In Lean Eating, we keep data on everything clients want to improve. Wanna lose weight? Step on the scale. Wanna be more precise and lose fat? Get out the calipers and measure body fat. Wanna fit into your skinny clothes? Try them on once in a while. Wanna feel better? Then every few weeks, actually ask yourself how you’re feeling, write it down, and review it every few months.

Basic stuff right? Bullshit. I work with professional athletes and teams, I consult with major gym chains on their personal training practices, I work one-on-one with clients from all walks of life from all over the world. And believe me: practically no one does this. In fact, sometimes I feel like we’re the only ones who really do this stuff, and the reason is because it works! There’s an old saying you’d be wise to follow: “What gets measured gets done.”

2. Take photos.

Admit it: you care — at least a little, and maybe a lot — about how you look. And that’s okay! In fact, it’s healthy and normal. Who doesn’t want to look great? Well, for the same way you’d measure weight loss if you want to lose weight, you better take photos if you want to look better. In Lean Eating, it’s built into the program: every few weeks, you step in front of the camera and snap a few photos.

Understand that it’s normal to not be totally at ease about taking photos of yourself at first. Just know that it’s a) a very important step toward self-awareness, without which you simply cannot change, b) the best way to document your hard work, and c) possibly the most motivating thing you will ever do for yourself.

(And remember, everyone starts in the same place: out of shape. Take a look at the Men’s and Women’s “before” photos from Lean Eating; think they were comfortable taking those shots? Then look at the “afters” and think about how they felt then.)

3. Do something every day.

One of my colleagues once put it best: if something is important, do it every day; if it’s not important, don’t do it at all.

Bingo.

Change happens only when you slowly tear down old habits and build new ones in their place. That has to be daily, in my experience. In fact, that’s one of the reasons exercise alone doesn’t work — doing something 3 times a week isn’t enough to build a new habit. That’s also why personal training isn’t very effective (unless it combines nutrition and daily habit building, like we teach in our Precision Nutrition Certification.)

Instead, in Lean Eating, you have something to do every day. A workout to do, a lesson to read, a habit to practice, fellow clients and coaches to chat with. If you want to get in the best shape of your life, ask yourself, “What’s one thing I could start doing every day?”

4. Make it easy.

To do something every day, you have to make that “something” easy enough that you’re 100% confident you could do it every day for 30 days. That often means scaling your ambitious plans way back.

Unfortunately, most people bite off way more than they can chew. They commit to working out an hour a day, eating four healthy meals, cutting out chocolate, running a marathon, cooking more, waking up earlier — nothing less than a complete overhaul of their lives. Maybe they’re able to do it all for 3 days, a week, some people even a little longer perhaps. But inevitably, they miss a day, then two . . . then it all falls apart. They lose confidence, feel guilty, beat themselves up, and go back to doing exactly what they were doing before: nothing. All or nothing.

Instead, make it easy on yourself, way easier than you think at first. Instead of eating 4 healthy meals a day, eat 1 healthy meal a day and give yourself permission to leave everything else the same. Can’t commit to that for 30 days? Hell, eat an apple a day. Or take fish oil each day. Or switch from your morning latte to a green tea, or water. Instead of working out an hour a day, how ’bout a 10-minute walk? Is that too much? What about a 5-minute walk?

“JB, don’t be ridiculous, that’s not going to do anything,” you might think. But that’s just your ego talking: you don’t want to look foolish or admit that something so easy might be all you can muster right now. All I can say is: stop that. That kind of thinking will keep you stuck exactly where you are. Let go of your ego, accept where you are, and commit only to something so easy that you could do it without thinking for at least 30 days straight.

[Note: the principle is valid no matter how advanced you are, too. I have elite athletes training 2 hours a day wanting to jump immediately to 4 hours. Why not start with another 15-20 minutes at first? Again, put your ego aside.]

In Lean Eating, we despise “all or nothing” thinking. Instead, we commit to “always something” — no matter how small at first.

5. Practice only one habit at a time.

In the Lean Eating Coaching Program, we have clients work on just ONE habit at a time. Often they find this frustrating at first, because they expect to be able to do everything, right away. But that’s just ego-driven impatience, and unfortunately change doesn’t work that way.

Numerous studies show that people are typically quite successful when they limit their change to one behavior at a time, for say 3-4 weeks before introducing a new one. BUT: introduce even 2 new behaviors at once, and the failure rate is nearly 100%.

That’s a tough lesson to learn. In fact, one of our $10,000 grand prize winners actually complained that the one thing he wished was different about Lean Eating was this one-habit-at-time thing — why couldn’t we have taught him all this stuff at the beginning?!!

Well, because then he would have failed.

Again, put your ego aside, and change your expectation: people can only change one behavior at a time. So pick one — anything positive will do — and give yourself permission to leave everything else in your life as-is, at least for now. There will be plenty of time for the rest, trust me. People overestimate how hard change will be, and underestimate how long it will take. Stick to one habit at a time, and you’ll get there.

6. No “wondering & worrying” questions.

Ah, another tough lesson to learn. Change is an uncomfortable process, always. You leave what you know (your habits, your lifestyle, your environment) and by trying something new, you take a tentative step into an unknown and uncertain place.

So the first thing clients do is try to resolve that tension, try to make it “certain” again, by asking all kinds of frenzied questions and working themselves into a panic:

• “What about this supplement, or that?”
• “What do you think about this theory / guru / article I read / study that was published?”
• “What about when (unforeseeable future event) happens — what do I do then?”
• “What about (rare, irrelevant and highly unlikely situation) — what do I do in that case?”
• etc., etc.

In Lean Eating, we call these “wondering & worrying” questions, and we have a strict ban on them, because although they’re well-intentioned, they don’t reduce anxiety at all. In fact, they do the exact opposite, whipping people into a froth of nail-biting and distracting them from the only two questions that matter:

1. What should I do today?
2. How do I do that?

The first question is asking for the next step, the “right now.” That’s the only thing you should concern yourself with, because it’s the only thing you can control. The second question is asking for clarification and instruction, so that you can do what you need to do properly.

Those are the only two kinds of questions that lead to calm, focused action. They’re all we allow our clients to ask, and they’re all you should be asking too. So next time you find yourself asking a question about fitness, take a second and think, “Am I focused on what to do right now? Or is this just wondering and worrying?”

7. Get a little help from your friends.

We call this “social support” — and it makes all the difference in the world.

Who you have in your social circle — and what they do, and how they think — will have an almost magnetic pull on who you are. In fact, there is interesting new research showing that obesity spreads almost like an epidemic. The people in your life will forever be pulling you, even unconsciously, toward being just like them. As another of my colleagues likes to say, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.”

That’s all well and good, except when it comes time to change, because as you change those same people will be pulling you back to the way you were — usually not intentionally or maliciously, just . . . just because. They can’t help it.

When it comes to fitness and fat loss, the same applies. Now this doesn’t mean you need to scrap your friends and family and beg the local yoga teacher to adopt you. It just means that as you start to get in shape, you better get some other like-minded people in your life, or you’ll soon be putting the pounds back on faster than you lost them in the first place. I’ve seen it time and time again.

That’s why Lean Eating is a group program, with a social component to it: you can interact daily with people who are just like you, chasing the same goals as you. No matter where you are in the world, no matter where you’re starting, you will find people in the group just like you who get where you’re coming from. That reassurance, and even the mere realization that you aren’t alone in this, exerts a new sort of magnetic pull — this time, though, toward the life you want and not the one you’re leaving behind.

So take the opportunity to join groups or befriend new people who are doing what you want to do: maybe yoga or spin class, a friendly team sport league, even reconnect with a fit friend you maybe haven’t talked to in a while. Anything. Because if you don’t, beware the subtle but powerful pull back to where you were.

8. Be accountable to someone.

As much as you need to be picked up when you’re down, as much as you need be helped and supported from time to time, as much as you need some positivity in your life . . . you also need someone to kick your ass back into gear when you’re slacking, and help you snap out of the simple laziness that we all fall into from time to time.

In Lean Eating, that person is your coach, whose job it is to stay on top of you as much as it is to support you. If you miss a day, okay, fine; miss two, and we’re on you. If there’s a legitimate problem, we’ll help find a solution; if there’s just an excuse, we’ll call “bullshit” and get you back to being honest with yourself again.

Everyone needs someone to hold them accountable, especially in the beginning of a new process that they’re unfamiliar with. So who is that person in your life right now? Who challenges your excuses? Who helps you get back on track?

Who are you accountable to?

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There you go, 8 lessons you can use right now to change your body, and ultimately your life — courtesy of the Lean Eating Coaching Program.

Pick one, and put it to use today, because that’s what it really takes to change.

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About the Author

Dr. John Berardi is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Precision Nutrition Inc. One of the world’s foremost experts on sport and exercise nutrition, Dr. Berardi has authored numerous peer-reviewed studies, books, textbooks and hundreds of magazine articles on the topics of exercise and sport nutrition.

As a nutrition coach and exercise physiologist, he has coached hundreds of elite athletes, among them professionals and Olympic gold medalists, and thousands of everyday folk through the Lean Eating Coaching Program.

Studying under renowned researcher Dr. Peter Lemon, Dr. Berardi received his PhD in Exercise Physiology and Nutrient Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario and is an Adjunct Professor at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Texas.

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A 2002 study compared the metabolic profile of women lifting 85% of their maximum ability for 8 reps, versus 45% for 15 reps. The test subjects who were lifting the heavier load for fewer reps burned more energy and had a significantly larger metabolic boost after exercise.

Another study looked at 2 groups of women over a 6 year period who performed squats and military presses at different intensity levels. The women who worked at 70-80% of their maximal for 8 reps had greater weight and body fat loss than crossover groups.

Training with heavier loads increases an individual’s “myogenic tone.” Heavy lifting forces the body to adapt to the increased demands and build more contractile proteins within the muscle. This process increases muscle density, enhances body image and provides sustainable muscle tone.

Training with heavier loads also increases an individual’s “neurogenic tone.” A critical response the body makes to increased loads is to enhance the amount of muscle fibers the nervous system will recruit at a given time. As a result, there is an increased sensitivity of the muscle spindle receptors and the alpha and gamma motor neurons. This adaptation increases the efficiency of movement for both complicated and simple tasks. It also gives the muscle a more ripped appearance.

High Reps with Lighter Weight: This form of exercise utilizes the aerobic system and stimulates an increase in blood flow to the muscle groups at work. This creates a “sarcoplasmic tone” that is based on fluid around the muscle. This sort of tone is considered “soft,” and is not sustainable. As little as 30 minutes after finishing the exercise the fluid returns to the circulatory system. Training like this over time results in an increase in capillary density and improved blood & oxygen supply to the muscle group.

It does not, however, maximally stimulate muscle fibers to produce new contractile proteins. In addition, the nervous system is not challenged at a high intensity with this form of exercise. Therefore, it doesn’t improve myogenic and neurogenic tone and sustainable muscle tone is generally not gained.

For Best Results:

1. Perform multi-joint, compound exercises like squats, dead-lifts, bent-over rows, pull-ups, over-head press, and push-ups to drive up your metabolism and muscle building potential

2.Utilize a resistance that is 70-90% of your maximum and perform to max for 3-12 reps for 2-3 sets.

3.Use short-rest between sets (10-30 secs max) to keep your oxygen debt high as this will increase post-exercise fat burning potential.

(sources below)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/h…
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Apr;34(4):715-22.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Dec 14.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ber…
http://www.criticalbench.com/high_r…

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About Author

Dr. David Jockers owns and operates Exodus Health Center in Kennesaw, Ga. He is a chiropractor, exercise physiologist and natural health specialist. For more information go to www.exodushc.com

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Readers note: this is one of my favorite articles, and in my opinion, one of my best.

Not more than a month ago, I was standing in a field of soy beans in Peoria Illinois doing a commercial for a Japanese film crew. The guy to the right of the camera was holding up my little cue card as I said “Soy products have been shown to reduce cholesterol and possibly prevent cancer, yada, yada, yada…” I found it hard to keep a straight face and say nice things about soy protein as I have always considered soy protein basically a waste of time for bodybuilders. However, this commercial was for “normal” people so I did not feel like a “sell-out” for saying positive things about soy protein. On the plane ride home, with a glass of red wine firmly in hand, I decided to take a closer look into the properties of soy proteins and see if there were not some useful applications of this protein for bodybuilders after all.

The bodybuilding community has been pretty hard on soy protein generally relegating it to “crap” status among most bodybuilders and bodybuilding nutritionists. I will be the first to admit I have helped the negative reputation of soy among bodybuilders along by telling them how inferior it is to such proteins as whey or egg in various articles and my book. I still think soy protein is inferior to such proteins as whey and egg, but I do believe that it has some potentially useful applications if used correctly and tweaked just right. More on that later.

The Downside of Soy

So why does soy have such a bad reputation among bodybuilders? On the surface, it would appear that soy protein is pretty lousy stuff for most athletes. Soy protein has a low BV score of 74. What does that mean? There are several ways of assessing protein quality. You have the protein efficiency ratio (PER), the net protein utilization (NPU) and the biological value (BV). The PER is an outdated measure of protein quality and is not used much anymore by most supplement manufacturers or nutritionists “in the know” about protein quality. The NPU is a little better than the PER, but fails to take several important factors into account involved with proteins, such as absorption and digestibility, so it too is not used much either. That brings us to the BV. The BV is the most accurate indicator of biological activity of a protein and measures the actual amount of protein deposited per gram of protein absorbed. As a rule, high BV proteins are better for nitrogen retention, immunity, IGF-1 stimulation, and are superior for reducing lean tissue loss during various wasting states than their low BV counterparts. That is, as a general rule, high BV proteins are more anti-catabolic than low BV proteins. As most people already know, the highest BV protein available is whey protein with whole egg a close second (see chart), which is why bodybuilders and other athletes rely heavily on these two protein foods and tend to avoid soy and other proteins with low BV scores.

In addition to its low BV score, soy has several other nutritional drawbacks that make bodybuilders avoid the stuff like it was fake D-bol. One reason soy is so low on the BV scale is it is lacking in the sulfur containing amino acid methionine. The sulfur containing amino acids (cysteine being the other one) are particularly important for protein synthesis/growth, proper immune system function, and the body’s production of glutathione (GSH). GSH is one of the most important anti-oxidants found in the body and protects cells and serves to detoxify a variety of harmful compounds such as hydrogen peroxide, carcinogens, reactive oxygen species, and many others. In particular, GSH is also partly responsible for keeping low density lipoproteins (LDL) from oxidizing and clogging our arteries. Several studies have shown soy protein to be inferior to whey for the production of GSH and improvements in immunity. Though soy has a reputation for reducing cholesterol in man and animals, in one study rats fed soy protein that was not fortified with methionine as 13% of total calories, had an increase in cholesterol and an increase susceptibility of LDL cholesterol to peroxidation . So not only did the rats cholesterol go up, the LDL fraction oxidized easier potentially leading to clogged arteries. It is well established that an increased susceptibility of LDL to peroxidation is an essential step for the development of atherogenesis. These rats were found to have low levels of GSH and did not grow as well as another groups of rats fed casein.

If that were not bad enough to convince you to avoid soy, it gets worse. Soy protein contains something known as “anti -nutrients” that block the digestion and absorption of many nutrients. Two of the more important anti-nutrients found in soy are Lectins and protease inhibitors. Lectins are nasty constituents of various plants and can cause all sorts of problems from interfering with the absorption of important nutrients to intestinal damage. Proteases are enzymes that assist in the digestion of proteins. Soy has several protease inhibitors that interfere with the enzyme trypsin and chymotrypsin, both of which are important for the digestion and absorption of proteins in the gastrointestinal tract. Finally, soy is rich in estrogenic compounds such as genistein and diadzein. There are over 300 plant derived phytoestrogens found that vary substantially in their physiologic effect and potency in animals and man. As any bodybuilder worth his weight belt already knows, a change in the testosterone/estrogen ratio in favor of estrogen can lead to increased bodyfat and other ill effects as it relates to the strength athletes goals.

BV of common proteins:

• Whey=104
• Whole egg=100
• Egg white=88
• Casein=77
• Soy=74

The Upside of Soy

“You mean there could possibly be an upside?” you are thinking. I realize the previous section does not paint a very pretty picture of soy proteins, but I did not give you the entire story. As I said, on the surface soy looks like a pretty miserable protein for the hard training bodybuilder trying to eke out some new muscle tissue and/or lose bodyfat. The problem of the anti-nutrients found in soy protein has been taken care of as the manufacturers of high quality soy protein isolates remove them or dramatically reduce their activity during processing, so this is not a big point of concern anymore. Also, the addition of methionine to soy isolates greatly improves its BV and nutritional value, though it still does not reach the BV of whole egg or a good whey protein for that matter. Rats fed soy protein enriched with methionine grew at a similar rate as those fed casein.

As for the estrogenic compounds found in soy, that’s a bit more complicated. For years, soy protein has been found to reduce cholesterol in a wide range of animalsspecies and man. One recent study found that when they separated the estrogenic compounds from soy, it failed to have the usual cholesterol lowering effects. This does not come as a big surprise as the cholesterol lowering protective effects of estrogen are well known. However, soy protein appears to have several mechanisms by which it lowers cholesterol (i.e. isoflavones, endocrine effects, fiber, saponins, etc.) and its mechanism on cholesterol probably depends on the animal species being studied. In addition to soy proteins ability to reduce cholesterol, epidemiological research also suggests soy can reduce certain forms of cancer and longevity companies such as the Life Extension Foundation are now recommending soy protein isolate for the treatment of certain cancers.

Ok, now here is where things start to get interesting as it applies the bodybuilders. Though soy proteins contain these estrogenic compounds, it appears that they are “tissue specific.” One study that used Rhesus monkeys found that soy proteins had no effects on the reproductive hormones of these animals. Testosterone, DHEAS, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), testicular weight, prostatic weight, and other measurements were taken. They found no difference between male animals who ate soy protein that contained the plant estrogens and those who ate soy with the estrogens removed, leading researchers to conclude: “thus, the isoflavones (genistein and diadzein) in soy protein improve cardiovascular risk factors without apparent deleterious effects on the reproductive system…, ” and “Genistein’s effects appear to be tissue specific, with estrogen agonist effects on plasma lipid concentrations, plasma lipoprotein distributions and preservation of bone mass that are similar in magnitude to mammalian estrogens, but without estrogenic effects…” They finally conclude “Our data support an interpretation that soy beans estrogens have tissue specificity in part because of their mixed estrogen agonist and antagonist properties.”

From this and other data, it seems the phytoestrogens in soy can lower cholesterol and improve heart disease risk without systemic estrogenic effects (i.e. gyno, bodyfat increases, etc.) that would normally be seen if say a bodybuilder took estrogen pills or from the conversion of certain steroids to estrogen. This study is a little more relevant to us humans being it was done with male monkeys which are far more similar animals to people than rats. However, I think that an upper level of soy protein that contains phytoestrogens could cause systemic estrogenic effects if enough were taken, but that’s only speculation on my part. Also, the use of soy isolates by men might be better cycled rather than taken all the time being we are not 100% sure at this time about the long term estrogenic potential of soy proteins in athletes. The ability of soy protein to lower cholesterol without other estrogenic effects could be useful to bodybuilders using anabolic steroids who tend to see a rise in cholesterol and/or LDL.

Now I have saved the best part for last regarding the upside of soy proteins. Soy protein has been found to raise thyroid output in a wide range of animals from rats to rabbits and pigs. Studies done with human subjects have been harder to quantify (what else is new?), but several studies suggest an effect on thyroid hormones in people eating soy protein isolate. Soy protein has been shown to raise thyroid hormone output which could be a real advantage to bodybuilders trying to shed some fat. The intake of various high quality proteins has been associated with higher levels of thyroid hormone, but soy appears to have thyroid hormone raising abilities unique to that of other proteins. Though some research has shown changes in T3 and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), the real effect appears to be with T4 which is elevated consistently in the studies done using animals-and to a lesser degree people-eating soy proteins. Also, some studies have found changes in the insulin/glucagon ratio that would favor reductions in cholesterol and possibly bodyfat. At this time, exactly how soy proteins have this effect on thyroid output is not well understood, but their working on it.

So what does the above information mean to the bodybuilder? There are two points I think are the most relevant to strength athletes. (1) Though thyroid hormones are considered catabolic hormones, they are actually more catabolic to fat and carbohydrates, but stimulate protein synthesis if adequate calories are eaten and the amounts of thyroid hormones are not to high. This could be useful for increasing protein synthesis and reducing bodyfat. More research needs to be done in this area of course. (2) When a person diets the success of that diet is quickly brought to a screeching halt when the body figures out what you are up to and reduces the output of thyroid hormones. This is a reaction by the body brought on by a reduced caloric intake which reduces metabolic rate and a new caloric set point is established and the dieter is now screwed! The use of soy protein isolate to boost thyroid output could be exactly what the doctor ordered to keep thyroid levels raised during reduced calorie intake when dieting if the above evidence with soy proteins and thyroid function holds true in humans on reduced calories diets. Lets hope it does!

Solving The Soy Dilemma

Taking all of the above information on soy protein that we have looked at in this article I think we come up with something of a dilemma for the bodybuilder. For the average person, there is no real dilemma here as they don’t care much about protein quality. Unfortunately, if a bodybuilder starts to replace too much of the other high quality proteins in their diet in favor of soy to reap some of the potential benefits of soy, than he (or she) runs the risk of losing muscle due to this lower quality protein. This would be particularly noticeable during a reduction in calories (i.e.dieting). The lower the calorie intake the higher the quality of protein needs to be to maintain lean body mass. Make no mistake about it, soy protein does not have the nitrogen retaining, anti catabolic, muscle building abilities of proteins such as whey, whole egg, red meat, etc. However, soy does appear to have some other real benefits to the bodybuilder. So what do we do? So far, it appears that a person does not need to eat a great deal of soy protein isolate to get the benefits. Estimates of ten – thirty grams a day of a high quality soy protein isolate should do the trick for most people.

This is how I solve the dilemma and I have found this strategy works well for people. By mixing a high quality whey protein powder with a high quality soy isolate in a 2:1 ratio and eating that two – three times a day, the bodybuilder can have the best of all possible worlds (as it relates to the high BV, immune enhancing, nitrogen retaining abilities of the whey and the cholesterol lowering/thyroid stimulating abilities of the soy). To date, I have no reason to believe that mixing these two proteins will negate or interfere with the benefits or properties of either protein, but there is scant research in this area with healthy athletes. Anecdotally, the people I have told to do this mixture have given me mostly positive feedback so far.

Plain and simple, mix in a blender two scoops of whey protein to one scoop of high quality soy protein isolate and take the mixture two-three times per day. In fact, I think with a few other key ingredients, this could make a real nice pre-mixed meal replacement product for use when dieting. For now however, you can make it yourself and you might be surprised at the results…

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About the Author

Will Brink has over 15 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published.Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.

His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.

Will was a former high level trainer with a rep for getting Olympic athletes, bodybuilders and fitness stars into shape and has gained a reputation for being a no “BS” industry insider who’s not afraid to reveal the lies and hype found in the fat loss , muscle building & supplement industry.

He has been co author of several studies relating to sports nutrition and health found in peer reviewed academic journals, as well as having commentary published in JAMA. William has been invited to lecture on the benefits of weight training and nutrition at conventions and symposiums around the U.S. and Canada, and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and now runs seminars for tactical law enforcement (SWAT).

He is the author, of Bodybuilding Revealed which teaches you how to gain solid muscle mass drug free and Fat Loss Revealed. which reveals exactly how to get lean , ripped and healthy completely naturally. Both e-books come with access to his private forums and numerous tools to aid you in either endeavor.

Find out more at Bodybuilding Revealed or Fat Loss Revealed.
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Just last week I spent a few days with UFC World Welterweight Champion, Georges St-Pierre, and his most excellent coaching team of Firas Zahabi, Jon Chaimberg, and Phil Nurse. And while some might say I was lucky enough to sit in on a sparring session and a conditioning session, my lungs might beg to differ.

One afternoon in particular, Jon, GSP’s strength coach, lead a group of us through one pretty intense workout.  Indeed, if you think you’re working your intervals hard, try this one on for size.

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The Circuit
After a strength training session, finish off with the following circuit of exercises:

20 air squats
20 lunges each leg
20 jump squats
20 split jumps each leg
6 burpees

Note: You’re going to perform this circuit all the way through with no rest.  Then, at the end, take about 2 minutes to recover.  It won’t be enough.  But that’s all you get.  Next, repeat the entire thing a second time.

The Sprints
Gasping for air, head over to the treadmill.  Set the treadmill at an incline of 15% and a speed of between 6.0 mph and 7.0 mph, depending on your level of fitness.

Sprint for 20 seconds…then…Rest for 10 seconds

Note: you’re going to hop off the treadmill for the rest period and then back on for the next sprint.  Repeat this 8 total times for a grand total of 4 minutes of exercise.

The Cab
At the end of your sprints, cry, do everything you can not to vomit, call out for your mommy, call a cab, have someone drive you home.  You’re done.  And you’ll feel like it.

A Note From Mike Boyle

Interestingly, after getting a good lesson in interval training from Chaimberg, the very next day I received the following note from another world-class strength coach, Mike Boyle. (Geez, I’m hooked up, aren’t I?)

Mike’s note was all about interval training. Uh, not having done intervals in a while, I think the universe might be reaching out to me.  And here I was thinking I was in pretty good shape.  Now, thanks to Jon and Mike, I know there’s some work to do.

Check out what Mike had to say.

All About Intervals by Mike Boyle

I think every fat loss article we read espouses the value of interval training for fat loss. In fact the term HIIT ( for High Intensity Interval Training) is thrown around so much that many people just assume they know what it is. However among all the recommendations I see to perform HIIT, very few articles contain any practical information as to what to do or how to do it.

I have to confess that I stumbled into this area somewhat accidentally. Two different processes converged to make me understand that I might be a fat loss expert and not know it. In my normal process of professional reading I read both Alwyn Cosgrove’s Afterburn and Craig Ballantyne’s Turbo Training. What struck me immediately was that what these experts were recommending for fat loss looked remarkably like the programs we used for conditioning.

At the time I was reading these programs I was also training members of the US Women’s Olympic Ice Hockey team. It seemed all of the female athletes I worked with attempted to use steady state cardio work as a weight loss or weight maintenance vehicle. I was diametrically opposed to this idea as I felt that steady state cardiovascular work undermined the strength and power work we were doing in the weightroom. My policy became “intervals only” if you wanted to do extra work. I did not do this as a fat loss strategy but rather as a “slowness prevention” strategy. However, a funny thing happened. The female athletes that we prevented from doing steady state cardiovascular work also began to get remarkably leaner. I was not bright enough to put two and two together until I read the above-mentioned manuals and realized that I was doing exactly what the fat loss experts recommended. We were on a vigorous strength program and we were doing lots of intervals.

With that said, the focus of this article will be not why, as we have already heard the why over and over, but how.

How do I actually perform HIIT?

To begin we need to understand exactly what interval training is? In the simplest sense, interval training is nothing more than a method of exercise that uses alternating periods of work and rest. The complicated part of interval training may be figuring out how to use it.  How much work do I do? How hard should I do it? How long should I rest before I do it again?

Interval training has been around for decades. However, only recently have fitness enthusiasts around the world been awakened to the value. The recent popularity of interval training has even given it a new name in the literature. Interval training is often referred to as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and it is now the darling of the fat loss and conditioning worlds. Truth is, you can also do low intensity interval training. In fact most people should not start with HIIT but LIIT. HIIT may make you vomit if you don’t work into it.

Research Background

In case you have been in a cave for the last decade let’s quickly review some research. A recent study, done in Canada at McMaster University and often referenced as the Gibala Study after lead researcher Martin Gibala, compared 20 minutes of high intensity interval training, consisting of a 30 second sprint followed by a four minute rest, with 90 to 120 minutes in the target heart rate zone. The result was amazing. Subjects got the same improvement in oxygen utilization from both programs. What is more amazing is that the 20 minute program only requires about two minutes and 30 seconds of actual work.

A second study that has become known as the Tabata study again shows the extreme benefits of interval training. Tabata compared moderate intensity endurance training at about 70 percent of VO2 max to high intensity intervals done at 170 percent of VO2 max. Tabata used a unique protocol of 20 seconds work to 10 seconds rest done in seven to eight bouts. This was basically a series of 20 second intervals performed during a four minute span. Again, the results were nothing short of amazing. The 20/10 protocol improved the VO2 max and the anaerobic capabilities more than the steady state program.

Further evidence for the superiority of higher intensity work can be found in the September/October 2006 issue of the ACSM Journal. Dr. David Swain stated “running burns twice as many calories as walking.” This is great news for those who want to lose body fat. I am not a running advocate, but we can put to rest another high intensity (running) versus low intensity (walking) debate.

Do the math. Swain states that a 136 pound person walking will burn 50 cal/mile and proportionally more as the subject’s weight increases. In other words, a 163 pound person would weigh 20 percent more and, as a result, burn 20 percent more calories. This means that expenditure goes from 50 to 60 calories, also a 20 percent increase. Swain goes on to state that running at seven mph burns twice as many calories as walking at four mph. This means a runner would burn 100 calories in roughly eight and one half minutes or about 11 calories a minute. The walker at four miles per hour would burn 50 calories in 15 minutes (the time it would take to walk a mile at four MPH). That’s less than four calories per minute of exercise. Please understand that this is less a testament for running and more a testament for high intensity work versus low intensity work. More intensity equals greater expenditure per minute.

Interval Training Methods

There are two primary ways to performing interval training. The first is the conventional Work to Rest method. This is the tried and true method most people are familiar with. The Work to Rest method uses a set time interval for the work period and a set time interval for the rest period. Ratios are determined, and the athlete or client rests for generally one, two or three times the length of the work interval before repeating the next bout. The big drawback to the Work to Rest method is that time is arbitrary. We have no idea what is actually happening inside the body. We simply guess. In fact, for many years, we have always guessed as we had no other “measuring stick.”

Heart Rate Method

With the mass production of low cost heart rate monitors, we are no longer required to guess. The future of interval training lies with accurate, low cost heart rate monitors. We are no longer looking at time as a measure of recovery, as we formerly did in our rest to work ratios. We are now looking at physiology. What is important to understand is that heart rate and intensity are closely related. Although heart rate is not a direct and flawless measure of either intensity or recovery status, it is far better than simply choosing a time interval to rest. To use the heart rate method, simply choose an appropriate recovery heart rate. In our case, we use 60 percent of theoretical max heart rate. After a work interval of a predetermined time or distance is completed, the recovery is simply set by the time it takes to return to the recovery heart rate. When using HR response, the whole picture changes. Initial recovery in well conditioned athletes and clients is often rapid and shorter than initially thought. In fact, rest to work ratios may be less than 1-1 in the initial few intervals. An example of a sample workout using the heartrate method for a well-conditioned athlete or client is show below.

Interval 1 – Work 60 sec rest 45 sec
Interval 2 – Work 60 sec rest 60 sec
Interval 3 – Work 60 sec rest 75 sec
Interval 4 – Work 60 sec rest 90 sec

*In a conventional 2-1, time based program the rest period would have been too long for the first three intervals, rendering them potentially less effective. The reverse may be true in a de-conditioned athlete or client. I have seen young, de-conditioned athletes need rest up to eight times as long as the work interval. In fact, we have seen athletes who need two minutes rest after a 15 second interval. In the heartrate method the rest times gradually get longer. Th first interval is 1-.75 while the last interval is 1 to 1.5,

The Problem with Formulas

At least 70 percent of the population does not fit into our age-old theoretical formulas. The 220 minus age formula is flawed on two key points: it doesn’t fit a significant portion of the population, and it is not based on research. Even the developer of the now-famous formula admits that his thoughts were taken out of context. The more accurate method is called the Heart Rate Reserve Method or Karvonen formula.

Karvonen Formula
(Max HR- Resting HR) x %+ RHR= THR
Ex- (200-60) x.8 +60 = 172

The key to the Karvonen formula is that it looks at larger measures of fitness by incorporating the resting heart rate and is therefore less arbitrary. However, the two twenty minus age formula will suffice for establishing recovery hearrates.

Interval Training Basics

The longer the interval, the shorter the rest period as a percentage of the interval. In other words, short intervals have a high muscular demand and will require longer rests when viewed as a percentage of the interval. Fifteen second intervals will need at least a 2-1 rest to work ration. Three to one will work better for beginners.

Interval Rest Recommendations ( Work to Rest Based)
15 sec. Beginners at least 45 sec (3-1), more advanced 30 sec (2-1)
30 sec. Rest 1:00 to 1:30 (3-1 or 2-1)
1:00. Rest 1:00- 2:00 (2-1 or 1-1)

Just remember, as the intervals get longer, the recovery time, as it relates to the interval, may not need to be as long. In other words, a fifteen second sprint may require 30-45 seconds rest but a two minute interval may only need to be followed by a two minute rest.

Aerobic Intervals?

The biggest benefit of interval training is that you can get a tremendous aerobic workout without the boredom of long steady state bouts of exercises. In fact as the Gibala study demonstrated, you can get superior benefits for both fitness and fat loss by incorporating interval training. If the heart rate is maintained above the theoretical 60 percent threshold proposed for aerobic training, then the entire session is both aerobic and anaerobic. This is why my athletes do almost no “conventional” aerobic training. All of our aerobic work is a by-product of our anaerobic work. My athletes or clients can get their heart rate in the recommended aerobic range for 15 to 20 minutes, yet in some cases, they do only three to minutes minutes of actual work.

Modes of Interval Training

Although most people visualize interval training as a track and field concept, our preferred method of interval training is the stationary bike. Although I think running is the theoretical “best” mode of training, the facts are clear. Most Americans are not fit enough to run. In fact, statistics estimate that 60 percent of those who begin a running program will be injured. In a fitness or personal training setting, that is entirely unacceptable. Females, based on the genetics of the female body (wider hips, narrower knees) are at potentially even greater risk. Physical therapist Diane Lee says it best in her statement, “You can’t run to get fit. You need to be fit to run.”

Interval training can be done on any piece of equipment. However, the most expeditious choice in my opinion will be a dual action bike like the Schwinn AirDyne. The bike allows, in the words of performance enhancement expert Alwyn Cosgrove, “maximum metabolic disturbance with minimal muscular disruption.” In other words, you can work really hard and not injure yourself on a stationary bike.

Fit individuals can choose any mode they like. However, the bike is the best and safest choice. In my mind, the worst choice might be the elliptical trainers. Charles Staley, another noted training expert, has a concept I believe he calls the 180 Principle. Staley advocates doing exactly the opposite of what you see everyone else in the gym doing. I’m in agreement. Walking on a treadmill and using an elliptical trainer seem to be the two most popular modes of training in a gym. My conclusion, supported by Staley’s 180 Principle, is that neither is of much use.

Interval Training Modes in Detail

Running

• Maybe the most effective method but also most likely to cause injury.
• Shuttle runs ( running to a line and back repeatedly) have both high muscular demand (acceleration and deceleration) and high metabolic demand.
• Running is relative. Running straight ahead for 30 seconds is significantly easier than a 30 second shuttle.
• Shuttle runs produce more muscular discomfort due to the repeated acceleration and deceleration.
• Running for the average gym-goers is impractical as a fairly large area is needed.

Treadmill Running

• A close second to ground based running in both effectiveness and unfortunately injury potential.
• Getting on and off a moving treadmill is an athletic skill and can result in serious injury. Therefore, treadmill interval running is probably not for the average personal training client.
• Treadmill speeds are deceiving. For example, 10 MPH is only a six minute mile yet can feel very fast. However, 10 MPH is not a difficult pace for intervals for a well conditioned athlete.
• High quality interval treadmills should be able to go to 15 MPH.
• For treadmill running, first practice the skill of getting on and off the moving treadmill ( author assumes no responsibility for those thrown on the floor attempting this. Do not try this in a normal health club where the treadmills are packed in like sardines. You must have room to fall off without striking an immovable object).

Additional Treadmill Drawbacks

• Lack of true active hip extension may under train the hamstrings.
• In treadmill running, the belt moves, you just stay airborne. Treadmill times do not translate well to running on the ground. This may be due to lack of ground contact time.

Treadmill Recommendations

• Time based. Try 15 seconds on with 45 seconds off at 7 MPH and 5% incline. For safety, decrease speed and increase incline.
• Heartrate based ( max HR of 200 used for example). Try a 15 second sprint at 7/5 and simply rest until the heartrate returns to 120 beats per minute. Rest is rest, don’t walk or jog or your heartrate will lower slowly.

Stationary Bike

• Dual action bikes like the Airdyne produces a higher HR. This is due to the combined action of the arms and legs. There is no better affordable option than the AirDyne. Although they require periodic maintenance they are the perfect interval tool as they do not need any adjustments to belts or knobs when interval training. The fan is an accommodating resistance device. This means that the harder you push the more resistance you get back. If you have large fan AirDynes ( insert photo and link) purchase and install windscreens. Most athletes and clients dislike the large fan AirDynes as they are unable to work up a sweat without a windscreen.
• This is probably the best “safe” tool.
• Requires limited skill.
• Limited potential for overuse injury.

Stationary Bike Recommendations

• Same time recommendations as for the treadmill. For the AirDyne, set the top display to Level. For a well-conditioned male a 15 second sprint should be level 12-15. Do not go all out as this will seriously undermine the ability to repeat additional intervals. Well-conditioned female athletes will be Level 8-10 for 15 seconds. Levels should be adjusted down for fitness level and up for body size. Larger athletes or clients will find the bike easier. Large fan AirDynes ( older models) will have slightly different work levels than the newer smaller fan models ( insert photo and link).

Slideboard

• Slideboards ( add link) provide the best “bang for the buck” after the AirDyne. However, in a fitness setting there is a skill requirement. Clients must be warned that they may fall and potentially be injured. This may sound stupid but be sure to inform the client that the board is slippery. I can’t tell you how many clients have stepped on a slideboard and remarked “this is slippery”. Remember what they say about assuming.
• The slideboard provides added the benefits of a standing position and getting hip ab and adductor work.
• Slideboards are also great for groups. No adjustment are needed, you just need extra booties. We order 4 pair for every board.
• Safe in spite of “experts.” Some so-called experts have questioned the effect of the slideboard on the knees however, there is nothing more than the anecdotal evidence of a few writers to support this theory.

Climbers and Ellipticals

• The key to using any climbing device is to keep the hands and arms off of the equipment. This is critical. Just put a heartrate monitor on and keep the hands of and watch the heartrate skyrocket. If clients complain about lack of balance, slow down the machine and develop the balance but, don’t allow them to hold on.
• The StepMill is the least popular, and as Staley points out, the most effective. Think 180 again. If it’s popular, it’s probably not good.
• Conventional Stairclimbers are easier to abuse than the StepMill. Many users ramp up the speed while allowing the arms to do the majority of the work. As we mentioned before, keep your hands off the rails.
• The elliptical machine is most popular because it is easiest. This is nothing more than human nature at work. Discourage your clients from using an elliptical trainer. If they insist, let them do it on their off days.

Research continues to mount that interval training may improve fitness better than steady state work. The big key is not what to do any more but, how to do it. For maximum effect, get a hearrate monitor and go to work.

One warning. Deconditioned clients may need three weeks to a month of steady work to get ready to do intervals. This is OK. Don’t kill a beginner with interval training. Begin with a quality strength program and some steady state cardiovascular work. The only good use for steady state work in my mind is preparing an athlete or client for the intervals to come.

References

1. Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle.” Simon Melov, Mark Tarnopolsky, Kenneth Beckman, Krysta Felkey and Alan Hubbard PLoS ONE 2(5): e465. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.
2. “Short Term Sprint Interval Versus Traditional Endurance Training: Similar Initial Adaptations in Human Skeletal Muscle and Exercise Performance Journal of Physiology Sept 2006, Vol 575 Issue 3.
3. Effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on anaerobic capacity and VO2max. Tabata I, Nishimura K, Kouzaki M, Hirai Y, Ogita F, Miyachi M, Yamamoto K. Department of Physiology and Biomechanics, National Institute of Fitness and Sports, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.
4. September/October ACSM Health and Fitness Journal. Dr. David Swain Moderate or Vigorous Intensity Exercise: What Should We Prescribe?

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About the Author

John M Berardi, Ph.D. is the founder and chief scientific officer of Precision Nutrition. PN started with a single question: what exactly should people eat to: 1.) look fit, 2.) be healthy, and 3.) perform to their highest potential?

To answer that question, we condensed 8 years of research, both from the lab and from the field, and the experiences of nearly 50,000 PN members from around the world, including both everyday folk and Olympic gold medalists, all into one system — the Precision Nutrition System.

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The secret to getting super lean – I’m talking about being RIPPED, not just “average body fat” – is all about mastering the art of “peaking.”

Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your www.burnthefat.com website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

“There seems to be a contradiction unless I’m missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through a 12 week ‘transformation’ prior to every event instead of staying ‘lean and mean’ all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive event, correct?”

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a “peak”, right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to good shape…. but never getting “out of shape.” Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. Off-season, when I’m not competing, my body fat is usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body fat.

I don’t stray too far from competition shape, but I don’t maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to “peak” for competition with NO loss of lean body mass…using the same techniques I reveal in my e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve stayed leaner – like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form… that’s why they have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it off –they are CHRONIC dieters… always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a little more (healthy food, not “pigging out”), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth – natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between pre-contest “cutting” programs and off season “maintenance” or “muscle growth” programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.

If you’re interested in learning even more secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at: www.BurnTheFat.com

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About the Author

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT) and a certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS). Tom is the author of the #1 best-selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using the secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models.

Learn how to get rid of stubborn body fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com. To learn more about Tom’s Fat Loss Support Community, visit: www.burnthefatinnercircle.com Natasha Lepore of UCLA; and Christian Gaser of the University of Jena in Germany.

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Now, I’ve always made it clear who this type of diet is for. It’s for folks who area pretty lean already. So, if you’re closer to 20 or 30% body fat, it’s not for you at all. If you’re in this range,  your fat loss approach should start with The Precision Nutrition System.

Now, while the GSD is expressly for those already lean folks who want to get REALLY lean, the lessons learned from doing something like the GSD are absolutely universal. That’s why today’s update comes from Precision Nutrition Member, Canada K.

Canada K is a 37 year old guy, who, by day, is a chemical engineer and father of 3 boys. By night, however, he paints his face and turns into a bonified gym warrior.

During the last few months, with the help of the GSD, he’s made it his mission to drop the stubborn body fat. You know, the stuff that prevented him from ever dipping into the land of single digits – in other words, below 10%.  And drop it, he did, ending up around 6% body fat.

How did he do it? And what did he learn? Well, that’s what you’re here to find out. From the man himself.

Get Shredded Diet -
The 17 Lessons I Learned

I just came off a successful run at the Get Shredded Diet. It was such a mind-blowing experience, it took me several days to even partially wrap my head around everything I learned. Indeed, it was a brain explosion and I’m still processing everything. Following are my random thoughts, experiences, and philosophies around fat loss:

Lesson #1: If You Don’t Have The Body You Want, You’re Doing It Wrong
I’ve done the fat loss extreme (GSD) and, thank you very much, I kicked it’s a$$. The key was my attitude. It wasn’t until I got the right attitude that I starting seeing results.

Now, I thought I had it before, I really did. I’d have argued day and night that I had it. And, with a few people I did argue. But I didn’t get it. I was too confident in my knowledge. To certain I was on the right track. And because of that, I wasn’t doing the right workouts or eating the right stuff. It held me back.

Only once I admitted I didn’t know what I was doing 100% – only then did I begin to learn how to get lean. Only then did I start to discover the right workout and the right nutrition program. And my body followed suit. I started to get lean.

Before that, I was doing stuff wrong. That’s why I didn’t have the body I wanted. Perhaps that’s why you don’t have the body you want either.

Lesson #2: When Fat Loss Turns Invisible – The Dead Zone
Fat loss is a funny game when you get into the 10-15% range. Above 15%, any fat loss looks good. Your shape improves, you get slimmer, clothes get smaller, and so on.

Once you slide below 15%, the returns really diminish. You can lose a boatload of fat and it seems invisible. It’s not until you get below 10%, or even 8%, where abs start to appear, where your waistline starts to get really tight, and where veins really start to show up.

So basically, there is this giant dead zone in the middle where you’re making real gains but they’re incredibly unsatisfying. You must hang in there anyway. If you don’t, you’ll never be lean.

Lesson #3: When Fat Loss Turns Invisible – The Dead Zone, Part 2
At some point during the fat loss trek, everything seemed to stall. The scale was inching downwards, but the tummy looked the same, no abs in sight.  On and on the stupid diet went, and still no abs. Here’s why. My body was shedding fat from other, less sexy, places like my quads, my back and my a$$. I just wasn’t looking there. If I would have been, I might have been happier with my progress.

Our bodies are funny things, and fat will come off unevenly. Sometimes it’s not where we want it to come from most. It doesn’t matter. That’s the way it goes. You’ve gotta just keep plugging away. Because eventually the fat will be lost. All of it.

In my case, it’s clear that my abs won’t really pop until I get down to probably 5%. Others may be luckier, but that seems to be what I have to do.

Lesson #4: Food Is Only Fuel & All Eating Is Emotional
Fundamentally, food is fuel. The only other reasons we eat is for socializing and for emotional reasons. This probably ruffles feathers, but I am basically saying that all eating is emotional, especially overeating and unhealthy eating.

It is also nearly impossible to divorce the emotional aspect from eating and make it simply a re-fueling process. If it was, we’d all eat nutritionally perfect gruel and be perfectly happy with it. Getting to an elite level of body comp and staying there requires wrapping your head around the FACT that the reason you reach for the bag of Doritos, or the cheesecake, or the Aero bar is emotional eating.

Lesson #5: Eating Will Always Be Emotional… Learn To Use That
I don’t think we ever completely get past the emotional aspects of eating. But the people who are most successful at attaining elite body comp are the ones who get past it, and learn to look at food purely as fuel.

Decadent foods like pizza or ice cream become special occasions, kind of like the rest of the world might treat an expensive bottle of champagne. They are things to be savored and enjoyed rarely, not as a staple.

Think about this: a person who indulges in booze every day is called an alcoholic. Someone who indulges in junk food every day is called… your average North American.

Lesson #6: Fat Loss Is Easy, It’s Your Brain That’s Getting In The Way
This will pi$$ a lot of people off, but fat loss is actually pretty easy. It’s way, WAY easier than muscle gain. It’s not always pleasant, it’s pretty much always socially uncomfortable, and it forces you to go against the grain of your friends, coworkers and family. But when we break it down to a pure physiological process, fat loss is easy.

It’s all the mental stuff tied up in eating that make it pretty much impossible for most of the world. It’s the emotions around eating, the addiction to the taste and the feeling of food, the bonding that comes from sharing food with others, and the sense of belonging that comes from “going with the flow”.  Most people fail not because they don’t have the right diet plan, not because they don’t have access to the right food, and not because they don’t know or understand exactly what they need to do. All the physiological elements are in place, and they work. Most people fail because they don’t consider the psychological aspect of the diet.

Food, particularly sugar and refined carbohydrates, is addictive. The cravings can be emotionally crippling. Hunger is a feeling completely foreign to westerners and we can’t handle it; it breaks us as brutally as being physically beaten.

There’s also the profound sense of alienation that comes from doing something “different”. Once food and shelter are taken care of, our number one need as human beings is to feel like we belong. When a person starts a diet they isolate themselves form the norm. And the single most social thing we do, as a species, is share food and drink. Many people will abandon a diet because it feels like they’re excluded, and for a heavy person already feeling badly about their self-image and their sense of belonging, that’s just too high a price to pay. They’d rather be obese than alone.

I’m not trying to be all haughty and holier-than-thou, let me be the first to admit I’m an emotional eater. I get a profound sense of happiness from sweets. It’s such a satisfying feeling it is (honestly and without exaggeration) practically sexual. But now I can control the psychological aspects of eating, and for long periods I can treat food purely as fuel. I feel like if any single thing allows me call myself an upper-tier gym warrior it’s that.

Lesson #7: Re-feed Days Are Great And Terrible
Re-feed days are a mixed blessing. For the most part, the key is learning to stop eating when you get “satisfied”, but that is very hard to do when you’re in the throes of indulging your carb addiction. It’s like telling an alcoholic to have just 1 beer.

I found myself eating things I didn’t even want because the day was almost over, and if I didn’t eat the ice cream, or the chocolate bar, or the donuts now, I’d miss my chance for another two weeks! How stupid is that?

So be careful with re-feeds. Because they can be very helpful during something like the GSD. However, when emotions kick in, they can become difficult to control. Again, all eating is emotional!

Lesson #8: Busting Out Of The Rut
I would never have pushed myself to this extreme if I hadn’t been afraid of being humiliated. In hindsight, what I did wasn’t even that extreme; it just looked that way from deep inside the walls of my rut.

I had no idea how many constraints I had put on myself, or how many different avenues I had simply refused to explore, until I climbed out of my rut and looked back at my old self.

We are all putting constraints on ourselves, telling ourselves “no I can’t”, “that’s doesn’t work for me”, “it’s too hard to try”. It’s all self-deluded horses##t, and no one is doing it to us. We’re doing it to ourselves. And we must stop. For our physical and our mental health.

Lesson #9: Competition Drives Us To Great Heights
Competition is probably the only thing that pushed me from good to great. And that’s why I’m so glad myself and some of the other PN guys decided to do this.

The fear of losing horribly and being humiliated in our little ad hoc contest was a strong motivator. Plus, the desire to win was also very strong. In fact, these were the only reasons I ever considered puling myself out of my comfortable rut.

That rut was actually a grave. It’s a grave because once you put yourself into one, you’ll probably spend the rest of your life there, and die there too. So, if you want to make big chances, you’ll need a big goal. Compete for something. It’s very useful.

Lesson #10: No Limits
I could compete someday if I wanted to. I’m not saying that I’ve got such an exceptional body that I could walk away with a title or anything. I’m saying that there is no physiological reason why I couldn’t. My body type isn’t standing in the way, genetics aren’t standing I the way either.

My lifestyle, and what time I can afford to dedicate to bodybuilding IS standing in the way. My own mental toughness is another possible barrier, but much less of one than before. In essence, I realize that the only limits I have are those I place on myself. And I realize that I’m now in control of them.  Very liberating!

Lesson #11: Water Shedding
Before taking my “after photos,” I decided to try water manipulation. It’s something necessary to look your best. So I wanted to do everything I could.  Now, I can’t say for absolute certain that the water shedding made a significant difference. I believe it made me look leaner and fuller, but then again I wasn’t an ideal candidate: I’m not particularly huge nor was I lean enough where the differences would be most striking.

Plus I don’t feel like I’m sophisticated enough to know the feeling of “flat” versus “full” versus “depleted”.  I also wasn’t able to follow the process exactly, and I’m told water-shedding is an extremely delicate balance, so that would have been another factor.

Still, I feel like it made my muscles look bigger and rounder. It was a worthwhile experience to try, because once again it forced me to do something way outside my usual rut .

Lesson #12: Water Shedding & Drinking Tons Of Water
As part of my water manipulation, I had to drink 3 gallons of water a day for a few days. This was actually harder than the diet. It’s a physically demanding task in ways that really surprised me. Much like the first few days of the GSD were depressing, so was water loading. The only difference was, by the time you start getting used to it, it’s over.

Lesson #13: Bodybuilding Is About Creating An Illusion
So much of what we see in magazines and on stage is actually kind of fake.

Compare Cliff (another PN Member who also did the GSD recently) and I. The big guy has 25 pounds of pure muscle more than I do, and only 8 pounds more fat. He is clearly the better bodybuilder. But the human eye is fooled into seeing leaner muscles as being bigger. When you rely on the human eye, I got the edge.

It makes no damned sense! But, at the same time, it’s the truth. So remember this, the leaner you are, the bigger you seem to look. Especially with your shirt off. And in pictures.

Lesson #14: A Great Body Looks Lousy With Lousy Photography & Lighting
When you take a picture of yourself, how it looks has as much to do with the lighting, the coloring, the angle, and just sheer dumb luck as the condition of your body.

I took a dozen front-double bicep pictures on photo day. Some made me look soft and small, but the one I picked made me look huge. The others were just bad pictures.

And don’t forget other finishing touches. I fake-tanned for a month before the pictures, and believe me I was brown! I still looked pasty white under the light of the sun. This over-exposed-washing-out tends to blur the muscular detail makes abs invisible.

So if you’re taking a picture, you need to have some color or you need to manage the lighting to compensate. Even the buffest bod looks smooth otherwise. Oiling up your body helps too. The oil catches the light and emphasizes definition. I took pictures with and without oil, and the difference is notable.

Lesson #15: Full-Body Shaving
Shaving was both interesting and a drag. Body hair definitely blurs the muscular details. But nothing is as irritating as the unbelievable itching in the inner thighs on the third day after a shave.

For men there is a balancing act. Unless a guy is freaky huge, or really lean, men look feminine with no body hair. But thick or dark hair hides the muscles, and makes anything but the buffest abs hard to see. Plus uber-hairiness is off-putting to the ladies.

My compromise going forward is that I’ll keep shaving my arms (who likes hairy knuckles?) and probably my abs. I’ll use clippers everywhere else (except… well… there!).

Lesson #16: Bigger Muscles Show Better Than Small Ones
There are two ways for your muscles to really “pop”. Either you get rid of all the fat covering them up, or you grow those muscles really big so that they are easier to see underneath the fat.

That’s why a more muscular guy can look really good at higher body fat, the bigger muscles are still easily visible. As a slimmer guy, the message is clear. If I want to look like an underwear model I either have to maintain sub 7% body fat, or I have to gain a bunch more muscle.

Lesson #17: It’s An Exclusive Club
I think maybe 1 person in 1,000 will ever be able to drag themselves down to single digit body fat as adults. It’s way, way, WAY easier to be obese.

However, for those who are willing to commit to getting very lean, it’s totally possible. You just have to remember this. You probably don’t know what you’re doing – yet. You probably don’t know what you’re getting into – yet. Do it anyway. You’ll learn so much along the way. And when you stall, don’t be afraid to reach out for help. The PN Member Zone is a great place to do just that.

For More Help
Those are some great lessons from our friend, Canada K. Now, for those of you wondering how you too can become part of the “exclusive leanness club,” here’s how I recommend getting started.

Step 1: Begin with The Precision Nutrition System.
This is the cornerstone of everything we do here at Precision Nutrition. Skipping this step is like building a house on a foundation of sand.  In other words, don’t do it. Get the right plan from the start.

Step 2: Once you’re lean, that’s when you can try the GSD.
As above, once you’ve built a foundation of good habits with the PN System, and you get your body fat down to the mid-teens, that’s when you can take the next step, just like Canada K did.

Step 3: Think about the Lean Eating Program.
As Canada K said above, fat loss is mostly about your brain – and how it gets in the way. If you’re the type of person who’d like to skip the trial and error and get right down to business with expert coaching, a rock-solid support system, and a system that guarantees your success, make sure you put your name on the waiting list for our next Lean Eating group. The next one kicks off in January of 2010.

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About the Author

Dr. John Berardi is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Precision Nutrition Inc. One of the world’s foremost experts on sport and exercise nutrition, Dr. Berardi has authored numerous peer-reviewed studies, books, textbooks and hundreds of magazine articles on the topics of exercise and sport nutrition.

As a nutrition coach and exercise physiologist, he has coached hundreds of elite athletes, among them professionals and Olympic gold medalists, and thousands of everyday folk through the Lean Eating Coaching Program.

Studying under renowned researcher Dr. Peter Lemon, Dr. Berardi received his PhD in Exercise Physiology and Nutrient Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario and is an Adjunct Professor at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Texas.

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Throughout its long history, coffee has endured both accolades and opposition.

Some governments have subsidized coffee crops; others have imposed steep taxes and duties on them. Doctors vali­date coffee’s health benefits yet worry about its contribution to cardiovascu­lar disease, diabetes, and even cancer.

Coffee is more popular than ever, which contributes to its contradictory status. In moderation, coffee poses minimal health risks for most people. In some cases, coffee even appears to be protective. But many North Ameri­cans now consume coffee in large quantities, which can significantly damage our neuroendocrineimmune system over the long term.

Neuro-What?

The neuroendocrineimmune system consists of the processes and structures that form our central nervous systems, our hormonal systems, and our immune systems, all of which are linked in complex relationships.

For example, many of us know that when we are stressed, we get sick more easily. Emotional and mental demands, especially if prolonged, cause our stress hormones to increase, which means our immune systems don’t work as well.

The complicated interplay of our neuroendocrineimmune systems suggests that there is no clear division between mind and body. What we think and experience is as much “us” as what our body does.

How Do We Know What We Know?

It’s hard to get a clear picture of coffee’s health effects. Epidemiological studies, which try to find relationships between multiple lifestyle factors, can be hard to interpret.

For one thing, coffee drinking is correlated with other dietary and lifestyle behaviours such as alcohol and nicotine consumption and a sedentary lifestyle. In other words, people who drink a lot of coffee also tend to drink and smoke, and be out of shape. On the other hand, people who avoid coffee often do so for health-related reasons. They’re also more likely to be health-conscious in other ways, making health-promoting lifestyle choices such as exercise. Comparing coffee drinkers with non-coffee drinkers thus misses a number of important variables.

Second, there are vast differences in coffee’s pharmacological constituents depending on the type of bean used in the study, the methods of roasting, and the varying ways of preparing coffee, not to mention the differences between commercially available instant coffee versus freshly roasted organic coffee.

There are also differences in individual sensitivity to caffeine, likely due to the genetic traits related to caffeine metabolism (see “Coded for Caffeine”, in the Spezzatino Coffee issue), as well as lifestyle influences. For example, the half-life of caffeine is shorter in smokers than non-smokers, while the half-life of caffeine is doubled in women taking oral contraceptives.

Finally, most research studies observe and measure the effects of a single dose of caffeine rather than the effects of chronic ingestion. Yet most coffee drinkers drink coffee daily.

As a number of studies have shown, single-dose experiments don’t necessarily reflect the effects of our regular routines. For example, researchers have shown that we can build tolerance to the cardiovascular effects of caffeine within two to three days. Therefore, research studies that show a given effect on the body from an acute single dose bear little relevance to the chronic ingestion of caffeine.

In my naturopathic practice, I use evidence from epidemiological and experimental studies. But I also draw on experience and a systematic understanding of how our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems interact in order to make educated guesses about coffee’s potential effects on my patients.

Caffeine and Your Brain

Caffeine is one of coffee’s primary constituents with psychoactive activities. It’s part of a group of substances collectively referred to as methylxanthines. These alkaloids are well known for their ability to increase cognitive abilities, improve energy, enhance well-being, and increase arousal and alertness.

As mentioned elsewhere in the Spezzatino Coffee issue (see “Lab to Lunch”), these effects occur largely because of caffeine’s ability to block adenosine receptor sites throughout the body. However, there are other neurochemical effects that are worth noting.

Once again, studies demonstrating the effects of caffeine on neurotransmitters (chemicals that allow the cells of our nervous system to communicate) don’t always give us a realistic picture.

First, the dose used in neurochemical studies generally exceeds quantities ingested during normal everyday life. When animals are used, they are non-coffee drinkers. (It’s hard to make mugs that small, and without opposable thumbs… well, let’s just say there’ve been some unfortunate spills of hot liquid. Luckily, no legal cases against McDonalds are pending.) Therefore, researchers use a single dose of caffeine, which may not reflect the neurochemical effects of chronic consumption of caffeine.

Second, neurotransmitters are produced in different amounts in different areas of the brain simultaneously, and have very different effects on mood and personality depending on where in the brain they’re used. Quick overview: serotonin is involved in mood and appetite regulation; gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) typically inhibits neuronal activity to cause relaxation and sleep; and acetylcholine is involved in muscle contraction.

Chronic caffeine intake has been shown to increase the receptors of serotonin (26-30% increase), GABA (65% increase), and acetylcholine (40-50%). This may contribute to the elevated mood and perceived increase in energy we feel after a coffee (which makes espresso a handy pre-workout drink). Despite increasing receptors, caffeine also inhibits the release of GABA, which contributes to our feeling of alertness.

Chronic caffeine intake also increases the sensitivity of serotonin receptors. In other words, receptors specific to serotonin are more responsive to serotonin present in the synaptic cleft — it’s sort of like installing a bigger satellite dish to catch more of an existing signal. One study showed a decrease in serotonin release, but an increase in serotonin reuptake, leading to an overall increase in serotonin levels. (Think of it as the brain’s natural recycling.)

In the human body, when neurotransmitter receptors increase in number, or if they increase their sensitivity, it generally suggests a reduction in functional capacity and activity of neurons associated with those receptors. Either the brain needs more chemicals to do the job, or the neurons involved aren’t working as hard. This might mean that a certain neurotransmitter is in short supply, or that its activity needs to increase. In the case of caffeine and serotonin, this can partly explain the mood-enhancing effects of drinking coffee.

Caffeine has also been shown to increase serotonin levels in the limbic system, a relatively primitive part of our brain involved in regulating basic functions such as hormonal secretions, emotional responses, mood regulation and pain/pleasure sensations. This has a similar mode of action as some antidepressant medications.

The increase in serotonin levels, combined with the increase in serotonin receptors, cause the characteristic withdrawal symptoms (such as agitation and irritability) when coffee intake is stopped. The brain has come to expect more action in its serotonin receptors, and when its abundant supply of happy chemicals is abruptly cut off, it gets crabby.

Indirectly, chronic caffeine intake may impact neurochemistry by reducing cofactors – chemical partners – necessary for neurotransmitter synthesis. For example, coffee inhibits the absorption of iron, a key mineral involved with the synthesis of serotonin and dopamine. Additionally, we need the activated form of vitamin B6, pyridoxal-5-phosphate, to synthesize serotonin, dopamine and GABA. Coffee consumption can decrease amounts of circulating B-vitamins, which could affect neurotransmitter synthesis in another way.

Thus, caffeine impacts whether certain chemicals are available; how receptive our brains are to them; and whether we’re even making those chemicals in the first place.

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Free Stuff – Roast Your Own Coffee Beans

Brought to you by the creators of Precision Nutrition, Spezzatino Magazine is an encyclopedia of food, with each issue focusing on a single food such as: basil, grapes, wild game, tomatoes, fish, coffee, chocolate, and more.

In volume 8, our biggest and best issue yet, we focus on coffee. (And this article comes directly from the magazine.)

Because you’re a Mindful Muscle reader, we’d like to share with you some additional goodies, including another article on how to roast your own coffee at home, which may be healthier than drinking the commercial varieties.  So click the link above, check out volume 8, and get your free stuff.

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Caffeine and Your Hormones

Both scientists and lay people know the effects of caffeine consumption on hormones relatively well. For example, quickly perusing the internet brings up numerous sites claiming that caffeine “wears out the adrenal glands”. But not surprisingly, this may not be entirely accurate. While we know many things about the impact caffeine has on human’s stress physiology, certain mechanisms of how it occurs are still relatively mysterious.

Caffeine strongly affects the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: the linked system of hypothalamus and pituitary glands in the brain, and the adrenal glands that sit atop the kidneys. The HPA axis influences the body’s ability to manage and deal with stress, both at rest and during activity.

The adrenal glands secrete two key hormones: epinephrine and cortisol. Epinephrine, or adrenaline, increases respiration rate, heart rate and blood pressure; while cortisol frees up stored glucose, which we need in greater amounts during times of perceived stress.

As you can imagine, for our early hominid ancestors, the ability to quickly access and use stored energy was a helpful feature. However, while this is an excellent acute response to an immediate stress (such as being chased by a bear), it’s a damaging response when the stress is chronic (such as the cumulative demands of our daily modern lives).

Studies in humans have shown that caffeine increases cortisol and epinephrine at rest, and that levels of cortisol after caffeine consumption are similar to those experienced during an acute stress. Drinking coffee, in other words, re-creates stress conditions for the body. While scientists have some ideas about how caffeine increases HPA hormones, the exact mechanism still remains unclear.

Compounding the problem, people tend to consume more caffeine during stressful periods (as nearly every student during exam season knows well). They add stress to stress, potentially making things even worse. Rat studies have shown that caffeine consumption during chronic stress increased cortisol, blood pressure, and other negative hormonal events. Chronically stressed rats who consumed caffeine ended up sicker, and died sooner, than rats experiencing chronic stress without caffeine consumption.

However, again, chronic caffeine consumption leads to a degree of physiological tolerance and thus among people who drink coffee regularly, blood pressure, heart rate, excessive urination, epinephrine production, and even anxiety and stimulation may not be as strongly affected.

Other hormonal effects of caffeine appear to be related to competitive actions for metabolism in the liver. Like a gridlocked city, the liver only has so many “roads”, or metabolic pathways, available. More “cars” (i.e. chemicals) on the “roads” slow things down.

For instance, the liver detoxifies caffeine using the CYP1A2 enzyme system, which is also responsible for initial metabolism of estrogen during Phase I clearance by the liver. This is one reason caffeine is likely metabolized more slowly in women taking oral contraceptives or postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy.

While research showing the effects of chronic caffeine consumption on circulating levels of estrogen isn’t yet available, researchers have suggested that caffeine consumption may lower the risk of breast cancer by upregulating the CYP1A2 isoenzyme and thus improving estrogen metabolism.

Caffeine and Your Immune System

The immune system is a vast and complex system that communicates extensively with itself and connects to every other system of the body.

For simplicity’s sake, we’ll separate the immune system into two sections: the Th1 side (T-cell mediated system) and the Th2 side (B-cell mediated antibody system). The Th1 side is our innate immune system – the system that develops early in life – and is our first line of defense against pathogens such as viruses and bacteria.

On the other hand, the Th2 system is acquired: as we are exposed to pathogens throughout our lives, we produce antibodies to them. Antibodies recognize foreign invaders if exposed to them repeatedly, and will launch a stronger and swifter attack if a second invasion takes place. Because of this system, someone will experience a reaction to poison ivy only after their second exposure.

The two sides of this system act as a teeter totter: when one side is dominant, the other side is suppressed. Research suggests that chronic caffeine exposure shifts the immune system to a Th2 dominance. This may help the treatment of Th1 dominant autoimmune conditions, but in the average person, it may elevate the Th2 system excessively, creating an overzealous Th2 immune response. A dominant Th2 system predisposes individuals to hypersensitivity reactions such as asthma and allergies. To date, there have not been any correlations between chronic caffeine consumption and increased prevalence of Th2 associated conditions, but based on existing knowledge of caffeine and the immune system, the link seems plausible.

In my clinical naturopathic practice, we have seen certain autoimmune conditions improve with caffeine consumption, while others get worse. If someone with rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune condition that causes joint pain and inflammation) says they get significantly more joint pain when they drink coffee, one could hypothesize that their Th2 system is dominant, and the caffeine is promoting destruction of their joints by further stimulating this already overzealous Th2 system.

Putting It All Together

No known studies demonstrate statistically significant correlations between coffee over-consumption and the unwinding of the neuroendocrineimmune system. We just don’t know for sure yet how all the puzzle pieces fit together.

However, certain theoretical pathways can be created, and have been observed clinically. We can also make some informed speculation based on what we already know of the neuroendocrineimmune system’s interrelationships.

Effects on the Metabolism

Chronic coffee consumption increases insulin resistance, a situation in which the body cannot effectively deliver glucose into the cells of the body. In this situation, insulin, which helps transport glucose into the cells, cannot do its job well because the body’s cells are less receptive. This typically occurs with a diet high in refined sugars and starches. Thus, the body must release ever-larger amounts of insulin to do the job. Like parents tuning out their screaming toddler, the body becomes less and less sensitive to insulin’s effects, which means more circulating glucose, which means more insulin release… and so on.

It’s a vicious cycle. And, unfortunately, it’s a cycle that currently occurs in the majority of North Americans. Combine the standard Western diet high in refined carbohydrates with stress and a high caffeine intake, and you have a potential recipe for metabolic disaster.

Insulin stimulates the release of interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is a Th2 cytokine (a cell signaling molecule). If IL-6 is chronically elevated (in this case, from high insulin levels), it may lead to a Th2 dominance and potential hypersensitivity from an overzealous antibody response. This can result in acquired sensitivities to foods and chemicals.

Interleukin-6 also stimulates the release of cortisol, which, as a glucocorticoid hormone, increases the body’s glucose level. This leads to an increased demand for insulin, which is problematic because of the insulin resistance that started the cascade in the first place.

Let’s recap: a diet high in refined sugars and starches leads to more circulating glucose. More glucose means more insulin needed to dispose of it. More insulin means cells tune out, which means even more insulin dumped into the bloodstream (especially if people continue to eat this high-carbohydrate diet). More insulin means insulin resistance — possibly aggravated by high caffeine consumption. More insulin means more IL-6 and more inflammation and hypersensitivity. More IL-6 means more cortisol, which means more glucose… and here we are, back at the beginning of a very nasty cycle.

Consider this as you cradle your extra-large coffee and glazed donut this morning during your white-knuckle commute to work.

Effects on Brain Function and Mood

The elevated blood sugar and insulin don’t just stop at inflammation. They can create imbalances in the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and GABA, which can lead to sub-clinical mood problems such as mild depression (aka “the blues”), low motivation, irritability, and impaired cognition. People with chronically high glucose, insulin resistance, systemic inflammation, and stress typically have “fuzzy brain”, memory loss, lethargy, and/or a short fuse.

Coupled with the potential iron and B-vitamin deficiencies created by coffee, which, again, cause impaired synthesis of key neurotransmitters, this may result in mood states where people feel the need for coffee to keep themselves functioning properly. Have you ever felt that you desperately needed coffee for a pick-me-up? Do you tell people, “I’m a grouch until I get my coffee?” If so, you may be experiencing this situation.

Caffeine in moderation is likely not an issue for most people. Indeed, it may actually have health benefits. (See the article on traditional Chinese medicine and coffee, in the Spezzatino Coffee issue) Problems occur when we drink coffee all day long and combine it with sedentary lifestyles, poor diets, and chronically elevated stress.

We drink much more caffeine than our great-grandparents did. Not only has our coffee consumption increased, but the market is saturated (pardon the pun) with other sources of caffeine. There is much more refined sugar available to us, and our lives move at a much faster pace. The industry standard size for a cup of coffee is six ounces. If you’re North American and under 40, I bet you don’t even own a six-ounce glass of anything – never mind finding a cup that size at the local coffee shop!

It’s the perfect storm: caffeine, stress, sugar, and sedentary living. This combination and its complex relationships with your neuroendocrineimmune system may be affecting you more than you realize.

Systems in our body are closely interconnected. Stimulation of one area can have far-reaching effects, especially if the stimulation is dramatic and/or prolonged. Large amounts of caffeine likely have numerous negative impacts on the body that research has not yet elucidated, but if we piece the available studies together, such impacts appear to be very real possibilities.

Follow the evidence that your body offers you. Pay attention to how you feel when you drink coffee. Do you feel good for a short period, then shaky and irritable? Do you notice more pain or other kinds of physical distress? If you’re experiencing any of the symptoms I’ve mentioned above, ranging from anxiety to inflammation, consider bringing a little decaf into your life.

To get your nutrition program straight, click here…

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About Author

Dr. Bryan P. Walsh is a Precision Nutrition advisor. PN consists of some of the top experts in the fields of health, fitness, and human performance. They provide books, videos, nutrition and lifestyle courses, coaching services, and online support community.

Dr. Walsh graduated from the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine. He combines a passion for nutritional biochemistry and science-based therapies, yet maintains a broad view of wellness, believing in the infinite capacity for the body to heal itself given the appropriate conditions and environment.

To check out his web site, visit www.drbryanpwalsh.com

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Exercise doesn’t work.

Now that might sound shocking coming from a guy with big biceps and 8% body fat; from a guy that recommends lots of exercise, at least 5 hours per week. So if this all seems incongruent, I guess I should qualify the statement above. I guess I should have probably said:

Exercise, ALONE, doesn’t work.

My Wake-Up Call
My coming to this realization wasn’t an easy process. I’ve been working with clients for over 15 years now and although I always knew that diet was an important part of the training equation, I also always harbored some subconscious notion that if I worked my clients hard enough, their lack of dietary effort would be overcome by my super-effective training programs. Sure, I wanted them to eat well. But if they didn’t (more like, wouldn’t), somewhere deep inside it seemed ok. I figured in the battle of training vs. diet, training would win. Now, I never said this aloud. However, somewhere I’m sure I felt it. So it wasn’t until I was slapped in the face with some cold, hard, objective data that I realized how wrong I’d been.

The Texas Study These data came in the form of a study I recently worked on at the University of Texas. In this study, nearly 100 initially sedentary participants either stayed sedentary (about half of them) OR began exercising (the other half). They exercisers were given a program to follow that added up to about 5 1/2 to 6 hours of activity per week and that lasted for a total of 12 weeks. The non-exercisers did nothing for the 12 weeks except show up for measurement sessions. These individuals, as stated above, did no exercise before the study began. As a result of this sedentary lifestyle, they averaged between 35% and 40% body fat (according to DEXA scans). Once the study began, the training group gathered together for 3 weight training sessions per week and 2 group exercise / interval sessions per week. All the training was designed by myself and overseen by a weightlifting coach and group exercise coach. So there was a pretty high level of quality control there. Now, it’s important to note that we didn’t alter the participant’s eating at all. And we did this on purpose. We wanted to test the effects of exercise alone – without diet. In other words, the question became:

“Without a dietary intervention, can exercise alone reshape a person’s body?”

At the end of the 12 week study, we got our answer:

“Not so much…”

That’s right, when analyzing the data, I was shocked to find that even with 3+ hours of training per week with a weightlifting coach and 2+ hours of training per week with a body-weight circuit instructor didn’t really work. The formerly sedentary participants didn’t do much better than their couch-sitting counterparts. Without dietary control, 12 weeks of high intensity training produced a fairly disappointing 1% loss of body fat. In terms of raw data, the participants lost only 1 pound of fat and gained 2 pounds of lean vs. the placebo group. Frankly, that sucks. The Machete Perspective Now, imagine you’re overweight (about 38% body fat) and you decide to take the plunge, to hire a personal trainer, and to get in shape for perhaps the first time in your life. So, you decide to buy a training package, one that contains 60 sessions (5 sessions per week for 12 weeks). The cost, per session, is 50 bucks, the going rate. So you plunk down 3 grand and start your initial 12 week fitness journey. You don’t expect big things…you just expect to start moving in the right direction. So you’re patient. You attend all your training sessions, you get to know your trainer really well, spending over 60 hours with him or her. You stay off the scale, not wanting to jinx yourself. Then, at the end of the 12 weeks, you weigh-in.

Body weight – You were overweight, obese in fact, to start with. Well, if you simply exercised (without changing your diet and following the protocol above) you now weigh one pound more! About to go crazy, your trainer talks you down off the cliff. You probably gained a lot of muscle while losing a lot of fat, he or she says. So it’s time to do a body comp test.

Fat weight – Ok, here’s the moment of truth. You’re sure there must have been some fat loss. Drumroll please…If you followed the protocol from above, you’re down one, uninspiring, unnoticable pound of fat. “What the heck!? Can I NOW be pissed?”

Lean weight – Because you weigh one pound more, and lost one pound of fat, that means that your formerly sedentary butt put on 2 lbs of lean mass. That’s nice and all. But that wasn’t the goal! You wanted to lose fat. This is when your anger kicks in.

So, you spent 3000 bucks and 60 hours working your ass off in the gym. And your ass didn’t change one bit! Is it time to grab a machete and take that good for nothing trainer’s head clean off? It’s Not A Fluke Now, when I first saw these data, I thought they were a fluke. I got the research team together on the phone and chewed them out. There must have been a data mix-up. I mean, seriously, 12 weeks of hard training and only one pound of fat lost vs. no training at all. Was this some sort joke? Did they screw up the data collection? Did the research participants skip out on sessions? What was the deal?!? Despite my insistence, there were no errors. The participants showed up. They trained hard. The data were collected properly. The participants just didn’t progress. And, for the first time, I started asking the question honestly.

Can a solid training program alone get people into great shape?

Note I said “solid” training program. In the past I figured people weren’t getting results because their training program was awful and perhaps so was their diet. But, as a result of this new study, a study in which the training protocol was solid, the answer appeared to be no. A solid training program alone wasn’t enough to get people into great shape. Other Research Support With a new sense of purpose, I started digging around in the research. And I quickly found another recent study suggesting the exact same thing. This study, published in the April 2008 issue of Nutrition and Metabolism, demonstrated that after 10 weeks of training (3 endurance sessions and 2 strength sessions per week – the flip flop of our study), 38 previously overweight, sedentary subjects also saw minimal changes in body composition with training.

Body Weight – In this study, neither the control (no exercise) group or the exercise group significantly changed their body weight. Both groups saw about a 0.6lb loss in body weight on average. But again, neither change was significant. Fat Mass - When it came to fat mass, the exercise group lost 2.4lbs while the control group lost 0.9lbs. This means that the 50 exercise sessions lead to a mere 1.5lb fat loss vs doing nothing. Better than a kick in the teeth, I guess. But not all that stellar. Lean Mass - The exercise group grained 1.7lbs of lean mass while the control group gained 0.2lbs of lean mass. This means that the 50 exercise sessions led to a 1.5lb gain in lean mass vs doing nothing at all. Again, not bad. But not great either.

Different vs. Important Sure, in both studies, the changes were “statistically significant.” In other words, participants did lose more fat and gain more lean mass when training vs. not training. However, let’s not confuse different with important. After all, these changes are small, really small. And I would suggest, unimportant. I mean, come on now, people exercise to actually change their bodies in noticeable, measurable ways. They want to fit better into their clothes. They want to go from overweight to normal weight. They want to be able to walk up the stairs without getting winded. They want to lower their cholesterol. In my estimation, and it might just be me, they’re just not all that interested in dumping big dollars and lots of time into something that leads to a one pound fat loss. Seriously, that’s not all that good. The Lesson – No, It’s Not To Stop Exercising! At this point you might be wondering if it’s my advice to stop exercising. Of course not! Exercise is critically important to looking better, feeling better, and performing better every single day. And don’t you forget it! However, my point is that exercise ALONE just doesn’t cut it. What you really need is exercise PLUS a sound nutritional program. Now that’s just what the doctor ordered. Consider what happens when people actually eat well… In our recent Precision Nutrition Body Transformation Challenge, the average fat loss for all of our participants was 1/2% (or 1lb) lost per week! Remember, in the studies above, they lost about 1 to 1.5lbs in 10-12 weeks! That’s almost at 10-fold increase in effectiveness when people added the Precision Nutrition plan to their training system. Further, our finalists (the top performers) saw the following results:

• Finalist #1 lost about 30lbs in 16 weeks – losing 23lbs of fat, or about 1.4lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #2 – lost about 16lbs in 16 weeks – losing 23lbs of fat, or about 1.4lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #3 – lost 37lbs in 16 weeks – losing 27lbs of fat, or about 1.7 lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #4 – lost 25lbs during 16 weeks – losing 35lbs of fat, or about 2.2lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #5 – lost 37lbs during 16 weeks – losing 31lbs of fat, or about 1.9lbs of fat.

Note: each of our finalists followed one of the training programs and our nutritional guidelines outlined in the Precision Nutrition System.

Also consider the research study discussed above, the one published in Nutrition and Metabolism. In this study, there was actually a 3rd group. And this group, in addition to exercising, supplemented each day with 2 nutrient-dense meal replacement supplements. Each supplement contained 300 calories, 5g fat, 25g carbs, and 40g protein and a host of vitamins and minerals. And while the exercise-only group saw small fat losses and muscle gains, the exercise plus supplement group, was a different story.

Body Weight – The exercise+supplement group lost 4lbs of total body weight. This compared to the 0.6lbs lost in the exercise alone group. Fat Mass - The exercise+supplement group also lost 6lbs of total body fat. This compared to the 2.4lbs lost in the exercise alone group. Lean Mass - The exercise+supplement group gained about 1.8lbs of total lean body mass. This compared to the 1.7lb gained in the exercise alone group.

So, as you can see, even something as simple as adding a high quality protein drink or MRP can improve fat loss vs. exercise alone. But, again, nothing is as effective as following a solid nutrition program while exercising properly. Trainers Take Note At this point, I’ve gotta serve notice to trainers. Folks, if you’re not providing nutrition advice to your clients, that’s a real problem. A trainer selling a client exercise alone is equivalent to a car salesman selling a car with no engine. As you’ve already seen, the thing just won’t go. Now, I don’t want to seem as if I’m taking shots at ALL trainers because I love the service many of them provide. However, I do have something to say to those trainers who don’t have a nutrition system in place. Take my advice…incorporating nutrition isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s a “need to have”. So don’t miss the boat. Start thinking about how you can get your clients training hard AND eating better right away. Exercisers, Also Take Note For you folks who aren’t trainers yet who are looking to look better, feel better, and perform at the top of your game, the lesson should be obvious. You can train as hard as you want. However, without some attention to your nutritional intake, you simply can’t expect inspiring, noticeable results.

To get your nutrition program straight, click here…

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About Author

John M Berardi, Ph.D. is the founder and chief scientific officer of Precision Nutrition. PN started with a single question: what exactly should people eat to: 1.) look fit, 2.) be healthy, and 3.) perform to their highest potential?

To answer that question, we condensed 8 years of research, both from the lab and from the field, and the experiences of nearly 50,000 PN members from around the world, including both everyday folk and Olympic gold medalists, all into one system — the Precision Nutrition System.

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Upon further research, what I found was contradictory. There were those who lauded fasting and those who emphatically denounced it. One aspect that appears to be universal—at least universal in the articles I delved through—is that no one actually prescribes it as a weight-loss method. Those who recommend fasting usually do so because of its supposed cleansing benefits, not because it was a guaranteed pound-shedder. To be honest, I find that a relief; the idea of not eating for a long period of time to lose weight just sounds too much like anorexia or starvation to me.

The Spiritual Side of Fasting

With the intent of centering oneself through fasting in a spiritual context, however, I can understand and appreciate the testimonies of practitioners. Depending on one’s religious or spiritual knowledge, many people have some familiarity of when fasting occurs today. Be it the fasting on Good Friday for many Christians, or the month of Ramadan for Muslims, it is still a prevalent practice in the religious realm. Its history is far reaching; ancient tribes, including Native Americans, would fast for a number of reasons, including penitence, fertility, and protection. (…fasting.html)

I read of one Christian man’s personal account of prayer and fasting as a means to finding answers from God. My first reaction, since the man also mentioned how historically fasting was often employed by Christians for answers, was that fasting for answers sounded a lot like a magic eight ball—hope you like the answer you get … and that it makes sense… But after thinking about it for awhile, and reading more and more how fasting is used a tool for centering oneself, I realized fasting and praying were more like remembering one’s goals, ethics, or hopes. It was a way to connect to higher thoughts and beliefs. As a Catholic, I practice fasting before mass and on days like Good Friday as a method to reflect upon Christ’s sacrifices and cleanse the soul, so to speak. I’d never thought to use fasting to find answers within myself, though I’m sure it isn’t just Christians who employ it for such purposes; there are also the accounts of less religious, more spiritually-oriented people using fasting as a means of centering themselves and focusing on higher thoughts.

A little more research revealed some nuances of spiritual fasting. For example, while Catholics may employ fasting as a reflective tool or to better empathize with the impoverished, the Eastern Orthodox may use fasting as a way to fight gluttony. Likewise, while the Jewish may use fasting as penance, Mormons may use it to pray for a special request. Buddhists and Hindus use fasting as a spiritual renewal of the mind—but this isn’t to say these benefits or tools don’t or can’t cross over into other religions. It was eye-opening, though, to see which religions emphasize what through fasting.

Fasting for Good Health

And while some would use the word “purification” to describe fasting, in terms of the mind and soul, it’s also the word used to describe the physical benefits of fasting—at least, if you’re a believer in the benefits of fasting. There is evidence that it can be both harmful and beneficial, depending on its length.

According to the studies I’ve read through, short-term fasting poses little threat unless one is already emaciated, on drugs, or pregnant. Short-term fasting is between twenty-four and thirty-six hours of abstaining from food. It seems that longer fasting (over several days) helps the body to cleanse itself of toxins. What I’ve gathered, however, is that there seems to be more advantage to shorter fasting periods with periods of caloric restriction; the lab results of Roy Walford and Richard Weindruch’s* studies point to this.

They performed tests on rodents, giving one group the all-access-buffet pass, the other group a restricted but still nutritive diet after hours of fasting. I think you can guess where this might be headed.

The rodents that fasted and were then given smaller portions of food than those rodents that ate whatever, whenever, had longer lives and less ailments. The researchers also had a group where adult rodents’ diets were changed from the unhealthy variety to the restricted and fasting diet. Problems like tumors or disease began to clear up and they, too, had longer lives than those that indulged their appetites.

If the improved longevity of rats’ lives doesn’t justify cutting out unnecessary treats in your life, there was another study, this time on humans, that shows how the food people eat can affect life expectancy.

In the late 19th century Sir Robert McCarrison** observed northern and southern Indians  and their eating habits. He found the northern Indians looked healthier than the southern Indians and discovered the diet of the northerners was richer in vegetables and fruits, with less intake of meat, than the southerners.

Okay, I’m not done spouting rat studies just yet because McCarrison took what he saw in his human observations and put them to the test. He fed one group of rats the exact same diet of the northerners, the other the diet of the southerners. The “northern” rats were healthy, happy little rodents with low mortality. The southern rats? They developed diseases … and they turned on each other. Perhaps the key to peace among men—and rats—is more vegetables.

McCarrison even did a study comparing an Indian diet to a British diet (you know, tea, biscuits and marmalade, meat, that sort of thing). According to the results, the British will soon eat each other.

All joking aside, though, this study certainly is fascinating and is convincing if one wants proof that a more balanced and restricted (this is where the fasting comes into play) diet correlates to a longer life with less health problems. There are numerous other studies that prove fasting is healthy and leads to a longer life with less problems (for a good summary of these studies, go here: http://www.systemanorway.com/default.asp?iId=JLHLK).

On the flip side, however, there are those that believe by fasting, especially for too long, the body is being deprived of nutrients. This leaves the body vulnerable and susceptible to illness.

Fasting as a Diet Fad

There’s also the danger of doing it for the wrong reason. There are celebrities out there who have had fasting-diets and there are people who try it for themselves, hoping to end up with the same results. This is starvation, not fasting, because the incentive is to lose weight and lose it fast—fasting for more than three days will definitely lead to problems, including liver damage, anemia, and muscle breakdown to name just a few.

Conclusion

The incentive of the person fasting makes all the difference. When one’s goal is not to lose weight, but to gain clarity of mind or to improve the quality of one’s life, there are definitely going to be advantages. For the person whose incentive is, let’s say, shallow, though, I think the fasting-diet would be yet another disappointing fad.

Bearing this in mind, it’s hard for me to enthusiastically recommend fasting, despite being convinced that the studies on longevity and better quality of life are proof that what we eat and how often we eat affect us. If a person truly employs fasting in combination with healthy caloric restriction, I can find no fault. With our culture’s obsessive dieting trend, though, I would rather recommend fasting for its mental merits. But at least we know, while we fast, there are physical benefits being gained in addition to our spiritual cleansing!

* For more on Weindruch and Walford’s research, go here: http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=496
** For more on McCarrison’s research, go here: http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2008/02/robert-mccarrison-straight-nutrition.html

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About Author

Maura Stackpoole is an advocate for yoga and other mindful practices, and is a graduate from Michigan State University. She is also the editor and publicist for Mindful Muscle (http://www.mindfulmuscle.com).

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The acronym “Keep it simple stupid” or “KISS”, has been used for decades by the military, business schools, medical schools, and in countless other areas where unneeded complexity should be avoided at all costs.

One area where most people fail to follow the KISS system is in their approach to fitness, nutrition, or supplements. In fact I find people seem to gravitate toward adding complexity to their approach when it comes to building muscle or losing fat. Not coincidentally, it’s the people who take the most complex approaches to their nutrition, supplements, and training who are always the most confused and least successful. They focus on – and subsequently worry about – minutiae that prevent them from seeing the big picture and making the type of progress they desire. It often leads to what is referred to “paralysis by analysis.” The vast majority of people would have better results, not to mention less stress, if they simplified their approach to losing fat or gaining muscle. It’s not rocket science, brain surgery, or even rocket surgery!

Yes, there are times when complex approaches need to be used to get advanced athletes, such as pre-contest bodybuilders and Olympic track athletes, prepared for an event. These people make up, at most, 1% of the population. The rest of the world needs to worry less and act more.

Why is complexity a bad thing? The issue is variables.

Adding too many variables makes things more difficult, especially when trying to figure out why something is working or why it’s not. Variables are an essential part of science. We don’t need to go into great depth on this topic, so don’t worry. I do, however, want people to appreciate how variables affect the outcome of their successes or failures in bodybuilding or fitness related endeavors.

So what is a variable? According to one of my textbooks:

“Scientists use an experiment to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause something else to vary in a predictable way. These changing quantities are called variables…”

There are different types of variables (e.g., confounding, independent, dependent, controlled, etc.) but we are not going to worry about that right now. So how does this all apply to the KISS approach? The more complicated you make your approach to your goals of gaining muscle or losing fat, the more variables you have to control for. That is, for every new bit of complexity you add, you have to be able to account for it in terms of the results, or lack thereof, you experience.

Confused? Here’s a simple example:

Last week you changed your diet, added in three new supplements, and changed your routine, then three weeks later you notice you have made no improvements (i.e. you didn’t lose any fat, or you didn’t gain any muscle, or whatever). Why? It’s impossible to know! You added too many variables into the equation and now you’re unsure what went wrong – which means you won’t be able to make appropriate changes to correct it. Conversely, let’s say you did lose fat or gain muscle with the changes. Great, but do you know which of the changes you made resulted the positive outcome you experienced so you can reproduce it? No, no you don’t.

So, Lesson #1 is: never change more then one or two variables at a time so you can track what worked – and what did not work – from the changes you made. Most people find writing it down in a note book or online journal is the best way to keep track of their progress. When you write it down, you can see the effects that changes in your diet, training, or supplementation have on your body composition, strength, etc.

KISS and Those Ugly Variables

On my forums, it’s not uncommon for someone to post a question like “I added supplement X, Y, and Z to my supplement intake, added an extra day per week in the gym, and reduced my calories by X. Why am I not seeing progress?” My response is “…too many unknown variables to answer that question” which translates into “how the hell should I know?”

Why do people make so many changes at once? I suspect it’s due to the “I want it now” syndrome. Making permanent changes to your performance, physique, and health, takes patience, planning, and a willingness to take things one step at a time and assess what is working and what’s not working in the overall plan.

Clearly, the KISS approach fails to be effective as more variables are added to a program. It also fails to be KISS. How can you keep it simple if it ain’t simple to begin with?! The more complicated the program, the more variables there are to keep track of – which makes success far less likely. This basic idea was appreciated and understood by history’s greatest minds. For example:

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein

What was the father of Relativity saying? Be it math, science, nutrition, or life, Keep It Simple Stupid wherever possible, but don’t simplify it to the point where it’s no longer effective or true. In my own writings, be it articles or books/e-books, I make every attempt to keep the information and message as simple as possible. However, I often see popular books and diets that are in fact too simple. They don’t want to confuse people, so they simplify things to the point that their advice is no longer correct and has little value to the reader – thus, Einstein’s warning. Oversimplified statements like “carbs are bad” or “fat is bad” or “do weight lifting for big muscles and aerobics to burn fat” are among the gems we all see. Problem is, those statements are dead wrong! A line between simple and too simple must be drawn.

OK, back to the KISS approach…

It’s not possible for me to go through every example of how to take a KISS approach to your training, nutrition, or supplement intake, but I will attempt a general discussion of each.

KISS and Training:

One of the most common mistakes I see in this area is what I like to call the “I have tried everything and nothing works” syndrome. My response is always “have you tried sticking to one program long enough for it to actually have any effect?” The answer is usually a guilty sheepish facial expression. Let me be honest with you: even an average uncomplicated program you are consistent with is far more effective then any high-tech, super-advanced program you fail to be consistent with. One simple program you follow consistently for a year is always better then the five high tech programs you tried in 6 months where none of them were followed long enough to have a positive outcome. Simple programs such as: weight training Monday, Wed, Fri, and aerobics, Tue, Thurs, and Sat, with Sunday off, whilst varying your exercises tend to work well for the majority of people.

Are there better programs out there? Of course, but the vast majority of people follow routines that are overly complicated, take too bloody long, and are simply unneeded.

I also see a dependence on less productive movements in the gym over more productive choices. I see people doing reverse Romanian lunges while the squat rack gathers dust in the corner. Was that you I saw the other day?

KISS and Supplements

You don’t need them. Bet you never thought you would read that coming from me did you?! Let me qualify that statement: does a person need any supplements to achieve the basic goal of either adding muscle or losing fat? No, no they don’t. Can supplements help the process? Can supplements potentially speed up the process? Can supplements potentially offset some of the negatives? Can supplements help optimize the effects of exercise and diet? The answer is yes in all cases. The problem, however, is that I see far too many people under the impression that the next wiz bang “cutting edge” supplement is going to make some huge difference to their appearance while their diet and workout are put on the back burner or set low on the priority list. They are constantly looking for that one supplement that’s going to make all the difference while they ignore their nutrition and training! I see it all the time and frankly, it’s frustrating.

Remember, KISS. Focus on your training and your nutrition – then worry about supplements. Start off with the basics, like a good multi vitamin, a source of essentially fatty acids (EFA’s) and a good protein powder post workout, then add additional supplements over time depending on your goals, such as creatine when trying to add muscle, or ephedrine and caffeine when focusing on fat loss, and so on. The shotgun approach many people take rarely works, wastes money, and adds complexity (remember our conversation on variables above) where it serves no useful purpose.

I love supplements. I take a dozen or more supplements every day of my life. I have designed them for supplement companies, spoken about them at various conferences, been involved in the published research of supplements, and built my career on them, so I am not some anti-supplement zealot by any means. However, I do speak with people all the time who outline a long list of supplements they are taking (many of which have been shown to be totally worthless) while their diets stink and their training programs are a joke. Don’t be one of these people! Don’t think for a second there is any one supplement out there that will make or break your success. Realize that supplements are exactly that; supplemental to a good diet and intelligent exercise program.

KISS and Nutrition

Finally, we make it to nutrition. Nutrition is a potentially complex topic, and just as importantly, it’s a highly emotional topic for many. No place do I find such clear examples of people adding complexity where it’s not required. Again, there is a small segment of people that will benefit from – and require – advanced nutritional approaches, such as pre-contest bodybuilders, pre-race marathon runners, or even the average person seeking to get to very low bodyfat levels. Does the average person who needs to get into better shape and lose perhaps 20 – 30 lbs. (or more) need to follow advanced nutrition concepts? Of course not! Can the average person benefit from techniques more advanced dieters (e.g., bodybuilders, fitness competitors, etc.) might employ, such as cyclic ketogenic diets, refeed days, carb cycling, and other approaches? Of course! Do they require such strategies to drop some fat and get into shape? No, no they don’t. That’s why I tend to offer well thought out, healthy, and easy to follow approaches to nutrition in my e-books and offer more advanced approaches to people who want to take it to another level.

Simplicity + Consistency = Success

The above is what I consider the basics of the KISS approach to nutrition, supplements, and training. You will have to fill in some of the blanks as it applies to you specifically. If you are making steady predictable progress, great, stick to it. If however you are not making progress in your goals to add muscle and or lose fat, or some other goal, then you may need to sit down and seriously rethink your approach to the problem. Is there added complexity where you know it’s not needed? Are you relying too heavily on supplements to achieve your goals? Do you find yourself doing exercises that are less effective then the good old fashioned basics, like squats, deadlifts, and bench press? I can’t answer those questions for you, but hopefully I’ve made you think – which is half of the battle. You know what they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him think!

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About the Author

Will Brink has over 15 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published.Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.

His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.

Will was a former high level trainer with a rep for getting Olympic athletes, bodybuilders and fitness stars into shape and has gained a reputation for being a no “BS” industry insider who’s not afraid to reveal the lies and hype found in the fat loss , muscle building & supplement industry.

He has been co author of several studies relating to sports nutrition and health found in peer reviewed academic journals, as well as having commentary published in JAMA. William has been invited to lecture on the benefits of weight training and nutrition at conventions and symposiums around the U.S. and Canada, and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and now runs seminars for tactical law enforcement (SWAT).

He is the author, of Bodybuilding Revealed which teaches you how to gain solid muscle mass drug free and Fat Loss Revealed. which reveals exactly how to get lean , ripped and healthy completely naturally. Both e-books come with access to his private forums and numerous tools to aid you in either endeavor.

Find out more at Bodybuilding Revealed or Fat Loss Revealed.
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