Rapid weight loss & the gall bladder

Posted on Tue, 13 May 2008 by Mel Green

I decided a few days ago to follow Lyle McDonald’s version of a Protein Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF) (as detailed in The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook). This diet is designed to “spare protein” — that is, loss of lean body mass–by giving an adequate amount of calories from protein, plus 10 grams daily of omega 3 fats through fish oils, plus nonstarchy veggies. Versions of PSMF programs seem to be used a lot for safe rapid fat loss among obese people (which I qualify as). There are a number of references at PubMed to therapeutic use of PSMF diets.

When I decided to embark on it, I’d forgotten all about the relationship between rapid weight loss & gall bladder issues — in spite of having had some rather nasty gall bladder attacks 10 years ago after fairly rapid weight loss (due to loss of appetite from grief & stress about a personal situation). One of those attacks even resulted in my being taken to the emergency room, mostly because one of my coworkers thought it might be a heart attack. An ultrasound the following day found I had no gallstones (possibly I passed one) but my gall bladder was larger than usual.

In any case, I did a bit of research at the time, & opted against a gall bladder removal, for which I’m glad. But my doctor told me to eat “low fat” which seems to be the standard medical advice. Now I think that rather the opposite is true — that low-fat diets (at least the extreme ones) are at least part of what sets one up for gall bladder attacks. Turns out that one of the fundamental issues with gall bladder health is eating enough dietary fat so that your gall bladder empties.

The short version of what I’ve just researched in the last couple days: if you’re going on a rapid weight loss diet or will be undergoing gastric bypass surgery or some other bariatric surgery which will have the same effect, make sure that you are eating at least 10 grams of healthy dietary fats a day to reduce your risk of gall stones.

Now here’s the long version:

Turns out that there is a really really high percentage of gastric bypass patients who get gallstones or sludge in the gall bladder (which can also lead to gall bladder attacks). See, for example:

From a little research, it seems one of the biggest contributor to gall bladder issues is low fat diets which prevent gall bladder emptying. In a blog post called “Oh the gall of it”, Mary Eades (wife of & coauthor with Michael Eades of the low-carb diet Protein Power), criticizing the laughable notice that low-fat diets prevent gall bladder disease, explains:

What makes the gall bladder empty? As any basic human physiology text will you, it’s fat entering the first portion of the small intestine. When saturated, monounsaturated, or even polyunsaturated fat reaches this area, its entry triggers the release of cholecystokinin (CCK) which is the hormone that causes the gall bladder to squeeze and squirt bile into the intestine to emulsify the fat.

This is what the gall bladder is supposed to do, for crying out loud; it’s its raison d’etre.

Basically, if you eat hardly any dietary fats, your gall bladder sits around doing nothing, & gets sludgy from bile that never gets do to its job & just sits there getting blechy. Inactive gall bladders are also more likely to form gallstones. Then, if you do eat a meal high in dietary fat, boom! gall bladder attack. All the g.b. attacks I had in 1998 were immediately after eating a high fat meal (Wendy’s burgers in one case, a crapload of M&Ms in another), after having lost a lot of weight during my aforementioned Official Grief & Dumbfoundedness Weight Loss Diet. The medical advice I got at the time was to eat a very low fat diet. Thank gods I learned differently later down the road.

Since the PSMF diet I’m following includes 10 grams daily of omega 3 fatty acids distributed among the meals throughout the day, as well as whatever amounts of fat come packaged with the protein foods I’m eating, I should be okay. Some of the studies at PubMed indicate the low calorie diets that include fat are successful at preventing gall bladder problems; but low fat (say, less than 10 g/day) dieters are much more likely to develop gallstones.

Another strike against ultra low-fat dieting.

Some of the studies showing this:

  • Festi D, et al. Gallbladder motility and gallstone formation in obese patients following very low calorie diets. Use it (fat) to lose it (well). Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1998 Jun;22(6):592-600.

    In the obese during rapid weight loss from a very low calorie diet, a relatively high fat intake could prevent gallstone formation, probably by maintaining an adequate gallbladder emptying, which could counterbalance lithogenic mechanisms acting during weight loss.

    In this case, “relatively high fat intake” involved daily 12 grams of dietary fat (108 calories) on a 577 calorie diet during the first three months of the diet. By comparison, the people on the low-fat diet were eating 3 grams of fat (27 calories) on a 535.2 calorie diet for the first three months. Both groups had higher calorie diets for the second three months. 54.5% of the low fat dieters developed (nonsymptomatic) gallstones; none of the higher fat dieters did.

  • Festi, et al. Review: low caloric intake and gall-bladder motor function. Ailment Pharmacol Ther 2000: 14 (Suppl. 2): 51—53.

    A threshold quantity of fat (10 g) has been documented to obtain efficient gall-bladder emptying…. Adequate fat content of the VLCD [very low calorie diet] may prevent gallstone formation, maintaining adequate motility and may be more economic and physiologically acceptable than administration of an pharmacalogical agent.

    This appears to be based on the same study as the prior document.

  • Gebhard, et al. The role of gallbladder emptying in gallstone formation during diet-induced rapid weight loss. Hepatology. 1996 Sep;24(3):544-8.

    The findings suggest that gallstone risk during rapid weight loss may be reduced by maintenance of gallbladder emptying with a small amount of dietary fat. Ultimately, weight loss reduced bile cholesterol saturation and improved highdensity lipoprotein (HDL) levels.

    But it’s not foolproof. This study showed lower levels of gallstone formation for people on 30 g/day of fat than for 16 g/day of fat on liquid 900 cal/day diets, but a few people on each diet developed gallstones over 13 weeks on the diet.

Posted in Fat loss, Nutrition | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A reasoned statement about carbohydrates

Posted on Fri, 9 May 2008 by Mel Green

This from John Berardi, whose judgment on matters nutritional I implicitly trust. Berardi gives as one of his eight rules for healthy “gourmet” nutrition, this advice about carbohydrates:

[F]lavor and nutritional value are not mutually exclusive. I prefer to think of them as absolutely reconcilable. And by using the principles of “gourmet nutrition” you can create meals that both taste great and are healthy, too.

To this end, a “gourmet nutrition” meal must conform to the following: ….

[criterion #7]
It must offer you carbs only if you “deserve” them.

You’ve probably read all about high carb vs. low carb dieting. In my opinion, this high vs. low carb debate is a little misunderstood. As the body handles carbs best when it’s in an exercised state, the best carb strategy is this: eat carbs only if you’ve earned them.

Have you exercised? If so, you’ve earned a higher carb meal. Have you exercised a lot? If so, you’ve earned even more carbs. However, keep this in mind; if you haven’t exercised, your carb intake should probably be lower. Therefore “gourmet nutrition” means having two categories of meals — higher carb meals (for when you’ve earned them) and lower carb meals (for when you haven’t).


This especially makes sense when you are insulin sensitive and/or diabetic, & is completely reconcilable with the way of eating prescribed by Richard Bernstein in Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution, which by its nature is very low carb.

It also accords with Lyle McDonald’s info about targeted ketogenic diets (TKD) for low-carbers who are involved in cardio & strength-training exercise: with TKD, you consume a modicum of carbs around exercise, but only around exercise, so that adaptations to ketosis are retained.

And of course people who are eating higher carb, non-ketogenic diets will be well-served by this advice too.

Posted in Insulin resistance, Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A reasoned statement about carbohydrates

Adequate protein — & a protein-sparing crash diet

Posted on Fri, 9 May 2008 by Mel Green

Two additional things I’ve learned from Lyle McDonald & his Body Recomposition website so far, that are having a pretty immediate effect on my nutritional planning:

First, he’s convinced me that “dieting by percentages” — that is, figuring out my nutrition based on macronutrient percentages — doesn’t really make a whole lotta sense (see “Dieting by Percentages, part 2”). Mainly because if I’m going only by the percentages of carbs, fats, & protein I’m eating, I can really screw up on how much protein I should really be eating. Too little protein is bad, too much protein is bad too. Basically, what I need (or anybody else needs) is adequate protein. I don’t think I was probably getting quite enough before I started doing any meal tracking; but I’ve also got to be careful that I’m not getting too much. So my protein intake should be defined more by my overall activity level than by its percentage of my diet — it should for the most part be a constant. Which is why the real changes are between low-carb/high-carb & hence also between high-fat/low-fat (or moderate levels of each). Since I’m going low-carb, that by definition means that I’m going to be eating, percentagewise, a “high-fat diet” (healthy fats, of course). Okay, now, doesn’t that go against the long-lived “fat is evil” propaganda that’s been going around the past three or so decades? And a fat lot of good its done for us too. (Literally. The dominance of the “low fat” mantra has correlated quite closely to the rise of the obesity epidemic that we hear so much about these days.)

Second, & more radically, McDonald has convinced me that it is possible to do crash dieting in a safe, healthy way. The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook: A Scientific Approach to Crash Dieting. I’ve already have this book in hand (or rather, computer), since it was available for purchase via electronic download at McDonald’s website. With all the reading about nutrition I’ve done over the past couple of years — this stuff makes sense. Basically, this diet is his version of a protein-sparing modified fast (PSMF) — a low calorie “crash” diet which avoids muscle wasting by providing those calories that are eaten mostly in the form of dietary protein, with the addition of essential fatty acids (omega 3s) & nonstarchy carbs. How exactly to do it depends on one’s body fat percentage — obese people with high body fat percentages (which I qualify as) can afford to use this diet for a longer period of time than people of middling body fat percentages or people who are fairly lean (e.g., bodybuilders on a pre-contest diet). (This accords with stuff that Tom Venuto has said: that people with high body fat percentages can afford much higher calorie deficits than people who are leaner, though Venuto overall would not recommend a PSMF diet.) McDonald’s got built in free meals, refeeds, & two to three-week diet breaks in order to prevent metabolic slowdown & boredom.

I think what I’m coming to is an understanding that:

(1) Yes, my overall changes in how I eat — which started with my dietary overhaul two years ago after my mother’s death — must by necessity be a permanent, lifestyles changes in how I eat. No way will I will ever go back to the vending machine diet I was on before). But —

(2) There is also a certain science to “dieting” that I can make use of — techniques, like this protein-sparing modified fasting “crash” diet, that of course are not sustainable over the long haul, that by their nature must be limited in duration & scope, but which can nonetheless be extremely helpful for the shorter term.

So, yeah. I’m gonna give a try to this over the next two or three weeks. Actually, someone with my body fat % can, according to McDonald, go for as long as 10 or 12 weeks on this diet before a two-week break from it (including two “free” meals per week during the diet itself), but I think it’s better to try it out for a shorter time first, especially since I’ll be traveling down to Seattle & Eugene for ten days at the end of the month & will need more flexibility about what I’m eating then.

One of the effects this will have on workouts is that because the PSMF diet is by its nature ketogenic, it cannot sustain too much cardio & definitely not high intensity intervals — because there won’t be enough glucose in my system to turbocharge my muscles for those kinds of workouts. So, Turbulence Training is on hold for the moment. What I can do is moderate straight cardio, & I can do traditional strength workouts.

So that’s basically the plan through about May 21 or 22. I fly down to Seattle on the evening of May 23, so on the 22nd or 23rd I’ll start increasing my caloric intake to more “maintenance” levels, chiefly by adding more healthy fats into my diet but also probably some low glycemic carbs.

I’m not actually fully on the PSMF diet yet, but approaching it — eating very few carbs, & lower amounts of fats. I do want to make use of the apples I’ve got at home so they don’t go bad. But after they’re eaten… well, we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve considered this pretty carefully, & will be watching myself carefully too to see how it goes. Please believe me that I will up my intake if anything seems to be going wrong. I expect by the nature of ketogenic diets that my energy levels will go down a bit as I transition from burning glucose to burning ketones, & also that I’ll initially have some hunger; but hunger pangs are reported to disappear in the absence of carbs, & my energy should improve after a few days too (except not to the point of sustaining high intensity workouts, which require the turbocharging provided by glucose).

Posted in Fat loss, Nutrition | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Adequate protein — & a protein-sparing crash diet

Learning about ketosis

Posted on Tue, 6 May 2008 by Mel Green

Rather to my surprise over the past few months, I’ve become convinced that eating a ketogenic diet (in which body energy is mostly supplied by free fatty acids & ketones derived from body fat, rather than glucose from carbs), at least for a time, might be exactly the route I need to go. But I needed to know more, because most of the info I’ve seen on ketosis is warped by the epic battle between low-carb cheerleaders who consider ketosis the be-all & high-carb cheerleaders who consider ketosis the great evil that will lead without inevitably to kidney disease (which, best I can tell, is absolutely not the case, unless one’s kidneys are already compromised).

So, I plugged the word “ketosis” into the Search field at Amazon.com, & low & behold came upon the book that I think can absolutely answer my questions, not only about ketosis itself but also about how to still have kick-ass powerhouse workouts (whether cardio or strength training) through targeted nutrition around a workout(i.e., having carbs pre, during, & post-workout, because otherwise your workout will really really suck).

The book is by Lyle McDonald, The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner. Amazon is out of stock at the moment, so I ordered it directly from McDonald’s website. Since coming across this book, I’ve seen references to it elsewhere, which agree with McDonald’s own assessment that it’s a thoroughly researched from the scientific literature, at least to the point of its publication in 1998, along with being the best “bible” out there about how to do a ketogenic diet, including support for workout-related nutrition. So.

I might add that an ultra-low carb (ketogenic) diet is pretty much what is prescribed by Dr. Richard Bernstein for his Type 1 & Type 2 diabetic patients (Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution) which I think is arguably the best single source on diabetes treatment through nutrition & medicine. It’s more restrictive on carbs than what I may need for my metabolic state — I’m insulin resistant but not, at this point, diabetic — but it’s a damn good starting point. Bernstein is all about making diabetics as healthy as they possibly can be, which is a damn site healthier than the American Diabetes Association has ever remotely imagined: Bernstein’s methods lead to (1) normal blood sugars; (2) the remission/reversal of virtually all diabetic complications except for those that have already led to irreparable damage; & (3) diabetics who are overall more healthy than most nondiabetics. Bernstein doesn’t talk about ketosis in his book, but it’s obvious from the low levels of carbs that his way of eating includes that it is ketogenic. Bernstein himself has been eating that way since around the mid-1970s.

Posted in Insulin resistance | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Learning about ketosis

From moderate-carb to low-carb

Posted on Tue, 6 May 2008 by Mel Green

Being who I am, I have continually been mucking over the past few months with my nutrition. In this context, “being who I am” means that I can go geek with just about anything that interests me. So, when I was pursuing my master’s degree (Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, earned Dec. 1997), focusing on poetry, I became a prosody geek. (Prosody is the technical stuff in poetry having to do with rhythm, rhyme, etc.) When I became interested in family history, I became a genealogy geek. Now, as I try to improve my health, I am a nutrition geek.

I demonstrated that recently in some conversations I participated in with Tom Venuto at his Burn the Fat Inner Circle membership site about Gary Taubes’ book Good Calories, Bad Calories… & since my participation in that conversation ended (or went into abeyance, or whatever) I’ve been continuing to read & learn. I find that I agree with Tom about some stuff, but not about other stuff. For example, I agree with him that fat loss requires a caloric deficit. But I seem to disagree with him about how exactly the energy balance business works — i.e., is a calorie just a calorie, regardless of what kind of nutrient it is? Well, yes; but also no. That is, it’s a lot more complex than simply “calories in = calories out,” due to the complexities of how metabolism works inside the body. Being a geek, I am trying to learn more about how it all actually works.

Okay, well Tom has tended to focus in those conversations on the weight, specifically fat loss, aspects of energy balance (calories in/calories out). But for me, an insulin resistant prediabetic, I’m concerned about the health aspects of what I’m eating even more, so whether the calories are carb calories, protein calories, or fat calories is absolutely critical to me. And because of the emphasis of Burn the Fat Inner Circle is much more on fat loss than on metabolic health, it has appeared personally to me that there is a reluctance there to attend in much more than a (relatively) cursory fashion to the problems of insulin resistance. At least, relative to what I feel I need. Really, I think the deal is that while BFIC absolutely recognizes that insulin resistant (or, as they call it there, carb sensitive) people need a different diet than the moderately high carb diet recommended there for people who are insulin sensitive… there’s a wariness there of providing any possible platform there for low-carb cheerleaders who make bigger claims for low-carb eating than what’s actually warranted. That’s a reasonable fear, given that “one size fits all” approaches only ever really work for just some people. Evidence seems to show that while low-carb works very well for some people, it doesn’t work so well for many others.

Problem is that the overall skew in our culture about nutrition comes from the high-carb cheerleaders, led by organizations such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture with its food pyramid & the American Diabetes Association with its “let’s make diabetics even sicker than they already are” high-carb diets. These diets, again, only work for some people. They definitely do not work for diabetics or prediabetics. Unless, of course, you’re a pharmaceutical company for whom the sickness of diabetes is a perennial cash cow.

Given that many people who are trying to burn off the fat are insulin resistant, & the overwhelming evidence that high-carb diets are absolutely disastrous for us — well, I’ll just say that while BFIC continues to be a crucial part of my “fat loss” support system, that I’m also on the lookout for other resources as well, which are more natural supports for the kind of nutrition that I as an insulin resistant person need.

Am I a low-carb cheerleader? Well, no. In fact, two years ago, when I first began to overhaul my way of eating, I was quite wary, one might say suspicious, of low-carb approaches. After I read The Schwarzbein Principle, which provided what seemed the perfect model for me of how I should be eating, I was always at pains to refer to what I did as “moderate carb.”

But I’ve been undergoing a slow change of consciousness, especially over the past three months after diving back into nutrition geek mode. Especially after reading some of Richard K. Bernstein’s important work Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. It comes down to this: if it makes my blood sugar go above normal levels, then I shouldn’t eat it.

And by normal levels, I mean normal levels. Not “what’s normal for a diabetic” or “what’s normal for a prediabetic.” I mean normal. And at this point in the game, that means eating fewer carbohydrates than what I was eating “moderate carb” level. And so, much to my surprise, I’m turning into a low-carber. Not because I think “low carb is for everyone.” But because it will work better for me. And yes, probably for most diabetics & prediabetics.

A new resource I found last week sums it up quite nicely for me:

My general experience has been that individuals who respond very well to high-carbohydrate/lower fat diets tend to do very poorly on low-carb/higher-fat diets. They feel terrible (low energy and a mental fog that never goes away), don’t seem to lean out very effectively and it just doesn’t work.

his cuts both ways: folks who don’t respond well to higher carbs do better by lowering carbs and increasing dietary fat. Sometimes that means a moderate carb/moderate fat diet, sometimes it means a full blown ketogenic diet. I should also note that some people seem to do just as well on one diet as another.

— from “Insulin Sensitivity and Fat Loss” by Lyle McDonald


I think Tom Venuto would actually agree with most of that, though perhaps not the part about ketogenic diets, which he seems quite wary of. But me…well, in fact, I ran into Lyle McDonald because rather to my surprise over the past few months, I’ve become convinced that eating a ketogenic diet (in which body energy is mostly supplied by free fatty acids & ketones from body fat, rather than glucose from carbs), at least for a time, might be exactly the route I need to go.

But more on that in another post.

Posted in Insulin resistance, Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

5-HTP & depression

Posted on Thu, 1 May 2008 by Mel Green

I learned recently that 5-HTP is an intermediate between the amino acid tryptophan (oh ye of post-Thanksgiving turkey dinner sleepiness fame) & the neurotransmitter serotonin, whose activity is targeted by a lot of antidepressants. Thus, 5-HTP is alternative to antidepressants–& from my standpoint, a superior one. This is important to me given my history of problems with depression. Since I’m also insulin resistant (prediabetic), the metabolism of carbs & their intimate relationship with tryptophan & hence serotonin levels is crucial.

When I overhauled my diet to a low glycemic/moderate carb diet a couple of years ago, I discovered that I was just as prone to fall into depression if I went too low in carbs as I did when I was my carb intake was too high. I don’t seem to be having that problem so much now, as I go to a lower carb diet. Maybe I’ve adapted. But I’m now also supplementing with 5-HTP.

Here’s how I understand the mechanism relating carbs & insulin to tryptophan > 5-HTP > serotonin to mood disorders like depression (& probably other things like road rage, anxiety, etc.).

Low serotonin levels frequently (especially in insulin resistant people whose blood sugars are all over the map) lead to carb cravings because intake of carbs brings (as most of us here will know) increase in insulin secretion. The insulin works not only to control blood glucose (as best it can), but also to cause various amino acids to be absorbed into body tissues — except apparently tryptophan isn’t absorbed as much. This then leads to tryptophan to have less competition from other amino acids for riding the carrier molecule they use to get through the blood-brain barrier, where the tryptophan is synthesized into 5-HTP & from 5-HTP into serotonin. The effect of eating carbs for the depressed person is, thus, to increase serotonin levels into the brain — but at a cost (higher blood sugars, higher blood insulin, increase in insulin resistance & obesity, etc.).

The reason it might be better to supplement with 5-HTP than tryptophan is because: (1) tryptophan is also used in the body to synthesize other products, which might not hold as much advantage for mood issues, whereas (I think) 5-HTP is used mainly to synthesize serotonin; & (2) 5-HTP has a much easier time getting through the blood/brain barrier than tryptophan — apparently doesn’t require the carrier molecule that tryptophan does (in which tryptophan competes with other amino acids).

My source for this info is the book Hunger Free Forever: The New Science of Appetite Control by Michael T. Murray, N.D. and Michael R. Lyon, M.D. Murray has also written a book specifically about 5-HTP. I’ll see if I can find actual scientific cites. In any case, so far it’s working well for me.

Update 12 May 2008: I finally got around to finding a reference. Here is is, with its abstract.

  • Birdsall TC.. 5-Hydroxytryptophan: a clinically-effective serotonin precursor. Altern Med Rev. 1998 Aug;3(4):271-80.(Full article with references is available at http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/3/4/271.pdf.)

    5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) is the intermediate metabolite of the essential amino acid L-tryptophan (LT) in the biosynthesis of serotonin. Intestinal absorption of 5-HTP does not require the presence of a transport molecule, and is not affected by the presence of other amino acids; therefore it may be taken with meals without reducing its effectiveness. Unlike LT, 5-HTP cannot be shunted into niacin or protein production. Therapeutic use of 5-HTP bypasses the conversion of LT into 5-HTP by the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase, which is the rate-limiting step in the synthesis of serotonin. 5-HTP is well absorbed from an oral dose, with about 70 percent ending up in the bloodstream. It easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and effectively increases central nervous system (CNS) synthesis of serotonin. In the CNS, serotonin levels have been implicated in the regulation of sleep, depression, anxiety, aggression, appetite, temperature, sexual behaviour, and pain sensation. Therapeutic administration of 5-HTP has been shown to be effective in treating a wide variety of conditions, including depression, fibromyalgia, binge eating associated with obesity, chronic headaches, and insomnia.

Posted in depression | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Erging away

Posted on Fri, 11 April 2008 by Mel Green

On the ergThe March Madness rowing challenge I did last month got me on a rowing schedule that feels pretty good to me, & don’t want to give up. So, on most days, I’m getting from 5000 to 6000 meters in, usually split between a morning workout & an evening workout (including the high intensity intervals portion of my TT workouts). Fridays I’m reserving as “break from rowing” days, & on those days instead I’m doing more dancing & walking. Sundays are big rowing days: on those days, at least this month, I’m doing 10K meters in preparation for the half-marathon I’m going to try for in the latter half of the month (another Concept 2 challenge).

My rowing has gotten noticeably stronger. I seem finally to have gotten the trick of getting really fast speeds, if only for brief bursts: to really kick off with my feet on the drive, then follow through with a full, strong pull on the handle (the erg version of oars). I’ve gotten as fast as 2:02.0/500m for three or four strokes, & can actually sustain speeds of 2:08.0 or 2:09.0/500m for up to a full minute when doing intervals. It’s not sustainable for longer rows — my legs get tired really fast — but its perfect for high intensity intervals.

In her beginner-level training program for women, personal trainer Krista Scott-Dixon has described the alternating high intensity/low intensity of intervals like this: “High intensity should be a maximal or near-maximal effort like a crazy guy with an axe is chasing you. Low intensity is about the equivalent of walking as if a 105 year old guy with an axe is shuffling after you using a walker while dragging an oxygen tank.” That’s pretty much how it is for me — I go so hard for the one or two minutes of high intensity that by the time I arrive at the two-minute low intensity “rest” portion that my current workouts call for, I have no choice but to row as feebly as that guy with the walker & oxygen tank, because I’ve wiped myself out. Until I catch my breath, my heart slows down, & then after a minute & a half or so I can row at a nice moderate rate again — for about 30 seconds, until the next manic near-maximal interval is upon me. Wow, it’s hard. But afterwards, when I’m all done with my intervals & my cooldown row — & especially after my shower! — I feel great.

My longer rows are progressing, too. Yesterday morning’s 30-minute row of 5934 meters (ave. speed 2:31.7/500m) got me exactly 300 meters more than my next best 30-minute row, just a month ago (2:39.7/500m). Compare either of those with my very first 30-minute row (actually, 30:37.3) on October 13 last year: just 4,695 meters (average speed 3:15.7/500m). Last Sunday’s 10K was three minutes faster than the previous Sunday’s.

My recovery is a lot better too. As in, even when wiped out after a hard effort, a few minutes later I feel pretty darn good, like I could do it all over again. (But I don’t!) This might have somewhat to do with my dietary changes — I figured out last week that I wasn’t eating quite enough calories, but now that I fixed that, I have more energy for the workouts I’m doing, & am not quite so exhausted afterwards. Maybe also my sleep: I’ve been making efforts to get enough sleep every night (which habitually I don’t). But I think it’s also that I’m simply getting stronger. It feels pretty good. It’ll be interesting to see where I’ll be a month from now, or two. Especially now that I’ve got that trick of kicking off at the start of the drive: my legs will get stronger, & when they do, look out.

Posted in Terveys | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Erging away

"Fluffy Folks Factually Feel Fit"

Posted on Mon, 7 April 2008 by Mel Green

At work I’ve usually KSKA, my local public radio station, playing all day. Just now I heard a segment on a show called The Health Show in which they were talking with their diet & lifestyle consultant Dr. Stephanie Beling about exercise among the overweight & obese. Really encouraging stuff! The upshot is that exercise is really beneficial for overweight/obese people even if they don’t lose much weight from it. “As a matter of fact,” Beling says, “Fitness may trump fatness.” Beling discussed a study of 2600 people over 60 years old, examining how their weight & fitness affected their death rate. They found that fitness — measured in the study by their ability to walk on a treadmill — provides protection against mortality regardless of their weight. Even just three ten-minute walks a day can have this beneficial effect. Beling also had a couple of anecdotes about obese men she met who greatly reduced their weight & need for medications, & greatly improved their health, simply from walking.

You can hear the entire story (8:51) from this page at the Health Show (scroll to bottom). It’s in Real Audio format.

I did a little checking on ScienceDaily, & found a story about the study Dr. Beling was referring to: “Fitness Level, Not Body Fat, May Be Stronger Predictor Of Longevity For Older Adults” (Dec. 7, 2007).

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Why You May Need To Eat More Protein by Dr. John M Berardi, CSCS

Posted on Thu, 3 April 2008 by the blogosphere

I just figured out a couple of days ago that I’m eating far too little protein for my current state & goals, & am adjusting my eating accordingly. And then happened across this article that explains just why protein is so important, especially for someone who, like me, is trying to get rid of body fat. Used with permission. — Mel

Why You May Need To Eat More Protein

by Dr John M Berardi, CSCS

Nowadays there are a lot of misconceptions with respect to protein intake. Should one take in 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight? Or is it 1 gram per kilogram? And, to the non-scientist, just how much is that?

Well, before discussing this issue, I think it’s important to explore the difference between protein need and protein optimization. When someone asks the question – how much protein should I eat – they are usually trying to figure out how much protein they need to optimize body composition and performance. But the question, “How much protein does an athlete need?” is a very different one from “How much protein should an athlete consume to improve body composition and athletic performance?”

Reason #1
Increased Thermic Effect of Feeding — While all macronutrients require metabolic processing for digestion, absorption, and storage or oxidation, the thermic effect of protein is significantly higher than that of carbohydrates and fat. In fact, protein requires 25-30% of the energy it provides just for digestion, absorption, and assimilation while carbs only require 6-8% and fat requires 2-3%. That means that eating protein is actually thermogenic and can lead to a higher metabolic rate. This means greater fat loss when dieting and less fat gain during hypercaloric diets.

Reason #2
Increased Glucagon — Protein consumption increases plasma concentrations of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for antagonizing the effects of insulin in adipose tissue, leading to greater fat mobilization. In addition, glucagon also decreases the amounts and activities of the enzymes responsible for making and storing fat in adipose and liver cells. Again, this leads to greater fat loss during dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.

Reason #3
Increased IGF-1 — Protein and amino-acid supplementation has been shown to increase the IGF-1 response to both exercise and feeding. Since IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone that’s related to muscle growth, another advantage associated with consuming more protein is more muscle growth when overfeeding and/or muscle sparing when dieting.

Reason #4
Reduction in Cardiovascular Risk — Several studies have shown that increasing the percentage of protein in the diet (from 11% to 23%) while decreasing the percentage of carbohydrate (from 63% to 48%) lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations with concomitant increases in HDL cholesterol concentrations.

Reason #5
Improved Weight-Loss Profile — Research from Layman and colleagues has demonstrated that reducing the carbohydrate ratio from 3.5 – 1 to 1.4 – 1 increases body fat loss, spares muscle mass, reduces triglyceride concentrations, improves satiety, and improves blood glucose management.

Reason #6
Increased Protein Turnover — All tissues of the body, including muscle, go through a regular program of turnover. Since the balance between protein breakdown and protein synthesis governs muscle protein turnover, you need to increase your protein turnover rates in order to best improve your muscle quality. A high protein diet does just this. By increasing both protein synthesis and protein breakdown, a high protein diet helps you get rid of the old muscle more quickly and build up new, more functional muscle to take its place.

Reason #7
Increased Nitrogen Status — Earlier I indicated that a positive nitrogen status means that more protein is entering the body than is leaving the body. High protein diets cause a strong positive protein status and when this increased protein availability is coupled with an exercise program that increases the body’s anabolic efficiency, the growth process may be accelerated.

Reason #8
Increased Provision of Auxiliary Nutrients — Although the benefits mentioned above have related specifically to protein and amino acids, it’s important to recognize that we don’t just eat protein and amino acids — we eat food. Therefore, high protein diets often provide auxiliary nutrients that could enhance performance and/or muscle growth. These nutrients include creatine, branched chain amino acids, conjugated linoleic acids, and/or additional nutrients that are important but remain to be discovered. This illustrates the need to get most of your protein from food, rather than supplements alone.

So, looking over this list of benefits, isn’t it clear that for many individuals, an increase in protein intake would be advantageous for most people’s training goals? Since a high protein diet can lead to a better health profile, an increased metabolism, improved body composition, and an improved training response, why would anyone ever try to limit their protein intake to the bare minimum necessary to stave off malnutrition?

It seems to me that whether someone’s on a hypoenergetic diet or a hyperenergetic diet, the one macronutrient they would want to be sure to overeat would be protein. Instead, by limiting protein intake, most individuals look for what they consider the bare minimum of protein, and then overeat carbohydrates and fats instead. That’s a big performance and body composition mistake.

Order Precision Nutrition now and get $50 off!

SEE ALSO: For more great training and nutrition wisdom, check out our complete system, Precision Nutrition. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.

And what’s more, your online access allows you to talk exercise and nutrition 24/7 with thousands of fellow members and the Precision Nutrition coaches. Find out more about Precision Nutrition.

Posted in Guest blogger, Nutrition | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Why You May Need To Eat More Protein by Dr. John M Berardi, CSCS

BFFM Week 7 goals

Posted on Thu, 3 April 2008 by Mel Green

Now that I’ve worked out the meal tracking stuff, I can finish setting my goals for this week.

Progress so far

  • Since Feb. 18, I’ve lost about 12 lbs. (according to my less than completely accurate “caveat” scale).
  • Since Mar. 17 I’ve lost 3 inches around my waist, 1 to 1.5 around my hips, & about half an inch around my neck. Belt is now two notches tighter without discomfort.

Goals for (the remainder of) Week 7

(I’m sometimes using abbreviations for days of the week. R is Thursday, b/c T is already taken up by Tuesday; Sa is Saturday & Su is Sunday.)

Fitness

  • Turbulence Training: Three full TT workouts (combined strength/circuit training with HIIT cardio on rower) (TRSa).
  • Core (optional): TT core workouts on alternate days (WFSu).
  • Cardio: A minimum of 10,000 walking steps of their equivalent each day (per my workplace’s Start Walking program). On most days, this will include 5000m rowed, including at least one 10,000m row (training for late April half-marathon challenge).
  • Flexibility: Stretch after warmup on all rowing days.

Nutrition

  • Eat on modified eating program of 30% carbs, 40% protein, 30% health fats for a total of about 1550 calories per day, as outlined in a previous post.

Evaluation

  • Continue recording meals using meal tracking Excel spreadsheet.
  • “Official” weigh-in & measurements Sunday morning. (My nephew informs me that the new scale arrived at my doorstep today, yay. It includes a body fat measurement (not as good as the calipers, but it’ll do until I can get good enough skinfolds to be able to use the calipers accurately.)
  • Take another set of “progress” pics.
  • Based on all of the above, establish goals for Week 8.

Motivation & accountability

  • Continue tracking progress at Concept 2 online log, workplace “health activities” tracker, & Start Walking tracker, etc.
  • Continue making use of online forums & discussion lists.
  • Keep up the blog.
  • Keep up with accountability partner!

Other

Posted in Terveys | Tagged , | Comments Off on BFFM Week 7 goals