Move or Your Fat Cells Will!

I've got bad news....You can't ever stop exercising....Well, you can but you'll get fat.

What am I talking about? A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology made rats run for about a month and a half increasing their distance such that the last week they were running 9km/d. The rats were then forced to be sedentary from anywhere between 5hours-7days on either a controlled diet or eating as much as they wanted.

The rats on a controlled diet had an increase in abdominal fat independent of food intake. The rats that ate as much as they wanted had an increase in fat cell number. Usually our fat cells just fill up - this is the better option because once a fat cell is produced it never goes away.

This study is interesting. Because it was done in animals it should be taken with a grain of salt. However, what are the implications of these findings?

*It could possibly mean that running is an even worse form of exercise than I previously expected. It would be interesting to have seen a group that did weight training but have you ever seen a rat trying to deadlift...not pretty.

*These findings could also caution us against overeating during periods of being sedentary as it could possibly result in fat cell hyperplasia (increase in numbers).

If anything this is a glowing recommendation for life long exercise and not a quick fix approach followed by being sedentary and overeating.

Tags: fat, weight gain, running, weight training, rats

I'm a knucklehead!

If you have tried to subscribe to my blog via the RSS feeds on the right hand column of the page but were unsuccessful I'm sorry. Last night it came to my attention that when you click the "add to google" or "add to yahoo" chicklets that you get subscribed to Max-Out Radio and not the blog. I've fixed the problem and do apologize.

-Mike

No More Trans Fat in KFC Chicken - Does it Matter?

It is official. KFC has eliminated the trans fat from their chicken as reported by Healthday.com

KFC restaurants announced Monday that all 5,500 of its U.S. outlets have stopped using artery-clogging trans fat to fry chicken, the Associated Press reported.

...I'm sorry did they say that KFC has "stopped using artery-clogging trans fat"? So KFC isn't going to clog your arteries?? The problem here isn't trans fat in KFC chicken, but the entire KFC menu. Trans fat is a hot issue and it has become a political agenda for some people. I'm not saying that we shouldn't get rid of trans fat but aren't there more important things from a big picture stand point? You know like getting crack off the streets.

Plus, this news story is a little misleading as the only prodcuts that aren't going to contain trans fat is the chicken

"...its non-fried items -- including pot pies, biscuits, macaroni and cheese, and some desserts -- still contain trans fat."

Tags: KFC, trans fat

Fat Loss Q & A

Here is a good fat loss Q & A from my most recent article on T-Nation.


Q: When dieting down and finding that fat loss progress has stalled, how long a time period would be recommended for slightly ramping up caloric intake?

Would a week's time be sufficient to jump start the metabolism again? Or would more time be needed than that or, possibly,less?


A: If your fat loss has stalled (defined by caliper, girth, and scale) for 3 weeks then it is time to test a change in your program.

I would try to add an interval session to your training week and see if that gives you the boost you need. Otherwise add ~300 calories/d for 3 weeks and see if that gets you going again. If you start losing fat again don't drop your calories back down until your fat loss stalls again.

Of course you won't want to increase you calories like we've discussed until you've hit the lowest caloric intake you feel comfortable with.

So if you start at 3000 calories and eventually make it down to 2000 calories but then your fat loss stalls at 2000 calories, one of the things you can test is what happens when you increase to 2300 calories.


-Mike

Tags: fat loss, increase calories, weight loss plateau