New help for muscle gain and fatloss....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 5-24-2016

1.  I’ve posted before on how if you fail to do effective strength training you gradually lose bone and muscle mass a little bit each year.

If you do effective strength training and eat enough protein, you can avoid that until you get over 70.

If you don’t do that, since muscle burns 3 times the calories as fat, if you keep eating the same, the food intake that once kept you trim will gradually make you quite fat.

2.  Secondly, if you wish to lose fat you keep off it’s very important to do effective strength training and get enough protein.  That way all the weight you lose is fat.  And by continuing to do so, you can much more easily keep the fat off that you lost!

3.  But thirdly, sometime after age 70 an extra kind of muscle wasting tends to occur.

This can make adding or keeping muscle even with effective strength training and eating enough protein less effective.  And it can lead to being a frail, limited nursing home resident too.

Researchers at the University of Iowa, led by Christopher Adams, MD, looked into the details of how this occurs to see if there might be a way to prevent it.

( See http://now.uiowa.edu/2015/09/keeping-older-muscles-strong .)

They were able to slow that ursolic acid, a common plant micronutrient in apple peels and many spice herbs was effective in doing this.

4.  By accident I discovered that the supplement Holy Basil by Nature’s Way has 45 mg per four capsules. 

(BodyBuilding.com now also sells a 200 mg a day ursolic acid supplement. As you read this, you’ll see why I’m about to take that in addition to the 4 capsules a day of Holy Basil.)

So, to help me get stronger and build muscle mass in part to help me with my fat loss, I began taking that.

It has seemed to help a bit.

5.  But I found out recently that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

By taking more each day, ursolic is even more effective than I’d thought to help you build muscles with effective strength training.

Secondly, the weeks I cut calories, taking ursolic acid will help prevent any of the weight lost from being fat.  Specifically, it preserves muscle mass under even fasting conditions.

Third, when you cut too many calories for too long – as the recent Perfect Loser contestants did, you normally get the failsafe famine response as they apparently did with your hunger hormones set higher and your metabolism slower to strongly force you to regain the fat.

There is some evidence that ursolic acid does the reverse!!

If this tests out to be a strong enough effect – and it looks like it might – taking ursolic acid may help prevent calorie cut backs from causing this famine response!

And, if you have the famine response now, taking ursolic acid may be an effective antidote!

Ursolic acid apparently does 5 things of value.

a) In men, it lowers estrogen and aromatase thus increasing free and usable testosterone.  

In both sexes, ursolic acid prevents muscle wasting in the fasted state and increases size and strength in people who do effective strength training.

So it helps lower fat percentage by adding muscle

b) It also does things that prevent the famine response so you can cut calories somewhat and lose fat without rebound effects.

It lowers ghrelin AND increases leptin!  (This is the reverse of the effects of the famine response!)

c)  People who take it DO get to lower body fat percentage as a result

d) It rebuilds cartilage in joints and prevents or helps cure osteoarthritis

e) Astonishingly, with its anabolic effects it may reduce some cancers!

In fact, I found this;

“In one study, 16 men were put on regular weight training routines for 8 weeks. The men who were given Ursolic Acid showed significant increase in muscle strength, IGF-1 and Irisin hormones (which increase muscle grownth), and decrease in body fat percentage.

16 male test subjects performed resistance training for eight weeks.

Those randomly assigned to group that were given Ursolic acid exhibited significant decrease in Body fat percentage, increased IGF-1 and irisin, and increased muscle strength.

These findings suggest that ursolic acid may increase skeletal muscle strength

Promotes fat loss Test subjects given Ursolic acid became leaner, had less abdominal fat, lower blood glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol levels.

A significant decrease in ghrelin 4 was thought to be responsible for these results.

Ghrelin is secreted in the stomach and has an appetite increasing and fat accumulation effect, so less ghrelin is a good thing. Thus, ursolic acid fights excess body [fat] by several methods.

Increased Energy Expenditure – Test subjects showed a significant increase in the hormones leptin.

Leptin is secreted from fat cells themselves and is important in regulating energy expenditure – more leptin signals the body to expend more energy.

Lower blood glucose and cholesterol Another study showed that ursolic acid stimulates glycogen synthesis in the liver, which is very important in controlling blood sugar levels.

Anti-catabolic – Preservation of Muscle Mass

This was actually the primary interest of researchers that led to the discovery of all the other beneficial effects of Ursolic Acid.“

Conclusion:

Taking ursolic acid as a supplement at 200 mg a day may be a significant force multiplier for people working to add muscle and lose fat they keep off!