Category: nutrition

Posted on

Quality of Food

♠️Quality of Food♠️

🔹 A frequent debate in the fitness industry that I constantly run across centers on whether or not the quality of your food matters. Some people embrace the calories in – calories out (CICO) method a little too strongly and often claim that you can eat whatever you want as long as it fits within your macros.

🔹 Unfortunately, this suggestion is just a bit one dimensional. Studies convey that processed foods (snack items, restaurant foods, etc.) actually decrease the thermogenic response. This would throw off the calories in calories out equation because you would not be able to account for the change in your diet-induced energy expenditure.

🔹  For the most part, I prefer the 80/20 approach to eating which is when you stay on your diet 80% of the time. Being too strict usually gives people a negative relationship with food, so I like to allow a little bit of cheating in a diet. However, I do suggest that most of your food comes from natural sources. Essentially, you should plan on cooking most of your food to ensure your calories in calories out equations are a little more accurate.

Resources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2897733/

Posted on

How To Take A Diet Break

♠️Diet Breaks♠️

⁣

🔹The concept of taking ‘Diet Breaks’ was first initiated  and publicized by Lyle McDonald in his innovative book called  “A Guide to Flexible Dieting”, and in the last few years more research has been accumulated on that matter. ⁣

⁣

🔹Have you ever started a diet break with the purpose of dieting “better” later ? Sounds counter intuitive, but it’s exactly how diet breaks work. ⁣

⁣

🔹And for the record, I’m not talking about cheat days or days where you simply stop dieting because you “don’t feel like it”. I’m talking about diet breaks, which actually serve a purpose to your progress and your fitness journey.⁣

⁣

🔹Diet Breaks are essentially short periods of time, between 10 to 14 days, spent at an estimated maintenance, where calories are elevated by increasing carb intake to reduce hunger. This can potentially speed up your metabolism, increase energy expenditure, and regain some lost strength e while simultaneously  losing some water weight. 

⁣

🔹Studies show  that periods of caloric restriction followed by small “breaks” at caloric maintenance, will result not only in better fat loss, and an increase in muscle mass, but weight is actually easier to keep off in the long term. ⁣

⁣

🔹And this happens for two reasons: both physiological and psychological ones. ⁣

⁣

🔹I’m not saying that dieting all at once doesn’t work, because obviously it does (a caloric deficit will always work). Also if you’re dieting for a close competition, you won’t have enough time to implement diet breaks in your prep. 

⁣

🔹However, if you are not dieting for a competition and you would like to get lean, the implementation of diet breaks is certainly going to work better for long term maintenance. ⁣

Resources: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247292

Posted on

Carbs After Workout

♠️Carbs After Workouts♠️

🔹 It’s often said that carbs are important for post-workout recovery. At times people even claim that carbs are more important than protein. Is this actually the case?

🔹 When we perform any type of strength training, we inevitably break down some muscle tissue. If we train in a fasted state, it’s very likely that by the end of the workout we will be in a negative protein balance. This is because we’re breaking down more muscle than we’re building. If I made the assumption that carbs were more important than protein and only consumed carbs after my workout, I would be in a negative protein balance. If I’m in a negative protein balance, my muscles wouldn’t grow.

🔹So how can we fix this situation? If your goal is to grow muscle, make sure that you are getting enough protein after your workouts;especially if you are training while fasted. The goal should be to spend as much time as possible in a positive protein balance and getting protein ASAP after working out is a great way to ensure this happens.

Resources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5794245/

Posted on

Drinking Alcohol After A Workout

♠️Does alcohol consumption affect muscle hypertrophy♠️

🔹Exercise and protein intake are the main factors that create muscle protein synthesis (the main process driving muscle adaptations, such as growth).

🔹It has been documented that athletes are more inclined to consume excessive amounts of alcohol, especially as part of binge-drinking practices in team sports. Can these binges affect muscle protein synthesis?

🔹There was a case study that researched on the the effects of post-exercise alcohol consumption on protein synthesis rates in healthy young subjects who work out regularly. The subjects first performed combined resistance and endurance exercises in order to mimic team sports. During an 8 hours of recovery, subjects consumed either:

-25 grams of protein

-25 grams of  protein and 12 standard alcoholic drinks

-25 grams of  carbohydrate and 12 standard alcoholic drinks

🔹The alcohol intake ended up reducing the  post-exercise muscle protein synthesis rates. But the post-exercise muscle protein synthesis rates were still elevated compared to the rest periods, even when alcohol was ingested.

🔹So what this means is  that even when you know that you will consume large amounts of alcohol afterwards, it is not an excuse to skip your training session.  

⚠️Keep in mind that the subjects received a large amount of alcohol (i.e. 12 drinks). The amount of alcohol in the study was  to mimic the binge drinking practices of sports players.  If the  alcohol consumption was lower, there would be much less of a effect.

🔹The conclusion is that consumption of large amounts of alcohol  after exercise lowers protein synthesis. 

Resources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24533082/

Posted on

Hydration

♠️Hydration♠️

🔹 Drinking a 1/2 liter of water per hour of training is enough to prevent dehydration/lowering of body weight during exercise. 

🔹 A  liter of water is about 33 fluid ounces, so half would be 16.5 fl oz, or a medium-sized water bottle. A quick sip of water is normally about an ounce, give-or-take, so it’s easy to see that consuming 16-33 fl oz during exercise shouldn’t be too hard if you’re constantly grabbing a swig between each  set. 

🔹 Even if you’re not thirsty, it’s a good rule of thumb to hit the water fountain or grab a quick gulp from your bottle between sets. Work smarter, not harder is what I always say.

🔹 There was a study that states that ingesting 500mL (16.9 fl oz) about 2-hours before exercise is a good place to start. A good habit to start  is to simply start sipping on water at least two hours before your workout if you haven’t already been taking in water all day. 

🔹 If you are getting light-headed or nauseous during your workouts, you might not only be dehydrated, but it’s possible that you are experiencing symptoms of hyponatremia as well, which means your sodium levels are running low. 

🔹 Most sports drinks, like Gatorade, contain sodium so it might be a good idea to sip on a sports drink during your workout if you think you may have issues with sodium loss. 

🔹 Water may be one of the most important factors for your performance today and your gains in the long term. 

🔹 Good thing it’s one of the easiest deficits to overcome. Just get yourself a water bottle and keep it at your side at all times. If you don’t like plain water, add flavoring into it to make it more pleasurable. Whatever you have to do, just do it. 

Resources:

https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Abstract/2003/08000/Fluid_Balance_and_Endurance_Exercise_Performance.6.aspx

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.583.3481&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Posted on

Intuitive Eating

♠️Intuitive Eating♠️

⁣

🔹If you want to become an expert at “Intuitive eating” you have to have a background & experience in calorie/macronutrient tracking, after having spent alot of time “in the trenches”, especially if you’re a body builder or somebody who wants to maximize their potential when it comes to maximizing muscle gains and or fat loss. ⁣

⁣

🔹Tracking calories isn’t always necessary for everyone, because we are different, have different backgrounds, mentality, habits, past dieting experiences and approaches to the method, and these are reasons why I would not instantly recommend the tracking method to 100% of the people.

⁣

🔹When it comes to intuitive eating, there should be a gradual progression into it.⁣

⁣

🔹Yet at the same time, if we want precise results, we need to use precise methods (such as calorie and macro tracking) and do enough practice with it to the point where our estimations can get very close to the “real numbers”. ⁣

⁣

🔹That’s the only way that  you can transition into intuitive eating, if maximizing your body composition is your goal. ⁣

⁣

🔹Even though tracking  can be tedious, it  educates the person on the caloric requirements needed for the individual’s goals, it gives informations on the specific nutrients included in foods, it helps understand the fact that no food should be necessarily excluded from the diet without context, and more, and these are all positive outcomes that can lead to making better dietary choices in the long run. ⁣

⁣

🔹From there, after having educated yourself to the point where it becomes “second nature” to track food intake & quantities, a transition to intuitive eating is seemingless and likely just as powerful in order to maintain, lose or gain weight. ⁣

Resources: 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23962472/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212267213018960

⁣⁣

Posted on

Polyphenols Benefits

♠️Polyphenol Benefits♠️

🔹 Polyphenols in the category of plant compounds that has many health benefits.

🔹 Consuming polyphenols will boost digestion, brain health, and protect against heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.

🔹You can get polyphenols from red wine, dark chocolate, tea, and berries. 

🔹They are similar to antioxidants, which means they will neutralize harmful free radicals that would otherwise damage your cells and increase your risk of conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

🔹Polyphenols can also reduce inflammation, which is the root cause of many chronic illnesses.

🔹 There are supplements available as well but they’re likely to be less beneficial than the food sources.

🔹Studies show that polyphenols may help lower your blood sugar levels, contributing to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

🔹That’s mainly because polyphenols prevents  the breakdown of starch into simple sugars, lowering the likelihood of blood sugar spikes after meals.

🔹Polyphenol-rich foods can work like a neurotropic and boost your focus and memory.

🔹There was a study that concluded  that drinking grape juice, which is naturally rich in polyphenols, helped significantly boost memory in older adults with mental impairments as fast as 12 weeks.

🔹 More research will be needed in order to identify effective and safe polyphenol supplement dosages.

🔹So for the time being, it’s better to rely on foods rather than supplementation  to boost your intake of these compounds.

Resources: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728631/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614697/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5601283/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20028599/

Posted on

Do This If You Screwed Up Your Diet

♠️Screwed up your diet ? Here’s a muscle hack to get back on track quickly♠️

⁣

🔹Breaking diets happens to best of us the first times we dieted, and it happens very frequently to beginners but also “advanced” dieters as well. So don’t be alarmed. 

⁣

🔹When it comes to burning fat, we need to create  a calorie deficit of around 3500 calories which is roughly 1lb of fat loss. This means that if we have to eat -500 calories, under maintenance, per day we would need a week of dieting to lose 1lb of fat. ⁣

⁣

🔹So if we were able to do that.. we would lose all the fat right ? Well sort of, yeah, if we don’t take into account any metabolic adaptation, that’s how it would work in theory. ⁣

⁣

🔹But what really  happens is that people… screw it up… And it’s totally fine.⁣

⁣

🔹It’s just life. Whether it’s because you don’t feel like dieting or whether it’s because you were offered something you couldn’t resist saying no… screw ups happen, and “being perfect” is not what we’re looking for. ⁣

⁣

🔹What we need to get better at, is to quickly get back on track in order not to lose the progress made: this means being consistent, not perfect. ⁣

⁣

🔹Something that “clicked in my mind” back in the days, when information wasn’t so readily available and I used to screw up my diets too, was to understand that “if 3500 calories under maintenance” are needed to lose 1lb of fat, then “3500 calories OVER maintenance will result in roughly 1lb of fat”. ⁣

⁣

🔹For how obvious that may sound, you rarely over eat that much over your calories (unless there are other dieting related underlying problems, such as bingeing). ⁣

⁣

🔹The point I’m trying to make is that, even if some days “you screw up” a little and eat a couple hundred calories extra, you’re still good. it doesn’t mean you lost all your progress.⁣

⁣

🔹Even if you went above your maintenance, you would need to eat +3500 calories *over it* to gain 1lb of fat, so a couple hundred calories, for one day, won’t even be worth calculating. ⁣

⁣

🔹But the scale says otherwise ? It doesn’t matter what the scale says: even if it went up by a couple pounds the next day, following a higher calorie day, it’s just water retention, at least most of it. Not gained fat. ⁣

⁣

🔹What’s your favorite foods to eat on your cheat days? Leave a comment… I would like to know.

Posted on

Eating Clean

🔹 You’ve probably heard the phrase: “eat clean, train dirty” or “eat clean, train mean” or “you can’t expect to look like a million bucks if you eat off the dollar menu.” What does that even mean, anyway? If you ask 10 people what it means to “eat clean,” you’ll get 10 different answers..
🔹 The answer to these phrases all have one thing in common: it’s extremely restrictive. We are led to believe that some foods are good and others are bad. No one has ever dropped dead from one candy bar though—just like no one has gotten up in the morning lean and healthy from consuming a few servings of vegetables. This is not to say that we should opt for the mint chocolate chip ice-cream over apples and carrots, but being too restrictive in your diet is (1) making it nearly impossible to eat enough and (2) removing one of life’s greatest pleasures—delicious food.
.
🔹 If you’ve ever tried to get 3000 calories from chicken breasts and broccoli, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Although I do advocate a mostly minimally processed, whole food diet—I do also promote a flexible way of eating. If 80-90% of your foods are coming from minimally processed, whole foods, then don’t be afraid of getting the other 10-20% from that strawberry ice-cream—assuming it fits into your overall macro and micronutrient goals.
.
🔹 Keep in mind, however, that the longer you’ve been dieting, the lower your calories. And the lower your calorie intake, the less room you’ll have for “fun foods.” But that’s probably a good thing since minimally processed foods are more satisfying and provide more vitamins and minerals.

🔹 Message me the word “FREEDOM” if you want a customized workout and nutrition plan