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What do we already know about fat loss and hormones? Well the fat cells are like “storage” tanks that store fats until the body signals to “release” those fats to be used a fuel/energy (aka burned). One of the biggest hormones that we have control over with our eating habits is insulin. This is important to know because of the relationship it has with other important hormones involved in helping us to burn fat, namely glucagon and growth hormone. Insulin when released in large quantities is telling the body to “get ready to store some fuel in the tanks”, as it is increased with large meals (or large bursts of sugar into the bloodstream). Glucagon and Growth Hormone are 2 important hormones used in lipolysis (the process of breaking down and releasing stored fats inside the “tanks”).
Here’s the key, when insulin goes up….then glucagon and growth hormone will lower, and when insulin is low then glucagon and growth hormone can elevate. What does this have to do with working out? Well if your goal is to “burn” up stored fat, then you want an environment that allows and promotes fat to be released right? Having high insulin levels during a workout will not be an optimal environment for the hormones most responsible for freeing up fat from storage. So what is the solution?
Well looking at the video you can see that insulin can remain elevated for 2-3 hours after large enough meals. Ideally you want to go into a fat burning based workout in a more “fasted” state, not “fed” (one in which you want to spike those GH levels with some intensity and burn that fat as fuel for your activity). This can be done first thing in the morning when insulin should be at it’s lowest (and you are fasted from overnight) or if later in the day then you should be waiting 2-3 hours after your last meal. Remember, you don’t need to eat to workout as you should have enough fuel as stored glycogen in your muscles, liver….and oh yeah, you want to burn fat remember?!
The best kinds of workouts can be in the AM (or later) and will start off with more intensity (intervals, sprinting, explosive lifting, heavy lifting) to get those GH levels spiked…and then trail off into slower paced activity to burn that fat (what I like to call “lifestyle” cardio). Remember, short intensity based activity first….then the slower enjoyable stuff….go ride a bike, play tennis, whatever you enjoy. Once you tell the body to free up the fat…and they are floating around waiting to be burned…then you still need to go do something to burn it! (otherwise it just gets stored back into the “tanks”).
To see the video and read the rest of the article, click here.
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"You have to take care of your 640 muscles, and the number one thing is exercise. You can eat perfectly but if you don’t exercise, you cannot get by. There are so many health food nuts out there that eat nothing but natural foods but they don’t exercise and they look terrible. Then there are other people who exercise like a son-of-a-gun but eat a lot of junk. They look pretty good because the exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you’ve got a kingdom!"- Jack LaLanne
Shoes are the only piece of personal equipment that you really need to own. It only takes one set of five in a pair of squat shoes to demonstrate convincingly to anybody who has done more than one squat workout. A good pair of squat shoes adds enough to the efficiency of the movement that the cost is easily justified. For anywhere from $50 to $200 for the newest Adidas weightlifting shoes, a pair of proper shoes makes a big difference in the way a squat feels. Powerlifting squat shoes have relatively flat soles, and Olympic weightlifting shoes have a little lift in the heal that makes it easier to get the knees forward just in front of the toes. Your choice will depend on your squatting style and your flexibility. Most squat shoes have metatarsal straps to increase lateral stability and suck the foot back into the shoe to reduce intra-shoe movement.
But the main feature of a squat shoe is heel compressibility. The drive out of the bottom starts at the floor, where the feet start the kinetic chain. If the contact between the feet and the floor is the squishy gel or air cell of a running shoe, a percentage of the force of the drive will be absorbed by the compression of the cell. This compression is fine for running, but when squatting it reduces power transmission efficiency and prevents foot stability. Unstable footing interferes with the reproducibility of the movement pattern, rendering virtually every squat a whole new experience and preventing the development of good technique. Squatting in running shoes is like squatting on a bed. Many people get away with it for years, but serious lifters invest in squat shoes. They aren't that expensive, especially compared to brand new name brand athletic shoes, and they make a huge difference in the way a squat feels.
"Diet is a powerful force as we say time and again. Most of the studies revolve around the physical aspects: inflammation, disease risk, body composition, blood markers, etc. But there’s the promise a good diet can offer other elements of health, including cognitive performance. With climbing rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s, these correlations are nothing to shake a stick at.
In that vein, this recent study caught our eye. Researchers from the University of Muenster in Germany followed subjects who had been grouped into three practices: a caloric restriction group (30% cut in daily intake), a group that increased their consumption of essential fatty acids (20% increase), and a control group. After three months, all subjects retook tests focused on memory activities. The group that cut its calories showed a “significant increase” in scores related to verbal memory. The apparent cognitive improvement could be correlated, the researchers say, with “decreases in fasting plasma levels of insulin and high sensitive C-reactive protein.” No noteworthy changes were seen in the other subjects."