaptation” comes just as fast if not faster than it does from other more moderate types of activity. Now, don’t let it seem that I am just picking on the interval side. The constant rate training supporters are amongst some of the most stubborn groups that I have ever had the privilege to educate. Show me a guy that does nothing but moderate intensity cardio and I will show you a guy plagued with low muscle mass, high intensity deficits (i.e. max speed close to what he trains at…slow), and muscular imbalances. But so and so marathan runner…looks either like an emaciated toothpick or a pregnant guy. Long distance running, when done solely as the training system (if it should be called that), results first and for most in a reduction in anything that makes long distance running inefficient…weight…type 2 muscle first because it is incredibly metabolically wasteful for distance training, then fat. But yet fat is the primary source of energy right…yep. So it should burn tons of fat right…yep. ??? If I told you that you needed incredible amounts of orange juice to survive the next year and that there would be an orange juice shortage (low fat diet), what would you do? That’s right, you’d sell everything that you could and stock up on orange juice, and if you’re smart even plant a mature orange tree. do you think that you are any smarter than your body? Nope, dumber actually (no offense, your body is way smarter than you, I don’t care how smart you are). Here’s what your body decides to do. First, all this metabolically expensive muscle has got to go. Great, now I am starting to run out of fat but I know I am going to need it again tomorrow. Ok, whats the best way to make some more of this fat stuff, sugar. Hey Brain, Eat a whole lot of carbs! We need some fat! That is the reason why the back of the marathon pack looks pregnant. As you can imagine, you have to train to run 24 miles, period. So if distance training made you lean, then all marathoners would be lean. I know, logic right, amazing. So how come the guys and gals at the front are so lean? Guess what they do the get to the front? Speed training, also known as interval training. That increases their VO2max (aerobic power) substantially and helps them lean down.
So the reality is that lifting, intervals of various sorts, and some distance training are all valuable in different ways. To some extent, if done correctly, they compliment each other. The two most important are lifting and interval training because they help you put on muscle and lean down, but some distance training is essential. Typically I suggest one day a week of low intensity distance training. For me, this is typically a 45-90 minute brisk walk with my lovely wife and dogs, or a 5-10 mile bike ride. It has some benefits for improving vascular density within the muscles and oxygen delivery. This dramatically improves recovery rate and helps prevent over training. It also helps me recover faster between intervals which allows me to rest less and get more intervals in during my workout. I do one moderate intensity day, which is usually a short bike ride (3-5 miles fast) or a 20 minute run. It may also be a day on the climbing wall, depending on my training phase and when my next climbing trip is. This day is actually somewhere between a “distance” workout and intervals. And I do 2 or more days of interval training. Those days change quite a bit, which is by design. The interval training helps improve my VO2 max and burn loads of fat, in addition to helping make my other two works better by improving my power throughout the workouts. So my intensity for those workouts go up, which means that they work better. The Tabata Protocol really is a great protocol, it takes 3.5 minutes and is very effective. But there are only so many ways that you can change 20 seconds all out with a 10 second rest period. If you want it fast, and don’t care if you plateau, Tabata all the way. But if you want to continue to adapt of a period of years, you have to do other types of training. The trick is to balance it correctly with your other forms of training. That is where experience comes into play.
First thank you and I really appreciate all of your feedback. A few of you have commented on resources. I just wanted to let you know that there is a link on my blog scroll for research (whenever I add new research you will be able to find it there, often the full article in a pdf). You will need to scroll down the page and it is on the right side down the page a ways. In addition there is also a link for exercise videos. Sorry for the long distance scroll, I am trying to help you burn a few extra calories. We are still working on the site so all the pages aren’t up yet (like the storefront) and there are few things that we need to work out like spelling errors and positioning. I appreciate your patience. In addition if you ever have a question for me feel free to click the mail button at the top and e-mail me directing.
It seems like everyday I get asked about a new diet. The latest seems to be the HCG diet. I say its the latest, but it is actually well over 30 years old. Here is the gist of the diet. You do a small inject of HCG daily (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin). This is combined with a 500 calorie per day diet (about 3 crackers and some tuna salad, well and maybe a spoon full of almond butter). The idea of the HCG is that it will suppress appetite and make the diet more achievable. So what is HCG and why would it do that? HCG is actually a hormone that is obtained from the urine of pregnant women. This is actually what a pregnancy test is looking for (So ladies, as my wife just learned, these test don’t frequently give a false positive, unless maybe you’re injecting HCG). Don’t freak out, it is sterile. Actually, it is most commonly used as a fertility drug for both men and women (not sure how a low dose would effect fertility but if you don’t want a curtain climber you may want to reconsider). It accomplishes this by having a similar function to Luteinizing Hormone. In Women this causes ovulation and in men it can increase testosterone and sperm count as well as activity. So I am sure that you are wondering how this can suppress hunger when given in a low dose….me too. Actually there are a few studies that demonstrate a leptin response in vitro (injected directly a cell), however that is far different that a system injection in many cases. So the only way that we really know if it works is through a double blind controlled study comparing the diet with HCG versus the diet alone. Fortunately there have been about 14 thus far, most of which are over 20 years old. Why are they so old? Why aren’t there any new studies if the diet is so popular? As it turns out they were pretty conclusive the first time. I have attached a link to one below: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/29/9/940
The results?: 12 out of 14 showed quite a bit of weight loss for both groups but no significant difference between the too. One study showed far more weight loss in the diet alone group. 1 study showed a much larger effect in the HCG group….guess which study the promoters of this diet mention…if any? What was interesting is that it does look like there is a bit of a placebo effect (but again not significant). The take home message, go buy a bottle of sterile water and inject it into yourself everyday while also eliminating all fat, and most of the carbs and protein from your diet. You will loose a lot of muscle and feel and look like you are starving to death but you will loose weight…I promise. Granted there are healthier ways to loose weight.
I remember when I first started researching this diet and found out that it was restricted to 500 calories per day. I looked at the Doc and said “No wonder they loose weight on this stupid diet, If I didn’t loose weight on 500 calories per day I would throw myself off the Ravenel Bridge!”. Obviously I wouldn’t do that but you get the point. Interestingly that very same doctor recently had a friend ask her to her on the diet. She refused being aware of the research and informed her of what the data said, so her friend went to her dermatologist who decided that it was worth a try (you couldn’t make this stuff up, a dermatologist prescribing a fertility drug for weight loss…seriously). Don’t be too surprised, it happens all the time. That’s why I don’t ask my doctor about the latest research on something. Most of them aren’t up to date because they don’t have time to be. Anyways, her friend lost 12 pounds!!! Outstanding! Then she ate 700 calories for 3 days and gained 3 pounds back! (whats interesting is that she only consumed an extra 600 calories total and gained 3 pounds yet 1 pound of fat is 3500 calories, that’s one reason why I am not a huge calorie proponent).
For more information on the research you can log into my mendeley account linked on my blog and do a search.
One of the most important nutrients for your body is the element magnesium. Most people know all about calcium and its importance for various functions in the body but magnesium is the middle child that can make or break your day. Most of the time it will break your day, and that’s because a lot of people (especially if they are under a lot of stress…and who isn’t) are deficient. Magnesium does a lot of really important things in the body but two of the most important are supporting healthy adrenal function (hormones like testosterone and adrenaline for example) and helping muscles relax. It is funny that so many people think that cramping if caused by a potassium deficiency. It is almost always caused by dehydration, salt loss from sweating, or not enough magnesium. In 15 years I have met one cramper that was helped by potassium (one! out of a whole pile of athletes! so please loose the banana and eat a pickle with a big glass of water, if that doesn’t do the trick its time to pick up a high quality magnesium supplement). Why you ask, does magnesium help with cramping? Well, the body is amazing in that when in a relaxed position the body has already done the work for the contraction to come, like leaving a gun cocked, then when needed, calcium just pulls the trigger. Once it fires, the magnesium removes the calcium from the trigger and the body “recocks” the muscle with ATP so that it can easily be fired again. A full contraction is actually a rapid series of these actions in succession. Here is the crazy part, using this analogy, flexing your bicep is the equivalent of holding down the trigger of a mini-gun (I guess that means that a 1 RM squat is like unloading all an Apache’s ammo in the squeeze of one button….including a few thousand rounds from it’s 50 cal mini-gun and all of its hellfire’s which is kind of what you feel like you’ve done when you finish). Anywho, sorry about the testosterone tangent. The point is that without sufficient magnesium the muscle cannot relax (also known as cramp). By the way, guess what your heart is….a muscle. But Jeremy, I can’t get a cramp in my heart! …..ever heard of an arrhythmia? The heart just kind of sticks between between beats. Sometimes that’s because of something screwy in the nervous, but sometimes it is magnesium (or salt or maybe potassium). This is particularly common in atrial arrhythmia’s, but less common in ventricular arrhythmia’s. While we are talking about the cardiovascular system, guess what surrounds your arteries that controls your blood pressure…muscles. It is no wonder that magnesium supplementation typically lowers blood pressure. Do you ever get the headaches that start in your neck and travel across the top of your skull just before it feels like your eyes are going to explode? A great trick is the rub a little transdermal magnesium on your neck and shoulders, then your forehead (if you’d shave you head you could rub down your scalp as well….don’t you know that know ones likes hair anyway). Then wallah, in 5 minutes the headache starts to disappear. In addition all of these other nasties, because of magnesium’s role in adrenal function it means that you may also inhibit some of that wonderful stuff called adrenaline. All in all, a magnesium deficiency can ruin your day.
Fortunately your body will typically give you a few signs if you are paying attention. One of them is twitches. These can come from a myriad of places but the eyelid is very common. It could just as easily be a quad, bicep of even a lower back spasm. Quite often you will experience more than one (usually repetitive twitching and multisite). Some people will just say that those are caused by stress, and that you must be stressed. Don’t worry about those people, they are right and wrong. Stress does cause those things, and you are probably stressed, or had a few hard workouts in a row, or you may even be fighting something off. But if you recall from above I said that magnesium is effected by stress. And again that is because of its role in adrenal function. When stress goes up, adrenal function goes up, and magnesium gets used up. Then comes the spasms. Another common problem associated with low magnesium levels is poor quality sleep. So if you have one or more symptom, it time to check out a good magnesium source.
For systemic magnesium I highly recommend a fully chelated magnesium or a magnesium orotate as these absorb the best, cause the least GI distress (typically none, even in high doses) and have the best bio-availability (they have the most benefit). For immediate muscular relief from headaches and spasms I recommend a transdermal magnesium (rubs on like a lotion).
Some of you may have noted above that I also said that magnesium could make your day. this is because it can help by improving, speed, strength and performance. That is because most of us are at least a little deficient in magnesium. Which means that if you supplement it will likely help improve your heart output and blood flow while also allowing a more powerful muscular contraction. Its improvement in cardiac output as well as muscle force come from the ability to aid the muscle in relaxing between contractions which actually primes the muscle for a stronger subsequent contraction. Its kind of like dropping a little before you jump.
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