Understanding Fat

There's a lot of confusion that still surrounds the whole 'fat is bad' and 'fat makes you fat' mumbo jumbo. The point of this post is not to give you any information on how to lose fat, but rather to give you a better picture of the common misconceptions surrounding fat and it's role in the body.

I hope people are starting to drift away from the ideology that came out of the 80's that fat makes you fat. It was basically common knowledge back then that fat was the reason people would, well, get fat. So began the whole low fat craze and before you knew it every item of food (and even still today) was changed to low fat. This probably made people really happy because now they could enjoy their favorite food and not gain (and probably lose) weight. Right? Wrong. Fast forward a few years and somehow we ended up with obesity rates higher than they've ever been. But, but, if I eat low fat food, I won't get fat right......RIGHT!?!? Well, not really.

It seems a little counter intuitive to think that switching to low fat food would result in weight gain, but in Michael Pollan's 'In Defense of Food', we see that one of the biggest reasons obesity rates sky-rocketed as consumers began switching to low fat was because what they didn't know was that their food was being pumped with sugar and high fructose corn syrup, making them much more calorie dense (and unhealthy). Once everyone jumped onto the low fat bandwagon, they were under the impression that they could consume as much, if not more, of everything else because they were on a 'low fat diet', but unfortunately they didn't realize that those extra calories were what was keeping them fat.

In one article by Lyle McDonald which I'll make reference to at the end, he talks about one amazing study that was conducted where individuals were given low fat or regular yogurt and told to eat as much as they wanted. The group that was given the low fat yogurt ate more. Shocker. So is human nature; give someone something to eat and tell them it's low fat and without noticing they'll eat more of it because they feel like they're 'saving calories'. What they don't realize though is that they're making up for the lost fat calories (fat contains 9 calories per gram) by consuming either more of the product, or by consuming more of something else. It's interesting to notice how people justify their fast food meals by ordering a diet drink or whatever on the side because, well, it's 'diet'. Right. Ok. One of the things people would overcompensate on was carbohydrates (very briefly, when carbs are consumed they basically halt fat oxidation (burning) and any fat you're consuming gets stored).

'In Defense of Food' by Michael Pollan is a great book and goes into much more detail than what I wrote here.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/all-diets-work-the-importance-of-calories.html

The Importance of Moderation

One of the biggest reasons people tend to never make (permanent) progress in terms of dieting is because they're so set on seeing results that they can't see the forest for the trees. I don't like the word 'diet' too much, it sounds too short-term and paints an immediate picture of anorexic-looking Hollywood celebrities with the 'ideal' body image. (As a side note, I'm talking a lot about dieting lately because I'm on one right now - Look up Lyle McDonald UD2.0 if you're interested). Losing weight is not just a physiological process; there's a psychological component to it.

We live in a society of quick fixes, immediate results, and zero patience. I for one have pretty close to no patience. When a webpage takes more than 3 seconds to load I immediately give my modem an evil look, as if looking at it will change anything, and assume that something's wrong with the internet in my area. The point I'm trying to make is that weight loss, weight gain (yes, this is a goal for many athletes), overall health improvement among others is a slow and non-linear process. It's important to take a couple of steps back when trying to move forward so you don't crack later on down the road.

After intentionally putting on weight for the first year or so since I started working out, I tried to shed some of the fat that had inevitably come along with the muscle. I failed the first time. I didn't know what I was doing and I thought that if I went on a strict diet for a short period of time, things would just fall into place. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I pretty much gave up not long after and decided that maybe I was just 'meant to be' a bigger, fuller person. I've always been broad-shouldered, so I took the easy way out and blamed it on my genes.

About 6 months ago I decided to give it another go. I weighed 200 pounds at Christmas of 2009 and decided enough was enough. At that point I was lifting well, I ate a very balanced diet, but at the end of the day, healthy or not, calories add up if you don't count them. And excess calories are stored as fat (fat doesn't make you fat, excess calories do, but I'll talk about that another day). Although I've never been one to count calories or macronutrients (protein, carbs and fat), I seem to have a good intuitive sense about how much I eat. I say this because until last month when I really started analyzing my diet, without counting a single calorie I've managed to drop 30 pounds since last Christmas and conserve the vast majority of the muscle I've built over 2 and a half years. If you're not careful, it's easy to lose muscle on a diet if you aren't conscious of your protein intake.

I think a big reason for my success is that I've come to realize what the phrase 'everything in moderation' means. I probably eat out once a week and believe it or not you can still enjoy the majority of things out there if you do so in moderation. People tend to think that if they've been watching what they eat for one month and they've seen the scale go down, then one junk food meal is going to destroy their progress and send them back to fatville. It doesn't work that way. Not allowing yourself to indulge every once in a while will only hurt you in the long run once you've reached your goals. It makes the rebound weight come back much much quicker.

One last point, and probably the most important, is that people usually fall into the habit of thinking that they can over-indulge in some kind of junk food or 'cheat meal', because they're going to burn it off later by running for 52 hours or something ridiculous like that. What's important to keep in mind is that exercising in general does not burn as many calories as you think it does. Let's say someone eats a fast food meal worth 700 calories. One gym session, say on the treadmill, will not burn that amount. Cardio equipment doesn't give you an exact measurement of calories burnt. Lyle McDonald sets out a really nice and much more thorough article than the one I'm writing explaining this in more detail.

www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/exercise-and-weightfat-loss-part-1.html

Recipe - Roasted Pumpkin/Squash Seeds

First, credit for this recipe goes to a good friend of mine, Robby Costa. He gave me this recipe a while back and I've made it numerous times since and somehow each time it tastes better than the last. It's very easy to make, takes very little time and tastes amazing. When I buy squash I'll scoop out the seeds and use them for this recipe, but fresh pumpkin seeds can also be used.

I usually use a nice big handful of seeds, but quantity is up to you.

1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili flakes
Sprinkle salt according to how salty you want it
1 tablespoon olive oil
Mix it all together with rinsed, dry pumpkin or squash seeds

You can let them sit for a few hours before cooking, but sometimes, okay always, I don't have the patience to wait, so I cook them right away
Spread out the seeds on an oven sheet and roast at 350 Fahrenheit mixing every 5-8 minutes until seeds are cooked and crispy

Time depends on the amount and size of seeds; maybe around 15-25 minutes

You can also roast them in a skillet with a lid on the burner on low/medium heat, but you have to stir more often

Adjust the quantities as you like, I don't even measure anymore I just sort of throw things in

There's no elevator to success

Like all schools, my high school used to have year books that we'd get at the end of each year. The last few pages were dedicated to the graduates where they'd be asked a couple of questions, and some of them would put up their favorite quotes. One quote stuck with me that I try and utilize as much as I can in my life. It goes like this: "There's no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs".

It paints a pretty abstract picture in your head, but even my 500 year old neighbor would get the message behind it, which brings me to what I want to talk about today. I've really come to appreciate the meaning of this quote over the last half a year or so. In terms of where my training has gone, I believe I've made substantial progress. A decent amount of discipline is needed if you want to achieve any sort of goal and no less for people aiming to lose weight, which I'll talk about today. For the sake of argument I'm considering an athletically inclined individual here who's looking to shed body fat while conserving muscle, although the general principle applies to everyone. My knowledge doesn't span beyond what I've learnt from reading up on the research of people like Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon and Dr. John Berardi. Of course Google Scholar, PubMed, and journal studies floating around the interwebz here and there have helped validate my claims.

I've come to realize that lack of consistency is probably the biggest reason people tend not to achieve their goals. They get bored, have too many 'cheat meals', don't see the scale move for too long which can be disheartening, or just decide to try the next new diet. In terms of body recomposition, fighting against your body's natural tendencies to conserve fat is not easy. At all. Your body doesn't care how it looks, all it wants to do is survive long enough to pass on your genes. Our ancestors survived because their bodies burnt fat when food wasn't available (I'm talking cavemen days). So given that, you can see that fat caveman = more chance of survival. This genetic predisposition is not something the human animal will ever, for lack of a better word, change. I'd like to write a lot more about dieting, but I'm only familiar with the basics so when I feel like I know enough I'll come back and write something on it. Right now all I know is how to do it the right way, and while I'm seeing progress, it comes slower and slower as fat drops more and more.

I can point you in the direction of two articles that serve as the very foundation of weight loss, be it for the average person looking to drop some pounds or an athlete looking to conserve muscle while cutting fat. There's three trillion diets out there and the dieting industry probably earns that much in revenue each year, but what the average person doesn't know is that all these 'fad' diets out there cleverly trick you into losing weight because they all revolve around the same principle - the law of thermodynamics. If you can eat 12 bagels at night and 'magically still lose weight', it's because the morning part of your diet was a banana and air.. diet air, so from a caloric perspective it's balancing out. When someone begins to understand how this principle works, they'll realize that setting out a healthier diet than the ones you see in magazines while waiting to check out at the grocery store, is better in the long run for many reasons. If you're still reading up to this point, thanks, and if any of this sparked your interest take a look at the two links below.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-1.html

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-2.html

Jalapeno Peppers Recipe

It looks like my second post will be a recipe as per one request (yay!)

I came across this recipe a few days ago and realized what love at first sight means.

5 or 6 green jalapeno peppers
cream cheese
olive oil
ground flaxseed
one egg

Cut the peppers in half but leave one side connected (so they open like they are on a hinge) Then gut the peppers....leave some seeds in if you like them very spicy
Fill them with cream cheese and close them up
Dip in egg
Roll in ground flaxseed
Pan fry in olive oil

These are great as finger food, or in my case, a snack if made in a batch of 40.

Let me know what you think. On a separate note, I can't stop listening to John Mayer's new album - Battle Studies.

First post

Since this is my first post, it will probably be short and pointless for the most part. I'm new to the whole blogging thing and I really just signed up to it to be able to share with people the things that generally interest me.

A brief background first: I'm almost done an Honors Bachelor Degree in Biology. It's taken a long time, hard work, and lots of procrastination. The next step is not very clear, but I've learnt to take things one step at a time and not get too ahead of myself.

Nutrition and exercise have become more of a hobby/passion than anything else really and after reading lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, it's nice to be able to share what you find out with others. Note that I'm not a qualified physician/doctor/whatever you want to call it, and any advice or research I provide is purely up to you to follow or not. I've come a long way over the last 2-3 years by following the very, very, very basics and in doing so have discovered a newfound care for my overall health.

I'll try and keep up with this blog as often as I can; I'm still trying to figure out my way around the site.