How Detail Oriented Do You Need to Be?
If the internet has accomplished one thing, it’s making people extremely obsessive compulsive about the most minute details of their training program and diet. Arguments and flame wars erupt over the absolutely least consequential of things. How many minutes should pass between sets, how long after workout before you drink your liquid beef aminos with waxy maize starch, stuff like that.
Nutrient Metabolism Overview
In this chapter, I want to give readers a very brief and simplified overview of human metabolism and nutrient use. Which, for those who know a lot about the topic will realize, is an understatement of vast proportion. The complexities of human metabolism can and do fill up hundreds of pages in physiology books and this chapter should be taken with that in mind.
Is a Calorie a Calorie?
Simply put, the debate comes down to this: all that matters is caloric balance (calories in versus calories out) or do the source of those calories matter? The short and simple answer, of course, is ‘No’. The longer answer is what this article is about.
Introduction to Dieting
I am credited with having made the following statement on an internet newsgroup “Diet books tell you that you don’t have to reduce calories to lose weight, and then trick you into doing it anyway.” In this article, I want to look at some basic concepts related to dieting, the myriad weight-loss diets that exist, etc.
You Are Not Different
All over the internet, on forums dedicated to everything from weight loss to muscle gain, people will loudly argue that they are different. “My metabolism is different.”, “My nervous system is different”, “My muscles are different”, things of that sort. Everyone is a unique and delicate flower, just like their mom told them.
Training Secrets
Now, this is the American way, look for a quick fix secret instead of realizing that the only way to succeed is with ass busting work over a long period of time. Give me a pill, a piece of equipment, a piece of clothing (UnderArmor being the new clothing of choice for gym posers everywhere). Anything except for having to put in ass busting work over a period of time.
The Importance of Rest
I want you to ask yourself how many days off you take each week. And when I say off I mean off. Not “I do an hour of aerobics but that doesn’t count.” I mean off. One, maybe two. Probably not that many. How many people (the ones wearing the various braces) are in there every day, sometimes more than once? Either they are doing weights multiple times per week and cardio on the off days or they are doing both each day.
Calories, Nutrients or Food?
In this article, I want to look at a somewhat fundamental aspect of general nutrition; that is the distinction between calorie intake, nutrient intake, and food intake. This is relevant for the simple fact that the average person doesn’t think in terms of calorie intake, and they probably don’t think in terms of nutrient intake. Rather, they think in terms of eating food; thus it’s important to examine the distinction between those three ‘categories’ of intake.
Initial Body Fat and Body Composition Changes
In that current data indicates that each pound of muscle might burn an additional 6 calories (as opposed to older values of 25-40 cal/lb or even higher) (1), this argument is no longer tenable; to significantly affect metabolic rate would require a monstrous gain of muscle mass, far more than you could gain in 3-4 weeks.
AMPK: Master Metabolic Regulator
The molecule I want to talk about is called AMP-activated protein kinase or AMPk for short, a compound that is turning out to be one of the major metabolic regulators in the liver, skeletal muscle, fatty acids, and the brain. This is especially true if you’re talking about the regulation of glucose uptake and utilization, fatty acid intake and oxidation, and appetite. Ok, maybe I have your attention again.
