Video Friday - Ready to Train

Blunt force trauma...what are your weight lifting session like???

Have a great weekend!!!

EAA, CLA, and Whole Grains...

I just had a new Q&A article published on Bodybuilding.com

Go check it out!

Adapation to Low Carbs

I just read a great post by Dr. Michael Eades, the author of Protein Power (a low carb classis and a great title). It is about the adaptations that occur in your body when you switch to a low carb diet.

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We’ve all had the experience. We go off our low-carb diet for a while, then decide to get serious and get back on the straight and narrow. We start counting every carb and being good as gold, and suddenly we’re fatigued. We find ourselves puffing and panting just walking out to the mailbox. Old time low-carbers know this will pass, but newbies aren’t so sure. No one told them about this, and all they can think of are all the horror stories they’ve been told about low-carb diets.

I’ve had countless people tell me of how they tried a low-carb diet once and got so tired they had to give it up. They then usually tell me that a low-carb diet just doesn’t work for their bodies. I tell them that if they’ll just hang in there a while, it will all get better, and, in fact, they will have more energy and less fatigue than before they started the diet.

There is an adaptation period that takes place when starting a low-carb diet. Someone who has been on a high-carb diet–the standard American diet, for example–has to metabolize a lot of sugar. All metabolic processes require enzymes to carry them out. Our DNA codes for these enzymes, but we don’t make them unless we need them. And when we do need them it takes a while for them to get brought up to the necessary levels. So, when we’re on a high-carb diet, we’ve got a lot of sugar-metabolizing enzymes kicking around, ready to metabolize sugar. All the sugar-metabolizing pathways are working efficiently.

Suddenly we switch to a low-carb diet. Now we don’t have much sugar to be metabolized–we’ve got fat instead. But our fat metabolizing pathways are kind of rusty. We’ve got plenty of sugar enzymes, but not enough fat enzymes. The body stays put for a bit to see what’s going to happen. Is this just a few hours without carbs or is it a real low-carb diet for sure? Once the body gets serious, signals go to the DNA, which starts coding for the fat-burning enzymes. They are soon made and start to work, and the fatigue goes away because the body can now efficiently metabolize fat, the main fuel on a low-carb diet.

Read the rest of his post here

Tags: protein power, low carb diets, metabolism, weight loss, Dr. Michael Eades

Flexible Nutrition

I sometimes think of myself as a nutritional anomaly. See, in the world of nutrition in order to get a book published you need a gimmick. It doesn't even matter if the diet you prescribe sucks you just need a good gimmick. Don't believe me? What about the Flavor Point diet?



Is this guy serious? We're fat because our brain is stimulated by too many flavors. Anyway...I don't have a gimmick. I'm not a low carb guy, high carb guy, high protein guy...I'm none of those, yet I'm all of them. I don't want to limit myself by proscribing to a particular dogma because most of them work. Do I eat low carb all the time? No. Some of the time? Yes. Sometimes I'll use simple sugars after my workouts and sometimes I'll just use protein and amino acids.

I personally like to periodize my nutrition like I do my training. Sometimes I'll train full body and sometimes I'll train like a bodybuilder with bodypart splits. This keeps it interesting. When you eat low carb you get to eat foods that you normally wouldn't eat as much of when your carb intake is higher (like whole eggs, cheese, maybe even...bacon..but not that much). When I eat higher carb I get to enjoy more whole grains, oatmeal (my favorite), sweet potatoes.

Have you been having trouble sticking to your nutritional plan lately? why don't you switch it up? Have you tried the Metabolic Diet? Give it a shot! Are you a low carb guy? Start having carbs post workout and in the 2 meals following your workout. You'll love the muscle pumps! Most of all don't be so dogmatic because in the end everything works...just don't try the Flavor Point Diet.

Tags: low carb diet, metabolic diet, protein, fat loss