Research Review

Tipton KD et. al. Stimulation of Net Muscle Protein Synthesis by Whey Protein Ingestion Before and After Exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Aug 8; [Epub ahead of print] Links

Timing of nutrient ingestion has been demonstrated to influence the anabolic response of muscle following exercise. Previously, we demonstrated that net amino acid uptake was greater when free essential amino acids plus carbohydrates were ingested prior to resistance exercise rather than following exercise. However, it is unclear if ingestion of whole proteins prior to exercise would stimulate a superior response compared to following exercise. This study was designed to examine the response of muscle protein balance to ingestion of whey proteins both prior to and following resistance exercise. Healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to one of two groups. A solution of whey proteins was consumed either immediately prior to exercise (PRE; n=8) or immediately following exercise (POST; n=9). Each subject performed 10 sets of 8 repetitions of leg extension exercise. Phenylalanine concentrations were measured in femoral arteriovenous samples to determine balance across the leg. Arterial amino acid concentrations were elevated by ~50% and net amino acid balance switched from negative to positive following ingestion of proteins at either time. Amino acid uptake was not significantly different between PRE and POST when calculated from the beginning of exercise (67+/-22 and 27+/-10 for PRE and POST, respectively) or from the ingestion of each drink (60+/-17 and 63+/-15 for PRE and POST, respectively). Thus, the response of net muscle protein balance to timing of intact protein ingestion does not respond as does that of the combination of free amino acids and carbohydrate.

My comments: In the past few years, the field of nutrient timing (what is consumed before, during and/or after training) has become a very hot area of both interesting new research and controversy. For years, we've known about the potential benefits of post-workout carbs and/or protein but recent work has suggested that consuming nutrients at other times, either before or during, training may have added benefits.

Several weeks back, for example, I posted an abstract showing that the consumption of amino acids/sucrose during training blunted the cortisol response, maintained insulin at a higher level and decreased protein breakdown during resistance training. Some supporting research for similar strategies during endurance training has also appeared (note: all of this will be discussed in excruciating detail in my next book on protein for athletes).

Of more relevance to the study above, an earlier study (Tipton et. al. 2001), found that the consumption of essential amino acids (EAA) and carbohydrate pre-workout generated better results in protein synthesis compared to the same drink taken afterwards. This led to the strong emphasis on pre-workout nutrition (either in addition to, or in place of post-workout nutrition). The idea was that high levels of amino acids and carbohydrates might be available in synchronization with both increased blood flow (due to training), on top of during the time period when the muscle is most sensitive to nutrients in terms of promoting an anabolic response.

I do want to note one issue with that earlier study (and quite honestly, most studies done on this topic): the subjects were examined after an overnight fast. Researchers do this to minimize variables but I think it brings into question the practical implications for anyone who's not training first thing in the morning. Clearly in a situation where you haven't eaten anything in 8 hours, you might expect to see differences in terms of pre and post-workout nutrition.

However, contrast that to someone who has eaten a solid meal 2-3 hours before training; they will still be releasing nutrients into the bloodstream during the workout and nobody has researched whether adding an additional pre-workout meal to that will have any additional impact.

Which brings us, in a roundabout way to the study above. While almost all previous studies have used a mix of essential amino acids (usually with sucrose), more recent work is starting to examine whether or not whole proteins (such as casein or whey) have the same impact. Post-workout, this certainly seems to be the case (Tipton et. al. 2001) with both post-workout casein and whey having an identical impact on protein protein synthesis.

But what about pre versus post-workout, will whole proteins have the same effect as the previously studied EAA/sucrose mix? That's exactly what the paper above set out to determine. Subjects were given 20 grams of whey either immediately before or one hour after training (8 sets of 10 leg extensions) and measurements of protein synthesis and such were made. And, in contrast to the earlier study, the pre-training whey did not have the same beneficial effect (compared to post) that the EAA/sucrose combination had.

The researchers feel that the reason probably had to do with digestion rate and amino acid appearance, the EAA/sucrose combo in the previous study led to about a 3 fold greater increase in blood amino acid concentrations compared to 20 grams of whey; even as a 'fast protein', whey will still take longer to get into the system than free form essential amino acids.

They also mention a tremendous amount of variability in response, commenting that they would have needed about twice as many subjects to see a significantly different response between groups (if it existed).

Finally, they comment that it might be that whey taken at a different time point (such as 30-60 minutes before workout) would have a different impact compared to whey taken immediately before training.

In any case, it appears that, at least with regards to pre-workout nutrition, whole whey protein and EAAs do not provide an identical response.

From a practical standpoint, this leaves trainees with two basic options in the case of pre-workout nutrition in terms of trying to optimize an anabolic response.

1. Take 15 grams of EAA with carbs. Note that EAAs tend to be expensive and vile tasting.
2. Experiment with 20-30 grams of whey protein (which will provide roughly 15 grams of EAA) with carbs 30-60 minutes before workout (to give it time to digest).

Feature Article

Determining Body Composition Part 1

Over several past newsletters, I've presented a bunch of information about bodyfat and body composition. But so far, I've been invoking magic to determine a person's bodyfat percentage. Now I want to get a little bit more practical and talk about some of the methods that are actually available. These range from low- to high-tech and from extremely useful to fairly useless.

I'm going to somewhat arbitrarily divide the available methods into two different categories. The first is a description of measurement methods that don't technically measure body composition (in terms of the proportion of fat to lean mass that you have); I'll cover the other methods in 2 weeks when I run part 2.

Still, they can be useful in tracking the changes due to your diet. Since they tend to be used a lot in the mainstream media (especially BMI and the Waist to Hip ratio), I want you to know about them. I should note that in both the Rapid Fat Loss Handbook and the Guide to Flexible Dieting, I presented a method of using BMI to estimate bodyfat percentage. It's rough but can at least ballpark things for non-active individuals

Mirror

You may be surprised to see me mentioning the mirror here but it can have use if you're careful. Usually you can look in the mirror and get a pretty good idea of whether you're overweight, underweight, or just about right. At the very least, you can determine if you're happy with the way that you look. That is, if you can be honest with yourself.

The problem is that we tend to see what we want to see, good or bad. Anorexics see a fat person where a skinny person is standing, and some bodybuilders see a skinny person where a muscular person is standing. Some researchers call this 'reverse anorexia', 'body dysmorphia' or 'bigorexia' (I find that last term really stupid for some reason).

Bodybuilders tend to use the mirror constantly. Whether it's because they are concerned with charting progress or just narcissistic and self-absorbed is up to debate. Most gyms have at least one mirror that is the magic mirror, making you look a lot better than you do. The right combination of lighting and everything else makes it so and leads to some real disappointments for bodybuilders on contest day. If someone could figure out what physical characteristics make up these magic mirrors, they could make a million dollars selling it to dieters and bodybuilders alike.

Anyhow, the mirror, while good, is subject to normal human frailties in being honest with ourselves. So use it, but with caution.

Scale weight

In pretty much all of my books, I go into a lengthy discussion of bodyweight versus bodyfat and how changes on the scale can't really tell you what is happening to body composition and all that jazz; I imagine most of you are aware of this topic. In brief, your total bodyweight represents the sum total of all of the tissues in your body: fat, muscle, bone, water, minerals, organs, etc. In general, when the goal is bodyrecomposition, you're looking to lose fat, gain muscle or some combination of the two. The scale, in and of itself, can't tell you that. A loss of weight might represent water and glycogen, muscle, because you took a big poop, you get the idea.

Now, if you're carrying a lot of fat, changes in scale weight will scale roughly with changes in true fat weight (excepting the initial water weight loss, which can be considerable in some individuals). For reasonably lean individuals (15% for men, 20% for women), the scale is next to useless by itself, it must be used with another method to accurately track changes.

Body mass index (BMI)

BMI is the current favorite method to measure body composition in large groups, mainly because it's easy and quick to do. All you need is weight and height and you can determine BMI. It's basically the old Height-weight charts that the insurance companies sent out in the 50's but in a nifty graphical form. In average, non-athletic folks, BMI is actually an ok indicator of overall health and weight status. In athletic populations, BMI is inaccurate and useless. It will say that a large, muscular but otherwise lean individual is obese.

Many doctors still don't understand the distinction and will tell that athlete that he is overweight, although his bodyfat percentage may be very low. Putting this mathematically, imagine two individuals who are 5'7" and 200 lbs but one is 10% bodyfat and one is 30% bodyfat. They will have an identical BMI although, clearly their bodyfat percentage (and health risk) will vary drastically

As well, a lot of researchers feel that the BMI/height-weight charts are unrealistic for most people or provide unrealistic expectations. Whether this is based in actual science or just an attempt to make people feel less bad about being fatasses is debatable. The bigger point is that focusing on some insurance company's idea of your ideal weight is just plain silly in most cases. Research has consistently shown that fairly small bodyweight losses (5-10% of current weight) can improve health, whether you can reach some ideal weight or not

Ok, back to BMI. In overfat populations, BMI gives a rough indicator of health risk. A BMI > 25 kg/m2 is considered overweight, > 30 kg/meter2 is obese. Higher numbers correlate with more health risks. So do BMI's that are excessively low (indicating severe underweight or eating disorders). In this population, even a 1 unit drop in BMI correlates with improved health. That's not much weight in most cases. You can find BMI charts all over the web, all you need is weight and height and it will do the calculations for you. As mentioned, non-athletic folks can even use the chart to get a rough estimate of bodyfat percentage. Athletic folks shouldn't even consider using BMI.

Waist/hip ratio (WHR)

The WHR is used as a way of determining relative bodyfat distribution and health risk. This relates back to visceral fat mentioned a chapter or two back. To briefly describe it, visceral fat accumulates around the organs and in the abdomen and high amounts are associated with a number of problems including insulin resistance and other aspects of something called Syndrome X or the Metabolic Syndrome. Whether visceral fat causes the insulin resistance or vice versa is still being debated. For now, just think of visceral fat as bad, metabolically and health speaking.

In common parlance, people are typically either pears (skinny upper bodies, fat lower bodies) or apples (round in the middle tapering at either end). I've never quite figured out what people who carry their bodyfat very evenly are called. A banana?

Typically, women tend to be pears and men tend to be apples. However, extremely fat women will eventually start to accumulate visceral fat (and just become generally round) and post-menopausal women who don't go on hormone replacement therapy typically show a shift from a pear to an apple shape

Individuals who are apples (having a high waist/hip ratio), because they are carrying more visceral fat, tend to have more health problems than those who are pears. Excess bodyfat can always be a health risk but having an apple shape is worse than having a pear shape. For example, it's thought that one reason women are protected from heart attacks/disease before menopause is because they store most of their fat in their lower bodies, instead of viscerally (around their gut and stomach).

Determining WHR is as easy as getting out the tape measure and throwing it around your waist and hips and comparing the two. Or just look down, if your stomach sticks out more than your hips, your WHR is probably too high.

Circumference measurements

While circumference methods can be used to (mis)estimate bodyfat percentage, they can also be used to track progress without being used to measure bodyfat percentage. So they're going to get discussed again when I run part 2 of this article in two weeks. Here I'm only talking about using the tape measure for actual tape measure measurements, not to try and estimate bodyfat percentage.

Circumferences can be useful, especially for athletes. Someone trying to see how a given diet and exercise program is affecting their arm size will want to keep tabs on it with a tape measure. By using calipers in that specific area as well, you can even track regional changes in body composition (i.e. if arm circumference doesn't change but skinfolds taken on the front and back of the arm go down, it's a fair bet that lean mass was gained in that area).

Some coaches even think that changing the shape of the body (such as adding weight to the arms in a sprinter, which will help him drive forward or making the upper body into a flying wedge by increasing lat size) can improve performance. So circumference measures would be useful here to make sure you were moving towards your goals.

Dieters who are fixated on a goal such as getting back into 32 inch waist pants, or what have you, could also use a tape measure to track their progress towards that goal. A quick note on tape measure use: it's easy to cheat and pull the tape tighter than it should be, to get the number you want. Companies sell tape measures that are spring loaded so that you get a consistent measurement.

So that's a quick look at what are probably best termed non-body composition methods. They can still be useful for tracking changes but they don't give a measure of body composition itself. In two weeks, I'll cover actual body composition methods and then get into recommendations for use.

Questions and Answers

Q: I have always enjoyed the way you have written your books and articles and even the rants from weight.net etc. You have answered a few of my questions in the past. I get the body recomp newsletter and actually read it. I go out to the site and read the articles there. I enjoyed the commentary on the lesbian power lifting. I have the keto book, and bought the bromocriptine ebook( think I lost that one, when I my harddrive decided to die on me about 3 years ago.

Medical info 6'3" tall white male 43 yr old 425 lbs, approx. 49% bf, bp at doc office(180/40) pulse 80. blood work ( total cholesterol 198, tri -156, good cholesterol -53, bad cholesterol - 114). Testosterone - normal for age. blood glucose - normal(107) after 12hour fast. body temp avg less than 98.6 normally - usually 97.6-98.2. no back problems, weak ankles and 3 knee surgeries.

I look like an apple with legs, have man boobs and large overhanging belly. I am pretty sure cortisol levels are higher than normal( lots of family stress last 4 yrs, family health issues, economic, ex-wife etc).

Long term goals - bodyfat level sub 10% ( maybe 8??? ), able to do 25 pushups again, want to be able to do pullups, chin ups, run a triathlon( not ironman just yet), go into a normal store and buy clothes.

I have read your articles on weight training, I have been on/off before last 4 years. You have written 3x week full body routine, very good for beginner. How do incorporate squats with deadlifts??? I just read article about doing deadlifts once a week ( all out, about 2-3 sets, no reps listed). since I can't do pull ups and the best I do on with lat pulldowns is about 110lbs. Can you set me up with a basic routine to get started, Just kinda in information overload.

Dieting - just finished reading your article on " determining the maximum dietary deficit. my numbers are 425lbs, 208.5 lbs fat, maintenance(15cal/lb * 425 = 6,375 cals a day) @ 10cals - 4250, 8cals-3400.

the numbers show 208.5 * 31cal/lb = 6455.74.

Long story short - I don't think I am eating 6000+ cals a day consistently, but I could be very mistaken I do believe I have high cortisol levels. In your opinion do I start dieting at 8 cals or 10 cals??? What can I do to help reduce cortisol levels? My energy levels are low. Can ALA HELP? will bromocriptine help me?

Supplement questions - these are not magic but can they help me?

Do you recommend me taking creatine?, what about glutamine? What is probability they will help in me gaining some energy, I know they are not magic bullets.

Lastly - care to give me an opinion on 6-oxo??? what is possibility is actually can help me keep my testosterone levels up, or is more bullshit?

Sorry for th verbal diarrhea, would appreciate any feedback, even if it is just to tell me to F-OFF.

A: Whew, ok. The above is a common occurrence and a case of someone sort of missing the forest for the trees in a lot of ways. All too many people spend a really inordinate amount of time wondering what the optimal anything is. I've done it, you've probably done it, some of you are probably still doing it. The best workout, the best, diet the best supplement stack.

Some people seem to spend more time looking for the magic workout than in actually getting into the gym and training.

There's an old joke to the effect of

Q: What's the most important aspect of training?

A: Showing up.

Actually, it's not a joke because it's totally true. For most people, under most circumstances (I'm not talking about elite athletes here), getting into the gym consistent is more important than a lot of the details. Sure, there are relatively more or less retarded ways of setting up training and diet but there's a lot of slop in what works.

So, with regards the above, what would I suggest.

1. More important than what you do training wise is that you get into a consistent training program. Initially, don't be surprised if your tolerance to exercise is very low. If all you can do to start with is to walk for 10 minutes on the treadmill and lift weights fo 10', that's fine. Better to do 20' of exercise 3-4X/week then kill yourself for 2 hours and not be consistent.

2. Any basic full body weight training program is fine for a beginner. Pick one exercise per bodypart, you can even start out with less. Leg press (or squat or deadlift) plus chest press/bench press + row or pulldown + one more exercise hits everything. Add more exercises as your fitness improves. Start with 1 easy set and do that 2-3X/week for the first week. Add a second set the next week. If desired, add a third set the third week. Note, beginners make the same strength gains training with 1 set as with 3 for a long period of time. I would typically use sets of 8-12 with beginners. Some recommend sets of 5 for reasons discussed previously in the newsletter. You could also do higher rep sets to deplete muscle glycogen (and perhaps intramuscular triglyceride) as this will help improve insulin sensitivity and start helping the shift of calories from fat cells to muscle cells.

3. Get into regular cardio activity. Again, do what you can handle and build up as your fitness improves. I have had clients who could literally do no more than 5 minutes of continuous walking to start on the treadmill. That's great, everybody starts somewhere. Do 5 minutes before your weights, 5 minutes after. That's 10 minutes total. The next workout, add a couple of minutes to each bout. The next workout, a few minutes more. Soon you're doing 20 minutes continuously. Keep building it up as you get fitter. It may take a few weeks or longer but you can build to an hour or longer over that time period. You can add extra workouts on non-gym days. But don't go crazy and do too much too soon. Your body has to adapt and jumping into 7 days/week is a great way to burn out/get hurt/make yourself quit.

The intensity should be low to start, even as low as 50% of maximum heart rate or lower. More importantly in the beginning is that you get through the workout comfortably; I've seen too many people burn themselves out in their first workout, get too sore, and never come back to the gym. As you adapt over the first 4-8 weeks, you can start bumping the intensity a little bit. Every 5 minutes do 1 minute a little harder than you're used to. Every couple of workouts, try to increase the duration of the harder bit and decrease the break in-between harder bits. Soon you'll be doing an hour at a higher intensity level than you started. Now bump it a little bit more in the same fashion.

3. The same goes for diet. Instead of thinking in terms of quantitative changes to your diet, think in terms of qualitative changes first. You can often save an insane number of calories by simply changing out your food choices slightly. This is often enough to get weight/fat loss moving without making drastic changes to your life.

Of course, that means sitting down and looking at what you're really eating. What's the fat content, how much refined sugar are you eating. Probably a lot. I had a client years ago who was drinking 4 regular sodas per day. I had him switch that to diet soda or water. He started losing about a pound per week with no other change, because it reduced his caloric intake by about 1000 calories/day without having to do anything else. Eat more veggies and lean protein and gradually switch out full fat foods for lower fat (taste buds take time to adjust). You get the idea.

As you get leaner and/or weight/fat loss slows down, you may have to make further changes but even small changes should be sufficient to start with.

4. Most of all, be patient. From 425 lbs and 49% bodyfat to 10% bodyfat is a fat loss of about 188 lbs. At 5 lbs/month, that's still 37 months (3 years). Initially, you may lose more than that but things will slow down. You didn't gain the weight overnight and you won't lose it overnight. Don't be surprised at the occasional backslide, it happens and nobody is perfect. Include the occasional free meal in your diet, even as your making changes to the rest of your diet. Trying to be 100% perfect is often a recipe for failure. Take a week or two off and eat normally to stabilize at a new bodyweight every so often. Then diet down again. Having to diet for 3 years straight is psychologically daunting. Dieting for 3 months and then taking a week to eat 'normally' (and this doesn't mean going back to your old eating habits) can make a world of difference in terms of adherence. Again, you've got years ahead of you, breaking it into more manageable chunks makes the most sense. Which is a good time for me to pimp my Guide to Flexible Dieting since it deals with this issue in detail.

Good luck.

Q: I recently started a new job, driving a truck to pick up recycling waste. I have a question regarding the makeup and timing of meals during the day. I start the day at 4:00 AM and end the working day between 1:00 and 3:00 PM. I eat an omelette at 4:00 AM and have been eating snacks of protein drinks, hard boiled eggs, some low fat protein (turkey, fish and chicken) and a couple of pieces of fruit during those working hours. I am drinking a about a gallon of water and a quart of Gatorade at the same time. (I live in Southwest Florida so the heat is a factor). I then eat a normal meal in the early evening before going to bed at 9:00 AM. In the end, I am consuming about 2300 calories per day.

I am doing strength training 3 days per week and no cardio as the job involves jumping in and out of a truck. I also tend to get very fatigued about halfway through the day. I'm taking a multi-vitamin and some fish oil.

I am trying to get down from 165 to 150-152, but I've actually gained 2 pounds in the first two weeks. Can you tell me what the problem might be?

A: Yes, you're eating too much. 2300 cal at 165 lbs is 14 cal/lb. Try reducing it to 12 cal/lb and see what happens. If after a few weeks, you still haven't lost any fat, you can reduce it by 1 cal/lb (staying there for at least two weeks) until you're losing about 1-1.5 lbs fat/week.

Q: I have recently been directed to your articles after a discussion on the body for life forum and have found them to be of great interest.

I was however wondering if you had any recommendations for a training programme for someone like myself who would be classed in the hardgainer category.

I am thinking about trying the upper/lower body split over Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri that you mention, but was wondering if this would be suitable for my body type and what you recommend as a suitable amount of set/reps per workout.

I am currently training cardio twice a week for about 20 minutes and weights 3X/week doing a chest/triceps, back/biceps, and legs/shoulders over a Tue/Thu/Sat split.

Any help or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

A: This split sucks. For naturals, training a bodypart once per week rarely generates good results. On average, I like to see each bodypart hit twice/week. A frequency of hitting everything once every 5th day (ala Doggcrapp or many other approaches) can also be effective. I don't like bodypart frequencies less than that.

Best suggestion, look into Hypertrophy Specific Training, Doggcrapp, or do my generic upper/lower split in the forum. Focus on progressive overload, getting stronger in a medium rep range and eat enough and you'll grow.