Nutrition
A brief summary:
1. those who are overweight and most inactive would benefit from a strict Paleo diet, which would help them with satiety and weight loss.
2. what is best for sedentary people is not necessarily what is best for strength athletes. Strict Paleo diets avoid foods that enable fit people to perform at their best and build muscle.
3. training nutrition supplements are not Paleo, but ignoring the modern science of supplements will limit your gains in strength and hypertrophy.
The origins of Paleo
It's not a diet - they say. It's the natural way of eating - the natural way of eating that humans have genetically adapted to. There is no end date - you never stop eating Paleo. You live this way of eating, you internalize it, and you eat bacon while watching your waistline shrink. The premise? Our genes have barely changed since the Paleolithic era. Therefore, for optimal health and body composition, we should follow a pre-agricultural diet - a diet free of grains, most dairy products, potatoes, sugar and, of course, the modern abominations that pass for food today. In short, you should eat like a caveman. There are dozens of variations of the Paleo diet today, most of which stem from the ideas of gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin in the 1970s. Some variations of the Paleo diet are very strict and do not even allow nuts, quinoa, starchy foods and non-organic meat.
Other variations are less strict and allow sweet potatoes and even grains like rice and quinoa, raw milk, some supplements and dark chocolate. If you consider yourself someone who eats a healthy diet, there's a good chance you're unintentionally following some variation of the Paleo diet. You avoid processed foods and fill up on meat, vegetables and the occasional fruit. Before Paleo, old school bodybuilders, wrestlers and martial artists who needed to lose weight referred to this as abstaining from starches.
Since 2009, I've done several variations of Paleo - rigid and loose versions - although I did this unofficially as a teen bodybuilder before it became a big thing. I've learned the pros and cons of a strict Paleo diet. And as a nutrition coach, I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Let's go into more detail here.
The good
There's no doubt about one thing - if North America followed even a loose form of Paleo, we wouldn't have an obesity problem. We would be a leaner and healthier society, less dependent on prescription drugs and Photoshop.
Paleo and its variations have taught us to challenge conventional wisdom coming from many doctors, nutritionists and official health experts. And even though conventional wisdom has told us to avoid dietary cholesterol and eat plenty of whole grain breads and heart-healthy grains, Paleo has taught overweight people that these behaviors are exactly what made them fat. From Paleo, we've learned that the best way to cure serious ailments like type 2 diabetes is to swap our pasta, bread and all our junk food for things that come straight from nature: Vegetables, meat, seeds, eggs, fruit and maybe some full-fat dairy.
The emphasis on whole foods has helped a large number of people give up the junk that has kept them trapped in the vicious cycle of self-sabotage. Paleo has raised the consciousness of the masses, given them a push towards their fitness goals and has given the government's dietary guidelines a much-needed kick in the pants. Paleo dietary protocols have also exposed a major flaw in low-fat and vegetarian diets: the need for saturated animal fats and dietary cholesterol. Paleo's emphasis on meat and animal products has taught many misinformed people that they will suffer in the absence of these foods.
Meat and animal fats help us produce the hormones that give us a robust sex drive, make us emotionally stable and happy, help us build muscle, and help fight disease and maintain an active metabolism. There are many testimonials on the internet from vegetarians who have turned to a Paleo diet. From their reports, we learn that a diet consisting of bread, fruit and soy will not only make you "skinny fat" (thin, but still flabby), but will also promote constipation, depression, impotence, lethargy and make it impossible to build significant amounts of muscle and strength.
No matter what form of Paleo the average overweight person adopts, it will almost certainly be an improvement over their previous diet. A nation of people following a Paleo diet would mean less disease, a longer lifespan and lower healthcare costs. I recommend a Paleo-like diet to my overweight clients. The goal of these clients, of course, is simply to no longer be overweight.
The bad
Eating a full Paleo diet is inadequate for one segment of the population: our segment - strength athletes and other athletes.
Here's why: our workouts and body development goals require more than what's allowed on Paleo - more carbohydrates, advanced training nutrition and fast-digesting protein. We don't just get away with eating processed foods - we thrive on them.
Paleo works so well for the average person because the average person's goal is to not be sick or fat. The average person doesn't go to the gym day after day to prepare to step on stage, compete in athletic events, set personal bests, or walk around with visible veins on their biceps. These are not the goals of the average person. These are our goals. We don't have average goals and we are not average people - so why would we follow a diet that is best suited for such people? If proven workout nutrition supplements are banned from your diet, then you either need to rethink your diet for the benefit of your sport or body development, or stick with that diet and realize you're going to lose. Your competition has a head start if they are using a targeted, non-Paleo training diet. They will recover faster, train harder, build more muscle and even lose fat faster than you. Can you train without a targeted training diet? Sure you can. But you won't achieve as much as you could with additional training nutrition. Going back in time is a handicap if you are an athlete. You will go back in time with your diet to stay within the boundaries of your ironclad dietary rules.
Saying that we should eat the same as our ancestors is the same as saying that we should deprive ourselves of thousands of years of scientific progress. Certainly not all dietary advances have been good for us. Nachos aren't going to help us earn a Pro Card, but other advances have been pretty darn good. If we were to forgo those, then we would be missing out. A training session with weights fueled by kale smoothies and coconut oil isn't going to help you train harder. Training in a fasted state, as recommended by many Paleo followers, will not give you an edge.
If you follow the Paleo guidelines, you will not recover as quickly as if you use a training diet specifically designed for the training period. Can unprocessed plant and animal foods meet all our needs as athletes? Not if we want to achieve optimal muscle gains, perform at our best and take our bodies from "not fat" to "absolutely phenomenal".
And training nutrition isn't the only thing that's off limits. If you're a strict Paleo follower, then legumes, potatoes and grains (even wheat-free grains) are also off limits. If you put beans and oatmeal in the same category as chocolate bars, then you should relax and take a deep breath. Where do many Paleo diets get their carbohydrates from? Primarily from fruit, honey and starchy vegetables such as parsnips and pumpkin. But since no one has the time to prepare a squash and take it with them for after a workout, fruit and honey become a commonly used carbohydrate component. But neither are optimal for post-workout recovery.
Fruit and honey are not inherently bad, but even staunch Paleo advocates recommend minimizing consumption of these foods because fructose is difficult for much of the population to digest.
Swapping all your starches for high-fructose foods can bring nasty side effects like bloating, a bloated feeling, cramping, constipation, diarrhea, weight gain and even a non-alcoholic fatty liver. These are the side effects of excessive fructose consumption and yet rice is strictly forbidden? And if your nutrition guru insists that bee vomit is food but protein powder is not, then maybe you need a new guide.
Do you think eating an apple on leg day will help you speed up your recovery and build muscle tissue? Do you think yam has any of the anabolic effects of di- and tripeptides and specialized carbohydrates? Do you think that all this will help you to complete your next training session at an even higher intensity?
Maybe you really think so, but maybe you're just not training as hard as you think. Unless you have amazing genetics, most of your transformation workouts will require more than meat, fruit and vegetables.
The ugly
We like boundaries and structure. We want to hear someone tell us "Don't eat that." Because then we have security. Clear guidelines give us a sense of control because then we know what to eat and what to avoid. But if a fit person feels guilty about giving in to bean temptation, then there's a problem here - and the problem isn't the beans. Rather, it's about becoming hyper-restrictive and taking a sometimes useful strategy too far. Paleo can get ugly with its limits - especially when those limits cause you to freak out about things that have never caused problems. If you eliminate something from your diet for an extended period of time and don't notice any benefits and then add it back into your diet and don't notice any problems, then you don't need to worry about that food. Especially if you are already fit.
I place legumes in this category because I remember once buying a bag of Lima beans and feeling guilty about it. I had suppressed my cravings for these beans because a voice in my head had told me "Will the lectins in these beans prevent you from burning fat?"
At the time, I was on an ironclad Paleo diet, consuming no processed foods, no exercise nutrition, no potatoes, no rice and no beans. In addition to this, I couldn't exercise at high intensity in the gym. Did Paleo help me look or feel better? No, but it has made me good at eating according to the Paleo rules. Can you see where this is going? Sacrificing athleticism to maintain a diet that only maintains your ego, but not your muscle mass.
Paleo has also popularized intermittent fasting, which in itself is not a bad thing for certain people - especially if it's not used consistently. But for those who follow Paleo rigidly, chronic fasting often becomes a way to fight cravings for foods that aren't allowed on Paleo. Being so obsessed with the purity of your food that you regret dietary sins borders on an eating disorder. This can be a tricky situation for those who already have issues with disordered eating. The ugly side of Paleo comes out when instinctive common sense is replaced by fanaticism. This fanaticism is where Paleo becomes a fad diet or quasi-religious dogma.
If you are fat, then Paleo will improve your health, but if your goals include building muscle mass, then Paleo is not the way to go. Since breaking away from Paleo, I've traded a fanaticism about whole foods for common sense, bigger biceps and, ironically, a leaner body. People who train hard several days a week need simple, easily digestible carbohydrates (and not just at training time) combined with scientifically designed supplements.
Potatoes, beans, rice and workout nutrition drinks didn't make America fat. These are not foods to eat in uncontrolled quantities. And if they improve your performance, give you more energy and satisfy you at mealtime, then they're not just permissible foods you can eat without harm, they're essential foods.
Kick a caveman's butt
Paleo undoubtedly works for junk food-addicted, overweight, sedentary people. But these people didn't get fat by eating oatmeal and beans either. A Paleo plan would help these people, but so would simply giving up all the tasty junk food and fast food. If these people need the initial strictness, then a Paleo diet can lay the foundation for never eating such nutritional junk again.
For those with bodybuilding or weight training goals, Paleo often throws out the cave baby with the cave bathwater. Too few carbohydrates from sources like rice, oatmeal, buckwheat, potatoes and legumes will hinder your hypertrophy and performance goals. Neglecting training nutrition and other beneficial supplements is tantamount to not making optimal gains because your great-great-great-grandfather didn't have access to these supplements.
Yes, eat your meat, veggies and whole eggs. Yes, avoid the junk carbohydrates and wannabe foods that you find on the supermarket shelves today. But don't ignore the foods and supplements that will help you build muscle and perform better than any caveman.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/paleo-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly
By Dani Shugart
Here's a quick summary...
- Some people don't see results from their fish oil supplementation. They are missing a few pieces of the puzzle.
- Our diets contain far too many omega-6 fatty acids. This causes inflammation, countless diseases, insulin resistance and obesity.
- Our diet contains far too few omega-3 fatty acids. Their role is to counteract the negative effects of omega-6 fatty acids.
- Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids compete with each other for space in the cell membrane. You can't just take omega-3 fatty acids and expect to change the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids without worrying about your excessive omega-6 intake.
Do it right and you are indestructible
When used properly, fish oil can make your cardiovascular system virtually indestructible, fight virtually any inflammation, improve your insulin sensitivity and turn you into a lean, fat-burning machine.
Unfortunately, many people don't do it right and therefore don't experience these great things. They take the capsules, but they usually don't feel any difference. The problem is that they lack a fundamental understanding of how fish oil, or more specifically omega-3 fatty acids, work. This lack of universal effects has led some doctors to question the benefits of fish oil. But they, along with many other people who take fish oil or omega-3 fatty acid supplements, have missed a lot of crucial points.
The "good deal" has messed up our body chemistry
To understand what's being messed up, we need to look at the fascinating story of how we got to the point where we need fish oil capsules in the first place. It all goes back to a seemingly unrelated fact: leaves rot quickly, but seeds don't.
If you're a food manufacturer, you want to make food from plant ingredients that have a long shelf life. Rotting vegetables mean less money in your pocket, so plant breeders look for plants or parts of plants that go bad more slowly and have the longest possible shelf life. That means seeds and grains. The reason leaves spoil so quickly is because they contain a lot of omega-3 fatty acids, while long-lasting seeds and grains contain a lot of omega-6 fatty acids, which serve as an energy supply for the developing seedlings. Pretty much every food sold in a box or other package is made from one of the three or four most commonly used grains. Salad dressings, oils for cooking, peanut butter, snacks of any kind, and anything packaged in plastic and decorated with a human-shaped bear is full of omega-6 fatty acids. Grains are cheap and available in large quantities, which is why we feed them to any animal we want to eat later. Cattle normally eat grass their whole lives, but we stuff them with grain to make them fatter. Not only does this make them sick and necessitate the use of antibiotics, but it also alters their fatty acid profile, turning them into four-legged, ruminant omega-6 bombs.
Even the fish we once prized for its omega-3 content is being raised on pellets made mostly of soy, turning even fish into something no better than any plastic-wrapped, cheesy Frankenfood you'll find in the frozen section of your supermarket. Even chickens are not safe from these fatty acid atrocities, as they too are fed pellets made from grains instead of a balanced diet of seeds and omega-3 rich grubs and insects. And of course this fat practice also affects our dairy products and eggs. These foods no longer contain usable amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. In fact, it's estimated that 9% of the calories in the average American diet come from a single omega-6 fatty acid - linoleic acid - most of which comes from soybean oil. It's a pellet-based Soylent Green world - but what the heck, it's good business.
It's probably what killed your grandfather
As a result of all this good business, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in these animals has gotten completely out of whack. It's somewhere in the range of 10, 20 or 25 to 1, where it should be in a range of about 3 to 1. And of course, we are what we eat, which is why our ratio is not that different from the animal foods we eat.
Similarly, we can't ignore the "fat equals heart attacks" theory that was put forward in the seventies. People began to avoid fat from animal sources and switched to using seed oils. The problem, however, was that, at least at that time, animal fat still contained respectable amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, whereas seed oils contain little or no omega-3 fatty acids.
Furthermore, people went from eating butter to eating margarine, which is a one-two punch of high concentrations of omega-6 fatty acids and high concentrations of trans fatty acids, the latter of which is a completely different kind of nutritional demon. If your father or grandfather died prematurely of a heart attack, it probably had something to do with it.
100 of the greatest plagues of mankind
Omega-6 fatty acids are the building blocks for a class of pro-inflammatory chemicals that cause red blood cells to form clots, but it's the pro-inflammatory modifiers that should worry you. Inflammation is insidiously and intimately linked to at least 100 of humanity's greatest plagues including heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's and every damn autoimmune disease known to science. But inflammation also plays a major role in obesity, as it can exacerbate existing insulin resistance.
Scientist Joseph Hibbens believes that the billions we spend on anti-inflammatory drugs (such as aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen) are a direct result of our diets containing too many omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids, on the other hand, slow down the blood clotting process and they keep the pro-inflammatory chemicals associated with omega-6 fatty acids in check. In addition, they increase the insulin sensitivity of cells by increasing the permeability of the cell membrane, which stimulates metabolism and protects against obesity.
It would certainly benefit the human race if we could keep the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the range of 3 to 1 - the ratio intended by nature. This is the reason that most people who mean well with their health take fish oil capsules (wild fish eat algae - a plant material that contains a lot of omega-3 fatty acids).
Omega-6 fatty acids displace omega-3 fatty acids
However, there is one simple piece of the puzzle that most people overlook: Omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids seem to compete with each other for space in the cell membrane and for the attention of different anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory enzymes.
You can't just take a few fish oil capsules and expect everything to sort itself out without reducing your omega-6 intake at the same time, as the omega-6 fatty acids present will push the omega-3 fatty acids away. Every time someone tries to attack the omega-6 fatty acid bulwark, it's like the 300 Spartans trying to take on the entire Persian army - and we all know how that turned out.
4 ways to solve the problem
1. you should definitely try to increase your omega-3 intake with a high quality fish oil, but you also need to reduce your omega-6 intake at the same time. You can do this by doing the following:
- Avoiding most foods that are sold in a box or polyethylene bags, as these are generally foods that are made from grains to have a long shelf life (i.e. high concentration of omega-6 fatty acids).
- Avoid oils such as sunflower oil, soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil and cotton oil and instead use versions of safflower oil and sunflower oil that are rich in oleic acid/oleic acid.
- Avoid fried foods and foods from restaurants, as these are almost always fried in oil rich in omega-6. You can actually be pretty sure that most restaurant food contains too many omega-6 and too few omega-3 fatty acids.
- Choose beef from grass-fed cattle.
2. remember that the ratio of the two fatty acids is more important than the total amount. If you eat more omega-6 fatty acids, you should also eat more omega-3 fatty acids.
3. whenever possible, eat green plants instead of foods made from seeds.
4. tell your doctor that he can keep doing his little cholesterol tests if it makes him happy, but that you want a blood test to determine your ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids to assess your true risk of cardiovascular disease ##.
By TC Luoma | 11/18/15
https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/fish-oil-youre-using-it-wrong
Classic mass building
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of a mass-building phase is a 340-pound off-season Ronnie Coleman or a picture of Lee Priest looking so massive that it seems unreal. While these examples are certainly the extreme, they represent the basic idea: get as massive as possible in the shortest time possible. Mass gain is not something that is meant to make you look beautiful or give you the ideal beach body (although many skinny guys would look healthier if they gained a few pounds of fat along with the muscle). A bulking phase is designed to allow you to build muscle along with an acceptable amount of fat that can be shed during a subsequent definition phase. For some people, a bulking phase is actually fun because they can eat the foods they wouldn't normally consume. In addition, the anabolic hormone response that the excessive calories help you achieve may well make you feel more assertive, more attracted to women (is that possible?), more confident and improve your general wellbeing. Apart from this, this is one of the training cycles during which you will see quick results in terms of the weights you can move and your appearance in the mirror.
On the other hand, there are people who hate mass gain. This is the group that feels no appetite at all, those who think that choking down large amounts of food is as painful as watching Lindsay Lohan wasting away. Even the thought of more food makes them uncomfortable and they use any excuse to avoid eating. Sure, they work out hard and that only makes the situation worse because they don't get the results they deserve from their time and effort on the iron.
It is these desperate souls that I can offer redemption to. Through trial and error, I've found a number of tips that will help you build muscle at a faster rate. The days of mass-building terror are over.
Warning
Before you put these tips into practice, we need to go over a few basic rules so we're sure we're talking about the same thing. The following is not about health and fitness. This article will not help you lose weight for the next family party or improve your 5000 meter time. You won't read about the "miracles" of soy or how to lower your serum cholesterol levels. This article is simply about getting muscular. Many of you won't like what you read, but the fact is that these tips work. For that reason, I'm not going to apologize for anything.
However, I should at least mention that these tips are not for everyone. They are tailored for those who have a hard time building weight (typically ectomorphic strength athletes) and who have very little appetite. Furthermore, these tips are not intended to get you to make a permanent change in your life, but are merely tips for an 8 week phase during which you break the traditional rules and build mass. Lastly, these are guidelines and not an all-encompassing personalized nutrition plan.
1 - Focus on your diet and not your training
I don't know why most of us tend to focus on our training and not our diet during the mass building phase. This is the biggest and most common mistake you can make during the bulking phase. Let's face it, most skinny guys are beginners. And if you're new to training with weights, then you don't need that much stimulus for muscle growth. You could use a horribly bad training program to start with (and who among us hasn't) and it would still work in terms of muscle growth. We've seen this time and time again in studies: the initial muscle growth during a new training program is greater than if that program has been used for some time. This suggests that even a sub-optimal training program will work in the beginning.
Another reason that training doesn't play such a big role in building mass is the intensity factor. I know from experience that skinny guys, and especially beginners, often almost kill themselves in the weight room. Even though they may not be using the best program, their sheer desire to build muscle will make them break through pain barriers that would make a normal man cry.
My own beginner's training log
When I first started my "bench press and biceps" training program, I trained three days a week with the same program. I performed eight sets of bench presses and curls to muscle failure. In addition to this, I performed a descending set after each set and used supersets with flying movements and dumbbell curls. I was so overtrained that I hated every minute of these workouts, but my obsession made me push through them anyway. Sadly, the 1500 kcal I was eating per day wasn't doing much to support my muscle growth and I didn't build a pound of muscle all summer. The real tragedy is that I thought the reason for the lack of progress was inadequate training intensity.
This brings us to the most important reason to focus on nutrition, which is the sheer amount of time and effort required for this aspect of hypertrophy. Any idiot can kill themselves in the gym for an hour a day, but it takes real focus and dedication to meet your nutritional needs every few hours of every single day.
Add to this the fact that you will probably have to force yourself to eat and it becomes clear that your focus needs to be on nutrition.
2 - Forget what you know about traditional bodybuilding nutrition
Traditionally speaking, bodybuilders practically live on chicken breast, egg whites and oatmeal. Even though these "clean" foods are great for health, they are not for building weight. They may have their place in a mass-building program, but if you're sticking strictly to a "clean" diet while building mass, you're not using them to their full potential.
Remember that this phase is called the mass building phase for a reason. You should be increasing your calorie intake during this phase in an attempt to stimulate an anabolic response and maximize muscle growth. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should only eat cheeseburgers and cake, but if you can use these foods to achieve your goal of bulking up quickly, then you should consume them.
Although ultra high fat diet plans are great, these are more appropriate for a steroid cycle than for a food induced bulking phase. You can achieve a better muscle to fat ratio with your newly built body mass by combining traditional bodybuilding foods with a higher calorie intake. It's worth noting that eating saturated fats is associated with higher testosterone levels and is also great for calorie intake. It's easier to eat foods that contain saturated fats as they generally taste better - a bonus for those of us who don't have an appetite but still want to try and achieve a calorie surplus.
3 - Consume liquid calories
This is a common tip for mass building, but I would take it a step further by saying that you should consume at least half of your meals in liquid form. And no, pre- and post-workout drinks don't count here, as they simply replace what you lose during training. Liquid meals are perfect for mass building because they are generally high in calorie density (assuming you prepare them accordingly) and take less time to digest and absorb. This means you'll be ready for your next meal quicker, which equates to a higher calorie intake. The addition of sugar can improve the taste of these meals, making them easier to consume when eating is the last thing you want to do.
This also prevents all the excuses people use for not eating. Both the time needed to prepare and the time needed to consume these meals is very short, so you can drink them on the go! One tip is to prepare these drinks in advance. This way, the drinks are ready when you want them (and no, you don't have to worry about the protein breaking down). Preparing a drink like this couldn't be easier, so even those who are lazy about their diet will have no excuses to avoid eating. And after two liquid meals in a row, even people who generally have no appetite will crave a solid meal.
4 - Minimize the consumption of fruit and vegetables
Wow, is this really a tip? Do you feel like you're getting cancer just by reading this sentence?
Fruit and vegetables are perfect when it comes to reducing calories as they are very filling and provide very little energy. However, if you are having trouble meeting your calorie needs, fruit and vegetable consumption can be temporarily minimized without serious health consequences.
Although I can hear the people who are going to get very upset about this, keep in mind that ignoring the "10 servings a day" rule for a few months won't give you cancer. To reiterate - we're talking about a mass-building phase here, not a permanent lifestyle. In addition, micronutrient requirements can also be met over a short period of time with the help of supplements such as superfoods and through the fruit juices that will provide you with calories. I think the real danger of this tip is that people might think that this is a long-term change to their diet, which of course is unnecessary and ultimately harmful. Since most of eating is about habits and reducing fruit and vegetable consumption is not a habit we want to maintain, it is crucial that you are aware of this fact. It is also important to understand that this tip, if used over a short period of time, is not harmful and can help you achieve your mass gain goals. To reiterate, this tip is only intended to be used in the event that you are unable to meet your current calorie needs. It should be used for a maximum of two months in conjunction with appropriate supplementation.
5 - The 80 gram casein protocol
Most people would shudder at the idea of consuming 80 grams in one go, but after tip #4 this should no longer be a problem. The most common questions (or rather statements) about consuming that much protein have something to do with the supposed problem of digesting or absorbing that amount of protein. Sadly, the myth that you can only utilize 30 grams of protein per meal is as persistent as the myth that muscle turns into fat.
We should worry less about digestion and absorption as the limiting factor in the amount of protein we can convert into muscle is oxidation, or how much protein we burn rather than use. This means that there is no limit to the amount of protein we can digest or absorb. The oxidation of amino acids is a function of the concentration of amino acids in our bloodstream. The more amino acids in the bloodstream, the greater the likelihood that they will be burned. The blood concentration of amino acids is determined by the amount of protein we consume and the release rate of amino acids. The faster the amino acids enter the bloodstream, the more likely they are to be burned. This is the reason why we do not consume 60 grams of free amino acids at once. The "predigested" amino acids enter our bloodstream so quickly that most of them would be burned and therefore wasted.
Casein: preventing oxidation
At the other end of the speed spectrum is casein. We know that this protein is great when consumed right before going to bed, as it will ensure a slow release of amino acids into our bloodstream throughout the night. This is important because, contrary to popular belief, sleep is the most catabolic time for our bodies. Why? Because we are fasting. Our body needs to start breaking down muscle to meet its energy and amino acid needs.
In a normal situation, consuming 40 grams of casein before going to bed is an excellent way to minimize this catabolism. However, when we want to build mass, we're not just trying to minimize catabolism - we're trying to stay in an anabolic state for as long as possible.
That's why 80 grams of casein (and micellar casein in particular) before bed is the perfect supplement for your mass-building phase. The amino acids it contains are released into the bloodstream slowly enough to avoid oxidation, while the higher dosage will help maintain an anabolic state throughout the night.
6 - It's not over until it's over
Even when the 8 week bulking phase is over, you still can't stop. I know you want to start losing fat right after the bulking phase so you can show the world your new muscles, but this is the worst thing you can do. Just as a strength athlete goes through a weaning phase (post-cycle therapy) after using anabolic steroids, a sufficient amount of time must pass after a bulking phase before you can move on to a definition phase. You need to allow your body to get used to the new amount of muscle mass before you start playing around with a low calorie intake.
Think about it. Our bodies are designed to resist change and will only adapt when necessary. If you've just gained 10 pounds of muscle in two months, this represents a significant deviation from your body's set point. This means that your body would be happy to shed the costly and energy inefficient muscle mass that you have worked so hard to gain. To prevent this regression to the original set point, you need to give your body a chance to get used to the new amount of muscle mass. This can be achieved by eating a diet to maintain your weight with your full share of fruit and vegetables. Keep the training weights in the heavy range, but be more mindful of possible overtraining. You will no longer be in the anabolic state you were in during your bulking phase and will therefore likely be more prone to overtraining. Slow down your training if you feel it's necessary and don't worry too much about suddenly losing weight - it's not like after a steroid use cycle.
Don't forget that because of your newly built muscle mass, your maintenance calorie intake will be higher than before.
4 Frequently Asked Questions
1 - Will I gain fat if I follow these tips?
I hope so. That's why we're talking about a bulking phase and not a careful build-up of lean muscle mass.
2 - Why would we want to build fat?
If you build up a little fat slowly, this means that you are in an optimal anabolic state for muscle growth. If you are building fat too quickly, then you need to analyze what you are doing and make adjustments accordingly. Not to mention, most skinny guys can afford to build some fat.
3 - Why don't we build lean body mass exclusively?
From personal experience and experience with clients, it is easier and quicker to build a good amount of muscle through a classic mass building phase and then do a definition phase. If you try to build muscle without fat, you will achieve less.
4 - What about supplements?
This is the first thing beginners ask, which is because they don't understand how muscles grow. Once they understand that it takes a tremendous amount of energy to build muscle, they realize that supplements are meant to be the icing on the cake and not the cause of building muscle.
As mentioned earlier, a good micellar protein and good pre- and post-workout supplements are an excellent addition.
Conclusion
These tips are examples of what you can do to support weight gain. If you use them in conjunction with your training and nutrition program, you will easily gain at least one pound per week. Stay focused, train hard and don't forget why it's called the bulking phase!
You've probably heard of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Eating too much omega-6 containing foods can lead to cancer, cardiovascular disease and excessive inflammation. And the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids is important because it can keep these inflammations under control. But there is an exception to the omega-6 fatty acids and that is gamma-linolenic acid, or GLA for short.
What is GLA?
GLA is considered an essential fatty acid. Whenever a nutrient is labeled as "essential" it means that you have to eat it to get it. Your body can't make this nutrient on its own like it can with many other things. The two essential fatty acids you need to consume in your diet are omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. However, you shouldn't overdo it and eat tons of omega-6 fatty acids. That's what most Americans do and it's the cause of some problems. GLA is an omega-6 fatty acid, but a special one. If you're familiar with omega-3 fatty acids, then you know their ability to regulate inflammation. And because of this fact, you may also take fish oil capsules. Well, what makes GLA so special is the fact that GLA is an omega-6 fatty acid that does not cause inflammation. In fact, GLA reduces inflammation.
Is GLA a fat burner?
There are many claims regarding the effects of GLA, including its ability to burn fat. Some even go so far as to say that GLA is the dietary fat that burns fat. Why? Because they believe that GLA activates what is known as brown adipose tissue. You need to know that the body has two different types of adipose tissue: brown adipose tissue and white adipose tissue. Brown adipose tissue is considered to be metabolically active tissue, which means that it contributes to the body's thermoregulation and therefore also to energy consumption. Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? But wait, before you go searching on Google for all the things that could increase brown adipose tissue activity, you should be aware that you probably won't get that far.
Hibernating mammals have more brown adipose tissue than humans because this adipose tissue is needed for thermoregulation during the long winter nap. Of course, humans also have brown adipose tissue, but in humans this is mainly a phenomenon during infancy. It serves as a protective mechanism to keep babies warm, as they do not have the necessary muscles to shiver and thus produce heat. As we get older, the amount of brown adipose tissue decreases and the amount that remains varies from person to person. So you will still have brown adipose tissue, but not as much as you used to and you may not be able to increase this amount. A study published in the Journal of Obesity showed that brown adipose tissue could be identified in adult humans who were exposed to cold for two hours by placing their legs on a block of ice. After the subjects underwent this process, activation of brown adipose tissue was observed in the supraclavicular and paraspinal regions.
However, the weak point of the study is that it only included thirteen subjects and only six of them showed activation of brown adipose tissue. Unless you lie down on a block of ice for two hours and spend a lot of money on the relevant evaluations, you won't know how much brown adipose tissue you have or how active it is in your body. And there's probably a 50% chance that you won't have much brown adipose tissue in adulthood.
But what if I am one of the 50% who have activatable brown adipose tissue?
Let's assume that you are one of the people who have some brown adipose tissue. Then you would be the type of person who could burn a ton of fat by using GLA, right? In a way, yes.
The study that most people are referring to in this context comes from Japan and was published in the Journal of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. This study was able to show that brown adipose tissue was activated in a group that was given GLA and that this group of subjects gained less body fat than the control group. Is this proof that GLA works? Not necessarily, because there are a few things you should know. First of all, this study was conducted with rats as study subjects. Animal studies are used as a first step to find out if there is reason to believe that a nutrient has therapeutic effects in humans. If this is the case, a study is conducted with humans as subjects. And sometimes results can be observed in rats that cannot later be observed in humans. So this is simply a transfer of data from rats to humans. But there are also some studies that show that GLA can contribute to fat loss in humans. The fact is, however, that there are a few problems with these studies. The biggest problem is the type of subjects that were used.
For example, a study published in the Journal of Nutrition showed that GLA can reduce weight gain in people who were previously very overweight. If you are a formerly obese person, then this could also apply to you. However, if you are a regular fit person who has never been obese, this may not necessarily apply to you. GLA has been shown to help prevent weight gain, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it can help an already quite slim person reduce their body fat percentage from twelve to six percent. This requires good old hard work and a smart diet.
Conclusion: As long as there are no further studies carried out on humans, it is not clear to what extent GLA can contribute to fat loss in people who exercise. There is no harm in taking GLA, as it is safe and has other health benefits, but no one can say in advance to what extent it can help you lose fat.
Better proven benefits of GLA
Let's dig a little deeper into the science. Your body's ultimate goal is to get dihomo gamma-linolenic acid (DGLA), which is a derivative of GLA. DGLA can reduce inflammation in two ways. Firstly, it is converted into PGE1, which has anti-inflammatory effects. Secondly, it can be converted to 15-HETrE via the 15-lipoxygenase pathway, which has the ability to inhibit the formation of 5-lipoxygenase, which can lead to the formation of pro-inflammatory metabolites.
If you look at the diagram above, you can see that linoleic acid can be converted to GLA and then to DGLA. At this point, DGLA can have a direct anti-inflammatory effect by producing PGE1 or an indirect effect via the production of 15-HEtrE. You might think that consuming more linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid) should be enough to have more GLA and consequently more DGLA.
But what may look good on paper doesn't always work as intended in real life. When it comes to the conversion of certain nutrients, enzymes are needed. In this case, the body needs an enzyme called delta-6-desaturase (D6D). This enzyme converts linoleic acid into GLA. This has to happen so that DGLA can ultimately be produced. The problem, however, is that D6D levels decrease with age and due to stress, radiation, sugar, caffeine, trans fats, diabetes and alcohol.
So we can almost certainly assume that many of us suffer from declining D6D levels. Even if you don't eat sugar or drink alcohol, you're likely to suffer from some stress, be exposed to some amount of radiation and of course get older, which decreases your body's ability to produce GLA. This is why with GLA supplementation you can bypass the D6D pathway, which limits the rate of GLA production, to increase your levels of GLA, which can be quickly converted to DGLA.
Who should consider supplementing with GLA?
I would consider GLA if I were an older strength athlete. This is another pathway to help keep inflammation at bay and improve recovery. For the strength athletes out there who struggle with using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to treat joint pain, GLA could be a useful approach. A study published in the Journal of Rheumatic Disease showed that GLA has benefits for subjects with rheumatoid arthritis. This study included 3 groups:
- A control group
- A group that took evening primrose oil
- A group that took evening primrose oil and fish oil
GLA is found in vegetable seed oils such as evening primrose oil and borage oil. After twelve months of supplementation, 11 out of 15 subjects from the evening primrose oil group and 12 out of 15 subjects from the evening primrose oil and fish oil group were able to discontinue their pain medication. Only 5 out of 15 subjects from the control group were able to reduce their use of pain medication. Those are pretty darn good results for a vegetable oil! You may not suffer from arthritis, but the cause of common problems like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and joint pain is inflammation. GLA is one way to create an anti-inflammatory effect.
Depending on which oil you choose, GLA levels will vary. The dosage used in most studies was around 540 mg of GLA per day. So you don't need huge amounts of GLA to benefit from its positive effects. The bottom line is that GLA is not super promising in terms of fat loss. But if you have a bit of stress, drink a lot of coffee or are getting older, then GLA is a good choice when it comes to keeping inflammation under control.
By Robert Yang
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/fat-burner-or-money-waster
Ask your doctor. Ask your nutritionist. Ask the health authorities. They will all tell you the same thing:
You probably don't need supplements. Just eat whole foods. These are much better. And supplements - well, they're questionable in a way anyway. Didn't you hear about that wrestler who died from steroid creatine? Just drink your fat-free corn syrup and stop asking for supplements, okay? Now go on. Now, with all due respect to my doctor (who spent an entire hour learning about supplements in college 25 years ago) and to my nutritionist (who is incongruously kind of bacon-y) and to my government (which still recommends that the overweight portion of the population eat lots of bread) we're not just going to move on, we're going to ask questions.
And who better to ask these questions than Dr. Lonnie Lowery, who is a renowned nutritionist, bodybuilder and academic who has been involved in supplement research since 1989.
I called him a few days ago and asked him a seemingly simple question: "Are whole foods always superior to supplements?"
Here's what he had to say:
Preface
"Let me state the obvious first," he began. "Whole foods should make up the bulk of your long-term diet. Athletes need to learn how to incorporate them into their lifestyle. We humans have evolved with unprocessed plant and animal foods for hundreds of thousands of years, and our biochemistry is designed to consume these foods."
"But terms like 'natural' have been misused to the point where health authorities have issued warnings about over-interpretation of these terms. Let's defend supplements for simplicity's sake, because so few authorities do." And so we began.
Protein shakes vs. regular meals
You may not believe it, but there are some crazy people out there doing protein shake diets. No, really. And while you'd expect learned academics to scoff at this, Dr. Lowery said times are changing. "I've seen three studies that support the idea that meal replacement shakes are effective for fat loss and may be better than traditional diets," he noted. One idea is to start a healthy diet with a protein shake diet, get rapid results and then move on to a healthy eating plan with solid foods. "Protein keeps your metabolic rate high and helps protect muscle tissue," Lowery said. "The medical community has been using diets consisting primarily of protein shakes in clinical settings for years: protein-sparing modified fasting (PSMF). I think it's kind of odd that certain health organizations are trying to demonize protein drinks and at the same time use them to treat morbidly obese people. Lowery also noted that much of the effectiveness of protein shakes has to do with the ease of adherence to these diet plans. Drink several protein shakes a day and you'll be less hungry than the typical dieter. Shakes are also easy to take with you, they taste good if they're from the right manufacturer, and there's less room for error while dieting (your meals are convenient, you can take them anywhere, you don't have to count calories, you don't have to read labels, and you don't have to make choices). Lowery also emphasized that protein shakes are often superior to whole foods when it comes to achieving a calorie surplus. "That's what it takes to build muscle - a surplus of calories, about 2800 kcal, to build a pound of muscle," Lowery said. "With shakes, this is very easy because you can just add what you want. I've even made chocolate shakes with graham crackers!" Studies often confirm what we bodybuilders have known for years: drinking extra calories is easier than chewing them. The problem with solid food meals is that after one or two of these meals, the strength athlete looking to build muscle often compensates for the extra food intake later in the day by eating less. They are simply full. Liquids, on the other hand, pass through the stomach much more quickly.
"The summary at this point is that protein shakes work for both dieting phases and mass-building phases, and they often work better than solid foods from a diet plan adherence perspective," Lowery said. "I'm not saying you should live on liquids forever, but these shakes can be used to start a fat loss plan or to increase caloric intake on a mass-building plan." For a long-term bodybuilding plan, refer to the advice of Lowery's old mentor, Dr. Peter Lemon, who recommended that his subjects consume no more than 50% of their calories in the form of liquid supplements.
Bodybuilding supplements are bad! Supplements for old people are good!
Speaking of meal replacement shakes, have you ever noticed that many medical professionals demonize protein shakes and then in the next breath recommend drinks like Ensure or Carnation Instant Breakfast?
Ready-made shakes like these promise a "complete and balanced diet" and the Ensure website advises "It's your health, take care of it!" Let's look at the list of ingredients... The primary ingredients come from corn syrup, sugar, maltodextrin and soy protein.
What the heck is going on here? Dr. Lowery enlightens us:
"When doctors in hospitals gave their patients the usual 'clinical' supplement drinks, they were pumping sick people full of sugar and/or vegetable oil. Why? I asked them. They said it's because these drinks taste good and sick people don't eat enough anyway. My answer was 'Then why don't we make good food that tastes better?" Vegetable oil (such as safflower oil, palm oil or soybean oil) mixed with sugar is one of the most fattening and pro-inflammatory mixtures you can consume, according to Dr. Lowery. I would bet that these people would be better off with products from the sports supplement industry, which are demonized by the same clinical doctors. "They would probably love sports nutrition drinks if you changed the label and didn't tell them it was a bodybuilding supplement," Lowery added.
The problem with perishability
Protein foods spoil quickly, which is not the case with protein powder. Simply put, bacteria multiply much slower in dry foods than in wet foods.
"The best thing you can do is pour protein powder dry and without water into a shaker bottle and then take it with you. Then you can add water later," Lowery said. Dr. Lowery works a lot with college athletes, most of whom skip meals. "It's terrible," he said, "I'm constantly faced with the challenge of getting them to eat protein foods when they're out all day. Protein foods go bad quickly unless you're eating tuna straight out of the can between courses. In this situation, protein powders are very suitable. Some people take their protein powder with them in dry form in a shaker bottle and mix it with water when they need it. This way they don't waste all their efforts in the gym by skipping meals."
Unfortunately, Dr. L and NCAA programs generally can't directly administer drinks that contain more than 30% protein. Yes, you heard that right. Despite all the controversy, this rule still stands. Sadly, it's a rule that can banish a commonly needed tool from athletes' nutritional arsenal. Even supplements that contain fat can beat whole foods when it comes to perishability. Long-chain unsaturated fats like fish oil or flaxseed oil go rancid quickly at room temperature, but this doesn't happen as quickly when these oils are put into capsules because oxygen can't get to the good stuff. "A lot of people in the health industry seem to think that once you put a nutrient in capsules it becomes something bad. But you don't change a nutrient just because you put it in capsules," Dr. Lowery said. Perishability may not seem like a big issue, but at a time when most people are away from home, have shorter breakfast breaks, longer commutes to work and are generally busier than ever, it's crucial to have 'portable' foods that won't go bad, which is especially true if you're a bodybuilder or athlete who's on the go.
Nutrient content: pill vs. fork
"You can pack enormous amounts of EPA/DHA into fish oil gel capsules - more than you'll probably ever get from eating fish," Dr. Lowery said. And if you were to eat that much fish, you should remember that we live in a polluted world. Whether it's farmed fish or wild-caught fish, it's often contaminated with heavy metals or organic pesticides. I would rather use a highly concentrated, pure fish oil supplement that I trust." Lowery noted that he has nothing against eating salmon, cod and other fish, but a bodybuilder simply can't get enough of the good stuff if he only eats fish and doesn't take a fish oil supplement. And even if he could, there's still the contamination problem mentioned above to worry about if the daily fish intake is high.
"And it's not just fish oil," Lowery said, "but also things like CLA. You can easily take a couple grams of CLA a day in supplement form, but you'd have to consume gigantic, unrealistic amounts of dairy, beef and turkey to consume those amounts."
Creatine falls into the same category. It would take about 10 pounds of raw steak to get the amount of creatine you need for a creatine loading phase. Certainly creatine supplements are superior to whole foods in this regard (and only cost about 10 cents per serving). Vitamin D? The same applies here. You simply can't drink enough vitamin D-fortified milk to get your vitamin D blood levels into a healthy range. Most of us supplement. "This is especially true for those of us who live in areas where sunshine is simply not an option right now," added the pale white Lowery. Now, if there are any doctors, nutritionists or health department workers out there telling us we should be drinking 45 liters of milk a day instead of taking a four-cent vitamin D pill, I'm at a loss too.
But supplements are processed! And processed is always bad, right?
Not necessarily. Fish oil supplements, for example, are processed to remove all the bad stuff like mercury. Dairy protein supplements are processed to remove all the lactose and other stuff we don't want, while keeping all the good stuff we do want.
"The term 'processed' as it applies to supplements does not mean that important ingredients are removed, as is often the case when we talk about processed foods (where insane amounts of sodium are added, for example). The intent of processing in this case is to make something better," Lowery said. Still, Dr. Lowery often hears criticism regarding nutritional supplements. "The only time this makes sense is when we're talking about an incomplete protein or amino acid supplement, but no halfway sane protein consumer would subsist on just an incomplete protein source or amino acid tablets." "Don't get me wrong," Lowery added, "some protein supplements are full of junk. For example, I've seen a protein powder that contained 10,000 mg of peptide-bound amino acids. But that's only 10 grams of protein. That's the equivalent of a cup of milk! You don't measure protein in milligrams."
And protein bars? Don't even get me started. "Athletes need to be aware that the 25 grams of protein on the label could be mostly worthless. Some companies add biologically worthless collagen and gelatin to their bars to improve the stats. Please people, take a closer look. Read the ingredients list of your protein bar and make sure it doesn't contain any of these worthless useless protein sources high up in the ingredients list," advises Lowery. In summary, legitimately processed supplements are not a problem. They're processed to remove the stuff we don't want. And processed carbohydrate foods? Not so good. With these foods, food manufacturers remove stuff we want, like fiber.
Nutrient timing
Supplements can have other advantages over whole foods: precise nutrient timing. While foods deliver the things we want slowly, supplements can deliver those ingredients in the precise amounts you want, when you want them.
Let's take one of Lowery's favorites: Caffeine. If you want a quick boost of exactly 200mg of caffeine, you can simply pop a caffeine tablet. Drinking coffee is fine, but "imprecise". You can't drink it on the go, it doesn't work as quickly and the exact caffeine content can vary. In addition to this, unless it's iced coffee, coffee doesn't sound particularly appealing on a hot summer day before squats. "People tend to drink coffee like they smoke. It's sipped throughout the day," Lowery says. "I'm not sure that low levels of caffeine throughout the day are going to do much. They're not going to do much, at least in terms of performance. To boost performance, you need a bigger boost of caffeine at a well-defined time. Most studies recommend six milligrams per kilogram of body weight (probably less if you're looking to stimulate fat burning). And remember that caffeine is not exactly the same as coffee." Even though he loves his coffee, Lowery concludes that it's probably healthier and more effective to dose caffeine as a supplement than to drink cup after cup of coffee throughout the day. In other words, you are using your substance of choice tactically.
Fiber without carbohydrates
What's the first thing you notice when you start a strict low-carb diet? You will realize that you would sell your soul for a Dorito. What's the second thing you'll notice? Yes, sometimes it is difficult to reduce carbohydrates and still get sufficient amounts of fiber. Supplements can be beneficial here too. "There are plenty of foods that can give you plenty of fiber while keeping your carbs low. Think high-fiber vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower," Lowery says. "I'd rather see people choose whole foods if they can stick to that path. Vegetables are definitely better than fiber supplements. But let's be realistic, some people just don't like vegetables or don't have the time or desire to prepare vegetables." This brings us back to the issue of adhering to a specific diet. Yes, it is possible to consume adequate amounts of fiber as part of a low-carb diet, but is it easy for a dieter who works all day at the office or has classes? In these cases, consuming a fiber supplement or adding fiber to something you're already drinking anyway may probably be more realistic than steaming a pound of broccoli at your desk on your coffee break. And remember that there are some low-carb diets that don't allow vegetables to begin with. In these cases, fiber supplements can come in handy. Whole foods are definitely better when it comes to fiber intake. The intake of all the cancer-fighting phytochemicals you get in conjunction with your fiber is simply unbeatable. But fiber supplements are a quick and convenient part of the overall picture if you're having trouble maintaining a perfect diet.
Phytochemicals: This is where whole foods win
Up to this point, we've highlighted often overlooked benefits of supplements. But there are cases where and nature is simply too far ahead in terms of time and experience and where whole foods win hands down. "Fruits and vegetables contain healthy phytochemicals that work together metabolically in unknown combinations," says Lowery. "Supplements don't always work in the same way that whole foods do in this addiction." Here's an example: the famous study on beta-carotene and smoking. Basically, they found that smokers who eat a lot of beta-carotene-rich fruits and vegetables don't get lung cancer as quickly. The smart guys in lab coats conducted a clinical trial in which they gave smokers only beta-carotene in supplement form. To the scientists' surprise, lung cancer rates increased in the subjects who consumed beta-carotene only in supplement form.
"This is a classic example of why we should trust Mother Nature and a whole foods approach," Lowery said.
Supplements vs. food: the bottom line
Despite the warnings against pills and powders by doctors and washed-up nutritionists, supplements can do a lot of things that whole foods can't. Good examples include creatine, fish oil, CLA, vitamin D and other things like resveratrol, which you simply can't get enough of in the form of whole foods to have a medicinal or performance-enhancing effect. Even protein powders are now considered by the scientific community as supplements with strategic benefits over whole foods.
Dietary compliance also plays a major role here. Even though eating tons of organic green vegetables and exotic berries every day has a lot of benefits, in reality we are more likely to follow a diet with a superfood supplement. This simply saves time and money. But in context, Mother Nature is a wise bride and she knows more about the magical interplay of phytochemicals and human physiology than we do. Is Dr. Lowery saying that you should replace whole foods with supplements? Of course not. But he does say that supplements can sometimes have clear benefits over whole foods. The science is catching up. This means that nutritionists and even the government will catch up in 15 to 20 years. Until then, eat your whole foods and take your pills and powders.
By Chris Shugart
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/supplements-vs-whole-foods
