Research Review

Kimber NE et. al. Skeletal muscle fat and carbohydrate metabolism during recovery from glycogen-depleting exercise in humans. J Physiol. (2003) 548(Pt 3):919-27.

The primary aim of the present study was to determine whether intramuscular triacylglycerol (IMTG) utilization contributed significantly to the increase in lipid oxidation during recovery from exercise, as determined from the muscle biopsy technique. In addition, we also examined the regulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDHa) and changes in muscle acetyl units during an 18 h recovery period after glycogen-depleting exercise. Eight endurance-trained males completed an exhaustive bout of exercise (approximately 90 min) on a cycle ergometer followed by ingestion of carbohydrate (CHO)-rich meals (64-70 % of energy from carbohydrate) at 1, 4 and 7 h of recovery. Duplicate muscle biopsies were obtained at exhaustion, and 3, 6 and 18 h of recovery. Despite the large intake of CHO during recovery (491 +/- 28 g or 6.8 +/- 0.3 g kg-1), respiratory exchange ratio values of 0.77 to 0.84 indicated a greater reliance on lipid as an oxidative fuel. However, there was no net IMTG utilization during recovery. IMTG content at exhaustion was 23.5 +/- 3.5 mmol (kg dry wt)-1, and remained constant at 24.6 +/- 2.6, 25.7 +/- 2.8 and 28.4 +/- 3.0 mmol (kg dry wt)-1 after 3, 6 and 18 h of recovery. Muscle glycogen increased significantly from 37 +/- 11 mmol (kg dry wt)-1 at exhaustion, to 165 +/- 13, 250 +/- 18, and 424 +/- 22 mmol (kg dry wt)-1 at 3, 6 and 18 h of recovery, respectively. PDHa was reduced at 6 and 18 h when compared to exhaustion, but did not change during the recovery period. Acetyl-CoA, acetylcarnitine and pyruvate contents declined significantly after 3 h of recovery compared to exhaustion, and thereafter remained unchanged. We conclude that IMTG has a negligible role in contributing to the enhanced fat oxidation during recovery from exhaustive exercise. Despite the elevation of glucose and insulin following high-CHO meals during recovery, CHO oxidation and PDH activation were decreased, supporting the hypothesis that glycogen resynthesis is of high metabolic priority. Plasma fatty acids, very low density lipoprotein triacylglycerols, as well as intramuscular acetylcarnitine stores are likely to be important fuel sources for aerobic energy, particularly during the first few hours of recovery.

My comments: A fairly common question has to do with whether or not a post-workout drink (including carbs and protein) should be consumed while dieting. Alternately, you will often see suggestions to avoid post-workout nutrition (or to avoid carbs, or whatever) while dieting. For example, it's often suggested to wait an hour following aerobic training to maximize the fat burn; I've occasionally seen similar suggestions for weight training. The reason being given is that this will allow for better fat utilization/burning or fat loss, usually by avoiding an increase in insulin levels. Of course, it's often forgotten that protein raises insulin with whey protein having a pronounced insulinogenic effect.

I've pondered this question myself for years with the argument coming down to whether or not enhancing recovery after a workout is more or less important than any possible fat loss effect of not eating after training.

Now, one issue to consider is that, following most cardio sessions (intervals excluded), the post-workout fat burn is pretty small anyhow. You might burn 5-10 calories after a normal low-intensity cardio session, this can get up to 100-120 calories after an exhaustive bout of endurance training (we're talking, 90-120 minutes at a pretty high intensity), the number of calories burned after interval training is up to debate but we can infer that it's probably significant based on the fat loss seen in the studies. Following resistance training, some studies have found a rather large post-training calorie burn but this is long-term, lasting 24 hours or so (and probably represents the calories burned in repairing damaged tissue/synthesizing new tissue), not acute

Which brings us to the above paper which I think gives some indication of what might be optimal. It looked at what happened to fuel utilization following glycogen depleting endurance exercise (and I realize that this is not automatically applicable to weight training or bodybuilding). It found that even with the provision of carbohydrate, the body continued using fat for fuel; this occurred even in the face of increased insulin levels (high insulin usually shuts down fat mobilization/burning quite rapidly) due to the carbohydrates. Instead, the carbohydrate was stored as muscle glycogen (instead of being used for energy) while the body continued using fat for fuel. Carbohydrate utilization for energy was reduced as was the activity of the enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), which is the key enzyme involved in carbohydrate utilization.

In this vein, I should mention that this is one of the tricks that the UD2 relies on; during the first 24 hours of the carb-load, despite high carbohydrate availability, the body continues using bodyfat for fuel (incoming carbohydrate being preferentially stored as glycogen).

Based on this study, I have to conclude that consuming carbs/protein post-training, even on a fat-loss/contest diet is the way to go. Even if it did impair fat utilization, said utilization is generally fairly small immediately after training. You might burn a few more grams of fat if you wait an hour to eat but that's not going to amount to very much. And you do it by compromising your recovery.

And if the above study applies to weight training (where glycogen depletion will depend heavily on volume), it doesn't look like increasing insulin post-workout impairs fat utilization in the first place. Under conditions of glycogen depletion, incoming carbs go to storage first and the body keeps using fat for fuel. Recovery from training is impaired enough on a diet already without avoiding post-workout calories; I think you're better off reducing carbs from other meals on your diet than post-workout.

Exercise of the Month

Clean Style Deadlifts

Last month I looked at RDL and SLDL and compared them briefly to a conventional deadlift (DL). As promised, this month I want to look in more detail at the conventional clean style deadlift.

I want to note that, in recent years, other deadlift techniques have become somewhat more common. Rounded upper backs and more of a stiff-legged type of DL are being seen. This seems to be especially true in geared powerlifting and among superheavyweight lifters. If you're interested in other styles of deadlifting, I highly recommend checking on some of the powerlifting boards

However, some very very big weights have been moved in a style at least similar to what I'm going to present. A clean style deadlift is the style used specifically by Olympic lifters and, while there are slight differences between that and a clean grip power style deadlift, they are fairly minor. The biggest difference is what happens into the second pull as the bar passes the knee, Olympic lifters are using the initial pull to set up for the explosion in the second pull, powerlifters are just trying to lock the bar out.

I should also note that I'm not going to address the sumo deadlift (classic sumo or sumo hybrid) either. Maybe next month.

In contrast to the RDL and SLDL which are, more or less, single joint movements, the DL involves movements around the hips and knees (and even ankles a bit) and involves most muscles in the body. The lower body (quads, hams, glutes) are involved heavily but so is the upper body (lower back, upper back, lats) to stabilize the torso for the pull. If, for some weird-assed reason, you had to pick a single exercise to hit the most muscles possible, the deadlift would be right up there on the list. Add an upper body pushing movement of some sort and you'd have a pretty damn good routine

The DL generally starts from the floor although it's not unheard of for lifters to start from the top (taking the bar out of a rack) and beginning the movement by lowering; quite in fact this tends to put many lifters in a better position for the next repetition than starting from the floor, it also tends to let you pull bigger weights. Powerlifters, in general, don't do this (since they have to pull from the floor in competition) although at least one elite deadlifter does a workout where he starts a heavier than normal weight from the top position.

The deadlift is different than many other movements (such as the squat or bench press) in that it starts from a dead stop position at the bottom. This prevents the lifter from relying on elastic energy, generated during the eccentric to start the bar. This is at least part of why many lifters find that their second repetition of a set of deadlifts is generally better than the first. Some lifters get around this by dive bombing from a standing position or dipping their hips to get an explosive start; both of these are advanced techniques and I'm only mentioning them for completeness. You have to be very skilled to avoid shooting the hips (see below) with this method.

Perhaps moreso than any other movement, the starting position of the DL is absolutely key to a safe and effective pull. In the version I'm teaching, the following points are important.

1. Shoulders are slightly in front of the bar, the grip should be set with the hands slightly outside of the legs so that the arms are as vertical as possible.
2. Torso is rigid with the upper and lower back set tight and the back flat. It is possible to get too much arch in the back for very flexible trainees, but this isn't common. Most have the reverse problem, rounding out in their upper or lower back, usually due to poor flexibility.
3. Bar is over the mid foot
4. Knees are in front of the bar.
5. Feet are about hip width with toes turned out slightly, the weight should be felt across the whole foot or slightly on the heels. It should not be felt on the toes.

The torso/hip position can vary slightly depending on body length, longer legged lifters will typically have to start with their hips a bit higher than those with short legs to get into a proper position. The starting position shown from the side (left) and front (right) appear below.

DL Start (Side view)

DL Start (Front view)

Starting with the hips either too high or too low (not shown) are both common problems. With the hips too high, the movement becomes like a stiff legged deadlift off the floor. With the hips too low, the glutes and hamstrings can't contribute as well, the quads are forced to take over the work. Ideally an even contribution of quads, glutes and hamstrings should occur.

As the bar leaves the floor, the hips and shoulders should rise at the same time, keeping the torso angle the same. This occurs through extension of the knees and the bar should move slightly back and upwards as the knees move backwards (out of the way of the bar). As the bar comes past the knee, the lifter starts to pull the bar back (leading with the shoulders and driving the hips through) sliding the bar up the thigh to lockout as the knees continue to straighten. The below sequence of pictures shows a conventional deadlift from start to finish.

Start

Below the knee

Above the knee

Finish

Ok, so let's look at a few of the problems that can occur. A very common problem is a rounded back in the bottom position. The low back often tucks (due to hamstring inflexibility) and/or the upper back rounds. I should note that some top powerlifters feel that rounding the upper back is a better way to deadlift; I feel that this is probably more dangerous to the shoulder girdle.

Correct Start

Rounded Start

Another problem is letting the bar come out from the body. The bar should stay as close to the shins as possible (with many lifters dragging the bar up the shins and using talcum powder to minimize friction). Not only does this drastically increase the stress on the low-back (in a bad way), it makes it likely that you'll miss the lift.

Bar kept in

Bar too far out

Two common problems can occur at lockout. The first is when the lifter fails to get the shoulders back at the end of the lift (or fails to keep them back during the lift). The second is when the lifter leans too far back, hyperextending the low back. The proper finishing position is shown on the far left, rounded shoulders is in the middle, hyperextension on the far right.

Hyperextended

Shoulders rounded

Proper finish

A final, and very common, problem is letting the hips raise more quickly than the shoulders (which I call 'shooting the hips'; note that some lifters use shooting the hips to describe what happens at the end of the lift when the hips are driven through to finish the lockout). This frequently happens if the lifter jerks at the bar or doesn't think about driving the shoulders up as the bar comes off the floor. Weak glutes can also contribute to this as the body tries to move the hamstrings into a better position biomechanically to stiff-leg the weight up.

As noted above, the hips and shoulders should rise at the same time which means that the torso angle should stay the same until the bar passes the knee. The left-most picture is a corect starting position. In the middle, the lifter has properly started the lift with the hips and shoulder rising at the same speed (note that the bar is higher on the shins). In the far right picture, that bar is in the same starting position; the hips have raised without moving the bar off the floor.

Proper middle

Starting position

Hips shot up

Next, I want to talk about grip. Probably the most common grip used for the deadlift is the mixed grip with one hand going over the bar (pronated) and the other under (supinated). This tends to be stronger than either an overhand grip or the hook grip. However, it also puts a slight torque across the spine and some injuries (including biceps tears) have occasionally occurred. All you have to do is bend the undergrip hand a little bit and you can tear a biceps with any heavy weight. Some top deadlifters have moved to a hook grip and olympic lifters, of course, always use a hook grip. The three different grip possibilities are shown below.

Double Overhand Grip

Mixed Grip

Hook grip

Non-hook grip

Ignore that both of my hands are undergripped in the third picture (this was so you could see it), this was to show the difference between a hookgrip (hand on the left side of the picture) and a normal overgrip (hand on the right side of the picture). With the hook grip, the thumb goes under the fingers (mine is under my first and second finger); with the normal grip, it goes over. As an Olympic lifter will tell you, the hook grip is stronger than a regular overhand grip. But it is painful when you first do it.

So which is better? As above, mixed grip is probably stronger of the three although you can build a damn strong hook grip if you start early enough. Regular overgrip is the weakest although it can be used if you use lifting straps. If you use the mixed grip, I recommend switching which hand is over and which is under from set to set (it will feel weird at first) to avoid a chronic imbalance through the spine.

What about lifting straps? Hardhead purists will tell you to never use straps to deadlift. And, for a powerlifter who needs to build their grip strength, they may not be incorrect. However, for general training purposes, straps can be beneficial; a bodybuilder or other non-powerlifting athlete shouldn't let grip limitations hold back the training stimulus to their other muscles. What I recommend is to try and avoid straps during a workout as long as possible. When you reach the point that grip becomes limiting, strap up. That way, you build your grip and you get the full workout done. This goes for all back work.

The descent of the deadlift is a matter of some debate. Technically it should be performed in reverse of what happens on the way up. The torso leans forwards as the knees bend slightly, sliding the bar down the thighs until it passes the knees at which point the bar is squatted down. As noted above, the second rep of a deadlift often looks much better than the first and part of it is that the hips tend to end up in a more natural position after the first descent.

The big debate is over the speed at which the descent is done. Many deadlifters feel that lowering heavy weights is dangerous and will essentially drop the bar, resetting before every rep. Others prefer to control the bar down fairly quickly, still needing to reset. Others will use a relatively slow eccentric so that they end up in the proper position at the bottom to start the next repetition. The latter is probably better for mass gains due to the importance of eccentric contractions for growth.

Another argument about deadlifts has to do with reps per set and how those reps are performed in terms of breaks between repetitions. Many powerlifters argue that since the deadlift is done for a single without the benefit of the stretch shorten cycle, it should be trained that way: single reps from a deadstop. From a powerlifting performance standpoint, they may not be incorrect.

A similar argument holds that it's dangerous to do repetitions in the deadlift since technique will degrade with repetitions (low-back fatigue is usually cited). Maybe. Many lifters have done high rep sets (5-8 or even higher) in good form so it can be done.

Another issue is what to do between reps. The three basic options are to

1. Rest completely between reps, reset and pull. This treats the set like a series of singles.
2. Lower the bar into a proper deadlift position, pause briefly on the floor (without losing body position) before starting the next pull. This allows you to get some benefit of the stretch-shorten cycle and is generally a little bit easier than method 1.
3. Use a touch and go or even small bounce off the floor. For most people, I don't recommend this; most lifters won't maintain a good back position.

I'd probably say that option 1 is best for those looking to maximize strength as each rep starts from a dead stop. I think option 2 is probably best for size gains. Option 3 is best left to very advanced lifters.

Questions and answers

Q: Been on UD2 for 2.5wks (just finished low carb day 3), awesome diet. The book was amazing, best one I've read!

Now onto my question, During the first two workouts is Gatorade ok to drink during the workout? I'm talking 15g of CHO, if that fits into the total for the day, is it ok? My thinking is I should wait to do the Gatorade till saturday (what I've done thus far), because I want every ounce of glycogen burned. Just looking for your opinion. Thanks in advance, and again AWESOME book!

A: Consuming carbs during training will decrease the amount of glycogen that is used. While this might be beneficial for normal training situations or growth, it goes against the goal of the UD2 depletion workouts. Save the Gatorade for the tension/power workouts on Thu/Sat respectively.

Q: Hi, I lost 110 pounds...last year by working out at the gym for several hours a day(generally, back to back aerobic, swimming, spinning, kick boxing, etc, classes in the morning 2 hours and in the evening 2 hours... 6 to 7 days a week and then my diet consisted of eating only very small amounts of lean meat and vegetables with protein shake supplements. I am very discouraged and my situation seems hopeless...I have lost and gained, lost and gained since my first diet when I was 15 and quite frankly...living fat is not living. I don't want to have that surgery, however, the problem is, that it seems no matter what I do...after every bought of weight loss my body (at some point) turns against me and does not stop gaining until it has rapidly put back on every single pound shed. I have regained 60 pounds so far and I am desperate to hit the brakes. I am going to buy your books and hope this will motivate me to restart the diet...and exercise program...it just feels like my body fights me every step of the way.

A: There is no doubt that some people's bodies fight back harder than others. Researchers often refer to such folks as diet resistant. Typical observations include ease of gaining weight and relatively more difficulty losing it; metabolic rate tends to drop faster and to a greater degree in such folks. The biological mechanisms behind this are still being worked out and probably involve changes in and sensitivity to hormones such as insulin, leptin, thyroid and the catecholamines.

The reason for dieting failures has been an area of intense interest and debate for years with, at varying time, behavioral and physiological explanations being given. In all likelihood, both play a role.

Dieted individuals (often referred to as post-obese) show a fairly common biological profile including a depressed metabolic rate relative to their bodyweight. In general, a person who normally weighs 180 lbs will have a higher metabolic rate than someone has dieted down to 180 lbs. Additionally, there is generally a decreased fat utilization and increased fat storage. Thyroid is often depressed as is nervous system output, this is a big determinant of the drop in metabolic rate and some of the other metabolic factors. Hunger is often increased as well. All of this serves to make it easier to regain bodyfat when the diet is over. This is the biological part of it but even there there is some debate over how large of an effect is seen. I've seen depressions in metabolic rate ranging from 5% to 40% (but the latter occurred in males dieted down to about 5% bodyfat).

However, fat regain can only occur if energy intake exceeds expenditure; the body can't magically start restoring fat if the same activity and eating patterns are maintained. Which brings us to the behavioral side of it.

People tend to think of diets (and often exercise programs) as short term and somehow hope that they can return to their old eating and activity patterns without getting fat again. Ah, if it only worked that way.

I find it somewhat telling that while you went into some detail on what you did to lose the weight, you didn't go into what's happening when you regain it.

If I don't miss my guess, you are going from an extreme amount of training (4 hours/day every day is a tremendous amount of activity) and an extreme reduction in calories back to your previously 'normal' habits (meaning less activity and poorer eating habits). So while you're losing weight rapidly while you're 'on' your diet, it's all coming back when you go 'off' your diet. I may be wrong, I tend to doubt it. This is an altogether common pattern and can be a problem with extreme approaches. This includes the one outlined in my Rapid Fat Loss Handbook although I tried to get around that by giving extremely detailed recommendations for how to move off the diet into a longer term maintenance or moderate diet.

While some data suggests that initial rapid results can be positively reinforcing and improve long-term results, others suggests that the more extreme the intervention, the lower the likelihood of long-term success.

The reason is fairly simple, it's nearly impossible to maintain the types of extreme behaviors that cause rapid fat or weight loss in the long term. Most people won't train 4 hours/day every day consistently, nor live on small amounts of lean protein, veggies and protein shakes in the long-term. When people burn out (and they almost always do) and revert to old habits, they go right back to where they were before.

It sounds to me like this is what you're experiencing. Again, I could be wrong but I tend to doubt it.

The solution: take a longer view to your goal as outlined in my Guide to Flexible Dieting. Rather than doing excessive amounts of training (especially coupled with extreme reductions in your caloric intake), try moderate amounts of exercise coupled with smaller changes in your food intake. Including cheat meals (to avoid feeling insanely deprived), refeeds and even full diet breaks can help psychologically with long-term dieting.

So diet down for a few months and then stabilize there, solidifying your current new bodyweight and bodyfat level. Then diet down a bit more and stabilize there. You get the idea. I suspect that this will work better than your current approach. Good luck.

Q: I read about you on your site - but my needs are a bit unusual. I am very fit - just competed in the US Amateur National Cycling Championships and placed 32nd in the time trial. That's not the issue. I am about 200lbs, and while I am extremely strong, I have an immense amount of trouble staying with the 150lbs climbers in the mountains (I lost 30 minutes yesterday in the road race championships in the mountains).

So - I am trying to look at muscle wasting and body recomposition as a way to lose 15-25 lbs over the winter and rebuild my strength at the new lower weight. Is this something that you can help me with or have suggestions.

A: This is an interesting question and, of course, absolutely the opposite of most people's goals. But sometimes losing muscle mass can be part of a performance goal: athletes in weight class sports often have to sacrifice some muscle to make their class, athletes in aesthetic sports (think gymnastics, ballet, or ice skating) can be penalized for too much muscle. I might mention that Lance Armstrong was a good cyclist but he didn't become truly great until cancer caused him to lose a solid 20-30 lbs of upper body muscle mass (developed through his triathlon). When he redeveloped his fitness at the new weight, his power/weight ratio was that much higher and he became truly dominant.

Now, on the flats, the extra mass probably isn't a big issue but, as you mention specifically, it makes a huge difference when you have to drag all that extra mass upwards against gravity. There's a reason that climbers tend to be pretty tiny.

Ok, enough rambling, how to address the issue. A few points of introduction. During endurance training, protein normally makes a small contribution to total energy expenditure, generally about 5% or so. However, this can go up significantly (to 10-15% of total energy) when muscle glycogen is depleted. The aminos broken down tend to be the branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) which are used to produce alanine and glutamine which go to the liver to make glucose. Consuming carbs (to maintain blood glucose) or protein during training limits that.

Of course, dieting itself tends to be catabolic (to both bodyfat and muscle tissue), muscle loss tends to be greater when protein is inadequate.

So I think this allows us to put together a full plan.

1. Reduce total calories and protein intake. Carbs are protein sparing so it might be better to go on a low-carb/high-fat diet. (carbs should be a maximum of about 100 grams/day). Basically, you need to reduce carbs and protein, which leaves fat as all that's left. The RDA (.36 g/lb) of protein should keep you healthy but won't limit muscle loss. Reduce calories by 500 cal/day or so. If you wanted to deliberately pick low quality protein sources (think grains and stuff), that might even accelerate the loss but your body still has basic protein requirements for overall function/health so that might not be such a good idea.

2. Glycogen deplete your muscles (full body). Interval training on the bike would get the legs, something like rowing or a ski machine would hit some upper body muscles. Doing a full body weight depletion workout (such as what's in my Ultimate Diet 2.0) might be the easiest. In any event, high-reps + short-rest periods + a lot of sets = glycogen depletion Depletion work + low-carbs and low-protein should deplete muscle glycogen quite well.

3. Then do a lot of volume of fasted low intensity work to burn body protein. Again, rowing might even make more sense so try and burn off some upper body muscle. At least an hour a day, maybe more. The faster you lose weight with inadequate protein, the more that's going to be muscle.

The biggest danger I see in this is that it will probably overtrain you. You might want to alternate 4-6 weeks of the above with 1-2 weeks of normal eating (including normal protein) and training to recover. Then repeat it (starting each cycle with the glycogen depleting work) until you reach your desired weight. Then you can begin rebuilding your fitness at the new bodyweight.

Good luck and please let me know how it goes.