Post by schnitzeltime on Jul 27, 2015 13:42:06 GMT -7
I'm a bit of a fitness/nutrition/health nut, and randomly remembered that you guys do something like that in this podcast. First off I would like to say that I listened to Pilot #1 and found it to be one of the most depressing episodes of anything that I've heard in awhile. Then I skipped every episode in the middle and listened to the most recent one just to get a feel for things. If you didn't mind I wanted to just list one or two tips/advice that might help you guys. I don't know what material you've covered in the other episodes so I apologize if you've heard this stuff before, but I like talking nutrition and sharing info with people. Some of this may get a bit science-y but hopefully that's okay.
-My experience with watching people diet (including myself when I used to be a porky youngster) is that calorie counting doesn't work in the long haul. For one thing, there is a very common misconception that the number of calories is all that matters. That's garbage. Eating 1200 calories from crap like fruity pebbles and granola bars is terrible for your body. I have always told people to drop the calorie counting and focus on just buying healthier foods. Calorie counting sets you up to mess up, then you really beat yourself up over it. There will be days where you eat more, and that's okay. If you really just pay attention to eating more vegetables, quality fruits like blueberries, healthy fats like coconut, avocado, tuna etc, and good protein (basically not hot dogs) then you really don't need to count calories.
-Avoid processed foods. This goes hand in hand with the above. Processed foods are much easier to eat multiple servings of, making it easier to gain weight. Chips, cheezits, poptarts, junk cereal, stuff like that is no good. I'm not saying you can't indulge sometimes, but when the ingredient list is 8-10 lines of just a bunch of stuff, my general rule is to stay away from it. Alot of that stuff is terrible for your body's systems, too.
-If you're going to go have something like ice cream, don't bring it home in pints. Go to Dairy Queen and have it there. It may cost more ounce for ounce, but you're limiting yourself to just one helping of it instead of an entire pint or quart that you can devour at your leisure.
-Eat the right fats. Especially with vegetables. Vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat soluble, meaning that they can only really be absorbed by the body when they're in the presence of fat. Many of these are found in leafy and cruciferous vegetables like spinach, brussel sprouts, etc. Healthy fats like avocado can actually help you burn body fat more efficiently. Which brings me to another thing.
-Nutritional fat is in no way, shape or form connected with body fat. The craze used to be to do a low-fat diet. You probably know what happened. Diabetes, coronary artery disease, etc all shot up in the population. That's because they removed the fat and added the sugar (more on this later). Fat from a diet doesn't mean you're going to get fat eating it. Fat is necessary for our body to function. I myself consume more of my macros from fat than either protein or carbs. Almonds, seeds, peanuts, nut butters, avocado, coconut, debatably milk fat actually are all very healthy fats.
-Here's where it may get a bit science-y but if you don't already know much about hormones then this may be helpful. Like I said above, people see that something only has 160 calories (like soda for example) and they think that's a pretty low number. But when all of it is from sugar, that's very bad. You probably know that insulin is connected to diabetes, but you may not know the physiology of it. Insulin is produced by the pancreas to deal with sugar. It is maybe the biggest anabolic hormone in the body, and stimulates both muscle and fat creation. This means that it is obviously vital to have. You may have heard bodybuilders say that the best time to eat something like gummy bears or a banana or something with very easy-to-absorb sugar is right after a workout. That's because your body is primed for muscle growth. They also think that eating sugar post workout with a protein source helps the protein be used for muscle anabolism while the body burns the sugar. But I think that's up in the air. Anyway, The more sugar you eat, the more insulin the body produces to shuttle it, which means more fat production. Eventually your cells can grow resistant to the hormone signal, so you have to produce more insulin. Hopefully it sounds a bit familiar at this point. That's why you want to keep your sugar intake down a bit, especially added sugar that you would find in soda, cereal, etc. Insulin also has an opposite hormone called glucagon, which is catabolic in nature and is secreted when you are in a fasting state. This hormone breaks down fat for sugar instead of building fat from sugar.
-Building off of the above, there are many studies that show that working out first thing in the morning when you're in a fasted state makes your body burn fat as a fuel source. Personally I don't like to do this because I feel like I have less energy to get heavy weights, but many studies show that more of the calories you burn is from fat when you work out in a fasted state.
-The best time for a workout is supposed to be around 4pm. I actually get to the gym at about 4am so I don't follow this whatsoever, but that's just because I will lack the motivation after work to go to the gym so I just get it out of the way immediately.
-Studies also show that mixing weight training in with cardio during a workout actually helps you burn more calories than cardio alone.
-Try to not to whole body workouts when you go to the gym. This works for some people, however I think it's unwise for somebody trying to just stay committed to the gym. Often times people doing this do the exact same workout every single day. There's a lady at my gym that could probably write a book about stupid exercises that she does every day. Full body can be a good routine, but I find that it keeps things fresh when you go into the gym planning on hitting a different muscle group than last time. That way it's easier to see improvement because you can really destroy that muscle group instead of just saying "oh I did some pushups, a couple bench presses, maybe a curl here and there".
Half of these are just personal experience, and I ended up writing way, WAY more than I planned, but hopefully some of this helps you guys. Just don't look at it as a "diet". Because that's where 90% of America fails. You have to change your lifestyle and your attitude. Saying you're on a "diet" implies an end when the goal is reached. But there is no end. Set new and different goals but stick to something that you can manage while also being reasonable. Sorry for all this preaching, but I love this stuff and don't get a chance to help other people and my family gets pretty tired of me trying with them.
-My experience with watching people diet (including myself when I used to be a porky youngster) is that calorie counting doesn't work in the long haul. For one thing, there is a very common misconception that the number of calories is all that matters. That's garbage. Eating 1200 calories from crap like fruity pebbles and granola bars is terrible for your body. I have always told people to drop the calorie counting and focus on just buying healthier foods. Calorie counting sets you up to mess up, then you really beat yourself up over it. There will be days where you eat more, and that's okay. If you really just pay attention to eating more vegetables, quality fruits like blueberries, healthy fats like coconut, avocado, tuna etc, and good protein (basically not hot dogs) then you really don't need to count calories.
-Avoid processed foods. This goes hand in hand with the above. Processed foods are much easier to eat multiple servings of, making it easier to gain weight. Chips, cheezits, poptarts, junk cereal, stuff like that is no good. I'm not saying you can't indulge sometimes, but when the ingredient list is 8-10 lines of just a bunch of stuff, my general rule is to stay away from it. Alot of that stuff is terrible for your body's systems, too.
-If you're going to go have something like ice cream, don't bring it home in pints. Go to Dairy Queen and have it there. It may cost more ounce for ounce, but you're limiting yourself to just one helping of it instead of an entire pint or quart that you can devour at your leisure.
-Eat the right fats. Especially with vegetables. Vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat soluble, meaning that they can only really be absorbed by the body when they're in the presence of fat. Many of these are found in leafy and cruciferous vegetables like spinach, brussel sprouts, etc. Healthy fats like avocado can actually help you burn body fat more efficiently. Which brings me to another thing.
-Nutritional fat is in no way, shape or form connected with body fat. The craze used to be to do a low-fat diet. You probably know what happened. Diabetes, coronary artery disease, etc all shot up in the population. That's because they removed the fat and added the sugar (more on this later). Fat from a diet doesn't mean you're going to get fat eating it. Fat is necessary for our body to function. I myself consume more of my macros from fat than either protein or carbs. Almonds, seeds, peanuts, nut butters, avocado, coconut, debatably milk fat actually are all very healthy fats.
-Here's where it may get a bit science-y but if you don't already know much about hormones then this may be helpful. Like I said above, people see that something only has 160 calories (like soda for example) and they think that's a pretty low number. But when all of it is from sugar, that's very bad. You probably know that insulin is connected to diabetes, but you may not know the physiology of it. Insulin is produced by the pancreas to deal with sugar. It is maybe the biggest anabolic hormone in the body, and stimulates both muscle and fat creation. This means that it is obviously vital to have. You may have heard bodybuilders say that the best time to eat something like gummy bears or a banana or something with very easy-to-absorb sugar is right after a workout. That's because your body is primed for muscle growth. They also think that eating sugar post workout with a protein source helps the protein be used for muscle anabolism while the body burns the sugar. But I think that's up in the air. Anyway, The more sugar you eat, the more insulin the body produces to shuttle it, which means more fat production. Eventually your cells can grow resistant to the hormone signal, so you have to produce more insulin. Hopefully it sounds a bit familiar at this point. That's why you want to keep your sugar intake down a bit, especially added sugar that you would find in soda, cereal, etc. Insulin also has an opposite hormone called glucagon, which is catabolic in nature and is secreted when you are in a fasting state. This hormone breaks down fat for sugar instead of building fat from sugar.
-Building off of the above, there are many studies that show that working out first thing in the morning when you're in a fasted state makes your body burn fat as a fuel source. Personally I don't like to do this because I feel like I have less energy to get heavy weights, but many studies show that more of the calories you burn is from fat when you work out in a fasted state.
-The best time for a workout is supposed to be around 4pm. I actually get to the gym at about 4am so I don't follow this whatsoever, but that's just because I will lack the motivation after work to go to the gym so I just get it out of the way immediately.
-Studies also show that mixing weight training in with cardio during a workout actually helps you burn more calories than cardio alone.
-Try to not to whole body workouts when you go to the gym. This works for some people, however I think it's unwise for somebody trying to just stay committed to the gym. Often times people doing this do the exact same workout every single day. There's a lady at my gym that could probably write a book about stupid exercises that she does every day. Full body can be a good routine, but I find that it keeps things fresh when you go into the gym planning on hitting a different muscle group than last time. That way it's easier to see improvement because you can really destroy that muscle group instead of just saying "oh I did some pushups, a couple bench presses, maybe a curl here and there".
Half of these are just personal experience, and I ended up writing way, WAY more than I planned, but hopefully some of this helps you guys. Just don't look at it as a "diet". Because that's where 90% of America fails. You have to change your lifestyle and your attitude. Saying you're on a "diet" implies an end when the goal is reached. But there is no end. Set new and different goals but stick to something that you can manage while also being reasonable. Sorry for all this preaching, but I love this stuff and don't get a chance to help other people and my family gets pretty tired of me trying with them.