A Fitness Trainer's Dirty Little Secret

Want to know the truth about diet and exercise?  What you feed your body is more important than running, swimming, hiking, lifting weights, and doing push ups and squats.  But as always there is a catch.  Diet only trumps exercise IF your only goal is to lose weight and you don't care about having a healthy heart, strong bones, better balance and mobility, and a lower risk of diabetes, cancer, and many other diseases too numerous to mention.



Most people overestimate how hard they work out and how many calories they burn during exercise...








... and they underestimate how many calories they consume. Obviously that is not a good recipe for success if the only goal is weight loss.






Aaron E. Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, states, "Exercise has many benefits, but there are problems with relying on it to control weight. First, it’s just not true that Americans, in general, aren’t listening to calls for more activity. From 2001 to 2009, the percentage of people who were sufficiently physically active increased.  But so did the percentage of Americans who were obese. The former did not prevent the latter."

He supports his statement by citing a 2011 meta-analysis that explored the relationship between physical activity and fat mass in children, and found that being active is probably not the key determinant in whether a child is at an unhealthy weight. In the adult population, studies do not support the idea that a physically active person is less likely to gain excess weight than a sedentary person. Other studies show that total energy expenditure and physical activity levels in developing and industrialized countries are similar, making activity and exercise unlikely to be the cause of differing obesity rates, striking down the popular theory that obesity is the result of lower activity levels in industrialized countries.

Although we now know that there is much more to weight gain and loss than simply calories in versus calories out, the reality is that when someone consistently consumes more calories than they burn, the excess weight is not going to come off, and instead, will most likely creep up.  And unfortunately, calories are a lot easier to put in than they are to burn off.  For example, the Cheesecake Factory's Chicken and Biscuits, described in the menu as "Breast of chicken served over mashed potatoes with shortcake biscuits, mushrooms, peas and carrots. Covered with country gravy," has about 2,500 calories, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).  Following the strict calories in and calories out computation for weight control, you would have to run a full marathon, or 26.2 miles to burn off that single chicken meal!

Take another example.  Think green tea is a healthful, low calorie drink?  By itself, yes, but Starbuck's Tazo Green Tea Frappuccino has a whopping 560 calories.  Have one of those in the morning and enjoy two glasses of wine in the evening and you add 250 calories for a total of 810 calories void of any real nutritional value.  For a sedentary woman that probably accounts for about half her allotted calories for the day.  And that sedentary woman, or for that matter even a moderately active woman is probably not going to go out and run 8 miles or exercise at a high intensity level for 60 minutes to burn that off.

The point is that it is probably easier and more realistic to make dietary changes to achieve weight loss than it is to sweat it all off.  But since a large portion of clients hire a fitness trainer with the primary goal of losing weight that isn't necessarily something we want to throw out there at the first session.  And we would be doing our clients a disservice if we did, because not only is it easier to lose weight through a combination of diet and exercise, but the added benefits of maintaining a fitness program almost always lead to a longer and healthier life.

Remember, you can't out exercise a bad diet!  But with a combination of exercise and healthful eating habits you can achieve a healthy body weight and reap the numerous other benefits of attaining a fit heart and strong body.  

Goals

We are once again approaching that time of year when we tend to reflect back, and maybe some of us are in awe of what we have achieved, but more often than not it seems we can tally up more areas where we fell short of what we might have set out to accomplish.  Sometimes that can be attributed to setting unrealistic goals or New Year's Resolutions but often we just get off track.

Most "impossible" goals can be met simply by breaking them down into bite size chunks, writing them down, believing them, and then going full speed ahead as if they were routine.

 ~ Don Lancaster

Learn to Love Your Fitness

"We do what we do because we love to do it." This comment was made by two female athletes that have accomplished big things in the fitness world. They have continued to push themselves and post some very dynamic videos of workouts that they love to do. Why did that quote grab me? It was an epiphany for me. I have used what the scale says as a big motivation along with how my clothes fit and the guilt of my own mind, but shouldn't I use positive affirmation as a motivation instead? I do what I do because I love it! I run because I love it! I do metabolic workouts because I love them! I spin, I do resistance training, I do cross training, I do hiking because I love to do them! (Even if you don't love them try saying it anyway and try switching your paradigm..afterall you do love yourself and this is a great way to love yourself is by taking care of yourself.) So what do we do with what we love to do? 

Make it a Priority

Plan for fitness. Even the best athletes have days they don't want to get out of bed but THEY DO. They have a schedule and you need one too.  Be specific with what your plan is for each day and what time you are working out. The night before or day of your activity have your fitness clothes and accessories laid out or packed and ready to go. We have a strong core group of Metabolic Warriors that have had to be out of town during trainings and they are quick to replace the missed trainings with other types of fitness. Try to keep to your usual routine when you are on the road.  If you do a metabolic workout on Mondays & Wednesdays when you are home then try to do that when traveling too.  When you are booking rooms at hotels, check out the fitness rooms online. Does your destination have local features you can take advantage of...like stairs? Frequently you can also buy day passes to local gyms. Worst case scenarios you have your body weight and floor space and as you know that can be a killer workout!

Mental Positive Reinforcement

I used to think that this meant to visualize the person I wanted to be but that can be self defeating. Instead think of words that embody how you want to feel. Example, when doing push ups avoid 'Ugh, more push ups, I hate these'. Instead try "I am strong, I can do this, just one more, just one more..." When you are doing plyometrics (jumping exercises) think "higher, stronger, faster, deeper, propel, fly..." Think it and you will do it. Mind over matter is a powerful tool.

Visualization

See yourself performing the exercise. Stand in front of the mirror and see yourself perform, with your best form, bicep curls, triceps extensions, push ups, squats, lunges, chest presses, planks...see how your body works as it moves through a full range of motion. Now that will be in your mind when you are in Metabolic Training doing those same exercises. You can also make your muscles work more efficiently when you imagine the actual muscle shortening and lengthening as you move through the range of motion. 

Set Goals

With push ups I tell myself how many I am going to do and try to beat it. At other times I focus not on reps but on full range of motion or even changing hand position so that I continue to challenge myself in different ways. You should have small goals that lead to big goals. This is a game plan for success. Lets say you do shallow push ups, a big goal would be deep push ups (chest to ground). Small goals that would help you get there would be doing chest presses with a challenging weight and doing incline push ups at a full range of motion. As your chest and shoulder muscles become stronger you would progressively increase your chest press weights and decrease the incline of your push up. This same philosophy can be applied to any exercise. Spontaneous goals are great too. In the moment of Tabata or Metabolic Training as the exercises are introduced you can quickly determine how many reps you will push for.  We often refer to rep goals during timed intervals because it gives you a consistent measurement. First round of training you count the reps you do, you determine if you can go harder and you set a higher rep goal for the next round. It is a game that makes time fly by. Another type of goal is event goals such as races and competitions.  In those cases all training will support that event until it is accomplished. Your trainers can help you with goal setting.

Support your Fitness 

If I have a plan to workout tomorrow morning (and I do) and I stay up late or over imbibe in alcohol or junk food, the next morning will be a sludgy mess that I will have to push through while feeling lousy! Things that support fitness are getting plenty of sleep and eating quality foods. These contribute to mental clarity and general well being. If you suffer from seasonal allergies then you most likely are not getting quality sleep and you most likely find yourself pushing through brain fog and muscle sludge all too frequently. Just do your best, we have no miracle answer, sorry. Post workout or on days off don't get all wackadoo on your eating. If you put bad gas in your car it performs poorly.  Likewise, if you put junk in your body it performs poorly. Eat nutrient dense foods most of the time and don't beat yourself up over a few desserts. Your aim is balance.

Be Realistic

Don't judge your success by comparisons with other people. I have done that and that is also self defeating. Every single person is as unique in their needs as their DNA. It takes time to determine what your fitness program for success is, so be patient. See it as a life long endeavor not a temporary bathing suit moment. Your trainers have found that as we age, gracefully of course, that our needs change so be prepared for the adventure of constant change!:) Look at your genetics (that would be your parents and grandparents) and know what your challenges are physically and mentally. Your concern physically should predominately be related to your internal health. Cancer, heart attacks, and strokes don't have a shape, size or gender and they can effect any of us at any time but you decrease your risk significantly when you exercise. In the event that you have to deal with a health problem, surgery, or other trauma your recovery tends to be shorter and better than those that do not exercise. Lastly, variety is the spice of life and don't we all enjoy a variety of spice? I don't know anyone that wants to just have salt and pepper for seasonings. So make your fitness something you do because you love it and not an obsession of a body type.

Last Words: We have an amazing core group of Metabolic Warriors! You have stayed true to your training despite life challenges. We are proud to be the Fitness Trainers of a group of Warriors that clearly love what they do! Why else would you keep coming!:)

Last Last Words:

The only disability in life is a bad attitude. – Scott Hamilton

Go Nuts!

One of our weekly reads is Dr. Mirkin's e-Zine.  The following information is taken from his November 22, 2015 issue.

Good Fat in Nuts

A review of 61 studies shows that feeding people one ounce of tree nuts per day for three to 26 weeks helped to lower total cholesterol, the harmful LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and Apo B, the main fat-protein in VLDL and LDL (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Nov 11, 2015). Tree nuts include walnuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, pecans, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts and Brazil nuts. Doubling the amount of nuts to two ounces per day lowered cholesterol and triglycerides even more. NOTE: These studies were done on nuts from trees, but it appears that peanuts confer the same benefits.

How Nuts Lower Cholesterol and Triglycerides
Nuts lower cholesterol and triglycerides because they are good sources of soluble fiber which cannot be absorbed in your upper intestinal tract. The soluble fiber passes unabsorbed to your colon where bacteria ferment it to form short-chain fatty acids that are absorbed from your colon into your bloodstream. Short-chain fatty acids lower cholesterol by traveling to your liver where they prevent your liver from making cholesterol. Nuts lower triglycerides because soluble fiber is a gel that sticks to other components in foods that you eat to reduce the absorption of calories in your upper intestinal tract. All extra calories can be converted by your liver to triglycerides, so reducing calories lowers triglycerides.

Why Nuts Don’t Cause Weight Gain
Nuts are a rich source of fat, but the fat in nuts is absorbed very poorly (Am J Clin Nutr, Jan, 2015;101(1):25-33). For example, the fat in almonds is located inside the cells of the almond kernel. Even after prolonged chewing, most of the almond cells remained intact and the fat is still inside the cells. Humans lack the enzymes to break down these cell walls. You have to liberate fat from inside cells to absorb it into your body. Furthermore, the fats in nuts are coated with proteins called oleosins that help to prevent fat from being absorbed. Since fat is absorbed only after it is released from cells, most of the fat in almonds cannot be absorbed in the upper part of your intestinal tract. Some of the fat that has passed through the upper intestines is absorbed after the nuts reach the colon, where bacteria ferment the cell walls to release some of the fat (Am J Clin Nutr, Sept 2004;80(3):604-13). Cooking helps to break down the cellulose that makes up cell walls, and it also breaks down the oleosins which coat fat, to allow the fat to be absorbed at a higher rate (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, January 2015;56(1):11–18). Grinding to make nut butters and milks also breaks down cell walls to increase available calories.

The calorie count of nuts is really lower than what you read on the label. The calorie counts shown on food labels are computed from how much heat can be produced by the food in a laboratory. However, this method of measuring calories is meaningless for foods that are poorly absorbed. The number of calories listed on the label can be much higher than those a person actually absorbs; many of the potential calories pass through, undigested, in the person’s stool. This explains why blood fat levels are lower than expected after a person eats nuts. More at Why Nuts Won’t Make You Fat

Nuts are Healthful
Epidemiological studies on populations show that eating nuts is associated with reduced risk for heart attacks, gallstones, diabetes and some cancers. Many studies show that eating nuts lowers high blood pressure, cholesterol and belly fat, and that nuts are not associated with gaining weight (Nutrients, July, 2010;2(7):652-82). A new study confirms that eating almonds reduces belly fat, the type of fat that is associated with diabetes and heart attacks (Journal of the American Heart Association, January 11, 2015). This result is likely to apply to other tree nuts as well.

What if?

What is your fitness ideal?  Is it the guy at the gym who looks like a bodybuilder, and you imagine he has more women in his phone contacts than he can begin to remember?  Or is it that woman who has the perfect amount of muscle definition, not too much and not too little, the perfect six pack abs, and to make it even more frustrating the easy to manage hair that is never out of place and the perfect white teeth?

What if you knew that Joe Gym is so obsessive compulsive about his workouts, meals, and daily regimen that he hasn't been able to keep a girlfriend for more than two months?  And he struggles with social anxiety and the only public place he is really comfortable is the gym?  What if you knew that Jane Gym has an eating disorder and has had a number of expensive cosmetic procedures that have put her in debt?

The reality is that no matter what you see on the outside of someone, each and every person is dealing with some sort of physical and/or emotional struggle.  Some statistics released from a very large fitness and nutrition business with 35,000 clients backs that up.  They report the following:

• 48 percent of their female clients and 33 percent of their male clients take prescription medication
• Of their clients taking medication, 33 percent of women and 24 percent of men take antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication
• 36 percent of their clients have injuries and many struggle with chronic pain
• 27 percent of their female clients and 17 percent of their male clients are over 50 years old which means that even if you're healthy, aging brings its own challenges

Unless you know someone well, you often don't know what challenges they are facing.  Much of the time pain, disability, and psychological or emotional distress is invisible.  And no one is immune; not Joe and Jane Gym, not your trainers, and not our clients.  Fitness trainers face all of the same things that their clients deal with.  They have injuries or have been injured.  They have struggled with personal problems and emotional health.  They have been overweight or underweight.  They have struggled with addictions which can be anything from work, exercise, food, or any number of things it is possible to become addicted to. And just like everyone else, they are not getting any younger.  

Someone who looks fit or appears to be perfect in every way is facing many of the same challenges that you are.  Perhaps they are still dealing with difficulties but you just don't see them or know about them.  Or perhaps they are at the end of a very long and difficult journey.  

The bottom line is that there is no fitness ideal.  Those amazing fitness icons, your trainers, your neighbor, and you will always be working through life's challenges.  There is nothing wrong with admiring some things that others have achieved or having some mildly vain reasons for pursuing fitness.  But if you are chasing what someone else has achieved, or your only reasons for continuing a fitness program are for what you see on the outside you are chasing your tail.  You can't be someone else and what we see on the outside eventually cannot be maintained as we age. So what if "perfection" or success is not what you think you see in someone else, but just continuing to show up, giving your best effort based on what your challenges are, and making the most of an imperfect situation?  That is our definition of a true Warrior. 

Plank

Love it or hate it, you can expect to see the plank, or some variation thereof, on a regular basis in our Metabolic Workouts and Warrior Challenges.  Why do your trainers love it so much?  Because it's good for you!  But since that is not a sufficient answer, even for a two year old, we will give you just a few of the many good reasons to include planks in your fitness routine.

The diagram above shows the muscles worked in a basic forearm plank.  That is pretty impressive for a basic, no equipment necessary, you can do it anywhere exercise.  Well, okay, maybe not anywhere.  Once CBD texted me and told me his back hurt.  I told him to do the knees to chest stretch.  He responded that he was in the Delta Lounge and it might look kind of weird.  Of course, I told him that I was sure they have seen stranger things and do you want your back to stop hurting or what!?

Here are just a few of the reasons to keep on planking:

Abs of steel
The plank will help you develop that six pack.  But we have to include our usual disclaimer that you will only see it if your body fat percentage is low enough.

Reduce Back Pain
Planks can reduce or eliminate back pain because they strengthen your core.  A strong core is a more supportive core which takes stress off the lower back.

Flexibility
No, that is not a typo.  Planks can increase flexibility in your posterior muscle groups.  The muscles around your shoulders, collarbone, and shoulder blades will expand and stretch.

Improve Your Mood
Well, maybe you have to wait until you are done whining about doing them to reap the benefit, but planks stretch (which then results in relaxation) muscle groups that often become stiff and tense from prolonged sitting.  Release that tension and you are bound to feel better.

Improve Your Balance and Posture
Planks, and side planks in particular, will develop strength in your stabilizing muscles which will improve your balance.  And all the muscles you work in a plank are the same muscles that you need in order to maintain proper posture.  When those muscles are strong you can sit or stand up straighter with ease.

Building Muscle... No Pain, No Gain?

We have been accused of interfering with our Warrior's ability to go up and down stairs, of making it necessary to choose the handicap bathroom stall for need of a handrail, and of interfering with other activities that we won't mention in the blog.  But all joking aside, is post-workout muscle soreness, also know as delayed onset muscle soreness ( DOMS) necessary to build muscle and strength?  The answer, as always, is not a straight forward yes or no.

DOMS, which is usually at its strongest 24 to 72 hours after activity, is caused when exercise is intense enough to cause damage to the muscle components.  Our bodies respond to this damage with inflammation and we feel pain and stiffness.  All of that can sound very detrimental but inflammation is how the body heals the muscle tissue and promotes muscle growth.

As a part of the muscle repair process our bodies release inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.  The presence of these chemicals in muscle tissue stimulates the free nerve endings in the area which in turn causes pain.  But the cytokines are a necessary part of muscle repair as they help to activate satellite cells which grow into healthy new muscle tissue.  This is how we attain hypertrophy or muscle growth.  Without this inflammatory process our muscles will not adapt to an exercise and will not undergo increases in size and strength.

So now you have worked your quads hard enough that you are not wanting to drink as many fluids so you won't have to visit the handicap stall as frequently.  It seems like now is a good time to take an anti-inflammatory to speed up the healing.  Not so fast!  True, the anti-inflammatory medication will block the production of cytokines in your body and decrease your pain, but blocking the release of these chemicals will also prevent the activation of satellite cells.  Remember those satellite cells?  They are responsible for muscle repair and growth.  If you block their activation, there will be no increases in muscular growth and strength.

Muscle soreness after an intense workout is normal and should be allowed to run its course.  But are there things you can do to decrease the intensity and duration of DOMS without negating the benefits of your hard work?  An easy walk or gentle stretching will help promote blood flow and can aid in the healing process.  Proper nutrition is also important.  Soon after an intense workout be sure to consume a snack or meal containing both carbohydrates and proteins.  Post workout is the best time to consume simple carbs as they will be put to work immediately in your body's repair process.

So does every workout need to produce muscle soreness to be effective?  Absolutely not!  In fact, working to the point of significant muscle soreness on a consistent basis could be counter-productive and lead to injury.  And while a small to moderate amount of soreness will stimulate muscle growth, working to the point of extreme soreness will prevent further exercise until healing takes place and can also result in rhabdomyolysis.  Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle tissue that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents into the blood. These substances are harmful to the kidneys and often cause kidney damage.  Uncle Rhabdo, as the condition has been termed, has a reputation for being linked to CrossFit. 

There are many ways that our bodies become stronger and muscle hypertrophy is only one of them.  With consistent training our bodies also adapt to feeling no pain with low levels of inflammation post-workout.  We also see improvement in strength through neuromuscular adaptations.  As always, balance and variety in training is important.