Little Eating Makes Big People

Okay, so you've been on a diet for a few months, and so far it's going well.  You've lost about 5 lbs, and you're trying your hardest to stick to healthy foods.  Maybe you've been hitting the gym a few times a week, and are forcing yourself to sweat it out on the treadmill for half an hour each time.  It's not fun, but hey, it's working, right?

But then, all of a sudden, your previously steady weight loss just plain stops.  For week after week you step on the scale only to see the same number each time.  In desperation and frustration, you apply the "less and more" technique to diet and gym time respectively.  You start hacking your meals to miniature versions of their former selves and make sure to jog for at least an hour every day on that dreaded treadmill.  Before you know it you're hungry, tired, and your joints are killing you. But in a few weeks it'll all be worth it, right?  You'll step on that scale and see a lighter you, and that'll be worth the world.

But then, when weigh in day finally does rear its ugly head, you step on the scale only to face a number LARGER than what was there last week.  You're bewildered, disgusted, and ready to scream.  Not to mention you're probably ready to throw in the towel on this whole fitness thing, claiming that your body just wouldn't let you lose weight, and that you tried your hardest.  Here's what I say to that:

DON'T GIVE UP!!!

You ran across a very common problem with diets these days.  Many people know the basics behind weight loss, and that you have to burn more calories than you consume on a daily basis in order to be in a caloric deficit and therefore FORCE your body to use stored fat as the source of the remaining required energy.  It isn't rocket science, or at least, the concept isn't.  But in a modern world, where people look for the most efficient, quickest methods to get things done, this little bit of knowledge is a recipe for disaster.  You see, eating too few calories can actually cause you to GAIN weight.  Sounds ridiculous, but after I explain myself a bit here, I'm sure it'll make sense.

Let me start off by saying that your body is quite intelligent, and it knows how to stay alive.  Through millions of years of evolution it has determined exactly what it likes to eat, and exactly what to do if it's presented with a caloric surplus.  Heck, your body still thinks that if food became very scarce, you'll need every ounce of that stored body fat to keep you alive.  And if it's presented with a drastic caloric deficit (AKA starving), it'll do what it deems necessary to make the most out of your remaining energy stores.  You know what that means?

Your metabolism will slow to a turtle's pace and anything you eat or drink will go almost straight to energy stores, which we know better as your love-handles and beer belly.

To your body, there's no difference between an unrealistically low calorie diet, and a forced desert journey devoid of nourishment.  Either way, it thinks you're starving, and will take the necessary steps to keep you alive.  You'll feel like no amount of sleep will ever wake you up, and most likely your hunger will be insatiable, especially on such a low calorie plan.  No energy, no satisfaction, the perfect recipe for skipped visits to the gym, food binges, and a failed attempt at weight loss.  This is reiterated in an article written by David Greenwalt, a reputable personal trainer at bodybuilding.com.  He discusses a typical client in this same situation and how her body will not react to weight loss because of an extremely low caloric intake:

Not only has her metabolism matched her intake, her body has maximized production of enzymes that are designed to help store any additional calories as fat. Anytime additional, immediately-unnecessary calories are consumed the enzymes are there and waiting to store the additional calories as fat. Her body is starved nutritionally and it has one thing on its mind - survival.

Being mostly sedentary, her metabolism (hormones play a large role here) can do a pretty good job of keeping things slow enough so that the pathetically low calories she's consuming are just enough to maintain.

But since certain enzymes are elevated, waiting for more calories so more bodyfat can be stored, every nighttime binge or weekend mini-feast will contribute to fat stores.

So on the days she's not bingeing her body does not lose fat, or if it does, it's very little. And on the few days or times she does binge a bit her body is quite efficient at storing fat. So, while she may lose a smidge of fat from starving it is quickly replaced with every binge.

Original Article (A GREAT READ):  http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/core_march_8.htm

This describes quite accurately that when drastically low calorie diets are employed as a weight loss tool, your body becomes extra adept at storing any little excess as fat.  Not an optimal situation for dieting, as you'll agree.

So fine, you know the details now, and you may have some returning hope.  But what do you do to turn this whole thing around?  Where does one start?  Well I don't believe the solution is very complicated at all, and it can be easily summed up in just a few simple steps:

Step 1:  Calculate the correct number of calories you need to cut about 1 lb of fat per week, if that's the rate you want to lose at.  I wouldn't suggest any faster rate, though it's fine if you'd like to go slower.  There are a bunch of GREAT calorie calculators out there, and while none are exactly spot on, they can give you a very accurate guess and a great starting point.  Here are some downloadable excel file calculators that I've found to be quite useful and accurate:  http://www.physiquefx.com/bmr-calculators/

Step 2: Change up your workout.  Instead of hitting the cardio for an hour, take about half your gym time to lift some weights.  It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, building lean muscle mass will increase your resting metabolic rate so that any weight you do lose you can keep off for good.  Cardio will lose you weight, sure, but it's a quick fix.  You won't have the muscle mass to maintain that new, leaner you, and most likely you'll put all that fat back on in a relatively short amount of time.  More muscle=less retained fat.  It's as simple as that.  

Step 3:  Make sure those calories are coming from clean foods.  You know the drill, lean proteins, whole grains, fruits, veggies, unsaturated fats, just about everything I've ever written about.  Need diet ideas?  I've got over 100 other articles all about food, so read up and get yourself on a good diet.  Use healthy foods to fill in your correct macro levels, and you're good to go.

And there you have it!  A simple solution to weight loss bottle-up.  Not difficult, not depressing, and it definitely should NOT throw you off track.  You CAN lose the fat you want to lose, and it's not as difficult as you think.  But your body needs calories, so don't starve it, because you'll pay the price in the end.

Don't be afraid to eat, get creative at the gym, and watch those numbers carefully.  GOOD LUCK!

Size v. Strength: The Great Debate

Ever since the dawning of the modern workout, there has been a great divide between two main trains of thought regarding muscular growth.  There were those who wanted to get BIG, and those who wanted to get STRONG.  Such desires spawned two completely different methods for lifting weights, and two completely different types of athletes.

For the time being, lets ignore the casual "I just want to get toned" gym-goer (although I will admit this is a large percentage of gym-goers...).  

When I say two completely different athletic builds, I really mean it. Put these guys next to each other and rarely will you see extreme similarities.  Make them train alongside each other, and the differences will become even more apparent.  The methods are DIFFERENT.  To get big, you must train in separate fashion than you would if you were specifically looking for strength.  Yes, some traits carry over from each method of training (an athlete looking for strength only will inevitably put on muscle mass), but I'll say again, in general they are distinct from each other.

Let's examine the methodology behind each muscular goal.  What goes into the workout, why does the method work the way it does, and how can you incorporate it into your own gym related endeavors?

SIZE:  We've all seen them.  The fantastically enormous bodybuilders that appear to be half man half gorilla, all muscle.  They're basketball sized biceps, ginormous pectorals, and shredded abdominals seem to defy some law of nature.  Yet there they stand, bigger than any human we've ever seen.  How do they do it?  Well aside from an extremely picky diet, and some "medical enhancement," it's all in the gym, and their method of training. 

Bodybuilders train for hypertrophy.  Hypertrophy is the increase of overall cellular volume.  More specifically, bodybuilders train for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, and focus more on training their slow twitch, or I muscle fibers.  This basically means that bodybuilders train to experience an increase in cross sectional area of their muscles, and not really associated strength.  It's common to watch bodybuilders doing unbelievably high volume with very sub-maximal loads, at least relative to their muscle size.  Judging by their physique, it appears that they could throw a car above their head.  But in the end, they simply do not have the strength that they appear to have.  

But to them, this doesn't matter so much.  They train for APPEARANCE. And there's a lot to be said about appearance.  Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy allows you to look big and strong, often a more impressive trait than actually being as strong as an ox but only average in the muscular department.  This hypertrophy also more readily accelerates your metabolism, allowing you to burn more fat more quickly, and build that physique you've always wanted.  

How do you go about training for this type of muscle gain?  Well for building big muscle, you want a big rep number, with sub maximal weight.  Don't go super duper light, but work those muscles to exhaustion.  As you've probably heard before, FEEL THE BURN.  Super sets, drop sets, and negative reps are all great ways to overload your muscles for set after set to really ensure a good growth stimulus is sent to your brain and those muscles increase in volume as quickly as possible.  The most general rule for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is to keep reps within the 8-12 range, for at least 3 sets (I've seen people do as many as 10-15 though.)  This is only a general guideline though, and I suggest heading over to bodybuilding.com to get a more detailed workout routine.  

STRENGTH:  Let me bring to mind an athlete you may or may not have heard of: Pyrros Dimas.  Dimas was a three time Olympic gold medalist for weightlifting.  He weighed in at a meager 182 pounds, yet lifted 473lbs over his head in the Sydney Olympics.  He was the ultimate example of a strength athlete, and is one of my personal heroes.   

So how is it possible that Dimas was able to get so ungodly strong without becoming enormous and inflexible?  Well he, and other strength athletes alike, train for Myofibrillar hypertrophy, or an increase in overall muscle fiber connections.  This type of training surprisingly does NOT drastically increase cross-sectional area or overall volume of the muscle being trained, but instead allows the muscle to contract with much more force than it could previously.  Believe me, to put that much weight over your head, you need a LOT of targeted, raw, force.  

Myofibrillar hypertrophy deals more with fast twitch, or type II muscle fiber, the kind often referred to as "usable muscle."  Athletes like sprinters, Olympic lifters, power lifters, and other related force athletes often have large amounts of fast twitch muscle.  This muscle contracts, as the name implies, hard and fast, and can apply great amounts of energy to objects in very short amounts of time.  It is not, however, very effective endurance muscle.  Muscles can only contract with remarkable force for relatively short periods of time, hence the reason that joggers, bodybuilders, Nordic skiers, swimmers, and other endurance athletes (I put bodybuilders in there because of their ability to hit fantastic numbers of reps, NOT their running ability, which I'm sure is horrendous) possess much more slow twitch, endurance muscle fiber.  

It's always good to get strength training into your workout routine, as being able to lift heavy weights is not only healthy, it also builds a more solid body and strong neural connections between your brain and your muscles.  So where do you start?  Well, first of all, drop the huge number of reps.  Next, increase the weight.  Finally, do this for a good number of sets, 10 or so.  For an olympic lifter, a squat workout program may look like this:  10 sets of 2 reps, every rep at around 85-95% of max.  Believe me, though it may look like an easy workout, it is anything but.  That weight is very heavy, and will ALWAYS be very heavy.  This type of training does work though, and I can personally vouch for it.  The majority of my training is strength targeted.  My squat has gone up around 90lbs in 6 months, and shows no signs of slowing down.  And I don't look too much different, implying I haven't experienced much sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.  Watch out Dimas, here I come!

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So which is the best way to train?  ....HAH!  What a silly question.  That's not possible to answer, and rarely will anybody who knows there stuff about exercising/fitness give you a straight shot one way or another.  For the average person, I suggest a mixture of both!  You'd like to look good and be strong at the same time, right?  Well that's a great goal, AND entirely possible.  Switch up your workout, either weekly, monthly, yearly, daily, I don't care.  Confuse your body, train both high and low reps, high and low weight, high and low volume.  You want to see benefits across the board right?  Well you will!  There's always carryover from each type of training.  Even though I said bodybuilders aren't relatively strong...well...I said RELATIVELY.  They're still unbelievably strong, because look at how much muscle mass they've got!  And sure, Olympic lifters aren't overly huge, but I mean they aren't exactly tiny either.  Train for both size and strength, and you'll get both.  Sure, what you'll always get isn't the BEST of either world, but it'll be a pretty good start into each one, and it'll do your body a huge favor.

Get big, get strong, and as always, good luck!