ScienceDaily (May 17, 2012) — When it comes to weight gain, when you eat might be at least as important as what you eat. That’s the conclusion of a study reported in the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism published early online on May 17th.

When mice on a high-fat diet are restricted to eating for eight hours per day, they eat just as much as those who can eat around the clock, yet they are protected against obesity and other metabolic ills, the new study shows. The discovery suggests that the health consequences of a poor diet might result in part from a mismatch between our body clocks and our eating schedules.

“Every organ has a clock,” said lead author of the study Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. That means there are times that our livers, intestines, muscles, and other organs will work at peak efficiency and other times when they are — more or less — sleeping.

Those metabolic cycles are critical for processes from cholesterol breakdown to glucose production, and they should be primed to turn on when we eat and back off when we don’t, or vice versa. When mice or people eat frequently throughout the day and night, it can throw off those normal metabolic cycles.

“When we eat randomly, those genes aren’t on completely or off completely,” Panda said. The principle is just like it is with sleep and waking, he explained. If we don’t sleep well at night, we aren’t completely awake during the day, and we work less efficiently as a consequence.

To find out whether restricted feeding alone — without a change in calorie intake — could prevent metabolic disease, Panda’s team fed mice either a standard or high-fat diet with one of two types of food access: ad lib feeding or restricted access.

The time-restricted mice on a high-fat diet were protected from the adverse effects of a high-fat diet and showed improvements in their metabolic and physiological rhythms. They gained less weight and suffered less liver damage. The mice also had lower levels of inflammation, among other benefits.

Panda says there is reason to think our eating patterns have changed in recent years, as many people have greater access to food and reasons to stay up into the night, even if just to watch TV. And when people are awake, they tend to snack.

The findings suggest that restricted meal times might be an underappreciated lifestyle change to help people keep off the pounds. At the very least, the new evidence suggests that this is a factor in the obesity epidemic that should be given more careful consideration.

“The focus has been on what people eat,” Panda said. “We don’t collect data on when people eat.”

Source: sciencedaily.com

Journal Reference:

1. Megumi Hatori, Christopher Vollmers, Amir Zarrinpar, Luciano DiTacchio, Eric A. Bushong, Shubhroz Gill, Mathias Leblanc, Amandine Chaix, Matthew Joens, James A.J. Fitzpatrick, Mark H. Ellisman, Satchidananda Panda. Time-Restricted Feeding without Reducing Caloric Intake Prevents Metabolic Diseases in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet. Cell Metabolism, 2012; DOI:10.1016/j.cmet.2012.04.019

What is Vo2 Max?

Vo2 max refers to the maximal oxygen uptake (aka  maximal oxygen consumption, peak oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity), which is the maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise.  This reflects an individual’s physical fitness level.  The name Vo2 max comes from V – volume, O2 – oxygen, max – maximum.  VO2 max is expressed either as an absolute rate in litres of oxygen per minute (l/min) or as a relative rate in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute (ml/kg/min).  The latter expression is often used to compare the performance of endurance sports athletes.

What is Vo2 Max for?

If you know a person’s VO2 max, you will be able to determine a wide range of values such as how many calories a person burns, their fitness level, speed and distance ability, MET capabilities and much more.

This measurement is generally considered the best indicator of an athlete’s cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance. Theoretically, the more oxygen you can use during high level exercise, the more ATP (energy) you can produce. This is often the case with elite endurance athletes who typically have very high VO2 max values.

Aside from genetic factors, three other components have a large influence on VO2 max:

• Age - Although it varies greatly by individual and training programs, in general VO2 max is the highest at age 20 and decreases nearly 30 percent by age 65.
• Gender - Many elite female athletes have higher VO2 max values than most men. But because of differences in body size and composition, blood volume and hemoglobin content, a woman’s VO2 max is in general about 20 percent lower than a man’s VO2 max.
• Altitude - Because there is less oxygen at higher altitude an athlete will generally have 5 percent decrease in VO2 max results with a 5,000 feet gain in altitude.

V02 Max Highs and Lows

VO2 max results vary greatly. The average for a sedentary individual is close to 35 ml/kg/min. Elite endurance athletes often average 70 ml/kg/min. One of the highest recorded VO2 max results (90 ml/kg/min) was that of a cross country skier. Cyclist Lance Armstrong’s VO2 max was reported at 85 ml/kg/min.

Does a High V02 Max Mean Better Athletic Performance?
Most elite athletes will have VO2 max values well over 60ml/kg/min, this number alone is not a guarantee of elite performance. A high VO2 max may indicate an athlete’s potential for excellent aerobic endurance, but many other factors can determine the winner of a particular race. Some of these factors include:

• Skills Training
• Psychological Preparation
• Lactate Threshold Training
• Rest and Recovery
• Nutrition

Federal health officials continue to voice safety concerns over an experimental diet pill from drugmaker Vivus Inc., which will make its second attempt to convince experts of the drugs’ safety next week. The drug Qnexa helped people lose weight but may cause long-term health problems in overweight and obese patients, Food and Drug Administration reviewers said.

The FDA staff will ask an advisory panel to consider whether the drug’s benefits for obese patients will outweigh its risk of birth defects and heart problems.

In documents posted online on Friday, FDA reviewers said patients taking Qnexa during a clinical trial lost more weight, and kept it off for longer, than patients taking a placebo, or sugar pill. These patients also had lower levels of problems associated with obesity, such as issues with blood pressure and blood sugar.

However, patients taking the drug had more safety problems than patients on a placebo, including memory loss and birth defects, and these problems could get worse over time.

Qnexa is a combination of appetite suppressant phentermine and anti-seizure drug topiramate.

A company study in December showed topiramate caused a higher rate of oral clefts in infants of women taking the drug during pregnancy, and the company said it would limit Qnexa to women who are not pregnant.

The FDA already rejected Qnexa in 2010 because of safety concerns — including elevated heart rate in some users and the potential for birth defects if pregnant women used the drug.

Vivus resubmitted its application in October, proposing to limit the drug to only women who cannot have children. In January, the company broadened the label to just limit pregnant women from taking the drug, in response to an FDA request.

An advisory panel of outside experts will vote Feb. 22 on whether to recommend the drug. The group’s recommendation is not binding, and the FDA is expected to make its final decision by April 17.

(Reuters Health) – Diet soda may benefit the waistline, but a new study suggests that people who drink it every day have a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke.

The study, which followed almost 2,600 older adults for a decade, found that those who drank diet soda every day were 44 percent more likely than non-drinkers to suffer a heart attack or stroke.

The findings, reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, don’t prove that the sugar-free drinks are actually to blame.

There may be other things about diet-soda lovers that explain the connection, researchers say.

“What we saw was an association,” said lead researcher Hannah Gardener, of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “These people may tend to have more unhealthy habits.”

She and her colleagues tried to account for that, Gardener told Reuters Health.

Daily diet-soda drinkers did tend to be heavier and more often have heart risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and unhealthy cholesterol levels.

That all suggests that people who were trying to shed pounds or manage existing health problems often opted for a diet soda over the sugar-laden variety.

But even after the researchers factored in those differences — along with people’s reported diet and exercise habits — they found that daily diet soda was linked to a 44-percent higher chance of heart attack or stroke.

Nevertheless, Gardener said, it’s impossible for a study to capture all the variables that could be at work.

The findings do build on a few recent studies that also found diet-soda drinkers are more likely to have certain cardiovascular risk factors, like high blood pressure or high blood sugar.

This is the first study, Gardener said, to look at actual “vascular events” — that is, heart attacks, strokes and deaths from cardiovascular causes.

The findings are based on 2,564 New York City adults who were 69 years old, on average, at the outset. Over the next decade, 591 men and women had a heart attack, stroke or died of cardiovascular causes.

That included 31 percent of the 163 people who were daily diet-soda drinkers at the study’s start. In contrast, 22 percent of people who rarely or never drank diet soda went on to have a heart attack or stroke.

There was no increased risk linked to less-than-daily consumption. Nor was regular soda tied to heart attacks and strokes.

If diet soda, itself, somehow contributes to health risks, it’s not clear how, Gardener said.

There’s research in rats suggesting that artificial sweeteners can end up boosting food intake and weight. But whether results in rodents translate to humans is unknown.

“I don’t think people should change their behavior based on this study,” Gardener said. “And I wouldn’t advocate drinking regular soda instead.”

Regular soda is high in calories, and for people who need to shed pounds, experts often suggest swapping regular soda for the diet version.

A study out this month found that the advice may be sound. Obese people who were randomly assigned to drink water or diet drinks in place of sugary ones lost about five pounds over six months.

Gardener said that further studies such as hers are still needed to confirm a connection between diet soda and cardiovascular trouble.

Ultimately, she noted, clinical trials are considered the “gold standard” for proving cause-and-effect. That would mean randomly assigning people to drink diet soda or not, and then following them over time to see if there were differences in their rates of heart problems or stroke.

A study like that, Gardener said, would be “difficult and costly” — since it would have to follow large groups of people over many years, and rely on people to stick with their assigned beverages.

SOURCE: bit.ly/widyUV Journal of General Internal Medicine, online January 27, 2012.

Get your kids addicted to these colorful, tasty, nutrient-packed superfoods, like blueberries, cocoa, cinnamon and more.

It’s a fact of life: Chips, cupcakes, and lots of other not-so-nutritionally noble foods are going to find their way into your child’s mouth. Heck, if left to their own devices, a lot of kids wouldn’t eat anything that didn’t come out of a pizza or pasta box. But that’s all the more reason to make sure the meals you serve up are packed with as much good stuff as possible. Parenting went to Rachel Beller, R.D., founder of the Beller Nutritional Institute in Beverly Hills, California, a mom of four, and an expert in eating for disease prevention, to get her top picks of true bite-for-bite nutritional powerhouses. Most important, they’re also foods kids might actually eat. Add them to this week’s shopping list!

Blueberries

They’ve ranked among the healthiest fruits for years (go, antioxidants!). Now research suggests that in addition to protecting against heart disease and diabetes and improving brain function, blueberries may also help reduce visceral “toxic” belly fat — a type of fat that has been linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Ways to get them in your kid’s diet: They’re a natural go-with breakfast choice (say, tossed into a bowl of granola and milk) and are also great in summer salads and desserts. Try making ice pops by freezing a blend of whirred-up blueberries, yogurt and some honey (after age 1).

Tofu

“Whole soy foods are an excellent source of lean protein and have potent anti-cancer benefits,” says Beller. “Tofu is great for young girls because it has a protective effect as their bodies and breast tissue are developing — which lasts into adulthood.”

Ways to get it in your kid’s diet: Dice and toss tofu into stir-fries or soups; use the silken variety as a sub for yogurt in fruit smoothies; snack on lightly boiled and salted edamame (soybeans) — the kids will have fun popping them out of the shells.

Tomatoes

They’re loaded with lycopene — a substance that protects against many cancers. Cooking tomatoes makes them even healthier because the heat releases the lycopene. Hint:

Pairing tomato-y foods with a good fat, like olive oil, helps the body absorb more. Ways to get them in your kid’s diet: Pizza and pasta sauces are obvious choices, or add tomato sauce to turkey meatballs or meatloaf if you need to disguise it. A bowl of chili and salsa for dipping are good options if you’ve got a spice lover.

Low-fat Greek yogurt

It contains healthy bacteria known to boost immunity and aid digestion, and has two to three times the amount of protein and less sugar than regular yogurt. Add a drizzle of honey (after age 1) for sweetness, a bit of maple syrup or try a squeeze of agave syrup (a sweetener with a lower glycemic index, so it won’t make your child’s blood sugar — and energy level — spike and then crash soon after breakfast). Agave is available in grocery stores, either in the organic aisle or where you’d find honey.

Cabbage

It has a mild flavor and crunch that kids tend to like better than the usual salad greens. And cruciferous veggies such as cabbage, broccoli and kale contain phytonutrients known to lower the risk for many types of cancer, as well as improve digestion. It also helps clear harmful toxins from the body by triggering the release of enzymes whose job it is to whisk them out.

Ways to get it in your kid’s diet: Make coleslaw with low-fat mayo; shred and toss it into soups or Asian noodle dishes.

Salmon

It contains heart-healthy omega-3 fats, which are also known to boost brain development, fend off depression, and have superb anti-inflammatory powers. Be sure to pick the wild kind, which is lower in mercury and higher in omega-3′s.

Best way to get your kid to eat it: Pair salmon with ingredients he already likes. Glaze salmon fillets with orange juice or brush them with teriyaki sauce. Or serve it as salmon cakes, burgers or salad (mashed and mixed with low-fat mayo).

Cocoa

You probably think of the marshmallow-studded beverage, but cocoa powder actually has one of the highest concentrations of flavonoids, a compound known to improve blood pressure and heart and oral health. They may also protect skin from sun damage. Use at least 70 percent pure cocoa and check that it isn’t processed with alkali (also called “Dutch processed”), which removes most of the flavonoids.

Ways to serve it (beyond hot cocoa): Sprinkle it on pancakes, waffles or French toast, or melt some dark chocolate and dunk strawberries in it.

Black beans

“Beans are a great source of protein, as well as fiber and calcium — two things kids tend not to get enough of. The darker the color, the better they are,” says Beller. “They also help guard against heart disease and high cholesterol, which aren’t adults-only problems. I have a nine-year-old patient with very high cholesterol.”

Ways to get them in your kid’s diet: Make nachos or quesadillas with black beans, cheese, and salsa; try black-bean veggie burgers, or whip up black-bean hummus.

Basil

This herb is packed with antioxidants — vitamins A, C, and K — as well as iron, potassium and calcium and can help improve digestion. Some research shows it may even ease headaches, notes Beller.

Ways to get it in your kid’s diet: Make pesto and spoon over chicken breasts or stir into cooked pasta. Does your kid freak out at the sight of little green flecks in his food? Welcome to the club! Grind basil up superfine and hide it in sauces, soups, and that ever-popular master of disguise, meatballs.

Cinnamon

Research shows that this spice can help regulate blood sugar, which may also minimize those all-too-common mid-morning energy crashes (kiddie meltdown!), says Beller.

Ways to get it in your kid’s diet: Sprinkle it on oatmeal, pancakes, cold cereal and yogurt, and add a few extra dashes of cinnamon to muffin or quick-bread recipes that call for it. “My kids also love it on air-popped popcorn,” says Beller. Or combine it in a shaker with cocoa and sprinkle both together for a superfood two-fer.

Most of us already know that eating less and moving more are the keys to dropping extra pounds. But if you’re already doing everything “right” and can’t seem to lose weight — or are even gaining it — you may have a hidden health condition that’s sabotaging your efforts. And the symptoms may be so subtle that even your doctor can miss them. Here, some possible weight-loss blockers — and how to get the help you need.

A Sluggish Thyroid
Your thyroid gland makes hormones that regulate the way your body uses energy. An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) disrupts your metabolism, as well as many other aspects of your health. Some estimate that as many as 10 percent of adults have hypothyroidism, which is more common in women and is most often diagnosed in the 40s and 50s.

Could this be you? Besides weight gain or an inability to lose weight, you may notice fatigue, hair loss, dry skin, joint pain and muscle weakness, heavy periods, increased sensitivity to cold, even depression. Many people with low-grade hypothyroidism just feel “off,” with no obvious signs of being truly sick.

How to get tested: Ask your internist to run a TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) screening. In general, the higher your TSH level, the slower your thyroid is. “While traditional ‘normal’ values are between .45 and 4.5, if your level is above 2, you might still struggle to lose weight,” explains Dr. Jamie Kane, M.D., medical director of Park Avenue Medical Weight and Wellness in New York City. Your doctor may also want to check your levels of T-3 and T-4, the two main thyroid hormones. But hypothyroidism isn’t always a straight numbers game; more and more doctors are now treating the symptoms, not just the blood-test results. “If a patient isn’t feeling well, it’s often because her thyroid isn’t functioning as well as it should for her body,” says Dr. Erika Schwartz, M.D., an internist in New York City.

How it’s treated: Your doc will usually start by prescribing a low-dose T-4 thyroid hormone like Synthroid. If your symptoms don’t improve, discuss upping your dosage or switching to a combination of T-3 and T-4.

Out-of-Whack Hormones
As many as 1 in 10 women of childbearing age have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition in which a woman’s ovaries produce an excess of male hormones. In addition to causing ovulation problems and infertility, PCOS may go hand-in-hand with insulin resistance, a glitch in the way your body processes blood sugar, which is often associated with excess fat storage, especially around the waist. Left untreated, insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Could this be you? You may have irregular periods, excess facial and body hair, acne, some male pattern balding, and trouble getting pregnant, along with unexplained weight gain (though not everyone with PCOS has weight issues).

How to get tested: Your gynecologist or internist can test your levels of sex hormones for an imbalance of testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen, says Dr. David Katz, M.D., director of the Yale Prevention Research Center. She may then test your blood sugar and insulin levels or perform an ultrasound to check for cysts on your ovaries.

How it’s treated: Lifestyle changes are usually the first step. If you’re already eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, you may have to kick it up another notch to see results. If you have insulin resistance, Katz says, you’ll also want to cut out refined carbs and added sugars. If you’ve made these changes and still don’t notice a difference, your doc may prescribe a drug called metformin, which is used to treat insulin resistance as well as assist with ovulation (if you’re trying to get pregnant).

Trouble-Making Foods
Most people know if they’re allergic to certain foods like nuts or shellfish, but many aren’t aware of food intolerances. While a true food allergy results when your immune system mistakenly identifies a food as harmful and mounts an immediate response, food intolerances can have a variety of causes, including lack of a certain digestive enzyme (as with lactose intolerance) or sensitivity to food additives, and tend to manifest over time, says Dr. Elizabeth W. Boham, M.D., R.D., a family practitioner at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Eating a “trouble food” — the most common being dairy, gluten, eggs, soy, corn and nuts — can lead to bloating and water-weight gain, among other symptoms. Experts estimate that food intolerances affect as many as 1 in 10 people.

Could this be you? You may regularly have bloating, gas, diarrhea, and constipation — as well as seemingly unrelated symptoms like mild asthma, eczema, headaches, muscle and joint pain, and fatigue.

How to get tested: An internist or gastroenterologist can help you diagnose the problem, but you can begin to figure it out for yourself through an elimination diet. Boham suggests that you start by removing gluten and dairy (these are the biggest culprits) from your diet for two to three weeks. If you don’t notice a difference, also eliminate eggs, corn, soy, and nuts, and consider nixing additives such as food coloring and preservatives. After a few weeks, slowly reintroduce the possible culprits, one at a time, noting any reactions.

How it’s treated: If the reaction is severe, you’ll need to cut the offending food from your diet. For mild reactions, try a daily probiotic supplement, which restores the good bacteria in your gut necessary for digestion and can help prevent bloating and water weight gain. Boham recommends one with at least 10 billion live bacteria per pill.

Pills That Pack on Pounds
Weight gain can be an unwelcome side effect of some drugs, including antidepressants, steroids, and, more rarely, birth-control pills (due to a temporary increase in water retention).

Could this be you? You may notice weight gain within a few weeks of starting a new medication, though it could take several months before you see any effects, Kane says.

How to get tested: No special test is needed; you know if you’re gaining weight.

How it’s treated: Talk to your doctor, who may be able to prescribe an alternative. In the case of anti-depressants, bupropion has been shown to cause less weight gain and possibly even lead to weight loss. With birth control pills, switching to a version with a lower dose of hormones might minimize weight gain. But remember, treating the condition you’re taking the drug for is your biggest priority, so you should never go off any meds on your own.

Copyright Health Magazine 2011

Sure, your diet keeps your body slim and healthy, but its impact doesn’t stop there.

The food you eat — from wrinkle-fighting antioxidants in fruits and vegetables to hydrating healthy fats in fish — may matter to your skin almost as much as it does to your waistline.

Is your way of noshing helping or hurting your complexion? We asked top docs for their take on the face-friendliness of six popular diets.

Read on to see if yours passes the beauty test, and find out how you can alter what you eat for A-plus skin.

Mediterranean

(such as The Mediterranean Diet and The Mediterranean Prescription)

The lowdown: Fish, leafy greens, olive oil, and fruit are the stars of this heart-healthy, waist-whittling diet. But the benefits don’t end there — eating Mediterranean may also protect against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, a recent Italian study suggests.

On the cosmetic front, omega-3 fatty acids in fish help keep skin-cell membranes strong and elastic. And antioxidants in leafy greens and olive oil may protect against ultraviolet light and other environmental assaults that can break down collagen and elastin, the structural supports that keep skin plump and smooth. Result: less sagging and fewer wrinkles later.

Olive oil, tomatoes, and red wine also have antioxidants that help block the chemical reactions that lead to sun damage, explains Leslie Baumann, M.D., chief executive officer of the Baumann Cosmetic and Research Institute in Miami Beach, Florida.

Skin Rx: Red wine contains resveratrol, an antioxidant that’s great for skin — but sip in moderation. Overdoing it can dehydrate you, leaving skin dry. Too much alcohol can also generate free radicals, which can break down collagen, leading to wrinkles, Baumann says.

Vegetarian/vegan

(such as “The New Becoming Vegetarian” and “Skinny Bitch”)

The lowdown: Whether you skip meat and other animal products for your health, ethical reasons, or both, you probably eat more fresh produce and whole grains as a result — good news for your skin. The antioxidants in these eats neutralize the free radicals that contribute to wrinkles, brown spots, and other signs of aging.

Plant-based protein sources may also have super skin benefits. For example, beans contain zit-battling zinc and decrease inflammation, a culprit behind redness, pimples, and premature wrinkles, says Nicholas Perricone, M.D., author of “Forever Young: The Science of Nutrigenomics for Glowing, Wrinkle-Free Skin and Radiant Health at Every Age.” On the other hand, some studies suggest that dairy contributes to acne, Dr. Baumann says; consider other protein sources if breakouts are a problem.

Skin Rx: Veggie diets tend to be low in fat, so incorporate ground flaxseeds and olive and safflower oils to help your skin retain water, making it more supple, Baumann says.

High-protein, low-carb

(such as South Beach Diet and Atkins)

The lowdown: First, the good news: Cutting back on white bread, pasta, and refined sugar in order to fight flab can also lower the secretion of the stress hormone cortisol and minimize breakouts, says Manhattan dermatologist Francesca Fusco, M.D. Moderate plans that swap in whole grains, fresh produce, and lean meats also up antioxidants, blemish-busting zinc, and collagen-building protein.

But beware of more meat-heavy plans: Getting some cholesterol from red meat will shore up skin cells’ protective lipid layer, but “eating too much animal fat can result in an increased production of free radicals, which are thought to interfere with normal cellular processing,” says New York City–based aesthetic dermatologist Lisa Airan, M.D. “This may cause premature cell death,” which can lead to sagging skin.

Skin Rx: Drink lots of water to keep skin hydrated. Choose fish and other lean proteins — not just saturated fat-laden red meat. Eat antioxidant-rich leafy greens daily.

Low-fat

(such as “Eat More, Weigh Less”)

The lowdown: Cutting down on saturated fat — found in red meat and whole milk — is great for your heart and waistline. A diet low in animal fat also stems the production of free radicals that can prematurely age skin, Airan says.

Still, your skin needs some fat, especially the good kind found in nuts and olive oil. Fat helps your body absorb complexion-friendly antioxidants and fat-soluble vitamins, and strengthens cell membranes — and ultimately your epidermis — for a dewier, more supple face.

Skin Rx: Eat a little fat. “Get at least 20 percent of your calories from fat, mainly the unsaturated kind,” says New York City dermatologist Cheryl Karcher, M.D. Sauté veggies in olive oil, toss nuts into salads, and keep omega-3-rich salmon, flaxseeds, and the occasional fortified egg in your diet. Linoleic acid, found in vegetable oils, is “crucial for bolstering the skin barrier, which keeps moisture in and irritants out of your skin,” Dr. Baumann says.

Raw

(such as “Raw Food Life Force Energy”)

The lowdown: Raw-foodists — who nosh mainly on produce, nuts, and sprouted beans and grains — believe that not cooking food preserves its natural enzymes, aiding digestion, energy, and weight loss. Though these claims aren’t universally accepted by doctors, there’s no denying that these foods make for a happy complexion.

What’s more, the healthy oils in nuts, avocados, and olive oil keep skin cell membranes strong and pliant. The downside: “When you eat very little meat, it’s challenging to get enough of the building blocks for collagen,” Airan says.

Skin Rx: Sneak in sprouted beans, sushi, soy, and other raw proteins for collagen, and incorporate healthy fat sources like almonds, flaxseeds, and olive oil to help build firm skin cells.

Copyright Health Magazine 2011

(CNN) — In middle school, Taylor LeBaron struggled to fit into his seat. The desks in class had a ceramic plate attached to the chair.

“I was so large, I couldn’t fit in there,” said LeBaron, now 19. “Every other student could. I couldn’t get my legs to fit underneath the desk or my stomach to fit between the chair without getting the desk stuck with me.

“It was really embarrassing. When class is over, everyone gets up, I would take a few minutes extra, tactfully maneuvering out without looking like a fool.”

But LeBaron, who weighed nearly 300 pounds at age 14, never requested a separate table and chair because he didn’t want to draw more attention to himself.

Taylor LeBaron, at nearly 300 pounds, struggled to fit in his seat during middle school.

As children are getting bigger, their clothing, their furniture and other objects that support their weight must also expand.

Seventeen percent of children are obese, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And one in three kids is obese or overweight. The rate of childhood obesity has tripled to the point that pediatricians say growth charts no longer apply to today’s kids.

To accommodate larger kids, some schools have instructions for teachers to provide separate chairs and desks for students who cannot fit into the pupil chairs. And school furniture makers are increasing the size of chairs and desks to accommodate larger students.

“Other students snickered as I would try to get out of my chair,” LeBaron recalled. “You could hear them snickering. You don’t forget how that feels — that embarrassment and that redness in your face.”

Being set apart from peers by sitting in a different chair means “their peers recognize them as large, different,” said Dr. Phil Wu, a pediatrician who leads Kaiser Permanente’s pediatric obesity prevention and treatment effort.

“At all ages, kids don’t want to feel different,” Wu said. “They get ostracized by the peers in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. It’s more of that social psychological impact that’s insidious in a way that’s more profound than what the child might experience than sitting in a standard seat.”

These chairs from Academia Furniture Industries show the range of sizes from 12 to 19 inches.

Hertz Furniture, a company that resells office and school furniture, started offering 19-inch chairs for schools three years ago. The biggest desks available before had a height of 18 inches. The taller chairs have deeper depth and wider seating.

“The desks are getting larger, because if their thighs are larger, you have to move the desks up,” said Amy Hoffman, Hertz’s director of marketing.

Newer student desks with adjustable heights can accommodate bigger bodies. The student seats are designed to look just like the other ones, so they don’t make obese students appear different from their peers.

“That is an obesity trend reflected in the furniture,” said Tom Brennan, president of School Outfitters, which sells school furniture. “For perspective, when we look at import product from China, you can tell the difference from the China market and the U.S. market. The buckets are generally not wide enough. They have to be designed specifically for the U.S.”

Shawn Green, vice president of design and product marketing for KI, a company that designs and manufactures school and hospital furnishings, said the diameter of the metal, the supporting structure and the width, depth and height of school chairs have to be modified to work in the American market.

‘Hard to be a little girl if you’re not’

“People are not only heavier but also getting taller,” Green said. “In general, we’re getting bigger in scale; that affects children as well.”

Chairs made for older and bigger students are being used in middle and elementary schools to comfortably fit overweight and obese students. Schools prefer the “big and tall” sizes for educational furniture, said Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet.com, which sells office and school furniture.

In the past five years, the biggest seats have been selling better than the standard sizes, he added. These items also cost more.

It’s not just school desks that don’t fit.

A 2005 Pediatrics study found limited child safety seats for the increasing number of obese young children.

“There was a risk of kids not being covered for safety,” said the study author, Lara McKenzie. “If there are bigger kids, maybe there are some safety devices or equipment that wouldn’t fit them properly.”

The study suggested that car seats should maximize “the protection of obese children.” Another study in 2009 suggested that most children in the study were too heavy to be compliant with child safety seat laws.

Childhood obesity affects their safety in matters beyond child seats and ill-fitting school furniture. Obese kids are more likely to get heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure and are more prone to diabetes, bone and joint problems. Their health problems are also more likely to follow into adulthood.

In extreme cases, pediatricians have reported toddlers with hip displacement problems from carrying too much weight and metabolic abnormalities in their insulin, liver enzymes and cholesterol — usually problems detected in older adults.

Children of this generation have exceeded the growth charts used in the United States since 1977. These charts are a series of percentile curves that illustrate how young children grow.

“Right now, if we say that 15 or 17% of all kids are over 95th percentile for obesity, statistically that doesn’t make sense,” Wu said.

But that’s what has happened.

“Compared to a population of Americans when these growth charts were created, more and more people today are exceeding what would’ve been the top percentile for weight and BMI back then,” he said.

It’s not a matter in whether the growth charts need to be redone, Wu said.

“Our population today has become so large that now, it looks like more and more people are over the limits. It just highlights the problem that we have.”

LeBaron, now 19, lost about 150 pounds during his teenage years.

LeBaron, who wrote about his battle with teenage obesity in his book “Cutting Myself in Half,” said the safety bar at amusement park rides barely locked over his abdomen. He couldn’t find T-shirts with the style he liked in his size.

Clothing is often an issue. Many obese kids and teenagers find that the plus sizes aren’t fashionable. At his peak weight, LeBaron wore 42-inch-waist pants and triple-X-large shirts.

People of that size don’t have many choices except sheet-like T-shirts in bland solid colors, LeBaron said.

“It was difficult because I’d go into Walmart or another clothing store, I found something cool, like a video game T-shirt, and I wanted to get it,” he said. “It’s not in my size. If they did, I’d have to dig through special drawer of extended sizes. It really hurt. They’re setting you apart.”

In recent years, the apparel industry has paid more attention to the growing size of kids, tweens and teens. Retailers such as the Gap, Forever 21, Old Navy and Target have plus-sized clothing lines for kids and teenagers. The boy’s plus sizes with bigger waist sizes and baggier tees are called “husky.”

It’s a growing trend criticized by MeMe Roth, founder and president of the National Action Against Obesity.

“Anyone making money off this health crisis for children should be ashamed of themselves,” she said. “I’m not surprised people want to benefit from it. There’s such a demand. That’s a societal failing that there’s a hyper growth for plus-sized children.”

Kids should be able to dress in fashionable clothing, but Roth said the fact that children need special sizes is a major health concern.

“Our kids should be the healthiest,” she said. “If outside influences were causing damage to our children this way, a nation or a group, we would be at war. … We should be angry that this is happening to children.”

The shame and embarrassment didn’t motivate LeBaron to get healthier, he said. Instead, it just made him depressed and overcame the confidence that he could ever change. He would retreat home and eat junk food.

What helped, he explained, was having people around him who brought a balance of honesty and compassion, who wanted him to feel good about himself by encouraging healthy choices. Receiving a gym membership gift from his grandparents and hitting 290 pounds spurred LeBaron to start exercising.

LeBaron, now a college freshman in Georgia, lost 152 pounds. One of his proudest moments was being able to shop at Macy’s instead of a special plus-size store.

Shredded is a term used to describe somebody who has extremely low body fat levels. I’m not talking about somebody who is lean, has definition and you can see their abs. A person who is shredded, like some bodybuilders, has skin that is like cellophane. You’d swear they didn’t have skin at all because you can see the striations in every muscle. Getting to the point of being shredded is extremely difficult. It’s so difficult that most bodybuilders who put 110 percent effort into attaining this appearance for a contest fail.

Because of the amount of effort involved — primarily because maintaining this look is such a harsh condition for the body — being shredded is a transient state. Bodybuilders and models alike attain this condition for their respective competitions and photo shoots. Once the event is over, many return back to a lean state, while some get completely out of shape. The pictures of shredded individuals you see in advertisements claiming a product made them that way are simply lying.

Advertisements for losing body fat are everywhere, making outrageous claims, peddling miracle supplements and exercise machines. But are there products, supplements or machines that can really make you Shredded, Ripped, Cut Up, Lean? Unfortunately, for the legions of people who have wasted their money, there is no product that if used alone will make them shredded. However, there are products that can help you reach your goal, and we’ll be discussing these later in this article.

One of my favorite mottoes is, “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.” Another one of my favorites is, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” So when you see an ad that makes a claim like, “Ripped abs in 6 weeks by using the Thingamajig!” or “I just took one youbetcha pill a day and got shredded in 4 weeks!” — don’t give it a second look. There is so much more to getting shredded than taking a pill or using a thingamajig.

In order to change the way your body looks, you have to change your lifestyle. In order to change your lifestyle, you have to educate yourself. Haphazardly making changes and expecting results is like driving to a place you’ve never been without a map and expecting to get there. Even when you have a map, there are unexpected hurdles. The key is to be patient, remain motivated, and make adjustments when necessary.

Getting Ripped 101

THE CALORIE THEORY

Many so-called experts think there is only one thing that matters when trying to lose weight: calories consumed versus calories used. They try to lead you to believe that a calorie of protein is equal to a calorie of fat is equal to a calorie of carbs, and that all you have to do is cut down the amount consumed to lose body fat. In order for this to be true, the physiological processes by which the human body transforms food into energy – metabolism – would have to be the same for every type of food. This is a simplistic, unscientific and untenable view.

All macronutrients — including fats, carbohydrates and proteins — contain energy. The energy contained in food is expressed as calories. We tend to associate calories with food, but in reality, calories apply to anything. For example, a gallon of gasoline contains approximately 31 million calories.

A calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius at sea level. What does this mean? A Double Whopper with cheesecontains 960 calories. If we were to burn this burger, it would produce 960 calories — enough energy to raise 960 kilograms of water 1 degree Celsius.

Calorie is a shortened name for kilocalories, to reflect the simplified math. A kilocalorie contains 1,000 calories, so the Double Whopper with cheese is actually 960,000 calories. Now don’t get your panties in a bunch — this simplified math also applies to exercise calorie charts. If the piece of cardio equipment you’re using says you burned 200 calories, it’s simplified for 200,000 calories. However, don’t rely on exercise equipment charts — they are grossly inaccurate. This is due to several factors, mainly genetics, because the rate at which individuals burn calories varies greatly and cannot be measured on a piece of cardio equipment.

Calories can and are measured in a sealed device called a “calorimeter” which locks in heat of burning food. A small vacuum container of water is contained above the food. Once the food is completely burned, the temperature of the water is measured. The rise in temperature will determine the amount of calories. While the calorimeter can show the total amount of energy in a serving of Fruit Loops, it cannot account for what the human body doesn’t absorb, or the energy used in the digestion and assimilation of it. It also cannot show one’s ability and efficiency to use food as energy, as opposed to storing it as fat.

Does counting the number of calories consumed matter, or is it even necessary when trying to lose weight? No! Counting calories is completely inaccurate and a waste of time. Our bodies do not process food like a calorimeter. The assertion that macronutrients are all processed the same between individuals is just foolish. Yet, this is the basis for the calorie theory.

Macro Nutrients

CARBOHYDRATES: THE SMOKING GUN

The enemy of weight loss and health is not fat, protein or carbohydrates. It’s the types of these foods, along with other man-made substances consumed, in the low fat/high carbohydrate diet that has been forced upon us by the medical community, food and edible oil industries. Started in the mid 1950s as the Lipid Hypothesis , this politically correct diet has been a dismal failure. We are getting fatter and unhealthier because we are eating anything other than what our bodies are designed to process. Add to this the fact that most Americans get the vast majority of their physical activity walking to and from their cars, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Although a lack of physical activity has a part to play in our being fat, carbohydrates, especially simple carbs or sugar, shoulder most of the blame. The sole purpose of carbohydrates is to provide energy. Whatever your body doesn’t use as fuel, is stored as fat. Carbohydrates are a non-essential nutrient, meaning humans do not need to consume them for survival or even health. Our bodies function perfectly — and are much healthier — without carbohydrates, especially sugars and starches.

In order to understand why carbohydrates are your worst enemy when trying to get lean, you have to understand insulin. Insulin is the fat storage hormone. Quite simply, the higher your insulin levels, the more you store food as fat.

As you eat carbs, the body breaks them down into a simple, more absorbable sugar called glucose. The glucose is then transported to the blood stream. As your blood glucose levels rise, this sends a signal to the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin governs the processing of glucose. Without insulin, as with type I diabetics, glucose levels will rise, eventually causing ketoacidosis. If not treated, it will cause death.

Glucose is processed by insulin in two different ways. As glucose levels rise, insulin converts a portion of it to glycogen, which is stored in the muscle cells and the liver. Once all the storage space is taken up (and it doesn’t take much especially if you don’t exercise), insulin will convert the rest to triglycerides and store it as adipose tissue – fat. Insulin is a facilitator of lipogenesis, or fat storage, and is a deterrent to lipolysis, or the breaking down of fat for energy. Even low levels of circulating insulin have been shown to prevent the breakdown of fat to be used as energy. Hence, as stated above, insulin is the fat storage hormone.

Does fat make you fat?

We tend to refer to them as oils if they’re liquid at room temperature, like olive oil. And we refer to them as fat if they are solid at room temperature, like beef tallow, coconut oil or butter. But whether liquid or solid, they’re all fat.

Technically called lipids, fats and oils are made up of many different types of fatty acids. Fatty acids are the same whether they come from plants or animals. Oleic acid that is found in olive oil is exactly the same as the oleic acid found in lard (pig fat). What many don’t know is that lard is actually a monounsaturated fat. It’s the proportions of fatty acids that will vary from plant to plant, from animal to animal, and from plant to animal.

A fatty acid is a molecule that is made up of a chain of carbon atoms. These chains can vary in length from 1 to 24 carbons. Fatty acids are given their names based on how long the chain is, and at what position the “unsaturation” occurs. If the fatty acid is saturated, then the carbon chain length determines the name.

What is a saturated fat? Each carbon atom in the fatty acid chain has room for two hydrogen molecules, except at the end where it has room for three. A fatty acid with two hydrogen atoms for every carbon atom in the chain is said to be saturated.

A fatty acid missing two or more hydrogen atoms along the chain, which causes double bonds between carbon atoms, is said to be unsaturated. If there is one double bond, the fatty acid is referred to as monounsaturated. If there are two or more double bonds found along the chain, the fatty acid is referred to as polyunsaturated.

Fat has many functions in addition to being used as an energy source, and unlike carbohydrates, certain fats are essential. Without consuming essential fatty acids (like omega-3), attaining optimum health is virtually impossible. A diet deficient in omega-3s, like the typical western diet, is a major risk factor in the pathologies of several diseases like cancer, depression, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular disease (1-4). Including the right fats in your diet will not only improve your health, but aid in fat loss.

But how does fat help us get lean? Fat satiates the appetite, and helps to stop the cravings for sugar. But probably most importantly, fat — when combined with a low carbohydrate intake — actually aids in burning fat as fuel. That’s right — fat helps burn fat! When fat is restricted, our bodies have a defense mechanism built in for survival. Our bodies will actually stop using fat as fuel in an effort to preserve our stores for future use.

Bodybuilders and fitness competitors have known this for years simply through trial and error, while dieting for competitions. Many bodybuilders while dieting for shows would reach a certain body fat percentage and suddenly plateau for no apparent reason. We found that by adding fat to the diet (like olive oil, flaxseed oil, or especially coconut oil) it would jump-start the body to burn body fat.

Sounds bizarre doesn’t it? Especially since it goes against what we’ve been taught: in order to lose fat you have to cut fat from your diet. But the reality is, fat burns fat. However, just adding fat to the diet doesn’t ensure you’ll get lean; you need to consume the right types of fat and eat a diet low in carbs. For a more in-depth explanation on the different types of fats, and which ones to include in your diet and which ones exclude, read “Fats, cholesterol and the lipid hypothesis”.

Protein is #1

Protein is by far the single most important nutrient/supplement you can consume in your quest to get lean, and add muscle and strength. Protein repairs and maintains everything in our bodies from hormones to muscles to bones. Proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids. There are nine essential amino acids. Essential meaning we have to ingest these for survival because our bodies cannot manufacture them. Many researchers now believe we have many other amino acids that should be considered “conditionally essential,” because of their significance and our inefficiency at producing them. These include glutamine, arginine, cysteine, taurine, glycine, tyrosine and proline.

Consciously consuming a diet low in protein has no benefit; it is not based on good science, and merely a matter of ignorance. If your protein intake or quality is low, your body will get the essential aminos it needs from its most abundant storage system — muscle tissue. The International Society of Sports Nutrition, in a 2007 position statement, concluded that bodybuilders and strength/power athletes require just under a gram of protein per pound of body weight per day (5), consistent with my recommendation of 1 gram per pound of lean body weight. However, if you train intensely, which is how you should train, empirical data suggests you may need upwards of 1.5 g/lb. Have no fear — this extra protein will not make you fat.

Protein, in and of itself, has little to do with getting fat; protein consumption is inversely related to fat accumulation. The more protein you eat, the more fat you burn as fuel. Protein consumption is directly related to thermogenesis and satiety through multiple mechanisms (6-8). It’s what you eat, more than how much you eat, that will determine how lean, strong and muscular you will get.

As discussed earlier, a calorie is not a calorie. A calorie of a carbohydrate does not equate to a calorie of protein when being metabolized in our bodies. Protein calories are not likely to be stored as fat, as compared to carbs, because protein requires more energy to metabolize and assimilate and has numerous functions. Carbs are simply an energy source, and if not used as fuel, they are stored as fat without much effort. Carbs, unlike protein, also stimulate the release of high amounts of insulin, the fat storage hormone.

Protein consumption is not only good for overall health, it’s essential to building muscular size and strength. If you do not consume enough quality protein — and I stress quality — you will not only put a halt to your efforts to have a leaner, more muscular body, you can actually lose some of the muscle you’re working so hard to get. And what burns fat as fuel? Muscle. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism.

The lean advantage

Getting lean is a lifestyle. Genetics play a part, as with anything concerning the physiology of the human body, in your ability to get lean. But even the genetically gifted, who can eat more carbs or snack more often than you, will fail without a proper lifestyle which includes consuming the right foods and exercise.

A proper diet will have the biggest impact on one’s quest to get lean. If you continue to eat the wrong food, there isn’t a training program or a supplement that will get you to your goal. As discussed earlier, if you’re looking for that magic pill or exercise to get you shredded, stop. There is no such thing. If you want to get lean, especially shredded, you are going to have to make a huge commitment to yourself. The word sacrifice also comes to mind.

With the basics of macro-nutrition under your belt, it’s time to put it all together. Start by eliminating all processed or convenience foods from your diet. Taking this first step in and of itself will cause you to lose some body fat. The farther away food is from its natural state, the worse it is for you. No more boxed this, or frozen that. Choose as many whole, organic foods as you can.

Take time now to look at the Banned Foods List and the Accepted Foods List. Become familiar with the foods in both lists, as they will help you make better choices at the grocery store.

Once you’ve stocked your home with the right foods, you’re now ready to start on your path to getting lean. You’ll need to keep a “Daily Nutrition Progress Report” for at least four days before you make any changes to get an average macro-nutrient intake at your current body fat level. You can’t possible make accurate changes to your diet without knowing what you’ve been eating at your current state. The macronutrients to be concerned with are carbs and protein.

Once you’ve calculated your averages, make the following changes:

• Calculate 75 percent of your current average carb intake. For example, if your average over four days is 250g, multiply that by 0.75 and it will give you 187.5g.
• If your protein intake is below 1g per pound of body weight, raise it to at least that amount.

Outside of changing your diet to whole natural foods, carbohydrate manipulation will be the most important aspect of your diet, and the key to your success. Make sure to eat at least four times per day, no matter what amount of macronutrients you’re consuming. The goal is to try and eat every two to three hours.

In this program you are going to have high carb days and low carb days. Your high day is going to be your four-day average. Your low day is going to be 75 percent of your high day. Organize your high and low days one after another. So if Monday is your high day, Tuesday will be your low day and so on. Never go over the amounts of carbs on either day. If you’re hungry and you’ve eaten your total number of carbs for that day, have more protein and vegetables. Conversely, if you’re not quite as hungry on a certain day, it’s perfectly fine not to eat your quota of carbs. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full.

Maintain the same number of macronutrients for at least three weeks. This will allow enough time for you to see whether or not you’re getting results. If at the end of three weeks you’re still losing body fat, keep consuming the same amounts. Do not make changes until your body hits a plateau. Once you’ve stopped losing body fat, drop your low day by another 10 percent. Keep your high day the same and eat more protein and vegetables when you’re hungry.

The control you have with this type of diet is a huge advantage. For instance, let’s say your low carb days this week land on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And your high days are on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You are going out to dinner on Friday night and would really like to enjoy yourself, but it’s supposed to be your low carb day. Instead of keeping your low day on Friday, make Thursday a low day and Friday the high day. Now your week will look like the following:

Monday = low

Tuesday = high

Wednesday = low

Thursday = low (normally your high day)

Friday = high (the night of your dinner)

Saturday then becomes your low day and you start going every other day again.

Manipulating carb days like this does not give you free reign to eat whatever you want; you are still expected to make healthy choices. This is a method used to cushion the blow to your efforts in getting lean, while going out to eat or attending a party. If your goal is to get lean, there is no reason to stop living. However, as discussed earlier, if attaining a shredded look is what you want, be prepared to sacrifice a great deal. Whatever your goal is, this program is designed to be used for the long haul.

The longer you are on this program the more in tune you’ll become with your body. The more in tune with your body you become, the greater the changes to your body. And with these changes will come a great deal of motivation. You’ll discover how different foods affect your body, including how they make you feel. You may find that when you eat pasta regularly, even though you stay within your carb quota, you feel bloated and don’t seem to lose as much body fat as when you eat whole grain rice or oatmeal. This is why it is imperative you keep a “Daily Nutrition Progress Report.” If you don’t keep a record of where you’ve been, it’s hard to make accurate adjustments when you end up off course.

Supplementing your success

Supplements are supposed to supplement a proper diet and training program. If your diet is piss-poor, and your training is sporadic, supplements are not going to help. Unfortunately, even with all the evidence out there, charlatans relying on pseudoscience get away with peddling their wares to ignorant consumers with hopes of an easy way to get lean, muscular, strong or all the above.

I’m going to cut to the chase. Because of all the misinformation out there, supplements can be a very controversial and misunderstood subject. Below you’ll find a list of very popular supplements and a brief description of each. I will also let you know which ones work and which ones don’t.
Protein: By far the most important macronutrient in food and supplements you can consume. When your protein sources come from grass-fed ruminant animals, free-range fowl, free-range eggs, and wild-caught fish, you are consuming the most nutritious foods on the planet. Getting away from mass production of foods and returning to local farming would have a huge impact toward improving the health of this nation.

If I had to choose just one supplement to take, protein in the form of micellar casein (MC) would be it. MC, also known as milk protein isolate or milk protein concentrate, has one of the most impressive amino acid profiles. MC has a slow rate of digestion, which gives the user enhanced satiety, and leads to its anti-catabolic properties.

MC’s role as an anti-catabolic is unopposed by any other protein. However, one needs to create an anabolic environment also in order to build muscle and get lean. Whey protein comes in three forms: concentrate, isolate and hydrolysate. Concentrate is the least expensive and has the lowest amount of protein per serving. This also equates to lower levels of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA). Isolates are a purer form of whey protein and usually provide 95 percent or more per serving, with a higher BCAA content than concentrates. Hydrolysates are the purest and most rapidly absorbed form of whey, with the highest biological value (BV) of any protein. BV is a measure of how well nitrogen is retained after ingesting a protein source. Muscle cannot repair and build without adequate amounts of nitrogen.

Whey protein is known for its fast delivery of amino acids into the blood stream and into the muscle cells almost immediately after consumption, which elicits its anabolic effects. It would be most beneficial to use an MC/whey mix throughout the day and before you go to sleep. This will give you a steady flow of amino acids throughout the day and during most of the night. The best time to consume whey protein is before, during and after your workout, and upon rising from a good night’s sleep.

Coconut Oil: Taken from the fruit portion of the seed of the coconut palm tree, coconut oil is one the most beneficial foods you can consume. There is an array of positive research published in the last few years showing the significance of coconut oil (9-11). Coconut oil is the most saturated of all fats. Saturated fat has three subcategories: short chain, medium chain and long chain. Coconut oil contains approximately 65 percent medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). The saturated medium chain lipid, lauric acid, which comprises more than 50 percent of coconut oil, is the anti-bacterial, anti-viral fatty acid found in mother’s milk (12). But it’s the MCFA’s thermogenic (fat burning) effect that we’re most concerned about.

Researchers compared the thermogenic effect between MCFA’s and long chain fatty acids (LCFAs), like those found in vegetable oil after single meals. The meals were 400 calories and consisted entirely of either MCFAs or LCFAs. The thermogenic effect of MCFAs over six hours was three times greater than that of LCFAs. Researchers concluded that as long as the calorie level remained constant, substituting MCFAs for LCFA s would result in weight loss (13). The same number of calories from two different substances yielded different outcomes. How weird.

A study was conducted by researchers at McGill University to evaluate existing data describing the effects of MCFAs on energy expenditure, and to determine their efficacy as agents in the treatment of obesity. They reported that several different studies have shown weight loss equivalent to 12 to 36 pounds a year simply by changing the types of oils used in everyday cooking and food preparation. Animal and human studies have shown greater energy expenditure, less body weight gain, and decreased size of fatty deposits when using MCFAs as opposed to LCFAs (14, 15). How about that calorie theory?
Omega-3 fatty acids: Omega – 3 fatty acids have been referred to as a miracle fat with good reason. These fatty acids are polyunsaturated and refer to a family of fatty acids where the first double bond occurs in the third position. In previous articles and columns I discuss the fact that polyunsaturated fats/oils like soy, corn and canola should be avoided.

The best way to obtain these essential fatty acids is to consume them in their original packaging like wild-caught fish, or by taking a quality supplement. I highly recommend Neutraceutical Science Institute and Flameout.

Omega-3s are an essential part of any diet. In addition to all the health benefits associated with these fats; omega-3s have body fat composition benefits (16-18). They help you lose body fat.
Nitric oxide: Nitric oxide (NO) is a very powerful chemical that, among many functions, regulates blood flow. NO dilates blood vessels and lowers blood pressure, which allows blood to flow more freely. It’s this increase in blood flow that has led many in the supplement industry to infer a better delivery of nutrients to muscle cells, which they equate to more muscle. That is one hell of a stretch and just doesn’t hold water.

The NO supplements of today are basically the same as the arginine products of the 80s; they’re just marketing them differently. Unfortunately, for NO proponents the level of arginine in the blood has little to do with NO production, and consequently has nothing to do with increasing blood flow. If we could increase NO production through diet or supplements, because of the decrease in blood pressure that occurs with higher NO levels, we would have had anecdotal reports of lower blood pressure and syncope (fainting). These types of reports have not occurred, nor have they been found in research.

Need some evidence? Read Robinson et al
Hot-Rox Extreme: a Biotest product, it’s the only fat burner that I’ve used since ephedrine was first banned that has produced any noticeable results. I have found that even without changing my diet, I will notice a reduction in body fat over a 60 day period. Now I’m not saying this product by itself will make you lean. However, used in conjunction with a proper diet it will enhance your efforts.
Energy drinks: There are so many companies out there claiming their energy drinks produce long term energy with an enhanced ability to lose body fat. I have tried many different products, and have had many of my friends and colleagues try them as well. I have yet to find one that works.
Soy products: We have been led to believe that soy is a health food. However, in the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Poisonous Plant Database, which contains references to the scientific literature describing studies of the toxic properties and effects of plants and plant parts, there are 288 records under soy (19). The deleterious effects soy has on our bodies are caused by several different substances, but I’m going to briefly review one for the purposes of this article.

The substances contained in soybeans that will hinder your body fat loss are goitrogens. These are naturally occurring and interfere with the function of the thyroid gland. Goitrogens get their name from the term “goiter,” which means enlargement of the thyroid gland. Foods that contain goitrogens include broccoli, cabbage, mustard, peanuts, turnips, brussels sprouts and others. However, unlike soy, cooking or fermentation easily neutralizes the goitrogens in these foods. Heat, pressure or chemical (alkaline) solutions commonly used in processing soy will neither deactivate nor remove goitrogens (20). They are virtually in all soy foods, with the highest concentration being in products that are not fermented, like soy milk, protein and baby formula.

Lean principles

As usual, like I do with all topics, I’ve provided you with no-nonsense information. If implemented properly, this information will help you on your quest to get lean. It will not be easy, especially getting to the point of being shredded, and will take a lot of dedication, patience and self-motivation. Use the basic principles below to get on the right path to changing your lifestyle, which will positively change your life.

• Eliminate all processed convenience foods from your diet.
• Eat whole natural foods.
• Eat at least four times per day.
• Eat protein with every meal.
• Keep a Daily Nutrition Progress Report.
• Eliminate all store-bought oils like soy, corn or canola.
• Don’t consume any product that contains “vegetable oil,” “hydrogenated vegetable oil,” “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” or “shortening” listed as one of the ingredients.
• Include fats like coconut oil, omega-3s, and raw butter in your diet.
• Use coconut oil and raw butter for cooking and frying. Olive oil can also be used for one time frying, but it doesn’t contain the MCTs of coconut oil and butter.
• Exercise intensely two to four times per week. Progressive resistance training is imperative.
• Do not perform slow or moderate cardio unless you enjoy it. It will have little to no effect on your weight loss over the long haul compared to more intense exercise.
• Get adequate sleep.

SOURCES

1. Blaylock, Russel, ed. “Omega-3: Nature’s Miracle Panacea”. The Blaylock Wellness Report. April, 2005; 2(4).

2. Simopoulos, Artemis.  “Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Inflammation and Autoimmune Diseases”. J Amer Coll Nutr. 2002; 21(6):495-505.

3. Din, Jehangir N., David E Newby, Andrew D Flapan. “Omega-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular disease – fighting for a natural treatment“. BMJ. 2004;328:30-35.

4. “Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids“. AMH Recommendation. Americanheart.org.

5. Campbell, B et al. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2007, 4:8.

6. Veldhorst, M et al. “Protein induced satiety: effects and mechanisms of different proteins“. Physiological Behavior. 2008;94(2).

7. “The effects of high protein diets on thermogenesis, satiety and weight loss: a critical reiew“. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004;23(5).

8. Paddon-Jones, D et al. “Protein, weight management, and satiety”. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2008;87(5):1558S-1561S.

9. Enig, Mary. “A New Look at Coconut Oil“. westonaprice.org.

10. Rethinam, P. Muhatoyo. “The Plain Truth About Coconut Oil“.

11. Enig, Mary. “Latest studies on coconut oil”. Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts. Spring,2006;7(1).

12. Enig, Mary. “Know Your Fats”. Silver Spring: Bethesda Press, 2000.

13. Seaton, T.B., et al. “Thermogenic effect of medium chain and long chain triglycerides in man”. Am J of Clin Nutr.1986;44:630.

14. Hill, J., et al. “Thermogenesis in humans during overfeeding with medium chain triglycerides“. Metabolism.1989 July;38(7)641-8.

15. Jones, P. “Physiological effects of medium-chain triglycerides: potential agents in the prevention of obesity“. J Nutr. 2002 March;132(3):329-32.

16. Hill, AM., et al. “Combining fish-oil supplements with regular aerobic exercise improves body composition and cardiovascular disease risk factors“.

17. Kabir, M., et al. “Treatment for 2 mo with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids reduces adiposity and some atherogenic factors but does not improve insulin sensitivity in women with type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled study“. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;86(6):1670-79.

18. Thorsdottir, I., et al. “Randomized trial of weight loss diets for young adults varying in fish and fish oil content“. Int J Obesity. 2007;31:1560-66.

19. FDA Poisonous Plant Database.

20. Daniel, Kayla T. “The Whole Soy Story”. Washington, New Trends Publishing, 2005.

Fat loss supplements are a very popular and effective way to burn fat. But did you know you can amplify the benefits of a fat loss supplement by doing a few simple things? You sure can! This article will provide some tips on how to boost fat loss while taking a fat burner or fat loss supplement.

Before we dive into the tips, let’s take a brief look at 4 common fat loss supplement categories:

• Thermogenic Fat Burners
• Stimulant-Free Thermogenics
• Appetite Suppressants
• Thyroid Regulators

Thermogenic fat burners are designed to raise your body temperature, your metabolic rate and the amount of calories you burn. This means you will burn more calories during the day, even when resting. Stimulant-Free thermogenics fat burners are designed to provide amazing results for those who prefer to steer clear of stimulants.

Appetite suppressants help you to feel full, and to reduce hunger. Since you won’t be craving food, it becomes easier to lose weight. The last category of fat loss supplements is thyroid regulators. A thyroid regulator helps you to achieve consistent and proper thyroid functioning, and allows the body to burn fat properly.

Tip 1: Eat Your Protein

You don’t need to be a bodybuilder to benefit from additional protein consumption and supplementation. Protein is the most thermogenic macronutrient. It requires more energy to process protein than it does carbohydrates or fats. Therefore, protein is nature’s fat burner of choice.

By eating a larger percentage of your calories from high protein foods, you will burn more fat, and assist your body in retaining lean muscle mass while dieting.

Muscle mass also helps you to burn fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body will require each day. Muscle mass provides a natural boost to your metabolism, so the more you have, the easier it becomes to burn fat.

Protein supplements such as whey protein powder, casein protein powder, protein bars and meal replacements can assist you in making sure you eat enough daily protein.

Tip 2: Get Stronger

We have already discovered that muscle helps you to burn fat. But how do you build muscle? How do you train to hold on to as much muscle as possible while dieting? The answer is simple…train to get stronger.

Push yourself on every set of every workout. Try for more reps, and add weight when you can. By doing this, you are encouraging your body to hold on to as much muscle as possible; you are giving your body a reason to burn fat instead of muscle.

Many people make the mistake of training with light weight and high reps when they are attempting to lose fat. By using lighter weights, you are telling your body I no longer need all of my muscle, so it’s ok to burn it as an energy source.

Training for strength does not require you to train like a powerlifter. Simply continue to use your current workout plan, and work hard to push yourself.

Supplements such as creatine, BCAAs, and glutamine can help you to maintain as much strength as possible while cutting fat.

Top 3: Use a Pre-Workout Supplement

Training while on a diet is not always easy. There are days in which you will feel tired or unmotivated. We’ve all been in this position, and know that one missed workout can often lead to another, and another. When you start missing workouts, it’s easy to say I quit…let me start again next week or month.

Pre-workout supplements are designed to give you nutrients to enhance your workouts. Increased blood flow, better mental focus, enhanced muscle pumps and increased energy are just some of the reasons why more people are using pre-workout supplements. One of the most common and popular pre-workout ingredients is nitric oxide.

A pre-workout supplement allows you to train longer, stronger, and with more energy. Simply stated, a pre-workout supplement functions in a synergistic manner with your fat loss supplement, and with your aggressive training approach, amplifying your efforts and maximizing fat loss.

Tip 4: Eat Your Healthy Fats

There is a deep rooted myth in dieting that eating fat makes you fat. The reality is that fats do not make you fat. Only eating too many daily calories can make you fat.

Most of us have packed on extra weight because we ate too many white poisons – sugar and flour-based foods. It’s not the fat that caused your bulging waist line. It was the cookies, donuts, sodas and chips.

Now that you are eating healthy and dieting, do not avoid healthy fats. Your body needs healthy fats to function properly, and without them you actually make it more difficult to lose weight.

Supplementing with fish oil, flax seed oil and other essential fatty acids (EFAs) can help to insure that you are eating enough daily healthy fats while on a limited calorie diet.