Nutrition

Jul 06, 2017 Gigas Editorial approx. 10 min

How to eliminate love handles and lifebuoys

A fat waistline is symptomatic of poor insulin sensitivity. You need to attack this with a combination of specific nutritional strategies, diet, exercise and supplements. Here's the right way.

Here's what you need to know...

You need a different diet strategy to get rid of the stubborn fat around your waist. The same diet that got you down to a body fat percentage of 25% (if you're a woman) or 15% (if you're a man) won't take you to the next level of slimness.
Use dietary tricks to increase your insulin sensitivity. Eat protein before carbohydrates, take two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar a day, use psyllium and take fish oil capsules.
Dieting seven days a week is not the best way to improve insulin sensitivity. Instead, use 2 strict diet days per week and eat normally on the other 5 days.
You need to adopt exercise strategies designed to increase insulin sensitivity and burn fat. Complexes and modified "wogging" work very well.
Take C2G. This natural nutrient partitioning agent burns fat around the waist (and other areas) caused by insulin resistance.

Waist flab and insulin resistance

Any woman can go from 45% body fat to 25% body fat without too much trouble. Similarly, any man can reduce his body fat from 25% to 15% with the help of exercise and a sensible diet plan. At this point, things can get problematic when women try to reduce their body fat percentage below the 25% threshold and men try to break through the 15% barrier.

Unfortunately, the diet that got you to the first milestone probably won't get you to the second. Things get stubborn. Fat becomes sentimental and doesn't want to leave its home.

It may be forced to leave some areas but it often clings to others and usually the area it forms a special bond with is the waistline.

People blame this on all sorts of things including lack of sleep, poor diet, age, gender, genetic predisposition and even cortisol, the stress hormone. While all of these things likely play a role in stubborn lifesavers, they are largely symptomatic of a lack of insulin sensitivity.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to restore your insulin sensitivity and specifically target the unsightly fat that makes you look like you're spilling over your jeans.

1 - Use simple nutritional tricks to increase insulin sensitivity

Without optimal insulin sensitivity, a lot of the protein (and everything else) you eat will go straight to your fat stores instead of your muscles - and often this fat will happily settle around your waist. While your instincts may tell you to switch to a low-carb diet, this won't solve the problem. What's more, a chronic low-carb diet will impair your muscle-building capacity.

What you need to do instead is optimize your insulin sensitivity. There are several simple dietary strategies that will help you do just that:

Eat some protein and fat at the beginning of a meal before your lips even touch carbohydrates. According to scientific research, this strategy leads to significantly lower blood sugar levels (29%, 37% and 17% lower 30, 60 and 120 minutes after a meal, respectively) than eating carbohydrates first. (However, you should reverse this strategy for meals around training and consume some carbs before protein).
Use vinegar as a salad dressing as it moderates the glucose and insulin response to a carbohydrate meal, in addition to increasing insulin sensitivity in general. Continued use can lead to an average weight loss of 2 pounds within 4 weeks. Also consider taking two tablespoons of vinegar before going to bed, as studies have shown that this could lower morning blood sugar by 4 to 6%.
Take a teaspoon of psyllium husks twice a day. This can lower blood sugar levels by 11% throughout the day.
Use fish oil liberally. Recent studies have shown that this can not only compete with the effects of exercise on blood sugar, but when combined with exercise, has a synergistic effect on lowering blood sugar levels.

2 - Diet strictly (but smartly) two days a week

When you eat frequently, as weightlifters and bodybuilders often do, blood sugar levels are almost always elevated and your pancreas is dead tired of pumping a near-constant flow of insulin into the bloodstream. Scientific research suggests that this constant flow of insulin makes the body more resistant to the effects of insulin until you begin to resemble a type II diabetic from a metabolic point of view. Fatness follows - especially around the waist.

Certainly a diet is needed that provides enough protein, carbohydrates and calories to keep muscles growing, which at the same time makes the body more sensitive to insulin. Welcome to the 5/2 fat loss diet for strength athletes. In a nutshell, you eat normally on 5 days of the week, but on the remaining 2 non-consecutive days you eat only two meals, each providing about 400 kcal, 12 hours apart. These two "fasting days" should be non-training days so as not to interfere with the tissue remodeling process after training.

In addition, on these two semi-fast days, you drink two scoops of a fast-digesting protein powder either as part of each 400 kcal meal or 30 minutes before each meal to ensure that there is absolutely no possibility of muscle breakdown during the low-calorie phases.

This diet works because the fasting days - irregular as they are - cause the body to be more sensitive to insulin than it would be with seven diet days a week. This may seem to defy logic, but science shows that it works.

If the 5/2 fat loss diet for strength athletes is followed correctly, you should get steadily more defined with each passing week without losing muscle mass. Most importantly, this diet directly addresses the underlying insulin problem for anyone suffering from stubborn love handles and love handles.

3 - Your training should address the problem

You're no doubt already training with weights and that's obviously a good thing for the waistline challenge. Extra muscle mass reduces blood sugar levels as it gives carbohydrates a different destination than fat storage. In addition, resistance training generally increases insulin sensitivity just like most forms of aerobic exercise. However, there are a few types of exercise that are particularly effective for targeting stubborn fat:

Complexes

A complex is simply a series of exercises performed with a barbell, dumbbells or kettlebells where you first complete all repetitions of an exercise and then quickly move on to the next exercise in the sequence. This is a fantastic way to burn fat and increase insulin sensitivity.

Typically, you don't take your hands off the weight until the complex is complete. A typical kettlebell complex might consist of 6 squats with the weight overhead, 6 conventional squats, 6 reps of kettlebell swings, 6 reps of bent-over rowing and 6 reps of Romanian deadlifts with no rest between exercises. And then repeat the whole thing. And then again - until you're almost so done that you need a defibrillator to start your seizing heart. Perform complexes at the end of each training session as a finale.

Wogging and Wunning

Don't skip this type of exercise just because it has a silly name that makes you sound like you have a speech impediment. As you may have guessed, wogging is a combination of walking and jogging, and it's not just an exercise program for wannabe long-distance runners.

Wogging utilizes the results of new research showing that people who change their speed while walking burn up to 20% more calories than people who walk at a constant speed. By slowing down or even stopping and then speeding up, you change the kinetic energy and your body needs more energy, i.e. calories.

Simply walking in this stop-and-go manner is effective for burning fat, but when you combine the concept with running/running instead of walking, you turn it into an extremely effective fat loss program. As such, it should more accurately be called "Wunning" (walking and running).

Simply walk at a steady pace for a while and then accelerate into a fast race. Once you start to tire and the pace begins to slow dramatically, start walking again until you are recovered enough to run again. The distance you cover is irrelevant. Instead, you should walk and run for a predetermined amount of time, say 30 minutes. Three 30 minute workouts a week will do wonders when it comes to melting that ugly flab around your waist.

RKC Planks

Okay, RKC Planks won't do much to burn off life preservers or love handles, but if we're already concerned with developing an attractive waistline, let's take it a step further and "tighten" the waistline so that maybe, just maybe there's something worth seeing there.

To perform RKC Planks, lie on your stomach and support your upper body with your elbows. Press your shoulders down and pull them close to your ribs. Then contract the gluteus (butt) as hard as possible, straighten your knees and assume the standard plank position. Now contract everything as hard as possible and concentrate on controlled breathing for the entire duration of the exercise. Try to hold this position for 8 to 10 seconds. If you have performed this exercise correctly, you should then more or less collapse to the floor.

Remember, this is not one of those mindless endurance competition planks where you hold the position until your back mosses up. RKC planks will make your abs stronger and they might even make for a slimmer waistline. Do these harder RKC Planks between sets of other exercises or even during commercials while watching TV.

4 - Use a powerful insulin-controlling supplement

Cyanidin3-Glucoside or C3G is a naturally occurring anthocyanin. When isolated and taken in a highly concentrated form, it has powerful blood sugar lowering properties that can make a big difference in treating the fat waistline caused by insulin resistance.

One of dozens of studies conducted with C3G showed that C3G caused a 33% and 51% dose-dependent drop in blood sugar levels, leading the study authors to emphasize how advantageous it is compared to powerful pharmaceutical agents for blood sugar control.

Apart from modulating insulin, C3G increases glucose and fat uptake specifically in the muscles, which is good news for strength athletes and athletes in general. It also increases adipokinectin levels while lowering leptin levels, resulting in less body fat. People who use C3G can usually consume more calories - including carbohydrate calories - and see these nutrients end up in their muscles instead of their fat cells.

Take 400 to 600 milligrams before your biggest meal of the day or right before you start eating your pre-workout diet. C3G, especially when combined with the other strategies described above, can act as a sort of metabolic/chemical "liposuction" that strategically attacks your stubborn fat.

From TC Luoma | 02/10/17

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/how-to-eliminate-love-handles-muffin-tops

Jul 05, 2017 Gigas Editorial approx. 11 min

A glutamine guide

Some describe it as a basic supplement that no bodybuilding supplement plan should be without, whereas others say that it does not live up to its hype. This article will therefore take a closer look at the benefits glutamine can actually have for the user.

In the diet, glutamine is found in virtually all animal products and makes up on average over 5% of the amino acids found in animal protein sources such as meat, dairy products and eggs.

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body, found not only in muscle tissue but virtually everywhere in the body, and plays a myriad of important roles in all sorts of processes in the body. Glutamine is something like the "Jack of all trades" among amino acids.

Intuitively, you would probably think that an amino acid that is so important must be an essential amino acid. However, this is not the case, as the term essential amino acid only refers to amino acids that the body cannot produce itself. However, the body can synthesize glutamine when needed, which is why glutamine is technically only a conditionally essential amino acid. Conditionally essential means that under normal circumstances the body can produce enough glutamine to meet its needs. However, there are situations in which the glutamine requirement is so high that the body's own glutamine production is not sufficient to cover this requirement. In such situations, additional glutamine must be supplied through food.

Glutamine has many supporters as a supplement. However, there are also many skeptics who say that glutamine supplementation is useless unless you are a burn victim recovering from your burns. Below we will look at some of the properties of glutamine and scientific research to help the reader decide whether or not they should supplement with glutamine.

What functions does glutamine have in the body?

Glutamine is formed in the body when the non-essential amino acid glutamic acid is broken down and combines with nitrogenous ammonia molecules. Glutamine can be thought of as a kind of nitrogen sponge that absorbs ammonia and transports nitrogen back and forth between different types of tissue, where it can be used for cell growth, tissue repair and many other functions. It has been calculated that between 30 and 50% of all nitrogen produced by the breakdown of protein is transported in the form of glutamine. In addition to this, glutamine can also be broken down back into glutamic acid, making glutamine a crucial source of ammonia and nitrogen in the body.

About 70% of the glutamine present in the body is produced in skeletal muscle, from where it is transported to the small intestine, kidneys and white blood cells. These are the dominant locations where glutamine is used.

The internal levels of this amino acid vary depending on different factors. Pregnancy and lactation deplete glutamine stores, as do exhaustive exercise, illness, starvation or fasting, rapid growth and development, and states of extreme physiological stress. These are some circumstances where an increase in glutamine intake or the use of a glutamine supplement would be appropriate.

Glutamine is also involved in the regulation of protein synthesis and degradation like no other amino acid. But there is more. Glutamine significantly influences BCAA metabolism, maintenance of the intestinal wall barrier, normal immune function, glucose formation, water transport, nerve impulse transmission and much more.

The kidneys are the primary consumers of glutamine. In the kidneys, ammonia is split off from glutamine to maintain the acid-base balance. Wherever you find ammonia in the body, you will also find glutamine. When metabolic acidosis (acidosis) increases, for example in response to intensive training or a high-protein diet, the uptake of glutamine by the kidneys increases sharply. For example, one study showed that just four days of a high protein and high fat diet was enough to cause a 25% reduction in plasma and muscle glutamine levels.

When consumption from all these competing glutamine uses begins to exceed the body's ability to produce glutamine, symptoms of glutamine deficiency can become apparent, including muscle breakdown, lack of energy and increased susceptibility to infection.

What are the uses of glutamine in sports?

Despite the many different functions of glutamine, there is little evidence that the use of glutamine in normal, healthy people directly results in an increase in muscle mass, a reduction in body fat or gains in strength. However, considering the stress that intense training places on the human body, athletes may derive certain benefits from supplementing with significant amounts of glutamine or combining glutamine with other supplements.

One study found that supplemented glutamine improved exercise performance and increased fluid and electrolyte intake in athletes suffering from mild dehydration when combined with glucose and an electrolyte drink. It has also been shown that glutamine supplementation can increase growth hormone levels in response to cycling training performed to exhaustion.

Extracellular glutamine concentrations have been shown to activate the mTOR signaling pathway, which is responsible for muscle growth by stimulating protein synthesis. In this context, however, it was necessary - as is so often the case - for other factors to be fulfilled in addition to glutamine supplementation. The mTOR signaling pathway appears to additionally require the presence of BCAAs - and leucine in particular - as well as a minimum level of cellular hydration.

In another study, track and field athletes who consumed 4 grams of glutamine per day in conjunction with a creatine loading phase and maintenance dose over an 8-week period showed greater gains in lean body mass than athletes who used creatine alone. This sounds significant, but it is difficult to draw definite conclusions after only eight weeks and such a low dosage. It would be interesting to know whether a higher glutamine dosage and/or a longer study duration would have resulted in significantly better results.

What different forms of glutamine are there and what should you combine glutamine with?

One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a glutamine product is the delivery system. If you are buying a powder, capsules or tablets, then free L-glutamine is the best choice. As creatine is unstable when dissolved in liquid, you should avoid drinks and bars that are supposed to contain glutamine.

If you prefer ready-made drinks or bars, then you should look for products that contain peptide-bound glutamine such as L-alanyl-L-glutamine, glycyl-L-glutamine hydrate or another glutamine peptide, which are significantly more stable than free glutamine. When dosing these products, however, it should be borne in mind that the amount of pure glutamine in such peptide forms is typically only 65 to 70%. In other words, 10 grams of glutamine peptides contain only 6.5 to 7 grams of glutamine.

Products containing n-acetyl-L-glutamine or alpha-ketoisocaproyl glutamine (aka aKIC glutamine) are best avoided. Even though these two forms of glutamine appear to be stable, there is evidence that they are poor glutamine suppliers.

Regardless of the glutamine form, up to 90% of orally supplied glutamine is eliminated during the so-called first pass by the liver, by the cells of the digestive tract or by the immune cells in the digestive system. This means that only a fraction of the glutamine consumed will ultimately reach the bloodstream.

After choosing a form of glutamine, it's time to think about what you can combine glutamine with to enhance its effects and/or take advantage of synergies. Most important is the intake of adequate amounts of sodium and electrolytes, as glutamine transport occurs using a sodium-dependent mechanism. Glutamine has been shown to significantly increase cell volume, electrolyte uptake and hydration. This can be beneficial for both endurance athletes and strength athletes. An increase in cell volume is particularly interesting for strength athletes, as a larger cell volume is one of the aspects that promotes muscle hypertrophy. In addition, a reduction in cell volume can inhibit the mTOR signaling pathway, which is essential for stimulating protein synthesis and muscle building.

Other active ingredients or supplements that can be combined with glutamine include the following:

BCAAs: There are two reasons why combining glutamine with branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) can promote greater gains in muscle mass and a greater increase in performance. The first is the ammonia concentration that can be influenced by glutamine, which means that glutamine has a direct effect on BCAA metabolism. The second reason is that the activation of the mTOR signaling pathway by extracellular glutamine first requires the intake of BCAAs and primarily leucine.

Citrulline: Glutamine acts as a precursor for arginine and nitric oxide synthesis by transporting citrulline back and forth between tissue types. The use of glutamine in combination with citrulline may increase the ability of citrulline to stimulate nitric oxide production, which may lead to better oxygen and nutrient delivery to the muscles. A better supply of nutrients and oxygen to the muscles may mean better recovery and faster muscle growth.

Alpha Ketoglutarate: Like glutamine, alpha ketoglutarate (AKG) serves as a precursor for glutamic acid and AKG has been shown to reduce glutamine degradation in a dose-dependent manner while increasing mTOR pathway activity and glutathione activity. This means that the combination of glutamine and AKG can increase the potential for muscle growth and the production of the body's most powerful antioxidant - glutathione.

Glucose: When the body lacks glucose, it reduces glutamine uptake and impairs cell growth.

N-acetylglucosamine: When following a low-carbohydrate diet, the glycoprotein N-acetylglucosamine appears to be able to restore glutamine uptake and glutamine metabolism impaired by glucose deficiency, potentially improving regeneration and cell function.

How should I take glutamine and does glutamine have any side effects?

In order to achieve a significant increase in glutamine plasma concentrations, the daily glutamine intake must be relatively high and should be at least 20 to 30 grams of glutamine per day.

As a comparison, it should be mentioned that critically ill patients usually receive a constant intravenous infusion of 20 to 30 grams of glutamine per day, whereby the bioavailability of glutamine in the form of an infusion is 100%. In comparison, the bioavailability of orally administered glutamine is only 30%. In order to obtain the amount of glutamine that seriously ill patients receive, one would therefore have to take around 70 to 100 grams of glutamine orally per day.

The recommended amount of 20 to 30 grams of glutamine per day should be divided into several evenly spaced doses throughout the day, preferably consumed with meals or snacks containing carbohydrates to support glutamine uptake and utilization.

On training days, glutamine should be consumed before or during training and after training to support hydration, electrolyte transport, BCAA metabolism and recovery. You can either take 10 grams of glutamine before, during and after training or reduce these doses to 5 grams of glutamine each and take the remaining 15 grams of glutamine throughout the day in the hours before and after training.

On non-training days, you should take 5 grams of glutamine every 2 to 3 hours at regular intervals to maintain an increased glutamine plasma concentration.

A cyclical intake with intake-free phases is not necessary with glutamine. Rather, there is evidence to support the need for continuous glutamine use during periods of heavy exercise.

As far as potential side effects of glutamine are concerned, there are numerous studies that have shown no undesirable side effects with glutamine doses of up to 30 grams per day. A recent toxicity study over a period of 13 weeks concluded that no side effects were observed in male and female rats, even with the highest amount of glutamine used. Converted to humans, the glutamine dosages used in this study correspond to 0.6776 grams per kilogram of body weight, which would correspond to 54 grams of glutamine per day for an 80-kilogram athlete.

Summary

Glutamine plays a key role in a variety of processes and bodily functions that have a dramatic impact on the ability to maintain overall good health and achieve individual fitness goals. However, if you rely solely on glutamine or don't use enough glutamine, you may well be disappointed.

As with all supplements, you have to use your head with glutamine to maximize its effects. If you don't train hard, then your body will probably be able to meet its glutamine requirements without the support of supplements. However, if you are one of those exercisers who regularly push themselves to their limits, then the right use of glutamine can help to get your performance to a high level and keep it there.

Source: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/all-about-glutamine-your-expert-guide.html

Jun 06, 2017 Gigas Editorial approx. 6 min

What are the benefits of protein?

When bodybuilders hear the word protein, they almost automatically think of muscle growth. But protein has a whole range of other benefits in addition to the well-known positive effects on muscle growth. This article will take a look at the most important benefits that protein can have for bodybuilders and other athletes.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/protein2.htm#1

Protein is essential for muscle growth

Protein is the only nutrient directly responsible for building muscle. Protein is made up of amino acids, which are present in protein in the form of amino acid chains. Since protein provides the body with the amino acids needed to build the body's own protein, protein is essential for muscle growth and regeneration. If you want to build muscle, you need to consume the right amount of high quality protein at the right times.

Protein maintains an anabolic state

Regular training significantly increases the protein requirements of bodybuilders and other athletes compared to the average person. Eating protein-rich meals that provide adequate amounts of high quality protein can maintain an anabolic state of the body, promoting and accelerating muscle growth.

Protein increases growth hormone levels and IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor-I) levels

The body's growth hormone is a protein hormone that consists of 190 amino acids and plays an important role in controlling various complex physiological processes, including muscle growth and metabolism.

Growth hormone increases calcium retention, strengthens and mineralizes bones, increases muscle mass and increases the rate of protein synthesis, resulting in a positive nitrogen balance. One of the most important roles of growth hormones is to stimulate the liver and other tissues of the body to secrete IGF-1. IGF-1 is the primary protein involved in the cells' response to growth hormone. Since IGF-1 plays a key role in muscle growth by stimulating amino acid uptake and protein synthesis, this hormone is crucial for bodybuilders.

In addition to this, growth hormones increase the use of fat to fuel the body by stimulating the breakdown of triglycerides and the burning of the resulting fatty acids, resulting in a reduction in body fat.

Factors that inhibit endogenous growth hormone secretion include dietary carbohydrates, while sleep, exercise, low blood glucose levels and dietary protein stimulate endogenous growth hormone secretion. In other words, an increase in protein intake can also increase the release of growth hormone.

In addition to this, increasing protein consumption or replacing carbohydrates with protein can help to keep insulin levels under control. Low insulin levels mean an environment conducive to growth hormone release. It has also been shown that protein consumption can increase the IGF-1 response to exercise and eating

The thermic effect of protein

Protein has the highest thermic effect of all nutrients. In practice, this means that protein-rich foods can increase metabolic rate by up to 30%, as the body has to work harder to digest and use protein than fats and carbohydrates.

In purely mathematical terms, 50 grams of protein provides the body with around 200 kcal, but due to the thermal effect of protein, the body consumes around 60 kcal when digesting this amount of protein, so that after digestion only 140 kcal of the originally supplied 200 kcal remain.

There are a number of studies that support this. One of these studies looked at protein turnover and thermogenesis in response to a high-protein diet and a high-carbohydrate diet in men. In this study, 7 men were given isocaloric meals - meals with the same amount of calories - that were either high in protein or high in carbohydrates.

The response to this food intake was compared with the response to a short period of fasting. The results of the study showed that the thermic response over 9 hours after repeated high-protein meals was significantly higher than for the high-carbohydrate meals. The rate of whole body nitrogen turnover also increased significantly over these 9 hours, particularly in the protein group.

These and similar studies support the fact that the thermic effect of protein is one of the primary reasons that a high-protein diet is more effective for fat loss than a high-carbohydrate or high-fat diet. However, it should be noted that this effect can only be achieved with protein from whole foods and not with pre-digested protein supplements

Protein increases fat mobilization

Protein consumption increases the plasma concentration of the hormone glucagon, which has the opposite effect to insulin in adipose tissue.

Increased glucagon levels lead to greater fat mobilization while reducing the amount and activity of enzymes responsible for the formation and storage of fat in fat cells and liver cells. Studies have shown that lowering the levels of these fat storage-promoting enzymes during activity leads to greater fat breakdown and less fat storage when excess calories are consumed.

Proteins promote satiety

Another interesting aspect of increasing protein consumption is better satiety. People who follow a high-protein diet feel fuller for the same amount of calories. Protein-rich foods slow down the transportation of food from the stomach to the intestines. Slower gastric emptying means you feel fuller for longer and get hungry later. Slowing down carbohydrate digestion also reduces insulin secretion, creating a more favorable environment for growth hormone release.

Protein lowers insulin levels in the blood

Eating protein in combination with carbohydrates reduces the insulin response. This is extremely important for controlling energy levels and also plays an important role in trying to achieve a leaner body. Higher concentrations of insulin in the bloodstream activate fat-storing enzymes and promote the transport of triglycerides in the bloodstream for storage in fat cells and inhibit enzymes that promote the breakdown of stored fat.

Controlling the insulin response is also important because it reduces the risk of insulin resistance, a condition in which patients become insensitive to insulin. Studies have shown that high blood sugar levels and high insulin levels are linked to a variety of diseases such as diabetes, high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer.

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May 05, 2017 Gigas Editorial approx. 11 min

The time-limited Diet Plus

The time-restricted Diet Plus

From TC Luoma | 01/01/16

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/time-restricted-plus-diet

Here's what you need to know...

Exercisers often bounce back and forth between bulking and dieting. As a result, they spend most of their lives somewhere between defined and bulky.
The answer lies in adopting an extremely simple nutritional strategy that allows you to become more defined and build muscle at the same time.
Scientists have recently published an illuminating study highlighting the benefits of restricting food intake to periods of 9 to 12 hours per day.
Although this strategy has worked well in mice and is likely to work well in normal humans, it needs one or two modifications before it can be adopted by strength athletes.
Strength athletes are well advised to use a modified approach where they limit their food intake to a 9 to 12 hour phase, but spice up the "no food intake" phases with specific proteins to ensure sustained muscle protein synthesis.

Should I bulk up or diet?

Pretty much everyone who cares about their body development is constantly struggling with a dilemma:

"Should I eat more so that I can build muscle, possibly putting on some fat in the process? Or do I eat less so that I can become more defined, risking losing some muscle mass?"

One week we see a massive powerlifter putting on an amazing strength performance and we toy with the idea of eating and training like a powerlifter. The next week, we'll see a picture of a guy who is so exceptionally defined and muscular that he looks like he stepped out of the pages of a Marvel comic to fight evil.

Almost immediately we'll stop doing the powerlifting stuff and start working out and eating to get defined so we too can save the world.

By bouncing back and forth between these two positions, and by never really deciding on a body style or lifestyle, we live in a perpetual hell of looking good but not looking great.

However, there is a way to combine both of your desires and that way is through a relatively simple dietary adjustment. This strategy will allow you to get and stay defined without losing muscle mass. You will probably even gain muscle mass at a satisfying rate.

The intermittent fasting leprechaun

First, let's throw a nutritional gremlin out of this article before it becomes an annoying distraction.

I don't like Intermittent Fasting (IF) - at least when it comes to conventional Intermittent Fasting. While this is probably a good idea for people who suffer from type II diabetes, this strategy is not so great for people who are interested in giving their body the shape of a Greek statue.

IF may make you defined and it will probably also improve your insulin sensitivity, but there is evidence that it also limits your muscle gains.

A new study and a new way to lose fat

Having said that, I would like to look at an interesting study that is doing the rounds. It's an in-depth follow-up study to a similar study published in 2012 that produced similar results. This study involved a type of intermittent fasting that gave me an indication of how superheroes should eat when training.

Okay, this study was done with little mice, but in many cases mammalian physiology equals mammalian physiology regardless of the species involved.

Scientists at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California fed mice four different isocaloric diet programs over a 38-week period:

High-fat
High fructose
High-fat and high-fructose
Regular mouse food

Some mice were allowed to eat whenever they wanted, while others were only allowed to eat during 9, 12 or 15 hour phases, but there was another interesting feature.

Some mice in the groups with a time-limited food intake were allowed to "cheat" at the weekend and eat whenever they wanted. Furthermore, some mice in the group that were allowed to eat whenever they wanted were switched to a time-restricted diet in the middle of the study.

Some of the results were predictable, while others were completely surprising:

The mice that could eat whenever they wanted got sick and overweight, and their pants had to be made wider.
Mice that ate in a 9 to 12 hour window stayed slim and healthy - even when they were allowed to cheat on weekends.
The mice that could eat when they wanted and were switched to a time-restricted diet in the middle of the study lost the weight they had gained (the time-restricted diet not only prevented obesity, but actually reversed the weight gain).
When mice that could eat whenever they wanted switched to a time-restricted diet, they lost 5% of their body weight within a few days.
The time-restricted mice also had more lean muscle mass than their laxer-fed friends.

Most of this is pretty interesting, but it's probably the last result that gets our muscle-building spiderman sense ringing. Yes, the mice on time-restricted diets had more muscle, but truth be told, scientists don't yet know if these mice actually built muscle or simply maintained the muscle mass they might have lost on a free-range diet.

From fat storage to fat burning

The scientists believe it was an epigenetic response, where they believe food affects the body's internal clock and this internal clock affects the function of genes involved in metabolism.

But it probably also has something to do with insulin sensitivity. The mice with time-restricted food intake improved their insulin sensitivity to a large extent, while the mice that could eat whenever they wanted remained in the land of insulin resistance.

Finally, it has been repeatedly observed in humans that even a few hours of fasting increases insulin sensitivity and switches the body from a fat-storage mode to a fat-burning mode.

Muscle protein synthesis must continue!

Believe it or not, insulin sensitivity is one of the reasons why conventional intermittent fasting is so popular with strength athletes and non-athletes alike.

This type of fasting leads to higher insulin sensitivity and increased fat burning, but the downside has always been that it is much harder, if not impossible, to build muscle during intermittent fasting because you are not only depriving your body of calories, but also protein.

Due to this protein shortage, there are large parts of the day or night during which muscle protein synthesis comes to a complete standstill.

The solution to combining time-restricted dieting, fat burning and muscle building is to limit conventional food intake to a predetermined period of time and then somehow ensure that enough protein circulates in the body to keep muscle protein synthesis going during the rest of the day and night.

Unfortunately, eating large amounts of protein - the amounts that would trigger adequate protein synthesis - would also provide enough calories and insulin-raising amino acids to spike insulin levels and defeat the reasons for a time-restricted diet.

That being said, you couldn't call your diet intermittent fasting or a time-restricted diet if you were eating protein meals outside the confines of the time-restricted phases of food intake - this would simply be considered the normal life of a strength athlete.

There is a way around these problems and it involves the combination of time-restricted eating and spurts of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides.

This approach is perhaps the simplest of all and my human guinea pigs have had excellent results with it.

How does this nutritional approach work?

First, we determine our level of "fatness".

If you are carrying a significant amount of body fat, then limit your food intake to a 9 hour window.
If you just need some fine tuning because you can see at least a shadow of your abs or a few veins by your muscles, then limit your food intake to a 12 hour window.
The groups consume one to two servings (20 grams) of highly hydrolyzed protein, consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides, during the periods without regular food intake.

The 9 hour group

Let's say you belong to the 9 hour group and eat your first meal at 7am. This means that you need to have eaten all your conventional meals by 4pm.

To maintain your protein synthesis, you consume a portion of highly hydrolyzed protein, consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides, at 19:00 and before going to bed.

The 12 hour group

Eat your first meal at 7am. This means that you need to have eaten all your conventional meals by 7pm.

To maintain your protein synthesis, consume a portion of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides before going to bed.

Options

Either group can also consume an additional serving of highly hydrolyzed protein, consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides, in the middle of the night if you're one of the few dedicated strength athletes who don't mind waking up in the middle of the night to get some nutrients.

In addition, both groups can take things a little easier on the weekend without significantly compromising your diet.

Questions and answers

I know, I know, you have questions. Like how such a comparably small amount of protein (20 grams of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides) can keep your muscle protein synthesis alive.

Won't this protein also cause an insulin spike? Why can't I use just any protein to accomplish the same thing?

Straight into the bloodstream, boom!

One serving of highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides - 20 grams of protein - stimulates protein synthesis many times more than a similar amount of conventional protein.

Because of its powerful effect, you don't need to consume a lot of protein, which would not only provide a lot of calories, but also greatly increase your insulin levels - both of which would defeat the purpose of a time-restricted diet.

The reason that highly hydrolyzed protein is so effective is that it consists primarily of di- and tripeptides, which do not need to be broken down or digested further. As such, they are transported directly into the bloodstream, boom!

And these peptide structures have biological activities that go far beyond regular amino acids, which is what makes them so effective at stimulating muscle protein synthesis.

If you want to make it even more effective, you should use a highly hydrolyzed protein that is enriched with leucine. Leucine is the key factor in stimulating muscle protein synthesis after a meal. No other essential amino acid or branched-chain amino acid stimulates muscle protein synthesis as strongly as leucine.

In fact, scientists have found that a small amount of leucine (6.25 grams, to be exact) stimulated muscle protein synthesis in exercising young men as much as four times as much whey protein (25 grams).

Taking a large dose of leucine on its own is potentially problematic, as it could result in lower circulating concentrations of the other two branched-chain amino acids, isoleucine and valine.

This is why scientific research has shown that consuming all BCAAs is a better idea when it comes to maximizing muscle protein synthesis.

Keep it simple

Let's not mess up this simple nutrition plan too much.

You limit your sensible and healthy eating to either a 9 or 12 hour window depending on your amount of body fat. During the periods without regular food intake, you consume one, two or even 3 servings of leucine-enriched highly hydrolyzed protein consisting primarily of di- and tripeptides.

On the weekends, you can take it a little easier and eat outside of your time constraints.

That's all. Needless to say, you can't eat everything you want in unlimited quantities. No nutrition or diet plan can withstand such idiocy.

Furthermore, you should know how your macronutrients should be composed and what constitutes a healthy diet. You don't need me to tell you that you need to eat some fruits and vegetables.

Studies

Chaix, et al, "Time-Restricted Feeding is a Preventative and Therapeutic Intervention against Diverse Nutritional Challenges," Cell Metabolism, Volume 20, Issue 6, p991-1005, December 2, 2014.
Churchward-Venne, et al, "Leucine supplementation of a low-protein mixed macronutrient beverage enhance myofibrillar protein synthesis in young men: a double-blind, randomized trial," Am J Clin Nutr, 2014;99:1-12.

The pulse feast

By Christian Thibaudeau | 01/13/11

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/pulse-feast

The author of this article has stumbled upon the holy grail of body transformation: a nutritional strategy that allows him to build muscle and maintain defined, visible abs - all without having to worry about food.

But this is not what you might think. Like the story with the blind man who found himself in a room with an elephant, we've discovered parts of this strategy before. But now someone has put those pieces together into a simple plan that works shockingly well.

Oh yes, you can feast in the evening. Bonus!

This nutrition strategy is the next big thing in muscle building nutrition science.

The Pulse Feast

The problem: if I have food there, I eat it!

As a former fat kid, dieting has fascinated me my whole life. I've always had a love-hate relationship with food and I'm always looking for ways to get lean and stay happy at the same time. And the latter is really important.

When I was training for bodybuilding purposes, I used a low-carb approach with six meals a day and got really super lean with it. But I had two problems with eating this way. Even though it made me lean, I felt bad all the time. I wanted to kill everyone and I had no social life. I was robbed of all the pleasures of life.

The second problem was that after a bodybuilding competition, I put on weight in leaps and bounds. Even though I knew better, I was a yo-yo dieter.

The problem I had with a traditional bodybuilding diet - six to eight small meals a day - is that my psychological profile gives me a tendency to binge. I can force myself not to eat for two or three days, no problem. As long as I don't start eating, I have no psychological desire to eat.

However, once food enters my mouth - whether this is based on a neurological response or a hormonal response (because I'm producing too much insulin) - I simply can't stop eating. If food is available, I will definitely eat it.

Eating six small meals a day was like being irritated by an attractive woman six times a day and not being able to touch her. I was constantly suffering. This made me angry at food and angry at life.

It got so bad that to avoid going off track, I had virtually no food at home. I actually went shopping six times a day to buy the ingredients for each meal separately! What else could I have done? If I had six meals at home at the same time, I would have eaten all that food at once.

As you can see, it was impossible for me to eat six small meals a day and stay sane. I was losing body fat, but I felt miserable. So I started looking for ways to stay lean while enjoying life.

Let's face it, it's one thing to get super lean for one week a year and it's another thing to stay reasonably lean all year round. Personally, I'd rather have an 8% body fat percentage all year round and be happy than feel bad about getting to a 4% body fat percentage for a month and then gaining up to 14% body fat for the rest of the year. I had to find a solution!

My experiments

Experiment 1 - Defined but losing muscle mass

The first strategy I found appealing was Ori Hofmekler's Warrior Diet. The basic idea of this diet strategy is to fast (eat no food) throughout the day and then eat a lot in the evening.

I found this strategy appealing as it seemed to be the ultimate solution: I could eat whatever I wanted and still stay slim. This diet suited my psychological profile. I didn't have to eat for 18 hours, which made this diet strategy quite easy for me.

I started this diet straight after a bodybuilding competition. I wanted to stay in competition shape and still eat everything I wanted. I stayed very lean, had a lot of energy, but I lost some muscle mass.

The plan suited my needs the whole time, but I knew that slowly progressing muscle loss was not what I wanted in the long term.

Experiment 2 - Lean while maintaining muscle mass

I tried several different strategies to improve on the basic "fast and then eat" idea. I took BCAAs throughout the day to prevent a catabolic state. I still wasn't building muscle mass, but adding the BCAAs seemed to prevent muscle loss and also kept my strength up.

This new strategy was better than the original plan. It worked, but it had its limitations. Maintaining muscle was great, but it still wasn't enough for me. I wanted to build muscle.

Experiment 3 - Defined with muscle gains!

Not long after, I read about protein hydrolysate with a high degree of hydrolysis and a high proportion of di- and tripeptides. All I had to do was use protein hydrolysate pulses throughout the day

Once I had obtained one of these protein hydrolysates, I started to use pulses of protein during the day and then feast on them in the evening. In addition to this, I combined the pulse protein boosts with a good dose of creatine each time.

This was the first time I was able to eat what I wanted, stay lean and actually build strength and muscle mass.

Over the last year I have used different protein pulse strategies throughout the day and only eat one big meal at the end of the day. Now I eat like this almost every day and the results are better than I ever expected - and I feel great doing it!

The perfect metabolic efficiency

The Pulse Binge strategy - two large pulse-like protein bursts during the day and one large meal in the evening - combined with a stimulation of anabolic physiology, makes you metabolically efficient. And with continued use, you'll be able to build muscle and strength, stay lean, stay mentally healthy and stop obsessing about food.

Most people don't want to step onto a bodybuilding stage. But almost everyone wants to look lean and not feel bad about getting and staying lean. They also want to have the energy and mental focus to exercise or participate in any athletic activity they want to participate in. And with this plan, you can have all of that - without your entire schedule having to revolve around your diet.

No more packing Tupperware containers to take with you everywhere and no more freaking out when you can't eat solid food every three hours.

Have a few pulse-like protein hydrolysate spurts during the day and eat practically anything you want at night. It's easy, it's stress-free and it's the most effective strategy I've ever used for building muscle and getting lean.

Let's analyze the strategy.

Phase 1 - pulse-like protein boosts in the morning and afternoon

From the time you get up in the morning until about 7:00 pm, you will consume two large pulse-like protein boosts, which equates to one boost in the morning and one boost four or five hours later.

Each protein boost consists of 30 grams of protein hydrolysate. You consume these two protein boosts in addition to your nutritional protocol around your training. So on training days you get a third boost of anabolic nutrients through your training nutrition.

I have paid a lot of attention to this dosing protocol. I've scoured all the available scientific literature, discussed the protocol with different scientists and experimented with all the variables.

In summary, the science matches my personal experience -that in addition to nutrition around training, two large pulse-like protein bursts separated by four or five hours work best. Here's the explanation for this:

The goal is to flood the bloodstream with massive amounts of dipeptides, tripeptides and amino acids, move these nutrients out of the blood and into muscle cells and other target tissues, and then return the bloodstream's amino acid concentration to baseline at least an hour before the next protein pulse.

To keep the body maximally responsive to the effects of the pulse-like protein surges, you must have periods during which the bloodstream "pauses" at its amino acid baseline. And with the two large pulsed protein bursts, the two-serving dosing protocol provides just enough time for all of this to work.

In other words, a two-pulse protein delivery requires more time for the bloodstream amino acid concentration to fall back to baseline and you have just enough time to use two pulse protein boosts and still use another large protein pulse during a training session.

In my experience, this dosing protocol produces maximum anabolic benefits while keeping the body highly susceptible to the effects.

Here's what I do:

I usually train at 5:00 pm, which is why I take a protein boost shortly after I get up in the morning and another protein boost in the early afternoon. At 5pm when I train, I use another boost of protein hydrolysate combined with some functional carbs for my nutrition protocol around training.

Phase 2 - Feasting!

After 19:00, the feasting begins. However, there are a few rules to follow depending on your goals:

Goal - Get or stay slim

If your main goal is a single-digit body fat percentage, then your evening feast will consist of one meal. Even though you can basically eat anything you want, your feasting needs to be a little more structured for ultimate slimness.

Start feasting with a focus on animal foods and vegetables. In other words, start with protein (meat, fish, eggs, etc.) and then add some vegetables. And if you still want to eat after this, then you can eat fruit.

Rule of thumb: the fatter you are, the more restrictive you need to be in your food choices. Feast, but watch the carbohydrates.

Goal - Maintain the current state

I don't like the term "maintenance". Even though I'm not specifically trying to get super lean or build large amounts of muscle mass quickly, I'm always striving to improve.

Let's call this "maintenance" for simplicity's sake. This is where you will find yourself during most of the year. I use this strategy myself for about 80% of the year.

During "maintenance" you basically eat what you want during a predetermined phase of the fast. I prefer 7:00pm to 11:00pm. Again, start with protein and vegetables and only then eat pasta, cereal or even dessert if you want to.

Goal - muscle mass

If your main goal is to build lean muscle mass, increase your carbohydrate intake and overall food intake during your evening hours of feasting. You still need to start your feast with protein, but after this you have more leeway than those whose goal is to get very lean.

The psychology of nutrient partitioning

I believe that the psychological state you are in when you eat affects nutrient partitioning. If you are stressed or have a negative opinion about your food, then you may be storing more nutrients as fat.

Pulse feasting is a stress-free way to eat. You don't have to feel guilty when you feast because feasting is part of the plan and is even necessary.

This could be related to the "stingy gene" hypothesis. The body is designed to function in cycles of high activity and low food intake, followed by low activity and high food intake. In other words, it is fasting and feasting.

If you are in a high activity mode, then you are not in a state to properly absorb nutrients and store them as usable energy - you are not as efficient. If you are stressed - psychologically or physically - then you will not be as efficient in your eating.

With this plan, you will enjoy your meal because you know your body is prepared to use the nutrients. You've fasted for 18 hours in combination with anabolic protein boosts, which is why you won't get fat. The lack of stress and worry will contribute to the positive effect of this strategy. You can enjoy your meal without stress and guilt and achieve better results in terms of developing your body composition.

The Pulse Feasting Introductory Phase

If you've been reading bodybuilding and fitness magazines for the last 20 years, you've been trained to eat every three hours. But this is a psychological need, not a physical one. What I have found for myself is that this is a bad habit and is not necessary for muscle growth or high performance training.

To help you break this habit, you could use a traditional pulse fast before you start pulse feasting. Pulse fasting consists of a short fast for 36 hours during which you consume mainly pulse-like spurts of protein hydrolysate plus some nutrition around your workout.

Pulse Fasting will prepare your body for the powerful metabolic rebound effect and muscle gains instead of fat storage. In addition, this introductory phase will show you that you don't have to eat all day long to grow. And you don't have to panic about getting into a catabolic state if you don't eat a mouthful of chicken and rice every minute of the day.

I would recommend you get a few non-consecutive days of pulse fasting under your belt before you start the pulse feasting strategy.

Pulse Feasting Summary

In summary, here is what pulse feasting does:

Pulse Feasting...

Stimulates anabolic physiology for maximum gains in lean muscle mass while preventing fat gain.
Drives nutrients into the muscles and stops fat storage.
Improves the function of the digestive system, making it more efficient at breaking down food and utilizing the nutrients it contains.
Removes stress and guilt from eating.
Gives you more time in the morning and afternoon - no more packing food for everywhere you go and no panic if you can't eat every two or three hours.
Makes eating enjoyable again and does so at the time of day when you have more freedom to relax, prepare good food and enjoy it with your family and friends.
Trains your body to become more metabolically efficient when you eat "normally", like during a vacation, so you don't get fat.

Pulse Feast sample plan

Time	Training in the evening	Late morning workout	Early morning workout	Non-workout day
7:00 a.m.	Protein pulse	Protein pulse	training	Protein pulse
8:00 a.m.
9:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m.		workout	Protein pulse	Protein pulse
12:00 pm	Protein pulse
13:00
14:00 h
3:00 p.m.		Protein pulse	Protein pulse	Protein pulse
16:00 h
17:00	Training
6:00 p.m.
7:00 pm	Feasting	Feast	Feasting	Feasting

Instructions for pulse protein intake

Each pulse-style protein boost consists of 30 grams of protein hydrolysate with a high degree of hydrolysis and a high proportion of di- and tripeptides. You can prepare both portions the evening before or in the morning so that you can drink them at the specified times. The finished mixture is best kept in the refrigerator.