WHY MEN SHOULD WORRY ABOUT SOY IN THEIR DIETS

In a previous article I talked about the dangers of Soy and here is a recent article from Men's Health linking Soy's phytoestrogens to Gynecomastia in males. Gynecomastia is a benign enlargement of mammary glands in males that typically happens with elevated estrogen levels. The other problem is a reduced testosterone level causing impotence. The problem is that Soy has infiltrated the modern American diet in a big way, mainly because of soy subsidies (the other one is corn) and the general consensus among people that its the miracle super food that's necessary for good health. So the next time you go for a high protein shake or a high protein vegetarian source that has low cholesterol think twice!

WHY IS RESTING METABOLIC RATE IMPORTANT FOR FAT LOSS

In the last article I showed that protein increases your BMR by as much as 30%, 3 hours after a high protein meal. So let’s delve a bit deeper into BMR. What is BMR and why is it so important for fat loss? We hear all the time that as we age our BMR steadily declines and thats the main reason for age related weight gain. So what can be done to keep our BMR high?

 

Let’s first understand what the components of BMR are. Here is a definition from Wikipedia:

“Basal metabolic rate (BMR), and the closely related resting metabolic rate (RMR), is the amount of daily energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment, in the post-absorptive state (meaning that the digestive system is inactive, which requires about twelve hours of fasting in humans). The release of energy in this state is sufficient only for the functioning of the vital organs, the heart, lungs, nervous system, kidneys, liver, intestine, sex organs, muscles, and skin.”

Since BMR is such a restrictive definition a more useful definition known as the resting metabolic rate (RMR) is used. RMR, as the name suggests, is the calorie requirement for vital body functions while at rest. Both BMR and RMR require advanced calorimetric techniques to measure, so there have been many empirical equations that have been developed to estimate the RMR of individuals. The most popular one is the Harris-Benedict equation for normal healthy individuals:

• For men: (13.75 x w) + (5 x h) - (6.76 x a) + 66
• For women: (9.56 x w) + (1.85 x h) - (4.68 x a) + 655

And the Mufflin equation for RMR:

• For men: (10 x w) + (6.25 x h) - (5 x a) + 5
• For women: (10 x w) + (6.25 x h) - (5 x a) - 161

Where:

w = weight in kg

h = height in cm

a = age

The biggest drawback of these equations is they don’t take into consideration body composition. Studies have shown that there is as much as 80% variation in the RMR estimation of active individuals and athletes. This was taken into account by the Cunningham equation that took into consideration the fat free muscle mass present in the body. This is because lean muscle burns calories while fat doesn’t. So for active individuals a more accurate estimation is given by:

RMR = 500 +22*FFM (Kg)

Where:

            FFM = Fat Free Mass (lean muscle)

From this equation it should be pretty clear that the more FFM an individual has the higher his RMR is going to be.

It will be clear in a minute why all this math matters once we look closely at RMR. As I said, RMR is the calorie requirement of the body in order to maintain healthy vital functions. The body burns some calories daily for normal day-to-day activities. These maintenance calories are comprised of RMR, food thermogenesis and activity thermogenesis. The RMR is comprised of all the vital organ functional calorie requirements and the calorie requirement of skeletal muscles. In this sense the muscles behave as a vital organ that burn calories for their survival. Activity thermogenesis is comprised of exercise thermogenesis and non-exercise thermogenesis. This is illustrated in the figure below:

Non-exercise thermogenesis is the amount of calories burned during daily day to day activities like walking to the restroom, sitting down or getting up, fidgeting, brushing etc. It might seem insignificant but non-activity thermogenesis exceeds activity thermogenesis even in avid exercisers. So now two things should be clear from these pie charts, first, that RMR is a major constituent of our daily calorie requirement and the only knob that can be manipulated in order to boost RMR is increasing skeletal muscle mass. Second, that calories burned during exercise activity only form a small percentage (9%) of the total daily calorie requirement, even in active individuals. So relying on just exercise calories to burn fat would be very inefficient. Studies [1,2] have shown that the level of aerobic fitness doesn’t correlate with an increase in RMR where as anaerobic exercise such as weightlifting leads to a higher RMR via the addition of fat free muscle mass.

Did you know that in order to burn a pound of fat you would need to burn about 4100 calories which would require 7 hours of running at moderate pace? On the other hand if you had 5 extra lbs of muscle it would burn about 4000 calories in 20 days without lifting a finger (even in your sleep). Gaining 5 extra pounds is easy especially for beginners and will only take less than 3 months of weight training. And when I say weight training I don't mean working with big weights. It can be as simple as body weight exercises (lunges, squats, push-ups, pull-ups, dips, etc). Now while the calorie burn rate of muscle may not seem much, think of it as the race between the turtle and hare. The hare being the calories burned during aerobics and the turtle being the calories burned by muscles all day. The hare runs fast and burns a lot of calories while running but when it stops it burns no calories.  On the other hand the turtle runs slower and burns calories at a slower pace but it never stops running so the calories burn 24/7. So guess who’s going to win the race to burn calories? Slow and steady wins the race!

While aerobic exercise is good for cardiovascular fitness it does nothing to boost your RMR. Anaerobic exercise done in short interval bursts (such as in HIIT), on the other hand, will be good not only for cardiovascular fitness but also to boost your RMR which in the long run will burn fat more efficiently than aerobic exercise.  

REFERENCES:

1.       CE Broeder, KA Burrhus, LS Svanevik and JH Wilmore (1992). "The effects of aerobic fitness on resting metabolic rate". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 55 (4): 795.

2.       D. A. Smith, J. Dollman, R. T. Withers, M. Brinkman, J. P. Keeves, and D. G. Clark(1997) (1997). "Relationship between maximum aerobic power and resting metabolic rate in young adult women". Journal of Applied Physiology 82 (1): 156.

EATING PROTEIN FOR FAT LOSS

Different foods in our diet affect our metabolism differently. The digestion of food also requires expending calories for breaking down the components in food via the action of enzymes. This is called postprandial thermogenesis (PT) which temporarily increases the basal metabolic rate (BMR) following a meal. The graph below shows the affect of various components in food and how they affect the BMR as a function of time after the meal.

So this means about 3 hrs following a high protein meal the BMR increases about 30%. Carbs and fat don't have the same dramatic effect on BMR. So within an hour or two of waking up eat a high protein breakfast to rev up your BMR so that you keep burning extra calories all morning. Also drinking a protein shake an hour or so before a run or workout will maximize the calorie burning during exercise. In the next article I'll discuss BMR and what constitutes the various components of BMR. This will help explain why building muscle is more effective for burning fat than cardio. Until next time....

NAGGING SPOUSES AND HEART DISEASE

Just read an interesting article on a study performed by dutch researchers on the effects of nagging on heart disease. It states that constantly nagging spouses can increase a persons risk for heart disease by a whopping 300%! Now that's more than any other risk factor I know of, like alcohol or smoking or saturated fats! 

http://blogs.menshealth.com/health-headlines/are-you-being-nagged-to-death/2011/01/01 

This shouldn't come as a surprise because the person being bombarded with constant nagging would develop a chronic stress situation. And the relation of chronic stress to cortisol production in the body is very well understood. Although cortisol is an important hormone for the regulation of various metabolic functions in the body like blood sugar regulation, immune function and inflammatory response, a constant high level of the same would cause blood sugar imbalances, impair immune response, promote belly fat deposition and inflammation and eventually heart disease. So my suggestion to all the naggers and nagees (is that even a word?) is to take it easy and enjoy life! :)

HOW TO SPOT A FAD DIET

It seems like new diets are cropping up everyday faster than you can say ‘she sells sea shells at the sea shore’. So with all these new diets and with millions of us pursuing our weight-loss goals it would be a daunting task to choose the right diet that fits our goals. Also people look for new diets for various reasons. Some do it for health reasons, say, to reduce ones cholesterol level or to control ones blood sugar while others do it for vanity. Whatever the reason might be there are diets that will get you the desired results and there are diets that won’t (at least in the long run). For example if you are trying to reduce your blood cholesterol level you wouldn’t benefit by going on the Atkins diet which consists primarily of a high protein diet from animal sources. On the other hand if your primary reason is just weight loss for the sole purpose of looking good, then Atkins will get you there. There is even a junk food diet that will get you there. So here are a few tips that will help you spot a fad diet. 

1)   Diets that denounce a particular food group: fat, carbs or proteins. All three food groups are essential to healthy living and avoiding one in favor of the others is not a balanced way to eat.

2)   Diets that don’t require you to change eating habits. Diets that claim you can eat whatever you want.

3)   Diets that claim no exercise is required. Any good weight loss plan should include some exercise: at least 3 days a week.

4)   Diets that require buying prepackaged supplements and food are just there to make money. They might work but don’t waste your money on them. There are easier more effective ways of losing weight than to drink meal in a shake.

5)    Diets that claim ridiculous amounts of weight loss in record time. Any weight loss over one lb per week is temporary and is bound to come back faster than it’s lost.

6)    Diets that aren’t tailored for the individual and that don’t consider your personal tastes and preferences.

7)    Lastly, any diet that gains popularity over a short period of time is more than likely a fad diet because of all the above reasons. It catches too many people’s attention in a short duration because of the ridiculous claims and too many people looking for short cuts fall victim to its claims.

Any healthy weight loss diet should consist of a balance of many nutritious and wholesome foods consumed in small portions over the whole day. Along with a healthy diet plan one should target exercising for at least 3-4 days a week. A combination of cardio (for endurance and cardiovascular conditioning) and resistance training (for strength and fat loss) would work best.

WHAT IS BEST FOR FAT LOSS: CARDIO OR HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!

Before I begin I would like to mention to all the readers and my friends who love running marathons and do the century bike rides that they continue what they are doing because it is commendable and requires a lot of discipline to do what they do and is very healthy to do so. In this article I am only making an attempt at clarifying the purported benefits of cardio for fat loss.

So, what is best for fat loss? Long duration low intensity aerobic or short duration high intensity anaerobic training? Most of us think it has to be the former because that’s what we have been told by the ‘experts’ that low intensity high volume training is best for fat loss. The proponents of cardio (or aerobics) even say that the body doesn’t start ‘burning fat’ until after 20-30 min of the cardio workout. So the widely accepted prescription for fat loss is to do aerobics for 30 to 60 min, 3-5X a week. 

Now take a look at the two athletes shown here. The one on the left is current world marathon record holder Samuel Wanjiru, an epitome of low intensity long duration cardio, and the one on the right is the current world record holder in 100m sprint, Usain Bolt, an epitome of short duration high intensity training. Which one do you think has the lower body fat percentage? In case it’s not obvious from the pictures that would be the sprinter! 

A closer look at the training regimen of Wanjiru shows that he alternates 30km at a moderate pace and 38km cross country at a low pace every 10 days. On top of that he runs 15km every morning before he eats breakfast. In his own words he never does any strength training. So do you think he gets enough cardio? I think he gets plenty! Now a closer look at Bolt’s training regimen shows that he trains with a combination of strength and plyometric training to build functional and explosive strength. The core of his workout program consists of weighted squats, lunges and explosive step-ups with weighted barbell and he likes to keep it heavy for a maximum of 10-12 reps. He also does a lot of high intensity interval training (HIIT) type sprint drills where he would sprint at full speed for 50 -100 yards and rest for a few minutes of stretching and flexibility followed by the full speed sprint. So do you think he gets enough cardio? It’s negligible to none! By the way both athletes are very healthy eaters as one would expect from any world class athlete. So the big question is why does Mr. Cardio have a higher body fat percentage than Mr. High Intensity? 

Let’s try to understand why this is so. Doing long duration cardio requires the body to be very efficient at spending energy. You see, nature is very frugal so it will always choose the lowest energy state. So going for hours of energy expenditure will require the body to lose weight (not just fat) in order to minimize the work done. And the body doesn’t discriminate between muscle and fat loss when it loses weight for the sake of being efficient. Moreover it’s more efficient to lose muscle (except the muscles involved in the activity) rather than fat as muscle is denser than fat. So in order to run a marathon the body has to lose muscle and fat from everywhere else except the legs. But we all know that losing muscle slows down your basal metabolism so while long duration cardio burns a lot of calories during the activity the body burns very little when the activity is not being performed. On the other hand the HIIT regimen develops a lot of explosive strength and power which in turn requires the body to build muscle. The body here is also trying to achieve efficiency but of a different kind, namely to perform the greatest amount of work in the shortest amount of time and in order to achieve this it has to only lose fat and preserve muscle or even build it. And we all know muscle is active tissue so it keeps burning calories even after the activity has ceased, thereby increasing the body’s basal metabolic rate.  

So, although cardio is a good way to keep healthy and build endurance it’s not the best way to lose fat. The most efficient way to lose fat is by doing quick bouts of strength training followed by short intervals of rest. Try doing quick sprints at full speed for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of slow jog or do circuit type training with free weights starting with squats, flowed by dead-lifts, followed by pull ups, followed by bench press and end with shoulder presses. Try to be in the 15 rep range with a minute rest between sets.  Any of these HIIT circuits shouldn’t go over 20-25 minutes. 

So if you are struggling in the gym with fat loss feeling like a hamster on the wheel give one of the HIIT circuits a try. It might be your ticket to jump start your slow metabolism, lose fat and build a firm toned physique!