Monday, December 13, 2010

Is there value in the hCG Diet as way to lean out?


Russell Dawkins asks, Yeah I'm looking at doing the HCG Diet to try and "lean out"......it's where you inject yourself with something nefarious like cat urine or something another and eat like a max of 500 kcal of food per day. It seems to work for weight loss of up to 1lb of body fat per day (for some unknown reason?) -and- is getting rave reviews on the web lately!!! Does it actually work and is it healthier than the recently discredited "Twinkie Diet"??? I was so waiting for an "Ask Steve" section!!!

Nefarious. Such a good word.

Not being from this planet, I worry about this planet. Not wanting to waste an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back, I will instead give you an article to read and some brief thoughts on it. 

The hCG diet that Russell is referring to consists basically of using hCG along with a 500 calorie per day diet. hCG is Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. Pull it up on Wikipedia and it will give you a good basic description.

The gullibility of the average person on the planet continues to amaze me.
Remember what I said in the last post about people thinking 2+2=5?!

Any "diet" of 500 calories per day will make you use weight,...for a while. As soon as your body gets used to that calorie amount your metabolism will slow. Also, after a while in order to feed itself the body will use the most complete protein on the planet. Your lean muscle mass. As you lose lean muscle mass your body will burn even less calories. And most importantly after your willpower or the chemical you are taking to suppress your appetite gives out (wasn't hoodia all the rage a short time ago) you will gain back all the weight you lost and then some if you continue to eat the same way you did before. This is why pretty much all the major companies who had diet plans had MAJOR lawsuits against them, because they are nothing more than starvation diets. If you like those I have a cheaper diet that works for you. It's called the "chain yourself to a pole in the basement diet".

Here is an article written by Dan Gwartney MD (http://www.musculardevelopment.com/articles/fat-loss/2197-the-science-on-fat-loss-lipolysis-and-fat-burning.html) about the process of fat loss. Pay particular attention to the sentence toward the end that reads;

"When one considers all the various hormones, drugs, enzymes, etc., involved in fat storage/breakdown, it becomes clear why one drug could never circumvent all the regulatory pathways".

Daniel Gwartney, M.D.
Board Certified Physician
World Renowned Fitness Authority
National Columnist - Muscular Development Magazine
Natural Bodybuilder

The only other use I've heard of for hCG is for bodybuilders who use it when they are coming off of a heavy steroid cycle to help stabilize their hormones. Let me ask you this. If this diet actually did what it claims to do, wouldn't every single bodybuilder on the planet use it to get down to 2% bodyfat without training?!!!!!

It truly amazes me how far people will go to avoid actual effort and discipline.

Here's a diet that actually works:  The diet I outlined in the last post and exercise. Yep, that's the secret.

Steve 


Monday, December 6, 2010

What is the best way to burn fat? What is the best dietary regimen?

Melissa Hooper Swartz asks, What's the best way to burn fat/lean out in terms of diet? Low carb and high protein?

Dan Spencer asks, I vaguely recall you saying once that you never eat breads or grains, maybe even no dairy - just lots of meat and veggies. Whats the best dietary regimen for Krav Training? What do you eat?

Since these are very closely related let's combine the two.

Here are some common misconceptions on nutrition:
  • One: Being skinny does not equal lean.
  • Two: Being skinny does not equal healthy.
  • Three: Current nutrition dogma is stupid at best.
  • Four: There are no pasta trees or oatmeal bushes in the wild
  • Five: 2+2 equals five.
My diet consists basically of lean meats (wild and grass fed whenever I can get it), fish, fresh fruits and vegetables. I'll also eat nuts in the form of almonds, walnuts, macadamia etc. Water is also super important.

The best way to lean out is by eating a diet that is high in clean protein, low carb (fresh fruit and vegetable based) and good fats and to eat less calories than you burn. Unless there is something genetically wrong with you (less than 1/10 of 1% of people on this planet actually have this problem) this diet works. Period.

When we have guys cut weight for an MMA fight this is the way I have them eat. Think about this; these guys need to be as strong as possible for their body weight, they need to have as much anaerobic and aerobic endurance as possible and they need to be mentally dialed in. Usually guys drop weight so fast on this diet I have to tell them to eat more.

Check out one of our students, Rob Reis (We'll have an interview up with Rob in the near future). Rob is an ex-Marine who let himself go a bit and got pretty heavy. In the last four months he's lost 60lbs. Now understand this as well he also trains at the school about 7 or 8 hours or more a week. Yes, he actually has the energy to do that. When I first put Rob on his particular diet he had trouble eating all the food I told him to eat!!

The biggest problem I see when people try to eat this way is that they don't understand fuel sources. They look at it and go "Oh yeah, I get it. Just eat protein and cut all the carbs". Dumb. What they don't understand is that when you cut out the carbs you need to replace the fuel source. That needs to be replaced with good fats.

When doing your Krav Maga training because of all the explosive training we do, you'll probably want to add more carbohydrates (good ones!!) to your diet.

I get these questions daily. To me it's incredibly strange because I've been talking about the same things for the last 15+ years. When you look at it logically it's so simple. I think the main reason people struggle with this so much is that there is so much misinformation out there it is unbelievable.

Understand that modern humans have been on the planet for about 200,000 years. The Paleolithic period of man was from about this time until about 12,000 BC. People living during this time survived as hunter/gatherers. Their diet consisted basically of lean wild meat, fish and whatever fruits and vegetables they could find. A diet to which human beings are genetically adapted to. Humans are also omnivores and have an incredible digestive system that can process just about anything. That doesn't mean that it is good for it.

From about 12,000 to 6,000 BC or so, because of increased population and lesser food supplies, people started to add new foods to their diet in the form of grains, dairy and raised animals. So you basically have a lot of new foods introduced to the digestive system along with an radical increase in saturated fats. Genetically not a great idea. What we've seen because of that is an increased genetic disposition to a number of diseases that occur later in life. These include heart disease, strokes, particular forms of cancer (prostate, breast, colon) quite a few autoimmune diseases (witness the recent development of Type II (adult onset) diabetes now seen in children that has never happened in the history of mankind). There have also been some chronic degenerative diseases connected to this such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Many studies have shown that the more that you consume this type of diet, the more of these diseases you have the possibility to develop. The dairy, grains and processed sugar Americans eat are tremendously nutrient poor. By the way, the three highest allergen producers on the planet are dairy, grains and processed sugar. What are the main products grown and produced in the US? What is the bulk of the American diet? Why are Americans so fat? Pretty obvious isn't it.

Some of the things from the BS pile:
  • The American Corn Growers Association taking out commercials to tell you that high-fructose corn syrup is the same as sugar. Really?! I've got some swampland down in Florida I'd like you to take a look at.
  • That people need grains in their diet. Right along with that is another good one, I've seen commercials tauting the benefits of whole grains in dog food. Really?! When have you seen a wild dog running down an animal and stop to munch on a stalk of wheat instead?
  • Processed dairy is good for you. Name me one animal that after they are weened runs over and starts sucking on the teet of another animal.
I could spend a year writing about all the benefits for this type of diet. Let me give you some references of what I think are the some of the best ideas on the planet.
  • The Paleo Diet
  • The Meat, Leaf and Berry Diet
  • Neanderthin
  • Any information from Paul Chek
I'm also available to sit down with you and develop a program specifically for you.

I'll leave you with a quote from Ben Franklin.

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn".
 

Don't take what I am saying as dogmatic truth. Honestly test it for yourself. You'll be amazed.

Steve

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Is there any benefit to low rep heavy weight training along with the explosive light weight training?

Here's a question from Rick Staples. Is there any benefit to low rep heavy weight training along with the explosive light weight training we do in fitness?  Good question Rick.

Rick is referencing our Fitness classes at the school.

My answer is no....and yes. It all depends.

It is interesting that a question that is so simple can be so complex as well.

I could write 20 to 30 pages about this but I'll try to give you a thumbnail sketch. It depends on a number of items.
  • What are you trying to accomplish?
  • Are you trying to be an Olympic or Power Lifter?
  • What exercises are you doing? Are you using free weights or a (UGH!!) machine?
  • How long have you been training?
  • What do you consider heavy and what do you consider low rep?
My heavy will be a lot different than the average person. For example I can dead lift almost 3x my body weight (No belt, no knee wraps, no suit). Most people can barely do 1.5x. I can also take a weight that is about 30% of your one rep maximum and make it feel like it weighs a thousand pounds. Those of you who have trained with me know this.

Heavy for me is 85% or more of my one rep maximum in an exercise and low rep is no more than 5 repetitions.

When you are training this heavy you are not really training the muscles as much as you are training your central nervous system. That is something the vast majority of people who train do not understand. Training the same movement for three weeks straight tends to burn out your CNS slowing progress. We see this all the time in people who start weight training and their progress is great in the beginning then comes to a screeching halt when their nervous system isn't trained properly. Think of someone you know who has lifted for more than two years. I guarantee that their max efforts in their exercises hasn't changed for a long time. So what they do is start looking for new supplements and more exotic rep programs and workouts. What they need to do is change the angle and type of the exercise and do some auxiliary work. Oh and give their nervous system a break.

Here are some basic thoughts or principles to follow:
  • Never train heavy movements when exhausted or after doing extended cardiovascular work.
  • Never train a technical movement at the end of your workout.
  • Don't train to failure.
  • Rest more in between sets.
  • Practice your lift. If you don't know how to do it correctly find someone who does (No, not your buddy). If you don't you'll never be as efficient (therefore as strong) as you could be in the movement. (Let me clue you in, 95%+ of all people I've seen train don't know how to do exercises correctly).
  • Do not try to max out in your lift every day or even every week. Once a month is plenty.
  • You should feel really energetic after working out.
  • Almost all strength movements move vertically. This erodes lateral flexibility. That is, if you do a lot of dead lifts and squats you'll notice that the height of your round kicks diminishes greatly. There is a cure. Stretch.
Steve