EPOC EXPOSED……why it cant completely explain the Metabolic After-burn.

Jade Teta ND, CSCS

This post is a little more technical than usual and is geared mainly towards the science junkies and personal trainers who want to understand mechanisms to apply to their own training and that of their clients.  Lately we have been getting questions about the post-exercise elevation in calorie usage called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). People are fascinated by this subject and want to know how it works. Others are skeptical of EPOC and feel its impact is marginal. This post reveals the inside scoop on EPOC, why it is important and why it falls short in detailing the full power of higher intensity exercise for fat loss.

First a brief review of EPOC. EPOC used to be called oxygen debt, which is a much better term to describe what it is. When you exercise at higher intensities, usually defined as greater than 55% Vo2 max for untrained individuals and 75% Vo2 max for trained persons (72% MHR and 85% MHR respectively. Based on equation= %MHR=.64X%Vo2+37), you will quickly begin to dip into your anaerobic energy systems. When this happens there is no longer a direct relationship between oxygen consumed and energy used.  In other words, using respiratory exchange ratios (CO2 vs O2) to determine fat vs. carbohydrate use becomes difficult.  To make up for this discrepancy, researchers use EPOC.  Once the body begins recovery after intense exertion, it will compensate by increasing oxygen consumption to make up for the “deficit” created during exercise. We all know what this feels like.  If you walk up a flight of steps, you experience and acute example of EPOC.  In this scenerio you will breathe harder after reaching the top of the stairs than you did while you are walking up.  This is a micro-example of the EPOC effect. By waiting until recovered from intense exercise to again to capture CO2 and O2 (carbon dioxide and oxygen) researchers can extrapolate the energy expenditure during the period of time during exercise that was lost. However, this is being shown to be only partially true.

This is where confusion about EPOC comes in.  The metabolic effect of exercise, also called the after-burn, is more than just EPOC.  EPOC is an important part, but it is not the whole story. We will get to that in a minute, but first lets define how big of an impact EPOC can have.  Some experts say that EPOC is normally 15% of total calories burned in a workout.  So if you burned 100 calories in your workout, the EPOC effect would be 15 calories for a grand total of 115 calories.  This leads many people to say that EPOC is insignificant and provides no real advantage.  However, it is impossible to make such a statement about EPOC because it is impacted by so many variables.  EPOC depends on the type of exercise done (cardio, intervals, weights), the weight and body composition of the person doing the exercise (the heavier the person the greater the EPOC), the gender (men have a greater EPOC then women), glycogen reserves (more glycogen reserves = less EPOC), the order of exercise (cardio before weights = increased EPOC), workout timing (2 short bouts of exercise in the same day have greater EPOC than 1 long one) exercise intensity (higher intensity = greater EPOC), exercise duration (longer workouts = greater EPOC), and training status (trained individuals have less EPOC compared to untrained). There are other factors as well, but you get the point. There are many ways to raise EPOC. If you look at low intensity aerobic exercise you will see EPOC magnitudes that are low and dont last long.  Ironically, this is where most of the insignificant claims about EPOC come from. However, if you look at interval training and resistance training exercise you will see EPOC values that are larger and last much longer.

How Long does it last and how significant is it?

There are several studies that challenge the notion that EPOC is insignificant.  One of the most important was published in  2002 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. In this study Schuenke et. al. showed a circuit resistance training program utilizing heavy weights, short rest periods and lasting only thirty-one minutes was able to generate an EPOC that persisted for 48 hours (1). The results showed that metabolism 24 hours and 48 hours after the exercise session was increased by 21% and 19% respectively. The researchers point out that for a typical 180-pound individual “This equates to 773 calories expended post exercise”. This is far from insignificant and greatly exceeds the 15% number many researchers quote for EPOC.  Similar findings have been shown in women using a similar resistance training protocol. In women the elevation in metabolic rate lasted 16 hours (2). Women likely have a lower response due to lower muscle mass and decreased levels of testosterone.Similar findings have been seen with interval training as well with significant EPOC values lasting up to 24 hours (3-4).

Metabolic Effect’s after-burn is more than just EPOC

While the EPOC effect can be significant as demonstrated above, it does not explain the complete impact of a metabolic workout because standard methods for calculating energy use are ineffective. This is an important point and requires some explanation. When exercise researchers calculate energy use from a workout, they cannot measure it directly so they use respiration to indirectly measure the amount of energy burned as well as the type of fuel (sugar or fat).  The ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen, called the respiratory exchange ratio or RER in research studies, is used by researchers to make these calculations.  This works very nicely at low intensity exercise done at steady state. However, once the exercise intensity goes above the anaerobic threshold, the Co2 and O2 measurements can no longer predict calorie use or substrate metabolism.

Dr. Christopher Scott of the University of Southern Maine is an expert in the full contribution of energy from both anaerobic metabolism, aerobic exercise and EPOC. Where as many people use EPOC to extrapolate the anaerobic energy use during exercise, Dr. Scott has shown this approach leaves 30-70% of the actual calories burned uncounted (5-9).  Dr. Scott emphasizes that to fully account for calories burned during intense exercise three components must be measured: calories burned aerobically during exercise, calories burned aerobically after exercise (EPOC), and anaerobic calories burned from exercise (5-9). The latter point is not insignificant and requires a measures of blood lactic acid to quantify. It is this anaerobic measurement through lactic acid that is left out in calorie calculations of intense exercise. EPOC and the anaerobic lactic acid measurements for exercise are considered separate by Dr Scott. While I understand this discussion is getting very technical, it is important to understand these issues to fully understand Metabolic Effect.

The major take home message in regards to the metabolic after-burn of intense exercise is this, EPOC is not only more significant than we may think, but it cannot fully explain the metabolic advantage of metabolic conditioning.  A full 30% or more of calories burned during intense exercise will be neglected if only EPOC is used to measure the after-burn of exercise. If EPOC  is also left out of the calculation, as some researchers are still doing, over 90% of calories burned during a higher intensity metabolic conditioning workout will be neglected and uncounted. This explains why so many practitioners of metabolic exercise see such a drastic change in their body’s compared to standard exercise programs.

How can you generate the greatest metabolic effect?

Using this new understanding of exercise and following what the research says, there are 4 reliable ways to stimulate the maximum caloric burn both during and after the exercise session. We call these the “Bs” and the “Hs”, breathless, burning, heavy and heat. Each workout should work to genrate all four of these components.

1. Get Breathless- you have to be panting for breath in order to reap the full benefits of a metabolic workout.  If you can talk, you are not doing metabolic conditioning. This aspect correlates with the degree of EPOC and anaerobic calorie burn. It is important to minimize pacing yourself which is why we have developed a system of exercise we call rest-based training that allows each exerciser to generate the correct intensity required for their unique metabolism to reap the rewards…hence the ME acronym.

2. You need to get Burning- You have to get to the point of “metabolic failure”.  Metabolic failure is a term I use to describe the need to stop exercise because of an intense burn in the muscles, not necessarily because the weight is too heavy to lift.  This is directly related to the lactate generation in a workout and how much growth hormone and testosterone you will generate from the workout (more a HGH determining factor than a testosterone one).  What many people are unaware of is that lactic acid acts like a hormone and may actually cause/contribute to the release of HGH and testosterone (10-14). In other words the degree of burn in your muscles is directly correlated to the proper hormone response for increased muscle building and fat burning.

3. You need to lift heavy- if you are not incorporating heavy weighted movements into your workout you are missing a key component of the after-burn.  In the 2002 research by Schuenke the weights used were very heavy (a 10 rep max) and the exercises were full body movements.  Heavy barbell squats, explosive power cleans, and maximal dead lifts or similar full body exercises are key to the metabolic effect.  If you don’t have access to heavy weights, then you need to use body-weight exercises and explosive movements that come close to mimicking the same effect (single leg squats, pull-ups, push-ups, explosive jumps, and other plyometrics).  This one is all about the type IIb muscle fibers.  Heavy weights trigger HGH and testosterone (more testosterone than HGH).  This is what I call “mechanical failure”.  As opposed to metabolic failure, this is when the weight just gets to heavy to overcome gravity and go no longer be lifted.

4. You need to generate heat- the final parameter is heat. One of the biggest contributors to EPOC and anaerobic energy use is heat. If you are not sweating, your body is not getting hot enough.  As a matter of fact, I use the ability to sweat as a biofeedback tool into how sensitive the body is to its catecholamine response.  If your not sweating in a workout, you are missing out on this heat effect and the after-burn will suffer.

References:

1. Schuenke, et. al. Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption: Implicationsfor body mass management European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2002;86:411-417.
2. Osterberg, et. al. Effect of acute resistance exercise on postexercise oxygen consumption and resting metabolic rate in young women. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. 2000;10(1):71-81.
3. Tremblay, et. al. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism. 1994;43:814-818
4. Treuth, et. al. Effects of exercise intensity on 24-h energy expenditure and substrate oxidation. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise. 1996;28:1138-1143
5. Scott, et. al. Misconceptions about aerobic and anaerobic energy expenditure. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2005;2:32-37.
6. Scott et. al. Estimating total energy expenditure for brief bouts of exercise with acute recovery.  Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism. 2006;31:144-149.
7. Scott, et. al. Contribution of blood lactate to the interpretation of total energy expenditure for weight lifting. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2006;20:21-28.
8. Scott et. al. Contributions of Anaerobic Energy Expenditure to Whole-body Thermogenesis. Nutrition and Metabolism. 2005;2:14.
9. Scott, et. al. Direct and indirect calorimetry of lactate oxidation: implications for whole-body energy expenditure. Journal of Sports Science. 2005;23:15-19.
10. Turner ET AL. (1995). Effect of graded epinephrine infusion on blood lactate response to exercise. J Appl Physiol,79(4):1206-11.
11. Takahashi ET AL.(1995). Relationship among blood lactate and plasma catecholamine levels during exercise in acute hypoxia. Applied Human Sci,14(1):49-53.
12. Kaiser ET AL. (1983). Effects of acute beta-adrenergic blockade on blood and muscle lactate concentration during submaximal exercise. International Journal Sports Med, 4(4):275-7.
13. Godfrey Et. Al. The role of lactate in the exercise-induced human growth hormone response: evidence from McArdle disease. British Journal of Sports Medicine. July 2009;43(7):521-525.
14. Lin Et. Al. Stimulatory effect of lactate on testosterone production by rat leydig cells. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry. June 2001;83(1):147-154.

 

Food is information for fat burning

Jade Teta ND, CSCS

Foods Hormonal Effects:

Many see food as simply energy.  They remain unaware of the direct and indirect information both macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) and micronutrients have on physiology. Similar to the effect high intensity exercise has on the body, food can either elevate fat burning or induce a powerful fat storing effect. Food is able to regulate powerful hormones that predict hunger, energy, mood, and fat burning from one meal to the next. When the proper dietary influences on your hormones are reached the process of sustained fat loss becomes much easier. It is known that protein and fiber together blunt the hunger response and decrease cravings. This is because they each generate a unique hormone response. Fiber drastically decreases the hunger hormone ghrelin and also lowers the fat storing hormone insulin. Protein on the other hand raises the fat burning hormone glucagon and increases the motivating and craving reducing neurotransmitter dopamine. Taken together, protein and fiber intake leads to decreased appetite, lower cravings, and improved fat usage between meals. The most interesting thing about these outcomes is they lead to effortless restriction of calories without the use of willpower. The body automatically regulates calories because it no longer has the constant urge and desire for food. Unlike the starvation effect induced by the calorie model, the hormonal approach to food sends signals that tell the body there is plenty of food and it does not have to worry about conserving fat.

Dietary studies comparing caloric vs. hormonal approaches

In the 2003, May 22^nd issue of the New England Journal of Medicine two different approaches to diet were analyzed. One approach was a traditional low fat and low calorie diet (LC) and the other was a diet where carbohydrate was replaced with higher amounts of protein (HP). In the high protein group dieters were allowed to eat as much food as they liked as long as they kept their carbohydrate intake low. The low calorie group limited their food intake to between 1200 and 1500 calories for women and between 1500 and 1800 calories for men. These two approaches directly compare the old method of calorie reduction versus the new method of hormonal approaches to weight loss. It turns out that the high protein group lost weight more quickly, voluntarily consumed fewer calories, and had improved blood chemistry tests over the calorie restricted group.

Another study published the same year in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Vol. 88 # 4) found the same results. A high protein diet without calorie restriction yielded better results than the standard calorie reduction approach weight loss experts usually prescribe. This research like the study described above is noteworthy because it shows that the body has the ability to naturally regulate energy consumption. The studies above did not bother to find the underlying mechanism behind this response, but understanding hormonal influences on metabolism would enable you to predict this response. One final study printed in the Journal Nutrition and Metabolism in 2004 looked at 28 overweight men and women. One group was given a low fat, high carbohydrate diet and the other a high protein and low carbohydrate diet. As we have pointed out these two diets will have very different hormonal effects. In this particular study the higher carbohydrate group took in 300 calories less on average than the high protein group (1855 Kcal/day for the high protein group and 1562 Kcal/day for the high carbohydrate group). Even with the consumption of more food daily, the high protein group lost more weight and fat with a greater proportion coming from the midsection.

Taken together these studies demonstrate the power of food as a source of information for the body rather than just simple energy. You can no longer view food as just a source of calories. The ratio of protein, carbohydrate, and fat has dramatic impact on metabolic function. Just as important the micronutrient and phytonutrient (plant nutrients) composition of every meal can be seen as a unique chemical fingerprint that when loaded in the body runs a hormonal software program that can have far ranging effects on physiology including fat burning.

 

Vitamin Key To Fat Loss, Cancer Protection, and Heart Disease?

Jade Teta ND, CSCS

 

At The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting, held June 10th-13th 2009 in Washington, D.C., Shalamar Sibley, MD, MPH reported findings on the fat loss impact of vitamin D. Vitamin D is actually more of a hormone than a vitamin and has global actions on the body. The research presented showed men and women with higher vitamin D were able to achieve significantly enhanced weight loss while dieting compared to those with lower levels.

Thirty eight obese subjects followed a very low calorie diet for 11 weeks. Body composition as well as body fat deposition (where on the body fat is stored) were measured before and after the 11 week period. The researchers showed a direct correlation between vitamin D levels and weight loss. One half pound of weight was lost per nanogram increase in plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (the standard lab measure of vitamin D). In additon, the higher  the vitamin D, the greater the abdominal fat loss.

The researchers noted “Plasma vitamin D predicts subsequent weight loss, suggesting a potential role for vitamin D in promotion of weight loss, perhaps through effects on adipose metabolism…………Vitamin D deficiency is associated with obesity…………Our results suggest the possibility that the addition of vitamin D to a reduced-calorie diet will lead to better weight loss.”

In my clinic, I routinely see vitamin D levels below 20. I am starting to recognize this as a key determinant of the ability of a cleint to lose fat. The study highlighted shows again that it is not always about calories in verse calories out, but about hormonal influence on metabolism including those provided by vitamin D.

Low vitamin D often times manifests along with hypothyroid, low adrenal function, and other physical complaints and mental symptoms. It is a major risk factor in cancer protection as well as heart disease and blood sugar regulation.  If you suffer from any of these symptoms or just cant seem to lose weight no matter what you do, you need to consider getting a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D test from your doctor. Research shows that the optimal vitamin D levels would be 80 ng/dl.

 

Should women lift heavy or light weights?

By Jill Coleman

Women love to lift light pink weights to prevent bulking up.  As a trainer, I personally savor the moment when a new client comes to me and says that they don’t like to lift heavy weights because they don’t want to get “big” or because their “legs get big really quickly with weights” or some similar precaution.  These comments from clients excite me because it means that I get the chance to change their perspective and show them amazing results with challenging, heavy weight—results they never dreamed of: inches lost, improved energy, better sleep quality, increased sexual drive, stress dissipation, improved self esteem and sense of empowerment.  I usually begin by saying that I guarantee that without challengingly heavy weight, they will not see a single change in their physique, period.  They can literally do hundreds and hundreds of reps with light weight and end up with no curves, no definition, no cuts, and no inches lost to show for it.

The problem with light weights

In general, 90% of female gym-goers unknowingly train for endurance by doing things like jogging on the treadmill, zoning out on the elliptical or taking a 60-minute Power Pump “toning” class.  Essentially, in my opinion, lifting light weights for reps on end is the same thing as jogging, i.e. applying a light stimulus for a longer duration (endurance training).  Interestingly, 90% of female gym-goers are wanting fat loss, and yet they are training for endurance; in other words, they doing long, slow workouts with light-to-moderate resistance in order to be able to maintain a steady exertion for the duration of the workout.  If it is fat loss we want, why are we not training ourselves for it???

Hour-long toning classes require the participant complete hundreds of reps, with the goal of increasing weight lifted, all the while performing the same exercises.  Though incremental increases in weight are a great way to increase intensity, how much weight can you really add when you are expected to complete 100 reps with it?  Moreover, you are always doing the same exercises, class after class, to which we know that our bodies adapt more and respond less (i.e. burn less calories, build less muscle, release fewer amounts of fat-burning hormones) over time.

Furthermore, besides being a ridiculously-inefficient use of time, lifting with a weight light enough to complete sets of 30, 40 or even 50 reps elicits a very different hormonal response than that of heavier, more intense training.  At the physiological level, completing hundreds of reps using pink dumbbells essentially does the same thing as jogging in terms of the hormonal response.  It increases the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine, but without the complementary release of fat-burning hormones like growth hormone, testosterone and even lactic acid, which acts as a chemical messenger in the fat-burning process.   The low-intensity resultant hormonal soup promotes muscle break-down and potentially even fat storing in the middle (cortisol is known as the “belly fat” hormone).  Doing these kinds of workouts day after day promotes stripping of muscle, not building.  The stimulus used is never enough to promote growth and development.  The only way to increase fat burning while building muscle is to lift heavy weights, preferably quickly and get more done in less time.

Why lift heavy

Contrary to what many trainers may say, bulking up does happen.  However, it occurs when muscle is built underneath layers of fat, without any attention paid to fat-burning.  Thus, the client appears larger.  By now we know that we must lift heavy weights to elicit any physique change, but we also need to burn fat simultaneously to lose inches and gain more definition.  Most educated personal trainers know that in order to increase fat-burning during and after the workout, a client must breach their anaerobic threshold.  In other words, when lifting, they must get breathless, they must get burning in their muscles (signals lactic acid accumulation) and they must lift heavy enough weight to reach the point of mechanical muscle failure.  There should be no fear of bulking up when fat-burning is being maximized.

Lifting heavy weights to the point of muscle failure, in general, enhances the release of testosterone, which when increased naturally through weight training will increase fat-burning in women (one of the reasons men are leaner than women).  Lifting heavy enough to generate a strong burning in the muscles enhances the release of human growth hormone, which also aids in fat burning and has anti-aging benefits.

Finally, adding lean muscle mass will enhance your fat burning potential while you are not working out.  A pound of muscle burns 15-30 calories per day at rest, while a pound of fat burns 2-5 calories; it’s a no-brainer of which composition is more desirable.  More muscle makes us more metabolically active. Furthermore, a pound of fat takes up more physical space than a pound of muscle.  So, burning fat and increasing lean muscle will NOT create bulk, but instead strip inches creating a lean, tight, defined physique, not to mention your clothes hanging off you.

How to build muscle, burn fat and lose inches

So how do you do this?  First, stop doing “toning” workouts. If you can complete 50 reps without stopping, you are not “toning,” you are wasting both muscle and time.  Train with heavy weights, choosing a weight that elicits failure by the last rep.  For example, if you are going to do 10 reps, choose a weight with which you can barely complete 10 reps, and definitely not 11.  Next, utilize short-duration workouts by training quickly, sticking to less than 60 seconds between sets.  Workout sessions should be no longer than 40 minutes in duration for best results.  Long rest periods between sets is power lifting and does not burn fat.  Try circuit training.  Choose 2-4 exercises and move from exercise to exercise quickly with little-to-no rest.  Doing this will keep the heart rate up and generate a greater lactic acid burn in the muscles because there will be less time for the burn to dissipate between sets.    Finally, choose the right kinds of exercises and switch them up regularly.  Compound movements like pull-ups, squats, lunges, push-presses, rows and bench presses use multiple muscle groups across several joints.  The more muscle tissue recruited by an exercise, the larger the metabolic effect of the workout.  Change up your movements every couple weeks to keep the muscles responsive and prevent muscle adaptation (i.e. plateau).

Go heavy and leave the pink to the babies!

 

Sleep and Fat Loss

Jade Teta ND, CSCS

Sleeping for the metabolic effect

There are certain choices you can make that will enhance your sleep quantity and sleep quality and will balance the hormones responsible for optimal health and fitness. If you have been practicing poor sleeping choices fat loss will be much more difficult. This is because sleep has the ability to “reset” metabolism impacting hunger hormones, stress hormones, and muscle building/fat burning hormones. Sleep is a prime determinant of whether you can maintain sustained fat loss.

8 hours is minimum; 9 is optimal

Eight hours of sleep should be seen as the minimum required for hormonal balance. This may shock some of you, but sleep quantity is one of the most important considerations in balancing hormones. Every night your body goes through its rhythm of hormonal computing to repair, regenerate, and revitalize the tissues of the body. This process is complicated and takes time.

It is just like downloading a new piece of software on your computer. Things happen in sequence and are done a very specific way so that the software will function correctly next time the computer is turned on. Notice how every time you download new software on a computer you have to restart. If the process is interrupted in some way, you will have to reboot and start again. If something really goes wrong the computer may lock up and not function again until the situation is remedied.

You must give yourself time for your body’s hormonal software to download and complete its functions. As the hours pass when you are asleep, all the fat storing hormonal machinery is turned down. Leptin, cortisol, insulin, and adrenaline are lowered. This allows the body to be able to hear the signals of these hormones once again reversing hormone resistance. Hormone resistance is a negative state in the body that occurs when the wrong hormones are around at very high levels for very long times. Just like walking into a room with a strong smell, eventually the body can no longer “hear” and react to the signals being sent. While he negative hormonal; signals are turned down, glucagon, HGH, testosterone, and other growth promoting, fat burning and antioxidant hormones like melatonin are elevated.

The combination of this hormonal environment puts you in a fat burning, anti-aging, and growth state. However, this process takes time while the body slowly switches from fat storing to fat burning. The longer you sleep the more likely you are to make that switch and enjoy several hours of fat burning. People sleeping less than 8 hours a night may never reach fat burning mode at all. For the most effective sleep 9 hours is closer to ideal.

By 10 is best

The natural rhythm of the sleep cycle is also related to time. Light is what stimulates your hormonal stress network to allow you to wake and have energy in the morning. If light is around at night you will not be able to easily switch these hormones off to help you sleep. Some people are more susceptible to this than others.

Your ancient physiology is programmed to go to bed shortly after the sun retreats for the evening. However, artificial lighting, as well as TV and computer screens circumvent this response by lengthening the time your hormonal wake software is active. What this means is the longer you are exposed to light after the sun has gone down the more you push back your hormonal sleeping software.

Remember, part of your sleeping software includes fat burning and anti-aging hormones like HGH, glucagon, and testosterone. As soon as light comes up again the next morning that software is shut off. That means if you sleep eight hours, but go to bed at midnight, only five or so hours of that sleep is in the dark. That is not enough time to reset your hormonal software. It has been shown that people going to bed closer to midnight have higher cortisol levels in the morning than those going to bed around ten. This holds true even when both groups of people sleep for the exact same time period. In order to insure your hormonal profile is working for you, the time you go to bed is just as important as how long you sleep.

Turn the lights out

The discussion about light should make you think. What about alarm clocks and night lights? Do they have an effect? Depending on your genetic, metabolic, and psycho-spiritual sensitivities, they may. In my clinical practice as a holistic  physician, sometimes just moving an alarm clock away from the bed is enough to help someone suffering from insomnia.

To minimize the effect light has on you after the sun goes down there are things you can do. Dimmers are one great invention as they allow enough light so that you can see, but do not create the artificial brightness of full strength 100 watt light bulbs. Candles create a similar effect. By using dimmers and candles you can help your physiology interpret moon light instead of sun light.

As far as TV and computers are concerned, see if they too are equipped with dimmers. If not, and you have difficulty getting proper sleep, their use at night should be limited or avoided. Although this may seem extreme, you have to make the choice between having optimal health and fitness, or watching your favorite TV show. With new technology that allows you to easily record your favorite TV shows, the need to stay up late is decreased.  Like it or not exposure to bright light at night is a problem your physiology does not understand. By reducing your exposure to bright lights after the sun has declined, you will reduce sugar cravings, improve sleep, and help lower your cortisol levels. This allows you to burn fat and regenerates your body at night the way you were designed to.

Don’t eat before bed

So what if you can not go to bed early enough to take full advantage of sleeps effects? After all, we live in a world that makes after dark activity necessary at times, even if just for a fun night out. As long as these situations are kept to a minimum, you will be fine. For those of you who are unwilling to go to bed earlier, there is a less effective alternative.

One of the reasons sleep is effective at rebuilding the body, burning fat, and slowing the aging process is it is one of the only times the body has nothing else to do. Think about this, when you eat it can take hours for the food to be digested and assimilated. If you are like many in our culture you rarely go more than a few hours without food. While proper nutrition is necessary and beneficial your body also needs time without food. Remember the yin and yang of the natural world? Sleep provides the opposite to the digestion of food and frees resources for regeneration.

If you find it difficult to sleep properly, than you will need to simulate sleeps affect by avoiding food at night. Sleep is incompatible with eating which is why it is so beneficial. Adequate sleep quality and quantity allows the perfect situation for lasting weight loss: lower calories and hormonal balance. One of the most effective strategies I have seen for weight loss in my clinical practice is the avoidance of food for at least 10-12 hours at night. For most people that will mean the last meal of the day comes around 7 or 8pm. The avoidance of food after the sun goes down will help reverse the hormone resistance of cortisol, insulin, and leptin.

 

Female Hormones and Fat Loss

Jade Teta ND, CSCS

Estrogen, progesterone, menses and fat burning

A discussion of hormones would not be complete without examining how the female sex hormones determine fat loss or fat storage.  It is easy to see how these hormones strongly impact not only how much fat the body burns, but also where on the body fat may be stored.  The hallmark of a female body is the curves of the breasts, hips and waist. The female form is known for a small waist and bigger hips and thighs.  This female form is the result of estrogen and progesterone.  Estrogen primarily impacts the body’s ability to store fat in the lower body.  This is why women will tend to be heavier in the legs then men.  Progesterone makes its mark by keeping the waist thin. Both hormones impact the size of the breast tissue. Cortisol and progesterone have a relationship of direct opposition to one another with each one blocking the action of the other. When progesterone levels are adequate and in a balanced state with estrogen and cortisol, the waist will stay small relative to the hips and thighs. Progesterone is one of the primary hormonal influencers of a small waist in women.  This is obviously different than a man who relies more strongly on testosterone for this job.

Estrogen and progesterone are tightly regulated during the female menstrual cycle and it would make sense from an evolutionary perspective that these hormones would impact reproduction and fat storage.  Obviously the ability to conceive and bare a child is directly related to the nutritional status of the mother and the amount of extra energy she can supply to a baby.  To understand fully how these two hormones impact fat burning physiology it is useful to briefly discuss the female menstrual cycle.  Shortly after the end of menstruation, estrogen levels rise relative to progesterone levels. This is a time where the uterine lining is growing and thickening.  It is also a time where the body burns more fat during exercise, but has less capacity for enhanced fat burning at rest.  This makes sense since the body wants to make valuable sugar available for the growing tissues while also slowing fat release in case the body becomes pregnant. Somewhere around two weeks from the start of the menstrual cycle ovulation occurs and the egg is released. At this time, the uterine lining undergoes changes that will help a fertilized egg implant.  This is a time where progesterone and estrogen rise together, but with progesterone being more dominant. At this time, the body’s ability to use fat at rest is enhanced.  Again this makes sense since a growing fetus will need the valuable energetic resources fat can supply. If the egg goes unfertilized menses occurs and both estrogen and progesterone fall with the cycle starting over again.  As you can see, the relative ratio of these hormones has much to do with fat burning and metabolism in general.

By paying close attention to the signs and symptoms during the menstrual cycle, a woman can get a good idea about her balance of estrogen and progesterone.  The time of ovulation is a key indicator. Many women will develop symptoms during this time due to a relative deficiency of progesterone compared to estrogen. What many will notice is a change in mood with irritability and emotional instability being pronounced.  They may also experience breast tenderness, fatigue, foggy thinking, and hot flashes.  Some of these symptoms share commonality with what occurs in menopause and the point just before menopause.  While many doctors have described this as an issue of estrogen reduction, it is more clearly related to an imbalance in the estrogen progesterone ratio.  This delicate female hormone system is a key indicator of the metabolic fat burning potential of a woman.

There are many environmental factors that enhance estrogen activity while suppressing progesterone.  This is obviously a state women will want to avoid since fat storage will be enhanced not too mention risk of reproductive related cancers. Stress is a major factor here.  After menopause the ovaries no longer are able to supply the female with the sex steroids. This is when the adrenal glands and fat cells take over.  The adrenal glands are able to make small amounts of estrogen and progesterone and the fat cells, through an enzyme called aromatase, can continue to make estrogen.  But here is where the problem comes in.  Stress is an ever constant in the modern world and when the body encounters stress it increases the production of cortisol.  This is not a good thing for a women past menopause because in order to make cortisol, the body will use progesterone.  This effectively increases the estrogen dominance of a woman.  In addition, cortisol levels are now unopposed by adequate progesterone allowing fat gain around the middle to continue unabated and strongly impacting insulin related fat storage.  This is why many menopausal women complain of sudden weight gain around the middle.  Add to this the fact that plastics, pesticides, and many common foods also have weak estrogen activity and it is easy to see why menopause is so closely related to a change in fat burning metabolism.

However, there is a way out of this mess and it involves making choices that balance out the estrogen and progesterone ratio.  Contrary to popular belief, this can be done without hormone replacement therapy and in a way that addresses all the concerns of aging women like losing bone and reproductive cancers.  Resistance training is the key vital behavior that is able to reverse the fat accumulation around the middle that plagues so many women as they age.  It has this effect because it is able to release testosterone and HGH, which both will block the action of cortisol at the belly and enhance fat burning all over the body.  Long distance running cannot accomplish this because it raises cortisol further without the benefit of testosterone and HGH.  This is why many women become increasingly frustrated by standard exercise prescriptions as they age.  In addition to resistance training, eating a diet that is rich in vegetables (especially cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage) and fruit will act to lower estrogen production through special molecules present in them that help the liver breakdown strong estrogen into weaker ones.  These foods also have large amounts of fiber to help remove hormones from the body and a vast array of phytochemicals many of which have been shown to be inhibitors of the aromatase enzyme that makes estrogen in fat cells.  Adding good quality lean protein to the mix will lower insulin and control cortisol levels.  Only taking an approach that addresses the underlying hormonal mechanism is able to deal with fat loss effectively.  Low calories dietary advice and aerobic exercise prescriptions will only leave most women frustrated with little body change.

For more info on this topic see my past post on The Female Fat Loss Formula: http://metaboliceffect.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/the-female-fat-formula/

 

Warm-up ME style

Gary Leake

I know I can’t be the only one out there that has a hard time getting started with their evening workout. I am an admitted procrastinator and non-morning person. Only in the direst of circumstances will I contemplate working out prior to 11 am and most days getting it in by 10pm is a challenge! Now I know those of you who are early birds out there are probably scoffing at my lackadaisical attitude and screaming something about “getting your day started off right” or “burning fat for energy before you eat”. To you folks I say, “more power to you”! However for those of us who would rather workout after sunset than before sunrise I think I have a trick that may help us. I have discovered that it’s not the actual workout that gives me pause, but rather the warm up. Once I’ve broken a good sweat and my heart rate is up I’m good to go. It’s getting there that’s the problem.

I’ve been doing this for quite some time and done everything from 20 minutes of steady-state cardio to no warm up and right to the weights and everything in between. Over the last few weeks I think I may have hit the sweet spot for my warm up and encourage you to try this to help find yours. For those of you familiar with the Metabolic Effect protocol you know that 5 minutes of warm up is always built in to the workout, NO EXCEPTIONS! Well, the same should apply to your weight workouts as well. The idea of any warm up should be to use dynamic movements to loosen the entire body and raise the heart rate to a working level and get you into the fat burning zone. Not just one or the other.

Using an elliptical machine here’s what I do to accomplish this in 5 minutes. First, determine what is the maximum resistance the equipment will provide. Mine goes from 1-10, most club pieces go to 25 some even higher. The idea here is to calculate 60-70% of the max resistance and set the piece at that level. For me that’s level 6. For the club machine that would be “15-18-ish”. Now this is the part that isn’t quite as easy. At around 2 minutes you will bring yourself to a pace that you should feel minor burn in your quads. If you feel you need more resistance then feel free to up it, but remember you will have to leave it there the rest of the way! Between minutes 2 and 4 you should be at a nice burn, but not pain. Finally when you hit minute 4 you are going to sprint all out for 10 seconds then rest for 5 and repeat until you reach minute 5. This means 4 x 10 second sprints and 4 x 5 second rests. You will end on a rest at 5 minutes.

***VERY IMPORTANT*** Listen to your body!!! If you can’t go the full 10 seconds, that’s ok. Rest when you need to and at the start of the next sprint get back on it hard if you can if not, wait until the next one. You WILL get there!

At this point, cut your resistance in half and slow your pace a bit. At about the 5:20-5:30 mark you should be reaching the top end of your heart rate range (aka hitting EPOC), which for me is “160-ish”. I don’t use absolutes here because everyone is different and every day is different (food, water, rest, etc.). I want to see my heart rate hit 160 or more, but some days it doesn’t. You will need to calculate your own heart rate since it’s a function of your age. Once the rate starts to go down I take my hands off the heart rate monitor handles and put them back on the elliptical handles because my heart rate has already started to recover. After 1 minute at this resistance drop down to no resistance for 30 seconds if you need it. I usually use this time to take a deep breath and visualize the rest of the workout.

In just over 6 minutes I have warmed myself up and spiked my heart rate so that I’m already in fat burning mode before I touch a weight. For me this simple solution has greatly helped my workouts become more intense, more efficient, and less of a point of contention in my day. For those of you who think in bullet points like me, here’s the breakdown:

· Minutes 0-1 – 60-70% resistance (at the end of this 2 minutes you should feel a mild burn, up resistance if necessary)

· Minutes 2-3 – same resistance and maintain the burn (around 3:45 get your mind right for the next minute, maybe even slow your pace a touch)

· Minute 4 – sprint 10 seconds, rest 5 seconds, repeat 4 times. Ending on a rest at …

· Minute 5 – resistance cut in half. Heart rate should go up during this minute and start to come back down.

· Minute 6 – no resistance, clear your mind and move to the workout.

 

Eat less, lose less. Why low calorie diets dont work.

Jade Teta ND, CSCS

Decreasing food means a slowing metabolism.  We all know this phenomenon well and recognize it as a natural state in any free-living mammal. It is called hibernation and us humans still have this ancient wisdom programmed into our metabolism. When the calorie model is followed to the extreme, the body instinctively slows everything down. Decreasing food intake actually works against fat burning because it proves the body’s point.  After all, increased energy output in the face of a food shortage is not smart.  Imagine driving a car whose fuel gage reads empty and then revving the engine repeatedly.  This strategy would greatly increase your chances of running out of gas.  The body views low food supply the same way.

The way the body manages its fuel sources is intuitive and makes sense.  If you are still having trouble maybe this analogy will help. Faced with a money shortage what are people going to do?  First, they use what is in their checking and savings accounts and will simultaneously decrease spending.  This is exactly how your body responds to a food shortage. First it switches to using its sugar stores and then slows its metabolic processes down so less calories and fat are used.  Once the money in a checking and savings account runs low, people will then begin to dip into credit. The body’s credit card is its muscle stores. Just as a credit card gives easy access to money in times of need, the muscle is an easily accessible source of energy since its proteins can be made into sugar. However, using muscle comes with a penalty.  Just as credit cards charge a hefty interest rate, so to will muscle usage cost the body.  Loss of muscle may help in the short term, but it will mean less metabolic efficiency later.  In the face of dire consequences, a person will reluctantly tap a retirement fund like a 401K.  This is a drastic measure and something people want to avoid. Fat is the body’s retirement fund. The body is reluctant to tap its fat stores because it knows when the fat is gone nothing else is left. With a shortage of food, the body liberates fat as a last resort.

Here is the worst part. Once willpower fails, and it will fail sooner or later, nature plays another cruel trick.  When a financial crisis ends the most likely response is for a person to make sure they replenish their checking account.  After that, they will begin to pay down their credit card debt.  Once that is done, they will start putting money back into their retirement fund.  Your body illogically does the opposite.  It will immediately start to replenish its fat stores as a priority.  It does this in case another food shortage comes.  It thinks, “That last food shortage cost too much energy, I better try to store more fat in case that happens again.”  As if this were not bad enough, the body is now less muscular than it was prior to the calorie restriction.  The end result is that the body now has more fat and less muscle than it did before the diet.  It is now worse off, because muscle is a more active tissue and is a great asset for fat burning.  Now that the body has less muscle, losing fat becomes even more difficult.  This is where the term Yo-Yo dieting came from.  Once willpower gives out and eating is resumed the body’s fat stores will rebound sometimes exceeding their previous level. Overtime any weight loss becomes even more difficult leading people to think their metabolism no longer works.  The fix?  Add back the muscle by eating more of the right foods (fruits, vegetables, protein) and less of the wrong foods (grain, dairy, juice, etc) while working out with weights.

 

The obesity lie. Dont blame it on genes and calories

Jade Teta ND, CSCS

Intuitively you have probably always known there is something incomplete or missing in the calorie model. If you listen to the experts they will explain this away by claiming it is all in the genes. This is a drastically oversimplified statement and actually has very little to do with why people gain and then cant lose weight. People are not fat because of their genes. People are fat because their genes are in the wrong environment. This is one of the classic arguments of all time, nature vs. nurture. Are we destined to become what our genes say, or does our environment shape us? The real truth is that both are accurate but you only have control over your environment and that is all you need.

Many people still perceive the DNA of a cell as the cells brain. They think without the genes in the cell, the cell will die. But guess what happens in a laboratory if the genes are removed from a cell? The cell goes right on living. It breathes, it makes energy, it gets rid of waists, and it carries on like any other normal cell. This is peculiar right? You certainly could not take the brain out of any animal on the planet and have it continue to live normally. That is because the genes are not the brain of the cell but rather more like your local auto-parts store. When a cell “part” or protein wears down and needs to be replaced, the genes hold the instructions for making a new part. So, if the gene is not the brain of the cell, than what is? It is the membrane of the cell. The cell membrane covers the outer most portion of every cell in your body. The surface of the membrane holds thousands and thousands of receptors that interact with the hormonal signaling molecules of the body. If you remove these receptors on the cell membrane guess what happens? The cell goes comatose, will no longer function and dies. This relationship has been described by one of the leading molecular biologists in the country, Dr. Bruce Lipton. Through his research the proper relationship between the environment and genes has been described.

So this begs the question, what really controls the cell and the genes within it? The hormones of the body bind to the receptors on the cell membrane setting into motion the chemical signals instructing the cell how to behave. And what determines what hormones are released? The environment. Food, exercise, thoughts, behaviors, light, sound, and other environmental inputs are information for the body that sets your hormonal software in motion. While you may have a gene encoding a defective part, like say the gene for breast cancer, it is the hormones produced by your environmental choices that determine if that gene will ever be expressed.

Is this so hard to believe? Consider the Asian culture. Native Asians are known in the west for their skinny frames and lack of obesity. However, look what happens to them when they move to the west from their homelands. Within one generation you will see an astronomical increase in obesity and western diseases. Did their genes all of a sudden change? The most compelling example of the fact that it is the environment and not genes that primarily control obesity is the Pima Indians. In the Journal Diabetes Care in 2006 Leslie Schulz PHD did a remarkable study demonstrating the primary importance of environment over genetics. In this study, she looked at two different groups of Pima Indians who were genetically Identical but lived in environmental extremes. One group of Pima live in the Arizona desert and have the highest incidence of obesity and diabetes in the modern world. The other group live in a remote region of the Sierra Madre in Mexico and enjoy robust health and exceedingly low rates of obesity.

The remarkable thing about this study is the fact that the two groups of Indians are 100% genetically identical. They were separated by a migration in the society 2,000 years ago. The Mexican Pima live the same life they have lived for generations while the US Pima have been assaulted with the western environment and lifestyle. So, if it is not genetics then what is it causing the epidemic of obesity in the US Pima? This study and another like it published in 1996 by Smith and Nelson and appearing in the Journal of the American Dietetics Association shows some remarkable conclusions. Of the two groups of Indians, the US Pima take in fewer calories and eat the same proportion of calories from fat and protein. The major difference was in lifestyle and type of carbohydrate and fat consumed. The Mexican Pima exercise more, eat less refined sugars, sleep more, and live a life more in line with their ancestral genes. The calorie model and “genes are everything” dogma cannot predict this vast discrepancy in health and fitness between these identical groups of people. The diseases of the US Pima are not a result of increased caloric consumption or “bad” genes, but a result of poor hormonal metabolism induced by improper lifestyle and food choices. This same scenario can be seen in groups of Australian aborigines, South American hunter-gatherers, and other more native cultures that have split into groups, those living the western lifestyle and those remaining with the lifestyles of their ancestors.

 

Killer Recumbent Bike Workouts

By Jill Coleman

As a reformed “cardio queen,” I have to admit, I never considered the recumbent bike a respectable piece of equipment.  It never seemed as hard-core as running or doing the stepmill or taking a group cycle class.  However, after a weight-bearing injury left me flat on my butt, I found myself on the recumbent bike, using it as a low-impact alternative.  Forced to create my own intensity, I pushed through some seriously tough workouts, torching fat and sculpting my legs like a never dreamed.

Why Pedal

The recumbent bike is a piece of cardiovascular equipment that places the user in the seated position with the feet forward and back against a pad, as opposed to the upright bike which is more similar in orientation to a regular bicycle.  For a biomechanical perspective, it is advantageous to use the recumbent bike to take pressure off the joints of the lower body.  The recumbent has traditionally been recommended by doctors and physical therapists to patients whose joint conditions require them to get activity through non-weight-bearing exercise.  As a trainer, I found another use for it: leg burning device to torture my legs and bring them out of their stubborn non-responsive funk.

Because of the orientation of the bike, the movement loads the glutes and the quadriceps predominantly, paying particular attention to the area right below the glutes referred to as the “glute-hamstring tie-in” by many fitness professionals.  The glute-hamstring tie-in is a notoriously stubborn place of fat storage for many women and also one of the first places on the body take on cellulite with age.  The beauty of using the recumbent bike is that it helps burn fat all over, while also eliciting a localized burn in the legs, attacking both the glute-hamstring tie-in and the lower part of the quad near the knee (referred to as the “tear drop” and the “sweep”).  Traditional fat-burning anaerobic exercise done via high-intensity interval training (HIIT) creates a hormonally and calorically favorable environment to lose inches, while aerobic pedaling using heavy resistance generates a similar effect to that of weight training, thus shaping the leg.  If the resistance and speed combinations are enough to elicit a strong lactic acid burn in the legs and glutes, the result is a fat-burning, leg-sculpting effect.

Protocols that Burn Fat

Ninety-five percent of exercisers want fat loss. Most females will point to various hip and thigh areas and want to get rid of localized fat.  Luckily, since the recumbent bike only works the lower body, the trainee can channel all exertion to the legs and glutes to create powerful pedal strokes through the fat-burning protocol.  We know from recent studies that HIIT burns more fat than low-to-moderate intensity aerobic exercise, as was shown via stationary bikes in an article published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism (Dec 2008).  In the study, untrained individuals participated in thrice weekly HIIT sessions for 6 weeks.  Each HIIT session was 60 minutes in duration, and alternated 4 minutes of exertion at 90% VO2 max, with 2 minutes of rest (repeated 10x).  Each participant’s fat oxidation, VO2 max and other parameters were measured at the beginning of the study and at the end of 6 weeks (18 total workouts).  Fat oxidation increased 60% from baseline.  This means that even though they were doing the same workout, they became more efficient at fat burning and were able to pedal harder for longer.  Even though the recumbent bike utilizes only the lower half of the body, the metabolic effect created by interval training on the bike generates a universal fat-burning ripple effect.

Workout #1 – 25 minutes: Traditional HIIT workout done on the bike. Pedal as hard as possible for the “working” segments and move the legs very slowly during the “resting” segment in order to recover and be able to generate the same force for the next working segment.  Go for intense, all-out peaks of exertion (to the point of breathlessness), followed by low valleys of rest and recovery.  Avoid moving faster during the rest segments even if you can; a more pronounced fat-burning effect is generated with a large differential between working and resting.  Remember, it is not about duration, but instead about intensity.

Use a recumbent bike whose highest level is 20.  Choose the Manual program and adjust the level throughout the workout according to the time and segment lengths listed here.

Time	Level		RPM		Segment Time
0-5	8		90+		5 min
5-6	15		80+		1 min
6-6:30	1		50+		30 sec
6:30-7:30	15		80+		1 min
7:30-8	1		50+		30 sec
8-9	15		80+		1 min
9-9:30	1		50+		30 sec
Continue to alternate 1 min @ Level 15, and 30 sec @ Level 1 until you reach 20 minutes
20-25	8		90+		5 min

Workout #2 – 25 minutes: This workout forces your client to work a little harder by adding an upper body component. Grab a set of lighter weights (perhaps 8-10 lb dumbbells for women and 15-20 lb dumbbells for men) and on the bike, warming up.  The protocol is similar to Workout #1 in that we are incorporating intervals, however, in addition to pushing the legs hard during the “working” segments, you are going to use the dumbbells to perform upper body movements at the same time.  Full-body movements like this can feel awkward, but will only exponentiate the fat-burning potential of the workout.  By recruiting more muscle groups, the exerciser challenges not only their aerobic capacity but their muscular endurance too. The result is breathlessness, burning and an overall feeling of exhaustion.  Throughout the working segments, you may have to rest the upper body, which is ok, but try to keep the legs moving the whole time.  You can rest the upper body for a few moments, keeping the legs going, then add the upper body movement back in when you feel ready.

Begin on a Manual Setting and adjust the levels as you progress through the workout.  The upper body movements involved are also listed.  During the “resting” segments, position the dumbbells on your lap so you can recover more efficiently.

Time	Level	RPM	Segment Time	Upper Body Movement
0-2	8	80+	2 min	Punches (across the body)
2-4	10	70+	2 min	None
4-6	12	60+	2 min	Shoulder Press
6-7	4	70+	1 min	None
7-9	9	80+	2 min	Side Raise
9-11	11	70+	2 min	None
11-13	13	60+	2 min	Alternating Shoulder Press
13-14	4	70+	1 min	None
14-16	10	80+	2 min	Front Raise
16-18	12	70+	2 min	None
18-20	14	60+	2 min	Upright Row
20-21	4	70+	1 min	None
21-25	8	90+	4 min	Alternating Biceps Curl/Triceps Ext.

Improve Muscular Endurance and Shape the Leg

Another useful approach when attacking the recumbent bike is to use a protocol that elicits more of a muscular burn in the legs.  The segments are a little longer and focus on a slow, deep aching in the glutes and quads to make those muscles pop.  Try this protocol as an alternative to a light weight-training workout or add it in at the end of a heavy leg day.

Workout #3 – 25 minutes: Throughout this protocol, you will have the client build on their resistance and slow the pace to the point of burning. Choose Manual Program on the bike and change the levels as called for.  This type of working will really get the glutes burning; think about the muscles being worked and squeeze them to get the full effect.  This should feel similar to resistance training for the legs.

Time	Level	RPM	Segment Time
0-5	8	90+	5 min
5-9	11	80+	4 min
9-12	13	65+	3 min
12-14	15	50+	2 min
14-15	2	50+	1 min
15-19	12	80+	4 min
19-22	14	65+	3 min
22-24	16	50+	2 min
24-25	2	50+	1 min