Lose more fat & build more muscle....

Today's Post: Thursday, 8-13-2009

Last week TIME posted an essay by a man who was doing a LOT of exercise and who still had more fat on his belly than he wanted. He raised the question whether exercise really helped fat loss.

And, on Monday this week, I posted on this: The truth about exercise & fat loss....Monday, 8-10-2009

I listed quite a number of things we know about why this might be so and, of much greater importance, what you might be able to do to make the exercises you do to lose fat more effective.

But there are 3 things I could have covered better: How to succeed with fat loss if what works for other people hasn’t worked so far for you; How exercise that builds muscle effectively makes fat loss work dramatically better, particularly in losing belly fat; & How to succeed in using exercise to build muscle when what seems to work for others had not yet worked for you.

Then, the very next day, virtually the whole issue of Total Health Breakthroughs covered those exact points. And, I thought they did an excellent job.

So, here it is!:

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com ."

"A Fitness Trainer Who Can't Build Muscle?

By James LaValle, R.Ph, ND, CCN

Are you a person that works out but still has trouble losing body fat and/or gaining muscle?

If you search the web for how to build muscle, you are likely to find a lot of talk about eating plenty of protein. But I have found that while boosting protein intake may be needed and is sometimes helpful, if you do not respond well to exercise, very often there is a metabolic imbalance somewhere.

One factor that people almost never think about when it comes to building and maintaining muscle is SLEEP.

A few months ago, I had a fitness instructor ask me if I might know why he wasn't able to build muscle. Despite the fact that he used protein shakes, had a very regular workout routine and had worked out for years using the best of equipment, he just couldn't build muscle. He was also a little overweight with too high a percentage of body fat. A 30-something male fitness instructor can't put on muscle? Something is desperately wrong!

The first question I asked him was "Do you sleep well?" His answer was no; in fact he told me had sleep apnea. Strike one! When you lose sleep, you lose growth hormone production. In childhood, growth hormone makes you grow in every way. In adulthood, it's most important function is to make you build and maintain your muscle.

If you aren't sleeping well as an adult, your growth hormone production will be reduced and your ability to gain muscle from exercise will be greatly compromised. So make no mistake, getting your zzzzzz's is very important for your fitness.

If taking simple measures like reducing your caffeine intake and trying a natural sleep aid like melatonin or Seditol (an herbal extract we really like) are not effective, the most likely suspect is elevated evening cortisol, which most often occurs from chronic stress. To get the full benefit of a sleep aid, you also need to down regulate your daytime stress response, or address any other potential sleep confounders.

For sleep apnea, food allergies can be involved. So, we find switching to an elimination diet (low in common food allergens, especially wheat and dairy) is helpful. And it was for this trainer. So, first things first to improve his muscle mass -- we got him sleeping better.

The next thing we did for this trainer was look at his fasting blood glucose. It was on the high end of normal indicating he had some insulin resistance. Insulin is an anabolic hormone, so it can help muscle building. But if it elevates too high for too long after meals, it also builds fat stores.

To address that we advised changing to a low glycemic index/glycemic load diet. We also recommended blood sugar supportive nutrients like alpha-lipoic acid, chromium and magnesium (which also helps sleep).

It wasn't very long at all and he was losing body fat like crazy and building lean mass.

Had these measures still not worked very well, I would have dug deeper. Other problems I might typically find in a person who doesn't respond like they should to exercise are things like sex hormone imbalances and suboptimal thyroid hormone levels.
For instance, this trainer could have been low in testosterone. Testosterone is not only supremely important for muscle building, it also influences insulin and glucose regulation. Thyroid hormones drive the rate at which cells burn fat and glucose for fuel, so they profoundly affect a person's ability to burn fat.

We also evaluate GI health because it can be a source of inflammation and very disruptive to metabolism. In some instances, when people are just not responding well to anything we do, we test for heavy metal levels, which can affect thyroid function and insulin resistance.

So you see we have a whole host of things that could be involved in the inability to lose fat and gain muscle:

Thyroid levels
Sex hormone levels
Food allergies
Neurotransmitter levels
Chronic stress
Blood sugar and insulin regulation
GI health
And possibly heavy metals

Why is this important to understand? We are told that to lose weight and become fit, we need to eat less and exercise more. But it is not that infrequently that I see people doing just that, but it doesn't work like it should for them. They struggle in vain, exercising hard and often, and still they don't respond appropriately to the exercise.

These people need to realize it's a sign that something is wrong. If this is you, get to a practitioner that can help you evaluate possible underlying causes. It may take some digging, but you can get to the root of the problem, and not only help your fitness, but improve your overall health and vitality.

[Ed. Note: James LaValle is the founding Director of the LaValle Metabolic Institute, one of the largest integrative medicine practices in the country. Dr. LaValle is the author of 14 Days to Less Stress and Better Sleep, a revolutionary program to improve your sleep and banish stress for good….]”

The same issue had this article also:

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com ."

“Weight Loss: The Real Secret to Weight Loss and Optimum Fitness

By Laura LaValle, RD, LD

Just as there are many "miracle" exercise products which deceptively promise an Atlas-like body in just a few minutes a day, in the food world there are promises of weight loss from super foods or "miracle" juices (think acai berry).

Unfortunately, there is no one food that will magically melt away unwanted pounds. However, the overall quality of our diet IS crucial to our success with weight management, and can make or break our fitness level.

So what dietary measures should you to take to support weight loss and overall fitness?

1. Reduce calories, especially from carbs. Studies continue to show that when it comes to losing weight, diet is by far the most important factor. To put it another way, studies have found that physical activity produces only minimal weight loss when calories are not also reduced.1

If you are a regular THB reader, you know that when it comes to calorie reduction, we believe that the most important calories to reduce are from carbohydrates. When compared head to head, diets that are lower in carbs and higher in fat and protein, outperform every time on weight loss.2,3

And it's especially critical to reduce your intake of sweets. Studies have indeed shown that calorie for calorie, high glycemic index foods (sweets and refined carbs) lead to less appetite control, greater calorie intake, and even reduced metabolic rate.4

The simple sugar fructose, which comes from fruit and fruit juices, is also associated with weight gain and increased appetite.5 The studies show that good weight loss and metabolic health are achieved with about 25 to 35% of your calories from carbs. That's about 110 grams of carbs on 1800 calories per day and 75 grams on 1200 calories per day.

2. Take in plenty of potassium. Believe it or not, potassium helps us preserve muscle. A recent study found that people who ate 3,540 mg of potassium per day or more preserved almost 4 pounds of muscle over a 3-year period compared to people who took in half that much potassium.6 This is enough to offset the natural losses of muscle that tend to occur as we age (called sarcopenia). It should also help us retain the muscle we work so hard to build with workouts!

Foods are highly variable in their potassium content, but the best sources are fruits and vegetables -- a ½ cup serving of beans averages about 500 mg of potassium. A 1 cup serving of fruit and vegetables averages about 400 to 500 mg. So ½ cup of beans, 1 cup of fruit, and 5 cups of vegetables per day will get your intake where it needs to be.

3. Take in enough protein. As long as you don't have any metabolic disruptions like lack of sleep, protein really helps support a healthy metabolism. For one, it provides the amino acids necessary to build and repair muscle. Resistance training in particular causes micro-tears in your muscle fibers, and the more you do, the more protein you probably need to build and maintain muscle.7

But even for people who don't work out as intensely, there's another reason to eat a diet that's higher in protein -- hunger control. Studies have shown that diets that are higher in protein lead to reduced appetite, reduced calorie intake and more weight loss than lower protein diets.8 The amount that achieved those goals was 30% of the calories as protein or 90 to 135 grams per day on 1200 or 1800 calorie diets, respectively.*

Having some protein for each meal and snack is a good goal. And if you exercise strenuously, you may want to add a post-workout snack such as a whey protein shake.

As several THB articles have pointed out, it's also important to choose organic protein foods as often as possible to reduce your intake of pesticides that can interfere with thyroid hormones and induce insulin resistance.

As you can see, it's not just the amount of food you eat, but the types of foods you eat that can have a huge impact on weight loss, muscle retention, and your overall fitness. This can take some planning, but the benefits are well worth it!

For help on implementing a diet that is lower in carbs, but still high enough in potassium and protein, I recommend our recent e-book, The Metabolic Code Diet: Unleashing the Power of Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss and Vitality.

* Caution: Anyone who has failing kidneys should consult their doctor before increasing protein intake.

References

1. Fabricatore A and Wadden T. Clin Diab. 2003. 21(2): 67-72.

2. McCauley KA, et al. Diabetalogia. Jan 2005. 48(1):8-16.

3. Gardner C, et al. JAMA. 2007. 297(9):969-77.

4. Agus M, et al. AJCN. Apr 200. 71(4):901-07.

5. Teff KL, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2004. 89:2963-72.

6. Dawson-Hughes, B, et al. AJCN. Mar 2008. 87(3): 662.665.

7. Lemon P. J Am Col Nutr. 2000. 19(90005):513S-521S.

8. Weigle DS, et al. AJCN. Jul 2005. 82(1):41-48.

[Ed. Note: Laura B. LaValle, RD, LD is presently the director of dietetics nutrition at LaValle Metabolic Institute. Laura and her husband, Jim LaValle, R.Ph, CCN, ND have developed the powerful and life-changing Metabolic Code Diet – containing step-by-step, easy to follow recommendations for harnessing optimal metabolic energy and turning your body's chemical make up into a fat-burning furnace….] “


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So, if your exercise routine hasn’t helped you to lose fat or build muscle yet, here are some ideas and strategies that can help in addition to those we listed on Monday.