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Ottawa
12-18-2006, 03:19 PM
Mens Health ahd a great article on Eating & Exercise (http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=weight.loss&category=diet.strategies&conitem=1a0a99edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd____&cm_mmc=AbsDietNL-_-2006_12_15-_-Editors_Column-_-The_New_Science_of_Weight_Loss#) in their mailout this week. Although geared towards men the points made are the same as far as losing fat through exercise and eating patterns.
Although Men's Health is adament that it is not low carb, their main diet effort (The Abs Diets) is a low fat version of the PP Maintenance Program with emphasis on exercise. Some of it seems to come right from PP, "Eat some protein at every meal and snack" and so on.

"Energy balance, the focus of Benardot's research, is the answer to both of these dilemmas. The athletes in his studies get the best results when they stay within 300 to 500 calories of perfect energy balance throughout the day.

This means . . .

1. Eat as soon as you wake up in the morning.

2. Make sure you eat something before you exercise, no matter what time of day it is.
Not only does the food prevent your muscle tissue from becoming cardio chow, but it increases the number of calories you burn during and after exercise. A 1992 study at Arnot-Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, New York, shows that exercise following a meal enhances metabolism.

3. Eat soon after exercising, when your body has depleted its energy stores. Act fast, or you'll start burning muscle for energy."

Part 4: Put It All Together, Now
Just remember these five rules that derive from it.

1. Eat five or six times a day, avoiding large gaps between meals and snacks. Don't allow yourself to get ravenously hungry, and don't stuff yourself. If you find you're slipping into a bad mood before a meal, that's a pretty good sign you've waited too long to eat.

2. Eat some protein at every meal and snack, and some calcium-rich dairy at several of them.

3. Always eat something shortly before exercising; you'll burn more calories that way. (See "Perfect Meal Timing" at right for suggestions.) Then eat something soon after. This will speed up the repair process, which also costs your body some caloric capital.


4. Lift weights two to four times a week, focusing on the largest muscle groups. Three total-body workouts a week is ideal for creating a metabolic challenge; that way, you use all your big muscles every time you hit the gym.

5. Try to do something active on two or three of your nonlifting days. If you have the energy, interval workouts are best. But if these additional workouts leave you feeling wiped, it's far better to conserve your energy for three tough strength workouts a week, rather than spread it out over six half-assed exercise sessions.



I wish I could conclude this by telling you that weight loss is fast and easy, rather than slow and strenuous. But the exciting news is that science has found a straighter path to steady, successful weight loss--no starvation or death marches required. Here's wishing you a happy, less efficient new year."
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laughingW
12-18-2006, 04:44 PM
I think some of that advice presupposes that one is a sugar-burner. A clue is eating 6 times a day.

For another take on timing exercise around nutrition, from Scott Sonnon at RMAX, whose experience is in martial art and general fitness. I only quote him because it describes what I've experienced too:

[Whole-body, variable intensity] Activities like [Clubbell Training, Body-Flow, and Softwork - these are all specific to CST, a particular training system]

all require a steady, stable energy level. In my experience, when you "fuel the workout" you end up with an erratic energy which feels like a dzzzt-DZZT-plaaahht rhythm (sharp peaks and plummits) rather than a steady hmmmmh-HMMMMH-hmmmmh rhythm (consistently fluid sinewaves).

This is why I believe in plugging-in Clubbell training, Body-Flow and Softwork into a foundational nutritional infrastructure, rather than the vogue of trying to manipulate fuels to charge episodic activity.

That said, I still take snacks with me, should the activity (i.e. surprise stressor like a vehicular near-accident, a surprise extended day at the park with family, an unpredicted surge of intensity in a training session, or just an overwhelmingly sudden and long work day. Each of those events require additional nutrition to prevent the crash, such as to balance the adrenal flush of the 1st example, the carb depletion of the 2nd example, a lack of protein in the 3rd example, or a supposed amalgam of all three in the 4th example.) My family always carries with us a 'survival' bag of food for this purpose.

joanneb608
12-18-2006, 08:28 PM
I'm just thinking about Randy's article where it says to eat before and soon after exercise. This sounds like it would be contradictory to what the Eades' recommend, I believe they suggest to exercise 1 hour after eating and wait to eat for 1 hour after exercise, to get more Human Growth Hormone to release.

Ottawa
12-18-2006, 09:47 PM
Joanne,
You had me going for a while. I may have to go back and read the PP/PPWL books now to find that.:(

I did find a few articles on hGH and the first one summed it up this way ...

Exercise and dietary strategies

"In summary, then, exercise above lactate threshold induces the secretion of human growth hormone (hGH), promoting the use of fat as fuel. This, in turn, spares muscle carbohydrate, keeps body fat down and muscle mass high and enhances adaptation to specific exercise stimuli. The benefits are clear, but simply switching to high intensity work for the whole year is not the answer; rather, a periodised programme, where the number of sprints or higher intensity workouts alters according to the competitive programme, is the best way forward.
A suggested exercise and dietary strategy for optimising human growth hormone (hGH) secretion is as follows:

Exercise – three sessions per week, each involving at least 10 minutes’ work above lactate threshold or a number of sprints, with a 1:3 work-rest ratio;
Before exercise – no fat for 60 minutes before, 2g glutamine 60-90 minutes before;
During exercise – plenty of plain water (ie 200 ml every 10-15 minutes if training in 18-21°C);
After exercise – avoid sugar for two hours post exercise but take 25g protein immediately afterwards in the form of either a protein shake, protein bar, lean meat or eggs (although you should limit your consumption of eggs to avoid too much cholesterol).Richard Godfrey
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Anaerobic Exercise
Now, let us talk about the most powerful way possible to increase growth hormone release: exercise. Vigorous, sustained, anaerobic exercise causes the release of growth hormone, as every serious body builder knows well.
There is one way to block the release of growth hormone, even in the presence of this type of exercise, and that is carbohydrate intake. For maximal effect, body builders consume pure protein, no carbohydrates, and pump iron to exhaustion. (I am not suggesting you do that, only making a point.)
To get the best HGH release, use of the largest muscles in the body is best, namely the lower extremities. A body-builder favorite is to place a heavy barbell on the shoulders and do repeated squats. They do not reach for the sport drink after that because the infusion of carbs wipes out the HGH response.

Ron Kennedy, M.D., Santa Rosa, California
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Most of the articles tend to promote carbs as well for athletes as a way of building up ready glucose in the muscles :confused: but definitely avoiding them after a workout.
It is still amazing that most medical information still thinks that carbohydrates are the only way to get glucose into muscle.

laughingW
12-19-2006, 12:03 PM
It is still amazing that most medical information still thinks that carbohydrates are the only way to get glucose into muscle.
Or even that glucose in muscle is the only game in town. Intramuscular triglycerides are great too.

I think it was in that talk with Stephen Phinney that they talked about the whole 30 year emphasis on carb metabolism and athletics was from that one Swedish study. Like everyone got hooked on one idea and studied it to death, to the exclusion of everything else.