29 Apr
Fitness, Health, Nutrition

Why Bodybuilders eat Rice Cakes.

As a bodybuilder, you may be more concerned with putting on weight than losing it, so typical “diet foods” like rice cakes might not be on your radar. But rice cakes are a good addition to your diet. They’re a good source of high-energy carbs and low in sodium to help prevent fluid retention.

Rice Cake Nutrition

Rice cakes are not only low in calories, but also fat-free. One cake has 35 calories, 7 grams of carbs, 0.5 gram of fiber and 1 gram of protein. It’s also a good source of manganese, meeting 17 percent of the daily value. Although not a significant source of any other nutrient, rice cakes can help boost your intake of niacin, magnesium, selenium and phosphorus.

Carbs for Energy

When it comes to nutrition as a bodybuilder, your focus may be protein. But carbs are an important part of your diet plan, providing the energy your muscles need to lift those weights. Rice cakes are considered a high-glycemic food, which means they digest fast and act as a quick source of energy, so they’re a good pre-workout carb choice. Rice cakes can also be part of a nourishing post-workout meal, which is necessary for replenishing energy stores.

Low in Sodium

As a low-sodium food, with 29 milligrams per serving, rice cakes are a good choice when trying to limit your sodium intake to improve muscle definition. Limiting your sodium intake helps prevent fluid retention and is the safest way to cut weight before a competition, according to Human Kinetics. A 1,500-milligram sodium diet is considered very low-sodium, but you can survive on 250 milligrams of sodium a day, according to Clemson Cooperative Extension.

Serving Tips

You can eat rice cakes plain, but it’s better to combine them with foods high in protein and healthy fat. For a pre-workout snack, top your rice cake with turkey and fresh cranberry sauce or tuna with a touch of balsamic vinegar. After your workout, get the carbs, protein and fat your body needs by topping your rice cake with peanut butter and sliced bananas. Or smear some avocado on your cake and top it with thinly sliced chicken breast.

29 Apr
Fitness, Health, Weightloss

What’s Your Body Type?

Most people have combinations of the three body types. For example, some have an upper body that is ectomorphic and a lower body that is endomorphic, resulting in a slim upper body and a more fat-prone lower body, creating a pear shape. Sometimes the variation is not as clear-cut as having one body type for the upper body and another for the lower.

Height has little to do with body type, despite the fact that people tend to think of skinny people (ectomorphs) as tall and heavy-set people (endomorphs) as short.

Ectomorph Mesomorph Endomorph
Skinny, linear/ ruler appearance
Naturally lean
Smooth, round body
Lightly muscled
Naturally muscular
Gains muscle easily, but tends to be underdeveloped
Small joints/ boned
Medium to large size joints/ bones
Medium to large joints/ bones
Low body fat (without exercising or following low calorie diets)
Naturally strong
High levels of body fat (may be overweight)
Small shoulders, chest and buttocks
Broad/ square shoulders
Small shoulders, high waist and large hips creating a pear-shaped physique
Long arms and legs
Body fat evenly distributed
Difficult to keep lost body fat off
Difficulty gaining weight
Losing fat is easy
Slow metabolic rate
Fast & efficient metabolism
Efficient metabolism
Attacks of tiredness/ fatigue
Hyperactive
Gaining muscle easy
Lose weight slowly
Difficulty gaining muscle
 Responds quickly to exercise

DETERMINE BODY TYPE

Perhaps it was immediately obvious which body group you fell into. But, if it wasn’t think about how you react to food and exercise.

1.   METABOLISM

Do you gain weight quickly if you eat the wrong foods or after going on a lazy holiday? If you lose this weight rapidly after a change in diet or some exercise, you are probably a mesomorph. If you struggle to lose these extra pounds, then you exhibit endomorphic features. If you don’t put on any weight, you most likely are an ectomorph.

2.   EATING HABITS

Compare your eating habits with your appearance. If you consume a large amount of calories and are still thin, you are probably an ectomorph. If you eat a small number of calories and still appear thin and healthy you are probably a mesomorph. If you consume few calories and still appears heavy you are probably an endomorph.

3.   SIZE OF JOINTS/ BONES

To determine whether you are small, medium or larger boned/ jointed, encircle your wrist with your thumb and middle finger. If your middle finger overlaps your thumb, then you are small boned/ jointed (ectomorph). If your middle finger and thumb just touch, you have medium sized bones/ joints (mesomorph). If your finger and thumb do not touch then you are larger boned/ jointed (endomorph).

4.   THINK BACK!

To help determine your body type, think back to your adolescence, a time before age (metabolism slows as you get older, making you more prone to weight gain) and lifestyle transformed your body into what it is today.

5.     PICTURES

Look at some images of the various body types here and see if you identify with any of the body types.

ONE LAST THING …

Everyone has the potential to develop a great shape – regardless of his or her dominant body type. Losing inches, especially off your problem areas, can be accomplished through proper exercise and eating habits. If you are a large-framed person, though you will never be willowy, you can be slender and fit, wear a size 8 with room to spare and look super sexy in a bikini. However, it is futile for a person with strong mesomorph or endomorph characteristics to aim to be willowy like an ectomorph, this will only lead to disappointment and ill health. Even if this target thinness were reached, it probably would not look good, could be difficult in the extreme to maintain and would continue to have adverse effects on the body.

Do the right cardiovascular exercise for your body type to improve your body and get the results you want. Also, ectomorph workouts, mesomorph and endomorphs need to train differently when it comes to resistance training.

29 Apr
Health, Nutrition, Weightloss

Good vs. Bad Carbohydrates Or Simple vs Complex Carbs

Carbohydrates, often referred to as “carbs,” are your body’s primary energy source, and they’re a crucial part of any healthy diet. Carbs should never be avoided, but it is important to understand that not all carbs are alike.

Carbohydrates can be either simple (nicknamed “bad” ) or complex (nicknamed “good”) based on their chemical makeup and what your body does with them.

Complex carbohydrates, like whole grains and legumes, contain longer chains of sugar molecules; these usually take more time for the body to break down and use. This, in turn, provides you with a more even amount of energy.

Simple carbohydrates are composed of simple-to-digest, basic sugars with little real value for your body. The higher in sugar and lower in fiber, the worse the carbohydrate is for you — remember those leading indicators when trying to figure out if a carbohydrate is good or bad.

Fruits and vegetables are actually simple carbohydrates — still composed of basic sugars, although they are drastically different from other foods in the category, like cookies and cakes. The fiber in fruits and vegetables changes the way that the body processes their sugars and slows down their digestion, making them a bit more like complex carbohydrates.

Simple carbohydrates to limit in your diet include:

  • Soda
  • Candy
  • Artificial syrups
  • Sugar
  • White rice (jasmine), white bread, and white pasta
  • Potatoes (which are technically a complex carb, but act more like simple carbs in the body)
  • Pastries and desserts

You can enjoy simple carbohydrates on occasion, you just don’t want them to be your primary sources of carbs. And within the simple carb category, there are better choices — a baked potato, white rice, and regular pasta — than others — chips, cakes, pies, and cookies.

The Detail on Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates are considered “good” because of the longer series of sugars that make them up and take the body more time to break down. They generally have a lower glycemic load, which means that you will get lower amounts of sugars released at a more consistent rate — instead of peaks and valleys —to keep you going throughout the day.  Complex carbs are slower digesting so you will fill full longer especially if you metabolism is operating at an optimal level.

Picking complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates is a matter of making some simple substitutions when it comes to your meals. “Have brown rice instead of white rice, have whole-wheat pasta instead of plain white pasta.

To know if a packaged food is made of simple or complex carbohydrates, look at the label. Read the box so you know what exactly you’re getting. If the first ingredient is whole-wheat flour or whole-oat flower, it’s likely going to be a complex carbohydrate. And if there’s fiber there, it’s probably more complex in nature.

Complex carbs pack in more nutrients than simple carbs, because they are higher in fiber and digest more slowly. This also makes them more filling, which means they’re a good option for weight control. They are also ideal for people with type 2 diabetes because they help manage post-meal blood sugar spikes.

Fiber and starch are the two types of complex carbohydrates. Fiber is especially important because it promotes bowel regularity and helps to control cholesterol. The main sources of dietary fiber include:

  • fruits such as apples, berries, and bananas (avoid canned fruit, as they usually contain added syrup)
  • vegetables including broccoli, leafy greens, and carrots
  • nuts
  • beans these are good sources of folate, iron, and potassium
  • whole grains

Starch is also found in some of the same foods as fiber. The difference is certain foods are considered more starchy than fibrous, such as potatoes. Other high-starch foods are:

  • whole wheat bread
  • cereal
  • corn
  • oats
  • peas
  • rice (brown rice)

Complex carbohydrates are key to long-term health. They make it easier to maintain your weight, and can even help guard against type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems in the future.

The Glycemic Load Factor

Describing carbs as being either simple or complex is one way to classify them, but nutritionists and dietitians now use another concept to guide people in making decisions about the carbs they choose to eat.

The glycemic index of a food basically tells you how quickly and how high your blood sugar will rise after eating the carbohydrate contained in that food, as compared to eating pure sugar. Lower glycemic index foods are healthier for your body, and you will tend to feel full longer after eating them. Most, but not all, complex carbs fall into the low glycemic index category.

It is easy to find lists of food classified by their glycemic index. You can see the difference between the glycemic index of some simple and complex carbohydrates in these examples:

White rice, 64
Brown rice, 55
White spaghetti, 44
Whole wheat spaghetti, 37
Corn flakes, 81
100 percent bran (whole grain) cereal, 38

To take this approach one step farther, you want to look at the glycemic load of a food. The glycemic load takes into account not only its glycemic index, but also the amount of carbohydrate in the food. A food can contain carbs that have a high glycemic index, but if there is only a tiny amount of that carb in the food, it won’t really have much of an impact. An example of a food with a high glycemic index but a low glycemic load is watermelon, which of course tastes sweet, but is mostly water.

The bottom line: Just be sensible about the carbs you choose. Skip low-nutrient dessert, consider the levels of sugar and fiber in carbs, and focus on healthy whole grains, fruits, and veggies to get the energy your body needs every day.

 

21 Apr
Fitness, Weightloss

Understand how to measure your body fat

Most of us have heard of body mass index, or BMI, a formula that determines whether you are at a healthy weight for your height.

What BMI doesn’t tell you, however, is your body composition — percent fat and lean tissue — which is equally important in determining your risk for health problems such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

In fact, some people with a normal BMI actually have a high percentage of body fat, putting them at risk for the same serious health problems as people who are obese. Conversely, people whose BMI indicates they’re obese may not have much excess body fat at all.

What’s more, where your fat is stored on your body can affect how damaging it is to your health.

Upper body obesity — your waistline — increases your risk for chronic diseases more than lower-body obesity — around your hips. Generally, the acceptable waistline for women is 35 or fewer inches and for men, 40 or fewer inches.

So what is the best way to better understand body composition?

It can be assessed in any number of ways, including:

  • Hydrostatic (underwater) weighing. During underwater weighing, you’re seated on a special chair and submerged under water. Because bone and muscle are more dense than water — and fat, less dense — the more you weigh, the lower your percent body fat. This method, currently considered the “gold standard” in percent body fat measurement, is usually available at colleges or universities.
  • Skinfolds. This method is the most widely used body composition testing method for assessing percent body fat. Equipment used for this assessment includes a skinfold caliper. A skinfold caliper is designed specifically for simple accurate measurement of subcutaneous tissue. Either a seven- or three-site skinfold may be assessed. This assessment is often performed at fitness clubs, sport and exercise physiology labs, hospitals and schools.
  • Bioelectrical impedance analysis. By standing barefoot on metal foot plates — or using a hand-held device — an undetectably low voltage electric current is sent up one leg and down the other. Since fat is a very poor conductor of electricity, a lot of fat will impede the current more so than a lot of lean tissue. By measuring the resistance to the current, the machine estimates the percent body fat. This method is widely available in health and fitness clubs. St. Charles’ dietitians also have one available.
  • Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA.) A new technology, DEXA uses two X-ray energies to measure body fat, muscle, and bone mineral. When having the scan done, one must lay still in the supine position on what looks like an X-ray table. It takes approximately 12 minutes for the computer software to produce an image of the tissues. The results may be viewed as whole body estimates of body fat, muscle, and bone mineral as well as regional body estimates. This method is typically available at universities and research facilities.
  • Bod Pod. Instead of using water to measure body volume, the Bod Pod uses air displacement to measure body volume. Measurement time takes roughly 5 to 8 minutes per individual. Oregon Health & Science University has one that occasionally comes to Bend (usually the Athletic Club of Bend.)

FYI:

General body fat percentage categories

Classification Women (percentage fat) Men (percentage fat)
Essential fat 10 – 12% 2 – 4%
Athletes 14 – 20% 6 – 13%
Fitness 21 – 24% 14 – 17%
Acceptable 25 – 31% 18 – 25%
Obese 32% + 26% +

*Body mass index (BMI) categories

BMI Weight status
Below 18.5 Underweight
18.5 – 24.9 Normal
25 – 29 Overweight
30 and above Obese

*To calculate your body mass index (BMI) or Fat Percentage contact a local Personal Training Facility.

21 Apr
Fitness, Weightloss

In Depth Look At Ketogenic Diets And Ketosis

With so many diets out there its tough to decide which one is best. I can find a scientific study to support every diet out there. You just need to figure out which one is best for your body, your training and your schedule. Here is an in depth look at a popular diet called the Ketone Diet. There are positives and negatives about it.

Establishing the metabolic state of ketosis even for a short period of time has many outstanding benefits.

What exactly is Ketosis? The metabolic state of ketosis simply means that the quantity of ketone bodies in the blood have reached higher-than-normal levels. When the body is in a ketogenic state, this means that lipid energy metabolism is intact. The body will start breaking down your own body fat to fuel the body’s normal, everyday functions.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT BEING IN KETOSIS?

Establishing this metabolic state of ketosis even for a short period of time has many outstanding benefits.

BENEFIT 1

The main benefit of ketosis is that it increases the body’s ability to utilize fats for fuel, which gets very lazy on a high-carbohydrate diet. When on high-carbohydrate diets, the body can usually expect an energy source to keep entering the body. But in the state of ketosis, the body has to become efficient at mobilizing fats as energy.

BENEFIT 2

Ketosis has a protein-sparing effect, assuming that you are consuming adequate quantities of protein and calories—0.7 grams per pound of body weight per day—in the first place.1 Once in ketosis, the body actually prefers ketones to glucose. Since the body has copious quantities of fat, this means there is no need to oxidize protein to generate glucose through gluconeogenesis.
“Ketosis has a protein-sparing effect, assuming that you are consuming adequate quantities of protein and calories in the first place.”

BENEFIT 3

Another benefit has to do with the low levels of insulin in the body, which causes greater lipolysis and free-glycerol release compared to a normal diet when insulin is around 80-120. Insulin has a lipolysis-blocking effect, which can inhibit the use of fatty acids as energy. Also, when insulin is brought to low levels, beneficial hormones are released in the body, such as growth hormone and other powerful growth factors.

BENEFIT 4

Another small but very important benefit of the ketogenic diet is that when in the state of ketosis, ketones, along with a high protein intake, seem to suppress appetite.3 A high-carbohydrate diet, on the other hand, increases hunger levels. Because you have to consume a lot of fat on a ketogenic diet, which hold 9 calories per gram, you are not getting much food volume. It’s not mandatory to be hungry on a reduced-calorie diet.

WHERE IS THE SCIENTIFIC DATA?

Fatty acid production in fat tissue is stimulated by epinephrine and glucagon, and inhibited by insulin. Insulin is one of the hormones the pancreas secretes in the presence of carbohydrates. Insulin’s purpose is to keep blood glucose levels in check by acting like a driver, pushing the glucose into cells. If insulin were not to be secreted, blood glucose levels would get out of control.in-depth-look-at-ketogenic-diets-and-ketosis_07Glucagon is on the other side of the spectrum; it is insulin’s antagonistic hormone. Glucagon is also secreted by the pancreas when glucose levels fall too low. This usually happens when a person skips meals, or does not consume adequate amounts of carbohydrates for an extended period of time. When this happens, glucagon is secreted by the pancreas to break down stored glycogen in the liver into a more usable form, glucose.

When the body’s glycogen stores begin to get depleted, rates of beta-oxidation increase, resulting in the mobilization of free fatty acids from fat tissue. This is where the metabolic state of ketosis comes in. During beta-oxidation, ketone bodies are released from the liver—because they cannot be utilized by the liver—and travel to the brain to be used for fuel. The free fatty acids can then be turned into a usable energy substrate.

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21 Apr
Fitness, Weightloss

Carb-Cycling for Rapid Fat Loss

Carbohydrates are the most important fuels during exercise at intensities above 65 percent of maximum effort. Unfortunately, consuming high carbohydrate diets might trigger weight gain and obesity. Cycling carb intake (carb-cycling) is a nutritional technique that promotes fat loss without decreasing performance. Carb-cycling refers to training when glycogen-depleted to improve fatty acid oxidation (burning fat calories for energy), and increasing mitochondria. Glycogen is carbohydrate stored mainly in the liver and muscles. Mitochondria are the tiny furnaces inside cells that provide energy. Increasing mitochondria improves endurance and enhances the capacity to lose fat.

Carb-cycling works in trained and untrained people. Studies found increased fat burning and glycogen replenishment in elite athletes, recreational exercisers, and unconditioned people.

Carb cycling might give endurance athletes a nutritional shot in the arm:

– Carb-cycling does not decrease endurance.
– It promotes fat burning and helps preserve glycogen- essential stored carbohydrate for high intensity exercise.
– It promotes fat loss.
– It increases fitness with less training.
The Science Behind Carb-Cycling

Carb-Cycling for Rapid Fat LossThe technique works by depleting muscle and liver glycogen with an aerobic training session followed by an intense interval training workout several hours later. Interval training is a series of high intensity exercises followed by short rest periods. A typical interval workout is six, thirty-second repetitions on a stationary bike at 100 percent of maximum effort with 2-minutes rest between reps.

Interval training when glycogen depleted is difficult and painful, but it is great for fat loss. While it works well for endurance athletes, it might be inappropriate for power athletes because it reduces training intensity and does not increase lean body mass. However, this method is appropriate for people interested in fat loss or cross training for personal fitness. Carb-cycling increases critical enzymes involved in carbohydrate and fat metabolism and up-regulates genes that trigger fat burning.

Exercising during sugar deprivation causes cell adaptations that promote alternative fuel use. Fatty acids, certain ketones, and even alcohol can serve as fuel for metabolism. Sugar (glucose) is the preferred source of energy during short, intense activity. The cells become more dependent on fatty acids when less sugar is available. Processing fatty acids is slower than carbohydrates, particularly during exercise. Mitochondria cannot speed up the process, so cells meet the increased energy demands by creating more mitochondria. This allows muscles to meet the energy demands of exercise by metabolizing more fatty acids and breaking down more fat.
Incorporating Carb-Cycling in Your Training

The technique involves performing high intensity interval training when glycogen depleted. In response, the cells will increase mitochondria and burn more fat.

– Do aerobic exercise, such as running or cycling, at 70 percent of maximum effort for 60-90 minutes. You can promote glycogen depletion by reducing carbohydrate intake for one to two days before the workout.

– Rest two hours. Don’t eat any carbs during this rest period.

– Do an interval training workout, such as running 8-200 meter sprints at 90 percent effort with 2 minutes rest between intervals.

This technique is inappropriate for strength and power athletes because it decreases training intensity by 10 percent or more. This is also a poor training method for people who want to increase muscle mass. However, this is a terrific way lose fat rapidly. Carb-cycling is not a magic bullet for preventing obesity, but it is an effective training method for jump-starting your weight loss program.
References

Burke LM. Fueling strategies to optimize performance: training high or training low? Scand J Med Sci Sports, 2010 Oct;20 Suppl 2:48-58.

Hansen AK, Fischer CP, et al. Skeletal muscle adaptation: training twice every second day vs. training once daily. J Appl Physiol, 2005 Jan;98(1):93-9.

Hawley JA, Burke LM. Carbohydrate availability and training adaptation: effects on cell metabolism. Exerc Sport Sci Rev, 2010 Oct;38(4):152-60.

van Loon LJ, Goodpaster BH. Increased intramuscular lipid storage in the insulin-resistant and endurance-trained state. Pflugers Arch, 2006 Feb;451(5):606-16.